Nokelume 3rd, 989 IaC
- At Eldag Hollow, the Cursebusters hid amongst the tree surrounding the central ruins as the Lonely Fingers argued with Nettleberry and Balkan Barberson approached the party's location
- Hoping to have Ayla Raddock steal the artifact, Ilryn Dewsong used her magic to turn the rogue invisible, but attracted Balkan's attention with her spellcasting
- In an attempt to throw Balkan off, Steve Moran conjured an image of a rabbit, and Kel Stevaen attempted to speak as the "magical rabbit", which Balkan didn't buy
- Caedali, emulating a zombie, pretended to be a child asking for her "mother", Nettleberry
- As Balkan questioned the magic and voices, the rest of the group revealed themselves, pretending to be zombies looking for their "mommy"
- Lambchop did a rather impressive impersonation of Ilryn in an attempt to keep her hidden, but to no avail
- Balkan asked for the group to come out, and settle whatever they wanted peacefully, asking Nettleberry if she knew who the "zombies" were
- Nettleberry beckoned them closer, bringing them in for an embrace and claiming them as her own
- The necromancer whispered to the group to assist her, as she summoned a giant, bloody skeleton and engaged with the mercenaries
- Steve managed to stay hidden in the trees, for the time being
- The various groups engaged each other, with the Claw members "feigning support" for Nettleberry as she sent hordes of zombies at the Fingers
- The party began lobbing shots at the mercenaries while they simped hard for Nettleberry
- Cossidy Crane cast Heat Metal on Cora's chainmail, forcing her to doff it
- Soup spoke out, pleading with the group to end their aggressions and talk it out, recognizing them from the other night
- Soup's allies pushed him back out of harm's way as Nettleberry's forces closed in
- Balkan tore through the large skeleton, but his group was pushed back by the many zombies that Nettleberry raised
- Lambchop chucked a javelin into Still Edge around the corner
- Olby Sandsinger created a perimeter, protecting Soup and Cossidy from the incoming aggressors
- Soup continued to advocate for peace, but the hostilities against the Lonely Fingers continued
- In the confusion, Kel ran into the battlefield to chase after Soup, bumping into Ayla on the way
- As the fight slugged on, Soup picked up Kel out of harm's way and took her into the back cavern
- Nettleberry continued to summon more zombies and used an arcane power to drain health from Lambchop, who willingly allowed it to happen
- Cora began eyeing the necromancer, waiting for a chance to strike
- The zombies surrounding Balkan were exploded by Nettleberry, dealing grievous damage to the warrior
- In the back cave of the hollow, Kel began speaking with Soup about the artifact, and witnessed Ayla trying to push aside a boulder deeper in
- Steve finally emerged from the trees, missing a firebolt on a zombie
- Nettleberry took notice of Steve, her gleeful expression turning grave after noticing his spellbook
- Cora, taking this as a cue, instructed Lambchop to throw her as she placed her Vow of Emnity on the necromancer and was tossed at her, blasting her with a smite, her Sword of Answers, and the power of Lambchop's throw dealing a CHUNKY 33 damage in a single strike
- The attack knocked the cackling Nettleberry out of the air as she lost her concentration, falling to the ground as Cora sunk her sword in
- Nettleberry smiled up at Cora as a magic circle of blood began to form around her, creating articulate runes in the ground
- Before Nettleberry was able to finish her magic, she was silenced by Ilryn, who stabbed her Liar into the necromancer, knocking her out and ending the ritual
- Lambchop, who was fully committed to Nettleberry, sat in shock at the scene
- Without direction, Nettleberry's zombies entered a frenzy and began attacking indiscriminately
- Lambchop, Ilryn and Steve fought the surrounding zombies as Cora finished off Nettleberry, using her power of Unavaranu to learn that Nettleberry was seeking the magic of a certain wizard as the necromancer passed
- Cora pulled Nettleberry's necklace off, and her corpse turned to dust
- Cora soon stuck the necklace into her bag, disturbed by the cackling in her mind when she held it
- Kel assisted Ayla in moving the boulder, revealing a locked chest that Ayla quickly picked
- Inside was the box containing the artifact, which Ayla nabbed
- Soup attempted to negotiate with the two, telling them that the artifact was sought by the Grey Wings and Anise Taranil
- Kel, torn between Ayla's bitchiness and Soup's kindness, ultimately assisted Ayla and began attacking Soup with teeth
- Outside, the battle against the frenzied undead raged on, with one of the zombies managing to take down the weakened Still Edge, Olby, and Balkan before passing
- As Cossidy fled into the cavern, another zombie followed in
- The others managed to take out the remaining zombies outside, and Cora began to head towards the caves, worried about Kel
- Lambchop began looting the bodies as Ilryn waited and Steve studied Nettleberry's remains, taking particular interest in her book
- From Still Edge (who was still living), Lambchop took a gleaming white dagger, and some gold from the deceased Balkan
- In the caves, Soup continued to take damage without fighting back until Cossidy arrived and carried him away, a frenzied zombie on her tail
- Ayla took the moment to dash out, yelling at Kel to run
- The disheartened Kel chose instead to remain, wallowing in self pity as the zombie knocked her out
- Cora soon arrived, low on health herself, barely managing to defeat the zombie
- Lambchop continued to loot, discovering the bags of the Lonely Fingers and rifling through them
- Ilryn finally made her way into the caves, and discovering Kel down, managed to heal her with a song just before she was downed for good (1 fail away from death!)
- With Cossidy and Soup fleeing into the Eldag Dungeon, the party regrouped to survey the aftermath
- Ayla had long ago fled with the artifact, leaving the group behind
- Continuing to look through the belongings of the fingers, Lambchop looted some herbs, powders from Soup, and all their gold (216 gold and 18 silver)
- Lambchop threw some of Cossidy's musical notation at Ilryn, took Still Edge's diary for Steve to look over, and nabbed a bunch of letters from Olby's bag
- The group discovered both Balkan and Olby had passed, but Still Edge just barely alive
- Feeling they had done enough, the group headed out into the woods
- After a bit of travel through the hollow, the group made camp for the night around a fire, attempting to de-stress from the day's events
- The relaxation was cut short, however, by a goblin ambush led by the local chief Gutbowl, who sought to kill the "Eye-Man"
- The party moved to fight the crafty goblins, who were using the thick trees as cover to sneakily attack them
- Cora, upon spotting Gutbowl, became overwhelmed with an inexplicable rage and rushed towards him to kill him, putting herself in harm's way
- The goblin shaman Pustoe had surrounded the chief with her Spirit Guardians, the illusion tearing into Cora with hundreds of necrotic bites
- Tired and done, the group rallied and lashed out at the goblins with newfound vigor
- Steve cast Spiderclimb on Ilryn, and she climbed up the central tree to snipe the goblins below, slowing a few of them with her enhanced magic
- Kel kept Cora alive and actually utilized the power of Patalir, blasting a warg with her Guiding Bolt and bashing its face in with her mace, even utilizing her Spiritual Weapon - a giant icicle
- Lambchop proclaimed himself as Eye-Man and began bashing his way towards Pustoe, clearing out goblins and beating in the Shaman's head
- Cora, possessed by the inexorable desire to cut off Gutbowl's hands and wear them, eviscerated the goblin and got to work
- As Cora killed Gutbowl, the other goblins began to target her, claiming that if they killed her, they would become chief
- With all the goblins abandoning their positions to kill Cora, Ilryn, Steve, Kel and Lambchop were easily able to clear them up, though Cora came very close to death as she was stabbed while unconscious
- With most of the ambush taken care of, the final standing goblin, Wrackerfock, exclaimed to Lambchop that he would 'kill Eye-Man, kill his child, and become chief', quickly running off into the dark forest afterwards
- The group finally managed to get some rest afterwards, made a little more rugged by the day's events
Nokelume 4th, 989 IaC
- The group spent the day traveling out of the hollow, east through the Scratchwood
- Along the way, the group looked over some of the objects they took from the Lonely Fingers
- Reading Still Edge's elven journal, they discovered that he had been rescued from an elven trafficking operation by Balkan, who he came to idolize
- Balkan had a bad reputation from allegedly slaughtering a village, but in truth he did so after he discovered the villagers were kidnapping children and forcing them to work in their mines
- Due to Still Edge's fawning over Balkan, they group figured he might bear a grudge against them for Balkan's death
- The party read through Olby's letters, finding that she hailed from the Sufessian Dominion and had run from home
- While some of the letters were addressed in Sufessian and could not be read by the party, the others were addressed to Olby's mother, and ranged from apologies to condemnations
- Dated over many years, it appeared that Olby was unable to bring herself to send any of the letters before her death
- Steve identified Still Edge's dagger, learning it to be the Finger of Silence
- Steve also identified Nettleberry's necklace, managing to ward his mind during the identification against a virulent magic
- The necklace turned out to be the Amulet of the Black Skull, an artifact that enabled teleportation, but at grave costs for users that were not undead
- Steve spent some time paging through Nettleberry's spellbook, noting the eerie similarities to his own book
- Reading Still Edge's elven journal, they discovered that he had been rescued from an elven trafficking operation by Balkan, who he came to idolize
- As the group traveled, they tried to come to turns with the events from the prior day, especially with their new insights regarding the Lonely Fingers
- As the party expressed various emotions of regret, shame, frustration and blame, they questioned why the Grey Wings sought the artifact, as the group apparently sought the Thin Man as well
- The group also questioned Ayla, shifting blame to her and wondering how much she knew but didn't tell the party
- The group ended the day in varying stages of catharsis, sleeping without interruption
Nokelume 5th, 989 IaC
- The party continued back towards Reedenford, following the lead of Lambchop's superior forest navigation skills
- Without warning, Erigor popped out of the Bag of Holding to strike its carrier, Cora
Thin Man's Coin is at 3 charges, up two due to health rolls for Lambchop and Ilryn.
Inspiration is a 1, down 4, 3 from Kel trying to move a boulder and 1 from Ilryn spiking a gobbo in the brain. +1 for Cora's throw fueled crazy airborne smite against Nettleberry.