September 16th, 2008
If you run from goblins deep into the forest, you can get lost easily. Fortunately, having Elsing in the party is a good solution to this problem. After some digging, sniffing and wandering around Elsing found the way to the city.
They arrived at dusk. Irgon wanted to go to the tavern because his throat was dry but others wanted to immediately check if they won the tournament. They went to the mayor and shown him the LF-engraved ring they found in the goblin’s cave. Mayor recognized the ring at first sight and congratulated them immediately. Nevertheless, it was already late so mayor scheduled a winner ceremony for tomorrow.
They decided to find the town wizard to identify magic items. He was easy to find: black towers are not very common. Only four of them reached the tower, though. They lost Irgon somewhere on the way. The tower looked abandoned. It was in pretty bad shape, begging for some maintenance works. When Kriv knocked on the door they heard strange sounds from inside. Something large was falling from above making clanking sounds. The doors opened creakingly and very old man in dirty clothing showed up. He introduced himself as Incanus, the town wizard. He didn’t really look like a wizard but they gave him a chance. He took their magical items and told them to come back tomorrow.
They returned to the tavern where they found Irgon. He was having fun, claiming to everyone he’s the tournament winner and buying them a drink. The rest of the party was more serious and they carried him upstairs in his room.
As winner ceremony approached, more and more they thought about money they will get as a reward. Ceremony was short. After a mayor’s speech in which he repeated everything he said in the opening, he gave them a big, wooden plank with “1000 gp” engraved. Before Vani could take the plank and break it on the mayor’s head, he told them that this plank is valuable coupon and they can spend 1000 gold pieces in any store in Eripia. They expected real gold and felt cheated but they couldn’t do much about it.
Soon they discovered that there isn’t much to spend in Eripia. Except healing potions they bought only basic items: magic rod for Kalista and plate armors for Kriv and Irgon. Irgon tried to persuade the armorer to sell him something special and he actually found some dwarwen rings that give more strength to attacks so he bought it.
After shopping, they went to visit the wizard. He told them that he won’t charge them his services if they’ll accompany him to check suspicious behavior of kobolts in the nearby forest. In the past few weeks, kobolts were seen many times in the forest. As they normally hide in the caves, the wizard think something strange is going on. They all agreed; Kriv and Elsing were worried about natural order, other just wanted to try their new weapons. They all gathered in circle on the floor and wizard began a teleport ritual.
Kriv saw a white flash. When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in the place of his last dream. This time, however, he subconsciously knew he can call the rest of the party in his dream, so he did. His fellows appeared beside him, confused as he was. They watched in horror when two ghosts appeared out of the fog. One ghost was beautiful, angel like, while other was deformed and full of scars. They both attacked them. When any of the party member got hit, he disappeared. In the end, only Vani remained fighting the ghosts. She knew there is no hope in this fight but instead of getting hit, the ugly ghost only got close, looked her face to face, scared the hell out of her and then she also disappeared.
They all waked up in the cave where the wizard had teleported them. He didn’t notice anything strange and he claimed that teleportation lasted only a few seconds. They calmed down a little and agreed that they should continue into the cave. Vani went last, unusually restless, as she somehow felt that after the close encounter with the ghost she can instill fear into anybody she wish to.
The cave was familiar to the party, this was the same cave where they found the Eladrin women and her panther. They came to the only corridor they didn’t explore: the one buried under the rocks. Wizard claimed the rocks are only an illusion and smashed his quarterstaff into the rocks. Clearly, the rocks were real: they started falling all over him. Rocks covered him and only his face was visible. He told the party that he must urgently return to his tower and disappeared.
Party decided to explore the corridor that the wizard just opened. Kriv went first and once again forgot about the possible dangers: he opened the wooden door and set off the trap. The door exploded in his face and thrown him on the floor. He stood up only to see another ball of energy exploding in his face. In a room behind the door were group of kobolds, making them a welcome.
Kriv was on the ground and others didn’t have time to form a defense, they had to attack to cover him. Irgon entered the room and attacked the guards on the other side of the room who were protecting their leader. Elsing and Kalista shot at slingers who stood on the unreachable platforms over them. Vani used healing potion on Kriv and he joined Irgon attacking the guards. They managed to bring the guards down but when they reached the leader, they fell down under the bullets from slingers. When Kalista and Elsing finally shot down the slingers, kobold leader run through the passage in the wall. When he almost got away, elsing fired two arrows at him and managed to hit him with both; the kobold fell down.