The World of Quol

(October 21) At the Roving Eye tavern, Ward heads upstairs to the party's rooms to rest. She walks into an ambush. A tall, burly, and rather hairy human man seizes her from behind and clamps a hand over her mouth, while a halfling girl—perhaps 12 years old—menaces her with a dagger. Ward's efforts to break free are useless, and she is intimidated by the dagger-wielding street urchin, who demands to know whether Ward and her crew work for the bandit Sashi, and what they've been doing for him. Ward and her two ambushers quickly realize that they're all on the same side, united in working against Sashi, and the man releases her. Ward unties Bargin, who had been bound and gagged in the corner. The halfling girl introduces herself as Monkey, and the human man as Bear. (Bear rolls his eyes at these nicknames but says nothing.) Monkey says they come from a hidden part of the city called Moontown, and that they're trying to find out what has transpired between Sashi and...

(September 30) During the party's departure from Gronk'rk and the lair of their new ally Snargle, the newly minted diplomat Bargin receives a gift of a old, out-of-tune lute from her mentor's hands. Over the ensuing two nights of their flight toward Rajgan, Bargin practices the lute and sings off-key from her perch in the crow's nest. She also practices the light crossbow, while the rest of the adventurers practice with their stash of muskets and pistols. At a distance of  about two hours' flight from the capital city, the party is approached by two wyverns and their humanoid companions, flying the white banners that Sunrise (an experienced airship captain) recognizes as signal flags expressing peaceful intent. The two wyverns land and their companions dismount, dressed in the sky blue and gold uniforms of the Winged College, Rajgan's aerial defense force. They are Sergeant Daar Vangdorresh, a bluff and hearty green dragonborn woman who rides the powerful bl...

(September 23) The party decides to escape the duergar city rather than risk pilfering the powerful magical amulet from Gralkhar Fellgren, the Gray King. The paladin Vaelin can now summon a steed, so after extensive discussion and debate, touching on such topics as anaerobic decay and what happens when you turn a bag of holding inside out, his horse Jericho II is butchered and its meat stuffed into a bag of holding. The adventurers rope themselves together using Dara's climbing kit and venture out on the drow's secret escape route along the outside of the mighty spire. Treacherous hand- and footholds cause Ward to slip, but the precautionary rope keeps her safe, and the group continues upward to the tunnels used by drow spies and strike forces to infiltrate Darjheim Cavern. The house captain Nyrul O'rd has given them detailed instructions on how to return to the surface using a side branch of the tunnel system. They meet up with the dwarf scouts they had sent on ahead t...

(September 9) Using Sunrise's climbing skills and Dara's climbing kit, the party easily scales the innermost wall of the Gray King's Keep and regroup in the "street" on the other side. Before they can make another move, a phalanx of duergar stone guards phase out of invisibility 40 feet away. Their commander, who has burn scars on the left side of her face and head, sealing off her left eye and leaving that half of her scalp bare, identifies herself as Janth Flintskin. She calls out to the party, "Halt. The Gray King offers a truce and a parlay. Come with us and you will come to no harm." When Ward asks if they can keep their weapons, Janth scoffs, "The Grey King doesn't fear your weapons," and the party keeps them. Janth and her phalanx march beside the party along one of the streets that radiates outward from the Keep's central square. In the center of the square rises the Keep itself: a mighty stone column, formed from the union ...

Session 6: "Hungry Hungry Hippos" (August 5) Having defeated the cult of Graz'zt, the party decides that their next move should be tracing the oblex boxes to their source: Darjheim Caverns, an Underdark realm ruled by the Gray King -- a duergar warlord named Gralkhar Fellgren. The party sets out upriver in a chartered riverboat toward the uppermost city on the Simrijj River, a trading port named Adwerro. Adwerro serves as the shipping point for goods entering or leaving the mighty dwarvish citadel-city of Kwolgarrash, high in the foothills of the Rangrum Mountains, at the very eastern edge of the Rajgani Empire. Kwolgarrash is an ancient dwarven realm that is something between a committed ally and autonomous subject of the Rajgani Empire, ruled by the High Artificer Torgga Trollanvil. From Kwolgarrash, the party hopes to enter the mountains and find the way to Darjheim, the entrance to which is somewhere in the remote heights of the Rangrum range. The party's boat...

(July 29, 2018) After the party barricades the doors and takes a short rest inside the library room, Vaelin takes the lead in interrogating Poinsettia Willbareen, halfling mayor of Asherhet and warlock of the fiend. She is a servant of Graz'zt, a demon lord who specializes in pleasure and debauchery. She doesn't fear death, believing that alive or dead, she will serve Graz'zt and receive her reward, an eternity of pleasure and luxury beyond reckoning. She hints that she and her cultists have indeed summoned a lesser demon, and that it awaits the party in the secret chambers below. When Vaelin says that he himself will slay Graz'zt, Poinsettia laughs in his face. Vaelin summarily executes Poinsettia as a demon-summoning evildoer. Ward and Lan are left to guard the four remaining captives (Poinsettia's human bodyguard and three halfling cult fanatics) while Dara, Snadwick, and Vaelin venture through the secret door and into the passageway leading below. The first ...

Session 3: "Calaern Explains It All" (July 8) In the aftermath of the battle with Baron Calaern Anduriel and his family, Dara and Snadwick quickly seek out and set free the family of fey alseids (deer centaurs). The alseids ask Dara to mark Calaern so that the fey may find him and exact revenge. She agrees. Interrogating the captured Baron by means of Ward's  detect thoughts spell, the party learns a bunch of information regarding the oblex conspiracy: The Baron and his eldest daughter, Lillin, were recruited by a construct known as the Starling, who in turn works for a mysterious "Benefactor." The two elf nobles met the Starling at the magic trading bazaar in Zanjamand, an ancient city in a desert canyon on the borders of Malimpel's domain. The Benefactor appears to be a human male with red hair, though his hands are on backwards. The Benefactor appears to be based in Malimpel; both Calaern and Lillin have met him in person. He seems to be associated i...