After a day of resting and gathering supplies in Wildsgate, Gideon had Nel, Brom and I follow him to a shrine located close to the inn that Gideon spent the night in. It happened to be a shrine of The Swift, a rogue famous around Wildsgate who apparently stole the heirlooms of the Baron of Wolfsrun. When we all approached the shrine, Gideon dropped some gold, silver and copper coins on the shrine and then had some kind of religious experience as a result. Nel tried to do the same thing, but had no visions or religious channeling. Gideon explained what he felt and saw in his experience with the shrine and it seemed to fit with the story of The Swift and the ancient Dwarven citadel across the river. His vision also confirmed the story of The Swift's theft the Baron's heirlooms and linked their whereabouts to the Dwarven Citadel. After that, the four of us split up to gather information on the apparent curse of the Baron's lineage, the theft of the Baron's heirlooms and the Dwarven citadel.
While Gideon and I practiced knife throwing, Nel and Brom went to the Palace to offer healing to the Baron and to gather information about the missing heirlooms. When the two returned, what Nel had to say was very interesting. First off, Brom managed to get himself escorted out of the Palace under guard almost immediately after arriving. Second, the Baron's advisor was apparently uncomfortable discussing anything about the Baron and denied the historical theft of the heirlooms. He also showed Nel a room in the palace holding what appeared to be the actual heirlooms. But Nel believes that the heirlooms in the palace are fake replacements and that the advisor was aware of this and hiding more knowledge about their theft. Furthermore, this combined with other information we had gathered the night before leads us to believe that the advisor and Lady Aborn -- consort to the Baron -- are somehow working together in this conspiracy. What seems obvious, though, is this: Who would become consort to a baron who's lineage is known to be cursed with disease and who's ancestors have all died young and spent a majority of their adult lives bedridden? Most human females do not have a choice in who their consort will be, but what I am quite certain of is that this particular woman in this particular scenario and her family as well were probably prepared to take full advantage of a wealthy lineage that is cursed to its roots.
After Nel reporting these details to us, we went out to gather information again. Gideon went to a locksmith's shop to speak to him about keys and the three doors at the Dwarven citadel that supposedly hold behind them the stolen heirlooms. When he returned, he did not have much more information to provide, but he seemed a bit distracted.
Then Nel and I approached the Dwarven smith at the Hammer & Anvil to speak with him about the citadel. It turns out that when he was younger, he had traveled through the citadel a bit. He gave us information on what different paths we could take to get there and confirmed that there were certainly three doors. He believe that the keys to those doors were somewhere within the citadel itself. He also warned us of some of the dangers to be expected there.
Once we were done speaking with the Dwarf, as we were walking down the street, a child stole a purse from Nel and ran off. When Gideon and I attempted to capture him, he cried out, claiming to be attacked by us. As if waiting for us, four men positioned around us drew their swords and attacked us. We killed them all in our defense rather quickly, but that did not save us from facing the law. We approached a man who is a guard captain -- I forget his name -- in one of the taverns and were immediately surrounded by guards within the tavern. We told the captain of the theft and the strange assault that forced us to kill in our defense. The captain was attentive and helpful. He did some investigation into the matter and determined that we certainly were in a difficult position, yet that we still "broke the law" according to their legal system. Instead of executing us, he told us to leave town for a day and to let things "cool down" before coming back. So, we packed up our gear, acquired a few more supplies, had one more informational chat with the smith at the Hammer & Anvil and headed out of town.
Once outside of town, we decided to head up to the citadel to scout it out learn the lay of it. As we approached the river outside of Wildsgate town, we were attacked by a swarm of tiny bats. I illuminated my bow and told everyone to stay near the light, but I was too late. Gideon got separated from the party, divided by the swarm of bats, and ended up trapped between the large & violent river and the swarm of bats. After being attacked by the bats, Gideon decided to brave the river rapids and dove in. After that, Gideon began to lose control in the river and so I ran downriver hoping to fish him out with some rope before he drowned. Fortunately Gideon managed to get control of the rapids and get his footing and pull himself out of the river. In the meantime, both Nel and Brom suffered further attacks from the bats. Gideon, hoping to drive off the bats, started a small brushfire, which was probably unnecessary. Eventually, we drove off the bats.
We spent the night around the embers left from Gideon's brushfire and recovered quite well the next morning. Unfortunately, we were so preoccupied with our own wounds and keeping the brushfire from spreading that we forgot about Cedric, who it turns out was also attacked by the bats. Cedric died some time in the night while we were resting. I should have checked up on him but I was too preoccupied with my own problems. He was such a faithful Donkey and we had been through so much together. I feel so bad about this. We did our best to bury him in brush and leaves. I wish I could have done more for him, but times are very difficult right now. We took the supplies that Cedric was carrying and, for the equipment that we could not carry ourselves, we covered it with the canvas I had and then covered that with brush and leaves.
After dealing with Cedric and the supplies, we continued to the edge of the river, planning to cross it. Crossing the river was a bit complicated and took quite a long time, but we managed. Gideon was the first one across the river and was ambushed by three Orgoshi. From almost two-hundred feet across the river, I managed to put an arrow in the right eye of Dave -- according to Nel's translation -- the closest Orgosh, and as a result the other two Orgoshi ran away screaming about how we killed Dave. What a strange name. We then continued across the river without too much trouble. I had to help out Brom once by pulling him out of the river, but that was the only complication.
Once we got across the river, Gideon was suffering from a wound taken from the Orgoshi ambush, so we are now resting again. Crossing the river alone was very exhausting, so we really could use another rest.
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