DnDNerds!

While the dwarves are off getting Vint Westland reincarnated, trouble is brewing in Llorkh when the head of security for the Manticore's Muse is slain under mysterious circumstances. Kain leads VS, Neville, and Tals on a hunt for the killer that will take them to hidden corners of Llorkh! VS recruits for his cult of Grandfather Eelism along the way, and they meet an unexpected ally who serves a mighty power in the Greypeak Mountains. It seems the dwarven portal network is under observation by others, including the agent of a sapphire dragon and the nefarious Red Wizards of Thay!

After we recount some Rooms and Teams, Vindalf leads our dwarven explorers Vint, Jendri, Gemwin, and Hokan into the mysteriously abandoned Greywatch, rumored to have been an early casualty of demonic invasion in Ammarindar. After a brief examination of a side entrance, they go in past shattered stone, iron, and adamantine doors to a large room where they are attacked by demons: a howler, a twisted demonic ettin, and a hook-headed babau demon. Gemwin takes on the ettin while most of the rest of the group takes on the howler, and the babau tries to escape and warn its master, the "Spine Feaster" about the dwarves. Vindalf drops a wall of ice that divides up the battlefield, Vint dies terribly from the howler's keening sonic attack and vicious bite, and Hokan looks like he will soon die too, so Vindalf tries to keep Hokan alive while Jendri shoots eldritch blasts and Gemwin lays into the ettin and babau. The party is victorious, but flees the complex with enough parts of Vints body that they hope to be able to reincarnate him by bringing him to the druid Bariq in the west. They retreat to Llorkh and vow to return with their higher-level characters soon.

We regale Judd with various tales of the campaign from before he joined us, and he tells us the story of the Donkey Murder Trial. Bonus content only for our Platinum Patreon Members (which is everybody, there is no Patreon)

Eero leads Vint, Flip, Aulderic, and Ibin as they take relics of Tempus from the Abbey of St. Clewyd to Lord Harrand Torblade for sale. He pays them in diamonds and reincarnation unguents for the Battle Standard of Tempus, and accompanies them eastward to the Abbey of the Broken Blade. There, the Sage Skin of Tempus is exchanged for some magical armor and weapons. The party continues east to Dragonfang Mountain and tells the dwarven party there where Greywatch is on their map. The Conquest Dwarves (Gemwin, Jendri, Hokan, and Vindalf) decide to activate their portal to Greywatch, and Vint accompanies them as they step through to a windswept cliff outside the ruined dwarfhold.

Still mourning the loss of Zaza, VS takes the lead with Eero and Ibin. They meet Aulderik, a Mystran cleric investigating the Prismatic caves, who joins the party and is shown the strange random magical properties of the cavern. They converse with "crystal dwarf" Feldspar, who tells them of his friend Dumathoin. Exploring some of the other caverns, they encounter crystal-encrusted and possibly immortal Tyrran monks having a schvitz in a sandsauna and mineral baths. Having apparently explored the whole complex, they depart and explore the nearby mountains, looking for the dwarven ruin known as Greywatch. They inter Zaza in some streams full of szorp fish that he would have loved. Hazbarg the Stone Giant shows them how to find Greywatch but warns it is a difficult climb on an eroded cliff-road. They explore back towards Llorkh, hoping to find some new recruits for the Grandfather Eel cult there.