Golden Fire: The Journal of Cluidhn Malta'i'nour

Eastward bound, our heroes stopped to camp along the Vaewater, then rode through a mountain pass to the town of Gold, which used to be a legion camp south of a gold mine. We then took a shortcut to Lead, forded the Alewater and rode through grasslands to the town of Copper, another former legion encampment. We set up camp just off the road, between the Neckbreaker Peaks and the Great Woods. A traveler approached the fire, introduced himself as Maerk, and shared some of his high-octane ale with the dwarves, who tried to sell him a false story of our journey. Maerk said that he was headed south, and as the trio kept drinking, his enormous black panther approached and scared the wits out of everyone. Maerk said that she was his friend and that her name was Tigress, then he and the dwarves passed out in a drunken stupor.

In the morning, Tigress had killed and dragged back a lovely yak for us to feast upon. Our new friend Maerk noticed my lovely new scales, but resisted my sermon about Apsu, leaving with his giant cat. Humans... We followed in his footsteps along an animal trail, passing a waypost tree marked with an "O". Soon after, a giant form burst forth from the shrubbery, a monster with the body of a bear and the head of a giant angry owl. Hagbard smote the beast with a blast of divine sound, stunning it, then Hralf swung his mighty axe, slashing its face. Honor threw her dagger, scoring the side of its head. Hagbard burned it with magical acid as I made a beautiful shot from afar, sinking an arrow down to the fletching. The vicious beast bit Hralf's head, denting his helm, then impaled him on a massive claw and lifted him squirming off of the ground. Yberre took the opportunity to slash the owlbear's stomach open with his legion sword, then I put an arrow through its right arm. The bloodied beast dropped Hralf and ripped into him with claws. Hralf responded by sinking the spike of his shield into the monster's heart, dispatching it in a spray of blood.

We followed the owlbear's tracks back to its cave, only to find the corpses of its mate and baby as well as three goblin skeletons and some orgoshi arrows. I grabbed one of the obsidian-tipped, black-feather fletched arrows as evidence. Rummaging through a sack, I discovered a cache of silver coins, which we divided. Then we continued on our way for ten hours through the forest. We camped at an inviting clearing and slept unmolested. When we awoke, Yberre was flushed and sluggish, suffering from heat exhaustion. We resumed our trek, and as we left the edge of the Great Wood, we caught our first glimpse of Starshine, a mountain several thousand feet tall, the whole sculpted into a spiral. The lifting late afternoon mist revealed the coast and a small town at the foot of the spiral mountain surrounded by hundreds of different-colored tents, flying the banners of various noble houses. We made our way to the Brightstar pavilion and hailed Gaius Wind. He cast a spell of silence and described sightings of dark stalkers and orgoshi at the ruins of an old fortress at the southeastern edge of the base of Starshine. We told him of our triumphs and travails since our last meeting, and my entreaties for lamb went unanswered, offending me deeply.

Our band of heroes sallied forth to the southeastern reach, where Yberre's keen eye discerned a manmade wall fifty feet up, partially uncovered by a rock slide. Honor scaled the cliff and found a hole with a recently installed rope ladder. We climbed to the entrance and then down the rope ladder into a large room with two doors. After opening the door to the north, Honor set off a lightning trap that burned her and myself almost to death. It wasn't my fault this time, as I have begun to understand the dangers of doors. Hagbard healed us and Yberre smashed through the trapped door, revealing a large circular room with a cracked fountain in the center and four burly hobgoblins. The blaggarts fired arrows at us and loosed a giant hyena. Yberre was wounded by the beast and rushed up a flight of stairs to dispatch the archers. Honor dodged claws and sword as Markas and Hagbard launched magical attacks. Hagbard slew the hyena with an acid dart as Markas summoned a hyena to combat their hyena. Hagbard and myself slew a hobgoblin with acid and magic missiles as Hralf dispatched another with his waraxe. Markas was hit with an arrow as, up on the stairs Honor slit a hobgoblin's throat from ear to ear and tossed him down into the fountain. Markas's summoned hyena dispatched the final hobgoblin with horrific crunching and slurping sounds.

We broke into two locked rooms, finding nothing of note. Honor narrowly avoided an acid trap, opening a door to reveal two portcullises and a pair of arrow-pierced skeletons. Deciding to avoid the death trap, we returned to the circular room and addressed the door at the top of the stairs. Honor unbarred it from the outside in a feat of skill, revealing a long hallway with a cave-in at one end and a door at the other. Honer opened it, only to be attacked by three more hobgoblins. They triggered a trap that dumped Honor and Hralf into a spiked pit. In response, Hagbard and I assailed them with acid dart and longbow, knocking one of the craven beasts into the pit, which at this point was on fire due to a combination of alchemist's fire and lamp oil. Honor managed to get into the room with them and killed another. She pulled a lever, popping the floor back into place, which allowed Yberre to rush in and slash the remaining beast to ribbons. We looted the corpses and continued exploring. Honor disabled a second pit trap, and then a third, and then opened a door to reveal a giant tusked humanoid, almost as big as Yberre. As Yberre and Hralf stationed themselves on either side of the door, the monster swung a huge morning star around the doorframe and into Hralf. I smashed the beast with two magic missile spells as Hagbard healed Hralf. Yberre rushed in and and struck the bugbear, followed by Hralf with an axe blow, and as both attacked again, the beast struck my head. Angered, I grew my claws attacked, but my magnificent claws only screeched on its metal armor. The tusked giant swept its massive maul towards my face and my vision went white, then faded to black. I awoke, head ringing, to find that Honor had slit the monster's throat. -Praise Apsu for this victory and my survival-

Soldiers Log: Yberre Hammersmith

Now it seems fate has turned in my favor. A clear and present danger has presented itself and its name is my calling. War it seems, will come to the Empire. After arriving at Starshine, we reported our news of a potentially corrupt noble house working with the dark races and it seems that the presence is more than the simple force of assassins we suspected. Suspecting an army of some kind may be awaiting invasion, we have been sent by Gaius Wind as an advanced skirmish party to an old fort held by goblin warriors. We have met them in battle and these are not the small, savage, and simple goblins one might expect from tales of old. These are a warrior race with cunning, training and the power of steel.

This is the enemy of my fate, I am sure of it. This is the war of our vision, unfolding before us. This is the fate the that Gorum drew out for me so long ago. All he has taken from me and all I have endured shall finally be brought to a climax with this war and perhaps I shall be gifted with peace when it is through. I can feel the hand of Gorum possess me more with each battle. My steel grows lighter, the chain weighs less heavy on my shoulders with each drawing of blood and my blade grows sharper with every cleft of bone. Many will die in the days to come and many more will suffer. The power and the will of Gorum will determine the winner. I believe I am his vessel for reasons I do not know or even pretend to understand, but who am I to question the gods? My calling is war and my day is coming, I only hope that I will find truth and an answer at the end of this fate.

Golden Fire

Our destiny grows ever more convoluted, the workings of Apsu complex and beyond mortal ken. This chapter of my journal begins with that most hackneyed and overused human literary convention: "It was a dark and stormy night"... My band of intrepid adventurers found ourselves assembled on a beach in a storm, investigating a shipwreck, the wreck in question determined by Honor and Markas to be the "One of Seven", a cursed Tirynthian legion ship bearing house Brightstar markings. This ship had drifted from the northeast and had been missing for five years. The crew were all dead, and according to Hagbard, had all died of old age at the same time. The rest of the ship lay partly submerged out in the surf.
Doughty Yberre swam out to the submerged wreckage and dragged out the captain's chest as Hralf attempted to assist, slicing himself on sharp coral. The recovered chest contained a map, a nautical chart, log, shipping manifest and a sum of platinum coins. At this point we decided to enter the wreckage on the beach. Honor checked the door and we entered. My gaze was drawn to a glowing door, so lovely... I am told that I was burned and knocked unconscious at this point by some foul necromantic curse. As I lay charred and unmoving, Hagbard drew upon Torag's power to heal me. My friends investigated the interior, found two sarcophagi, and were attacked by magical poisonous snakes.
When I awoke, the snakes had disappeared. Honor opened the middle door, revealing a corpse on a bed manacled to the floor by chains of silver. The dead man's notebook contained information about a recovered relic and a Mistress Phaedra, and the same symbol branded on the late and unlamented mustachioed half-elf. As we left the wreck and stepped back out onto the beach, we heard a ruckus. The cursed ship's dead crew had risen as undead and attacked the work crew. A fierce battle ensued.
The skeletal warriors attacked. Hralf threw a magic stone, disintegrating one, then I incinerated two more in a blast of Apsu's fire. Hagbard called on Torag's fury to destroy several more undead, and the rest fell in turn to Hralf, Yberre and Hagbard. Hralf found a silvery dragon scale and Yberre dragged the unopened sarcophagus out onto the beach. We opened it and found a perfectly preserved corpse. Hagbard used a divine scroll to ask the corpse, Constance Goodfellow, last surviving heir to the late Emperor Constance Tertius Septimus, some questions. We used the scale to open a magic chest which contained a scroll, a gem-tipped rod, and shattered crystal shards.
We awoke to a red sun and the sight of a south-faring fleet of New Tirythian warships, probably from Tridens. Returning to the church of Torag, we discovered that someone or someones had broken in and slain our captive dark creeper and several acolytes. Rushing to the church of Sarenrae, we found our werewolf to be missing as well. Very troubling. We headed to Brightstar manor, only to find it shrouded in a magical fog. Cautious and concerned, we entered the catacombs through our secret path and entered Brightstar manor's subterranean tunnels from below, feeling our way through the mist-filled halls. A woman's voice echoed through the halls, taunting and cajoling us to continue.
At the top of a flight of stairs, Honor was ambushed by goblins. Yberre kicked in a door, allowing me to kill a goblin with an amazing shot from my longbow. As Hralf killed a goblin dog below, we finished off the stinky little buggers. Wary of the enchanted fog, we went back down the stairs, descending into a room previously undiscovered, a burial chamber partially filled with water. In that room, my spirit swelled with joy, for the lone occupant was a dragon hatchling! An evil black dragon hatchling, spewing and burning us with vitriolic acid, but a dragon nonetheless. Honor dove to the center of the room, striving to clear the room's central drain as the rest of us assailed the beast. I smote the black hatchling with Apsu's claws and shot an arrow into one of its wings, and then, just as it breathed acid mist at Hralf, Honor and myself; Yberre leapt from a high alcove and beheaded the beast with a valiant stroke and a spray of ichor.
As we returned victorious to the manor, we found a wounded and disheveled Brian Brightstar, who had been held captive and tortured by the woman who had introduced herself to us as Alyssa Brightstar. We now know her to be an impostor. Under torture, he had given up the secrets of the house to her. We entrusted him with the sarcophagus containing Constance Goodfellow, and enlisted his help in locating our missing werewolf. And thence to bed, as we must journey to Starshine to meet with Lord Tennyson Brightstar and the esteemed Gaius Wind. I shall sleep well, my faith and devotion to Apsu strengthened by the sight of a dragon and the courage of my companions... -Apsu guide his children, and spread his wings above-