Episode 1.6

Greg, Brad, Kathy, Tony, Ernie

The rest of the party was concerned about the vanishing goblin, but the decision was made to start back to Stonekeep. They took the equipment and supplies of the humanoids they had killed, which included a map.

After traveling for a few hours, the party then ran into two apes that dropped from the trees and acted in a threatening manner, but did not attack. Gwibaen, who was leading the group, stood his ground and faced them down. Meanwhile, Tony, guarding the rear, was attacked by a fiendish wolf-like creature, who caused significant damage before fleeing after only around or so. The apes fled at the same time.

That night, they were attacked by six troglodytes in two groups of three. Brad charged into one group and held them off with the help of two of the escapees until Tony arrived. Gwibaen held off the other three with the help of two other escapees until Greg showed up to assist him. In the meantime, Kathy tried to hold some of them off with her bow while Ernie moved in to heal Brad. Ernie eventually got into melee for the first time, taking down one of the attackers. Once everyone got involved in the melee, both groups of troglodytes were defeated.

That afternoon, they found a dead human who looked as if he had hung himself in a tree. Gwibaen recognized him as a man named Elioton, an escapee that lived in Stonekeep. Oddly, he appeared to have signs of donva withdrawl. The group speculated that he killed himself before the curse had a chance to kill him, but why he was still effected by the curse was a mystery.

That night, Ernie had a dream. In his dream, he saw an unfamiliar group of adventurers, mostly humans, with an at least one elf but also a goblin. One of the group, who appeared to be a cleric, picked up an unfamiliar object and used it to cast a bless spell. Ernie could see the effect of the spell spread outward far beyond it’s normal range, seemingly for miles upon miles. As it passed through most humans and other slaves, he could see the curse leaving them. However, when it passed through those humans that were cooperating with the humanoids, it left them alone. Ernie took this to mean that the curse was only lifted on those who were not collaborating with the humanoid slavers.

Later that evening, the group was again attacked by the fiendish wolf creature. This time, it displayed some magical abilities. At first, it cast some type of spell at the group, by they threw off its effects. Secondly, it was blinking, which made it much more difficult to hit. This time, it attacked alone, but was much more destructive than it had been the previous day. It caused serious damage before it turned and fled.

The next day, they reached stonekeep. Ceodoc was furious with Gwibaen, but seemed to cool off afterwards. They showed the map to the dwarf and he pointed put that there was nothing on it to indicate the location of stonekeep. They discussed what they had seen there, including the forest troll. Ceodoc also told them that they were free to come and go as they pleased and could carry their weapons with them. He told them that several years ago, when Gwibaen had gone off to rescue his half-sister Gwiand, the dwarf had said that anyone who could go off, rescue a slave and bring them back here was welcome to come as go as they liked. He had made this statement in anger at the time, but since it was a promise, he was bound to keep it. The party asked him to come with them to see the spirit of the mountain, but he said he had a project that he needed to finish and it would take a week or more. After that, he would consider their offer. After some debate, the party decided to go and explore the caves near the spirit of the mountain.