Chapter 9

Synopsis
The party left the unnamed military town and traveled to the town of Rico. While camping out on the road one evening, Scourpax took Carnelian fishing and accidentally stumbled upon a portal, which Helike recognized with his portal-detecting abilities. Gurney arrived upon the scene late, having been cooking dinner. Disgruntled, he stuck his hand in the pond and was pulled into the portal. The rest of the party followed him and found themselves in a forest with shimmering multicolored lights, which Scourpax recognized as the Fey Wilds. Castelis spoke to the animals in Sylvan and discovered footprints, which they followed to an invisible wall. While walking, Gurney ate a mysterious colorful fruit and Helike gathered several plants from the area. The adventurers smelled burning pork and heard quickly approaching laughter, and decided to flee back to the Material Plane. The portal closed behind them.

Upon arriving in Rico, they found that the town's citizens were on edge. Most of the caravans that were supposed to reach Rico had been intercepted by Buggo's army, and the town's resources had been slowly dwindling. They met with General Roustic and her part-dragon guard Getes to deliver classified battle tactics from Chezalia. They also delivered a mysterious coded message to her, which seemed to surprise the general. Roustic offered them free lodging at an inn in town. The party appraised the gems that they took from the dwarven stronghold and went shopping for material components for spells. They then visited the town's fighting pits where Jocko was competing. Several of the party members placed bets on Jocko, who won his fight against an ogre. Gurney then signed up to compete against a dwarf and lost. Lenny also made friends with a fellow halfling from the east named Quivapny. Lenny asked them to deliver a letter to her hometown letting them know that she is alright, which she claimed was a message for a cousin who had recently been married.

The next morning, the party received assignment from General Roustic to meet with an army encampment near the front lines. They traveled to the encampment and met with General Veamika. His army was launching a strong offense against Buggo's army to the south, during which she wanted the adventurers to sneak past the front lines to fight Buggo directly. The party agreed, and Gurney won an arm-wrestling competition against a soldier named Jevso. The party briefly investigated the second pocket dimension of Jalomon, finding an empty room, and left to sneak past enemy lines. One night shortly before sunrise, Castelis was on watch and heard the sound of a fairy's laughter. Carnelian detected that that multiple fairies and fiends were surrounding the party. The fairies spoke to Castelis in Sylvan and the fiends spoke to Lenny and Tolko in abyssal that one of the party members was secretly replaced with a changeling. Suddenly Carnelian, Castelis, Helike, and Scourpax attacked Gurney, Lenny, and Tolko, believing that they were trapped in dreams and needed to be knocked out to wake up. Scourpax quickly put Tolko to sleep, and Castelis transformed into a bear, hurting Gurney and knocking out Lenny. Gurney, realizing that this might be a spell, sang a childhood song that his mother taught him and vanished, waking up from an apparent dream. In the waking world, he saw fairies hovering over the other party members, keeping them in an enchanted sleep. Gurney killed the fairy that was controlling Castelis, causing him to vanish from the dream realm and awaken on the Material Plane. Together, they killed the remaining fairies, releasing the characters from their hold just before Carnelian, Helike, and Scourpax were about to kill Lenny and Tolko.

When they awoke, Lenny stormed off, furious that her friends had apparently tried to kill her in a dream realm. Carnelian, Helike, and Scourpax followed after her and convinced her to return to the party. The adventurers somberly prepared an apology breakfast before setting out for Buggo's encampment.

Tips and Tricks

 * The best immunization for dream-fairies are dream-demons.
 * When trapped in a dream realm, sing your mother's lullaby. It's possible that she was in fact a powerful wizard secretly preparing you for future trials.
 * When cooking apology breakfast, wild boar is optional, but recommended.

Firsts

 * First shopping spree!
 * First extended dream sequence!
 * First friendly fire!
 * First time Lenny mentioned her full name!
 * First magical duel!
 * First fairy killed!
 * First bear attack!

Items Obtained

 * Ancient Dwarven Crown: kept by Carnelian, no magical powers
 * 100gp Pearl: bought by Tolko, material component for the spell Identify
 * Three Platinum Rings: bought by Tolko, Carnelian, and Helike, material components for the spell Warding Bond