(G256 20/11/2015 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, Mira, Guru)

(G256 20/11/2015 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, Mira, Guru)

Dear Kitty,

Sorry I haven't written to you in a while. Things have been a bit hectic lately. Anyway, its Sylvia here again. I've been off on another adventure. What a pain in the arse.

Well, I suppose we can take it as read you've glanced over Rollo's journals so I'll just pick up from where he left off, just after I get you updated on the cast of characters in this disaster.

Rollo Lavius - Leader, if you could call him that, of what I have ironically been calling the 'Lavius Expedition'. If he had half a brain he would be dangerous. Full of druidic power and knowledge but has the commonsense of a cabbage.

Mirabella - A halfling rogue of some description. Quiet and sullen most of the time. I liked her. Now that she seems to have turned into a werewolf, or were-terrier in her case, I like her even more.

Drashnag - Some sort of one-eyed half-orc half-wit half-awake Grummsh fancier. Officially I'm not meant to have anything to do with him as he is an enemy of Silvanus, but he seemed to be more or less useful so he was put on the strength.

Falo-han - Recently turned up out of the blue. Just another rabbit botherer if you ask me, but hopefully he is still useful with that bow of his.

Sylvia - Well that would be me. Cleric of Silvanus. Constantly healing and patching up this band of clowns.

Badger and Rat - Just two of the many things that Rollo smells of.

So, got all that? Just in case you've not made any sense of Rollo's journal, a quick recap:

Some Idiot of Mistra that Uncle Humber knows sent us to Cormyr to help out with some temple trouble. Here we uncovered a secret cult of Shar and Cyric. We trail them into some god awful swamp where Rollo hits on the truly fantastically dumb idea of following them into the Plane of Shadow.

Various people arrive, join us and die.

Later we are joined by Gurudor the Mounted Nincompoop, Paladin of Disaster.
He is killed by a bastard dragon.

Wracked with indecision Rollo decides what we really need now, what will really help us in our hour of need, what will sort out all our problems in the Plane of Shadows is.... a talking rat.

Mirabella turns into a wolf and we hit her until she behaves herself.

Which leads me to...


DAY 231 (28 Marpenoth) continued ...

By eight in the morning, that idiot cousin of mine is done with his rat and wanders over to attempt to make sense of the Mirabella situation.

I'd prepared a few 'Remove Curse' spells just incase and it made sense to try one out. The spell failed when it landed on the wee halfling and I got the feeling she had deliberately let it fail. When I told Rollo that he had one of his long talks that always begins,
'Now, if we can just calmly discuss why...'

Two more attempts and we were totally sure she was not letting the spell effect her, and it would never cure her lycanthropy if she didn't want it. Rollo was really concerned but I could tell no one else really cared. In the end he gave up trying to make the little furball see sense and decided to risk
keeping her around.

He then had a long talk with his new best friend, the rat, and sent her south to scout out the area.
Rolanda returned and reported she had seen a man in armour and a statue of a cow. There was a bridge leaving the area off to the left.

Rollo took the lead, he always likes to be sure that who is about to try and kill us can't be reasoned with first. Me, Falo-Han, the were-midjet and the half-dope hung back a bit. Rollo even began to whistle as he approached what looked like a cave entrance at the end of the walkway.

I didn't really get a chance to see what happened but I heard a clanking as the cow came to life and turned out to be a Gorgon.
I know this because Rollo yelled 'Gorgon! 'Ware its petrifying breath!' and ducked around the corner.
It breathed its horrible breath and turned everyone but me to stone.
I have to admit I was horrified to see such a sight.
Three different expressions seemed to pass over Rollo's face as he was petrified.
The first expression was what I like to call his 'Crocodile Face', the look of concentration he has when he is summoning his third favourite animals.
The second expression was irritation along the lines of 'How can this breath be hitting me when I am CLEARLY behind a solid stone wall!'
The third and very final expression was terror as his usually strong fortitude failed him and he turned to stone.

Mirabella, Falo-han, Drashnag and Rollo, all of them. Stone.

I ran for it, followed by Badger and Rat, and all three of us went and hid in the little dog-legged  cave Rollo had made. Thankfully I was not followed.

I admit I was crying. The other's I wasn't too bothered about, but Rollo ending up like that had been a real shock. I even let the Badger cuddle me as he too whimpered at the loss of his master and Rolanda seemed pretty upset for a rat.

Eventually I pulled myself together,
'Oh what fools! What a pile of idiots! Silvanus piss on the lot of them! Think girl, think! There must be a way out of this.'
I had a Divination spell prepared and used it now. The answer to my question 'What now?' was all dressed up in flower and leaves, riddles and poems but basically amounted to,
'Get the hell out of there. Come back with a wizard and big weapons.'
Thanks a bunch, I thought.

I dragged all the camp stuff into the cave and tried to come up with a plan. Usually that was Rollo's job though. I curled up in the corner and did my best.


DAY 232 (29 Marpenoth)

In the morning I had a sort of plan. I prepared as many Divination spells as I could, and Sending too.

I used Divination to find where I would pop out in the material plane if I managed to dismiss myself from the Plane of Shadows. Apparently sixty feet under water in lake about two days journey from the portal.

I sent a message to jiggles thusly:

'All others petrified. Going to teleport to lake, estimated 20 miles south of Lost Refuge in a few days. Please meet me.'

DAY 233 (30 Marpenoth)

I prepared two Dismissal spells and cast them on the Badger. It didn't work.

Cursing my luck I spent the rest of the day hiding in that wretched cave. By now it would have been hard to say who was the most smelliest, me, the badger or the rat. At least we had plenty of food, all the rations for the rest of the party were now ours. Lucky us.


DAY 234 (1 Uktar)(November)

Before this next attempt I left some instructions for the rat. After two days in a cave with only a rat to talk to, myself and Rolanda had become sort of friends. I told her to look after Badger and ration the food, to be careful he didn't eat it all in one go. I promised to be back as soon as I could, but admitted it would could well be weeks until I returned with help.

After that, I tried the Dismissal spells on myself and the second one landed.

I had already thought ahead and taken my armour off and put it in a pack at the end of 100 feet of rope. I'm not a great swimmer, so it was a big shock to the system to suddenly be 60ft deep in water. I did my best though and didn't panic. I headed for the surface and after what felt like an age burst through into the warm air and daylight. I then swam to the shore and dragged the pack up.

As I got dressed I looked up to see I was being observed by about a hundred beavers, all watching me with blank curiosity in their beady eyes.
'What the fuck are you looking at?' I snarled at them.

I gathered together my gear, took a bearing, barged through the crowd of beavers and headed for the Lost Refuge.


DAY 235 (2 Uktar)(November)

I tell you what Kitty, when my luck fails, it fails hard. Well, I suppose I shouldn't complain, but for the last leg of my journey I was chivvied along by being followed by a bastard hydra. What immensely irritating creatures they are, but at least they do not move all that quickly and I had remembered to prepare a couple of Freedom of Movement spells to hurry myself along.

Around evening the Lost Refuge loomed ahead of me. I bit my lip and fretted, Kitty, I don't mind telling you. I had a lot of sympathy for Lavinia. She's obviously a complete half-wit for marrying such a bumbling buffoon as my cousin, but how was I going to tell her that her husband was now only fit for displaying next to a flower bed?