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! 

Thotham's Journal Entry #6

After spending the evening at a local inn, we set out in the morning to stock up on some much-needed healing potions. Fefifo, the halfling who thinks he's a giant, also picked up a couple of growth potions, understandably. Right as we were wrapping up our business, a small boy tugged on Vax's armor and said his master would like to speak with us.

Following the boy outside of the gates of Neverwinter, we found ourselves inside a strange hut that was much larger on the inside that it appeared on the outside. Within, an old woman sat stirring a large cauldron. Without stopping her stir, she explained she had scryed that we needed her help with a scrying of our own. The problem was that she was missing the literal keys to her power. Someone, or something, had hidden her power away in the form of keys. If we retrieved her keys, she would scry the information we were seeking and make it worth our while.

The group pulled together and noted our mistrust of anyone whose power was hidden away like this and decided to head to the mage's guild in search of more information. We quickly came up with an excuse and dismissed ourselves saying we'd be back after running an errand we were already committed to, but we assured her we'd be back.

We quickly returned to Neverwinter and straight to the Mage's Guild to see what we could find out before committing to a dangerous and almost certainly magical task. What we found there was a librarian and a lot of books that would take days to digest, not hours. Using his mask of disguise, Fefifo transformed himself into the old woman and asked the librarian if she had seen her before. She had not. The librarian did dig up a book that might have more information on the famous magic users of Neverwinter. I asked her to hold it for us and we'd return.

Without much additional information about curses, keys that lock away magic, or strange old women outside the walls of Neverwinter offering quests, we returned again to the old woman's hovel and relented to her request to find her keys . . . we had no idea what we were in for.

Instantly she transported our party to a magical cave where we found a table filled with six magical bottles, one for each of us to use on our journey. They were labeled Speed, Power, Space, Foresight, Nature, and Duplication. We each chose a potion from the table as the voice of the old woman filled our minds, "You may each have one bottle to help you find the keys, it will give you a boon that will help you . . . but each also comes with a downside."

I gulped down my bottle of foresight and suddenly I had truesight and saw with perfect clarity but could see nothing beyond 40 feet ahead. Lefty drank the bottle of Space and became incorporeal and phased between dimensions, but his speech was muddy and hard to understand. Shadow drank the bottle of power and became stronger and quicker than normal but seemed to lose just as much intelligence. Vax drank the bottle of speed and gained the ability to move quickly and jump long distances, but went completely blind. Inrah drank the nature bottle, and became jelly like with tentacles, but maintained their wings (who thought an octopus could fly?). Fefifo drank the duplication bottle and split into 6 colored illusions, but his real body petrified into a platinum statue. With that, the trial of the magic keys began! 

Shadow opened the door with a powerful, but unneeded, shove. What we found beyond was a maze of pillars with a sea of lava below. My senses exploded, and I could sense a large entity inside the lava below. Not to worry, Inrah attached her tentacles to Vax's back and said she would guide her jumps and be her eyes. It was risky, but after the first jump, it looked like this could actually work! Inrah guided Vax through six jumps (a few shaky ones, but Vax held fast) and on to the other side where one of the keys was waiting.  As soon as Vax grabbed the key, we were all magically transported back to the cave entrance. one trial down, two to go.

I sensed through the second door, an area teaming with life. Again, without much thought from our powerful dunce, Shadow opened the door. We all followed. On the opposite side was an ocean reef with (as my companions explained to me) a sunken ship on the far end where the magical keys certainly sat hidden. Inrah attached herself to Shadow, who dove in, sinking 80 feet to the ocean floor and began pushing through the water.

As he did this, I sensed a shark magically appear. I alerted the party to the shark and used my speed to swim as fast as possible in what I believed was the direction of the ship. What followed was a race and a battle for the keys. Inrah released her grasp on Shadow and began slithering her octopus body from reef to reef. Shadow grappled the shark while Fefifo's duplicates and Lefty shot arrows through the water at the shark in shadow's grasp. 

Unfortunately, defeating the shark just spawned a larger and faster shark in its stead. Unfortunately, defeating the larger and faster shark just spawned a gigantic sea serpent. While Lefty, Fefifo's army of duplicates, and Shadow were valiant (and definitely slowed down the enemy while Inrah and myself made our way to the ship), eventually the sea serpent downed Shadow with a vicious bite, knocking him unconscious.

Inrah grabbed a key in the depths of the ship, and I grabbed another from behind the sunken captain's wheel, right as the sea serpent was speeding towards me.  Again, as soon as I touched the final key, we were all magically transported back to the cave entrance. The second key trial was a success!

Behind the third and final door appeared a maze. Lefty used his incorporeal form to phase through the walls and guide us on our journey. I used my magical foresight to discover our way through illusionary walls. My gloves of thievery came in handy as well as the maze was riddled with traps, and I was able to successfully disarm them. As it turns out, the maze was also riddled with chests full of magical items! Not only did we find the keys, but we found boots, bags, cloaks, pearls, amulets, and more! 

When the last key was found, we were all again magically transported . . . but not back to the cave. This time we were transported back to the old woman's hut, where she gladly pocketed the keys and offered us two more magic items from a choice of four. 

Hopefully we haven't chosen poorly to return this woman her magic. We shall see what she scrys for us!

Thotham's Journal Entry #5

We were left to the aftermath of our battle. The mage healed our party; we bound the dragon cultist that remained alive; and the crow returned to his master (despite me offering my shoulder and thanking him for his assistance). To say the mage we saved was grateful would be an understatement! He wanted to make sure that each and every one of us was gifted with a magical item (of lesser value in his words -- he was "overstocked"). 

Fefifo was gifted a mask of disguise, allowing him to cast disguise self and change his appearance. Zax was gifted a magical timepiece that grew into a shield that deflects magic missiles. Lefty was allowed to keep his amulet, which was revealed to be an amulet of health. Inrah was gifted a wand of cure wounds. Shadow had his cursed ring . . . of course. As for me, I scored a nice set of thievery gloves that I believe will make my pickpocketing skills somewhat legendary! In addition, we each received 200 gold, and the party gained a potion of clarity. The loot overflowed for our job well done!

The mage revealed his name to be Seegis. We talked at length about the key that was stolen from him, and he simply had no idea how it came to him, other than his tower brought him to the location and "gifted" it to him. 

As for the cultist, it was left to us to deal with him. He was obstinate and wanted a blood oath before coughing up any information, but I had a better idea. Placing the immovable rod against his throat, I put him in a choke hold he couldn't escape and offered him a simple deal, five questions in exchange for his freedom . . . and his life. Then Fefifo upped the ante and produced some extremely smelly cheese and put it right into his nose. Ingenious! Who knew the power of smell could be used so well for interrogation?

Unfortunately, we didn't get much information, but we did get another piece of the puzzle. The dragon cultist was sent to the tower by his superior, who had advanced knowledge of where the key would be. The superior is most likely a seer who wears a half mask and resides in Neverwinter. I had to part with 10 gold for the latter piece of information, but we were true to our deal and let him go free. (Besides, I knew we'd be able to track him as he retreated anyway.)

We said our farewells to Seegis (still fuming a bit after Zax busted his panel) and followed the cultist's tracks. Zax was excellent at using their survival skills and tracked him right to the edge of some tall grass. Zax even discovered where he had leaped into the grass and waited. Zax even tracked him to a clearing where you could see he had been on his knees and taken away on horseback. After that, the horse tracks were easy to follow back to the main road leading to Neverwinter. We pursued.

As we traveled the road, we questioned the merchants heading south, away from Neverwinter, if they had seen a group on horseback with a prisoner. They had! As it turns out, it was a contingency of the Lord's Alliance that had captured him, much to our luck.

We continued on to Neverwinter, presented our paperwork at the gate, made a quick stop at the garrison, and then on to the commandment of the Lord's Alliance to speak with our financer . . . who made us fill out the most awful paperwork about our experience. That said, we were offered another job to hunt the necromantic Thay plaguing Phandalin for a sum of 400 gold each.

Before we leave town again, the group discussed how it might be beneficial to speak with the archmage of Neverwinter to see if they might know who this half-masked seer could be. For now, we're keeping our book a secret and keeping it on the move. It is dangerous to keep with us, and we have no idea if the seer knows its location . . . they are a seer, however . . . best watch our backs.

Thotham's Journal Entry #4

Sensing my presence may actually have been harming the safety of the group as the Shadowmasters most certainly are hunting me, I opted to stay hidden in the shadows as our group pressed forward. But from the shadows, I followed and watched as my companions saved a Wizard's crow familiar in Phandalin from pursuing undead falcons and what appeared to be a stitched-together griffon. As it turns out, the curious crow could actually speak in the common tongue! The clever bird told a tale of his master trapped in his tower and led my companions there as I watched on from a distance.

Upon entering the tower, my companions had a run-in with what appeared to be dragon clan cultists and their four drakes. After they dispatched them, I watched my companions disable a barrier around the tower, not by manipulating its curious electrified panel, but through the power of Zax's sword crashing down upon the panel instead. When ingenuity fails, strength prevails!

I continued keeping my distance and followed them inside, just a few steps behind. They definitely did all the heavy lifting, figuring out how to use levers to ride platforms up the mage's tower and defeating undead bodyguards on the way up to the upper levels of the tower. Unfortunately, the fight was very unforgiving to my companions, and finally, feeling safe from the eyes of the Shadowmasters, I decided it was time to come forth and rejoin the group, as even more danger was surely ahead of us. 

We found the crow familiar, believed to have been killed in the fight with the undead bodyguards, seemingly unharmed and sleeping in the corner of his master's bedroom . . . where we found two interesting magic items: a golden ring and a heart-shaped amulet.

Shadow, the warforged, placed the ring upon his finger and began to attune. As he did, the ring turned dark black and surrounded him with a shadow of necrosis. I'm still unsure if he is cursed or simply more powerful than before. Lefty focused on the amulet, but couldn't seem to quite figure out what it was. FeeFiFo and Sai opted for a quick nap.

As for me, since my companions were busy, I opted to approach our sleeping crow friend and offer it some food. When I woke it, it flew around the room with its eyes flashing black and blue until it seemed to return to its senses. Poor Lefty. That crow was pretty mad at him for letting him die in the previous battle. I guess being a familiar means you feel all the pains of death with none of its sting. What a curious bird!

Once the party had rested and recovered from its previous encounter, we pressed on to the final floor of the tower, where the crow familiar had told us his master was trapped. What we found was a horrible scene. The mage was giving everything he had to maintain a shield of blue magic between himself and a horrible demon-like humanoid, accompanied by a powerful multi-armed undead servant. 

Also in the room was another unit of opportunistic cultists engaged in combat . . . that's when we burst in and the chaos of battle erupted. Lefty and Shadow sprang through the door and began attacking the multi-armed undead and the demon. The demon continued his assault on the mage's shield. The cultists split themselves between attacking us and the demon. The undead griffon returned through an open window and started wreaking absolute havoc, throwing bodies of friend and foe alike through the window and into each other. 

Sai and I opted to strike at both parties from the shadows, darting in and out of the doorway. While I was taking shots with my bow, Sai transformed into a panther and darted in and out while dealing devastating claw attacks.  

Shadow was using his new strange magic to deal incredible swings upon the multi-armed undead golem, but it seemed that with each swing, it both bolstered and harmed him. Eventually, Shadow fell unconscious during combat. Eventually, FeeFiFo and Lefty fell unconscious as well, but not before dispatching of the powerful undead multiarmed golem and all the cultists, minus their leader.

Speaking of that cultist leader, he was quite troublesome and kept dominating my thoughts with magic, commanding me to fetch him a key during combat. I wasn't quite sure who had the key, but I had no control over myself in my desire for this key. It was terrifying to be possessed like this. Truly terrifying. Only one thought echoed inside my head, Fetch him the key. 

Suddenly, when things seemed their most dire and Shadow was bleeding out, the power of the ring seemed to possess him at his most desperate moment with one thought, and one thought only: fight, fight, FIGHT! This was surely our moment for victory!

. . . but it was at that very moment when the demon cut our battle short with scintillating lights that stunned everyone in his sight as he grabbed the key from the master mage of the tower (the very key the cultist leader had commanded me to obtain), and then, in the claws of the griffon, flew out the tower window cackling to himself with demonic glee, "The master will be pleased."

Sai seemed to be the only one of us unaffected by the charming illusion and took one final swipe at the escaping demon, but alas, he got away. 

What is the power of this strange key, and why was it so important? Surely the leader of the Cultists will know.

Thotham's Journal Entry #3

In the aftermath of our battle where we cleansed the forest, Lefty and I scoured the bodies unaffected by necromantic rot. Besides the book, Lefty found a bag of coins, and I found a note written in the language of the dragons. As luck has it, our elven warrior Zax can speak Draconic! The note gave instructions to the cultists to find a book, which we assumed was the very book that we had acquired.

Our spellcasters began to feel a bit of peace settle around the forest as if the evil there had been fully cleansed. I tried to use my lockpicks on the book's arcane lock to no avail, but when I did so, a flare of purple magic licked from its pages. Sai, our druid, actually tried to burn the book with elemental magic, but it would not burn.

Suddenly, a strange entity charged in from the west -- a very dark, armored artificer broke through the clearing, calling himself "shadow." In Zax's words, he seemed . . . gullible . . . and not a threat. He was to my height, however, and appeared very formidable. It seemed as though we had quickly made another ally, who would be needed in the future.

Making our way back to town, we discovered Phandalin had been under siege by three parties of undead creatures. The town hall was full of injured, dead, and the local townsfolk, equipped with makeshift weapons. Our strange Priest of Shar was there as well. He was even more strange than usual, seemingly forgetting our interactions and drifting in and out of conversation. Seeking out the village headman, he confirmed our fears that the undead plague upon the town was still a problem. We hadn't cured the source. When asked about the dragon acolytes, he mentioned that "they must be back." 

We each drifted our own ways that evening and spent the night in the local tavern. I tried to beg a piece of bacon off the tavern keep, but all he parted with was extra bread and cheese. Lefty and I split the spoils.

It appeared we had two directions we could travel. One to an arch mage's tower about 20 miles out. Two, travel over to the priest's enclave for a bit of reconnaissance. Speaking of Reconnaissance, our new friend Shadow noticed that in a moment of forgetfulness, the priest of Shar had seemed to have suddenly lost his sluggish mannerisms and decrepit disguise for a moment! When he told the group, Zax was outraged and helped us realize this was an obvious ruse.  This convinced us even more that we should investigate the enclave.

Approaching the temple, we noticed no one was around. Inrah spied nothing but emptiness as she flew over the walls. Sai crawled through the cracks, transformed into a spider, and noted the same. They also noted there was no magic to be found. With that, Shadow began pushing on the great ironwood doors of the entrance to try to open them. I joined him, and together we were able to push open the massive doors and really take a look around the place. 

What I found, buried in the construction equipment, was a very inventive piece of magic -- it was a magic 3-foot rod decorated with horse heads on either end. 

Curiosity got the better of me, and I pressed the button located on one end, what happened was the rod became magically immovable in space. Clicking the button again returned it to normal. This could be a very valuable find indeed . . . 

Thotham's journal entry #2, 1380 DR

Upon arriving in Phandalin, we immediately noticed the town was in disarray with the northernmost buildings in ruins. When we reached the center of the village, we saw our first glimpse of the townsfolk here.

An aged priest with the symbol of Shar greeted us along with the captain of the guard. Once we were paid, the priest offered us a job to help cleanse whatever curse had beset his now ruined temple. The temple and its grounds seemed destroyed by dragon fire some time ago.

It was clear that none of us trusted the priest. Surely he isn't as he appears as a doddering old man. No old man could hold a 50-pound staff the way he did.

The man gave one of our fighters (we call him Lefty) a blessing that seemed almost no blessing at all. He was immediately under the effects of a headache that only went away as he stumbled closer to the source of the plague. Note to self, Shar magic is not to be taken without some sort of regret attached to it.

Where Lefty stumbled, we followed. A howling seemed to be echoing in the minds of our spellcasters. As lefty walked closer to the source, his headache began to pass, but Inrah and Sai still seemed plagued by the howling. Definitely strange magic.

Down and to the east of the forest below the ruined temple, we eventually came upon a 100-foot clearing where a magic orb glowed upon the hill like a perfect target. I challenged Fee, our party's other rogue, to a shooting match. He didn't take me up, but I took a shot at it anyway.

I bulls eyed the orb, and the impact sent it floating away 30 feet. Unfortunately, that set off a chain of events I don't think the party will be soon to forget. At least I won't. 

The dead rose once again and attacked our party with intense fierceness. Everything for me personally was going somewhat well until a druid in the back made me glow with Faerie fire and conjured a bear who slashed me down the back, causing me to collapse in unconsciousness.

The next thing I knew, I was being healed with a potion by Sai and my allergy to fae magic had manifested in a horrible twilight violet color. Once I was up, I ran toward the caster and felled them with one slash of my rapier while the rest of the party took care of the undead spiders and boars that were hounding us.

Though we nearly suffered defeat, I feel the experience has left me stronger and with more cunning than before. Clearly I will need to devote some time to training.

Thotham's journal entry #1, 1380 DR

We were hired by the Lord's Alliance to guard a shipment of food and supplies from Neverwinter to Phandalin. Along the way we introduced ourselves to each other to pass the time. My tall stature seemed somewhat strange to the party and especially to the gnome carriage driver. I explained that I was recruited by the Shadowmaster guild originally because of my special talent to blink forward as the cloud giant does. 

Suddenly our wagon became stuck in a rut, throwing its contents and us alike. Thankfully, I managed to smoothly flip out of the cart and land safely on my feet. Zax, our high elven fighter, determined that this rut seemed more like a purposeful snare. As I began digging out the cart, Inrah, the fairy sorceress, circled the skies and spotted giant zombie rats and giant zombie worms digging out of the ground to attack the caravan. Eventually three waves of zombie creatures joined in the fight, including zombie spiders, zombie wolves, and a terrifying zombie bear.

There were a few tense moments as people took damage and almost fell dead from the infested vermin, but our druid brought them back to life. Alas, eventually even our druid was toppled by a zombie wolf. I did my best to run over and patch his wounds with my limited knowledge, but I could see he was bleeding out and called for a healing potion from the other alliance members. From several feet away I saw the bottle tumbling through the sky in my direction. Luckily, I was able to catch the vial and bring it down to his lips with one smooth motion. Soon the company had dispatched our enemies and all were brought back to their feet with no casualties. 

We earned 2 gold for our victory as we made our way to Phandalin. I must say, there was a moment where I was standing, surrounded by the corpses of enemies, when I felt something call to me . . . like a seed that had secretly been planted inside me from the Shadowmaster's Guild, suddenly bloomed. I wonder if they'll come for me? Can I hide from those who are invisible? Will my training keep me safe from their influence?