Grans Korsning / Frittlandr

REGIONAL MAP

Major Settlements

WEST
Bergsmoun: a fishing and whaling harbor community shared by Halflings, Humans, and others.
Havvstad: a linen textile center and river city shared by Humans and Rock Gnomes, and others.
Yarnloada: a Hill Dwarf borderland fortress known for logging and charcoal-making industries.
Yarnstad: a Mountain Dwarf iron mining and forge community with some underground mining and city levels.
Veetagord: a Human farming and barley flour mill community.

EAST
Grankoost: a fishing and large lake-side trade and tourist community populated mainly by High Elves.
Guddirkn: the "God City," known for its many churches, wealthy elite, and available Adventurer training.
Skoogleetanbee: Wood Elf lands renown for wood crafts, sturdy furniture, and animal furs.
Youstornet: Light Alf region known for the School of Magic and Practical Maths for Gifted Youngsters.

SOUTH
Eldameer: Lizard-folk marshes and trade center for sea pearls, bone, shell crafts.
Kalldamm: an important cattle/livestock plains and prairie region populated mainly by Humans.
Oudyur: a frozen, mountainous area and Ogre stronghold and trade route for coal.
Seltashair: a shipping and trade community known for its swampy marshes, crude oil and salt resources.
Yordpuke: Treskpukje / Goblinoid region and glass and earthenware trade center.

Adjacent Waters

Mörkkt Sea: ship trade routes whose waters also believed to harbor intelligent aquatic races.
Winrande: the Shimmering "Lake" coastal resort area is populated by Humans, Elves, and Vattenpukjes.
Winrande gets saltier and more sea-like beyond the small islands near the continent.

Campaign 1: Maps and Summary Notes

Session 1

Wainwright & Associates
Dianthus "Granny" Wainwright (Wood Elf Druid) is hired by the Wizard School at Youstornet to rush deliver vials of medicine to West Kristallby. The school also employs Duk, Son of Duk (Mountain Dwarf Eldritch Knight) to help guard the shipment, and the school's Provost sends along Aubrey ("Bree") Celebrosa (High Elf Wizard) to gather information on the "outbreak/contagion." Granny's adopted son, Shronk (Wood Elf Arcane Trickster) comes along on the relief expedition. Likewise, Granny picks up her old friend, Tousan Lightbearer (Hill Dwarf Cleric), on route to aid in healing.

The mission takes them from Youstornet, to Issmaltning, through Skeldpadda, to West Kristallby, to Stulen Sten to the ruins of Per Mont DuPlat. The party fought Zombified townsfolk in West Kristallby, were ambushed by Goblinoins (Goblins, Hobgoblin, Bugbear) near the ruins, battled more Zombies and a few Stirge in dungeon complex beneath ruins.

Major NPCs encountered included Provost Avsvarya (Light Alf, male, Professor of Abjuration), Skydda (Rock Gnome, female, Assistant Professor of Abjuration), and Vecka (Mountain Dwarf, female, Assistant Professor of Evocation) at the Wizard School. At the village of Stulen Sten, they worked with Kreebee (Wood Elf, female, cleric of Nodebra), Far Staffan (Human, male, Besoker Klerk / Anthropologist, deceased). Treasure included a necrotic ring (still on a severed hand, which the party pickles in a jar), an old spell book with magical Frontispiece, a Dark Gods history tome and a manual, scroll advertising the Academy of Devastation, three Continual Flame torches, and a bonus reward of fish and shrimp.

Session 2

The God City
After neutralizing the undead threat near Stulen Sten, the party returns home with trade goods earned in West Kristalby. Having fought well as a unit, the adventurers decide to continue working together; they draw up and sign a party contract. In Youstornet, they meet with the Provost and other teachers, who help to identify the cursed necrotic ring previously worn by Far Steffan. Instead of selling it to the necromancy instructors for 3,200 GP in gems (company shares, coins, etc.), the party instead trades the ring to the Provost, who wishes to have it destroyed. In exchange, they receive his +1 Protection Cloak. They also have their other treasures evaluated for potential sale at an upcoming rare items auction.

All party members level up and decide to travel to Guddirkn, "The God City," for specialized training. Guddirkn has solid representation for every major Divine Domain within one city, and each of these locations also serves as major industries and pilgrim attractions. The party can easily find in this city the mentors who can train them.

After training, they investigate a nearby spider-silk farm having problems, and defeat Phase Spiders who have been attracted to the site. Lloyd Morton (daughter of the owner who was killed) agrees the party can keep the spider silk they salvaged from the farm as a reward, but they are unable to sell it locally (since customers there feel they have already paid for these particular goods). The party makes a side trip to nearby Grankoost to quick sell the goods for about 1/2 market value. The party returns to Youstornet to participate in the Klenod Skråa brokerage magic auction. Some potions and a magical Veteran's Belt are purchased.

The mission takes them from Youstornet through Havgres, to Ferja's Ferry Docks, where they pay to ride a barge across to Guddirkn. From there, they journey northwest to the Lloyd Morton Spider Farm, and then east to the elvish costal city of Grankoost. The major foes encountered where Phase Spiders.

Significant NPCs included Foarbanna (Human, male, Assistant Professor of Necromancy), Logan Luga (Rock Gnome, male, Assistant Professor of Necromancy) at the Wizard School. In the God City, they met with Brother Gibor (Rock Gnome, male, Cleric of Nodebra), Sgt. Bowery (Human, male, Fighter), Mandykins (Human, female, Rogue). Back home at the auction, they noticed a Makgram Grimhide (Dwarf, male, Fighter?), who purchased an expensive supply of exotic metals for armor and weapons. Loot included Spider parts, spider poison, a broken Platinum bucket "beacon" with wires and crystals inside, a significant amount of silk clothing, cloth, and rope. Granny hauled mail between the cities to help pay for traveling and lodging costs.

Session 3

Once a Desert City
Using information gleaned from the Academy of Devastation promotional scroll they discovered (and other relevant historical lore), the party travels to explore Ekanslott, once a thriving city before the 162 Seasons War, it is now a barren, poisoned, wasteland. There, among mostly-collapsed and burned-out buildings, the Party stumble upon a group of Gnolls who appear to be warring against other creatures living in the ruins--creatures who require silvered weapons to injure them. The Party tracks the Gnolls back to a mostly-intact Inn (Ormens Tungja, "The Snake's Tongue" aka "The Whore House") and battle with a variety of monsters therein.

The exploration took the Party from Youstornet, to Torr Kant, and on to Ekanslott. They battled Gnolls, a Gnoll Warlock, Hyenas, and some "Oh, Help Me, Help Me" "Honey Badger" (later determined to be a Luecrotta). In Torr Kant, the major NPC encountered was Altlullis (Human, male, Reeve). In Ekanslott, they fought with Brut Soresmile (Luecrotta, Male), who escaped. For loot, the Party collected silvered arrows, assorted weapons, some Fire retardant compound, concentrated vegetable food stuffs, and three young hyena cubs. For trade goods, Granny hauled fruits and nuts and copper and onions.

Session 4

The Raft
Duk and Bree commission a local blacksmith (Smed) to make them silvered weapons. The party then returns to Guddirkn to train up to 3rd level before making a return journey to Ekanslott for further exploration of the ruins. Before reaching their destination, they encounter Batty Mires and her family, recently attacked by desert bandits, who have broken her wagon, killed one of her llamels, stolen most of her supplies and a child's doll named Pochi. Saying she is a witch, Batty borrows some water for her bowl so she can scrye for Pochi and discover the doll in the bandit's hideout. The Party then tracks them down (and avoids a bandit trap meant to burn them alive in one of the ruined buildings). Fire and shatter spells make short work of the bandits hiding nearby in a cavern.

The tracks of the Luecrotta they fought the previous week had led to a dry pool area, the same location the Party had seen briefly glowing during one of the daily eclipses. Duk's weasel-owl familar is sent to explore during the next eclipse, but she disappears and doesn't return as expected. The party manages to follow her on the next day's eclipse when the location glows again and they step into the light. They find themselves in a room with crystal orbs (glowing in rainbow colors) that are suspended above charcoal-filled copper braziers.

The party tinkers with the orbs and the braziers, releasing various gemstones from the colored orbs, battles a Will-O-Wisp, and opens a door to wedge-shaped room fill with caskets. Bree is temporarily immobilized while grasping a control handle deep in the mechanism and is attacked by a mummy, who enters from a secret third room. The party defeats the mummy, but becomes increasingly frustrated with the senselessness of their surroundings. In desperation, Tousan drops down a deep well hoping to find any kind of an exit. He vanishes, so the rest of the group reluctantly follows.

For this venture, the Party begins at Youstornet, travels to Guddirkn, then tries a northern route to Ekanslott, and from there, they magically teleport to "The Raft."" For encounters, they defeated Desert Desert Bandits, Will-O-Wisp, and a Mummy. Major NPCs include Smed (Mountain Dwarf, male, Blacksmith) in YouStornet. In Guddirkn, Granny trained with the Ancient One (Wood Elf, female, Druid). Near Ekanslott, they met Batty Mires (Human, female, Witch), Ringmaster (her Dog, male), Leola (Human, girl). In the ruins, they traded with Ekko, Jerves, and Masion (Jackalweres who previously had been fighting the Gnolls). For loot, the Party collected Pochi (doll), assorted treasure, and Gemstones (shards of the Master Stones) from orbs hanging at The Raft.

Session 5

Stranded in the Feywild
The Party teleports via magical waters to the Feywild, where they are aided by naiads out of a deep Fey pool before members of the Party drown. Almost immediately, they are set upon by small troops of silver- and gold-skinned Eladrin (Feywild alfs), who live in some sort of alternate ever-dawn world/reflection of the party's own world. Here, the desert city is called Bru na Boinne, but, unlike Ekanslott, it's still a somewhat active city, though its population was greatly reduced (in an apparent parallel-time frame with the destruction and poisoning of Ekanslott back on The World). Since the fall of Ekanslott, the Eladrin population here has lost much of their enthusiasm and drive, and now they live a lackadaisical life seemingly without great purpose.

The Raft (the staging area between worlds where the party was in Session 4), the Fey Alfs understood, was no longer working because the corresponding parallel Fey Pool in Ekanslott had been poisoned during the World War. The Bru na Boinne Princess and the Viscount express interest in helping the Party get home to their world, and they also are hoping to reestablish the regular workings of the Raft between worlds. The disused Raft, they reason, must have somehow been sabotaged/repurposed by someone. After researching the historical records, the Princess believes the Raft can be repaired and this will allow the party to get home again--if the party can first reenergize the gemstones they removed from its mechanisms. The gem stone regeneration is to be accomplished by joining the gem shards again temporarily with the original Master Stones.

The Party sails across the desert sands on a "skate" (a special boat manned by apelike bonobos) to The Boyne Valley Tombs, where they find the first Master Stone, the Orange Grave Stone, after besting a small group of man-like bears (in a cavern apparently connecting to the seemingly infinite Feydark).

The major location for this adventure was The Feywilds, specifically The Boyne Valley Tombs, where the Party fought Quaggoths. Significant NPCs included Korahanna (Gyllene Eladrian, female, Princess), Jar-parys (Forest Gnome, male, Viscount), Cormendi (Argent Eladrian, male, Guardsman), Paneminn (Gyllene Eladrian, male, Guardsman), Lorel (Naiad, female, Fey Pool Guardian), Hasse and Saesoon (Bonobo, male and female, Desert Skaters/Sailors). Treasure consisted of a reenergize Orange Carnelian gemstone, and a few other stone shards chipped from the Master Stone.

Session 6

Fintan's Grave and Other Stories
Unable to get beyond a magic, talking door in Lough Arrow, The Party leaves a note and some fish for a cat described by the talking door. Next, they sneak into a spider web-covered version of their God City, here known as Cunga Fheichin. They are able to find the Spirit Shard Master Stone without having to fight a nearby Phase Spider (and the Silent Men guards in the glass towers positioned along the city's perimeter). Upon returning to Lough Arrow, they find that the cat Pico Sphinx has left them information as to how to open the magic door. They meet the cat beyond, and they are able to answer his riddles successfully. Thus, he allows them to drink from his water bowl. Their souls then shift to the Astral Plane, and, there, after defeating a couple of Thought Eaters and surviving the mind crushing anguish/sorrow of Finten's Grave, they are able to complete their mission, and use the Soul Cabochon buried within to recharge their shard.

The Party travels from Bru na Boinne to Lough Arrow to Cunga Fheichin and back to Lough Arrow, they avoided a battle with Phase Spiders and the Silent Men, and later defeated two Thought Eaters. The major NPC encountered was Pico Sphinx (cat, male). For treasure, The Party reenergized the Blue Sapphire shard, reenergized the Yellow Citrine shard, and gained other shards chips off the Masters.

Session 7

Dark Nature of the Ember Garden
The party is ambushed by some type of Wizard Lizard and his Large Bug-Legged Worm, but they defeat both. They travel further to Cashel, where they help a young girl get her Fey-eared Siamese cat out of a tree. The girl then informs The Party about conditions in the city: they have very little food and water, but the people--for some unknown magical reason--feel compelled to stay, and Old King Scota "the Seedless" is having a plant-growing contest to determine a new ruler to replace him.

The Party ventures into town and speaks with Scota, who offers to pay them 500 gp if they can liberate the Lia Fail, "Stone of Destiny" (aka The Fire Laurel Master Stone), an upright stone pillar, which is surrounded by a grove of guardian trees, which, in turn, are protected by a castle curtain wall of stone built on a steep hill. The stone is not green colored as expected, but more of a slate gray. Pressed against the pillar at its base, is a black stone orb. Among the tree roots are also the bodies of fallen heroes who have failed the king's quest to restore the Ember Garden and this stone.

The Party is able to withstand the assaults of the bolder-tossing Treant while Granny and The Boy pull the black stone orb out of the garden. Tousan then divinely shatters this apparently evil black stone. Removing the orb removes its effects on the pillar and also frees the Treant of its control. He thanks the party, who then, naturally, scoop up the nearby treasures of the fallen warriors. The village also seems free of the magic control and crop blight when they return.

Without access to their normal training mentors, the party trains in Bru na Boinne as best they can by themselves to achieve most of their 4th-level skills/abilities.

The adventure takes The Party from Bru na Boinne to Cashel on board a Desert Skate and then they sail back again. The main combat was with a Wizard Lizard and his Large Bug-Legged Worm, and a charmed Treant and his Woke Trees. The major NPCs encountered were Marie Kathryn (Wood Elf, girl), Piewacke (cat, male), Scota (Wood Elf, male, King), and Manua (Treant, male, Guardian). For loot, The Party reenergized the Green Malachite gemstone, gained other shards from the Master Stone, including pieces of Warwickite-rich Serendibite from the black orb rock. Magic items found on the corpses of heroes included Cast-Off Chainmail, an Ersatz Eye, a Skeleton Key, A Rod the Lordy Might Appreciate, and the 500-Coin Purse.

Session 8

Wolves Beneath the Swamp
On the way to Balgaton, The Party encounters a skeleton dragging the body of a dead elf-woman. Intent on keeping his elf woman, the skeleton defends against the party, who destroy him, then they follow his trail back thinking that the skeleton might have been part of a raiding party against nearby Cashel. They check, and he was not. They do find, however, that the girl that they helped, Marie Kathryn, was made Queen of Cashel after they left (apparently she was the only child who didn't cheat in the plant-growing contest. Scota had given everyone sterile seeds as an honesty test). The party gives up a large portion of their current food supplies to help out the village, which is still having a difficult time recovering from the recent contagion.

In Balgaton, the party encounters Eochaidh, who, by himself, is trying to make repairs to his windmill/swamp-draining pump and hoses. Eochaidh says the men he had working in this area disappeared. The party begins helping him as they believe the Womb Drop Master Stone is down there somewhere buried in the swamp. As the swamp waters begin to drain, a ruined mausoleum is uncovered, and disturbed monsters living below attack.

The Party travels from their temporary base in Bru na Boinne and almost to Balgaton then to Cashel and back to Balgaton. They battled against a Skeleton, Gray Oozes, Green Slimes, a Juiblex-like slime monster, and a Brimwolf and her Cub. The Major NPCs encountered were Eochaidh (Firbolg, male, Lord) and several of Eochaidh's remaining men who were working nearby rebuilding castle walls. For treasure, The Party reenergized their Red Jasper shard, gained other shards off the Master, and several barrels of salt, which they take back and sell to the Eladrin, who have also been buying all sorts of trinkets from The Party's adventures (as long as said trinkets "belong" to exciting stories, and The Party always make sure that they do).

Session 9

The Denial of Deep-Tree Roots
Believed to be the toughest Master Stone location, The Party heads last to Senmag to search for the Bloom Bijou. The legends of the place speak of giant farmers who had cleared the location for their pastures and homes, but the deepest tree roots from the cleared settlement area refused to acknowledge their own deaths. Under their lingering corrupting influence, the giant farmers above ground all systematically committed suicide, and the roots of the cleared trees then created illusionary forests above where they had once lived, pretending to live again. And there always seems to be one giant yet hanging around the place acting as a guardian.

The Party builds a bonfire distraction on the southwest side of the city while they themselves use the Pass Without Trace spell to stealth their way in as close as they can get. Their owl familiars see that the fire causes four of the resident Svirfneblin (Deep Gnomes) to investigate. Two other gnomes take up a vantage point in lookout towers, and the giant, who was previously busy hammering in a canvas-tarped forge area quickly puts on his Mithral greave armor. The party battles and defeats the giant and the returning gnome forgehands, and a few still living woke trees who deploy magical thorn whips if intruders get too near. Venturing underground, The Party battles a nest of Giant Ants and some Psionic Grasshopper Men, who briefly gain control over two party members--and who collapse the tunnel on everyone when defeat seemed inevitable.

The mission takes The Party from Bru na Boinne to Senmag. They battle a Fomorian Giant, Svirfneblin, Giant Ants, and Grasshopper Men. For loot, they reenergized their Violet Amethyst shard, gained other shards off the Master Stone, two 15 pound Mithral giant greaves, three 3.5 pound bars of Mithral, and assorted weapons.

Session 10

Between Devastation and Desolation
As they return to Bru na Boinne, The Party detects some smoldering fires and smoke coming off the city's fruit crops, and the owl familiars also report back that the other desert skate ships used by the city have been destroyed (by Thunder Worms). After scouting the city's perimeter and using one of their owls to get a message to the Princess, The Party is given word that it's safe to come in. While they were gone, the city was attacked by a small force of wild dog-like orcs (who the Eladrin were unfamiliar with) and a small red dragon. Some of the city's guardsmen had been dispatched earlier to follow the raiders back to where they had retreated.

Instead of going after the raiders themselves (since those raiders had a 20-hour head's start), The Party turns its efforts into trying to restore the true functionality of The Raft. To that end, Granny and Lorel the Naiad use Misty Step spells from the Fey Pool and are able to teleport to The Raft. After working for about eight hours, they return via dropping into the spirtual waters of the well. The way The Raft works, they discover, is that it performs as a "repeater" or range amplifier. The Eladrin are unable to Misty Step all the way from the Feywild to the Prime Material Plane, but they were able to get "halfway there" wherever naturally-forming Fey pools existed in both worlds. Lorel gathers The Party closely around her in the Fey Pool in Bru na Boinne and is able to use a combination of her innate magic and the magic of the pool to "step them" all to The Raft. There, they need to wait for about a minute as the restored gemstones recharge their Spiritual strength, attune to the "passengers," and push them on the rest of the way. It succeeds, and The Party arrives smack in the middle of an all-out turf war between Gnolls and Jackalweres, with both sides breaking out demons and other forms of big-gun magic to aid in the battle. The party's arrival helps turn the tide of the battle. It's not a clean, total victory, though, as several on the jackalwere's side are killed, and the apparent masterminds of the opposition: a Night Hag and "Honey Badger" (the Luecrotta), managed to escape successful using some unknown source of magic.

Misia, Mistress of Desolation, leader of the Jackalweres, thanks The Party and lets them rest in her cat-urine-smelling royal suites, and The Party also discovers that the Jackalweres have been caring for Granny's wagon and donkey team while they were gone. But, the magic item that had been buried in the poisoned Fey pool in Ekanslott and allowed people to reach The Raft was apparently found and removed earlier. Lorel, unable to get back to the Feywild, decides to stay in Ekanslott and use her Naiad powers to cleanse the poisoned Fey Pool, hoping to be able to restore it back to health over time. Misia then announces that she and her remaining people will probably be moving on to seek some new desolate place to live since this spot was now too frequently being visited. The party returns to Youstronet and seeks to train up to 5th-level.

The adventure begins in Senmag, moves to Bru na Boinne, then back to Ekanslott via The Raft. The Party is able to return with no difficulties then to their base at Youstornet.

A major battle was fought against Gnolls, a Luecrotta, a Night Hag, and several demonic Barlgura and Dretch. The major NPCs encountered were Misia (Lamia, female, Mistress of Desolation), Ekko (Jackal, male), and Lorel (Naiad, female). The treasure haul was meager, just an assortment of Gnoll weapons, but The Party did pretty well before they left the Fey Wild by exchanging their local coins for Fey Wild gems.

Session 11

The Man Cave Beneath Granny's Lair
The party returns to Youstornet, and all around the outskirts of the edge-of-the-desert community, there's a bustle of activity: every available person (many of those you might not expect: Vakt guardsmen, the city Reeve, a few school employees) are busy helping with the Fall Harvest. There are two major planting seasons here each year (a warm Spring and cool Fall), with the midpoint of the Summer being a bit too warm and the midpoint of the Winter being a bit too cold to grow the major food crops. (But people in their individual gardens do tend to grow small amounts of cabbages, carrots, celery, peppers, and various greens year round). There's no real wages being earned (a few coppers a day per part-time helper), but everyone who can, works to helps to ensure a ready supply of food year long. It typically takes a Gloaming (Four World days) to get all the harvest in, then, there's an ending celebration, Skordefestivalen, an excuse to overeat and drink, and lie around to enjoy the last of the warm days. After spending so much time in the Fey Wild, the adventurers are happy just to be outside under the sun.

As most of the city's normal services are shut down, the party decides this is a good time to head south, where they learn much of Granny's backstory as a freedom fighter, and they also learn of Granny's late husband, who had a secret lair beneath the secret lair that Granny already knew about. Granny ends up learning quite a bit about her husband's past that had been concealed before, including, perhaps, a frog familiar, who, if he was indeed a familiar, he continues to inhabit the nearby river even after its master's death. In Alskad's man cave beyond the lair's "bathroom," the party discovers a spare spell book filled with Ritual spells; they also find an Arcane-locked Orange Door, which they are unable to break through.

Session 12

Through the Orange Door to an Ordning of Ogres

Granny helps finance Bree so that she can obtain a few new spells. She then is able to cast Knock and unlock the orange door. The party then spikes the door open. The chamber beyond is lined with some type of Shadow-Void magic; after prodding the unseen floors and ceilings (with some of those obligatory standard-issue 10' poles, they find a gap in one corner, which is a magical portal leading into a tight natural stone shaft that leads into an upper Underdark vault, where generations of ogres have resided since the original tribe fell through the earth after a great upheaval on the surface. There, the party befriends a young Ogre Magi named Onnie, who then speaks to the ogre community on their behalf. So, instead of immediately attacking the "invaders," the ogres agree to make them honorary members of their tribe is the part will pit one of their "average" members in a bare-shirt club battle against one of their average citizens. This is the ogre's tradition of The Ordning, an ordering of their society and ranking. The party agrees, and Duk (sans armor) is pitted against Yosa Greeslop, a local pig farmer. Duk opens with four melee attacks (utilizing some of Bree's Divination assist), Yosa, still a large ogre, manages to keep the outcome of the battle close and uncertain. Duk wins, and the ogres celebrate with a feast of roast Xaren.

The Party is then free to explore the local caverns in the Underdark. They eventually go down a shaft that's too physically narrow for the ogres to amange. (The ogres relate, though, that on occasion over the years, they have sent promising groups of young ogres to explore and colonize the areas beyond. But none of them ever returned.) At the bottom of broken series of shafts and tunnels, the adventurers find a warm, mud-filled cavern, and they battle hostile Mud Men. These Träskmen are quickly dispatched, and the party finds the tunnel beyond is blocked by a band of dwarfs who are camped inside a Leomund's Tiny Hut.

Session 13

An Admixture of Dwarfs and Goblins

The Dwarf Vanguard, as they call themselves, protect the outer edges of the nearby dwarf cities. They were currently resting after an encounter where they went up against some cave pukje (and their ogre slaves, apparently some of the ogre children mentioned last session or their descendants). Shronk buys a crude map of the Underdark regions in these caverns, and the party utilizes it to help avoid the goblin encampments and to help them avoid walking accidentally through the thin veils that lead from here to the paraelemental realms of mud of dust and the elemental realm of water, all places where normal humanoids have difficulties surviving for long. They also exchange some trade goods with the dwarfs and learn code phrases they can use later to gain safe passage from the dwarfs of the dust tower. Those dwarfs guard one of the passages leading to/from The Temple of Elemental Admixtures, wherein the party encounters some odd spacial physics and Friar Mefni, who calls himself the Elemental Bard. He helps to explain how some of the elemental realms beyond the material world are arranged/organized/. He also explains how the will and belief of living beings helps to determine this organization. Shrunk takes this opportunity to sacrifice at the area in the temple dedicated to war, for reasons that weren't clear to his companions.

As there is little else of interest here for adventurers without the higher-level spells needed to escape from elemental realms, they start heading back to the surface. There also explore an area further east than the ogres travel, a cavern filled with bones and a guardian wraith. When they finally head out of the underdark back through the orange door, they discover that the ogres have sent a troop of ogre children to colonize the Man Cave beyond, which they just recently discovered, since the party left the orange door open. They shut it now. Not wanting the ogres living in her hidden lair, Granny ponders another location on the surface, which they might consider instead. The Boy decides that he's going to design and fund their settlement, so he calls the land he finds for them to colonize Shronkville, though most everyone else in the group calls it "Ottisburg."

Session 14

Chokepoint, Part 1

While on route to deliver food to the ogres at Shronkville, Bree receives a premonition of some catastrophic event about 50 miles away at a way station called Choke Point. The party stashes their food supply and rushes to the station. There, they meet some freight handlers, guardsmen (including a woman named Shasha), a curio shop owner (Karistal, of Karistal's Quaint Items) who wears a foil helmet, and an enchanter named Hugh Serchka. Nearly all of them are missing memories. Hugh recalls that he has a laboratory and has urgency to return to it, and promises money (which he probably has stashed therein) to those who can help him get there.

The party made their way into the main paths through the Chokepoint mountain and assisted some Kobold guards (and Wags-Tomas the Scald) who were battling with seven delivery-crew ogres, the last of which surrender when they see they are bested. Like those encountered earlier, the kobolds and ogres were suffering some memory loss, and neither group knew if the others were friends or foes, and things got ugly.

Working further north into the settlement areas, the party discovers the dead body of the city's Reave, James Bellows, and an Otyugh garbage eater, whom two of the delivery ogres decided to release for "shits and giggles." The Otyugh telepathically signals the group that he will return to the garbage pit if they party doesn't hurt him. The Reave is later discovered to have been killed not by the Otyugh, but by the two ogres, who, confused, claim that they were just trying to get him to stop screaming; they accidentally "broke the little man" trying to comfort and calm him.

Deeper still into the complex, the party battles with a Flesh Golem and discovers the bedroom/clothes-whore closet of one Hugh Serchka, and also some concealed doors (one behind the Magic Mouth at the entrance, where the Golem emerged from) and one that was Arcane Locked. After resting, Bree Knocks and as The Boy opens the door, initiative is rolled, and The Boy is struck by four magic missiles. Crouching behind an over- turned lab table and wielding a wand is a second Hugh Serchka, who shouts, "Don't come in any further or I'll release everything!" He's threatening to empty his magic wand.

Session 15

Chokepoint, Part 2

The Hugh Serchka with the wand turns out to the be the real one, and the one who hired the party to help him get back to this lab turns out to be a Dopplegander, who only assumed that he was Serchka since he was disguised as him (and recognized as such by some of the other merchants). The real Serchka was tinkering with new advanced versions of the Alter Memory spell, and things went horiibly wrong after that when he cast the new version (using body parts he extracted from another doppleganger, the wife of the one who was pretending to be Serchka trying to find a way he could liberate his life mate).

There was also a devil involved in all of this, a creature that Serchka had captured and was using to learn occult secrets. The devil, though, was working his own angle, and may have messed with Serchka's experiments. Eventually, things are cleared up, and Serchka is forced by local officials to make restorations to the citizens of Choke Point who lost their memories due to his tinkering--much to the annoyance of the party, who expected that they should be able to take all of the wizard's wealth for themselves since they helped to clean up the mess.

Session 16

Fire-Proof Nuns, Part 1

The party travels to Guddirkn (The God City) to train to 6th level. While training, they also sniff out rumors and such. They side venture to Grankoost to participare in an Oddities Auction to buy and sell magic items. After the auction, they encounter some fishermen from Strendin, who claim they saw a couple of orc troop ships unloading forces along the northern coast of Frittlandr: at Nordestra Halvan.

Before the great war, there was a largish settlement within this wooded peninsula called Ngong Mansklig, home of the "ONCE HUMAN,"" a whole community believed to have surrendered their humanity to a powerful entity Ormherren (the snake lord). This city one of the original homelands of the Yuan-Ti Purebloods. An interesting thing about these Yuan-Ti is that they were said to be greedy, and rich, but all of them decided to forsake the pursuit of material wealth in order to transform themselves into children of Ormherren--snake men who then immediately lost interest in their wealth. The city later was destroyed by invading Svartiki forces, who may or may not have completely plundered the city's forsaken wealth. Since the city's fall, the lands depopulated, and the surrounding forest reclaimed the area. Gnolls moved in, but so did some humans and elven pioneers from Frittlandr to establish colonies (three new settlements there are known as "The Chersonnese Beeair").

The party drives Granny's wagon south through Tillflikt and then further east. Once the road gets too difficult to travel, Bree drives the wagon back to Tillflikt to stable it while the rest of the party proceeds on foot; Bree catches up again riding her swift Phantom Steed. While hiking through ominous-looking elephant trees, Duk's weasel hawk spots a smoke arrow signal. The party kills one and captures another orc scout in the thicker iron woods growth near the shoreline. The captured orc warlock tries to get the party to release him before the full orc force arrives. The party instead uses one of the orc signal arrows to mislead these orcs into thinking they retreated whence they came, while they instead head further east towards the first of newly-settled colonies: Vagfynd. Seeing little of interest there, they learn of a second settlement to the southeast: Vidfloden, home of the Brand Saker Klost (The Fire Proof Nuns). The party warn the nuns of a likely orc attack on their cloister, so the nuns decide to pack up their religious oils (which are said to help prevent fire damage to those who slather it on their bodies). The party and the nuns then head northeast to the third settlement: Pohavet, which, having a wood and dirt palisade surrounding it, is a better defensive position. Pohavet is home to about 50 elves and humans, but few actual fighters.

While the party is manning the walls, the orc force arrives (along with six trolls), who do not immediately attack, but instead they parlay with the nuns to buy their oil; the head nun, Sister Breach, agrees to sell, and one vial is exchanged for 5 platinum pieces at a time using a basket and rope. Once the trolls have enough of the fire-resistance oil, though, they back off into the woods while the orcs continue to obtain more of the oil, and Bree's owl familiar sees some of the trolls lathering up with the oil (which is known to last for only one hour). An attack seems likely.

Session 17

Fire-Proof Nuns, Part 2

As it turns out, Sister Breach's highly tuned Insight skill convinced her that the trolls were not going to make their purchases and then just go away. So, what the nun actually sold the trolls was a flammable oil, which became apparent early in the battle when she lit one of the trolls on fire. Even with this advantage, it is a difficult battle as the party, the nuns, and the few available local fighting men fend off the trolls and orcs. For their assistance, the party all receive real fire-resistence potions from the nuns.

Session 18

The Wuhan Limbo

An outbreak of an acute respiratory disease shuts down all travel and in-person gatherings and activities. The Party finds themselves in a precarious, indefinite, suspended state in which every outcome is uncertain. Will they ever escape from this terrible condition?

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