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Date: 04/04/2020

By: Freyja

DM: Neal

Party: Dexter, Daffodil, Freyja, Taishina, Tehran, Tif

Mission: Trail of Tasks – Building the Briarwall Bypass Road

We were hired to escort and protect road workers as they labored on extending our reach into the wild north by continuing the Briarwall Bypass. Our group was six strong: Tehran, once again our leader, the strange Doctor as our scout, myself as the lookout, as well as the beautiful Taishina and a couple new faces, the warrior Tif and the curious Daffodil.

The first part of our journey was quite uneventful, but as the sun was lowering in the sky and we almost reached the end of the existing road, we spotted a structure in the distance, close to the river. A couple of my companions and I decided to take a closer look, and as we approached it, we noticed light coming from the doorway, like a stove light or maybe torches. It was very clear that there was something or someone inside. We went back to report what we saw and our leader decided that it would be better to keep our distance and continue our journey.

We reached the end of the road and set camp. Tehran even brought a large tent that could fit most of us, so we were getting ready for a pretty comfortable night. Just as we were finishing our supper, I spotted a few small figures in the hills north of us. We all started moving towards that direction, weary of an attack, when one of the figures, a goblin, threw some kind of potion right next to Tif and me. The greenish-blue fumes surrounded us, and whatever that substance was it didn’t seem poisonous, but still had some negative effects. We quickly overwhelmed the small group of goblins and made our way back to the camp. The Doctor then proceeded to remove the bones of the small creatures and collected them. I couldn’t tell you for what purpose, but he might be interested in some of the darker magic. My advice would be that if he asks you for permission to have your body after you perish, like he asked us as we were getting ready to leave town, consider that he might do something similar to you.

We finally settled in for the night, but soon enough my watch started. The night air was chilling and the forest quiet. As I was walking around our camp, I noticed someone approaching from the darkness… someone I recognized. It was a Qzymandias! A most unexpected meeting, even though I knew that he was somewhere north. 

I quickly woke up everyone else, and as we all set by the fire, Ozy relayed some messages for us. He started telling us about the Bloodeye Clan that used to live north of WMC, and the many terrible things that happen to them. He said that an oni took over the empty house and made it very clear that it needs to be defeated. The second thing he told us about was something that needs to be discovered under the back of the gardens of the Estate. I’m not sure where this Estate is, but I think I heard Taishina say she was there on a mission before. I got a chance to ask him about the tower we passed by the day before, and he immediately knew what I was talking about. He said that there is an ancient form of evil that needs to be removed there. Knowing that now, I’m really thankful for Tehran’s decision to not stop and explore it.

After wishing us good fortune, he walked back towards the darkness and when he was almost out of sight he morphed into a giant, feathered serpent! I couldn’t believe my eyes! I had a hard time falling asleep after witnessing that. 

Morning came too soon, and it was time for all of us to get to work. As we were buising ourselves with various tasks, the pink gnome Daffodil started feeling that strange sensation that I believe most of us are familiar with by now. Bad things happen if you use your magic when you feel that!

Not too long after, a small halfling came running towards us, he pretty much ran straight into the Doctor, which was quite fortunate because apparently he speaks the Halfling tongue. The poor halfling was in horrible shape, it looked like he might have been running for days. After calming him down, and giving him some water, the doctor translated what he was going on and on and on about. There seems to be another cultist Temple up north. Maybe similar to the one just north of the JabJab’s. The halfling talked about how he saw a goat and a mountain man, and since he fancied himself a ranger, he followed the goat to a hillside where the goat stopped in front of a cave to eat some mushrooms. That reminded me of what I saw the night we went to explore the temple north of the JubJub’s. Doing my watch, in the early hours of the morning, I saw in the distance a mountain man chasing a goat, and if I remember correctly someone in our party knew him and said he was friendly. As the halfling tried to approach, the goat spooked and so he decided to give those mushrooms a try, and after that his memory became fuzzy. He could only remember bits and pieces and running for his life, and then is when he ran into us. We let him rest in one of the carts, and eventually he made the journey back with us to Ruined Oak.

As we continued advancing with our road construction, one of the workers came to me and showed me an arrow that they found and said that a ground was littered with them. I followed him to get a better look at this, and as I was examining this arrow I realized that they were made by Drows, there was no doubt in my mind. taking a better look at the ones on the ground, I was fairly certain that they were shot from the direction of the Briarwall. With that new information, we instructed the workers to build the road a few hundred feet away from the wall, hopefully that way it will not be in longbow range.

We made camp for the night, and started our watches hoping for undisrupted rest. Unfortunately, we did not have that luxury. We were woken up by a large party of goblins. There were so many of them, probably close to two dozens. It felt very overwhelming at first, especially when they managed to take down two of the workers. Eventually we overpowered them and once again we found ourselves having to dispose of goblin corpse. I would not be surprised if they have a camp somewhere north close to where we were.

Next day came, and we were back working, when we discovered a strange stone. The Doctor and I tried to take a closer look at it, neither of us were able to determine its origin or what kind of magic it had. Oh, and it was magical. A magic trap if you’d like to call it that, since when we approached it a bright light almost blinded us, and for a few moments all I could see in front of my eyes was a rune. We didn’t touch it, so we don’t know the full extent of the trap, and we were unable to disable it. I made a sign and put it on the ground in front of it, as a warning for future travelers. 

We were almost done working, and looking forward to the journey back to town, when it seems like we disturbed three dinosaurs and they were not happy about it. We quickly charged them, hoping to give the workers some time to retreat. As Tif, Tehran, Taishina and I were trying to slow their advance, the doctor had the great idea of using carts and his magic to form a blockade in the road, to help protect the workers, in case they got past us.

With that problem finally taking care of, we packed the carts and made our way back to Ruined Oak.Â