Quest Logs

Every quest inside of the world of Sunholm is logged by our adventurers so that other guild members can live vicariously though them, and so that other adventurers can stay on top of the successes and failures of the guild as a whole. If an adventurer shares a quest log with the guild then they are usually met with payment for their work by other guild members (+10% Gold in the next adventure) however if there is ever a case where no member of the adventuring party provides a history of what happened then it is unlikely anyone will know about their deeds, or even that the world itself will remember their experiences (Characters will not receive exp for that session). There is no requirement for the style or form of the quest logs, they can be short summaries, a list of events that occurred, masterfully woven tales, sonnets, poems, songs, or anything else you would like, they must however contain information about all of the major story events that occurred.

Logs

March

19

Avallac'h: We finally went back to the Vahlarot Temple. I have been patiently waiting for another opportunity to study the architecture. I'm am also puzzled as to how more of the temple seems to be revealed each time we visit. It is as dangerous as beautiful I'm afraid. On this trip we encountered several Gazer's, younger sibling to the Beholder. I have never seen either creature in person before. With my recent studies of protective magic, I was able to shield Ignar from their menacing rays. We also faced off against a water elemental, though it looked to be of a smaller variety. Some of my companions struggled to hurt it. If I recall correctly, elemental's are resistant to non-magical attacks. I guess it pays to have a wizard around.

18

Jimmy: So it all started when this stupid pixie kept annoying me and waking me up, "hey, listen bro" it shouted in my ear. I tried to wack it with my club but it proved too elusive so I had to listen to it. She ended up leading me to a giant tree that could talk and some princess from another world (played by Grace). Apparently they were looking for me because I'm a 'druid' and 'have a duty to protect nature' and he said I needed to defeat some wizard or the whole forest would die. The tree was kinda a huge dick though so I burned him down (the princess was at first skeptical but eventually agreed he was kinda a dick) and took some of the ashes, which seemed magical. I then tried to sell the ashes to the nice old lady at the shop but when I went there some of the pots tried to attack me so I decided to break all of her evil pottery and take all the gold that was inside. I then decided to attack the wizard that tree was going on about anyway because the princess wouldn't shut up about it and said that if I killed him she would leave. So I turned into a bear and killed the wizard Frodnonag (who turned into a giant pig, ew) and after that happened I blacked out and woke up back in bed at Sunholm, wondering whether it was a dream or not but feeling stronger for the experience.

13

Poppy: I'm fine! Leave me alone! I'm a big girl and can manage myself just fine, so there. This week I found and grappled a minatowr [sic]. Who says I can't take care of myself? Any rumors you heard that I got knocked out and almost died fighting a troll are totally fake and besides Jimmy healed me so as I said I'm fine. If anything if you're trying to track down a kid who needs help, check out this loser Sammy. He slept through his watch and we almost lost the minatowr, but I'm so smart and clever and good at tracking (yes it was all me not Avallach or Jimmy at all) that we hunted it down into some caves. Anyways, I'm with Jimmy who's the best and some other fighty people who are almost as cool as me, so we killed the troll and brought the minatowr back and got paid a bunch!!! So I've got money and quest and glory and everything don't worry about me!!

Maerilith: I've done my best to watch over Elaine and keep her entertained these past two weeks, but as my former traveling companions and the two children (that Jimmy had picked up during my hiatus) began discussing going out into the world again, I was desperate to join and have the chance to map more of this land! After deliberating more, I found them upstairs outside the apothecary, and agreed to go if and only if I could find a way to make sure Elaine would stay safely at the guild. I'd been eyeing the magical doll poster for a while and decided that was a good first place to try, so I went and found Deni who was more than happy to give it to me, but when I said I wanted it for Elaine, she adamantly stated it was not suited for her age. Disappointed, I went to go find Elaine and see if she would be okay to stay, but Jimmy took the doll though before I left... Not sure what good it'll do him and his kids if it wasn't good for Elaine... But oh well!

Upstairs, I found Elaine keeping herself entertained with some sort of trinket of Moz's, and she agreed to wait for me til dinner, so off I went with the group to the mines! A nice quick in and out adventure, or so it seemed like it would be... Turns out that a minotaur scout randomly pops up from the east, but never emerges from the sealed mine entrance... So strange, so there must be a back entrance! Unfortunately, the minotaur is pretty inconsistent, so we'd likely have to camp out to catch it... While the group continued east, I flew back in time for dinner at the guild, and asked Moz if she had the time to watch Elaine. She didn't, which is understandable with her duties. But, fortunately, Svelta was more than happy to help out, show her a few things about self defense, and in general keep an eye on her! I shall have to thank Svelta again for all of her help; I really appreciated it.

Back to group, I find them camped at a cave, which was pretty deep, but not a very good vantage point. So, I flew up to see what I could see, or if there was a better one, and found another camp, not but a half hour southeast of us. I couldn't make out the figures, but it was certainly a camp. Together, we ventured out, some more stealthily than others, but Jimmy pops out of his animal form once he recognizes them from the guild. It was Simon and his two sisters, Kali and Sarah! I'd only seen them around the guild, but apparently the group had run into them at the dungeon, too! Unfortunately, they hadn't anymore details to share about the dungeon, but by happenstance, they were staking out for the minotaur, too, so they were happy to team up to capture the minotaur! We decide to camp out in a triangular camp formation, about half an hour from one another to cover the most ground, and split up the watches. Taro, Ignar, and I in one, the Cantalar siblings in another, and Avallac'h, Jimmy, and his rambunctious kids in the third.

For my group, we took the cave we'd initially found, and I had second watch, which means, I had the task of waking up Ignar. Little did the old man know, I know how to wake up anyone with a viol! But... I did it a little too well, and woke Taro up early, too. Sorry again, Taro... Anyway, the night was quiet in our camp, and when we all awoke, the kids camp looked fine, but the Cantalar camp was no where to be seen! We quickly flew over! Well, I flew, Taro and Ignar walked. But no one was there... It looked like they'd just packed up camp and left. But at least no signs of a struggle were there either, so the minotaur probably hadn't gotten to them in the night.

So, I fly back up to check on the kid's camp, annnnddddd... They're gone now, too... I swear, that group can't be left unattended. Who's idea was it to bring children on adventures anyways!? Really, they should be staying back and playing with Elaine, they can get their worldly experience later! Ah... But Jimmy will be Jimmy and bring them along... So! We start heading over to their camp to see what had happened, but in the sky suddenly appears the words: "Good morning secret tunnel through the mountains find us Jimmy"

After a quick deduction of the not so subtle yet still not very specific announcement, we start to head back toward the mine where presumably some sort of back entrance had been found.

Okay, I need sleep, it's late, I'll try to finish before the campaign tomorrow...

Avallac'h: Jimmy and I found the secret entrance to the mines. Fortunately the Minotaur scout led us right to it. Jimmy was able to follow the tracks and I was able to find the elevator. This is no thanks to that elf boy that was with us. Should have known better than to trust a watch to a child. Gives us elves a bad name. We did have a little competition on this excursion. The Cantalar siblings, Simon and his twin sisters Kali and Sarah, were also looking for the scout. I wonder if either of them are single. Being that they are twins, it doubles my chances. Where was I, oh yes, the mines. We did catch up with the scout inside, and encountered a Troll as well. Ghastly creatures those trolls, and very tough to bring down.

5

Maerilith: Firstly, I request a more detailed explanation of this adventure to the temple. Secondly, I'm disappointed in all of my traveling companions, except Taro, I know you tried. But I thought we agreed the group wouldn't go on any adventures that involved expanding our maps of the world and dungeons while I'm staying behind, and what do you all do?! You run off to the dungeon immediately! I'm trying to do the right thing and keep Elaine entertained until her mother gets back from the fifth ring because that's too dangerous for any of us right now, let alone a child, and I'm worried she'd run off on her own without someone watching her! I feel betrayed by you all! Sigh...

Anyways, Elaine and I had a great week! I played with her and taught her some survival skills as the fey who raised me had. It's important life lessons any child with a curious and adventurous spirit should learn! Ah... Brings me back to my childhood; her curiosity of the world and desire to explore it reminds me of my own younger days... But! I don't know if there are friendly fey in these woods to raise her and protect as I had the luck to have, so at the guild we must keep her safe at for now. Hopefully, her mother will return soon...

Avallac'h: Hakvalak seems to have made a friend of the Goblin we captured. I actually like the little guy. He is friendlier then some of the other residents of Sunholm. We also tried one of his newer potions. I was impressed! Upon drinking the potion, we were able to levitate. Some of our, less capable companions couldn't seem to handle it. Bumbling about on the ceiling and all.

Thanks to us, we now have a jump point set up at the Vahlarot temple. Fascinating place thus far. We cleared the central room of several Grell. Those Dangerous aberrations were difficult to fight. Some of my magic was ineffective against them and their tentacles incapacitated several of my companions. But alas we were victorious and even managed to get Hakvalak more parts for his potions.

February

27

Maerilith: After finally sleeping off the last leg of our exhaustion, our little adventuring party (that I think has pretty solidly formed at this point) went about trying to figure out what our next adventure should be. Everything seemed a little more intimidating than we were prepared for, so we were looking for something small to give us that little extra push to grow our powers further. Another small one came in from the portal; only Ignar had been there to greet him, but the rest of us eventually wandered upstairs and greeted the newcomer. Gar was apparently the halfling's name, and he kept talking about fighting monsters or something, creatures with snake bodies and lion heads, but... Then he said snake faces and horns..? Later Taro mentioned purple glowing eyes, and Gar hastily agreed the monster fit that description, too. Quite a strange beast that plagued this poor soul's home of Huperdook, or something like that. Honestly, I think we were worried he was a little crazy, but you never know when you could use another hand, so we convinced him to come along with us.

First stop was the apothecary! Hakvalak had made some intelligence potions and was giving away free samples, but Taro and I were skeptical and so waited outside the shop while the others went in to try them. And in fact! It turned out that the potions really worked! He'd given many to the live goblin we'd brought in, and now he's intelligent enough to be the apothecary's assistant! I was blown away; the potion really worked for once!!! My faith in Hakvalak's ability had been restored completely. However... The others weren't super nice to Hakvalak, so Taro and I rushed in to make sure Hakvalak's feelings weren't too hurt and to ask if we could borrow the Bag of Colding again without the down deposit. Unfortunately, this time didn't go as smoothly, so we were left without a bag to hunt down grell parts. I picked up a potion of healing before we left though, just in case.

This dilemma led to more indecision of what to do, so we wandered over to the mine where Kurst had sealed the entrance off and Erik and his miners were camped. I asked if there was anything we could do to help, and we could bring food or get sealed into the mine til it was cleared, but... That wasn't really what we'd been hoping to hear. We thought to go west, but at the last second, changed our chaotic minds once more and decided to go north and scout out the area where the stone tablet puzzle (that Jimmy, Taro, and I had solved a replica of the week before) supposedly resided. So! More mapping out of the land ensued!

Across the plains, around the lake, along the river, into the mountains, we journeyed... Eventually, we came across a wide inlet, which blocked our northward journey alongside the main river, and emerged from a mountain whose top was lost to the clouds... But it seemed simple enough to get everyone across! I flew over with some rope, stabbed it through firmly into the ground with Taro's rapier, and tied the remaining around the hilt. Taro held the other end steady while the short ones attempted to make the crossing. Gar immediately lost his grip and down the river he went. Jimmy went to rescue him in elk form and allowed Gar to ride on his back across. Ignar seemed to grumble a bit more than usual as he made his way across with the rope successfully, and Jimmy helped pull Taro quickly over with a few quick pulls of the rope. Gar seemed confused after that. He kept saying how Jimmy was a magical elk or something..? He really wasn't helping ease our suspicions that he was a little bonkers

The sun had been setting at this point, so we decided to camp there for the night, but no sooner had we uttered the words "Let's camp!" than we discovered Ignar getting carried away by the river! Jimmy went to the rescue once again, but uh... We all saw more of Ignar than we wanted that night... Anyway! We had three shifts (Gar, Taro, and Jimmy) and all was quiet in the night; Jimmy looked a little smug in the morning though and had a bit more squirrel tails than I thought were reasonable on a necklace and belt...

With the sun up once more, we continued our journey! It was about another four hours before the river dried up and we emerged from the mountains. There, we were met with rolling hills, which I took advantage of by flying up to get a better vantage point. In the distance, about another four hours or so away, it was clear. A dark charred circle was there and was likely the resting ground for our highly suspected demon summoning puzzle. I mean, the puzzle read, "SUMMON THE DEMON HERE" in infernal, which really didn't sound like a good idea to try. The closer we got, the more and more it really didn't seem like a good idea. It was a purely uniform circle, about a half mile in diameter, filled with charcoal and small obsidian shards. There had been some footsteps through the area. Ignar, ignoring caution as usual, put some of the charcoal on his face and hair. Maybe we should convince the old gnome his adventuring days are past... His mind doesn't always seem there... But I digress At the center, I found the tablet and nine puzzle pieces floating in the air and shouted out with a prestidigitated loud voice to announce I'd found it. Once they'd caught up, I flew down to meet them at the epicenter...

Jimmy immediately began trying to solve it, but I really didn't think it was a good idea at that point and was trying to convince the others, too. While Jimmy couldn't read and thus spell infernal, he knew the puzzle and just started swapping out matching tiles, when he was about to place the last piece, I slept him and tried to drag him away, but it was too late! The tablet started glowing! I ran back to where the others stood and tried to convince them to teleport back to the guild with me before the demon was summoned, but no one was listening! Gar just started walking away, Ignar was pretending to eat something out of his bag, Jimmy stood proudly by what he had done, and even Taro wasn't super concerned. I just kept readying to teleport while trying to gather and save those who had saved me before, but they kept resisting rescue! Ah!

Meanwhile, the tablet grew brighter and a large (about one and half me's tall), muscled humanoid made of light started emerging; it's form becoming more solid and filling out as the seconds ticked by much too fast. Boney wings took shape and started to form, and only then did Taro go pale and agree it was time to go. Balor! He said it was a Balor!!!! So, working together now, Taro and I made a chain between Jimmy and Ignar to teleport back. I had my finger hovered above the button, paralyzed by curiosity and fear as the figure of light stretched, flexing its wings and letting loose a bloodcurdling scream as though it'd been trapped for thousands of years. Taro was the one who pushed my arm into the button, and moments later, we were in the cube... Just... Taro and I...

---

It's nearly been an hour. We're nearly out of the cube. Curse this hour long wait! Our friends are being, have likely already been, eaten, destroyed, utterly and entirely by the Balor that we left them to!!! No!!! Ah... We tried our best to save them... Why wouldn't they come with us!?! We told them of the danger! I can only hope the new person managed to run away fast enough, but he had shot a few arrows at it, which it likely wouldn't have appreciated... Sigh... What have we done...? I can only hope Moz can undo what we've done...

---

So.... We get out and tell Moz about the Balor, and she scrys the place, and all that's there is a... door..? No Balor, no mutilated bodies of our companions, no signs of anyone or anything really... And we tell her Jimmy was there, so she messages him, and apparently, they're all alive..? And it was all a misunderstanding..? And Moz indeed revealed that they were within a stone room filled with more doors... I'm very confused... Relieved! But confused. Ah... Today has been a roller coaster!

---

Alright, Jimmy's given me the scoop as he calls it. Apparently, it was a solar angel! And his name was Dæmon, which was a little lost in the translation... But apparently Dæmon owes Jimmy a life debt or something now!?! And they're best buds!?! Or so he says! But it's fascinating... Dæmon is supposedly the Guardian of the Doors, and opened that door we'd seen through the scrying orb and that they'd gone inside of. The solar angel had proclaimed lots of other things, too, apparently! The old gods of Sunholm may be free once more... What could that mean? Are there no gods here? Do cleric's powers not work here? Can they be found within the doors? So many questions! Ah! If only I'd stayed, if only curiosity had won over fear... Sigh... Well, Dæmon flew farther to the north after swearing an oath of gratitude to Jimmy. Perhaps more doors will be opened farther into the northern rings? But that will have to wait for another day...

20

Maerilith: So... There wasn't a map for the puzzle... I'm still a little bummed about that, and even a week later I still feel a little like crying, but for some reason that has just been a little stronger the past day or so than usual, but I wasn't going to let it keep me from more adventures! While it took me a few days to feel up to normal after my mysterious headache and my less mysterious blood loss, it took even longer to convince my newfound friends to leave the guildhall for more adventuring. Jimmy wouldn't leave Taro or me alone until we helped him solve Moz's next puzzle, so that's where most of the last week went. We think we have it solved but are not entirely sure that's the greatest idea to go pursue just yet. Oh! Moz is back, I can finally go ask her about that! But I'm getting ahead of myself...

Instead, we spent most of last morning arguing what we should do first. Since the last adventuring party had returned with a report of the small monster camp from the south, I really wanted to go deal with that before it got out of hand, and we'd get the chance to start mapping out the southern landscape! Plus, it sounded like we'd be able to knock out a second posting at the same time for our local apothecary, so we could kill two birds with one stone! The only problem with the apothecary's posting is that we needed fresh goblin parts... VERY fresh parts, so we knew we'd need to borrow Hakvalak's Bag of Colding. Only problem was that we didn't have an 1000gp safety deposit to put down to borrow it, even with all our gold combined.

We decided to try our luck, though, and went to talk with Hakvalak for the first time. And... Hm... He's an interesting character, I must say. His excitement rivals my own, but in a more... Unsettling manner. Anyways! He seemed okay with lending his bag without a down deposit so long as all five of us (Jimmy, Taro, Ignar, Avallac'h, Me) tried his mystery potion... While this would kill three birds with one stone, I was very nervous about there being any untoward and permanent effects. I.. I really like how I look and don't want some random potion changing any of that or anything else for that matter.

Since I'd finally repaired my relationship with Moz, I decided to run upstairs to ask her for advice, or at least for reassurance that she could undo any undesired effects from the drink. But, when I knocked on her door, it just creaked open without response, which was really worrying, but Kurst didn't seem to care when he burst out of his room and immediately picked me up by the back of my neck! I don't understand! I just knocked! I hadn't done a thing! ACK! I'm sorry... But alas, he seemed to think I had been trying to break into her room and tossed me down the stairs... Apparently, the door had been alarmed and Moz was out, so there would be no answers from her that day.

Accepting my fate, I sulked back over to the group and agreed to down the potion with everyone else. Ugh... It was awful, and no one seemed to be affected by it besides Taro and I, perhaps it was only effective against tieflings... But we both started tearing up and the day just seemed a little sadder for it. But Hakvalak seemed please with our cooperation, so with a little extra gold in our pockets and a loaned Bag of Colding, we began our southward bound journey.

We trekked across the land for a good nine hours, and since we'd taken a little bit to get started, night had thoroughly fallen. Fortunately, all of us had eyes well suited for the dark, so we didn't need to light any torches, which would have given away our position. Unfortunately, there was a crescent of moonlight, so me flying up to scout from above did pose a risk of exposing us further. Fortunately again, the monster camp had lit a campfire! So they were pretty easy to spot. I think we spent a little too much time debating on how to approach though, and the camp's scouting party got the jump on us! We easily took out the three wolves and wolf riders, two goblins and one hobgoblin (I got the killing blow on that one!). After that, we were trying to decide whether we had time to start harvesting the goblin parts before taking on the rest of the goblins and bugbears that we'd heard were in the camp main; however, the goblins made that decision for us!

Seven goblins suddenly appeared over the rise with one bigger goblin behind them, urging them forward, rallying them to attack! This fight was much longer, and we had to be careful not to damage the weaker goblins too much since they needed to be somewhat intact for part harvesting, but three ended up still being over stabbed, over clawed, and over zapped. I'd flown up to shoot at the boss who kept emboldening his lackeys while the others took out the rest, and once the last minion had been slayed, the goblin boss began making a run for it. Avallac'h hasted our bear friend, though, and Fingle managed to run the monster down and bring it's body back.

So! With one stone down, we began on the next! There was no time to waste when we needed fresh parts! Oh, right... And we had one goblin charmed... Since we needed a live one... That was a little awkward, we had him close his eyes at first, but eventually we convinced him to lay down in a cozy little bedroll, snuggled in nice and tight with some rope, all cozy-like. *sniff* *sniff* Why am I still kind of tearing up? Taro kept saying things and then crying, too, so we tried to leave him be best as we could as we began doing our best to extract all the parts Hakvalak had requested. However, after a few botched attempts, we had to ask Taro for some help with his more dexterous hands and the results turned out much better - minus one which he started sobbing and ruined the hide of.

But in the end, we ended up with some extra! For some reason Ignar wanted extra goblin and wolf hide for himself and someone carved out a heart, which definitely wasn't on the list, but I digress. Everything fit in the bag nicely though. Beyond our quest items, there were 10 scimitars or so that we rounded up for Svelta before heading over to the monster camp, realizing the supposedly reported bugbears had not arrived. However, the camp was empty. There might have been one spot where another tent could have gone, but we couldn't tell how recent of a departure that could had been. And to make sure no other monsters made claim to this place again in the future, we decided to destroy the camp! Jimmy wanted to burn all the corpses, too... That seemed a little much, but I wasn't going to stop him. We collected their ears and the heads of the big ones to show to Kurst for proof before piling them into a pyre along with the broken remains of their campground. Jimmy also stuck a few other heads on sticks around the flames and wrote some profanities in common in the ground and other words in scripts unknown to me. But I think we got our message across...

Anywho, our charmed goblin had definitely stopped being charmed before we finished all this, but trapped in the bedroll cocoon, he wasn't going anywhere, but we had to deal with his hollering the whole eleven twelve or so hours back to the guild....... Sigh... That had been the longest day. We were all exhausted when we'd finally gotten back around the same time we'd left the day before. But we had to turn in our quests still!

I was excited to show Kurst our proof of quest completion, maybe a little too excited in hindsight as I shouted his name all the way up the stairs... By the time we got to his door to try and explain we had a quest to turn in, his door had been slammed shut and locked, and shortly after, an area of silence was placed in the hallway. Sigh... I didn't mean to annoy him... But we realized that we'd have to try again later, except Jimmy who turned into a mouse and tried sneaking under the door to no avail before running off outside. The rest of us turned in our goblin and stuffed Bag of Colding to Hakvalak who was more than pleased with our results. Everything turned out well there, and he didn't want the extra goblin heart, but said it apparently is known for tasting good? Thus! An idea was hatched. We could try to cook Kurst a delicious dinner to soothe over this rough start and get back on the right footing!

During this Jimmy bursts in saying something about Kurst polishing his weapon and that it was a two hander, so we knew that'd probably give us enough time to make this meal for him. And I must say, I did a splendid job on crafting this goblin heart dish. Just in time, Kurst comes down the stairs, I offer him the plate, show him the proof, and try to hastily explain how we'd completed the posting before he got annoyed with me and left again. He gives us the coin reward wordlessly and continues on his way, ignoring the plate, and only curtly waving to Jimmy, who still seemed a little shaken for some reason... We'd tried our best.

Mox had apparently been watching from a corner in the main hall though and came over laughing as she shared that Kurst was vegan! Ack! I didn't know! She and Jimmy enjoyed the goblin heart meal though... I even got a pat on the back from Mox, so at least Mox still likes me! I'll still have to try to make amends somehow with Kurst... Anyways, adventure three complete!

Avallac'h: Citizens of Sunholm, Those pesky goblins will trouble us no more. Our scrappy little group made short work of those vermin. They had wolves, but we had a bear. Okay, I'll admit that it wasn't the most difficult of tasks. Goblins aren't exactly the brightest bunch, and we didn't encounter any bugbears. I guess its hard to find reliable scouts these days.

Hakvalak, strange fellow. He is direct, which I can appreciate. Nobody likes someone who talks too much, as if they are the smartest one in the room. But I will say, I'm not impressed with his work so far. He gave us some potions to try out. That's it, the entirety of the story, nothing really happened. How are we to combat evil without good potions. Maybe he can do something useful with all of the goblin parts we gave him. Messy business that was. I think some of my companions enjoyed that part a little too much.

14

Maerilith: (Ignore this short section for now, I'm trying to save on paper, and I suppose I should have this posted somewhere just in case, but I digress) If I don't make it out of this puzzle cube, this is the last will and testament of Maerilith, Sunholm's esteemed albeit short-lived cartographer. My viol shall be returned to the fey spirits of my home forest, whom gifted it to me before leaving on my first real adventure. The rest I don't care about. I look forward to roaming the forests of the Fey Wilds to which I'm bound and can only hope my ancestors don't have a stronger pull on my soul and drag me down... (Okay, you can start reading here. Sorry if I'm a little scattered, I didn't wake up feeling super great, and for some reason I had a pounding headache, which still hasn't fully subsided yet)

The next day of adventure began! After an exciting trip to the mines, I spent the day scouring the posting board for my next escapade out into the wilderness when the quest reward of a treasure map caught my eye... I just couldn't pass up the chance to see what a real map looked... erm.. to add another map to my growing collection! It was also a chance to try and make amends with Moz. So, I spent all day deliberating over that puzzle, but in the end, I had to sleep on it.

When I woke up this morning, though, it suddenly clicked, and I rushed upstairs to go tell Moz. Along the way, another person poofed in from the portal. He seemed one of those scholarly all-knowing types, but I was in a rush to answer the riddle before anyone else did, so I just directed him downstairs to where all the others were still lounging around in and continued my sprint upstairs.

Mox was in a much better mood this time around and happy to let me try out the puzzle box, so without any hesitation, I picked it up and said "Name" and next thing I knew I was somewhere else entirely. I started mapping out the relatively small circular room I had appeared within and gained my bearings as a few of my traveling companions from the day before began arriving. It was really sweet to see that they cared enough to come try and find me - Fingle really surprised me when he was the first one through. I shall have to remember not to abandon them in the future...

Anywho, we made the mistake of pressing a button set up on a pedestal in center of the room, which immediately started an increasingly ominous countdown with dimming lights and grinding stones that could only be reset back to normal by pressing the button again. So, we began taking turns pressing the button as we tried to figure out how to get out of this room. Perhaps it was a puzzle? Something to do with the codeword "Name"? So we tried mapping the letters to numbers and let the 20 lights go out to the number of each letter. By the time it got down to 1 for 'A', it was pitch black, the rumbling and grinding of stone had reached a peak, and the door raised ever so slightly, just enough for a mouse to get through... So then after resetting it to 20 again, we (everyone but Fingle) said, hey, Fingle, you or your mouse could get under the door, get to the other side and figure out how to open it from the other side! But instead, he said we just had to stop pressing the button and started taking a nap on the floor in front of the door.

There was no way we were going to let it get down to 0 though. It sounded like death and destruction! Eventually, though, we had exhausted all of our options.. Even when the wizard I'd run into earlier showed up, he had no other ideas on how to get out either. Taro allowed us time to prepare for death; others were more callous and impatient to let all 20 red lights go out. But in this time of finality and acceptance, I wrote up my will and composed my final song. There was no way I was going out quietly, without song in my ear and my viol at rest.

As the last light flickered out and my song reached a crescendo, the door opened, the lights returned, and we were not in fact dead! Instead, we were led into yet another puzzle room, but this one was much more straight forward. We just had to connect the three glowing gems on chains to the glowing gems on the three statues. The only catch was that each time they connected, there was a jolt of energy between the two that produced a bit of a shockwave and the ground started to rumble and shake. That didn't pose a problem til the last statue, which promptly fell and broke, it still seemed simple enough though, so I picked up the gem and headed toward the chain. I don't remember who stopped me (Thank you, mystery friend) and reminded me of the shockwave before it was too late, but the wizard, Aval-something, could fortunately mage hand the gem over. And thus, puzzle two was complete!

The last room opened, another circular room like the last, except this one had a bowl on a pedestal in the center with a hole in the center, which drained into intricate patterns on the floor. On the bowl were three words; I could only read the one in infernal, but together we determined that each one said "Blood" in another language. This riddle was clear as day! And I was ecstatic to unlock that treasure map and get out of the cube! (Oh, right, we were inside of the cube apparently, which was why the stone magnets didn't work; sorry if I forgot to mention that earlier)

So! I hastily dropped my wrist onto the bowl's edge to donate my infernal blood to the puzzle! But I.. I don't remember a lot after that.. My blood left me faster than I'd expected and I'd only enough time to bandage my wrist before passing out... I still don't know how I ended up in my bed, but that must have been the solution that worked and got everyone out. I really should read the rest of the entries in here to see what actually happened during my nap and see who has the treasure map currently. So excited for the map! Ah! Even the excitement of finding 4 gold on my bedside from my last log won't compare to getting my hands on that map.

Alright, enough writing and wasting paper, now to read what everyone else had to say about our second adventure together!

Jimmy: So Moz put up a puzzle, I made the mistake of drunkenly sending a letter to Chris asking for help with the puzzle and I actually got a response. The message was... not polite but she solved it (she never could resist a puzzle). Moz is apparently quite the nerd and already has another puzzle up so looks like it's round 2 of asking for help I would prefer not to have if it wasn't for the reward.

Annoyingly Maerlith solved it before I could so all that stuff was for nothing and she got us teleported into the box (reminds me of an episode of a puppet show called "Deep Space Nine"). There was a series of puzzle rooms, a snooty wizard definitely designed it, the first puzzle was to do nothing, the second was something with matching colors and statues that another snooty wizard solved, and the last we had to give up then defeat our own blood.

Taro: Well, today was interesting. While I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do here in exile, I seem to be getting roped into other people's misadventures. Mae solved the riddle on Moz' puzzle cube, which caused her to disappear from the room. Moz seemed to have no idea what the box did, but at the same time didn't seem to have the slightest concern for what happened to her. Putting suspicion aside, we all (Ignar, Jimmy, and I) followed suit and said "name" while holding the cube, taking us to a musty room. All I have to say about this room is that whoever designed it takes special pleasure in making others suffer. Despite having made peace with death (to the tune of Mae's viola), we made it out of the room, only to find ourselves in another puzzle room. This one was more straight forward, making gems touch and using our wizard friend's magic hand to not get zapped in the process. Who, by the way, is the last person I expected to see on this side of the portal.

Anyway, the second puzzle room led to - yes, you guessed it - a third puzzle room, this time with no doors leading anywhere else. There was a bowl in the center of the room asking for blood in three different languages - infernal, and two others I didn't recognize. Mae, a bit too eager to get out of wherever the hell we were, gave a bit too much blood to the bowl and ended up passing out. After Avallac'h and horse-form Jimmy contributed, we learned that the bowl was meant to summon a Blood Elemental. Cool. We handled it, I did the most damage, whatever. No one's keeping track (if they were, I might've actually gotten something out of all this). A button appeared in the center of the bowl after the fight. With passed-out Mae over my shoulder, I pressed it, taking us back to Moz' room. Jimmy dragged Mae back to her room and Ignar kept the cube, but promised to give it to Mae once she woke up. We'll see what happens there. Apparently the cube can be used to set locations to teleport to. Problem is you have to take the cube to the place you want to teleport to, which means I can't use it to get out of here. Oh well.

Avallac'h: Greetings citizens of Sunholm! Avallac'h has arrived. I am here to solve the mystery of this portal. Rest assured any evil magics that may be involved will be banished. If there is a way home, I will help find it. Though not for that little fellow, he seems to have found refuge in this place. I offer my services and my superior intelligence. From what I have seen so far, it is sorely needed. I can perform exorcisms, guard against spying mages, or simply reverse the effects of a love spell gone wrong.

My first act of bravery was to free several members from a simple teleportation device. Hopefully in the future they will be more careful around things they don't understand.

6

Ignar: Lovely Gnina,

I am very pleased to hear that your sister and you have mended your relationship, I know how much it has been weighing on you. Things are still going swimmingly at the Sunholm resort, the great outdoors have awakened my long lost youthful energy. Just yesterday I joined a band of other guests on an expedition. A dwarf was looking for companions to help him hike into the mountains, he wanted to group up with some of his friends doing geological research in a nearby area. I'll spare you the details, but the trail we followed had some of the best views I've ever had the privilege of laying eyes on. The friends we met were also a lovely bunch, very friendly and hospitable. And great cooks too, we had a wonderful feast of wild game, I've never tasted anything like it!

Wishing you were here!

Ignar

Maerilith: I rounded up some fellow guild members... Well, a few signed up on their own, but they were a bit short, and I wasn't feeling super confident in their ability to take a hit, so I found a fellow tiefling! He looked confident in his stance but was a little down on his mood (apparently he didn't come here on his own volition), but he seemed up for helping this dwarf out for a little coin. But together, we approached Eric Silverhand, who was raring to go and get the mine started, and held a stone that led the way.

And so we began our exploration out into the wilds! I flew up to get a better vantage (it was a glorious view) and began the start of our guilds maps of the surrounding area. We headed east, through sparse trees, which thickened before thinning and turning into a rocky terrain. There, after a couple hours of travel, we arrived at the hole in the ground mine entrance. Once under, we kept a fairly straight path, but! A minotaur attacked the miners and caused a cave-in blocking our forward progress. Using my navigating expertise, I led the group down the leftward tunnel, which eventually opened up into a beautiful spherical cavern.

While it was a dead end, it had great acoustics, so I flew up and performed the viola for our party, and it was the greatest I'd ever played... Sigh... I need to go back there sometime. But unfortunately, the minotaur didn't appreciate the lovely music, so it rammed its way into the room, breaking through a sealed off passage. Doing the sensible thing, I flew up to the roof of the chamber and fired eldritch blasts at the beast while my companions faced it head on, or bear on in the case of one of the short ones - Fingle, I think. Anyway, the minotaur was defeated quickly and had paved the way onward to the miners.

Eric Silverhand was pleased with our service, stamped our help wanted poster, donated his magnetic connection stones, and roused his wounded miners to get them back to work. He doesn't seem like a lot of fun, but the workers seemed to not mind so much as long as they were being paid. Turns out the guild really needs some iron to start building or crafting things. But our work there was done, so after finishing scavenging the minotaur, we went back to the guild!

There we fumbled about a little bit, getting to know the other residents and workers a bit more... Maybe annoying a few accidentally... _{(Really sorry again Moz)}

But we eventually determined that Kurst was the completed quest giver, so we turned in our first quest together in only a matter of a few hours or so, and plenty of time left in the day for more exploration! I'm so excited to be here! This is a great start to a new beginning...