Location: Near and in Takanal

Date: Summer, 1333 Avard

Characters: Este, Halite, Nalani, Galadriel, Isaac

They awoke in the middle of the night confused, in various states of distress – and damage – and unsure of what had happened. Careful investigation and the light of day some hours later helped them put together a scene of carnage and blood, and the realization that their sense of smell was nearly gone. Powdery residue and the layout of blood spatter indicated the team had made a last stand, back to back, against at least a dozen foes. A severed hand with an ornate golden ring upon it was the only evidence of their attackers that remained. Stranger still, Este seemed to have a myswyvern bonded to him – a small dragon-like creature the size of a falcon with a barbed tail. The party moved on to Takanal, putting together the rest of the mystery as best they could. After splitting up, a man with a bandaged stump on his hand called out Galadriel as the one that took his hand.

Date: SUN13NOV2016

DM's Notes: Intro campaign continues.

Reference: Campaign IX
Previous: IX-11-11
Next: IX-11-13

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I don't know how to go about starting this entry; I have notes in my journal from the past week, but I remember none of it. My last clear memory is in the gnome workshop, but we've very clearly traveled on since then, and for some time and distance. I woke in confusion, alone in the dark, with a badly bruised arm and missing my staff, robes, goggles and spellbook, though I still had my backpack and belt pouches. Some distance away, I could hear Este flapping about in water, and Halite making noise, though considerably less than usual. After a bit of time coming to my sense, a fire flares - Halite is nearby, and I join her. The others start to make their way to Halite and the fire. Halite is missing his armor and has fresh scars that are healing. It's then that I know we're missing some time, because the scars aren't fresh. Onwynn, my familiar, is missing and not within linking distance (or is unresponsive), so I dismissed and recalled him; he was apparently unconscious and recalling brought him back to awareness. He couldn't tell me anything; whatever happened to me also happened to him, it seems.

After some discussion and attempts to find out lost gear in the dark, I cast Ray of Frost, augmented with the mushrooms for light. We find carnage. We're in what looks like a battlefield, covered in blood and viscera. There's also a fine white powder covering everything. It's shocking to see, because we don't smell the blood, and we should. There are no bodies, though we do find a severed hand. We gather what we can and convene around the fire to piece together what we can and recover from our ordeal.

We establish that we're missing 5 days. I have journal entries dating back that far, the last 3 are in the ink I created from the mushrooms (so it glows). Most of it is legible, but some is lost due to mud and blood seeping into the pages and ruining the ink. We left Spark headed to Takanal when we were found by a pseudo-dragon, apparently Este's, with a message from his family. He didn't tell us what the message was, but it spooked him. The dragon was apparently tracked by bandits, who had been hounding us for the last few days, culminating in this battle, apparently. They have about 15 or so in their party, and at least one of them has magic, because we only caught glimpses of them before their attacks. We barely survived this last encounter, but they were no more fortunate.

At daybreak, we recover the last of our missing items and make for Takanal to talk to the guard, and see if we can find out more about the powder at the Cathedral of Trees. On the road, we find a dead messenger dog at the base of a statue. The message is still inside the case; a promissory note from the Church of Lul giving the bearer 500 gold. We decide to bring that with us. Not too far from there, we find another dead messenger dog, again with his message case in tact. Halite opens it and finds ceremonial incense - very costly. Odd that someone should kill the dogs but leave the messages and goods on them.

We camp for the night and reach Takanal the next day. We stay at the Blue Tyven, and Galadriel and I head for the temple. We find the priestess, Mother Tia, there and she offers to help research the powder we found at the battlefield. She connects this powder and our experience to other similar robberies in the area where the victims can't quite remember what happened and promises to do her best to help and find an antidote. I offer a gold piece for her troubles and am given a brick of healing peppermint leaves (32) for my apparent generosity. Galadriel offers a donation to the temple and drinks from the well, then we make for the local shop to replenish our supplies.

Once we reunite with the group, we decide that we should go to Rilan; we learn about Este's family and the message his dragon carried. Este is a noble and wanted back home, but his loyalties prevent him from returning there. Before we leave the next day, I return to the Cathedral of Trees with Halite to get an update and leave word where we'll be heading.

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