30 Neth 4709 AR
Falcon’s Hollow

I am fortunate that Kasa is such an unusual creature for these parts. Not only was she allowed to stay in the inn rather than the stables, but she’s oblivious to the odd looks she’s receiving (and she’s keeping any unwanted attention away from me personally). I am also allowed to stay in the inn, something I would not have imagined a year ago.

I reflect over the last eight years; after being captured from my small clan in the Realm of the Mammoth Lords by raiding orcs, I was one of the few females they thought worthy of keeping alive, perhaps because I could speak orc. They forced me from my homeland to their hold many miles south. It was especially ironic for me, because I recognized from the filthy banner they carried that their tribe was the one my mother had escaped from; for all I knew, her own brother was the one that slew her and my human father.

With little hope for revenge, I spent the next seven years doing whatever I needed to do to stay alive.

Then last year, I finally got away, thanks to Kasa’s herd. One night her herd came though where the orc tribe had set up our make-shift camp, trampling everyone and everything in their way. Nearly all the orcs died right where they slept in their drunken stupors, though two of the mammoths were mortally wounded in the process, including the one Kasa was following. The larger mammoth had crushed the tribe’s flag on her way through, and the stupid orcs were more enraged by that than by the deaths of their own kin. In the aftermath, I took the opportunity to dispatch the injured orcs then turned to the trumpeting calf. She looked unharmed, so I grabbed what supplies and weapons I could, with plans to head south to slave-free Andoran, following the path emblazoned by the mammoths. Kasa followed me, and has been the source of my good fortune every since.

Considering how poorly I was treated by the orcs that enslaved me for so long, it is gratifying that most humans treat me as an equal— either I am mistaken for a half-elf or human (like the orcs did) or they just don’t care that I’m half orc as well as half human. I’ve even been paid to walk with caravans. Now that I’m finally in Andoran though, I am not sure what to do next, so here I sit, spending my last few coins in the Jak’a’Napes with Kasa.

Character sheet: Griselda [Half-orc ranger from the Realm of the Mammoth Lords]
Animal companion sheet: Kasa [Mammoth]

1 Kuthona 4709
Darkmoon Wood

I met some very odd people.

They came into the tavern portion of the Jak’a’Napes with the obvious intention of getting drunk, sleeping, and having dinner, possibly in that order. They clearly didn’t know any of the local lumberjacks, who kept to themselves at the other end of the room, and would have remained uninteresting to me, but Kasa apparently liked the look of one of them and was soon under their table trying to sneak food off of their plates. The dwarf in the group took it in stride and ordered refills (with a bucket-sized portion for my wayward mammoth), and I felt compelled to share the ale I’d purchased earlier as compensation. By this time the female human, who didn’t touch the ale, decided to head for her room, and the dwarf soon followed. I was left with a very drunk female elf who appeared to be more or less unconscious at the table, and a human male that claimed to be a dwarven paladin looking for another dwarven paladin, his brother, that he needed to kill for carrying an evil artifact at one time in their past. (I’ve since learned that this human male also carries an evil artifact in his haversack, but I must assume that these things are unrelated.) He also may or may not have killed his “human” family— the more he drank, the more confusing his story seemed to be. The female elf would occasionally murmur something about family being dangerous and such— I would have to agree with them there.

They attempted to toast a fallen comrade who had perished while killing a troll. They had apparently hastily buried her in an unknown place in some woods on the way here, opting to carry her hair with them for some mysterious purpose, perhaps as a memento.

The paladin, called Candal, appeared to be hiring me when I asked if he knew of work available, but he did not seem eager to discuss terms or even explain what he would be hiring me for, so I wished him and the elf (Tythe) a good night and turned in with Kasa.

I met up with them again in the morning. The human woman (Salma) appeared to not be on speaking terms with the others, other than to mutter something under her breath about being kidnapped that she did not elaborate on. The elf female was slung unceremoniously over a pack mule named Seven (I shudder to think what may have befallen One through Six) and the two males were discussing how best to get through the woods to the north of town and once again offered to let me serve them for free. I declined, with the intention of only walking them to the edge of town and pointing them in the right direction, but I started to worry about the fate of the two women; I was unsure what their involvement was with the two males. Strangely, Kasa seems to like the males, even the human who claims to be from the north but had never seen a mammoth before. I really couldn’t afford to spend another day in town anyway.

We walked for several hours until we came to a burned-out foundation of what had been an orphanage. Rogar found a trap door in the center of the ruins, and pulled it open, showing a ladder going down into the darkness. I followed him down, calling to Kasa to guard Seven and Salma, while Candal and Tythe (finally able to stand upright) found a light source and came down as well.

The place looked like an old torture chamber, with rusting manacles on the walls and tools of torture on one lone, blood-stained oak table. Four bodies were on the floor— one a desiccated husk in robes, dead for quite some time, and three other, fresher ones beside it— the latter three without heads. I recognized the signs and sure enough, four vargouilles flapped down from the ceiling. I quickly dispatched two, but was bit (not kissed thankfully!) by one, as was Candal. The others killed the remaining two bat-winged creatures. As they finished inspecting the basement, I broke what was left of the torture equipment— no one should have to wear those things unless they are a criminal.

Returning to the surface, they were obviously confused about what to do next— someone even suggested setting up camp, though it was barely the noon hour. They were looking for the one responsible for the bodies in the basement. I was pretty sure that three of the vargouilles had been attached to the headless bodies at one point, so likely the fourth vargouille had been responsible for the others, at least, but there is apparently more to this quest, some of which involves a map on the back of a dead friend or shaved wolf (I’m trying my best to ignore the nonsensical bits of conversation for now, which is quite a lot of it). I offered to look for tracks leading to the burned out site, but we had done a good job of trampling the area. Still, I found two sets of prints going in, one human-sized and one small or child-sized. The smaller set also departed the area alone. We followed those tracks for several hours with Rogar actually providing help with the tracking when I got turned around. Then I heard something very large in the distance. A few moments later we could see a treant stomping towards us. Everyone had weapons ready, but it was just much too big to fight if we could avoid it. Fortunately, it was intent on something else, or just didn’t see us, because it strode right past. Candal said it radiated “evil,” but thankfully he doesn’t attack evil on sight.

1 Kuthona 4709
Darkmoon Wood

It is a thankless (and payless) job to help those who do not wish to be helped.

We follow the tracks for hours, eventually arriving at an entrance to a cave, about 3’ high and 2’ wide. In addition to the humanoid footprints, we see that there are several sets of wolf prints as well. As the group argues over the best way to contact whoever is inside the cave, I call in and ask if anyone is there, to which I receive a low growl. Rogar decides to crawl in, while the others continue to ponder why we are there; I tell Kasa to “guard” and follow the dwarf. I hear Salma behind me, casting a light spell and following along as well.

Unfortunately, the tunnel floor has a sharp incline and Rogar falls the rest of the way in; with me following one second behind. I arrive to see three wolves about to attack and a small child cowering in the corner. Assuming she’s been captured (and aware I’m about to be attacked myself), I kill two of the wolves as Rogar kills the third. The dirt-caked child starts shrieking, Salma starts yelling, and we are joined by Tythe and Candal. Candal is sensing evil from the girl, but Salma is already running over to console her on the death of her “friends.”

We finally manage to get some story from the rescuee “Jenna”— she was an orphan from the goblin wars 11 years prior, and escaped from the orphanage about a year ago to live in the woods. She was eating whatever the wolves had leftover from their prey and kept busy helping people wandering in the woods; she does not wish to be rescued at this time. Tythe talks me into making some donations so that this budding “ranger” can survive without her companions. Someone occasionally points out the aura of evil emanating from her, but I can spare a fishhook and a spear if it means Salma will stop yelling. We depart quickly after that.

We decide to walk along the river for a while, and by this time I’m not even going to assume we have a destination. I’m being told that we are going to find “treasure” that is better than getting paid for a job, though they all on occasion offer me coins (I don’t even know if they have any money). At least Kasa seems happy socializing with everyone.

Later, we come to a clearing. There is a dead tree in the middle, with dead vegetation radiating out 20’ all the way around it. On the tree itself there are three crucified fey creatures, their rainbow-colored blood mingling on the trunk. As we ponder if it is related to the likely-undead treant we’d seen earlier, the group tosses oil at the base of the tree and then lights it and runs (I’m guessing this is more “not treasure”).

After a bit we notice the sun is setting and decide to make camp.

2 Kuthona 4709
Snowy mountains… somewhere

In spite of learning I that I am a half-orc, the party, my party, was fine with letting me take first shift during the night. I resolved not to let them down. So when I was hit with small, poisoned arrows from two different directions shortly after they all retired for the night, I forced myself to stay conscious and alert them, while returning fire in the direction one arrow had come from. I could tell from the commotion that more arrows were raining down on the group, so I cast a spell to entangle all the branches surrounding our camp, hoping the resulting canopy would keep our assailants busy. Not only did this not work, but the attackers were able to cast the same spell, ensnaring several of us in the process. I forced my way through the clinging vines to where Candal was standing, relieved to see that Kasa had managed to get out as well. I was fairly sure that I could hear Tythe and Rogar outside of the entanglement as well. I intended to go back in for Salma, but before I could, a third arrow hit me and I was knocked out.

When we awoke, for all of us had eventually succumbed except for Tythe, the elf excitedly explained that she found the rest of us in a pile beside the camp, and could see small-bodied creatures with high-pitched voices chanting; a ring of mushrooms surrounded us. She sensed something ominous about to happen, and rushed to where we were, breaking the fairy-ring just as the chanted spell was cast, disrupting it.

We may never know where we were originally destined to be teleported to, but I am certain we arrived someplace entirely different. The landscape is all ice and snow-covered mountains, and it is much colder than Darkmoon Wood. We did see, however, three cave entrances up a mountain that was only about one-half mile away and quickly made our way to it.

It was slightly warmer than the frozen landscape outside, but we had to make sure it wasn’t already occupied before making a new camp. Rogar is, thankfully, knowledgeable about all things rock, and as we examined the passage in the “nose” cave, we determined that the multitude of burns and cracks in the stone were the result of repeated hits by lightning. Now wary of a dragon or some other creature that could blast us with electricity, we continued on, coming to a spot where the “nose” met up with the two “eye” caves above. The mountain caves did resemble a skull somewhat, adding to the unease we were already feeling. We saw flickering lights ahead; I offered to sneak up and look by myself.

I crept forward to a large cavern, at least 40 to 50’ in width and depth lit by two braziers. At first, I thought a large dragon sat behind a 3’ by 6’ stone altar, but I quickly realized it was also made of stone. No one else appeared to be about, so I signaled my companions to come forward. We snuck across the huge cavern, half-expecting the dragon to come to life at any moment, till we were well behind it and could see a set of massive double-doors set into the mountain rock….

2 Kuthona 4709
Snowy mountains… somewhere

Candal knocked on the doors, and then he and Rogar attempted to open them, with no success. As they pondered what to do next, I opened the doors (I’m sure they had loosened them) to find a large, circular chamber. It contained three dwarven statues and a lever on a 30’ disc. The room smelled musty and had no visible exits. As we searched for a way out, both Rogar and Kasa started to mess with the lever (the former recognizing dwarven craftsmanship), and it occurred to me that it looked like the only means of moving on from the room. We all scrambled onto the disc, which turned out to be a platform, and as the dwarf pulled back the lever, the floor shook and rumbled, and we began to descend.

The platform moved for about a minute, and I suspect that we went about 200’ into the depths of the mountains. When it stopped, we stepped down into a larger chamber, with columns along both sides holding up balconies. Figures holding weapons stood along each balcony. I had a weird sense of déjà vu (I’ve been in very few grand halls of any sort). We started to look for a way up to the balconies— attempting to open doors we found between the columns, when I realized that Candal had become impatient, using his holy steed as a sort of ladder to get himself and Rogar up to one balcony. As they examined a statue, it screamed and attacked the human— gargoyles had apparently moved into the abandoned dwarven halls and were not happy to be manhandled by the paladin. As Candal and Rogar tried to fight them off, I clambered up to the balcony railing and began to chip away at the stony creatures, who seemed more interested in attacking the paladin than Rogar or me. We managed to slay two of the three. Salma got up as well, knowing healing would be needed as soon as we fought off our attackers. Tythe stopped working on opening a door long enough to drop the last one with an arrow.

It turned out that the gargoyles were the most exciting thing in the grand hall; we moved on to another set of doors. They opened into a 20’ wide passage that slopped upwards, with a cracked and gouged floor. Looking at the doors behind us, we found them to be damaged as well, as if something very heavy had smashed into them. We made our way up the ramp carefully after checking for any obvious trap triggers, until we found ourselves on a landing….

3 Kuthona 4709
Snowy mountains… somewhere

Up ahead of the rest of us and around a corner, Rogar and Candal catch sight of a clear cube sliding towards them, and one of them yells to throw fire. I have a bottle of alchemist’s fire which I manage to throw as soon as I see a bit of the cube myself, but I splash a bit on Rogar as well. I don’t get to hear him complain though, as he’s sucked into the cube almost immediately (and the cube douses the fire). Rogar appears to be unable to move at this point, so I pull out a spear and attempt to drag him out of the gelatinous cube, while Tythe is shooting flaming arrows into the thing. I feel that I am making some headway and it appears that Rogar has grabbed the end of the spear, but the shaft of the spear dissolves as I desperately attempt to pull him free. I see now that Candal is inside the cube as well, and though he appears to be swimming, he’s not going to be getting out on his own either. Salma has cast a spell at the cube, and now the dwarf is really large (the cube grows to accommodate him), and then somehow she ends up inside the cube as well. I move Kasa and Seven out of the way with a word of advice to the mammoth, and Tythe tosses flaming oil on the cube to burn it. The cube containing most of our party is now at the top of the trapped ramp and it’s getting a bit tricky to stay out of its way. I throw some acid at it, and remarkably, it moves back up the ramp to get away from that. I shoot an arrow at it myself, hoping to guide it towards some rocks where I hope to strain out our absorbed companions, and the thing explodes into clumps of inert jelly, disgorging Candal, Rogar, and Salma in the process. I notice that the cube has eaten their clothes, and manage to find two cloaks to give to Salma and Rogar.

They’ve lost a lot of equipment, but they did find a very nice adamantine breastplate and something we are calling a Helm of True Strike. Happily, Rogar can wear both.

We are pretty wiped out by this time, and never did get a proper rest, so we opt to go back to the great hall, into a balcony, to make camp. During the third watch, Tythe hears chanting in draconic, and many footsteps beyond the closed double doors. She wakes us as the doors open, and we see about twenty kobolds marching through the room, chanting praise to their dragon god. We might have let them pass, but Rogar and I could see that two carried a wrapped humanoid-shaped bundle on a pole between them, obviously a sacrifice. I shoot one of the sacrifice carriers with my bow, and then Rogar, Candal and I jump over the balcony, using the element of surprise to take out a few kobolds quickly. Salma and Tythe stay above, with Tythe picking off kobolds with her bow as Salma uses a light spell on rocks to better see the skirmish.

The battle was a lot tougher than anticipated— those kobolds were a lot stronger than any I’ve encountered in the past, and several of them were casting spells as well. After we killed off about 2/3 of them the rest fled. Now to see what is in that bundle that they abandoned.

3 Kuthona 4709
Snowy mountains… somewhere

As my companions collected equipment off of the dead kobolds, I opened the sack, which had begun to inch away from the activity. Out popped the head of a bound and gagged hairless albino humanoid with large red eyes. I pulled the gag from its mouth after letting it know we were rescuing it, and it replied with the most ear-splitting scream from between rows of razor-sharp teeth. I was going to put the gag back in its mouth till it calmed down, but I did not need to, as the paladin whacked it on the back of the head with his sword, knocking it out. Once it stopped screaming, I recognized it as a morlock— a degenerate subterranean humanoid. The always-kindly Tythe suggested we untie it and leave it outside of the room we were in, locking the door behind it so that if it started screaming, it would not draw an army of morlocks to us. We did just that, and then had enough uneventful time to rest properly.

After resting, we decided to continue checking the rooms beyond the great hall where we’d camped. We found a shrine to the dwarven god Torag, many rooms of barracks, and a dining hall. Then Tythe found some barrels and a chest, though the chest turned out to be a creature. It opened its mouth, two lines of sharp teeth appearing where the “lid” had been and whipped out a sticky tendril, catching Tythe and pulling her towards its gaping maw. It also had the audacity to grab Rogar’s favorite waraxe. Thankfully we were able to slay it and get both the elf and the axe back relatively unharmed.

We then wandered down a hall, set off an ice water trap (no one got splashed) and went through some double doors into a huge round and very deep stairway/room. The stairs circled around the edge. We carefully made our way down, taking note of the arrow slits in the walls. The dwarf and I took point, since we could see well enough in the dark, but Rogar managed to fall into a pit that appeared underneath him. I got hit by a few arrows as my companions tried to pull him out. I know at least one of the arrows I was hit with was poisoned; I think Salma got hit with one as well. We managed to run across the room, with a few more pits opening up under us and more arrows crisscrossing our paths. Candal pulled Rogar from the pit while Tythe picked a lock on the far side of the room. I ran back to lead them through a non-pit laden path to relative safety and we exited the room together.

3 Kuthona 4709
Snowy mountains… somewhere

We healed up in the tiny room, which had one other door. We went though it into yet another small room with yet another extra door. And so on… until we started to hear the doors closing behind us. Of course, they had no visible hinges, handles or locks. We then heard a cry for help beyond the next door. Figuring we’d be going forward anyway, we went through, trying (and failing) to hold the door behind us open. When we got to the last visible door and opened it, Kasa bounded through before I could stop her and came out carrying a gnome, as if they were old friends. Stranger still, some of my companions already knew the gnome sorceress Liake, and did not seem overly surprised to find her in a small, closed room in a mountain someplace that we could not identify. Perhaps all bad teleports go here.

As Candal started the monumental task of chipping away each stone door with an axe, I asked Liake if she had any spells that might help (figuring she did not, else she would not have been calling for help). She in fact did have a spell that was simply for opening doors such as these, and had the rest of the doors open in a minute.

Having not found a way out of our predicament, we found ourselves one door from the “firing squad” room again. We found two more doors across the room from ours, and took turns running across the open space to check them. One turned out to be a similar set of useless doors and rooms like the ones we’d just spent time in; the other was full of refuse. We had to opt for the refuse, hoping there would be another door beyond the waist-deep waste.

We had to dart quickly to the room, and unfortunately Rogar’s donkey “Seven” ended up being a shield for our cleric, dying before Salma had a chance to try and save it.

We got our bearings in the stink-infested room, only to discover that it was already occupied by an otyugh. While not at all surprising to find one there, we were still stuck fighting it. Liake tried various spells such as a summoned fire elemental while the rest of us hit it with weapons. In the end though, it died by a magic missile.

We’ve sifted through the debris and offal without finding another door. We did, however, find some brass pipes to summon rats with (not sure why we would do that) and of interest to me, a broken Mwangi spear of good craftsmanship, inlaid with gold and with an obsidian tip. I wonder if it could be fixed….

3 Kuthona 4709
Snowy mountains… somewhere

We got shot at some more, and Liake found a secret door (right by the entrance to the shooting range). Alarms sounded as we opened it, Kasa trumpeted back for good measure, and we piled in through the doorway. Almost immediately we found another secret door leading to some cells and a barred door, and beyond that, we encountered an ochre jelly. I got two shots off, and I am not certain that we were lucky that I hit twice, as suddenly we had three, albeit smaller, jellies to contend with. The resourceful gnome finished these off with a flaming sphere though, and we continued on.

We came to a purple glow, and walking towards it, found ourselves in a huge amphitheatre filled with fungi of all sorts. Some were edible purple mushrooms, some were shriekers (recognized and avoided at the last moment), while some violet fungi had tentacles and wanted to eat us. We dispatched what we needed to and avoided the rest.

We eventually chose a door out and found ourselves near some old weapon racks, but before we could check those out we noticed that some of the shadows had no obvious source. Fortunately for most of us, they were more interested in what Candal was doing, so we were able to kill two of them while he contended with the third. He looks a bit drained at the moment.