At miss Cardamum’s request and to quell Hovan‘s discomfort, we returned to Brymdale. I parted ways with the group to wait outside of the town until they needed me. I’m sure important information was exchanged with the old priest man, but nothing I needed to hear. There wasn’t anything of interest left in that tiny town for me.

When they regrouped with me outside of town, I noticed the old priest tagging along with them. I gathered that Nohl and the spider dwarf convinced Hovan that he’d be an asset of sorts for information while Hovan was less than pleased about that but understood his old man might be useful. Poor boy was probably worried about his safety, but oh well.

From there, Cardamum and our group made our way along the river towards the capital city of Loramon, a city I’ve been through in the past. A bustling city now dimmed by a fog of smoke from now-constant torches lit to fend of the dark of the reddened sky. The life of the city still flourished despite wary eyes fixed upwards.

We continued our way through the city to the den of magic users. A finely polished building that seemed unnecessarily large and extravagant for some strangely pompous people who can make flashy lights. Cardamom requested an audience with what sounded like the higher ups and was given so… after an hour long wait. The antsy old priest was immediately restless and made his way to the tavern for coffee. I followed, to get my own drink while Hovan and the spider dwarf trailed after us. Nohl ran off in a hurry. Probably nerves from summoning a giant death monster with a stupid knife in our last encounter…

At the tavern, the old priest downed a whole mug of hot coffee in one gulp and started talking serious to me, mentioning that talking to the big men at the magic building might be pointless and that they probably have the key (I gather the key that the corpse of Draxis and the giant demon monster was asking for before…). So he plotted that I go in and steal it myself. I agreed it possible, but before I could ask what was in it for me, the priest man rushed out… without paying for his coffee. I stewed a moment, then drank up whatever drink I had, tossed a few coins on the counter and ran out after the old man, certain that Nohl would be devastated if he lost his only real friend at the moment.

It took me quite a while to find this crazy old man, but when I did find him, he was tucked into a rather conspicuous alleyway with two conspicuous men, whispering to him, while he talked back at them in a very audible voice about how he wanted to buy a map from them. I quickly pulled him away from an obvious con deal, but as soon as he mentioned they had the map to the magical people building, I re-approached them. Nohl, who happened to be conveniently passing by, was in their way, and I barked for him to grab them, which he did for a second, until they pulled a knife on him. I pushed my way through them to distract them while stealing the map they were selling before. Oblivious, the men ran off and gave the map to the old man before we ran back to the magic men building for that audience.

When we returned, we noticed the ever patient Cardamom, Aoife, Hovan, and the spider dwarf missing. From the receptionist’s information, they had already gone inside and we were late. I was ready to sneak on in past her desk, but gave away my presence and was unable to…
After some minutes, our companions returned, looking disappointed and less than happy with whatever might’ve occurred with their audience. They mentioned that those higher-power magic men were probably holding the key somewhere in a vault, possibly in the very building we stood, but the receptionist (the lovely Joyora) overheard and informed us that the vault wasn’t even in the building, but in the capitol building. Leaving Joyora with an extra black pearl I still had, we wished her well and went on our way to the capitol.

Upon reaching the capitol, there was a crowd of people flowing through the walkways. It seemed the capitol was a bit of a tourist stop and the terrible sky wasn’t going to stop these tourists from getting their fill. Spider dwarf found some way down below the building for a way in while I suggested Aoife send up her dragonling pet to check the roof of the building. It let us know the top of the building was nice. Very useful information.

Spider dwarf returned with rather detailed information about the interior vaults we sought. Hovan and Nohl haplessly returned with information on past kings. Cardamom pointed that she could get a few of us inside with her badge, but needed the one of us to look like they had something important to bring inside. While Hovan picked up a rock, I extracted a simple but finely crafted wooden box that I had been storing a few things in, told Hovan to make it look important. I don’t know how his logic meant for “important” to be “heavy”, but he pretended to carry that thing as if it weighed a million pounds. Before I could correct him, Nohl and Spider dwarf did magic things and made the box reek and sprout vines and other sorts of things. I was planning on getting that box back later but I might have to reconsider… Cardamom and I were about ready for this to fail, but Hovan playing up the weight and strangeness of this box caused a crowd to gather. As Cardamom knocked on the entrance doors to what could be the vault, demanding to be shown inside to fix something, the crowd watched Hovan and the box in awe, causing whoever opened the doors to be immediately uncomfortable and dragged them in before the crowd got worse. I slipped in behind Hovan and Spiderdwarf unnoticed while Aoife stayed behind to keep an eye on things outside, sending her pet dragonling along with us.

As the three of us walked along with a guard towards our destination, convincing the guards that Cardamom was going to check on the “poofer”, I was suddenly pulled aside by what looked like a guard—but was Nohl disguised as a guard. After convincing another guard that I was necessary for opening the terrible and smelly box, we were pointed to a shortcut to reunite with out group.

We entered some strange small room that travels up and down and descended towards our destination, continuing further in, through a vault that seemed to be housing small creatures and “strange objects”. We passed through with ease to the more guarded vault. The deeper vault was dark, hardly anything visible to my eyes, but some of the others pointed out a circle on the ground, as well as man sitting at a desk in the corner, seemingly reading a book. Hovan and Cardamom approached the man to see about putting away the box and “fixing the poofer” or “circle” or whatever, the man was immediately onto them. However, after exchanging some words, the man was willing to just let us into the vault, telling us which one even had the key. As Hovan entered, he found no key in it’s place, but instead a note signed with an “~F” attached to an amaryllis flower. Everyone debated who the mysterious “~F” person could be. I took the note and flower to inspect it further while we all exited the building, but as we emerged, we found some of the men from the magic people building crowding around outside, claiming that they were about to cure the sky…

We ventured forward after the suspected temple defiler after solving the puzzle of that piano on the other side of the water, creating a convenient bridge to cross the water safely.

As we continued along through a maze of rooms and paths, we found a seemingly innocent well of water that did not move much. Probably something of note, but we did not linger on it too long since our spider dwarf man was set on his trail after the bloody culprit.

Following blood trails and hand prints, we were met with a rather precarious stone bridge with some suspicious seams in the stone. A brief look-over and I assumed it safe to cross until a large ax swung down from whatever ceiling and back, making the reason for the seam in the stone rather obvious them… I was knocked off the bridge towards the streaming river below, but I was tethered via rope held by Hovan luckily and he was able to pull me back to safety. Getting the timing right was rather simple after the first few ax swings so all of us were able to cross easily.

On the other side of the bridge was a room that we were able to surround where the the suspect had obviously ran into. Kicking down the door was a bit unsettling because the room beyond was filled with piles and piles of bodies and contraptions for draining blood manned by some cloaked men of sorts. The one we trailed in after was barking in some garish language at a man in finer robes, but we were able to interrupt in several violent ways. At some point, Hovan became massive (which was upsetting). As we slowly cut through all the cloaked men, Nohl unsheathed that dagger he found a while ago and made a successful stab at the finer-robed man… and caused the man to bleed black liquid that formed a symbol on the ground from which a gigantic near-skeletal demon climbed out of, demanding a key. With deft hands, I grabbed the dagger from Nohl’s weak hands and chucked it across the room while dragging the idiot out before getting massacred by whatever that thing was. I would find out later that the dagger was retrieved by our dear dwarven friend…

As I pulled Nohl and Aoife far from the room of probably death, a beautiful voice rang out from an unexplored hall. A beautiful young woman there, beckoning us that way. We all happened to regroup as we ran to her, and she immediately closed the path behind us to prevent the devil demon from following. By her actions we were able to escape this cavern below the Mournstead mountain temple.

This woman, Cardamom, claimed to be an official wizard of some government, so she and Hovan seemed to get along. Apparently she requested for us to join her in checking in on Brymdale, and Hovan and Nohl were rather eager to head back and inform the priest man of what we had found in Mournstead.

I agreed to join them, reluctantly.

I gathered my things for what would be my final departure from Brymdale after a week of nothing. The sky stayed the same, dark and dreary, while the people of the town could only glance up in uncertainty… so I needed a change of scenery. Before leaving, I considered going to the temple to at least bid that Nohl fellow a farewell, maybe tell him other things. I’ll admit to spying in on him a few times, just to make sure no one tried to kill him before I did… but he would always be stuck in his books or making fire and whatnot. Strange man.
After cleaning out the room I had occupied, shouldering all of my belongings, I made my way down to the exit of the tavern, about to go to the temple to think more about possibly saying farewell to my willowy friend, but before I could reach the door, the man himself burst into the tavern, spotted me, and ushered me out to the edge of town where Hovan wait. Apparently the two were headed out to the next town, as well, on some sort of chore to speak with the priest man’s friend and now I was being dragged into it.

I take back calling Nohl “my friend”.

The three of us journeyed along to the next town at the base of a mountain without much issue. Not very much to look at with just three men wandering through the plains. As we approached the town of Mournstead, there was an odd feeling of quiet that loomed. The farming land at the outskirts lie empty in what should have been about early afternoon. We approached with caution and found the roads within town as barren as the fields. I hurried over to the most obvious place of knowledge and information but instead found an empty tavern that almost seemed as if it were abandoned for a long while: food sitting out smelt stale and sour, rooms were emptied out, nothing of worth remain despite whatever was left behind from a traveler from Oprucan. Hovan and Nohl insisted on hurrying to the temple where the priest man’s friend should be, so we moved on.

As we approached the temple that sat against the foot of the mountain, the air around it seemed just as stagnant as the rest of the town. Hovan threw the doors open to find a horrid display, the foyer riddled with blood that nearly flooded the whole room. I could probably swim in it if I was so depraved. Hovan’s blood was certainly heating up at this point.
Before we stepped in, however, a new man and a familiar someone appeared at the entrance of the temple behind us. Aoife and a dwarvish man whose name escapes me approached and began to survey the bloodied room before us. Hovan allowed me to has passage on his back while he explored the room while the dwarf man started climbing on the walls like some spider—it was rather disturbing to see. Aoife sent forth a miniature dragon to examine the room as well. Apparently she picked the thing up while she was away. Bitey little thing.

The small dragon and Hovan examined something that seemed to be written on the furthest wall in blood in another language, and it was declared to be something rude. Hovan was livid about someone defiling a sacred place like that and began storming around. I made sure to hop off before he started kicking down doors.

The group of us started to explore the rest of the temple, finding what seemed like normal living quarters until someone spotted a door nearly broken off the hinges in the back of a food prep room, the door leading down a flight of stairs. I hurried in front of the bulk to check the door at the end before anyone did anything stupid, peeking through the keyhole to see a string very obviously tied to the doorknob on the other side. Amateur.

That “trap” was passed easily, but what we found behind it were buckets of blood and a pattern drawn on the floor in that same blood. Hovan seemed ready to murder someone by then, and he rushed through with the dwarf man who was still climbing walls. Before they could make it through the hallway, Hovan set off a trap on the floor that barricaded himself and the spiderdwarf man in as what sounded like gas spewing into the area. Nohl and I, being more cautious on our feet, were blocked off and did what we could to find a switch to undo the trap. A success and a half later, the two were freed and Hovan was suddenly more hesitant to move without checking for traps.

Continuing forward without much difficulty, we reached a more cavernous area with running water, a piano sitting between two particular pillars that faced a platform in the center of rushing water. In a moment of silence, there was the sound of whistling. Hovan looked out to the platform in the water and saw what looked like a man, whistling while painting the walls with one of those bucket at his side. I think Hovan exploded because he was suddenly in the water, making his way to the culprit. I was a little more drawn to the piano, but we all eventually made our ways across the water to the same platform, but the person had fled well before we were all across.

We hurried further on into the cavern to chase whoever this guy was so Hovan could give them a stern talking to….

After some time of rest in the room we left off in after defeating the bubbling fire avatar, I alone (though I suppose accompanied by the cleric boy and nosey pointy-eared hobo) charged foward through the crypt entrance hall, in search of the end of this muggy cave (and treasure of course), to be met by a strangely smooth surfaced set of doors. Pushing them open with ease, there stood three large bull-like men, flesh rotting a bit, but still as tough as when alive. The room they stood guard in was large, domed around the platform in the center where a stone coffin lie. I’m certain that’s what the others noticed first, but I personally was immediately drawn to the piles of treasure behind the platform…

Before anyone could make a move, however, the stone coffin burst open and a nearly skeletal yet animated body of what looked very similar to the man in the paintings rose from within, shouting for us to return his key. Perhaps the one he was offering in the painting in the room before? Draxis, I believe he was called. He created a lot of fire in that room, and he had some sort of invisible shield—all very annoying. But the man was bested, beheaded, his bull-guards felled as well. Poor lady Aoife seemed to break her bowstring in the midst of battle, while one of the metal brothers broke his sword. Unfortunate.

The treasure hoard was plentiful. Nohl found some books to read that he could not even read, I pocketed a handful of gold and silver pieces, Hovan shared the questionable barrel of ale with the group of us, and the orcish woman partook in a hand full of spices. Aoife idled by to fix her bow while Hovan’s brother found himself a new sword and immediately got bored, heading out of the room as soon as he felt rested enough. I trailed after the metal brothers, Nohl trailing along behind me with the other woman, and they found a room filled with fresh air and a simple way out of this hole in the ground via some stalagmites and stalactites. I was just about ready to leave to find a way to get all of our treasure hoard back to the village, but Hovan and Nohl were more curious to see what lie in the last room. They left Hovan’s brother to enjoy the air while I followed behind, cautious.

The final room glowed a light violet color. In some kinda circle shape on the ground were some rocks with weird writings, and within the circle shined that purple light. More curiosity bubbled in Hovan’s bright eyes, only to be quelled by seeing what this shiny light was about. After tying his hand together with the orc-ish woman as a tether, Hovan walked into the light, and he seemed to disappear for a moment, then immediately got pulled back, announcing that the “portal” lead to hell—as a fire wisp emerged behind him that he sooner smashed aside with his mace. The four of us were able to disrupt whatever was going on with those stones to make the light disappear, preventing a second wave of whatever those were or worse.

Satisfied, we returned to the room with the exit to find Hovan’s brother’s shield and sword on the ground, but no brother… until we looked up. There on the ceiling was Hovan’s brother, wrapped up in what was obviously spider silk. As Hovan cut his sibling free, noticing a lack of spider in the room, I immediately remembered that Aoife still lingered in the room of treasure and I quickly ran back, only to find a giant spider slain in front of her rescued her from the clutches of the massive spider beast and saved Aoife’s life just in time. She was quite grateful, but I refused any offer of thanks because her being alive was enough for me.

Finally, the group of us exited the cave, breathing in the fresh air of day. Quickly, we returned to Brymdale, retrieved some pack mules, then returned to the crypt to take back our remaining treasures. On our way back with the treasure, however, the sky changed a bit. The sun turned blood red and a strange green funnel appeared in the sky… It seemed familiar, but I thought nothing of it. Aoife parted ways with us then, needing time to return to her element and try to understand what was happening. It was hard to part with her, but understood how she felt…

Returning to the town, we returned to the old priest for some reason, the others informing him what had happened in the tomb. Nohl gave the old man some of the books he found. Maybe he’ll read it better than Nohl could. I dismissed myself after a while of them blabbering, leaving them to deal with the bag of silver pieces while I decided what to do with my newfound gold.

A week or so passed. I saw the others around town every so often, that happens in small towns, I suppose. A hello here and there. Nothing too deep, just how I like it. I took residency in the local tavern for the time being, keeping a room to store all my things, but I could feel myself getting too comfortable. Perhaps it was about time I moved on to the next town…

I received a note from what looked like the old priest man’s handwriting, requesting to meet him for coffee…
… He’s not exactly my type, so I let it be.