Dungeons & Dragons Adventuring Journal

Section 1
Our adventure begins with the grouping of adventurers. Cleric Sollos and fighter Coeptis had been traveling together when they stopped in a tavern in North Port. It was here that they met with fellow adventurers mage Tharilis Ilphunode and ranger Dretyl. They overheard several stories here in this eastern port city. Tales of a southern marsh, where magical spells went awry. Tales of a traveling cleric in the west. Tales of a beautiful ruby dedicated to a beautiful princess, whose party in celebration was crashed by a mysterious dragon rider.

The adventuring party set out west to Hobbiton, a two day trip. On the way, the party grew aware of cart tracks, no more than a half hours way ahead of them, with a party of kobolds in hot pursuit. After Sollos received a vision through prayer, from his deity Boccob, of the cart under attack by twelve kobolds, they
rode hard to catch up to defend the cart and it's riders. Tharilis set four kobolds to sleep as Dretyl and Coeptis took out what appeared to be the two commanders. The cart riders dispatched the four sleeping kobolds as the adventuring party took out the rest that had redirected their attention to our adventuring party.

In gratitude, information was received and equipment was gathered from these gracious cart riders who happened to own a shop in Hobbiton. Despite trying to catch up with the wandering cleric who was seen between Eastshire and Alvenoor, the adventurers took a stop in the north, passing through Foresters Hall. It was here they found the dreaded castle of the beautiful princess, a spot visited in the past by a dragon and rider.

Upon entering the castle and proceeding down the dark corridor to their right, our adventurers see a source of light up ahead, accompanied by a party of humanoids. Sollos yells out, "Who goes there?", only to be met with a ferocious charge. Tharilis sleeps two warriors at the end of the party, whilst Coeptis, Sollos, and Dretyl hack down the advancing warriors. Once dispatched, our party ties up and interrogates the two left. It is revealed that they are Warriors of the Wolf who have come to consider this castle their territorial home.

Our adventurers meet trap after trap proceeding further into the depths of this not-so abandoned castle...

Section 2
We proceed through the dungeon after replenishing our spells from a few hours sleep. It is soon after that we find our way into a room with a dusty table. Upon further examination, we notice six circular sections that are absent of dust, possibly indicating that six objects were recently taken. It is here that our party gains the rogue, Taranir.

We proceed to find stairs leading to the upper level of the castle. Taranir is quick to show his skill by stealthily opening the upper door and peering inside, reporting that he saw seven humanoids. Believing to be of superior strength, we bash down the door and rush in! We see seven humanoids but find out they are bigger than us, composed of three heads, three arms, and three legs. Luckily, they dash into another room and bar the door shut.

We proceed believing to be safe and end up making our way into what appears to be a throne room. Here, I am caught off guard as one of those creatures we had just previously ran into, grapples me and holds a dagger to my throat, demanding our presence in their territory! Through careful speech we are spared, describing we are merely adventurers in search of a ruby and dragon. We are led to the creature's chief, and it is found out that they are Ubues.

We apologize to the Ubue chief for trespassing, who in return asks for help. Apparently their garden had recently been infested with aggressive vines, some that constrict and bite you, and others that burst needles out at you. It is important that it is "weeded" out, as most of their food is obtained there, and it is where many of their women and children spend their time.

The garden is a large room, illuminated by a glowing ceiling. In the center stands a statue covered in a purple vine, and scattered all around are red and blue "flowers", everywhere else covered with lush greenery. We fire a shot at the base of the statue and vine with a fire arrow, alighting it in flame. Yet it reacts, and shoots out a vine with a nasty looking head equipped with sharp teeth at us. Quickly, Coeptis, Dretyl, and Tharilis open fire with flaming arrows, dropping the vine to the ground. Despite Dretyl and Tharilis taking light damage, the remaining seven archer vines are easily dispatched.

Reporting our success to the Ubues, a dinner party is held in celebration. Our party learns that the Ubues came to the castle a few years ago, and came to settle and fortify this upper section of the castle. They also tell of a man, who is accompanied by two dwarves who lives nearby. It is said he is chaotic in nature,
sometimes a kind man willing to heal wounded Ubues, but other times being cruel and killing all he sees.

We make our way into a room where a portrait of a princess with a magnificent and large ruby stands above a fireplace. Above us are numerous flying creatures who seem to be a cross between a bat and mosquito.

Apparently they are stirge, and are a heavy nuisance to us. We take heavy casualties, and Tharilis fell close to losing his life, luckily I was able to heal him. All that are able, melee and fire at the stirge until dispatched.

Shortly thereafter, we come to surprise and fight four orcs easily. Dretyl shoots and kills one with a single arrow, as Tharilis sleeps the remaining three who are executed after receiving no valuable information from interrogations.

Much further down the dungeon, we come to an oddly shaped room, containing bookshelves, a few scrolls, but most notably are three egg shaped items. Coeptis, Tharilis, and Taranir go to pick them up, with Taranir cracking his and burns his hand on the acidic yolk that seeps through the crack. Tharilis identifies these eggs as carrying crawlers. We decide to leave the eggs there.

The next room we find slightly disturbing. We see movements under bed sheets, but nothing there when we lift them up, the drawers and closets also open and close. I get the chance to turn undead, recognizing the signs of a wail.

Near the end of the corridor are a set of doors, inside is what seems to have been a ball room, decorated with silvers, reds, and blues. On the other side of the room is a balcony, covered with familiar purple vines which we quickly dispatch. Unexpectedly, me and Dretyl are mesmerized by a snake coiled around a statue. Luckily, we were not bitten, and everyone else bashed the marble snake to death.

We lastly enter through a door into quite a chaotic room. Things all over the place are changing! Stairs appear and disappear, chairs move locations randomly, and holy symbols changing colors. We detect a secret door, and enter through it where we meet a cleric, Catharandamas. He threatens to kill us if we don't leave,
and obviously impatient, doesn't allow us enough time to talk to him, and calls his friends to help. Three humanoids come out of another secret door, two of which were dwarf like, the other a female human. I realize that this is what the Ubues had told us about. Tharilis sends two into a deep slumber, while the rest of us attack the cleric and awake dwarf. Through a long, hard, and close fight, the cleric and dwarf falls, and we execute the sleeping dwarf and human before they woke up.

It is here that we begin to feel an incredible feeling! As if all of our skills, and physical attributes had increased! Upon looting the bodies, we discover a ruby bladed sword, much sharper than our owns! 15 bottles of anterian brandy, 400 GP, 1000 SP, and five fire aggot gems.

Little did we know, that this was the wandering cleric we had heard about, and that Taranir had stolen six valuable candles, priced at 200 GP each, from the table in the room we met in, along with a stringless harp that still played.

(IRL: During the fight, we were first levels, and used up our daily allotment of spells. The Cleric was level 3, there was a 2nd and 3rd level dwarf fighter, and a wearbear. The sword was 1d8+1. We also hit level 2, and a bit of the way to level 3. And the cleave feat is a beast.)

Section 3
After taking precious time to rest and regain our magical abilities, we set on out and found ourselves in a new corridor with four doors. As we walked down the corridor of the first door, Dretyl and I noticed a slight shimmering up ahead, and shouted for everyone to stop. Next thing we know, Coeptis is grappled by this massive creature that stood before us! It was transparent, and seemed to fill the whole rest of the corridor in height and width with it's jelly like material body.

I casted Guidance on Taranir as he went to attack the blob as Dretyl fired an arrow and Tharilis casted two magic missiles. The blob took direct damage, but kept hold of Coeptis, and he screamed in agony as we saw him seem to get crushed by increasing pressure applied. Almost fueled in anger and pain however, Coeptis was able to wriggle his right arm free along with his sword, and yelling in rage, slices with all his might at this blob as Tharilis and Dretyl continue to fire arrows. This act however pulls Coeptis further into this blob, to be fully engulfed.

Taranir attacked with his short sword, only to become grabbed as well, and I began to pray at this point to Boccob in hopes of any assistance possible. Tharilis surprisingly, strikes strong with an arrow at this blob. A loud "thunk" was heard as his fired arrow strikes fast and hard into this blob's jelly skin. In fact, the arrow is practically engulfed within, with merely it's end feathers sticking out.

Just as Taranir was able to free himself from this blob's grasp, it started to lose it's solid shape and become cloudy. Taranir risking his life again took the chance to pull Coeptis out successfully, and pull him back to safety as he and I applied first aid to keep him from dieing. In the front, Dretyl and Tharilis continued to fire arrows into this juggernaut. It was to our joy and dismay, that Taranir notes that this blob seems to be dead, as it had not made any movements on it's own for the past minute, except for when struck by an arrow. While it may have been dead, arrows and time had been wasted. Of the 26 arrows that had been shot and sticking out of this even cloudier and shapeless blob, 19 were salvageable.

Exhausted from the battle, we leave the room and corridor to head south back to the garden of the Ubues where we could heal and rest ourselves. The next day we head back to where we fought the blob to gather our loot. We found 600 GP, a short sword, and a message for adventurers to clear the castle and claim it for Lady Argenta the Silver.

The next room over in the corridor is a bed chamber, where we meet the eyes of a cat under the bed. Dretyl wanting to make friends with the cat picks it up, even though I say it could be a werecat or aggressive. Next thing we know, the small cat held in air by Dretyl turns into a seventy-pound beast of a panther who swipes both of his claws and bites Dretyl, turning him unconsciousness. Taranir then swings his sword at the panther decapitating him, just as Coeptis and I charge forward with Tharilis's two magic missiles rushing by.

We head back into the corridor and go through one of the two remaining doors into what appears to be a laboratory. Among the room are two oak tables, in the north-east lies an exquisite statue of a male human warrior. To the north lies an empty bookcase, and one that has fallen over to the south.

Taranir and I examine the the statue as the other three go to lift up the southern bookcase. Both of us notice the statue blink and we immediately take a step back and draw our weapons as it comes to life and strikes Taranir twice. As the others realize we are engaged in combat, Taranir retaliates by swinging his sword at the statue in what could be considered a cleave, even amongst fighters. I finish this statue with my quarterstaff, as my first swing shatters it's head, and my second topples it over shattering upon contact with the ground.

Amongst the tables Tharilis finds four pieces of parchment with magical writing. To his luck, they turn out to be spells, a Hold Portal, Mage Armor, Burning Hands, and Feather Fall. He also discovers a secret door in the south-east corner of the room leading to a corridor with stairs going down to a door.

As we approach the door, we start to hear the sounds of combat on the other side. We decide to smash the door and charge in, and are surprised to find three enchanted swords fighting each other, with a trap door in the center of the room. The swords do not appear to notice us, and we proceed down the rope under the trap door to an identical room with a door on the eastern wall, leading to a corridor with a single door.

On the other side we hear scuffling of feat, and see a humanoid rush into and close a door as we smash down the door. We go after him, opening the door and Coeptis tripping down the stairs and falling into a pit. We help him out, and head into what appears to be natural caverns. Straight south is a room with vine covered walls, and statues of two lovers in the center. We decide to move east, into a cave with stalactites and stalagmites. To the north of this room lies a statue and pond, which Dretyl falls down into. As the others fail to rescue him with ropes, hands, and other things, I stick down my quarterstaff and bring him up.

We leave and to the northern cave, sectioned off with a gate. We only send in Tharilis who cast Endure Elements upon himself, as the room is very hot, and uncomfortably thick with moisture. In the cave lies a murky pond and statute.

We leave and head south, finding a room filled with five statues of various deities and marble benches. It is here that everyone receives a warm fuzzy from praying.

Further down to the east and a decorative corridor begins with three doors, and to the south lies a jail cell door. Inside lies many jail cells, one with a secret door. Taranir is able to pick the lock and open the jail cell, and Coeptis enters the secret door. It's a small room, about ten by ten containing three metal chests. But all of sudden two... monkey's seem to jump from the ceiling! They swipe at Coeptis and swing their spiked tails at him, and next thing we know Coeptis has fallen to the ground, bleeding very fast all over the place! Thanking Boccob, Tharilis puts this two beasts to sleep. We quickly apply first aid and I cast all of my cure wound's to bring him back.

After close examination, we find the monkey's to be eight feet tall, and Taranir decapitates them. Inside the chests lie coins from various different realms, jewelry, and weaponry, one of which is magical and is given to Dretyl.

On finding a way out, we head to the nearest town to rest and train.