Dead Druids and Barry the Bush

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With all the animals gone or dead, Doc and I take a look around. The front door’s all sealed tight on the inside just like the outside. Down another hall, there’s a door with a half moon on it, looks like a D to me. Inside is a big dome with sunlight coming from no place onto another big stone coffin. The group discusses breaking it open, but Doc and I keep looking. There’s a really big mirror in another hall, but it won’t come off the wall and doesn’t do anything fun. Saalym’s axe makes it glow a little, but that’s it.

There’s another path that goes up, the half moon goes the other way on this one, but it’s the same inside. Except someone’s been living here. There’s drying plants and blankets. Folks think this is where the bad druid is staying and start talking about tricking and attacking her here. Or maybe outside. Saalym’s really tired, so she, Doc and I take a nap in there while the others go look for the druid or something.

There’s a big loud noise from down the corridor after not that long and Saalym goes to look what happened. The big stone box breaks open and a dead druid pops out and attacks Doc and me. It turns me back to myself and burns a lot. We smash it back down into the box and Doc and I cut off the head just to make sure. There’s lots of shooting below so we go help. After I put my goblin mask back on.

There’s a ghost down there, telling everyone to be quiet. And a dead druid like on the floor, almost like the one we fought up above. The ghost gets really angry and screams at us, so we have to make her go away. After, just to make sure, we go to the unopened coffin in the first hall and open it up and stab the body. It doesn’t move. Doc’s mad at the dead for attacking us, so we take all their stuff.

When we catch up with the rest of the group, they’ve made friends with a bush and named him Barry for his berries. He says the angry ghost lady hangs out in the forest. I send Kit out to see if she can find any of the druid’s other talking animals while we go looking for the ghost lady. Saalym wants to give her a proper funeral so she can go away and not come back. Spirits here are so strange.

Kit comes back with some ice friends when we find the right spot. So, we make lots of snowmen to watch Saalym say goodbye to the ghost. After Doc helps dig up her bones, he helps me with snowmen. Saalym and Leshy say goodbye to the ghost for a really long time. But she doesn’t go away, she shows up instead. And then Saalym gets really mad and hits her really hard. That makes her burn all up. Saalym says she was horrible and hurt kids.

Barry doesn’t really know what to do without the druid lady, so he comes back to town with us. I teach him Hide and Seek with the Speaker’s kids. Then we go to bed in her nice little house. I think Saalym owns the town’s Inn now, how strange.

Gotta Hunt a Druid

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I had a great time with Dad. Told him all about my life and about home and about space. He told me about how he talked to a fish once and it took him to the faewild and that’s how he met Mom. I wrote down what everything he had carved was. But eventually The Best Friends Club came back and said they were heading to the next town, so I said I’d come back and maybe take him to see more fantastic things later.

I got lost in thought then, for a while. Until we started talking to a big water dino things with a big long neck. It was awake, too, and was afraid the druid that woke it up would make it sleep again if it didn’t attack fisher ships. That’s silly and also, we need to stop that druid. The dino said it would stop attacking if we’d protect it from the druid. The druid likes the winter goddess lady, so we definitely need to do something about them. Name’s Raveson or something. Saalym went swimming and brought up some dead bodies and booze.

We gave the fisher people some big fish and they gave us some stuff. We go to the five taverns and get more booze. Some of them were asking about the druid, but it seems like they’re not here anymore. Went towards the Lonely Woods, I guess.

So, we head there and ask around. There’s a big white moose up here attacking people. That druid has been real busy. It’s only attacking people trying to cut wood and it hides from any hunters that come after it. The speaker lady and her kids are really nice and since the Inn is closed, she lets us stay with her. I try to teach the kids to make daggers, and we have lots of fun.

Eggy’s a real good hunter, so we go track it down in the morning. It’s a big ritual place with big crystal pillars and a big fancy coffin box, and a house without walls, and a bunch of statues with worn faces. Twitch says it’s something to do with the moon and time. He wants a dead elf to give him a moon sword. Do they do that? We mess with the pillars and the signs for a bit. Some snow and twigs and pinecones and fire. But nothing happens. Maybe it has to be a certain moon. The moon Twitch says we need is in a few days from now.

We look around instead. There’s a hole busted into a hill, and a lot of bones inside. There’s also a bunch of sleeping animals of all kinds. And that big white moose. Who shouts at us for the Frost Maiden and charges before we can make friends with it. All the smaller animals ran away while we killed it. Poor moose, it shoulda listened.

Looks like a lot more to explore here, but we take a rest first.

Dad!!!

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I found my Dad!!! No, not in the blue dwarf castle, that was before. Dad was after. Okay. Wait. Start with the mushrooms.

We rested in the mage’s bedroom with all his shiny rocks. Then Twitch looked at and took all the rocks and a lantern that changes colors. And he said the dagger and armor from the stabby guy was also magic, so we took that, too. Then we went back out through the drop doors. And we found a goat out there eating a new dead dwarf. He sat down when he saw Saalym and he’s got fangs just like her. He’s a good boy.

Then we went out to the entry place and down the next hall. There’s noise behind the door so I opened the door and then hid behind it. These big mushrooms can wandering out. Like really big. Then shook some spores on Twitch and Sandro when Eggy tried to talk to them. So, of course he shot them. They started punching my friends, so I threw my psy blades at them. Then I got hit and went to sleep.

When I woke up again, there were lots more and they were all dead. Some of them had people inside them. Dwarves and humans. Leshy said his spell was going to go away, so we rushed up the next set of stairs. We only found a couple dwarves in their bed covered in mushrooms up there, so we stabbed them so they wouldn’t turn into mushroom monsters. Then we took all their stuff, including some really pretty carved pearls.

We decided it was time to sleep so the magic people could be magic again, so we went back to the mage’s bedroom. Eggy didn’t want the good boy goat in the room with us, even though Yogi was allowed in the room. So we put him out to guard the metal suited dead dwarves instead. Kit isn’t so sure about him either, but I like him. In the morning we gathered up everything useful from the metal suits and all the armor and war picks to sell and headed down to the town to find Garry and Good Boy.

Their Speaker sleeps in the snow. He’s silly. Called us thieves! We’re not thieves, but we found and killed the thieves. Told us that the Inn is missing a pretty lantern. When we go there, she’s really happy we brought back her color changing lamp, so she gives us free drinks. Says the goats came from the tavern and the carved pearls from the supply company. Eggy and Saalym go off to talk to those people. Saalym said she wanted to buy the good boy goat from the guy because she gave it fangs. I don’t understand, but the ale was okay. Then we had a drinking competition that night and Sandro won! I dunno, I slept through most of it.

The next day we went back to Targos. Garret had left before we got to the inn the day before so he made it back to his husband just before we did, and they were all very happy to see us again. They gave us some cute little figures carved out of bone. There was a fox just like Kit. They said there was another carver in town who was much better and his name is James Brewer!

I ran off then, but I had to get my friends to help me find the house because I forgot to listen to where it was, but I found it, and his front room was all filled with carved bone things, but he wasn’t there, so I snuck around back and he was in the kitchen carving something else, and I knocked and he opened the door and I told him he was my Dad and he was really confused and I tried to explain, I even showed him my face and everything and he thought it was a dream and pinched himself, but I’m not a dream and I asked him if he hated me cuz Mom said he never wanted to meet me and he said Mom never asked him about that, he’s just been having dreams for a couple years now but I think I’m more than that old and I showed him my pretty daggers, and then someone shouted to ask if I was okay.

I told him those were my friends and asked if we could come in his shop and he could come meet them when he was ready. He said okay, so I went back outside. Back around the front to tell them all I found my Dad, and then I brought them into the shop. The carvings were all really good, so I start explaining what some of them are. There’s some of the trees I exploded. And some plants I recognize. And there’s one that looks like Auntie’s hut. There’s one that Eggy recognizes of the MeanHead like the one Doc and I chased in the woods the other day. He says he had it in a cage but he forgot and the cage got broke when we crashed our ship. He’s really worried that it’ll take over all of Ten Towns or something, but it’s a little scaredy, it ran away from me and Doc.

Dad came in then and I introduced him to everyone. Then I started explaining the carvings to him. and people told him he made a good kid, and Eggy said he’s fae touched, but I think it takes more than touching to make a kid, but I don’t know for sure, Mom’s real tricky. Dad seems really confused, but he says I can stay with him if I want to, and there’s so much to say, so I say I will and get Leshy to leave us some mead and tell Doc to stick with Saalym so she doesn’t get scared because I’m not there.

Storming a Castle

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Are we storming a castle? Sneaking in? What we doin? Eggy wants inside. Seems like there’s only a couple ways in. I go sneak up to look. The dome has tiny windows way up. The buildings are all shut up with no way in. There’s a little stream coming out one place, but the bars are too close together for me. Sandy comes up to squeeze through. After a while, he comes back and says there’s a well inside, but then in just goes into the mountain. The rest of us can’t get though this way. The big doors are so heavy there’s no sneaking in that way and there’s big things moving around inside. So, we head back to the group.

What if the people inside need help? The blue dwarves are from under the dark not up on the hill. What if they got attacked by the blue ones or just saw them? Maybe they’re not the bad guys. We can’t all sneak up anyway, and that big door is obvious. So, we just start walking up and calling out to them that we’re here to help.

They shoot us. From the dome.

Eggy says it is the blue dwarves after all, so we shoot back. Saalym gets right up on the side of the dome and Sandy goes right inside! The windows are too small for anyone else, but Twitch says he can make me tiny and he can magic himself inside. So, Sandy, Twitch, and me go inside to scout. Doc says he’s going to take a quick nap until we get back, and Leshy makes my eyes glow or something.

WOW! Seeing in the dark is so cool! Is this what Doc sees all the time??? No wonder he’s so sneaky.

We head down the ladders and into a tunnel and back up another ladder. The first room is pretty empty, but the second room has piles of supplies and stuff. And some really big blue dwarves who attack us! We attack them right back. I miss Doc, but we put them down and take their money and stuff. I get some more rope and climbing stuff and Twitch gets some herbs. The next room has even more big blue dwarves, so we have to fight them, too. I guess the others got bored waiting, cuz we hear gunshots from the next room over.

The others had bust in and killed some dead ogres and goats and big blue dwarves. A bunch of them fell in a pit, but not all. Everybody’s tired but it’s really not a good place to stop, there’s doors everywhere! So, I sneak off down a short hall to a bit empty room, there’s a couple doors to another room with a lever in it. I can’t tell what the lever does, but there’s another hall with a door. Sounds like there’s people in there. This seems better than the front area, so I whisper for them to come here.

I really want to find out what this lever does, but I just hold it. The group comes to join me and when Saalym gets in the doorway, someone else pushes the lever down! It wasn’t me, I swear! I stabbed him real good, too, to prove it. the two doors came down with only Saalym getting through to me. A bunch more things come rushing down the hall. Some of the dwarves were inside big metal suits! Eggy gets the door back up so everyone can get through. Nobody wanted to break the suits, I guess, cuz they just kept trying to stab the dwarves inside. I had my hands full with the dwarves not in suits.

One of them ran away down the hall after all his friends were dead. We chased after him and when he opened the door, the hallway caught fire! It hurt a lot, but we kept going. Killed him and his magic friend. This room is nice and quiet. It has pretty rocks in it. This seems like a much better place to rest.

Wait. Where’s Doc?

Lost and Found

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The doggos are all very hungry and anxious, so we get them into a nice tent and get some fire going and give them lots of food. We spend the night with the doggos. They’re very soft and snuggly and I don’t want to go find the dumb people who left them here all alone without food. But we promised, so we secure them in the tent again and make sure the fire’s gonna burn down and not up. I dunno, whatever Eggy said.

Up the big hill we go. We had to bribe a couple big goats to let us pass. Everything is so hungry out here. A little while later the even snow tries to eat us. But my little ice friends’ pinecone saves the day, and even Yogi who can’t get inside uses it to hide behind. Jinx is a hero with his little pinecone, everyone says so.

A little while later we find a nearly dead guy in the snow. This is the nice guy’s husband, and Good Boy is very happy to have his master back. He says he was with three other people and that yetis attacked. Eggy gets really excited about making a yeti-skin coat. He says they were just up here exploring for no reason because they like adventure. That seems like a bad reason to go where the invisible blue dwarves live, but people here are very strange. He doesn’t know about the dwarves, though. He tried to get the yetis away from his friends, but I guess it didn’t work.

He shows us where they got attacked. There’s a lot of blood there, near a cave mouth. So, Doc and I head in to scout. He says I really need some googles of dark, but that’s okay, I trust Doc to keep me safe. We find a big hole in the ground and a room full of bones. Doc says one of the skulls could be a hippoman like Eggy. There’s lots of bones here. The next room has a big family of yetis playing catch with a little halfling woman. Three big ones and two little ones, so Doc and I back up and call in the rest of the Best Friends Club.

They’re really noisy though, so the yetis come charging out to meet them in the bone room. This is a lot more yetis than last time and they hurt me a lot and Doc gets real mad and big and dark. But we get them so they can’t hurt anybody else anymore.

Parylou or Parallel or something, the halfling lady in the other room is really upset and scared even though the yetis are all dead. She hasn’t seen her other friends. Leshy goes back to look at the bones and says that the hippoman skull is probably just the almost giant man’s. That leaves just one, a tiefling called Astricks or something. The Yetis had some magic rocks, so Twitch gathers them up. Pary doesn’t want to come, so we leave Garry with her while we go look for the demon lady. A little way further up the hill we find her, frozen in a little ball next to a broken tent and a buried dwarf without a head. So we bring them both back.

We get back to the yeti cave to sleep for the night with all the dead people and the found people. In the morning, we take them down the hill and get all their things and doggos. Garry says he can get everyone to the nearest town because Eggy really wants to look for the dwarves while we’re here. That’s not what we’re supposed to do, though. He gets everyone else to agree with him, though. So they head east and we find a path up to the dwarves’ place.