A Cold Spring
Recently, a group of Prismatic Guild members ventured to a small Aundarian resort town called Thommel in order to provide support for their annual spring fertility festival. Despite a surprising bout of dreary weather, the Spring Awakens Festival was a great success, with members of the Guild assisting with security, entertainment, and information services. The group even provided support for the festival’s titular event -- the summoning of a stunning unicorn! With Rhenan providing commentary, Hector on bodyguard duty, and the rest of the group assisting from the forest, the summoning turned into a spectacle that the children of Thommel will surely speak about for years to come.
After the festival’s conclusion, the party went on their way to the nearby moat house at the request of the local alchemist’s daughter—the man had gone missing, which proved a dark turn for what had once been a light-hearted quest.
Upon their arrival to the building, they were swiftly assaulted: first, by the smell of decaying, dissolved gnolls, and secondly by a vicious-tempered young black dragon, protecting a less viciously-tempered pile of gold. Though the creature was eventually slain, he delivered tremendous damage to the party, who forged on unabated.
Their journey brought them up against several ill-mannered ruffians in the ruined keep: creatures such as gnolls still living, dastardly cultists who took previously living gnolls and made them unliving, transparent cubes that sought only to devour, giant centipedes, and even smaller centipedes. Through these tribulations, however, the group was able to bed down in a room that the gnolls had once used for bedding down.
It took several prestidigitations before anyone was actually comfortable enough to sleep, however.
In the morning, bright eyed and bushy tailed, our heroes forged on and found the end of their journey: a great black monolith protected by wild-eyed priests and a stone gargoyle. All were, of course, swiftly disemboweled or otherwise made deceased, as adventurers are wont to do. Though, one did manage to kill himself to avoid questioning.
At the base of the monolith, one last enemy remained: a great oni with terrible cold breath, who nearly wiped our heroes out in the space of mere seconds. He was brought down thanks only to the great fortitude of the adventurers who stood back up in the face of withering (and wuthering) defeat, and the party was able to find Byrne near-frozen nearby. Through quick thinking, he was brought back from the brink, and the Guild-members and guests were able to return to Thommel safely.