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(13th entry) The Dark Below

I let everyone fall screaming for about a second or so before I start chuckling and cast Feather Fall on everyone. They all manage to compose themselves by the time we safely float to the ground.

 We land in this open room and in the distance we can see a lit lantern. We decide to rest for a bit, and hopefully Gideon will rejoin us. After a while though, it becomes apparent that he’s not coming, and worse still, I hear a panicked yelp from Gnoland.

 I run over and the first thing I hear is Gnoland crying out “They’re gone! Lynx is gone!”, and sure enough, there beside Gnoland where Lynx normally is, is a Lynx sized black egg. Lynx has seemingly succumbed to their mark. My heart breaks for Gnoland, but there’s nothing I can do for him. Suddenly as Gnoland is wrapping Lynx’s egg in his scarf, his holy symbol begins to glow and a divine light encompasses the egg. A sense of peace seems to wash over us as the egg vanishes from sight, and rather than distressed, a look of fierce pride crosses Gnoland’s face. I hear Gnoland whisper ”They’re going to be okay, Goddess Mishakal has chosen Lynx as her Champion.” Look, I make no claims at being religious, but after the things that we’ve seen recently, I believe it if Gnoland believes it.

 We give Gnoland some time to compose himself, and we decide to move forward, for Lynx and for our new friend Gideon, we have to continue. It’s not much, but I tell Joey to go keep Gnoland company. I pretend not to notice, but I can see how much it means to him. We continue forward, with Teller scouting ahead, when suddenly she freezes in place.

 I creep up beside Teller and see what has to be one of the ugliest creatures that I’ve ever seen. Fully 8′ tall and looking like a demonic frog(and smelling like a Luskan outhouse.), this creature blocks our way forward. Luckily it seems to be asleep, so just to be sure, Gnoland volunteers to use his divine magics to deafen the creature so that we can pass unheard. Unfortunately, in his distracted state, he stumbles on a rock and wakes the damn thing up.

 This giant, frog-like demonic monstrosity lunges at us, all teeth and anger. And sweet baby Tempus the smell. There’s not enough Prestidigitation in the world to cover that up. As we’re all focused on not letting this big bastard eat yours truly here, we hear a thunderous roar from the tunnel behind us. Before we can react, the mountainous shape of Gideon launches itself at the hezrou. We finish off the beast and Gideon turns to us, covered in blood and gore(not a small amount of it his), and says “I told you I could handle that devil above.” before promptly passing out from exhaustion.

 Deciding to follow Gideon’s example, we drag him back away from the rotting corpse of the hezrou and call it a night. We wake up the next morning, do a little sparkle magic to clean ourselves up, and continue on down the tunnel. We happen upon a few more lanterns that seem to be lighting the way. I continue to extinguish every one that I find, much to the parties annoyance. They’ll understand my quirks one day. We happen upon a chest and thinking she’s hot stuff, Teller tries to pry it open with the Immovable Rod(seriously!?!) that she received as a gift from Malora. She fails spectacularly and breaks a couple of her nails. While dancing around, holding her hand, we hear an ominous CLICK! sound as her foot hits the ground 

 Gas erupts from an unseen trap and in her haste to escape she ends up setting off a couple of more before common sense prevails and she stops moving. Suddenly from further up the tunnel we hear a strange voice approaching, yelling “What! What are you doing here!?! This is my space!” as an odd little figure aproaches.

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(12th entry) Sand...it’s everywhere.

We pass through the portal and the first thing we notice is that it’s hot, and that there’s sand everywhere. Not wanting to just sit out in the open, we head for the only structure in sight. Noticing my difficulty keeping up, Gnoland offers me a spot on his shoulders next to Lynx. Gnoland really is a good boy, I’ll have to keep an eye out for him.

 Just as we enter a small canyon, out of nowhere an earthshaking roar echoes off the canyon walls, and before us a massive figure approaches. He looks Tabaxi, but I’m pretty sure they don’t make them like this anymore. He’s easily as big as Gnoland, with a wild mane of hair framing his head, and most importantly, a massive sword at his side.

 He demands to know our names, claiming his own as Gideon, the last Guardian of Tempus. After a few tense minutes where I swear that he wanted to eat me as a colorful snack, we showed him our marked hands and convinced him that we where here to help Tempus’ Champion. Gideon tells us that all his fellow Guardians are dead, Tempus has disappeared, and nothing is to be found in this realm except for invading demons. Don’t tell him I said this, but I think he’s just lonely and wants some friends...

 He leads us to the site of the Eternal Battle, a place where Tempus would watch his followers battle in eternal glory. Now, however, the place is silent as the grave, the dias from which Tempus would look about the battlefield stands empty. As we look around, Teller notices a sandstorm heading our way, but Gideon doesn’t seem too surprised. It’s a desert, supposedly these things are common.

 As we investigate a little further, we suddenly activate a switch and the dias starts to rise. As the dias transforms into some sort of pyramid with an opening at the top, Teller sees some creature inside the approaching sandstorm. Just as the approaching sandstorm overtakes us, the winds die down and the figure of a massive bone devil is revealed.

 It’s easily 15ft tall, with a skull like head, a massive tail, and wings. And the smell, did I mention the smell? It smelled like death. Gideon roars and charges into battle with it, matching it blow for blow. Our party does what it can, but we aren’t putting a dent in it. It’s shrugging off our weapons and my magic. As Gideon’s strength begins to fail, we decide that a retreat is in order.

 As our group retreats up the stairs to the top of the pyramid, Gideon shouts for us to leave him, that he would handle the demon. Praying that he is right, and that nothing worse awaits us below, we leap into the darkness below. The last sound we hear is Gideon’s mighty roar before it all turns deathly silent and the darkness envelops us.

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(11th Entry) That one time we met a goddess...

 So as I was saying, we followed that little glowy sprite through the portal and ended up in this strange cavern. The sprite motioned for us to follow it up and the stairs and at the top we saw something that we’d never seen before; a giant egg.

 Do I don’t just mean a big egg, I’m talking massive, and black as pitch.We examine and couldn’t figure out what it was, and a couple of us took turns knocking on it to no avail. Then, Gnoland got the bright idea to touch it with his marked hand. The egg immediately began to crack and dissolve, and inside was something none of us expected. The egg cracked open to reveal a very naked person, a raptor, and a strange rat wearing armor.

 The strange person immediately slumped down into the pool of water, seemingly exhausted, while the raptor and rat looked around confused. I sent Joey over to make friends while Gnoland and I approached the strange figure. We got that his name was Zuka and that he’d been on a quest when he was taken, we couldn’t get much more from him before he succumbed to sleep.

 The from out of nowhere a gentle voice greeted us as a beautiful figure appeared before us. She introduced herself as the Goddess Malora, and that our friends Nacho and Blanka had told her of our impending arrival. The stranger in the egg, Zuka, was her chosen Champion before succumbing to some dark magic. In trying to keep her Champion from falling prey to this darkness and adding it’s power to whatever was causing it, Malora had had to maintain all her focus and energy in keeping him alive, keeping her from her divine duties. 

 She said that she didn’t know what had caused it, but more and more the the God’s Champions were falling, and now that Zuka was free, she could help gets us to our next destination; the realm of Tempus. But before we left, Malora offered us a night’s rest under her protection and a feast. And left me tell you, goddesses can make a hell of a meal. I still dream about that meal to this day. I offered to return Blanks’s collar so that she could regain the ability so speak, but Malora laughed it off saying that Blanca deserved a little quiet time for being so snarky.

  Anyway, we all eventually fell to sleep, and we awoke to find Malora and Zuka gone, but in their place was another figure, who apparently enjoys watching strangers sleep. Weird hobbies aside, she introduced herself as Magada, a friend tasked by Malora to see that we were properly equipped for our journey. 

 I saw Spruce handed a pretty impressive sword, Gnoland a shield, Teller some sort of stick, and more importantly, I got an amazing new staff. I quickly discarded the piece of driftwood that I’ve been using since waking up on the island. I can tell this staff has power, and while I don’t yet know what it can do, finding out is half the fun.

 Apparently Teller wasn’t impressed with her stick, but after an eternity of listening to her complain to Magada about it, she finally decided to put on her big-kitty britches and accept the gift. We gather our belongings, bid Magada to pass along our thanks to Malora, and follow her to another portal. As we walk through, I close my eyes, cross my fingers, and start praying “Please not the Underdark, please not the Underdark, please not the...)

 Spoiler alert, it wasn’t the Underdark.

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(10th Entry) Ever Been Beard-Slapped?

 As we make our way through the caverns, we see signs of recent passage. We follow the path(all the while Lynx is totally freaking out about the water leaking through the ceiling), and Lynx finds a room full of invisible fire. Opting not to chance the invisible fire, we continue do the path. In the distance, we hear the sounds of combat. As we near a fork in the path, we notice that one patch leads further into the cavern, while the other leads into a giant room.

 The noises we’re hearing are coming from the room ahead, so we sneak into the edge of the room and see two demon-kin sparring in a great big room. Deciding that discretion is the better part of valor, we opt to skate by the combatants and continue on. Further down the passageway, Teller is scouting out in front when she suddenly freezes at the entrance to another large chamber. She slowly makes her way back and says that there’s a giant orangutan in the next room, surrounded by imps.

 Instead of just boldly walking into the room, I decide to send Joey into the room quietly to scope the place out. As he nears the imps, he hears them making fun of the giant monster, and just harassing it in general. Thinking that the imps are antagonizing the ape, we decide to help it out and by taking out the imps. Bad idea...

 Teller takes one imp out with an arrow as I narrowly miss another with a bolt of fire. Lynx takes out a second imp with a blast of arcane energy. Bad news for us, those imps were actually the big guys friends. Next thing we know, it’s barreling across the chamber at us. As it reaches speed, it suddenly leaps through the air, landing right in front of me! He growls something in a language I don’t understand as Spruce strikes out at him with his rapier, but misses.

 Thinking quickly, knowing that I needed to get the fuck out, I conjured up an illusion of imp flying directly in front of it’s face. Distracted by the imp, I put some distance between us and back into the path we came from. Lynx takes advantage of the distraction to back away and put an arrow into the imp. Gnoland takes the opportunity to back away from the giant beastie and attack it with the spiritual mace. Teller rolls around the corner and finishes off the last imp, leaving just the giant ape.

Taking a swipe at my fake imp, he realizes that it’s a fake and takes a bite out of Spruce and taking a swing at Gnoland. Knowing that something has to be done, I cast Scorching Ray at the balgura, and basically set his big ass on fire while Lynx steps up and turns him into a pincushion. Suddenly, with a great snarl, Gnoland steps forward and launches a bolt of divine energy at the balgura, nearly tearing him in half. 

 Before it’s body even hits the ground, I feel a searing pain across my back as I’m attacked by one of the bearded-devils that we snuck past earlier. Hearing my mighty war-cry, Spruce comes to my aid, attacking one of the devils. Still reeling from Spruce’s attack, I obliterate the devil with an orb of thunder magic. Suddenly I see the streak of arrow, followed by a bolt of white energy, blow past me as both Lynx and Gnoland enter the fray. Unfortunately in their haste to come help, both of their attacks go wide.

 Sensing weakness, the remaining devil steps forward attacking Spruce with it’s weapon and hitting me with his beard! Who the hell attacks with their beard!?! As I’m still coming to grips with getting beard-slapped, Teller finally decides to joins us and puts an arrow in its shoulder. I yell out “You don’t have to do this!” in Infernal, then I hit him in the face with some fire, hopefully burning away some of his beard lice. Suddenly I hear Lynx yell out, “HEY GNOLAND, WATCH THIS!!!!1!”, as an arrow, with I kid you not, a biscuit attached to the end, hits the devil right in his open mouth, lodging it in his throat and choking him to death.

 I go over the giant balgura and while Gnoland and Lynx are poking it, I notice something shiny lodged in it’s shoulder. After a little work, I’m able to work the dagger loose from it’s shoulder. The dagger seems to be magical, but I’ll have to inspect it later when we have have time. Suddenly Gnoland lifts his head and looks back into the cavern. He leans down to me and whispers “Do you see that, too?” as a glimmering, firefly like being come into view.

 As Gnoland and I get closer, it starts fluttering around me and I realize that it’s some type of familiar. I can tell it means us no harm, and it wants us to follow it. Beaten and bloody from our last encounter, we follow the firefly down a passageway away from the carnage. Eventually the path ends in rubble, but from the firefly’s movements, it seems that we need to make our way through the rubble. Spruce and I attempt to clear out the rubble, but we decide between the two of us that obviously Gnoland needs a self-esteem boost, so we let the big guy handle it.

 As long clears the way, the find that behind the rubble is a glowing white doorway. The firefly quickly darts through, and with no other choice, we step through the portal...

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(9th Entry) Onward to the Champion, or How We Were Almost Lunch.

 We awaken the next morning, pack our meager belongings(plus fill our bags with some slightly stale biscuits), and follow the Guardians to the waterfall. As we near the waterfall, Nacho tells us that they will not be able to follow us because they are required to close the door behind us. Only slightly terrified, we say our goodbyes and step through the stone doors.

 Spruce volunteers to lead the way, so I follow closely as we make our way down a long corridor. Spruce, being distracted by the presence of Spruce Springstream, walks blindly into a room and finds himself face to face with a bunch of hideous looking demon-kin(Seriously, are there no colors other than grey in the lower planes!?!). Turns out, they think we’re food. Oh joy...

 As the dretches run towards Spruce, he starts singing to himself, and races out to meet one of them head on. He slices out at the dretch, and a booming peal of thunder seems to temporarily stun the beast. Meanwhile, Gnoland races into the room and unleashes a torrent of divine energy at the flying demon in the back, crushing it into the wall and knocking it to the ground. Peaking around from behind Gnoland, Lynx unleashes a torrent of magic energy at the still standing dretches. The dretch harrassing Spruce nearly falls to the ground, but the other two shrug off the attack and look in my direction.

 This is the moment that I realize that both Gnoland and Lynx are hiding behind me. Not wanting to become lunch, I bounce back a few feet and cast Grease at the remaining dretches. As we’re all laughing at the dretches slipping and trying to maintain their balance, the one nearest Spruce takes advantage on the distraction and takes a bite out of his leg. Suddenly Teller comes sliding through the grease, and attacks the unconscious devil. As two of the dretches fall in the grease, one of them unleashes a cloud of rank nastiness. Most of us are clear of the fumes, but poor Spruce looks like he’s going to toss up his biscuits. One of the dretches manages to find his footing and slides up behind Teller, almost biting her in two.

 Seeing Teller in danger, Gnoland grasps his holy symbol and summons a spectral mace to attack the dretch hurting Teller. Lynx unleashes another torrent of arcane energy, and when that fails, she flings a stale biscuit at the dretch attacking Spruce. I don’t know who was more surprised, Spruce or the dretch, as the biscuit nails the dretch between the eyes, knocking it to the ground. Seeing the distraction caused by the biscuit, I hurl an orb of thunder magic at the closest dretch. Unfortunately, I should have warmed up a little first, because while I hit him, all I did was bring his focus back to me.

 Teller uses the distraction to finish off the dretch attacking her, but in the confusion, gets turned around and runs back though the grease field and ends up on her back, right at the feet of the last remaining dretch. The dretch flails wildly at Teller, who manages to roll out of the way as Spruce stabs his rapier through the heart of the last dretch.

 As Gnoland does a little healing on Teller, the rest of the group checks around the room. Spruce digs through the pockets of the spined devils and comes up with some healing potions. We find a crack in one way, that looks like we could break our way through. Lynx tries to punch their way though the cracked wall, and even the power of the mark isn’t enough to break through. I try to send Joey through the crack, but he gets himself stuck. So we convince Gnoland to give it a whack, and the wall crumbles.

 With no place to go but forward, we make our way through the opening into a series of caverns behind. I tried to warn everyone that bad things live in caverns. If only they’d listened to me...

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(8th Entry) The Forest Archway...of Doom!

 So we woke up the next morning and headed down the final path to meet the so called “Guardian” The path ended at the foot of some ruins and as we approached, Teller had the bright idea of being stealthy. Considering the last Guardian tried to us(and by “us”, I mean me!”, we quickly agreed. We all took up hiding spots as Teller began to sneak up to the ruin’s entrance. Then, for some reason, Teller decides to abandon stealth and just yell “Hello!” at the top of her voice. Hell, any of us could have done that!

 But anyway, moments later, a giant stag walks out of the ruins and addresses Teller. It seems this Guardian, who we came to know as Nacho, was WAY friendlier than Blanca the Bear and gave us the rundown on why we were on the island. It turns out, Blanca and Nacho are guardians of the Goddess Melora, and have been tasked with protecting Melora’s Champion, who is locked away on this very island.

 It all comes back to these damned marks on our hands. These marks have been placed on the Champions of the various gods and goddesses, and as the marks grow more powerful, they eventually imprison whoever is marked. The only way to weaken the marks power, is to free the trapped Champions. The more Champions freed, the weaker the mark. All I know is that someone thinks that I’m badass enough to be a Champion, which is awesome.

 Eventually Nacho informs us that this Champion is being held in a Temple behind the waterfall archway, but that we would need the support of Blanca before the ward could be lowered. Luckily, Nacho seems to think that besting Blanca in combat will earn us her support, so he offers to lead us back to Blanca and speak on our behalf. It’s a long walk back to Blanca’s cave, so Nacho agrees to let me ride on his back.

Best.Day.Ever.

 We make it back to Blanca, and after some discussion between the two, it’s decided that we’ll rest for the night, and then in the morning, we’ll make our way to the waterfall, where the Guardians will lower the wards long enough for us to enter the Temple. As a show of gratitude for helping clean the blood out of her fur, Blanca loans me her collar, which was gifted to her by the Goddess Melora. Apparently this collar is what allows Blanca to speak Common, so I agree to get it back to her as soon as we finish up in the Temple. Nacho magics us up some amazing biscuits, so we eat our fill and get some rest.

 Tomorrow we save a Champion!

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(7th Entry) The Cavern Archway...of Doom!

So we head through the Cavern archway, following a well beaten path. Along the way, we notice the damnedest thing. I swear we’re following our own tracks, but we’ve never been down this path. Interesting...

  The path ends in a clearing surrounding a dark cavern. The moment we enter the clearning, the surrounding trees and bushes seem to shimmer, and the path disappears! Suddenly, we hear a terrifying growl coming from the cave and Teller tells every one to hide. Gnoland and Lynx dive behind the bushes, but for some reason Lynx is trying to hide on top of Gnoland’s head. I conjure up the illusion of a rock to hide in, while Teller and Spruce, despite Teller’s words, stand right in the middle of the clearing and face the cave.

  Now this is going to sound odd, but I swear to anything that an honest to god talking polar bear walks out of the cave. The bear and Teller speak for a moment and the bear mentions that we’re marked, and I suddenly notice a black spiral mark on the back of my left. The bear(named Blanca) calls us out of our hiding places and informs us that she is a Guardian. While she’s talking to Teller, I lean over to Lynx to compare marks. She tries to like hers off, so I illusion up an copy on her tounge and act horrified. While we’re talking, Blanca informs Teller  that we have to prove our worth. Not understanding what she means, Teller keeps talking and ends up pissing off the giant beastie.

  The big bastard gets up and attacks us! In he excitement, Spruce misses with his rapier and Teller hops back away from the rampaging bear and notches an arrow. Gnoland stretches out a hand and shoots out a bolt of divine energy, but misses, too! Maybe he’ll have better luck if Lynx isn’t clinging to the side of his head. Thinking to myself, “Well these poor bastards are useless in a fight”, I step forward to protect them. As I step forward, I concentrate as a fiery orb coalesces in my hands. I fling the orb at the bear, striking it right in the chest! Chest smoldering, the polar bear sends a deadly glare my way as I smile and scamper back to safety. As I run back, I see Lynx leap off of Gnoland’s shoulders, point their marked hand at Biance, and I swear to you, Lynx yells out “Go, mark, go!” and tries to attack it. When that failed, she cast a weak version of Magic Missile. I’m not sure the bear even felt it. Hopefully Gnoland’s god is a merciful one, because at this rate, we’re going to meet him soon.

After swinging and trying to hit Spruce(I’m going to have to remember to ask what type of Wizard he is. He’s definitely some flavor of magic user.), the big bastard charges over at me. The next thing I know, Teller goes sprinting for the bushes, and right before she gets there, she turns and casts some sort of spell. I hear her call out “Sorry!” as sleep takes me. The bitch cast put me to sleep right in front of an angry bear!! She was using me as bait to distract Blanca as she ran away!!!

  Or at least that’s what I thought at the moment. Less than a minute later I’m shaken awake be the sound of a bear roaring in my face. I scramble to my feet, if she’s going to eat me, I’m not going down without a fight! Right as I’m preparing to roast the beastie, Gnoland summons a spiritual mace and smacks her so hard on the nose it knocks the fight clean out of her. Good show, doggie!

  We patch her up a little, and help her back to her feet. It turns out, it was all a damned test. Blanca tells us to seek the other Guardian, and then she’ll let us through waterfall. As a show of good faith, I clean the blood out of her fur with a little quick cantrip. We make our way back to the campsite and decide to get some rest before seeking the final Guardian. As we’re all discussing the day’s events, I walk over to Lynx to thank her for her (misguided)attempt of poking me awake with a minor spell. As customary among my people when one does a great service to another, I’m honor bound to give her a gift of friendship, but being as I’m trapped on an island with none of my belongings, my options are limited. Then I remember that I have a strange rock that I picked up years ago while exploring through the Underdark. As long as she doesn’t ask where it came from(long and disgusting story), I think she’ll be ago. If nothing else, the fact that it’s perpetually warm may peak her interest.

  I went to ask her about her spellcasting when Teller started in with the nonstop apologies and trying to explain her inept attempts at spellcasting that almost got me eaten by a bear. I explained to her that all is forgiven, but magic is not something to be trifled with unless you know what you’re doing, especially in the heat of battle. Upon promising me that she would be more mindful in the future, I accepted her apology and went to find a place to sleep, but not before making an illusionary dunce-cap appear on her head for the rest of the evening.

  So we all hunkered down for the night to rest up. If the next Guardian puts up a fight like Blanca the island dwelling polar bear, we would definitely need it.

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(6th Entry) The Waterfall Archway...of Doom!

  So as our ragtag group made our way to this waterfall, we had an interesting conversation with Lynx about fish and l learned a little about my new traveling companions. Turns out Lynx and Gnoland have known each other for a while, and that Spruce was an “entertainer”, but not of the male entertainer variety. We found a stream that we followed it all the way back to the waterfall. The Waterfall itself was very impressive, the mists surrounded it caused a cascade of colors in every direction. I’m not ashamed to admit that I was mildly distracted while the rest of the group did a little checking around the waterfall itself.

  Shaken out of my reverie by Teller, who had apparently been speaking to me for a few minutes, I try and play catch-up to see what everyone has found. Turns out, Teller has sensed something a little off about the waterfall itself that seems to be magical. I go investigate, and as I get close, I get a sense of unease and a feeling that we shouldn’t be there. Between the uneasy feeling, and the bright rainbow of colors surrounding the waterfall, I wasn’t able to glean any useful information about the enchantment.

  While Gnoland and Lynx are looking for a frog to throw though the magical barrier, I reach into by jacket pocket and retrieve my old Familiar buddy, Joey the Weasel. I give Joey the scoop, and get him to walk through the barrier while I magically looked through his eyes.

**As a side note before D&D PETA attacks me, Joey is a magical creature. The worst thing that could happen is that he gets sent back to the ether and I call him back. No weasels were hurt during the filming of this scene**

  Just as Joey scampers through the waterfall and down the tunnel behind, he disappears in a flash of light! Surprised for a moment, I blink away the stars to find Joey is back on the beach at the campsite. I summon Joey back to us, and while he makes the trek back, I tell the group what happened, and of all things, Teller leaps through the barrier and disappears as well. Then Gnoland, with Lynx at his usual perch on his shoulder, follow behind. A few moments later, Teller and the others appear behind us running up the trail, followed closely by Joey.

  Teller tells us what she saw and heard, and convinces me to go through with her. Teller suddenly seems apprehensive so I grab her hand and drag her through with me.Right as I disappear into a flash of light, I see two stone doors and hear a Voice saying “None of you have clearance, stop trying!” and suddenly find myself back on the beach. I send Joey back to motion the others to follow him back to the beach. Suddenly Teller appears next to me, and says that the Voice told her to “Seek the Guardians”.

  A new clue before us, we make our way through the “Cavern” path archway.

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(5th Entry) What an odd group...

  So like I mentioned, I went from passing out in my bed back in Luskan, to waking up face down in the sand next to a well dressed elf. Wanting some answers, I tried to wake the elf, but he was having none of it. Luckily, it was nothing that a little magical trumpet couldn’t shake him out of. He introduced himself as “Spruce Springstream” and asked if I was a fan. Not knowing how to respond, and not wanting to be rude, I just did the old “smile and nod” routine. Turns out, that’s pretty universal and even the surface people do it.

  Well Spruce had no more answers than I did, so we decided to head down the beach to see if we could find any signs of civilization. After walking for a while, we noticed a campfire in the distance, so we headed that way. While we were still about a half-mile away, the strangest thing happen. Three figures at the campsite stood up, and started waving at us. Still way too far out to yell, Spruce and I cautiously headed closer. Oddly enough, those daffy bastards kept waving at us for the entire walk up to them.

  Well, they seemed friendly enough, so we introduced ourselves, and let me tell you, they were an interesting assortment of people. First up was this beast of a Gnoll named Gnoland(I know, right?), who contrary to most of his people, seemed to be a peaceful cleric of some sort. Perched on his shoulder was the oddest Tabaxi I had ever seen. Rather small for their race, Lynx nonetheless seemed a stalwart companion of Gnoland and speaks very highly of him. Lynx’s upbeat and chipper demeanor is infectious and I think we’ll get along fine. Rounding out the group was a soft-spoken Tabaxi(of normal height) by the name of Teller. I don’t have a good read on her yet, but she seems harmless enough.

  Introductions made, I unfortunately find out that they are just as lost as Spruce and I are. Teller had been doing a little scouting, and had discovered three mysterious archways. Having no other viable options, we decide to all stick together and head to the archways to see what could be found. The three archways each lead to do different paths, and each archway had a sign on it. The three signs were in Elvish, which Teller was able to read, and simply described each path as “The Woods”, “Waterfall”, and “Caverns”. After a little debate, we decided to head to the “Waterfall”.

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(4th Entry) Holy crap, the ocean!

Early the next morning, we arrived to the pier and received our orders. I’m proud to say that I handled things decently well, at least until we lost sight of land. That is a feeling that I can never explain. Not being able to see solid ground, with nothing but water as far as you can see, is just a totally alien sensation.

We quickly learned that I wasn’t strong enough to man the lines, and being put in the crow’s nest just ended with me getting distracted and nearly guiding us into some shoals. So in order to earn my keep I offered keep the crew entertained with my illusions. Let me tell you, the stuff that veteran seaman find entertaining will haunt my dreams forever…

After a few weeks, we made port in the city of Luskan. Seeing as how we were going to be there for a few days while supplies were offloaded, Kaiden and I opted not to sleep on the ship and got a room at a nearby inn. After an amazing meal, and a show by a very entertaining bard, I passed out on my bed. It’s the damnest thing, I had a strange dream, but all I remember is bits of conversations and a feeling of danger. The next morning I woke with a face full of sand, on a beach I’ve never been to, next to a strange elf that I had never seen before.

Either that wasn’t beer I drank last night, or something strange is going on…

[rahvinus-blog]

(3rd Entry) Journey to Neverwinter

The journey to Neverwinter to many weeks, and along the way I saw amazing things. From flora and fauna that I had never dreamed of, to sentient races that I had only heard of in campfire stories.(I do hope that once we get off this island that I can return to Luskan and retrieve my things. I would hate to lose all my notes and drawings". But aside from everything else that I witnessed, what impressed me most about my cross-country trek with Thorval and Kaiden was their willingness to help people. Amongst the people of the Underdark, that kind of attitude rarely exists. We live in constant threat of Drow invasion or destruction at the hands of the various other nasties, so in general we tend to not offer help unless it in some way benefits us. But not Thorval and Kaiden, nothing was beneath them. From helping a random farmer pull his wagon from the muck, to helping a village with their goblin problems, they never hesitate to help those in need. I find that I really admire those traits, and I hope to one day do them justice. Anyway, eventually we arrive at the grand city of Neverwinter. I'm fairly certain that Thorval and Kaiden took great amusement in my reactions. But in my defense, there are few cities in the world like Neverwinter, but above or below. I didn't believe such a place could be possible. The number of people and things going on was enough to dumbfound a person. We took a few days to get settled in before Thorval's conclave. I took the opportunity to explore my new surroundings. One morning while visiting the market square, I happened upon a street magician and saw something that changed my life. The magician was shooting pure colors, from his fingertips! I immediately asked the magician to teach me the spell, but angry that I interrupted his show, he refused to teach me. Dejected, I returned to the inn to find that Kaiden had a surprise for me. Rather than waiting in Neverwinter for an entire month for Thorval to finish his conclave, Kaiden had enlisted us as deckhands aboard the merchant ship Mithril Dagger. Having never seen a body of water bigger than a lake or the Neverwinter harbor, I had no idea what I was getting into...

[rahvinus-blog]

(2nd Entry) I find myself in Hundlestone

I woke to find myself in chains, and the center of a heated debate between the not-Duergar and another race that looked like similar to my own people, just paler. As a side note, we Svirfneblin are just prettier in general than our surface cousins, but that's another topic. Anyway, had no idea what the hell anyone was saying until finally an elderly not-Duergar arrived and responded to my questions in Undercommon. I plead my case, and Thorval(the not-Duergar I came to know as Dwarves) convinced his comrades that I was no harm. I was set free under the condition that I was to remain in the city until everyone was convinced that I wasn't a spy and had no plans to kill them in their sleep. Freed, terrified, and emotionally exhausted, I promptly passed out right where I was sitting. I awoke the next morning to such a blinding light that I had never witnessed before. It tools weeks for my eyes to finally adjust enough to real sunlight that I was able to go outside. And once I did, I saw the most beautiful thing I had ever seen; color. Colors everywhere, and in every shade imaginable. After decades of living in darkness, with maybe a torch at most to light my way, I was finally seeing the world the way it was supposed to be seen. I literally spent days just walking around, basking in everything. Eventually I calmed down and began to get to know the other to races in town(humans and surface gnomes). I buried myself in Thorval's lessons of the surface languages and began to learn Common and Dwarf. I befriended a human male named Kaiden who began to teach me of the outside world. Many months go by, and the warmth of spring finally melts the snowed covered passes out of Hundlestone. My friend Kaiden invites me along to escort Thorval to Neverwinter for some annual cleric meeting. We pack our things and I finally set out to see what this surface world has to offer.

[rahvinus-blog]

(1st Entry) A dark day, but hey, it’s the Underdark!

  My story begins the same as a lot of people’s do in the Underdark, with my parents being eaten by a horrific monster! My parents were surveyors, and were tasked with checking out a newly discovered series of tunnels. Unfortunately, these tunnels led to the breeding grounds of a pack of Purple Worms. The only survivor was never able to get the images out of his mind. I was so young that I don’t even remember their faces, but my uncle has told me many stories of their times together.

  And don’t let the word “worm” fool you! I saw one once and almost crapped my pants. Damn near 80ft long, with a mouth so big that I could have stepped right in without touching it’s giant teeth, and to top it off, it’s got a giant stinger on it’s ass-end. Seriously, what god thought that was funny!?!

  I was luckier than most, most orphans in Blingdenstone end up sold to the damned Drow. My uncle, Xanril Crystalfist took me in and gave me a home. Uncle Xanril hated the noise and crowds of the city, and lived in a tower many miles from Blingdenstone. In his younger days, Uncle Xanril was a renown explorer of the Underdark and a wizard of no small consequence. I spent the majority of my youth at his side, learning everything I could of the ways of magic. After my daily lessons, both theoretical and practical(we discovered that I have a knack for illusions!), he would tell me stories of the amazing things he’d seen back in his day. One of his biggest regrets was never making it to the surface world.

  Eventually, time finally caught up with Uncle, and he called me to his bedside. He gave me his greatest possession, his spellbook, and made me promise that I wouldn’t spend my life trapped in the Underdark. Finally, at the ripe old age of 430, Uncle Xanril passed away. So once Uncle was laid to rest with honor, I vowed to make good on my promise. I packed my few meager possessions, took one of my Uncle’s maps, and began to make my way to the surface.

  That part of the journey wasn’t too bad, actually. I made afew wrong turns, had a (near)miss with an Illithid colony, had to dodge the occasional Drow scouting party, but eventually I made it to where my Uncle thought he could find his way to the surface. After a day or two of searching, I found a crevice leading up towards fresh air. I squeezed myself through, and popped out at the feet of a group of creatures that i had never seen before. They were all taller than me, and very stout. They resembled the Duergar that used to visit Blingdenstone, but all have massive beards. Not knowing what else to do, I introduced myself in Undercommon. Big mistake, this only seemed to set them on edge. The next thing I know, one of them hits me in the face and everything goes dark. But hey, at least I made it out of the Underdark!