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Message: <blockquote data-quote="PHDungeon" data-source="post: 5454561" data-attributes="member: 86320">Session #37, Melek’s journal:After managing to defeat about half the Cyclops we decided that it was time to retreat from the remaining half and regroup a little, so we headed back upstairs and holed up in the small cave above the main entrance where the Cyclops would find it difficult to come and get usAfter we'd gathered our breath a little, Ardyn revealed that he could bring us some help. Apparently he has a magical horn that can be used to summon an ally, even across the planar barrier. I wonder where he got something that interesting and powerful. I wonder if he realizes quite how powerful such an item could be.I expressed some concerns about grabbing somebody from his nice safe location and dropping him into an unknown place in the Feywild to fight a large number of giants for no better reason than that they were in our way and we were told to kill the enemies of my patron. But apparently the ally won't mind being summoned and also will have no trouble killing random strangers because Ardyn wants him to. I'm not sure if I should be reassured or panicked by that. Probably both.Still, we're hardly in a position to refuse any aid at this point and Ardyn seems determined so I decline to press the matter.Ardyn blows a horn and pretty much instantaneously a wild apparition appears. He reminds me greatly of that character called Gollum that I saw in the Noh plays in the south, complete with the fish in his mouth.That partly facetious remark aside, this new companion of ours is called S’mar and would appear to be a shifter, which, I admit, is a step up from being a full blooded werewolf. He's savage and, even by our standards, quite peculiar. All he wants to know is who to kill. He doesn't really care one whit for why. Fortunately, he doesn't seem to know of the Lady of The Moon. I'm not entirely certain, but I strongly suspect that she would hate him only marginally less than she hates the werewolves in the valley.To give him credit, he seems to have no difficulties allying with a Minotaur and a Tiefling.At about this point, one of the Cyclops calls out to us. They've come upstairs and want to negotiate. All of the following is done through Ardyn (he speaks Elven), so I might be missing some nuances, but the gist of it is that they want us to surrender (no doubt so that they can instantly kill us), and we want them to surrender (doubtless so that we can instantly kill them). Not surprisingly, both sides decline the opportunity to commit suicide. They bluster a little about having sent for help and that if we flee they'll track us down with their werewolf allies. Nice to know that they ARE allies of the werewolves. I admit that I'd been a touch concerned that they were actually enemies and that the gate was primarily to keep them out.We at least gain a little information in the exchange. The gatehouse guards the entrance to Harrowthane, a city ruled by a fomorian. That little fact also means that we pretty much don't have to worry about where we need to go next. Doubtless the piece of the Engine is either held in the vault of the fomorian or he holds the next piece of the puzzle leading us to it.Given the unfortunately quite plausible threat of reinforcements we decide that we should attack now. While that was doubtless their objective in sharing the information we really have little choice.S’mar has access to some useful primal magic and manages to conceal our exit from the alcove with at little bit of mist. Not that the cyclops are unaware of our presence or anything but it does make it harder to hit us.A large combat then ensues between the remaining cyclops with their hobgoblin support and ourselves. My Wall of Fire spell is quite efficacious in allowing us to deal with the giants in a somewhat piecemeal fashion as opposed to all at once. Not to mention considerably singeing several of them in the process. S’mar fights about the way one would expect, brutally but effectively with a pair of battleaxes. The rest of us conform to our usual tactics. The giants seem to take it personally when Ardyn kills their leader while (I presume) taunting them, and they concentrate a lot of their efforts on him. We manage to keep him alive, but it’s a fairly close contest since he is almost completely exhausted and on his last legs [Out of healing surges in game terms]. I'm also reeling and am almost knocked unconscious at one point but manage to keep going.It is a hard fought fight, especially when the Cyclops try to pour burning oil on us, but we manage to prevail without taking any casualties. We then quite quickly ransack the place. We obtain 1,000 gold which at least means that we'll have some of the local currency if we make it to the city. No maps or information is to be found, unfortunately.We head down the major tunnel towards the city, which we believe is located in the Feydark. We hope to find a side passage before meeting the promised reinforcements. We succeed, albeit barely. As we come to a narrow stream coming out of a wall we meet up with a large force of reinforcements, far too many for us to currently fight.We flee into the passage cut by the stream. S’mar was attempting to talk with the Dire Wolf hounds of the giants (it’s hardly the animals fault that we want to kill their masters), but his attempts went for naught when Belladonna decided to shoot them. I'm not at all sure why she did this as we were all fleeing anyway and even she wasn't going to be able to kill them quickly enough to do any good.At any rate, we fled up the passage unpursued. It was too narrow for the cyclops and the wolves, and the hobgoblins were hardly going to come on their own.After not too long a while, we came out into a cave where we could get some well deserved sleep. I admit to wondering if S’mar understood more than I thought abut my connections to the Maiden of the Moon and if I'd wake up dead. I suppose that I could have tried to stay awake but the truth of the matter is that I was exhausted and, if he and Ardwyn want me dead then one way or the other I'm sure that they'll succeed.To my pleasant relief I instead woke up quite refreshed and rearing to continue on. I cast a ritual and we talked to some rats. They weren't a huge amount of help but basically told us that one of the 2 other passages out of this cave would lead us to the large worms and the other wouldn't. Both would eventually end up at the city (all passageways seemingly lead to Harrowthane)We then spent the best part of day wandering through caverns both wonderous and magnificent and deadly and exhausting. I'd like to come back here some time when I have a lot more time and leisure to really experience their true beauty.Of note was a cavern filled with mushrooms, mushrooms that send deadly spores if disturbed. Using our various means we all managed to get through more or less unscathed.We eventually came to a large cliff face that we had to climb. Once again my wonderful physical abilities came to the front as, just inches from the top, I managed to lose my grip and plummet to the bottom. Fortunately I was able to Fey Step at the last second and so avoid a nearly certain death. The second time I climbed I managed to succeed in making the climb.From the cliff top we can see an incredible large cavern with a small village nearby and a city in the distance. In the city are various people wandering about including eladrin, shifters, hobgoblins and cyclops. We start to consider the possibility of disguising ourselves. One Hat of Disguise will only go so far, especially since I don't speak elven.At this point Belladonna speaks up and reveals a secret. She is actually not human but is really a Changeling. Well, that certainly has the potential of helping us. And it explains some things about her. It’s interesting that Corvin seems completely unsurprised by this new development.It’s nice to know now that as a tiefling I'm actually one of the more respectable races in this party.We then start to discuss tactics. If we are to have any chance of sneaking into the city we're going to have to disguise Turak. It’s not at all clear if we can convince him to use the Hat of Disguise. Even if we can, at best we'll not be obvious from a distance. Close up the fact that few of us speak elven is likely to become obvious.</blockquote>

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