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• Aros – Lightfoot Halfling, Rogue
  • Rubber Ducky of Inspiration
• Galiena Erenaeth – Half Elf, Celestial Warlock / Druid
  • Dearbhán – NPC, Fairy Dragon (Galiena’s pet)
  • NPCs:
    • Waesyn Oakenpath – Human (Fighter)
    • Balgun Sternrest – Elf (Ranger)
    • Darko Wintersage – NPC, Undead Wizard (Flame Skull)

• Aros, still on his date with Annie Longstocking, asks what she likes to do for fun; and she blushes in response and explains, since taking over the orphanage she’s not had much time to do anything; as more and more parents vanish in the night, leaving more and more orphans in her care. She also explains that there’s definitely something ominous beyond, and that’s why Felhorn rings the bell at 10pm – as that seems to be when most of the people tend to suddenly vanish in the night.
• She does clarify that she loves spending time with the children.

• Aros smiles and asks to be excused for a moment, and makes his way towards Kavium and Ramgor. He asks them for advice on what to do on his date. Kavium explains that Prenah would ask that Aros find a way to please her; while Ramgor explains that he should take it slow and get to know her. Ramgor offers to get Aros flowers to give to Annie, and goes outside. Kavium in the meantime, winks at Aros, making a number of lewd gestures. Galiena, while sitting at the bar talking to Balgun – sees Kavium making gestures to Aros. Galiena excuses herself and makes her way to Aros who explains that he should take time to get to know her.
• Aros explains that she has very little time due to tending to the kids in the orphanage, then asks if Galiena’s willing to watch the kids so that he could take her out. Galiena smiles and says, “Potentially.”
• Aros then heads to the bar and asks if Waesyn knows what Annie likes to drink; and he explain that she rarely comes into the bar – and her makes a protein drink that looks like an avocado slushy. Aros looks at the odd concoction and sighs and brings it back to Annie, hoping she likes it. She accepts the drink – and Aros begins telling her how his friend Galiena would be willing to watch the orphans one day so that he and Annie could go out on some kind of “official” date that was outside of Felhorn. Annie mentions Lake Kelnor, though suggests staying at the southern tip (which is closest to Felhorn) because the lake bumps up against the Swamp of Despair, which is rumored to have a black dragon that lives in that swamp.
• While close to Felhorn, Aros recalled the bard who they’d heard sing just after reaching Felhorn, named Lingor Twinsong about how he was the sole survivor and his companions vanished at the lake (Session 4). He also recalled speaking to Lady Falsour (Session 5) about the swamp to the north of the lake. The kobolds who they’d befriended (Session 6) also seemed to confirm the presence of a black dragon, as they had mentioned a dragon by the name of Coal the Black. To make matters worse, Aros and his two companions, Galiena and Baldur, seemed to have had a vision of a woman fleeing – and some pale human, flying without wings, swopped down on her and drank from her neck (Session 33).
• A light touch to his shoulder awakens Aros from his thoughts as he feels something being slide into his hand and hears Ramgor gently coughing behind him. Ramgor is able to successfully pass off the flowers to Aros and continue walking, as Aros “magically” pulls them out and presents them to Annie – who quickly turns a deep shade of red.

• As Aros presents them to Annie, he also catches the scent of a magnificent – and probably very expensive perfume – so not only had he picked the flowers – he’d also made his way to Lauren Gucci-Wexnar‘s shop and purchased a perform to spray on it. Annie looked at Aros curiously, “Are you a wizard? You did not have these a moment ago! And the fragrance is incredible!”
• Aros smiles, “I am no wizard, but I can do trickery with my hands!” And quickly shows her a disappearing coin trick.
• Aros explains that he does have a few things to do – he, Galiena, Balgun, and Waesyn are going to search for a missing child that a friend of his knew
• And this immediately touches Annie’s heart, understanding completely, since she takes care of so many children
• Aros promises Annie that he will come back and that they will go to Lake Kelnor or something as soon as he finishes up finding this missing child
• Aros meets up with Galiena and Balgun at the bar, then gesture to Waesyn, who makes sure none of the guards Lord Brenmoon are present, then goes down to the kitchen below the White Fang, and draws his sword, and his tattered armor from there and surfaces back at the bar, ready.
• Galiena explains that she wants to go to Lauren Gucci-Wexnar‘s shop – because she could smell the perfume – decides she wants to go to the shop as well – however, rather than purchase perfume, she simply purchases a bar of soap for the road.
• Aros sees that Lauren also sells flasks of oil, and purchases five of them (with 1 flask having 10 uses if used on doors, or dipped for flames; if thrown, it’s 1 and done, obviously) with each flask costing 2 gold. (Yes, more expensive than the player’s hanbook, but the book doesn’t specify the uses, so I added uses, and raised the price! They’re rich! They can afford it!)
• The party decides to rest for the night at the White Fang before departing; they then head to Dalara’s shop to pick up Aros’ new clothing he’d requested

• Aros quickly sports his new look. Aros also picks up the yellow mask; though she reminds him that she has no magical ability – so she can’t make it fire proof.

• Too excited, Aros asks Galiena if they can go to Razathorn’s house and talk to his assistant, Relgar (assuming Razathorn himself isn’t home) – to ask about making the mask fire proof. Aros knocks on the door and hears Relgar call out, “Hold a moment. I’ve almost got this potion done.” He goes to the door and opens it – surprised to see the party and urges them inside. Balgun makes no effort to hide his nerves, being inside the home of Razathorn, and is shoved inside the house by Galiena.
• Inside Relgar looks at them, “Have you found the imp at the manor? What did he say? Where is he? He may know what it takes to break this damn curse.”
• Aros clears his throat, realizing they’d not gone back to the manor yet. “Well, the things is – do you know where this imp would be? We’d been at the manor before and saw no sign of it. There was another creature – looked like an imp – named Burlap – but he wasn’t an imp. So do you know where this imp might be?”
• Relgar sighed. It’d been a long time since he’d last seen the party and wondered why they’re only now coming back to ask where the imp might be. “Well,” Relgar said, “if I were to guess, if Lord Starfall did use some kind of dark magic, as I suspect he did, he would have done it somewhere in secrecy. Perhaps a hidden passage or room. Did you find any?”
• “We found two,” Aros explained, “however, no sign of any imp or ritual room.”
• “The manor may have more secret passages, I’d recommend searching in areas you’ve not yet looked,” Relgar responded, clearly frustrated – and feeling as if the party had not taken his request to find this imp seriously (Reasonably so! He’d told the party way back in Session 5 about search for the Quasit in Lord Starfall’s manor!)
• Aros asks, if in the meantime, if Relgar can enchant a mask he has to be fire proof
• Relgar, frustrated with the party’s lack of information about the Quasit, explains he doesn’t have time for such petty things
• Aros pulls out the yellow and black mask and explains it’s for a friend; it’s when Aros pulls out the mask that Relgar’s head suddenly whips toward Aros. His head turns, like a dog, trying to understand something being spoken. He suddenly whispers, “What is it you have in your bag, Halfling?”
• Aros, a little taken aback, explains he has quite a few things in his backpack. Relgar clarifies that it’s something magical. Aros peeks in his bag, and rifles through his things, and doesn’t know what Relgar is speaking of. “I don’t know what you mean,” Aros confesses.
• “Do you not hear it?” Relgar seems slightly frantic as he wrings his hands. “That voice?”
• Aros listens and hears nothing. Aros shakes his head.
• From the back, Waesyn mutters, “I could crush that human easily. He looks so small and frail.”
• Galiena whispers, “Yes, but we need him right now. Also, I am sure at your size, you can crush anyone, like me.”
• Waesyn doesn’t skip a beat and says, “Yes, but I don’t want to crush you in my arms except to hold you close.”
• Balgun looks at Waesyn, who then smirks back at the ranger. Balgun shakes his head.
• “Promising wisdom, a way to end this curse,” Relgar continues. Aros suddenly recalls he briefly heard a voice in his head a few weeks ago, about ‘wisdom’ after defeating the undead beholder (see Session 41). He reaches into his bag again and pulls out – much to his surprise – two gem fragments – he’d only remembered picking up one! (DM Note – Aros had subconsciously picked up a second one after defeating a Gauth that had been trying to syphon Ossis’ magic from his body in Session 45!)
• “Could it be these?” Aros asks, looking at the unassuming gem fragment pieces.
• Relgar’s eyes light up. “Where did you get those? I don’t know what they are… but they’re a part of something. Something bigger. More powerful.”
• Aros looks at Relgar and suspects the mage now seems entirely too eager for them and decides to arrange a deal. “Listen, how about I give you one of these gems to study, if you work on fire proofing this other mask I have?”
• They go back and forth, with Relgar explaining if he had both he could perhaps find a way to end the curse on the island without the information gathered from the Quasit (especially if it’s potentially no longer at the manor) – but Aros sticks to it and Relgar finally agrees.
• Galiena asks if Relgar has any healing potions available, and Relgar explains he only has one Greater Healing Potion (DM Note – since Galiena had asked, I had her roll a Nature check and Relgar would have that many potion – she rolled a 1). Relgar explains that he will give it to her for free (despite his frustration with the party).
• Relgar asks about their companion Baldur – and asks if he’d perished – and the party explains that he was off being a decoy – and that he’s probably since either returned to his girlfriend, or still running around.
• Aros hands Relgar one gem and the mask; and as they leave Aros asks Galiena if she thinks Relgar is going to be OK – and she’s not sure.
• The party begins heading for Greenhaven, since that’s where Ossis had originally gone when he came to Eagle Rock, and that’s where he’d met the boy. Perhaps interviewing the boy’s family, if they were still around could provide the first clues where to find the boy who could now fly.

• As the party marches through the woods; Aros hears sounds that resemble that of jackals. Aros leaps into the shadows and begins to stealth ahead to see just what it might be – and spots several jackals, dancing around a human corpse, whose heart has been ripped out of its chest – it appears to be some form of ritual.
• Aros quietly makes it back to the party and reports that there’s seven gnolls dancing around a corpse who has had its heart ripped out of it’s chest (DM Note – Hearts being ripped out of chests is common in horror… but the party is well aware of someone on this island who has had their heart ripped out that they’d seen… So this isn’t the first heart ripping out of chest scenario…)
• Waesyn quickly draws his weapon and says, “If there’s trouble, I crush them.” And begins storm over to the direction Aros had returned form. Aros throws himself at Waesyn’s feet – but it does nothing to stop Waesyn who just drags Aros along with him.

• Galiena rushes up to Waesyn, running in front of him and tells him to remain calm – and that they need to have a plan.
• Waesyn explains, “I have a plan. I hit them with my great sword. Because it’s great.”
• Galiena shakes her head, “We can’t just run in there…”
• Waesyn sighs, “Fine. What is this plan?”
• Galiena pauses, “I am still working on it. Aros, can you sneak in there and get a surprise attack on them? And then the rest of us come in from the opposite side and throw them off so they don’t know where to look?”
• As combat starts, they party finds themselves facing the pack of gnolls…

• While the fight is, over all going well, it’s Galiena’s Call Lightning that quickly puts an end to the fight
• As they examine the body, they see that the heart has been ripped out and placed on the chest – and they’re thankful to see it’s not their companion Baldur who had wandered into this pack of gnolls performing whatever ritual it is that they were doing…
• While examining the body, Galiena notices that there’s far less blood than there should be – as if the blood from the body had been drained from it before ripping open the chest to carve out the heart – and that’s when Galiena and Aros spot something high in the trees watching – it’s another gnoll… but gnolls typically were not tree climbers, they normally behaved like humanoid jackals, in every sense of the word… this one that was watching them felt very different as it made a loud hissing sound before springing from tree to tree, the party quickly losing sight of it…

• The party quickly moves on and reaches Greenhaven.
• At Greenhaven they’re quite surprised, with Ossis now cured, that he too has returned to Greenhaven. There is music and merriment about his return. The party approaches Ossis and introduces him to Balgun and Waesyn, whom Ossis had not met. Ossis offers to take the party to the boy’s family.
• It’s there, that the mother explains how much her son, Grotte Stonespring, loved being around Ossis. The mother explains that Grotte was very introverted and that became infinitely worse when they crashed on Eagle Rock about four years ago (if their calculations were correct, though they could be off slightly since time is difficult to track on the island without going to the beaches to see the sun set and rise in the distance). When Ossis vanished one night, Grotte had become obsessed with finding his only friend (to which Ossis flushes red). The mother explains that after a few weeks, her son explained that he’d found Ossis – and that he was in a cave, but would not come out. So, her son began bringing food to Ossis’ hiding spot. Just about a week ago, the mother explains, her son came back different – he looked sick and was burning with fever. He had a number of small bite marks on his skin that she could not identify. Then, a day or so later, she heard her son’s window smash open and swore she saw him flying away. The father disagrees with the part that their son had flown away and believes that his son was taken by some foul beast.
• The party goes outside the house, and examines the window the boy had flown out of – and Balgun is able to get a general direction of where the boy was headed.
• After hearing what the mother had said, and what Ossis described the boy looking like, Balgun explains that the boy sounds like some hyrbid/humanoid version of a Stirge; and the party debates and wonders, could it be some form of lycanthropy? Perhaps the stirge had bit someone who was infected, then bit the boy – as the mother had noted small bite marks all over the boy’s body.
• Balgun thinks about the layout of the island and explains, if the boy is indeed some kind of infected stirge lycanthropy – there’s a good chance he may have headed to Darken Pass out of instinct of the stirge in him – and explains that when he had first shipwrecked on the island, he and a few survivors had washed up on the eastern side of the island – near where Darken Pass was, and had taken shelter in the cave they found there from the storm that was pounding the island – and noted how many stirges were in the cave.

• Aros asks – especially if the boy is infected with Lycanthropy – to stop by Caith Mathan’s cave and get his dagger back from the Eladrin, Celan Gradon. The party agrees that this might be for the best and prepares to head for Caith’s cave.

• The party begins their march towards Caith’s after a brief rest at Greenhaven; but their march is interrupted by what appears to be seven undead gnolls…!

• The party, however, makes pretty quick work of the undead gnolls – and once again, spot the unusual gnoll in the tree who was observing them – then quickly flees. Galiena looks at the corpses of the undead gnolls and realizes, these were the seven gnolls they’d encountered earlier before gotten to Greenhaven.
• Aros shakes his head, “This can’t be good. That gnoll in the treetops raised his dead friends.”
• “Speaking of necromancy,” Waesyn mutters, “who is responsible for him?” He points to Darko, who was pulled out during this fight.
• Galiena explains that Darko was murdered by someone, and they’re just trying to help him find out who his murderer is to help be put to rest (which is a slight lie…)
• The party proceeds to Caith’s cavern and Celan returns the dagger to Aros and explains she’s learned much from the dagger’s properties and may be able to help create cures for all lycanthropy, so long as thirty days has not passed before their initial infection. The party asks Celan to create a potion for someone that they’re looking for – and she’s able to do so – but promises, she’s too new to actual potion making to be certain if it works.
• The party then departs from there, taking almost a week, to round the mountains, and see the entrance to Darken Pass, just on the horizon.

To Be Continued.