Campaign Summary

### You're Stuck here

The campaign begins in an Ivittzy prison located on the Smokey Aisles. Klein, Maggie, and Barayle are locked in a cell and are soon joined by Skartt. Not long after there is a commotion and a troop of Talladegan soldiers start unlocking the cells. The four aren't immediately freed and are only let out when Jack noticed them left behind, requesting they help carry an injured Casterino soldier out with them. When they leave the cells the set of stairs leading back up to the prison lobby are destroyed. The team work together to escape the room and face off against 2 guards who were not yet killed off, though they quickly surrendered. The party escape onto a Talladegan ship and set off. They stand around the boat, as it is busy, before being directed to the kitchen to eat and rest. A soldier lashes out at Barayle but a full on fight is averted and they set off to find a place to rest in the cargo hold, where they instead encounter a creature that rapidly ages to charred bones upon defeat. A gnoll named Sunny then pops out a crate and says they should talk to Jack, who scolds Sunny for going where he shouldn't be and offers the party his private room so they may feel safer.

The next day they land in Snow Spire and start heading to the Capital with Jack and the other released prisoners, after he promises to help them find their way back south. On the road they encounter a band of troglodytes, defeating the monsters and protecting the others. By the time they arrive at the Capital it's too late in the evening to make it to Casterino so they rest for the night. That night they are woken up by a commotion in the foyer, which ends up being Jack having slipped on a puddle. Hugo and Jack talk, with Hugo warning Jack that Fincher has been asking a lot of questions and looking through the royal files, though Jack says not to worry about Fincher. They set off south with another guildee, Fincher, tagging along to be a Casterino guide as that is where he originated from. Fincher is happy to chat with Klein but purposely ignores Barayle. At the border there is a giant, fortified wall that stretches to either horizon with soldiers guarding on top. There is a single window in the wall where a man turns them away, saying that King Richard has been pronounced dad with his wife having disappeared alongside a large majority of their fortune. Klein tries to get through anyways, using his nobility, but is still turned down, the man allowing Maggie and Klein to write letters to their families and putting them on a wait list. Jack is upset by the outcome but offers the party a place at his Foreign Laborers Guild so they have a place to eat, sleep, and make money until the border allows them through. That night they go to a bar and bond and upon returning the injured Casterino soldiers leaves the guild looking for help elsewhere.

### Getting Used to Things

The team's first mission is to deliver supply bags to three groups of gnolls within Niveous. The first group is located in a poor neighborhood, the second under a bridge in a drained canal, and the third a group of palace guards. When they return the guild is throwing a party for them to welcome them and feel better about their predicament. There is heaps of food on the table and tons of goblins being rowdy, but the festivities are disrupted when Jack declares his wine, a bottle that had been locked up in a safe ever since his marriage to Princess Augusta, has been poisoned. Hugo says Jack is paranoid about having several failed assassination attempts, but Skartt confirms that the wine is poisoned. Jack locks himself in the office for te rest of the night. Sunny asks Barayle to use his Druid magic to sneak into the office to make sure Jack is doing well, where he finds out that Jack is sleeping under his desk surrounded by Clevastan runes and clutching a magic sword. He speaks with his team about the event and Maggie claims she knows about the runes, though Sunny tries to quiet her. Sunny is pressured into revealing that Jack is a secret affiliation with the dead civilization and that in the north braided hair is usually looked down on as it is seen as a sign of rebellion. The team eventually corners Jack and asks him about it, where he confesses his connection to Clevasta but asks them to keep it a secret, giving Maggie a Clevastan medallion that can "get them into certain places".

The next mission for the team is to check the border between Talladega and Dugrad with Fincher. Jack warns them that they don't have to kill during every encounter and Sunny decides to tag along. Fincher brags about his skills during the mission while showing his expertise. The border is cluttered with traps to prevent monsters from crossing into Talladega, with the team having to remove any dead bodies and fix any sprang or damaged traps. Later they spot three harpies eating a deer and Fincher shoots one of them, attracting their ire. Maggie punches Fincher twice and Barayle restrains him while the harpies attack, though the decide to leave the party be after a few attacks. The team ties up Fincher to prevent him from starting any more trouble but before they return to the guild they hear a crash, splash, and the sounds of dogs barking as well as calls for help in a language only Maggie can understand. They help the person in need, who is a troglodyte merchant with six sled dogs being dragged into a frozen lake by his sled of wares. The team help them out and pull the sled back on land. The merchant is skittish at first but introduces himself as Gurgasletch and gives them a map of Dugrad's surface for free, then offers to sell them a map of the underground for a fee. Though the map is difficult to read, Skartt purchase the map, much to the upset of Barayle who immediately tries to take the map from him. The party returns home and Fincher skulks off.

### Death Tunnel Supreme

The next day they are awoken early by Hugo who asks for their help with an incident in the norther mines, which they are yet to have much info on yet. They wash up and meet their new party member, a trent named Searedroot. Sunny and Gabi tag along, leaving Jibb in charge of the guild, as Sunny mentions that Jack was hurt that morning. The team check on Jack, who is woozy with pain meds and has a strange black mark spreading out from a stab wound on his abdomen. Jack says nothing happened and that he just accidentally fell and got stabbed by Dakotah's spear, with Dakotah looking especially guilty but saying nothing. The party leaves before getting answers. They travel up far north where it is much colder and learn that several miners went missing after they were attacked by "teeth monsters" presumed to be troglodytes. While going to investigate Skartt meets an old pal, Kardesh, who tags along with them to investigate and find the missing goblins. Sunny bids them farewell, giving Barayle two small health potions. They happen upon a dip in the tunnel where they overlook a group of creatures shackled together with a minotaur riding a manticore, who speaks through a magic stone to someone else. Kardesh ruins their secrecy and the manticore attempts to kill them with a cave in, though they manage to survive and are trapped with the hungry group of troglodytes.

The party works together to free the goblins, due to the trogs being too starved and angry to work with. Maggie successfully asks to get close enough to a troglodyte to free a kobold, Covet, who tags along with the party. Maggie offers her rations to the troglodyte, but that sets off a chain reaction of the trogs fighting over the food, which drives the party deeper into the caves. Barayle notes that the tunnels are much less refined compared to the usual ones in Dugrad. The party travels on for hours without coming across anything of note until their light source is almost out. They then come across Gurgasletch again, who is without his sled dogs. He is happy to meet MAggie and teases her for "following him" before giving them a warning that the tunnels are too dangerous for them to be in. He uses Skartt's map to show them a way out and gives them a lantern that feels like sunshine and warns them that when the reach the red star door and it's hot and smells bad that they must be very quiet and sneak through. The party continues on and eventually happens upon a stark change in scenery, appearing in someone's rooms which are highly decorated with Ivittzy décor.

After passing through the red star door they enter a massive, dark tunnel that smells horrible and is unusually hot. Corpses and rot covers the floor and a massive, decaying form is seen inside. they sneak through with the kidnapped goblins, but awake the creature, a massive, hulking, decaying minotaur with fire burning in it's eyes. They manage to get out but are faced with a handle-less door. Barayle recognizes the carving on the door to resemble the old Dugrad story of a monster would would rise up and take the land back for the mounters driven underground and unlocks the door by raising the sun lantern. On the other side of the door is a dead troglodyte with the disembodies arm of a minotaur holding another one of the speaking stones. The voice on the other end scolds the recipient for being late and saying they could easily replace them, before being disgusted by Covet making a farting noise into the stone. As the party travels on Maggie is haunted by their adventure and helped along by Searedroot. The tunnels become cleaner with fresher air and plants growing in them. The party pass some peaceful Dugrad monsters before coming back above ground and coming across a small cottage with six dogs outside and ton of trinkets and toys inside. Covet steals a toy train before Barayle sees the broken lake that they first met Gurgasletch at and they go home. Jack is still out, even worse than before, and Klein takes Dakotah aside to say that this could look bad for him and Casterino, setting Dakotah off to shove Klein against the wall. Kardesh also takes advantage of his freedom by eating and sleeping to excess.

### Oh No Everyone's Dying/Dead

They are allowed the following day off, due to how poorly their mission went. Bruce lets Maggie know that the person he believes killed King Richard is a man from the Eaglehaart family, a family who left Casterino in favor of Rivera. Skartt, along with the others, takes a shot at befriending Searedroot. They deduce that the spear is what is causing Jack's curse and Dakotah says Fincher gave it to him. They corner Fincher and ask him about it, to which he says it's not his fault he just bought it from some merchant in Fractal Town who didn't talk and had a lot of dogs. Later they ask Hugo what they're gonna do about Jack and mention how sketchy Fincher has been acting, to which Hugo tells them not to worry about it. They see Sunny has left the guild and chase him down, due to him appearing in bad shape. They give in to him wanting to go to the museum to see an exhibit on the dragons of The Days of Black Sky. They learn some dragon lore there, learning the name of the six most famous dragons and learn that Jack and Sunny have a particular admiration for Illmiotis, a dragon who fought for Clevasta. Searedroot decides that all the dragons are horrid, as they all contributed to the war that caused many areas to burn down and many lives to be lost. While there, Sunny sniffs Maggie saying he's trying to "figure out what (she is)" to which Maggie is perturbed. Sunny then whispers to Klein to go to Fractal Town and ask for Spit Fire so they can help Jack heal.

The party go back to the guild and collect the others before leaving, Kardesh inviting himself along with them. They notice more gnolls than usual in the guild but leave before asking about it. They chat on their journey there and see a poster warning against interacting with "purple eyed children". In town they admire a stone statue of a dragon fighting a knight, with Covet climbing to the top and "riding" the dragon before they get to work. Searedroot goes through several businesses asking if they sell cursed items, receiving a "no" from each. They find a magic weapons shop, noting that the store owner would return in two days. Covet sneaks in but doesn't find anything interesting other than a bunch of dog stuff and a boring axe. Maggie and Skartt interrogate a shop owner who offers them answers in exchange for some business, as it's noticeable that the shops seem poor and down on their luck. They get a tip that in the rickety, ramshackle building just outside of town has people who may be able to help. They go but the inhabitants seem reluctant to let the whole party in, as there are only two of them versus seven. They allow a few in but when they deduce that they are from the guild they rush everyone in. With the sun lamp, which Searedroot still holds, it is seen that the two strange inhabitants are troglodytes in disguise.

The troglodytes are still reluctant to help, especially when Searedroot starts breaking out their "dinner" from a cage hanging from the ceiling. The inhabitant, a lizardfolk named Ixelwing, graciously escapes and declares that his captors, Flaming Tail and Pumpkin Eater, were absolutely awful to him. The two decide to let the party take Ixelwing if they can beat them at a game. Pumpkin Eater cheats while playing against Barayle and wins, but the two are thrown off when they learn Jack is unwell. They then take the party (without Skartt and Kardesh) deeper into the house to speak with Spit Fire, a third troglodyte who is resting, covered in bandages and missing an arm. She confuses Maggie for Jack for a moment and Maggie recognizes her as the troglodyte she tried to help in the tunnels on their previous mission. Ixelwing tries to rat out Pumpkin Eater and Flaming Tail but she hushes him and tells the team she will help Jack the next day when she has gathered her energy. She says the spear is a harpy killer and she will help by making Jack human, implying he isn't already human. The party then goes back above ground, where Skartt and Kardesh have been discussing the idea of leaving the guild to go out on their own again.

Klein insists they go to a burned down building he sees on the other side of town, as he remembers being there with his entourage before being put in prison. There he encounters his old pet gryphon, Ser Percy, who points Klein to the two dead bodies of his entourage and the burned corpse of another, with the fourth mysteriously being missing. In a pouch on Percy's side Klein finds a note with the royal seal of his home region from his aunt declaring she has sent guards to meet him in Red Junction and guide him back home. Klein urges the party to go with him, though some are reluctant due to not wanting to leave or at least wanting to stay until their mission is finished. Klein persuades them to at least go meet the guards with him and decide there. Ixelwing tags along since they will be stopping by the guild. There, even more gnolls have shown up to crowd the building and Klein picks up Dakotah. Ixelwing stops in the medical room by Jack's bed and seems to have a conversation with himself before going with the party. Dakotah is suspicious but does not speak out other than asking clarifying questions. When they arrive at Red Junction they find an abandoned camp and before they can look around any further they are ambushed by six Casterino assassins, one of which seems to know Klein. Several assassins escape, but luckily all of the team make it out alive.

The team make it back home to base, where they rest for the night. Next morning the three troglodytes arrive at the guild and Sunny asks for the whole team to be present for Spit Fire's cure in case "Jack goes crazy". When the ritual is complete the black infection is gone and Jack's eyes turn brown. After telling Ixelwing to get away and Klein that he looks like crap, he gets back to work. The team spends the day recuperating and play a game of cards. Jack then gives Maggie and Klein their letters from Casterino and tells them about some of the goings on around Arderus. Jack also "invites" the team to go with him on a diplomatic journey to Ivittzy, where he hopes to sneak those who wish to leave into Casterino when they sail by. Afterwards Klein looks for clean clothes to change into and Covet invites him onto a shopping trip. Before they leave Maggie confides in Jack her secret of being a Clevastan fishfolk, where he confesses he doesn't know much about the traditions but that there are many people like her in Talladega, but she must keep her secret from Queen Octavia. Maggie also speaks to Spit Fire, apologizing for her actions leading to Spit Fire losing her arm and asking her to find a cure for Bruce's curse. Before the team can leave the guild, they encounter Breakfast, a kobold hanging out on the guild's roof. When Barayle takes himself, Covet, and Ixelwing onto the roof next to him he disappears in a puff of smoke. The team went on an extensive shopping trip then returned to the guild, where Breakfast was still waiting. After Breakfast revealed he knew some personal information about the team they left him be and went to wash up. They found Dakotah had been locked in the bath house by Pumpkin Eater and Flaming Tail. Ixelwing got the stare down from Bruce then found himself at odds with Maggie upon making the statement that "perfect plus perfect equals even more perfect"

That night everyone got drunk and bonded. Dakotah asked Maggie about a secret letter he head, but otherwise the team simply played truth or dare and bantered back and forth.

### Ivittzy Time

First thing in the morning Jack awoke the team up with several of Queen Octavia's personal guard ready to bring the team to her throne room. Jack insisted on them not speaking, but was ultimately silenced by her and she had to team speak for themselves. They weren't very forthcoming and bored her quickly. She tried to make Klein agree to go on a date with Princess Augusta, but he strongly and politely refused. They had lunch with Princess Augusta, where Breakfast was shown to correctly predict what Klein would be having for lunch the next day. Augusta was generally disliked for her poor manners and disregard for Klein's feelings, though that didn't stop her interest in him. Jack immediately began preparing for their trip to Ivittzy, as they would have to be leaving promptly to make it to their rendezvous on time. The team prepared themselves then left. They traveled and camped out for one night where the team played around and spoke among each other. The next day Maggie asked Jack about a painting she saw where Joseph had beheaded a feathered fish folk and he explained the Battle of Red Junction to her after glancing at Klein involuntarily. About 15 years prior a group of Dugrad/Clevasta refugees tried traveling to the baren north of Talladega to escape the oppression of their previous life but were stopped by Queen Octavia, who allied herself with Casterino and Rivera to stop them. The battle was bloody and he said too many people died, but the refugees ultimately won and went on their pilgrimage, only to be destroyed when Joseph lead an army to their new home and beheaded their king.

Barayle hid as a rat and Ixelwing hid in a covered wagon when the party arrived at Owlbear Bay due to the racism of the city. On the outer wall of the town there was a gruesome sight as mutilated and decapitated bodies of Dugrad creatures were hung along the wall. The city was also packed and heavily guarded in response to the arrival of the Ivittzy ship, which was much more advanced than anything the party would have ever seen before. They were welcomed on the ship by Shamier, a nervous tiefling, then set free to roam and make themselves at home. Ixelwign acquainted himself with a lizardfolk guard while Klein introduced himself to most of the staff onboard the vessel. Skartt asked Brutus, a minotaur on board, to try passing along a message to a possible friend he had in Strovall and Covet spoke with a kobold on board about having a secret meeting later that night. When it turned to night and everyone went below deck, Maggie came on board. Skartt followed but seemed appeased by Searedroot being nearby and went back to his bunk. After Maggie performed a prayer to her Moon Goddess Searedroot ripped Bruce off of her and pulled Maggie down into the ocean with themselves. In the ocean Gourami revealed herself, enraged by Maggie's apparent ignorance of her and made a pact so that Maggie would help her be restored to her former glory. When they came back onto the ship Gourami told Maggie to play it cool and lie about what happened, shooing away Shamier when she came to investigate why Bruce was set free and freaking out below deck.

Covet occupied herself with befriend a group of six kobolds on the ship who held her same opinion of not being satisfied with serving a dragon, as they all had been given a single job since birth. They, however, held the belief that things would be changing soon and they just had to wait a while longer and didn't want to leave all the other kobolds behind. When Covet mentioned Breakfast the kobolds said that it could not have been him, as he was a kobold who had successfully ran away about a century ago, but had then been immediately eaten up by Illmiotis. Covet told them to still think about running away and then played cards with them. Skartt was very suspicious all night and on high alert as he felt something was suspicious, as Breakfast looked like a generic Ivittzy kobold and could easily blend in to those on board. After falling asleep Breakfast appeared to Maggie in dream where she could not room and the cabin was filled with daylight. He lightly chastised her for getting herself into a tough situation and said she needed a friend before patting Bruce and disappearing, leaving Maggie to wake up screaming.