4U 2: Releasing Spirits

The RPG SAGA continues with "The Dream Team" of:
Koriel "Kori" the aasimar (human-looking) arcane archer,
"Puff" the gnome dream druid,
Aegle the winged elf kensei monk,
and their allies...

DM Note
For the previous session, I prepared a village with some NPCs. This session was based mostly on randomizers, with the players rolling to determine what they found as they explored. It led to an exciting, though challenging (CR-wise) session for the characters.

4U Session 2 Log
Homebrew Campaign
In Tholme: Kori, Puff, Aegle, and their hired gnome fighter Frazzle left the necromancer's tower with the old wizard's journals; Puff declared his realization that they were in a different universe (since he realized the river ran along the same path as the stream back in the forest in the Forgotten Realms).

The "Dream Team" encountered a rival adventuring party, which included: a wizard, a rogue, a fighter, and a cleric that all seemed to worship someone called "The Thunderer." This rival party went into the tavern and quickly found themselves also on the quest to find the missing singing sword, suspected to be lost/stolen out in the woods. The rival party got a head start, but - humorously - Puff talked to their stabled horses and convinced them to flee.

Stopping at an interesting double-tree in the woods, Puff studied the plant. Kori somehow threw up a raven, which Puff pulled a feather from (and gave to Kori) before the bird flew off. Aegle scouted for the group by flying above the forest and told them he discovered a cottage in the woods. When the team went there, they met a grumpy old "grandma" gnome who eventually warmed up to them and gave them each a magic potion. She also told them about the hill where people had been buried - thus making this a haunted forest - but warned that thunder and lightning constantly struck the hill.

When the team finally went to the abandoned temple in the woods, where the rival party was looking for the singing sword, they disrupted the burned circle to "The Thunderer" outside and then went in. Of the rival group, only the rogue survived; the other 3 adventurers were turned into shadows. The team helped the rogue escape from the shadows. They also killed 4 rust monsters in an area submerged in water. Puff swam around and discovered a portal to an ocean-like area.

Realizing they couldn't defeat the shadows, the team went to the haunted hill - after checking out a beautiful statue to the goddess Ryali (which had a fountain of holy water); Kori took some of the holy water. They used the holy water to remove the effects of "The Thunderer" and release the spirits of the dead elves trapped in the hill. The rival party rogue went off with a couple of fighters who worshipped "The Thunderer" that had been at the hill.

After killing 2 vargouilles, the team spent the next day with Aegle flying back and forth getting holy water to finish removing the scorch marks of "The Thunderer" and thus making sure any more captured spirits would be able to escape.