CLD - Reign of the fellnight queen - Entry Five

Dear Gilra,

As our party just came together again, and everyone is being told what happened to the others, I have some time to tell you how I finally managed to sneak up to something and survive the it's encounter.

After following Tenzekil's instructions, we found the small river and followed it towards the tunnel under the castle, it started as a narrow cave and I once again went to scout what lay ahead.

It didn't take long before I found a small underground lake with the cave splitting into several different arms around it. I decided at random to follow the lake first, and it took only a few steps that way before a large rock elemental suddenly appeared. After smashing me once during my surprise, I managed to get a yell out to my lagging friends, so by the time the second smash hit me, my reinforcements arrived. With the five of us working together, it didn't much to break the elemental to pieces.

As the path near the underground lake offered a good place to rest, and it was already getting late, we spend a few hours there, after which I once again started making small scouting trips into the various tunnels.

While I did found a small plateau with some gear under what looked like a chimney going up with climbable vines all around, we decided that the two strong doors in the tunnels themselves needed examining first, especially the one with a voice behind it.

So after discussing some tactics, it was decided to throw open the door and rush in, ready to take on any enemy we might find inside. Once we did that however, we found what looked like a prison, with one prisoner inside and another, smaller door on the side.

We quickly hushed the prisoner to be silent and started questioning him. Apparently he was just an innocent woodcutter named Cort Finlen, who got captured some time ago and desperately wanted home. We where weary of him of course, but he did seem sincere, so in the end we just told him to be quiet as we let him sneak out to freedom.

Next up for our attention was the door to the side, we once again prepared to throw it open and attack whatever was inside, which turned out to be two combat ready spriggans. Kinley charged them while I dove over them to flank them, which together with Gnomy and Worf's ranged support made once again short work of them.

Meanwhile it seems everyone in our party has been brought up to date, so my time to scribble this is once again over.

Until soon,

Maruk

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tl;dr: We enter the palace through the underground river tunnel, encountering first a stone elemental, then finding a big chimney that seems to lead up into the palace and a few strong doors, the first of which has a prison behind it with an Innocent human woodcutter named Cort Finlen in it. After some suspicion we eventually decide to release him if he's quiet on the way out and we head on to the next door, behind which we find two Spriggans waiting for us. Some quick, acrobatic combat later and they are both down.

CLD - Reign of the fellnight queen - Entry four

Dear Gilra,

Like I assured you last time, I will now tell you about what happened that night before we set out for the faenguard plane.

As we were sleeping, Rhoswen managed to cast a nightmare spell on all but one of our party, the visions she gave us were horrifying and I'm sure she hoped that they would scare us from our quest. Luckily she couldn't affect all of us, so we were soon all awake, with Rhoswen's last cursing words still fresh on our mind.

Fatigued from our lack of rest, we eventually set out towards the portal to the faenguard plane, when we were once again stopped by a strange mumbling coming from up ahead. I decided to sneak ahead to find out what it was, only to suddenly appear in front of a huge waggling treeant. He seemed to be confused, as in his surprise he whacked me good, yelling something about us being dirty shadow creatures, destroying his forest and friends.

Apparently I manged a few more yells for help towards the party, but alas, by the time they came to my aid, the treeant had already pummeled me to a dying pulp. From what I heard afterwards, the fight was fearce, with the treeant turning some of the surrounding tree's alive, bringing their combined force to bear on the party but eventually our party did manage to subdue the tree, and the gourds of nodrim they found on him combined with his close proximity to the faenguard portal explained his drunken rage.

Luckily for me our friend Palombier was still nearby and able to resurrect me, as I had only recently recovered from my last encounter with death. And soon after, we finally crossed into the faenguard realm.

Once there, we could see Rhoswen's palace tower in the distance, with plentiful campfire light of her army in between. Knowing that we could do little against the army, we quietly set out towards the palace, encountering little trouble until we got close to the gap in the faenguard wall.

When we got close to the gap in the faenguard wall, a wasp swarm appeared before us, and some of us felt the sting of a dart on them. Once again, we had trouble with the swarm, so most of us just set out to find where the darts were coming from, during which I practically fell over something invisible and lost several minutes of my memories due to it, we quickly uncovered a pixie thanks to Gnomy's Glitterdust which didn't stand much chance against our combined attacks.

Meanwhile, Drako had been trying a new approach on the wasp swarm, and eventually managed to blow it away a few times, so while the swarm was busy returning, we decided to make some makeshift torches from branches, bedrolls and whatever else we had on us, in the hope the constant fire of those could deal some damage to the wasps. However while doing that, we noticed there were still some darts being fired at us, and set out to find where from, while simultaneously working out our cropped up swarm rage with the torches. It didn't take long before the wasps were singed on the ground just as two pixies, while our fighter Kinley was waiting to get his sight back after a close encounter with Gnomy's Glitterdust.

Meanwhile Delco caught up with us,he was a young druid that Palombier send as reinforcement, so after the introductions we set out exploring the other side of the gap in the wall. Once again I set out scouting ahead and once again I got a good beating for it, as it turns out Tenzekil had set up and ambush. He, his wasp companion and another wasp swarm had been waiting for us on top of a dirt knoll, probably with a great view of our approach.

Once again, my companions ran to my aid as soon as they heard I was in trouble, luckily I was only unconscious this time, a welcome aversion from my usual sprint to death's gate. Still, I missed half of what turned out to be a mighty battle, Worf drew the attention of the wasp swarm to him, fighting him with his still lit makeshift bedroll torch but eventually having to run without success, until he also joined the unconscious ones. Meanwhile Delco did his best to run around the knoll to try and get me back among the living, he managed to stabilize me and get me semi-conscious, but then he also got hit by the effect of battle, and fell unconscious next to me.

Since part of our party was still behind, looking to rebuild the faenguard wall, that only left Gnomy and Kinley, with Kinley successfully focusing on the wasp companion and Gnomy doing his best in attacking Tenzekil while also trying to convince him to give up, receiving the attention of Tenzekil's lightning bolts and fireballs in return. It seems Kinley managed to slay the wasp just in time to give some healing potions to Gnomy, resulting in a close save as Gnomy eventually convinced Tenzekil that he was fighting for the wrong team.

With Tenzekil no longer a threat, our small party was once again healed and Tenzekil explained to us that a frontal assault on Rhoswen's palace was madness, instead he convinced us that a hidden back passage, following a small river streaming out from under the palace, with it's spring in the underground dungeons might be a better approach. So we once again set out towards the castle, this time for the back passage, making sure to let our rearguard who were still repairing the wall know where to follow us.

The tale of how I finally managed to sneak up to something without getting killed will be for the next time however, as our party is once again preparing to move.

Until soon,

Maruk

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tl;dr: We ended our night in a nightmare spell from Rhoswen, encountered a hostile, drunken treant called Vinroot on our way to the planes portal. Eventually entered the faenguard plane and noticed huge armies between us and Rhoswen's palace, snuck between them up to the faenguard wall where we got attacked by two hidden pixies and another wasp swarm. After dealing with them we passed through the wall and ran into Tenzekil, his Wasp companion and another wasp swarm. After giving Tenzekil a beating he lost his last motivation and turned to our side, willing to tell us about the hidden entrance to Rhoswen's palace.

CLD - Reign of the fellnight queen - Entry three

Dear Gilra,

As I told you last time, the druid Devarre send us out to the Dead Man's Drop waterfall in search of the source for the magicall fog that has spread all across the land. A quick hike took us from Devarre's home to the waterfalls, where we once again set out cautiously exploring what we were up against.

As we were doing our best to scale the slippery slopes around the falls, Kupo, who had gotten ahead decided to throw a boulder into the pool between the falls. Instantly two water elementals rose up from the dept and Kupo became allot more eager to help the rest of us up the slope as fast as possible.

As we fought the huge water elementals, we were stuck on a small ledge between the pool and a deep drop, with the ever present fog seriously limiting our view, our only option was to get up close and personal while the elementals kept trying to wash us away or suck us into their spinning vortexes. After a dizzying fight, we did end up cleaning up the water elementals, just as their spinning had cleaned up some of our more muddy companions. So with the pool once again calmed down, we decided to take a break to steady ourselves.

Near the end of our rest, I was already getting anxious, so while my companions broke up camp, I did some sneaky acrobatics to explore between and behind the falls.

Luckily no new elementals sprang up while I did this, as the area seemed as benign as your usual fog covered waterfall. The only thing I did find was a small cave behind one of the waterfalls, and after I got the rest of the group to join me, we discovered a chest with enchanted stones within it, which we guessed must be the source of the mysterious fog.

As we left the cave again, our suspicions were confirmed, the fog was surely lifting. But it seems we weren't the only ones who had noticed, as suddenly the entire ridge around the falls was filled with all kinds of spriggans and wasps, while Tenzekil's voice once again rang out with anger.

While this ambush seemed bad to us, it seemed we had seriously annoyed Tenzekil, so my spirit lifted first from knowing we were stopping Tenzekil's sinister deeds, then from hearing another familiar voice coming to our rescue. It was Palombier the unicorn, who urged us to glide down the waterfall as he and his friends could get us to safety from there.

Once Palombier and his fellow unicorns teleported us away, we found out they had been gathering an army of forest creatures. And they started explaining what was going on to us.

Apparently, a long time ago, there had been a disagreement between a fey called Rhoswen and the other fey of the first world. When Rhoswen started dabbling in shadow magic, using it to twist and pervert the creations of the first world, the other fey somehow managed to use a magical staff called the crook of Cildhureen and several ward stones to create the faengard. They also constructed several 'anchor points' in the first and second world, attuning the staff to them and locking Rhoswen away in the Fellnight Realm. The strangely inscripted stones near Devarre's home were one of those 'anchor points'.

Now however, Rhoswen had somehow broken the faengard wall and reached out into our world, as the ward stones we had just found were part of that wall. They had also noticed that Rhoswen had started building an army which is why they were building their own, as Rhoswen's victory could only lead to even darker ends.

Then they asked us if we could help them once more, while their army might stand a small chance against Rhoswen's army, allot of deaths could be prevented if they could reseal the faenguard prison. For that they would need a small team, used to working together against bad odds, and capable of sneaking through the opposing army towards Rhoswen's palace. On the way they would need to rebuild the faenguard wall and steal the 'crook of Cildhureen' staff from Rhoswen, then move to the highest tower in the Fellnight Realm which was probably part of Rhoswen's palace and once again activate the 'crook of Cildhureen'. That should reseal the faenguard prison and turn Rhoswen's army into disarray.

Our party got the hint and we soon accepted the mission, deciding to use the unicorn's teleporting ability to resupply, after which we returned to the camp for a last nights rest before we set out.

Meanwhile rumors of our adventure in securing the warding stones had spread through the assembled army, so Palombier asked one more favor of us before allowing us to sleep, would we be willing to give a speech to the assembled troops, hopefully giving them some extra courage for the coming days?

Never the ones to back down from a challenge, we did our best at speeching, alas, it did not work as well as expected, so discouraged we lay down to rest for the night.

Once again, my time to write has come to an end, but I assure you, next time I write you will come to know what happened that night.

Until soon,

Maruk

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tl;dr: Explored the Dead Man's Drop waterfalls, fought some water elementals, discovered a small cave behind the water drop with enchanted stoned, got ambushed on the way back out but the unicorn Palombier and his friends came to the rescue. They explained the stones were ward stones part of and enchanted wall called the Faengard, which is supposed to keep the evil fey queen Rhoswen imprisoned. They task us to sneak into the Fellnight realm to restore the wall, after which we need to steal the crook of Cildhureen from Rhoswen and use it to re power the Faengard prison.

CLD - Reign of the fellnight queen - Entry two

Dear Gilra,

The magic users are once again preparing their spells, so I have some time to write about what happened after the wedding.

Like I mentioned before, the locals had directed us into the forests to the west, where a reclusive druid might help us find some more answers to this all encompassing fog and the Tenzekil who seems to have caused it. So off we went, into the forest to the west, hoping that the druid would show themselves to us.

By nightfall however, we were still walking without success, and as we were deciding where to stop for the night a distressed dryad appeared, she quickly introduced herself as Breena and urged us to rush to her sisters aid, as she had just been captured by some sinister spriggans.

As we snuck closer to where Breena directed us, we saw four spriggan around a big fire, with Breena's sister Fira and an unicorn lying tied up nearby. As one of the spriggans threw the dryad into the fire, we knew we had no time to loose and we all rushed in. At first Gnomy and Worf focused on getting the dryad out of the fire while the rest of us tried to take down the four spriggan's, however before the dryad could be rescued out of the fire, the unicorn was thrown in too, and it became an all out grapple and slice fest. In the end we did defeat the spriggan and get the dryad and unicorn to safety before they were to heavily singed, so I'm calling it a great success.

As an extra bonus, the dryad Fira and unicorn Palombier told us where the druid Devarre lived, how his home and the surrounding area was hidden by a glimmer and how to counter it's effect.

So by the next morning we headed for the druid's home, which appeared to be on a small hill. Unsure how Devarre would react to us we sneaked on the approach, discovering some strange boulders with magical looking symbols on them before finally finding a eerily quiet home. Once we entered that we found a confused looking Devarre, who didn't seem all too pleased that we had come to visit. Since he was acting verry strange for a druid, we thought something was wrong and we decided to overpower him.

So as some of us were inside the house trying to grapple and pin down the druid, some of us were outside looking for possible causes to the druid's strange behavior while Manon managed to fall into a pit trap where a wolf's corpse was already rotting, only adding to our distrust of Devarre's behaviour. Eventually we did manage to immobilize Devarre and as we did, some strange, small creature seemed to seperate from him and fly outside and out of sight before any of us could react.

Devarre, who suddenly looked allot calmer and exhausted, explained that he had been possessed some time ago, and that whatever possessed him had forced him to kill his own companion and do other unspeakable deeds. As he was telling this, we could see him become more and more distraught, as the memories of what he had done returned in full force, so we were not surprised when he told us to ask our questions and then leave him, so he could meditate and pray about what he had done and how to redeem himself.

So we explained about our mission and in return he told us about the Deadman's drop waterfall nearby, from where he thought the magical mist originated.

Off we went again, towards the Deadman's drop, but that tale will be for later, as my companions have once again finished their meditation, and more adventure awaits.

Until soon,

Maruk

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tl;dr: Set out west from wedding to find reclusive druid, encounter dryad Breena who tells of her sister dryad Fira and unicorn Palombier being sacrificed against their will, saving them gives us info on druid Devarre's location. On finding Devarre he seems possessed, after freeing him from possession, he tells us the fog emanates from Deadman's drop waterfall north from there.

CLD - Reign of the fellnight queen - Entry one

Dear Gilra,

A close encounter with death can change how one sees the world, a few hours ago I had another close call, and I decided to start writing down my adventures, so that they can still be heard if I were no longer around to tell them.

Our latest trouble started a few days ago, we had been invited to the wedding of Kailah & Elyin in Bellis, and after the cellars and crypts we had just been crawling through, our party agreed that some rest and relaxation was in order.

By the time we arrived in Bellis, our mood had already lifted, Kupo for example couldn't resist playfully tossing some fishing youth into the water while the rest of us played some throwing games with the locals. It didn't take long however or trouble caught up with us, first Kupo ran into the father of the fishing boy, who had a different idea about the funniness of his soaking wet son, luckily we could convince him to take a lighter view on it before it came to fighting.

The customary wedding auction however, had a quite more serious outcome. You see, around here it is apparently a custom for the local girls to auction of a pie combined with a date at every wedding, it gives some extra gold to the wedding couple and offers the local boys a chance to have a date with their love interest. This time however, Drako and Gnomy decided to join in on the fun, and with their spoils from previous adventures they easily outbid the locals, in particular a now angry gnome called Tenzekil, who quickly stormed off into the woods. In the end Drako won the main auction and secluded himself with his pie and gnome girl in the decorative maze, just as the wedding got underway.

Shortly into the wedding, a low, ominous buzz interrupted the priest, and two wasp swarms appeared from behind the gazebo where the couple and the priest were standing. My daggers were useless, just as all our other weapons, as for every wasp we hit, there were thousand others still flying. The magically inclined ones among us had a similar problem with their spells, as only a few were effective, so it didn't take long before some of us were guiding the locals in a retreat, while the rest tried whatever they could think of to delay or destroy the swarms.

Luckily Drako's love for fireballs managed to show us a solution, and I noticed that I could probably make some half decent molotov cocktails from the oil flasks I was carrying. So together we eventually managed to get the locals to safety and destroy the wasp swarms.

Unfortunately, that wasn't all that our mysterious opponent had in store for us, as now a thorn wall appeared all around us and Tenzekil's bellowing voice started gloating at us, meanwhile two large, twisted and gnome looking creatures with fierce looking barbed arms appeared, who turned out to be the fabled spiggans. Luckily we could hit these, so our victory was swift.

Once more Tenzekil's voice rang out, this time cursing us for defeating his minions, and while the thorn wall disappeared, an all encompassing mist engulfed us all.

Slowly then, as the direct danger seemed to have gone away, the locals returned. From them we learned that Tenzekil used to be a beekeeper who got to close to sinister forces, and that somewhere in the forest to the west a reclusive druid wandered, who might be able to help us in getting rid of this fog and the threat to Bellis.

This is only the beginning of our story, but as our magical users have finished preparing their spells for the coming day, I fear further writing will have to wait.

Until soon,

Maruk

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tl;dr: Invited to wedding, pissed of local gnome called Tenzekil, Wasp swarm crashed the wedding, followed by fellnight spriggans and Tenzekil gloating/cursing us as a fog engulfed us.

Cronicles of the Ludus Dufla - In the beginning

Some time ago, I joined a group of friends and started playing Pathfinder, a tabletop rpg sometimes nicknamed D&D 3.75.

During the first session I considered keeping a journal of our adventure, but in the end little came of it until last weekend. I had long stopped keeping notes and apparently neither had any of the other players, so when we got instructions from one of the npc's on how to sneak into the Big Bad's castle undetected, we had some trouble remembering what exactly we where supposed to do once we got there. This time we could luckily convince the GM to fill us in again, but apparently the moment lingered in his mind.

A few days later while messaging about something unrelated, he brought up my early journal attempt, wondering if I still did something with it, and we got talking about it. In the end I decided to try another attempt at chronicling our adventures, and this time it seems to be going pretty well.

Our party is called the Ludus Dufla and Maruk is a low level halfling rogue, who after another close encounter with death decided to start writing down his adventures in a diary, in case he stopps being around to tell them himself. Those entries will be what you read in some of the posts to come.

Oh, and for some strange reason he calls his diary Gilra :)