Thotham's Journal #13

We discovered a strange tablet that acts as a kind of compass, Yuna attuned to the item and while the rest of us could only see strange eldritch markings on it, she could discern the location of some cultists that worship a strange God. This device when used made a large gong sound and lit a blue lighted path leading us further into the mists.  

I stayed slightly behind the group at this point, lurking from the shadows, but still close enough I could witness them receiving a quest from a knight in black armor with spikes protruding from it. He directed my companions to find three birds and directed them to the nearby town for help with this quest.

In town, I rejoined the group as we entered a merchant shop that carried more magic items than we could have dreamed of and at what seemed reasonable prices. Zax purchased a new defensive shield and sword. Inrah purchased some eyes of the eagles to help with her scouting. Shadow, our intimidating warforged Shadow Monk, actually paid to replace his arms with ones that can protrude with combat blades! Lefty purchased a horrifying scimitar whose magic seems to seek blood in exchange for healing the holder (to be honest, this blade seems a bit cursed, watch your back). Yuna acquired a bag of holding. As for me, I spent my last coin on a rare ring of protection, who knows what horrors await us with Yuna's compass?

After stocking up, we journeyed further while Luna led us through the mouth of a winding cave where the waters had receded. Following our compass, we eventually came to a great body of water we would need to somehow cross. Inrah's cloak of useful items was invaluable once again as she had two patches with two rowboats, just enough for our party to use. None of us are particularly skilled at sailing vessels like these, but with Zax and Yuna's combined strength they were able to get us over the surf and onward, our path lit by the compass.

Eventually we saw a small island in the distance and our compass led us towards the mouth of a cave inside the island. Thankfully no battles had to be fought on the water, in fact, Yuna's compass seemed to still the waters when used.

Once arriving at the cave entrance, we pushed deeper into the dark. There was bioluminescent moss that when brushed would leave a slight glow, so I used my telekinetic hand to stroke the side of the cave to help me with light. Unlike me, many of the party have excellent dark vision to help lead the way.

Eventually we came to a landing where I placed my pet frog, Chemotoad, on some moss and told him to stay. He glowed quite happily while gobbling up the bioluminescent moss!  I'll be back for my friend, no need to risk my lucky toad pet during the battle to come.

We prepared for battle and Shadow and Zax burst into the first door of the cultist's cave. Lefty rushed in as well, his arrows instantly felling a cultist. With that, the battle had begun. The cultist leader seemed fond of using a Command spell, so I tried to stay well away from his sites. Unfortunately, he had Lefty disarm his bow immediately. Zax jumped in on the table where they were feasting and delivered a crushing blow to another cultist. The blades in Shadow's arms flung forth and began slicing and dicing. Inrah lit up the room with Magic Missles. Yuna was healing our wounds and launching painful bursts of sacred flame. I focused in on the leader with my psi-blades.

While the cultists didn't seem to be much of a match for us, it was their numbers that made this battle more dangerous as they began to flood in from a door to the east and south.

Zax became furious when Lefty's kill count started to soar with his bloodthirsty scimitar and I used my cloud giant's jaunt to blink behind the cultist leader to deliver the killing blow. Zax seems to almost have a personal vandetta against these cultists, is it something in her past? Regardless, we all let out a cheer when Zax was able to deliver the finishing blow to the final cultist! Victory was ours.

Scattered around the room was enough gold and silver to help with our depleted coin. I was worried for a moment I might need to borrow (or temporarily steal until I could replace) some money from our rich cleric! Yuna must have some royal upbringing with all that money she carries!

Unfortunately, while searching the bodies for loot, a few of us stumbled upon some cursed holy symbols that crumbled to sand upon touch, leaving us (me) with a strange sense of dread and daytime nightmares.

I don't know how long it would take to sleep this haunting off. Most unfortunate.

Thotham's Jounal #12

We spent the night in the abandoned servant quarters without interruption. Yuna performed sacred rights to cleanse the area and release the specters that had caused us problems.

In the morning we decided to head into the passage just off to the right. I went in looking to pick the locked door he had reported only to find it wasn't locked at all, it was rusted shut. Shadow responded simply by striking the handle off the door.

Inside we found what was a friendly apparition kept alive through a magical Tyr amulet. Much to our surprise, he was willing to talk with us and thanked us for opening the door that hadn't been opened in near a century. He could barely move and when he did it was like dried meat peeling off his bed and shuffling across the floor. We asked him his purpose among other questions, but when I mentioned Strahd, he seemed to flare with holy magic at the mere mention.

We told the undead paladin that we were searching for an artifact for Strahd so he could send us back to our home, being adventurers in a different dimension. When we told him it was a small orb with a dragon claw that he was searching for, he seemed confused at why it was that particular artifact he would want out of the myriad of powerful, evil artifacts in the castle's vault. All he could recall of the artifact was that it was something used to increase your powers, but not strength.

We continued our discussion about Strahd and he painted a very different picture than the Strahd we had encountered. Our Strahd wasn't a fearsome warrior, but a very tired and depressed ruler with perhaps one too many wives.

Eventually our undead paladin expressed his wish to be freed from this plane of existence. He said he'd help us retrieve that (and only that) artifact as long as we promised to release his spirit so he would finally see his rest (and not reanimate). Yuna obliged, taking the amulet of Tyr and saying his final rights. He soon vanished into dust but left us with a map to help guide us to the castle vault. He also mentioned that we should let "Liz" a kind child's specter in the castle know that he had left to return to his peace.

Following our newly acquired map we came to what the map said was a secret door. Investigating the area, I was able to ascertain that there were two bricks (one near the door, and one farther down a hallway) we needed to push simultaneously. I recruited Lefty to help, and we pressed both bricks in at the same time. When we did so, the bricks magically folded away as if under some enchantment and revealed our passageway.

Much to our surprise the passageway beyond looked absolutely spotless without a speck of dust. It seemed suspicious given the age of the castle, but we made our party's formation and proceeded down the hallway. Shadow suddenly stopped us in our tracks as he sensed something strange in front of us. I summoned my telekinesis to hover a torch up past the party, but when it reached a certain depth, it immediately extinguished. Zax handed Inrah a coin, and she cast a light spell upon it and then threw it forward where it stuck in mid-air, shimmering and suspended. That's when Zax remembered the tales of gelatinous cubes!

Lefty fired arrows that dissolved inside the cube. Shadow backed away fearing the acid inside as Inrah lit both Shadow and the encroaching cube with a colorful explosion of Faerie Fire. Surprisingly, I discovered these jelly-like creatures aren't completely mindless as my psychic daggers pierced and damaged it. Shadow, in lead, was scrambling to back away from the corrosive wall as it moved toward him as it was trying to envelope him. Zax threw fiery oil upon it in a last-ditch effort, filling the hallway with thick smoke if only for a few moments until it was extinguished. Finally, a third arrow from Lefty pierced the cube to the point where it collapsed, oozing upon the floor in front of us.

We descended further down the hallway, down a spiral staircase, down another longer hallway until we came upon a door of extraordinary workmanship. None of us had ever seen a door quite to this magnitude. If we could have looted the door and melted it down, surely it would have been worth more than what was beyond. Made of adamantine and inlaid with silver and gold, I sat dumbfounded at the sheer audacity of the door ... so much so I couldn't find a way to even open it. Luckily Inrah flew upwards and noticed a keyhole that lay between the frames in a curious position.

As we used the key the paladin had given us, suddenly a blast of electricity shocked its way through Inrah, sending her reeling backwards. I took another look at the door and this time I saw its devious nature. Trapped four different ways! 2 mechanical traps and 2 divine arcane traps!

I was able to disarm the two mechanical traps after some inspecting. One would have flooded the chamber with water. Another would have released ceiling tiles to crush whoever was underneath. As for the divine traps, Zax was able to align their righteousness to the doorway and finish turning the key without disturbing the divine energies.

The big surprise here was that there was another key, inside the key! This time I used my psychic bolstered knack to track down five more keyholes at the end of the hallway leading to the door. Again, 2 of the locks were mechanically trapped while Yuna revealed 3 of the locks contained magic. Using my psychic bolstering again I was able to disarm the mechanical traps, which would have filled the hallway with fire incidentally. Shadow cast an identify spell upon the remaining locks and we found three schools of magic therein: transmutation, evocation, and conjuration. Thinking upon the possible results of opening traps dealing with evocation (a fiery end) and conjuration (possible teleportation somewhere unpleasant), we ascertained as a group that the transmutation effect was our best bet. We turned the second key, and ... success!

The giant door retracted, and what we found behind was ... strangely tempting. We had promised our undead paladin guide to only leave with the singular artifact, but there beyond the door wasn't a museum full of powerful, and most likely cursed, magic items. As an example, we could feel anger coming from a great axe. Zax practically had to be pulled away from a holy sword. 

Eventually we came upon the artifact we were seeking. Shadow quickly grabbed it and put it in his pouch, laying aside any fears of magical retribution. 

Walking out of the vault, the door shut behind us, and the key collapsed, disappearing into the floor. We had won our prize!

As we made our way back out of the castle, we stumbled upon "Liz" being tormented by a ghoul. We dispatched the ghoul without as much as a scream from it. Liz saw Yuna holding her old friend's amulet of Tyr and asked if he was gone. Yuna might have made a new mischievous spirit friend, fond of tugging on Inrah's wings. 

Thotham's Journal #11

I separated from the group into the mists fearing mist walkers who might also be sought after by shadow master guild members -- it was the only explanation for being taken suddenly from Neverwinter into somewhere so unfamiliar and dark.  Even in daytime here, the place we have found ourselves in is a world of shadow.

I followed the group from several yards behind, sticking to the shadows, barely beyond the edges, looking for my hunters. I watched from a distance as the group went through a large gate that indicated our location. We are in Barovia! This is the place the common Neverwinter citizen would dismissively call a fairy tale horror (I suppose in the same way, the Shadow master Guild might be called the same), but here we are!

The group was contacted by the local lord of this land, Strahd was his name. He asked the group to seek out a castle in the middle of Lake Zarovich where something of his was misplaced. Again, trailing behind the group, I watched as they obtained a seer reading from what could only be classified as traveling lycanthropes? I'm not sure if anyone can be trusted here.

Once I was sure we weren't being pursued I rejoined the party on their journey to Lake Zarovich. It was good to be back with my old companions, plus a new member who had joined us. As we walked, I briefly got to know Yunaesa, or Yuna, for short. A high elven Life Cleric skilled in the healing arts and a welcome addition to the team.

As we walked along the trail, Inrah kept watch above, but it seemed a struggle for her as giant bats would swoop at her if she went above the tree line. She did spot a horrific looking three-armed deathly looking troll who moved into the road about 100 yards out from us and blocked our path. I slipped into the shadows and moved ahead establishing a psychic link with the being. It was dark and empty in its mind except for one thought, food. Shadow was making his way toward the troll when I grabbed a ration and floated it toward him with my telekinesis. He grabbed the food fiercely and began to grossly stuff it in his maw.

As Shadow passed by the beast, his thoughts changed to "not food." Clearly our warforged friend was not seen as a threat. Inrah risked the bats above and flew safely out of its range unnoticed. Lefty snuck by unnoticed. Yuna decided she could also stroll past, but I heard in the troll's mind "food" to which I quickly responded, "Not food!" This confused the troll as he looked around thinking the trees were talking to him. With Yuna safely sprinting past the threat, I broke the psychic link with a friendly, if not sarcastic, "goodbye." The troll, infuriated we had tricked our way past him, hurled a rock at Shadow to no avail. Our favorite Monk deftly dodged the boulder that was headed straight for his head!

Soon we found ourselves walking through another gate similar to the one we walked through as we entered through the mists. It appeared to be an old war-torn ground now abandoned, and strangely consecrated. You could feel the goodness in the area. I turned to Yuna to ask if she felt what I was feeling. Yuna winked and said, you don't need me to tell you what you feel on consecrated ground. We all feel it here. As we proceeded further, pains of old guilt rose within each of us. Particularly fresh on our minds was not knowing the true fate of our old companion, Sai, the druid. Should we have jumped into the pit after him, sealing all our fates? He seems to be the only one of us that could somehow survive that fall . . . transformed into a bug or some such druid trick. Still, it was a collapsed dungeon that we didn't see him escape after being whisked away in the mists.

Eventually we saw Lake Zarovich and the castle the lord of this land had sent us to explore. The water of this lake was strangely crystal clear with patches of moss on the surface. The drawbridge leading to the castle was crushed in its center point and collapsed in the middle. At first we considered row boats from Inyah's cloak of many things. But those boats could only hold 2 persons at most. The drawbridge seemed to be the most sensible way to enter the castle.

Seeing the gap was roughly 30 feet at its lowest point, I ran forward and teleported across the bridge. The far side was a little slippery, but I managed to maintain my footing and make it to the other side. Inrah flew over to me, and I tied a well-constructed knot on a pillar to the side. First to cross with our rope handhold was Yuna. Unfortunately, the cleric (not the most athletic or acrobatic of us), lost her footing and ended up in the water, which now stirred with motion as something "reptilian" dove in from the far side.

Lefty began to cross and scooped up the soaking Yuna and made it to the other side just as the giant maw of a crocodile bit the water where she had floundered. Last to cross, now knowing the water was infested with biting jaws, was Shadow. He had no issues beginning to cross (it was like watching a circus acrobat) but almost slipped in at the end much like I had, but his large, metallic and wooden feet smashed into the side and almost created a patch of stairs for us to use the next time we had to cross. To those ends, we left our rope and proceeded into the castle.

The castle itself was ruined. Just our luck. If not a ruined and abandoned church, it's a ruined and abandoned castle. We all set about searching for entrances. I discovered two entrances, using my psi-bolstered knack for investigation, one that appeared to be a servant's entry and another that was an entry for the old barracks.  Shadow, on the other hand, noticed something that was even more intriguing! Down a well, there was a strange doorway about 30 feet down! Shadow jumped in and scraped one automaton hand down the side of the well to slow fall, but heavy from his form, sunk even deeper down into the well. when he surfaced, he had an old dirty rag on his head, but a few extra coin in his hand from scraping old wishes off the bottom.

The rest of us followed and found a short, 5-foot tunnel we could enter the castle through. We found ourselves in what appeared to be an old church storage room full of rotted and worthless goods, but there was a door that led us further down. Coming to a fork, we decided to take the "clockwise" path and headed left. As we proceeded down the hallway, suddenly Shadow was struck by an undead specter floating through the walls! We sprinted down the pathway as Shadow found two doors. One barred, one that needed only a strike from his fist to open.

Entering the room, the specters attacked again! I was able to shatter one with my psychic blades. Yuna was also successful by casting evil out with searing pains from her holy rebukes. The undead turned and screamed as they ran. One of the specters above us in the ceiling, which had also taken a firebolt and an arrow from Inrah and Lefty, splattered from Yuna's rebuke.

Unfortunately, the third specter, now away from Yuna's holy aura, came charging back, directly at Inrah . . . who had thrown a taunt in its direction. Inrah plunged a knife into the shadowed form, and that's when things got a little messy . . . . Shadow punched at the specter and fumbled his shot, slamming his fist into Inrah, knocking her unconscious. I stabbed at the specter and fumbled my shot, stabbing Shadow with a psychic blade, striking with unusual precision. Luckily my second shot against the specter rang true and it disappeared into dust from the blow.

We should work more on our close combat maneuvers as a group! Thank goodness Yuna was there to patch us up with her healing staff.

We'll clear out the three dead bodies we found murdered here and hole up for a long rest. Who knows what terrors tomorrow will bring?!

Thotham's Journal Entry #10

Lefty grabbed the bag that fell from the dusty ashes of the demon and motioned to Salazar. When he approached, he sighed relief as we had recovered his bag of holding. Pulling the inventory list out of the bag, he began to go through his possessions within until, unfortunately, he announced an item was missing from his bag . . . a manual of flesh golems. After all this time, our enemy had finally gotten his hands on exactly what we were trying to stop him from obtaining.

With that, Salazar thanked us for our assistance in getting back his possessions and took his leave, retreating to the entrance of the dungeon. Meanwhile, picking through the remains of the battle, Feefifo found a key among the ashes. I produced the book from my own bag of holding and both the key and the book now glowed red as if they belonged together. 

We unlocked the book and it was passed to both Inrah and Sai to inspect for arcane knowledge. We discovered exactly what we had thought, we too were now in the possession of an opposing manual of flesh golems. Though Vax protested at the demonic thought, we knew that only one choice remained for us. What better strategy to combat a Thay wizard's Flesh golem than to summon one of our own! Sai agreed to construct our foul creation as I dumped out the head and arm we had gathered from the bag of holding and Feefifo rounded up the rest of the parts from around the dungeon.

Before Sai was to conduct the ritual to summon our lesser golem, there was one last thing for us to do with the book. We placed it in the bookshelf with the missing book and, as we suspected, unlocked a hidden passageway beyond. the passageway beyond the bookshelf had a short hallway and two doors. Using my boots of the elven kind, I stealthed forward, not making a sound and checked both doors for noise. No sound came from either. Peaking in, I saw giant sized weapons in a weaponry past the door on the right and a barracks past the door on the left . . . both were empty.

Sai began the hour long ritual to construct our golem while the rest of the party rested for the battle that was sure to come beyond the final door of the barracks. The door glowed red and was inscribed with an arcane sigil to bind it. Once Sai had constructed his golem, it arose and followed his commands to arm itself with a longsword and a scimitar from the weaponry. Next it was commanded to burst open the door containing the arcane sigil. With a mighty rush and a crash, our golem severed the defensive magic on the door, and we walked behind the mighty creation as we entered the room. (side note, Lefty had affectionately named our golem Jarold von Deathknight . . . Can't say a bit of humor before the grisly scene beyond the door wasn't warranted.)

There on a makeshift throne sat the "old" priest of shar from Phandalin. He sneered and told us we had troubled him long enough as he finally dropped his guise and the true, red Thay necromancer was in full view. In front of him stood, as we suspected, a horrifying Flesh Golem constructed of the parts that had disappeared throughout the dungeon.

As the battle commenced, more undead minions of the necromancer crashed through the wooden parts of the floor to join the fray as our golems battled each other in the center of the room. Sai had used the enlarge spell on our golem and turned him into a monstrous giant while the rest of us rushed into the room and attacked the enemies before us. 

Shadow, moved forward with frightening speed, his mind single on the Thay wizard. As he approached, he put a sphere of darkness around the wizard and rushed forward. Before Shadow could strike, the wizard cast fly and hovered over and out of the darkness. Sai to the opportunity to throw a bead of fireball upon him as Shadow once again pursued.

Meanwhile on the backlines, Inrah began a kind of wizard battle with the Thay who played a defensive game, casting shield to block her attacks. Feefifo, Zax, Lefty, and myself started to thin the army of undead that continued to pour out from the floors. 

About the floors . . . as it turns out, the floor of this room was suspended above a giant pit. As the golems attacked each other back and forth in the center, the blows were enough to start to crumble the sections of the floors below us. In fact, a section of floor that Shadow was standing on gave way and he tumbled down into the pit. Luckily, our friend landed on his feet and was able to sprint to a ladder at one end using his monk's Step of the Wind ability. 

After several back-and-forth attacks from the Golems, both of our creations were looking worse for wear. With a flair of genius, Inrah used Dissonant Whispers on our Thay's creation and mentally shattered the golem with a final scream inside its twisted mind and the battle seemed to suddenly sway in our favor . . . until our golem, bloodied and confused, went completely berserk and turned on Sai, simply because he happened to be the closest thing next to it.

With three vicious and mighty strikes from his own creation, Sai collapsed to the ground. Zax rushed to his side and pulled him back to our secondary line where we could heal his wounds. The Thay wizard was looking worse for wear from the attacks of ours that were able to get through. Getting back on his feet, he looked at our Golem and sneered, seeing the mayhem it had created. Unfortunately, the very Golem in the center, crashing against the tiles would be his demise as the tile he was standing on crumbled underneath his feet and he fell to his death in the pit below.

The undead constructs attacking us immediately fell to the floor becoming inanimate and Sai, now back on his feet, took a heroic leap at this creation and pushed himself and the golem into the pit below, falling deep into a central pit below. It was a brave act that ultimately saved us from a rampaging golem as we rushed out of the dungeon before it would collapse in on us.

Emerging from the entrance, we did not find the cool chirping of the Neverwinter Woods. What we found instead were deep, ominous mists encircling us. Something outside had changed. Evil now seemed to thicken around us.   

Thotham's Journal Entry #9

Our group discovered an entrance to what appeared to be the Thay necromancer's lair right where Inrah's vision pointed us. A small 5ft passageway led deeper inside, only wide enough for one person to enter at a time. It was at that point I knew I needed to take to the shadows. If the Shadow master's Guild had any perfect opportunity to flank and trap us, this would be their opportunity. I couldn't let them see me enter if we were under their surveillance, and so I took to the shadows and let the group proceed without me until I could join them again.

In the darkness I waited until several minutes had past, and my stomach turned as I heard shouts, blasts, and the sound of battle from within. Having surveilled the area and determined it was safe, I snuck stealthily into the lair. What I found inside was that my party had dispatched a grave full of undead skeletons and skeletal wizards -- bone dust was everywhere, and it was good to see my "talents" weren't needed for the fight they faced.

Three doors exited the room and so we chose one and proceeded forward. The next room we encountered had a pedestal with two heads stitched together, the eye sockets replaced with gems. One a rather normal looking head (despite the gems for eyes), and another that was giant sized and covered with several other gems as if it had eyes everywhere. While the smell was horrific, that didn't stop Feefifo from walking forward and slapping the head covered in gems to see if it would animate. As he did, the normal looking head that was attached to it disappeared into dust, leaving the monstrous head behind.

I gave the large head a psychic shove with my telekinesis and it felt to the floor. When it did, a blast of force came out of one of the gems and hit Sai (still in his raptor wild shape and surrounded by circling winds from the previous battle). Seeing this head could possibly be weaponized, I pulled out a 10' pole from my bag of holding and stabbed at the head to try and mount it upon the pole. It struck the head true but didn't stick upon the pole . . . instead it exploded on me. While the blast could have been worse if I hadn't jumped out of the way, it was still extremely painful. Dangerous, but I bagged up the head into the bag of holding anyway . . . perhaps we could still weaponize this gemmed head in the future.

Sai blasted his way through a locked door and created a small hole large enough for his raptor form to sneak through. On the other side was what only could be described as a chalkboard detailing body parts and their benefits. it appeared as though this was the research study of the Thay necromancer who most certainly was on the quest to construct his flesh golem. We noticed among the notes a description of the two heads we had already found. In fact, the notes detailed two of every body part needed to construct a golem: torso, legs, head, left arm, and right arm.

Next, I led the group down the hallway beyond the head room and again, my reflexes saved me as the floor disappeared along our narrow pathway to reveal a pit below and only the doorway at the end. Inrah flew ahead of the group and attempted to open the door when it collapsed down upon her, causing her to fall down into the pit and sustain minor injuries, while the door created a natural bridge for 10 feet of the 20 foot pit. I lit a torch and lowered it down to Inrah with my telekinesis to see she was covered in very black dirt and help light her way as she flew out of the pit and over to the other side. Sai used a Fae Step to cross the gap. I used my Cloud's Jaunt to misty step the distance. Lefty picked up and threw Feefifo like a tumbling acrobat across the gap, and then leapt the distance himself.

In the room beyond was a familiar face but also one contorted in pain. It was Salazar! Salazar the warforged merchant from our previous travels to Neverwinter. Sai held him down while I pulled out the dagger in his stomach and Inrah healed him with her wand. He soon passed out, but Sai was able to wake him with a pouch of smelling salts. He had no recollection of how he arrived here, but what he was missing was his own bag of holding that someone had stolen from him after an ambush back in Neverwinter.

To add to the strangeness, the room he was in had the two torsos mentioned earlier: One that was thin, and one that appeared muscular. Sai touched the muscular torso and the thin legs disappeared. Inrah mentioned that it appeared that perhaps we were somehow constructing the golem for the necromancer or possibly making a choice for him. The torso didn't fit in the bag of holding, so we left it behind, healed Salazar enough for him to join us and continued through the dungeon.

one by one as we worked our way through the dungeon we found the remaining body parts. While our plan was to never touch make the choice by avoiding touching the legs to select or disintegrate one, Sai couldn't resist his curiosity and touched the legs.

We encountered more trapped doors and dangers along the way until lefty found a strange wooden duck in a box. He ascertained no threat from the automaton and picked it up to claim the strange device for himself.  That was a bad decision.  It exploded in a fiery blast and while most of us dodged the main explosion, Feefifo took the full brunt of the explosion and passed out from the trap. Inrah healed him awake quickly while Sai cast a healing spirit in the form of a radiant beetle. We each touched the beetle and received its healing blessing. I can't say how nice it is to have friends with the healer's art.

by the time we had searched through most of the rooms we had touched an arm here, and a leg there thinking that perhaps that was how we finally escape this lair. The original doorway out had sealed, and it felt like we would be trapped here forever unless we figured out what the Thay's game exactly was. There was even a bookshelf in one corner that seemed to be missing a book, begging for us to return the book of flesh golem to it, but we resisted the temptation to do so.

Instead, we wandered through the final doorway we hadn't gone through back at the room full of skeletons, which took us right into the trap of the very demon who took the key from Seegis the mage of the magical tower outside of Phandalin! With a sneer he cornered us and simply said, "Now, you die" as we were charged by two hell fire boars, a demonic giant spider, and the undead griffon under his command. What followed truly was a vicious battle. Sai had enlarged himself and transformed into a giant toad. Inrah summoned for a flaming sword and began slicing at the demon. Lefty was petrified in fear from the sight of the giant spider, while swing and slashing at the hell boars. Feefifo was taking careful steady aimed shots at the griffon dealing shots with deadly precision. I was throwing my psychic daggers above the head of Lefty and into the boars and spiders . . . really anything I could see, and even Salazar joined in the fight with what appeared to be some kind of warforged gun.

In the end, we dispatched them all as they disappeared into flames. The demon dropped a bag on the ground as he disappeared in hellfire. We had won, and now it may finally be time to rest for a bit and discover if this is Salazar's bag and what it may have inside that was so attractive to the demon and his hoard. 

Thotham's Journal Entry #8

We took a moment to organize ourselves in the shelter of the Abbey basement. I slipped on a new pair of Boots of the Elvenkind and pocketed the magical dust of choking and sneezing. Having a spare trick or trap up my sleeve will be nice. Zax took the Decanter of Endless Water. Sai was left in charge of the Necklace of Fireballs and Periapt of Wound Closure. Inrah donned the Robe of Useful Items and the Blood Well. The rest of our haul from the seer's trials would be divided between Shadow, Feefifo, and Lefty.

Upon further inspection, we found a journal in the basement left behind by the Thay Wizard from Inrah's scrying. The journal seemed to fill in a lot of the missing blanks in our mysterious hunt. An entry from three weeks ago noted that the wizard had found a manual of Flesh Golems and locked it with a key for safekeeping. An entry from two weeks ago noted progress on his experiments with constructing golems from corpses of animals from the nearby surroundings. The last entry in the journal caught us up to today. The Thay knows we have his book and has headed to his secondary base . . . the very location Inrah scryed deep in Neverwinter Woods.

Knowing we only had 5 days' time, we quickly headed out toward the edge of Neverwinter Forest. While we walked, Sai was busy with a druidic ritual to find us some friendly horses to make the journey less exhausting. At first, he found some horses already occupied by Lord's Alliance riders, but at the end of the day, he found us a small heard. I've never seen anyone as adept at handling animals than Sai. It was truly a marvel to see him work and before we knew it, we had horses that took us right to the edge of Neverwinter Forest to where we could follow the river to our ultimate destination.

Sai thanked the horses by causing an apple tree to spontaneously bloom and provide them with a couple bushels of apples. As for us, we continued along the path going deeper and deeper into the forest. Old specters of our last visit seemed to arise as Zax heard a cackling and creaking of rocking chair. The forest grew darker and more menacing with each footstep. Even the waters appeared unnatural, dark, and full of an unnatural murkiness.

As nighttime came, it was time to set up camp, and we found a nice plateau with a vantage point that overlooked the river and forest. Zax and Sai took up watches while the rest of us settled down to what was supposed to be an uneventful sleep. Unfortunately, it was not.

From the depths of the river came two enormous, demonic-like giant toads with glowing red eyes. Zax woke us at the first signs of trouble as they moved in for the attack. Despite using magic to blind and reveal the location of the toads, ended up swallowed inside the gaping stomachs of the beasts. 

I suddenly felt the pull to manifest something new inside me! Psychic knifes appeared in my hands, and so I did what any newly born Soulknife Rogue would do. I used them, striking true to the unholy toads that had attacked us! 

Sai shapeshifted inside one of the toads and turned into a raptor beast that clawed and bit the beast from the inside out. Inrah pulled out a 10-foot pole from her Robe of Useful Items and magically impaled the toad that had swallowed her, but unfortunately the piercing damage it inflicted seemed ineffective. With a final two blows, I threw a psychic knife that landed right between the eyes of the beast that had swallowed Inrah, penetrating its skull with psychic pain that caused it to blow apart and release Inrah, who now was holding a flaming sword, ready to hack her way out from the inside.  

Zax ran forward and used her paladin's smite and dealt a holy blast that caused the other toad holding Sai to blow apart as well. Let's just say . . . it was a mess. Thankfully there was a river nearby to wash ourselves . . . except for Sai, who remained transformed as a dinosaur that seemed perfectly at home sleeping in the innards of a giant toad.

The rest of the evening was thankfully uneventful, and we set off for the clearing in the morning. Of strange note! Before we left, I found a small toad that seemed to take an interest in me. I'm not sure what to make of it, but it's happily hitching a ride on my shoulder for now.  I'm taking this friend of the forest as a good omen.

Thotham's Journal Entry #7

Our new seer friend asked us to choose someone from the party to receive a vision, and so, after a short discussion, we decided that the most magical of us should receive the vision. Inrah bravely agreed, and asked, "Where is the person responsible for the undead attacks in Phandalin?" 

The witch blew a pink powder on her face, and after several moments, Inrah broke from a trance and toppled over as if stunned! We tried to wake her, and eventually, after the effects wore off, she came to her senses and let us know the vision she had received.

In her vision, Inrah flew above the Neverwinter forest and then drifted down into a hidden basement in the chapel in Phandalin. There she saw a bald Thay wizard in a red cloak, tattoos adorning his head. The wizard had a pile of corpses there he was stitching together and performing the vilest of rituals to bring them to life.  Inrah then rose in the air facing toward Neverwinter and saw day become night and night become day seven times before descending back into the Neverwinter forest, near a river, into a clearing to the Northeast.

The witch escorted us out of her hut and pointed us in the direction of Neverwinter, then disappeared with a cackle. Before she left, however, Inrah and Sai both noticed something that the rest of us did not. As she raised her cloak over her head, a half mask appeared over her face. 

Zax quickly turned about and headed back in pursuit to where the witch's hut was, and Inrah and I followed. Sai on the other hand, unbeknownst to us, headed in the direction of Neverwinter. 

Arriving at the witch's hut, everything was empty. The only thing that remained was the seer's rocking chair that was still rocking slowly back and forth. A note was on the hut's front door that read in draconic, If you want help, bring the daughter to us. The note sent Zax into a fury and she burned the hut to the ground. As it burned, it seemed to burn ominously in the colors of the Chromatic dragons.

It was at this moment that we noticed Sai was missing from our party! Inrah flew up into the sky and looked for Sai and could not see him, but what she did see was that it was suddenly nighttime. The forest's magic had seemed to pass time more quickly for us inside. 

Unable to search for Sai in the darkness of the woods, we decided to set up camp and trade watches. As I kept first watch, I was holding the necklace of fireballs close in case there was an attack. Strangely, there was no attack, but when my watch was done the necklace seemed to contain seven beads now instead of six! Magic was all around us. Thankfully this time, it worked to our advantage.

When we awoke, I noticed a strange shuffling in the bushes nearby when suddenly I was pounced upon by a large panther who simply said, "Gotcha!" It was Sai!  Come to find out, Sai had been wandering in the woods for 18 hours looking for us. I was so happy to see him again. I really don't like splitting the party like that .  . . at all!

Now that the daytime had arrived, we headed as a group out of the woods and back to the road between Neverwinter and Phandalin. We were pushing it, figuring Inrah's vision gave us about a week before evil would descend on Neverwinter Woods.

On our path, we met a wandering Artificer Merchant named Salazar. He was interested in trading with us, so since none of us were particularly interested in the magical billowing cloak, I traded with him for a potion of gaseous form. Inrah also bought a magical endless journal and inkwell. She said she was inspired by my own journaling and would like to sketch our adventures.

After two exhausting day's journey, we arrived in Phandalin and promptly made our way to the chapel and opened the doors. It was abandoned, but we noticed the construction materials had all been used to patch up the place. Everything also appeared magically clean as if it had almost a permanent aura of prestidigitation! 

We were on the hunt for this basement that had alluded us before, which Inrah saw in her vision. Sai was using his elementalism to spray the floor with water looking for areas that showed signs of seeping through. Eventually he found a small 3-foot by 3-foot square that seemed to seep through. Pushing it did nothing, so we searched for some kind of mechanism or trick to opening it. 

Zax pushed the top off of the alter and what was left was a stone statue of the symbol of Shar. We turned the stone and noticed a grinding sound beneath the floor, yet nothing seemed to open . . . that's when I remembered the new potion of gaseous form I had purchased from Salazar! I drank the potion and became a cloud. Such an interesting feeling to be free in this form. It allowed me to slip through the cracks of the basement door, where I noticed, the stone had been attached to a steel bar that held the door shut, by turning it, we had unlocked the bar. Unfortunately, I realized I had pretty much just wasted this potion . . . all we needed to do was push on the door to open it now that we had unlocked it.

After regaining my form, we did just that. The basement, however, was empty. No Thay. No bodies. Nothing. It was all empty. Certainly, the Thay wizard would be headed back into the forest to the clearing Inrah had seen in her vision. 

Two days of our week had been taken. We'd need to hurry back to the forest as fast as possible!