HUNDREDS DEAD IN BAYVIEW
FREELANDS, Jule 20 - After a period of quiet the sudden attack on Bayview (also known as Orthagundt), the only civilized portion of the Great Northern Waste, sees the town completely destroyed with hundreds dead.
For the past several weeks members of the Watch have been reporting little or no activity along the Orgoshi border, some have even commented on a certain tranquility to the Waste. Now that peace lies shattered and drowned in the blood of the hundreds of men and women who lost their lives in a ruthless sneak attack late Friday evening. Reports are still coming in, but the death toll is already over two-thirds the population of the entire town.
Eyewitness reports of the battle say the Orgoshi came upon unsuspecting sentries in the dead of night and managed to make it over the gate without an alarm being raised. After that it was simply a bloodbath. "The only good thing," states a shaken refugee, "Is that they didn't get around to blocking off the southern escape, so a few of us managed to make it." A member of the Watch who refused to be named also commented on that miraculous escape. "They must have been planning this for weeks, I can't imagine why they would let something like a southern escape slip their plans, but thank Heironeous that they did."
Watch officials have declined to comment about any planned counterattack, but anonymous sources reveal that reinforcements have been called for from The Capital, and a correspondent to the throne reports an emergency meeting between King and Council has been called for as early as next week.
"Whatever else happens, make no mistake, the empire is once again at war," says Bryce Evenhanded, Captain General of the Watchguard.
MASSIVE RECALL OF WATCH
EASTWATCH, Jule 21 - Watch officials report that all members of the Watch have been called to station, including anyone on leave, extended assignment and Cadets not yet reported in.
"In light of the recent tragedy," says a Watch spokesperson, "We can ill afford to have the Brothers and Sisters of the Long Watch away from home." Apparently only those Watch members on extended diplomatic or time-sensitive missions have been allowed to remain at their posts. Dispatches flew by pigeon as early as Saturday morning.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Erhivor's Journal: Entry 7
I feel dirty.
Anyway, the last week of events has been rather trying. Let me see if I can properly order my thoughts and get them down accurately into this journal.
Well, after raiding the wyvern's lair, we proceeded onward, toward the spire continuing with our plan to destroy Lady Aborn and the vampire Azubahl. Near the base of the spire, we found the entrance that we had been seeking, which lead back up to where Azubahl kept his quarters. But, upon arriving at the cave, we were--as usual--attacked by Orgoshi. We dealt with them without difficulty, at least where the first batch of Orgoshi were concerned. But while fighting these Orgoshi, one of them rang a crude alarm in an effort to warn other nearby Orgoshi of our approach. Gideon, thinking quickly, tried to make himself sound like a goblin and called out to the preparing Orgoshi, claiming that it was a false alarm. But, for some reason, he made the claim in the common tongue, not in Orgoshi. It almost seemed like his bluff would work. We all hid in the dark, hoping to escape notice when an Orgoshi came downstairs, into the room where the alarm was sounded, apparently checking to make sure there was nothing to be alarmed about. We almost had him fooled, but then someone made some noise and alerted the Orgoshi, who then slammed the door and ran back up the stairs from which he came.
The Orgoshi tried to prepare a trap for us with a flammable, viscus liquid which they poured down the stairwell, but Constantine and I came up with the idea to trigger their trap early and cause it to backfire on them. The idea worked, and we took advantage of the surprise, allowing us to run up the stairs and attack very suddenly, but more Orgoshi were already waiting and prepared. We took them all out without too much trouble, but then an ogre captain of some sort came out with a pack of more surly looking Orgoshi than the ones we had just defeated. The ogre called out to us from across the room and told us that if we survived these next foes, that he would have a word with us. So, we killed them. Actually, it really wasn't that simple at all. We suffered some serious damage when we engaged them. They were very strong. In the meantime, the ogre walked off into another room, presumably waiting for us. After a very trying and dangerous fight, we destroyed the Orgoshi that the ogre brought out.
While I was looting the corpses of the previous battle, Gideon stumbled upon a trap (literally). Gideon's discovery nearly killed more than one of our party members and seriously wounded all but himself and me. We quickly got everyone dragged out of the blast radius of the trap (which turned out to be some kind of re-triggering evocation spell) and healed everyone. Then we got the idea to use the trap against our enemies by having Gideon open the door to the next room and lure the next combatants out into the room that we were in and Gideon would then trigger the trap while the rest of us were safely out of the blast radius. Well, it was a good idea, but it didn't quite work out that way. Unfortunately, when Gideon lured the Orgoshi toward the room after opening the next door, I ... Well, I guess I just was caught up in the heat of battle, and I rushed forward, into the blast radius of the trap, hoping to assist Gideon. Unfortunately, my hotheadedness almost ruined the plan, completely. Because I was in the blast radius, Gideon would not trigger the trap. He's really not as self-serving as he would have you believe. I mean, he could have just triggered the trap, regardless, in favor of saving himself--if not the rest of our party--from potential death. Truthfully, I probably would have survived the blast. I am quick enough to get out of the way of most traps. But Gideon, the friendly chap that he is, would not trigger the trap until I was out of the blast radius. At that moment, strangely, I envisioned myself as a steaming pile of goo. I am not sure why I had such a vision, but it wasn't vivid enough to keep my mind off of the importance of the battle. So, I shrieked, appropriately enough, and ran for cover. Gideon triggered the trap and, well, it didn't quite work out the way we wanted it to. Two of the approaching Orgoshi escaped the blast and charged after those of us that were covered from the blast, which nearly killed a couple of us. But, in the end, we conquered. And now I can look forward to a lucrative career as a specialist in sanitation, waste management and latrine regulation & safety.
As a side note, the viscosity of elements found in goblin latrines is rather disturbing. But Constantine has promised to give a detailed demonstration of how these elements can be properly managed, regardless of the governing custodial relationship of said latrine. As a result, if said demonstration is properly administered with the appropriate level of detail, I should have little difficulty migrating from wizardry to fecal-mucking. Perhaps I can use my knowledge as an evoker in order to assist in mydoo duties. Bonus there!
Back to the events that lead up to tonight.
So, after defeating the last Orgoshi warrior and debating where to spend the night before approaching the ogre who wished to speak with us, the ogre actually came out and engaged us in conversation directly. Or did we decide to go straight to him? I don't remember. Well, either way, we did not end up resting. Or, if we did, it was not very long. No, I am quite certain we did not rest. Anyway, we spoke with the ogre and he had a bargain to strike with us. His problem was this: Azubahl had stolen his (the ogre's) master's map. The ogre had killed Azubahl's "girlfriend", which turns out to be Lady Aborn, and had killed Azubahl numerous times, but Azubahl would continue to revive and return to "pester" the ogre.
The ogre wanted us to destroy Azubahl and return the map to the ogre so that he could then bring the map to his master. In return, the ogre would not fight us and would reward us generously. Seeing what arcane magicks encompassed the orge and the items that he wore about him, and considering his size and potential strength, it seemed very wise to not attempt to engage the ogre in battle. In addition to these things, we were already planning to destroy Azubahl, as well as his late "girlfriend," Lady Aborn. So, we agreed to enter the bargain with the ogre. The ogre then let us loot the corpses of his fallen Orgoshi brethren and provided us with a relatively clean place to sleep for the night. Gideon and I spent time conversing with the ogre and telling jokes and at some point that evening Constantine introduced me, for the first time ever, to a goblin latrine (hence the earlier reference). And at two different times of the night Azubahl made his way down to the ogre's lair and was quickly vanquished by the ogre, who spent so little effort destroying Azubahl with a single blow that the whole scene seemed rather comical.
The following morning we all went on our way to destroy Azubahl. When we arrived at the main foyer (if you can call anything in a cave a "foyer") that lead to Azubahl's sleeping quarters inside the creepy well, Azubahl was standing there, as though he was waiting for us. He looked glum and sulky and he spoke to us directly. He asked if there was anything he could do or say to convince us to turn back and leave, but Constantine made it quite clear that he could not allow Azubahl to live. So, Azubahl attacked us and we quickly returned the favor. Azubahl, however, was significantly stronger than when we last fought him and he had some new and deadly talents which used on us. By only touching us with his bare hand, Azubahl was able to drain what seemed to feel like the life-force of Constantine and myself. I felt ill and weak and almost as though part of my soul was simply gone. We dispatched of Azubahl rather quickly and then proceeded into the well to retrieve Azubahl's coffin. We destroyed the shadow creature that was guarding the coffin and hauled the coffin out into the daylight. We then destroyed the coffin with fire and, with the dissipation of the vampire's remains, we found an amulet that was actually the very map that the ogre was seeking.
Now, this amulet/map is very unique. The amulet either harnesses arcane energies or is comprised of arcane energies. The map that is the amulet appears to be constantly moving, never being stable and is a bit disconcerting to look upon. But what is most unique and intriguing about this map is that, as I recall from old histories, it has something to do with the legendary Crystal Tombs that lie parallel to (or outside of) our realm. As I remember it, there were five tombs and they date back to some time around the start of The Empire. And I think they might have something to do with The Empire specifically, but I do not know what. I don't remember much, I don't even know if I read of the Crystal Tombs in books, but something about the map and amulet bring these thoughts to mind. Maybe it has something to do with butterflies from Bromon's Well.
Anyway, we decided to honor our bargain (for the time-being) and returned the map to the ogre. After returning the map to the ogre, he honored his part of our bargain by awarding us with a great deal of platinum Orgoshi currency and not attacking us. Understandably, Constantine wanted to know who the ogre's master was, since he claimed earlier that he was going to bring the map to his master, and Constantine wanted to know how the ogre's master was going to use the map. The ogre was reluctant reveal any further information, but he was honest about the fact that he and his people were working to bring down the empire and he did not want to divulge any further information. The ogre offered to let us travel with him if we could "keep up" with his pace. But, we needed to rest and we were not certain that we wanted to travel with him. So, the ogre prepared to travel that afternoon, but first cast a spell on me with the use of a scroll and an amulet around his neck which alleviated the affects that Azubahl's touch had on me. After that, the orge took to traveling and we spent the night in the ogre's lair. Once we woke, Constantine was determined to track down and destroy this ogre. He claimed that the ogre was evil. I suppose Constantine is more likely to be an authority on good versus evil than anyone else in our party, but if I were in his position, I could just as easily say that "rocks are evil." Actually, he did claim that rocks were evil. I'll have to think about this more. Anyway, in the end, we all agreed to track the ogre and, at least, approach him again and decide (when the time would come) what to do about the ogre.
So, we tracked the ogre for six days and pushed ourselves to our limits in order to catch up with him. On the last day of tracking, we came to a small wilderness village filled with hunters and trackers and rangers. They were kind to us and sold us a great deal of food and fed us. Then they kindly--but firmly--escorted us out of their village and perimeter. On our way out of the village, Constantine asked our escort if he and his people would be willing to help us destroy the ogre. But our escort informed us that, though they are not allies or friends with the Orgoshi, and though they generally despised the Orgoshi, they had somewhat of a peace and pact with the Orgoshi where their tribe is unharmed by the Orgoshi and they, themselves, pose no harm or threat to the Orgoshi. He further added that for them to attack the ogre they would destroy that peace and that they were not willing to put their village at such risk. So, alone, we pushed on to catch up with the ogre.
When we finally caught up with the ogre, we all prepared for battle. I was really not looking forward to fighting the ogre and was already beginning to dread the decision we made. At the last minute, we decided to go forth and destroy the ogre, at which point I used some spells to defend and prepare the party.
When we entered into a clearing in the woods, the ogre was patiently waiting for us, but he too was prepared for battle. He attempted to convince us to turn back, to not attempt an attack, but Constantine put it quite simply that we (or he, really) could not allow the ogre to bring the map back to his master. So, the ogre threw a bright, red, burning boulder at us. At that point, I used a spell to increase everyone's speed except for Brom's (Brom was too far away at the time) and we all flew into battle. The battle was fierce and perhaps the most deadly battle we have yet to be a part of. I set myself up to levitate and then I had to drain the strength of the ogre, which turned out to work quite well. I then increased Nel's strength and cast a few offensive spells at the ogre. Nel delivered a few nasty blows to the ogre and Constantine hit him with a few spells of his own, but it was Gideon who really conquered the ogre. Gideon delivered several deadly blows to the ogre, and the ogre then focused on Gideon and hit him so badly that, for a moment, it looked like Gideon was dead. But then, when everyone was just trying to stay alive, Gideon got up and, in a blur, cut the ogre in so many vital places that the ogre bled to death within instants.
I didn't really feel good about killing this ogre and I voiced my feelings clearly to the rest of the group. So he was evil. I don't know about this "good versus evil" game. All I know is that the ogre held to his end of the bargain and then we killed him and took from him what was his payment for the bargain. I think everyone else in the group (except, maybe, Gideon) feels similar to the way I feel. Normally, I would not care quite so much about the breaking of a deal, but the way we did it just seemed so dirty and despicable.
Well, we're resting now, but there is concern that more Orgoshi will soon come to find us, because when the ogre drew his last breath, his amulet fired off what might have been a warning "flare" into the sky. So, we'll be moving on very soon, I think.
I think I will start wearing more black.
Anyway, the last week of events has been rather trying. Let me see if I can properly order my thoughts and get them down accurately into this journal.
Well, after raiding the wyvern's lair, we proceeded onward, toward the spire continuing with our plan to destroy Lady Aborn and the vampire Azubahl. Near the base of the spire, we found the entrance that we had been seeking, which lead back up to where Azubahl kept his quarters. But, upon arriving at the cave, we were--as usual--attacked by Orgoshi. We dealt with them without difficulty, at least where the first batch of Orgoshi were concerned. But while fighting these Orgoshi, one of them rang a crude alarm in an effort to warn other nearby Orgoshi of our approach. Gideon, thinking quickly, tried to make himself sound like a goblin and called out to the preparing Orgoshi, claiming that it was a false alarm. But, for some reason, he made the claim in the common tongue, not in Orgoshi. It almost seemed like his bluff would work. We all hid in the dark, hoping to escape notice when an Orgoshi came downstairs, into the room where the alarm was sounded, apparently checking to make sure there was nothing to be alarmed about. We almost had him fooled, but then someone made some noise and alerted the Orgoshi, who then slammed the door and ran back up the stairs from which he came.
The Orgoshi tried to prepare a trap for us with a flammable, viscus liquid which they poured down the stairwell, but Constantine and I came up with the idea to trigger their trap early and cause it to backfire on them. The idea worked, and we took advantage of the surprise, allowing us to run up the stairs and attack very suddenly, but more Orgoshi were already waiting and prepared. We took them all out without too much trouble, but then an ogre captain of some sort came out with a pack of more surly looking Orgoshi than the ones we had just defeated. The ogre called out to us from across the room and told us that if we survived these next foes, that he would have a word with us. So, we killed them. Actually, it really wasn't that simple at all. We suffered some serious damage when we engaged them. They were very strong. In the meantime, the ogre walked off into another room, presumably waiting for us. After a very trying and dangerous fight, we destroyed the Orgoshi that the ogre brought out.
While I was looting the corpses of the previous battle, Gideon stumbled upon a trap (literally). Gideon's discovery nearly killed more than one of our party members and seriously wounded all but himself and me. We quickly got everyone dragged out of the blast radius of the trap (which turned out to be some kind of re-triggering evocation spell) and healed everyone. Then we got the idea to use the trap against our enemies by having Gideon open the door to the next room and lure the next combatants out into the room that we were in and Gideon would then trigger the trap while the rest of us were safely out of the blast radius. Well, it was a good idea, but it didn't quite work out that way. Unfortunately, when Gideon lured the Orgoshi toward the room after opening the next door, I ... Well, I guess I just was caught up in the heat of battle, and I rushed forward, into the blast radius of the trap, hoping to assist Gideon. Unfortunately, my hotheadedness almost ruined the plan, completely. Because I was in the blast radius, Gideon would not trigger the trap. He's really not as self-serving as he would have you believe. I mean, he could have just triggered the trap, regardless, in favor of saving himself--if not the rest of our party--from potential death. Truthfully, I probably would have survived the blast. I am quick enough to get out of the way of most traps. But Gideon, the friendly chap that he is, would not trigger the trap until I was out of the blast radius. At that moment, strangely, I envisioned myself as a steaming pile of goo. I am not sure why I had such a vision, but it wasn't vivid enough to keep my mind off of the importance of the battle. So, I shrieked, appropriately enough, and ran for cover. Gideon triggered the trap and, well, it didn't quite work out the way we wanted it to. Two of the approaching Orgoshi escaped the blast and charged after those of us that were covered from the blast, which nearly killed a couple of us. But, in the end, we conquered. And now I can look forward to a lucrative career as a specialist in sanitation, waste management and latrine regulation & safety.
As a side note, the viscosity of elements found in goblin latrines is rather disturbing. But Constantine has promised to give a detailed demonstration of how these elements can be properly managed, regardless of the governing custodial relationship of said latrine. As a result, if said demonstration is properly administered with the appropriate level of detail, I should have little difficulty migrating from wizardry to fecal-mucking. Perhaps I can use my knowledge as an evoker in order to assist in my
Back to the events that lead up to tonight.
So, after defeating the last Orgoshi warrior and debating where to spend the night before approaching the ogre who wished to speak with us, the ogre actually came out and engaged us in conversation directly. Or did we decide to go straight to him? I don't remember. Well, either way, we did not end up resting. Or, if we did, it was not very long. No, I am quite certain we did not rest. Anyway, we spoke with the ogre and he had a bargain to strike with us. His problem was this: Azubahl had stolen his (the ogre's) master's map. The ogre had killed Azubahl's "girlfriend", which turns out to be Lady Aborn, and had killed Azubahl numerous times, but Azubahl would continue to revive and return to "pester" the ogre.
The ogre wanted us to destroy Azubahl and return the map to the ogre so that he could then bring the map to his master. In return, the ogre would not fight us and would reward us generously. Seeing what arcane magicks encompassed the orge and the items that he wore about him, and considering his size and potential strength, it seemed very wise to not attempt to engage the ogre in battle. In addition to these things, we were already planning to destroy Azubahl, as well as his late "girlfriend," Lady Aborn. So, we agreed to enter the bargain with the ogre. The ogre then let us loot the corpses of his fallen Orgoshi brethren and provided us with a relatively clean place to sleep for the night. Gideon and I spent time conversing with the ogre and telling jokes and at some point that evening Constantine introduced me, for the first time ever, to a goblin latrine (hence the earlier reference). And at two different times of the night Azubahl made his way down to the ogre's lair and was quickly vanquished by the ogre, who spent so little effort destroying Azubahl with a single blow that the whole scene seemed rather comical.
The following morning we all went on our way to destroy Azubahl. When we arrived at the main foyer (if you can call anything in a cave a "foyer") that lead to Azubahl's sleeping quarters inside the creepy well, Azubahl was standing there, as though he was waiting for us. He looked glum and sulky and he spoke to us directly. He asked if there was anything he could do or say to convince us to turn back and leave, but Constantine made it quite clear that he could not allow Azubahl to live. So, Azubahl attacked us and we quickly returned the favor. Azubahl, however, was significantly stronger than when we last fought him and he had some new and deadly talents which used on us. By only touching us with his bare hand, Azubahl was able to drain what seemed to feel like the life-force of Constantine and myself. I felt ill and weak and almost as though part of my soul was simply gone. We dispatched of Azubahl rather quickly and then proceeded into the well to retrieve Azubahl's coffin. We destroyed the shadow creature that was guarding the coffin and hauled the coffin out into the daylight. We then destroyed the coffin with fire and, with the dissipation of the vampire's remains, we found an amulet that was actually the very map that the ogre was seeking.
Now, this amulet/map is very unique. The amulet either harnesses arcane energies or is comprised of arcane energies. The map that is the amulet appears to be constantly moving, never being stable and is a bit disconcerting to look upon. But what is most unique and intriguing about this map is that, as I recall from old histories, it has something to do with the legendary Crystal Tombs that lie parallel to (or outside of) our realm. As I remember it, there were five tombs and they date back to some time around the start of The Empire. And I think they might have something to do with The Empire specifically, but I do not know what. I don't remember much, I don't even know if I read of the Crystal Tombs in books, but something about the map and amulet bring these thoughts to mind. Maybe it has something to do with butterflies from Bromon's Well.
Anyway, we decided to honor our bargain (for the time-being) and returned the map to the ogre. After returning the map to the ogre, he honored his part of our bargain by awarding us with a great deal of platinum Orgoshi currency and not attacking us. Understandably, Constantine wanted to know who the ogre's master was, since he claimed earlier that he was going to bring the map to his master, and Constantine wanted to know how the ogre's master was going to use the map. The ogre was reluctant reveal any further information, but he was honest about the fact that he and his people were working to bring down the empire and he did not want to divulge any further information. The ogre offered to let us travel with him if we could "keep up" with his pace. But, we needed to rest and we were not certain that we wanted to travel with him. So, the ogre prepared to travel that afternoon, but first cast a spell on me with the use of a scroll and an amulet around his neck which alleviated the affects that Azubahl's touch had on me. After that, the orge took to traveling and we spent the night in the ogre's lair. Once we woke, Constantine was determined to track down and destroy this ogre. He claimed that the ogre was evil. I suppose Constantine is more likely to be an authority on good versus evil than anyone else in our party, but if I were in his position, I could just as easily say that "rocks are evil." Actually, he did claim that rocks were evil. I'll have to think about this more. Anyway, in the end, we all agreed to track the ogre and, at least, approach him again and decide (when the time would come) what to do about the ogre.
So, we tracked the ogre for six days and pushed ourselves to our limits in order to catch up with him. On the last day of tracking, we came to a small wilderness village filled with hunters and trackers and rangers. They were kind to us and sold us a great deal of food and fed us. Then they kindly--but firmly--escorted us out of their village and perimeter. On our way out of the village, Constantine asked our escort if he and his people would be willing to help us destroy the ogre. But our escort informed us that, though they are not allies or friends with the Orgoshi, and though they generally despised the Orgoshi, they had somewhat of a peace and pact with the Orgoshi where their tribe is unharmed by the Orgoshi and they, themselves, pose no harm or threat to the Orgoshi. He further added that for them to attack the ogre they would destroy that peace and that they were not willing to put their village at such risk. So, alone, we pushed on to catch up with the ogre.
When we finally caught up with the ogre, we all prepared for battle. I was really not looking forward to fighting the ogre and was already beginning to dread the decision we made. At the last minute, we decided to go forth and destroy the ogre, at which point I used some spells to defend and prepare the party.
When we entered into a clearing in the woods, the ogre was patiently waiting for us, but he too was prepared for battle. He attempted to convince us to turn back, to not attempt an attack, but Constantine put it quite simply that we (or he, really) could not allow the ogre to bring the map back to his master. So, the ogre threw a bright, red, burning boulder at us. At that point, I used a spell to increase everyone's speed except for Brom's (Brom was too far away at the time) and we all flew into battle. The battle was fierce and perhaps the most deadly battle we have yet to be a part of. I set myself up to levitate and then I had to drain the strength of the ogre, which turned out to work quite well. I then increased Nel's strength and cast a few offensive spells at the ogre. Nel delivered a few nasty blows to the ogre and Constantine hit him with a few spells of his own, but it was Gideon who really conquered the ogre. Gideon delivered several deadly blows to the ogre, and the ogre then focused on Gideon and hit him so badly that, for a moment, it looked like Gideon was dead. But then, when everyone was just trying to stay alive, Gideon got up and, in a blur, cut the ogre in so many vital places that the ogre bled to death within instants.
I didn't really feel good about killing this ogre and I voiced my feelings clearly to the rest of the group. So he was evil. I don't know about this "good versus evil" game. All I know is that the ogre held to his end of the bargain and then we killed him and took from him what was his payment for the bargain. I think everyone else in the group (except, maybe, Gideon) feels similar to the way I feel. Normally, I would not care quite so much about the breaking of a deal, but the way we did it just seemed so dirty and despicable.
Well, we're resting now, but there is concern that more Orgoshi will soon come to find us, because when the ogre drew his last breath, his amulet fired off what might have been a warning "flare" into the sky. So, we'll be moving on very soon, I think.
I think I will start wearing more black.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Erhivor's Journal: Entry 6
Well, we headed out of Wildsgate town after receiving from from the Baron's scouts that we had a location for Lady Aborn and that she was in the company of Azubahl. To my amazement, we were each given fine light warhorses and traveling gear--with the exception of Constantine, who already had his own horse and traveling gear--courtesy of the Baron. I chose one of the duns. Gideon chose the least attractive of the horses, a rather homely dapple. Nel also chose a dapple and Brom chose a dun, whom he has named "Horse" for some strange reason. Fortunately, having some experience riding horses in the past, I am not one of the clumsy riders in our group.
So, we headed and it only took us a day to reach a good stopping point at the base of the spires where an alcove in the mountain would be an ideal place to leave the horses. There we encountered two men, one by the name of Barek and the other by the name of Broth. Barek appeared to be a decently intelligent individual, but Broth seemed rather dimwitted. Amongst their party were three horses, and one of those horses happened to be Lady Aborn's mare. At the time, none of us had recognized the mare, but Broth seemed a bit shifty, however dimwitted. So, we were cautious and politely questioned the two men while Brom wandered off, presumably investigating the surroundings.
After some rather uninformative conversation with the two men, Brom came running back to us, as a wolf, and dove into the lake, completely immersing himself in the cold water and then resurfaced in his normal human form. This shocked both of the men and so Brom made up some lame story about the lake being a gateway between two worlds, one consisting entirely of wolves or something. Next thing, Broth dove into the lake and came back out claiming that he could not see the world in there. That was when Brom started going into detail about how when he was scouting, he was attacked by unseen assailants using arrows and said they were not far off from where we were. At that point, Broth then shouted something like "now" and we were set upon by Hobgoblins, I believe, who appeared on the ledge above us and fired upon us with crossbows and spears.
During this fight, Broth attacked us as well, and Barek, amazingly, fought on our side. Poor Barek seemed to not be a very good fighter. He kept slipping and falling and hardly landed a hit on anyone, but he did help out and possibly saved Constantine's life. But, I wonder if Barek is related to the captain of the Wildsgate guard. Anyway, the fight turned very ugly for Constantine when he suddenly started dancing uncontrollably. And while he was dancing, he had a rather horrified and strained look on his face. Obviously he was the victim of some kind of spell. But his dancing attracted the attention of some of the hobgoblins once they lept down to our level from the cliff, and so they surrounded him. He was completely defenseless and almost died as a result. But, in the end, we managed to kill them all and subdue Broth.
Then we found out that the crossbow bolts that hit some of us were poisoned and we had to quickly act in order to keep anyone from dieing. We managed to get everyone fixed up and Constantine shackled Broth so that he could not get away.
After all of that, we decided that it was time to clean up the camp site and get some rest. So, we piled all of the hobgoblin corpses around a tree about fifty feet away from the campfire and some of us bathed. Then, as we were getting prepared to bed down and Constantine was out scouting not too far away, a wyvern came swooping down from across the lake, landed and started consuming the hobgoblin corpses. I was really hoping that it would just go away, but instead it saw us and decided, then to roost atop our alcove and play a game of cat & mouse with us. Wyverns are really annoying, and quite scary. I wanted to create a diversion, so that we could attack the wyvern from behind and then, later, flank it. So, I tried to convince Brom to run out there as a wolf and get its attention, but he was rather insulted by that suggestion. So, we just had to fight it off, right there, as is. We did so and, though it was tough and Brom and Gideon almost go killed by the thing, we still prevailed. At one point, it really looked like Brom was going to keel over and die. I cast a protection spell on him, hoping to stave off further damage to him from the beast, but he managed to get away from the beast and not further suffer the wyvern's attentions. But the wyvern attacked me as well and I could not get away from it very easily. Those horrible creatures can fly, so my own flying and levitation don't help me out much. But, again, in the end, we managed to destroy it.
After that, we dragged the corpse away and I harvested some wyvern claws and scales and teeth. I also removed its heart. We then went to sleep and the night was uneventful.
When we awoke, I discovered that I had no way to securely store the wyvern heart. So, I cooked and ate it. I cannot say exactly why I ate it. Some arcane books that I have read spoke of human sorcerers eating the hearts of dragons and draconic creatures to gain insight into their mystical dragonic abilities and knowledge, which was part of the reason I ate the heart. But, it also just seemed like it should not go to waste. And there were other reasons that I could not exactly explain. I offered some of the cooked heart meat to the others and fed some to our captive, Broth, who was happy to have something to eat. After all, we could not just let him starve out of spite. We then packed up and made ready to climb the spire path. But, first, Constantine tied Broth to a horse, keeping him restrained but allowing him to use his knees to guide the horse. Constantine then placed a signed writ in Broth's belt, the writ describing Broth's crimes and he then instructed Broth to guide the horse back to Wildsgate if he wanted even a chance to live. Broth seemed quite cowed at that point and, hopefully, he will remain to be and do as he is told.
We then headed upslope to a location directly above where we slept the night before, searching for the wyvern's lair, and we did find it, and found some interesting items in there. After gathering up a few choice items, we continue on up the spire's path.
I have settled on a name for the horse that I was given for transportation by the Baron of Wildsgate. I will call him "Arakyn-Mor". And I am going to call Gideon's horse "Caslth".
Now, we are before the mouth of a cave. So, I will close out this entry.
[End of journal entry, next will be the "Thoughts of Erhivor" to fill in the rest]
So, we headed and it only took us a day to reach a good stopping point at the base of the spires where an alcove in the mountain would be an ideal place to leave the horses. There we encountered two men, one by the name of Barek and the other by the name of Broth. Barek appeared to be a decently intelligent individual, but Broth seemed rather dimwitted. Amongst their party were three horses, and one of those horses happened to be Lady Aborn's mare. At the time, none of us had recognized the mare, but Broth seemed a bit shifty, however dimwitted. So, we were cautious and politely questioned the two men while Brom wandered off, presumably investigating the surroundings.
After some rather uninformative conversation with the two men, Brom came running back to us, as a wolf, and dove into the lake, completely immersing himself in the cold water and then resurfaced in his normal human form. This shocked both of the men and so Brom made up some lame story about the lake being a gateway between two worlds, one consisting entirely of wolves or something. Next thing, Broth dove into the lake and came back out claiming that he could not see the world in there. That was when Brom started going into detail about how when he was scouting, he was attacked by unseen assailants using arrows and said they were not far off from where we were. At that point, Broth then shouted something like "now" and we were set upon by Hobgoblins, I believe, who appeared on the ledge above us and fired upon us with crossbows and spears.
During this fight, Broth attacked us as well, and Barek, amazingly, fought on our side. Poor Barek seemed to not be a very good fighter. He kept slipping and falling and hardly landed a hit on anyone, but he did help out and possibly saved Constantine's life. But, I wonder if Barek is related to the captain of the Wildsgate guard. Anyway, the fight turned very ugly for Constantine when he suddenly started dancing uncontrollably. And while he was dancing, he had a rather horrified and strained look on his face. Obviously he was the victim of some kind of spell. But his dancing attracted the attention of some of the hobgoblins once they lept down to our level from the cliff, and so they surrounded him. He was completely defenseless and almost died as a result. But, in the end, we managed to kill them all and subdue Broth.
Then we found out that the crossbow bolts that hit some of us were poisoned and we had to quickly act in order to keep anyone from dieing. We managed to get everyone fixed up and Constantine shackled Broth so that he could not get away.
After all of that, we decided that it was time to clean up the camp site and get some rest. So, we piled all of the hobgoblin corpses around a tree about fifty feet away from the campfire and some of us bathed. Then, as we were getting prepared to bed down and Constantine was out scouting not too far away, a wyvern came swooping down from across the lake, landed and started consuming the hobgoblin corpses. I was really hoping that it would just go away, but instead it saw us and decided, then to roost atop our alcove and play a game of cat & mouse with us. Wyverns are really annoying, and quite scary. I wanted to create a diversion, so that we could attack the wyvern from behind and then, later, flank it. So, I tried to convince Brom to run out there as a wolf and get its attention, but he was rather insulted by that suggestion. So, we just had to fight it off, right there, as is. We did so and, though it was tough and Brom and Gideon almost go killed by the thing, we still prevailed. At one point, it really looked like Brom was going to keel over and die. I cast a protection spell on him, hoping to stave off further damage to him from the beast, but he managed to get away from the beast and not further suffer the wyvern's attentions. But the wyvern attacked me as well and I could not get away from it very easily. Those horrible creatures can fly, so my own flying and levitation don't help me out much. But, again, in the end, we managed to destroy it.
After that, we dragged the corpse away and I harvested some wyvern claws and scales and teeth. I also removed its heart. We then went to sleep and the night was uneventful.
When we awoke, I discovered that I had no way to securely store the wyvern heart. So, I cooked and ate it. I cannot say exactly why I ate it. Some arcane books that I have read spoke of human sorcerers eating the hearts of dragons and draconic creatures to gain insight into their mystical dragonic abilities and knowledge, which was part of the reason I ate the heart. But, it also just seemed like it should not go to waste. And there were other reasons that I could not exactly explain. I offered some of the cooked heart meat to the others and fed some to our captive, Broth, who was happy to have something to eat. After all, we could not just let him starve out of spite. We then packed up and made ready to climb the spire path. But, first, Constantine tied Broth to a horse, keeping him restrained but allowing him to use his knees to guide the horse. Constantine then placed a signed writ in Broth's belt, the writ describing Broth's crimes and he then instructed Broth to guide the horse back to Wildsgate if he wanted even a chance to live. Broth seemed quite cowed at that point and, hopefully, he will remain to be and do as he is told.
We then headed upslope to a location directly above where we slept the night before, searching for the wyvern's lair, and we did find it, and found some interesting items in there. After gathering up a few choice items, we continue on up the spire's path.
I have settled on a name for the horse that I was given for transportation by the Baron of Wildsgate. I will call him "Arakyn-Mor". And I am going to call Gideon's horse "Caslth".
Now, we are before the mouth of a cave. So, I will close out this entry.
[End of journal entry, next will be the "Thoughts of Erhivor" to fill in the rest]
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Erhivor's Journal: Entry 5 (Back In Town: Oh, the carnage!)
Well, the last couple of weeks have certainly been ... interesting. The adventure is fun, but it's nothing like it is described in the books that I have read. For instance, the books make it look so simple for the heroes, how they so easily bring down their foes or how easy it is to identify the enemy. But it's not easy and enemies wear many, many different and deceptive faces. And I don't care what the books say, being burned by acid is really distracting and very painful.
Well, we're in a tower in the citadel inhabited by the Baron of Wildsgate, who just happens to adore us for our recent deeds (if at a distance).
So, about 12 days ago, after dispatching of a horde of goblins atop the westernmost peak of the Spires, we encountered Azubahl, a goblin vampire. Vampires, apparently, are "evil" undead creatures who wield embarrassing flails. They are very strong and can only be hurt with magicked silver--or at least this is the case with Azubahl. And, when injured enough, they turn to mist and the mist makes its way to a coffin, whereupon arrival it begins a regenerative process unless someone defiles the coffin, which prevents it from ever fully regenerating into its more physical form. Vampires feed off of living creatures, but instead of devouring the flesh of these creatures, they feed off of their blood. They also appear to prefer to blood of humanoid creatures over others. At least, this is my assessment of this particular vampire's feeding habits, as we did not find any non-humanoid animals with bite marks on their necks.
When we encountered this vampire, it spoke to us, claiming that it had been expecting us and claimed that we were working for "her", which I can only assume he meant Lady Aborn. He then stated that the "secret of the Third Key" would remain with him. He then attacked us. We eventually hurt him enough that he turned to mist. I then observed his mist-like form descend down to a lower platform on the spire and into a trapdoor that we came out of. The trapdoor had the letter "F" on it, which I made the connection of with the creepy well that we saw on the way up to the platforms on the Spire, which was also marked with an "F". In the "throne-room" that the vampire previously occupied, I happened to find a flagstone that was loose and beneath it was a coffin. In that coffin I found a sack of coins and the Emerald Key. But we had little time to waste at that point, so we grabbed what we could quickly and headed out.
We made our way down to well as quickly as possible and made preparations to go down there and finish off the vampire. We lowered Constantine down into the well, but just as Constantine touched the water of the well, a shadow attacked him and seemed to drain him of some of his strength. We had little success, attempting to damage the shadow, so we pulled Constantine back up the well. After some extensive debate, we decided to round up all of the prisoners that the goblins were keeping as sustenance for the vampire and escort them out of the spires and back to town. As we came to the final cave that let out onto the road, we encountered the vampire again, but Constantine, Gideon and Nel managed to dispatch of him quickly, yet not destroy him. So, eventually we must go back to finish him off.
We made it back to town with the prisoners safely and turned them over to the city guard so that they may be healed and cared for. We were rewarded by the Regent and the city residents seemed to have some praise for us. We spent a couple of nights there, gathering supplies and resting. During our visit to town, we spoke with the dwarf at the Hammer & Anvil and I did an excellent job of spooking him and offending him as a result of the war crown that I was wearing. He told me to take off the crown, but, as I had learned days before, I could not take the crown off. The dwarf informed me that I needed to shave off the beard that I had rapidly grown and renounce my clan (or, in my case, my name). I thanked him for the information and then informed him of the silver anvil and gold hammer that we found in the old dwarven citadel. He was astonished and quite taken aback by the fact that the legendary artifacts actually existed. I then informed him of how to get through the traps that were guarding the artifacts. After all of the discussion, we began to barter over contracting the dwarf to craft for us special weapons, armor and ammunition. Once all of the bartering was done, I went back to the inn and shaved and renounced my "name" (as a dwarf). Shaving just might have been originally devised as a means of torture, to draw out delicate information from potentially criminal subjects who would otherwise withhold said information from an interrogator. I would like not to shave hair off of my skin with a metal razor ever again. Anyway, the dwarf's method proved successful, if painful, and the war crown simply fell off of my head as a result. After that, I felt as though I was no longer mentally divided and I found it much easier to focus.
The next morning we did more trading in town and with the dwarf. I offered up the war crown and some spiked scale mail armor to the dwarf to settle Nel's transaction and then we went back to the inn.
We spent a few more days in the town until we could get all of our goods from the dwarf and then we headed North, to the Eastern side of the river and over to the place where the barbarian flesh-eaters lived. Once we entered the thickening forest, Gideon, Nel and Constantine began to suffer the effects of some kind of curse and we began to find creepy-looking dolls with bits of hair and flesh woven about them strewn throughout the trees in the forest. We found a doll that looked somewhat like Nel and whenever we did anything physical to the doll, Nel could somehow "feel" what we were doing. We took the doll with us and continued on to try to track down whoever created the curse and doll, and along the way we found dolls also matching Gideon and Constantine. We collected those dolls and proceeded onward.
As we entered a sprawling, little barbarian living area, consisting of roughly-built wooden walls encircling a large bonfire and several little rough huts, we were assailed by a few barbarians whom we disposed of rather quickly. We then approached the raging bonfire, which was surrounded by dancing barbarian warriors we spotted that the bonfire was centered beneath human corpses, which some of the barbarians were pulling pieces of meat off of and devouring. We decided it was time to break up their little party, so we immediately attacked them and, again, quickly dispatched of them.
We then proceeded onward to cross some barrow mounds and we set upon by corpses granted life through the magicks of Necromancy. We managed to destroy them, but it was not an easy task.
At the head of the barrow mounds was a large building that appeared to be a meeting hall or a celebration hall of sorts. The large double-doors at the front of the building were barred from the inside with a large wooden shaft. So, to make things simple, Nel blasted the doors and shaft to pieces in one fell swoop and we charged in and laid waste to four powerful barbarian warriors. Now, these barbarians are really tough to fit because they do not feel pain and they are very fast. They managed to do some damage to us, but we took them down in good time. And, man! Gideon landed the first hit of the fight on one of the barbarians before they even knew what was happening and hoo! That barbarian didn't even get a chance to start foaming at the mouth like the others did afterward.
These barbarian warriors were using what probably used to be sane and civilized human women as their servants, in many foul and sexual ways, I am sure. These women were obviously kept shackled at all times and were extremely malnourished. They were also like feral animals. They seemed to have no sense or reasoning within their minds. These barbarians had obviously broken the minds and wills of these women. It was a rather horrible reality to witness the state of these women. We tried our best to calm them down, but in the end they ran off into the woods somewhere and probably died of starvation.
After some investigation of the main room of the large building, we continued on, through a back door that led us through a recently-mined cavern and down a hall that dead-ended in a roughly mined-out room where the ceiling was decorated with life-like dolls hanging from strings and swaying around as if moving to a non-existent breeze. At the end of this cavern room was a disturbingly gaunt man standing atop a makeshift throne, holding a skull enveloped in blue flames. As with all evil overlords, it seems, he was expecting us and had been patiently waiting for our arrival. He appeared to be pleased to see us, but then he threw a flaming skull at us. So, we killed him too. He was a bit complicated to kill. The dolls hanging from the sealing kept attacking us while we fought him and he was quite effective with necromantic magic. He managed to scare off Nel and Gideon at one point, but eventually we all overwhelmed him. And that was funny.
Okay, so we found on him what was supposed to be the "Second Key", the "Saphire Key", and the effects that Gideon, Nel and Constantine were suffering had simply vanished after this Necromancer perished, so we headed on out of the cave and building. Gideon got the idea to plunder the barrows, which I must admit, was a rather unsettling and creepy thing to do, but we did find a couple of items to sell in town. We also got attacked by a couple more undead creatures, but they were easy to destroy.
We then headed back up to the dwarven citadel, where we ran into the dwarven smith on his way down the mountain, carrying the silver anvil over his head. He stopped and talked to us for a while, explaining how he would be able to craft finer weapons and armor with this anvil. He was very excited. We then continued on, but the dwarf saw Fred and, thinking Fred was a wild and dangerous shock lizard, he smashed him with the anvil. Poor Fred.
We eventually arrived at the room of dwarven heroes. We inserted the three keys and proceeded through a number of complicated traps that Gideon managed to disarm without too much difficulty. Gideon discovered one secret passage after tinkering with a false traps and lock mechanism. After we went through the secret passage and Gideon discovered another misleading path that lead through traps, I discovered another secret passage in the hallway just past the last secret passage and that led us to a room with two coffers that appeared to be filled with ancient gold coins. I discovered again, in that same room, another secret passage beneath a loose flagstone. But before we entered the secret passage, we decided to check out the two coffers. While doing this, Gideon noticed some movement in one of the coffers and told everyone to hold on for a second. He then withdrew one of his daggers and started to slowly bring it down into one of the coffers. All of a sudden Gideon shouted "run" and he ran off back down the hallway from which we came. None of us really understood what was going on or what Gideon was talking about, so we did not get out of the way before Constantine was attacked by some creature consisting entirely of clear, acidic slime. Then it turned out that there were two of these creatures and both of them must have been inside the coffers before. The two creatures attacked Constantine and Brom relentlessly and were very, very difficult to attack and damage. Gideon noticed that we had not run and that Brom and Constantine might be overwhelmed, so he came back and helped all of us fight these creatures off. In the end, Brom's clothing, armor and beard were all eaten away by the acidic slime of these creatures and Constantine did not fair much better. We then gathered up the gold coins, which it turned out were fewer than we had thought before because the coffers were shallower than they appeared from the outside. The coins were all ancient gold coins and weighed more than the typical gold coin of more recent civilizations. The coffers were dedicated to two dwarven sons from two different families who might have been warring against each other.
After getting the two cleaned up and covered up a bit more, Gideon and I crawled down beneath the loose flagstone, into the secret chamber and Gideon proceeded cautiously forward in a low-ceilinged chamber to discover a few old, oilcloth sacks. The sacks turned out to be containing the stolen heirlooms of the Wildsgate barony and a few bars of gold. So, Gideon and I hauled them back up to the others and we then headed back down to the foot of the mountain.
At the foot of the mountain, we camped for the night and rested up. We then proceeded onward to the town of Wildsgate. Once within the walls of Wildsgate, yet still outside of the town, we were blocked off to the town by Lady Aborn and about a half-score of mounted riders from the Outriders, including the captain of the Outriders. The Lady Aborn accused us of being in possession of the stolen heirlooms and threatened that if we did not hand them over that we would be placed under arrest. Constantine began an attempt to explain to her our intentions, but I already knew that there was no chance that we were getting out of there without a fight. I was positive that the White Lady had absolutely no intention of letting us walk away, no matter what we did. So, I attacked her. Actually, I was going to cast an offensive spell on her, but I then realized that she was too far away from me for that to work. So, I readied a protective spell for myself, but she and her mounted Outriders were too quick to react, so I failed to stay focused enough and failed the spell.
This battle was horrible. Most of us were horribly wounded in the end. The captain of the guard of Wildsgate came out of the town's inner gates with a score of lancers and charged our assailants. But Lady Aborn vanished and managed to get away from the battle safely. The captain of the guard commanded a cease of all fighting and charged one of the outriders, but seemed to overcompensate what appeared to be a fancy dismount, coupled with a powerful attack, and propelled himself in a quite uncontrolled manner off of his mount, careened off of Nel (who hardly noticed the hit) and plowed face-first into the hard-packed dirt of the well-trodden road. That action obviously failed to impress the Outriders, so the Outrider captain and his men continued to fight us. I managed to deliver a significant amount of damage to the Outrider captain with some spells, but he just would not stop. Finally, I tried to make it appear to the Captain of the guard as though I was only holding guard to defend myself by raising my bow in a defensive stance and watching the Outrider captain, but the outrider captain attacked me. I managed to loose one arrow into him at point blank, yet the captain still stood. He missed me with his first blow, but he managed to hit me with the second. Before that I was already in critical condition from him and his men and that last blow took me down.
Apparently, after that, Gideon, who had disappeared at some point when I was not looking, suddenly appeared behind the Outrider captain and cut him and his horse in half with the heirloom sword while the Outrider captain was trying to flee the scene. To top it off, Gideon followed up with the gruesome attack by bellowing "SURPRISE!" and scaring everyone who was not unconscious, dying or already dead half to death. I really wish I could have seen that.
After that, the three remaining Outriders surrendered. After seeing what Gideon did, I think they made a very smart decision. Brom revived me and a medic came around and gave us healing potions. At that time, we explained to the captain our story regarding the heirlooms and our initial encounter with Lady Aborn. The captain informed us that the Lady was, indeed, a criminal and then left to bring word of our actions and what had just occurred to the Regent. While he was off, I looted that bastard Outrider captain's corpse. During that time Gideon managed to get a trace of the Lady's tracks.
Coming as close to death as I did is really disturbing. I haven't even been around for a century. I have so much more I must experience and witness. I want to be around for a good few centuries. But there are wretched things that keep trying to kill me. And this most recent encounter was the closest of all. I don't like that.
Oh! Anyway, the captain came back and informed us that we must see the Baron immediately. So, in the horrible condition that we were, we had an audience with the Baron (or he had an audience with us). The Baron thanked us for our deeds and claimed that he owed us his life. He explained that the Lady Aborn had been exacting conspiracy against the Wildsgate throne for some time. He assured us that his scouts would report directly back to us on the whereabouts of Lady Aborn once they fully trail her and he then granted us many luxuries and a place to stay in what was formerly the Lady's tower.
So, we went up into the tower and got some rest. Early in the evening, though, Gideon disturbed our rest by setting fire to Lady Aborn's undergarments. He also managed to set free her familiar. That was an understandable mistake, though. I tried to explain to everyone why the familiar was a threat, but Constantine was very firm with the idea that I was putting them into danger by speaking to them of it. Humans are just too secretive, sometimes.
Later in the night, Gideon disturbed my rest, again, by calling my name. I walked upstairs and found him lying atop a raised surface covered with a blanket, in a rather strange and leisurely pose. Gideon is strange, but this was a very strange thing to stumble upon when I was so exhausted. I asked Gideon why he was posing like that and he asked told me he had something to show me that he did not trust the others to see. So, I closed the door and he lifted the blanket to show what he was lying on. There were six iron-banded chests that were marked as the property of the Baron of Wildsgate.
Gideon opened each chest, one-by-one, to reveal loads of gold, platinum and other items of value and currency. And one chest contained various items of great worth. One of which was a book in a sack. While Gideon was rummaging through these things, asking me if I had any unmarked chests that we could transplant the coins and gems to, I grabbed the book out of the sack and started to read it. Then I suddenly realized, six days later apparently, that I was in a different room, wearing a lovely belt, with a sign around my neck that had the words "No pickles!" and a spreading knife in my hand. According to Nel, after I opened the book, a snake came out of the book, bit me on the hand and then I was frozen in some form of stasis with an amber-colored forcefield encasing my body. I was in this state for six days. And obviously someone had been having fun at my expense.
After I was hit by this protective spell on the book, the Regent assessed my condition and explained to the rest of the group that the spell would wear off in a few days, then claimed the chests that Gideon had discovered beneath the floorboards of one of the rooms, but left the items of value from one chest behind. Since I was now free of the stasis spell, I was able to open the book that had cursed me in the first place and read it again, as Constantine claimed the book was now safe for reading. The book turns out to be a spellbook and it has spells in it. Most of the spells look necromantic to me, but it will take some more time for me to fully understand the writing.
At this time it was still afternoon on the sixth day in town and everyone (except for me, obviously) was eager to get moving out of town and after Lady Aborn and the vampire. But Nel convinced everyone that I needed the rest and so I headed out to make some quick transactions and get some supplies. Now, finally, I get to update my journal with the most recent events of the last couple weeks. Well, it's time for me to get some meditative rest. This really is a nice belt. It's nice to know that my companions will still share their findings with me, even when I am unconscious or otherwise incapable of interacting with the world.
Well, we're in a tower in the citadel inhabited by the Baron of Wildsgate, who just happens to adore us for our recent deeds (if at a distance).
So, about 12 days ago, after dispatching of a horde of goblins atop the westernmost peak of the Spires, we encountered Azubahl, a goblin vampire. Vampires, apparently, are "evil" undead creatures who wield embarrassing flails. They are very strong and can only be hurt with magicked silver--or at least this is the case with Azubahl. And, when injured enough, they turn to mist and the mist makes its way to a coffin, whereupon arrival it begins a regenerative process unless someone defiles the coffin, which prevents it from ever fully regenerating into its more physical form. Vampires feed off of living creatures, but instead of devouring the flesh of these creatures, they feed off of their blood. They also appear to prefer to blood of humanoid creatures over others. At least, this is my assessment of this particular vampire's feeding habits, as we did not find any non-humanoid animals with bite marks on their necks.
When we encountered this vampire, it spoke to us, claiming that it had been expecting us and claimed that we were working for "her", which I can only assume he meant Lady Aborn. He then stated that the "secret of the Third Key" would remain with him. He then attacked us. We eventually hurt him enough that he turned to mist. I then observed his mist-like form descend down to a lower platform on the spire and into a trapdoor that we came out of. The trapdoor had the letter "F" on it, which I made the connection of with the creepy well that we saw on the way up to the platforms on the Spire, which was also marked with an "F". In the "throne-room" that the vampire previously occupied, I happened to find a flagstone that was loose and beneath it was a coffin. In that coffin I found a sack of coins and the Emerald Key. But we had little time to waste at that point, so we grabbed what we could quickly and headed out.
We made our way down to well as quickly as possible and made preparations to go down there and finish off the vampire. We lowered Constantine down into the well, but just as Constantine touched the water of the well, a shadow attacked him and seemed to drain him of some of his strength. We had little success, attempting to damage the shadow, so we pulled Constantine back up the well. After some extensive debate, we decided to round up all of the prisoners that the goblins were keeping as sustenance for the vampire and escort them out of the spires and back to town. As we came to the final cave that let out onto the road, we encountered the vampire again, but Constantine, Gideon and Nel managed to dispatch of him quickly, yet not destroy him. So, eventually we must go back to finish him off.
We made it back to town with the prisoners safely and turned them over to the city guard so that they may be healed and cared for. We were rewarded by the Regent and the city residents seemed to have some praise for us. We spent a couple of nights there, gathering supplies and resting. During our visit to town, we spoke with the dwarf at the Hammer & Anvil and I did an excellent job of spooking him and offending him as a result of the war crown that I was wearing. He told me to take off the crown, but, as I had learned days before, I could not take the crown off. The dwarf informed me that I needed to shave off the beard that I had rapidly grown and renounce my clan (or, in my case, my name). I thanked him for the information and then informed him of the silver anvil and gold hammer that we found in the old dwarven citadel. He was astonished and quite taken aback by the fact that the legendary artifacts actually existed. I then informed him of how to get through the traps that were guarding the artifacts. After all of the discussion, we began to barter over contracting the dwarf to craft for us special weapons, armor and ammunition. Once all of the bartering was done, I went back to the inn and shaved and renounced my "name" (as a dwarf). Shaving just might have been originally devised as a means of torture, to draw out delicate information from potentially criminal subjects who would otherwise withhold said information from an interrogator. I would like not to shave hair off of my skin with a metal razor ever again. Anyway, the dwarf's method proved successful, if painful, and the war crown simply fell off of my head as a result. After that, I felt as though I was no longer mentally divided and I found it much easier to focus.
The next morning we did more trading in town and with the dwarf. I offered up the war crown and some spiked scale mail armor to the dwarf to settle Nel's transaction and then we went back to the inn.
We spent a few more days in the town until we could get all of our goods from the dwarf and then we headed North, to the Eastern side of the river and over to the place where the barbarian flesh-eaters lived. Once we entered the thickening forest, Gideon, Nel and Constantine began to suffer the effects of some kind of curse and we began to find creepy-looking dolls with bits of hair and flesh woven about them strewn throughout the trees in the forest. We found a doll that looked somewhat like Nel and whenever we did anything physical to the doll, Nel could somehow "feel" what we were doing. We took the doll with us and continued on to try to track down whoever created the curse and doll, and along the way we found dolls also matching Gideon and Constantine. We collected those dolls and proceeded onward.
As we entered a sprawling, little barbarian living area, consisting of roughly-built wooden walls encircling a large bonfire and several little rough huts, we were assailed by a few barbarians whom we disposed of rather quickly. We then approached the raging bonfire, which was surrounded by dancing barbarian warriors we spotted that the bonfire was centered beneath human corpses, which some of the barbarians were pulling pieces of meat off of and devouring. We decided it was time to break up their little party, so we immediately attacked them and, again, quickly dispatched of them.
We then proceeded onward to cross some barrow mounds and we set upon by corpses granted life through the magicks of Necromancy. We managed to destroy them, but it was not an easy task.
At the head of the barrow mounds was a large building that appeared to be a meeting hall or a celebration hall of sorts. The large double-doors at the front of the building were barred from the inside with a large wooden shaft. So, to make things simple, Nel blasted the doors and shaft to pieces in one fell swoop and we charged in and laid waste to four powerful barbarian warriors. Now, these barbarians are really tough to fit because they do not feel pain and they are very fast. They managed to do some damage to us, but we took them down in good time. And, man! Gideon landed the first hit of the fight on one of the barbarians before they even knew what was happening and hoo! That barbarian didn't even get a chance to start foaming at the mouth like the others did afterward.
These barbarian warriors were using what probably used to be sane and civilized human women as their servants, in many foul and sexual ways, I am sure. These women were obviously kept shackled at all times and were extremely malnourished. They were also like feral animals. They seemed to have no sense or reasoning within their minds. These barbarians had obviously broken the minds and wills of these women. It was a rather horrible reality to witness the state of these women. We tried our best to calm them down, but in the end they ran off into the woods somewhere and probably died of starvation.
After some investigation of the main room of the large building, we continued on, through a back door that led us through a recently-mined cavern and down a hall that dead-ended in a roughly mined-out room where the ceiling was decorated with life-like dolls hanging from strings and swaying around as if moving to a non-existent breeze. At the end of this cavern room was a disturbingly gaunt man standing atop a makeshift throne, holding a skull enveloped in blue flames. As with all evil overlords, it seems, he was expecting us and had been patiently waiting for our arrival. He appeared to be pleased to see us, but then he threw a flaming skull at us. So, we killed him too. He was a bit complicated to kill. The dolls hanging from the sealing kept attacking us while we fought him and he was quite effective with necromantic magic. He managed to scare off Nel and Gideon at one point, but eventually we all overwhelmed him. And that was funny.
Okay, so we found on him what was supposed to be the "Second Key", the "Saphire Key", and the effects that Gideon, Nel and Constantine were suffering had simply vanished after this Necromancer perished, so we headed on out of the cave and building. Gideon got the idea to plunder the barrows, which I must admit, was a rather unsettling and creepy thing to do, but we did find a couple of items to sell in town. We also got attacked by a couple more undead creatures, but they were easy to destroy.
We then headed back up to the dwarven citadel, where we ran into the dwarven smith on his way down the mountain, carrying the silver anvil over his head. He stopped and talked to us for a while, explaining how he would be able to craft finer weapons and armor with this anvil. He was very excited. We then continued on, but the dwarf saw Fred and, thinking Fred was a wild and dangerous shock lizard, he smashed him with the anvil. Poor Fred.
We eventually arrived at the room of dwarven heroes. We inserted the three keys and proceeded through a number of complicated traps that Gideon managed to disarm without too much difficulty. Gideon discovered one secret passage after tinkering with a false traps and lock mechanism. After we went through the secret passage and Gideon discovered another misleading path that lead through traps, I discovered another secret passage in the hallway just past the last secret passage and that led us to a room with two coffers that appeared to be filled with ancient gold coins. I discovered again, in that same room, another secret passage beneath a loose flagstone. But before we entered the secret passage, we decided to check out the two coffers. While doing this, Gideon noticed some movement in one of the coffers and told everyone to hold on for a second. He then withdrew one of his daggers and started to slowly bring it down into one of the coffers. All of a sudden Gideon shouted "run" and he ran off back down the hallway from which we came. None of us really understood what was going on or what Gideon was talking about, so we did not get out of the way before Constantine was attacked by some creature consisting entirely of clear, acidic slime. Then it turned out that there were two of these creatures and both of them must have been inside the coffers before. The two creatures attacked Constantine and Brom relentlessly and were very, very difficult to attack and damage. Gideon noticed that we had not run and that Brom and Constantine might be overwhelmed, so he came back and helped all of us fight these creatures off. In the end, Brom's clothing, armor and beard were all eaten away by the acidic slime of these creatures and Constantine did not fair much better. We then gathered up the gold coins, which it turned out were fewer than we had thought before because the coffers were shallower than they appeared from the outside. The coins were all ancient gold coins and weighed more than the typical gold coin of more recent civilizations. The coffers were dedicated to two dwarven sons from two different families who might have been warring against each other.
After getting the two cleaned up and covered up a bit more, Gideon and I crawled down beneath the loose flagstone, into the secret chamber and Gideon proceeded cautiously forward in a low-ceilinged chamber to discover a few old, oilcloth sacks. The sacks turned out to be containing the stolen heirlooms of the Wildsgate barony and a few bars of gold. So, Gideon and I hauled them back up to the others and we then headed back down to the foot of the mountain.
At the foot of the mountain, we camped for the night and rested up. We then proceeded onward to the town of Wildsgate. Once within the walls of Wildsgate, yet still outside of the town, we were blocked off to the town by Lady Aborn and about a half-score of mounted riders from the Outriders, including the captain of the Outriders. The Lady Aborn accused us of being in possession of the stolen heirlooms and threatened that if we did not hand them over that we would be placed under arrest. Constantine began an attempt to explain to her our intentions, but I already knew that there was no chance that we were getting out of there without a fight. I was positive that the White Lady had absolutely no intention of letting us walk away, no matter what we did. So, I attacked her. Actually, I was going to cast an offensive spell on her, but I then realized that she was too far away from me for that to work. So, I readied a protective spell for myself, but she and her mounted Outriders were too quick to react, so I failed to stay focused enough and failed the spell.
This battle was horrible. Most of us were horribly wounded in the end. The captain of the guard of Wildsgate came out of the town's inner gates with a score of lancers and charged our assailants. But Lady Aborn vanished and managed to get away from the battle safely. The captain of the guard commanded a cease of all fighting and charged one of the outriders, but seemed to overcompensate what appeared to be a fancy dismount, coupled with a powerful attack, and propelled himself in a quite uncontrolled manner off of his mount, careened off of Nel (who hardly noticed the hit) and plowed face-first into the hard-packed dirt of the well-trodden road. That action obviously failed to impress the Outriders, so the Outrider captain and his men continued to fight us. I managed to deliver a significant amount of damage to the Outrider captain with some spells, but he just would not stop. Finally, I tried to make it appear to the Captain of the guard as though I was only holding guard to defend myself by raising my bow in a defensive stance and watching the Outrider captain, but the outrider captain attacked me. I managed to loose one arrow into him at point blank, yet the captain still stood. He missed me with his first blow, but he managed to hit me with the second. Before that I was already in critical condition from him and his men and that last blow took me down.
Apparently, after that, Gideon, who had disappeared at some point when I was not looking, suddenly appeared behind the Outrider captain and cut him and his horse in half with the heirloom sword while the Outrider captain was trying to flee the scene. To top it off, Gideon followed up with the gruesome attack by bellowing "SURPRISE!" and scaring everyone who was not unconscious, dying or already dead half to death. I really wish I could have seen that.
After that, the three remaining Outriders surrendered. After seeing what Gideon did, I think they made a very smart decision. Brom revived me and a medic came around and gave us healing potions. At that time, we explained to the captain our story regarding the heirlooms and our initial encounter with Lady Aborn. The captain informed us that the Lady was, indeed, a criminal and then left to bring word of our actions and what had just occurred to the Regent. While he was off, I looted that bastard Outrider captain's corpse. During that time Gideon managed to get a trace of the Lady's tracks.
Coming as close to death as I did is really disturbing. I haven't even been around for a century. I have so much more I must experience and witness. I want to be around for a good few centuries. But there are wretched things that keep trying to kill me. And this most recent encounter was the closest of all. I don't like that.
Oh! Anyway, the captain came back and informed us that we must see the Baron immediately. So, in the horrible condition that we were, we had an audience with the Baron (or he had an audience with us). The Baron thanked us for our deeds and claimed that he owed us his life. He explained that the Lady Aborn had been exacting conspiracy against the Wildsgate throne for some time. He assured us that his scouts would report directly back to us on the whereabouts of Lady Aborn once they fully trail her and he then granted us many luxuries and a place to stay in what was formerly the Lady's tower.
So, we went up into the tower and got some rest. Early in the evening, though, Gideon disturbed our rest by setting fire to Lady Aborn's undergarments. He also managed to set free her familiar. That was an understandable mistake, though. I tried to explain to everyone why the familiar was a threat, but Constantine was very firm with the idea that I was putting them into danger by speaking to them of it. Humans are just too secretive, sometimes.
Later in the night, Gideon disturbed my rest, again, by calling my name. I walked upstairs and found him lying atop a raised surface covered with a blanket, in a rather strange and leisurely pose. Gideon is strange, but this was a very strange thing to stumble upon when I was so exhausted. I asked Gideon why he was posing like that and he asked told me he had something to show me that he did not trust the others to see. So, I closed the door and he lifted the blanket to show what he was lying on. There were six iron-banded chests that were marked as the property of the Baron of Wildsgate.
Gideon opened each chest, one-by-one, to reveal loads of gold, platinum and other items of value and currency. And one chest contained various items of great worth. One of which was a book in a sack. While Gideon was rummaging through these things, asking me if I had any unmarked chests that we could transplant the coins and gems to, I grabbed the book out of the sack and started to read it. Then I suddenly realized, six days later apparently, that I was in a different room, wearing a lovely belt, with a sign around my neck that had the words "No pickles!" and a spreading knife in my hand. According to Nel, after I opened the book, a snake came out of the book, bit me on the hand and then I was frozen in some form of stasis with an amber-colored forcefield encasing my body. I was in this state for six days. And obviously someone had been having fun at my expense.
After I was hit by this protective spell on the book, the Regent assessed my condition and explained to the rest of the group that the spell would wear off in a few days, then claimed the chests that Gideon had discovered beneath the floorboards of one of the rooms, but left the items of value from one chest behind. Since I was now free of the stasis spell, I was able to open the book that had cursed me in the first place and read it again, as Constantine claimed the book was now safe for reading. The book turns out to be a spellbook and it has spells in it. Most of the spells look necromantic to me, but it will take some more time for me to fully understand the writing.
At this time it was still afternoon on the sixth day in town and everyone (except for me, obviously) was eager to get moving out of town and after Lady Aborn and the vampire. But Nel convinced everyone that I needed the rest and so I headed out to make some quick transactions and get some supplies. Now, finally, I get to update my journal with the most recent events of the last couple weeks. Well, it's time for me to get some meditative rest. This really is a nice belt. It's nice to know that my companions will still share their findings with me, even when I am unconscious or otherwise incapable of interacting with the world.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Tiryns Times North, Sunday Edition, Junet 17, 1581
Violence Increases in the Waste
FREELANDS, Junet 10 - More violence today in the Waste, with much of it occurring in Bayview.Members of the Watch say skirmishes between Watchguard forces and Orgoshi raiders left three soldiers and 15 goblins dead. The Watchmen also say midnight raids killed at least six villagers in their homes on the outskirts of Bayview.
In other violence, an Eastern diplomat was killed in mysterious circumstances in the town of Eastguard, and a roadside ambush killed two people and wounded two others just north of Wildsgate.
In another incident, Orgoshi stormed the house of a local official in a town about 60 miles north of Wildsgate, forcing family members outside and burning down the house.
Lord Ashden accuses Barony of Wildsgate of providing arms to Easterners
John Ashden, mayor of Ashden's Point, says the Barony of Wildsgate is helping smuggle weapons to the Eastern traders in and around the Wilds, according to local report.Officials said yesterday that soldiers in the Wilds have recovered at least two sophisticated siege weapons, known as gastrapheltes (or, belly-bows), that are similar to devices that are being used in the Waste and are thought to come from the Orgoshi citadel.
“Obviously we are very interested in finding more about where it came from just so we can prevent more of them in the future,” a Tower spokeswoman tells us.
Human Smuggling, Once Again a Problem
ADACIA, Junet 11 — Three members of the Watch Guard helping patrol the Churchlands border have been charged with human smuggling after Kings Watch agents found one of them in uniform driving a wagon crammed with 16 illegal immigrants from the northern waste lands.The guardsmen, including two sergeants, were assigned to assisting the Border Patrol and had run multiple smuggling trips at fees of 15 Marks to 25 Marks per passenger, according to the complaint filed in Tiryns by the Kings Watch.
The complaint cited scratched words hidden in tree-stumps such as “16 will be tough to fit but I will try.”
Erhivor's Journal: Entry 4 (Dwarven Citadel, days 4 and 5)
Well, I have been far too busy just trying to stay alive for me to take time to write in this journal. I don't even know why I bother. I mean, what good is it going to do, anyway? Goblins or demons or crazy humans are going to be the death of me too soon. I might as well take this one-hundred-fifty-six gold coins and bury them now, before some goblin eats me and uses them as a spice.
Anyway, after Brom opened a door to a bunch of sparring madmen, they attacked us, and we managed to make them look rather stupid. The last survivor of these men surrendered and brought his mistress to us, who turned out to be some kind of evil, Dark Elf druid by the name of Leoth. She and her rather ugly assistants attacked us on sight and we managed to subdue them all except Leoth.
Leoth fled up a nearby lift, but I poured two flasks of acid on the chain for the lift and the whole thing came crashing down with her on it. I managed to dive out of the way of the crashing lift and when the dust settled, Leoth was unconscious. We tied her up, gagging and blindfolding her, just in case.
Next Gideon searched the back room where Leoth and her friends came from, which had been torched at the last minute by those that attacked us, so we did not find any useful documents or materials. But we did find one of the three special keys that seems to fit in the emerald key slot on the pedestal in the room of heroes.
After Gideon came back from his searching, we were set upon again by a group of attackers. We managed to destroy them, but we suffered greatly from the attack. After that, we bedded down for the night.
When I woke up, Leoth was gone. She appeared to have escaped her bonds and climbed up the lift shaft. Not long after awakening, a man that I could only describe as "pristine", came down the lift shaft, bringing Leoth with him, shackles and all, and he was apparently looking for us. This man's name is Constantine, and though Gideon believes that Constantine is a criminal (but a good-looking one), I believe that he is a Paladin (and a good looking one). He speaks in a very precise and accurate manner, one I would not normally associate with humans. He is obviously very well educated and comes from a wealthy background.
Constantine seems to have suffered trouble similar to what we had suffered in Wildsgate town. He was more than likely attacked by a group of people whom he likely had to kill in order to defend himself and was told by the guard captain to leave town for a while. He is apparently under instruction to accompany us to The Wall. So, we invited him into our group and, again, went to sleep.
Once we woke up again, we walked out to the cliffs overlooking the river that divides the Spires and discussed whether or not Constantine should take Leoth back to town with or without our company. Then Leoth got up the nerve to dive off of the cliff, into the river, while still shackled. Gideon dove off the cliff after her, which is over threescore feet of a drop. That worried me, so I jumped off of the cliff, with the assistance of a Feather Fall spell, to assist him. Once I landed in the water, I remember that I was not a very good swimmer. You know, you don't really tend to think of those things much when you spend most of your life underneath mountains. Of course, I never really lived under a mountain. Oh well. Anyway, Nel helped pull us back up over the cliff on a rope. Leoth is a lot of trouble.
After that, we decided to let Constantine take Leoth back to town while we waited in the hero room of the citadel. It's a very nice room. Once Constantine returned, he wanted to know where to find and destroy this demon (it's name is possibly "Breark") that the Orgoshi are serving (and likely Leoth is cutting deals with). So, Nel showed him the map that one of our earlier captives drew for us, and I informed him that the location was back the way he came from. He was upset that I told him where it was after he got back. I was fairly exhausted, so I wasn't thinking right.
We then proceeded on to the goblin cave that supposedly leads to the demon. Boy, what a mess that was! I'm still finding Goblin and Ogre guts in strange places on my body. It's like sand! I'm finding it everywhere! Anyway, when we first arrived at the location, we had to climb a narrow staircase that was broken by a halfscore-foot-long pit filled with spikes. When Brom, Constantine and Gideon got across the pit, a giant, dead, flaming Ogre was hurled at them, which happened to knock both Brom and Constantine into the pit. Gideon, fortunately, was fast enough to drop to the ground and not be hit by the Ogre corpse. The corpse seemed to have an illusion around it to make it look alive and like it was covered in blue flames. After Brom and Constantine fell into the pit, three Goblins appeared at the top of the steps and started hurling javelins at everyone below.
We managed to get past the staircase without too much trouble. It was messy and awful, though. We then came upon what appeared to be a Goblin leisure room. Needless to say, we slaughtered them all in short time. In the back of that room, there was a cage with a mystical lizard that seems to be capable of shocking its enemies. It was being taunted by the goblins when we arrived. So, we fed it and set it free. It seems to like goblin meat more than anything else. Since then, it's been following us around and cooing and trilling at us. So, Brom named it Fred and it's been a regular companion since then.
After that we encountered a goblin shaman of some sort, who managed to put Gideon asleep for a few seconds with an enchantment spell, but we dispatched of him rather quickly. On him we found a nice spear and some enchanted dice that he was using. The dice seem to have divination qualities to them. In that room, we found a very nasty well at the end of the room and the marking of "F" in common tongue on the floor before the well. We also found a chest, which Gideon was able to disarm and unlock in order to get open. Within which he found some gold and a couple of other items.
We then went back out of that room and took a branching hall up to a trapdoor, which Gideon, Constantine and Brom opened just to have hot coals and ashes dumped on them from a Goblin waiting outside the door. Constantine then blasted them with a cone of fire and cleared the way for us. After that, climbed out to a series of platforms on the cliffs of the spire. It's actually a beautiful view, but I do not think that goblins appreciate the view. We walked up to the next platform to find another large group of goblins lounging about. So, again, we killed them all. Now we're all discussing what to do next. There's another platform that we could go to and a cave as well. There are also barrels of highly flamable Goblin drink, which could be handy later.
Well, everyone's asking me to stop writing and to get ready to move on. I suppose we have finally decided where to go next.
Anyway, after Brom opened a door to a bunch of sparring madmen, they attacked us, and we managed to make them look rather stupid. The last survivor of these men surrendered and brought his mistress to us, who turned out to be some kind of evil, Dark Elf druid by the name of Leoth. She and her rather ugly assistants attacked us on sight and we managed to subdue them all except Leoth.
Leoth fled up a nearby lift, but I poured two flasks of acid on the chain for the lift and the whole thing came crashing down with her on it. I managed to dive out of the way of the crashing lift and when the dust settled, Leoth was unconscious. We tied her up, gagging and blindfolding her, just in case.
Next Gideon searched the back room where Leoth and her friends came from, which had been torched at the last minute by those that attacked us, so we did not find any useful documents or materials. But we did find one of the three special keys that seems to fit in the emerald key slot on the pedestal in the room of heroes.
After Gideon came back from his searching, we were set upon again by a group of attackers. We managed to destroy them, but we suffered greatly from the attack. After that, we bedded down for the night.
When I woke up, Leoth was gone. She appeared to have escaped her bonds and climbed up the lift shaft. Not long after awakening, a man that I could only describe as "pristine", came down the lift shaft, bringing Leoth with him, shackles and all, and he was apparently looking for us. This man's name is Constantine, and though Gideon believes that Constantine is a criminal (but a good-looking one), I believe that he is a Paladin (and a good looking one). He speaks in a very precise and accurate manner, one I would not normally associate with humans. He is obviously very well educated and comes from a wealthy background.
Constantine seems to have suffered trouble similar to what we had suffered in Wildsgate town. He was more than likely attacked by a group of people whom he likely had to kill in order to defend himself and was told by the guard captain to leave town for a while. He is apparently under instruction to accompany us to The Wall. So, we invited him into our group and, again, went to sleep.
Once we woke up again, we walked out to the cliffs overlooking the river that divides the Spires and discussed whether or not Constantine should take Leoth back to town with or without our company. Then Leoth got up the nerve to dive off of the cliff, into the river, while still shackled. Gideon dove off the cliff after her, which is over threescore feet of a drop. That worried me, so I jumped off of the cliff, with the assistance of a Feather Fall spell, to assist him. Once I landed in the water, I remember that I was not a very good swimmer. You know, you don't really tend to think of those things much when you spend most of your life underneath mountains. Of course, I never really lived under a mountain. Oh well. Anyway, Nel helped pull us back up over the cliff on a rope. Leoth is a lot of trouble.
After that, we decided to let Constantine take Leoth back to town while we waited in the hero room of the citadel. It's a very nice room. Once Constantine returned, he wanted to know where to find and destroy this demon (it's name is possibly "Breark") that the Orgoshi are serving (and likely Leoth is cutting deals with). So, Nel showed him the map that one of our earlier captives drew for us, and I informed him that the location was back the way he came from. He was upset that I told him where it was after he got back. I was fairly exhausted, so I wasn't thinking right.
We then proceeded on to the goblin cave that supposedly leads to the demon. Boy, what a mess that was! I'm still finding Goblin and Ogre guts in strange places on my body. It's like sand! I'm finding it everywhere! Anyway, when we first arrived at the location, we had to climb a narrow staircase that was broken by a halfscore-foot-long pit filled with spikes. When Brom, Constantine and Gideon got across the pit, a giant, dead, flaming Ogre was hurled at them, which happened to knock both Brom and Constantine into the pit. Gideon, fortunately, was fast enough to drop to the ground and not be hit by the Ogre corpse. The corpse seemed to have an illusion around it to make it look alive and like it was covered in blue flames. After Brom and Constantine fell into the pit, three Goblins appeared at the top of the steps and started hurling javelins at everyone below.
We managed to get past the staircase without too much trouble. It was messy and awful, though. We then came upon what appeared to be a Goblin leisure room. Needless to say, we slaughtered them all in short time. In the back of that room, there was a cage with a mystical lizard that seems to be capable of shocking its enemies. It was being taunted by the goblins when we arrived. So, we fed it and set it free. It seems to like goblin meat more than anything else. Since then, it's been following us around and cooing and trilling at us. So, Brom named it Fred and it's been a regular companion since then.
After that we encountered a goblin shaman of some sort, who managed to put Gideon asleep for a few seconds with an enchantment spell, but we dispatched of him rather quickly. On him we found a nice spear and some enchanted dice that he was using. The dice seem to have divination qualities to them. In that room, we found a very nasty well at the end of the room and the marking of "F" in common tongue on the floor before the well. We also found a chest, which Gideon was able to disarm and unlock in order to get open. Within which he found some gold and a couple of other items.
We then went back out of that room and took a branching hall up to a trapdoor, which Gideon, Constantine and Brom opened just to have hot coals and ashes dumped on them from a Goblin waiting outside the door. Constantine then blasted them with a cone of fire and cleared the way for us. After that, climbed out to a series of platforms on the cliffs of the spire. It's actually a beautiful view, but I do not think that goblins appreciate the view. We walked up to the next platform to find another large group of goblins lounging about. So, again, we killed them all. Now we're all discussing what to do next. There's another platform that we could go to and a cave as well. There are also barrels of highly flamable Goblin drink, which could be handy later.
Well, everyone's asking me to stop writing and to get ready to move on. I suppose we have finally decided where to go next.
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