We had the good fortune of setting foot in the inn right on the innkeeper's holiday! Lela, the innkeeper, threw a huge party** with lots to drink and eat. We took advantage of our Far Traveler backgrounds, with Szivem playing the violin and Zyn entertaining the girls with tales of his homeland.
Of course, no party is without purpose. The adventurers were soon approached by a drunken gnome called Igor, who wished to hire them to deliver a ring to his brother, Bloin. The catch was that the ring had to stay on somebody's finger, and it made them instantly drunk. Indeed, the gnome proved this by pulling off the ring to become sober, then putting it back to become drunk again.
Naturally, we couldn't just say "yes". First, we tried to trick the game mechanic by trying to convince the gnome to come with us, then by asking random villagers to come and bear the ring. We failed - never argue with a drunken gnome! Then the more financially-minded party members tried to wring out more than the initially promised 20 gold pieces. We got him up to 30, but he ended up sleeping in Tari's bed and annoying the ranger all night with various drunken desires.
In the morning, we set out to travel to Wychwood, Bloin's home village - but not before Igor let us know of the real catch. The ring was cursed! If nobody wears it for an hour, the last person to wear it dies. In 5 days, if undelivered, the last person to wear it dies anyway! With that, the gnome vanished, leaving us in a heap of trouble.
We set out to the nearby village first, to maybe hire a coach or get horses. Unfortunately, everyone was knocked out cold by yesterday's partying. Another setback was that one party member was always drunk and prone to singing and wandering away. We gave the ring to Selene, and had Solid carry the lithe sorceress on his shoulder.
We marched through the day, only stopping at a refugee camp. The villagers had fled violence caused by rampaging giants, and were bereft of a place to live. We spent some time helping them set up rough houses (Tenser's Floating Disk works wonders when carrying weight), hoping to convince one of them to come with us and carry the ring. One old man volunteered, then promptly died of heart attack. We took the cue not to bother anymore, and set out again, only gaining some extra supplies from the refugees.
Eager to catch up on lost time, we marched through the night in the forest. The first sign of trouble was a heap of guano below the trees, which we promptly ignored, and ran into a nest of giant bats. Combat ensued and Ren was surrounded and downed, but a proper amount of Shatter spells carried us through. Taking only a short rest, we moved on.
The next day we ran into a rope bridge across a canyon. It looked rickety, so Selene decided to get across by Mending each plank one by one. It seemed like a great idea at the time. It turned out not to be, as the bridge fell apart due to too much time spent standing on it. Looking for another way across, I spent by owlbat*** familiar to scout, and located a trail leading down.
The way down was treacherous. Solid carried a magic ring of slow fall and Zyn made use of cantrips to get down, but the rest of the party tumbled and fell through rocks and bushes, arriving at the bottom in a sorry state. Then we still had to cross a raging stream. We only had Selene fall in the water, but she had a rope tied around her, which the mighty and powerful (translation: rolling well) Zyn managed to catch and hold on to until other, brawnier party members managed to help out the drowning sorceress.
The way up was less eventful, and we set out once again, with only 3 days remaining.
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* Who would have thought they frown upon human sacrifice?
** "chef de camin"
*** Bat miniature, but owl stats.
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