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• Arwynn Liadon (Half-Elf – Druid / Ranger)
  • Rides Horse: Laska
  • Pet: Mozilla (Fire Fox)
• Arrimar Oakroot (Wood Elf – Ranger)
  • Rides Horse: Goliath
  • Pet: Chrome (Silver Wolf)
• Briel Nailo (Half-Elf – Druid) – Has Not Special Guested Yet

Learn more about the origin of Shadow Island

• Discovering the rope they’d left at the other camp had been taken; and the body of the two brigands who’d attacked them were both gone the following morning made both Arwynn and Arrimar uneasy, and the duo quickly packed up their belongings and continued towards the kobold cavern, to track down the Dragon Crystal.

• From inside the cave, they can both hear the sound of water further down the cavern and an odor similar to rotten flesh emanates from within the cave. Arwynn locates a tree and some shrubbery to tie the horses; and while Arwynn can’t tie a knot very well, Arrimar nudges her and teases her – showing her how to tie the knot better.

• They quietly approach the edge of the cavern and Arwynn spots some tracks in the mud, and looks at the tracks, unsure of what they are – and Arrimar sighs and explains they’re kobolds and explains what kobolds are to her, sighing (but laughing)

• As they peer inside; there isn’t anything immediately visible. Arrimar looks at her and whispers, “Who goes in first? Me or you? Because, I admit, I wasn’t exactly very stealthy with the brigands.”
• “We could send in Mozilla,” Arwynn smiles.
• “She’s literally a fox made of fire,” Arrimar chuckles. “She’d be like a walking lantern. That’s going to kind of announce our appearance… maybe leave her back with the horses?”
• “Fair point,” Arwynn sighs. “Mozilla, go wait with Goliath and Laska.”
• Arwynn peeks inside the cave – and notices that the kobold tracks veer off to the right, away from the shrubbery on the left hand side of the cavern; she also notices a cool breeze when she sticks her head inside to look around briefly
• “Do you see how the kobold tracks veer off?” she asks turning her head to face Arrimar who is standing right behind her and startles her a bit.
• “Yes,” he chuckles. “I was the one who told you what kind of tracks they were. What about it?”
• “Well those bushes over there look like a good hiding spot,” she points out, “if they were to hide there and ambush anyone who comes in. Should we just go in and head for that, make sure they don’t surprise us?”
• “I’d say we should stealth,” Arrimar suggests. “The less noise we make in the cavern the better. No echoes. If we fight, end it as quickly as possible. I don’t suppose that magic stick of yours has some form of Silence spell?”
• “It’s a quarterstaff, and no,” she grumbles.
• The two attempt to stealth into the cavern but can’t seem to avoid the leaves from the dead shrubbery as it cracks beneath their leather boots
• Much to both of their surprise – it’s not kobolds that leap out from behind the shrubbery – it’s not even that anything leaps out from behind the shrubbery – it’s that the shrubbery itself begins to move!

• Four Twig Blights move forward and prepare to put a stop to Arwynn and Arrimar
• Side Note – during the game, the Beyond20 bot went down – so I had to use Avrae – so it’s always good to have a backup plan… even if it’s not as pretty…

• The first Twig Blight attacks Arwynn and manages to land a critical hit on her (Natural 20!)
• Arwynn yells at the plants, and then yells at Arrimar about how she’s a druid – plants should love her
• Arrimar shouts back, “Sometimes you’re a little tough to love! I mean, like! But you’re a fire druid, right? We should be fine!”
• “I haven’t learned my fire abilities yet!” she yells.
• “How are you a fire druid then?” Arrimar shouts back.
• Arwynn then casts Ice Knife and Arrimar shouts, “That’s the opposite of fire!”
• The duo struggles against four twig blights; but finally the battle turns – and there’s just one twig blight left, but both sides struggle to end the battle one way or the other, with each hitting one another, slowly damaging one another
• Arrimar and Arwynn argue about how to take the final twig blight down; as Arrimar takes a deep breath her looks over at Arwynn who looks pretty beaten up. She wipes her forehead, blood streaking across her forehead, “I have one spell slot left. I should probably save it for a heal. In the meantime,” she reaches into her pouch and begins chewing on whistling leaf, “this should help a little.”
• Arwynn after chewing some Whistle Leaf, which restores 3 health to her, spots as small creature known as a Homunculus – that had been watching the pair fighting the twig blights before scampering away
• “What was that thing? A frog with wings?” Arrimar asks
• “No, it’s a Homunculus – and they’re often used by wizards, like servants,” Arwynn explains
• “That would make sense,” Arrimar nods, “the twig blights were probably made by the wizard… and it’s probably a wizard who is behind stealing the gem.”
• The two give chase and come to an underwater lake (on the western side of it), with thin ledges to the north and south, and a large board on the eastern side pulled to shore

• The length of it is roughly 26 feet (randomly rolled by Arwynn)
• They decide to take the northern ledge (and I had Arwynn decide by rolling if these things would be on the north or south pass – and she rolled north…)
• Several piercers drop from the ceiling – most of which miss, but one lands directly on Arwynn delivering quite a bit of damage

• Arwynn manages to plunge her dagger into the beast that’s drawing blood from her, delivering maximum damage
• Arrimar tries to delicately swing at Arwynn – and misses
• Arwynn manages to land a critical strike against the creature and ends its life, she looks up at Arrimar, her eyes glazed as blood seeps from the wound
• Arrimar points out, “There’s a body over here… looks like it wasn’t as lucky to avoid the piercers… Should we grab the body and run with it to the other side?”
• “What if it’s undead,” Arwynn asks
• “Good point,” Arrimar nods, “let’s just run by”
• However – they both fail their dexterity allowing another piercer to drop as they cautiously try to pass the dead figure – allowing a piercer to strike Arrimar this time, for significant damage
• “This hurts!” Arrimar shouted, grabbing the piercer
• “I told you!” Arwynn snapped as she swung her scimitar at the creature – missing – and hitting Arrimar’s hand
• “You cut me!” Arrimar screamed
• “You put your hand in the way!” Arwynn defended.
• “I am trying to pull this thing out of my shoulder!” Arrimar scolded
• “Well you need to hold still!” she pouted
• In frustration, Arrimar tries to stab the creature and manages to just stab himself in the shoulder and screams in pain, “See what you made me do!”
• “My shoulder was wounded by one! What do you expect?” she yelled.
• “For you not to stab me, for beginners!” he shouted back
• “Stop shouting!” she screamed, “You’re going to alert everything!”
• “You’re shouting too,” he yelled back.
• They finally defeat the Piercer and cross the northern pass – leaving the dead body behind – they come into a cavern with fluttering bat like creatures; most of which are sleeping
• “Stirges,” they both hiss, all too familiar with the bat-like creatures

• Arwynn says they need to stealth, however, Arrimar who is bloody and weak, stumbles into a wall and awakens four stirges
• “We need to run,” Arwynn shouts
• “Towards the entrance – back towards the Piercers? Or deeper into the cave,” Arrimar shouts, batting the stirges away
• “We know the piercers, we don’t know what’s inside,” Arwynn shouts and begins bolting for the cave entrance; thankfully the piercers who had missed, were still ascending the walls and the two make it outside, landing face down in the mud, but the stirges don’t give pursuit because of the daylight
• The two decide to go back to the horses and find some whistle leaf and make a camp outside first
• They opt to head towards the edge of the woods where they take a long rest; where Arwynn casts Cure Light Wounds on Arrimar and proceeds to rapidly pass out shortly after complaining about piercers and stirges as she mutters to sleep
• They proceed to take a long rest and the following morning, Arwynn hears the sound of Whistle Leaf – and using her nature check she’s able to track a small patch where she is able to harvest only two whistle leaf
• Arrimar explains it’s not too much of a surprise that whistle leaf is hard to find, as the wood and high elves, use whistle leaf as a main component for their healing potions
• “I don’t know what to do about what’s inside there,” Arwynn mutters
• “We could try to spot the piercers, but that’s difficult to spot,” Arrimar nods. “There’s the southern pass.”
• “We don’t know what’s on the southern pass,” Arwynn says. “Better to know what we’re facing.”
• “Makes sense,” Arrimar agrees.
• “So we have a plan,” she smiles.
• “I am not sure I’d call what we have a plan,” Arrimar mutters.
• “It’s better than nothing,” Arwynn glares.
• “Barely,” Arrimar mutters.
• They make their way back in; and the twig blights are thankfully still down; and reaching the piercers, Arrimar spots them piercers due to ever so slight color differences (Natural 20 Perception). They check the south pass – and spot a few piercers, but far less of them seem to occupy the south pass.
• They take the southern pass – and decided to make a run for it – only drawing the attention of a single piercer, which manages to miss them
• As they approach the stirges, and this time, quietly pass them (both successfully passing their stealth check)
• Up ahead they hear yapping sounds – Arwynn looks, “Is that kobolds?”
• Arrimar nods, “That yapping sound – sure wounds like kobolds.”
• Peering over a small ledge, they spot several kobolds bowing to another kobold who is holding the Dragon Crystal – within the crystal – a shimmering image of a dragon can be seen
• Arwynn listens closely and whispers, “They’re speaking draconic!”
• “Great,” Arrimar whispers. “What are they saying?”
• “The one holding the crystal says he’s a great and powerful wizard, and that he shall free the dragon from their crystal prison and the dragon will forever be indebted to him – wait, he corrected himself and said them – and that they will be rich and powerful and none will dare defy him – wait, he corrected himself again and said them,” she explains.

• “It would take a great wizard to break the dragon free of its prison,” Arrimar assures her, ” and based off what I can see – this kobold isn’t a great wizard.”
• “I will cast Entangle,” Arwynn says, “then Ice Knife.”
• “Good idea,” and Arrimar listens to her whispers, as the spidery words of the arcane fall from her sweet lips – and the floor grasps at the four kobolds – one of the warriors escapes the grasp with a yelp – while the wizard steps back proclaiming his great powers detected the petty magic
• A number of the kobolds spot the duo and fire their slingshots at Arrimar and each of them managed to hit – thinking they don’t need to move because they can range attack
• Arwynn casts Ice Knife next – and the explosion of the spell – and though many take damage – they manage to survive and use their slings – which they seem to be exceptionally well at using damaging Arrimar further – which forces him to use a bonus action to chew some whistle leaf – then crossbow bolt the leader, the wizard – which damages him, but not enough to put him down
• Another round of slingshots and Arrimar takes some more hits and slides down the rock for cover, muttering, “This is getting bad.”
• Arwynn shouts in draconic, “You’re weak – I will summon a dragon to breathe fire.”
• The wizard shouts back in draconic, “How do you know our tongue?”
• Arwynn replies in draconic, “I’ve spoken to other dragons – I am well versed in the Draconic tongue.”
• “What do you want?” the kobold wizard shouts.
• “The crystal,” Arwynn explains. “It’s not that you will free the dragon – the dragon is coming for his crystal to see who the thief is – and he will reign fire and death on you. Place the crystal in my palm,” she says as she climbs down to the level where the kobolds are (rolling a Natural 20) and swipes it from his hand.
• The kobold wizard sighs, “How do we get dragon?”
• “Not this way,” Arwynn growls. “I am his messenger. And he is furious with the thieves. Stay here – in the cave – or else the dragon, who isn’t far – will bring death to you. I will whistle when it’s safe to come outside, because you were smart enough to give me the crystal.” Arwynn grabs Arrimar, “Come on,” she whispers, as she shoves whistle leaf in his mouth. “Shut up.”
• They make it outside the cave, and mount the horses and Arwynn whistles and the two ride off back towards the Wood Elves…
• They rest there after returning the Dragon Crystal and the two begin riding back to Avador… and as they crest over the hill, are greeted by black smoke rising into the skies…
• Avador was burning…

To be continued…