Game 6: Three Halflings Walk Into a Bar....

How? How could this have happened again?

The day started out normal enough, with a villager pointing us to the lair of the Hound, deep in the Sunken Fens. We had been up drinking and acquired a few more hangers-on, three halflings this time. Their high voices contrasted with the dwarves booming tones just made my hangover worse, and the highlight of our trek was when Kain began tossing them across a swampy patch when we went to cross. Slim and I bet on the success of this endeavor to take our minds from the foul smelling fog gathering around us. He got my ukelele for a while, but I won it back, along with a gold piece when the  dwarf failed to pole vault across. We found a shallower passage further upstream, and spared our clothes the mud.

We came to an ominous looking sinkhole and assumed it was where the foul beast had made its home. We had to tell the halfling we were looking for an underground picnic area to convince him to let us lower him, but he proved more clever than his constant chatter would make one guess and came back with loot. There were gold pieces to share, a shiny metal symbol, a bronze torque, and a bronze buckler! I was so excited to see a shield without the pollution of iron that I had words with Moira over it. She finally relented and took the torque instead.

Then the halfling proved his cleverness to be of the sort that ebbs and flows. He took hold of the metal symbol and drew a part at the top down, like a scroll. Glowing blue orbs floated out and hovered above each person's head. I looked up to find my own orb just as it sped down and sank into my forehead. It wasn't an unpleasant sensation, nor entirely unfamiliar, as something other than me took up residence inside my skull.

Somehow we made it back to the inn. The next week was somewhat subdued, and no one wished to discuss what had happened. I gave the halflings a wide berth.

Another late night, but this time we were not alone. Several villagers lingered to gossip about rumors of the strange comet and that the dwarves to the south had found our boat. The halflings, quick to trust and quicker to speak, told of a ferry that may let us cross, should we wish to retrieve the boat. Moira began to speak longingly of home. I did not know she harbored such poetry inside. Her maudlin mood seemed to dissipate when she engaged a strange woman in conversation, and they were soon joined by Paug. All three left while Varg! bent the ear of some other poor soul about the Wolf Mother, and a tall, handsome man caught my eye. Slim was talking, some ramble about an emerald enchanter's citadel or tower or something, but I couldn't take my eyes from the man. He looked so much like my lost love...

We were in the darkest corner when the room began shaking. I had felt this before. My brain did a backflip in my skull as the known universe dropped from beneath our feet and was replaced by another. Light showed through the halfling's pocket where he still carried that odd symbol, going from green to red. When the motion stopped, I ran to the closest window and flung open the shutters. The sky was orange, and a huge moon, cracked and pitted like a dropped scrying-ball, dominated the sky. Not home yet, but closer. Definitely closer.

Everyone began babbling, and I shoved the man I had just been embracing away in disgust. We discovered that the basement had been town away and our unfortunate serving boys are dead, along with all of our ale and most of our provisions. We went to the door and peered outside at the strange landscape.

The sky darkened then. Moira slammed the door, but not before half a dozen flying lizard-like things squirmed in. They darted through the air, hissing and spitting as they swooped over our heads. We killed them but could hear more beating against the shutters and door. They eventually went away, and everyone gathered at the door again.

The Wolf Spear has been relocated to the bottom of a valley, with a mountain in the distance. We could see ape-ish men, half-concealed in the weird light, waiting with boulders raised to cast upon our heads, but they skulked back at a strange call. A creature like none I've ever seen cantered into view. It was like a piece of night sky, with the same broken moon where its head should be and tentacles instead of arms. Small objects orbited the ends as if they were planets themselves, and a curious tail curled behind it. Slim called out and tried to address the thing, but with a moon for a face there was no way to tell its response. It turned towards us, and Kain slid forward as if possessed. Varg! and one of the villagers went next, as if some gale shoved them forward. They struggled but Kain and Varg! were sucked into the creature. We lost one of the halflings as well, but the villager was able to pull away. The planets on its limbs spun faster and the light from its moon-face grew brighter, then Kain was spit back out, babbling of wasps and holding his side. But of brave Varg! there was no sign. We pulled ourselves together and headed towards the ruins of a city, quiet and eerie in the orange light.

Game #3: Sketchnotes