Among the Mages

- Rockwall library vs. Dallas Library - Benchmark workout for Crossfit - Lady Ellilune did indeed send the fire snakes that started this whole thing - The porter's name is Broll, he has been the porter for six years. - He sometimes consents to having her test her spells on her. - The previous porter passed away in a boating accident. - He's obviously very loyal to the Lady, has no qualms about her being an elf ruling over an area of humans, and has no memory of the transformation into a plant / human undead thing, and does not believe the group when they try to tell him about it. - She does not want to get into what happened to the elf on the stone altar, but she does know about the Temple to Chemosh. She does not venture inside it. She recommends that the group not venture into it as she believes they would get themselves killed. - She asks that they bring her the focus he is using to collect his power and says that if he is killed the spell collecting the power would...

- Alex's Skydiving accident story and video - Dan's poor face - Chode - Up a spiral staircase in a branch off the main tower, the party is led to a suite that has a main sitting area and small sleeping cubbies - Acta casts Detect Magic to check for scrying spells - The door is the only things that has been magicked. It will not open. - There is discussion. - Sariel turns into a tiny lizard and squeezes under the door. There are thick vines growing over the door preventing it from opening. Also, the wooden stairs at the end of the stone landing are gone. There is a good 30' drop to the next landing. - Neil takes off his hat and Luca holds his ankles while he leans out of the window to see what he can see there. It's pretty much what you would expect with a view of mostly the ocean, but still some visibility to the village as well. Since the room is in a smaller tower jutting off the main trunk, after about 10' or 15' the wall angles back and becomes a st...

- A month is too long! - Birthday strawberry custard - double birthdays - Late start do to some people leveling at the "table" - Quick strategy session ret-conned into the walk up to the Lady's tower. - Lady Ellilune suspects Valador of being the source of the drain on the Holimion - Valador is Lord Barkridge - She is definitely enchanting / thralling the local human population in order to gain access to their life force as a power source - She asks if they have heard of Chemondoro, which may be the most potent power source on the continent. - It is a lost, magical city said to be protected by enchantments to keep out interlopers. - It is not in the Great Forest of which a subset is the Holimion Forest. - Ellilune says that she believes they should side with her against Valador Barkridge, who she believes is trying to find Chemondoro for his own gain. - Neil gets the impression that she is sincere in what she is saying, but she is definitely keeping back some ...

- The group ask around in the marketplace if there's anyone in town who knows magic, and the only response is that Old Sam might be able to help. - Old Sam lives in a small, simple, well-maintained building, and he reads as HUMAN to Sariel's spell. - Old Sam says that the beans seem unstable, and the product of planting them could produce something good or something bad. It's hard to say. Just don't eat them. - Old Sam doesn't recognize the plant that Acta kept from the zombiefying plants. - Old Sam says that The Lady is a druid. - Old Sam agrees that they can plant one of the beans on his land before they leave. - The bean sprouts within one minute and within 5 minutes it's a full-grown tree with 26 fruits of various sizes and colors and fragrant. 8 of them smell medicinal, 3 are the equivalent of Greater Potions of Healing (4d4+4 HP per potion), 1 of them equivalent to a Potion ofit's the green one, Poison (3d6 poison dmg, beat a 13 DC Con ST or be P...

- Calleigh's Horrible, Awful, No Good, Very Bad Week - Dan's good but also bad week. He forgot Jurassic Dark for the Game Pitch. - April's blah week - O'Brian's Master and Commander books - "Some facts may have been changed to protect the plot." - The vines disappear into the ground as Acta wriggles free of the ones encompassing her. - The rest of the night passes uneventfully. - By the time everyone is up and moving around, it's late morning. - Once the morning fog burns off, the group can see a large merchant vessel has pulled into the port of Bayside. It is flying the flag of Rhoanor. - Acta suggests they see if the vessel is headed the direction they are going and maybe chartering passage to save their feet. - As they approach the market / dock, Sariel casts Detect Evil & Good. Many of the longshoremen read as Undead. The sailors and crew members of the actual ship read as human. - Neil talks the party onto the boat by asking after t...

- CANDY! - Katie is now a direction. Did you travel Katie-wise? - After several hours of travel, Penny gets Neil's attention and points out something, and he sees someone duck down into the tall grass - After some very quietly whispered discussion about the stalker, Cornelius sends Penny to go tackle the guy - There's a high-pitched yelp after Penny's easy success on sneaking and pinning. The stalker is a young girl, maybe ten or twelve. She says her name is Kelly. - She reads as undead to the paladin. - They converse. She says the tower is far away, but there's another town called Bayside at the coast. - She ends up walking with them for a little while. - After they take a rest to have some food, which they share, the girl heads back home. The place she was sitting has grown some dark colored vines. - Acta cuts a piece of vine, and Sariel asks if she can use Druidcraft on it to see what will happen. - Sariel gives a tiny poke of magic to the bit of vine, and...

- Presents from Dan! - The misadventures of Frodo's butt - The group looks up in the direction of the drumbeats as Acta melts away into the shadows and sees torchlight coming towards them through the trees - The retreat as a group to the treeline - A group of people wearing dark, blood-red cloak / robes and wearing tribal masks, some carrying torches some carrying spears enter the clearing. There's several dozen of them, and they approach the stone alter. - The robes part and one person comes forward and sweeps the bones away. A human man is dragged forward struggling and is lashed to the table. The group starts chanting. - A man comes forward and is clearing casting a Ritual incantation (as far as Acta is concerned - it feels nature-y, but also deathly). - The ground starts to rumble. - Vines begin to grow out of the ground around the alter, then arc over the table and start to encircle the victim. - The party is extremely unhappy about all this, but they are not sui...