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• Calliope Laurelleaf – Halfling Bard
• Ellyjobell – Gnome Ranger
• Phalen – High Elf Cleric (Not Present)
• Talerien – Wood Elf Ranger
• Trogdorr – Dragonborn Barbarian
• Twirpo – Hill Dwarf Wizard
• Alaric Lysane – Human Fighter (Not Present)

After the funeral of Ella Moonglade, the party returns to the Shellshock Tavern.

Phalen tells the party that she will be with Alaric, investigating the cursed twin blades of Martell Starborn. The rest of the party remains at the Tavern, and stay at the Inn that’s attached to the tavern for the night. The next morning, they’re approached by a High Elf named Mayor Gillan Blackfoot, the Mayor of Ridgecrest.

He explains that he’s heard of their great deeds, and has come to ask for their help. He explains that an Ettin has been making trouble for the farming community just outside of Ridgecrest’s walls. The farming community helps provide food, leathers, wool, and other such materials for Ridgecrest. The Ettin has been seen for weeks, but only recently has become far more bold in attacking farms, and stealing live stock, and now, apparently abducting people, rather than always killing them. He offers to pay the party 200 gold each, but Talerin’s horrible negotiations convince him that he’s better off probably hiring someone else, for around 180 gold each. Talerien immediately apologizes and manages to talk the Mayor back up to 200 gold each. Talerien explains he would like resources used to be paid for, and the Mayor agrees to pay for their food and lodging for the day (in the event they want to get rested up before going after the Ettin). He goes on to explain, he hired another group of adventurers about eight days ago – and they’ve not returned, and he fears the worse, since the Ettin’s cavern is believed to only be about three days away.

The party agrees to help the Mayor and look into the Ettin, having just seen an Ettin the other day, that they narrowly avoided.

Ellyjobel goes to the leatherworker in Ridgecrest and purchases some Studded Leather Armor, before the party heads out.

• The first night that the party makes camp, two Ogres were spotted, but the party was able to avoid them
• The second night, the same two Ogres were once again spotted, moving in the same direction as the party, but did not appear to be tracking them. The party pushed ahead, and to the side to avoid the Ogres again, and in the morning Talerien spotted a fire of some kind in the woods. He took off to investigate, after waking up the party, and found a farm on fire.
• Hearing screams coming from inside the home, Talerien dodged the flames, and tried to kick down the door, but apparently some of the home had already fallen and made kicking down the door difficult. Using his swords to pry the door open, he was able to get inside, get the husband and wife couple, and get them out of the house, just moments before it came crashing down.
• He asks them what happened – and they explained that two Ogres – one of them with a “Troll Dog” as they’re called (which are just like trolls, except their brains are so primitive, that they simply kill for the sake of killing)
• The husband goes on to explain, that at night – he’s seen a “floating brain, the size of a cow, with a beak and tentacles, floating around.”
• Talerien reports this back to the party who is a bit shaken up by the idea of a “Troll Dog” and a “floating brain.”
• The party decides not to make camp near the farm, and presses on just before being exhausted. During that watch, Talerian once again is bothered when he hears tiny voices – which as a Ranger familiar with the woods knows – it’s either Sprites (which are more often than not harmless) or Pixies (which look similar to Sprites, but often tend to be on the mischievous side)
• He feels something picking his pocket and bats it away – successfully batting away the Pixie – which them alerts all of the Pixies that he may not be friendly – once again, Talerien finds himself apologizing to someone, and manages to talk them down.
• When he asks where the Ettin and Ogres can be found – the Pixies go silent
• A moment later, two Ogres burst into the clearing and a fight ensues
• Trogdorr tries to rush and shield bash one of the Ogres, but is toppled over by the Ogre’s sheer gut size (critical fail on attack)
• Ellyjobel moves in and begins attacking, as does Calliope, with Talerien firing arrows, and Twirpo launches a volley of spells
• When the two Ogres are defeated, the Pixies are both astonished and thankful, and when the party asks again where the Ogre or Ettin cave is – one of the Pixies named Bloom Flowertop volunteers to lead the party towards the cave
• The party decides that the best action would be to launch an attack from the outside and ambush them as they leave the cave
• The party scales the side of the mountain, just a short distance away from the cave
• Calliope, with her shorter Halfling legs, and not accustomed to climbing mountains (she much prefers the Hills from her home for climbing), does stumble a few times before Ellyjobel throws down a rope to help her up.
• From there, they form the plan to have Trogdorr jump from just above the cave mouth down on one of the creatures that come out; Ellyjobel will be off to the side to launch an arrow, and Calliope will attempt to blind them. Talerien and Twirpo will hold their action for the surprise and adjust accordingly
• They wait all throughout the day, until evening finally comes – and lumbering slowly out of the cave’s mouth is an Ogre and and a Troll Dog
• Elly uses Thieve’s Cant to communicate to Calliope to have Trogdorr take down the Troll; Calliopse tries to communicate to Trogdorr the same message; and he tries to confirm the message back; but because of the distance and not being able to physically communicate, the message gets misunderstood as everyone is attacking the Ogre
• So at the same time, Calliope springs up and casts Blindess on the Ogre; Ellyjobel launches an arrow from her vantage point – using her Rogue’s skill to delivering an assassinating blow – while Trogdorr jumps down, weapons in hand and plunges it deep into the Ogre’s flesh. The party manages to take down the Ogre quickly, doing this… the troll dog is another matter.
• They all focus their attack on the troll dog once the Ogre is down, and they notice that it regenerates its wounds; that is except for the fire damage it takes from Twirpo’s spell. They down the troll and search them both, only to have the troll rise again, having regenerated his wounds; they down the troll again, and this time, Twirpo scorches the “corpse” with fire; the party waits, and this time, the troll does not rise again
• The party moves inside the cave now; and down one of the caverns see the floating brain the farmer had warned them about – and though she’s never seen one herself, Twirpo as a Dwarf, had heard of these monsters called Grell.
• The party launches their attack, focusing on the Grell, believing it is responsible for the recent problems with the Ettin attacking farms. The party takes down the Grell and is rather surprised how easily it goes down. As Trogdorr harvests the massive beak, and Ellyjobel takes the spiked tentacles for their poison, a massive Ettin appears from further down the cave.
• It’s clear there’s something different about this Ettin; not only does it seemed focused (typically Ettin heads will argue with one another), it was also considerably taller, as if somehow genetically enhanced.
• The Ettin proves to be a very long, and tough fight; but the party does manage to down the Ettin. Cutting off the Ettin’s heads, as proof of their kill for the mayor, the party hears more sounds coming from down beyond the cavern.
• Ellyjobel comes up with the idea of wearing the Ettin’s heads, and going further down to see what’s down there – she would wear one head and Trogdorr would wear the other, and she could sit on his shoulder to be the other head
• The both attempt to “scoop” out the brains and innards, but both are overcome by how disgusting it is, and vomit
• After a moment, they “don” their Ettin disguise and move down the path, with the rest of the party following 30′ feet behind
• Once she’s able to see them – Twirpo warns – what they’re looking at are four Mind Flayers (also known as Mind Rippers) loading the remaining live stock into mining carts that go deeper into the cave.
• She warns that they’re extremely powerful, and can do thinks with their minds; they’re known for enslaving people (they believe they’re the superior race), and devouring brains
• Ellyjobel decides to attack one, before the party flees (despite the rest of the party explaining what a horrible idea it is) – and after launching her attack, realizes that the Mind Flayers knew that they were not the Ettin they had enslaved (they had sensed its death), but they were more concerned about getting away with the live stock; but now that the party had attacked, that perhaps the party would remain to fight (rather than flee, which is what they expected)
• Calliope uses a spell to dazzle the Mind Flayers; except the one who Ellyjobel struck was not “amused” (Natural 20 on save)
• It used its Psionics to stun everyone; but only Calliope was impacted
• As the others began to flee from the Mind Flayers, it was Trogdorr’s heroic grab (Natural 20 on Strength Check) to grab Calliope and escape the Mind Flayers, since they were not giving pursuit
• The party returned to Ridgecrest after three more days of travel back, brought the head of the Ettin (the other head, Elly had rolled at the Mind Flayers), and the Mayor paid each person 200 gold for their troubles.