Matthew Hunter

Bern Our travels back toward the inn were interrupted by a rain of fire. We paused, took shelter and waited it out, but the delay was costing time we couldn’t spare. It cleared up by noon, and we moved on, but the next day was filled with storms. Normal storms, just rain and lightning and wind, not the burning. It cost us more time. And we were off schedule already.

Bern We made our first few inquiries at the market. The prices inside the walls are no better than those outside the walls and if anything, possibly worse. Asking about sources of ale, the cheapest available was a barrel of old schweissner’s at 20gp each, and we would need two barrels to “paint the walls” of the abbey, but carts are sold for 5x the normal prices. When we asked about renting a cart, they laughed at us.

Bern After a long stay at the inn. I was back in fighting shape. We agreed to rest one more night before continuing on. You hear? And I haunted to build up our supplies, while Pelf spent her time talking with the cook in the basement and doing the accounting for the inn. Pelf concluded that the inn was spending most of its income on raw materials for the cook and that was responsible for its noticeable lack of profits.

Bern We were all in bad shape, even the barbarian. Seeking a place of refuge, we left the area near the abbey and headed northwest following the road. Prior reports suggested to keep in this direction, but we were unsure how far we would have to travel to reach it. When it neared time to camp. We found a tree. Lit by fairy lights. Small creatures. Fluttering about with their wings.

Bern We gave the rag-man his ten skulls. In return, he told us that the portal could be closed by finding “the charge”, a strange creature born of fused chaos magic and divine magic, somewhere in the tomb of St Clewd. The creature would need to enter the portal – willingly or not. Then the portal would close, if the rag-man was being honest. The rag-man also claims his taxidermied creations don’t animate.

Bern Something followed u-Heury and I up the stairs. I still cannot name it. It was a cloud with tentacles, and ominous crackles of lightning, like a storm cloud only smaller and much closer. Plus the tentacles. Spooked by the number of enemies following him, u-Heury called for us to run and hide. We both climbed through the nearby window to take advantage of the natural terrain, and concealed ourselves nearby.

Bern No one felt quite ready to take on the rag man. After some discussion, we decided to investigate the Abbott’s study. The secret door into his study had been smashed open by the party prior to my arrival. Morin and Pish scouted ahead. The study itself was empty, but Pish heard voices from close by and moved to investigate. She was immediately spotted. As it turns out, the next room had a force of knights standing guard, the ones who had refused to flee after the exit was revealed.

Bern After a few agonizing minutes, the rest of the group emerged from the tower entrance. Above, the dark bird-like construct of shadows and rags took flight towards the graveyard. Sensing an opportunity, I remained in hiding, allowing the group to visibly leave the bell tower grounds while the construct presumably kept a suspicious eye on them. Instead, I snuck into the bell tower myself. The first floor was empty aside from an obvious statue, which presumably the others had examined thoroughly.

Bern We rested and recuperated for a few days. I was still hurt, but not badly, when the blood moon was starting to set; Rowan and Pisha worried that might be a time limit for the missing children, so we needed to act quickly. We formed a plan. Morin would sneak trough the window into the gatehouse, grab the monk’s body, and sneak it out the window. Rowan and Pisha would use spells to create a distraction to draw the attention of the gargoyles.

I recently took and passed the GCFA certification exam for forensic analysis. It was an interesting and educational experience, touching on logfile analysis, memory forensics, deep filesystem analysis, and timeline generation. Most of the content focused on Windows (event logs, NTFS filesystem formats, etc); I’m looking forward to finding a matching course with a Linux focus.