April 17-18 2946 Conversation with Azkhala Hurrying out towards the woods, Radril went hunting for Azkhala. After spending more than an hour in the forest, she suddenly heard the dwarf’s voice in her ear. She told Radril about how the power of the hut momentarily broke the power Woedwyn had over her, but that the sorcerer held other members of her family so she had to return or else they would be in danger. Azkhala also told Radril about the ancient history of Dul-Goldur, the present abode of the Necromancer of Mirkwood. It was once a dwarven settlement that mined Red Lean. When the ore dissipated, most of the dwarves left, but the king and a few of his family remained. When the Necromancer took over, he enslaved this family of dwarves and twisted them with dark magics. They are now slaves to his will. Azkhala is the current leader of this family. The Others Aenen explains to the Party that he needs the teeth of a mystical creature to change Valoric into a Pukle-man. Luckily, the creature is nearby. The Wose regularly hunt them for their teeth, but refuse to kill them. Aenen tasks the group to do just this, but makes them promise not kill the creature because their magic depends on their teeth. Aenan tells them that the hunt must also be ritualistically pure therefore, he can not give them any information on the creature itself. It is to be a fair contest. The PCs proceeded to the cavern of the strange beasts and begin to explore only to find another hunting party there that’s after the creature. Led by a large human named Sis, the gang reveals that they were hired to kill the creature and retrieve all of its teeth. They are being paid by the tooth. In the end, the Party was able to convince them to not kill the creature in exchange for them giving them a few. Sis agrees, and the PCs move forward. After almost falling down a crevasse that lead to nowhere, the PCs enter an odd cavern. Its filled with broken up statues of Wose. As they investigated the scene, the PCs kept feeling waves of energy pass over them. Eventually, they discover a statue with a bite taken out of its side. The Prey Eventually, the creature shows itself to be an enormous, black leopard-like beast. It leaps across the cavern and begins tearing into the Party. Radril and Fosco both go invisible leaving Skari the only target for the beast to focus on. And that’s exactly what it does. Staring intensely at the rogue, Skari felt his body lock up. Ultimately, he lost all control as his body turned into solid stone. As this was happening, the PCs continued to pummel the poor creature with non-lethal damage ultimately taking it down and successfully pulling 6 of its teeth. But their victory is tempered by the petrification of their friend, Skari.