Summary
The sun was halfway along its course across the sky, but Vaunea felt exhausted as she approached the gates of Winterhaven. A solid lunch and some more rest was all that she desired. Then the guard that had only nodded to her as she left silently late that morning called out to her, "Your companions have been busy, there is some sort of commotion in the centre of town. I have to stay on guard here, but I imagine the entire town will be in the inn tonight." He waves Vaunea through, and she walks a little more quickly towards the centre of town. She sees Daelius and Pale Noon frog-marching a man in a black robe towards Lord Padraig's manor and joins the rest of her companions huddled around a building just off of the market square. They fill her in on the adventures of that morning, and to cap the story off Fizzwig produces the gnome statue and holds up to his face, his grin a sharp contrast to the silent scream of that statue.

Sister Linora stepped forward at this and offered to help walk a companion of Fizzwig's through the ritual to undo the curse upon Fizzwig. Galstaff made a snide remark about not wanting to see Rolen perform again, even a divine ritual, at which Rolen felt he must redeem himself in front of the party. After some whispered instruction from Linora Galstaff began complimenting anything and everything about Fizzwig from his purple hair to his debonaire clothing style. In the midst of this effusive praise Rolen raised the statue high above his head and brought it crashing down upon Fizzwig. As the statue burst into pieces thin wisps of arcane smoke poured out and entered Fizzwig's ears, nose and mouth and with an audible pop the curse was broken. Fizzwig seemed a bit more confident about himself and the world at large, although the lovable naivete remained mostly untouched. He turned the others and exclaimed "I feel different... somehow... WISER... I feel like I'm as smart as THREE village idiots now!"

The ritual complete, the party joined Daelius and Pale Noon in Lord Padraig's manor as the interrogation of Bairwin began. Armed with the ring of persuasion from the cult chapel, Rolen took the lead and from the originally tight lips of Bairwin came a veritable fount of information. Of particular note were the names of co-conspirators still at large in Winterhaven and the nefarious plans to raise a dragon from the dead in the forest nearby. The interrogation and the previous battle took its toll on Bairwin, and he soon lost consciousness despite Rolen's rousing slaps. Vaunea linked the plot to raise the dragon to her disturbing spirit dream, and she offered to guide the party to deal with this threat. Daelius felt compelled by his duty to Torm to see that justice was served to Bairwin, and Pale Noon offered to go over Winterhaven's defenses to stave off any attack by this dragon if the party was too late.

The remaining party of six were exhausted after their busy mornings and ill prepared to venture forth to what promised to be an important battle. Sister Linora once again came to their aid, offering them potions of healing from her stores and calling for a boon from Chauntea to give them a blessing to protect the farmers and villagers that she had spent her life looking out for. Rejuvenated by this boon, the party set forth led confidently by Vaunea and after two hours of travel a pit gapped before them. Chanting can be heard from within the pit, and Fizzwig crept to the edge to see four black robed figures set around a large skeleton. Three of these figures stood near caged animals and had drawn swords while the fourth stood leading the chant from a circle drawn in blood. The party agreed to send Fizzwig and Galstaff around the back to assault the lead cultist while the other four charged down the gentle slope at the signal.

Everyone in position, Galstaff enchants one of Fizzwig's shurikens with arcane light before Fizzwig sent it flying towards the lead cultist. Unfortunately his aim was off, and just as the shuriken spun over the cowled head the man raised an object coursing with a darkness tendrils, one of which reached out and snatched the arcane light straight from the air. The shuriken had been the signal, and the rest of the party charged forward, taking the closest cultist by surprise. Vaunea reached out to the caged eagle he had been guarding and was able to convey that they were friends, and for it to attack the cultists if given the opportunity. This opportunity came quickly as Baelfius threw back the lid of the cage and the eagle took a wide circle above the pit before diving with a screech toward the head cultist.

The screech was cut short as the dark tendrils from the lead cultist shot forward attaching to the dragon skeleton like strings on a marionette followed by a bellow as the dragon skeleton pulled together and picked itself up off of the ground. Vaunea dropped her javelin and stumbled backwards, obviously petrified of the animated dragon. As the party stood shocked by this development the two remaining cultists grabbed a fox and badger from nearby cages, preparing to kill them and fuel this necromantic ritual. Ruhsbaar shouted out a warning about the imminent sacrifices, and joined Fizzwig and Baelfius as they rushed to towards the closest cultist holding the badger. Fizzwig managed to distract the man long enough for his companions to force the cultist to drop the badger, which promptly ran to the nearest pit wall and scrabbled franticly at it. The cultist holding the fox was clear across the animated dragon, though, and as he drew his blade across the foxes throat a pearly cloud was sucked out of the fox and into the darkness held by the cult leader. This seemed to strengthen the animated dragon, which took a vicious bite out of Baelfius.

With the rest of the party occupied within the pit itself, Galstaff rained spell after spell towards the cult leader, trying to disrupt the hold he appeared to have over the animated dragon. Seeing what his companion was doing, Fizzwig ran right up into the face of the leader and with a great jab forced the cultist leader to stumble several faces backwards, out of the blood circle. These distractions were enough to overcome the cultist's concentration, and with another great roar the animated dragon exploded into a dark cloud of necrotic energy. The tendrils connected to the object held by the cultist snapped taut and the object flew into the middle of the necrotic cloud. However, pulses of a pearly light now began to flicker along the object, and Vaunea felt the familiar presence of her spirit guide.

An ugly pulse of fear rolled forth from the necrotic cloud, pushing the remaining cultists back and dazing them. The returned presence of Vaunea's spirit guide invigorated her and she ran full tilt toward the cloud before leaping clean through it, grabbing the now strobing object as she passed. As she landed she found herself holding a spirit catcher, a focus of primal energy that teamed with the remains of the necrotic ritual and the gathered spirits of many sacrificed animals. Guided by her spirit companion caught within, Vaunea and Rolen managed to sever the necromantic threads still connected to the cloud and the spirit catcher sent forth a pulse of pearly light which surrounded Vaunea like a second skin.

The animated skeleton, no longer controlled by the fusion of arcane and primal forces, burst from the center of the necrotic cloud and turned to face the adventurers. It threw its head back and let out a mighty roar towards the sky, and small pieces of bone flew from it like shrapnel hitting all within the pit. Many of the adventurers and cultists were struck, but the only casualty was the eagle that had begun circling the pit to stay close to Vaunea which disappeared in a puff of feathers. Ruhsbaar entered a vicious spin and killed both of the cultists next to him, finding himself face-to-face with the animated dragon. Fizzwig closed the distance on the cultist leader he had knocked back and they exchanged blows until Fizzwig went invisible only to appear behind the cultist and fire a crossbow bolt into the small of his back.

All that remained was the animated dragon and a single, still dazed cultist. Vaunea channeled the remaining spirit forces within the spirit catcher and lets loose a flickering arrow with a triumphant shout... which quickly died as the arrow sailed right over the skeleton's skull. Rolen realized that victory was close at hand despite Vaunea continued insistence that her targets were a few feet to the right or left of where they actually were, and he cried out to his companions "Now is our time!" Everyone's attention turned to the dragon and bits of bone flew off of it before the mighty onslaught. With a final jab from the monk's hand, the animated skeleton collapsed to the ground and ceased moving. The battle effectively won, Rolen turned to the last dazed cultist and launched a scathing attack on his humanity, joining a cult and sacrificing adorable animals. The shock of these insults on top of losing the battle proved too much for the man, and he suddenly clutched at his chest as his heart gave out, no longer willing to carry on in this life.

Silence descended upon the pit, broken for a few moments only by the scrabbling of the escaped badger along one of the walls. Vaunea let out a long breath and released the remaining spirits contained within the spirit catcher before walking over to calm the badger with Rolen. Together they guided the badger out of the pit and saw it on its way while the rest of the party searched the pit. A few gold pieces and a magical amulet were added to the pile of loot, and Fizzwig insisted on bringing the dragon skull along for the ride as well.

Experience

• 50xp for lifting Fizzwig's curse
  
  • Pale Noon, Galstaff, Rolen, Baelfius, Fizzwig, Daelius, Ruhsbaar, Vauenea
• 200xp (1200/6) for defeating the animated dragon and cultists
  
  • Galstaff, Rolen, Baelfius, Fizzwig, Ruhsbaar, Vauenea

Loot

• Spirit catcher
• Amulet of Health (680p), +1 to Fort, Reflex, and Will in addition to resist 5 poison
• 65gp

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OOC
Well, that was indeed a session! I heard from a few of you that it was your favorite so far, and I would like to get a feeling for what specifically worked well and see if we cannot keep it going. I made a small list of the things I think set this one apart so you can comment on them individually or add others. Cheers!

• Staged boss encounter
• Sound effects
• Character arc culminations
• Short, tired Jewish woman waking you up forcefully

OOC

I know our role-playing's still a little stunted, but it's always cool to have none-combat encounters with townsfolk / guards / etc that can lead to extra information.

Baerwin's Interrogation was lots of fun.

The chanting was super atmospheric, (nice job there.)

It's cool having extra environmental hazards in encounters to take note of, traps, sticky floors, clifftops, cages, etc.

Not sure why, but I really liked having to save the animals during the boss fight. Not that we'd want to do it all the time, but populating the world with the occasional friendly NPC / animal, that we can protect / enlist / charm / use as cannon fodder (depending on how helpful we're feeling) makes encounters more interesting.

It might also be fun to come across other adventuring parties (or their remains!) or meet people who've been captured, tortured, seduced by the darkside, maimed, escaped etc and can also give us more info or clues about what lies ahead.

I quite enjoyed this exchange:
Rolen: "Can we kill the animals FIRST!? Will that make us stronger!?"
DM: "You're not sure what would happen... you feel like it'd probably be bad."
Rolen: "In that case... SAVE THE ANIMALS!"

Way to make it look like that was your intention all along, Rolen.

Also...

The hat's off! A wild Fizzwig has appeared!

OOC
The staged boss fight was very fun. The character arc's were nice as well, as we get a nice look into some characters personalities to help our role playing get better.

The sound effects added a nice bit of atmosphere to help immerse us in the moment. I spoke with Uno a bit to help out with these to get some more added.

OOC
Coffee.

On the way back to town
<Galstaff> Fizzwig, do you remember any more about the artifact you sold to the tavern patrons? I think we should try to find out what became of it. We should find out about this "Kalarel" and perhaps the artifact you borrowed from the cultists could help lead us to this person.

<Fizzwigg> Let me put my newly recovered mental faculties to the test!

The gnome sits, chin in hand and thinks a while, the effort of mental exercise etching lines of concentration on his face. Finally, with sweat pouring down his brow he brightly declares:

<Fizzwig> Yes! I remember it! It was a smooth black stone with some kind of rune etched into it's face and inlaid with silver. It was so shiny. Kept glittering in the torchlight of all those cultists... the uh... the night at the tavern is a bit of a blur... I mean... I think I was persuaded to spend all of my hard pick pocketed money on ale and wenches... but I vaguely recall stumbling out of the tavern to the nearest shop to pawn it off... Does that help?

<Galstaff> I think so. Unless I'm mistaken, the nearest store to the tavern in Winterhaven should be Bairwin's General Store. In that case, it's been in Bairwin's handling, so it's either in the store, he has it, his assistant had it, or they know where it is.

Galstaff gets a quizzical and distant look on his face as he tries to remember something.

<Galstaff> Fizzwig…

<Fizzwig> Oh yeah. It's in the store. I remember it was beside the little version of me on the shelf. I was just distracted by how HANDSOME the statue was... in a disturbingly eldritch and screamy kind of way. Maybe it's still there.

---

OOC
I tallied up the XP for everyone so far. This may be incomplete since it only includes group sessions (added Vauenea's session in):

When Vaunea had released the spirits contained within the spirit catcher, they spiraled outward and soon disappeared. One pearly mote remained behind, though, lazily circling above the dragon skeleton as Galstaff knelt to investigate it and Fizzwig whistled whilst prying the dragon skull off with his dagger.

---

OOC
John pointed out that he had taken a background according to the Forgotten Realms Player's Guide, which confers a small bonus depending on where you grew up. We already have this stuff covered in the backstories, so I am just listing the pages for each person so you can see what bonus you get and read up a bit more on what might have influenced you growing up.

• Baelfius - Baldur's Gate page 82
• Daelius - Corymr page 88
• Fizzwig - flexible, probably Corymr or Dragon Coast
• Galstaff - Cormyr page 88
• Pale Noon- flexible, probably Amn or Dragon Coast
• Ruhsbaar - Dalelands page 90
• Vauena - The Great Dale page 102

There are also 3 people that are bravely advancing to level 2 and hopefully figuring out all of the mistakes not to make for the rest of us. Fizzwig, Rolen and Galstaff are all over 1000 exp and I've started chatting with them about what to do. You can find the character advancement table on PHB1-29, and everyone will be getting a utility power and another feat so even if you aren't leveling up you might want to start thinking about those things. Cheers!

Added Fizzwig's response to Galstaff's query. (Look up!)

http://board.dotanoobs.com/?page=thread&id=2006#12021

<Galstaff> By the way, if anyone wants to see the accounting books at any time, just ask. I'll show them to you whenever you want.

Explain clearly- Am I expected to pay back that 500 gold by not taking a claim in future encounters until that 500g has been reached?

I should lose gold for the encounter that I took the chain mail on, but that's it.

Not expected to pay it back; you're in the black. The "unclaimed" column is the gold everyone is still due to receive; there will be no debts. The last column is estimated net worth before unclaimed gold. I'm just tracking net worth to help us spot if anyone has been missing out on loot, for the future.

I think it makes more sense to divide either by mission or extended rest rather than by individual encounters, since we may have a series of encounters and then sweep a dungeon for treasure: which encounter does the noncombatant loot belong to? Galstaff divided the loot by mission, rather than between individual encounters. So, for example, the reward from Lord Paidrig is part of the loot where the armor was divided.

If this bugs anyone, let me know and I can rebalance. I think this makes sense; we bag everything we find and divide it over dinner.

OOC - I think Uno's a kind enough GM to know that we'll all get something eventually. There's just an awful lot of us, so it may take a few months to get through all 8 of us xD

Galstaff watched the pearly mote as it prowled over the dragon skeleton. The mote slowed and, despite having little form to indicate the gesture, seemed to crouch behind what would have been the dragon's ankle. At least, it would have been the dragon's ankle, if the dragon still had ankles, instead of ankle bones. The mote seemed to peer at him.

"Hello," said the wizard.

The mote flared briefly.

Galstaff had the distinct impression that the gesture was like a sort of slight head bow. "You're free now; you don't have to stay here," he replied. (Somehow, Galstaff could make semicolons audible.)

The mote sneezed a bluish light and whizzed around the ankle of dragon, then flew, ground level, halfway towards Galstaff before backing up again, seeming to crouch again.

Galstaff took a step forward and knelt, trying to get a better look at it. He started to reach his hand out to extend his wizard sense, but the moment he felt the first brush of contact the mote lit up like a wisp and flew up his robe's sleeve and then out the other sleeve. He was dazed for a moment, then said, confusion and amusement touching his voice, "I think she likes me."

Galstaff looked around and found the mote, pearly and pale, crouching behind the dragon again. "If you're determined to stick around, you might as well have some place safe to stay." Galstaff pulled a tiny ivory box out of his backpack, a vial of fine silvery dust, and a small brush. He placed a pinch of the dust in the vial's cap and made a gesture. The cap filled with ink and swirled, mixing with the silvery dust. He then set to work covering the tiny box with fine tracery and runes. The mote crept over and inspected as he worked, then set about inspecting the contents of his backpack. In a few minutes Galstaff was finished. He gestured and the ink vanished, leaving the vial cap empty and the silvery dust hardened onto the surface of the box.

Galstaff put the vial and brush away, then placed the small box on the ground, open. "This can keep you safe until I can arrange something a little more permanent for you." The mote crept up and inspected the box, peering into it from every side. Tentatively, it hopped into and out of the box. Then it ran around Galstaff three times before jumping into the box and doing a few circles inside before settling in. "Are you okay if I close this?" He reached out and touched the lid. The mote gave one sleepy little twinkle. Then, he gently closed the box.

Galstaff returned to the party to tell them what he found.

"A small spirit, seemingly content to be in the world. I'm not yet sure what her nature is. She seems to like me. She seems too small to be able to take a form by herself, but I think I can give her some ability to act in the world with a little work. I'll spend some time working on it when we get back to town. For now, she seems content in her little box. The box is temporary, but it'll protect her from sunlight, deep shadows, summoners, or anything else that might harm her. It'll last long enough for me to put something more permanent together for her. I wonder how she would up in that spirit catcher."