| Session Date | October 20, 2018 |
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| Base XP Gained | Carry Over |
October 20, 2018
Back in Kazakh, the party took care of sundry business. Cadwallider purchased a few bottles of ink suitable for magical writing and ordered many more. Meanwhile, Aldeberon consulted with the same Dwarf clerics the party had visited before, inquiring if they could figure out why he seemed to be struck inordinately often in battle. They were bale to determine that his magic platemail was cursed...very badly. Fortunately, he was able to simply remove it and swap out for good armor without any further trouble.
The most significant event was ZZ burning his candle of invocation in order to cast a Commune spell. He then asked his god nine questions:
Is Winfrith the Ranger a prisoner? Yes
Is he held in or under the ruined Temple the party had begun exploring? No
Is he being held in its general vicinity? Yes
Is there a sizable treasure in that dungeon? Yes
Does the temple defenders number greater than 50? No
Is there a hostile spellcaster of at least 9th level there? Yes
Are there three or more spellcasters present? Yes
Are there wards against invisibility in the dungeon? No
Are the enemy preparing for the party's return? Yes
Weirdly, after asking his final question, ZZ was struck by a powerful message from his god: The Earth Dragon is near, but it is not the greatest threat! This rather surprised him as this was not how a commune spell is supposed to work. It also left ZZ a little shaky afterwards.
The party now sent Nali a message inviting him to meet them in their quarters. He arrived shortly thereafter. The party proceeded to give him an overview of all the information they'd learned about the brigands they'd tangled with. Nali expressed some concern with this, and made it clear he was concerned this was related somehow to the Giant King's activities to the north. He was not worried for the Kingdom itself, but he did admit that they had been contemplating using Grilbie and the western paths as an alternate trade route to Wellington and the coast; brigandage in that region would certainly hamper than possibility. The Rangers, he told them, often came to the Kingdom, especially the western settlements. Many dwarves mistrusted them as spies or troublemakers, but Nali admitted they did sometime bring useful news of activities in the western plains. "Strange as new from Grilbie" was a common phrase I the western Kingdom, he said. There was no formal alliance between dwarves and Rangers, but he did admit it would be foolish not to listen to what they had to say.
The party also told him of ZZ's warning. This concerned Nali, as well, though like the party he was unclear what it referred to. He was worried in general, he told them. The Kingdom seemed to be having an unusual number of troubles; there was no real pattern, but the timing was suspicious and concerning. The party asked again about the dungeon they'd previously explored, but he told them nothing had changed or otherwise occurred there of late. But, his folk remained watchful in that direction. Nali, as the head of the city's intelligence operation, had a lot of information and a lot of questions, he said, but very few answers. The party promised to keep him informed of what they learned, which he thanked them for. Further, the party asked if he could find some additional muscle for their next expedition; he promised to help as he could.
The party rested three more days in the city, taking care of miscellaneous business and otherwise just relaxing. The next day , they were visited by two men, warriors who had been sent to them by Nali. One named himself Grad and was the more talkative of the two; his companion, Rodal, said little to nothing. They were odd foreigners, but seemed capable enough. The party interviewed them while Iban subtly used ESP to monitor their answers. They asked if they had debts they needed to resolve, and they admitted they had. They had little equipment, as well, and would need some. When asked if they'd ever abandoned a party that hired them, they said no (but Iban sensed that they had done so). Though a bit rough and odd, the party decided to hire them for 100 gold coins as an advance, with 10% shares of loot each. This done, the party allowed them to leave to pay off their debts with their advances, but had them come back the next few days to work with them on how to work with invisible party members. They agreed and said they were comfortable working with magic-users.
The party now made the three day journey to Gorund without incident. Form there, they went overland through the frigid mid-Winter mountains, the two wizards eventually making the whole party invisible. The three day journey was cold and uncomfortable, but also uneventful and the party made it to the fringe of the Waerun Fen without incident. However, that night, a large band of Orcs ran into the party by chance. ZZ, hating Orcs with the deep passion of his folk, soon found himself visible and overwhelmed. Grad and Rodal rushed to aid him, also becoming visible. This caused a real mess of a melee, though the Orcs were neither organized nor so numerous that they ever really threatened the party. As the last few Orcs fled, Cadwallider tried chasing them down while the rest of the party plundered the dead. The last Orc proved too fast for the wizard, and a lightning bolt was needed to prevent its escape.
The party moved their camp after this to avoid further trouble. Two nights later, while ZZ was on watch, the party heard a woman crying not far away. ZZ decided to investigate, leaving Rodal behind as the watch. He soon found a beautiful woman seemingly in distress. The woman acknowledged him and cast a charm spell over him, overcoming the Dwarf's natural resistance to such things. The Dwarf happily sidled up to the woman who began to subtly attack him with magic. meanwhile, Iban awoke (was woken by Rodal?) and followed ZZ. Seeing the Dwarf clearly in distress but too ensorcelled to resist, he attacked, breaking the illusion to reveal a Lamia feeding on the Dwarf. The Lamia fought him wildly but was no match for the warrior; ZZ merely watched in a daze. When the fight was over and the Lamia slain, the dwarf had lost much of his mental acuity (i.e. 5 points of wisdom; Iban had lost 1 point). Shaken, Iban brought ZZ back to their camp and let the others know what had transpired. They'd not even reached the dungeon and had suffered a tremendous setback...