Session 4

Nah, I ain't got much time, but I reckon I can record most a the recent days.

We were at Rayden's big ole' mansion. Ipmerk wenting huntin' with Rayden's grandpappy while his grandmammy was prayin' her heart away. I didn't see nothin' happen with tha prayin' but that huntin' got us some tasty birds they were callin' "kwayle." His grandpappy suggested there were some mines we could go n' clear out if we were fixin' on d'venturin' some more, but he also said that we could head south to where some pirates be and that he knew there was work down there.

Ipmerk n' a few others din't want to be underground more, but I din't wanna be on the ocean none. I 'splained to all of them that there's three rules for travelin' by sea:
1. You don't travel if there's red sun in the morning
2. You don't travel if ennyone's missin' their big toe nail
3. You don't travel if your ears are clogged tha mornin' of travel
After some discussion, I decided to akwiesk to the desires o' these fine folks, but made it real clear I ain't travelin' under none o' the above conditions. Them's just rules I heard from travelers I met back in Suldra, and I reckon I ain't one for testin' that theory.

Rayden's grandfolks fixed us  up with a nice cart n' wagon situation, just out o' the richness o' their household n' hearts. S'pose if I had that many things I'd just be handin' stuff out m'self as well. Broderick, the lil kid who works in the stables, came to see us out. He gave Zuzmo a bag o' bugs for Tourniquet, and I told that boy to keep his chin up. I reckon he'll turn into a proper man.

Travelin' was mostly safe, I spent the evenin's workin' on potions for our lil band. Seein' as how we don't have a proper holy man, I jez mostly made lots o' potions o' healin.

One evenin' durin' watch, Zuzmo jez up n' passes out. I wake him up, n' I hear some sounds from our cart. Two little albino buggers  come poppin' out and I start hootin' and hollerin' for our band to get up. The little feller tore off into the swamp without any difficulty, but we caught the bigger 'un pretty quickly. Only Zuzmo could speak to 'im, and he was a disresspecful lil bugger, lyin' bout what happened straight to our faces.

Seertha din't like that much and stuck her spear through the feller's throat. That sparked a big ole' discussion amongst Zuzmo, Rayden, Mr. Clount, and m'self. Ipmerk and Seertha more or less disregarded the moral conundrum we were discussin' for some fair time. See, where I come from, if someone steals yer tribe's goats, that there is an invitation for attack. Sometimes, tribes even execute thieves in their own group as a mean o' 'pologizing and avoidin' war. Now, I agree the nature of the feller's death was a bit unsubstantiated an' we didn't give it much chance to figure out things. Mr. Clount also wasn't feelin' too ill bout the situation as he feels that it's important to send a message out to the world that it ain't alright to take from us and then lie to us when we catch you fair n' square.

Zuzmo n' Rayden were none too happy bout it though. I tried figurin' out what they woulda preferred doin', but they weren't really puttin' a firm foot down on how ta go 'bout it. I think it kinda goes without sayin' that we just won't be lettin' Seertha near prisoners anytime in the future.

Next mornin' I look n' our party stash, n' that little bugger managed to make off with 300 of our 380 gold, right under ma nose! We track'd them lil buggers and found a big ole' ruin risin' up outta the swamp. We went in through some rubble on the side and saw some more o' the lil bastards, with their white, albino skin and their pointy razor sharp teeth. These fellers were just as disrespecful to Zuzmo as the other bugger. Zuzmo made his best case o' just gettin' our goods back - but then they draw on us. Now to make clear 'gain, they draw on us first. So we chopped most of em' and their lil muck dwellers into bits. I took a big ole' bite out o' one of em muck dwellers an' I gotta say, they ain't taste so bad!

We delved into them big ole' ruins, and headed down into the basement. Whole place is a structural disaster, if ye askin me, and I've lived in tents mah whole life! The swamp was just pouring inta the basement rooms, but I reckon maybe it was by intentions o' sorts as there were a bunch o fish-headed statues downstairs. Also some sorta metal pipe stickin' outta the ground that went far down.

Continuin' on we found some more o' the albinos with them teeth, includin' the tiny feller who made off with our goods! They jumped ta attack us immediately, so we din't have to deal with the motions o' askin' 'em kindly for our goods back. The lil feller jes' up and projectile vomits on me! Good thing I was fleet o' foot. We pummeled em pretty good, tryna stabilize the ones who din't die too hard, and found our gold. We reckoned that we weren't much interested in slaughterin' a bunch o' these creepy fellers, so we left.

We'll jes' have to keep a better eye on our things from now on. Alright. G'night.

Session 3

I wodn't all that tired the next day, as all that alchemy really gets mah blood boil'n. We investigated tha rest o' the mausoleum. First, we found a storeroom that had some o' them livin' dead folks. We put 'em down proper quick. We followed a set o' windin' stairs up near that crazy alchemist's lab, and as it turns out, it leads to a secret exit that goes straight into the burial chambers ahead. Later, we found out them priests didn't know nothing about it, but somehow this alchemist feller shur did.

'Cross the way from his lab, we found a bedroom ' sorts. A dead lady was sittin' on the bed and two skeletons in a butler suit n' a bridal gown were tendin' to her. We was fixin' to just smash em all to pieces, but she opened' her mouth and said some partially sane things. Zuzmo took an interest and lissened to her sad story. As it turns out, she got some kind o' plague sickness, and that sickness was makin' her skin turn all black and dead. This alchemist feller took a likin' to her and she thinks they're all in love and such nonsense. 'Course, when he asks her if she's willin' to undergo an operation for fixin' her up right, well, I reckon she just about cried herself silly. Surpris'd you might be to hear this, but our old alchemist friend turnt her into a horrible living dead thing. Turns out she's just been up in her room caterwaulin' bout how he don't love her no more and that he's losin' his mind. A sad story to be shur, but I ain't got much patience for the livin' dead. The dead s'posed to be in the earth where they belong.

So, I let Zuzmo finish lissenin' to the tale, and then it's my turn to pipe up. I kindly informed this lady that she was a terrible monster, and that she had a sad story n' all, and I shurly felt a sadness for her, but the only proper thing was to put her down like a proper lady. She din't seem to like that all that much, so I reiterated in a sterner fashion that she was an atrocity, and she could have herself a proper burial, or we could just be choppin' her horrible beast head off n' be on with it. That's when she blasted me in tha' face with a lot o' colors. I heard afterward that Ipmerk practically took her head clean off with a blast to the eye with that there pistol o' his. Poor lil' Zuzmo was already hurtin' as he used his healin' on other folks and one o' the skeletons knocked him down, so we had to use the last o' our healin' potions on him.

We investigated the large moss structure, and it spoke in your mind about the "Dark Rider comin." Zuzmo had a fun time playin' with it, but I din't like it one bit and made sure not to stick around too much longer.

We found this lil snake feller who had a goblin face - he was tellin' us he was a naga. Now, I ain't never heard o' no naga before, but I know you ain't irritate a rattlesnake when it's nestin' in a corner. This lil snake feller wanted some money for information. I s'pose it' s possible he was jez trickin' me, but I thought the money was well spent as he at least had some answers to things, even if he was a little weasel-y type. Folks were contemplatin' killin' the snake, which I didn't have much interest in, but then we got distracted. 'Round the corner we saw this almost dwarf lookin feller' runnin away. But a dwarf that had some sort o' weird warty disease and can't speak in no language I ever heard of, an' I can speak 5 languages! We try'n' get some information outta him, but he din't seem to be of dark intent, so we let 'im go.

We poked around a bit more, but low on potions, Zuzmo pointed out that we should prolly jez leave. We told them priests what we saw, but they din't have no additional answers for us.

There was a lil' antsy feller waitin' for us, or more specifically, waitin' for Sir Rayden. He said somethin' 'bout Sir Rayden's grandparents lookin' for him. As it turns out, Rayden's grandpappy is one o' the original founders o' the world link or somethin'! I ain't one to turn down hospitality, so I decided to 'cept the invitation.

Their manor is HUGE. There ain't no other way o' describin' it. Big ole' waste o' resources if ya ask me, but I ain't judgin or nothin', just commentin'. Rayden's grandmammy's a bit o' a wet rag though, all proper n' prayin' no nonsense lady, while the grandpappy jes seems to like makin' jokes n' tellin' tales. Well, the grandmammy ain't likin' animals in her house, n' Zuzmo tried' to explain that Tourniquet ain't no animal, he's a friend, but like I said, wet rag. So Zuzmo, Tourniquet, n' I are stayin' out in the stable. It ain't like them big fluffy beds are comfortable for me anyhow.

We went to services at Rayden's request, which were fine 'nuff but a lil dull. Then we went to dinner. At dinner, the entire world shook, an earthquake o' sorts. Bad omen, if ye ask me, but I'm guessin' no one's askin cause they already know. Nothin' happened though, so I'm jus writin' this before bed. I can hear Tourniquet croakin', which ain't exactly comfortin', but at least someone's watchin.'

Session 2

Now if memory serves, we departed from that strange circular room n' ventured off in a direction that I'll just be referrin' to as East, even though I can't make heads nor tails o' this underground chamber o' spooks. That reconnected us with them stairs we found earlier, we know this cause our golden scaley friend, Ipmerk, he writes himself a good n' detailed map.

Just set off from the hallway was this octagonal room with a suit o' armor in it. There was some chains wrapped around that armor and at the end of them chains was an old skeletal body. We tried agitating the body, but just a body it was. Ipmerk skulked into the room, I say skulked cause he's got a way about his movements, he skulks into the room and this curious feller just goes ahead and prods the armor. Well, call me a sand gnoll's uncle cuz' hunnerds of roaches started pouring out. An' you know what? My fool companions charged into the room to make combat with the lil' bastards. I was trying to light the little critters on fire with some of my desert rose cocktails, but there were just too many o' them. I'm actually a bit irritated with m'self cause I was hollering to them to get'n the hell outta there, and stopped paying attention to what I was doing. I fumbled my bomb vial and it landed at m'feet, splashing me wit a bit o' fire. Finally, urryone managed ta leave the room, and so we ran.

After we regrouped, we headed down the hallway and found a very strange room that had all sorts o' glyphs and magical writins on the wall that not even dark-skinned Seertha managed to reco'nize. In 'dittion, the whole room was lit up by magical fires. I warned 'em that I didn't want nothin' to do with the room and so I stayed outside. Sure 'nuf, one o them glyphs came right off the wall and blasted our fightin' types with fire. They smashed it up purty easily, and then they wanted to leave. I told 'em if they had the spirit to set off the trap, they might as well make off with the goods as well.

Headin' back 'West' across the 'Southern' part of the map, we came across a pair o' doors with somethin' that piqued my curiosity right up. Behind one door was this glass chamber, pretty small, and Zuzmo went in briefly and got a tingly feelin' in his body that he liked. I had to know what happened, and I felt a strange vibratin' in the cockels o' my heartcage and suddenly I was in another room! Turns out, that room was the twin of the doors we had seen outside. Everything was normal, 'cept the scar on the right side o' my face was on the left side. When I went in one of the rooms again, it went back to the right side! I tried several different combinations of entering n' exiting but they always seemed to be doin' the same sorta thing. We speculated maybe it had somethin' to do with them black and white statues, but it wasn't quite clear to me.

Backtrackin' a little, we headed down one path that lead into a room with a very large domed ceiling and a very deep pit o' some sort. We tied some rope 'round Ipmerk and set him to explorin' for traps. None o' us thought to look in the pit, but there was some sorta very narrow ledge there with a bone snake that slithered up to try and eat Ipmerk! It swayed back n' forth a bit like a cobra, and Ipmerk got all cross-eyed, so I gave his rope a tug, pullin' him into that pit. He slammed into the wall on the side closest to us, but better than being fake snake food. Our Tin Hero charged forth to hold off the critter, which was provin' irritatin'inly resilient to our attacks. I got a bit angry so I grabbed it by the tail and tore at it with mah tusks. Turns out, I was angrier n' I 'spected cause I raised my axe up and chopped his tail off. Just a few more chops and we finished it off and shoved the beast inta the pit. Ipmerk finally snapped too and showed us a secret compartment he found round the pit. Inside was a smaller snake construct, which our Fiery Rooster paladin grasped up after some difficulty and flung into the pit.

The secret compartment was unexpected. Inside there was a coffin o' sorts but with a glass casin'. The fella inside was well preserved and Seertha detected that there was a magical necromantic necklace on him and some basic magical bracers. Now, I ain't one to take from the dead, which stirred some grumblin's among some of the members o' the group, but our paladin agreed with me n' that was that.

Continuin' down the hallway we heard and saw some critters ahead that were partially wolfen, and partially dead, I couldn't quite tell. I figured right'n bout now was the time to quaff my Anger Juice, secret mixture of Cobra blood n' a few other things. I grew in size and ferocity like I always do, and the anger took over. I was a bit thrown off at first, because I didn't even manage to hit one o' the critters before the rest of our crew sliced them up to pieces, in large part thanks to the strange man I know next ta nothin' 'bout, Mr. Clount. In the room was some sort o' strange moss covered statue, but in my state I insisted we pushin' on. Lil Zuzmo was none too happy about missing the chance ta play with the moss, but I made a promise that we'd head back when we got the chance.

Runnin' down the hallway, there was a cluster o' skeletons. They got a few shots off on us, but we tore them to pieces with relative ease. We had almost looped all the way back to the beginnin' 'corrding to Ipmerk's map and burst into a room covered with dark curtains. The purpose o' da room eluded me, but there was a strange door beyond with a disk shape in it. Back in the trapped glyph room we had found a disk with a glyph, and inserted inta the door which turned into some sort o' fleshy thing and opened up to reveal... a normal room beyond. I was achin' ta' smash somethin', so I stalked back where'n' we came from after realizing the other side o' the normal room was the same kind' o stone door we found at the entrance - a full outside loop.

No one followed me, so I stalked down back to the hall where the strange teleportin' rooms were and continued down that hall. At the end was a chapel o' sorts and some sorta flying head with bat wings for ears and uh, well, also for wings. It smashed into me ev'n though I had drank my magical shield potion, so lunged at it. I bit off the front part o' it's face with mah tusks, stepped back, and finished it off with a furious blow from mah' axe. Less than a minute later, I shrunk back n' my regular size, and proceeded to expel all that black poison I had just ingested in the most violent and gut-wrenchin' kind o' way.

As I hustled back to meet the group, I heard some sorta commotion in a direction we hadn't gone. Turns out they had found some sort o' secret door, but where I had heard the fightin' from was up a rickety ladder. At the top, I was surprised to see most o' my group was unconscious, with brave little Zuzmo tryin' to stuff their wounds with moss! Only Zuzmo and Ipmerk seemed ta be alive n' kicking. Zuzmo impaled a zombie with'n his spear, and his tasty frog feller charged forward to attack the zombie's master, who turned out ta be 'nother alchemist o sorts! I charged up behind him, seemed like he was a better alchemist n' I was, but he definitely wasn't a better scrapper. Tourniquet, the frog, and I were choppin' him to pieces, but turns out he had some sort o' magical spear and got me a good un'. Before I passed out a took another swing at him.

Next thing I knew, Zuzmo was standin' over me with Ipmerk lookin' on. They'd just stuffed the last healin' potion we had down my throat. Then I looked around, this strange alchemist feller had himself a full on alchemical laboratory! In the corner there were two tanks o' some sort, one had a body within, but the other tank was smashed open and preservative liquid was layin' all over the floor. We 'speculatin' this feller is the one who stole all the bodies, but I ain't fer sure yet. I set about makin' potions, I'm sure paintin' a funny picture for my short comrades as I donned mah craftin' glasses, which look a bit small on mah face. Errything looks small on my face with these big tusks o' mine. Not complainin' or nothin', juss notin'. I made some potions and woke a few of our fellers up, but a few were pretty near death.

Problem was, we had more ta explore. I want ta hear some more answers bout this alchemist feller, bout the flesh door, n' 'bout that strange sarcophagus we found. We reasoned if'n we left they might not let us back down so we settled on the unsettlin' decision ta stay in this blasted temple tomb. We found one o' them rooms from the beginnin' with all the drawin's of angels and that comfortin' feelin', which made me feel a lil bit better bout things. After we set up, I left to collect some o' them black curtains from tha room with the flesh door, turns out there was another door behind one o' da curtains. Hopin' not to disturb nothin' as I wasn't fixin' for more hurtin', I snuck away. Then I layed all them curtains underneath that armor where them roaches lived, poured some o' my special grease on em' n' I lit the lil' bastards on fire. Bunch o' them musta left already, but there was enough left for Cajun Roaches for Zuzmo, Tourniquet, n' mahself. The others declined the delicacy, and just had some o' their rations.

I ain't sleepin' tonight, cause you don't sleep in the crypt o' the dead, so I know I'm gon' be pretty tired tomorrow, but it just ain't a risk I'm willin' to take. So I'm takin' a break from brewin' to record what happened today (meta: Session 1 and Session 2). Hopefully some answers tomorrow. I'm thinkin' them clerics above know more n' they let on in the first place. We'll see. I'm hopin' we dun find too much more down here t'morrah, as it's pretty dangerous. This ain't the place I want to rest my head forever.