Thaddius Hollowhorn

Background
Thaddius has had an insatiable curiosity for his entire life. Growing up in Joyhill, he always would ask "Why?" and become upset if his question couldn't be answered. He spent most of his time reading stories and learning the history of the world. As he grew older, his sense of childhood curiosity matured into a sense of wanderlust- he knew everything he could learn in Joyhill so he planned on setting out and exploring the world, much to the chagrin and dismay of his friends, family and peers. He soon left and set out on his adventure, but it didn't take long before he was hopelessly lost and low on supplies. He stumbled upon some ruins and while investigating them set of some ancient magic- a trap. He cried out for help, assuming that nobody would hear and that he would die alone in the wilderness. But someone did hear him, and he soon found himself surrounded by fey, led by the Archfey himself. The Archfey promised to save Thaddius and deliver him to the nearest settlement unharmed. He even promised to impart some of his knowledge and powers unto him. All of this if, and only if, Thaddius agreed to a promise to heed the Archfey's call when the time came. It was an easy choice- agree to the Archfey's deal or die. Thaddius now seeks more information on this mysterious patron so he can find out everything he can about this dark deal.

Pool's Closed
I was reading in the corner of the Sleeping Sickness, nursing a mug of coffee and eating some sort of dinner roll. I'm not sure what it is, but it's delicious. Or would be if it was slightly less dry. It needs some butter. I set my book aside to go and fetch some butter when the other halfling comes in the door. Willard, I believe his name is? We met briefly but haven't talked much. Seems like a good kid. Simple. There's a reason we haven't talked much. He's saying something now though. Something about goblins in a tower? Oh, that tower sounds fantastic! I wonder who built it? When? I'll definitely need to go investigate those ruins later- a lot can be learned from what's left behind. I distracted myself. Now he's saying they've talked to Orland about the orc threat and possibly ending prohibition? We need to inform Wing Tower about the orcs before any sort of brewing can happen. Wing Tower is easily a hundred miles away, though. That's quite a trip. I'm not sure we'd be able to make it there in one piece. Betegar is probably the better option, as that's roughly half the distance. That is, assuming I'm remembering correctly. It's easy to forget that I haven't actually been to these places outside of books. If either city will suffice for Orland's task, I definitely vote for traveling to Betegar. I said the last part out loud, apparently, and get a few looks from the others. They're not used to hearing me speak up. Looking around at them, I realize I've barely talked to any of them outside of loose introductions. Regardless, others echo my sentiment and it's decided that we're going to Betegar.

I head back to my table to grab my notebook and my coffee when they start discussing how to get there. I had just assumed we'd take the road. I say as much, saying I'd much prefer taking the road to going by sea. The dwarf agrees with me. Paddam, I think he's called. It seems nobody else is listening, though. I mention the pirates reaving and raiding the sea just past port. If anything, that encourages them more. I make a note to keep my mouth shut next time. Now the plan seems to be take out the pirates now to open up the port, then sail to Betegar. Since everyone else seems to be in agreement, I keep my protests to myself. I'm not a fan of boats. Everyone is leaving to discuss this plan with the dockmaster. I grab my things and follow. It's not a long trek to the docks and we quickly arrive at Sobek's place. It's clear the port has seen better days. There's a distinct lack of boats in the harbor and the air smells of salt and fish. I wrinkle my nose in disgust as I head into the dockmaster's office. I was one of the last ones into the office and it seemed like the others wasted no time in pissing Sobek off. Sobek said he needed experienced men to take out the pirates and not our sorry lot. I was going to say something but reminded myself not to speak up. I held my tongue and watched as we slowly came to an agreement. Willard ponied up some gold as collateral for the boat we'd be borrowing. Sobek led us outside to the docks. I saw the boat we'd be borrowing. He can't be serious. Calling this thing a boat is an affront to shipbuilders everywhere. It reeked and it creaked and it was barely afloat. I went from "kinda skeptical" about this plan to "definitely not okay with this" pretty quickly, but Essart assured us he was a competent sailor. We made arrangements for Willard and Paddam to man the oars, so I just crammed in there with everyone else and prepared for an uncomfortable journey. Luckily the island we were going to is only a few miles away. It's even within eyesight! Well, it would be if I could see above the side of the boat. I closed my eyes and concentrated on my breathing. I don't like boats. I don't like how they rock. I'm not going to get seasick.

We eventually get to the island. Up ahead, we see two buildings on the beach, plenty of trees, and the remains of a campfire. On the north end of the island is a ship- a real, actual ship. We're definitely going to be taking that one home. We don't see anyone ashore and day hasn't broken yet so we assume everyone is still asleep. We dock on the south shore just in case though. Mahesh summons a raven to scout the island for us. I point out that a raven might be a bit noticeable on an island where you only have seabirds. I cast an illusion over it to give it the appearance of a seagull and it flies away. A minute later it flies back and Mahesh informs us of one sleeping pirate by the fire. The two huts appear empty, as does the deck of the ship. We decide that interrogating the lone pirate is the best course of action for now. We sneak up to him, but I decide to hang back by the hut. A few others stay with me while the majority head to the fire to parley with the pirate. They wake him up and make conversation, though I can't hear what they're saying from where I am. There's a bow trained on him in case anything happens, which makes me feel a little bit better. I'm not a fan of fights and I'd prefer to not wade through an entire company of pirates. I'm shaken from my thoughts by a sound. The pirate is alerting everyone. Damn it. I duck down behind the hut and start thinking- I see a group of pirates coming from the woods across the beach towards the party. The people on the beach are all fighting. While I'm focused on what's going on out there, I don't notice the pirate step out of the woods to our left. I'm met by a wave of fire. Singed and in pain, I remember to stop, drop, and roll before standing back up again- I'm hurt and slightly blacked but I'm alive and I'm not burning. I might have let out a shriek. Hopefully nobody heard. Luckily, that pirate gets dealt with quickly. Paddam casts some spell and I feel his magic flowing through me. My fear vanished and I'm clear headed and confident again. It doesn't matter that I'm not a fighter and have no experience whatsoever. I need to help end this. I step into the woods for cover and find myself in line of sight with the captain. I only know a little magic, but this should be enough. I shoot a quick blast of energy at him, which seems to be empowered by the magic. He stumbles backwards in surprise and hopefully pain. It's a direct hit! I may have let out another shriek here. Again, hopefully nobody heard me.

Turns out, someone did hear me... Another pirate, hiding in the woods. I hear him coming from my left but before I can react, I feel sharp pain, unimaginable pain and then

I open my eyes to see the rest of the group standing over me. I'm covered in blood and racked with pain, but the bleeding seems to be stopped and I'm alive. I see the pirate that stabbed me asleep and tied up on the ground next to me. The fight is over, apparently, and we've killed all the pirates except for the one next to me. I spit on him when nobody's looking. Everyone says we need to take a short rest to catch our breath before exploring the rest of the island. I'm not really in a position to disagree. In fact, I feel like I might need to recover the most. We drag the unconscious pirate to the hut and we all rest.

I wake up feeling a little bit better. A little farther from death, at least. Everyone wants to keep exploring the island, but honestly I'm a little bit explored-out. I've already had one brush with death today, and that is roughly one more than I was hoping to have. I volunteer to stay behind and watch the prisoner while everyone else heads to the ship. Baltoris agrees to stay behind as well, but he's out on the beach and not in the hut with me and the pirate. I spit on him again.

After a few minutes of nice, sweet silence, I hear the sounds of the pirate coming to. I quickly realize that we should have gagged him too. He wants me to let him go. I want him to apologize for stabbing me. Neither of us are satisfied by this exchange. As he's pleading, I look over him. He's not in great shape. Still bleeding, bruises forming on the skin, a black eye. If he causes any trouble, he looks hurt enough that I should be able to take him on. I'm not much of a fighter, but even I can put down someone that beat up.

He offers to tell me where the treasure is hidden. I don't particularly care about gold, but that does get me thinking. What if I find out where the gold is hidden, then immediately knock him out again? That way, our party gets some extra funds and we still have our captive. Worst case scenario, he tries to run and Baltoris and I stop him. I agree to his deal. I untie him and ask about the treasure. His answer is another knife to my torso. I do everything I can not to cry. Being stabbed really hurts! Internally, I'm just kind of disappointed in myself for not thinking of this. Externally, I'm breathing heavily and holding back tears. I'm probably not too intimidating. The pirate is distracted, though. Clearly he doesn't think of me as a threat, so I'm able to slip my dagger out of its sheath unnoticed. While the pirate starts to stand, I lunge at him and drive the blade right into his chest. I hear a quick gasp, then a gurgle, then the pirate slumps over. I also fall the floor. Today has not been a great day for me. Baltoris rushes in after hearing the commotion. He sees the ropes on the floor, me bleeding, and the captive dead. I know this doesn't look great for me. I tell him the pirate got out (which isn't a lie! I just don't tell him that I'm the one that let him out) and stabbed me. He seems suspicious but after a second or two he slowly nods his head. He helps me up and we search the body. He only had the clothes on his back, the (now bloody) dagger, and a love letter. We leave him where he is and head outside. Rosencrantz, who apparently was in the window the whole time, flies off too. I wonder how much he saw or heard? My mind is racing and my head is pounding. Not a good combination. We hear a shout from the ship and make our way over there. We board and go below the deck. Following the sounds of the rest of our party, we pass through a kicked-in door and see Willard pretty badly hurt and what looks like a giant centipede corpse on the ground. I'm really glad I wasn't here for this. With the centipede dead, we go to the next room and find some gold and other goods in chests! We agree to sort it out later and go back to Land's End. Mahesh says that his raven doesn't see our small fishing boat anymore. Were there more pirates that got away? It doesn't matter now, we have this ship. We can deal with that later and honestly, I just want to be back in my bed in the Sleeping Sickness. I doze off as we set sail.

We manage to dock in Land's End and I come off the gangway to find some of the group arguing with Sobek again. He's upset that we lost his "ship" and wants us to pay him for it. I make the point that with the pirates gone, he'll be paid in the profits coming in soon, but he said he wants at least 50 gold right now. Poor Willard ponies up more gold to pay it off and Sobek seems at least satisfied, though still not particularly happy. While they sort all that out, I just keep walking back to the inn. I'm too tired to care about that right now. My bed is calling my name.

Goblins in the Forest (Pt. 2)
We left Land's End late afternoon. Paddam lead the way with myself, Berrian, Mahesh, and Snaps close behind. After everything that's happened, we decided we needed some answers and decided to infiltrate the Orcish camp. Once there, we could spy, gather information, maybe sabotage just a little bit. Hopefully rescue Urbest while we're there. Just a nice simple and easy mission, no real plans for fighting or doing anything too crazy. I like simple and easy. I'll admit, I'm a little wary. Though I had heard all about this camp and what to expect out here, I hadn't actually been before and I tend to get antsy in situations like this. I'm also pretty scared of Goorr and his army of orcs. I pulled my cloak tighter around me as we walked. Though it was made of a heavy fabric, it almost made me more cold than it actually warmed. I looked down at the symbol of Auril, the Queen of Air and Darkness inscribed on it. She was my patron and had gifted me this cloak, as well as the grimoire of shadows strapped to my side. I shuddered. Worst case scenario, I had someone watching my back.

The party slowed down when we were roughly five miles away. Mahesh sent Rosencrantz to scout ahead again. Such a useful little bird. Rosencrantz reported that the orcs had four trebuchets as well as two battering rams and dozens of tents. There's also a large campfire near what appears to be the main tent on the east side of camp. We slowed our pace and entered the forest. Berrian cast magic to allow us to pass without a trace, in case we encountered any forward scouts. I let out a sigh of relief. The less likely we are to draw the attention of the entire Orcish camp, the better. We make slow progress over the next few hours, taking great care not to be seen or heard as we approach. My mind is racing as we walk in silence. I wouldn't say that I'm scared, but there is definitely a palpable sense of apprehension in the air. Close to midnight, we come to a stop. Apparently we're about a mile out from the camp. As we start to discuss what our plan is from here, there's a rustling in the brush behind us. We all draw our weapons and prepare to quickly dispose of whatever scout is coming our way when Finrell stumbles out of the underbrush. He makes a quip about us leaving without him and we all put our weapons away. Or start to, before Berrian points out that we aren't alone. I hear more footsteps coming from all sides, but they aren't human. It isn't until I hear a low growling that I recognize the sound- a pack of wolves. Great, if we fight the wolves we risk drawing attention to ourselves and if we ignore them we risk being dinner. I begin readying some magic to deal with them when Berrian calmly talks to them, asking them to leave. Somehow, they seem to understand him! As the pack is turning to leave, he calls one over to him. "Does anyone have some paper? I'd like to send a message to FutFut if possible. If he still has men loyal to him, we want them on watch when we approach the camp." I take out some parchment from my pack and hand it to him. He quickly pens a message and sends the wolf away on his mission. Hopefully the wolf manages to bring it to the right goblin. They assure me FutFut is hard to miss and the most I can do is take their word for it.

Now with Finrell at our side, we continue sneaking towards the camp. Paddam leads the way, but stops short a couple hundred yards from the treeline. "Do you hear that?" he whispers back to us. "Marching, just north of here." Sure enough, there is the faint sound of marching coming from a little ways north of us. Unfortunately, it's growing louder and louder by the second. "They're coming this way!" Not wanting to deal with what is almost certainly a scouting party, I quickly create an illusionary bush for all of us to hide in. As we all crouch down in silence, we hear more footsteps coming our way. These are a lot more frantic and are coming a lot quicker, from the south. We wait with baited breath as a goblin sprints right past our bush. Paddam quickly pulls him in and covers his mouth so he can't alert anyone. It's FutFut, coming to find us! He tells us that the marching we hear is definitely an Orcish patrol, probably about twelve men. He also tells us that his goblins are being kept prisoner in the camp and talks about the main tent where Goorr and his men were making plans. He also confirms our worries about that strange purple flame burning on top of the tower. FutFut has no clue what it is but if he doesn't like it, it's almost certainly not a good sign for us. We have to cut him short though, as the patrol approaches our bush. Right as the patrol is passing us, the silence is broken by a low "Brrrrrrrrrrt" sound. I almost can't believe what I hear, until I catch wind of the accompanying scent. Someone actually farted while we were attempting to hide! The patrol obviously hears it as well, and they come to a halt about ten feet away from our bush. As a few of them break formation and come towards us to investigate the sound (and smell), Berrian thinks quickly and turns into a boar and runs out of the bush! This surprises them and as Berrian runs off, a few of the orcs follow him. The remaining ones seem satisfied by this explanation for the fart and don't investigate any further. What seems like hours pass, though I'm sure it was maybe only a minute or two, before the rest of the orcs come back. They couldn't catch the boar, so they get back into formation and resume their patrol. Another couple minutes go by and Berrian rejoins us.

While waiting on Berrian's return, though, we talk about our options. There seem to be two schools of thought on how to proceed- either we can light the siege weapons on fire as a distraction for us to enter the main tent and find out Goorr's plans and maybe where Urbest is being kept, or we can light the other side of camp on fire as a distraction as we enter the tower to investigate the strange purple flame. Someone mentions letting the basilisk loose on the camp. FutFut reminds us that we need to rescue his goblins, but we don't really pay much attention to him. After much debating, we decide that Finrell will turn invisible and go gather as much information as he can from the main tent. Once he's in position, he'll light some of the tents on fire to provide a distraction for the rest of the party to sneak into the tower. Everyone seems to agree on this course of action, and Finrell quickly disappears and assumedly heads to the other side of camp. The rest of us wait in silence just inside the treeline on the west side of camp. Again, time seems to slow to a crawl while we wait and it feels like hours before we finally hear a commotion coming from the other side of camp. Soon, we see the red glow and the smoke rising from the opposite side of the tower and we know this is our chance to go. We quickly run towards the tower, hoping to make it there undetected. I was too focused on the goal to notice whether or not we were seen, but unfortunately as we're getting our bearings inside the tower we hear some shouts coming from outside. Damn it, we weren't as sneaky as we thought. Now we're trapped in this tower in the middle of the Orc camp. With orcs behind us and a presumably hungry basilisk below us, the only way to go is up, towards the purple flame. Paddam lowers the lift so they might think we went down instead of up and I hear Berrian casting a spell on the door to the room as we hurry up the stairs. At the top of the spiral staircase, we enter a room filled with empty bedrolls with a ladder leading up to a hatch in the ceiling. Mahesh uses magic to barricade the door behind us and we attempt to climb up to the roof. Snaps was leading the way up the ladder, but almost immediately upon opening the hatch, he is blasted by a torrent of fire. Once the flames subside, we look up and see five spellcasters standing around the hatch looking down into our room. So now we have an army of orcs below us and a cabal of spellcasters above us. Great. I cast Faerie Fire and send it up through the hatch, but unfortunately only manage to hit two of the five casters up there. Well, two is better than none. We focus most of our attacks on the weakened casters. As my friends continue shooting spells up there, I'm focusing on the door behind us. The orcs are now beating on it and I'm a little bit worried about how long Mahesh's magic is going to last. I distractedly shoot a few Eldritch Blasts up the hatch as I move away from the door. I look back up the hatch. Someone created a zone of silence upstairs to stop them from casting any magic back down at us! The silence definitely gave us an advantage in this fight. After a couple more seconds of heated spellslinging, Snaps summoned a whirlwind to knock the remaining spellcasters off the top of the tower. We all rush to the ladder.

As we resume our climb, we hear the pounding on the door subside. All the orcs below us are chanting "Goorr! Goorr! Goorr! Goorr!" This is... not good. We quickly climb to the roof and bring the ladder up after us. Upon arriving on the rooftop, I'm immediately captivated by the giant purple flame. Right as I start to investigate it, however, I'm distracted by a loud roar and a crash below us. I look down the hatch right as Goorr himself enters the room, with dozens of orcs flooding the room with him. Goorr reaches up for the hatch and tries to pull himself up, but luckily all of us have a little bit of magic on our side. Between a giant moonbeam pushing Goorr back down and someone filling the room below with fire, we manage to buy enough time for us to throw a rope down the side of the tower to the ground below. Unfortunately, half of us want to run away and the other half wants to stay and fight. I glance at the foot of the tower as our group is deciding whether we should flee or fight. Dozens of orcs swarm the base of the tower and half of the camp is ablaze. I gulp. I imagine there's going to be a fight no matter what we do. I look back to the trapdoor, and see Goorr attempting to climb back up.

Knowing we probably can't fight him right now and running low on spell slots, I think quick- I need to try to stop him from coming up after us. I cast Guidance on myself because honestly, I needed some courage right now, and I quickly pulled a bottle of ink from my pack. As Goorr was pulling himself up, I poured ink right into his eyes. He let out a pained bellow and blindly swiped at me, but I managed to back away. Unfortunately, while the ink might have blinded him, it also did a pretty good job of pissing him off. He pulls himself up and swings at all of us with his weapon, I get sliced across the front and stumble backwards. I hold in the tears and take a few deep breaths as I try to steady myself. I look around at my allies though and it seems like he missed most of them. The blinding worked! Mahesh knocks him back down the hole with an Eldritch Blast and he lands right back in the moonbeam and the fire. As we keep shooting spells down at Goorr to keep him from coming up again, Paddam grabs the rope and attaches it to a crossbow bolt before shooting it down and creating a sort of zipline. This is our chance to escape! Assuming that my friends will be right behind me, I spit down the hole onto Goorr before casting Invisibility on myself and sliding down the zipline to the safety of the ground below. As I land, I see Finrell there at the bottom. I call out to him so he knows I'm here (though still invisible) and quickly fill him in on what happened in the tower as we retreat behind one of the trebuchets. I also notice that the trebuchets are being operated by a small group of goblins. FutFut's men, Finrell tells me. Or starts to tell me, before being interrupted by both trebuchets firing. I'm honestly not sure what they were attempting to hit, but one of them destroyed one of the battering rams in the camp and the other hits the tower. Almost immediately, there is a crash and a shudder and the tower starts to crumble. SHIT, everyone is still up top! Why haven't they slid down the zipline yet?? I quickly turn and run with Finrell towards the treeline as the tower begins to collapse. I hope everyone makes it down before the tower falls.

Once I make it to the treeline, I turn around to see the rest of the party running towards us as the tower lets out one last creak before crumbling in on itself. The brazier with the giant purple flame tumbles down, almost in slow motion, and explodes on impact. Dust and debris and purple flame and pure arcane energy shoot out in all directions, decimating the hoard of Orcs surrounding the base of the tower. All of us look at each other. I ask if Goorr was still up there when the tower collapsed and they say that he was. We all look back at the ruins with baited breath. Could we have actually managed to kill Goorr? Almost as if he was answering my question personally, Goorr steps out of the rubble, covered with these glowing purple fissures on his body and surrounded with arcane energy.

"YOU. WILL. DIE!" He yells at us as he steps away from the remains of the tower. Finrell shoots some magic missiles at him, and Goorr laughs as the arcane energy surrounding him seemingly absorbs the missles. "FOOLS! YOU THINK THE POWER OF ASMODEUS WILL BE TURNED AWAY?! I GROW STRONGER WITH EVERY BLOW!!"

He took another step forward and was opened his mouth to yell something else, but all he got out was a gasp. The purple fissures in his skin started glowing even brighter and expanding quickly. He cries out in surprise before exploding in another blast of purple arcane energy. None of us move, we're all in shock. Smoke and crackling purple energy rise from the rubble where Goorr once stood.

We're about to let out a celebratory shout but I notice another sound coming from the ruins- a hiss.

"The basilisk! It's still alive!" "We need to get out of here now! We can't fight a basilisk now!" "We already killed Goorr, no point in staying and dying now!"

We begin our retreat when FutFut reminds us that not all of his Goblins have been rescued! Finrell is the only one who knows where they are, so he and FutFut run to the remaining tents to free the goblins as we hear the sound of crackling energy. The basilisk was stepping out from the rubble, coated in the same purple magic that Goorr was. We called in some magical fog to block line of sight and we all ran back towards the forest and Land's End. It was close to morning as we made our way back through the woods to safety. I should be exhausted from the hike and the fight and the escape, but I was running on pure adrenaline.