The Showdown - S02E10

[Placeholder]

XP Breakdown S02E09 & S02E10

E09
Centaur Battle: 600xp
Troglodytes: 750xp
Giant Snake Battle: 600xp

E10
Octopus Pt 2: 600xp
Final Battle: 2400xp
Campaign Complete: 1200xp

xp per member - 1540

Graal:

• Bonus E09
• Centaur Solo Battle - 200xp
• Bonus E10
• Retrieving the final key solo: 200xp
• Total XP
• This Session: 1940xp
• Lifetime: 12,680xp. Level 7

Lucan:

• Bonus E09/E10
• Secret - 200xp
• Total XP
• This Session: 1740xp
• Lifetime: 11,620 xp. Level 7

Pazus: 

• Bonus E09/E10
• Secret - 200xp
• Total XP
• This Session: 1740xp
• Lifetime: 12,060xp. Level 7

Thar:

• Bonus E09/E10 
• Secret - 200xp
• Total XP
• This Session: 1740xp
• Lifetime: 11,540 xp. Level 7

The Final Battle

Chloroforming Centaurs - S02E09

[Placeholder]

The Fountain - S02E08

[Placeholder]

Octopussy - S02E07

The last we left our party, they had just tortured Roger and slaughtered his brother Clyde.

• The group is alerted by a flying elven patrol of a horde of Trolls and Goblins heading their way. The patrol offers to airlift them out of the hot zone to somewhere safer.
• The party gets dropped off at the entrance to the caverns from their mission.
• Upon entering, they are faced with a giant cliff overlooking a crystal clear underground lake 40 feet below them.
• At the bottom of the lake they see a shiny object. Graal decides to cliff jump for the item. As he dives down for the item, he sees that it's another talisman (snake).
• As he gets to the surface of the water, he gets grabbed by a large beast. He is able to get away from the tentacles and is quickly pulled up by a rope.
• At the top of the cliff Thar-a-bad pokes fun at Graal, and Graal knocks him off the cliff. Thar tumbles down and nails his head rendering him unconscious floating in the lake.
• Lucan ties himself off and dives in after him.
• Lucan ends up saving them both from the large beast
• The party begins descending the path around the lake and as they get to the bottom Pazus and Thar get grabbed by giant tentacles.
• Graal tries to do a running jump swim attack, but fails to, as that's stupid.
• he finally makes it to the octopus and climbs up its face with his pickaxe
• Thar-a-bad does the smarter thing and walks back up the path and simply jumps onto the octopus.
• After some battling they both get thrown off of it and after a couple limbs get lopped off, the octopus retreats to safer waters.
• The party begins searching the caverns and comes to a locked door with a hole the size of the talisman in it. Graal chooses to try the new snake talisman in the door and it opens.
• At the end of the path the group comes to an old armory with a single perfectly crafted sword resting against the wall.
• Thar-a-bad yells "MINE!" and heads over to the sword and grabs it.
• Taking the sword awoken a very grumpy and determined ghost who disarmed Thar.
• Graal took the sword and began trying to fight the ghost. Thar, still pissed at Graal, ended up causing more harm in the encounter than good.
• Eventually the party realized that the ghost was tied to the blade and so they destroyed it. After they did so it changed to a humanoid being and they ended his life... again...

XP Breakdown S02E07 & S02E08

E07
Octopus Encounter: 1000 xp
Ghost Encounter: 1000 xp
Acquiring Talisman (Snake & Human): 300 x 2

E08
Discovering Life Fountain: 600 xp
Trog & Kobold Battle: 1100 xp
Kobold Attack: 1000 xp

xp per member - 1325

Graal: Level Up!

• Bonus E07
• Diving into uncharted waters for shiny objects - 150 xp
• Taking the battle to the Octopus - 200 xp
• Critically wounding Octopus - 150 xp
• Destroyed Ghost blade - 150 xp
• Bonus E08
• Critical Head Chopping - 150xp
• Total XP
• This Session: 2125
• Lifetime: 10,740xp. Level 7

Lucan:

• Bonus E07
• Rescued Thar-a-bad - 200 xp
• Historical Genius (critically learned about the ghost...) - 200 xp
• Total XP
• This Session: 1725
• Lifetime: 9880 xp. Level 6

Pazus: Level Up!

• Bonus E08
• Solo Explorer - 200 xp
• Crit machine (2) - 300 xp
• Total XP
• This Session: 1825
• Lifetime: 10,320xp. Level 7

Thar:

• Bonus E07
• Flanking Octopus & Jumping on top- 250 xp
• Critically wounding Octopus - 150 xp
• Stylish wall jump attack - 150 xp
• Bonus E08
• Crit machine - 150 xp
• Killing Blow Champion (5) - 250 xp 
• Total XP
• This Session: 2275
• Lifetime: 9800 xp. Level 6

Giant Octopus battle

Tactical Fails & High Flying Tales

The last we left our group. Pazus was clinging to life after being devoured by a swarm of rats.

•  Grall gave up a potion to bring Pazus back 
• The party decides to head towards Nath after seeing clouds of smoke coming from it's direction.
• Along the way the group spots a troll patrol and successfully stays out of sight as they leave.
• Graal in his infinite wisdom decides to shout is famous line "HEY!" to the trolls as they are walking away, and they return.
• The trolls sound their alarm to warn nearby patrols and the party has little time to do away with this smaller group.
• Graal runs and climbs a tree thinking that the trolls would come for him... but they didn't, and settled for the weak looking ranger standing 10 feet away.
• The group takes care of business right before the larger troll party arrives.
• After travelling for a few more hours the party decides to make camp.
• Pazus decides to strap himself to a tree, and the rest find some refuge by a giant rock formation.
• During the night a couple of thieves get the drop on pazus and kidnap Pip and a number of other items that the party had.
• The group entered a skill challenge which required them to track the thieves which led them to a large troll camp where they navigated around, and ultimately to a small ravine which they needed to jump across.
• Lucan and Pazus failed and fell into water. Thar-a-bad shows up everyone by doing a double flip over it and sticking the landing.
• The party finally arrives at the thief camp where they slaughtered the first thief and ended up torturing the second thief.
• The party finds out that they were hired to kidnap Pip by a strange man.

XP Breakdown S02E06

Completed Tunnels - 800xp
Troll Encounter - 400xp
Operation Rescue Pip - 800xp
Thief Encounter - 400xp

xp per member - 600

Graal: LEVEL UP!

• Bonus
• Team Player (sharing his healing potion with Pazus): 150 xp
• Playing out of character: -150xp
• Vengence  served (killed thief from bramble) - 150xp
• Successful Intimidation & Torture of Roger - 150xp
• Total XP
• This Session: 900
• Lifetime: 8615 xp. Level 6

Lucan: LEVEL UP!

• Bonus
• Rescue Mission Leader - 250xp
• Total XP
• This Session: 850
• Lifetime: 8155 xp. Level 6

Pazus: LEVEL UP!

• Creative sleeping arrangements - 150xp
• Aiding Pip - 150xp
• Total XP
• This Session: 900
• Lifetime: 8495 xp. Level 6

Thar: LEVEL UP!

• Bonus
• Ravine Crossing Show-off - 250xp
• Total XP
• This Session: 850
• Lifetime: 7521 xp. Level 6

Not Dead Yet! - S02E05

The last time we left our party, they had just finished crossing a fast moving underground river deep within the Cael-Raem mountains.

• Party rests for the night and runs into a swarm of hungry rats.
• Graal feeds them Pankos severed head and some decomposing rabbits
• The party enters an area with a collapsing floor. 
• Thar runs across with a rope in order to help other across. But Graal accidentally pulls the rope back.
• Pip attempts to pull the heavy rope across, but fails to do so.
• The group takes too long to move across, and gets jumped by a swarm of giant rats.
• Graal and Lucan get overrun and so they decide to run away. The rats don't end up following.
• The party finally makes it across and continue on their journey.
• 2 fire bats engage in battle and quickly get vanquished.
•  The group comes to a giant dark chasm and discovers that they could climb down.
• They make it to the other side and begin scaling a broken bridge
• Pazus decides to use his climbing gear instead and begins scaling the wall.
• After falling down he is met with a swarm of rats and gets knocked unconcious.
• The rest of the party run to Pazus's aid, but are too late.
• After defeating the rats, the group is able to stabilize the mortally wounded Pazus and bring him up to safety.

Time 7:00AM

XP Breakdown S02E05

Many Rats (10) - 1000 xp
Fire Bats (2) - 400 xp
Crossing Trap Room - 800 xp
Crossing Ravine - 400 xp

xp per member - 650

Graal:

• Bonus
• Team Player (staying back to work with team): 100 xp
• Playing out of character: -100xp
• Total XP
• This Session: 650
• Lifetime: 7515 xp. Level 5

Lucan:

• Bonus
• Drops torch to see how far chasm went down - 100xp
• Total XP
• This Session: 650
• Lifetime: 7305 xp. Level 5

Pazus:

• Total XP
• This Session: 650
• Lifetime: 7595 xp. Level 5

Thar:

• Bonus
• First across trap room - 150xp
• Clever rope saving strats - 100xp
• Total XP
• This Session: 800
• Lifetime: 6671 xp. Level 5

New loot

Just received Monster Vault, Dungeon, Wilderness, and Cathedral tile sets. Should be interesting if we want to try playing without the tech requirements.

Tyrsis Map

Full Map of Tyrsis

Party's Journey so far

XP Breakdown S02E04

Many Rats (7) - 700 xp
Fire Bats (1) - 400 xp
Mud Hill Skill Challenge - 800 xp
Underground River Skill Challenge - 400 xp
Secret Bonus XP - 400 xp

xp per member - 675

Graal:

• Bonus
• First one up the hill - 150xp
• Total XP
• This Session: 825
• Lifetime: 6865 xp. Level 5

Lucan:

• Bonus
• Crit-astic (x1) - 100xp
• Total XP
• This Session: 775
• Lifetime: 6555 xp. Level 5

Pazus:

• Bonus
• Putting on climbing boots during Mud Challenge - 150xp
• Total XP
• This Session: 825
• Lifetime: 6945 xp. Level 5

Thar: LEVEL UP

• Bonus
• Crit-astic (x1) - 100xp
• Sav-tastic (20 roll on saving throw) - 100xp
• Total XP
• This Session: 875
• Lifetime: 5771 xp. Level 5

S02E04 - Slip-n-slide

The last time we left our party, they had finally found the entrance to the orcish tunnels in hopes that it would lead them through the Cael-Raem Mountains.

Game Time: 5:30 pm

• Party easily destroys a pack of rats who weren't able to chew through Graal's tough leather boots.
• Sticking to their normal routine, the group bears right when they finally make it to an opening in the tunnels.
• The group encounters another fire bat which got "lit" up... =P
• A giant pit room filled with spears 2 ft apart is discovered.
• Pazus climbs down into the pit to further investigate, but finds nothing. However the rest of the party finds some more rats that they deal with.
• While in the pit Pazus decides to test his strength and pull out a couple of the spears, but soon realizes that there is way too many to make a difference.
• The group finally agrees to move on and they come to a steel door in one of the tunnel passages.
• The party just knocks. And since it didn't open right away, they decided to continue on...
• At the bottom of a steep muddy incline, the group takes turns going up. Lucan being so fast and light-footed covered the most ground, but had a lot of trouble keeping his footing so ended up taking twice as long as he should have.
• Pazus being the wisest one of the group decided to make use of his recently acquired climbing boots. Unfortunately it didn't help him when Lucan slid into him, knocking him over.
• Finally everyone made it to the top alive.
• At the top of the steep incline, was a fast moving underground river and a bridge that looked like it has seen better days.
• Graal runs over the bridge followed by Pip and Lucan.
• Pazus attempts to cross, but the bridge gives under his weight and he floats on his !sink shield and slams into the wall.
• Pip yells across to Thar to toss a rope to him, and he complies. Lucan and Pip attempt to pull in a Tharabad fish, but he's too heavy, and the water is pulling him away.
• Graal helps out the weak folk, and Pazus comes to aid, but quickly falls in again, and re-introduces himself to the wall.
• Lucan falls in and grabs a hold of Thar.
• Finally the group is able to pull in Thar and Lucan, and they all take a breather.

Game Time: 9:00pm

S02E03 - Silly Panko... Tricks are for kids!

Last time we left our party they had just successfully fended off the trolls from over running the Dashar tunnel entrance, and were asked to join the Captain of Dashar for a reward.

• The party re-enters the city and is immediately surrounded by the townspeople who begin cheering loudly as they see the heroes.
• The group notices that Barnaby Jones was no longer at their side, and assumed he went to finish off the trolls.
• Pip fights through the crowd with some rewards for his idol Graal.
• Guards come and escort the group to the guards headquarters to see the captain.
• upon entering the building Lucan witnesses a halfling trickster lift some coinage from Graal. In turn Graal attempts to decapitate the thief, only to have the halfling disappear from site.
• The party enters the building and sees the 2 dwarves from the drinking contest behind bars, sleeping off their previous nights fun.
• They also see one of the 2 thieves from the inn encounter back from Bramble behind bars. He and Graal have an altercation, but the bars kept one of them from being severely wounded.
• The captain rewards the party with 400 gold and badges of honorary guardians of Dashar.
• He tells them to go shopping and return.
• When they return he appoints the young guard Landon to escort them to an alternate route through the mountain the Orcish Tunnels.
• On route to the tunnels Lucan senses the party is being followed and finds out it was the 2 dwarves Gorran and Yorran following behind to seek adventure.
• As the group traveled further they run into a familiar face. Knape the psioncist mage which they encounter the day prior, back from the grave.
• Knape demands that they give up their map, or suffer the consequences of the cartographer whose head was now in a bag which he kindly threw to the group.
• The party declines and immediately a flaming arrow ignites a wall a fire around the party with exception to Lucan who moved outside of the area.
• Panko (the halfling trickster) un-stealths next to Lucan, blinds him, steals the map and jumps up to the area where Knape & Jasmine (archer) were.
• Jasmine fires a volley at the party and drops Landon to the ground.
• Graal jumps over the wall of fire and attemps to lasso Knape but fails.
• Gorran & Yorran surprise attack Pazus but fail miserably as Pazus defended himself and sent Pip off to hide. 
• Thar, Paz & Pip kill off Yorran. A failed shot by Jasmine finished off Gorran.
• Graal struggles to do anything but run back and forth at the base of the cliff.
• Panko takes on Graal, and after getting crit by Graal, he disappears.
• Thar goes shot to shot with jasmine.
• Lucan finally gets unblinded and then gets stunned & feared by Knape.
• Graal swings all over attempting to get a lucky hit on Panko, who is still no where to be found.
• Graal & Thar finish off Knape
• Panko appears on the other side of the group, and Paz throws a slow at him becoming stunned due to Panko being bloodied.
• Graal chases down the halfing only to get one shotted by him.
• Lucan finds a skill shot and shoots down Panko.
• The party retrieves the map from the body of Panko, along with a strange box.
• Upon seeing her party destroyed, Jasmine surrenders and puts her bow down, kneels down and puts her hands behind her head.
• Thar takes her and cuts off all her fingers, and interrogates her.
• Paz brings Landon back to life and heals Jasmine and the party only after they agree to let her go.
• The party burns all the corpses but forgets that they can't bury them due to them being on fire, so they leave them burning.
• The party continues their journey to the tunnels, and enters them. Landon leaves.
• Party attacked by 2 fire bats.

Game Time: 5:30 pm

Epic battle - Party vs Raiding Party: Part 2

XP Breakdown S02E03

Bandit Party pt 2 - 925 xp
Fire Bats - 400 xp

xp per member - 331

Graal:

• Bonus
• Crit-astic (x1) - 75xp
• Total XP
• This Session: 406
• Lifetime: 6040 xp. Level 5

Lucan: LEVEL UP

• Bonus
• Crit-astic (x1) - 75xp
• Total XP
• This Session: 406
• Lifetime: 5780 xp. Level 5

Pazus: LEVEL UP

• Bonus
• Good use of abilities (slowing Panko to keep him from fleeing w/ map knowing that you'd be stunned for a round) - 150xp
• Keeping young Landon alive - 100xp
• Successfully convinced party to release prisoner - 75xp
• Total XP
• This Session: 656
• Lifetime: 6120 xp. Level 5

Thar:

• Bonus
• Expanding attacking options (using bow) - 75xp
• Successful Torture - 75xp
• Total XP
• This Session: 481
• Lifetime: 4896 xp. Level 4

Pip Achievements

• Crit-astic (x1) - Killed Yorran
• Aided in bringing down Panko 

Pazus's Log, Date Unknown(1)

Upon successfully sealing the North Tunnel, we re-entered Dashar to a hero's welcome. Despite our best efforts, many guards were lost in the struggle and the route is now closed to us. Barnaby Jones, a large lizard creature who accompanied us for a time, seems to have disappeared immediately afterward.. I will not miss him. As I struggled with those brave men trying to close the gate, I believe I saw him laughing as if watching some grand comedy unfurl.

As we navigated the town, a halfling appeared to have found his hand inside Graal's coin pouch, then got lost in the crowd, to Graal's great fury.

The guard captain(whose name I did not note) rewarded us each 400 gold pieces, and offered us information on an alternate route through the mountains. For the moment, we must contemplate the rigors of our upcoming journey, and Bahamut willing, prepare and supply ourselves adequately.

The market provided me with fresh rations, ingredients necessary to brew healing potions, and I was fortunate to find climbing gear suitable for a dwarf. The others went their own way, with Pip trailing after Graal despite Graal's murderous glances. One hopes reason will prevail and he'll not lay a hand on the child in town.

The captain provided us with a young guardsman by the name of... Lennie? Lionel? Linden?  who knows the route's location,  and we set out from the city before mid-day.

As the sun shone directly overhead, Lucan suddenly dashed off into the rocks to our left, and as we stood puzzled, two rather seedy looking dwarves from that drinking competition came wandering along from behind, claiming to seek adventure. Rather suspicious of them.. we were then accosted by that strange robed human from our earlier encounter(whom we had thought dead) who demanded we hand over our map.

Given that we have no choice but to complete these accursed trials we naturally could not provide them the map. I ducked behind my shield as it became apparent that we were to be attacked, and no sooner had I done so than the seedy dwarves both took to me with their weapons.

Linden(?) fell with an arrow in him somewhere(I could not clearly see) and Pip dove squeamishly into the brush. A ring of fire burst up around us, and Graal, charging, lept over it and tried to hurl a lasso up the cliffside to where our enemy stood above us.

Bringing my attention to my own situation, I found myself facing the hateful eyes of what must have been low-blooded dwarves. Taking a step back, I summoned a holy Shield Bearer, that I might buy a moment. The brutal efficiency of murder on both sides was stunning, and soon both of my assailants lay on the ground, giving me a moment to tend to young Lionel(?)'s wounds.

Cries from Graal behind me made it clear that the halfling from earlier had surfaced, and worse still, stolen the map from Lucan. I pray forgiveness for this, but despite my oath of pacifism I brought a divine fist down on the already-injured fellow, as he could not be allowed to escape. When my head cleared, the combat would seem to have been over, but for the cries of an injured woman on the hill above.

Everyone gathered the bodies, and apparently the archer woman had surrendered. By the time she was brought to us by Thar, she had knife wounds through both hands, and was missing a few fingers from each. It would seem this new addition to our group is as monstrous a creature as Graal has proven to be.

Together they pondered the means by which they would torture her to death as I bandaged her hands and apologized for their cruelty. During this time the others had gathered the bodies, and Graal had decided a stump would be a grand headsman's block so he set about hewing down a tree. As one of these folk had returned from the dead once already, the fallen were set alight where they lay on the ground, with whatever nearby wood could be gathered.

After a moment of prayer I decided that I would not let the half-orcs have their way, and promised no further healing should they proceed with any torture or execution of someone who surrendered fairly. After reluctant agreement, healing prayers were dispensed, mending our group's wounds and getting Lennie(?) back on his feet.

Jasmine, as this archer was called, was taken with us a bit further, but not far enough that she might know our destination. As planned, she was set on her way back to town, maimed as she was.

Soon after, we arrived at a tunnel into the mountainside blocked with stones. For some reason I thought it was a mountain pass, but now that I think of it I know he said tunnel. These things tend to slip my mind at times.. perhaps climbing gear will still be useful in a tunnel. After removing some stones we were able to climb inside, strike some torches, and set forth into the darkness.

After an hour or so, our calming walk into the cold stone of the mountain was disrupted by two flame-spewing bat creatures. Although everyone was burned in the ensuing battle, for the most part we made it out ok. I thought for a moment their flaming ichor might be used in some potion, before realizing I had nothing appropriate to carry it in, their bodies were mashed into the dust by Graal's shovel.

If my stone-sense is correct, it should be about 5pm now, date unknown.

Notes: I didn't know what kind of writing style to go with for someone who's already known to the party, has high Wisdom, and below average Intelligence. I decided on well spoken with factual errors - deliberately forgetting it was a tunnel and buying climbing gear, not being able to place Linden's name(at least I think that's what it really is, I've forgotten myself now), the clueless in-the-moment handling of the potential bat-ingredients. I would have liked to have done better, but I missed some opportunities during the actual play session. Ideally Phil won't be too mad I absconded with his character and will be able to enjoy the recap from Pazus' perspective.

S02E02 - BOOM HEADSHOT!

After a long nights rest in a farmers barn, our party was introduced to another new member. Thar-a-bad.

• Party heads east to find some answers regarding the map they found.
• After hearing a scream, they encounter a group of bandits whom seem to be just as powerful as they are. The party engages in battle
• Encounter: Fighter, Psionocist, & Archer
• The party makes short work of the fighter, but take a lot of damage from the archer who was taking cover in the woods. The Psionocist too did a number on Graal, but was quickly brought down after being slowed by Pazus as he was attempting to flee.
• After the battle BJ rolls in the brain matter of one of the victims, and a merchant drives by giving the party some "please don't kill me" food.
• The party was made aware of city if they follow the road, and so they did.
• After a long journey, they come to a walled city called Dashar. As they approached, they were kindly instructed to check their weapons at the door, and for the most part complied.
• The party splits up to check out the city
• Pazus takes a well deserved and needed bath in the bathhouse, and unfortunately is the victim of some racial discrimination.
• Lucan takes the map from Graal and takes it to the local cartographer who points him in the direction of the secret cave as well as sells him a map of Tyrsis.
• The rest of the group enters a drinking contest in the local tavern.
• Drinking Challenge Contestants: Graal, BJ, Tharabad, & NPCS (Yorran, Gorran & Sasha)
• BJ passes out first followed by Thar, Gorran, Yorran, and finally Sasha who pukes on Graal before falling to the ground.
• In a failed attempt to relieve himself, Graal pisses in his armor.
• BJ passes out in some bushes with Thar, and Graal.
• Sober Lucan and Pazus get the last 2 rooms at the inn.
• Group awakens to a loud gonging and guards running through the north gate
• Dashar Gate Event: Party helps guards close the mountain gate to prevent a party of trolls from invading.
• Graal enters the battlefield in epic style as he runs, jumps and one shots one of the guards with a spear to the back of the head.
• The guards question the parties alliance as thar and BJ both follow suit with taking guards out or severely wounding them.
• After taking a few of the trolls out the party was surprised to notice the trolls getting back up and continuing on. It wasn't until after they were yelled at by the guards did they realize that they needed to either kill them with fire, or burn them.
• With some help from Pazus and Thar the gate was able to be closed and locked.
• The party was visited by the Captain of Dashar who invited them back for a reward.

XP Breakdown S02E02

Bandit Party - 575 xp
Dashar Gate Event - 1375 xp

xp per member - 390

Graal: LEVEL UP

• Bonus
• Dashar Drinking Champion - 200xp
• Drinking Contest participation award - 75xp
• Total XP
• This Session: 665
• Lifetime: 5634 xp. Level 5

Lucan:

• Bonus
• Crit-astic (x2) - 150xp
• Good use of abilities (pushing troll back behind gate) - 150xp
• Total XP
• This Session: 690
• Lifetime: 5374 xp. Level 4

Pazus:

• Bonus
• Good use of abilities (slowing enemy to keep them from fleeing) - 150xp
• Gatekeeper (Aiding guards to close gate) - 200xp
• Taking a bath - 75xp
• Total XP
• This Session: 815
• Lifetime: 5464 xp. Level 4

B.J.:

• Bonus
• Drinking Contest participation award - 75xp
• Total XP
• This Session: 465
• Lifetime: 4561 xp. Level 4

Thar:

• Bonus
• Drinking Contest participation award - 75xp
• Gatekeeper (Aiding locking of gate) - 200xp
• Total XP
• This Session: 665
• Lifetime: 4415 xp. Level 4

-

S02E01 - Caverns of... FIRE!!!!!

Our Adventurers have found themselves in a new land called Tyrsis.

Party Members:
- Graal
- Lucan
- Pazus
- Barnaby Jones (aka BJ)

• Graal tries to break into a church & fails
• Party makes a new friend. A little boy named Pip
• Pip leads them to the tavern Lovely Shield and they have some dog for dinner. 
• Isa (the barmaid) flirts with Graal
• Party makes it over to the Cozy Inn to settle down for the night.
• Graal demands to talk to manager Hrothgar, and ends up getting thrown out for sleeping with whores.
• Lucan & Pazus bunk up, and Graal climbs through BJ's window.
• Lucan wakes up in the middle of the night after hearing some commotion upstairs and frantically wakes the rock Pazus.
• Both creep loudly and alert the two shady gentlemen who seemed to be having an argument.
• The shady thieves didn't buy Lucans lie about fluffing their pillows and draw arms.
• Encounter: 2 Thieves
• Lucan runs downstairs to wake up the other members and leaves Paz in his dust.
• Paz eventually joins him and the party sets up a successful ambush.
• The thieves get beat down and end up running, but soon after the intimidating Hrothgar enters the scene.
• All the party members scatter and run to their rooms except Graal who was trapped in a corner.
• Graal quickly lights a fire and pretends to put it out in order to distract Hrothgar, and is successful.
• Shortly after thanking Graal for his help, Hroth realizes that Graal was somewhere he wasn't supposed to be, and throws him out again.
• When the thieves ran, they dropped a map, which Graal acquired.
• Morning came and the party headed back to the Lovely Shield for some breakfast.
• Lisa, Isa's sister, waits on them and after being asked about the map she points them to Grythan Magic Shop.
• Graal feels the need to get his axe sharpened and visits "Three Dwarves. One Horse" blacksmith.
• Party arrives to a disgruntled Grythan
• Grythan accuses party of stealing his chest, and finally believes their story.
• Grythan uses the opportunity to send the group on a quest, but before he does, he tests their skills of wisdom and strength.
• After struggling for a while with a simple riddle Lucan hears a voice with the correct answer.
• Graal steps up as the "strongest" one of the group and Grythan draws a knife and takes some blood from the half-orcs hand. He then mixes it with a solution and confirms that Graal has passed the test.
• Grythan gives Graal a pendant which he retrieved himself from the caverns on the map. He tells them of the peril that lies within, and the stories of the grandiose treasure and mysteries.
• Grythan tells them that they must travel northeast past the mountains of Cael & Raem before they would be able to use the map.
• The party leaves town, but first head to the farmers house who posted the wanted poster about the owlbear.
• After tracking for a few hours, they finally encounter the beast, and after a long fight, they lop off the head and return to the farmer.
• The farmer wasn't happy that they didn't bring the entire beast back and tried to not pay, but Graal intimidated the farmer into not only paying, but inviting them to spend the night.

Caverns of Life: Introduction

DM: Dave

You feel a jolt of energy through your veins and awaken. As you rise to your feet you notice you are in a large graveyard. Crosses and broken headstones litter the area. The light from the moon is bright enough that you can see that you can see a church to the west and a small village north. A familiar voice calls out and your head turns auto-magically to the sound. Vaer appears before you.


Vaer: You have done well. And have earned some time for some rest. Tyrsis is a new land to us, and the master is very curious about what lies here. Learn about it during your stay, and pray that you don’t end up back here <points to an open grave> before I return for you.

XP Breakdown S02E01

2 Shady Thieves - 400
Large Giant Owlbear - 876

xp per member - 320


Graal:

• Encounters
• 320 xp
• Bonus
• Great use of skills. Fire Bluff, Intimidating the weak  + 50xp
• Caretaker - 5xp
• Total XP
• This Session: 375
• Lifetime: 4969xp. Level 4

Lucan:

• Encounters
• 320 xp
• Bonus
• Crit x1 - 20xp
• Caretaker - 20xp
• Total XP
• This Session: 360
• Lifetime: 4684xp. Level 4

Pazus:

• Encounters
• 320 xp
• Bonus
• None =(
• Total XP
• This Session: 320
• Lifetime: 4649xp. Level 4

B.J.:

• Encounters
• 320 xp
• Bonus
• good use of powers. invis other marker to proc OA + 25
• Total XP
• This Session: 345
• Lifetime: 4095xp. Level 4

-

Ruxpin returns... And eats faces.

XP Breakdown S01E09 - Conclusion

It doesn't look like a handy summary has been written for this one, so here's what I remember of what happened.

The party started off in the caves near the Troglodyte den, and wandered south to complete their map. Along the way a Carrion Crawler and a Giant spider were dispatched. Despite a sense of foreboding and a feeling like they were forgetting something, our heroes loaded their troglodyte babies and former prisoners into the rather large boat and pushed off into the dark, expansive chamber. A fireball zoomed out of the darkness, lighting the boat on fire and seriously injuring everyone onboard. Being fragile creatures, the troglodyte babies were freed from this mortal coil, along with the former prisoners.

The party clambered to shore to find themselves faced with ~The Reptile God~ aka a special-stats Naga. After a terrible battle, in which the DM decided after nearly killing the party in one attack that he didn't scale down the monster's stats quite enough, the heroes emerge victorious, and greedily filled their vials(and in the case of Kythorn, their stomachs) with the blood of the Reptile God, thus completing their primary quest.

Encounters: 1475xp

-1 Carrion Crawler, 300xp
-1 Giant Spider, 175xp
-1 Reptile God, 1000xp

Adventure stage completed: 1000xp

XP split: 495xp

Per-character xp:

Aria: 4409xp total, Level 4

-1x Crit, +65xp

-Nice try! Dead civilians. +65xp

Graal: 4594xp total, Level 4

-The gods are pleased with your consistent 3 damage, +65xp

Kythorn: 3750xp total, Level 4

-Crit, +65xp

-Mystery blood drink causes a nearby tiny troglodyte soul to merge with yours, +270xp

Lucan: 4324xp total, Level 4

-Nice try! Dead civilians. +65xp

-Mystery 'that's not fair!' bonus, +130xp

Pazus: 4329xp total, Level 4

-General keeping-aliving bonus, +65xp

-Mystery 'that's not fair!' bonus, +130xp

Together at last

XP Breakdown S01E08

Encounters: 2150xp

-15x Giant Centipede 750xp
-4x Troglodyte(melee) 800xp
-3x Troglodyte(ranged) 600xp

XP split: 430xp

Per-character xp:

Aria: 3784xp total, Level 4(deferred)

-1x Crit, +65xp

-Reasonable attempt to save the civilians, +65xp

Graal: 4034xp total, Level 4(deferred)

-Crit, +65xp 

-Comedy value, +65xp

Kythorn: 2920xp total

-Crit, +65xp

-Nearly successfully kills party trying to kill monster chained to the wall, +65xp

Lucan: 3634xp total

-3x Crit, +195xp

-Reasonable attempt to save civilians, +65xp

Pazus: 3639xp total

-Generic don't-be-sad-Phil bonus, +130xp

S01E08 - The Escort

Last we left our party, they had just impaled the dark lord Gandalf to a statue of his reptile god.

• Graal smashed the statue of the reptile god and party discovered some kind of rope mechanism that was fed through the floor
• Party finds a group of civilians jailed near Garrets room. 2 children (boy & girl), a farmer's wife, and a travelling merchant. Billy, Jaimie, Susan, and _____
• Aria & Lucan commit to bringing civs to safety and protect them from Kythorn & Graal
• Encounter: 16 Medium Giant centipedes
• Party walked in on a group of zombies who seemed to be working (curious)
• Party finds a room with treasure chest sitting on an altar in the middle of the room.
• Graal ignores the party's advice to check for traps, and runs over to the chest and begins breaking it open.
• A trap fires of caving in the ceiling and causing tons of mud to flow in from the swamp above.
• Graal panics and begins shoving the party through the tiny passage.
• Aria changes to wolf form and puts the 2 children on her back to get them through safely.
• The force from Graal causes Pazus to fall and Graal ends up stumbling and gets caught in the mud slide.
• Kythorn saves both P and G and the party makes it out with all members.
• In Graal weakened state... he throws up.
• Party comes across a giant reptile creature (DinoBear) chained in a room.
• They elect to pass through and come do a giant underground lake and a boat that wouldn't be able to transfer the entire group. 
• A eerie feeling comes over the group while in this area, so they decide to continue back where they came in hopes to bring the civilians back to the surface.
• Encounter: Dino Bear
• Graal & Kythorn decide to kill the fish in the barrel (DinoBear). Aria, Lucan, Pazus and the civs decide they want nothing to do with it, and decide to part ways.
• Encounter: Swarm of Troglodytes
• Arias party gets jumped by a swarm of troglodytes and back themselves in a room of  hatching snake eggs.
• Sideshow at the chained animal as neither orc can land a hit on the poor dinobear.
• Arias party, despite a valiant effort, began taking too much damage and calls in for backup
• G & K run over and draws attention as Kythorn waves his trog suit around to enrage the remaining trogs.
• Party destroys the last of the troglodytes, and realizes the civilians were injured by the poisonous snakes back in the egg room
• Aria & Pazus help bring the critically injured civs (woman & boy) back to health.
• Party finds room with large troglodyte eggs.
• 3 eggs hatch. Graal kills one. Aria & Kythorn take the others to raise.
• Graal spins around furiously destroying remaining unhatched eggs.
• Graal throws up again, and passes out from stench.
• Party explores some more empty rooms.

Centipede madness

Jay sighting

XP Breakdown S01E07

Encounters: 2800xp

-2x Lizardman Bruiser, 2x Lizardman Hunter, Bombs +850xp

-Wraith +300xp

-2x Giant Frogs +400xp

-2x Ghoul, 2x Zombie +650xp

-Wight, Garath +600xp

XP split: 560xp

Per-character xp:

Aria: 3224xp total

-3x Crits, +195xp

-Because I can't give xp to Frogsworth, +65xp

Graal: 3474xp total

-Crit, +65xp 

-Successfully seized the last instant to kill a fleeing lizardman with a stylish hand crossbow shot, +65xp

-Contributed to colorful 'ending' for Garath, +65xp 

Kythorn: 2360xp total - Level 3

-Critical troglodye hit on Graal, +65xp

-Contributed to colorful 'ending' for Garath, +65xp

Lucan: 2944xp total

-Sadness compensation for being bullied out of loot, +65xp

-Contributed to colorful 'ending' for Garath, +65xp 

Pazus: 3079xp total

-Crit, +65xp

-Bravely set sail into unknown deep water despite being a dwarf loaded down with armor, +65xp

Party figures

Trying out posting from my new phone, also curse Graal's incredibly complicated figure. Got primer on the other guys.

S01E07 - The "Final" Battle

We had an extended gaming night last night. Because of the long time since last time we played (only 2 weeks, but felt soooo long), we hung around to make sure we had our fix. Here's what went down.

• After leaving the cozy barracks room the party runs into the high priest known as "Garrett"
• Garrett lets off a stink-bomb and runs around the corner to where his minions are ready to pounce on the party.
• G man quickly exits and the party engages in battle
• As the minions began seeing that they were out matched, they began to flee.
• The party, not used to having survivors, chased them down and butchered them like sheep.
• As the final lizardman dropped to the ground from Graal's prescision shot across the hall, some neighboring explosive barrels blew up the tunnel, collapsing a section of the tunnel.
• Party doubles back to find another way around the rubble.
• Graal gets surprised by some Large Medium frogs which begin biting everyone.
• One of the frogs gets sniped by Lucan, flees, and burrows deep in the muddy room.
• After many unsuccessful attempts to flush out the critically wounded amphibian, Graal give up and follows the party.
• Party finally makes it back to the stairwell leading down to the second floor.
• After proceeding down, they are met by a group of undead, which are dispatched with ease.
• Frogsworth Ribbington takes some collateral damage, but is able to take out the final minion before saying farewell once again.
• The party feels a strange urge to stay towards the right, and as they do so, they come to a deep underground river. 
• Aria after making several pleas to follow the river gets shutdown by the group, and as they were about to leave, Aria notices a hidden door which Kythorn kindly makes short work of.
• A small water vessel is found and Pazus steps up as the only other one brave enough to venture on the waters with Aria.
• And with bravery comes reward, as A&P come across 2 medium chests which they break open and reap the rewards. But because of the weight of the loot they were forced to leave some gold and silver behind for fear of exceeding the boat weight limit.
• After floating back, and alerting the rest of the party what they found, Kythorn quickly jumps on the boat, and shoves Lucan aside.
• Graal steals the gold the Kythorn leaves behind, gets a lung full of troglodyte stank, and immediately throws up a pound full of wine and frogs legs in Kythorn's backpack.
• Kythorn grabs the loot left behind and returns.
• The party enters a room with a corpse laying in the center.
• Graal immediately heads over and begins to pilfer through the pockets of the corpse, and to his surprise he begins to get attacked by the no longer dead corpse.
• Zombie drives Kythorn crazy and easily gets destroyed by the group.
• The party makes it to the "Final" room where they once again come face to face with the mighty "Garrett" and his wight minion.
• After a lengthy battle, and after Garrett's failure to surrender, he ends up hanging by Lucan's arrow  pinned to his gods statue, with his broken legs hanging like reeds due to Graals critical deathblow.
• The group waited for the credits to roll, but they didn't, so the "Final" battle will continue another day.

The "Final" Battle Pics

    Metallic Graal, Kythorn & Arctic wolf Aria continue breaking down Garrett the high priest.

Garrett dies due to Kythorn raging blows

XP Breakdown S01E06

Encounters: 1525xp

-Snake +200xp

-3x Rat Swarm, 2x Dire Rat +575xp

-3x Human Lieutenants +750xp

XP split: 305xp

Per-character xp:

Aria: 2404xp total - Level 3

-Critical Locusts, +65xp

-Implicit participation in torture, +secret points

Graal: 2719xp total

-Critical AE vs Rat swarm +65xp

-Successful Torture +65xp

Kythorn: 1670xp total

-Critical on daily power, +65xp

Lucan: 2254xp total - Level 3

-1x Critical +65xp

-Explicit participation in torture, +secret points

Pazus: 2389xp total - Level 3

-Pazus's soul cries out to his distant deity as he flees the room to avoid witnessing torture, +secret points

S01E06 - Rats, Bloody fingertips, and Scrolls of Identify Oh MY!

Last night was a momentous event as we attained 2. i repeat TWO items of the magical variety. No boots of striding, but still a big step in the right direction!

• Party plans to continue clearing the current dungeon level before moving downstairs
• More sailing across no longer croc-infested waters
• More empty cavernous rooms
• Pesky little snake meets an early grave.
• The Rat King releases his minions to attack the party.
• Graal finally hits his swinging axe thing and rats go flying.
• Scorched rat kebobs all around.
• More door busting.
• Encounter with 3 humans ends up in a massacre and an episode of 24 meets dark knight.
• Party takes first prisoner
• For some reason party trusts Graal to interrogate prisoner
• Lucan provides Graal w/ dagger to help cauterize the wounds from the chopped off fingers
• Party learns of
• A reptile God
• "Garret" the high priest
• Prisoner dies from lack of blood
• Party finds some magical loots
• Pazus - +1 light shield
• Lucan - +1 short sword
• The elves form a pact and begin tossing the rooms
• Treasure chest found and Lucan fails to disarm a trap and gets "flashed"
• Aria loots a scroll of identify
• Party barricades in room and rests while Lucan snaps out of his ailment

S01E06 Pics

Party beating down some minions

Pazus (Phil) & Graal (Andrew)

Group shot. Evil characters being evil

Awesomely designed cards by Cardine

XP Breakdown S01E05

Encounters: 1250xp

-2x Troglodyte +250xp

-Giant Weasel +500xp

-4x Troglodyte +500xp

Xp split: 250xp

Per-character xp:

Aria: 1984xp total

-Critical hits x2 +100xp

-Cornfield production and deployment(or maybe good use of abilities, I don't know) +50xp

Graal: 2284xp total - Level 3

-Comedy dive immediately after becoming unstunned to start off the session right +50xp -Critical rolls x3, with super bonus for 2 of them being in a row +200xp -Come see the softer side of Graal, where all creatures live and let live - until coins are spotted on the lair floor(or at least this was my favorite part about how that played out) +50xp

Kythorn: 1300xp total - Level 2

-Welcome to Skinfest, where we find monsters that smell so bad they make us wretch, and make clothes out of them +50xp -..and use what's left as rough missiles, and weasel harnesses, and place more value on the location of our precious skin than the survival of other party members +50xp

Lucan: 1884xp total

-Murderous intentions towards wildlife with unprovoked arrow shot at cute furry weasels +50xp -I wrote 'Trap - Suckas!' with regard to carelessly triggering a trap and making someone else pay the price. Well done! +50xp

Pazus: 2084xp total

-Critical hit, even though it was on an ability where a crit doesn't help +50xp -Establishing profit model for clerical services +50xp

S01E05 – Mr. Whisker’s Wild Ride

Last time we left our heroes they had just broken through a door and had come face to face with 2 lizard type men.

• Graal still knocked out from being used as a battering ram 
• Fight begins and shit gets blown up 
• After coming to, Graal’s dungeoneering skill rises to an infinite amount and lets the party know that they were fighting Troglodytes.
• Kythorn (played by Fumes) decides to create a Troglodyte suit from one of the dead carcasses. 
• Party hears commotion from behind another door, but decides to explore the rest of the area first.
• The dwarf finally told everyone how to pronounce his name “Pa-Zeus”. 
• Party finds a large room littered with gold doubloons, and a giant medium-large weasel (proving predictions from episode 2). 
• After failed attempts at intimidating the beast by throwing Trog legs at it, a fight breaks out. 
• Kythorn attempts to blind the beast by jumping on its back and wrapping his skin suit around its eyes. 
• After many rounds of fighting and multiple crits and many more 1 rolls. Whiskers #2 drops dead 
• Party loots dirty money Aria gets a new fur coat and Kythorn finally finishes his skin suit from the mangled Trog legs laying in the room 
• Party goes back to original Trog room to try opening the door where they heard commotion. 
• The realization that weapons could be used to open doors falls on the party, and minds were blown. 
• Door leads to more Trogs, Traps and unlimited spears thrown at Graals face. 
• Party enjoyed playing in Arias corn maze. 
• A door leading downstairs is found, but the party chooses to rest before proceeeding
• Party finds a place to lay for the night and wakes up refreshed.

XP Breakdown S01E04

Encounters: 775xp

-Harpy +250xp

-3x Crocodiles +525xp

Thorough exploration bonus: 625xp

XP split: 280xp

Per-character xp:

Aria: 1584xp total

Graal: 1734xp total

Kythorn: 950xp total

-Rope trick part 1, points for originality +50xp -Rope trick part 2, with critical hit to make up for my sense of diminishing returns on clever things +50xp

Lucan: 1534xp total

Pazus: 1784xp total

-I forget what happened exactly, but I have 'crit of mercy' written down here, maybe this is when he kept Aria from dying? +100xp

S01E04 – The Good, The Bad, and The Fugly

Last time we left our heroes they were cleaning up mountains of bodies from within the depths of the halls of the mind erasing swamp cultists.

• · Found kitchen with weirdly placed oven & restocked food 
• · Travelled through many corridors of empty rooms (so we were told) 
• · Ran into a Harpy who put most of the low intelligence folk into a trance-like state forcing them to do faceplants into mud 
• · Kythorn (played by Norton) was reliving his rodeo days and roped and tried to hog tie the harpy wench. 
• · Found play jewelry 
• · Cavernous rooms of emptiness 
• · Pazus almost drowns in croc infested waters 
• · Giant crocs emerge and try to beat everyone down 
• · Kowboy Kythorn tries his luck at roping a croc and fails many times 
• · Aria hits the brink of death once again 
• · All crocs die but one who is left unconscious. 
• · Group split on keeping croc as a pet or putting him down. 
• · Croc gets put down. RIP 
• · Group explores more emptiness. 
• · Barred door found. Team decides to try to break it down. 
• · Aria uses Graal as a battering ram and knocks him unconscious 
• · Kythorn & Aria continue running into door w/ no help from the midget with +str modifiers. 
• · Door finally opens and heroes come face to face with 2 lizard type men

XP Breakdown S01E03

Encounters: 2100xp
-Stirges in the swamp(aka mosquitos) +500xp -Entry guards +500xp -Unsuspecting females +300xp -Horde of guys who woke up and attacked +800xp

Adventure stage completed: Travel to lair(it really is split up like this in the module even though this part seems short) +500xp

Xp split: 520xp

Per-character xp:
Aria: 1304xp total - Level 2

Graal: 1454xp total - Level 2
-Wrestling self to ground +50xp

Kythorn: 570xp total
-Very angry, even at doors +50xp

Lucan: 1254xp total - Level 2

Pazus: 1404xp total - Level 2
-Pazus finally finds himself, has an entire evening of non-sucky rolls, even gets a 20 +100xp

S01E03 - The Blue Fairy

Last we left our heroes they were sleeping in the forest

• Party wakes up to a strange blue, glowing, floating being, and a deadish looking half-orc at her feet.
• Blue fairy leaves after being offended by Aria. (Aria doesn't like competition)
• Kythorn joins the party.
• Giant Bees attack the party
• Graal misses a tackle and wrassles with one on the ground
• Lucan makes bug juice
• Party finds a small dyke which Graal jumps on.
• Party finds an entrance to an underground bunker in the middle of the swamp
• Aria, Kythorn, Graal falls down 10 flights of stairs and encounter a group of men sitting in the dark.
• Party destroys boring men in record time.
• Kythorn decapitates one of the carcasses and throws it over his shoulder.
• After walking around for a minute or 2 the group hears some chattering behind a door, and Kythorn throws his severed head in and closes the door.
• Party walks into the room and sees a group of woman. Fully clothed, and begins to massacre them.
• As the group was kicking some female ass, a shitton of neighboring humanoids begin filling the hallway outside.
• Aria barricades door as party finishes their deeds with the unsuspecting woman.
• Room cleared and Kythorn jumps through the door critting the group behind it.
• Party destroys all once again and begin hiding the bodies.

Kythorn Appears

Note: This post is back-dated to fit in sequence with the rest.

As you prepare to break camp, two figures suddenly appear close by. One is a half-orc warrior, apparently unconscious on the ground, and the other is a blue-skinned female, floating in the air. She holds up her hand and speaks in a monotone voice: 'I am Vaer.' She pauses for a moment. 'I am not here to aid you, however you have been granted a new resource from the Library.' She gestures towards the unconscious half-orc.

'The Library eagerly awaits your return. The Library does not approve of sending its guests into harm's way, but that is the will of its Master. I must return now, before I am missed.' She holds up a silvery device before her, then disappears.

XP Breakdown S01E02

Encounters: 1175xp

-Zombies, inn cellar +375xp

-Snake, inn cellar +200xp

-Bear(encounter averted) +200xp

-Skeletons +400xp

Xp split: 294xp

Per-character xp/awards:

Aria: 394xp total
-Used class skills outside of combat(bear encounter)  +100xp

Graal: 294xp total

  

Lucan: 294xp total

Pazus: 294xp total

 Note: This and the first xp breakdown were split apart from one tally, so the numbers won't look right. 

S01E02 - To Flee or Not To Flee?

Last we left our heroes, they just destroyed the lives of many of the townsfolk and were now trying to figure out what to do next.

• Lucan discovers a hidden trap door in the room as Aria tries to get back to feeling normal after being poisoned.
• Graal pigs out in the kitchen and stocks up on grub.
• Party retreats into the cellar of the tavern and chases rats through the caverns
• Graal was actually using wisdom when engaging non-party members. 
• Pazuz needs to invest in a 1d100 in order to hit anything over a 6. 
• Party finds and destroys some zombies
• Party runs into a giant ivory statue of a snake woman. Graal breaks the head off.
• After entering a giant cavernous room, Graal decides to smash the pillar holding up the ceiling, misses, and instead gets surprised by a giant snake.
• Party finally leaves the cellar 
• Party leaves town with Mr. Whiskers who begins leading them to the cultists head quarters.
• Aria uses her nature senses and averts an encounter with a large bear
• Party rests and runs into some random forest skeletons.
• Mr. Frogsworth Ribbington (Arias Pet) kicks asses and takes names. 
• Lui Kang (Lucan) is OP. 
• Mr. Whiskers (we believe) is the end boss, but right now he’s leading us into a trap.

XP Breakdown S01E01

Encounters: 561xp

-Slaughter at the inn +561xp 

Xp split: 561xp

Per-character xp/awards:

Aria: 140xp total

Graal: 340xp total

-Flowerbed incident, in-character +100xp, but uncooperative with party goals -100xp -'You!' incident +100xp -Barging into hermit's home and demanding to know what they are doing there +100xp

  

Lucan: 190xp total

-Useful critical hit +50xp

Pazus: 240xp total

-Mindful of healing opportunities +100xp

Note: This and the second xp breakdown were split apart from one tally, so the numbers won't look right.

S01E01 - A Brave New World

• 4 adventurers get thrown into a strange world, strangers to each other. 
• Graal sees some bodies and loots and defiles them (NSFW) 
• Party finds town, and makes enemies fast as Graal proceeds to trample flowerbeds. 
• Party knocks on may doors and figures out there is strangeness happening in town. 
• After talking to the Mayor the party seeks out the town hermit.
• Party finds Mr. Bojangles the hermit and Mr. Whiskers his pet weasel
• Graal fails numerous attempts at intimidating Mr. Bojangles and party learns about the wierdness of the town. And that they should check out the local bar.
•  While at the bar, the dwarf gets mocked by strangers, and Graal comes to his rescue.
• Strange man leaves the room and proceeds upstairs out of sight of party.
• Graal tries to follow but gets stopped by barkeep and convinces Graal to get some rooms for the night.
• Party goes upstairs and breaks into first locked room where stranger was taking a rest.
• Inn goes into an uproar and everyone gets slain, except for 1 person who was able to run away and alert authorities
• Many loots found.
• Chest found in back room and Aria opens it and gets poisoned.

Startup Text

Note: This post is back-dated so that it is in the proper sequence with the rest.

You feel leaden, as if awakening from a long sleep. As you slowly become aware of your surroundings, you make out many figures standing around you in the dim light. As you try to take a step, you realize you cannot control your limbs, but instead remain standing in place.

A voice breaks the silence. 'You assembled here have come from many places, many times. Whatever your life was before, it is lost to you, forever. I have taken an interest in you, as participants in a great cause.'

'Should you search for it, you will find a stone in your body, near your heart. It is a mark, a mark that you are mine. I will use this stone to send you to places of interest to me, and my cause. It is very simple, really.. you will be provided with a period of time to complete a task, and should you succeed, you will continue on to the next. Those who fail will not last long.'

'Oh, and don't bother thinking of removing it, for unless you can find a deity personally interested in your plight, you will surely die.'

The light fades from the room, and it feels as though your senses disappear into the void once more.

An indeterminate amount of time later, you slowly regain consciousness again, with only a few other figures present, in a much smaller room. A robed figure stands before you. The same voice as before echoes through your mind. 'A young band of treasure-seekers has left the city of Hochoch bound for the village of Orlane. Rumor has it that dark forces are at work.. stories say a many headed creature steals children in the night, or that the well water has been poisoned with a powerful drug. Our young friends feel that they will become heroes should they find the cause and rescue the village. Unfortunately, they will never arrive. You are to take their place.'

'Whatever the cause, you will find it, and collect for me a vial of its essence.' A metal potion flask drops at your feet.