12/07/2022 The session began on the last night of the gods’ time. As usual, the stars in the heavens moved about depicting the history of Zhalindor. The events depicted that night were the most recent events of note and ended with a depiction of the party curing Helegan! The party netted 140 wheels from selling the various loot they gained from defeating the minotaurs. However, Igny tithed 10,000 wheels to Humakt, based on his approximate share of the party’s funds. The next day, the party began investigating the chaos monster outside of Quivera. They traveled to the approximate location of the most recent attacks, about 7 miles north of the city. The party was able to find some strange large elephant-like tracks. The party decided to follow the tracks, which lead to a graveyard before abruptly ending. There was a sinister feeling about the graveyard, and the air smelled of fresh blood. There was a lone building in the center of the graveyard, which the party entered. Inside, there was a pale, bald man with large ears sitting and muttering nonsense to himself. He was surrounded by books on the floor and had a strange-looking staff in his lap. Chance decided to use “mage hand” to snatch the staff. The books on the ground were clearly evil, and the party quickly put them in the bag of holding for safe keeping. The staff started speaking and immediately revealed itself to be evil in nature. Chance passed the staff to Igny. As soon as Igny grasped the staff, it began writhing and howling in pain. Igny immediately decided the staff needed to be destroyed. He tossed the staff in the air, and with a great swing of Kekax, he cut the staff in two. As it was destroyed, the staff exploded with necrotic energy, damaging the party. Concerned that the strange bald man would flee, Igny used “command”, shouting, “halt!” The party quickly tied up the suspect, who was alarmed that the party had destroyed the staff, as that was what he used to control “it.” The party suspected “it” was the chaos creature they sought. The party decided to camp just outside of the graveyard overnight in the hopes that they could attack the creature if it showed up. During the night, there was a loud thunderclap that woke the party and damaged the guard on watch. From off in the distance, they could hear the voice of the minotaur chief, Whoreson, taunting them before disappearing into the darkness. The rest of the night passed uneventfully. Since the monster did not appear overnight, the party decided to return to Quivera and see if they could learn more and better prepare themselves for this task. In Quivera, the party turned their captured suspect over to the city guard explaining that he may be dangerous but also didn’t seem quite all there. Moreover, they also turned over the evil books to an inquisitor of Kemer Lexi for a reward of 30 wheels. In town, Chance brought the remnants of the staff to the mages’ guild where he helped them do an identification ritual and learned that the staff was a named item made in the last five years, belonging to a sect of evil druids who seek to destroy nature. Meanwhile, the rest of the party went to talk to the survivors of the previous attacks. They learned that the attacks were occurring weekly on the full moon of wild night. One witness described seeing a man matching the description of the large-eared man they party had captured. Igny went to Mortanius at the Humakt shrine to seek advice for defeating the creature. Mortanius gave Igny a scroll of “dispel extraplanar” that would banish the creature if successfully used. Chance asked the mages guild for a second “dispel extraplanar” scroll as a backup. It took a couple of days to procure, but the party knew the next attack would not happen until wild night, so they knew that enough time to wait for it. On the night of wild night, the party set up outside the graveyard, prepared for battle. Sure enough, the chaos creature appeared, along with some blood slims. A great battle ensued. Igny engaged the chaos being directly, while the rest of the party fought off the blood slimes. In the end, Gunther used one of the scrolls to banish the chaos creature and win the day! Looting the area, the party found 37 wheels and 65 lunars. The party returned to Quivera and claimed their 200 wheel reward. The party arranged for a massive exorcism of the churchyard, with clerics from several of the cults in Quivera. The next day, the party started their long journey to Chagna-Fel. A few days into their journey, they came across a large gathering of dragon newts on the north side of the road. The dragon newts were gathered around a plinth covered in ruins. They explained to the party that they were there to transport the party to Chagna-Fel using by activating the plinth, allowing instant travel to the other plinths across Zhalindor. The party thanked the dragon newts and used the plinth to teleport to their new county. They arrived just north of the village of Eleva. As they approached the village, the party saw a group of women pouring blood on some sort of totem – a pillar of skulls. The women explained that Baron Markowitz had made a deal with the halflings and they were offering their sacrifice to Vine as part of the agreement. Xaris, enraged by this display, pulled out his maul and destroyed the totem. The party continued into the village, where they were met by the Hetman. The party explained that Igny, Chance, and Xaris were the new Counts, showing him their official documentation proving their titles. The Hetman took them to meet Baron Markowitz in the tavern, Poopy’s Place. The Baron was a very short and ill-tempered man. Before the party could even introduce themselves, he rudely tried to dismiss them. When the party didn’t immediately comply, he attempted to strike Igny, who easily grabbed the Baron’s wrist instead. The party then explained that there was new leadership in town, and they were the new Counts of Chagna-Fel. The Baron’s blustering demeanor immediately crumbled and was replaced with sycophancy. The Baron explained that the situation was dire. There were only about 25 members of the militia, and they were mostly farmers. The Baron claimed the local halfling forces numbered “more than 50.” The party suspected this figure was slightly exaggerated, but probably not egregiously so. After talking with the Baron, the party learned there was a second Baron in town, a Baron Kirin. The party went to the hetman’s house to meet with the second Baron. And with that the session ended. TL;DR: the party found and defeated the chaos creature, then arrived in Chagna-Fel to find the situation to be more dire than they had realized