Bern

Bern Snarkscorn let us go, but confiscated my heavy shield and the religious relics we had acquired from the abbey. We needed the money from selling those; the crookhorns won’t do anything with them except desecrate them. St Clewd means nothing to me, but the money would have. He also claimed a prize from each of us, and offered to return it if we completed a task. There would be gold in it for us as well, 1000gp each.

Bern The sailors wanted no part of any plan that involved fighting, once they heard there were a dozen crookhorns on the bridge. We had the captain drop us off on the east bank and proceed upriver in his barge. Our new plan was to find the path back to the crookhorn camp and set up an ambush for the leader when he returned. While traveling back to his camp, he would presumably leave some of his guards by the bridge, and be more vulnerable.

Bern The first order of business in Fort Vulgar was to collect the information we had paid for concerning the Pillar of Ambule. The local priest had dutifully collected it for us. According to the records he had found, Ambule is a local God of earth, protection and good fortune. His symbol is a single black hexagonal eye. Ambule is reported to make pacts in return for protection from hags and other creatures, and those pacts apparently involve service for life.

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.