First session of our 2025 DnD Campaign

20250110 Session #1 (as told by Inez, gnome wizard to be)

(See also: First session of our 2025 DnD Campaign - another view for Finn's view)

Dear diary,

Last night was the most incredible night of my life! It started some weeks ago when the invitations of Aalborr arrived at our house. In bright colored envelopes they stood out from the letters, receipts and other papery stuff that comes in daily into my fathers office. Mine was green, obviously different from my parents' yellow ones, so my father tried being funny stating that this probably meant that I was invited for the childrens party. Ha ha! Little could he know..

Together with my parents I arrived at the Drunken Badger Inn yesterday evening. Had to wear my best frock and my mother instructed the maids to polish and paint me up earlier that day, so that I could make an impression on the sons of the rich Gnome families. Took most of the afternoon, but I did look good though! ‘If charm were currency, I'd be running the whole bank!’ would my father have said. During this torture session I managed to smuggle my secret booklet into one of the many pleats and even a small dagger, which could come in handy if one of those Gnomish heirs would become too amicable like last time.The higher the prestige, the further the fingers tend to wander...

But things went quite differently this time. After walking in and greeting our host, my spouses and I were split up, as this was what the coloring was all about. And instead of at a children's party, I found myself joined with Jonathan and Finn at a table; the two halfling rascals which I wrote about in earlier notes. A pleasant surprise, though apparently our earlier, supposedly secret, meetings had not gone as unnoticed as I would have hoped. Nook is such a small gossiping town! Though I hope the story of me meeting two halfling men has not reached my parents, dear diary..

Arriving at the table, I tried to pretend not to know them and introduced myself formally, which surprised Jonathan a bit and made Finn roll his eyes at me. Before I could explain myself, a loud noise and yelling announced that host Aalborr was starting his opening speech. The Drunken Badger crowd started yelling and laughing about stuff I could not fully get, just confusing parts about racing and mushrooms not being a party. Hardly seeing anything of the main stage and having my sight blocked by all those towering humans, did not help either. And then I saw even less as all of a sudden the lights went out and the floor under us fell away!!

Seconds later I sat on the floor of a dark cellar with the two halflings next to me. The priest somehow lighted up a dart he was holding, illuminating the room. How did he do that, I wondered, having failed so many times myself to cast the simplest of spells without success? I looked in awe at the shining dart, then in wonder at the landscape that it revealed, then in anger as I noticed Finn taking a peek at my cleavage! A fast slap ended that, before I could lift my dress back into a less revealing state while standing up. 

So there I was, together with two halfling male companions in a dark cellar. If my father had known this would happen, he would have me locked up in the attic of our house! For a short while we stood there looking around at the bizarre landscape, mainly filled with huge mushrooms, with the contours of a lake in the near distance. How could all this fit in the cellar of the town's inn? 

We started working our way carefully, the damp and wetness making the floor slippery.  Climbing a small platform we triggered one of the mushrooms into trembling and even producing an awful sound. This we're not the kind of mushrooms sold at the Nook markets! We sneaked away as this seemed to attract a mushroom guardsman. Still don't know if this was one of Aalborr ‘s men in costume, or a genuinely angered fungus. We decided not to find out. Luckily this armed monstrosity did not follow us further.  Enough admirers for one day!

At the top of the platform we met a raven. Somedays I follow mobs of these birds flying over Nook through the windows of the solicitor's office until someone notices  and forces me back to my tasks. Though my halfing fellows did not like it much, I just had to try to connect to this corbie! Magically the bird and I seemed to be able to understand each other and when I asked it to help us find the way and feed it some bread, it took off pointing us the right way. At least I was convinced that was its message. It took some discussion with the boys, but after Finn did some ‘I know the right direction thief trick’ the halflings finally agreed to follow the bird.  

With the help of the light source of Jonathan we walked further, Finn taking the lead. At least he was now looking out for troubles instead of peeking at me. It would have been an easy descent to the lake side, if  not for that priest Jonathan stumbling into the mushrooms. The first one just made him hallucinate about spiders. Finn and I managed to snap him out of that. But the second one left him paralyzed and drooling. And even worse, trying to push him further, I touched the same boletus, and there I was, not being able to move, slobbering like some of my fathers aged, nearly dead customers. And it was all the fault of Jonathan! (Of course diary, I know that’s not fair, but that annoying priest.. and me being even more annoyingly stupid...)

Standing there helpless and stupid, Finn came to our rescue, or so it seemed. Throwing some water from the lake into Jonathan's face, he succeeded in freeing him of the spell of the mushroom spores. But then, diary you won’t believe it, this fiend of a Finn tried to persuade Jonathan to urinate on me as a way to set me free of the spores’ ban!! Luckily for me, the priest turned out a much more decent fellow than I expected that a halfling could be, flat out refusing to do this. In the end he helped me out by filling his hat with water, then tossing this over me. You can imagine what this did to my make up and dress! Now I was furious at them both!

Before I had the time to decide to thank or kill the halflings, they took off, and I followed them to the lake, irritated (just a bit). To find there a lovely small dragon, hovering over the water.  Though I still don’t know if it was just an illusion. If it was an effect of the spores or a trick being played on us? The dragon, either appearing close by or far off; its voice coming from behind the listener or from its mouth, depending on who of us was interacting with the little beast. We dared not to find out what was happening, deciding to make progress instead of unraveling this riddle. 

But more riddles would cross our path. Following the path pointed out by the raven, we came to a strange gate. Not made of wood or iron, but of a substance not that different from the puddings that our cook produces on high days. This jelly was more or less transparent, revealing what looked to be some small weapons inside. As our attempts to open the gate without touching the jelly failed, I tried to cast a spell from my hidden booklet. Amazing myself (and probably the halflings as well) I managed to pull this off, summoning an invisible creature to open the door for us. However, the gate was little impressed by the creature. However, I was shaken by this combination of accomplishment and failure, hunkering down to regain some energy. 

Meanwhile the halflings were making more progress. Once more, throwing water seemed to be the way forward, dissolving the doors slowly. Then the two companions murmured and giggled amongst themselves,  upon which Jonathan stepped a bit away and Finn opened his leather jacket. Luckily, for several reasons, I stood some steps behind them, because Finn started pissing on the jelly doors! Though I had heard stories about halfling men, this was not peeing in any way I had ever seen or imagined. The poor doors were blasted away and drops of piss flew around, landing on my shoes and dress! Once more I could not decide to hate him or thank him. 

Later on Finn shared a knife that fell out of the jelly to both Jonathan and me, and even had the wit to clean these before handing them out.  And Jonathan and I accepted,  that because of his magical urinating abilities demonstrated, he was allowed the additional slightly bigger dagger. But that did not make up for spoiling my dress and shoes! 

Moving through the now cleared doorway, we heard noises indicating that we were getting closer to the inn where our adventure had started. Opening the door at the end of the passage, we hoped to find the great room again. Instead we entered yet another room with yet another door.  

Placed in there was a table with three chairs, the table set up for a high tea for three (well, not in a way acceptable at our place, but still.). On top was a sign reading “what’s missing?”. Diary, once more I have to give credits to my halfling companions for resolving the riddle. As I was sipping tea from a magically filled cup, just to find out that this tasted awful (and hoping that this was not caused by drops of Finn’s magic spilling over), the thief and priest somehow managed to convince the door to open. 

Looking through this last door we found ourselves finally back at the Drunken Badger again, obviously having missed the main part of the festivities. Aalborg was asleep on his chair at the main stage, the guests still around either asleep too or too drunk to notice our arrival. One of his bodyguards, the big Aarakocra, smirked at the halflings and me, mockingly telling us that we were the last of the groups to arrive, having lost the race. Apparently magic screens at the walls of the inn had shown all guests, at least those that were interested, our adventure in the cellar.  “I really enjoyed your achievements, small ones”, he ended with a smile (if a beak can smile), “Now you two half wits, escort the lady home, and try nothing fancy!  And please, keep her dress clean of piss this time” were his words pointing us to the door. “And you little lady, next time wear an odor a little less pungent if you wanna charm the Gnomish gentlefolks.” Well, dear diary, next time this oversized vulture visits my fathers office, I will get revenge and pull out one of his feathers! 

And so, dear diary, this is how the night and my adventure ended. The two halflings escorted me through the empty streets of Nook. We had a short and a bit awkward farewell. Not the romance my father is worried about (more the kind of romance my mother is warning about), but certainly not the romance I was looking for!

Upon returning I found the house quiet and was able to enter through the servant entrance without being noticed. This morning my mother ordered my dress to be disposed of (For certain she had watched our adventure at the magical screens!) and me to my room, adding that she had not deserved such embarrassment. Later on I overheard staff members making jokes and innuendo about halflings, piss and worse...  

It’s been a few weeks now since I wrote to you,  my dear diary. Since that evening I haven’t seen Finn or Jonathan. My parents grounded me and my days are filled with tasks at the office and extra lessons at home in Gnomish Decorum (if such a thing exists). However before going to bed I put some bread crumbs (stolen from dinner) outside my window, hoping to lure a raven to visit me.

Well diary, so far, I’ll hide you with my spellbook, and hope to write soon!

(Continued at Intermezzo: fluff happening between sessions #1 and #2)