Want to help? Consider becoming a Patreon.

• Arhian Vos – Human Monk
  • Pet: Pabu (Young Red Panda)
• Hartmut Helmsworth – Elf Monk
  • Pet: Kalistia (Young Blink Dog)
• Sindri Waggletop – (Forest) Gnome Wizard 
• Rettniss Kulvith – Water Genasi Druid
• Avacyn “Jolyne” Uloth the Merciless – Half-Orc Paladin
• Twilight Skybane – Tiefling Bard
  • Pet: Gem (Sailor Parrot With A Mouth)
  • Pet: C.C. (Copy Cat, Mimic Bag Of Holding)

• Closing his book and realizing how much time had passed, Sindri realizes that his party members had not yet returned. And if this “shadow” that they’d told him about that this person reported was “trailing the caravan” wasn’t a big issue – they should have already been back by now.
• Sindri locates Captain Kariss Ironstone who then leads Sindri to the area where Bran Bladesong had drawn a map on the dirt. Sindri was immediately impressed by the amount of artistic detail that went into the map – where Bran last reported smelling the scent of deer meat and feeling uneasy.
• The elegant map made it easy to find where it looked as if a battle had taken place; but his companions were nowhere to be found. Sindri spotted the trail of blood left by whatever had attacked them and began chasing after it. He wondered, as he gave chase, why his companions always got into fights with flying creatures when he wasn’t around. (See Session 15 – Against the Perytons)
• Sindri suddenly hears a loud roar, coming from the same direction as the blood trail he’s following, and encourages his tiny little legs to move faster
• As Sindri clears the forest – he can hear sounds on a cliff ledge – where he can see a large cave entrance – but just outside the cave entrance, swirls darkness which he recognizes to be magical in nature.
• His eyes dart around and he sees one dead ogre on the mountain side, but none of his companions are visible, except for Twilight who seems to be clinging to the cliff side, her body dangling over the edge. He guessed that his companions must be inside the magical darkness.
• Surveying the situation, Sindri quickly casts Mage Armor on himself
• Unsure of what’s going on, because of the Darkness spell, Sindri looks – and estimates the party to be about 60′ up the cliff side and develops a plan, and shouts, as loud as his gnome little lungs will allow him, and screams, “Jump!”
• Everyone – recognizing Sindri’s voice – despite not being able to see in the Darkness spell simply runs towards him and leaps off the cliff side – thankful to find that they all gently fall down to the ground, while Twilight keeps the Hill Giant’s view obscured by concentrating on the Darkness spell
• Some walking, some running, some limping, the party is able to make it into the woods before Twilight’s spell ends, preventing the Hill Giant from throwing boulders down at the party. The party makes their way back to the Caravan. When Sindri asks what it was, Hartmut explains, “Not sure, but it was bigger than an Ogre.”
• “That seems like an oddly specific description,” Sindri remarks.
• Captain Kariss Ironstone sees the party as the reach the camp and sees that some of them are beaten up badly, but clearly no dragon.
• Sindri explains, huffing and puffing, that the others had killed a Manticore and some Ogres, but fled from the Hill Giant
• This alarms Captain Kariss Ironstone – who explains they need to begin moving quickly – and he turns and begins shouting at the caravan to begin packing – and that they need to leave immediately. Off to the side Bran can be heard shouting, “I knew it was a dragon!”
• The Caravan rides hard, pushing the horses and the people, harder – beyond the point of exhaustion, fearful that the Hill Giant would be seeking revenge. After three days of riding hard, the everyone is barely able to bare the idea of riding any further, when the site of a massive city built into the side of a mountain comes into view – it’s Ridgecrest.
• The Captain pays each member of the Twilight Brigade, 200 gold each, for their services escorting and helping the caravan (against Lord Rapture, the Manticore, etc).

• Once the party clears the security gates, they are able to freely enter Low Ridge. Keyleek Twostaff smiles and says that now they can head into Mid Ridge – however when Keyleek’s caravan reaches the gates for Mid Ridge – he discovers that none of the others have passes for entering Mid Ridge; and unfortunately, he’d purchased a spot in Mid Ridge to begin his new life as a merchant here, in this massive city – one of the largest on this continent – and Mid Ridge is where most of the people go to purchase things, as Low Ridge is considered “the slums” of Ridgecrest and has people who are struggling financially.
• The party asks how they can get passes to Mid Ridge, and the guards explain that they should have submitted applications to Gillan Blackfoot, the High Elf Mayor, of Ridgecrest before their arrival – because everyone must be vetted and researched, to ensure no thieves and crooks gain entrance to Mid Ridge.
• The guard goes on to explain, applications to Mid Ridge cost 25 gold per person (and that is not a guarantee to be permitted a pass – and reviews can take up to several weeks) and require anywhere from 2 to 10 interviews – unless they can find someone to vouch for them (vouching will supersede the interviews but does not guarantee a pass to Mid Ridge). One must be approved for Mid Ridge before they can apply to High Ridge, which costs 100 gold per person, for an application – and similarly does not guarantee a pass into High Ridge, and applications can sometimes take months to review – and several interviews. Someone in High Ridge can vouch for the person, but similar to Mid Ridge, this does not guarantee a pass, merely circumvents the interview process.
• Rettniss slips around a corner and uses her Wild Shape ability to take the form of a dog and come stand next to Keyleek’s wagon. The guard looks down and sees this new dog and looks up at Keyleek and asks, “Is this your dog or just another stray?”
• Keyleek looks down, unaware of Rettniss’ plan and shrugs and says, “I don’t recognize the dog.”
• The guards attempt to shoo Rettniss away in dog form, and as Rettniss departs, she bites Keyleek in the ankle and runs away – eventually coming back as her normal self.
• Keyleek rubbing his ankle looks at the others, as Rettniss returns and says, “I will talk to Mayor Gillian Blackfoot and see if I can get passes for you expedited,” and proceeds into Mid Ridge, looking back longingly at Rettniss (unaware that she’d been the one who just bit him on the ankle)
• Sindri asks, “Are there any places to stay in Low Ridge?”
• The guard thinks for a moment and finally says, “Well, I, myself live in Mid Ridge. This,” he looks down, “is about as far as I go into Low Ridge. But, I’ve heard of others talk about a place called The Mud Show.“
• Sindri whispers, “Sounds charming.”
• “Is this a place to sleep or… an entertainment place…,” Rettniss asks.
• The guard goes on to explain, “From what I have heard they have a little bit of everything… ladies and men’s wrestling in the center… and drinks… not sure what kind of drinks they serve there… and apparently some rooms… place used to be storage warehouse kind of place that got converted into an entertainment-tavern-inn kind of place.”
• The party makes their way to The Mud Show, asking for directions along the way since the guard claimed to not know where it was exactly. They arrive at the Mud Show and see the floor is essentially padded down dirt; in the center is a shallow pool of mud, with some people wrestling; off to the side others are enjoying some pit fighting; the area that was used for storage has been turned into rooms with beds on the floor or hammocks hanging in there for people who did not want to sleep on the floor (those rooms cost a little extra).
• Rettniss spotting the pit fighting feels this inner urge to go back into the ring and see how she does this time
• Rettniss spots what appears to be a very short Half-Orc, and for a moment, she ponders if an Orc had mated with a halfling to generate a child; which should be impossible, only humans were capable of breeding and having children with Orcs; but the short demeanor of the Half-Orc definitely looks like he might have halfling blood; but it turned out that the Half-Orc was merely a person of short stature.
• Rettniss asks Kreekaw Stoutsize if there are rules and he explains; not really. Only that weapons are allowed but try not to kill the opponent. He does understand that “accidents happen” and if such a thing happens they will try to help hide the corpse. She’s a little shocked, and as she looks around, understand why they require applications for going into Mid and High Ridge.
• Rettniss expresses interest, and behind her, Avacyn also expresses interest – and Kreekaw not realizing the two were friends, introduced them as “Welcome to the pit ring, the weird looking watery like woman! And her opponent, the tall, the beautiful, the gorgeous half-orc of a woman!”
• Avacyn walks in, arms extending, looking left and right, to try and garner the crowd’s attention
• Avacyn comes in with a slap with an Unarmed Strike, and Rettniss responds in kind with Entangle spell – the roots and grass and vines rising up from this dirt floor hold the stunned Avacyn (she rolled a Critical Fail on her Strength Save)

• While Avacyn is entangled, Rettniss gets the crowd going

• Sindri tugs on Twilight’s robes and points out, “You know, I’ve done the calculation – it doesn’t matter who wins here, the party, over all, breaks out even.”
• Unable to break free of the Entanglement, Avacyn throws one of her javelins at Rettniss and hits, breaking Rettniss’ concentration, and sending the crowd roaring as Avacyn rips free of the vines
• Rettniss turns to the crowd and asks one of them for their gloves, and grabs them and limps back to Avacyn and tries to slap her with the gloves, but Avacyn bats her arm away
• After this goes on for awhile, Kreekaw Stoutsize steps in and breaks it up and demands that it be settled by the crowd – he raises Avacyn’s arm – and the crowd cheers. Then he raises Rettniss’ arm (not as high, since he’s attracted to the hotness he sees in Avacyn) and the crowd cheers, showing off the clear winner…

• During the bout, a human approaches Twilight, coming to stand next to her, arms folded in front of his chest, his fingers rapping on his arm in a particular pattern, which Twilight quickly picks up as Thieves Cant.
• He goes on to explain, when she responds with the same hand gesture, “I can get you passes to Mid Ridge – and possibly High Ridge. High Ridge passes are more difficult to come by because they can change the appearances of those passes. But Mid Ridge should not be a problem. I can get you in for,” he pauses, thinks, and finally says, “for 100 gold.”
• She nods, “How will I find you again?”
• “I hang outside the Mud Show – overheard you talking to the guards over by the gate,” he explains. “If you don’t see me, just ask for Taramar Kinfield,” he says with a smile.
• As he walks outside, he throws a bag of ten gold into the pit fighting and winks at Avacyn and continues on his way out
• Rettniss approaches Avacyn and gestures to her leg, whispering through clenched lips, “I thought we agreed no weapons. The javelin was a bit much!”
• Avacyn smiles, “Well, you used magic. And I don’t really have that kind of magic. It was all for the crowd.” After a moment, she looked, “Do you need a lay on hands?”
• Rettniss rolled her eyes and walked away
• As Twilight gathers the “Twilight Brigade” to speak to them she wrinkles her nose at Avacyn and Rettniss and mentions how the mud that they were fighting in probably had more than just water in there
• She goes on to explain that she met someone who could help get them into Mid Ridge, and as she does so she casts a glance at Rettniss, thinking how she could reunite her with Keyleek. She then adds, that it will cost 100 gold – which no one seems to mind. And then she adds, it’s through the sewer system – then everyone, except Avacyn who simply shrugs – casts uneasy glances amongst each other.
• Just as everyone finally begins to agree, she adds the last part, “Oh, and because he will be leading us through where the guild he operates out of – we will also be blindfolded.”
• Everyone seems uneasy with this idea, as they could be led into a trap; and after some discussing the party agrees
• Rettniss explains that she will take the form of a black and white panda before they go meet with Taramar, so that she can keep an eye on them and make sure this is not a trap
• When the party meets with Taramar Kinfield, Sindri asks, “What if one of the guards stop us and ask us for our pass?”
• Taramar explains that he will be giving the party forged passes
• Sindri then asks, “Well if you can just give those to us, why do we need to go through the sewers?”
• Taramar smiles, “Because the guards at the gate already know you don’t have passes. And as they said it can take weeks to months for passes. So if you suddenly show up with passes at the front gate, they will know something is not right.”
• Sindri nods, “I suppose that does make sense.”
• Sindri asks Twilight how C.C. is doing and she checks on the Mimic Bag of Holding, who blinks its single eye at her and smiles

• Twilight looks at Pabu, Kalista, and Rettniss is panda form and explains, “We have a few pets is that going to be a problem?” She knew Gem would remain perched on her shoulder and C.C. would be at her waist.
• Taramar explains that it should not be a problem – but there’s areas of the sewer that can be up to 4 feet deep, so the dog and the two cute bears, are going to need to swim through it – and it is waste water, where there’s no ledges to walk on. He seems to look at Rettniss in her bear form, and smile. (DM Side Note: Taramar had done a secret Perception check when the party arrived; because he’d seen them at the Mud Show and had taken note of their pets – and also because Rettniss and Avacyn made such a big deal at the Mud Show that Rettniss’ disappearance and the appearance of this panda bear that had not been with them, led him to believe this was Rettniss trying to be clever – so there were probably areas he could have led them through that had ledges; but knowing Rettniss was trying to be sneaking, he would lead them through more waste filled water than what was really required to see if she would change her mind about trying to be tricky)
• “Four feet of water,” Sindri looks from Taramar to Avacyn.
• “Fine,” Avacyn sighs, “you can sit on my shoulder.” (This happened in Session 17, too)
• Taramar leads the party into an alley where he proceeds to blind fold all of them except Twilight – and lets her stand in the front of the Twilight Brigade and explains, “Reach out and clasp the person in front of you’s shoulder as we go through the sewer so no one gets separated while blindfolded. It will be pitch black in some areas, intentionally so, because the area is rigged with traps. So you will want to walk precisely where I tell you.”
• He guides the Twilight Brigade into a dilapidated building where he removes some floor boards and it leads directly into the sewer below, where the party is greeted by the scent of waste. Taramar looks at the panda bear (Rettniss) one more time before leaping down, and helping each of them get lowered into the sewer.
• Taramar leads the party through the sewers for about two hours, and there are times that he looks at Twilight to acknowledge they’d done a few circles repeatedly to disorient her comrades from knowing where the guild in the sewers was located.
• He eventually leads the party to a bird-like humanoid in the sewer, which Twilight recognizes as a Kenku – which she recognizes, because while she served Captain Krella Wavebreaker, aboard the Destiny’s Courtship – there’d been a Kenku there who sat, ironically, in the crow’s nest, named Whisper. (DM Note – The party met the ship crew – believe it or not – all the way back in Session 1! They – along with the party – suffered a shipwreck aboard the Destiny’s Courtship. They would, however, go on to meet the crew again in Session 4, when they reached the Ivory Coast).
• Twilight also knows, from some of the less than legal dealing that Krella embarked on (mainly smuggling people in need of safe passage and weapons and armor on her ship) that she often used Whisper for forging paperwork, because the Kenku’s ability to impersonate voices they heard with perfection, also extended to their ability to mimic a person’s writing and signature, making them expert forgers. The Kenku named Wrytten, forges five documents – one for Arhian, one for Avacyn, one for Hartmut, one for Sindri, and one for Twilight. (Since Rettniss was in panda form, Taramar waited to see if she would shape shift and reveal the truth, but she maintained her form – he also knew, by leading her around for almost two hours, her spell was soon to end).

• Taramar hands Twilight the five passes and escorts the Twilight Brigade to an area and explains, “OK, from here – you’re going to want to go right.” He looks at Twilight, “Look for the writing on the wall. You will know the markings. Follow that through – and you will eventually end up in an exit towards Mid Ridge. I can’t go any further, because from here forward – the area of the sewer belongs to an opposing guild called The Shadowmancers – they’re a violent guild that serves some beholder that’s recently come into power. Many of these Shadowmancers are actually something called Allips from what we’ve gathered… cursed wizards of some kind.” (DM Note – The main group that went through my campaign encountered an Allip in Lakefront in Session 12 – the “Work Group”/Adventurers would encounter the same Allip in Lakefront in Session 44 – and learn more about the Allip, and go on to try and help him be free of his curse). He pauses and finally adds, “Let me know if the … friend you left in Low Ridge will need a pass… It will cost another 100 gold, since it will be a new transaction. I hope she understands that should she need it,” he looks directly at Rettniss who is struggling to maintain her wild shape form as a panda. He bows, and departs heading back in the direction they’d come from. Each of them remove their blindfold and Twilight hands each of them their Mid Ridge pass – except for Rettniss.
• After Taramar departs Sindri turns to the others and explains about the Allips – “When a mind uncovers a secret that a powerful being has protected with a mighty curse, the result is often the emergence of an allip. Secrets protected in this manner range in scope from a demon lord’s true name to the hidden truths of the cosmic order. The allip acquires the secret, but the curse annihilates its body and leaves behind a spectral creature composed of fragments from the victim’s psyche and overwhelming psychic agony.”
• “That sounds pleasant,” Rettniss says sarcastically, finally back in her genasi form.
• Twilight follows the Thieves Cant writing on the wall, moving through the sewers as quietly as possible while keeping an eye on any of these Shadowmancers that might be in the area. The party eventually reaches an area where the sewer opens up and there’s two passages – one to the left and one to the right – and the Taramar had mentioned stick to the right. However, both passages are covered by a rusted sewer grate, and the water here is roughly four feet deep. Two statues on each side of the grates point towards them – as if warning them to turn around.
• Twilight moves forward and attempts to pick the lock – and just as she does – the two statues reveal what they truly are – gargoyles – and without the magic words being spoke – they lunge forward to attack!

• One of the gargoyles struck Sindri twice, its stone claws ripping through his robes.
• The second ones strikes out at Avacyn, landing one hit, while the second is not able to penetrate her armor
• Despite the surprise attack, the party is eventually able to defeat the gargoyles taking quite a few hits in the process
• The party looks at the runes on the gargoyle – and it takes a moment to decipher – but they realize it’s a name they’re familiar with – As’zar’vari’tium (They encountered mention of him in Session 01, and learned the Koa-Tua were serving a summoned version of him in Session 02, the party fought the “Blue-Holder” in Session 03 that the Kuo-Toa created based off of the image they’d seen of As’zar’vari’tium. The Beholder went on to do more, as the other group would learn in Session 55).
• Sindri uses Detect Magic on the runes around the lock and notices that the hall beyond ignites with runes – and he can tell Necromancy is involved.
• Moving cautiously down the hall – Twilight hears something coming – and Sindri is able to see several undead type creatures wandering aimlessly through the sewer

• Hartmut quietly casts Pass Without Trace – and they’re finally able to make it outside of the sewers.
• Just as they step out – a burst of white light fills the sky – and for a brief moment – it feels as though they all cease to exist – and then are reborn, reforged – with new magical energies! (DM Note – The Adventurers successfully shattered the Sphere that unlocked all the magic into the world! But I am behind in doing their notes so I can’t link that yet!)

To Be Continued?

Why yes, yes it is…