Simply Kraken, Old Sport

Siathamh 27 - Seachdamh, 6639; next holiday is Brightest Night, 6/35

The Party:

• Rig Bigny, Gnomish Beastmaster
  • Flit, the bat familiar
  • Clench, the Wardog War-Badger
  • Midnight, the Panther
  • Noona, the Lion
  • Faufe Yitaw, Dogwere (Badgerwere?)
    • Rawf, Wardog familiar
    • Aroof, Wardog familiar
  • Llarm Paphyra, Elvish Polydoctorate
    • The Metal Man, construct
• Caranthir, Human Leader of Men
  • Rhea Trueheart, Elvish Nightblade
  • Lucille "Luce" Burwood, Fighter
  • Elenora Garrard, White Mage
  • Gimli Trollriver, Dwarven Fury
• Gróin of Norston, Dwarven Sapper
  • Laurita Gomez, Priestess
  • Herman Thorpe, Ectomancer
    • Baelnar Grimtor, Dwarven Sapper
• Quetgar, Thrassian Assassin
  • Zarc, Thrassian Gladiator
• Sorvald, Thief
• Mor Gibs, the Wonderworker
• Craydos Silverskin, the Gold Skinscribe
  • Pentzkin Singletossle Pocketspringer, gnomish beastmaster

Having found the lair of the Draugr, the party swooped in to clear out the last of the baddies. After killing and/or turning a group of haugbui, the group went further in. Craydos illuminated the way, as Sorvald found and disarmed traps. After quite a bit of searching, they uncovered a strange map, and finally the way in to the draugr's lair. As they found later, the entrance to the lair was through solid stone - the draugr could cast passwall, and thus move a section of solid earth. Through a murder pit under a fake coffin, they discovered a secret entrance; following it, they finally found the undead creature's tomb. The turned haugbui were destroyed, Gróin walled the entrance off, and Laurita began casting Dispel Evil. A few minutes in, and the draugr's mist-form rose from the coffin and fled towards the door; finding it closed, he attempted to cast a spell, but was frozen by the light. Finally breaking free, the draugr managed to cast Passwall again, and fled into the passage; Gróin dispelled the passwall, but too late. Craydos dispelled Gróin's wall, and the group moved into the hall! Sorvald, thinking quickly, grabbed a bag off of Gróin and tried to catch the gaseous form as it slipped by, to no avail. Craydos, however, pulled one of his jars for monster parts out, heaved it over the cloud, and snapped the lid shut, trapping it!

Returning to the tomb, they waited until Laurita was nearly finished casting, then opened the container... and the spell failed. Luckily, the gas couldn't escape; the draugr was out of passwall spells. The second casting was enough, and the creature was instantly turned to ash. After collecting the ash, the party dumped it into the stream near the troll's camp, and the draugr was finally defeated.

The hex cleared, the group travelled back to Caranthir's land, for the midsummer feast. The golden dragons were invited; when the topic of the undead kraken came up, the male volunteered his services. When the festival was finished, the party set off to find the northern paladin and finish off the undead kraken once and for all.

Before that happened, however, Gróin needed to check his henchmen's loyalty... and the sapper decided not to stay with him. Luckily, he did choose to hang out with the Ectomancer, so he's still with the party.

The paladin was overjoyed to see them, and introduced his companions: Ham, a hide-clad barbarian with a saber-tooth tiger for a mount; Twych, the cleric; and Toxwell Dishthunder Galazooks, aka The Great Galazooks, Gnomish Wizard. They set off, with Galazooks accidentally teleporting himself there, Twych and the Paladin flying with the party, and Ham riding the saber-toothed tiger, who appeared to be wearing boots of speed. Or something.

Along the way, they ran into another draugr - not as high level as the previous - and watched with great interest when the barbarian killed it in a single round, hardly slowing down at all. Galazooks was waiting for them, having somehow managed to find sand to make a small beach with. Craydos summoned a 10-headed sea hydra, which dove towards the water... and was absolutely shredded before it ever touched the surface. Mor Gibs, laughing, summoned his battle kraken, dropping it towards the lake... and it managed to survive a round before being destroyed. Mor Gibs stopped laughing.

The two dragons dove for the lake, blasting it with frost and fire; Mor Gibs launched lightning bolts at the water, as Galazooks shot a cone of frost and Gróin blasted it with boulders. The cleric cast something on the barbarian and paladin, and the barbarian stepped forward, yelling a challenge to the undead monster. It accepted, slamming its great tentacles down... and sliding off, reflected by the cleric's Protection from Evil spell. Grinning, the barbarian slammed his mighty hammer into the creature, flattening a tentacle. The paladin rushed in, slicing at the beast - and destroying it! He continued forward, dumping a handful of holy water into its decaying beak, and the creature melted into a black ooze.

The cleric sat at the shore and began casting a ritual spell he had prepared, to cleanse the lake...

As a note: I assume most of what was taken from the first draugr was left in Gróin's stronghold. The draugr's lair contained two potions and a strange map, as well as a Scroll of Arcane Spells (Written in Draconic): Magic Mouth (1st lvl), Light* (1st lvl), 2 Scrolls of Ward against Elementals, a Scroll of Ward against Magic, a Sword +1, light 30' radius, and a Spear +1. Finally, Gróin's birthday was the 3rd.

• Experience from Encounters
  • 5 haugbui (325)
  • 1 draugr (9HD, 3100)
  • 1 cloud giant (peaceful)
  • 1 draugr (7HD, 1840)
  • 1 undead kraken (24100)
• Experience from Treasure
  • 1000 Electrum
  • 1000 Gold
  • 6 crates of armor and weapons (1350)
  • 2 crates of glassware (400)
  • 5 jars of spices (4000)
  • 3 amethyst cylinder seals depicting religious scenes (3600)
  • 7 opal cameo portraits and intaglio erotic tableaux (5600)
  • 15 pieces of ivory (1500)
  • 26 jade carvings of heroes, monsters, and gods (5200)
  • 400 monster feathers (400 - these were kept by Craydos for making magical stuff, and taken out of his share of the treasure)
  • 1 alexandrite (500)
  • 1 Bone jewelry (28)
  • 1 pearl jewelry (2000)
• XP sans Kraken-hunt: 4925, plus 24,178 once sold
• Kraken-hunt XP: 25,940
• XP for Caranthir, Craydos, Mor Gibs, Gróin, and Sorvald: 4253
• XP for Rhea, Luce, Gimli: 274
• XP for Elenora, Pentzkin, Herman, Laurita, and Baelnar: 2127

Battle Royale

Siathamh 12-27, 6639; next holiday is Brightest Night, 6/35

The Party:

• Rig Bigny, Gnomish Beastmaster
  • Flit, the bat familiar
  • Clench, the Wardog War-Badger
  • Midnight, the Panther
  • Noona, the Lion
  • Faufe Yitaw, Dogwere (Badgerwere?)
    • Rawf, Wardog familiar
    • Aroof, Wardog familiar
  • Llarm Paphyra, Elvish Polydoctorate
    • The Metal Man, construct
• Caranthir, Human Leader of Men
  • Rhea Trueheart, Elvish Nightblade
  • Lucille "Luce" Burwood, Fighter
  • Elenora Garrard, White Mage
  • Gimli Trollriver, Dwarven Fury
• Gróin of Norston, Dwarven Sapper
  • Laurita Gomez, Priestess
• Quetgar, Thrassian Assassin
  • Zarc, Thrassian Gladiator
• Sorvald, Thief
• Mor Gibs, the Wonderworker
• Craydos Silverskin, the Gold Skinscribe

Gimli, retroactively, was left behind to gather more troops; he encountered a few creatures on the way down, and negotiated as best as he could. The scariest were the two white dragons, certainly...

Caranthir, Gróin, and their henchmen lead their armies to battle. After Rhea did some spying, they managed to determine that there were about 60 trolls, and got the lay of the land - as well as a prisoner, who told them about the trolls, but didn't have much other information, apart from the trolls trying to get a spy into their camp, and failing.

The battle began some distance apart; the trolls knew they were coming (due to some spying of their own), and generally what to expect. Charging in, the two main groups of trolls did some heavy damage to the front lines; Gróin cast a wooden staircase to scale a cliff, and brought the battle to the next level (ha), though was slowed by a continual pelting by skeletal crossbowmen, which are *surprisingly* effective. Gróin's battle group was destroyed, and the ugly horde of troll women captured Gróin, dropping him into a flame-retardant bag and dropping a bunch of rocks on top to keep him still. The witch doctor probably helped too.

On the rocky plains below, Caranthir made headway against the trolls, and some new allies - troglodytes! They plinked some rocks off of Caranthir, who generally ignored them because he was immune to normal missiles. Both sides were facing heavy losses, when Caranthir called to the chief, asking for a fair fight, winner take all. The chief, liking his odds, took him up on his offer; Caranthir beat him easily, and set fire to his corpse. The trolls turned and fled, leaving Gróin behind (it was a near thing). At the top of the cliffs, a voice called down, offering the same terms; winner take all! Caranthir could make out a pale-skinned undead pushing to the front of the unit of zombies, his teeth bared. Laughing, Caranthir took him up on his offer.

This fight was not quite the same. Caranthir struck again and again, but the creature refused to go down. Due to very unfortunate luck, he only managed to get a single blow in, but Caranthir certainly felt that strike! Finally, he slashed through the creature... which turned into mist. Blinking, Caranthir could only watch the mist float up into the mountains.

The party mopped up the undead as the troggles escaped, but the hex is not yet clear; they need to find the lair of the draugr!

Treasure: Leather Armor, 3x Shields, 15 potions, 1 sword, a Scroll of Ward against Elementals, a Scroll of Ward against Magic, and a Scroll of Arcane Spells (Written in Elven): Magic Missile (1st lvl), Invisibility (2nd lvl). The draugr was equipped with a Spear, Ring Mail Armor, and a Shield; the troll chief had a magical sword.

• XP from Encounters (just Gimli)
  • 2 caecilian (1140)
  • 24 skeletons (312)
  • 2 white dragons (peaceful... eventually)
  • 13 zombies (377)
• XP from Mass Battle
  • 34 dwarven crossbowmen (-340)
  • 20 mounted bowmen (-260)
  • 88 heavy infantry (-880)
  • 4 ballista (-160)
  • 60 trolls (40800)
  • 30 troll women (4200)
  • 30 troll children (300)
  • 120 troglodytes (2400)
  • 60 skeletons (780)
  • 60 zombies (1740)
  • 1 draugr (escaped)
• Experience from Treasure
  • 1000 Copper, 4000 Silver, 5000 Electrum, and 6000 Gold worth 8910 instantly
  • Other treasure worth 75,313gp once sold:
    • 2 3HD monster carcasses worth 100 gp
    • 80 3HD monster horns worth 320 gp
    • 4 4HD monster carcasses worth 120 gp
    • 5 6HD monster carcasses worth 150 gp
    • 4 8HD monster carcasses worth 280 gp
    • 12 amethyst cylinder seals depicting religious scenes worth 14400 gp
    • 187 animal horns worth 20gp each worth 3740 gp
    • 6 bags of loose tea worth 450 gp
    • 7 barrels of fine spirits or liquor worth 1400 gp
    • 1 beast parts jewelry worth 31 gp
    • 67 bottles of fine wine worth 335 gp
    • 4 bundles of rare fur pelts (such as ermine, mink, or sable) worth 2000 gp
    • 1 Carved jade jewelry worth 1100 gp
    • 6 cord of hardwood log worth 30 gp
    • 15 crates of armor and weapons worth 3375 gp
    • 9 crates of glassware worth 1800 gp
    • 13 crates of monster parts worth 3900 gp
    • 2 crates of terra-cotta pottery worth 200 gp
    • 1 Fine wood jewelry worth 400 gp
    • 1 flawless diamond worth 4000 gp
    • 17 ingots of common metals worth 17 gp
    • 29 jade carvings of heroes, monsters, and gods worth 5800 gp
    • 6 jars of dyes and pigments worth 300 gp
    • 3 jars of lamp oil worth 60 gp
    • 5 jars of spices worth 4000 gp
    • 100 monster feathers worth 200 gp
    • 350 monster feathers worth 1050 gp
    • 350 monster feathers worth 1750 gp
    • 150 monster feathers worth 900 gp
    • 10 opal cameo portraits and intaglio erotic tableaux worth 8000 gp
    • 1 rich fur cape worth 1100 gp
    • 1 rich fur cape worth 1700 gp
    • 1 rich fur cape worth 2000 gp
    • 18 rolls of garishly dyed cloth worth 180 gp
    • 12 rolls of silk worth 4800 gp
    • 5 rugs or tapestries worth 25 gp
    • 1 statuettes worth 300 gp
    • 1 whorled nephrite jade worth 1500 gp
    • 1 Wrought orichalcum jewelry worth 3000 gp
    • 1 wrought silver jewelry worth 500 gp
• Total XP from experience: 53,035, plus 37,657 when the treasure sells.
• XP for Gróin and Caranthir: 9643
• XP for Rhea, Luce, Elenora, Gimli, Laurita, Baelnar Grimtor, and Herman Thorpe: 4821
• Extra XP for Gimli: 915

Extra notes: since Gróin lost 4 ballista, with 4 conscripted peasants manning each ballista, that means his population drops by 16 people, which is roughly 3 families. Also, the remaining troops take half the treasure (and gain XP from it); 4,455 gp of coins and 37,657 gp of treasure (which means less you have to sell, personally), for a total of 42,112. As long as you have fewer than 421 individuals (counting the 4 each at the ballistas), all your surviving troops have gained veteran status!

Other notes: Ballista only fire once every other round, or less, depending on how many people are manning them. I let you get away with firing them every round, mostly because they missed the trolls every time, but only this time. Also, no more retroactive shopping. Also, if Caranthir lost more (or fewer) than 50 individuals, I'll just use that as an XP loss (or gain) next time.

Treaties and Tricky Traders

Còigeamh 23 - Siathamh 12, 6639; next holiday is Brightest Night, 6/35

The Party:

• Rig Bigny, Gnomish Beastmaster
  • Flit, the bat familiar
  • Clench, the Wardog War-Badger
  • Midnight, the Panther
  • Noona, the Lion
  • Faufe Yitaw, Dogwere (Badgerwere?)
    • Rawf, Wardog familiar
    • Aroof, Wardog familiar
  • Llarm Paphyra, Elvish Polydoctorate
    • The Metal Man, construct
• Caranthir, Human Leader of Men
  • Rhea Trueheart, Elvish Nightblade
  • Lucille "Luce" Burwood, Fighter
  • Elenora Garrard, White Mage
  • Gimli Trollriver, Dwarven Fury
• Gróin of Norston, Dwarven Sapper
  • Laurita Gomez, Priestess
• Quetgar, Thrassian Assassin
  • Zarc, Thrassian Gladiator
• Sorvald, Thief
• Mor Gibs, the Wonderworker
• Craydos Silverskin, the Gold Skinscribe

The group once again traveled to the Dwarven cities, selling their treasure and looking for people to hire. First, however, Caranthir decided on a name for his little kingdom: Whitescale, and its capital city, Quenls. Gróin called his new kingdom Jordland. Caranthir also made a deal with the golden dragons that, for 2,000 gp each, they are willing to help keep simple problems (like minor beastmen incursions) at bay, and for 20,000gp each, to fight in more dangerous battles.

Along the way, the party encountered a few ogres and some wildlife, but otherwise the journey was remarkably uneventful. Once in Dundrende Klippe, the party began searching for hirelings, and managed for find a number of dwarves willing to work. Caranthir spoke with the leaders, asking for assistance in defeating a large group of trolls; the leaders (a council of seven, the leaders of the Theocracy of the Mountain Dwarves) turned him down. Unlike their southern brethren, the mountain dwarves don't much like interacting with outsiders...

Caranthir headed north, taking the tunnel between the two dwarven cities, and Mor Gibs followed, while Gróin took the hired troops south to his base. Caranthir took an opportunity to snack when he was met by a stampede of horses; the wranglers were irritated, but weren't going to stop. Then, he ran into a rather unpleasant, drunken dwarf, who challenged him to a fight. The dwarf, though tough, wasn't tough enough to go toe-to-toe with an overpowered dragon, and soon was reduced to, well, another snack.

While Caranthir flew back to meet him, Gróin took on five dire wolves, and managed to score four cubs. He met a cloud giant, who waved him on his way.

Reunited, the party continued south. Five hippogriffs attacked, and while four were not so lucky, one managed to make off with an infantryman as a meal. Finally, they met a camp of orcs, and obliterated them. "I thought Orcs were supposed to be tough!" Well, sure, maybe at night, in a cave, with low level adventurers! Not with dragons and an army! Geez!

Meanwhile, months prior (I know, I know), Faufe managed to finally make his way south to Cliffport. Unfortunately, his bad luck with the weather turned into bad luck with sales, and he barely managed to sell a thing. He made it back to Slowhaven and sold one more item, leaving him barely making any profit at all.

Deciding to take the voyage again, Faufe hired Camilla Månsson, a level 2 Airwalker (Str: 10 (+0), Int: 9 (+0), Wis: 16 (+2), Dex: 10 (+0), Con: 18 (+3), Cha: 13 (+1), and 11 HP, carrying Leather Armor (AC 2), an Arbalest, a Silver Dagger, and a Composite Bow, with General Proficiencies: Animal Husbandry; Class Proficiencies: Swashbuckling; she speaks Common). He also hired Fátima Luna, a level 1 Bard (Str: 8 (-1), Int: 9 (+0), Wis: 13 (+1), Dex: 11 (+0), Con: 11 (+0), Cha: 14 (+1), and 6 HP, carrying Leather Armor (AC 2), a Longbow, a Dagger, 2 Slings, a Musical instrument, and Manacles; General Proficiencies: Engineering; Class Proficiencies: Mystic Aura, and she speaks Common as well).

Gróin, meanwhile, retroactively looked for help when he was in Slowhaven a few months ago (I really need to tone down this time travel), and ended up with Baelnar Grimtor, a level 1 Dwarven Sapper (Str: 17 (+2), Int: 14 (+1), Wis: 18 (+3), Dex: 11 (+0), Con: 9 (+0), Cha: 10 (+0), and 4 HP, carrying Banded Plate (AC 5), a Shield, a Mace, a Club, a Great Axe, a War Hammer, 2 pints of beer, Birthwort (1lb), a 10' pole, a journal, and Holy Water, all in a backpack - he's prepared! General Proficiencies: Performance, Craft; Class Proficiencies: Naturalism; Languages spoken: Dwarven, Goblin, Gnomish, Kobold, Mer, Orc). Gróin also hired Herman Thorpe, a dour-looking level 2 Ectomancer (Str: 13 (+1), Int: 11 (+0), Wis: 15 (+1), Dex: 12 (+0), Con: 13 (+1), Cha: 9 (+0), and 10 HP; carrying: Chain Mail (AC 4), a Shield, a Longbow, a Holy Book, a Journal, and Woundwart (1lb). General Proficiencies: Knowledge (undead/sinkholes); Class Proficiencies: Illusion Resistance; Languages spoken: Common).

Back at Gróin's kingdom, the travelers found a salesman waiting for them: Honest Steve! Which, if he was to be believed, was just an honorific. An adventurer, he picked up plenty of plunder, but had a lot of trouble selling it. In his cart was a badly-rotted dragon corpse, and a pile of various magical items. Caranthir purchased a Scarab of Protection (which, as he predicted, does indeed have a single charge on it). He produced a few items, one of which interested Craydos: a mirror of Life Trapping! Which was full of normal people. Once freed, they decided to follow Gróin loyally. Better than being trapped in some weird mirror! After some haggling, which resulted in Caranthir attempting to eat the fellow, he managed to escape through some kind of instant-resurrection or something. On the bright side, his cart seems to have gotten left behind, and apart from the black dragon corpse, some of the stuff in it might actually have some worth! Maybe!

The cart contains: 2 swords, a bundle of 20 arrows, a spear, a pure black arrow, leather armor, a "Shield of Reflection", two rings, a wand, a "Staff of Power", 3 potions (2 labeled 'poison'), and 3 treasure maps.

The vaultguard was carrying plate armor (mundane), a Composite Bow, Wolfsbane (1lb), a small sack with 3,000ep, 9,000gp, 1,000pp, 5 malachite worth 50gp, and 4 beast parts worth 4gp; a Divine scroll in Common with 5 spells (lvl 3 Growth of Animals; lvl 4 Skinchange; lvl 4 Speak with Plants; lvl 3 Curse; lvl 2 Righteous Wrath), a War Hammer +1, and a Shield +1.

Last but not least, the treasure the Orcs carried contained a magical bow.

• Treasure from Encounters:
  • Caranthir, Gibs, Gimli, Elenora:
    • 1 horse (20)
    • Telchar Barrelgut (lvl 13 Dwarven Vaultguard) (4400)
  • Gróin, Craydos, :
    • 5 wolves, 4 cubs (700)
    • 1 cloud giant (peaceful)
  • Together:
    • 2 hawks (escaped)
    • 15 ogres (2100)
    • 5 hippogriffs (1 escaped) (260)
    • 36 orcs, plus 8 gang leaders and a chief (600)
    • Honest Steve (lvl 10 Bard) (2250)
• Experience from Treasure:
  • 15566 (Caranthir, Gibs, Gimli, and Elenora)
  • 2216 gp (Craydos, Gróin, Laurita, and Rhea)
• Experience for Craydos and Gróin: 1471
• Experience for Caranthir and Gibs: 7900
• Experience for Gimli and Elenora: 3950
• Experience for Laurita and Rhea: 736
• Gold per PC: 1108 gp each for Craydos and Gróin; 7783 gp each for Caranthir and Gibs.

Hex-Clearing for Fun and Profit

Cheathramh 23 - Còigeamh 21, 6639; next holiday, Summerfest, 6/1 (only a week away!).

The Party:

• Rig Bigny, Gnomish Beastmaster
  • Flit, the bat familiar
  • Clench, the Wardog War-Badger
  • Midnight, the Panther
  • Noona, the Lion
  • Faufe Yitaw, Dogwere (Badgerwere?)
    • Rawf, Wardog familiar
    • Aroof, Wardog familiar
  • Llarm Paphyra, Elvish Polydoctorate
    • The Metal Man, construct
• Caranthir, Human Leader of Men
  • Rhea Trueheart, Elvish Nightblade
  • Lucille "Luce" Burwood, Fighter
  • Elenora Garrard, White Mage
  • Gimli Trollriver, Dwarven Fury
• Gróin of Norston, Dwarven Sapper
  • Laurita Gomez, Priestess
• Quetgar, Thrassian Assassin
  • Zarc, Thrassian Gladiator
• Sorvald, Thief
• Mor Gibs, the Wonderworker
• Craydos Silverskin, the Gold Skinscribe

First off, the list of magical stuff! After doing a bit of their own discovery, and contacting a sage, the following stuff was identified:

• Crossbow Bolts +2 (Quantity: 4)
• Displacer Cloak
• Potion of Climbing
• Potion of Dragon control
• Potion of Extra-Healing
• Potion of Gaseous Form
• Ring of Command Plant
• Ring of Invisibility
• Ring of Spell Turning
• Rod of Cancellation
• Staff of Striking
• Scroll of Arcane Spells (Written in Ancient Zaharan): Polymorph Other (4th lvl), Detect Evil (2nd lvl)
• Scroll of Arcane Spells (Written in Dwarven): Haste reversed (3rd lvl)
• Scroll of Ward against Elementals
• Scroll of Ward against Magic
• Scroll of Ward against Undead
• Shield +1
• Shield +2
• Spear +1
• Sword +1
• Sword +1, +3 versus summoned creatures
• Sword +1, +3 versus undead
• Sword +1, Luck Blade
• Sword +3, Frost Brand
• Treasure Map (to 1d4x1000gp)
• Wand of Cold (2x)

Mor Gibs the wonder-fairy managed to scoop up all the gold he could carry from the Pointless Tower all those months ago, and ended up with 9,240 gp worth of platinum, gold, electrum, silver, copper, and assorted gems.

Also in the list of things-from-long-ago-I-forgot-to-write-down, Craydos's spell is "Craydos’s Hardening," which gives a target immunity to dispel magic, and +1 AC. Very handy, if you're a summoner!

Quetgar founded an assassin's guild in Wrapport, and hired some thugs to work for him.

Gróin tried to clear out a second hex, but after running into a huge tribe of trolls, decided to try the other side first. The team only managed to kill a single troll...

The second hex went somewhat more smoothly; Gróin and friends cleared a group of orcs, but were ambushed by some dragons - two young dragons, and two very young dragons. The dragons were killed, but not after destroying Craydos's pet shrew, and bringing Craydos down to 0 hp...

After clearing the hexes for Gróin, they team met back up with Caranthir, and together they killed 5 frost giants, scared off a warband of 20 bugbears, killed a chimera, a frost salamander, 2 remorhaz, 17 skeletons, and scared the ever-loving bejeebers out of a lone thogrin. Continuing to clear hexes, they went on to clear a further 3 frost salamanders and 19 zombies. Moving on, they hunted 24 moose, found the same 20 bugbears and killed 5 of them, before running the rest off, killed 2 caecilian, 8 direwolves, 3 wyvern, and 13 skeletons. All in all, a productive hex-clearing session.

Resting after a hard week fighting monsters, the team were surprised by a lich that suddenly appeared in Gróin's bag of holding! Freddy Bolger, gardener and terrible cook, accidentally became a lich while trying to create the world's most perfect scrambled eggs. He's travelled a bit, but has terrible memory. After insulting Gróin, hitting on Rhea, and summoning a singed spellbook from thin air, he vanished, leaving behind a pamphlet and the smell of old man socks.

• Experience from Encounters:
  • 1 troll (680)
  • 30 orcs (300)
  • 4 dragons (2x Young, 2x Very Young) (2020)
  • 5 frost giants (4250)
  • 14 dire wolves (1960)>/li>
  • 20 bugbears (1300)
  • 1 chimera (1300)
  • 4 frost salamanders (8400)
  • 2 Remorhaz (4500)
  • 30 skeleton (390)
  • 1 throgrin (80)
  • 19 zombies (552)
  • 24 moose (1920)
  • 2 Caecilian (1140)
  • 8 dire wolves (1120)
  • 3 wyvern (1140)
  • 1 sabre-tooth tiger (600)
• Experience from Treasure
  • 1,499 gp worth of silver, copper, electrum, and trinkets that easily sold at the Dwarven market from the orcs
  • 25,552 gp worth of all sorts of stuff from the giants
  • 25,200 gp worth of stuff from the remorhaz
  • 7,062 gp worth of stuff from the caecilians
• Total Experience: 4499 (without Caranthir, Elenora, and Quetgar), 86466 (with Caranthir, Elenora, and Quetgar)
• Experience for Caranthir and Quetgar: 14,411
• Experience for the other PCs (Gróin and Craydos): 15,696
• Experience for Elenora: 7206
• Experience for Rhea, Gimli, and Laurita: 7848

Additionally, there were two scrolls: a Scroll of Arcane Spells (Written in Elven): Light* (1st lvl), and a Scroll of Divine Spells (Written in Draconic): Dispel Evil (5th lvl), Smite Undead* (4th lvl), Speak with Plants (4th lvl), and Delay Poison (2nd lvl).

Last but not least, Craydos hired a helper back when he was travelling: Pentzkin Singletossle Pocketspringer (Male, level 4 Gnomish Beastmaster).

• Str: 13 (+1), Int: 12 (+0), Wis: 13 (+1), Dex: 7 (-1), Con: 9 (+0), Cha: 14 (+1)
• 18 HP
• Carrying: Chain Mail (AC 4), Composite Bow, Whip.
• General Proficiencies: Language; Class Proficiencies: Combat Trickery: incapacitate, Caving
• Languages spoken: Gnomish, Dwarven, Elven, Goblin, Kobold, Common, Extraplanar