The hearty adventurers had decided to enter the Ghoulbreak parallel and board up the shack. Melisana had gathered some wood, nail and a hammer from the stables and the group headed for the ghouls Demin led the charge in and fired his crossbow at the wandering ghouls. Alhellara entered with a Turn Undead, Gofin threw a shroud on one ghoul and hit it successfully. Pretis and Mara entered to attack as quickly as possible. Lythandar and Melisana headed for the shack.
Finding no door on the entry to the shack Lythadar entered and found a latched door in the back which was open. He tried pushing it shut but something was blocking it. Meanwhile the four ghouls moved in to attack the party, immobilizing several members with their claws. Melisana slowed and dazed three of the ghouls while pushing them away from the party. Demin and Gofin continued their ranged attacks while Pretis advanced on another ghoul.
Lythandar looked around in the shack and found some horribly gory human remains that were blocking the door from closing. Using his strength and a magnificent thievery skill check he was able to extract the remains while some ghouls were attracted towards the gate. Melisana joined Lythandar and the two of them finished closing and latching the ghoullock. Outside the battle raged but the ghouls were no match for the party who dispatched them with ease.
After a short rest the group searched for some treasure and magical items but found nothing of interest. Melisana inspected the gateways and determined that they could throw a body at/through the gateway to determine if any gate led to another parallel by seeing if the body bounced off the wire mesh. Using this method they circled the arches on the inside and found the following pattern:
N - Black curtain fills the archway
NE - Cats everywhere, small, large and a mummy advancing toward the cats
E - Graves and ghouls seem 10x closer
SE - Black curtain fills the archway
S - Long canyon with a carved entryway at the end, large Egyptian looking statues guarding the entry.
SW - Graves and ghouls seem 10x closer
W - Normal view of graves and ghouls
NW - Chapel Room with stained glass windows and pillars, the windows break and glass fighters jump to floor.
None of the archways seem to go to any other parallel as the body bounced back each time. Melisana checked the other 8 archways just to be sure. They all showed normal views of the graves and ghouls with no way through the arch. Reluctantly the group returned to the Crossroads and decided to follow the southern arch to the island in the middle of the pink ocean.
Sneaking through the archway Demin moved behind a tent, Gofin in shade form looked into a tent and saw two more ogres like the one tending the pot. Others moved in and as Pretis entered and planted the standard the ogre looked up and saw the group. He stuck his head in the nearest tent and stated that there were humans entering the island. Lythandar started to speak asking about a way through but Melisana took over the conversation. A half ogre exited the tent and asked who the group was and what were their intentions. Melisana stated that they were after Vecna and needed to search the islands arches for ways through. The ogre was being helpful by mentioning that the ogres were Iuz followers but he was soon sent to the tent by the half ogre.
Another half ogre exited the tent as Pretis moved up and saw Iuz paraphernalia on the half ogres. Melisana kept up the ruse of being sent by the leaders to search all the gateways. Finally the half ogres were convinced and let the party circle the archways. Meanwhile Pretis and Mara went around looking into the tents where they found 16 ogres. These ogres indicated that this was the farm isles and that food for the troops was raised here and on the other island in the ocean. Examination of the arches found the following.
N - Island with an large asylum building run by a friendly doctor.
NE - Sheen of neon violet rippling
E - A Laboratory shelf holding several jars with heads in them.
SE - Black curtain fills the archway
S - Sheen of neon violet rippling
SW - Large elegant home with the entryway labeled Van Richten
W - Pink ocean seems 2x farther away
NW - Pink ocean seems 10x closer
None of the archways seemed active and the other 8 archways were normal as in every other parallel. Melisana told the ogres to keep up the good work they have been doing and the party left to go back to the Crossroads. There was one active archway left, the lightless, weightless world. Some discussion was held about returning and going through the two active arches in the Tovag Baragu Prime parallel but the party decided to push on from here. Now the question was how to navigate around the lightless, weightless realm. The group decided to drive a stake into the ground here at the crossroads, tie a rope to it and tie the other end to Lythandar. Lythandar would then enter and cast his light spell in the area to provide some illumination. Since every one had 50' of rope the group paired up tying themselves together with rope and having Lythandar hold the empty end. Demin paired with Gofin, Melisana with Alhellara and Mara with Pretis.
As Lythandar entered he found that even walking was difficult as he continued in a straight path away from the archway. Gofin found herself tumbling and floating up and north from the arch while Demin pulled her tight. Melisana and Alhellara entered with Alhellara floating away also. Pretis charged in and soon found herself flying away from the arches, somersaulting and tumbling upward until Mara pulled the rope tight. From there Pretis started to move around the arches, using handholds on the stones to stop her movement.. She used a small stone to gently toss through the arches to determine whether it was active.
NW - Seemed to be a normal view of this parallel
N - Estate house with a light in the belfry
NE - Sheen of neon violet rippling
E - Black curtain fills the archway
SE - View of the circle of stones, but they seem to be crystal, the ground seems to be ice extending out to the horizon.
S - Seemed to be a normal view of this parallel
SW - This parallel 2x farther away
W - Sheen of neon violet rippling
The only active archways seemed to be the SE and S ones. Pretis stuck her head through the SE arch and saw and icy world with crystal arches and it was intensely cold. Through the S arch she saw a set of arches that looked very similar to Tovag Baragu Prime. The group decided to enter the Southern archway to see if they were back to the beginning. Moving through they saw that it looked very much like the Prime parallel but if so someone had quickly erected some small structures to the south outside the extended circles of stone. As they looked around suddenly two humans appeared and attacked Lythandar and Alhellara.
Scorecard: The group received a total of 1172 XP for the night. They now have 32,941 XP and are at 12th level. They now need 6059 more XP to reach 13th level.
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