Ham Agamar

It's been a while since I've written, I think. I thought I'd been writing every night, but recently I opened my journal and found.... nothing. My head has been all fuzzy. Maybe it's the alcohol or the Shadowfell. So, let me recap what has been missed. Some of it may vary in detail, but that is the nature of time, memory, and magic. We left the cellar to continue exploring Este to look for the missing individuals or perhaps some sign of a necromancer. Eli decided to investigate the river, and found a slight magical aura emitting from a strange sludge on its surface. Naturally, the mutt felt the urge to spend the next 10 minutes collecting it in vials to launch from those weird ass hatchets of his. Before this unnecessary side journey, I'd found that the tracks of the people in the area converged and headed to the north of Este. So, we headed off in that direction, once again following the trail. Eli began to fly around in their mortar, scouting through a low layer of fog that had begun to coalesce. Time seemed to slowly pass, and I begun to feel the strange sense we were being watched. Something was niggling at the back of my mind, and eventually I realised. We were moving through trees, but there was literally no sound of any living thing. Not the bugs nor the birds. I spotted a bird in a tree nearby, and felt a shock through my spine as I recognised it was made from bone. All the animals in the area were. All dead. All still walking... which explained why the air smelt like rotting flesh, and the amount of flies in the area. Eli made themselves invisible and continued to fly ahead as the hour went by, and we passed a mill on the polluted river. A little further on, Eli reported spotting potentially hundreds of undead, heading straight for us. Realising we had no hope of fighting this many zombies and skeletons, we turned around and ran for the mill. The creatures followed us, boxing us in, and what followed was a brief argument about our best option, right up until Eli reported seeing a 3 headed skeleton in shining armour and riding an undead horse. We then decided our best bet was to hide in the cellar of the mill and bolt it shut, hoping the horde would lose interest. It seemed to work for a time, but they eventually began banging on the cellar door. As I'd been blocking the door with several iron bars that were inside the cellar, Bren, Eli and the mutt had been investigating a strange black tar-like pool in the centre of the cellar. It was mirror-flat and seemed to be reflective. Bren wanted a closer look, so used the glowing orb we had found a long time prior, and the pool began to recede, revealing... a staircase? But it seemed... off. Like the colours were wrong. Not poorly chosen, but wrong. Like someone had made stairs as described by a child, and the colours were created by a blind man who'd never even seen his wife's face. I suppose the easiest descriptor is... it was greyer than it should have been. Bren decided to go through the pool into whatever it was on the other side, and the rest of us immediately began arguing. I was against going through, especially as Eli began to describe it as a Shadowcrossing. I'm not a fan of the idea of going to a separate plane of existence. But, as we stood there and bickered, it began to shrink, and Bren was on the other side. Plus, ya know, there was a literal horde of undead upstairs. So, we went through as it snapped shut. We found ourselves on a stairway, with voices in the distance chanting in a language I was not familiar with. Bren told me they were chanting "She is ancient, she is mother." It was pretty easy to convince the group that wasn't the best direction to go in. So we wandered a while, avoiding traps as best we could, I fell into one and decided to walk along the ceiling to avoid the rest. Eli stuck their head into a chest and got attacked by a snake creature, but I beheaded it before they managed to die. With some aid from Bren's ability to sense the denizens of this strange house, we avoided wherever they seemed to congregate, at least until we found what appeared to be an room full of sarcophagi. Bren claimed there was some force in one of the caskets, so we carefully snuck up on it, and shoved the lid off, revealing a damaged body and a ghostly feminine figure. As we'd discussed, we all attacked... except for everyone else. Apparently they'd decided somehow that the ghost was going to be helpful to us, and so they spent a brief time talking to her about her history and the fact that she was apparently dead. Whilst they were talking to Belloch, I got bored so started taking shit off her body (I mean, she's not gonna need it), but didn't find all that much of worth, sadly. Although if I'm being honest at that point in time I was far more worried about making it back to the material plane. Anyways, with Ramona's help we made our way out of what was apparently the basement of her mansion, and all the way to her attic. Gordon immediately looked out the window and noticed a giant egg floating in the sky, as flashes of opening portals lit up the landscape with rays of sunlight. Apparently, it tried to reach into his mind and do something to him. I don't really know for sure though, as things from here on in got a little blurry. After a brief encounter with an enraged undead nanny, I discussed with the group that maybe our best bet was to avoid walking through the house, and instead rappel down the outside of it. They agreed, and were fine with myself leading the way, especially as my boots would be very helpful in making a safe decent. Avoiding looking at the apparent egg as recommended, I tied a rope from the attic window to the balcony, (as the group decided investigating what appeared to be the master bedroom might be a good idea) and waited for the others to come down. Whilst waiting, however, I began to feel like reality was shifting away from me. I questioned, and still question, whether this entire event even happened. But, writing this down is what I've always done (I think?) so it's what I shall do now... reality or dream. We walked into the bedroom through the balcony door, and myself and Eli began to walk towards a full length mirror on one of the walls. The carvings of the wooden frame appeared to be shaped like ivory, and berries? Or were they eyes? I never can tell. Or I can't ever tell? Hmm. Strange. The outside of the mirror changed as I walked closer. Or am walking. Or will be. Time is odd. Oh shit I've been rambling. Yes. So, basically, behind the mirror was not the same as in front of the mirror, and I was inspecting more closely when a jellyfish demon creature began to reach for me, and Bren, who had been strangely quiet and not so self righteous smashed the mirror, chopping the hand off. Being a wise man, I picked the hand up with my left arm, as I always do with dangerous spooky things... probably a good habit to keep at, considering I'm pretty sure the demon possessed my arm... I'm honestly still not sure exactly. If memory and understanding of how things work serves, it was possessed, and began trying to choke me. When I managed to fight back, it cast a spell at me that literally started burning me to death... which wasn't fun. The others at this point were most unhelpful, with someone throwing a burning blanket at me, and Eli summoning a shocking amount of flammable liquid as I ran outside, briefly being horrified by an translucent egg in the sky the size of a house, before running further to a small pond. Once there, I found this liquid had no effect on fire, so I continued to run around screaming until the blaze ran out of fuel. At this stage, my arm started moving of its own accord once more, and Eli cast a couple spells at it until it quieted down. I knew keeping him around was a good choice. My arm still felt a little warm, which I assumed was from, well, the fucking fire, and I felt so drained that I had to drink several healing potions we had picked up on our travels. I'd have liked to have a quick rest, but as we sat there we all collectively noticed that the portals had stopped opening in such a sporadic nature, and instead one massive ray of light was emanating from directly below the egg... which was probably not a good thing. So, we got up and started to sneak over, with Ramona the ghost inhabiting Gordon as a means of transportation. Running towards the centre of the sunlight in front of us, I found myself to be pulling ahead. Eli had just cast some kind of spell on me, but I felt no different. Ahead of us lay a horde of ghasts, a skeleton of a creature that towered over everything, but still looked miniscule when compared to the horror in the sky that was slowly being lowered by a coven of magical creatures. Lowered into an astonishingly massive portal. The thing above looked like a demonic... baby? The fuck. If memory serves we tore into the horde, myself making a beeline for both the giant skeleton and the magical coven. I couldn't say what everyone else did, but that is the heat of battle for you. Soon there was lightning and flames being tossed around, as Eli, Bren and Gordon ran around the edges of the fight. Meanwhile I was slowly culling the masses of ghasts as they seemed to have trouble landing a blow against me. Normally standing between multiple opponents is a little more lethal for myself than them. Who knows with creatures such as these. As we felled the creatures, the coven began to target us, but Eli had managed to remove a couple of them at some point. But Eli was now themselves down, as the skeleton had ignored me after a moment and smashed them out of the sky. Bren picked them up and kept running for the portal, so I followed suit, bashing the head of a few things on the way. However, as the others leapt through, the intense and ugly creature above took notice of me, reaching out through some unknown power as shadowy black hands the size of houses reached up from below and tried to grab me. I honestly couldn't tell you how I escaped, all I can remember is squeezing out from the hands, running through the portal, From there to quite recently I remember things in spurts and flashes. We bested the three headed skeleton in a final brawl. We cleaned up Balda. I spent some time drinking. We put out notice for those seeking to join the Night Walkers. I had a shadow hanging over me. We left town after Eli got shot by someone whose life they'd ruined back in Apple Bay. Flashes of Apple Bay, and creatures reminiscent of my arm, but sleeker. Dardus flashing a charming smile at me, and growing frustrated momentarily. My old arm returning to me, animated in some way. Travelling again, that shadow somehow always by my side. Where did it come from? Where did we come from? Are we actually here, or just some imaginings of a bored god? Does it matter? Perhaps not. More flashes of a stone wall, mentions of a ruined city of demons, or devils, or something. Offering to scout it out. Moving forward with the house and more to follow along. A magic removing creature, then it was gone. A tall, black spiraling tower, and a group at the top. Fighting some of them, somehow. Removing one from the top of the tower. People dying. Gordon, gone. Meeting a lively gnome with a lot of knowledge about some things, and shockingly little about others. Meeting a man who may as well have been Gordon with hair dye, but claims he isn't. Who knows really?   From there, it gets a little more solid. More recent perhaps, or maybe I'm recovering. We broke a gem out of its bracket from the top of the tower, but couldn't move it any further. We left, and received a reward from the Lord Commander Thalin. A tinkerer gnome at the keep told me that my arm was dangerous, and to sleep on it each night, but I tend to take such advice with a grain of salt. For the moment I'm done writing, my arm is heavy and I need to sleep. Tomorrow we head to Waelmoore Keep.

Having found all the items we each felt we required, we converged at the entrance to Balda Keep. Mhurren looked very out of sync with the world, and Eli was looking at a random guy who wandered off. Bren and Gordon seemed themselves, focused on their own goals and ready to talk to Lord Tallien. As we walked into the Keep, it became clear that Balda was a House on the up. Upon entering I had immediately noticed a man I hadn't seen in decades standing guard, Drover Axehead. He and his brother had once been members of the Avalain Army, my instructors in many things. He wandered over and began talking to me, reminiscing about times past. He offered a drink with him at some stage, and I told him I would be interested in a catch up at some point. Further into the place, there were more banners of House Balda, except this time with a white tree in place of the blade. Perhaps they were attempting to head in a new direction. On the wall of the entrance there were two paintings, one of a white knight facing a horde of creatures, the other of a blonde haired and blue eyed man, the plaque stating it was a portrait of Alexander Balda. One of the guards continued to walk us in, eventually leading the group to a waiting room. We spent a while cooling our heels, and were then instructed to make our way to the dining hall. Once we arrived, we found a well laid out table, with a smaller one to the side where a small group of children sat. We spent the meal in quiet, polite conversation. Going over our journey so far, we found that Tallien had no plans to rebuild Apple Bay, as many similar towns had been faced with similar exoduses, and it was always more effort to rebuild than to just expand Balda. During this conversation, Tallien's wife, a fiery haired elvish woman mostly seemed to pay attention to her children. Lord Balda didn't seem surprised when we mentioned Dardas, and even stated that Dardas had "the resources of a dangerous man." Slowly the conversation moved on until Bren mentioned Dawnshine. Tallien immediately deflated, and one of his children said "That's Uncle Alexander's weapon." I felt slightly awkward, noticing how a sadness seemed to well up inside Tallien. The conversation moved on, and eventually the children were sent to bed. Tallien turned to us, and began explaining the history of Dawnshine, how it was in theory first wielded by Gregory Balda, and how over time Alexander grew obsessed with finding the blade. How he murdered his father, robbed the family blind and was hopefully dead in a ditch somewhere far away. I could tell the toll that rebuilding Balda's funds had taken on Tallien. Seeing this route of conversation had come to an end, I mentioned to Tallien that he had spoken of work in the area for us, preferably paid work. Apparently there had been an increase in packs of undead roving the area, but where this increase would normally have an equal increase in reports of attacks, there were perhaps less than usual. Even though the guards had reported this, the House simply didn't have enough resources to look any further into the issue. All their men were needed to protect the people. So, Tallien offered us the job. Apparently, these issues had first started in Este, a town to the north of Balda. With the rise of Shadowcrossings, the undead gathering was deeply concerning. Tallien said that if these undead increases were due to a necromancer, and we managed to bring it's head to him, there would be 1000 gold for each of us. We decided as a group to take the job, and Tallien gave us a small stipend to purchase resources, which we did. Leaving the next morning, with Eli passed out in their room for no discernible reason, our house took us in the direction of Este. Some time into the afternoon, we noticed a small caravan of people on the road ahead, some in dark robes, others in travelling attire. The mutt and I made our way over, with the other 3 a little ways behind, and found them to be of the agnomic faith, serving in the Blood War, followers of Emakale. We questioned them on their experience in Este, and the leader of the group, Zial, informed us that Este was empty of people and of bodies. The buildings were damaged, but no one was to be seen. In an interaction I didn't see much of, Mhurren decided to leave our group, as the strange necklace he'd spent time with apparently bore the sigil of Zial's lord. After a brief interaction with Bren, who gave them a strange bag for an unknown reason, the acolytes began travelling to Balda again, and we made our way to Este.   Upon arriving, it became clear that Zial had spoken the truth, and the town was empty of bodies. Except... looking at the marks along the ground, it wasn't that the people had left, as much as they had laid down dead... then begun walking again. The scale of this magic was far beyond the typical wizard or practitioner of faith, and once more hinted to a necromancer of substantial power. The remaining 4 of us split up, with Eli and Bren heading in one direction and the mutt and I heading towards a building that seemed less damaged, and even had a cellar. As we began to open it, we heard an explosion in the distance. However, at the same time, the cellar door burst open and 6 ghasts began to attack us. My arm glowed red, and each time they struck at me, it pulsed and they seemed to recoil from the light. Each time I took a swing, I felt the urge to vomit from the stench of the creatures, but managed to hold it in. The creatures surrounded Gordon and I but began to fall as we lay about us. A more well-formed swordsman made its way out of the cellar, but was almost immediately struck down by Eli, who created a powerful lightning bolt from their finger tips. The creatures briefly ran away as Bren brandished his blade, but eventually made their way back to us to die. We killed them all with relative ease, aided by Eli's lion and other magics. Feeling the need for a rest, we made our way into the cellar, but found nothing but partially devoured bodies. The head of the swordsman Eli had taken then spoke to us, saying "Your resistance is futile. You will serve, like the rest of us." Around that time I stopped paying attention.

Alrighty, it's been a tough few days. We arrived in the remains of Apple Bay, finding the town scorched and derelict. Body after body was lying on the ground with black marks across their skin. Immediately we split up and began searching, I travelled with the mutt to see if there were many survivors, starting with the magic shop as that is how his mind appears to work. The shop was, unsurprisingly, empty and untouched. So we began to make our way around the Bay, finding very little until we made it to the Mayor's house. Upon arriving, we saw some 15 poorly dressed lizardfolk standing around and watching a tiefling wearing an iron crown as he shouted up at the Mayor, who was apparently barricaded into his house. Eli and Bren were there as well, involved in some kind of conversation. The tiefling, apparently known as the Dreadlord Dardas, began ranting that he wanted the town back, as it "belonged" to him. The mayor began blaming this entire problem on us, including the town's destruction. "You killed the hag, now we got attacked" etc. The mutt and I broke the door down with my battering ram, and Dardas immediately got bored and wandered off... he's an odd one, clearly. Making our way into the house we noticed some survivors from the apparent attack the night before. We left Bren downstairs to keep an eye out just in case, and headed upstairs to find Mayor Brandywood in his office, clutching his cane and looking ready to kill us or run. He began to tell us once more that we were responsible for the state of the town, as they once only had to sacrifice a few individuals to keep the majority safe. That wasn't a popular opinion with myself, as I told him they could just begin to build defenses around the town like any normal settlement. This appeared to annoy Brandywood, as the lure of Apple Bay has long been the lack of a need for defenses. I continued to push the idea, even offering our services to protect the town as they rebuilt. For a fee, of course. The Mayor, much like many people in the past (Lotan) doubted our capabilities, so instead we suggested that we escort the survivors to Castle Baldur. For a fee. He seemed somewhat amenable to the offer, even if it was less of an offer and more his only option. Eli and the mutt were against my suggestion that we attempt to enlist Dardas and his lizards to escort the town through the nights, but they did think that sending Lotan ahead to warn the Castle was a good idea. I then sent the others out to begin finding and moving more individuals into our roving house, as well as to search for any kind of extra transport, e.g. carts and horses. Following this, I began to guide the mayor and the 45 or so individuals who had been taking shelter in his estate to the Hut, on the way informing Brandywood that the cane he was using had a connection to the surviving hag, as she could see through the eyeball on top. Hob didn't seem that fussed, and even used it to temporarily incapacitate me as an example of the trade off being worthwhile. After a little more time, Eli, Bren and the mutt found 20 or so more townspeople hiding in other buildings, including Mugsack, the tavern owner. We loaded them into the house and the two carts we had found and began trekking to Baldur. It was expected to be a 3 day journey. Unfortunately for us, the very first night out we were attacked. About 6 hours after dark the guards from Apple Bay noticed some trees beginning to move, and Mhurren's sword buzzed as one of the trees lashed out and killed a guard. Bren immediately jumped off the house and brandished the floating globe, scaring off some shadows (much like those we encountered in the mine). The tree closest to the leading cart I was on had a strange face on it as it and two others lurched forward, the odd tree targeting myself. Feeling a burning passion, ignited by the strange metallic arm I am now used to, I summoned forth blue protective lights and ran up the face of the sentient tree, smacking at it multiple times with the glaive I'd taken from the Oni. As I was doing this, I noticed Gordon take a shot at it with his crossbow, burning it slightly. Eli was standing atop the house, a ring of burning objects revolving around them, launching them at the two other trees. A shadow had crept forward as my attention was distracted and took a swing at me, and I felt myself grow weaker as it sucked some form of life from my body. Running down the trunk again, I took a couple more swipes from the shadow, and felt that same creeping weakness. Landing one more hit on the tree, I saw it and the other two grow still. One of the carts had apparently been damaged in the fighting, and we began to hear shouting from the guards behind the house. Running over we gazed upon a 20ft tall creature, with glowing eyes and 4ft long horns eviscerating the "special" members of the local guard. We decided then that our best bet was to crowd everyone into the hut and just run, but the creature continued to gain. I remembered the scroll Eli had given me for some reason, and began to read from it. As soon as the magic took effect, the house began to move at a pace equal to the creature. We spent some time attempting to figure out what it was, as it used some strange abilities to cause immense pain to Bren and murder one of the surviving guards. Gordon said that it had to be from the Negative Plane. It was anathema to life itself, created by some dark force and therefore attracted to similar forces. Having had a close up encounter with the cane that the mayor held, that was my first thought. However the others, including Mhurren, began to dither and dicker about whether it could have been the bag of souls or the stone we got from Umbriana, especially as Bren used the bag to prevent the spectre from consuming the souls of the goats Eli sent to slow it down. However, I became convinced they were all wrong as this creature had not attacked us the night before, but had raged against the town. None of them were inclined to listen, as that's how idiots are, so, as always, I went to solve the problem myself, attempting to track down Brandywood. Eventually he was found to be hiding in a closet, unsurprisingly, and so I took the cane off of him, heading up to the roof. I felt inclined to just throw the cane off the roof, but decided that perhaps working with the group might be a better avenue. Plus, I was still feeling weak after my encounter with the shadow. So, I handed it to them and watched them argue once more. I wanted to just throw it to the creature, as the cane attempted to defend itself by paralyzing whomever held it. For whatever reason, Eli, Bren and Gordon continued to argue until Gordon got sick of the argument and broke it. The spectre immediately stopped, and wandered off. We all relaxed, and continued to travel into the night. The next day, we spotted a strange pair travelling toward us on horseback from the direction of Apple Bay. A man with a symbol of a white blade upon a black field on his shield, riding a strange striped horse of black and white. Beside him, a dog with a gnome on his back. The man with the crest introduced himself as Sir Willem, and asked after the individual who felled the Bitch Queen. We all claimed to have helped, but indicated that Bren managed to land the final blow. Sir Willem, and the gnome whose name was apparently Pippen, asked Bren to join their quest, seeking the Holy Blade as Sir Willem did, in the service of Dawnshine. I believe the oath was something along the lines of "Do you promise to do right and seek the holy blade?" After Bren agreed (even though I thought that perhaps he already had a cause), he was given a hilt with no sword. It gave off the feeling of magic that is used to manipulate energy or tap into other sources of power. Sir Willem and his "berserker horse" as he called it then rode off into the distance. A few hours later we were met by the vanguard from Castle Baldur, bearing the same crest Sir Willem had. Upon reaching the town, we began to relax and wander around shopping and selling goods. Myself and Gordon sold several items to the Quartermaster for a lucrative price. Apparently working in a group sure is profitable. I then wandered around town for a while, seeing what else was available, and finally decided to buy a greataxe. My arm and I are finally in sync, so I figured I could start being a little more bold with my actions and trust it to do its own thing. I'm not sure what the others got up to, but the mutt has just told me that the lord of Baldur has invited us around for the evening as a thank you for saving the citizens of Apple Bay. It should be fun.

Considering the day's events, I have decided that the group has earned some level of respect from me, so from here on I shall be referring to most of them by their names. After I lost track of Eli, I figured my best choice was to wait for the group. They quickly found me, and we began heading after the impatient wizard. Out of the fog we heard the sounds of magic and Eli shouting, then footsteps came our way. Several invisible people/things appeared to grab onto Bren, and both began talking, sounding exactly like Eli. One of them began to flee, and so we gave chase. Why run if you're innocent? That'd be stupid. Following their footsteps, we reached the chapel, and I heard Eli whisper in my mind that the creature with us was a fake. As I turned to tell the others, the invisible Eli standing near us ran off. I yelled out to our Eli to come out, and spotted them on top of the chapel (somehow, through all the fog). They said no, just as the other Eli showed up behind them and threw them off the building. Being a quick thinker, Eli found their scroll of feather falling and slowly drifted down. Immediately, we were all engulfed in darkness as the Eli still on the chapel cast a spell in our direction. Pulling out our weapons, we could see nothing around us until Bren pulled out the magical light globe we found in the tunnels, nullifying the magic somehow. As long as it works, I couldn't care how. We decided to escape whatever it was on the roof casting spells at us, and Bren and the mutt ran into the chapel ahead of me, immediately being attacked by an Oni, revealing itself in the motion of attacking. As I ran into the building, I almost wasn't surprised to see Lotan tied and hanging from his neck about 20ft from the floor, with an iron spike in his neck. Once more Nhurren proved how incredible they are in a tough situation, casting his favorite spell, covering the revealed creature and one previously unknown in a magical aura, guiding our strikes. Rushing in, and feeling the usual connection between myself and the contraption that was forced upon me, I let loose a bellow and tapped into that well of power. Immediately, I found myself in a calm rage, and saw my nearby allies effected in a similar manner, as magical light blue motes floated around us. We dove into battle in earnest, as the Oni lay into us with massive waves of shocking cold, and Nhurren used his staff to keep us standing. Bren, the mutt and I began to wear down several of the creatures, to the point that one of them turned to mist and attempted to flee. On the field of battle, cowards perish. And so they did. The bastards kept turning invisible and hiding, but Eli managed to free Lotan, and we made short work of the monsters. Unfortunately for us, the brief fray ended just as a boulder hit the chapel, demolishing part of the already worn building. We quickly searched the bodies for anything useful as Nhurren scouted the area. The mutt found a key that perhaps fit his chest, but as we were inspecting it, Nhurren returned frantically explaining that he found something in the fog, a hundred or so feet away from the building. We immediately split into two groups and began to make our way towards the shape he'd indicated in the fog. As we ran forward, a massive rock slammed into me, and I felt a rib crack. The other's began to fall behind as I pushed on, shouting in anger as I found... a chicken house. What the fuck? A house on chicken legs, perhaps 15 feet up, and more than 20 feet across. It had roots around it, moving slightly, and as I tapped into the magical force of my arm I saw nothing but purple, suddenly finding myself standing on the porch of the house. Taking my flasks of oil from my potion bandolier, I poured the oil all over the side of the building, hoping one of the people behind me could figure what I was going for. Next thing I know I was blindsided by those moving roots I noticed earlier, and had to grit my teeth to avoid falling off the landing. The house then took off running, leaving the others far behind. Deciding I had little to do but attack this thing, I began swinging at the door. It was... not effective. As the house kept moving and I heard the others shouting at each other, the oil patches either side of the stairway lit on fire, and I knew they must be gaining. As Lotan made his way up beside me, I noticed an eye 10 feet above the doorway, and used that strange magic to blink up to it, finding the slippers I borrowed from Eli let me walk on the wall with ease. I began to target the eye, and thought I was making headway when I noticed a cloud of green gas emerging. Immediately, I felt myself begin to slip out of consciousness, as my unwanted arm lit up once more, a colour I had never seen on it before. I am sure a normal man would have died to the cloud, but I felt my blood boil at the thought of falling here. I clenched my jaw and stayed standing, just as I heard shouting from the group. Cheering? Why. I looked around just in time to see the house face plant... with me standing on its face. Even an abnormal man wouldn't deal with that very well. All I can remember for a moment beyond that is blackness, and then a rough hand on my leg, and then unyielding rage. Forcing myself to my feet, I spotted the Bitch Queen herself flying out of her house in a giant mortar. One last time I tapped into the power stored within my prosthetic and saw a gentle green glow around me, once again summoning a plethora of vines, flowers and other useless shit. The arm was still giving off a weird energy, but I found myself unable to manifest anything with it. I followed this by chucking two javelins at the Bitch Queen, and they passed through her weirdly untouchable form. Another root clump smashed into me, and I felt my vision begin to blur once more. Looking around, I saw Bren exhausted and sneaking up on the Queen as she paddled away, I saw Eli falling to the ground as a black tentacle of unknown origin slam into them at the exact moment they launched a stone at the hag, I saw Nhurren shouting as a beam of moonlight moved towards us, and I saw the mutt looking for something, anything to hurt her. Lotan was nowhere to be seen, but I recalled hearing shots from his fire lance previously. Standing there, feeling helpless, I saw Bren shout and saw two flashes of blinding light as Umbriana was obliterated by the swing of his morningstar and the focus of his belief. Being oh so helpful, Lotan then made his way out of the house. Rushing over to the elvish kid, I grabbed a potion off of the mutt, and fed it into their mouth. I can't lose the kid, they're.. I can't lose them. We all relaxed, and began to pick up the pieces. Every last one of us was on the edge of death, and I am glade that we did not need to haggle with the gods to hang around... I have too much to do. Nhurren used some druid shit to fix the house, as we all thought it may prove useful. Lotan took the dead hag's eyes and ears and some fingers, and told us we could have the rest. Fucken weirdo. So we searched the queen, finding multiple items of use, a lustrous black stone, her mortar and pestle, and some bag made of flesh? Idk what that was about. The house was unlocked, which I don't think I ever thought to test, and we made our way in, and began searching for anything more the hag may have left us. The mutt immediately found a hatch in the ground, and from what I could tell began to attune to it. I myself found some amour that will prove to be very useful (I think), some thousand gold pieces, healing potions, and some gems. Combined with what we found in the mines and on the Oni, I would call this a successful venture. I split the gems between the spell casters, as I believe it's an expensive process. After an hour or so of sitting around, we felt the house shift inside. Looking around, there were 3 stories, about 6 bedrooms, a kitchen, a mess and a training room. The mutt began to move the house, and it felt as sturdy as if it were standing still. Exhausted, we all slept, and it looks like we're arriving in town just now... oh for fucks sake.

Over the night we all slept kinda restfully, due to Lotan's aid in the form of magical runes, and El's dome once again. It's possibly a good thing, as Nhurren was looking weaker by the day. As we travelled, Lotan informed us we had two options to get to the town we were seeking, Umbriana apparently having fled into the mountains. He stated that we could either travel overland, a safer but much slower trek, or go through the mountain via a mine shaft he was familiar with. None of the group are cowards, as best as I can tell, so we chose to head through the shaft. Being the only individual of sound mind, I asked Lotan what route we should take through the mine, (as he was apparently flying overhead) and he told us to "Follow the wind." What horseshit. Speaking of shit, earlier Eli had decided to summon three fucken boars, bigger than Nelly is tall, and wider than even myself or Bren. We decided as a group that the pigs should follow us and unsurprisingly the dog with magical goggles decided to lead. (Cocky fuck... or maybe he just lives in his grandfather's shadow). We all lit up some torches, and Eli dipped a magical hand in some of my oil and lit it. It's unclear what their thought process was as after about 2 minutes they forgot about the hand, and dropped the oil, splattering flame everywhere and scaring the pigs behind us. We continued, reaching a fork in the narrow tunnel, and I managed to sense a breeze coming from the right tunnel, which was unfortunately also covered in mushrooms. The left fork looked much nicer, with all manner of nice glowing crystals. The kid wizard decided the mushrooms looked appetizing and attempted to harvest some. Immediately there were spores everywhere, and they started to hack and cough... the rest of us were fine, however, pigs included... Elsie must have led a cloistered life, not being able to deal with a little spore. We kept going for an hour or more, it being tough to tell down there. Our torch was running low when we spotted a strange golden glint. A small humanoid was hanging from the ceiling, coated in mushrooms. Having little experience with magical items, we were all curious as to the nature of his slippers, that even in death, kept him stuck to the roof. Ellex received those, as well as a magical golden hat. I noticed the m utt keep a bag of sorts to himself. We continued on for a while, when Nalt's sword began to buzz, louder and louder. The shadows around us seemed to grow, and multiply. Far ahead I just managed to spot a room, but not before the shadows attacked the dog. He seemed to grow visibly weaker as it hit him. Seeing this, I immediately thought there had to be a reason they were attacking us here, in the dark. So I ran on, taking a few swings on the shadows but seemingly doing very little to these creatures. The others followed suit, Bren brandishing his weapon and shining a holy light, but the shadows quickly coming back in. Nato followed behind me, creating a tidal wave before us and eviscerating more shadows than we could count. Continuing to run ahead, we all found ourselves in a room full of dead bodies, centered around a brazier. Thinking faster than normal, I lit the brazier and the shadows immediately fled from the intense blinding light. Casually side stepping a swinging blade, I suggested we rest shortly. As we did, Bailey found a magical globe of some nature.. I'm not sure what it was. We lit our torches from the brazier, and found the creatures to be repelled by it. My lantern wouldn't light, I think perhaps the oil was magical, rather than the fire itself. Continuing through the tunnel, we reached a magical barrier that Electric told us we could walk through (as they were coughing still, from the fungus) , so we did. Sadly for him the bruised and badly tended to stinking boars were unable to cross, perhaps as they were magical. Who knows. Barometric tried contacting Lotan to let him know of our arrival, and he stated that he thought we had already arrived... Wandering around the abandoned mining town searching for him, we found ourselves at a well, with a weirdly swirling force of water. The coyote began sprinkling some form of dust into the well, from the bag he had found on the small creature. Eventually the source dried up, and so he leapt down to find a chest, and began making his way up. Losing interest, I noticed Eli had wandered off into the fog, and decided to track them down. Achieving this with relative ease (city slickers, man) I then also found signs of a struggle, multiple foot prints and a broken potion bottle. As I'm writing this, Eli and I are waiting for the rest of the group to catch u.... where did they go now?? Fuck.

Following the flying druid, the 4 of us began to make our way across the river, seeing ogres on the other side. Bren and his horse face planted pretty much immediately as I made my way across. Eli was hanging back for unclear reasons, and the mutt was more or less behind me. However the horse didn't enjoy falling over, and so neighed quite loudly. The ogres immediately noticed and made their way over to us, including two of the flying creatures. The agle we had been following flew down and morphed back into Nhurren, casting that weird glowy shit that makes things easier to hit. He's very helpful to have in a scrap. One of the flying ogres managed to hit us with some kind of cold magical attack, which I mostly shrugged off, however the dog took a heavy hit. We kept wading through the ogres, myself with some kind of holy magic blasting from my chest every other time I went to hit one of the 6 ogres. It was quite fun. Nhurren managed to heal us with his newly acquired magical staff, shortly after Bren did the same with his own magics. Eli was... still on the other side of the river for some reason? Weird. As the combat continued I found myself to be apparently untouchable, as I lay down blow after blow to the enemy and none of them succeeded on attacking in turn. We quickly whittled their numbers down, as Eli levitated across the river. At this stage one of the more interesting ogres (blue skinned, cloaks, flying) had flown away, and another had landed on the ground in an attempt to take us on. The dog bound it magically and we made short work of it, with Nhurren creating several massive waves to sweep the creatures of their feet. Eli's levitation was revealed to be them riding an invisible ogre, which attacked the few remaining. After our druid hit it with a wave, it seemed to come to its senses and attempted to fly away, only to be blown to pieces by Eli's wand. After some quick scavenging around we found several potions, some magic weapons and a couple scrolls. Eli themself found a rusty looking bag that somehow summoned some animals that followed their commands. I wanted it. Eli gave me a scroll in exchange for my magical ring, which I happily traded as the ring barely seemed to do anything for me. We hit the trail and quickly found Lotan, beat up and unwilling to be healed. He revealed that he's not technically alive, and so healing would be of no benefit to him. Something called a Dhampir, or a day vampire. We all fairly quickly offered up some blood, which seemed to disgust him. Following a quick check through our resources, with the dog having to give up a fair few of his acquired items. We began to follow the tracks left by some giant bird, some of us riding on the Pally's horse, some on the big pig Eli summoned, and myself and Lotan on foot. We made good time, but slowly found the air getting mistier and mistier. It was a helluva lot of fun. Eventually it got dark, however, and as we were deciding where to set up camp the druid summoned some kind of magical breeze, to survey the area for a good spot to camp, as the mist and darkness made it near impossible to see beyond our noses. At the very edge of this breeze we all simultaneously spotted some ghost like creatures, and rushed to fight them. Once again Nhurren outlined them with a magical fyre, granting us the ability to hit with ease. I found myself running forward after the dog landed two hits with his claws that appeared to do nothing, so I dropped my shield, pulled out my recently found glaive, and laid into them. As I yelled, I saw my metallic arm seem to absorb light, and draw on the energy of the ghosts. I felt more robust than before, and immediately managed to finish off two of the creatures. Running up to the last one, I felt it reach into my mind, and I saw two futures play out simultaneously. In one, the creature gained control of my body, and I lay waste to this group, felling Eli before they could so much as stop me. In the other, Eli stood in front of the creature and threw it from my mind, stating calmly "This shall not be." And so it wasn't, and the creature died. What a night, what a day, and I can not wait for tomorrow.

So last we left off, myself and the crew were walking into the hag's lair. Eli had gone in before us, and had disguised themselves as an uglier than average Sea Hag with a varsity jacket or something idk. Anyway, they'd been gone a while so we made our way in, and thanks to Nhurren we snuck past the dead fish on the door. We found the room to be empty of hags, and of Eltze. The ponce then claimed he heard them behind one of the doors. It was locked, but luckily I had prepared for this style of eventuality, and myself and McFurry (oh yeah he turned into some kind of lupine beast, I'm not sure when. He's a very odd one. Kind of seem to vary in personality and capabilities) blasted the door off its hinges with the portable battering ram I grow ever fond of. We found a single hag downstairs. I quickly realised it was Eben, but the dingbat of a wolf shoved them over anyway. They quickly ran upstairs as the dead ogre and people in the room rose up and attacked us. As we took to battle, I found myself teleporting around the room. It was quite enjoyable. Bren managed to terrify the undead beasties somehow, perhaps due t0 his holy nature. We made short work of the Ogre at that point, but had to leave the room as it swiftly filled up with water. Instinctively I realised the hags were attempting to drown us, so teleported to the top of the stair case, and found no hags in the entry chamber either, Emmett or otherwise. Very confusing stuff. Beau and Nora made their way up behind myself, and the dog managed to fix the door back on its hinges. We found that the hags were once again barricaded in a room, and after battering down the door, saw all three (wizard included) for but a moment before the room spun away before our eyes. We explored the new room, and found very little, bar some few magic items, a ruby marked with a sword, a rock emblazoned with a shamrock, and some aquatically designed set of leather amour. The last room was barred by a door that had riddle in dwarvish. Two of the group members can read the strange language, and translated: "I don't have eyes, but once did see. I once had thoughts, but now I am empty." Braxton eventually figured out the word was skull, and we found a room with a chalice full of water, and runes denoting a magical seal. The mutt, in his infinite wisdom, figured out how to break the seal, and did so without really consulting us. I believe his logic was that whatever the hags had imprisoned would be willing to help us kill them. A green gem dropped down, and the coyote immediately picked it up, and a voice spoke to him, saying that if we set it free it would help us kill the hags. So.... he did. A watery creature with empty spaces for eyes emerged, and immediately ripped the altar it was once captive on out of the ground, as we described the room the hags had taken refuge in. It told us the river under the lair would take us to room, and that it could take us there directly. We must have been tired, as we agreed, but not before Naomi turned into a crocodile. I was not aware he could do that. It took us into its form and we travelled swiftly under the ocean floor to the room inhabited by the grandmother and auntie hag. It was a swift and deadly battle for some, with an eye perhaps controlled by the Bitch Queen severely wounding me with electrical energies. Following that, Brayden broke the orb, and battle resumed. The crocodile did poorly, maybe not used to his new form. The older hag summoned an interesting creation, some creature that looked very much like myself. It even had my abilities, although perhaps not my robust nature. It more or less took the canine out of the fight. Myself and the water creature made pretty swift work of the younger of the two hags, whilst Bren and Eli attempted to take on the elder. Eventually, Eileen seemed to convince her to give up, and leave her possessions and swim away. It was odd. And an intimidating capability. Afterwards we looted the lair (somehow the creature didn't mind) We found several potions, some gold, some scrolls, a magical mace that Belanon took without talking to anyone, the fucking dog tried to tell me to give up my scimitar (which I was already doing) to the druid, as he would make better use of it. I got a useless ring that I'm planning on selling to a shopkeeper or someone in the group. We then made our way back to town, spent the night at the Beetle, and then went shopping. Doggy and I got potion bandoliers so that we could take potions with more ease in combat, and then we tracked down the town's magic store. I bought a rock very similar to one the mutt got, and feel more capable somehow, it is tough to describe. I don't believe we purchased anything else, although the wizard was acting strange about a magical sword the shop keeper had. Astoundingly expensive, however. We began to make our way into the forest, tracking down Lotan and Umbriana being our next move. As it turns out, the hags had been planning a trap for him of some sort. We stayed the night with many creatures attempting to break through the wizards astonishing dome, but it kept them all out. The next day we contacted Lotan through the stone, and he told us where to find him, by a waterfall near Murky Ridge. Once we got there I found a camouflaged camping ground, with alchemists tools and the like, but no sign of Lotan. The Paladin and the wolf climbed to the top of the waterfall but found nothing, however the druid flew off as a hawk and came back quite agitated. I'm writing this as we walk, following their feathery ass.... are those fire lance shots?

So today was an interesting day. Myself, Bren and Eli ran into Nhurren again. We'd been sleeping in that logging town, after our big day with the ogres yesterday, when Nigeria showed up with an above average height, ridiculously wide man. It took me a moment to figure out what bugged me about the man. He was dressed in the Aunterio colours. Red coat, black trim. Listening to him converse with the others I noticed their crest on his arm. I drew my sword and demanded to know what this man knew of Raemys Aunterio. As it turns out this noble twat, Gordon, is the War Wizard's grandson. I find myself questioning whether this is a blessing or a curse. The other group members don't seem particularly fussed by the whole thing, even when I mentioned his grandfather took my arm. So I will have to bide my time and either kill this fool or use him to further my ends against the Crimson Commander. Time will tell. For whatever idiotic reason this man then came along with us as we began to hunt the Sea Hags. Our best bet was to walk out into the tide, and so we did. We spent an hour or more walking south, myself leading, and the fools following. As time passed the man didn't seem to do much of interest, he just appeared to be your typical noble brat, much like Elsa. Except built very differently. We eventually noticed a strange coloration to a pile of rocks up ahead, and I quickly discerned it wasn't magical in nature. Immediately, however, my sword buzzed and I took a step back as the greyness reached out and attempted to strike me. We quickly launched into combat, with 5 individual moving lumps making themselves slightly apparent. Nathan managed to outline them with some strange purple aura, making them far easier to hit. My strange exploding entity, Stefan, made an appearance as it had on the beach previously, reliably throwing the oozes around. One of them attempted to strangle me to death, but I easily tore it off. We quickly disposed of the rest of the lumps, but not before Greg grew a tail. I am still not sure what caused it, or how a human would have received such an ability, but considering my experience with his grandson, I feel like Gareth has more to him than might meet the eye. Following this short encounter, we were resting up when I felt a movement above our heads, heading southwest of us. I looked up but there was nothing to see. I think Gregor noticed too, but it was hard to tell as he just stood up and crossed his arms. (Maybe not quite all there, Gerry) We decided our best bet was to follow the invisible flying creature, and so we did. Eventually we reached an island surrounded by a multitude of looted shipwrecks. After a quick investigation we found the entrance to their abode. At this point I suggested, very reasonably knocking down their door with my battering ram. Ellie decided instead that they would walk up to the door disguised as a Sea Hag named Samosa, and told us to follow after a count of 30 seconds. That's the last we saw them. Oops, time to go.

So last night 5 of us had gone to sleep in the cellar of Mugsack's tavern, but this morning Elliot and Barometer and myself were the only ones to wake up. I don't know what was wrong with Filly or Nelly, but the wizard was also looking not great. I felt a little weaker, in a weird way. Mugsack was surprised to find us alive. Anyways, we decided that our best bet was tracking down the Hood, as it seemed to have some power over the region. (Added bonus, I like making sure things are dead.) We had also heard that the Bloodhunter had made his way there. So we snuck out of the tavern, as the mayor was talking to Mugsack at the time. He did not notice us, but the eye in his staff might have. We made our way outta the city, with El Nerdo and Brennan Lee following my lead. We found a small settlement at the edge of the woods, near a giant bird footprint. Weirdly, the lumber jack group of housing had no walls. Regardless, they told us the bloodhunter had been through here, and to keep heading into the woods. We did for a while, and then we came across some big ugly guys with clubs. They seemed pretty eager to eat us, so we ran like hell. Sadly they caught us easily, so we decided to fight. Ellen had disappeared at some point, so Brandy and I were forced to take them on by ourselves. They hit hard, and I hit back hard. Brandeline missed a lot, but got a few really bright shots in. Then there was a loud crack, as Elvis appeared behind them. This may have been poorly thought out as one ran off and started attacking E boy, who yelped a bit. Bart ran off to help him as I finished off the big guy. Edward then got picked up by the other one, and it bolted. It was easily out pacing us, and I had just assumed Elmo was lost, but then the big thing stopped and wandered off. The ELO said he scared him, but I had my suspicions. Immediately after this, I had a look over the thing. I think it was an ogre. It had a semi pretty orangey gem, a pearl, two potions and some bit of paper that I have to the nerd. Then the bloodhunter showed up (he wasn't very helpful in the fight, I don't see what the fuss about them is.) He did some weird shit to Eric, drew some golden rune on us (meant to protect us from some draining effect) gave Brianna a sending stone. Said his name was Lotan like he was expecting us to have heard of him, and that we were "Not allowed" to deal with the Night Hag, even though it seemed to run away from us the night before. Her name was Umbilici or something like that. He "suggested" we go and deal with the Sea Hags, as their cave would be exposed to the open air due to the tide being out. We begrudgingly agreed, then made our way back to the Sad Beetle.

So, last we left off the Captain of the Guard, Nail, had shown up at the chicken coop. We were in trouble. The chicken lady had flown off, and that weird dude with katanas disappeared. I didn't so much as see where he went. The Captain ushered us to his barracks, telling the dopey guard from the beach that we were in trouble. We followed him into his office, where he started screaming at us. In between shouts and hits, however, he began telling us a curious tale. (Us being myself, the 6'3" paladin and the wimpy wizard). Apparently there had been strange things occurring in the town over the last 20 or more years, the time line was unclear. Apparently a coven or two of hags had been around, people disappearing, and there were strange happenings during the Tidefall Festival each year (much like the fish and birds and the Sea Hag, but worse.) He begged for our help, and I convinced him to pay us 7o odd gold, which the idiots let me take. Upon further questioning we found that he knew little to nothing, as the Mayor and many other higher ups were "part of it." He suggested the only person from the town we could trust was Misuela Mugsack, the local tavern keep of the Sad Beetle. So we made our way there, spent some money and drank, the wizard ordered a "cosmo," whatever that is. It was something stupid like 3 silver. For one drink? What is the economy coming to. After some time the mayor showed up, Mister Hob Brandywood, with a hulking 7 foot orcish bodyguard. The wizard, obviously drunk or stupid, asked the orc if he liked to cook. What a dumbass. Anyway, he essentially told us not to go exploring around the town, as "we'd already made too much trouble." After some time wasting, he went and talked to one group of two individuals, a half-orc like myself, and a dwarf. Rare creatures, dwarves. Eventually Mugsack made her way to our table, and the Paladin, (Barry or something) not so subtly asked what the fuck was going on in town. She gave us the run down, after some cajoling, about the issues in town and the weird conspiracy and the group of adventurers who had been in town 15 years before with only two of them surviving etc, and then she told us to maybe check out the town sqaure at midnight. Following this disturbing conversation, Benjy (or something) went to talk to the individuals who the Mayor was interested in. He seemed confident that he'd convinced them to help. Midnight was getting closer, and so we tried to make our way quietly to the town square. It didn't go well. Once we got there, we noticed some weird doll things, and scare crows, placed around the Square. They hadn't been there before. Elvis (idk, the wizard) went to inspect them, and found that there were dolls that looked like everyone in town hanging up. As this happened, a ghostly creature in a hood appeared and began plucking something whispy from the dolls. I ran and got my doll, and poked it with my sword... nothing seemed to happen. Then all hell broke loose, scarecrows coming to life, the ghost tryna stab me, me stabbing it with the Hag's scimitar (seemed to work but not so well cause of some bitchy spell it cast) and eventually it reached my doll and fucked off. Honestly, I think I scared the fucker. The wizard was surprisingly helpful. And the druidic orc. Flames were unsurprisingly helpful against things made of dried kelp. Oh, and flowers and shit turned up when I got angry. It's like trying to say bubbles when you're mad. It's tough. Mugsack rocked up and took us to the Beetle to hide, cause the dumb half orc cast some thundery fucken spell. Then I spent some time with the sword and figured out it's some kinda magical alarm. Idk. More tomorrow probably.

Recently I was hired as a guard for the Tidefall Festival. Unsurprisingly for an event in Apple Bay, it turned weird pretty quickly. After a little while in the town, we were asked to shovel dead fish down by the beach, which we did. Then... they started talking. One of the other guards was going to detain all of those who witnessed it, but a brute of a man scared him into staying. Following this we had a short investigation that turned up no new leads, during which the local bird population went nuts. I cleaved 5 of them with my sword. It was fun. Eventually they calmed down, and some weird chick tried to touch me. It's been a long time since I've felt the touch of a woman, but even I have standards. Then, a chicken woman became worried about her eggs because of some commotion over near her farm. I'm not entirely sure why that was an issue, they weren't actually her eggs. Anyway, I ran forward and found there was an owlbear attacking the enclosure. Naturally I felt the urge to kick its sorry ass. I landed a few hits before anyone else in the rag tag group did anything useful, summoning that flumph thing that I d sometimes when I get into combat. Once it was dead, the chick from earlier, Karli or something showed up and got mad that we killed her owlbear. Somehow she then got more repulsive. A lot of the idiots nearby seemed scared of her, but I just went up and hit her. As I was doing this, she summoned some weird gnome dudes with knives. Idk how. Then they were stabbing everyone and shit. The chicken woman (she was literally a big chicken) fell unconscious outta the air for some reason. Birds, man, what can I say? The seaweedy hag Kalissa or whatever tried to run away, but myself and several others landed some hits before she really got far. One of em did some weird magic crap but it didn't really seem to do anything if I'm being honest. He wasn't all that helpful. Eventually we beheaded her, and I figured out her scimitar was magic somehow. Although I haven't told anyone that yet. Then the Captain of the Guard showed up.