Welcome to HP Lovecraft’s Red Lobster Restaurant (The Lost Jewels of Alcanse #8)

We returned to town, and after checking in with Off The Wheaten Path (still open, still not aware we peeked at the painting) and Amhara (still a bit cray-cray), we met up with Ryland to hand over the Black Diamond. He was delighted, and gave us our payment from a mysterious sack. We each got a weapon or item that seemed to fit us pretty well…which is nisssshe.

Then Ryland found two blue gemstones at the bottom of the sack, which we need for the next journey to find the next stone. And that’s really all anyone knows! Ryland summoned a portal (we are sure he’s just a jeweler looking to make a buck?), and we stepped through. (Ryland promised to open the portal up periodically to let us back home).

What’s the on the other side? Just a room with an owl statue. We put the gemstones in the owl’s eyesockets (less gross than it sounds) and a door opened in the stone wall. I’m sure it will lead right to the next gemstone with no potential danger or enemies….

Ooops. No, at the end of the hall there’s a weird scary monster that looks like a lobster with a squid on its face, and also its the size of a horse.

Yikes! We attacked as best we could. Bardalph got pincered and started to get eaten, and Svela unleashed a fireball….which turned out to scorch friend as well as foe. Quigley blew some poison toward the thing, and Rolfe threw some ax toward the thing. It took a while, but 4-to-1 odds made us the victors, and we eventually killed the monster before it killed us. We found two yellow gemstones on its corpse, which looked a lot like the blue ones we used before. Sure enough, back at Owl Central, the yellow stones opened a door on the right side of the room. Great! Now we can go attack a gigantic Dungeness Crab the size of an ox, or something. We stare down the dark hallway….. who wants to go first?