03/10 "I look at the bars and go 'pichu' " Rachel (Zara) 2023 The zombies are reaching through the bars of the window trying to reach the group. Zara casts heat metal causing them to recoil. They notice a damaged wall at the back of the building. Steve runs over and hits it with her hammer. The wall and part of the roof caves in. VV and Ellette go to the top of the roof and go over to the edge looking down at the hoard. They both cast fireball incinerating the hoard. The group take the chance to head to the tavern. As they walk in they are greeted by a cheerful voice. They turn to see a man behind the bar, his face half decayed. He pours a mixture of dirt and sludge into cups offering them a drink introducing himself as 'Jer'. Karrut takes it happily and drinks as the rest of party to thide their disgust. Looking behind the bar, Qwimby notices the barkeep is missing his bottom half, his torse used to a stool. Nudging Ellette with his elbow he eyes Jer encouraging her to look. As she looks she relaxes, this being is no threat. The party decide to take this moment of peace to rest. After a while they head off again going to the chapel, the green tendrils still pulsing along the pews. They venture to the end to a broken wall the tendrils are breaking through. They look back once more noticing for the first time, the priest who greeted them not too long ago strung up and lifeless above the entrance. The party follow the tendrils to a bridge, unremarkable at first. As they get halfway across the bridge splits in two revealing a large mouth. Scrambling back the group looks for another way across this river hoping to avoid the mimic bridge all together. Ellette eyes up the distance between the bridge and the shores edge the other side. After some consideration she shrugs running part way onto the bridge before jumping onto it's wall and misty stepping to the safety of the other shore as the bridge reveals it's teeth again and sits down on the ground smug looking back at the others. Ash scoffs unimpressed, convinced he'll find his own way. Zara laughs as she picks up Steve bridal styla and with a wink, dimension doors the pair across to Ellette joining her in sitting on the ground. Karrut laughs as his casts water walk and encourages Qwimby to climb onto his back. Karrut confidently walks across the river carrying the rogue who looked more like a child. Just as they reach the edge a fish jumps up knocking the back of Karruts knee knocking the two into the shallow. Qwimby spits profanities as they climb up to the women. VV, too heavy for any of the team to lift, gathers some nearby broken branches fashioning together a pole using some scrap metals to support their weight. They take two steps back a quick jump for encouragement. With all the speed they can force they trot across the bridge and use the pole to vault themself across using the bridges tongue as its point of balance. As they pass the halfway point the bridge slams it's mouth shut snapping the pole causing the Modron to tumble across the back half of its open mouth and onto the dirt path beyond. They quickly stand up, dusting themselves off before joining the others eagerly awaiting to see the cleric Ash's plan for crossing the river. Ash the ever confident cleric, not about to be shown up by the group of ruffian, bows his head whispering a quick prayer before breaking of into a mad dash onto the bridge. He jumps onto the wall almost matching Ellette's path but as the bridge once again opens its mouth he is knocked off balance. The firbolg slips and falls passing through the bridges mouth. Almost too quickly for the bridge to grab him. When the mouth slams shut it's only Ash's arm caught leaving him dangling above the rivers currents. On the shore the entire team breaks out into hysterics of laughing, mocking the cleric and asking if he thinks he needs help now. Grudgingly he nods his help not saying a word. They taunt him some more before he lets out a roar asking for help. With a little teamwork, Karrut walks back onto the rivers waters standing below Ash as the others being to skip onto the bridge taunting it to open it's mouth once more. Steve stands close to the now obvious crack of the mouth shaking her behind at it tempting the bridge which opens it's mouth sharply. The little Gnome runs away panicked as the bridges grasp on Ashes arm is released and he falls into Karruts arm who gives him a kiss on the forehead and with a chuckle runs back to join the others. They compose themselves once more, Ash lucky to only have a few scratches from the incident. They begin walking down the dirt road once more. In the distance they hear a screech and the unmistakable sound of a dragons beating wings as they turn to see a black dragon heading directly towards them. 11/10 As the dragon quickly descends the group runs into the thicket beside them. They run through the forest as quickly as they could the could the dragon flying above them it's black/green scales now visible and it blasts acidic gasses at them. They find a cave on the mountainside and run inside. They head deeper down as the cave gets narrower. Qwimby keeps an eye out for traps. One of the group however, stands on a missed pressure plate and the floor opens. The group slides down into the caves depths eventually landing in another cavern. The dome shaped cavern was quiet, the team could no longer hear the dragon. There are holes scattered around the walls they all begin to investigate hesitant to touch anything. Ellette peers into a hole nothing but darkness inside but can hear a slight breeze. Not wanting to die here in the dark she sticks her hand into the hole and releases a fireball into the wall. There's a loud snarl as the hole clamps down on her arm and there's an echo throughout the chamber as Ellette's arm is snapped and broken. The center of the room shudders as a mouth begins to open showing more sharp teeth. The party panic looking for some escape as Steve tries to get Ellettes arm free. Ash looks a Qwimby questioning if he can create water. Qwimby confirms this confused at the question as Ash barks at him to create as much as possible. The room begins to fill with water a whirlpool forming in the creatures mouth as Ash begins to bless the water. The room begins to steam as the creature is dissolved by the holy magic. Ellette's arm is freed just as the floor begins to cave inwards. The ground disappears and the party are dragged below bits of goo and flesh sticking to them as they fall down. The land in yet another cavern landing on the pile of flesh leftover by the creature. The room is empty with an entrance letting in some light from outside. They take this moment to relax. Some members grab supplies found among the flesh left behind by more unfortunate adventurers. Qwimby comes across a chest with a padlock on it. Ellette watches as he picks the lock then lets out a sharp gasp as its open "Fucking thing pinched me" He exclaims tossing the lock aside and opening the chest claiming a diamond and flask inside for his troubles. Ellette looking at his has sees what she thinks is an eye but as she wipes her face and looks back, it's just his regular finger. Yet, Ellette could not escape the uneasy feeling that something wasn't right. Karrut and Ash set to healing the party's wounds and mending Ellettes broken arm. They decide to take this moment of peace to rest. Unfortunately not too long after they are woken up to the sound of an undead Cyclops screams as it hits Karrut knocking him flying towards the back wall of the cave. They fight the creature, not fully rested from the days events barely surviving the encounter. As it'd defeated they once again set to rest. Ellette feeling paranoid remains awake watching over the group. 18/10 After a couple hours of rest the party leaves the cave. They see two paths before them. To the right a path with goblin foot prints covering the path. To the left, the path is covered in fog. Not wanting another fight they choose to go down the right path into the miasma. They walk for what feels like hours when Karrut chirps up, "Hello Mr.Tree, nice to see you again!" The rest of the party question this and he explains they've passed this tree at like sixty times since we started walking down this path. Ellette rants at Karrut asking why don't he say something earlier. He shrugs saying he was enjoying the walk with his friends. After some experimenting they figure out they can get 60ft ahead of them before looping back around. Ash doubtful sets off a spell in front of them which loops back around hitting Steve. A brief squabble happens between the two and Ash heals Steve apologising. After careful studying they notice their shadows behaving weirdly. Ellette slices hers in half before it reforms back together. Using the rod of unmoving Ellette positions herself above the team, using VV as a platform they each have their shadows cut off and are walked to the edge of the mist jumping through escaping this trap. Ellette removes VV's who quickly uses their clockwork dragons fireball projectile to fire themselves back out without touching the ground. Ellette pulls her legs up and quickly slices her own shadow before using the rod as a means of building momentum flipping around and releasing it's hold on the tree sending herself flying through the air and out of the mists herself. WIth our new freedom Ellette instructs Zara to dispell the mists as Ellette stabs into it. The air screams as a burst of force blows outward knocking them back. Ash walks forward finding an unusual pearl like object where the mist once was. He scoops it into one of his jars of holy water wanting to keep it safe while the party try to figure out it's origin. Ellette catches Qwimby's finger blinking again the eye looking directly at her this time. She draws her sword pointing it at Qwimby's hand declaring what she was seeing to the party who all look at Qwimby's hand then look back at Ellette fearing she has well and truly, lost it. 25/10 After calming Ellette down the party head back to the cave once more only now seeing the night sky above them. Ash summons some bland food for the party as they sit around chatting. Ellette continues to stare at Qwimby's hand. Unseen to her was Qwimby's other hand resting on his gun feeling Ellettes death glare in his direction. Fed and watered they party settle down to get some sleep. Ellette stays awake watching the caves entrance and Qwimby for anything strange. The next morning the party decide to take the left path, following the goblin tracks. A light fog fills the area as they walk through. They begin to hear voices and see the glow of fire ahead of them. They are then hit with purple glowing rocks thrown from the distance. Ellette and VV both throw fireballs from the same direction we run forward crossing a bridge straight into an encampment filled with undead goblins with glowing eyes. Steve is knocked out and is dragged to a pole and tied up. As the fighting continues Steve wakes up again and sees a mind flare standing a couple of feet ahead of her facing the battle.