A Brief Account of the Activities of the Party in the Year 640LB, during the Second Week of 10th Month, between the Day of the Weasel and the Day of the Cat.
Following our third session it became clear that the fledgling adventuring consortium that set foot on this land calling itself "The Eight" in light of its number might have to consider changing its name to "The Six". This is because the finger of death touched the party's only trained fighting man, Hakkon, as well as the monk Chauve-Soris - the self-anointed voice of the good whose face was covered by that unmistakable chiroptara.
Our session started out with a strategic retreat and an evening spent building new alliances with the Maggoty family. This involved hiring Old Man Maggoty himself to return to Colony Co. Town 2 and fetch a much anticipated letter as well as the hiring of the young and the suggestible Smutty Booth. The next day was filled with some classic, old school dungeon exploration, including encounters with a six-foot Giant worker ant, another tunnel prawn that practically emerged out of the ceiling, some ancient Eime pictograms, a now-familiar Eime brass column that repeatedly announced the proper name "Sybil the Lachrymose," as well as a room filled with more fine Eime brass columns that called itself "The Room of the Teacher" and offered a lecture on techniques for ocean navigation by starlight.
In addition to these encounters, "The Eight" also found within this tomb complex (now deeply within the Boundless Buckle mine) three seemingly significant features: A six-foot tall, three-foot diameter stone column covered on all sides with hundreds of two-inch holes, their first secret door, and four living tree "Harvester Arrows" that not only inflict minor damage each additional round as the branches grow deeply into the flesh of the victim (1d4 per round until death or ripped from flesh by victim for a one-time penalty of 1d4+1 damage) but also produces a fruit from the dead tissue of a fallen victim which, if eaten, has the ability to restore lost hit points of an unknown amount.
Some careful thinking on the part of the magic user Finneas (and the sacrifice of the partnership's bedrolls) proved essential to saving at least the life of the dwarven warrior Epoc and probably many others besides. At the end of another day of exploration, the party returned to the surface and to the home of Dick Maggoty. Without a guard to raise the alarm, The Eight slept the night away as a threatening team of "elves" took up position and set up an ambush that ultimately took the lives of both Hakkon and the monk Chauve-Soris.
The plucky, deft melee work of the halfling Hawkeye, in conjunction with cooperative efforts of the team's stout Dwarven guards Epoc and Enyd allowed the remaining six party members to survive the assault and to conduct a search of the local farm and surrounding area for Dick Maggoty's wife and daughter. The search yielded no results, not even a body, and the party agreed to head back to the Colony Co. Town and set aside for the time being further exploration of the tomb in a hasty search for Dick Maggoty.
Upon arrival back in town, the Eight Who Are Six learned of the vicious murder and dismemberment of the Hirelings United attendant who had originally secured the hirelings Bone and Elbert for the party, as well as put them in original contact with the indigenous relic collector (and Lord Mayor of the town) Newbold Philo. And while there is no report or sighting of Dick Maggoty, the party concluded the evening by reading the letters that had recently arrived for them from Simi the Magic User from the port city of Aleine. These documents include Simi's signed translation of the party's purloined letter, the letter itself, and a third document addressed to the party directly. Siimi's translation talks of a suspicious guard who is attempting to alert his bosses about the potential betrayl of a joint business relationship by the man who calls himself Grimsby.
The letter addressed to the party directly turned out to be a letter from Grimsby himself wherein he thanks the team for its service, hopes that the full disclosure of the letter will be taken as a sign of his confidence and trust in them, and tells them he has paid their outstanding bill to Simi for his translation and spell-breaking.
In addition, Grimsby bids the party to return as soon as possible to the porty city of Aleine if the new work he has for them: work that promises wealth "beyond anything they can imagine."
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