Party
- Bran — Dwarf Barbarian (Dave)
- Jacob — Half-Orc Fighter (Myk)
- Tenoch — Lizardfolk Druid (Gaz)
Adventure
Having enjoyed a comfortable tavern for the first time in several days Slyvestor and Ethan sleep in (GM note: the players were absent) whilst the rest of the party head off to the College of Magic in Solemburg to complete the trade for the Gloam Scope.
Professor Oswind is impatient to get the trade done with and studying the scope. Her department have amassed a collection of eleven items for the party, as well as displaying six more powerful items and inviting the party to choose three of them.
As the party wrap up their deliberations and selections Prof. Oswind asks them to sign a bill of sale, a contract indicating that the trade has been done willingly and fairly. Sensing the contract is magically binding Bran remarks “do you ever get the feeling this Gloam Scope is really powerful?” before shrugging and joining his companions in signing the contract.
The results of the trade were:
- Armour of gleaming – Bran
- Dark shard amulet – Slyvestor
- Clockwork amulet – Jacob
- Ruby of the War Mage – Ethan
- Gem of Brightness – Jacob
- Shield of Expression – Jacob
- Eyes of Minute Seeing – Ethan
- Bag of Holding – Tenoch
- Beads of Force (6) – Slyvestor
- Staff of the Python – Tenoch
- Weapon of Warning – Bran
- Belt of Dwarvenkind – Bran
- Cape of the Mountebank – Jacob
- Ring of Protection – Tenoch
Equipped with a scroll to cure their friend and a veritable hoard of new magical items the party return to the tavern to discuss what’s their best course of action.
At the tavern discussion turns to getting back to Deanna and using the scroll. Tenoch is wary about re-entering the Gloam as the route is more dangerous. The party also speculates as to whether travel via the Gloam would be faster on the way back or not, with Jacob suggesting the travel could be like a hill and the return (uphill) journey slower.
The party decide to take a coach to Tolm, restore Deanna and then return to Solemburg to re-enter the Gloam and meet up with Catch once more. That way once they are back in the Gloam they can immediately set about helping Catch and his village.
On the second day of the three day journey back to Tolm the party hear a commotion and discover two ogres squabbling near the road over who should get the most prime cut of their recent catch. Tenoch shifts into a bear form and charges towards the ogres with Bran riding astride his back. The ogres are terrified at the sight and one begins to flee whilst the other is rooted to the spot. Bran leaps to engage and the party join in the fray and vanquish the creatures.
At Tolm they find Deanna in the two-sided church. She welcomes the party warmly but she is weak and frail with the merest interactions seeming to cost her physically. Chelry, the agriculture cleric, grants his god’s Guidance to Tenoch who reads the scroll…
GM Note: Jacob also gave Tenoch his inspiration die allowing Tenoch to roll twice; a 17 and a 6!
Deanna is cocooned in a magical white nimbus of light and as it dissipates she’s restored to her former age, becoming 40 years younger in mere moments after having spent a traumatising 5 days at death’s door.
The party make for the Ettin’s Den with haste to celebrate the restoration of their companion with both Bran and Tenoch drinking heavily and without regard for the consequences. As the revelries seem at their zenith the tavern door opens and in walks Imlit the Pink; she strides up to Tenoch, takes his drink and downs it. She tells the party what she has learned; that Tazimack’s quest to preserve his life has put the material plane in danger, weakening the boundaries between our material plane and the Gloam. It’s as easy for denizens of that plane to cross here as it is for us to cross there, which is the root of the creature that has plagued Tolm for weeks and months. Even more alarming the Gloam is used as an interstital point to the pocket planes the Judges use to imprison those evils they have condemned. Imlit fears that if the crossings between the Gloam and the material plane are weaker, it may mean the crossings to the pocket planes are easier to transit also.
When Tenoch asks Imlit how they can help she tells them she will need brave adventurers in the days to come, but for now they must remain focused on saving Tolm from the Abductor. Imlit makes to leave for Shadowbrook manor in order to stem the magic which has weakened the crossings asking the party to meet her here in three days and, should she not arrive, to deliver a message which she hands to Tenoch.
At the party’s request she is able to transport them all to Solemburg before departing. Arriving next to a fountain in Solemburg by night Bran and Tenoch both vomit from the wrenching nature of the conjuration magic.