Journal: Age of Baloris

Journal of the campaign: Age of Baloris.

## First Entry

We woke up in two seperate, crowded prison cells as strangers to each other, unknowing how we ended up here. What we did know however, was that we were going to break out and that we would need each other for this. We spent no time on pleasantries or getting to know each other, instead we started our escape attempt right away. The female half-elf and male Illuskan human managed to pick the locks on their prisondoors and the group carefully looked around the corridors.  Screams were heard from somewhere further in the prison, we decided to ignore it for the time being and find some weapons first. On the next floor we found a hallway with a door at the end, and a door on both sides. The human picked the lock on one of the doors and in the room we found a weaponrack with heavy weapons and some heavy armor on a pile. The dwarf, half-orc and dragonborn checked for traps and retrieved their weapons. Meanwhile the female Half-Elf picked the lock on the other side and found the equipment of herself, the human, the other half-elf and the drow. All of us now had retrieved all the equipment we lost.

Now we were ready for battle and we went down the stairs again to take care of the horrifying screams down the hall. The human opened the door just enough to take a peek, he saw two goblins torturing a gnome. He slammed the door open and went right for the nearest goblin. The male half-elf rushed in, only to be surprised by a goblin who had taken position next to the door, he was knocked out immediately and the poopbucket he was carrying flew into the air, spilling the contents all over the unconcious half-elf. Halfway in the battle the half-orc threw a rope towards the unconcious combatant, trying to drag him into the hallway and out of the face of danger. The rope however, caught around the downed's neck and the half-orc ended up choking him. After the goblins were killed, the dwarf got the half-elf back on his feet and the rescued gnome casted a spell on us, allowing us great possibilities for six seconds, when we felt we needed to.

Back upstairs the female half-elf picked the lock on the doors at the end of the hallway, only to find out they weren't locked in the first place. The room was empty, except for some a bookcase, a fireplace and a set of door on the other side. Both the half-elfs and the dwarf entered the room when the doors suddenly shut and animated swords came out of the fireplace, attacking them. During the shortlasting combat, the male half-elf got downed again, but was helped back up by the dwarf again in time.

We will rest here and get to know each other to move forward again towards our freedom.

## Second Entry

It seemed like we killed all the guards, we slept the whole night in turns and nobody saw or heard anything. We went up the stairs into what seemed to be the main hall and noticed a human sitting on the throne. He looked at us and said "I have been expecting you", walked to another flight of stairs and went up them. As he stepped on the stairs, zombies and skeletons appeared. After defeating them, which involved flipping a lot of tables, another bunch of them crawled out of the ground and once more after this group. When things calmed down, we went downstairs again and rested for a few hours as we were exhausted by combat.

When we were rested and wanted to go after the person on the throne, we were surprised to see two zombies outside the room. We quickly slain the zombies and went all the way up, after the mysterious person.

## Fourth Entry

Building assignments, diplomacy with goblins in the pass

## Fifth Entry

Ogres, goblins and a phasespider in the cave

## Sixth Entry

Ambush on road to Varnhold, battle in Inn varnhold.

## Seventh Entry

Battle for Varnhold, meeting with two druids, meeting Fenrir in tower, tower combat

## Eighth Entry

**Flashback**- Something with Fenrir?

After a somewhat vague flashback, we were sent to a flash-forward. In front of us stood Balor, ready to fight. An unfamiliar elf approached us as we were getting ready for battle, she took out her bow and stood by us without saying any word. Balor attacked, and one by one we all fell unconscious. This wasn't real, this couldn't be real, and yet somehow it all seemed so realistic.

We woke up from unconsciousness below the Hanging Bridge that led to the Wizard Tower. There a mysterious elf sat on a tree stump, holding what appeared to be a dead wolf. She stared at us, not saying a word. Aerendyl decided we should ask her what she was doing over there, and he walked towards her. We all followed. The elf told us about her wolf, and how it had been attacked by a powerful demon and that she needed to find an elven mage named Theran, since he was the only mage who would know how to cure her wolf. We all looked at each other, slightly confused.  The barbarian didn’t want to have anything to do with the elf. ‘I don’t like her,’ was all he said. The others didn’t really know what to think. ‘We could use an additional group member, the more the merrier.’ Aerendyl suggested. ‘We don’t know if we can trust her,’ Ulf replied. Juwain was in deep thought, ‘I have heard of an elf named Theran, he supposedly lives in the Forest of the Walking Woods. We might as well help her with this, since we wanted to explore the area anyway.’ After discussing for a couple of minutes, they all agreed to ask her if the elf wanted to come along. Aerendyl was the one to ask her, ‘we will help you find that cure, if you wouldn’t mind travelling with us.’ Juwain added, ‘we know where the mage is, it’s going to take a couple of days to get there though.’ The elf smiled and nodded, ‘I would love to come along, then Wolf can finally get better! The name’s Leavhen, what’s yours?’ The group introduced themselves, except for the Barbarian, he didn’t remember his name.

After walking for two uneventful days, we came across a small town named Andrus Keep. We decided it was time for us to take a long rest and maybe sell some stuff at the shops, if they had any. We entered the town and immediately noticed the variety of shops: an armor shop, a general store, a wizard store and a place called ‘The Sturdy Lady’. We all sold some items, we all bought some stuff and Leavhen turned her wolf fang into a silver wolffang necklace. After selling and buying everything we wanted, it was time for us to rest at the Inn. We were lucky that Loradove is such an amazing musician, we were all allowed to stay at the Inn for free because she put on a performance that evening.

Being fully rested and replenished, it was time for us to move on. Destination: the Forest of the Walking Woods. We hadn’t even taken three steps into the forest, and the Barbarian already sprinted forward to enjoy the view from the bridge up ahead. Not thinking this through, as usual, he encountered three lizard men. Aerendyl and Leavhen tried to talk to the lizard men to leave things peacefully, but the lizard men had other plans, they were out for rations or death. A battle is what happened next, but the three lizard men were no match for the group. They were easily defeated by the swift moves of Ulf in combination with the deadly attacks of Aerendyl and Juwain. Leavhen, not used to the battling, tried to help as much as she could, firing her arrows towards the enemies with as much finesse and strength as she was capable of. Having fought off the three lizard men, they continued their exploration of the Forest of the Walking Woods. They had searched almost everywhere, when they walked around a corner of trees and rocks and the Barbarian suddenly stopped in his tracks. ‘Something’s not right.’ Leavhen walked further in stealth, it had to be the elven mage, she had to find him. She couldn’t have been any more wrong, it was an ambush, and five more lizard men jumped out of bushes and from behind the trees. Leavhen was completely surrounded. It was time for another battle, this one being more intense. It took us some time to defeat all the lizard men, the Barbarian and Leavhen had lost consciousness and it didn’t look to good for the rest of us as well. Finally, with some great teamwork and an amazing stunt from Ulf, they had taken down the Leader, and the battle was over. Juwain healed Leavhen and the Barbarian, and they regained consciousness. They took a moment to catch their breath, and then continued to the deepest part of the Forest. Here they found the elven mage, who was willing to help Leavhen cure her Wolf. Everything eventually worked out for the best, and now it was time to move on to their next destination.

## Ninth Entry

**A Forgotten Promise**

Before we would start another adventure, we agreed that this would be a good time to check on Falconflight. But we couldn’t just pass, because chief Urug was guarding the border with his orc army. He asked us about our deal, if we had tracked down his rival yet and we came to bring his head. Having dealt with a lot of other stuff, the ongoing war, a strange elf joining our group, we had completely forgotten about this deal. Chief Urug then told us that we had two days to track down his rival, take him down, and bring back his head. If we didn’t succeed, he would close the Valley Pass and nobody would be allowed to enter. Two days being somewhat short, Loradove tried to seduce him with a wink, hoping to get an extra day. It couldn’t have failed even more than what just happened: while winking, sand flew in Loradove’s eye and she couldn’t stop blinking to get it out. All the while still talking to Urug, who was merely confused and didn’t give us an extra day because 'she's doing something weird with her eye'. He did give us a hint as where to find his rival. One of his scouts had last seen the other orc army somewhere near the Ruins of Ashmar, It was a two day travel to get there and back here again. We were allowed to arrange some business in the valley, and then head on to find his rival.

**Falconflight Valley**

We all went back to the Inn, thinking the Innkeeper would be able to tell us about the Valley. Erias told us that he had seen a lot of travelers lately, most of them fleeing from the North, especially from Well-Sight. This would be a great thing to figure out, after our trip to the Ruins of Ashmar. We also decided it would be good for the town to build some more houses and better roads, so we assembled enough coins and Erias would make sure that the houses and roads were finished in two weeks.

**Ruins of Asrar**

The same scout who had spotted the army at the Ruins of Asrar, now told us that it would be the best to enter the Ruins from one side, since the place was surrounded by four watchtowers, two on each side, further in there would be a defense camp, protecting the main camp in the middle of the Ruins, where the Rival is supposed to be. He also told us that each watchtower was manned by three orcs and one of them would have a Warhorn with which he could warn the army. The Defense camp contained five orcs and in the main camp resided only the rival. The last thing the scout said was ‘good luck’ and then we were on our way to the Ruins. It took us a whole day to reach the ruins, and we knew we had to move quick since it was already getting dark. We stayed out of the line of sight, and Aerendyl and Leavhen tried to see which one of the orcs was carrying the Warhorn, because we had to take him out first. Leavhen then noticed a horn hanging from the belt of the orc standing at the back, and we knew this had to be the Warhorn. Those of us with a bow readied the thing and we all aimed at the orc with the horn. Four of us hit the orc, and he fell to the ground, the other two orcs confused as to what had just happened. Hrothgar and Ulf then sprinted forward to attack the other orcs, and they were down in no time. The other watchtower was an hour away, so we hurried and tried to find the Warhorn again, this time Aerendyl was the one who spotted it first. It was the orc on the right, who was scanning the area like a madman. Again we readied our bows, striking down the orc with the horn first. In just a few moments, the orcs were down again. We had cleared the watchtowers and it was time to enter the ruins and find the rival. We took the defense camp by surprise and three of the orcs were already down, the other two were walking towards us when we all heard footsteps and laughter coming from the center of the ruins. The Chief of the rival clan appeared from the ruins, a bodyguard on each of his sides. ‘What is going on here?’ he asked with a grunt. One of the two bodyguards pointed at us, ‘chief Uzera, we have to deal with those intruders.´ The fighting continued, we didn´t get the chance to talk to the rival chief and all we could do was protect each other and win this battle. The first two to go down were the remaining orcs from the defense camp. After that things got tough, the bodyguards as well as the Chief were strong, and fighting them wasn´t easy. Loradove again felt the power of her Lute surging through her, she took out her instrument and started playing a song. She sang the best she could, and noticed how the rival chief moved at her words. She sang of battle, of defeat and smiled. The chief began attacking his own bodyguard, and the tie of battle had turned. While Loradove focused on one of the bodyguards, we took down the other one. Now the rival chief was the only one left standing. We had to end it, but how. Did we really just cut of his head and bring this to Urug?

**Bringing the Head, and more…**

Ulf had something else in mind. He charmed the whole group, including the rival Chief. He told the rival that Urug was weak, having fought a battle just a day ago. This would be his chance to take revenge. The group’s charm runs of fast, but the chief is still under influence. The group then decides that it is best to tie him up and bring him back to chief Urug. Then they can end this war by fighting one on one. When the group is tying up Uzera, Juwain explores the main camp. Here he finds plans of the clan to head to the Water of the Moons and built a new camp there, so the clan could march towards the elves later. Having fought most of the clan members, the group is not concerned about these newfound plans. They take Uzera back to Urug, and a duel is unavoidable. Urug wins, and he thanks the group for giving him the opportunity to finish this war himself. He offers the group to guard the Pass and the group finds this more than welcome. They now have a new ally, and a new home they can enter without killing rivals and taking of heads. They decide to visit the Inn again and take a nice long rest. Another adventure is waiting for them in the morning.

**Well-Sight Village**

After travelling for two days, the group reached Well-Sight Village. They all noticed the abandoned houses with boarded-up windows. Something strange had definitely occured here, the feeling of fright still lingering in the air. They walked further in and saw a single light coming from one of the houses. Juwain, Aerendyl and Hrothgar decided to check the place out, while the rest of us waited outside, for who knows what they would find in this house. After what felt like hours, Aerendyl came back to tell the group about the Innkeeper who had to stay because his Inn was all he'd got. Strange things happened here at night, and since nightfall was coming very soon, the Innkeeper offered to stay at his place tonight. The rest of the group followed Aerendyl back and they were all guided to a huge wooden hatch in the ground. The hatch led us to the cellar, a few wooden supply crates were scattered in the room, and the only thing really standing out was the massive metal door in de backwall. 'This is where we will take shelter tonight, some of you have to stay in this room to stand guard, the others will accompany me to the backroom where the metal door will protect us, I hope.'

As the night progressed, and midnight was near, we all heard screaming and thumping.