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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Boendal2" data-source="post: 7832196" data-attributes="member: 7015844">4th session:As most of us are busy in real life at the moment I also decided to skip big parts of the “travelling” – otherwise the campaign will last until 2023 (in real life) without reaching the surface.Day 9-16 (skipped)Downtime activities: Thar’den learned more words in undercommon. Veldyn transcribed a spell scroll (green flame blade) into his spell book. Eeria trained Ebert  (pet giant boar) and worked on the small wooden statue of Jimjar. Vanya spoke to some NPCs and asked Thar’den to carve a small wooden fox for her.The party slowly turns paranoid. They believe now to be followed not only by the drow but also the duergar. I let them believe it for now, but I think they will avoid Gracklstugh at all costs – I might have to show them some neutral/non-hostile duergar at some point.Day 17Nothing happened during the day. In the evening three escaped slaves from Gracklstugh, shield dwarves appeared at their camp. They needed some persuasion to come closer. All three of them had their tongue cut out and a brand mark on their cheek. It’s a duergar rune, symbolising “enemy/slave”. The party managed to communicate with them through Eldeth and hand signs. Ront didn’t want more dwarves in the group, so Eeria told him to leave. Intimidation check was successful, so Ront started packing his stuff and was ready to leave the group.During the night Eeria and Vanya tried to make Ront stay. Vanya stole a page from Veldyns spell book at night to write a message. Veldyn woke up and shot a fire bolt at her, but was convinced that it’s all a dream. Thar’den and Veldyn discussed if it would be better to kill Ront, as he could lead the pursuing drow in their direction. Thar’den overheard Turvy and Topsy whispering about leaving the group.Sarith, Veldyn and Ront held the last watch of the night. Ront had his stuff already packed and was ready to leave the group when a painful scream woke everybody up. One of the shield dwarves was dead, stomach opened and all organs outside of his body (arranged symmetrically). Vanya tried to heal him with no effect. The remaining two shield dwarves were in distress and run away as soon as everybody started searching the corpse for clues. The party tried to find clues on the murder, but failed all their investigation checks. Now they are not sure who was it, a NPCs or duergar/drow assassins.Day 18During the day Thar’den talked to Turvy and Topsy about them leaving the party. Topsy was impressed by his honesty and compassion and told him they “are not leaving for now as there is no threat for you or us at the moment”.Camp was made in a small cavern with a water source (small lake). Thar’den and Eldeth had third watch when a chuul attacked them from the water. The fight was no big challenge for the party and everybody was happy about the extra rations (roasted chuul).Vanya gave Veldyn a secret letter (she wrote on the page from his spell book) with the wooden fox statue.Day 19During the day the party came across a small wooden bridge over a pit (roughly 7m deep). The bridge looked very unstable. Eeria decided to climb down and catch anyone who falls down. After half the party crossed (only NPCs) the makeshift bridge collapsed, Vanya failed her dexterity check and fell. Eeria caught her. Suddenly they heard fighting noises. 3 orogs had been waiting for them and booby-trapped the bridge. Sarith held them off until Eeria and Vanya climbed up the pit. Veldyn disengaged. Thar’den and Eldeth took two turns to catch up with the party and jump over the pit (3,5m). The fight was hard even though the players rolled high. Ront and Buppido went down but were healed in time by the party. In the end Eeria beheaded 2 orogs.At night the party rested in a system of small caverns, connected to each other, all illuminated with red little lights (moss?). During the third night watch (NPCs only) the party woke up to fighting noises – the session ended without recovered HP or spell slots and with a huge cliffhanger.Magic items found in the orog hideout:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dagger of Wickedness (spend a sorcerer point to make additional damage and enemy makes CON svg throw or poisoned)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Pauldrons of Wailing (fighters second wind ability triggers WIS svg throw on everybody within 10ft. failed = frightened)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Great Warhammer of Rage (+1 Warhammer and after killing an enemy you get a free attack on an adjacent enemy)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Spell Scroll Detect Poison and Disease</li> </ul>GM notes:After last session we had a talk and decided to skip the survival aspect. It slowed the game down tremendously and most players (and me) didn’t really enjoy it. Also, as long as Sarith is with them, I won’t ask them for navigation checks (the party decided he should lead the way). As I won’t ask them anymore about travelling speed I keep the drow pursuit at level 1 and decide later if I let them have an encounter with the drow. Maybe if they goof around too long in a city/place.Eeria has been training Ebert every night since the party fled Velkynvelve. He now listens to his name (66% of the time), play dead (10% chance) and search for things on the floor (10% chance).For anyone wondering why the NPCs are helping in the fights: I let each player control one additional NPC. The remaining ones aren’t fighting or just very rarely… when I feel there’s a need for them to have an action for the sake of roleplay. Most of the time they do miss though (no matter the roll, laugsinGM).Ront (the most boring NPC so far) is now my favourite NPC – as Thar’den and Veldyn are actively discussing to kill him, while Vanya and Eeria do not want any NPC to leave or get hurt. Great potential for the future, especially when Buppido kills again and destabilises the party further… and we are coming closer to Gracklstugh. The murder of the shield dwarf rose big suspicion on Ronts loyalty (though they cannot believe he has done it stealthy enough for no one to wake up).With the skipped days 9-16 I lost track of Turvy & Topsy turning into wererats. Probabaly 28 days have passed already. I have to start with them leaving/turning next session!</blockquote>

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