The Dwarven Forge

After findin' the treasure in the room with the dwarven forge and inspectin' it, I could see that it would require significantly less resources to repair the mirror and the throne at the forge of their creation rather than to do it at my workshop back at the airship. I sent some of the others to start carrying some of the tools and materials up above, with instructions on where to take it. Aurora offered to stay behind with me and help clear out the area, and to offer her protection as I worked on the repairs.

That's when things got a little.... unexpected.

See, we were headin' 'round the corner from where the forge was, and a vampire appeared. He said that he was a follower of the vampire mistress Calderas, and that on her behalf he was offering to set up a mutually beneficial arrangement: we leave alone the lower level, containing the crypt, the treasures, and her minions, and they would leave us to have the top level of the city. When I hesitated, he threatened to beset their army against us immediately... a battle Aurora an' me weren't prepared to fight by ourselves, but reiterated that they would cause us no trouble, no harm, and would not trespass on our area for one year if we would agree to the same.

Now, I'm a reasonable sort. I don't believe in persecuting vampires just because they're undead like some of those divine folks do, and there's nothin' wrong in and of itself with making a nonaggression pact. And these guys don't follow an evil deity, they follow the Blood of Vol, an unaligned religion. So I was willing to consider it. It was better than gettin' killed immediately, and it could buy us valuable time to get the items repaired in the forge, savin' us a lot of money. But I made it clear to the vampire (we learned his name was Danlerna) that I couldn't speak for the other members of my team. He was persuasive, and tried hard to get me to commit, but I told him I couldn't speak for the rest of the lot and we'd talk to 'em about it. I also said I couldn't agree carte blanche to a year... that if his lot were preying on townspeople for example then we couldn't let that be. He did say that in the past that conditions were very poor in parts of the Lower City, and they had offered to convert some of the willing poor into undead, that the life they had under Calderas' care was better than they were being given in their own city. Again, I found it hard to become upset by letting the people choose their lot, as long as it was done willingly. So I told 'im that meantime, me an' Aurora were willing to leave the second level be and do what we came to do.

With this, Danlerna seemed pleased, and ... I have to say it was weird, he then asked us to do them a favor as part of our new agreement. He said his mistress had a history with a lich named Gath, and she wanted the lich killed in return for something of our choosing. We were free to choose riches, treasures, or a favor at a later date, but she wanted Gath to be ended. The vampire said that the lich, who follows the ways of the Keeper, haunts the City of the Dead. He explained that liches are undead wizards who store their soul in an object called a phylactery, but couldn't elaborate on what the phylactery was. He said that Gath trusts a tiefling necromancer, his second-in-command, named Freya Darkmane. Due to the history between Calderas and Gath (which we later learned was personal: Gath had killed Calderas' lover, years ago), it would be difficult for Calderas to go after him directly, which is why they were recruiting a team of adventurers to do it and letting us name our price.

I heard 'im out. An' I just wasn't sure. I'm not an assassin, or a vampire's errand-boy. But I told 'im I'd look into it. If the world has one less evil lich, that could be satisfactory for all parties concerned. At least it was worth learning more about. And with that, Danlerna was gone, and we saw a number of undead leaving the area. Aurora an' I looked around the rest of the place and found it vacant, just as Danlerna said. And with that, I set to work on the throne and the mirror.

They were beautiful, grand pieces once, and it was satisfying to see them restored to their previous grandeur. Aurora waited patiently as I toiled for hours, sweating in the hot forge (and these fires were the hottest I've ever worked at, but as I worked the flames seemed to bend and put the heat exactly where I wanted it... remarkable control). But at last, they were done. An' it was then that Aurora said she didn't want to bother me while I was concentratin', but now that I was done she wanted to bring to my attention that the others had never returned, and the throne and mirror together were more than the two of us could carry.

With items of such value, I was not keen on leaving them in Calderas' lair where they could be appropriated. So we looked in the newly-fixed mirror, thinkin' we might just ask the others to come back down. Through the mirror, we could see the airship, so at least they had made it that far... but there was no one there. Aurora offered to go check on things in the airship, so she did that... after awhile I saw her appear in the mirror and tell me there was no one there. We talked about it a bit and decided it would be worth her going to check in the brothel, which she found rummaged but empty with no sign of the others. And on her way back, she happened across Colvin and a mate of his, getting beat down by some thugs. While I was sorting through tools and materials, Aurora stepped in and gave Colvin an' 'is mate a hand, and brought 'em back. Lucky he had Colvin with 'im, so he could warn Colvin without letting on to Valance that the artificer down in the forge was a bugbear (to blend in better with the part of town that we used to access the forge).

Colvin's friend as a man named Valance Breen. In a set of weird coincidences, Colvin said that he had just been researching Calderas and Gath, but when we inquired he didn't know anything more than we did. In particular, I was trying to determine whether he had learned anything that would expose Calderas as evil, but he didn't know much about her other than that she was a vampire that followed the Blood of Vol. Valance was definitely a "Rah, kill the undead!" type for sure.

Anyhow, I wrapped the mirror and the throne, and the other 3 carried the throne while I carried the mirror topside to the airship. On our way, we found ourselves jumped (Colvin musta been havin' a bad day) by four bugbears, seven goblins, six ghouls, and two necromancers. Aurora fought most bravely, but there were a lot of guys on us and it started to look a little dicey. Towards the end of the battle I got the chance to sit on the Throne of Dominion. That was most satisfying, as I commanded the remaining ghouls to leave, and the bugbears and goblins to drop their weapons and leave, and the necromancers to drop their weapons and surrender. A few attacks later, we'd knocked one of the necromancers unconscious (the other had fled).

After havin' a bit o'fun in the throne, I decided to let Aurora have a turn, so she took the throne during the interrogation of the necromancer. Turns out that Gath had sent them to collect bodies for the lich. It turns out that they were trying to collect the wrong bodies, as it was about all the motivation that me an' Aurora needed to decide to track down the lich and destroy his phylactery. The necromancer didn't know anything about the phylactery itself, but did tell us that the lich resides in the dragon crypts in the City of the Dead, and that Freya was his lover and they both could be found together in the mausoleum. He told us about their meetings on Wednesdays and Fridays at midnight and gave us maps as well as telling us us about the traps and their forces. After he was no more use to us, we took the 300 gold and 40 silver from his pockets, and Colvin and Valance took him to the Temple of the Silver Flame.

Aurora an' I got a chance to talk then, and we decided that for now it'd be best not to mention Calderas to the group, not knowing how Oris and Colvin would react. So when our mates asked for our report, I told 'em the important part of the truth... the part they needed to know, which is that we cleared the area and repaired the items after determining that there weren't any threats.

My day as a kid

It's nice to be in Sharn again. We've spent several days here, and I've been working hard. I made a quickbeam staff for Colvin, and after that I didn't see 'im too much... best as I can figure, he got caught up in a quest for the Silver Flame, not that I've been spendin' much time lookin' 'round for 'im what with all the work I've been doing. Mostly I've been putting a lot of hours into this chest, and it's really coming along as a beautiful piece o' work. Of course, the enchantment itself never takes long, but you can't rush the process of really crafting a fine item down to the details. Having finished the outside and done all the inlay work, once I finish the lining, it should be complete. I've talked to Wynelle about setting up a business arrangement and I think we have agreed on terms that will be beneficial to both of us. It was great to meet up with her again, have a pint, catch up for old times' sake.

The others have set off on a small rescue mission to recover some slaves, and I stayed behind so as not to miss the convention at Morgrave University. I haven't been to one in years and couldn't really pass up the chance. Of course the others understood, as the better I get at my trade, the more beneficial it is to them as well. Anyhow, we also found out about a moneybroker behind the slaves that's here in town, so me an' Aurora are going to look into that in the meantime. Pr'aps my... other skills will come in handy in acquiring information or infiltrating if necessary. And it's always useful to have someone with ye who's handy with a weapon (or two!).

Thanks to my connections with House Cannith, the guards of the town hired us to track down the moneybroker, a man by the name of Aaron Black. We learned that he's rich, likely to be living in the Upper City or the Skyway under an alias. We were offered 10000 gold to capture him alive, and 6000 if we turned in his dead body. They said he was likely to have bodyguards.

With that, Aurora and I started asking around in the Lower City, where we learned that Black has dealings with the Black Market (no pun intended, I'm sure), where deals in slaves and drugs. We also learned that Aaron Black was a drug supplier in House Thurani. That led us to suspect that he was involved with darker deeds as well, given House Thurani's reputation as a house of assassins. From my previous travels to Sharn, I thought that maybe we should then look in House Thurani's group of estates in the Upper City. We went sightseeing around that area, and found ourselves confronted by three thugs (human-looking) who tried to extort 1500 gold from us in exchange for them not reporting our activities to Black. We didn't really want to pay them 1500 gold (first and foremost, I never carry that kind of money to begin with), so after a bit o' fast-talking, I decided that the best way to continue sightseeing without arousing their suspicion again was to pose as Aurora's son.

As Aurora an' I walked past a shop in the Middle City, we saw a man with a long mustache using some sort of device along with a stand consisting of a long tripod and a spyglass. He must've made it 'imself, as I've never seen anything quite like it. Taking advantage of the ability of the young to speak out-of-turn, I inquired about it in my new form as a young boy, but the man shushed me (though he did answer a couple of questions, saying that he could in fact see things up in the Upper City and Skyway through his lens). Then we heard a "pop," and the man went away. We followed the direction we best figured the spyglass was pointing at, and didn't see much but a scrap of rubbery substance that had been magical in the past. Aurora an' I figured it musta come from one of the flying things tied to an air elemental, as they have them all over the city carrying messages, advertisements, and so on. While we were looking, we saw two of the ruffians who had tried to extort us, but they seemed to take no notice of us.

We got to see a huge ship fight in the Upper City, where a ship of warforged were chased off by another ship carrying half-elves and one warforged. We saw a half-elf woman on the second ship shooting with her wand at the first, and the sky was filled with explosions. In the crowd watching, we learned that this isn't terribly uncommon here, where rogue warforged attack dragonmarked houses (usually House Cannith.. bah!), and House Lyrander defends.

None of this, however, was helping us to find Black, so we decided to go to the library and check out the genealogy records. Here we learned that the family had started out as an offshoot of the Phiarlan line, and had changed their name and joined House Thurani as it started out. The Black family had sought favor with the royalty of Breland but had been turned down. The long an' the short of it is that one of the Black ancestors had a residence in the Skyway, and we thought that'd be a good lead. We watched the house for a bit, and we saw ship come down from the house into the Lower City. We followed it and saw 3 elven men go into a circus. I learned that the bouncers at the circus don't like kids much. As we were leaving, we then found ourselves jumped by a dwarf-looking guy and two human-looking types, which we later learned were wererats. Anyway, they looked a little weirded out about attacking a kid, especially once I gave one of 'em a solid bolt with my crossbow. I think one of 'em figured it out, but it was too late for him and we took 'em down. Along the course we learned that they worship the Keeper among the Dark Six. We found an Adamantine Mace, some thieves' tools, two daggers, a short sword, and a card with the Thurani emblem on it. It said "Knock twice then thrice to gain entrance to the back of Black House." Hm, this made things easier. We followed the three elves out of the circus and watched them go into the Cogs. Aurora an' I decided that we had learned enough and didn't want to risk our cover by chasin' 'em, so the next day we went to Black House. I disguise myself as one of the human forms of one of the wererats we killed.

So we knock twice. Then thrice. They let us in, easy enough, and don't take much notice from there out. So we wander up some steps, there are hundreds of 'em it seems. We find a hidden door in the wall that leads to a hidden elevator shaft. Apparently Black was superstitious, as there is no floor 7 nor was there a 13, but there were 20 floors so maybe I wasn't so far off on my guess as to how many steps there were. Aurora an' I talk about it, not real sure where to start, but we figure the old man probably lives on one of the top two floors, so we stop at Floor 19. The elevator leads to a short hallway which dead-ends with another door, and we see a horn coming from the wall and goggles into the wall. I didn't find any traps an' Aurora's a pretty brave lady as she just put it on without even knowing what-all it did, but she told me she could see into the room from there, and this is how we learned that Black used the secret elevator and the equipment to spy on the servants and on the goings-on in the house. Aurora said the maids were getting ready for breakfast, and talking about how Lord Black had headed out in a huff earlier in the morning. She said she could see the two elves we'd followed into the Cogs, murmuring something about how there's an issue among the royalty in Breland relating to the King's health and the royal line. Apparently Black had received a letter from the Breland throne and had retired with it up to his room.

...and that's about all we needed to figure out that the next floor up is where Black's room would be found. Up we go, and this hall was also short but led to a corner, and we could see a foot stickin' out. Now we weren't sure if it was a guard or what, and also weren't too sure what else to do, so Aurora drew her weapons and got ready, while I shot at the foot with my crossbow. Well, what else would we do, eh? Anyway, the shoe goes flying off and we realize that the owner is long-since dead. We found 200 gold, a jeweled dagger, and a vial of poison on the skeleton.

We found a secret door leading into Black's quarters. He wasn't there, so we decided to look around. On his desk, I found an open envelope that contained a letter addressed to him. Enclosed was a picture of a young man, who Aurora said was Black, as she said she had seen a portrait of the same man, though much older, when she spied into the dining hall. The letter said,
"Dear Mr. Black,
Long ago your grandpa sought benefactors and was rudely rejected. If things happen as I desire with your assistance, things will be better. Also you can deal a devestating blow to Phiarlan. Lord breland has a daughter connected to the rival house, and I do not want to compete with her. Signed, "Uncle""
We were tryin' to figure out what all this meant when a man came in and shot at the wererat. Oh wait, that was me. Aurora an' I chased him down out of the house and he got into an airship. We got a taxi ship and followed, an' as we got close, Aurora leapt onto his ship. I'm not as fit as she is and wasn't about to go leapin' from ship to ship at high speeds thousands of feet into the air, since I don't have any sort o' a deathwish. But I shot from afar with my crossbow and when our driver managed to get us close enough, I walked carefully from one ship to the next. We learned from Black, as we exchanged shots, that the skeleton we had encountered was an assassin that House Tarkanen had hired to assassinate Aaron's father, who had failed. Little did he know that the same poison that was intended to kill his father would have an effect on him, as I animated the poisoned dagger and directed it to attack him from behind as Aurora attacked from the front.

Now poisons, if they aren't stored in the right environment can lose their efficacy over time. Certain environments are worse for 'em than others, of course, but still without the proper storage the generations had taken their toll, and the once-lethal poison merely made Black turn sickly. However, with Aurora swingin' 'er weapons all 'round in front of his face, it was a bad time for Black to become ill. We were just about to capture him when he... took a step off the ship, plummeting to the ground below.

Oh, I cursed. I didn't even want to look... bastard just cost us 4000 gold because now we'd have to deliver 'im to the guards scraped up off the pavement. But I did look, because we needed to know where he was goin' to land.

And I saw him, not plummeting, but floating gently down like the lightest of feathers. An' by now, of course, he was too far away for me to be able to shoot him. But then, we saw him get shot with somethin' else, and fall unconscious. We told our driver to go down, and we grabbed 'im where he was. We didn't find any bullets on his body, but we did find one of those rubber jobbies from before in his shirt. Yep, that old man with the long mustache had seen the whole chase and did 'im in.

We tipped our driver handsomely, for his skill and speed. 20 gold from us, and he was tremendously grateful. His name was Ralph, and he gave us a whistle which he said would be able to summon him to us from wherever we were. He said if we summoned him from afar, like a few days' travel, we'd have to pay handsomely for the service, but given how excited he was about the 20 gold, I think a hundred or two gold would make 'im a very happy man. I wonder what he'd think if we summoned him from a place as far as Cragwar?

Black had 6 platinum on 'im, and we turned 'im in to the guards. When we asked for our reward, they looked nervously at one another before a brave one admitted that they didn't have the funds to cover it. They offered us property in the Lower City instead, which they valued at 4000 gold. We have to choose between two places: a repossessed warehouse in Dura and and repossessed brothel in Cliffside. I like the idea of the Cliffside property since it has more rooms an' I like my privacy an' quiet for working. But I'll have to see what Aurora wants to do. Maybe we should even check the properties out first, make sure they're all clear like the guards say they are.

In the Labyrinth

We went shopping and met for dinner in front of the Twilight Palace, where Elaira performed. When we met, I was a little surprised to see that in such a short time, Bloodrush had managed to acquire a tattoo. It's on his face, right on his cheek. I can't really make out what the symbol is. I think if I ever get a tattoo, I will probably ask around so I can get it done by someone different. The next morning, we went to the Labyrinth, located in the quarry in the caves. We found a barred hole; an entrance to the caverns. Though no one approached when we entered, I could see a minotaur guard within, and Elaira and Horadric talked to him and convinced him to give us rooms at 3 gold a night. Expensive by most metrics, but a bargain for us given what we've been paying at Twilight Palace! Bloodrush paid for the rooms and the guard showed us the dining hall and our rooms. What I liked best about this place was how vast the hallways and rooms were. Easily large enough for me to stretch out, unlike the close quarters on the lightning rail and at House Sivis.

After checking out our rooms, we decided to go to the dining hall and try to gather information about Nym. What we learned is that we are apparently horrible at this. The only highlights were that Bloodrush intimidated an orc into mumbling something about a gnome who wasn't a gnome (I can't put together what's going on here, but it seems like it might be related to a changeling like the one we saw on the lightning rail); and Elaira overheard someone talking about the daughters of Sora Kel: Sora Katya, Sora Teraza, and Sora Maenya. Before we knew it, a fight broke out. I think Horadric started it, but I can't be sure because our efforts were poor all around and there were people getting angry with us all over the place. In the end the ones who actually resorted to violence were six minotaurs and two rogues. At first, this battle was somewhat frustrating for me: I positioned myself near the front lines only to find myself slid across the entire room and almost bull-rushed twenty feet straight down. However, I was able to open a breach in the earth and the resulting vent of chaos let me get back into the fray. At some point their mage activated some kind of gloves that caused a great hedge to sprout forth, and it looked like this was going to be a significant impediment to us; however, the fellow didn't last long and when he perished, the wall disappeared. After all of our foes had been defeated, we found some thieves' tools, 1300 gold, and the Green Thumbs gloves. We also had ourselves a couple of prisoners to interrogate. Horadric said he thought he could figure out how to work the gloves, so we let him have them.

We learned that these fellows worked for a minotaur warlord named Rhesh Turakbar, who worked for the daughters of Sora Kel. One of them knew a gnome who worked for Turakbar also, who had a dragonmark. We suspect this was Nym. He said he'd last seen Nym at Turakbar's castle, and he vaguely gestured in the direction we would find it. They said their job was to collect pay from Khadrous, the owner of the Labyrinth, for their "protection." We also learned that there was a guy named Brakenworth who was captured by the guard in Graywall, who knew a secret way into the castle. However, he was turned to stone outside the last tower in the city, so getting the information from him would prove to be difficult. As we continued our interrogation, the minotaurs claimed that the castle had a sizable fighting force with archers and over 500 fighting men, with traps everywhere. I suspect that they were exaggerating, or perhaps I should say I hope so at least.

The rogue we had captured was a mercenary. He said he knew about an associate of Brakenworth's that was an Oni; that the Oni might be a possible enemy of Turakbar. He did tell us that Brakenworth had crossed the law and possibly had crossed Xorchylic, the Illithid who runs Graywall. He said that Brakenworth had stolen something of great value from Turakbar which was never recovered. We learned that Turakbar rarely leaves his castle, excepting the occasional hunting party; and we learned a little more about the three hags: Sora Katra, the voice of Droam; Sora Maenya, the iron fist; and Sora Teraza, the powerful oracle.

Upon a search of the rooms of the foes we had defeated, we found a paper instructing the group to go to The Crag to ask Sora Teraza about the prophecy relating to the Deep Door. We suspect that the Deep Door is underneath Graywall, but don't know much else about it.

When we finished with our business and went back into the public areas to try to gather information, we found the minotaur guard rather strongly encouraging us to leave due to the trouble that had ensued so soon after our arrival. On our way out, Bloodrush started blabbing loudly about how the owner of the labyrinth didn't pay the protection fees. Judging by the shocked reactions he got, if his rumor spreads, I don't think that Khadrous will have a good time of it.

Our plans are to head back to Twilight Palace and regroup, but I think overall there is interest in finding out more about Brakenworth and whether we can acquire any useful information from him before heading after Turakbar's Castle to try to nab Nym.

Brawling - The More the Merrier

Where was I...oh right. So the gnolls all charge in like the cowards they are, ten against one. Then this elf lady...or maybe she's a half-elf, they all kind of look the same to me, starts singing this song about me (can you believe that, this random lady starts singing about me, I'm like, famous) that rallies the other orcs hanging around to attack the gnolls. Then the goblins passing by think it'd be funny to shoot a few arrows into the fray from the safety of the other side of the street. Dumb as goblins are (well, most are, Stewirk being an exceptional exception) one of them decided to shoot a ogre. As ogre's are even dumber than goblins, he had no clue where that shot came from, so he just attacked the nearest living creature (which happened to be that lady singing about me). The trolls never pass up an opportunity to bash some heads so they jumped in too. Like a spark on a dry day on the Scorching Plains, the entire street exploded into mayhem...it was totally awesome! There must have been like 200 monsters in this brawl making it probably the biggest one I'd been a part of, well except for that one at Hanging Man Tavern that resulted in the entire block burning down...oh and the one last month where I chased that minotaur, Haggir, all the way across Bloodstone and triggered dozens of brawls. Bastard only got away because the dozen guys chasing me finally caught up...can't believe that chamber pot merchant was actually trafficking drugs. Brawling while stoned, everything moving in slow motion...but that's a different story.

Anyway, I was pretty beat up before I had a chance to react but a dog runs up to me and heals me up. Feeling better, I swung my hammer in a great arc that bloodied or killed all of the gnolls surrounding me. Since some giant lady and a metal statue had most of the surviving gnolls pinned down, I charged Liveroil and hit him with everything I had but it barely phased him. Actually, my big power move where I descend on him like a comet of inevitability and bring my hammer around at his head like this while bringing my knee up like that would have totally missed except that elf lady again pegged him with an arrow at just the right moment and distracted him. I was going one-on-one with the gnoll leader when a pack of medusas shows up to put a stop to the fighting. Liveroil takes off running, and boy was I seriously tempted to chase after him, but I was barely hanging on and needed to catch my breath. After that, I figured it would be better to continue this battle another day so I made a strategic retreat around the side of a house to wait for the medusas to move on. The rest of the combatants either fled or were turned to stone.

As soon as the medusas left I returned to the scene to collect my winnings including a magical tattoo from one of the dead ogres. I'd been thinking about getting one lately, but hadn't had the funds to get the one I wanted. Fortuitously, the dead ogre's tattoo was one of the two I was contemplating. That metal guy returned and the two of us went about collecting our winnings from the bodies of the losers. I knew it was only a matter of minutes before scavengers showed up and given that everything is first-come-first-serve in this town if I wanted to collect what those bastard gnolls owed me I had to hurry.

It wasn't long before others from the battle returned. Actually, they were all travelling together and apparently looking for me, being led by a dog who was actually Cyrus! (Funny thing, when I asked about how the hell Cyrus became a dog they all started pointing fingers and blaming each other. There's got to be a good story in there but I'd have to get it another time.) Apparently, they had followed a gnome here by the name of Nym and were looking to hire a local to help them find him and I was the only one they knew, which was a good idea considering that most of them were pretty out of place in this town. But what followed was the oddest proposal for hire I'd ever heard. They wanted to hire me for an equal share of the loot they came across (which was fine by me, I was getting pretty bored with the challenge circles and would have gone with them for the excitement and food in my belly) but then they wanted me to start out by paying them. I sort of figured that they were broke and really needed the money, plus they were friends of Cyrus so I offered 200 gold but they wanted a lot more. I obviously refused, I mean, they came to me to hire me and I'm not exactly wealthy myself. But then the elf lady came up with this very complicated explanation and she put it so eloquently about how they...no wait, I needed to...no, I don't know. Well, it somehow made sense at the time so I paid them a full third of my life's savings, but I couldn't explain it to you now if my life depended on it (I really wish Stewirk was around, this is what I pay him for). Well, it isn't the first time I've been swindled but I have my doubts that I'll get a fair cut of the loot...and they turned Cyrus into a dog. These guys could be trouble.

Financial matters taken care of, I turned my attention to the matter of tracking down this gnome. After tossing about several possibilities, I settled on going to the Bloody Tooth. Barth knows a lot and he hangs out there. Turns out Barth had even met this Nym before. This Nym character has got some big allies, mostly minotaurs and an oni, and also some big enemies, though Barth didn't know any details about them. He often stays in the Labyrinth (maybe I'll find Haggir there too), and may be friends with the minotaur that runs the place. We should definitely try to learn more about his enemies since if we are going after him, they may be able to help.

Before I left, I also asked Barth about the gnoll shaman. Fangren, his name is, and he is most likely staying in Karda. However, I've only got a month to settle the score before he disappears into gnoll territory for a festival. I'll be going after him with or without the others before then. I thanked Barth and tipped him for the info and headed back to the others to share what I'd learned.

A new travelling companion

It looked like Bloodrush was not going to be able to fend off all those gnolls by himself, and to make matters worse, a bunch of orcs, trolls, ogres, goblins, wolves, and so on all joined the fray--so we rushed in to help. Early in the battle I managed to land a smashing blow on one of the gnolls, and he didn't last too much longer after that. Some of the ogres were attacking any visible target, while the goblins and trolls seemed to take on the side of the gnolls. All of the orcs, including some warden brethren, seemed to be fighting as our allies. Blows were being traded every which way, and people were dropping all over the battlefield. There must've been close to 50 creatures taking part in the battle, including one gnoll mage that was raining serious damage on Bloodrush and I found that he easily avoided most of the blows we tried to return. For a moment, things also looked bad for Clangor, Elaira, and Horadric, but they retreated a bit to safety and just as things were starting to turn in our favor, five creatures with snake hair came upon the battlefield. I heard some of the other creatures murmuring about "the medusae," and as they removed their blindfolds and gazed upon the crowd, some creatures became slowed, and others turned to stone. Clearly a serious threat, as the battlefield quickly cleared as many began running away. Our party tried to regroup, but an ogre was impeding Horadric's path to the rest of us. I used my weapon to urge him along, which he didn't take kindly to, as he started deliberately attacking my allies, which raised my ire. In his haste to attack my allies, he was sloppy, giving me several opportunities to freely attack him, and I brought him down just as he was going after (already-bloodied) Horadric in earnest. Horadric looked somewhat relieved.

I do have to say here that my esteem of Clangor rose dramatically during this battle. I wasn't really certain of his competence from the things he'd told us on the lightning rail, but now that I have seen him in action, I think I will be glad to fight alongside him. Although he is not a warden, he showed himself to be an honorable sort who risked his own life to protect his allies in battle, and I have high respect for individuals of that character. His priorities seem kindred to my own, and I think we will make a good team of allies together.

The ogre was the last combatant on the battlefield, and after he fell and we continued to vacate the area, the medusae must have perceived that the threats were gone, and they re-covered their eyes and started to go away. I was following Cyrus, who doubled back around to the challenge circle where it had all started, and there we found Bloodrush and Clangor looting the bodies. Cyrus greeted Bloodrush and re-introduced himself, as Bloodrush wasn't expecting Cyrus to be in the form of a dog.

What happened next was a really uncomfortable situation for me, in which we were pooling the gold (5 Platinum, 1000 gold, and 300 silver) and Bloodrush said he'd found 200 gold, but Clangor reported that he'd seen Bloodrush pick up more than that by about another 8 platinum. The atmosphere became somewhat tense, as Elaira and Cyrus suggested that we all share the loot equally, while Bloodrush resisted claiming that it was his due for winning in the challenge circle. It was pointed out to him that he likely wouldn't have won in the challenge circle without our help, and that his bookie (who I guess is the one who holds the bets? I don't really know much about the process) had fled with the money that was part of the challenge. Cyrus offered to Bloodrush to hire him to join our party and take an even share of the loot as he adventured with us, terms to which Bloodrush somewhat reluctantly agreed now that he was hired. I found myself quiet and really tense throughout the whole discussion, as conflict over material possessions is entirely alien to me. In my village, we all worked hard and shared equally, all to the benefit of the village, as without everyone's full investment, we all would have fallen in those conditions. But I see through experiences like these that this is an area that is really different culturally in the world outside. I doubt I'll ever be as comfortable as Elaira seems to be resolving conflicts in this type of situation, so in these kinds of situations I tend to defer to her judgment to negotiate what's best for the party. In any event, hopefully the matter is settled for good.

Anyhow, once that was resolved, I was able to look around the city properly as we walked, noting how vast the buildings were in Graywall, presumably to accommodate the ogres and trolls. Bloodrush suggested that we go either to the Bloody Tooth, a tavern of monstrous humanoids in which we wouldn't be welcomed, but nor would we be harmed; or to the Broken Sword, a mercenary tavern of primarily humans, in which we'd be likely to learn less, but would fit in better. It was agreed that we would go first to the Bloody Tooth, where the rest of us would try to look unobtrusive as Bloodrush asked around.

In the tavern, Bloodrush was talking to a hobgoblin named Barth. I was sitting near enough that their conversation was easy to overhear, and I was somewhat surprised that they were speaking the language of my people. I hadn't heard it spoken since I left the village. Barth told Bloodrush that he'd heard of Nym, and that he hangs out with the minotaurs in The Labyrinth, an underground hotel-type area that specializes in harboring fugitives.

Then, as he turned to leave, Bloodrush turned back and asked about where he could find that gnoll mage (I think he called him "Liver oil"?) from the group that had rushed him in the challenge circle. Barth nodded knowingly and said that that one was called "Fangrin," and that he would be found with the mercenaries in a church on the Street of Shadows. He said Bloodrush should check there if he wanted to find him, but warned that most of them were gnolls and would be unfriendly especially given the events that had just transpired. He said they were mostly all from the same particular town, but I didn't quite catch the name--probably because I'm not from the local parts, so it didn't ring a bell.

Afterwards we separated for a bit, with plans to rejoin each other later. If Bloodrush really starts travelling with our party, then I am looking forward to the opportunity to speak with him in the language of my people. I found a street vendor, where I was able to learn a ritual to create a trap, and gather the necessary nature components. Maybe it'll come in handy as we go along our way.

Smashing Gnolls, For Fun and Profit

It was another boring day looking for real work. No decent jobs to be had in the entire town...assuming I don't want to work the quarries, mines or fields. I'm back to beating up some unsuspecting gnolls in a circle challenge. Hey, it pays the bills.

Stewirk, my little goblin bookie, handles all my bets while I'm fighting. He's really smart and knows how to play the odds. He's also good for starting the fights, as he gets picked on quite a bit being a goblin in Bloodstone. The bullies picking on the little guys are usually cowards and wimps. Not much fun to fight but great for bringing in the money as they look tough

Today's first challenge is a gang of gnolls. They've been hanging around here most evenings for the past week causing trouble. Their leader, whose name sounds like a cross between a hacking cough and a dog bark (we just call him Liveroil, because that's what he smells like) was too chicken to be the first to challenge me. He made his lieutenant go first. Doesn't matter, I can take them all one by one no problem....hahaha, they think 1 on 10 will be better odds for them. Now it's a fair fight. Bring It On Baby Rrrrowwggh!!!

The Lightning Rail to House Sivis

There are so many things out here the likes of which I had never even imagined that they existed. First we took a floating carriage on the branch line to the lightning rail. Then, we waited at the station and a huge train of coaches appeared. I was overwhelmed and a little afraid since they distinctly smelled of fire, but Elaira said that it was normal and we shouldn't be concerned. We had to ride for several days to get to Korranberg.

On the second day, I overheard Elaira talking in her compartment. I checked to make sure everything was okay, and found her talking to a mechanical person, a warforged like Reader. She was scolding him and telling him that it was somewhat rude to peer into people's compartments on the train. He clanked a lot, and was much noisier than Reader. He also had these attachments that must serve some purpose... he called them "doodads." He wasn't terribly eloquent, so I couldn't piece together entirely what he was doing. He kept saying he was looking for "stuff" to take to his master, Robert, to sell. He did manage to tell us some of his story, telling us that his name was Stalwart, but that we could call him "Clangor." He said he is from the region that used to be called Narath. Horadric said that his former land is now the Mror Holds in Karrnath, very far away. He said he has been travelling for awhile, and it's been over a year since he has been back. So, I asked where he was keeping all the other items he had acquired for his master, and he said he hadn't managed to collect anything really in all that time. Then, Clangor said that his master is not a very nice master and does not make him proud. He did say he was the only servant of his master, and that he was commissioned to serve the master and help the house. I came away from this discussion feeling somewhat confused, as to why he is serving this master, and why he has not been competent enough to find any "stuff" in over a year that would be suitable, and exactly what "stuff" he was looking for, and why not just to sell the items and take the money to his master instead as that seems easier. I think Elaira felt sorry for him, as she offered to let him travel with us.

The next night, there was a horrible thunderstorm. I worried that it would interfere with the rail, but still the train carried us forward. I awoke in the middle of the night, not really sure why. I saw a flash of black cloth pass by my window, and I felt a little uneasy... I reached for my weapon and stood, quiet and vigilant, ready for trouble. And trouble ensued. Very shortly thereafter I heard Elaira trying to fend someone off. In the hallway I saw a female elf and an eladrin, and in Elaira's compartment I could see her scuffling with another elf, upon whom I landed a crushing blow. Clangor came out, too, and grappled with the eladrin. Before I knew it, we were all out there: Horadric shouting out that he could see their dragonmarks and that there was a kobold scurrying around; and Reader for some inexplicable reason not remaining safe in his cubicle but instead running around in the hall doing a poor job of hiding and subsequently being punched and carried off. Clangor and I went after him and got him back (but the would-be captors somehow leapt off the moving train and got away), while Keh'r had stopped an assassin in Elaira's room who subsequently committed suicide. In the guy's pockets we found some of Elaira's belongings--just personal stuff. Obviously she was targeted, as any number of compartments were closer to the doors than hers. Elaira, Horadric, and Keh'r talked about it at some length as they checked over the items they had found on our foes: five coins, a "to-do" list, a Chinese flute, a Bag of Holding containing another 300 coins, an Amulet of Resilience, and a Wand of Vicious Mockery +2. They came to the conclusion that Elaira was being targeted for some kind of scrying ritual. Creepy. The "to-do" list listed some arcane components that my arcane allies believed were going to be used for some kind of scrying and/or long-range teleportation ritual; also a note to "convince Dor'alla" and to "be creative in town," a reminder to write to Mom, and a note to talk to folks including Mordac. As we watched, the man's form changed to a whitish creature with purple hair. The others decided that he was a race called a changeling, and that he could assume other forms. Lastly, it's worth noting that the money he had left was not regular money like I've seen before, but somewhat different money. I asked the others about where that kind of money was from and Elaira said it was money from Breland. Reader had told us that he had recognized the assassin; he said it was a man named Ephraim who had assassinated an elder of House Sivis and that it was the man who Nym had been speaking with, in the event that had revealed to him Nym's treachery.

Fortunately, the rest of our trip was uneventful. At Korranberg, we were welcomed by House Sivis. We relayed information to them and did our best to learn useful information from them as well. I overheard Keh'r talking to one of the gnomes named Alvian about "Tasker's Dream"... I got the impression it had to do with developing the "ultimate language" to use to send information quickly through the speaking stones. Keh'r, however, seemed fascinated and the two had a long, in-depth conversation... something about compression rates? Moving on... Elaira was deeply involved in a conversation about the Prophecy. I didn't hear much of it, but I did hear the gonmes talking to her about some anomaly in the Pantheon, some demon type god named Orkus who is also called the "Prince of Undeath." It was around then that I noticed that although all the people there were very small, one of them was a dwarf while the others were gnomes. The dwarf was wearing a holy symbol; I later learn that he is a cleric named Bjornhelm working for the gnomes. Another gnome was overheard saying that Reader was a useless slacker. Poor guy. A sweet apprentice named Talia looked him over with Elaira. I heard her say that some of the damage would be permanent.

Then, the gnomes started telling us how dragonmarks were showing up all over the land, with the first having appeared in Warden Keep. They had already sent a party out to investigate. If I could only have gone, I could have gotten two tasks completed! But Elwood's letter will have to wait, as some surprising turns of events in House Sivis have settled our path in another direction for the near future.

A gnome with glasses named Rattigan had begun calling out Horadric, and asking him about his past. This caught my interest, so I listened in a little more carefully. Horadric said he had been working with the Silver Flame, and said how he kind of just found himself somewhere without any memory of his past. He tried to make a joke about wanting a new memory unit, like Reader, but a hush fell over the House and it quickly became clear that this was no joking matter to the gnomes. Rattigan said that 66.358 percent of people with memory loss are important to a prophecy. Elaira asked more about the prophecy, and the gnomes started getting all sorts of books out. The dwarf cleric said he could not heal Horadric, but that he knew someone who could help. A skinny, old goblin named Cyrus came in. He told Horadric to come take part in a primal ritual to unlock his memory. I offered to help with the ritual and suggested that Reader should be healed too, but was told that Reader's memory loss being physical would prevent the magical ritual from restoring him, while the ritual may help break down the walls in Horadric's memory. All of us save for Keh'r went to do the ritual, while Keh'r decided to try his hand at gambling. Overall I don't have much skill with magic, but thought a ritual using primal energy might be a useful application of my skills.

I should have gambled, instead. Perhaps the way that I channel the primal energy only works for me personally, and isn't something that I can lend to others. Or maybe I was so unnerved by the group setting that I wasn't able to direct the energy appropriately. In any event, I think I might have killed a couple of birds. Cyrus seemed to be having quite a bit of luck, though, and he said he could see the Silver Flame moving away, that Horadric was not a member of the church, though possibly in a past life he could have been. He said that someone does not want Horadric to get his memory back; that he saw giants stomping the ground creating earthquakes, stone columns and orcs bowing before him; that then there was a view from the floor, with broken columns around and a plume of smoke, a corpse burning. He said he saw red flickering shadows, that there was a tigerlike creature called a rokshacka, a demonlike creature from the darkest areas of the world, stalking Horadric.

Then, the energy went awry, the glass ceiling of the House broke and earthquakes shook the very ground beneath us. A necrotic ooze began flowing down the shelves and among the hundreds of thousands of books in this place. A tiny lizard fell to its death, dropping at Horadric's feet. And Cyrus began screaming out, and as lightning flashed, a black dog appeared in Cyrus' place, the vision ended. We rejoined with Keh'r, who looked a bit dejected at the outcome of his night as well, and the next morning we spoke more to the gnomes about the next step.

They had managed to track down the portion of the prophecy that they had deciphered that they believed may be relevant to us now. It reads:
"The fall of one nation,
Erased from the great between,
Shall herald an open door,
A break in the armor between,
A dragon and its dreams,

A wall of red stone,
A huffing bull provokes,
Let him charge against a crimson brother,
Let him break against a charging oak
And give his wisdom to another."

It sounds like a bunch of gibberish to me and I am not sure I believe in Prophecy, but these lots are serious about it and I am willing to go along to help watch over them and to help try to restore Reader's memory. The gnomes said that the dragonmarks had begun appearing near Rivenroar, too, and that these along with the one at Warden Keep portrayed a dark future, that they should be studied to give us hints on how to help and stop the evil. They asked that the first thing we should do is to find Nym. They promised to pay us handsomely to track him to Graywall to the west. Cyrus (still a dog, the next morning) spoke up then, saying that the "wall of red stone" mentioned in the prophecy might refer to Graywall, a poorly-named city whose walls are in fact made of red clay. At this the gnomes became excited, saying that if we can bring any hints about the prophecy from this city, that they will give us extra money for any information we find.

Cyrus said he had a contact in Graywall named Bloodrush, who he spoke of as a useful, resilient, dependable sort. Elaira said she had heard of him as a great champion of the gladiator arena there, and Cyrus confirmed that it was the same. The gnomes asked Keh'r if he would be willing to delay his trip to Graywall to take a broken item back to Derrick in Brindol for repair. He agreed, and the rest of us set off with Cyrus toward Graywall. On the road, two interesting things happened. First, a weird glowy mark started appearing on my arm. I guess it must be a dragonmark? Elaira saw it one night while I was dressing into nightclothes. She told me with concern that I should keep it covered up when I was in public. I don't understand it much myself, so I certainly plan to follow her advice in this. Second, I had a dream about the letter I am carrying for Aelwyn. This has the letter on my mind... I probably dreamed about it because of all the talk about dragonmarks in Warden Keep. Hopefully this business in Graywall can get wrapped up quickly so that I can do the task that was set before me by Elwood.

We arrived in Graywall. It is an amazing place, with all sorts of kinds of people and creatures I have never seen before. I could just sit there and stare in wonder for hours at all the new things that await here. On the other hand, I received a few wayward stares myself, so I tried to hide in the middle of our group as best as I could. We walked around, seeing creatures dueling in challenge circles, lovers, musicians, shopkeepers... all manners of things. We stopped to watch one challenge circle, as an orc dueled with a gnoll. As we watched, Cyrus told us that we had come upon Bloodrush, the contact we were seeking. Bloodrush attacked the gnoll, and then a bunch of his friends rushed into the circle and all came upon Bloodrush at the same time, mobbing him. There must have been ten of them altogether. Cyrus said that we should help. I was a little wary, not being sure about the politics involved, but Cyrus told us that Bloodrush was a sportsman and would not do anything to provoke this attack justly. Clangor proclaimed that if Bloodrush was our ally, then he would fight. I am with Clangor on this one... if Bloodrush needs protection so that he can help us, I am willing to protect him.

Catacombs cleared... and a new quest.

We found a treasure chest containing 2260 gold, 400 silver, and two potions. As we walked through the ruins of the catacombs, in one room we walked past a defaced and broken altar, and saw some movement from behind it. I saw Treble reach for his dagger, but fortunately before he threw it he noticed that the shadow there was a warforged, lying with his back against the massive throne in the room. We could see the gears moving in the poor soul's head, and it was clear that something was not right. Some of the gears were missing teeth; obviously he had met with a match greater than he could face alone.

He spoke in a weak voice, telling us he was beyond help. As he spoke, Elaira healed him, and we could hear more strength in his voice. He said that he was from House Sivis, and that his name was Reader Thrane. He said he was from the House of Scribing, brought here to help decipher the dragonmarks detailling the Prophecy of the world. When we inquired about what he had learned from the dragonmarks, he looked a little confused for a moment, as he tried to regain his bearings. He said that he didn't know what the dragonmarks said; that he was acting as a servant of the gnomes of the same House; and that when he quit helping them, they took the information card from him and hurt him.

I wish we had gotten here sooner so that we could help him fight against those who attacked him, but the only thing we can help him for now is to ensure that justice is served. Reader told us that he quit helping because of Nym, the leader of the group deciphering the dragonmarks. He said he saw Nym consorting with goblins and talking to a known enemy of House Sivis, and a member of House Thuranni--an assassin. From this he learned that the assassin's mission was sanctioned by his House, and he decided not to aid the perpetrator of the treachery any longer.

At that point, he looked around, and focused his gaze on Keh'r with surprise evident on his face. He said that he remembered seeing another man of fire like Keh'r... one of Keh'r's kind... in his vision of the dragonmark. This comment really spurred Keh'r into action, and he said he wanted to start by finding the gnome that had gotten away, in case he had been among the group that took the information from Reader. Reader found a wand, and volunteered to join us. He said if he could make it to his main House, that they would take him back and he could relay to them the information about Nym's betrayal.

So we scouted the rest of the catacombs, looking for the gnome and the rest of the treasures we were to find, and of course to find Adronsias as well. In the whirlpool room, we saw a picture of the symbol of the Silver Flame on the floor, and there was a mechanism that activated the emblem to glow with radiant energy. Horadric just wandered right into it, but nothing happened. It was a trap, but not one meant for us, and Keh'r and Elaira ascertained that it affected only undead.

We entered another room, with a deep scrying pool and a(n apparently nonmagical) face carved into the wall. As Keh'r approached the middle of the room, he felt the floor shift, and all the doors closed, trapping us in there. There was no response when Elaira talked to the face (and while I'm sure she felt silly talking to a stone face, you just never know with those arcane arts what might happen). Keh'r waded into the water, and as the pool rippled we could see a picture of the throne room we had just left, and it was empty. Apparently, however, he had stood on a pressure plate and the mouth on the face dropped down and water came pouring out, fast. Treble worked double-time trying to unlock the three locks on the door behind him, and Shamash helped; meanwhile Rhogar and I had gone to use brute force on the other door in the room and succeeded in making only a small hole in it. As we worked, waist-deep in water, we could see the picture in the scrying pool change to display the room with the silver flame emblem. We were able to see then that the pool's scrying was activated by ripples in the water. Keh'r saw a chest in the water, with chains on it, 30 feet down. He swam down to try to get it, but found it chained to the floor at the bottom of the pool. Elaira was studying the scrying pool, and she saw a gnome go into the flame room. She pointed him out to us, and Reader told us that it was Nym, as we watched him cross the room and go out the opposite door. Shortly thereafter, Rhogar could see him through the hole we had punched in the door where we were, and Nym looked more than a little surprised to be suddenly covered with acidic dragonborn bile... that is, until he disappeared at least. This time we had lost him for sure.

Meanwhile, the room was still filling with water. I checked out the drains and noticed that they had been sealed by the trap when it was activated and were now covered by a metal sheet. I'm not much for finesse so I just started whacking on it with my flail. Elaira told us she could see in the scrying pool a shadowy figure looting all the recesses along the walls in one of the rooms of their treasure. With renewed vigor, Rhogar burst through the door. By now the water had risen enough that it began pouring out of the doors. As Rhogar got out, he saw a goblin who froze upon seeing him. Shamash used his wand to kill it.

Finally I busted the drain and the water started to subside. In the meanwhile, Keh'r was still struggling with the treasure, and enlisted Treble's help to teleport it out of the water. As they managed to bring the chest up, I smashed the rest of the drains so that the water all drained out more quickly. Rhogar and Shamash had managed to find a blanket--a protective shroud--among the recesses. Inside the chest, we found 14 platinum pieces, and about 5000 silver. The scrying pool then showed an image of a dwarf tied up... almost certainly Adronsias, and he was still alive!

I used my tracking skills to follow Nym's blood trail to the entrance of the catacombs, but after that the trail ended again. We listened carefully, but could not hear him, either. Definitely lost him. Rhogar placed the shroud over Kartenix's body, and carried it to the foyer, where we left it as we went to search for Adronsias. We entered the van Jallach tombs, where we found a room with a square of runes on the floor. Horadric examined the runes, proclaiming that they spelled "van Jallach" in wizard's script. Keh'r touched them, and said he felt a little lightning jolt. Otherwise, they seemed to be harmless and we avoided them anyway as we proceeded to the next area, where we encountered Adronsias. Immediately I untied him and Rhogar healed him, and we gave him a moment to collect himself before we asked him about the things he had seen. He said he had seen some gnomes a few days ago, but none since then. He said he did know of a fancy-type stone of some sort that Reader could use to call his House. He said he would show us a speaking rock in the woods after we were finished with our business in Brindol.

We found the rest of the treasures from the Hall of Great Valor, so we took them back to Brindol and took Kartenix's body to the Temple of the Silver Flame. Councillor Troyas seemed very pleased with the resolution we provided, and gave us 500 gold for completion, as promised. (But the best part was the meal he provided to us. I could eat there every day. We sure never had food like that back home.) We also examined our shroud, and found it to be a Shroud of Revival. The others agreed that I should be the one to carry it for now. We went back to Derrick's shop to buy potions of healing to stock us up for the journey ahead.

After that, we followed Adronsias to the woods, and he led the way to the speaking stone. He showed Reader how to use it to call his House in Korranberg, in Zilargo. Reader used the rock, and it was really somewhat amazing to see how he could use a rock to talk to someone so far away. I can see how something like that would be useful. After he was finished, Reader told us that he made us an appointment with his House, and that he learned that Nym was not there.

We rested and went to board the lightning rail to take us to Zilargo. I will have to check the map to see if Warden Keep is along the way, so that I might deliver the message I have for Aelwyn if time permits.

Success on the second attempt

We returned to the catacombs, to the place from which we had been forced to retreat the day prior, this time determined to be victorious. This time we were better prepared, with the potions we had bought from Derrick's shop and a new set of magic items surreptitiously provided to us by Agathor and Balthazar of the Silver Flame. Those two agreed to come with us as well, to reinforce our ranks, and this time we were ready; as soon as we entered, Elaira bolstered my defenses and I drew upon the power of winter.

Our foes again put forth a good showing, but this time they would not drive us back. The wight summoned some archer skeletons and we also found ourselves fighting a runespiral demon, two wererats, and two evistros, as well as the bone shard skeleton and some of the blazing skeletons from last time. Not only did I find myself immobilized for part of the battle, but I had the most difficult time making my hits connect as I thought they should. Fortunately the others were up to the task, and I was still useful tactically speaking. Perhaps I was somewhat unrattled by the wight's horrific visage, or perhaps I lost my resolve somewhat when I found myself struggling to stay in the fray after taking a bunch of hits. Either way, I think the turning point in this battle for me was when Elaira encouraged me to attack one of the guys and I heard my flail connect with a resounding "whack." One last thing worth mentioning: a gnome appeared during the battle and shot some pot-shots at us before running away before we could stop him. After this we went deeper into the temple to try to rescue Adronsias.

Thorn returns

So Aurora's hidin' on the barge, and I'm crackin' the whip an' shoutin' at the slaves, when we all see the airship appear on the far opposite side of the courtyard. There were too many enemies between me an' them, so there wasn't much we could do for 'em, and Aurora and I decided to hold our cover. I could see that our guys on the airship disembarked and were met with somethin' of a welcoming committee, as a whipmaster, a zombie, and a ghoul greeted them. A skirmish ensued and they managed to not die, which was about all I was hopin' for.

After, they freed 35 of the slaves as they ran around the cathedral. When they were upon us, chaos ensued at our camp. Brogar took 35 slaves they freed on the way (now armed, thanks to the armaments we'd hidden on the ship) and another five from our loggers, and headed to the east to liberate more slaves. Aurora came out from hiding, and some of our slaves armed themselves too, and we found ourselves setting upon a whipmaster, a cultist, and two zombies. As the battle was underway, a ghoul came from behind and began eating the slaves. It was a scuffle, that's for sure, as I shot at the ghoul before running up onto the scaffolding so he couldn't charge at me. The slaves fought bravely although several of them lost their lives. After we had taken care of the foes in our immediate mist, Colvin pointed out that we could shoot at the death priests guarding the doors of the inner sanctum of the cathedral. He must've shouted it out loud or something, because as soon as he said so, they shot at us instead. Colvin maneuvered forward so he could attack 'em both, and when the double doors burst open, he found himself uncomfortably close to a newly-undead Thorn, who immediately started swinging at him. Colvin barely managed to stay standing, being the only one of us close enough to take the full brunt of Thorn's rage. So we found ourselves set upon by Thorn and two death priests.

The death priests in particular tried to curse us in an attempt to make Colvin & me fall from the scaffolding, but in this they were unsuccessful. Thorn, having lost Colvin as a target, raced into melee combat with Aurora. Morangan managed to inflict a very devastating blow on one of the death priests, while Treble in the end was the one who finished Thorn off (and kill-thiefed the death priest that Colvin, Morangan, and I had been attacking).

In the end, from this we had gained the following: mundane hide armor, a greataxe, Thorn's Ring of Orkus, some magical Gauntlets of the Ram (which Colvin snatched up and put on before hardly anyone'd gotten a chance to look at 'em), a set of Iron Armbands of Power (likewise which Aurora quickly claimed) and two amulets from the death priests: an Amulet of Mental Resolve and an Amulet of Physical Resolve, which Aurora volunteered to hold in the meantime in case they may come in handy. Brogar rejoined us, along with the slaves, saying they had cleared out the remainder of the enemies from the courtyard. Several of the slaves seemed to recognize Morangan, but I don't know the whole story there.

Now we're tryin' ta decide whether or not to rest up before confronting Alhunder. I have plenty of resources left, myself, but some of the others don't, as they used some against Thorn. Either way, I'd quite enjoy Alhunder believing he was betrayed by Leshna, and this might be my last chance to pose as her, so I might see if Phelaia still has that dress handy........

Ghouls, ghouls everywhere

We had a few moments to retreat and prepare for the onslaught of ghouls that we saw advancing on us. About fifteen it was, and we all did various preparations to be sure that we wouldn't be caught unawares by 'em. In the distance we could see another group of slaves taking on a whipmaster and a cultist, and as our own battle waged on, we could see them winning the fight. Fortunately for us, the ghouls didn't all arrive at once, and rather were spread out in four waves. The ones that did arrive, we did our best to hit swiftly and hard to increase our chances of success. A bunch of ours in the front line were caught immobilized by 'em, but that didn't hinder 'em from holdin' the line so that those of us in the back could keep doin' our jobs. Somehow Aurora seemed to take on most of the attacks, but she didn't do too bad for herself.

After the battle was over, a quick search of the battlefield yielded some nonmagical weapons. Some of the slaves agreed to come with us and help free those who were being held at the cathedral. The group told us that we should expect to find some whipmasters at the cathedral and some undead as guards of the approximately 100 slaves remaining; as well as some death priests ad zombies. Like the others, they suggested that Alhunder could be found in the inner chamber. They told us that the town contains about 200 citizens, mostly farmers and hunters, who are forced to worship Orkus under the looming threat of the undead. After a bunch of discussion, a plan started to form: I would pose as a whipmaster, with Aurora hiding aboard my ship. The slaves were willing to spend the day loading one boat full of lumber so that we could all get down there safely. I would take about ten of them aboard my ship, and another ten or so would go with the others, followin' behind in the airship. Three on our ship were willing to man the ballista, at Brogar's suggestion. They would arrive a bit behind, and then Aurora, myself, and the slaves would be in position to flank from the other side. Let's hope it works out for us.

Before we rested, we finished analyzing the journal we had found on the death priest at the excavation camp. The journal contained a bunch of prayers, death poetry, and much expounding on his personal beliefs and convictions about his commitment to Orkus. It only mentioned Alhunder briefly, and we didn't find anything of tactical use. We did find three rituals in the book: one ritual for desecrating ground, and two ways to raise the undead (one to be used on helpless living people to turn them into ghouls like those we faced earlier, and one to be used on ancient skeletons to turn them into a weaker zombie-like version). Upon reading the rituals, Colvin became somewhat agitated and enraged, and insisted vehemently that the book be immediately burned. He was probably even too fired up to hear Phelaia's faint protestations, for before we knew it, he had set it aflame in a trash can aboard the ship, with him muttering about "unholy rituals" and "vile, evil magics." I had no use for the rituals myself, and don't sell things of the sort in the shop, so I had no objections.

Anyhow, we all slept through the night, in shifts, and the next day started implementing the rudiments of our plan after dawn approached. We had plenty of time during the journey down for me to ask the slaves to give me clear detail about the best way to fit in, so I've been updated on the usual routine, schedule, mannerisms of the whipmasters, and so on. Wearing the chainmail and clothing of the deceased, and brandishing a whip, I feel prepared to do the part. As we sailed down toward the dock, I could see about 20 slaves and 1 whipmaster near the docks; and another 35 slaves, a whipmaster, and a couple of zombies towards the back of the cathedral. As we docked, I could see two death priests standing guard outside the inner sanctum where Alhunder more than likely is (for if he was not there, why would it be guarded?). I hailed those on shore and shouted at my slaves, every once in awhile covertly looking skyward for signs of an airship. My guess is that we have another couple of hours before Aurora's hiding place will be revealed to the others on land, so hopefully we can find a good tactical time to get this party started before we find ourselves in trouble.

Taking out the slave camps

We tied Charles and George together and left them near the river. Then we flew up and scouted the area around the town. We found the church on the outskirts of town, and after a bit more searching, we found a grave site northwest of town where about 40 slaves were digging out mass graves from the great Battle of Dragonwood Forest in the Hundred Years' War about 40 years back. A great pile of skeletal bodies were piled up near the excavation pit... poor souls, so much for "rest in peace."

The slaves and their masters spotted us as we flew over, so we had to engage them. I leaned over the railing and hailed them, telling them that we'd brought more cargo. After we disembarked, Treble stuck a dagger into one and battle ensued: us against three human cultists, two dragonborn whipmasters, one dragonborn death priest wielding a sceptre, and four zombies. The whipmasters were skilled in wrapping their whips around our ankles, grabbing us and knocking us prone. The death priest shot bolts of black ice at us, and the zombies were weaker, though still they charged at us and protected the others. It was a skirmish, for sure--especially for Aurora, who took a lot o' heat.

Afterwards, we searched the tents and the bodies of the fallen, finding a False Blood Amulet (which will help with my disguises) and Luckbender Gloves, which Treble put on. We found a journal that the death priest was keeping, whose code we have already made good progress in deciphering (I think we're a little more than half done with it). We also found 200 gold worth of gold, gems, and so on. We freed the slaves and talked to them, advising them not to return to the town. We found that there wasn't much else in the way of viable alternatives, so they agreed to wait at the camp until we cleanse the town of the slavery operation when we plan to return and tell them that it's safe. Many of them, however, had worked around the facilities, and they had a lot of useful information about the various operations. We learned that there are two kinds of undead that the slavers are using: zombies, raised from the ages-old skeletons and relatively mindless; and ghouls, turned from misbehaving slaves as a threat to keep the other ones in line (these have some level of intelligence and use their claws to immobilize a target before biting).

The others all agreed it would be best for the bodies at the mass graves here to be burned, which the slaves agreed to do after nightfall so as not to attract attention from the church. They said that the slavers go in rotation, and they weren't expecting a shift change until another day or so, so we had some time. We also learned that this is the only mass grave that was currently being excavated; others having been excavated in the past.

Some of 'em drew us a most useful map of the cathedral itself and the surrounding area. I found it interesting that they are shipping slaves from the mass graves while the graveyard right in front of the church had not yet been emptied, though the slaves said that they were already excavating slaves beyond their capabilities to raise them so far. On the map, they pointed out the inner structure of the old church and the new inner chamber constructed where Alhunder spends most of his time. They pointed out the two docks where slaves bring lumber from upriver on the barges (giving us a rough heading so we could pursue this remote camp as well), and a bunch of sleeping tents on the opposite sides for the slaves who are working on the cathedral itself.

The slaves told us we should expect to encounter scores of undead, a couple of whipmasters in the logging operation and a couple in the cathedral, three more death priests, and another six or so cultists. They also told us something new about Alhunder: that he is human, but one of his arms and hands is skeletal. It sounds like he has had the necrotic skin grafted onto his body, which we suspect should grant him some of the abilities of the undead.

We went along the river up to the logging camp, which was easy to find thanks to the trees felling in plain sight. We saw two whipmasters and about 70 slaves, as well as a couple of barges onto which the slaves were loading the lumber. We also saw three cultists, as well as some ghouls and zombies. The slaves had told us to be prepared for more undead at the logging camp because the slaves were armed with axes, so the ghouls would be used to help keep them in line. We landed near the smaller group, consisting of one whipmaster, one cultist, two ghouls, and three zombies. I told 'em we were bringing more cargo and should be unloading, and after we disembarked, Aurora attacked the whipmaster, stirring up a battle. We did a little better this time, though again somehow Aurora ended up in the thick of things. It was really tense for her there for a few moments before she regained her composure and helped to defeat the foes flanking her on all sides. One exciting turn in the battle happened once we had most of the enemies under control: while many of the slaves understandably ran for their lives, five brave ones came and fought against their captors alongside us! We cheered them on, and they seemed to have regained some vigor! Although once their immediate masters were dispatched, they thanked us and ran as well before the second wind of foes was upon us.

Aye, a huge ruckus arose and the rest of the enemies rushed across the battlefield towards us. We're ready to finish them!

The pit of the snake gods; a sexy body

First we went after Thorn into the secret passage. We came upon three horned drakes (easily defeated), but four piles of hay, from which we drew the inference that Thorn had ridden one of the drakes away from the compound. We followed the tunnel to its end, leading outside the compound to the other side of the hill. We followed the drake footprints a ways, but lost them.

Treble scouted the garbage pit in the dining room of the lodge, reporting back that he heard some hissing. Meanwhile, I freed the slaves, and Colvin helped convince them to watch Leshna while we investigated the pit. They were relieved to be freed and several of them agreed to help.

In the pit, we fought two carrion crawlers, six huge centipedes, and two spiderlike otyughs that kept grabbing Aurora. She seemed to be frustrated by this, but she held her own pretty well. When it finally looked like we had gotten a solid hold on the battle, a powerful earth elemental came onto the scene and started sending quake shocks through the region. Once all were defeated, we headed down the tunnel, ultimately finding a vast cavern... the entrance to the Underdark. Some among us have interest in pursuing this new area... but for now we have more pressing matters ahead.

The trip beneath wasn't entirely useless: we had found 100 gold in the trash, and another 300 gold in gems littering the walls of the earth elemental's lair.

After this, we went aboveboard and freed the slaves. They cheered when they heard our suggestion to take everything that wasn't nailed down, to take the boat and the wagons, and to go the nearest port town Galethspyre to sell the loot and split the proceeds. We encouraged some of them to make way to Cragwar to assist the other slaves we had left behind, telling them there was a monetary reward offered for the help.

Then, we put Leshna in the hold and headed for Woodhelm. She dropped out of the boat about an hour down the road. I was kind of pissed about it because we had already checked the hold for holes before leaving her in there, so I have no idea how she got out. I didn't have time to obsess about it for too long, however, as a group of five big, blood-red hawks attacked the ship, swooping at Treble and Phelaia and causing us to veer slightly off-course. Of course it would be this exact instant that our ship veered into a writhing cloud of dire giant mosquitoes that engulfed Brogar, Colvin, and Aurora, who were swatting themselves trying to get them off. Eventually we rid ourselves of the pests, and a bit later we come upon a boat going to the south. We weren't sure, but Phelaia suggested that it might be the boat coming to the south to pick up the slaves from the compound, and she suggested that we intercept. We talked about the best way to go about it, and ultimately decided that it would be best for me to disguise as Leshna.

I borrowed a silk dress from Phelaia and changed in privacy. As Leshna, I could feel a new spring in my step... I hadn't looked this good in ages, and it felt great. I even caught Colvin looking appreciatively. Heh. I sauntered a bit around the ship, and it helped that we had interrogated Leshna for so long, because I was much better able to affect her attitude and speech mannerisms when I leaned over the rail, showing off my new assets, and hailed the ship below. I told them that they were late, to which they seemed surprised to see me, and stammered that the slaves weren't cooperative. I asked if they were better-equipped this time, to which they replied that they weren't. At the suggestion of the others, I suggested that we had brought some recruits to help keep the slaves in line, and asked if they could use the help. They seemed relieved and docked so I could send my "recruits" aboard. I did, at which point "my" guys (Morangan, Treble, Brogar, Aurora) easily overpowered their two, and when they asked more about what was happening, I told them that we were following orders and were told to take over their ship.

We took them (Charles and George) belowground as some of the others made the ship unseaworthy. I ordered them to answer the guards' questions, and then I went aboveboard with a few of the others who were preparing to set sail. The others reported back that they learned the following: their group consisted of Alhunder (a "brilliant" leader who could raise the dead and create undead; talks to Orcus every day), ghouls, zombies, four death priests, 8 more guys about their level, and two whip-wielding guys in town and more at the gravesite northwest of town. They learned that Leshna was about the level of one of the death priests in the organization.

Now we have to figure out how to get them out of the way so we can go in and destroy their operation. I don't mind at all being in Leshna's body for awhile longer.

Thorn is betrayed... again

In the morning, I enchanted a rapier for Treble, and tried my hand at brewing a couple of potions. The potions are a new craft for me, and I'm pleased with the results. I gave one to Brogar and one to Morangan. We made a rough plan for the others to follow somewhat behind, and I headed up to the lodge, dressed as one of the battleragers. An orc was there, with a white flag of surrender. When he saw me, he ran up and shouted with relief "Brock! I'm so glad to see you. What happened?" ...so I guess that made me "Brock." Check. He said he was trying to find Agrawal, to give him a message from Thorn, but since I reported being unable to find Agrawal, he suggested that we go together to give Thorn the update. I was a little worried when he looked expectantly at me, being as I didn't know the layout of the place, so I told him to lead the way. We passed a hall on the right where it's clear that slaves are being kept... I saw their cages out of the corner of my eye and heard the ruckus from the room. And right down the hall we went, through a door into an office. Behind a large desk sat Thorn, dressed in black chain. There were two warforged against the wall behind him, holdin' quarterstaves. To the right of his desk was a striking Eladrin archer lady, and to the left of the door was an ogre, noisily chugging some foul-smelling concoction from a mug the size of a bucket, his giant club resting on the wall next to him.

Thorn asked what happened, and I relayed (uh... basically) the truth: that Agrawal must have betrayed him, that he and his men had drawn "our" guys out with a ruse and then stormed the lodge, killing most of its occupants, with only a few of us left to drive him out. I told him I had been searching for him and his crew but had been unable to find them. He was extremely angry, and ordered me and Murg (oh, so that's the guy who led me in here...) to clean the place up.

Murg helped me carry one of the bodies out of the lodge to the river. Next time I disguise myself as such a high-ranking officer, I should remember to give orders with more confidence to avoid arousing suspicion. Thankfully, Murg was naive and stupid, so he didn't catch onto my blunder. As we exited the lodge with a body, I said somewhat loudly, "Let's take him over to the mouth of the river and give him a water burial," unsure of whether my allies were within earshot. Apparently they were, though; that shiny rapier I'd just enchanted and polished for Treble appeared, sticking through Murg's chest before we even reached the river. I shouted "Murg, get down!" and brandished my greataxe. I fully intended to take a swing at Treble if need be, to keep my cover, but Murg was running like hell for the lodge and I swung at a post instead, to give the appearance of attacking our "common foe."

Poor Murg never made it to the door. I did a quick once-over on his pockets to see if he held any keys of any type but found only a few silvers, which I left on his person. I stood guard in front of the lodge, where Aurora approached and asked what she should do, posing as one of the shifters we had fought the previous day. I ordered her loudly to search for the intruders, and in a softer voice I told her to relay to the others what we had seen.

Shortly after, Thorn roared down the hall, ordering me back to his room. I obeyed, and he was properly livid. He accused me of working with Agrawal, and I denied it. He said he had just seen Murg be killed, a magic I will have to investigate when I have the time to devote my attention to it. The lies dripped glibly from my mouth as I told him Agrawal's guys were out there launching an assault on our lodge while I was trying to defend the outer doors. He totally bought it; although he seemed somewhat confused, he couldn't help but believe my convincing story. Then, to my surprise, he told me to go find Agrawal or whoever was in charge, and send 'im in.

I headed back to the front, and found my party there, about to launch an assault on the lodge. I told 'em that the boss wanted to see whoever was in charge, and backed away from them into Thorn's office, where he told all of 'em to come in, which they did. Brogar posed as the fellow in charge of us all, and told Thorn that he intended to take the slaves. Thorn didn't appreciate this too well, and ordered us all to be killed, as by now he had begun to believe that Brock had betrayed him. (First Agrawal, then Brock... Thorn wasn't having a good day.)

The ogre attacked Brogar, and battle ensued. Soon into it, Thorn escaped to save his own skin. Between the two warforged and the eladrin, we found ourselves often knocked to the ground. Some of the others got up, just to be knocked down again. I saved myself the trouble and stayed down. I think I need to work on my tactics a bit, but the others did well here: Phelaia launched a round of devastating attacks, Colvin erected a wall of bolstering light, Brogar bravely fended off the ogre and a tiger as well (until the ogre finally crushed him, at which point I healed him and he got back up and kept fighting), Aurora whirled her blades around like a madwoman, Morangan shot arrow after arrow, and Treble teleported to flank the ogre and bring the massive creature down. This battle was another tough one; at one point we had Phelaia, Morangan, Brogar, and Treble all bloodied before Colvin healed them with his wall, saving Morangan from falling unconscious the next round. In the midst of all this was the Eladrin, shooting pot shots at us from down the hall until Colvin went to chase her down as the battle wound up.

In the end, Colvin, Phelaia, Brogar, and Morangan went after the eladrin while Aurora and Treble searched the two rooms in the back. I was somewhere between the two sets of my allies, waiting to act as a reinforcement. After several minutes, we all rejoined together. Colvin, Phelaia, and Brogar brought the eladrin back with them as their prisoner, Treble reported finding a secret passage behind a bookcase in Thorn's bedroom, and Aurora reported finding some papers, a secret lever that opened a trap door to a fifteen-foot-deep pit in front of the desk, and an odd mirror (which I plan to investigate further).

We all healed up, and the questioning of the prisoner commenced, as I rifled through the papers that Aurora had found and examined the eladrin's magic items: a ring and an amulet. I think we'll be going after Thorn through the secret passage next, to try to stop him from getting away. The next likely plan is to free the slaves.

Every Rose has its Thorn... or something

Agathor--

Surely, from my last correspondence, you must be wondering what has been happening with our little party. I apologize for the delay in reporting since our cleansing of the Stormcrow Company's old hideout.

On the way back from the hideout, we encountered a band of pilgrims that had been attacked by bandits. We tracked down the bandits and recovered some of the property that was stolen, and in the process uncovered a strange plot involving the smuggling of many slaves. Since then, we have been dealing with that problem, tracking the operation to a compound located on the Dagger River. Through clever tactics and Derrick's profound skill at disguise, we have rescued many poor souls from bondage, and inflicted large casualties and property damage on the slavers.

In particular, we have made an enemy of an orc named Thorn, who is the head of the operation. In the past few days, we cleaned out his "Dagger River Compound," killing a good many of his grunts, including some higher-value minions, such as an ogre, some bloodrager orcs, a few pet tigers, and two warforged spellcasters. Alas, Thorn escaped through a secret tunnel in the middle of the battle. After he fled, the battle slowly turned to our favor, Brogar bravely holding off the ogre (and suffering gravely for it) while the rest of us dealt with the others, including a female eladrin archer with some skill in stealth and arcana, presumably his second in command. During the entire battle, the eladrin woman proved to be quite a nuisance, firing at us from a distance with sorcerous burst attacks that repeatedly knocked us prone. When the ogre and the eladrin were our only remaining threats, I decided I had had enough, and chased after her, determined to give her a drubbing, or at least keep her busy so the rest of the team could handle the ogre.

To make a long story short, the others killed the ogre, and the eladrin woman led me on a game of hide-and-seek. Phelaia was the only one close enough to assist me, but together we flushed out the woman and coerced her into surrendering. We have agreed not to kill her in return for any information she can give us (an easy promise to make, since we are law-abiding citizens).

Tonight, we shall see what else she has to tell us. I have a feeling that this wasn't Thorn's only base of operations, and an even stronger feeling that we have not seen the last of him.

I hope you are well, and look forward to seeing you, Balthazar, and the others again. Walk always in the light of the Flame,

--Colvin

I think they're on to us...

Treble went to check out the stream... there he found a portcullis in the mouth, which he didn't swim down to investigate. In the meanwhile, Phelaia, Colvin & I dragged bodies away from the lodge while Aurora and Brogar smashed the archer's gallery so that it could not be refortified before our return. I was just in the middle of picking up the feet of a dead orc when the door opened and a Harrier looked at us, mouth agape, and ran out shouting. While he was looking, I did my best to look menacing at my... uh, teammates, and look like I was cornered. But I have to admit that my position looked pretty bad and probably ruined my cover. We attacked the guy, managed to pierce him bloody, but he still ran into a door shouting for backup.

From two directions came a total of four of the wimpy guys, three harriers, two bloodragers, one mage, and one alchemist type. The son-of-a-bitch mage cast those damned flies again. I hate those. At least I was outside the zone this time, and we managed to kill him before he had a chance to do much else. I did plant my Battle Standard of Might, so all of our attacks were just a bit more deadly. One of the Bloodragers was wearing an amulet and a set of fancy armbands, and I heard several among the party exclaiming over how nice they'd be to have among our loot. The alchemist started throwing these vials at us which were pretty annoying in their own right (ongoing damage, penalties to our ability to attack accurately), but he kept cover behind his allies so he lasted longer than he otherwise would've.

This battle overall was somewhat of a challenge, I'd say. A bunch of us had to use healing potions (and I had to use mine on Colvin). Not to mention that at some point in the battle, Brogar, Aurora, Colvin, Phelaia, and Morangan were all openly bleeding. For awhile there, Colvin looked like he was barely standing. But we came through, even though it wasn't easy. It woulda been an easier time if we'd had a chance to rest first, but I guess next time we need to ask our demolition crew to try to hack a little more quietly lest we rouse the whole lodge.

When it was all over, we had found a bunch more mundane weapons: scimitar, longbow, spear, greataxe, club, and quarterstaff. When we came upon the quarterstaff, Colvin snatched it up excitedly, saying he had plans for it. We also found some of the alchemical potions: acidic fire, alchemist's spark, eyesting, and stink bomb. Lastly but certainly not least, we had come upon the following, on the bloodrager: Amulet of Life, Belt of Sacrifice, and Iron Armbands of Power. I claimed the belt for myself, as Colvin took the amulet and Brogar snatched up the armbands. We dragged a few of the bodies out and retreated to the ship to rest.

Before resting, we divided up our loot and traded among ourselves for Arcana components. Even though I was tired, there was still work to do today, but the crafting is a comfortable work for me and isn't too taxing. I actually found it somewhat relaxing to be alone with my tools and my art. I crafted Phelaia a fine pair of gloves, that would have looked finer had I better materials at hand, but I had to work with what we found at the compound. I did my best to dust them off and repair any holes before empowering them with magic. I took Colvin's new quarterstaff and imbued it with the power of lightning, sanding down the rough edges and balancing its heft. My own crossbow was next. I enjoy working most on items that I've crafted myself, and this was a special case, as taking a precision item like this and improving its effectiveness even more requires a lot of skill and challenge, which makes it a rewarding task. After that, I decided to call it a night, and start fresh the next day.

My plan? Is to go into the lodge, by myself, disguised as the bloodrager. Not sure what I'll do after that. Hrm.

Heh... gets 'em every time

After a bit more debatin' about what to do next, we decided to try to draw some orcs outta the cabins and towards the horse corral where we could ambush them quietly without arousing suspicion in the lodge. The party waited behind some o' the wagons and I headed forth, in my best imitation of Agrawal, shouting to the orcs in the cabins to come help get the horses which had all run away. One of the orcs called back "They're not our horses anyway! They are the shifters' horses, make them go get 'em!" to which I replied "Everyone knows the shifters are lazy, incompetent bastards," and after a string of cursing, one of the guys sent the other 8 from the cabins out to investigate the corral.

Our ambush worked perfectly, and all eight were quickly dispatched before they could shout an alarm. It helped that they had been ready for bed, so none of 'em had armor on. After that, Treble went to scout out the last cabin. We saw 'im waiting outside for a few minutes, and then we heard the orc captain in there screamin'. Brogar and Morangan finished 'im off, and we took a short rest to decide what to do next.

After weighing all the options, we docked our airship, left the crew on the boat, and I marched confidently up to the lodge and knocked on the door. I told 'em I was here with the slaves ("Who are you?" "Agrawal! What, Thorn didn't tell you I was coming?" "What took you so long?" "Eh, had trouble with the crew, a bunch of those idiots got themselves killed and I had to hire a bunch of new guys"), and that we needed a hand unloading the slaves from the ship. He sent out three guys: one to find the dockmaster, and two to help with the slaves. I led the two back to the boat (or should I say, to their demise), as Treble (who had been waiting in the bushes) took out the third.

So far, so good, but we needed to draw more guys out of the lodge. Aurora and Brogar disembarked and stripped down the two orcs that we'd just killed, and put them face down behind them, so that from a distance it would appear that Aurora & Brogar were my crew, dragging resisting slaves. Morangan waited on the docks, and Colvin and Phelaia went onto the ship. Treble went off into the bushes somewhere, and I went about halfway back to the lodge, shouting at the top of my lungs in my best impression of Agrawal, "We need more guys! The slaves are revolting!!"

Out from the lodge stormed another 4 or 5 guys, plus two burlier ones, as I again led the way to the ship, and when they were almost to the ship, Colvin hit a bunch of 'em. The jig was up and although they put up a feeble resistance, they were quite overwhelmed. We did overhear the burly types coercing the minions to fight, threatening to feed them to the ogre and toss them into the pit of the snake gods. Gulp.

We looked back at the lodge, and the door had been shut. Now they all knew it was an ambush, but the hope was that by this time we'd divided their forces enough that we could more easily take the lodge by force. We headed up, and saw two scouts in the windows. Aurora shot one of the windows out and thus began the fray. She's also the one who finally went and re-opened the doors so that we could see in. Inside, they had created makeshift barricades out of their sofas and tables. We were facing maybe 6 or 8 guys up in the arrow slit wall, another maybe 4 wimpy ones on the ground, two burly ones, and one even more heavily-armed one wielding a greataxe. Not much of a deterrent, as most of us just picked them off from afar. Brogar spat some dragon breath in there and killed several of 'em. They realized they weren't much use against us in their tactical situation, and came forth and re-shut the doors, until Morangan opened 'em back up again and back in we went. The eye that I conjured aided our allies to land more devastating blows; Morangan in particular landed two devastating sets of dual-blows, all four blows of which were aided by the eye, against their lead captain. It probably helped that Phelaia had knocked down his defenses. Quickly the orcs were outmatched, and we cleared the room of our foes. Was nice to see that our tactics had worked in our favor this time; we must be getting better at it... had we tried to storm the lodge to begin with, we'd probably have found ourselves in trouble.

Treble teleported into the arrow-slit to make sure it was clear up there, and found a door leading back into the mountain, but not forth into the main room we were occupying, so he began hacking at the slit with a short sword until Brogar upended a sofa, climbed atop, and used the dead bloodrager orc's greataxe to wallop a huge hole within.

Today, after having searched the lodge and the cabins, we found that the riches we found did not even near those we had discovered on the first wave of shifters near the horse corral. Rather, all told, we found 40 gold around the campfire, 40 silver on the guard captain in the cabin, a mundane glaive, chainmail, club, and hide armor; then in the lodge, 8 copper pence in the sofa cushions, 30 silver and 40 copper on one of the minions (I bet he thought it was his lucky day when he won the night's gambling winnings earlier... but not so much, I guess), and another 5 gold along with slave gear in the cabinets.

Meanwhile, we are tryin' to figure out where to rest for the night. Some of us want to go back, move the airship, and sleep on it before returning to the lodge in the morning; others are hoping to use the furniture to barricade the three sets of doors to this room and to sleep here. At any rate, hopefully when we enter the next area, the slaves will be within and we can free them on the morrow.