Player Characters
—–

Tint is playing Smith Westland the Human Duskblade, as well as a trained Lawyer.
Dragon is playing Oskar Ungart, the Dwarf Cleric of Frenden the Traveler.
Earth is playing Vallus Liadon, the Elven Rogue that appears to have a broner for Smith.
Mouse is playing Ruby DuKair, the Half-elf Ranger, on search for her brother.
Renitz is playing Doladin the Dwarven Fighter, part time psychopath.

—–
D&D Jackal’s Den Campaign
~The Mysterious Bergemor~
Session 4 Journal
—–

Cissnei asks the party what their plan of action is when they depart. They say that they’re going to Fieldfar to investigate the dragons, and then they’re going to make a bee-line around the forest to Queen’s lake.

On the way there, traveling over the hills and not by road, they find a beaten path, the way most probably travel to Fieldfar. It also begins to trickle, and eventually starts raining overhead. They see some riders with banners run past, Smith recognizes that the banners are those of Queen’s Lake, and that the soldiers in full plate on horseback aren’t just guards or soldiers, they seem to be part of the Castle Guard, and one of the Royal Elite. They don’t pay the party any mind, and they go on their way.

The party finds a place to camp, and the rain seems to be trouble where fire is concerned. Cissnei has a magical tent that is only about 5 feet by 5 feet in size, but the interior being that of a comfortable small cottage, with proper furnishings including a bed, dresser, large mirror, desk, and a hearth fire with cooking supplies nearby. They take watch for the night.

While Smith and Vallus are on watch, they see two glowing lights in the distance. They see them stop, and it appears that it’s another man from Queen’s lake. He hails the two of them and approaches, asking where they are headed. When they tell the guard about their intentions to go to Fieldfar, the guard lets the party know that Fieldfar has been evacuated as far as villagers are concerned, and that the Wyvern problem isn’t simply that, they’ve been counting Wyverns by the dozen. The guard also tells them that they’ve been deterring other adventurers from going to aid the town.

With the new information, the party decides that they should instead go to Fontliar and proceed by road, as many wyverns would be a great problem. Especially with this rain. They head off, and on the road, they hear some shrieking, and turn to see two wyverns flying at them. They fight the two wyverns, that turns out to be three wyverns with one of them being a zombie wyvern, and they survive. It was a tough fight, though. Vallus was picked up and wouldn’t have survived a fall if the Wyvern wasn’t shot down while it was low. Smith took heavy poison from the zombie wyvern’s stinger– fortunately they’re traveling with Cissnei, and she has the proper antidote, so he recovers.

They continue on the road and find that the towns are cramped with evacuated citizens, as well as a surplus of soldiers and guards from Queen’s Lake. Smith asks one of them about why they are occupying the neighboring towns, and the soldier says that they’re sending important messages along roadside as well as trying to evacuate Fieldfar and care for the people. He couldn’t say what the message being sent was specifically, though.

He did say that the message was issued by Sir Gildaroy Goldheart, the right hand to the Queen of Queen’s Lake. Smith recognizes the name, and all the stories of the great paladin in golden armor. He also knows that this paladin is essentially executor of all public affairs and running the city, as the queen doesn’t do much publicity herself.

A town or so later, they end up crossing a bridge and making a decision. The road according to the map leads along the side of the forest, where Vallus knows Centaurs, Minotaurs, and other forest creatures live… as well as the road being close to Fieldfar, with the looming wyvern threat. They decide to forego the road travel and make a straight shot to the next town., Stonewall.

They’re in the hills (Mind you, it is still raining, and progressively getting worse. Lightning and Thunder are quick to accompany the sound of rain.), and the whole party hears a series of shrieking wyverns. Doladin, however (Rolling the highest check and critting) hears a low roar among the wyverns. Cissnei implores the party to go investigate under invisible cover, as they may not get another chance to see what is going on. They do so.

When they follow the noise, they see a swarm of wyverns circling like a cluster of bats. They look closer, and the party can see a large, skeletal dragon flying in the center of the circling wyverns. Ruby, having studied dragons, knows that that was once a red dragon, and that it is very large and not worth messing with. Smith looks closely, and along with the dragon being an undead skeletal dragon, he knows that the dragon should be unable to fly, but has skin grafted onto the wings. He believes that to be the modified work of a Necromancer. Cissnei confirms such. They back the fuck away, and book it to Stonewall.

Stonewall, a military city, allows the party free stay in one of the local taverns, as they’ve been keeping charges for things low or even nonexistant while it’s been raining and dangerous with the wyvern threat. The party goes to sleep, and wakes up the next morning, and as they’re about to leave, Smith notices someone leaving with a purple and red cloak, and shining gold armor.

“Follow that paladin!” Smith says to the party, as they take off after him and his men, around 30 well armored, trained soldiers. They try to stay a safe distance behind the soldiers. They were aware of the party but didn’t mind them following, and they stop at the river to take rest. The party dismounts and tries to approach the soldiers. They’re greeted by a hailing soldier, guarding the camp among others. Smith asks the soldier if they may accompany Sir Goldheart to Queen’s Lake, and while the soldier is trying to say no, the party hears:

“Nonsense, let the travelers come forth!”

Gildaroy Goldheart himself approaches the adventurers, and shakes hands with Smith. Smith is astonished when Gildaroy recognizes his name, being only a local celebrity around Courtstern, and the rest of the party share a fondness with the paladin. Doladin seems to admire the paladin the most, and requests that the paladin duel him. (Even though this guy is serious business, and a high political figure.) Goldheart laughs heartily and agrees to let the party come with, and even agrees to spar with Doladin when they get to the next town.

They eat and prepare with the soldiers by the riverside, and exchange information with Gildaroy about their quest and details about the dragon calling all the wyverns around. They ask if they can know what sort of message Gildaroy had sent out, but they don’t get any results. Then, they head off, and the party is in a platoon of the mightiest knights in the region.

They don’t seem worried about any wyverns at this point, rightfully so.

They make it to the next town, Warcrest, and when after they settle into the tavern, Doladin and Sir Goldheart begin their sparring match. Sir Goldheart is handed a shining, golden greataxe, and Doladin, brave yet stupid, charges into the paladin, striking a blow on the paladin’s armor and being blown onto his back by a holy force. The paladin takes two mighty strikes, one knocking Doladin’s helmet clean off, and the other being very careful to cut Doladin’s cheek a little.

The people cheer, and Doladin even gets a little nickname, “Doladin the brave.” They also interact with other soldiers, and find out that there are four of the elite Royal Guard with Sir Goldheart. Siegmund the Strong, Vance the Valliant, Rodrick the Righteous, and Uther the Forgiving. Ruby and Rodrick bonded a bit talking to one another on the ride to Warcrest, and aside from Ruby’s poor (very, very poor) attempts to swoon over the man, Rodrick continues to show interest in her.

They sleep in the night, and in the morning they notice that Gildaroy had disappeared in the night. Rodrick and Ruby are out on a morning walk together, and when the romance starts blooming, Siegmund comes running up to Rodrick, and they exchange serious looks and words. They run off, and Ruby is saddened. The party grows worried about what is going on, and Doladin watches as Uther, Rodrick, and Siegmund all walk with Gildaroy back into the military fort.

When the paladin and his men get into the tavern, Gildaroy shouts the news that Vance has betrayed the platoon greatly. Posing as a member of the Royal Guard, he fought the paladin in the night, and it was a gruesome battle. Gildaroy isn’t sure if Vance has perished or not, and says that he seemed to disappear into black smoke on the fatal blow. The party is concerned and unsure on what to think, but the paladin rallies the soldiers, and they march to Queen’s lake. This time, a bit more somber of a ride than a jolly experience.

They arrive to Queen’s Lake, and Gildaroy personally apologizes to the party about the trouble, but thanks them for the pleasure of traveling along with him and his men. He then leaves, but not without warning the Party. He says that they are in Queen’s Lake at a very terrible time full of uncertainty and danger. He says that Bergemor the Great Wizard is no longer to be trusted, and that nobody is permitted to visit his castle in the middle of the lake, and that they will understand if they look to the shore.

That night, before it is completely dark and after they have claimed rooms at the Adventurer’s Guild in the district with Goldheart’s Castle, they go to the shoreside of the great city to see what the paladin means.

The storm seems to circle around the lake, and the calm eye of the storm seems to be centered around a castle.

Player Characters
—–

Tint is playing Smith Westland the Human Duskblade, as well as a trained Lawyer.
Dragon is playing Oskar Ungart, the Dwarf Cleric of Frenden the Traveler.
Earth is playing Vallus Liadon, the Elven Rogue that appears to have a broner for Smith.
Mouse is playing Ruby DuKair, the Half-elf Ranger, on search for her brother.
Renitz is playing Doladin the Dwarven Fighter, part time psychopath.

—–
D&D Jackal’s Den Campaign
~The Mysterious Bergemor~
Session 5 Journal
—–

The party sleeps in the Adventuring guild in the Goldheart district of Queen’s Lake. They all awaken, and before they decide to go to Bergemor’s castle, they decide to do some shopping around and accomplish some errands in town. They split off, the majority of the group going off and shopping, while Ruby ventures off to find Rodrick, and Vallus decides to… well, sit and drink in the guild.

The party is astonished to find that a magical barrier has been created above the city to keep it try and emulate sunlight, even though there really is not any. Nobody bitches, it’s been raining a fuck ton.

The shopping group finds a magic shop, and Smith gets himself a couple of rings, a ring of protection and a ring of immunity to poison. Doladin sells his sword of waterbending for a large price, and he picks up some boots of landing, and gauntlets of ogre strength. They find a blacksmith… which is more like a blacksmith slaver, and Smith buys himself a breastplate. Doladin hits on the huge half-orc woman and nearly dies or something, and they find another magic shop, where they’re almost swindled into buying a crappy rod of healing. They make the purchase, but it really doesn’t have a lot of charges on it anymore.

As Ruby was venturing out to find Rodrick, she bumps into a cloaked figure that quickly runs off. She immediately checks her belongings, and finds that she was left a note inside of her bag that read as follows:

“Beware the Queen’s men,
they are simple sheep, however,
their shepard commands them, and
the shepard is corrupted.”

When she finds Rodrick, she hands him a letter to send to Treehaven incase she dies. She also talks to him in private about the note she received on the way there, and Rodrick seems aghast about it, thanking Ruby profusely for showing him the note. She leaves, and the party regroups at the tavern. She tells them all about the note.

During the day, Smith and the rest of the group notice soldiers with the colors of Courtstern. It appears that the political uncertainty is brewing more, and soldiers of other regions are being deployed to the area.

They head off to the shore, when they see a bunch of soldiers, high ranking soldiers, as well as Gildaroy himself guarding the way to the shore. With the exception of Doladin, they all head back to the guild to teleport from there instead. Doladin approaches Gildaroy and asks him about what is going on, and it seems he is adamant about people not crossing the lake and expressing the wearyness towards Bergemor.

They all group up in the guild, in Cissnei’s room. The plan is to teleport straight to Bergemor’s castle, but three people would have to travel in the bag of holding in order for everyone to reach the destination. Cissnei expresses that she can empty the bag of holding so they don’t have to waste time trying to climb out. It’s a dangerous procedure, but they agree to it, and they teleport there successfully.

Once they are all present and nobody is being held inside a magical bag, they realize that it is not raining, and it is almost pleasant round’ the castle. They also immediately notice that Amber has glowing streaks of blue light in her skin. Amber appears to get very emotional and pushes the party to continue.

They approach cautiously, and open up the gate to the castle courtyard. Inside, there are statues of magical creatures, but the party wakes up one creature that was not a statue, a snow-white griffon. Cissnei tries to approach the griffon calmly, but it screeches and flies back around the castle.

They explore around the beautiful courtyard, and the front door to the castle has a very visible silver spell circle built into the castle door, which Smith identifies as a very powerful security measure. They stand there, presuming that the Griffon would alert Bergemor, and that the door would be opened. They notice the spell circle sink into the door, reduced to simple blue paint, and the door pushes itself open.

There are more statues of creatures inside, as well as the sounds of a piano being played. Doladin shouts HELLO and the piano playing stops, and then the party hears a voice say “Who are you?”

The party says that they were brought here by Amber, and at the top of the stairs they see a cloaked figure appear, and draw it’s hood down. It appears to be a very handsome elven man with long, silvery-grey hair. He asks the party why he’s brought Amber here, and Amber runs straight at him, turning into a dragon. He starts to cast a spell. Tension ensues. Smith identifies the spell as sleep (And had it not been for it only being casted on Amber, they would’ve been very hostile.) Amber falls alseep before she reaches bergemor.

Bergemor invites the party to parlay with him in the parlor, and they discuss what is going on for a while. The party learns that Bergemor has indeed been creating the storm, but to deter travelers. He has kept Amber’s mom alive and has been trying to remove a curse from her, and that Amber is a very rare breed of dragon, the offspring of her mother and an Omnipotent dragon of the plane of dragons. (And that’s also why she glows within proximity of her mother.) Cissnei asks about why he needed her journal, and he expresses that he cannot leave his castle, but has suspicion that the Wyvern problem is a sorcerer that Cissnei’s group had encountered and slain.

Garstrom.

Garstrom had been a chancellor for the Queen and Bergemor had helped Cissnei’s party in revealed Garstrom’s true power and focus on evil and bad shit. Bergemor became chancellor for the Queen, but the queen just doesn’t trust spellcasters anymore. Bergemor has leads and reasons to believe that Garstrom is no longer in his crypt, and roams the plane once again. He asks the party if they will accept a quest to seek out the crypt of Garstrom and find out what is what inside of it.

They stay the night in Bergemor’s castle, and then they teleport back to Queen’s Lake. Ruby attempts to get her letter back from Rodrick, but he supposedly rode out to Warcrest shortly after Ruby had left the manor. She flips out explains to the party that they have to follow him., and after a vote they do. They set off to Warcrest that day.

They spend the night in Warcrest, and in the morning Ruby catches Rodrick right as he is about to leave and drags him and Smith off to essentially interrogate him for information. He tells them that he is searching for Vance, and that his best lead is that Vance would have traveled to Thornin, his hometown. Ruby attempts to suede Rodrick from travelling alone, but he doesn’t budge and even leaves the room before there can be any more discussion of it.

They march for Rathnica, which is where Garstrom’s crypt is.

Once they get to Stonewall, Cissnei leaves the party, to head south and try to find her adventuring partners and discuss Garstrom.

They continue to head north towards Rathnica, when they camp by the side of the river, and are attacked by two Displacer beasts in the dead of night. (The party was not happy with the DM), and they manage to make out out alive despite the lack of armor and illusionist capabilities of the two beasts. Amber breathes electric fire, but since she is supposidly an omnidragon, the party is not surprised.

They ride to the small town of Alryne to get some supplies, and that’s where they leave off.

Player Characters
—–

Tint is playing Smith Westland the Human Duskblade, as well as a trained Lawyer.
Dragon is playing Oskar Ungart, the Dwarf Cleric of Frenden the Traveler.
Earth is playing Vallus Liadon, the Elven Rogue that appears to have a broner for Smith.
Mouse is playing Ruby DuKair, the Half-elf Ranger, on search for her brother.
Renitz is playing Doladin the Dwarven Fighter, part time psychopath.

—–
D&D Jackal’s Den Campaign
~The Mysterious Bergemor~
Session 6&7 Journal
—–

So, it is a bit difficult to describe everything that happens in a dungeon, especially as this one is bigger than the Ogre camp. I had described that one room by room, but this time I’m going to just try to brush over major events in the dungeon. So let’s get started!

They rode to Rathnica, which is in ruins, and they try to find the most secure building to stay the night in, and then they press on to the dungeon.

The dungeon started out as a marble shrine, filled with Ghouls. They killed the ghouls quite easily, and they found a way into the crypt in the back of the shrine, behind a secret door mechanism. When they get down to the bottom of the stairs, they notice a bunch of pits of spikes. About 30 foot drops. Foreshadowing?

It seemed that way. Major combat situations include Doladin rushing into a chest that ends up punching him in the face and trying to eat him. (A mimic.) They find a magically locked door with silver chains, and they decide to go in a different direction. There’s a hallway, with various tapestries hanging on the walls. They try to run through, and Vallus and Oscar fall into a pit trap with spikes but survive. They climb up the other side, and then they end up walking and falling into ANOTHER one. Eventually they look behind the tapestries and find some tunnels that bypass and clear a safe way through the hallway.

In the next room, there are several rooms. They end up going inside one that has three hellhounds. They slay two of them, but Smith tries to talk to a third Hellhound in infernal and command it, and surprisingly it works. He tries to befriend the hellhound and essentially succeeds, but the hellhound is still unresponsive to other party members. Inside this room, they also notice a shelf pushed away from a wall and a tunnel behind the shelf. It ends up being the lair to a bunch of kobolds that try to charge through the tunnel at the party.

Smith sets like six kobolds on fire and kills them all, and the remaining kobolds FREAK THE FUCK OUT. They basically end up surrender and giving the party everything that they’ve found in the dungeon. There’s some language confusion and the kobolds think everything includes the clothes on their back and such. They’re such silly creatures. Smith gives the kobold leader a bottle of whiskey, and as they leave the tunnel they hear the kobolds arguing about who is entitled to drink away the sadness.

Oh, by the way, they got a silver key with a crystal orb at the end of it from the kobolds.

Doladin rushes into a room with an opulent greataxe on a pedestal. He picks it up and ends up trapped inside with a ceiling that is going to drop on him, and the door that shuts behind him tells him that the only way out is through death. But lol, the party disables the trap from the outside and gets him outside.

The next room has a gold chest in it, and instead of Doladin rushing in, he lets the party investigate, and they find that the floor was an illusion and a straight fall into a pit of acid. They move on.

To explore the rest of the dungeon, the party finds a way with a bunch of webs and shit, and Smith uses his new friend to light all the webs on fire, and they hear a shit ton of squealing, huge spiders burning to death. Good job, party, you avoided a very tough fight. In the other direction they find a hidden room with chests filled with money, and gems, and some potions.

They also kill a bunch of skeletons, and during this whole time, they’ve found a bunch of magical shit. At this point, they go back up to rest for a bit because they’ve fought a lot of stuff down in this place.

When they go back down, they find another locked door in the direction of the spiders, but it seems to be locked with a spell rather than a lock. There was a glowing red spellcircle slowly turning, as well as black chains covering the door, and the chains seemed to drip with blood. They decide to go the other way to see if the way to unlock the door is in that direction.

They go unlock the other door with the silver key, and they end up finding a room with statues. They fight a basilisk that ends up turning Vallus to stone, and everyone is like HOLY SHIT and they decide to have Amber talk to bergemor, who ends up teleporting a bag with a bloody substance in a bottle. Amber says that bergemor told her to put it on Vallus, so they do that and he isn’t stone anymore.

As they proceed, Ruby finds out that one of the people that were turned to stone was Julian’s Fiance. The rest of the party was a bit too busy to notice, and Ruby was more taken aghast than anything. They end up leaving the statue there, though. They proceed to the next room (getting some extra loot too).

The next room has a giant tomb of stone (Because the party couldn’t handle it being mithril without being tempted to take the entire thing with them. Fucking hell.) and when Doladin approaches they’re attacked by two wraiths. Which are very deadly, and drain the fuck out of Doladin’s constitution leaving him with 2/18 for the time being. They do end up killing the wraiths with magic, as they’re immune to anything else. Then they loot the two chests in the room, and one of them has a black ring, with a black crystal, and the entire ring seems to smoke.

Amber notes that they still haven’t went through that other door, so the party thinks the ring may have something to do with it. They go back to the other door, and then they try holding the ring up to the door and tapping the door with the ring, but to no avail. Doladin insists on putting on the ring, even though the party is very weary being that they had previous encounters with an evil magical item.

After an agreement to trade his weapon temporarily for the ring, Doladin gets the ring and puts it on.

His entire body shrivels up, burns, and turns to ash in front of the party as he does so.
Doladin has died. Instantly. (But to be fair, he had 2 con at this point too lol)

They hear a voice at the other side of the door that weakly exclaims for help. Ruby can’t help but think the voice is familiar, but they don’t know who it is exactly. They don’t know how to open the door, and after trying to figure out a secret passage or something, they realize that Oskar can meld the stone wall into the shape of a door. When they do this, they find something game changing.

They see a very beaten-up and bloodied Gildaroy Goldheart in nothing but a loincloth inside the room, and he seems to have forgotten all memory pertaining to his identity and life events.

They leave the dungeon and try to figure out what to do in regards to the paladin (or whatever he would be referred to now) but can’t come up with anything. They have Bergemor informed of what has happened, and they know for certain that there is an imposter posing as Gildaroy, in a very powerful position in Queen’s Lake. So they avoid that shit when they leave.

Bergemor tells them to take the river and head away from Queen’s lake until he has the opportunity to teleport to them and talk to them.

On the river, they find a bunch of kobolds, and they don’t attack or anything though. Gildaroy shouts that the river is the property of Queen’s lake instead of their own, and that they should know who they are dealing with, exclaiming his name (Of course, that would be a terrible idea if people actually trusted kobolds to never lie.) And in the night, Vallus and the rest of the group find a lot of fun at aiming their bows at the kobolds and not actually drawing an arrow, but them always running away when they do this.

And long story short, they make it to a townhouse in Langdale, belonging to an old couple named Duane and Gladys, that know Bergemor. Apparently it was a good idea to know people in all towns in the region and regions nearby.

And the party leaves off with this tall, half orc man waving at them, riding up to the farmhouse on the back of a big fucking direboar, and he tells them that he is hungry and asks for food.
(Lol wtf)

I feel obligated to point out that Smith never told the Captain that he’d alert the authorities, only that he’d ‘tell someone’

Player Characters
—–

Tint is playing Smith Westland the Human Duskblade, as well as a trained Lawyer.
Dragon is playing Oskar Ungart, the Dwarf Cleric of Frenden the Traveler.
Earth is playing Vallus Liadon, the Elven Rogue that appears to have a broner for Smith.
Mouse is playing Ruby DuKair, the Half-elf Ranger, on search for her brother.
Renitz is playing Gronk the Half-Orc Barbarian, accompanied by his dire boar, Piglet.

McKade is now playing Aero, ???

—–
D&D Jackal’s Den Campaign
~The Mysterious Bergemor~
Session 9 Journal
—–

(Going back a little bit because of important information.)

The party arrives at the edge of Windrip, a town surrounded by a stone wall and moat. The drawbridge is shut, and there are two guards at the top of the gatehouse that tell the adventurers they cannot be let in during the night. So, fine, they decide to camp. The party decides to keep a watch during the night regardless, and Ruby spots that one of the guards is a Drow, a dark elven race that is not known to walk this realm.

Ruby alerts the rest of the party of this in the morning, and they know it to be a bit suspicious. However, when they walk through town (Not being stopped because of the dire boar, surprisingly,) they notice many drow mixed in with the rest of the townsfolk as well. They’re not quite sure what is going on there. They proceed through town on their way to Nexvar, where they notice many other travelers trying to get there as well. (It’s not cramped, but there are a lot more people on the road than they are used to.)

They approach the great city of Nexvar, a large city built on the slope of a mountain.
(For reference, it looks like this: http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/9138/lascanterlot.jpg)
As they approach, they find a HUGE stone bridge leading up into the city. Try to imagine something like the great wall or a wide stone arch bridge that just gets taller and taller. Eventually, as they keep going up, they are a few thousand feet up above the ground level, they are stopped. The party in front of them, consisting of a gnome couple, are being searched.

After an arguement with the guards (These ones all being Drow,) the gnome hands over a scroll of paper, and the guard reads it. The guard snaps his fingers, and the other guards take the gnome man by the shoulders and throw him off the side of the stone ramp. The lady gnome, screaming and crying in shock, quickly gets on the wagon and drives the horses back down the ramp. The party approaches, slowly.

The guards tell the party that all travelers trying to get inside the city must comply to a search check or turn back. Smith asks if the guards are just searching for normal contraband and such, but the guards say that they’re not admitting anyone from the Queen’s Lake or Courtstern regions. Smith, disappointed, tells the guards that they’ll have to turn back then, when they hear, “Wait! Guards, they’re with me.”

Behind the party, a raggety, large old man on white horseback with a scraggly dark grey beard and long scraggly hair approaches the guards. Smith says “Ah, so you’ve arrived,” or something of the sort, playing along with the man. The man responds, continuing this ruse, as the party has no idea who this man is. He hands the guards a note of paper, and after the guard reads it he says “I’m sorry for the hassle, sir. Your party can move forward into the city.”

Confused but arguing, the party follows the old man into the city, and they thank the old man for his help. The old man expresses to the party his interest in having them help him with a task, and that they will tell the party more if they agree to meet him at the Sleeping Dragon that night. They agree, and they go to the sleeping dragon, which is a large stone inn of course.

Smith gathers the loot from the dungeon and prepares it to be divided among the party, when he gets a call on his iStone. Bergemor gets confirmation from Smith that this is where they’ll be staying inside Nexvar, and tells him that they’ll be retrieving their additional rewards. He also tells Smith that unfortunately, he’s lost track of Rodrick. His spells have had no effect in determining the man’s wherabouts, but he tells Smith not to worry about it too much.

The party gathers in the room, and they claim their loot and divide their earnings, as well as retrieve their additional rewards from Bergemor. They discuss Rodrick’s wherabouts for a bit, and then go downstairs to eat dinner, when the old man from earlier walks into the tavern.

The old man rents a room out for himself and urges the party to talk to him in private. The party is a bit uneasy about this, but they follow the man upstairs and go into his room. He closes and locks the door behind the party, and warns them not to be alarmed. The party decides to be alarmed as everyone gets their hands on their weapons when the man casts a spell. Lol. But the man turns into this handsome elven man with regal white clothing with silver trimmings, and long brown hair. He asks the party if they would assist in going to the mountains in search of the ruins of a castle, and that a loved one of his is being kept inside.

The party and him discuss the mission specifics, and they agree to the mission after they are told they can claim more of the treasure they find inside, and that the man just wants to find his loved one, more specifically, his mother, whom is being kept there. The man’s name is Aero, and he prefers not to disclose much information about himself.

The party then spends the next day shopping around town and identifying the remaining magical loot that they have. They’re just about finished running all of their errands, when they go outside of a shop to see a split in the crowd, and that monster hunter with the black armor and eyepatch galloping quickly towards the castle, the crowd splitting for his passage. The party doesn’t make much out of it.

The next day, though, the party is awoken by the sound of drums and marching in the streets, and they see many soldiers, armed men, and spellcasters in formation, heading towards the entrance to the city. The party doesn’t make much out of this, either, but they figure that Nexvar must be heading out towards Queen’s Lake, as everything they’ve heard up to that point has made sense.

After they finish their breakfast, they head out towards the back of the city, where the mountain entrance is left mostly unguarded. The party heads out, opting to leave their animals back in town as the terrain will be fairly rough and impassable for many animals. As they proceed on the path, they ask Aero “why he decides to old man” while he’s in the city, and he says “When a prince runs way, his father makes it a point to find him.”

Then, the party is attacked by a young red dragon. They’re like “oh shit” at first, but it ends up being way too fucking easy of a fight. At least the dragon ends up rolling down the mountain and they don’t get loot out of it.

Oh, and they call Bergemor about the army marching towards Queen’s lake, and he tells the party that he destroyed the evil black ring, and that likely reduced Garstrom’s power significantly, and tells them that if it affected his polymorph in any way, it may have provoked a lot of things to happen. No real specifics other than that, though.

The session ends as the party sees the ruined castle they are heading to, as well as a cavern far below that on the same mountain, with gentle smoke billowing out of it.