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- Glar Fortran’s Adventuring Log
- Anyway,
- I never asked for much in life, just the respect everyone deserves
- Yet sometimes I wonder how much of my fate truly is in my hands
- I don't like talking about my past; I don't believe there is much point in bothering about what happened
- Since you can't turn back
- All you need to know that our land was ruled by a vicious tyrant
- Due to my unusual strength and fighting skill, I was pulled into a rebellion aganist him
- I admit I never cared much about the political stuff, but I did want smaller taxes
- My motivation wasn't as personal as it was for the rest of my band
- More selfish, perhaps
- Is this why I was fated to be the only survivor of that doomed attack on the castle?
- Why, despite beating the tyrant, I was the only one left to see our land demolished by a dark force
- The very thing we fought for, destroyed by a contingency spell planted by the tyrant himself
- The battle was won, but the cause for their rebellion was lost
- At that time I realised destiny has other plans for me, and that I should listen to it
- So I took a greatsword from the castle, some chainmail and tools, and left the country
- To travel and do what I do best: fight for the people
- On my way I did some smaller jobs, eventually took a job as a bodyguard for this merchant
- The pay was steady, but I wasn't doing it entirely for the money
- I will admit that the thrill of the battle excites me, and I hoped this job would give opportunities to show off my abilities
- But there wasn't any, apart from an occasional travel the guy was just conducting business in cities
- Until that day ...
- We received news that one of his trading caravans was attacked and very important cargo was missing, along with the crew
- Noticing a chance to get in the wild, I volunteered to look for the carriage in the hills, where it disappeared
- But he insisted on finding more people for the job
- I should have known back then that he knew way more than he was willing to share
- Luckily for us, we found a suitable party in a day:
- A pair of Elvish travelers trained in combat and archery, a dwarven Cleric and even a Wizard!
- I've never worked with a real wizard before in my life
- Hotimir was his name, and he was still fresh from the spellcasting academy of Conjuration
- traveling the world in search and study of new spells
- With him was Thoradin, a warrior priest from the Ironfist dwarves clan
- He didn't strike me quite right, and I soon found out why
- He apparently pledged allegiance to some Dwarven god of pleasure and drinking
- And in exchange for his healing words and holy spells, he devoted himself to drinking as much as possible
- He was a good healer, don't get me wrong, but he very very often got drunk beyond recognition
- Yet somehow in those moments he was gifted by incredible luck
- Dwarven gods really are a force to be reckoned with
- At one point he met the wizard, saved his life apparently, and that's how they ended up traveling together
- They were pretty cool
- The elves, they were kinda weird
- Quarion, the male elf, clearly came from a noble background, but he didn't like talking about it for some reason
- But he was very well trained in combat, even better than me
- Although I never said it to his face
- Delilah, his step-sister, was a Rogue however(edited)
- More interested in taking spoils and riches than following rules(edited)
- Yet for some reason he followed her thieving path and protected her with his life
- I'll never understand elves
- But they needed money, and my boss offered them a seemingly simple job
- Our party was to take one of his carriages with a shipment to neighboring town
- We would take the same path where the missing caravan went, and hopefully find out what happened to it
- So there we were, wizard sitting on the carriage and controlling the donkeys that pulled it
- And the rest of us walking at the sides, prepared to defend it
- Didn't seem like it was going to be necessary, as the land was peaceful
- A little too peaceful now that I think about it
- The road then turned and went through this forest
- We go in and make it to this meadow where suddenly we see traces of fight
- Two dead horses on sides of road, lots of footprints, bloodstains
- And trails of the stolen wagon continuing on the road
- We decide to stop and investigate, since this definetly has something to do with the attacked caravan
- The cleric inspects the horses, and judges they were killed few days ago, which confirms it
- We decide to follow the trail of the wagon, when suddenly something moves in the distance between the trees
- An arrow flies into us, and scares the donkeys
- And then, four goblins jump into the meadow from the bushes
- Two with swords, two with bows
- One of each on each side
- I run off to the left side to intercept the charging goblin there, and Quarion does the same
- Delilah tried to gain some height by jumping on the carriage, but she fails twice and breaks her ankle
- Thoradin tries casting a warding spell, but fails and it turns aganist him
- And Quarion while charging slips on dead horse's blood and falls to the ground
- Luckily he pulled one of goblins down with him
- On the left, I surprisingly well deflect the bowman's arrow and lock swords with the other one
- After some struggle, I wrestle him off and break his skull
- And try to charge to the bowgoblin, who took cover behind the other horse's corpse
- I barely jump over and bring him to the ground, but also fall myself and badly bruise my shoulder
- Meanwhile on other side the situation gets dire
- The other archer goblin shot an arrow through Delilah's leg
- And Quarion kept slipping on blood puddles
- Thoradin locked his shield with the swordgoblin's sword and was pushing back
- So our wizard (know that wizards in dnd are physically very weak) had to step in
- From high point on the carriage, he cast few frost bolts on goblins to slow them down
- And then some magic missiles to finish them off
- Except he messed up one of them and it almost hit Thoradin instead of goblin
- Must have been his first fight, I could understand
- So, with the goblin attackers finally taken out, we decided to take a short rest and tend to our wounds
- Quarion's and mine wounds were pretty minor, one spell took care of them
- but Delilah's leg was more severely damaged
- At least that's what it looked like to me at first, but Thoradin assured me a bit of healing balm should help
- Quarion thought otherwise
- I guess with his fighting expertise he saw through dwarf's drunken excuses and realized he can't heal an open fracture
- Thoradin wanted to shut him up by magically strengthening his voice, but it only made Quarion more mad
- If I didn't step in and pulled him off, the dwarf would end with more than just a black eye
- He may be a drunk, but he was also the only healer we had
- The wizard meanwhile was meditating his spellcraft and didn't really pay attention
- Spellcasting is a hard thing in this world, even simple spells require years of study and practice to pull off
- So in order to advance, Wizards dedicate to researching the forces of magic all the time, for life
- It seemed like an unreachable goal, but the way he took care of those goblins did make me wonder what I could do with those powers
- So, after we were done resting, we continued on the road
- We make it out of the forest and get to this bridge over the river
- On the other side of bridge, however, we see the wagon tracks going left off road and continue along the river bank
- Upwards the river, towards the canyon from which the river was flowing
- After a quick vote, we agree on investigating the trail before going forward to our goal city
- We move our small carriage off the road and conceal it under the bushes, and let donkeys go on
- They knew the path on their own
- So we went on foot, following the wagon trail
- Into the canyon, which got narrower and narrower as we went on
- Until we reached a cave where the river was flowing from
- There was still a bit of bank on our side of the cave, wide enough for one person
- But no light
- So I lit up one of torches we had and went in first, with Delilah, Thoradin, Hotimir and Quarion behind me in that order
- We quickly made to an opening on the wall on our right, which continued in some very steep stairs upward
- Carefully looking up, I found a small round space with a column in the middle
- We decided to go in carefully, as enemy could be hiding anywhere
- And they did: a goblin who was resting behind the pillar got scared to death when I stepped behind
- His screaming called in another goblin, and panic ensued
- I tried to shut him up with my sword, but he protected himself with his shield
- Delilah jumped in to help me, but accidentally set off a trap and almost got shot with a dart
- So Quarion had to step in and kill the goblin instead
- Now that we knew there are traps in this cave, we proceeded with extra caution
- On the other side of round room was a small opening, big enough for crawling through
- And on other side, we saw a space with a chest
- Wizard decided it was best to inspect the chest from a distance and cast spectral hands
- which floated through the opening to open a chest
- It was unlocked, but we discovered it had a different kind of protection
- When one of spectral hands touched it, the opening suddenly collapsed and closed
- Hey, at least we didn't get separated
- We guessed there had to be another way to get to that chest deeper in the cave tunnel, so we returned there
- And continued in the same order on the river bank
- Then, in the distance as the ceiling of tunnel got higher, we saw a bridge going over the bank and the river
- But it was meters above us, connecting two openings in cave tunnel walls
- Meaning there had to be more rooms dug into this cave
- As we walked below the bridge, we fell into another ambush
- Two goblins stood up from behind the bridge fence and shot at us with their bows
- And another goblin came running at us from deeper from the cave
- We threw that one in the river and let it carry him out of the cave
- But more goblins appeared behind us
- I stayed there to hold them off while the rest ran forward in search of cover
- Behind the corner, they found a staircase built into the wall leading to rooms upstairs and the bridge
- But it was guarded by a few goblins
- Quarion took them on, but spectacularly tripped on top of stairs and hit his head in the wall
- Delilah took one of the bridge goblins out with her arrows, but got knocked in the rushing river stream
- The Cleric and wizard knew they had to do something, and wizard cast his magic missiles while Cleric protected him from goblins on stairs
- The missiles missed the goblin on bridge, but hit the cave ceiling there and the falling debris killed him
- And buried me under on the river bank
- The wizard helped Quarion back on his feet and they took out the remaining goblins while Thoradin tried to pull Delilah out of the river
- It didn't work
- When I freed myself of debris, I rushed to help them and barely held them by the bank
- When everyone was back up on dry land, we decided to explore this room
- One hallway went from the room to the bridge we walked under
- And the other to the room with chest we saw before
- Inside there was some money and a handaxe which I took, but not the important cargo from the merchant's wagon
- Which meant more exploring.
- We took a short rest, which was interrupted by a band of goblins returning from their hunt
- And another one appearing out of nowhere in the room with the chest
- I tried to hold that one off while the rest of my party took on others
- Delilah took out some with her bow, but got hit by another trap
- And the cleric couldn't help her, because he was secretly drinking again
- And got too drunk to pick himself up
- Quarion tried to pick him up, but hit his head again and fell unconscious
- He really should wear a helmet
- There is much more
- Wizard took care of the other goblins on the stairs
- Meanwhile I had the worst hour of my lifer
- I missed my sword attacks, and when goblin deflected my blow I failed to dodge
- And got a whole swordfull of rusty iron through my stomach
- I fell to the ground, not being able to fight anymore
- Wizard tried to step in, but got slapped down behind me
- and Delilah couldn't get there in time to protect us
- Just then, the unimaginable happened
- The Dwarf, who was still trying to get on his feet, kept failing all this time
- But everytime he fell back, his drunken body somehow avoided all hurt
- As he stumbled to the stairs
- And then it almost seemed like he could stand up, but he didn't, and was falling down
- And in his stupor, he performed some kind of sick breakdance as he went down the stairs, suffering no damage at all
- This feat impressed the goblin so much, he just stood there for a moment, watching it
- giving Delilah enough time to crawl closer and stab him to death
- This is what bad dice rolls gets you
- So we rest again to heal up, this time luckily we weren't interrupted
- And once we feel like we're ready to continue, we go across the bridge
- On the other side, inside the cave wall, there was another small room
- And there, a very narrow corridor going on and turning right
- Definetly not wide enough for a quick escape
- So we go slowly in, prepared for anything
- And we make it to a larger cavern, with goblin loot lying around(edited)
- On one side there was remains of the missing wagon, and it's crew
- Dwarf took the insignia from one of the corpses for evidence
- The shipment we were looking for was also there
- On other side of the room was a large pile of animal skins and fur
- And some bones
- Delilah's inspection found no traps, but Hotimir sensed there is some kind of secret doorway around
- That what we've seen wasn't the whole room
- Then, as I went closer to inspect the fur pile, we heard noise
- An opening in one of walls appeared, and goblin attackers were waiting to attack us there
- Their battlecry attracted more goblins from the crevice we came from
- And woke up something else ...
- With a loud growl, a cave troll rose up from under the pelt pile
- Our first boss fight!
- Wizard quickly decided to thin out the numbers and shot his missiles at the wall above the new opening
- The rubble closed it, preventing the goblins on other side from getting in
- Delilah went on to take care of reinforcements in the crevice
- As I, Quarion and Thoradin positioned ourselves around the Troll to bring him down
- A cave troll isn't an easy thing to kill we found out
- We tried first to cut his hands to make him drop his giant club, but it had no use
- A cave troll skin is thicker than bark
- And wizard's spells only blinded it, making it go in an uncontrollable frenzy
- We took some hard blows, but eventually I made it around the troll and cut it's arm badly enough to make it drop the weapon
- We bring it down to brink of defeat, and I decide to go for the killing blow
- I rush over the pile, but slip
- and What was supposed to be a crushing blow from my greatsword turned into a sloppy hug of the Troll's belly
- It wasn't amused at all, and threw me across the room into the wagon rubble
- Luckily Delilah returned from the corridor and gave it a finishing blow right then with an arrow between eyes
- The whole cavern shook from troll's fall
- And then, there were no more enemies around
- We were free to look for the remaining cargo and go back
- Among the money we also found a strange stone figure of a Frog with golden eyes
- The wizard couldn't detect anything unusual, but as we looked at the frog we couldn't help but feel like it was smirking at us
- Delilah jokingly kissed it, but it didn't turn into a prince
- So with the cave cleared out, we pick our stuff and head back out to our carriage
- Except there was no carriage
- And it was getting very late
- With all the goblins running around the land, we decided to go our goal city and look for the wagon tomorrow
- A risky move still, as the city we were going to had a curfew
- The guards were pretty pissed at us trying to enter in the middle of night,
- but after seeing our contract they left us in and directed us into the town tavern
- We booked rooms and went to sleep
- That night I had a terrible nightmare about Delilah getting caught mid night on a theft run and frogs appearing everywhere
- It was weird
- Especially because the next morning, we woke up to a sound of croaking in the room
- A live fat frog was in our room somehow
- We tried to throw it out, but as I thought I dropped it out of window, it appeared inside again
- This is what you get for kissing strange frog amulets
- The wizard and cleric tried inspecting the amulet again, but no success
- Whatever spell this was, it couldn't be detected by their level
- Eh whatever said Delilah, we got more important business to do
- Besides, I don't mind a frog following me
- Each of us thought their own, but in the end she was right, we had more important business
- Namely, find our merchant and report to him on the missing cargo
- And to alert the city watch about goblin camp we found
- And possibly to look for new gear
- Delilah and Quarion went to the town market, while the rest of us went to the city hall
- There we found my boss, who to our surprise was happy to see us
- We delivered the cargo, we reported on the goblins
- But he didn't seem to care about them, as if there was something else on his mind
- We asked him about the city, why is there such a curfew, where is the mayor so we can report the goblin problem
- He told us the mayor hasn't been seen in weeks, as he is grieving the death of his daughter, who died of a strange incurable disease
- If we wanted to report about goblins, we had to talk to the head of city guard
- When we asked him about why all the guards in this city are so stuck up, he mentioned something about a local Red Beard gang terrorizing the town
- but he quickly stopped and told us off, claiming he already said too much
- "Trust me, you really don't want to look into this."
- Well maybe not
- He was so in hurry to leave us with our reward he didn't even give me a new assignment
- Back outside, we speculated what if this disease has something to do with the Red Beard Gang
- We decided to investigate more, so we went looking for the city guard commander
- Now this guy was a real militaristic prick, he didn't want to talk to us at all
- Not even listen to our warning, saying he had bigger problems
- So the Wizard used a little charm spell on him, making us seem like close friends in his eyes
- His attitude changed immediately
- He thanked us for advice, but told us what is the problem with this city
- There was an organised group called Red Beard Gang, members of which periodically went out at night killing and robbing people
- But still, he wouldn't give us more information, as if he was afraid of them himself
- So we asked him something else
- We showed him the frog amulet and the insignia we found in the goblin cave and asked him about them
- He recogised them, they belonged to his comrade
- Learning about his fate almost brought him to tears
- He thanked us and left us with a small piece of information: every night, some Red Beard Gang members would meet in the same storehouse at the market
- And then after the meeting leave to go back to the outskirts of the city, where their hideout was
- He did let us keep the frog amulet and left us
- So we started coming up with a plan
- If we captured one of Red Beards and pressed him for information, we could find their hideout and take a large bounty!
- But we had to prepare first
- I felt my equipment was good enough for my combat style, but Hotimir and Thoradin had to buy some materials for spellcasting
- We found a shop with spellcasting supplies
- At the counter, a barely living old man looks at us
- There are jars of weird stuff and materials placed on the shelves
- I let the Wizard do his business while I feed my curiosity around the store
- And then, unexpected happens again
- The old man, when he looks at Hotimir, changes appearance into that of a wizard professor
- Turns out this guy was Hotimir's old teacher at the Conjuration college
- They do small talk, about how they got here
- Hotimir asks him to inspect the frog amulet for spells
- You could see the guy was an expret, he takes one glance at it and bursts into laughter
- He tells us the frog had a curse placed on it at some point(edited)
- Whoever kissed it would have a frog following them
- Trying to get rid of the frog would only bring it back eventually(edited)
- And killing the frog would cause two more identical frogs to spawn
- And so on
- And he laughed because he sensed that the curse was activated already
- We didn't tell him who the activator was
- Then they bought their supplies, we parted ways
- We run into our Elves and tell them our plan
- They agree with it, and when night falls, we sneak out of the tavern to the storehouse
- The building had a front entrance that led to a small jewelry or something, but there was also a back entrance
- We decided to set up our ambush there
- Hiding in the bushes, we would wait until Red Beards get in the building and sneak up on them
- And lo behold, after few hours, we see two hooded figures meeting behind the building, and entering the back entrance together
- Then we spring into action
- Delilah picks the lock and we slowly advance
- But going into room after room, we find nobody
- Just crates and stored goods
- I make it to the front part of the building, to the door which leads to the jewelry space
- And when I enter it, two Red Bearded thugs rise up from behind the counter and attack us
- And then two more appear from behind, coming from one of the empty rooms we investigated(edited)
- Was there a hidden passage we missed?
- We'll think about this later, now we have to survive
- These thugs aren't your typical meek goblins, they put up quite a fight
- One of them kept knocking us down, skillfully wielding a halberd in a tight space
- But yet, we hold on and counterattack
- As we bring one of them down, the other two from behind do something strange with their mouth
- Suddenly they start foaming and blindly rushing on us
- Their strength was increased and they fought with unstoppable fury,
- but only for few seconds before falling down dead
- Was this their trick? Going in blind rage before death?
- Either way, it made the fight much harder
- I tried choke holding one of the remaining thugs, but he did the same move
- And broke out of my grip like a rabid dog, breaking my arm before falling dead
- And then more thugs appeared out of nowhere
- Most of us were badly hurt on the ground now, so Hotimir and I made an emergency run for the jewelry store door
- We broke them down and called city guard for help
- As we pulled our comrades out and they rushed in, we could only hear the sounds of clanging metal, cutting meat and screams of pain
- And then, Remaining living guards carrying out dead bodies
- Of Red Beards, only the three we killed, the rest were guards
- We didn't know where the other thugs went
- And then, the city guard commander arrived
- He didn't say nothing, he just knocked us out with the hilt of his blade
- When we came to, we were in the city dungeons
- The captain was waiting for us, super pissed
- "Well, did you get what you were loking for??" he asked us
- We tried explaining the situation to him, but he wasn't having any of it
- "4 of my men are dead, because you just had to mess with what you didn't understand!"
- "Because you had to mess with me"
- The thing about charm spells is that once they wear off, the target becomes aware of what happened
- Essentially, they know they were charmed aganist their will, and that usually pisses people off
- He said we should be hanging for causing this trouble, but because we told him about his comrades and gave him a warning after all,
- he decided to give us an ultimatum(edited)
- Either rot in cell and pay for our crimes, or deal with Red Bears ourselves
- Turns out, the city guard knew where their hideout was, but never disturbed them
- Were they that strong? Was there some kind of extortion going on?
- Does this have something to do with the mayor and his daughter?
- Only then we realized what kind of hornet's nest we stirred, and agreed on his deal
- We would head into the hideout of Red Beard Gang and finish them off
- They gave us back our equipment, and some healing potions
- We were told about what was the deal with rabit suicide thugs
- It was a drug produced from local flora that, upon ingestion, makes user go into a state of empowered murder rampage before killing them
- Red Beards hid that drug in their fake molars, so they could use it in dire situations
- Needless to say, it's pretty effective, as no Red Beard was ever caught alive
- We were escorted to the outskirts of town, to this decrepit abandoned house
- The guards stayed outside, to make sure no one would get in our out
- And we entered.
- The house itself was empty and in bad state, but we quickly found a maintained trap door in the floor
- Under it, there were stairs going deep in the basement
- The basement definetly wans't in the original plans for this house, a door there went to a cave area which was clearly outside the bounds of the house
- Through the lock, Delilah saw a larger room with a massive heavy table in the middle and some thugs around
- We decide on a rush tactic : me and Quarion would run on sides of room, making space for the rest, while wizard stays back with spells ready
- Now, that fight got me a lot of strikes in my head, so I don't remember all that happened or in what order
- So I'll just say what details I can recall
- Reinforcements came from the corridor that rand around this room, an archer and a swordsman
- I blocked them by flipping the table to side, so we had cover
- But what they did was kick the table back and knocked Quarion on the ground
- Then I remember we were chasing these guys in the corridors around the room
- And then when we thought it the air was clear, another unit of reinforcements came
- One guy with a wide shield and two archers at his sides
- The shield was big enough to protect all three of them
- And they held close to the wall so we couldn't strike them from sides too
- We tried throwing everything we had at them, but no luck
- So we went with a different approach
- We hid in the corridor outside the room and put out all torches to create darkness
- They stood still in their fortified formation, waiting for any move
- Delilah thought about approaching them, she and Quarion could see better in darkness as Elves
- And I pulled the wounded wizard closer so we could heal ourselves
- But then the thugs changed their mind
- The shield guy activated his molar drug and the archers left the room
- He wasn't much of a problem though, he broke his skull as he jumped over the table
- But then another wave of attackers spawned
- I don't recall how it went exactly, but I do remember how it ended
- There was one guy left, who miraculously survived everything up until now
- I threw my hand axe at him, but missed and hit Delilah in head instead
- Quarion for some reason was under the table and tried to attack him, but instead knocked the legs of the table off on his side
- Making the table half fall on him
- Thoradin was drunk again, somehow
- And wizard was out of spellcasting power
- So all he could do is swing with his staff to ward him off
- I tried to redeem myself for my previous horrible axe throw, so I charged at the thug myself
- Rushing over the table, I tackled him to the ground, but also falling myself next to him
- It didn't help much though, as when the wizard tried to damage him, he picked himself up and deflected his staff, knocking him down aswell
- In his moment, he shouted his battle cry
- Something "is that all you lousy adventurers got?"
- And at that moment, I had enough
- All the failures, all the embarassement pent up in me surfaced up
- And I had only murder on my mind
- So I did the first thing I thought of
- I grabbed his dick
- And with one pull, I ripped off his groin, his guts, his entrails, his pelvis bone
- Blood gushed all over the place
- He just left a small whimper of pain and confusion, and collapsed dead
- That was the first time I felt something like that
- But I feel like it won't be the last
- Nobody said a word. we just accepted what happened, tended to our wounds, and moved on
- As we cautiously explored the basement, we found no more thugs, but more rooms
- We also found a storeroom full of crates
- And around that time we figured out we are not dealing with an usual gang
- Some of us tried to open the crates by force
- But when we opened them, they would contain horrible things
- For example, one crate I broke open had a single, beating bloody human heart in it
- But my companions couldn't see it
- And when I looked back to the crate, I couldn't see it anymore either
- It was like the crate was always empty
- Other had similar experiences
- Delilah found a crate full human eyes, which could also be seen only by her for a moment
- Quarion saw a pile of rotten meat and fingers
- Thoradin somehow found the only crate with normal loot, and it was wine
- I swear, dwarves...
- In another room I found a larger chest, and when I opened it, I saw a whole skinless human body, but no one else saw it
- And then it dissapeared
- We all had similar experiences, and so we agreed that this loot
- This whole place maybe was under some darker spell
- Hotimir tried investigating the chest,
- I don't know what he saw, but for a moment he jolted like he was in great pain and then collapsed back
- He confirmed the place was cursed, but didn't want to say anything more
- I didn't like this room either, so we continued exploring the other side of basement
- We found a chamber with what used to be a staircase, but it had collapsed long ago
- It was too dark to see where it was going to, and too deep
- Luckily, we found a replacement - a ladder going down in a nearby closet
- Ladder went down into a constructed underground corridor, which split into two
- We decided to investigate the right path first
- That path was wide enough for only one person, sometimes two at time, so we went in usual formation
- Fighters, rogue, wizard, cleric, fighter
- We make it to a dead end, but then Quarion and Thoradin dissapear
- And a thug appear in front of us
- After our last encounter, we decide not to risk and run back to the split
- But when we get back, we find out that Delilah has dissapeared too
- Me and Hotimir lock our backs together, watching for any possible threat
- Going very slowly into the corridor on left
- Guards come at us from both sides, but we somehow knock them off
- We make it to a door, and when we open it we see some kind of torture chamber
- Our Cleric, Rogue and other Fighter are already chained up to the wall opposite to us, and there is an armored guard with a halberd on right side
- I charge the guard while wizard struggles to free others
- He frees Quarion first, and he jumps to help me,
- I try to slam him to the ground, but fail, and Quarion saves me again
- We free the others and rest
- After that, we investigate the space
- There are doors on each side of this chamber
- We go to the door on right, and there is a short corridor with another room at the end
- Closed behind a curtain
- Wizard senses some sort of magic there, so we try throwing some stuff there first
- When we throw a torch, the fire is condensed by an invisible force into a fireball and deflected back at us
- When we throw a frog, nothing happens
- We figure out this curtain only wards aganist energy and spells, so we get through
- And behind we see what appears to be a ritual site
- A pentagram-like symbol drawn in blood with candles around
- Some writing I don't recognise
- And the blood is slightly glowing
- The writing is in demon speak, so nobody can figure out what this ritual is about
- The wizard gets closer to inspect the symbol
- But when he touches it, he is instantly pulled in the center of the symbol, floating in air
- We sense an immerse, wind like force pushing us away from him, and his eyes glow
- And he speaks some creepy gibberish in a demonic voice
- For a few seconds, before falling out of the symbol
- As he comes to, he doesn't remember anything
- But he only knows one thing: this is only one part.
- We try to throw Delilah's frog into the symbol, but we don't get any new info
- The frog just starts croaking in deep demonic voice before exploding
- And then two more identical frogs appear next to her
- (I forgot to mention additional frogs don't persist forever, by next day their number returns back to 1)
- (But we haven't found out a way to get rid of them completely)
- So, we go look through the door on other side
- And there, we find another symbol written in blood
- Identical to the one we inspected
- Hotimir, aganist our warnings, inspects it, and again he is pulled into, shouting gibberish before falling down
- And this time his eyes are crying blood
- But he knows more now: there is a third symbol hidden somewhere in this space
- But we inspected all doors and rooms we see,
- unless...
- Cleric prays for a revelation, and senses a fake wall back in the torture chamber
- We deactivate it, and find the final room with the third symbol
- We also notice the stars on all three symbols point towards the centre of torture chamber
- Maybe that is some kind of focus point?(edited)
- We throw one of frogs in the symbol, but again is croaks satanically before it explodes, and now we have three frogs
- And now Hotimir thinks of an idea
- These symbols are activated if a person steps inside
- What if we activate them all at once?
- The rest of us are a bit scared of idea, but we don't have much else to try
- So I grab one frog, Hotimir takes one and Quarion grabs one too
- We all take our frogs to each of the symbols
- And on count of three, we throw them in
- Suddenly all symbols start glowing stronger, and Hotimir is pulled in the center of Torture chamber
- Demonic chants are now louder
- Suddenly we all are blinded by a flash of light
- And when we come to, we are no longer in the torture chamber, or the basement, or in town
- We have no idea where we are
- As we light a torch, we see we are lying on muddy ground but only in a circle of 15 meters
- Further from that, it's pure darkness
- It feels like some kind of black tentacles are moving there in the shadow
- From all sides, and the light is keeping them away
- Hotimir also gets up and notices strange demonic writing burned into his arm
- Then, a booming voice is heard
- "Congratulations on making it this far, mortals.
- But this is your end!"
- or something like that,
- And in the centre of illuminated circle, an eldtrich monster rises from the mud
- It's bigger than the cave troll, has torso, two arms and a head, but this is where humanoid properties end
- It's body seems to be made up of hundreds of slimy black worms
- It's eyes and mouth glow green
- It doesn't have legs, it's torso looks like it just grows out of this mass of black tentacles from ground
- In it's back we see a lot of weapons stuck deep in
- This beast has been attacked before, but never defeated
- It attacks slowly, but it's area of attack is large
- And attacks are powerful
- It tries to swipe us with tentacles, summon black spikes from the ground or slam us into darkness
- Quarion gets knocked a bit too far and black tentacles in the shadows start stabbing him
- Thoradin quickly pulls him out
- As I swing for it's arm, my sword gets stuck inside it's body and I am thrown off
- I think of stealing another weapon from it's back and even manage to climb up over its head,
- But it throws me off nontheless
- It does get distracted enough for our wizard to use his spells on him and hurt him severely
- Sympathetic-Yesterday at 10:43 PM
- Then, a booming voice is heard
- "Congratulations on making it this far, mortals.
- But this is your end!"
- or something like that,
- And in the centre of illuminated circle, an eldtrich monster rises from the mud
- It's bigger than the cave troll, has torso, two arms and a head, but this is where humanoid properties end
- It's body seems to be made up of hundreds of slimy black worms
- It's eyes and mouth glow green
- It doesn't have legs, it's torso looks like it just grows out of this mass of black tentacles from ground
- In it's back we see a lot of weapons stuck deep in
- This beast has been attacked before, but never defeated
- It attacks slowly, but it's area of attack is large
- And attacks are powerful
- It tries to swipe us with tentacles, summon black spikes from the ground or slam us into darkness
- Quarion gets knocked a bit too far and black tentacles in the shadows start stabbing him
- Thoradin quickly pulls him out
- As I swing for it's arm, my sword gets stuck inside it's body and I am thrown off
- I think of stealing another weapon from it's back and even manage to climb up over its head,
- But it throws me off nontheless
- It does get distracted enough for our wizard to use his spells on him and hurt him severely
- Then, as the monster is almost starting to fall apart, we see it is attempting to make a regeneration spell
- And the circle starts getting tighter
- We pull all our strength in to hit it with all we got
- Quarion goes for arms again, but it turns around and knocks him away into Thoradin
- Delilah distracts it with arrows
- And then, I notice my sword on the ground
- I pick it up, make a slashing move at the monster's core and hit the critical spot
- The monster roars a cry of death and dissolves, the tentacles disappear aswell
- All that is left are the fallen weapons, mud and us
- Trying to catch our breath, Delilah asks
- "Is this it? Did we beat it?"
- I told her it looks so
- I guess I do have my moments of luck after all(edited)
- Then, we hear the same voice as when we fell in this place
- "What you just defeated was a demi-god"
- "The real thing would be incomprehensible to you."
- "We'll see how you take it on."(edited)
- And then, in an instant, we are again blinded by light(edited)
- And we appear in the market of the town we were meant to save(edited)
- But nobody seems at all confused at our arrival
- In fact, nobody seems ... alright
- We see the guard captain and merchant there, and we run towards them
- "Hey, we did it! We defeated a monster in that basement!" I wanted to tell them
- But I never got to that
- The captain looked at us, horrified,
- The last thing he ever said was "You fools. You doomed us all."
- And then his guts tore open and he was eaten from inside out by black worms
- And one after another were the other citizens(edited)
- It was one of few moments when I experienced genuine fear
- I just ran
- And my colleagues were running too
- Soon, the exploding citizens were joined by a tremor
- Buildings were collapsing, ground was starting to move
- As we ran for the hills, we could see a hole opening in the ground at the center of city, sucking and swallowing everything
- And then, when all the buildings were gone and all citizens dead, the hole closed as if there was no city there ever at all
- Everything just dissapeared
- That night, as we made a camp uphill, we reflected on this mess of an adventure
- While the Elves and dwarf were arguing whose fault it was, I was struggling to comprehend the scale of everything we faced
- If there are such forces in this world, what hope do we humans even have?
- Wizard told me back then that this realization is nothing special,
- it's something all students of spellcasting go though when they learn of the world
- I didn't really buy it
- He told it to calm me down, but I knew he was terrified himself too
- Especially with that new tattoo on his arm
- And then, a moment of epiphany struck me
- I was always a bit jelaous of wizards' ability to make big things with a flick of wrist and few magic words
- But only then I realised they are still just people like me
- Or, to put it better, I was just like them
- And if that is true, then I too could learn how to control the strands of magic in this world
- To cast spells(edited)
- This is a monster-eat-wolf world. Whoever becomes more powerful faster than others rules the world.
- And considering the power of whatever we just pissed off, I will need to become stronger, quickly
- And so I did something shameful
- When Hotimir wasn't looking, I copied some pages out of his book of spells
- It's barely comprehensible now, but enough for me to start.
- I have time to train.
- Quarion and Delilah wanted to continue investigating this force
- Hotimir was on our side too, since he had his own curse to deal with now
- We all agreed to part ways for a certain time, to gather strength, investigate, research, train
- and recruit some help
- After 6 months, we would meet again and organise
- Beating a god requires an army, and army requires a lot of other things too
- Thoradin sadly wasn't having any of it
- Despite Hotimir's pleas, he left our group and joined wizard's mentor (who somehow also survived the city's collapse)
- together, they went off to find the best beer of the world(edited)
- I can't do more than wish them best of luck
- Now I have my own war to fight.
- In six months, we would reunite with some new allies, looking for a place to use as the headquarters of our organisation
- But that is another story…
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