Attending:  Reino, Ray, Kevin, Dav

When last we left our heroes they had entered the town of Clifton and found it to be too oppressive for their tastes.  This was not a surprise considering the simple lifestyle of tastes of the group.  Dahlia took the opportunity to buy some female clothing and Liam spent time at a bar but it was clear, the town wasn't a good fit for this live free or die group.

Late in the evening the group found themselves in an abandoned shack trying to sleep.  The rest was interuppted by an intruder, a young human male, trying to make some money for food, the only way he knew how.  He was captured by the group.  The theif's buddy was no so lucky.  Trying to sneak in to check on his friend he found himself crushed when Liam tried pinning him as he snuck through the door.  All Liam could say was, 'Oops.'

The group decided to leave the town for good immediately and discovered the gate is locked at night and no one would open it for them to leave.  They waited until sunrise and left as soon as the guard went on duty.

They only travelled 30 minutes when they found a group of green skinned humans who seemed quite happy to see Dahlia.  This was never explained, even after Los discovered he could speak to a few of the tribesmen.   Liam was upset Los had held out on him and more upset when Liam wouldn't teach him the language (druidic).  The party stayed with the greenbacks for a day and then left to investigate the changes in the ecosystem.

Over the next two months nothing notable happened while the group travelled in the woods living off of what they found.  This changed when they found several odd traps.  The first was a thorn coated with some sort of poison and the second was a thin wire strung from plant to plant, across the pack trail.  The wire was also coated.  Los was exposed to the poison and it was killing him.  Foretunately, between him and Liam, they found natural herbs to lessen the impact and no permanent damage was done.  Liam did collect 8 little yellow flowers that seem to act as a sedative as part of the event.

Shortly after travelling again, the group found an odd lake.  The trail went right into it.  Eventually it was concluded that the lake was formed by several large sink holes, some of which were VERY deep.  Around the lake, the group found some sort of aquatic humaniod fishing.  After an attempt to communicate (and a discovery that Los spoke yet another language that Liam didn't know) the party decided to go with the water being and discusss what has happened above and below since the blood eclipse.    An elder of the people arrived and cast some sort of spell on the party allowing them to breathe underwater. 

After hours of underwater travel the group felt cold, trapped and more than a little paranoid but they made their way to the council chamber of the people.  Observations were exchanged.  The party told of the things above and found out there are gnomes that live underground, that something is growing in the rock, and that underwater, there is a heat source making the water too hot for the people to survive.  The thing growing the rock looks like arteries, is cold to the touch, and grows fast enough that you can see the process.  Most troubling is it seems very hard to break.

Despite their paranoia the party was returned to the surface and after starting a fire dried out and seemed no the worse for the experience.  Liam and Los were troubled by the existance of the people and the potential threat to the world above but Dahlia thought the whole experience was 'awesome'.   It is untested but one of the elders indicated that the ability to breathe in the water given to each in the party was a permanent effect.

Attending:  Reino, Ray, Kevin, Dav

The party left the cave and traveled what they hoped was far enough away that they could rest.  Liam was moody and talking under his breath.  Finally he shared his thoughts about what he thought had happened.  In particular, one of the Grimish seemed to cower and balk at running away and then attack.  Liam's theory was there was some sort of mage or cleric who pushed them into it.  Liam was annoyed that the party got close to a mage and it got away.  That could hurt them later.

Then the group discussed what to do next.  Liam wanted to stick with the plan and go check out the cave but Dahlia was more cautious and wanted to return to the 'town' and get supplies.  She wanted to stock up on food and light sources in case the group got trapped in the cave.  Los stayed neutral and an indignant Liam gave in.

Next morning the party prepared to go back to town.  Liam calculated the vector and the group made their way to the road. Once on the road Liam sounded the alert.  There were tracks of 30-60 Grimish headed toward the town.  Did the group stir up the beasts in the cave and induce them to launch an attack.  Was it too late to warn them?  The party cautiously made its way back and Los used his woodland skills to sneak ahead and confirm that Grimish were staked out on the road to the town.  If they were out in the open guarding the path, then surely they had taken the town.   Did anyone there survive?

The party's plan was to take out any small groups of Grimish on the road with the assumption that there would be 2-3 at each of the three forks along the route back.  The party knew where the first fork was and that two Grimish where there and the plan was for one, Dahlia, to walk forward on the road and attract their attention while Los and Liam moved into the woods for an ambush.   But it was the party who got surprised.  Los was ambushed on the right and Dahlia was attacked on the left.  Liam was caught flatfooted between the two.  It was soon clear that the two attackers weren't Grimish but were something new, some sort of barbaric woodland humanoid.

Dahlia was hit with a devastating lucky shot and went down fast.  Los, using his woodland movement advantage rushed to her position.  Liam stayed in place ready to attack Los's opponent if he tried to follow.  Midgelaw pounced on Los's opponent.

At first, Liam was relieved to see Dahlia's attacker jump right out.  This meant it didn't take the time to coup de grace Dahlia.  That relief was short lived as her opponent popped out right as Los was rushing in and the elf found himself suddenly face to face with Dahlia's opponent.  Another lucky shot and Los was down.  Ut oh.

Liam now faced two of the enemy, an enemy that had brought down each of his friends very quickly.  His only help was Los' pet who was distracting one of the.  Liam knew he had to survive so his goal was to injure the enemy and retreat, drawing them off.  He had to fire first at the one who'd down the other two and hope the cat would survive long enough.  He fired his bow and one of the two arrows hit.  It tried to close but batting another .500 one of two arrows hit and it went down!  Somehow the cat had been able to dodge the other's attack and was still fighting.  Liam directed his attention to the second enemy and his missile attack was too great an advantage to an enemy being pounced on.  It went down.

The cat jumped to Los' side while Liam assured each was stable and finished off the beasts.   In a gruesome move, he took the time to cut off their heads.  Liam took their heads and the unusual arrows they carried.   By this time, both Dahlia and Los were conscious and the party slowly made their way into the woods to find a place to rest.  Liam, after several tries found a stream and the party cleaned up and finally made camp.

The party rested that afternoon and evening and then another full day all the while knowing the delay wasn't good for the town.  Finally, they were ready to try again.  Same plan but this time the party wasn't ambushed.  Los moved ahead and confirmed the Grimish guards were still there and even saw one show up to relieve another.  Unfortunately, the Grimish guards spotted Liam as he moved along the road trying to get close for the ambush.  Liam was surprised they didn't charge so Dahlia and Los hid to prepare for an ambush while Liam readied his bow with hopes of hitting them and drawing them to close.  Again he batted .500 and hit one but then the bowless Grimish pulled out slings and one his Liam with a pebble.  It hurt his pride more than his body and he got mad.

Meanwhile, Los had tried sneaking up in the woods and was spotted and the Grimish charged him. Dahlia and Liam closed and together the group killed them.  Liam remembered the guard change and looked down the road seeing the third one walking slowly away.   In a rash mood he fired and after 3 volleys killed it.   The party collected the teeth for the bounties and moved down the road to the next fork.  It wasn't guarded.  When the party got close Liam looked around and saw signs that it had been guarded... the guards clearly retreated and Liam got mad at himself again.  Obviously killing the relief Grimish had alerted the guards of trouble when he didn't return.  If only Liam had let it walk away.

Attending:  Reino, Ray, Kevin, Dav, Yeager

The party spent the rest of the day going outside the town gates and cleaning up the last few grimish and talking about how the fight that morning had been the worst any had seen and how it would be a while before the faced such dangerous odds again.  Even if the caves had as many grimish, the close quarters would favor the party and its high attack potential.  In all they killed 5 more.  They spent the night in a common dorm room inside the encampment walls.  All seemed to want to be outside but there was too much of a risk of a wandering grimish by the encampment.

In the morning the druid was grumpy and didn't respond well to the other people trying to sleep in the dorm.  He was loud and rude and just what you'd expect of someone who doesn't like civilized people.  After the group left the encampment Los reported that in the middle of the night he heard someone return to town and the guard asked where the others were.  The group conjecture was that the red emissary had returned but no one else had made it.   This conversation was had while the party waited for the new weird guy to finish praying.   Watching him, one could almost see shapes in the mist surrounding him, but it was probably an illusion, the party's own shadows reflecting on the morning dew.

It was a peaceful march to the caves interrupted by just one odd event.   Liam, as always walked in the lead looking at the ground for any odd signs.  About half way he stopped and had the priest stand back while he examined the ground.  He reported a set of tracks that showed someone coming from out of the woods, taking some odd steps, maybe dancing, and then reentering the woods.  Liam mimicked them and then the reason behind them stepped forward.  It was another ranger and he'd left the tracks to verify that Liam was part of the 'club'.   He called himself geejum and was a hunter of dwarves.  Liam thought there was more he should ask, but he couldn't think of anything and geejum left.

It wasn't long after that the group reached the cave.  They went in and stayed on the left wall.  It wasn't long before they found a very foul smelling room and noticed a sort of rthymic pattern to the way the air moved.  It was like they were inside something that was breathing and from the smell, they were in the bad end of it.

Following the tunnels they soon found the source.  First they had to kill what appeared to be 5 young grimish but they weren't normal.  They seemed corrupted with odd mouths full of extra, randomly projected teeth.  And then there was the source of creatures, a door sized membrane with an orifice in the center. 

As the party entered the room Dahlia appeared to be in a trance and distracted when the attack started.  The membrane was the obvious threat and the baby grimish were dispatched with hardly a thought.  Dahlia approached the membrane in her daze while Liam stayed in the doorway and used one of his psionic talents and focused on the thing trying to destroy it.  It reacted by spitting out 3 small balls and trying to pummel Dahlia.  The balls missed her, rolled on the floor and started squirming.  Once they stopped moving it was clear they were some sort of egg containing those small, malformed grimish.  Los and Wahral attacked the eggs and discovered they exploded on impact.  That's when things really went bad.  The gas from the exploding eggs was noxious.  Both got sick and dazed from the exposure.  Dahlia seemed to recover and attacked the membrane with her sword while Liam continued to focus on it with his mind.  It seemed to bubble on the surface from whatever he was doing.   The next few rounds were much of the same, dodging balls, killing what came out of them while trying not to be too close to unopened eggs, and attacking the membrane.  Wahrel discovered that the egg sacks were fragile and just a bump could set them off.  It was only after the membrane was destroyed that things got bad.

Dahlia scored a good hit and the membrane popped.  Looking into the next room it had blocked revealed a large, insectoid creature.  The membrane had been the terminus of a giant egg factory on the back of the creature.  Liam came forward and shot several arrows into the ‘butt’ and it screamed.  Los summoned a few bears and had it make short work of the back end.  Then things really got bad.  The creature was some sort of outsider insect.  The egg factory was almost 20x10 feet and the thing pulled itself free of it.  Once free, it turned its attention to the party and the large insect tried squeezing past its former butt.

The insect was large so it was clear it was going to have trouble getting in through the doorway and down the hall if the party ran so that was their strategy and it was good plan with just one problem.  The egg factory was filled with some sort of viscous fluid.  When the Insect broke free the liquid poured out quickly covering to the floor and oozing into the room where the party was.  It was slowed a little by the liquid, but with at least 6 legs, it was able to walk. The humans and elfish druid weren’t so well endowed.  The liquid made it hard to stand and almost impossible to move.  Worse, the insect started screaming as it squeezed through the door and its scream was as disorienting as the fumes from the eggs.  Los got hit again, Wahrel was hit for the third time and Dahlia took a shot from its disorienting power.

The next 30 seconds was a  mad scramble that would have been comical if it hadn’t been so dangerous.  Everyone was slipping, falling, trying to make it to the door.  Both Dahlia and Liam were away from the creature so they were able to use the floor as a slip and slide.  Liam made it but Dahlia missed and ended up further from the monster (good) but also further from the doorway (bad).  Liam pulled out some rope and started fishing for party members from the doorway.  Wahrel, reeling from the effects passed out and was sure to be insect food while Los was trapped on the wrong side of the beast.

The party was lucky.  Los summoned help to attack and distract the beast while Dahlia did her best to get close to the door.  The cat came to Los’ aid and attacked and also tried pulling party members toward the door. Luckily, Wahrel had snagged himself on the rope and Liam pulled it just in time to get him out of the way of a nasty insect bite.  In the next round Liam shot a pair of arrows into it that seemed to really hurt it.  The creature focused on Liam and the doorway and started pushing forward.  It was almost all over when the creature stammered, hit by one of the summoned allies.  It faltered and fell and they pounced on it finishing it off.  Then it faded into nothingness.  It was gone with nothing left to show for it but an inch of slippery goo on the floor.

It was time to get out and wash up.  Liam would later regret not exploring further but the rest of the party was sick from the effects of the encounter.  They made their way out, into the forest and to the river where they camped and washed.  And washed again for good measure, and then Liam started a proper cleaning of armor and weapons.

Attending:  Reino, Ray, Kevin, Dav, Yeager



Liam acted weird.  He led the party to a clearing he seemed to recognize and then started digging.   He seemed quite confused at digging up an otherwise mundane rock.  "But I threw this down the hill last time...".   Whatever he was trying to dig up wasn't there.  Suddenly he realized the party was in the past, very far into the past.  It was unfathomable.

Before that could sink in several party members noticed a rumbling coming from the ground.   Was something buried digging its way out?  Yes!  And it was something big.

A mix of 16 mages, clerics, and psions came from the town with a blue dragon and started making magical walls of all kinds.  The amount of magic that was concentrated on that one spot was unbelievable and would have caused more shock if not for the time displacement.   What did it all mean?  Was the party going to witness the event that created the odd darkness and its time travel effect in the cave?

Wahrel tried talking to the powerful men to no avail.  He was friendly but they didn’t have time for such lowlifes as the party.  Liam cast a spell that created a bubble and the party hid in it and watched.  They were brought to this time and place for a reason and this seemed the safest way to view the events.

The pounding grew stronger and then something that oozed darkness broke from the ground.  The oozing darkness knocked down the walls and the mages rebuilt them.  As powerful as the forces were before, they had now at least doubled.  Quickly, the darkness engulfed all and from their safety bubble, the party could only listen to the battle.

While they waited Warhal detected the spirit of one of the 16 trapped in the psionic bubble.  Eventually something dispelled Liam's bubble and the party ran from the dark area and away from the sounds of battle they heard.

Outside the darkness the party just waited until the darness left, moving north.  They returned to the fight scene and found the remains all the 16 and the dragon.  The party took the dragon's scaly hide and some magic items dropped by the 16.  As they left they didn't notice the small pile of rocks follwing them.

During the next week they traveled and warhal said the spirt was trapped inside the bubble.  He was there everytime Liam cast it.  Warhel tried to help it and cast something intended to kill the spirit so it could move on.  Instead it shattered into a million pieces and screamed in agonizing pain, but only Warhel could hear it.  It was the first night of travel that the pile of rocks caught up and brought Liam some dragon scales.   It seemed the concentration of heavy magic had made a small rock golem and it liked Liam.

The party went into the next town discretely to gain intel and find out what this world of the past was like.  Despite protests from Liam, Warhal asked for help with the trapped soul from a town official.  He didn't believe the crazy looking party member but took the group to the local clerics to check it out.  Liam cast the bubble spell and the story was confirmed.  Immediately the locals started making moves to detain the party.

The party fought back.  The clerics used a pentagram in the room to summon some sort of daemon cat.  The cat sniffed them and said "You are marked."  An odd symbol appeared on the wrists of Warhel, and Dahlia but not Liam.  Oddly, away from the group and near the edge of town, the Druid had a mark appear on his arm too.  He made like an eagle and fly back to the group.

Dahlia and Liam attacked the clerics while Warhel tried to talk to them.  Once it was clear the fight was going to happen he support the party in the fight.   Dahlia used her sword and took out the peons.  Liam used his psionics to hit the lead cleric with a blast of fire that knocked him into the wall hurting him even more.  Liam was held in place by the town official while the head cleric countered by stepping up to Dahlia and harming her… suddenly she had 1 hit point.  

Warhel stepped up and healed Dahlia and continued to do so for the rest of the fight until he was evicerated by the cat.  Frozen, Liam didn’t flinch when he blasted behind him slamming the town official into the wall and knocking him out.   Liam jumped into the bubble for refuge and Dahlia, weakened by her close combat joined him just as the Druid arrived.  Los and his cat attacked the cat on the outside and drew it forward.  This allowed Dahlia to attack it from inside the bubble as it stood right in the doorway.   She devistated the confused creature who couldn't see his attacker.    Everyone tried to rush and leave except for Warhal who took their stuff.

The party argued with Warhal outside the town about saying too much and then he asked a passerby a question in the hopes of figuring which way to go to avoid similar hostile towns.  Despite attempting to be hostile, the party, especially Liam were angered by this since they'd just argued about saying too much to the guardsman.  

Warhal choose to go his own way.  He poured out the bag of stuff and walked into the woods.  The group took the items from the 16 but through the items from the town into the woods in hope that whoever came looking for the persons that killed their clerics and stole their stuff would be thrown off in the chase.


The party's adventure continues.  What are the marks and what do they mean?  Why were some affected and not all?

Attending:  Reino, Ray, Kevin, Dav, Yeager, David

The party accepted its two new members and together they traveled north to a city they knew to have a resistance presence.  Along the way they found an odd, two smooth and symmetric sink hole more then 60 feet deep.  Dahlia flew down (yes, flew) and checked the bottom out.  It seemed to be the top of a tree and it was covered in bat dung.  Dahlia flew out as the ammonia fumes began to overcome her and the party moved on.  It was a curious site but the party had more important, pressing things to focus on.


The next week passed quickly with the party traveling north and prepared to tell anyone they were looking for work and traveling to Distil.  It became obvious that both Damileor and Rudo were being contacted daily by someone who was watching their progress.  Finally, at the end of the week the group approached their actual target.  Directed by Damileor, they found a cache of local clothing hidden outside the town.  Putting it on, they entered.

The town was just like any other the time travelers had seen.  Dahlia was excited to interact with strangers in the market.  Along the way they saw a man in red and black preaching.  It was clearly an acolyte of Beelzebub attempting to gain more recruits for the cause.  Damileor pushed everyone along to avoid attracting attention.  In the market Dahlia’s first buy was a pineapple, a gift of his favorite fruit for Liam.  She was looking for other items when Rudo recognized something that indicated where the resistance was.  The party followed him into a small shop.

(Only Rudo noticed a grey sickly looking person moving through the town.  He told the party about the zombie later.)

The shop was run by an elderly couple that were sympathetic to the resistance.  The old man moved a chair and opened a trap door and the party climbed down.  Below the shop was a small room and in the room were a few of the resistance fighters reading maps and scrolls by candle light.  The all looked up when the party entered.

The senior member of the group wouldn’t share his name for fear the enemy would learn it.  He was a mage and he was cocky.  He assumed he was the toughest, most skilled person in the room.  Liam shocked his companions, especially Dahlia when he stated matter of factly: “We are here because I have the mark.  What is it and how do I get rid of it?”   Never had Liam been the most open member of the party.

The statement seemed to impress and quiet the room.  It was clear that those in the room didn’t know much about it.  Damileor said it wasn’t the main reason the group was there but that we’d appreciate any information on removing the mark.  The mage said he knew of several people who would know how to remove it or would know who could.  He referred to them as numbers.  The first one was known to be captured.  The second one was missing and the third and fourth were far south.   The party decided that rescuing One was the best course of action.  The mage said he was a cleric of Palor and he got caught because he got lazy.  The mage also said that the mark was put one someone by arcane and never divine magic.

Given the time of day the party decided to spend the night in the room.  Dahlia asked them if they ever heard of the Blood Moon and though they hadn’t, they liked the story.  We began exchanging fairy tales.  The mage told one about a silver dragon who befriended a kid and how the kid returned the kindness when he was a night growing up.  He talked about evil red and white dragons and about a blue one named Ecklog that ruled Brindol, a town down south. The party didn’t tell him the blue dragon was dead.   With stories exchanged the party got comfortable.  Dahlia washed her mark to no gain and Liam tried looking at the maps the resistance members were reading.  They seemed reluctant to share. 

After eating a meal made by the old woman they went to sleep.  In the middle of the night Dahlia woke up Liam.  She said she was feeling odd and there was a strange rumble coming from above.  They lifted the trapdoor and Liam sent his crystal to check it out.  The crystal relayed back that it saw a large army marching through the town.  Dahlia went on up and stepped outside to watch it.  She was acting very odd.  She said she had a weird feeling as if something evil was passing by.  Later she would say if came from the coach of the Baron who was in charge of the army.  She wanted to go after it and destroy it but Liam convinced her to wait until the issues with the mark were resolved.

The next morning Rudo asked about the party but Liam was reluctant to talk in front of the others who were so secretive.  The party left the town and the subject of the cleric came up.  The mage had said the cleric might know the literal meaning of the mark or at least what language it was in.  The party decided they would kidnap and question the cleric but they would attempt to keep him alive to belay the fear from the townies that he’d be replaced with someone worse (i.e. more competent).  Rudo was sent back into town to spy and discover what he could about the cleric.

Rudo reported back that there was a big event at the clerics house that night and it should be easy to grab him once its over.  The event was some sort of initiation into the temple of Beelzebub.  With little planning the party went back into town around 2 am hoping to sneak into the clerics house and run off with him.  Whew they got there they saw two guards, one in front and one in back guarding the doors.  The one in back was watching into the building through a window instead of guarding.  The party took advantage of that, lined up, and Liam shot him with 3 arrows, Rudo jump kicked him in the head, and Damileor blasted him with a psionic power.  The party moved up and looked in.  The induction ceremony was nothing more than an orgy and the cleric was still… up.

The group decided to take out the guard in front and then wait for the party attendees to fall asleep.  Liam moved to the front and hit the guard with three arrows and knocked him unconscious.  Both bodies were hidden and the party waited.  And waited.  It was taking too long and they started getting nervous that the bodies would be noticed.  Then Damileor had a bright idea.

Damileor told the group that he had a telekinetic power.  He could hit the cleric with it and throw him about the back door, about 60 feet.  If it failed, he could simply try again.  Everyone got into place and Liam tied a short rope to the door.  When everyone signaled their readiness Liam slowly and quietly opened the door.  The party goers, distracted didn’t notice but they did notice when Damileor cast his power.  The cleric suddenly went flying out the door without a word to the three young females he was entertaining.  Damileor’s aim was perfect.  The cleric landed at the feet of Dahlia and Rudo who pummeled him unconscious.  Meanwhile Liam pulled on the rope and was able to close it before anyone realized it had ever been open.

Dahlia cast flight while Liam tied up the cleric.  She flew the cleric straight up and then into the woods.  The party calmly left town as if nothing had happened and met up with her in the woods.   Now they were ready to question the cleric.