The Whispering Woods / Rune Rock Part II: Electric Boogaloo (Mission)

"Just after the last group got back around 9:30ish, we went out to clear the cultist temple. Kay barely managed to get in on this mission. He pretty much rushed back out right after he got into the taproom. We set out southwest towards the temple. I was navigatin for us and after a little while, we found a small clearin with a big mound. This horse-sized boar came outta the mound and looked like it was goin to try attackin us. Theodwin tried talkin to it a bit and managed to convince it we werent tryin to hurt it, and I think it believed him, cause it didn’t attack.

After walkin some more, we heard some voices near us. Khyrim snuck over to em and said they were ogres livin in a cave. I didnt really care for killin em. They werent doin anythin to anyone but animals, but the group decided we didnt wanna keep em near the Last Chance in case they attacked. We tried sneakin around to surprise em, but the wizards made some noise on their way on top of the cave and the ogres heard em. Khyrim and Throk were on one side of the cave while Fidelius and I were on the other, and we started takin down the ogres when they came out. Khyrim wanted to keep one of em alive, so we only killed the two of em and knocked out the third. While he was still out, we searched the cave. Kay found a purse with some coin in it, and a silver key. The ogre we captured had a helmet on him too. Kay said his key had divination magic on it, and I remembered mine and pulled it out too. Kay said it was the same. The helmet was illusion and Throk put it on. It looked… strange, and made Throk’s eyes turn red, but he didnt seem any different.

Theodwin was the only one who could talk with him, so he tried interrogatin him. He said their names were Broug, Grog, and Snorg. He said one of em ate a dwarf to find the purse in the cave. He also said one of em ate the dwarf’s axe, but Fidelius killed him at that point. Khyrim wanted to use him as a mule to carry our stuff, but I wasnt a fan of that idea.

Based on the stuff we saw in the distance, Khyrim said we went north instead of south. I musta gotten turned around a bit. I led us past the Last Chance and southwest for real this time. Along the way, we found the rune rock! I thought the one we found in the mountains was the rune rock but Kay said he misremembered what the rumor was, and that this was the real rune rock. We debated goin here or continuin to the temple, but we figured we might not find the rune rock again. Plus, we were lookin for it for so long now. Might as well check it out while we were there. There were these weird bird-like creatures flyin around the rock. Kay said they were called Cockatrice and they could turn someone to stone by cuttin em. We got the jump on them and took em out easily.

We got up to the rock and saw the runes on it. Theodwin said he could read it. He said it was about this delicious soundin dish with an elephant trunk, but Kay thought it was a memorial stone. I like Theodwin’s idea more. Khyrim tied my rope around his daggers and tried throwin it on top of the rock to climb onto it? I dunno why he was doin it but it didnt stay on there, so we looked around the hill instead. We managed to find a little tunnel goin into the hill. Kay sent Karl in and found some more cockatrice. Karl lured em out and we took em down. There were two tunnels from the room where the cockatrice were. Kay tried sendin Karl up and down. We found a cockatrice up top but it didnt wanna come down. Karl couldnt get all the way down.

We all moved into the first room and Karl made it down the lower tunnel and lured out another cockatrice that we all killed. We tried blockin the upper tunnel with our bags and went down the lower tunnel. We found a room with a strange statue of a creature called a grick? Throk went and destroyed it in case it was a creature who was turned to stone. We found another tunnel that went further down but ended in a pit goin straight down into a lake. Theodwin tried sendin Sarah Finley down there but his connection to her broke after she was like 10-15 feet into the water. We tried lowerin Kay into the hole so he could see what was down there. He saw a bunch of loot in the water, but the water had transmutation magic on it, so we just left it there.

We went to explore the upper room but our bags were moved and the cockatrice up there was gone. Kay searched the room and found a potion and a red arrow. Both were magical, and he gave me the arrow. We went to leave, preparin to fight the cockatrice, but they werent there. We found some of their tracks but it looked like they took off into the air after a bit. We’d only been walkin for a little while and we were still close to home so we decided to call it there and go back home."

―Kaila Arcus' adventure log