The Adventure Begins...

We start our journey in the small town of Phandalin, where there are rumors of a dragon terrorizing the countryside. Our group of adventurers with no fear set out and found themselves in this quaint town, first deciding to stop by the job board in town, noticing a flyer for a lost dog named Buddy, hand-drawn by his lonely child owner Billy:


The group also noticed three more prominent posters, each with a promise of a significant gold amount in three different locations, Gnomengarde, Umbrage Hill, and a Dwarven Excavation Site.

The group then wandered to the Stonehill Inn where they rented a couple of rooms for later use in the night, with a bit of flirting in between Fin and Euphoria. After a bit of conversation with some of the patrons, one of which who engaged in a few microaggressions towards our Halfling companion, the group learned a bit of Buddy the missing dog, who is described as a 'dirty mop dog' and was last seen following a group of adventurers out of town towards Neverwinter to the north. They also learned of Gnomengarde, which is occupied by, you guessed it, gnomes! They seem to be rather secluded and to themselves, not dealing much with the town. One of the patrons even went as far as to suggest that the group ask the Townmaster needed his shoes shined, whatever that means!

Speaking of the Townmaster, it was time to meet him and ask that very important question! After gracefully receiving a map with the three locations of the jobs marked for the group, innocent little Fin politely asked the fabled shoe shining question, which promptly got them all kicked out of the town hall! Not to worry. There are still places to go, people to meet. They stopped by the Lionshield Coster, meeting the sharp-witted Linene, and had a small chat while Kore was busy making his own version of the map:

After that, it was on to the Provisions shop where Kore purchased a fine red cape and a few rations for travel on the road. They also visited the Shrine of Luck in town, where each of the group made their own wishes that would hopefully one day come true, finding dirty mop dog included.

One evening tavern performance by Euphoria and getting "Red girl wasted" later, it was a new day and time to set out! The group decided to travel to the nearby location of Umbrage Hill where the task was to find a Miss Adabra Gwynn and warn her of the dragon terrorizing these parts and bring her to the relative safety of Phandalin. Only there was danger knocking on her front door. A Manticore! Poor Adabra was trapped inside! She noticed the adventurers and begged for help and Lia took a stance! She marched right up to that Manticore, looked it right in the large lion face, and proceeded to.... talk to it like a puppy. Have no fear, the party is here! Lia was struck from behind and Kore ran to the rescue, raging and swinging like a madman. Euphoria cast a spell to cover the beast in a violet glow, making it easier to land hits and the party went to town, but not before the Manticore managed to land some hard blows on Fin. He wasn't dead, but it was not looking good for our Halfing until Kore with a final thrust of his great blade, struck the manticore right in the heart, calming the raging beast for good.

A kiss of life by Euphoria awakened Fin and the group settled for a rest inside the windmill, but not before harvesting some of the manticore's tail spines and decapitating the head in hopes it would be useful to someone who would be willing to buy or trade. The group, Adabra in tow, returned to Phandalin no worse for wear, where the Townmaster who had suddenly become a shut-in gradually fed them their reward under the door. The group parted ways with Adabra and managed to make a mighty fine trade with Linene at the coster, giving her the manticore head in exchange for two scimitars Fin had been eyeing the day before.

And with that, their first quest had been completed and deemed a success, earning the party a level up in the process! They wasted no time, opting to head out for Gnomengrade as soon as possible.


What will our party face next? Will Billy ever be reunited with his long lost companion? Will the group ever discover the secret of the Shoe Shining Incident? Find out next week!

Is it Monday yet?

They were always beside you...

We start tonight's session with a sponsor! *ahem*
Feeling like getting away from it all? Is the free open life just dragging you down? Well, you're in luck, dear reader! Come to Gnomengarde! A secluded hustling bustling society chock full of gnomes! No shapechangers allowed! Contact your closest Carriage Agent today!

...

The unnamed party arrived at Gnomengarde, taking a look at some Fin-sized mushrooms and grabbing a couple of purple, green, and red ones before having to carefully climb up a slope to this cave system, where their first encounter with one of its denizens was a rather eccentric gnome that was looking for some target practice with his fancy spinning crossbow machine. Fin, having become upset at himself and Lia being shot, proceeded to jump onto the device and "subdue" the poor soul, killing him in the process. With a small 'oops' from Fin, the group carried on further, coming across a pair of gnome guards up on a ledge, demanding the group prove themselves to not be shapechangers.

With a decent effort from Kore and a solid performance by Euphoria, the guards were able to be calmed. That is until Kore very openly admitted to Lia being able to change shape, mostly into animals being a druid and all. That was enough to trigger the gnomes on guard and three magic missiles planted themselves in Lia's chest, knocking her unconscious. This attack enraged the party and they sprung forward to attack in unison. Seriously, they all rolled a 21 on Initiative, it was crazy. It was around this time that the group noticed that magic acted a bit funky here, with some dazzling lights covering Euphoria after giving Lia a literal kiss of life aka cure wounds.

Knocking out the guards this time, the group gently put the gnomes in a more comfortable position and continue on as if nothing happened. They ended up in a large room chock full of barrels filled with mushroom wine! Kore starts to serve himself a drink and after a good 15-second chugging, stumbled around a bit narrowly avoiding a tongue attack by... a barrel? A scream from Fin alerts the others and Kore and they see that one of these barrels is not like the other! The group takes on the mimic and with two swift jabs and a snarky "You're Fin-ished!" line from Fin, the mimic is defeated and the tongue severed as a keepsake by Fin.

Taking some time to comb through the rest of the room with imaginary flames and petty insults, the group finds there to be no more shapechangers. Kore strategically straps the mimic to his back Death Stranding style, they continue on across a not-so-easy bridge to cross and see their next challenge, a room of spinning blades! Fin takes the lead, timing juuuust right, and is able to make it to the other side avoiding the full damage that surely would have ended our little Halfling's life. He pulls a lever on the other side and stops the blades from spinning, allowing the others to traverse safely.

The next room our party finds themselves in contains two gnomes arguing about their inventions to "fix" the king. One insists that her straitjacket will subdue and calm the King, while the other gnome says that one blast of his Sanity Ray will end his madness for good. It was then that Kore suddenly appeared out of hiding, loudly proclaiming that the shapechanger problem had been solved. Much to the gnomes Fibblestib and Dabbledob's surprise and wonder, they immediately escorted the newly dubbed Saviors of Gnomengarde to meet the Kings.

Unfortunately, the inventors were right in saying one of the kings had gone mad. King Korboz had his poor husband, Gnerkli tied and glued to a chair in his bedchambers! After a conversation and presentation of the mimic body, King Korboz freed Gnerkli from his sticky situation and both kings profusely thanked the heroes and showered them with gifts, magical ones! After being escorted by King Gnerkli to an area to rest, he explained that after two gnomes had disappeared and being personally attacked, his husband feared that a shapechanger had infiltrated the small kingdom and grew paranoid, locking the two of them in the bedroom where the party had come across the 'it's not what it looks like' situation. The king also explained that magic would sometimes have these wild surges that had a short-lasting effect. Sometimes it was useful, other times it was just fun. The gnomes seemed to have been used to it by now.

With the mystery unconventionally solved, the party proceeded to get the party started with the gnomes who celebrated the end to the evil lurking in their midst, the heroes took their rest here to set back out to Phandalin in the morning.

What should we expect next? Will Euphoria kiss the entire party, creating a weird love-polyhedron? Will Fin ever stop making bad puns? Will the group settle on a name for their party? Find out next week!

Is it Monday yet?

Was canceled! Sorry everyone, with some bad weather and sour tummies, we have elected to cancel the session this week and resume next Monday. Stay Tuned!

Out of the Frying Pan...


HOO BOY! This session was a doozy let's jump right in it. ROLL THE TAPE!












We start in Gnomengarde, where after Kore does some digging in his pack finds a peculiar ring and note written in dwarvish!

Spoiler	+
The note reads "May this ring aid you on your adventures as it aided me on mine. -- Gaheris"

Spoiler	+

Afterwards, the party returns to Phandalin where the Townmaster is still being a shut-in. So the Townmaster's secretary meets with the group where she rewarded the group for bringing back an item from the gnomes. They decided to continue on towards the Dwarven Excavation and camp out on the way.

During the night, Lia heard some strange noises and sniffles during her watch. Turning into a lizard, she snooped around, and much to her disappointment, it was not Buddy. in fact, it was three gnolls! Lia quickly skittered back to the party, frantically trying to wake them up. Unfortunately, the gnolls heard the commotion and came forward to attack! The party was able to deal with the gnolls with relative ease, especially after a well-placed Entangle spell from Lia, pinning two of the lesser gnolls down long enough for the bigger leader to be dealt with.

The morning came with no other interruptions and the group arrived safely at the Excavation site, where they met the two dwarves, Dazlyn and Norbus. The two dwarves seemed appreciative that the party came with the warning of a dragon on the loose, but the dwarves had problems of their own and needed some help. luckily, four eager adventurers just strolled past!

The site is an ancient dwarven temple and Norbus and Dazlyn were excavating and looking for valuables when they were spotted and nearly killed by some kind of slime! They're not able to handle it on their own and need some help. In exchange, the party is offered two Sending Stones and a share of whatever treasure is inside. So off the party went off to hunt down these vile slimes! Only for it to nearly end in disaster.

Before they knew it, two ochre jellies schlorped from the ceiling. Have no fear, Kore is here! He slashes at the slime, only for it to slice off, and a smaller jelly forms next to it. Fin took a slice at another jelly and the same incident occured. A couple more slashes and another round later, the number of slimes had begun to quickly rise and outnumber our party. Euphoria and Fin took the brunt of the damage, falling unconscious in battle. Lia in wolf form and Kore raging were just barely able to hold their own. But the tide was turning in the jellies' favor, with Fin and Euphoria constantly being healed and knocked back down, and Lia and Kore just barely able to fight back the horde of jellies. It was a mix of really good rolls and really really bad ones. But with a little bit of luck and communication and teamwork, Everyone was just barely able to escape the temple, the slimes remaining inside.

With their lives, the group must decide what to do next. Will they rest and try again? Will they abandon the dwarves' cries for help? We'll find out next time!

Is it Monday yet?