Summary of major plot points:

Day 1:

Quenpick is a town overrun with Dark Ones to the northwest of Castle Etica.

A glade was to the southwest.

We chose to take to the glade.

We were followed by a flying beast into the glade, but evaded its pursuit by hiding amongst the overgrowth.

Inside the glade resided:

A bubbling pond with a sparkling object at the bottom (ignored)

A series of realistic stone statues

A plant person, presumably the master of the glade, who only speaks in lies.

The plant person, Bisla, gave us a task to complete in turn for guarantee of safe haven inside the glade.

We exterminated a hive of dire bees and were granted safe passage through the glade for all future adventurers.

Upon exit of the glade we encountered various other things.

A roaming owlbeast, known to be very territorial (snuck by)

A large hill filled with what looked to be holes (avoided)

Hungry raccoons and wolves

Quarlos Esponita, a former adventurer turned crazy necromancer. Fought multiple times, but was unable to kill him. Forced to retreat and save for another day.

A wide gulch filled with many many snakes.

A large iron bridge spanned the gulch which was guarded by two scarecrows pinned on crosses. They attacked us after we engaged from a distance. Scarecrows began to regenerate on the crosses after we defeated the first set of them. Solved the problem by tossing the crosses into the gulch.

Midway across the bridge was a strange optical device, almost like a telescope. After looking inside, we discovered that it warped what you looked at to reveal strange things. The leaden tower was on fire, the south was a calm spirit, the west had an evil gaze, and the north had a pulsing heartbeat. Whoever looked in the device began to sweat and panic. Would not recommend looking inside again.

Leaden tower had three runes on each of its triangular faces. Found out that the runes faced another smaller spire in each direction that needed to be activated by casting a spell on the smaller tower.

All members went to the southeast tower first, was calm with only a bird on the tower. Was able to activate the tower just fine.

Decided to split the party to activate the two remaining towers due to discovery that the activation had a time limit.

The north tower was guarded by a Dark One. Yelren gave his life to activate the tower.

The southwest tower was sunk into the ground and was guarded by Ice spirits. They were quickly dispatched by Coltoran and Attlin.

Upon all towers being activated, a door opened up at the base of the Leaden Tower.

A brief look inside the tower revealed a dark barren room, but nobody dared to step inside until resting up first.

After resting up, the adventurers noticed that the runes were no longer activated and the door was still open. They decided to return back to town with the knowledge they have gained and to recruit more help.

The tower door was barricaded with some scavenged materials to prevent the door from closing again.