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All six players in attendance:

After the fight with the Goblins and the Worg on February 6th, the party has returned to the village of Chesmu. They begin preparing in earnest for the expedition. They debate briefly whether this will take a week or two and considerable time is spent discussing what kind of equipment will be required. The resort refugees are very interested in their expedition and are willing to help as best they can in preparation, but are only capable of going so far. They offer one pack animal (of the party's choice), but are reluctant to sacrifice another. The party chooses a sturdy mule (82 on a d100 for quality).

On February 11th, the party has put together much of their equipment and take a day trip as a test. On a d100 success roll, it scores only a 12! Vincent sprains his ankle due to a stupid mistake (which is ironic since he is one of the more versatile outdoorsmen in the group).

After some rest and more preparation, a second day trip is taken on February 17th. This one performs much better (48). The party returns that evening feeling much better about their chances - but still decide an overnight test would be useful.

On February 19th, they set out for a one-night overnight test trek. Even though the weather doesn't really cooperate, the test is an outstanding success (99)! Back in Chesmu on February 20th, the party is ready to go!

On February 21st, the village and the resort refugees throw a feast in the party's honor. Cahil and the chief present the group with simple amulets made out of stones from the collapsed tower. In addition, a runner from the village is sent to accompany the party as far as the village of Brishen (which is about 25 miles north).

On February 22nd, the party sets out. There are the six player characters, the NPC Wizard Bigby, the guide Wunand, and the mule. On the first night, the watches are laid out as follows: Team A = Roget and Roderick Team B = Vincent and Aramil Team C = Dhersion and Kesi The teams will rotate between the three night watches and Bigby will be a floater, who will swap places with one of the six each night and rest the seventh. With this schedule in place, each person gets one night off each week and the party will be reasonably protected during the nights. The first night's watches (in order) are: Team C, B, A.

After midnight (in the middle of the second watch), an Owlbear storms into the camp. Aramil and Vincent attack while waking the rest of the party. Aramil is grappled, but manages to escape (with only one hit point). Once he is free, the Owlbear attacks Vincent and grapples him. On the second round, Dhersion, Roget, and Kesi awake. On the third round, Roderick awakes. Kesi manages to stun the beast, which keeps it from killing Vincent. Eventually, the group brings the beast down and extract Vincent from it's grasp. It was a close call for Vincent and Aramil, but the rest of the group are unscathed.

Bigby gathers some feathers and other components from the beast, explaining that magical beasts such as this are great sources for alchemical components. Roderick attends to the wounded and when the sun rises on February 24th, the party packs up and limps toward Brishen.

The villagers in Brishen confirm that they had spotted the Owlbear recently and were concerned that it had wandered so far into the populated areas. The party also discovers that these villagers are not nearly as friendly as in Chesmu.

On February 25th, the party bids farewell to Wunand and head out toward the next village. That afternoon, Roget's everfull water flask beings leaking shadow (as it does when it isn't full). He finds a creek and starts to fill it up, but water suddenly starts gushing out! The water forms into a elemental, and is followed by what appears to be a shadow elemental. The party watches as the two elementals fight each other. Water is vanquished and Shadow surveys the party before misting back into the flask. The group discusses whether it is safe to keep the flasks. Bigby suggests that they may yet be useful and can easily be destroyed if the need arises.

On February 26th, the party arrives at the third village without further incident. The villagers here seem more friendly, but the party is finally without a translator for the first time!

XP awarded: 500 each, Running Total: 2,000. The combat was worth only 1350 total - which would have been 225 each, but because of the successful preparation and the wise avoidance of combat with the elementals, I rounded this up.