10/5/2022 As the party completed their week of training, they were summoned by Lord Atkinson, the seneschal of Quivera, to the palace. Once they arrived, Lord Atkinson introduced them to Mobeck Ironbeard, a dwarven cleric of Roazite who wished to adventure with the party. Further, the seneschal implored the party to assist Quivera in eliminating the leaders of the minotaurs running amok north of the city. The forces of Quivera and the surrounding areas were depleted due to the war effort, and the minotaurs seized on this opportunity. The party agreed to help. First, the party split up to try to learn any useful information they could about the minotaurs and the Chaos Goddess, Malia, they worshiped. Chance spoke with the mages guild, Igny with the Temple of Humakt, and Xaris and Mobeck with Guildo.In each case, they given some healing potions and were warned that the followers of Malia could be expected to wield spells to counter the sort of spirit magic Igny uses. The party was scheduled to meet that evening with the merchants to negotiate for their 250 wagons of common goods to be delivered to Chagna Fel. However, the party didn't want to waste any time in pursuing the minotaurs, so they left Helegan in charge of negotiations on their behalf and departed right away. On the road, the party came across a group of five halflings heading the opposite direction. The halflings were very eager to camp with the party that night, but the party was very wary of them given their past interactions with halflings. Eventually, Chance suggested that one of the halflings wrestle with Xaris for the chance to camp with the party. The lead halfling heartily agreed. Xaris, feeling that this wouldn't be a very sporting challenge, offered to wrestle two of the halflings at once. The halfling leader was pleased to oblige, and said something to the halfling next to him in a strange language. That language turned out to be Abyssal, and Kekax immediately shouted to the entire party, "he just said to go around behind him and stab him with the poison dagger!" The halflings immediately turned to flee. Chance burned one to a crisp with a fireball, and hit another with a fire bolt. Igny called forth vines from the ground to restrain another and quickly subdued him. By searching the three halflings, the party found 21 copper, 18 lunars, 3 short swords, and 3 self bows. The party interrogated the captured halfling and learned that the halflings were followers of Vine, and they simply thought the party "looked like easy marks." Further, there was a minotaur-led ambush up the road from them. Once they learned everything they could from the halfling, they dumped him off in the pocket dimension where the farm animals had been slaughtered. The party camped for the night. During the third watch of the night, Mobeck noticed something moving in the distance. He woke Chance, who woke the rest of the party. Chance was able to see that it was some sort of large creature with many eyes. He hit it with a firebolt, and the creature immediately fled. Not wanting to chase the creature in the dark, the party decided to go back to sleep. During the next watch, neither Chance nor Gunther was paying enough attention, and a large spider was able to attack them with webs and drag Gunther away! Eventually Chance was able to free himself and wake the rest of the party. The party was able to track the spider and free Gunther. After the eventful night, the party marched through the woods on the western side of the road, to avoid walking into the ambush. They came across the forces positioned to ambush the road: three minotaurs and more than a dozen chaos creatures. Two of the minotaurs were standing next to piles of large rocks, boulders almost. The chaos creatures were medium sized and hunched over. They had dog faces with large fangs, and bony spikes running down their spine. They had gills and webbed hands, holding hand axes. The minotaurs and chaos creatures were facing the road and did not notice the party as they approached. Tactically, the party decided to attack the chaos creatures first before going after the minotaurs. Chance unleashed a fireball upon them, hitting about half of the chaos creatures. Xaris used his ring to hit several other chaos creatures during the party's opening salvo. Dethjak stuck close to Xaris to try to prevent him from getting surrounded by the chaos creatures. Unfortunately, one of the minotaurs threw a giant rock at him and hit Dethjak, causing him to stumble backward, but he somehow remained upright. Chance unleashed a second fireball, killing many of the chaos creatures. However, there were still many more left, and they quickly surrounded Xaris and attacked him viciously until he fell to the ground unconscious and near death. Similarly, Dethjak was knocked unconscious as well. Igny, also fighting the chaos creatures nearby, took several blows but remained relatively unharmed. Mobeck moved into the fray to administer a healing potion to Dethjak. Meanwhile, Xaris' healing rose kept him from the brink of death and brought him back to consciousness. Xaris staggered to his feet and used his ring again to attack the chaos creatures surrounding him, killing those nearest him. The minotaurs, seeing that most of the chaos creatures had fallen, sounded the retreat and fled like the giant 12 foot tall cowards they were. The party had won the day, but it was a difficult battle. And with that, the session ended. TLDR: The party gained a cleric, almost lost a Gunther, and fought some minotaurs and chaos beings; Chance decided fireballs were indeed useful afterall