Among the Mages

- Back at the inn that evening, Zaril plays well enough that she earns the discount she negotiated for the room rates (gold, shiny dress!! Think Hello Dolly) - Cornelius plays cards with an elf and a tiefling (buy-in @ 50 GP!) - Sergeant Watson shows up after a few rounds of cards and sits down with Neil. - Zaril immediate starts playing a romantic song to "set the mood" - They flirt and gamble together (Neil wins two of the three hands and is up 200 GP) - SW invites Neil to buy her a drink, "since you can clearly afford it". - He also buys a round for the tiefling and elf as well - They chat. She gets to "size up his situation" - Acta overhears a lot of conversations that happen to mention places she's never heard of - Luca schmoozes with other nobles - Zaril and Sariel chat about magicky stuff - "That's why they always have baby giraffes. . ." - The next morning, there is an animal scream sound, but it sounds like it's c...

- Everyone is here on time! - Apparently, we need a gavel. - Outside the barracks, there is a very large tower with a canopy or wider structure at the top near the center of town. It looks a bit like the Ellilune's tower, but taller and with better, smoother, newer construction. - There's a wall around the edge of the city, which we are near as the barracks are on the edge of the city. - Acta examines the wall but does not Detect any magic inherent in the wall, but there is a small glowing sphere following them. - Neil asks about her weird behavior as she poked the orb, and then Zaril casts Dispel Magic on it. It is gone now. - The center of the city (and therefore tower) seems to be a couple of miles away at least. - They start walking. - The city seems to have military closest to the outer wall of the city, then there seems to be mostly residential in the next ring, then there is mercantile and industrial things with the tower in the center. - The closer to the cent...

- April's back! - Home is where you don't have to wear any god damn pants. - The party is successful at taking a Long Rest. - They spend the day resting after the sprint they've had lately. - Zaril preens all morning. - Luka polishes her new armor. - Tadu repairs Cornelius's armor. - They converse about the leather for a minute, it may or may not be lizardfolk. - After lunch, we finally start heading east again. Sariel feels a tingle, but there is nothing to Detect. (Scrying spell?) - The group starts to chat about how they will know when they get "there". - Tadu wants to know where they're going, and Cornelius asks if he "knows anything about magic, friend?" - Magic friend? - Magic comma friend. - Tadu: Sometimes I think I should go to sea for a while. . . - Acta: Go to see what? - OOC Did you just roll stealth for a swamp? - Suddenly Acta feels a buzzing tingle, but she still doesn't detect anything with D...

- In the hut, we wake up and it is almost pitch dark. - There is magical darkness? - There is much arguing about who is going to leave the safety of the hut to discover why there is darkness. - Neil finally just grabs Acta, ties a rope around her waist, and shoves her towards the dome of the Hut. - Acta feels her face hit something and bounces backward. - She falls on her butt with a bloody nose. - Zaril finally adjusts the light inside the Hut so that everyone can see. - There is a dome of vines completely covering the Hut. - Sariel proposes to cast a Wall of Fire in a circle at the edge of the Hut, and then have Zaril dispel the Hut. SKILLZ CHALLENGE TO ESCAPE THE VINE PRISON (6 before 3) - Zaril tries to inspire Sariel for her upcoming spell, but Sariel doesn't know the song (Performance - Failure) - Acta contorts herself into a crazy pretzel to get outside of the wall of the Hut and between some of the vines and then casts Fire Bolt to clear some space (Acrobatics -...

- Lots of chatting because Mrs. Wells is having a rough night - The group pauses and pants for a few minutes. - Zaril gets a Sending from Barkridge, "Did you defeat the creatures or do you require additional assistance?" - She returns, "We killed everything, you asshat. Thanks for abandoning us. Your house is on fire. You might want to come deal with that. We are napping." - After a few moments, Barkridge reappears with a pop in the middle of the room. - The roof structure of the house is badly damaged and might collapse. - There is much grumbling about Barkridge's abandonment - Zaril digs the Bag of Hold out of the rubble and dusts it off. - She takes it and dashes up the stairs to where we left our pile of stuff and stuff it all in then grabs a bunch of things that look valuable (200 GP worth of objet d'art, vases and stuff) - They finally get out of the slowly burning building. - Neil whistles for Penny who trots over - Barkridge casts Control...

- Funny dog and toilet paper pack story from Katie - Back in the room, a bird flies out of the bag of holding lands on Acta's shoulder and speaks into her ear in Ellilune's voice, "I have acquired sufficient magical energy and no longer need Valador's sources. Please dispose of Valador immediately and report in when you do. It is time to begin Phase 2." - Acta reaches in the bag of holding, the interior of the bag seems to be coated in zombie-making vine plant, and she thinks about the book she stole from Valador, it comes to her hand, but she has to pull it out through the vines - After some time spent fruitlessly trying to get the plants out of the bag, the group finally decides that they need to pick sides. - They unanimously agree Barkridge is the lesser of two evils. - Sariel takes a nap because she's a real grouch when she doesn't get enough. - Neil and everyone else goes downstairs to get Valador's help removing the vines, and to throw El...

- April's first away session  :-( - Technical difficulties - The group heads down to breakfast as requested. - Acta "hides" at the table - They have been directed to take it directly to the fire giants at Mount Arbormor - Acta asks if he can't just teleport us there directly - he exasperatedly says no - The group asks him about the Poofy Pants fellows, and he doesn't recognize the description, but when Zaril shows him the bow and he examines it he says it looks familiar, but Zaril thinks he knows more - Neil spills the beans about Elillune and Chemondoro and says that we know he's a wizard, Valador - Valador admits it - He says that the bow indeed did come from Chemondoro - Chemondoro has located some sort of source for magical components and energy - to control the source is to have great power - Sariel assumes he wants world domination, he claims to only want to control his bit of it - Breakfast is over with a promise to talk again at lunch - T...