#long call

We found it. 

It took a long time this time, but we found the dungeon with the summoning stone, and yeah, it was a summoning stone all right. 

We found the dungeon mid morning yesterday, and it was hidden in a mountain, the entrance a lot more discreet, and with a very well concealed poison arrow trap guarding the entrance. We almost didn’t find it, but one of the higher-level adventurers noticed it at the last moment and managed to disarm it. 

Then, when we stepped inside there was a horrible scream, and a pair of wight’s came at us. They weren’t prepared to deal with a dozen competent adventurers, but they were equipped with magical weapons and armor and a variety of buffs. Whoever set up this system was expecting to be found this time.

And then, when we got past the wights, we found another door. We checked it thoroughly for traps, didn’t find anything, and when we opened the door we found ourselves in an Aboleth’s lair. Then we had to fight an Aboleth, and Leroy got injured. 

Rob was still beating the corpse by the time we found the next door.

We were all tired, and wary of what might be next, and when we opened the next door the entire mountain started to shake. We could see the summoning stone in the middle of the room, but the mountain was coming down around us. One of the high level rogues made a dart for it, and the rest of us had to run as fast as we could to get out. 

We made it, but barely. We tried to make it back to the nearest teleportation circle, but we were too tired and we needed to rest and heal. I’m writing this in camp, hopefully we’ll be back tomorrow. 

As we were tracking down the stone Jerry got a strange ping on the dowsing rod. He said it seemed like it was moving. When we heard this, we all started moving faster, assuming that the people behind the ritual were moving it to a new location. 

We turned out to be right, and we ended up intercepting a wizard with the same sort of tattoos as the one from the plane of ice, escorted by half a dozen wights. When they saw us they tried to teleport away, but Leroy cast counterspell and then the wizard stayed and fought. 

It was a hell of a battle. The mage cast Wall of Force and sent his wights at us, and when we cut them down he kept reanimating them.  We ended up having to brawl with these wights over and over again until the wall fell, and it was a grueling battle of attrition. When he tried to cast it again everyone on our team with any spell slots left cast counterspell. When that didn’t work he tried to smash the summoning stone on the ground, and Chandra managed to dive and keep it from breaking. 

We thought we had him and were going to take him prisoner when there was a flash and a Geas spell went off, and he collapsed.

We got back to the outpost late this evening and heard that one of the other teams had managed to recover the third stone, but the fourth was gone by the time they got there. The artificers are doing their best to track it down now, but we’re not sure if whoever we’re up against will go ahead with the ritual with only one stone.

We got back to the outpost and turned in the summoning stone. The artificers are using it to track down the rest, and we're just sitting inside breathing clean air. 

Something really weird happened though. We were all hanging around talking, and the object of past hookups came up. Stacy made a joke about all the girls who loved getting attention from high-level adventurers, and I shrank into myself, and Chandra unleashed her breath weapon out of nowhere. Stacy responded with a punch that rocked Chandra, and it took eight people to break up the fight. 

I asked Chandra why the fuck she did that and she said she didn't like people messing fun of her friends. 

All I know is it's going to be awkward tomorrow. 

Holly fuck holy fuck holy fuck.

Halloween is not over. 

There was a portal opened to the elemental plane of smoke today. It happened in Wyoming, near Yellowstone, the culprit disappeared from the scene before the authorities arrived, but the portal took two hours to close and noxious gasses and various monsters poured into the park. 

The reason we know about it is because it was opened in the same way the portal to the plane of ice was back in July, and the adventurers who have been investigating that mystery thought it might be the same people. They gave us an hour to pack and told my field crew to get our butts to a teleportation circle, because apparently we’re experts on this now. So I’m writing this in line for the teleportation to Wyoming. 

Reception’s going to be spotty but I’ll update when I can.

Happy fucking Halloween!

Cassidy

We got the call over night that the last stone was captured. It was found on a woman trying to smuggle it back onto the material plane, but when she was taken into custody another Geas went off. 

So we captured the four stones for summoning the Avatar of Smoke, and we got sent back home, but the confirmation that the Plane of Ice wasn’t a one-time event is unsettling. It could mean that the other paraelemental planes, Magma and Mud, could be next, and it means there are powerful forces behind these attempted summonings.

I’ve got the week off starting tomorrow, so I’m going to bed. More updates to follow.

(I was out of service again yesterday, back now)

I ended up talking with Chandra last night. Like, a lot. 

She started talking about her and Coraline have been having a lot of fights, how she still feels awful about how things went down between us, and we ended up talking a lot about our history.

And then we kissed.

It was a quick thing, barely sexual, and it didn’t go any further than that. But after that I had trouble falling asleep.

We got sent to the next stone early in the morning, and we were reassigned so that we’re not with the same team Stacy’s on, which is probably very good. Apparently Chandra’s not the only adventurer to ever get pissed at Stacy, and we found surprising solidarity with our new team.