| Session Date | July 1, 2023 |
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| Base XP Gained | Carry Over |
| Player Notes | ZZ's Notes |
Hans used the down time to scry some targets of interest. He found the priestess of Grimbold in a tavern having breakfast with the chief cleric of Maladominus from Manston. It was clearly the same one in Far Andor they’d last seen him and they seemed to be discussing options to rebuild their rebellion or resistance to the Giant King, without much success it would seem. He later checked in on Girion, the officer in the Manston garrison they’d befriended. He was apparently having a meal with some of his soldiers in Manston. They seemed ill-pleased and ate quietly, heads down. They were armed and armored for duty, but clearly not happy.
He next checked on Alcibard and found him in the citadel of Manston, talking with a pair of what Hans took to be human wizards. Hans cast clairaudience to listen in and found that they were discussing the arrival of the Giant King. The wizards haughtily informed Alcibard that they would be in charge of security and that his own forces would be kept well away from the Giant King. Unfortunately, one of the wizards suddenly sensed the scrying and Hans broke contact immediately, thus gathering no further information. His next scry was to look in on Arcma but found him alone in a tavern that he did not recognize. His last attempts were to check on Ravenna but found himself utterly unable to see her. An attempt to find the thief with no name had the same result. They speculated that those two might be in the thieves’ guildhall in Manston which could be shielded against scrying.
While this was going on, Sirius, ZZ, and Deaglan decided to try the cubic gate. Sirius activated it and the three stepped through into the second level of the Happy Hunting Grounds, the plane known as Brux. They stepped into a forest clearing under a twilight sky, some 100 yards across. The trees around them were immense. There were strange stars in the sky and the forest seemed bathed in a sourceless moonlight. The light glittered on snow or ice on high mountains, very distant from this clearing. Deaglan checked the clearing perimeter but found no paths, only small and inoffensive creatures here and there. He proceeded to mark some trees with chalk to see if they indeed came to the same location next time. The party then flew up on the magic carpet (and Sirius as a polymorphed bird) to get a high look, but only found the forest marched on the edge of seeing in every direction. When they descended, they found some wild boars had come into the clearing, but the three stayed clear of them and the boars seemed content to do boar stuff. They all returned without incident to their quarters on the Prime plane, noting that for them they seemed to have been gone an hour but had really been gone for three.
Several of the party decided to have a one-night bender before departing the Dwarf city. Sirius and ZZ managed to keep it together, and Hans managed to win a fair amount of money off some poor Dwarves in a night of gambling. HelgaVinka, on the other hand, appears to have embraced her barbarian heritage, getting naked and passing out in the temple to Moradin Soulforger. The Dwarf priests that found her the next morning were not at all pleased at the discovery, and there were almost certainly a message sent to the citadel to inform Nali (and maybe Fror, his father) about this sacrilege!
After a full day of recovery, the party set out along the Deep Road, reaching a wayside rest not far from the northeastern egress point. Hans took the opportunity to scry his ship, finding it still safely in Far Andor. The next day, the party exited the Dwarf Kingdom and into a warm, pleasant early summer day. They traveled on horseback, with Sirius flying as a polymorphed bird above, and Deaglan and Burt as outriders. A little after midday the party was passing a small wooded area when a pack of a dozen wolves rushed out and charged the party. Hans and Burt cut many of them down with coordinated cones of cold but a melee resulted nonetheless. It was sharp and the wolves proved to actually be werewolves. At one point, one of them cursed the party in Common as infidels and something about seeking vengeance in the name of Kavkaz. They fought to the death.
Later in the day as dark began to fall, the party had turned more northerly along the verge of the Grand Forest. Sirius flew ahead to scout the roads further on for enemies. While he was gone, the party was attacked by a large pack of weird, shadowy hounds charging out of the deepening shadows. These creatures were perhaps less deadly than the werewolves, but they did manage to get in amidst the party, seriously wounding four of the six elves before they were cut down at last, each vanishing into thin air when slain.
Sirius returned soon after and had naught to report. So, the party slipped into the verge of the forest to camp. Not long after, they suddenly found their camp surrounded by an armed party of High Elves…