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Tarsius’ Journal, 5-6 Arodus

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5 Arodus
9:30am
Guardian’s Way

Entering the cave cautiously, Gath scouted ahead. Normally, I would follow slowly, a slight distance behind him.  I’m not as stealthy as he is (a breastplate and three weapons have a habit of making random noise no matter how hard you try) but if he gets in a pinch I can probably provide cover while he withdraws.  In this case, though, Qantrip took up the position.  She’s certainly much more quiet than I, but she’s not well-armored at all. Puzzled, I followed but even farther back than usual.

And we found just how stealthy we were when we heard Voz’s voice call out “they’re trying to surprise us through the north cave!  Go guard there!”

So, no surprise.  To play along I called over my shoulder in a husky hoarse whisper, “I think she heard us! I’m going north to help out.”  And then of course did no such thing, cuz good money said the battle would be right in front of me.

Oops. And right in Trip’s and Gath’s faces.

I swiftly cast divine favor followed by a shield of faith. Voz replied to the cavern, almost mockingly, “Oh no. I think they heard me. Better hurry!”

Gath very gingerly edged forward and peeked around an outcropping of rock.  There was Voz and three skeletons; one skeleton looking better armed and armored than the other two.

Trip quietly said to me, “when I say ‘now’, pull me back.”  Before I could react to that, Trip moved forward. cast a spell into the cavern, and yelled “now!”.  Immediately, the bigger skeleton stepped up and smacked Trip hard. She grimaced but still grinned. “Burning sands. Get me out of here.”  I was able to grab her and move her behind me as I waited for the skeletons to approach.  The corridor here would only allow them to approach single file.  I made sure to pull out my morningstar rather than my sword, and waited.  From behind me, Gath shot arrows at the skeletons.

As each approached, Gath hit it with blunt arrows, and I hit it with a morningstar.  My armor was up to the test as they did not lay a blade on me.  Voz did throw a fireball that caught most of us but also got two of her skeletons.  Confident in my armor, I stepped farther into the room to let others behind me enter.  Voz was now climbing the walls like a cave bug so after I and Gath finished off the skeletons, I calmly switched to my bow.

Being the better archer, Gath drew most of Voz’s wrath, including a ray of enfeeblement, poor guy, but he fought through it like a trooper.  Voz fell pretty quickly afer the skeletons were used up, but mindful now of the difference between bounties for live people and bounties for dead people, we didn’t let her die.  Not that we exactly healed her back to prime health – she only needed to be alive, not ready to run back to Breachill in record time.

We rigged a harness to drag her back, and took a quick inventory of her stuff – some healing potins, some scrolls, a magic dagger and, perhaps most useful of all, her journals with all her notes about the caves.

Dragging her back to Breachill was no treat, but it was worth it because in our absence the council had authorized a 500gp bounty to retrieve her.  (We never got a chance to ask what she was worth dead :) )  We decided to spend the night in Breachill before returning to continue Voz’s exploratory.  I picked up materials to cast masterwork transformation in the morning, and also picked up a pearl of power (1st level). Those divine favors and shields of faith are nice.

Liberté mentioned he’d found a creature in a side cave near Voz called a ticktock, I think.  Kyira had said it was evil, but Liberté (or Qantrip, details fuzzy) struck a deal with it and it seemed to honor that.  (I never even knew all that was going on behind me!)

6 Arodus

During my morning meditations, I obtained masterwork transformation for my bow.  When I was done meditating, I immediately cast the spell, hoping a finer bow might result in a finer archer.

The trip back to Guardian’s Way was uneventful.  Several of us had examined Voz’s notes, and if they were to be believed, she seemed to have cleared out a lot of the caves ahead of us (well, her skeletons did, most likely).

Not too far from where we captured her, we came across a den of large black widow spiders, and in an abundance of cautiion, I drank the council’s antivenom before I helped dispatch them.  They could have been deadly had they (or we!) attacked all at once, but they weren’t that smart.  Trip threw some glitterdust into the room and that blinded a couple of them too.  There were five altogether but a cautious strategy kept us fighting only one at a time in melee while the archers shot the ones behind, and we methodically worked thru the group.

Near one of the dessicated victims, we found a magic scimitar.  This got me excited, and I offered to “care for it”. I will always keep grandpa’s family sword, but, oh this one swings nice.

In a side passage, Gath found an area where the webbing had been cleverly worked and draped.  Aemi came up and detected magic in the same area. She looked at it a bit, then called out, “Hello? Is somebody there?”  I smiled at that but stifled a chuckle when yes, a humanoid emerged and said “you could say that.”  She introduced herself as Renali, and said (essentially) she was a traveler stuck on the wrong side of the portal.  We briefly exchanged stories, and she looked angry at the mention of the Cinderclaws.

She also warned of a goblin-king Ralidar up ahead who likely would not let our group pass.  He had killed several of the Cinderclaws at their first encounter.  Her description had Liberté thinking we might dealing with a bar-guest, which sounds like a pub problem but is apparently some sort of actual demon?

Renali agreed to travel with us but not fight with us, which seemed fair enough for now.  Forewarned about the bar-guest, Qantrip played the part of a goblin supplicant and we her servants.  Ralidar is mad, I would say, or at best highly irrational.  He decided he would let us pass if we brought him a spider head mounted on a human body as tribute.  Well, in the room behind us we had exactly those body parts strewn about, so we were able to do just that.  Can’t tell if he was surprised or not, but he accepted the construct and let us pass.  For now.  I have a feeling this trick will only work for so long.

Passing by his “treasure room” (keep moving, no stopping here) we reached a room beyond him where, according to Renali, the remaining Cinderclaws were surviving.  Sure enough, we could hear some voices.  They were at the bottom of a 15′-20′ drop, though, and rather than dropping on ropes, we decided to prevail upon the soft touch of a featherfall spell to make our descent.

Gath, Kyira, Liberté and I went in one drop.  We immediately noticed two things: 1) until we moved, it would hard for the others to come down without landing on us, and 2) we were not unexpected.  I saw a priest I presume was Mallowcup, two boggarts and two cherukai.  Time to get to business.

The priest sent a spiritual weapon (dragon jaws? really?) over to me, which, fortunately was more of a nuisance than anything.  Liberté pulled a trick I’d never seen before, letting loose a stream of curses and insults so vile that it literally set our foes on fire. At that point I knew we could handle the boggarts and cherukai but the priest was a wild card.  I fought my way through to get to him and, yeah, two satisfying blows and a solid arrow from Gath was all it took to lay him down.  Well that and being set on fire.

He had this styled gauntlet that read as magic; have to look into that.  But for now, we’re getting everybody back together and taking a quick breather before moving on.

Aemi’s Journal, Arodus 5, 4719

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Arodus 5, 4719

Breachill

Night

I don’t know who decided Guardian’s Way needed to be six miles outside of town, but I’m fairly certain that if I had known them, I would have hated them. Yes, I know that speaking ill of the dead is considered disrespectful, but I am not going to let that stop me. It is a five and half hour walk, round trip, every time we go out there. Today was the second time, and tomorrow will be the third. I have cause.

Iskaryn pointed out that I did a lot more walking than this just getting to Breachill. My answer to that is, the whole point of putting down roots is not having to travel this much in a day. I didn’t have a choice before. Not unless you considered starving to death a viable option (which she might, given that she bullied me in to buying this fucking journal instead of food before we even got started).

Personally, I blame Voz. The whole reason we had to make this trek again was because of her and her Magdh-be-damned skeletons. Once we caught up with the woman she couldn’t just properly die. She had to go and pass out on us, barely clinging to life. That meant hauling her back to town and handing her over to the guard. She has a remarkable talent for turning six miles into twelve.

Not that I’m not relieved that we aren’t becoming the sort who will casually execute a helpless prisoner just because it’s more convenient.

Even more annoying is that I suppose I should thank her. Voz kept a journal, and she went on at great lengths about all the vile things she has been up to, and her even more vile plans for her future in Breachill. Much of what is in here is pretty damning, and you could literally just tear out a page from it and hand it over as evidence for her trial (as her journal discusses a number of things we are not ready to share with the town yet, that is exactly what we did—”And here is what appears to be an excerpt from a journal she was keeping, where she discusses animating the dead,” etc.) It was a reminder that I need to be careful about what I write down in my own, lest someone do to me what we just did with her.

Granted, I don’t give people reasons to be suspicious of me (fine, anymore, and shut up, Iskaryn!). And I’m not planning to murder a tribe of goblins so I can start an assassin’s guild in the citadel (we gave the guard this one, too—”And here’s where she writes about a financial backer…”) and then gloat about it on paper. But, still, the lesson is clear.

For all her character flaws, she was good at research. This thing is filled with details about Alseta’s Ring, and its existence was gleaned from soldiers’ accounts during the Goblinblood Wars. The access to it through the network of caves here was apparently accidental. A soldier’s journal describes a breach in a cave that led to a “ring of strange archways”, that was “protected by a construct which takes the form of a door”. As that all came about through an interrogation with goblins, it’s worse than hearsay—a journal that describes what was written in another journal, wherein they write down what they heard from someone else—but the presence of the Cinderclaws is enough to convince us that this is real. It’s just a matter of finding it.

Which Voz has yet to do. For someone working essentially alone (a bunch of mindless skeletons hardly count as companions) she’s accomplished quite a lot in just the last couple of days, as evidenced by the map she meticulously created. But she is still short of the prize.

We’re all too happy to finish the job for her.

Sketches by Gath, Arodus 6, 4719

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6 Arodus 4719, morning

Breachill

One thing that has stuck with me since handing over Voz to the city yesterday was how impressed Wilford Lavendil, captain of the guard, was with our results. This positive impression is likely to spread to the town council and possibly other worthies of Breachill. Considering how we are planning to make the citadel our home base I can easily imagine how useful it will be to have such a reputation here in town.

Qantrip has returned from her nightly stay with the goblins at the citadel at the same time I was taking down my tent and storing it along with my bedroll in the hollow of a tree. I am reevaluating the best way to save money when in town and I think if I dine more at places like the Pickled Ear I will be able to afford a modest room with a comfy bed without spending any more than I currently am.

It’s time to head back to Guardian’s Way and use the map of the cavern system we obtained from Voz to find the gate and the surviving members of the Cinderclaws.

6 Arodus 4719, afternoon

Caverns of Guardian’s Way

We arrived at the caverns by mid morning and while Liberte spoke with the spider creature (called a tixitog) the rest of us studied Voz’s map. An area was annotated with, “Hell no!” that caught our attention, but it seemed to be in an out of the way cul de sac and so we opted to avoid it for now.

Before we continued on Kyira quietly stated that the tixitog was evil. Hmm. Well it seemed content to leave us alone and hang out near the entrance. It seems like we ought to be able to leave it alone as a sort of “free security” to guard our backs while we go in. Could we trust it, hell no. I suspect we’ll need to consider this and other “Hell nos!” if we take over the citadel and want to secure these caverns in the future.

As we followed Voz’s trail we came upon evidence of her encounters with other denizens of the caverns. Bones from some of her skeletal guards were scattered about a chamber with the corpses of several giant scorpions. Sooner them than us.

I was doing my usual thing of scouting just a little ahead of the main party when I came upon a room draped with heavy spider webs. I dropped back and informed the team that giant spiders were at hand and we prepared for battle. It didn’t take long for the spiders to attack, but we had set up a choke point where only one of them could come at us at a time. They never figured out an alternate strategy other than to wait one at a time while we pounded them to death. The anti-venom we had obtained earlier came in handy here because some of us were bitten.

We moved into the room and checked out the desiccated, silk wrapped bodies hanging from the webs. From here we could see two exits: a northern passage that was relatively clear and a southern way that was blocked by webs. One of the spiders had attempted to escape this way after having several of its limbs lopped off — it was smart enough to try and flee from a losing battle but not quite smart enough to understand the consequences of facing ranged weapons — and so I thought there might be something worth investigating.

And after hacking away the thick ropes of webbing I indeed discovered what looked like a tent of fine spider silk hanging from the wall. It seemed obvious that something or someone was hiding here and so Aemi and I called out a greeting. We were answered by a woman who cautiously came out to meet us. Aemi and then Qantrip spoke with her at length.

Her name was Renali and she had secretly followed the Cinderclaws through the gateway. She was not in league with them but had simply been curious to see most of the world, but now found herself trapped in the caverns. She was able to move about the spiders safely and had used them as a sort of security measure (sounds familiar). She was familiar with tixitogs as well and warned us that the creature we left behind was not to be trusted. Again, this sounded familiar.

More helpfully she knew where the surviving Cinderclaws were and the location of the elf gate (well, it was the same place). But to get to them we first had to pass by a creature known as a barghest who was called Ralldar. Liberte in particular seemed to know what it was and he was concerned about our chances slaying it. Renali’s account of how it had slain the Cinderclaws that tried to pass it led credence to Liberte’s worries.

But the thing was apparently half crazy and styled itself as the “god of all goblin kind.” Well that was interesting and given some of the team’s background we could make use of that to get past it. Indeed Qantrip quickly came up with a cunning plan to present herself as an explorer with the rest of us her hired guards and servants.

This required that our witch come face to face with the potentially violent being that we were not sure would want to just talk. It was decided that I would stealthily go alongside her while invisible.

Things went according to plan, although we had to make a side trek to collect a humanoid head (I fetched a skull from back where Voz’s force had fought the scorpions) which we stitched atop a spider body. Because of course this is the tribute that Ralldar demanded to allow us to pass. And that did the trick! We passed by, noting a side chamber containing some magical and some potentially valuable items in Ralldar’s horde.

So, yeah, add this to the other “Hell nos!” we’ve collected to be sorted out later.

In the subsequent chamber we had to carefully scrape away some dangerous looking mold to access a large hole that dropped down through the rock to where Renali had said the Cinderclaws and the gate were.

Yes, Renali had joined us past Ralldar, but by what means she passed him unnoticed she was reluctant to disclose to us. Interesting.

We knew we would have to fight the surviving Cinderclaws as soon as we dropped down to their level, but the space was constricted which meant only four of us could go down at once. Aemi volunteered the use of a Featherfall spell and so Tarsius, Kyira, Liberte and I jumped down.

As we expected, our foes were waiting for us and they attacked at once. Our immediate focus was clearing enough space for the rest of the team to join us, and so we focused on the Charau-ka and Boggards that pressed in on us. This left their leader, Malarunk, to coordinate the defense from afar and cast spells against us.

That lasted less than a minute before we broke through his defenders and attacked Malarunk himself. He did not last long.

The brevity of the fight was not surprising. Most of Malarunk’s force had been left above or slain down here and he was left with a skeleton staff (well, not literally). He himself may not have been at his best given that he had been trapped here with few provisions.

And the gate is here. I can see different portals facing different directions. It all seems inert for the moment. And this brings up an important point: if Malarunk knew enough of the gateway to use it to get here, why was he unable to use it to escape?

Based upon an initial glance at the structure my guess is that he managed to activate a portal at a gate in his original part of the world, but was unable to activate any of the portals here.

We need to spend some time studying these and taking notes before heading back.

And when we head back how many of our pending “Hell nos!” do we address along the way?

Tarsius’ Journal, 4-5 Arodus

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4 Arodus

Today we’re going to go Voz hunting.

Oh I know we’re just going to go to Guardian’s Way to learn more about Alseta’s Ring, but I also know that’s the same reason Voz went there and this seems like an unlikely group to say, “Darn it Voz, I guess you got here first so you go ahead.”  Especially Aemi, who seems to have strong convictions about this. And frankly I think the reverse is true as well -Voz is unlikely to graciously concede anything to us. The only way Voz concedes anything is if she’s on her last drop of blood, and given her reputation for necromancy, I’m not even sure she’d concede then.

I’m wearing a breastplate today, and leaving the scale mail at home.  It’s the same weight, but also a bit more sturdy. I’m in favor of that.

As we expected, it took us a bit over two and a half hours to get close, at which point Aemi sent Iskaryn ahead to scout.   Or rather requested that the royal bird deign to, if it were no trouble, please fly a bit ahead and see if death awaits us, to which the bird replied “If I die, I’ll haunt you.”  I realize that Aemi is a performer, but it seems every question to the bird (and reply) is a one act tragedy, these days.  It’s mildly amusing but I’m afraid one day it will flare up when we least need it.

In any case, she reported back that there were platforms ten and twenty feet above the ground and a number of guards stationed on those platforms that were armed with shortbows.  The exact number couldn’t be determined because the trees somewhat blocked the view from overhead.  We were armed with longbows, which gave us a slight advantage in range.

We decided a party of three (Gath, Aemi, and Qantrip) would quietly attempt to get a single guard on one of the platforms.  If that indeed went quietly and without notice, then we had a prisoner to interrogate.  If the effort was detected, then we archers from the south would loose our bows and redirect the guards’ attentions yet again.  It might turn into a swordfight at some point, but if we were lucky, arrows would introduce enough wounds and confusion to make any melee short and easily won.  Moving stealthily closer, we learned there were eight guards or mercenaries on these platforms, but although watchful, they did not seem to be on high alert.

Liberté and Marcus went stealthily to the north edge of the wooded area, and Kyira and I went to the southern edge.  We were to hold our fire until signalled, the signal being, uh, well, being that our party is detected.

And that actually happened fairly quickly.  Gath was trying to quietly ascend the platform but was discovered early.  Trip did some more sleeps, plus a glitterdust to blind some of them.  We started shooting, and as we’d hoped that introduced a bit of confusion.  Aemi did a sleep but then also created dancing lights in a vaguely humanish form at the edge of the woods, and several of their arrows tried to kill the light.  Our arrows from the field started to take their toll.

A couple mercenaries tried running off and we pursued.  The ones we captured, we disarmed but released after determining none of them were magic users and were no longer a danger to us.  Back at the cabin, Gath noticed a figure trying to stealthily leave the cabin and Trip quickly dropped it in sleep.  Only briefly, but it was long enough to manacle the hobgoblin and separate it from its possessions.

In the end, we had a hobgoblin who was apparently their leader Dmiri, and several half-orcs:  one live prisoner, and 5 dead bodies. Two others had been released by Liberté, who was literally looming large for some reason. (He returned to normal size sometime after battle ended.)

Iskaryn commented there may be a bounty on this group that called themselves the Bloody Blades, which meant, if true, letting two go was a financial mistake.  Live and learn I guess.  Technically, they did attack us first, and Kyira reported Dmiri at least, radiated evil, so I’m not feeling especially merciful.

We started inspecting the hobgoblin’s belongings because a few of them radiated magic.  As I identified a cloak of resistance and Kyira identified some magic armor, Dmiri started mouthing off about taking her stuff, saying we were worse mercenaries than her band was, not even waiting until she was dead.  And I was just miffed enough to get mouthy back.  Maybe she could be provoked into revealing more info.

“Your band. I see. I suppose you already know why we’re here then.”

“So you think this is your territory now?” she said disapprovingly.

Territory?  I didn’t realize this was a territorial thing.  Interesting.  “I suppose so.  Tell me, what’s the best way to reach your boss, now that there’s apparently an opening?”

Now that got a response.  “The Bloody Blades are mine, human. Say whatever you want to me but spare me your insults. My boss. As if.”

Aha.  So yes they were the Bloody Blades, which means there was likely a price for their capture.  And she was proud enough about that that maybe with another jab or two … I was hoping she’d mention Voz and maybe her intentions.  “Oh, my apologies,” I said. “No boss? Sad. Usually a trainee has a master, or at least some way to learn a skill.” I held up the bow. “A compound shortbow? An unfortunate choice against longbows.”

Liberté gave her a glowering look, but instead of breaking her, it apparently made her shut up.  This taunting stuff is not as easy as it looks I guess.

A quick glance into the cabin had revealed some magic (by both Kyira and myself) so Gath was preparing to retrieve it.  He did not find any traps but retrieved a fair amount of gold, some caving equipment, and some potions Liberté later determined were healing potions.

Dmiri’s rapier appeared magical, but resisted our efforts to identify it.  We’d have to puzzle over that some more later.

Off to one side, a contentious discussion started over what to do with the prisoners.  On the one hand, they did represent cash.  Liberté felt that doing anything other than disarming them and releasing them took too much of our time.  Aemi felt that taking their things meant we were no better than they were (basically robbers) and they might spread stories saying we were the brigands.  And Qantrip went off on a history lesson about how we accepted the Hellknight but now we wanted to kill these mercenaries just for being evil?

My position was They. Attacked. Us.  Much as I’m revising my opinions on goblins, it is still the case there were many in my town who were attacked by invaders and died in the Goblinblood Wars, despite being innocent of any offense against the goblins.  If I (or we) are attacked, then if we win, we have authority over any survivors and their belongings.  Practicality wins over any moral outrage. To the victor goes the spoils.  In my mind, the only question would be do we kill them or turn them in for money?

The money option is definitely Nethys’ way of making this an easy decision.  I’m not sure I could sign up for killing helpless captives, but since they have cash value the decision is obvious – take the money.  It’s something all of us can use and it’s Nethys’ way of balancing out the damage these individuals have caused.  An exchange, if you will.  If any object, they can always give their share to the rest of us.

In the end, the party did decide to take the captives back for the reward money.  From the bodies of the dead ones, we took the tattoo they had all conveniently used to identify themselves as members of the Bloody Blade.

Aemi was quite strident during the discussion.  She’s becoming quite the little spark.

We interviewed Dmiri a bit more and learned yes, Voz was here, had been for a couple of days, and apparently had an entourage of skeletons as an honor guard.  (So everyone knows to get blunt arrows or bludgeoning weapons when we get back to town.)  Under Liberté’s gentle prodding, she drew a crude map of the little bit of the cave she knew about, and mentioned there were other creatures, some poisonous, living in the caves.

Before we left, both Gath and I erased the tracks around the cave entrance.  We wanted to see if Voz or anything came out of the cave, and if they did, by erasing our own tracks, we’d leave them guessing as to how many people defeated her guard.

We arrived back at town close to dinnertime, but a guard at the gate directed us to the leader of the town guard Wilford Lavensomething.  We explained the situation to him, and he pulled out some paperwork, looked it over, and announced that Dmiri was worth 500gp, the other live prisoner was worth 100gp, and the five tattoos were 50gp each.  If you added in the 600gp that Voz had given Dmiri, we already had earned 1450gp before we even considered the items we confiscated (all of which was mind-blowing to Aemi).

Then Aemi revealed Voz’s part in all of this and Wilford just about exploded.  We said we were going back and did he know if the Council would pay for us to retrieve Voz?  He was pretty sure they would since Voz was out of his jurisdiction right now and he couldn’t do it personally, but of course the final say on that would have to come from the Council.  But he was going to reach out to them this very evening if possible, and we should proceed on his authority for now.

Since we were busy tromping back and forth between locations outside the city, we decided to ask Warbal if she might spend some time selling the things we’d been collecting.  She was more than happy to, but I didn’t hear how much that would cost us.  I hope it’s not much.

Nobody was particularly keen on going back to Guardian’s Way and encountering skeletons in the dark, so we decided to park in or near the city for the night.  Some took rooms, and some just set up “camp” outside the city walls.  I was happy to take a comfortable room.  Nethys never said we couldn’t be comfortable.

5 Arodus

The sun was rising and the skies were clear when I rose for my morning devotions.  By 7am I was ready to meet the others.  I swung by Wilford’s post and he said that while the Council had not yet drawn up a formal contract, they did agree that Voz needed to be taken into custody and confirmed we were authorized to do so.  I relayed this to the group when we met.

Dmiri’s rapier had resisted our efforts to identify it yesterday, but when we all put our heads together instead of trying separately, we were able to determine it was a particularly enchanted and keen weapon, making it capable of more damage than your ordinary rapier.  I was tempted to trade my scimitar for it, but I’ve grown a bit fond of grandpa’s weapon and I feel a bit of him is with me with every swing.  Besides, it’s what I trained the most with at the abbey, and I feel like Nethys has blessed it.

As it was, we added the rapier to the things we’d entrusted to Warbal.

It was about 9:30 when we arrived at the Way, and we approached stealthily in case of ambush.  There was no ambush, but an inspection at the cave entrance did indicate boots had passed since yesterday.  Made me wonder – do skeletons wear boots?  Have to check.

Gath is set to stealthily check out the area around the entrance of the cave.

Aemi’s Journal, Arodus 3–4, 4719

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Arodus 3, 4719

Breachill

Night

We spent the afternoon securing the citadel. Or, rather, securing the parts of the citadel we can access. Obviously, the stairwell is choked with rubble, so there’s no way down to Alseta’s Ring and some untold number of Cinderclaw cultists, but they can’t get up here, either, so the effect is the same: we don’t have to worry about them surprising us. If they had some means of getting up here, they’d have done it by now.

That’s what I’m telling myself, anyway.

“Securing the citadel” makes it sound like the process was simple and easy. I can assure you that it was not.

The skeletons were our biggest problem since they were just plain dangerous. If they ever got out of that room, they’d attack anyone and anything until they were destroyed, which meant they weren’t just a threat to the Bumblebrashers: they were a threat to Breachill and Isger at large. The last thing we wanted to do was turn them loose on the world. Nine Hells, Isger has enough problems as it is.

Because we were outmatched, we arranged bookshelves, tables, and whatever leftover furniture we could find to create a winding gauntlet, then opened the door to let them out. The idea was to pick them off from range as they slowly worked their way to us. Only, it didn’t go quite as planned, because it turned out that they weren’t all that slow.

At one point, Kyira ended up toe-to-toe with one, and she took the kind of hit that most people would not recover from. But Iskaryn was near me, and we tried this thing we’d been practicing, where I cast a spell through her, and let her carry it on. She was able to heal Kyira just enough to get away.

Which means that Iskaryn is even more insufferable than usual, because now she’s useful for something other than lecturing me. And she knows that everyone else knows it, too.

We spent the rest of the day cleaning house. This included the unpleasant duty of clearing out the bodies we left behind the day before, burying the skeletons’ remains, and preparing a pyre for the rest. What can I say? It was grim work.

This morning, we sold off the items we had collected here. Some of those were things the Hellknights had left behind. Others were taken off the bodies of the dead. It was a sum of money I have not seen in a long time. Enough that I could live well, not just live, for over a year.

In many ways, this feels so much worse than anything I have done with my life so far. I’m not a stranger to violence, obviously, but that was an event. A single, albeit horrific, moment. It was something that happened to me. But this? I seem to have found myself in a role that is defined by it, and that profits from it. It’s almost a routine.

This is not something the me in Kerse, or even the me in Macridi, would ever have chosen for herself.

Both would be appalled.

And yet, here I am.

Arodus 4, 4719

Breachill

Night

Guardian’s Way turned out to be an old military outpost that dates back to the Goblinhood Wars. The name makes it sound more impressive than it is, which is little more than wooden platforms and a dilapidated shack among a grove of trees at the base of a cliff. I can only assume it was more impressive when it was new.

We didn’t want any surprises, so I asked Iskaryn if she’d fly ahead and scout around. She agreed, but not without her usual attitude. Right before she took off she turned her head to me and said, “If I die, I’ll haunt you.”

Whatever. I mean, she more or less does that now, so I felt like it wasn’t much of a threat.

We hadn’t gotten very far down the road before she returned.

“You’re back? That’s not good.”

“What?” she replied. “You were wanting me to get shot?”

“Of course not!” I said, rolling my eyes. “We just didn’t expect you to be done so quickly.”

“I’m efficient.”

“Don’t start with me.”

She was back because it didn’t take long to see roughly half a dozen half-orcs, armed with bows, alert and on guard.

Here’s the thing. Guardian’s Way is six miles outside of town, at the end of a road that no one travels because the only place it goes is Guardian’s Way. If you see a group of people armed with bows keeping watch there, odds are good that they are highwaymen.

As it turned out, they were highwaymen.

We split into two groups: Trip and Gath approached from the side, with me not far behind, while the others covered the platforms with long bows from just inside the tree line opposite the meadow. The plan was for Trip to hex the rear guards into a slumber, one at a time, and for Gath to disable them. Then we could take the rest of the guard on two fronts.

I’ve written these words before: things didn’t go as planned. But they went well enough, and when it was done, several of them were dead, and we had one of the bandits and the group’s leader, a hobgoblin named Dmiri, in manacles. They called themselves The Bloody Blades. The name sounded familiar to me, but at the time I couldn’t remember how or why I knew it.

Tarsius was digging through Dmiri’s things when she said, “Damn, you people are worse than my band is! You not even gonna kill me before robbing me?”

Which was, of course, exactly what we were doing, and I’ll admit that it made me uncomfortable. Once we decided to take her prisoner, it seemed like we’d crossed the line between the spoils of war and literally just taking her things. The others didn’t see it that way.

And neither did Iskaryn. Which should not have come as a surprise. Yet it managed to, anyway.

“We have established that they aren’t just innocent in this,” she said. “They are, according to their leader here, the notorious Bloody Blades, and we heard about them on the way here, Aemi. If those men we overheard talking about them were right, there’s even a price on their heads!”

Once she said that, it clicked. There was this boisterous inn along the Conerica River in Elidir called The White Stag, and the Bloody Blades were a topic of discussion at one of the tables. The men sitting there looked exactly like the sort of people who’d hunt others for money, criminal or not.

But of course, Iskaryn wasn’t done, because once she gets on a roll there’s no stopping her. She had an entire discourse on the topic of theft and ownership, and was just getting warmed up. Eventually, she pointed out that Dmiri’s things were probably stolen from her victims, or paid for in stolen coin. In which case, did they truly belong to anyone?

And then it occurred to me that I was being lectured on morality by the bird that probably stole the bracelets I’m wearing.

“Fine,” I said, giving in. “As long as we turn her in or kill her, I don’t care. I just don’t want her running to someone and accusing us of murder and robbery.”

I didn’t think we’d just kill her in cold blood, and fortunately I was right. We decided to turn her in for the bounty. But not before we got a chance to talk to her. And talk, she did.

It turns out, Voz had come across them, too. She hired them. To keep us from following her into the cave.

“It’s just business!” Dmiri said. “I don’t even know you. There’s just some people she says are coming after her to get this great, once-in-a-lifetime reward she’s chasing. We just let her have her shot at it without their—your—interference.”

“Was she alone?” Liberte asked.

“No, she had her…guard…with her, if you can call them that. I don’t argue with someone who walks up with a dozen or more skeletons in their company. I don’t think you would either. But if she gives me a sack of gold, even less, right?”

If that sounds like the sort of statement that would turn heads, you would be correct. And, when we turned her in back in Breachill, I leaned into it. I told the guard captain, “We have disturbing evidence that Voz is involved in necromancy. Specifically, raising the dead. The hobgoblin, Dmiri, saw her enter the caves up at Guardian’s Way with a dozen animated skeletons in her service.”

He slammed his fist on his desk. “I always knew there was something wrong with that woman, but could never find anything actionable until now!”

It was a productive day. I walked into that office with two prisoners, and proof of death on five more. I walked out with enough gold that my share would buy me 10 more months here, and a verbal contract on Voz.

Appalled, indeed.

Sketches by Gath, Arodus 4-5, 4719

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4 Arodus 4719, evening

Breachill

Qantrip had magically placed Dmiri the hobgoblin to sleep, which allowed us to bind her and question her. She confessed that she had been paid by Voz to guard the entrance to the cave. Voz had most recently arrived some days earlier with a retinue of a dozen skeletal warriors in tow and together they had entered the caverns.

We then discussed what to do with Dmiri (and the captured underling). Taking her stuff and letting her go was the popular option, but then someone, probably Iskaryn, recalled that there was a bounty for Dmiri and her band of rogues.

Oddly enough Aemi was against taking Dmiri’s things because she equated this with stealing. Hmm. I had to admit that I didn’t see it this way. Iskaryn chimed in at this point and unexpectedly supported confiscating the possessions from our defeated foes.

Qantrip pointed out that Voz was good with a bow and perhaps rather than turning her in she could work for us. None of the rest of us liked this idea because we felt she could not be trusted. Qantrip asked why we had earlier trusted Alek to assist us. This was a good question. Alek was a bigoted asshole, but he was focused on a specific task and by helping us he was helping himself: once he had what he wanted he left us. Dmiri was a known criminal who did things only for the money and if our foe offered her enough coin she would likely change her allegiance — probably at the most inopportune (for us) moment. That plus there was a 500 gold piece bounty on Dmiri.

I suspect we’ll be forced to make similar unpleasant alliances or compromises in the future.

In the end we brought Dmiri (and her “plus one”) back to town. We also thought to carve her gang’s tattoos from the fallen (I skillfully carved these out with a dagger), which worked in our favor because we were paid a (lesser) bounty for these in addition to the substantial bounty for Dmiri.

Better still after hearing of Voz’s involvement in necromancy — having a squad of skeletons may sound cool until you think about how they came to be — the town council will meet to decide if they will sponsor a bounty on her return. Sigh. What the hell is there to discuss?

In any event we return to Guardian’s Way in the morning to deal with Voz with or without council approval.

Qantrip went up to the citadel to spend the night with the goblins. I intended to join her, but then the notion of a bed in an inn and hot cooked food changed my mind. Oh yes, having money is nice.

5 Arodus 4719, evening

Breachill

The morning began with bacon and eggs and toast and tea taken at the inn. I am sure the future holds more spartan lodging and dining conditions for us and so I feel no anxiety over spending coin for creature comforts when they are available.

Qantrip arrived back in town after breakfast and around that time the council decided that Voz was enough of a threat to sanction our plan to capture her and to offer a bounty — oh how I am beginning to like that word: I’m sure if I had one I’d wag my tail whenever someone said it — for her return to Breachill.

The walk to Guardian’s Way was uneventful, however we did see fresh tracks in the dirt we had scattered across the cave entrance.

Qantrip and I entered the dark cave to scout. To the north was a dark passageway and to the southeast a glimmer of light flickered from a tunnel. I crept forward and peeked around the rock wall to find a large chamber filled with supplies and three skeletal warriors. One looked more formidable than his companions.

I made my way back to the others and the plan was to set up a kill box just outside the natural choke point of the tunnel. We positioned ourselves accordingly but the skeletons refused to advance even though we were making a great deal of noise and intentionally trying to goad an attack.

We heard Voz call out to her boney cohorts to “protect the treasure to the north,” but it sounded like a lame bluff even to me. The others weren’t buying it either and as Qantrip pointed out, we were at a standoff.

But our brave goblin companion is also clever and she cast Burning Sands in the chamber beyond, which caused the skeletons to scamper. The big one came at her and got in a hit before Tarsius could pull her back. But then the rest of us took over and reduced the skeleton to a pile of inert bones.

It was a good time to watch our team work together. Aemi was inspiring us with a chant. Tarsius and Kyira were poised for melee, Liberte was standing watch at the northern passageway. And behind us all Marcus stood alert and silent, gazing ahead and ready to lend assistance either with a well placed spell or arrow. And this sums up my current impression of Marcus: he offers input and advice when needed and provides steadfast support in combat, doing whatever is needed.

Knowing we had such a well integrated group is a comfort in times of stress, like when a necromancer and her skeleton crew want you dead and are actively scheming to make you so.

But then we were back to waiting. Tarsius moved into the chamber to directly engage the remaining skeletons and I followed in behind, wisely (although not so bravely) using him as a shield. More skeletons were moving in now, but we had the upper hand and were grinding them down.

From the north I heard a puzzling conversation between Liberte and… something that lived up there. The caves were its home and it wasn’t particularly interested in us or Voz, but it wasn’t attacking us, which in my book counts as “friendly” when in combat.

Voz didn’t like seeing us take out her guard and she soon joined the fray with spells (and no small amount of ineffectual taunting). Everybody likes a well placed Fireball until they become the target of one. Most of us were burned to some degree, but by this time we were pressing our attack directly against Voz and her spells either failed to hit or lacked the punch necessary to drive us back.

And like her skeletons she was soon a crumpled heap on the rocky floor, bleeding out into the dust. I was about to try and stabilize her with my minimal mundane healing skills when Qantrip stepped up and did so with magic.

A witch is wise.

We explored the supplies and relieved the skeletons and Voz of various valuable and useful items.

To the north Liberte had established a cordial relationship with the huge spider like creature that called itself Tixitog that lived there. I hope to hear more about it later.

We gathered up the loot and discovered some rather informative, albeit puzzling (like what the hell is a “Scarlet Triad”?), documents that would also incriminate Voz in a number of illegal activities. We made a travois and dragged Voz back to Beachill.

Wilford Lavendil was quite impressed with the speed at which we had found, overcome, and delivered Voz. We also received the promised reward.

I don’t want to give the impression that money has become a more important aspect of my life — in fact I think the opposite is true. Having spent so much of my life with little to no gold to my name and having lived frugally in a hut with a goblin it is just a pleasant change to now be able to occasionally afford nice things in a modest sort of way.

Having said that, I am saving up coins for some better equipment. A superior bow is at the top of my list: something I can use to better take advantage of my strength with some sort of magical enchantment to more effectively hit and do damage. As such not every night will be spent in a cushy bed. Tonight, for example, I will be back in my tent just outside of town.

But by all means I will be eating my meals in town whenever possible.

Tarsius’ Journal, 3 Arodus

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3 Arodus
post-lunch

So, having found a clue in the trash at the book store, we put our heads together to figure out “Guardian’s Way”.  Even though nobody had been born here or even lived here a week ago, we collectively determined it was a place, not a street, and from there it was easy to find it was another outpost left over from the Goblinblood Wars, but also now abandoned, much like our local citadel.  It was over 6 miles away, so more than a five minute walk but probably less than two hours at a leisurely pace.

A sometimes heated discussion ensued; Aemi felt that we needed to go straightaway to Guardian’s Way, while several of the rest felt we hadn’t yet made the citadel safe enough for the Bumblebrashers to move back, as we’d promised, and further, that task should be complete before we left town any farther than the citadel.

A compromise was reached.  Going to Guardian’s Way today would have us arriving in late afternoon and possibly exploring the outpost in dim light anyway.  So the rest of today would be spent taking care of loose ends in the citadel (like the skeletons in the holding cells and the gelatinous cube we found), making the place once again safe for the goblins, and then leaving in the morning for Guardian’s Way.  Aemi more than once said something about wanting to find the gate quickly, not necessarily Voz, but that the two might be intertwined.  In the end she agreed to leave tomorrow.

So, today, the next thing up was the skeletons.  In the short time we’d been together, we’d all improved in the things we do (like healing, destroying, and triggering traps) so we felt pretty sure that this encounter with the skeletons would go better.  We headed back to the citadel, headed over to the room outside the holding cells (without opening the door to the cells!) and surveyed that room.  We decided to move the existing furniture so as to create a passage that twisted back and forth before emptying into the middle of the room.  Bows and crossbows would get two or three shots before a skeleton reached the end, where melee experts would finish it off.  Additionally, using magic to open/close the door we could guarantee with fair certainty that only one skeleton at a time could come out the door, so they couldn’t gang up on anybody.

Very controlled.  Minimal risk.  Uh-huh.

First problem.  Without our being in the room of cells, the skeletons had no reason to come out.  So they didn’t.  Finally Qantrip jumped into the room, made a face at them and quickly jumped out the door.

That did it. They headed after her.

Second problem.  Liberté decided to use long arm to fight the skeleton “safely” over the barrier.  Unfortunately, when he and Marcus hit it, Kyira decided to advance into the labyrinth to finish it off.  But now she was the only target for every skeleton that came out of the room, and we’d intentionally built it to be narrow.  She was going to take damage every round now from whatever skeleton was before her, and also find it difficult to retreat because of the close quarters.

I think I missed every shot with my bow.  Although Kyira made sure the first skeleton was now a pile of bones, the second one hit Kyira especially well, and now she was in danger of dying at the hands (bones) of this second skeleton.  She tried to step back gingerly (and got another cut for her trouble) before formally and carefully disengaging, and I quickly cast shield of faith, drew my morningstar, stepped between the two of them and smacked it good – it fell and did not rise.

Well at this point our plan of safely shooting from a distance fell apart, at least for me.  Armored up and swinging a good chunk of pointy steel, I blocked the way to the others.  Between my armor and shield of faith, (and Liberté’s helping guard my flank) they had a tough time nicking me.  Eventually it was Gath who brought down the last one with a blunt arrow, but the whole thing didn’t go exactly as planned.  Not even close.  There’s probably a lesson here, but nothing we couldn’t learn again later.

With the skeletons out of the way, we were able to go into the room and seek out the magic we sensed there earlier.  There were a variety of weapons and minor magic items, but the breastplate of one of the skeletons caught my eye.  I can’t easily carry both it and my scale mail at the same time, but I think I’m going to trade up when next I have an opportunity to switch.

That taken care of, next up was the gelatinous cube.  What the heck led it to take up residence where it did??  After consultation with others in the group, it quickly became apparent that it was not a great pursuer, although it could probably dissolve both people and weapons if we obligingly embraced it.  So – distance weapons.

And fire.  Fire was very effective, so Qantrip’s burning hands were welcome.  Some fire, and some arrows, and we had ooze splashing all over the floor.  And a magical battleaxe retrieved from its interior.

Since we still had afternoon left after all that, Marcus and Gath checked out the tunnel to the Pickled Ear.  The end in the Ear’s basement no longer opened freely, so we supposed Roxie kept her promise of blocking it off.

Tomorrow, Guardian’s Way.

Aemi’s Journal, Arodus 3, 4719

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Arodus 3, 4719

Breachill

Early Afternoon

I left Iskaryn to her temper tantrum and focused on lunch. I’d been turning events over in my head, trying to make sense of them. I laid out for the others what we knew.

“Voz learns about the Ring at some point in the past—it doesn’t matter when, but it’s before the Cinderclaws arrive—and starts exploring the citadel. She makes a couple of trips over time. She learns about, or already knew about, the tunnel. She pays Roxie off so she can use it without drawing suspicion.

“The Cinderclaws, meantime, arrive roughly a week ago, coming through the Ring itself, and take over the castle. They chase the Bumblebrashers up to the ramparts. The grauladons follow, and the stairs collapse, taking them out along with parts of the walls, leaving the stairwell choked with rubble. The Cinderclaws are now divided, and cut off. One of the two grauladons survives up above, and keeps the Bumblebrashers trapped.

“Sometime before the Call for Heroes, Calmont learns about the Ring, and where it is, from Voz’s notes. He hatches his plan to get the Bumblebrashers to show him.

“A few days before the Call for Heroes, Helba goes to the citadel, sees red smoke, and fears the worst. She starts telling people her concerns, and her plan to bring this up at the Call of Heroes. Word spreads, and Calmont hears about it.

“Calmont doesn’t want investigators, so he hatches this risky and brazen plan to burn down the Town Hall with everyone inside to stop the investigation before it starts. He needs a lot of help, because he’s an idiot, so he steals scrolls of summoning from Voz, and turns the creatures loose on the hall. He doesn’t wait around to see if it’s successful, because he’s an idiot, and then he’s seen running away, too, because he’s an idiot.

“We get tasked with the investigation, and visit Voz that afternoon. She is not an idiot, and deduces that Calmont is racing off to find Alseta’s Ring. She panics because he might actually beat her to it, and because her name was mentioned. That sends her scrambling back to the citadel with a plan of her own: get information from the Hellknights that are buried there. She trips some safeguard, the dead rise up against her, and she retreats in a panic, emerging from the tunnel in a frightened state. Roxie sees her.”

“Voz is desperate now to get to the Ring, and she’s learned of another way in. One that doesn’t involve clearing debris out of the stairwell. She closes up her shop, and takes off for Guardian’s Way.

“We have two actors, now that Calmont is out of the picture, both working independently: Voz and the Cinderclaws. The arrival of the latter started a chain reaction that spooked the former into action.”

While no one disagreed with this version of events, there was not much enthusiasm among the group for what we had learned from Voz. Some of them were concerned that we were becoming distracted by the bookseller’s ancillary role in events, and that the immediate goals were what we had promised to the Bumblebrashers and to the council: give the goblins their home back, and deal with the Cinderclaws.

“Promises were made to help the Bramblebrashers,” Trip said. “There remain skeletons, goblin dogs, and the Cinderclaws beneath the rubble to attend to. A witch does not wish to be an oath breaker when so few grains have passed through the hourglass of her life.”

Tarsius agreed. “A witch makes a good point with the vow to help the Bumblebrashers. While they might live there more safely now, they are not yet safe. I believe a case can be made for chasing Voz, but it still would not release us from our previous promises. I believe a witch is correct that our tasks here are not yet done.”

My argument was that Voz, the Cinderclaws, and Alseta’s Ring were, in fact, all the same problem. We weren’t after Voz so much as we were after what she found. If she did discover a way into Alseta’s Ring that didn’t require digging out two floors of stairwell choked with rubble, then maybe we should consider that.

“A Witch proposes, then, a compromise,” Trip said. “This day is half spent. The remainder could be afforded to securing the first floor, so that the Bramblebrashers can start clearing things. We would spend the night in safety rather than in the unknown wilds, then set out for this Guardian’s Way fresh in the morning. We fulfill our oath and lose little time in pursuit of this new objective.”

I felt like that was as good as I was going to get, so I agreed. And, honestly, Trip is right. I needed answers, yes, but we can’t just drop our agreement to the Bumblebrashers because the timing was inconvenient. 

And Iskaryn is already upset with me. She’s not fey, but she’s from a fey forest. Going back on a promise, or even appearing to, would only make things worse.

Sketches by Gath, Arodus 3-4, 4719

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3 Arodus 4719, late morning

Breachill

We had accumulated a fair amount of loot from our exploits in the citadel. Loot is nice to have but unless there is something specifically useful in what you’ve gathered it really doesn’t do you much good. That’s when you need to go through everything and identify it all, and catalogue it, and figure out who wants what, and what to sell and what to keep because we might need it later, and then finally go to the merchants and sell the excess. Only then do you have actual gold coins to buy what you really need.

Back in the Chitterwood this was my task for the goblin tribe, and I really hated it.

Happily for us Kyira has a real knack for this tedious but necessary work. Although just watching her scribble on her ledger brings back unpleasant memories of my time in the Chitterwood sorting through goblin stashes, it is an actual pleasure to see her spin the random stuff we found into literal gold.

And while this was going on we decided that we should first return to the citadel and clean out the creatures we had left behind before moving on to Guardian’s Way.

3 Arodus 4719, night

Citadel Altaerein, Hellknight Hill

Our first goal was destroying the skeletons from the cells. We strategically positioned the tables and bookshelves in the adjoining rooms to create a pathway where the skeletons would be forced to move in single file. We could then pick them off with ranged attacks.

Qantrip’s familiar, Ouch, provided magical support, opening and closing doors to regulate the flow of undead into our staged combat zone. This worked greatly to our advantage because even with all of the recent combat we’ve experienced the skeletal warriors were still challenging foes.

Kyira discovered that she preferred melee fighting to ranged, which means she took a fair number of blows before Tarsius stepped in so she could back away and heal. We discover these crucial things about ourselves in the most inopportune times, but that is the way life can be.

We found a couple of potions and some silver weapons for our efforts.

Qantrip, Liberte and I moved the two worg puppies into one of the cells for safe keeping.

We then arranged for the goblins to keep them fed and watered and their area clean. Better still the goblins wanted to keep the goblin dogs in the entry way for their own.

I suspect she may look into weapons with a longer reach so she can whack away at her opponents from a step away rather than always go toe to toe.

This left the gelatinous cube down in the abandoned armory for us to deal with. And as it turns out if you had ranged weapons and magical attacks these slow moving jellies aren’t that much of a threat. Or at least ours wasn’t. Soon it was an inert slumping lump of ooze and we had retrieved the magical battle axe from its innards.

We had a pleasant dinner with the goblins and are resting here before our hike to Guardian’s Way in the morning.

4 Arodus 4719, afternoon

Guardian’s Way

It was a pleasant walk to Guardian’s Way. The path wasn’t well traveled and so the wilderness had encroached on the trail and the young thin woods that spread from either side provided dappled shade as well as an element of concealment.

Some distance out from our destination Aemi sent Iskaryn ahead to scout out the area. There was a good bit of back and forth between the two as Iskaryn seemed to think it a risky mission while Aemi pointed out that the bird was the most suited of us to get the lay of the land and make sure we did not blunder into a trap.

I had mentioned before that these two sounded like a married couple, and while at the time I had meant it as a gentle jab, I realized now just how apt the observation was. And I mean this now in a good way: Aemi and Iskaryn complement one another and combined they are a much more potent force than when they act individually.

Iskaryn returned a short while later and reported that the sparse tree cover continued all of the way up to a rise in the land. An old cabin sat before a cave entrance, and elevated wooden platforms were set among the trees about it. Half orcs armed with shortbows perched on these lofts keeping watch. There were thickets of trees and brush that could provide cover for our approach.

We brainstormed the best way to approach the cabin and deal with the armed lookouts.

It dawned on me that Iskaryn said the watchers were all wielding shortbows. Looking around the party I noticed that most of us had longbows or commanded magics that worked at a similar range. If we set up in the cover before the cabin out of optimal range from the platforms then we would have a significant advantage in an exchange of arrows.

Qantrip, Aemi and I would sneak up to one of the flanking platforms where a single half orc stood guard while the rest of the team would set up in the bracken at range in front. We would attempt to use stealth to work our way in, use sleep magic on targets of opportunity, and then the others would distract the bulk of the half orcs with a frontal attack.

Sure this took one of our primary archers (me) out of the mix, but the chaotic nature and audacity of the plan was too delicious to resist.

The three of us crept in while Iskaryn kept a watchful eye on the battlefield from above.

Qantrip easily put a watcher to sleep but as I was sneaking forward to clamber up the platform (and slit its throat) one of the other guards saw me and called the alarm.

Instantly I was struck hard by an arrow as the rest of my team sprang into action. Arrows flew (in both directions). Spells were set off. Dancing lights appeared and distracted several foes. I climbed up onto the platform and killed the sleeping half orc with our newly acquired battle axe, and then switched over to my trusty bow and began to pepper the other half orcs with arrows.

We soon had the upper hand and the remaining watchers climbed down and fled into the trees.  Our ranged force of Liberte, Kyira, Tarsius, and Marcus gave chase, forcing our foes to drop their weapons and leave.

At about this time a hobgoblin exited the cabin by a back door and I targeted it. Qantrip put it to sleep and I leapt from my perch to quickly restrain it with manacles.

She woke up and identified herself as Dmiri. She had a lot of attitude and kept making snarky comments until Liberte showed up and browbeat her into silence.

Tarsius peered into the cabin and detected several sources of magic from within a footlocker. I cautiously entered and after picking the pesky lock found various useful items.

Some of the others have begun to question Dmiri as I write this.