Well, before I start writing the story let me just tell you about a funny thing that happened: I went inside with Julia and headed upstairs to Duncan’s apartment, but Julia went to the 12th floor (he lives on the 14th). We almost knocked on the door, but didn’t. We made it to Duncan’s house, and I claimed my seat with my coat, box of magic item cards, pencil, and I took my phone and went into Duncan’s room and we watched him play on Loafsteal. Apparently, the Meep Team (our team) is planning to trick Justin by letting him join and then somehow killing him. As Eamon was sending the messages in the chat, the theme for The Owl House and Grayson drumming on Duncan’s drum kit made things much more dramatic. Now, let’s get to the story.


Gage, as usual, recapped the situation. Our group had just killed about a dozen orcs and an ogre. A priestess nearly killed us. I almost died. Ash almost died, but Knox and Blaze went under the bridge to save him, and met some troglodytes in the process. We leveled up to level 3, and now we were, well, I didn’t know where we were. I just knew there was a rope bridge before us that the orcs had tore down.

So, here’s what we did: me and Henry were stepping forth (yes, I was, for once, standing in front of the rest of the party) to fix the bridge. I’d cast Mage Hand and lift it up, and then Henry would use his orc strength to secure it. Henry wanted to use Blaze’s bird to help us, but she didn’t agree with it. Gage also said the bird wouldn’t be able to lift it, or at least Julia thought he did. Turns out Gage had said Julia would have to roll to find out what would happen.

However, as we prepared to fix the bridge, I rolled a perception check and apparently my character noticed a pair of orcs on the other side of the bridge (which has still not been repaired). The orcs fired on us, but I fired back and hit one. I got the usual, “Kill the mage.” from one of them and I responded by using one of my new spells (with Duncan’s help to find it): Shatter. I fired it, but I got a low number on my role and managed to kill one orc and destroy the furniture and crates they had stacked up as a barricade. Then, we fixed the bridge.

Blaze and Knox crossed it, and ran into more orcs. Henry and Ash joined them, while I stayed on the other side of the bridge. Then, we did the stupidest thing: we split up. I crossed the bridge, and stayed in the room before the space Ash stayed in, while Henry, Knox, and Blaze went down the hallway. I also checked the walls, because there was something suspicious about them.

Unfortunately, those that went down the hallway ran into the priestess from before and a bunch of other orcs in armor, two of which were Blessed by the priestess. They were able to fight them off (and the priestess said something Henry about him being a traitor, so…), but the main focus of this part of the session was on me and Ash. You see, Ash had heard footsteps from a hallway in the space Ash was in. Four orcs came out to find… nothing. Why? Because was smart and turned invisible (or hid behind some barrels, I don’t know), and then severely wounded one of the orcs with a sneak attack. I finished him off with a Firebolt, but in return was brought down to 12 health points because of a shot from one of the orcs. We were able to take them out, but I also got hit by a critical hit and got brought down to 4 health points.

Luckily, after a while, we were able to kill all the orcs, including the priestess. (And we had the return of the Moonbeam!!!) Also, on a side note, as a little mini-story outside of the game, Eamon was telling Grayson to join the Loafsteal (because he plays MCPE too and had his phone with him) so he could join the group, and then Julia called him out for playing Minecraft as Gage was building the lore, so Gage made him leave his phone on the windowsill.

Anyways, we opened the chest they were guarding, and here’s a list of the loot we got:
220 Gold Pieces
160 Silver Pieces
2 Onyx gems
1 Topaz gem
Helm of Telepathy
Rapier

Using the magic device know as a calculator app, I divided the GP and SP among us, while Ash took the Rapier and Topaz. Blaze got the Helm of Telepathy, and I honestly have no idea what happened to the Onyx. Also, about 10 minutes before this, I finished going through half of my magic item cards.

So, after we looted the chest, we took a short rest and I did some rolls and got back up to 12 health points, before we went down some stairs. Ash went first, running into a group of troglodytes. They followed him to the stairs, where they spoke to us in Draconic, which me and Ash both understand. They asked us, “How did you come by the orcs?” (Draconic isn’t their first language.) After some discussion amongst the party (I’m starting to sound like Mike Wheeler), Ash told them that we, well, I forgot, but that’s not important. What’s important is their response: they told us to follow the river and get out of their way, or they would carry out the orders of the Demon Prince or something. (Wait, isn’t Demogorgon the Demon Prince?)

We listened to them and followed the river, coming across some toxic plants, stalagmites (and stalactites), and, lurking in the (toxic) bushes, a skeleton. The skeleton appeared to be holding a shiny but expensive longsword. Julia rolled a history check (I think that’s it), got a high roll, and then Blaze told us she knew about the toxic, explosive plants. With this knowledge, I cast Firebolt and blew up the plants. Then, Ash risked his life (he could have been poisoned!) and went into to collect the blade from the destroyed skeleton. (Julia also had a thought that it may be the skeleton of the explorer we were supposed to look for on our mission to map out the mines, but Isaac reminded her that that guy hadn’t made it past the orcs.) However, in the reflection of the blade, Ash could see something. Something horrible. Something cruel. It was… a roper!!! Also, in real life, Grayson’s mom, dad, and sister (Scarlett) had arrived to pick him up because they were going somewhere or something. Scarlett was just watching as her brother’s character figurine got picked up by the stalagmite monster Gage had put on the table. That’s where we left off: Ash in the mouth of a roper, in (Gage’s words) “the land of death saves.”

Ash might actually die this time…

Wish him and Grayson luck!