Exploring+Frobel


 * __Exploring Frobel__**

//__Tunnels and Ancient Ruins and Gardens__// March-11 500 xp

With the Duke Wars over and Silk Island captured, the party split up in sanitizing Tobian of any remaining were-orcs and helping Duke Glenlivet "The Drunkard" establish his bureaucracy on Silk Island over the next 6-8 months. With this accomplished, half of the group decided to remain behind on Silk Island or Tobian to keep eye on things and keep order.

The party learned that the bad guys had developed a Highway that connected all of the islands except Homb (that we know of). Other than the tunnels from the Silk Island to Tobian to Sprand, there are also tunnels from Sprand to Kauffle and Kauffle to Frobel! They are all about the same age, but they haven't been used much. Plans are being made to destroy these tunnels, regular checks must be made, and Homb will perform thorough checks of its own coastline.

Rest of party took ship to Frobel and headed to main dukedom colony for information, plan is to check out Frobel's version of "The Gardens" and re-visit Ancalagon's lair. Headed down river to the ruins, told that a major orc village there as well, will sometimes trade with humans/dwarves. Before they get there, they see a winged humanoid fly over, as if trying to get ahead of the party. Mardov turns invisible and watches them set up to waylay us. As the party approached, they begin singing: Oh no, it's harpies again! 6 out of 8 are enchanted and all seems doomed the two who saved have trouble attacking creatures up in the trees. Mardov's pseudo-dragon has the smarts to cover Otavio's ears, allowing him to recover his senses. This allowed just enough damage to be dealt to the foul creatures, scaring them off.

Party sneaks into the Gardens safely, it matches same as is on Tobian. They are able to get healing, but they are not able to attack or be attacked by orcs. Group pays for info from orc village shaman on history. Get a 2 day pass to explore city ruins, Lupelus freaks out orcs with the Dragon Slayer banner as the group who killed him. A few orc kids try to follow us, but Otavio scares them off with some cantrips. The ruins are large and very old, even find a stadium for population to gather, decide not to stay long as would require extensive detailed effort to find something that other explorers have missed. Head out east to dragon lair, a pair of orcs follow group to make sure we do not come back to attack village. On the way, a pack of displacer beasts attack but they are **just a random encounter**, and are quickly taken down and skinned for furs.

//__Ancalagon Lair and Lonely Mountain__// March-25 500 xp

As party advances on road, we hear a flying sound overhead and see a red dragon flying several hundred feet up flying in same direction to Ancalagon lair, Falasian the last red dragon also sees the group and turns around with a roar and flys back way she came. Group double times it to lair, and the orge camp and entrance,nothing is there. Party moves into the tunnels and finds the main tunnel to the orc academies and the temple has had a major cave-in that was done on purpose. The newbies in the group(or who missed that session) freak out over the seemingly real illusion of the "Ruby Queen" hissing and staring down the party. Mardove's psuedo-dragon, Amelia, zips on thru the wall of force and yelps "Cousin". As party is exploring for any new tracks, see a dragon track that goes right into the wall that feels completely solid but Amelia zips right thru it. Says its a path that goes back and then hits a T. No-luck uses Acog's potion of earth elememtal and explores the cave-in tunnel, see's that the temple has been restored and finds a tunnel that leads southwest that goes nearly 20 miles and pops out into an orc village. He comes back and party discusses whether to desecrate the temple again but majority says lets skip it until we have some healers in group(current group no druids and no clerics).

Next day take off for Lonely Mountain, an ogre village. Along way ambush orc party, capture 2 orcs who survived the fireball for questions. Fubar breaks fingers of orc during interrogation, while Juggernaut questions another, who hearing the painful sounds and that Juggernaut tells him we are the Dragon Slayers, if he talks he will be given a fair fight. He answers all our questions and reveals:

-he is from orc village that provides food for Ogres and things in the mountain, later scouting by Mardove shows advance farming techniques and over-abundance of crops well beyond needs of he orc village -the orc states there are some monsters in ogre village, half-dragon things and spider things -saw red dragon 2 weeks ago -says this major path is one of three that originate from dragon lair to the 3 major villages. the ogre village currently going to is represented by the "fist/hand", recall the picture dave showed that had "fist/hand" on top, "axe/sword" on lower right, and "eye" on lower left" all surrounding a center "red crown" -usually 6-10 ogres guard main entrance

The 2 orc prisoners killed, group heads on. The ogre village is north of orc with entrance on side of mountain. Noluck gets invisibled and sneaks up to entrance, while rest of party watches to come in. Noluck finds a hidden glyph trap, tries to set it off but fails. 2 ogre guards start swing in air, as past intelligence had our pixie scouts failing to get past entrance. Battle ensues with 10 ogre guards coming out of 3 huts and side cave in the tunnel, after a brief fight with a couple of lightning bolts, good guys win out with only a few hits taken. Mardove notices that another being was in the side cave, smaller humanoid and ran into tunnel. We form up and head in.

__//Who Needs Stealth When You Are In A Tunnel?//__ April-09 750xp

Into the tunnel the party goes. And goes. And goes... After about a mile of walking, Mardov notices a crevice that piques her interest. She travels a ways and finds that it leads to a dead end.After searching, she discovers it is trapped but since she is so tiny, her weight wasn't enough to trigger it. After another hour or so, Tenetta notices that we are being watched by a Wizard Eye! After some pretense of being tired, the party waits to allow Mardov (she's invisible after all) to head back and see if there is anyone coming behind us. Seeing noone, she then hits the Wizard Eye which dissipates. Now we know there's no surprise, and we know that they know that we are coming, so why not just charge! Noluk runs passed the two guards and tosses light wands in the next room to see what's what, and yells "FORM UP! WE'RE SCREWED!!" as the extent of the Ogre City comes into view.

A fireball is dropped on Juggernaut's head as the Dryders and Ogres come pouring towards us from the Ogre City that the party stumbled upon. In response, Stinking Cloud and Wall Of Fire went up, and stood against the dispells from the bad guys. While the trolls could be handled, and even the dryders weren't too bad, a bizarre Dragonborn/Ogre creature was a problem! It whomped up on Juggs nearly putting him down (15 HP remaining), while Noluk was cut off and cut down dead (-16)when he was surrounded. The last problem was that the casters in the back were pestered by a strange ringing noise that disrupted their Concentration (oh, was I supposed to put points into that says Otavio?) allowing an invisible dryder to appear and attack them.

But then Plat pulls the maneuver of the night by casting a Suggestion on the Dragonborn to **"FLEE!"**, which to everyone's surprise the beast promptly grabs two ogres and does just that! With the threat temporarily gone, the party decides to do the same thing, scarfs some swords the bad guys dropped and gets out of the tunnel before the Wall Of Fire drops.

"//Hey Dave, can we get any loot before we go?" "Sure, I give you a roll." "Ummm... 01." "Well then no, I guess not." >:-(//

The party used feather spell to get to Oak Glen and safety, with Noluk getting resurrected by local clerics. I think we need a new plan.

// //

__//Ancalagon's Leadership Banner Triangle//__ April 23 500xp

Long discussion but eventually group did not think could sneak back into Lonely Mountain at this time with baddies on alert, so decided to head back and check out Orc village to south east of Ancalagon that underground tunnel led to. Checked out lair again and not much changed.

Took a road to the east from Ancalagon lair, encountered an ogre village a good days travel concealed from air by a bit by large trees, killed about 20, the rest fled. Road kept going to far east and finally cut across country. Found an orc village in about right spot. Odd thing, no major trails/roads leading from it. Captured some orc hunting party, said lack of paths by design to avoid discovery. This is a home of the orc mages who help train at "academy" in Ancalagon lair. The boss orc is mage with fireball and lightning bolt ability. and at least couple others have same ability. Trying to figure out what to do next without getting trapped in Orc village tunnels or trapped in Ancalagon lair tunnel.

So now we know 2 of the 3 sides of the Banner, the mages and ogres/fighters. So where is the baddies cleric center?

//__Raid Ancalagon's Lair Academy__// May 6th 600xp 100 gold handed out. Group Booty link also updated.

Party in two groups: Kojak, Juggernaut, Otavio, Tannetta, and debut of newest member/dwarf war cleric Red Sword(Tom's replacement for Tim). Acog, NoLuck, Mardove

At the Ancalagon Orc Banner Mage villeage, Kojak plan of trying to use Stone to Mud tunnels proved worthless, never could find a spot that was close enough to think of having any success. So group decided to feather back to Ancalagon lair, with thought to sneak in and ambush the baddies and use tunnel there to sneak in Orc Mage village. As a parting gift though, group went out with blaze of glory, Otavio casting a "Cloud Kill" to walk into the orc tunnels, anything below 4th dead. So all the support teams for the leadership most likely gone. Additionally, Wall of Fire's were cast upon every building or length of wall to destroy as much of base as possible. Then feathers spell and flew back to Ancalagon lair. Spent rest of day trying to find location of the new tunnels to try sneak in. Again, Kojak sent out multiple summon earth elementals but no luck, duration too short to be effective and the elementals too slow to cover much ground. So next approach, cast spells Stone and Mud spells along caved in tunnel until reach interior wall. Waited till next morning, beefed up and cast Stone Shape to open doorway into complex. Plan is fast trio of Acog, NoLuck and Mardove at first encounter hustle off to cover the new tunnel of escapees. Rest of others clear the complex. Caught most of orcs sleeping or unprepared. Two casting orc clerics were taken out, though one tried to fool party by Meld into Stone but was discovered.

The fast trio rushed around to the back to meet up with Amelia (Mardov's pseudo-dragon) and found themselves face to face with a kitchen full of females to handle. After spending more time than they wanted dealing with them, they left Amelia to "guard" them and left to continue the search and destroy mission. They had bit of fire fight down one hallway with Orc Mage, who took a 41 hp arrow from NoLuck trying to peak out to cast a fireball from 9/10ths cover. Instead had to settle for multiple fog spells to block group and then heard orcs running in hall, Mardove cast a lightning Bolt blindly, with a couple of screams of success.

Group of 5 went the other direction and ran into a dorm full of nibs. Otavio spent some time hitting them 5 at a time with Magic Missles, chasing them into the hall. There the new guy (Tom's cleric?) faced off a mage, but a handy Hold Person stopped the evil beast in his tracks, and made for an easy kill. Meanwhile, Otavio and Juggs found a back way to the hallway in time to hear Mardov's bolts. They also saw the fog, and it took multiple dispel magic attempts from Otavio before fogs removed, because they had also cast silence to mask their escape. Found a new secret passage went straight down, then came out half mile away. NoLuck and Acog took off with another 4 following slowly behind. NoLuck and Acog picked off the survivors, with thought only the Orc Mage got away. Did not find any tracks at the escape tunnel entrance, figured he teleported or dimension door far enough away.

I think Dave H stated we can tell the new evil revived temple still low level and group can zap it again with out issue. I think the plan is next to follow the tunnel back to the Orc Mage village to try sneak in the back way but since one orc mage got away, might be alerted or warned we are coming and run into ambush or a trap like the tunnel collapsing on the group.

__Helping Out the Pixie Land Band__ May 20 800 xp No Lewt No Character deaths (yet)

The group (Humulus, Glen, Lupulus, Otavio, Mardov, Red Sword, Grunhilde, Noluk, Euell, & Plat) was enjoying our breakfast beers in the ex-dragon den we are using as a base debating on which road to take looking for more areas that needed cleansing when a strange Pixie came bolting in pleading for help. We quickly learned a couple of things: a) there's a Faerie Creature land on this island as well b) it was under attack by some strange creatures with cow heads and ogre legs. She had a wand of feathers that enabled us to quickly reach their locale where we were met by a host of strange new beings like living trees, including Unicorns who are the leaders of the land. They begged us for help as an army of about 100 of these massive beasts had crossed the mountains, formed a line aprox 100 yards wide and were chopping and burning the forest on a path directly toward and with the known purpose of destroying the Faerie village.

Intel put them only a couple hours away so we set up a defensive stand at a "river" (glorified creek) about half way between. We positioned ourselves on one end of the line. The plan was to have Mardove make an attack and the rest of the group in hiding would react to what they did. The faerie folk were to position themselves along the river and throw out all the delaying entangle spells they could to slow down the bulk of the force from all converging on us. Their reaction wasn't what we were expecting.

Mardove launched a lightning bolt into a group. That now injured group all started yelling "attack" in orcish and the call was transferred down the line. All the cow-heads stopped their chopping and burning and pulled back about 50 yards into the woods and out of our sight. She could see that they formed into a defensive circle. During her scouting Mardove caught a glimpse of what looked like a large half dragon orge that really looked familiar. We waited, they waited, and nothing happened for a couple minutes until a 50' dome of fire appeared through the trees slowly moving towards us. There were a handful of groups of 10 cow-heads surrounding the dome, all moving at a slow walk towards us. An analysis said that it was some kind of modified wall of fire. After 3 tries we finally dispelled it a couple groups of cow-heads had charged our line. We barely had time to notice that under the dome were some cow-heads plus a couple dragon-ogres (the male we fought in the village plus his sister the caster), and a couple of yuanti.

We tried to be clever by putting spike stones on the riverbed (or really creekbed), but he creek wasn't any kind of barrier. They avoided our trap by just jumping over the water to attack, but the slope did prevent a few of them from doubling up on some characters. But still, their ferocious attack meant Lupie took >30 and Humulus took >50 round 1. Noluk got slammed too but don't remember the amount. This was not an attrition we could win. Fortunately we (including the 4 unicorns) were formed up in a pretty straight line, so some lightning bolts by Mardov and Grunhilde did pretty good damage to them and proportionally less damage to us. It was a hard battle with 2 of the unicorns dropping, our fighters getting into single digits before the healers could get up to them and giving aid, lots of damage being dealt on both sides. The bad-guy leaders finally broke as they got low on hp leaving us to mop up the remaining cow-heads but with sounds of many others breaking through entangles coming up stream. We dropped the last of them, confirmed there was nothing we could do for the 2 unicorns, then fled back to the Faerie village.

One thing a couple of people saw but didn't really grasp in the chaos of battle was that when one of the cow-ogres dies if they split apart into 2 full creatures: a complete bull and a whole ogre. Like they were 2 whole creatures mashed together.

We made it back to the village and healed most of the physical damage. Some pixie scouts reported that the remaining (guess = 40) cow-heads have reformed a line and have resumed chopping and burning their way towards us. We are very low on spells but physically sound. What do we do next?

__Battle for Pixie Village__ June 3 700xp No Loot It was an all-skate with everyone present. Given the size of the attacking force the DM opted to let all 16 characters line up to die.

With the reinforcements arriving we plotted to form a new line to take on the known 40 cow-headed orcs. Scouts told us that they had abandoned the slow hack and burn plan and were making a faster trek directly at the village. We healed and beefed as much as possible and took off for a clearing arriving minutes before the beasts. When the first couple walked into the clearing we loosed a volley of arrows to judge their response. They subtly took up a chorus of "attack" and "charge" as they burst from the trees towards us. This wasn't what we expected but we reacted to it.

We surmised that the 40 were arranged in groups of 10 stretched out over maybe 100 yards. We happened to be in front of group 2 with 1 group to our left and 2 to our right. Some fortuitous spells kept us from being overrun on the initial charge. A couple of entangles, a wall of thorns, and some stinking clouds guarded our flanks while a brilliant psionic blast dazed 3/4 of the group in front of us. Thanks to some stereotypical DM rolls the bad guys managed to get largely caught in the area effects. That allowed us to slowly dispatch these very tough monsters but the far right group continued on to the poorly defended pixie village. We raced back as fast as we could but were unable to save the 3 old treants who stayed to protect their home. We managed to dispatch the last of them before they did much damage to the village itself but the defenders has perished holding them back.

Thankfully the big bad guys (the half dragon / ogre fighter and caster and the yuanti) were not able to rejoin the fight. Our assumption was that they teleported back to their village in the mountain so were unable to return. Due to DM ineptness with the dice the actual battle was a route with the good guys sustaining minimal damage. The one close call was Kojak getting caught up front when a couple of bad guys broke from an entangle. Luckily help arrived before he dropped and all was saved. After the fight we were able to investigate the carcasses to see that once dead they split into a full bull and a complete orc as if the 2 were jammed together. These were not a new beast type that could breed and become a new creature but were an abhorrent construct quickly faceted together. Clearly some powerful and dark magic was involved that needs to be stopped.

We regrouped at the village and got some intel on the area, especially the locations of known inhabited areas. We back-tracked the "trail" that the bad guys took which was obvious given that they started hacking and burning as soon as they crossed the mountain. The trail led to an orc village where we parlayed with the leaders on the promise we would not destroy them today if they gave us information. The story was that the half dragon/ogres showed up the day before with ~80 of these half cow orcs demanding food and lodging for the night. The orcs were in no position to refuse them and were in no position to refuse us, since we showed up on the path the army took and none of the army returned. They told us the army came up the road that leads to another orc village on the river. We plan to follow that route next to try and figure out how the bad guys were able to create these half cow creatures in such large numbers. The bad guys on Frobel plan to go on the offensive, so we will need to remain here a bit longer in order to ensure the safety of the civilized world.

__Follow The Yuan-Ti to the Maze Of Zedicus__ June 17 600xp

Heading north to follow the source of the "Minotaurs", the party runs across an orc fishing village, devoid of any but the weak. Not having dealt with humans before, they weren't hostile. They just inform us that if we want to talk to leaders, there is a warrior village down the road. So the next day we approach the warrior orc village, and are challenged at the gate. Honestly, it looks more warrior-ish than warrior. Most of the orcs manning the walls are either too old or too young to pull off anything like a threat.

One big orc hops down and challenges us: "WHO ARE YOU!". After we inform him of the pixies and the minotaurs and all, he says "ARE YOU THEIR ENEMIES?!?". After we say yes, he sys"... good. KILL THEM" It seems the yuan-ti came through and took any orc of age, male or female, and used them in their evil necromancy, sacrificing them for their spells. Most party agreed that even though it was orcs, they went a little bit too far to stomach it. When we explained our purpose, the big bad orc asked "May I Join You As Witness?" and we agreed.

As we continue, we ran into a couple of Real Live True Life Minotaurs who made the mistake of thinking we were orcs. We were able to pummel them into submission and ask them about what was going on. The didn't know nothin'. Farther down the road, we come upon the odor of a rotting pile of orcs near an ominous cave entrance with strange runes to Hisi and Imarinein (both gods of magic). The inscription over the entrance is discovered to be a message from legendary MU named Zedicus (we figured he's a MU cuz - you know - his name starts with Z). Anyhoo, the inscription saye "Defeat The Guardians and Obtain The Wands!". The whole cave is highly magical, with major influences from the plane of earth. A pitiful starving bull is tied to a post near the entrance. Fubar discovers through Sone Tell that the cave says "Our configuration concentrates magic".

Checking our the bodies, the party sees that the desiccated bodies were piled in a pit, tied together in groups of six. Most of the party joined the big bad orc gathering the dead into a funeral pyre while puzzling out the reason for them being tied together. It is as if there was some sort of catapult that flung them into the pit, dead and dying. The work was long and grueling, but afterwards, the big bad orc thenked us and went home.

The next morning, the party headed into the archway and found a confusing maze, with a trail of blood heading into the darkness. After following the trail of gore passed a strange yellow light down one hallway, we arrive at a door. We say "Zedicus" and the door opens upon a room with a magical Hexagram on the floor with a dais and podium attached to it at one end. Empty bookshelves line the room. The party can't help but notice that the size and configuration of the six stations match the configuration of the desiccated orcs.

Going back to the yellow light light, the party sees a "minotaur construct" waiting patiently. A burst of yellow light, and it was save vs awe! After a battle where we surrounded it at a hallway junction, it disappeared allowing us to grab the yellow wand. When Mardov grabbed there was a yellow flash and she received a sort of CHR buff of +1 that lasted the rest of the day. The party then moved on. The second minotaur had a blue light and had a wand of WIS. The third was a red light that gave a boost to STR...

...to be continued...

__The Hexagram Of Magic, and a little Yuan-ti Pay Back Time__ July 1 550xp

Continuing against the minotaurs to collect all of the wands, the party did something smart for a change. Realizing that the next one had to be INT, the party figured: probably a MU. Approaching the target, the party formed up and armed itself with a stone enchanted with a Silence spell. This made the job easy, as the poor guy's spell defenses were nullified (earning 50xp extra cuz we were smart for once).

After a good night's rest, the party entered the hexagram room and got to work, arguing, puzzling, debating, buffing, DIing, anything to figure it out. After a while, six party members each took a wand and took a station at one of the six stations. Noluck took a spot at the helm, the wands were put in place, and a strange swirling magical cloud took shape in the center. It became clear that it was giving the user the power to manipulate magical effect in a freeform way. The machine pulled its energy from the six people at the stations, so Nolock had to be careful of what he was doing!

As the magic responded to imagination, Nolock wanted to do some scrying of the yuan-ti we were tracking. He was able to form a "Scrying Dome" that allowed us all to see the result of the scry. First, we check put the half oger/half dragon to see what he's up to. He's asleep, so we begin to plan to strike. Nolock is able to twist and expand and move the scry to see that his sister is also in the room. Awake. And she spots us. Oops. Breaking tht connection. Noluck is able to move the scry to the dryders, and then to find the books that were stolen. Not surprisingly, a bunch of yuan-ti had the library books, but they were asleep as well, without any waking eyes to spot us! With the DM pushing us, a plan was formed very quickly to teleport into the yuan-ti room for a snatch and grab. Otavio, Noluck, Grunhilde, and Mardov popped in and while Noluck and Grunhilde were piling books into a Handy Haversack, Mardov guarded against the yuan-ti waking up, which given our usual luck, they did.

Mardov summoned a bear on the yuan-ti's head and we got the heck out! The party will check out the books and figure out what to do next

__The Yuan-ti Respond And The Party Gets Another Pixie??__ July 15 1200xp

In the Zedicus Maze, high fives all around for the payback! Otavio teleports Glenn back to the Emerald Isle with the books, and the rest of the party ponders its next move, and what might happen. Suddenly, Amelia warns Mardov that ogres, orcs and yuan-ti, all invisible, have teleported to the front of the cave! They take places above the entrance and around in an ambush formation. Amelia watched until magic missiles strike her, and she flees in terror. Apparently, the yuan-ti have "see invisible" up and running :(.

The party forms up and makes its strategic plan on how to take on the beasts. Mardov flies out and drops a stinking cloud in the direction Amelia told her, so that they would be distracted while the party makes an attempt to rush out of the cave. Unfortunately, a big ogre was waiting at the entrance and jumps in front of the party, creating a choke point and engaging with Humulus and Lupelus. Then the ogre cleric cast the bane of player characters everywhere: **//Hold Person//**. And it worked.... on Humulus. Mardov tried to distract them with a lightning bolt, and Noluck tumbled in to try to help, but then someone or something behind the party tried to charm Plat!

Turns out that while Amelia was away, someone invisible snuck in and was able to get behind the party, presumable the MU what with the charm person thing. In response, Plat mind blasted him back and the ogre dragon thing was left drooling. Otavio blasted him good, and the battle suddenly became a hostage crisis. The other ogre dragon thing grabs Humulus and shouts "Let him go or I kill this one!" The party hesitated, but from the Mind Link we all here //"Avenge me! Kill Them All!"// from Humulus.

Noluk worked to disarm the ogre dragon cleric and Mardov blasted her before the cleric could act, while Plat and Otavio attacked the MU and Lupulus did what he could to kill the blocking ogre.

<< OK, here Otavio's notes are unclear on how Plat died while Otavio turned to bolt the ogres. At least some of the ogres and orcs fled...>>

After the smoke cleared and the loot was looted, with Plat dead the party decided to risk the Hexagram Of Magic to try and do a raise and/or reincarnation. After speaking with dead, Plat responded that if we could try to make sure he was a human or a pixie, he would be ok with it. So once more the party assembled in Zedicus' artifact and worked to bring Plat back to us... Stay tuned...

__The "Seige of Lonely Mountain" and Glen gets buddies__ July 29 1200xp 625 gold

The party healed up overnight., then as flock of Ravens, flew south trying to find the Fighter Dragon/Orge. In spite of a 47 tracking roll, we did not find him, evidently headed different direction or had magic to escape. Ended up at Lonely Mountain at dusk. Found a Pixie scout, stated that 6 driders and 50 orges took off north just over a day ago, but then only ogres came back a few hours later, this seems to roughly coincide with timing of our battle. We rested the night, Mardove and her Psuedo-dragon notice how quiet it was all over. No fires, no hunting parties. In morning, decided we want to know where driders are before attacking the Ogre village. Found a clearing just off the road, all torn up, like 50 ogres on a rampage with trees smashed or ripped out, the sod all torn up. Drider tracks headed back to road and went north. Figured they are out of the way, so head in to village. After some 15 min of debate on approach/attack, come to entrance AND........... no guards. We head on it and tunnel end at the village, 2 ogre guards shout "please hold to negotiate with our leader", we wait and an ogre cleric comes out. States if we do not attack, then will bargain to give up "The Scroll of Frobel". It is agreed, then the ogre cleric pledges allegiance to Glen and "serve you". Group asks to get taken to the main quarters of the half-dragon, the room that we had teleported into a few days before, find some gold only.

Important info: there are 4 pre-teen half dragon-orges. 2 male and 2 female. one male/female pair were taken away a few months ago. The others left more recently. Also, the reason ogres tore up the clearing because driders were in contact with half dragon-ogres and learned the "Lady" was killed and she was very respected. The driders decided Frobel too dangerous and took off. Ogres mad the fighter half dragon-ogre fled as well. Told the ogre leader to kill him if they could, else if he showed up or the dragon did or yuan-ti, drop a message scroll caseon guard hut and a pixie will deliver it.

Flew back Victory Heights to meet their duke. Went to the temple of Mielikki and handed over the Frobel Scroll. Told of truce with ogres, also that a valley of pixies/unicorns/treants exist. Glen had group keep quiet about the magic dimensional cave up north.   __To Kaufle or not to Kaufle, that is the question__ November 4 700xp

Planning what to do next, the question is whether Kaufle or Sprand should be our next target. Consulting our pixie scouts, we learn that the pixies have a map of the island and reports. There is an issue: it is COMPLETELY PACKED SOLID with trolls and their buddies, Winter Wolves (semi-intelligent evil creatures). The estimate is 10trolls per square mile all over the island except for the dragon's lair. They fight each other continuously, but never to death. An island of Trolls, wolves, and sheep (which are likely the equivalent of money).

Discouraged, they partysaid "Um... OK... What about Sprand". Intelligence reports about Sprand details the Golden Eagle rebuilding effort. The war took a big toll on them! Golden eagles are spread about the island diluting their blood amongst the locals. The former dwarven stronghold is a tempting target, but so is the dragon on Kaufle...

After some sips of Apple Moonshine, we decide to go to Kaufle! The party stops off in Gond, the tiny island training center for fighters. There we bought protection from fire and healing potions, the whole time demurring as to whether the target was Frobel. Not that anyone was fooled. The next noriing, the party "eagles" up and flies straight to the lair. As soon as we land, we hear drums of warning! Entering the cavern, we are confronted by eight of the Winter Wolves we had been warned about. The party was able to dispatch them with relative ease (other thatn the 8 cones of cold Kojack took), and began looting. Grabbing Tapestries off the walls we found one was trapped, but a pit doesn't work when you can fly! The party took the loot they got and headed back to Gond with tales of the raid. 

 __The Return Of The Dragon Slayers!__ November 18 1200xp  The entire party assembled (Yes, All players we're present!) on Gont to prepare to return to Kaufel. The people on the island decide to all tailgate before the big game!! Mardov comes up with al idea of getting a big net to distract the dragon, and each of us discusses what they want to do, what buffs they need, and plans for the battle. Some wanted to go to the lair immediately and attack! The casters wanted to wait overnight to get their spells back, and they won they day. As a result, the party was able to join in the partying so it was a win-win.  Keyed up and ready, the most of party turns to birds and Otavio teleports directly to the Dragon Statue in the lair and they saw nothing. It was still empty and the bodies of the winter wolves still lay undisturbed, and looks like the dragon hadn't been back. After about 12 hours of waiting Otavio drank a potion of Clairvoyance to check out the dragon's temporary lair on Sprand just in case, but it was obviously long abandoned. The next morning, Otavio decides to teleport to Safe Harbor to hear any news about the dragon. He is told that the dragon has been spending the last few days strafing towns on the eastern side of Homb. The next day there are more towns attacked, but this time on Frobel, so maybe she's headed back. <span style="display: block; font-family: tahoma,sans-serif;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: tahoma,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: tahoma,sans-serif;">Humulus decides to put on his mechanical armor until everybody stares at him long enough that he realizes he doesn't live in this universe... :-) ...anyway... Day 3. <ace?> used stone shape to create a cozy little blind near the end of the hallway for Amelia to stay in so she can watch for bad guys. Mardov sets up the fish net by the entrance of the inner cavern. On day 4 the party is sufficiently bored to clean up the winter wolf bodies and headed down the spiraled hallway. At the bottom it leads out to a forest path, with nothing much to see. Just in case, tho, Jeff(what is his name?) cast Stone Shape to block most of the entrance. <span style="display: block; font-family: tahoma,sans-serif;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: tahoma,sans-serif;">Finally on the morning of the fifth day before dawn, Amelia alerts the party to the fact that the Dragon has arrived near the cave entrance with a group of trolls who are buffing for battle! The party buffs and takes up positions around the cavern as well and the Battle Begins! <span style="display: block; font-family: tahoma,sans-serif;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: tahoma,sans-serif;">Into the cavern comes the dragon with her minions!! She looks at her foes and decides to do her worst with a big fire breath... but in one of **the most epic actions** ever, Jugs jumps off the upper ledge where he was waiting and lands directly in the dragons mouth!! The dragon appears to react by saying **"WTF!!!"** and is so startled that she forgets to breathe!! The party puts is plans into action: <span style="display: block; font-family: tahoma,sans-serif;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: tahoma,sans-serif;">
 * Kojack has a great idea to cast air elementals around the dragon to wrestle with her wings making it impossible to fly or even really maneuver
 * Mardov uses the Enervation Spell that allow her, with a touch attack, to cause the dragon to lose levels! 2 then 4 then 6, weakening her with every touch
 * Plat uses his mental abilities to befriend the dragon's MU buddy and completely remove him as a threat
 * Otavio is hasted and becomes a double barreled shotgun firing lightning bolts twice a round at the dragon and the trolls
 * Basil and Nolock and <Jeff> are also hasted, and proceed to trash the partially immobilized and weakened dragon and troll buddies
 * Jugs jumps on the dragon's back and rides her and hacks at her neck
 * The stone shape cast on the exit blocked more trolls from joining in the battle!

She never really gets off a good breath and the trolls never really get a coordinated attack and with the MU sidelined, and as a result, __**THE DRAGON IS DEAD!**__

After the battle, Plat quizzes the MU about the Yuanti. It turns out our last true foe have set up shop under the old dwarven city on Sprand, so the party knows what the next target is in the war. The party heads back to Gont and the dragon's head, and the victory lap around the islands begins! <span style="display: block; font-family: tahoma,sans-serif;">