Fiona takes over the journal writing responsibilities ...
looks like we inspired the ereshians (ereshanoids?) to drive out the remaining soldiers, so next we turned to helping Lumi find her missing (other) party. asked around and the innkeeper recognized her and said he hadn't seen her or her (other) 5 friends in a long time. Lumi was found in the bakery so we headed there. i was also hoping for donuts, but of course the place was a mess, so no luck there, but i think i'll have a chance to check again later. Bechus the baker also remembered Lumi and said he hid her because she showed up in some distress -- she mentioned some danger and that her (other) companions had vanished. so we've determined that Lumi's (other) party was here before the Ragesians, but the Ragesians were here when our (present) party arrived. had a look around the rooms Lumi stayed in back at the inn, but didn't find anything good. a commotion in the main room of the inn drew us back downstairs and it turned out that other people have also been disappearing for the past 1 1/2 weeks. went to Ragesian camp to see if maybe they'd been taking prisoners, but all we found was a ton of treasure. one good thing we found there was an orb with swirly red mist in it which is super cool because well, it's an orb with swirly red mist in it, but also because it can be used to control red dragons and they're hard to find (the orbs, not the dragons, because i know where one is). also found orders to "scour the land" but we didn't find anything to tell us what they were looking for. next we noticed that Alain and Van were missing, and while it's possible that they scampered off for a bit, they usually try to tell us when they're doing that. they were definitely with us at the inn so we checked back there, and also checked for anything magical around the inn, but didn't find them or anyone else who'd gone missing. after a thorough search of the town, we hopped over to the Monastery where there was some hesitation letting us in past the gate, though the chick who's usually at the door wasn't around (sounds like this was a good thing). they took us to some old guy named Longinus, but he was totally clueless about the disappearances, and directed us to a couple of monks (jamira/east and belloc/west) who actually go into town and deal with the real world. turned out they didn't know anything either. i hope Karuna is a little more aware of what's going on around him than these guys. we did ask whether the door lady (Caela) was missing, but she just asked Blane to take over for her until she got back. so with the forbidden valley as our last unturned stone, we headed off hoping to find van and alain (and anyone else who was missing). it's also known as the valley of storms. as we moved down the road, monks appeared in the trees and attacked -- flying, using whips and shuriken that glowed when they struck, and lightning bolts with stunning force. those stunning bolts really wreaked havoc on our ability to defend ourselves, but merrick fought lightning with lightning! one of the monks called to the "lord of the 2 winds" and a strange draconic/manticore creature, which could fire spikes from its tail and roar thunderous shock waves, flew in and landed in front of lumi (much to its dismay). karuna did try to tell the monks we were peaceful but i guess they didn't care. maybe we'd better not head back to that monastery any time soon...
looks like we inspired the ereshians (ereshanoids?) to drive out the remaining soldiers, so next we turned to helping Lumi find her missing (other) party. asked around and the innkeeper recognized her and said he hadn't seen her or her (other) 5 friends in a long time. Lumi was found in the bakery so we headed there. i was also hoping for donuts, but of course the place was a mess, so no luck there, but i think i'll have a chance to check again later. Bechus the baker also remembered Lumi and said he hid her because she showed up in some distress -- she mentioned some danger and that her (other) companions had vanished. so we've determined that Lumi's (other) party was here before the Ragesians, but the Ragesians were here when our (present) party arrived. had a look around the rooms Lumi stayed in back at the inn, but didn't find anything good. a commotion in the main room of the inn drew us back downstairs and it turned out that other people have also been disappearing for the past 1 1/2 weeks. went to Ragesian camp to see if maybe they'd been taking prisoners, but all we found was a ton of treasure. one good thing we found there was an orb with swirly red mist in it which is super cool because well, it's an orb with swirly red mist in it, but also because it can be used to control red dragons and they're hard to find (the orbs, not the dragons, because i know where one is). also found orders to "scour the land" but we didn't find anything to tell us what they were looking for. next we noticed that Alain and Van were missing, and while it's possible that they scampered off for a bit, they usually try to tell us when they're doing that. they were definitely with us at the inn so we checked back there, and also checked for anything magical around the inn, but didn't find them or anyone else who'd gone missing. after a thorough search of the town, we hopped over to the Monastery where there was some hesitation letting us in past the gate, though the chick who's usually at the door wasn't around (sounds like this was a good thing). they took us to some old guy named Longinus, but he was totally clueless about the disappearances, and directed us to a couple of monks (jamira/east and belloc/west) who actually go into town and deal with the real world. turned out they didn't know anything either. i hope Karuna is a little more aware of what's going on around him than these guys. we did ask whether the door lady (Caela) was missing, but she just asked Blane to take over for her until she got back. so with the forbidden valley as our last unturned stone, we headed off hoping to find van and alain (and anyone else who was missing). it's also known as the valley of storms. as we moved down the road, monks appeared in the trees and attacked -- flying, using whips and shuriken that glowed when they struck, and lightning bolts with stunning force. those stunning bolts really wreaked havoc on our ability to defend ourselves, but merrick fought lightning with lightning! one of the monks called to the "lord of the 2 winds" and a strange draconic/manticore creature, which could fire spikes from its tail and roar thunderous shock waves, flew in and landed in front of lumi (much to its dismay). karuna did try to tell the monks we were peaceful but i guess they didn't care. maybe we'd better not head back to that monastery any time soon...