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• Arhian Vos – Human Monk
• Hartmut Helmsworth – Elf Monk – Not Present This Session
• Sindri Waggletop – (Forest) Gnome Wizard
• Rettniss Kulvith – Water Genasi Druid
• Avacyn “Jolyne” Uloth the Merciless – Half-Orc Paladin
• Twilight Skybane – Tiefling Bard 

• The party sorts through the treasure of the deceased hobgoblins; taking arrows for Arhian and Hartmut, and Sindri asking for at least 50 gold (to cover the Chromatic Orb spell he cast last session) of the 125 gold found on the corpses of the slain hobgoblins
• As the party begins cleaning up – and some step outside – they notice that Twilight still hasn’t shown up
• Rettniss explains that Twilight probably gave up on the party
• Sindri asks if order has been restored in the temple, and Arhian confirms that everything feels normal
• As they get outside, they see Burlap (the Berbalang the party encountered last session) speaking to one of the Monk spirits, who seems oddly enthralled by Burlap’s unusual speech – and none of them are able to decipher what language he’s speaking
• Sindri shouts at Burlap to leave the spirit alone; but Burlap giggles and says he got all the information he needed. And then proceeds to explain that there’s another – like the rest of them. Not dead. But alive. Looks like him. A demon.
• Rettniss nods her head, “That’s Twilight.”
• Sindri asks where Burlap saw this “demon”
• Burlap points to the west and explains that the female demon person thing was near a large cave
• Burlap wish the party luck, with an odd chuckle, as he twirls his fingers and opens a portal to a fiery plane, that quickly closes behind him
• Sindri stares at where the portal was and finally asks, “Anyone else think that was bad?”
• As they make their way west, after a moment, hopeful that Burlap isn’t leading them into a trap and that this “demon person” is indeed Twilight – they’re thankful that the swamp isn’t overly deep and has quite a few large stones, and dry land scattered through it, that makes traveling through this area of the swamp much easier
• Sure enough, the party comes into a small area, where they spot Twilight, crouched down – peering across a clearing where there was a cave with some sounds
• Rettniss asks where she’s been and Twilight explains while she was scouting ahead, she met this Pixie (and she points to the Pixie sitting on her shoulder) named Metalwing, who needed her help – and after observing the hobgoblins, she was confident that they could handle them (DM Note – In truth, she’d missed a few sessions so I messaged her that she met a pixie who needed her help, to explain why she wasn’t with the party)

• The Pixie isn’t difficult to miss, because while it sits on Twilight’s left shoulder, Gem sits on Twilight’s right shoulder, shouting slurs to the Pixie
• Twilight explains that she (Metalwing) has a friend – a Satyr – who has gone into the cave to rescue another friend
• Sindri shakes his head, “Wait. We have no context.”
• Rettniss shakes her head, “Normally, I don’t agree with Sindri. But this time, I am on his side.”
• Twilight points out there’s voices coming from the inside the cave
• Sindri knows that Pixies can be tricksters
• Sindri asks, “Why did your friend go inside the cave?”
• Metalwing explains, “The monsters took the gift! My friend went to go get the gift!”
• Sindri nods and says, “Well that’s good enough for me. Let’s go.”
• It’s Avacyn who then pauses, “Wait. Wait. What is this gift your friend went to go get?”
• Metalwing explains that the gift is a box
• Avacyn asks for more clarification, “What’s in the box?”
• Metalwing lets out an exasperated, but somehow excited, sigh and says, “Many things hide in the box.”
• Avacyn presses Metalwing, “Are they important things?”
• Metalwing sighs, as if it was obvious, “There’s nothing in the box right now. It’s a gift. You can’t put anything in there until you have it. But the monsters want it. I don’t know why the monsters want it. They can’t use the gift.”
• Rettniss sighs and begins walking towards the cave – and they hear growling and shouting coming from inside
• Avacyn sets Sindri down – who settles towards the middle – and Sindri casts Light on Arhian’s staff
• Once they’re inside the cave, Rettniss is able to distinguish the voice (DM Note – Despite asking earlier who spoke Slyvan – everyone said they did not – however, here we are 18 sessions into the game and Rettniss just spotted where his languages are on the character sheet and realized he spoke Slyvan. I love these guys!)
• Rettniss clearly hears someone in Slyvan shouting that the gift was not theirs to take and to return it immediately
• As they quickly make their way through – they see what is clearly a Satyr struggling with a beast that looks like some enormous, humanoid featherless bird creature with massive claw bones for hands – something known as Hook Horrors

• Rettniss hears the Satyr saying in Slyvan, “The box needs to be free of this dimension! The fey magic is going to warp it! It needs to be trained!”
• Sindri says, “It must be a magic box.”
• Several members spot what appears to be a box, discarded on the floor, behind the Hook Horror as it deals with the Satyr

• Sindri, who recognizes the Hook Horror, knows that they normally travel in packs
• Rettniss, ready for battle (Rolled A Natural 20 on Initiative – which gives her two actions)
• She throws down her Staff of the Serpent and whispers the command to activate “Snakey Boy” as she calls it
• She follows up with castling Entanglement on the Hook Horror but it rips through the entangling vines (made the Save)
• Rettniss commands Snakey Boy to constrict the Hook Horror, but the Hook Horror’s massive strength allows it to remain free of its constriction
• Arihan runs up – and her first punch hits the Hook Horror, but doesn’t do any damage (missed the AC by 1), and follows up with another – but the Hook Horror bats her fist away and she strikes Snakey Boy instead
• Sindri uses Fire Bolt and rolls a critical strike (Natural 20!)
• Avacyn enters the melee with her Great Axe of Grumthank’s Blessing and delivers a crushing blow against the Hook Horror
• The Hook Horror attempts to snare Avacyn with its massive hooks, but both attempts miss as Avacyn gleefully dodges out of the way
• Metalwing who is shouting in Twilight’s ear, distracts her so much, that she’s not able to concentrate (Natural 1 on Initiative means missing the first turn). Hartmut takes Metalwing and tries to comfort the Pixie (Easy way to keep Hartmut out of the battle since he was absent this session)
• Rettniss casts Frostbite but the Hook Horror is able to shake it off, but it’s enough to distract the Hook Horror and allow Snakey Boy to hit with its fangs
• This throws off the Hook Horror and allows Arhian to deliver a hit with her Quarterstaff, followed by an unarmed strike
• Avacyn lands another hit, doing some damage (but not as much as before, as she’d been flexing)
• The Hook Horror strikes back at Avacyn and hits her for some heavy damage, but Avacyn is so deep into the battle, that she laughs despite the gushing wound
• Sindri fires a Fire Bolt – and the flame strikes Arihian in the back with some damage, due to a critical fail (Natural 1)
• Metalwing keeps shouting about get the box “Get the box! Get the box!” – this is enough to throw off Twilight who misfires (critical fail, natural 1) and hits Avacyn for some trivial damage, but enough for Avacyn to scream, “Whose side are you on?”
• Rettniss launches another Frostbite spell – and this time, it manages to land the hit on the Hook Horror
• Snakey Boy, however, misses on its next attack
• Arhian hits with both her Quarterstaff and her unarmed strike and notices that the Hook Horror now looks bloodied
• Sindri fires a Fire Bolt but misses
• Avacyn chuckles, “Play time is over” and strikes the Hook Horror for some damage
• The first attack by the Hook Horror misses its first attack, due to the disadvantage of the first attack, thanks to the Frostbolt – but the second swing delivers a strong hit against Avacyn
• Twilight casts Faerie Fire – but everyone manages to avoid it (Hook Horror, Arhian and Avacyn) – however, Snakey Boy doesn’t make the save and begins glowing purple
• Rettniss uses another Frostbite spell and the Hook Horror fails
• Snakey Boy manages to bite the Hook Horror
• Arhian hits with her Quarterstaff, and lands some damage, but misses with her unarmed strike
• Sindri uses Mage Hand to grab “the magic box” and pulls it to him
• Sindri notices it looks like a small jewelry box
• Avacyn leaps in the air, bringing her axe down, and brings it down on the Hook Horror’s neck – the creature gushes blood and collapses to the ground
• Sindri looks at the box – sees no runes – nothing that – despite Metalwing’s comments – mark this odd treasure chest – jewelry box
• The Satyr who introduces himself as Ossis, asks for the box back – which Sindri hands over – and the Satyr begins apologizing to the box
• Sindri asks what it is, and the Satyr explains that it’s a mimic – but a very special mimic.
• And just then – the small treasure chest reveals it has an eye, mouth, and tongue – and like puppy, excitedly begins panting

• The Satyr, Ossis, looks at the party and says, “Good, good. You’re not from the Feywild. You will be leaving this realm soon?”
• The party explains that they’re on the way out – and shares what they’d just gone through
• Ossis explains that the mimic, is a very, very young mimic – but it’s also magical. It’d been part of an experiment by a mad mage who fed the mimic sand shark (from the Broken Lands) remains, including the beasts gullet – and cast a spell over the mimic as it devoured the flesh – and created a unique bag of holding.
• Ossis explains – The mimic will devour flesh that’s placed inside of it, but other items (such as gems, equipment, etc), it will hold in it’s magical vast space until it’s pulled forth. To ensure the mimic does not devour the person who is putting an item away or pulling an item out – the mimic “binds” with those who feed it and remembers them. The mimic if fed a large portion of meat will not need to eat for months. As the mimic grows, things placed inside of it can be larger. Currently the mimic can only hold items that are no larger than a jewelry box. (So for example, placing a shield inside would not currently fit until the mimic grows large enough to have the width to hold an item that large). The mimic, upon command – can take the form of other items of equal size, but this takes an entire action. In this form, the mimic can not hold any items – but items that were already placed inside, remain in place.
• He looks at the party and hands the mimic to Twilight, explaining that she knows – as a Tiefling – what it’s like to feel like an outsider – and will be the one to bind with the mimic
  • DM Note – the idea of the pet mimic and further into a bag of holding came from a box that the player Twilight decorated, when she sent me a Christmas gift – the box was drawn to look like a mimic – I liked it so much I kept the box that now sits in my office

• Ossis explains that it needs to be fed, and as it gets older, it will grow, and need more to consume; but as it grows in size, larger items will be able to be placed inside of the mimic’s mouth to be able to be held (at it’s current size, nothing that wouldn’t fit inside a small jewelry box can currently be held inside of it). Ossis explains to ensure that it doesn’t eventually bite someone – keep it well fed, and it will be like any pet and know who to bite and who not to bite – and that before retrieving an item within it – make sure it’s been well fed… just in case.
• Ossis also explains, because it is a mimic – it can also change its shape – but has to be to the size it currently is. For example, as an adult, it will be able to take the form of a door, chair, or table.
• Avacyn chops up bits of the slain Hook Horror to feed the mimic bag of holding and hands it to Twilight to feed it
• The party returns back to the mountain and make their way up – half way up, Twilight tells Gem to go fetch the dagger she lost – and Gem is able to get it and retrieve it
• Party goes through the Shimmering Portal and return back to the top of the Path of Enlightenment where they’re greeted by the Master of Enlightment, a human named Shujin Gorudo, who in truth is a gold dragon (revealed back on Session 15) – and next to him the Ki-Rin, Kalaris, and the Couatl, Slyver)
• Shujin warmly greets the party and sees that Hartmut and Arhian are each wearing the monk items that the hobgoblins had gone to try and unlock the secret powers – which, had they succeeded, would have pointed them to Grath Honorbound, an ancient and powerful hobgoblin believed to have been touched by Maglubier, the god of the goblinoids. The party had learned previously of the Hobgoblins desire to resurrect him and restore glory to the Hobgoblin race.
• Shujin explains had the hobgoblins corrupted the Cestus of Kyoaku-sei and the Cestus of Seikaku-sa, that they could have harness the magic from them – and worn them, and used them similar to a compass – where they could hold out their arm – whisper a command – and it would begin showing the direction to move towards where Grath’s burial location, which has been erased from history, is truly located
• Shujin explains that the Cestus’ are better in their capable hands; and that the weapons may grow in power with them as they learn to channel its power
• Twilight asks how they can call on Shujin if they need his help
• Shujin smiles and says, “You will need to seek enlightenment.”
• Twilight smiles, “Does that mean I will be able to drink more tea on the way up?”
  • A reference to Session 14, during the Hollowing Twilight was charmed by a monster who offered tea
• Sindri shakes his head, “No. Not at all.”
• Arhian asks Shujin, “When we stood on each side – inside the temple, Hartmut and I saw something… something, I am not sure how to explain it… like other worlds and stars.”
• “What you glimpsed,” Shujin explains, “is the multiverse. The multiverse is a plane that exists – that allows the traveling between planes, realms, and in some cases, bending the fabric of time – though, the consequences of such actions can have dire consequences. When some relics of great evil, or even great power, are recovered – we send couriers to take them to the temple – to have the magical energies expunged from the item and dispersed into the multiverse, by our phantom brethren who guard the temple.”
• Arhian and Hartmut thank Shujin, and the party makes their way down the Temple of Enlightenment and make back to the Ivory Coast and return to the Inn, where they’re greeted by Innkeeper Horak, of the Pegasus Wing Inn/Tavern
• “You! You!” he shouts, shaking his fist angrily. “You’re the one with the pets! The pets you left unattended! First of all – someone’s dog has been running around going crazy! He opened your door – and this rusty colored panda bear was chewing on things! And the dog got into the kitchen and taking it back to the panda! This was easily, 100 gold in damages! And food!”
• Arhian tries to stifle the laugh and pays Horak the money

The Party Levels Up!