1 Arodus 4719, mid morning
Wizard’s Grace Tavern, Breachill
I like to sketch things that I have seen or experienced during the day. This began as a way to kill time in the dull nights by the fire in Natre’s hut when I would take a piece of charcoal and draw on the slate hearth. But I am no artist and sometimes I get details wrong. It can also take a long time to finish even a simple sketch and these days a quick doodle seldom captures what’s going on.
And thus these words, which Qantrip assures me I write at my own peril.
This morning the three of us, Aemi, Qantrip and I, met for a pre Call for Heroes gathering here at the Wizard’s Grace, which is apparently a local tradition. Only we are not just three.
It turns out that Qantrip had met a scholar some days earlier who also carries a harrow card. This, if you’ve not been paying attention, is the common glue that has united the three, um, four of us on a common quest to reach Breachill in time for this month’s Call for Heroes. Only we are not just four.
Liberté is the half orc who Qantrip met earlier (“smart, but disturbingly short arms,” she confided), and as the three of us sat at a table enjoying drinks and pub grub he found another three adventuring types who also bore harrow cards. Aemi leapt up to join the new-comers at the bar while Qantrip and I shared goblin delicacies and found a larger table to host our now larger group.
Soon they all joined us and we reviewed our skill sets. Aemi is of course a musician and singer. Qantrip is a witch which seems highly appropriate. Liberté is a scholar. Tarsius is a burly man who is some sort of priest/fighter. A half elf named Kyira is also a fighter of some sort and seems devoted to her cause (not sure quite what that is). And finally is Marcus who says he is an oracle. And of course I like to hunt and find things, or as Qantrip says, “a scout.”
All of us except Aemi and Qantrip are armored and well armed.
We also discussed our harrow cards. None of us have the same card, which I suppose is no surprise given that there are more than fifty unique cards in a deck. Aemi pointed out that there are typically nine harrow cards drawn at a time and so Qantrip thinks we should keep an eye out for two more of our party.
Yes, of course we all joined together. You don’t have something as mysterious as seven (or nine) harrow cards seemingly randomly given and leading each of us to the same place at the same time without taking the hint.
Looking around the table I already felt a part of a team… part of something larger than even that.
And still I can’t stop thinking that Natre somehow managed to make me part of this, even though she died last winter. She was not a typical goblin. Qantrip said that goblins do not like to read or write because they believe the act steals your soul, and yet Natre read continuously and frequently wrote in her notebooks. I feel sad and ashamed that I never asked her about her past and what she had hoped and dreamed about.
1 Arodus 4719, early after noon
Monument Circle, Breachill
I can still smell the smoke from City Hall where today’s Call for Heroes was held.
We left the Wizard’s Grace and filed into the main meeting hall along with a collection of locals. The town council introduced the only petitioner for the day’s Call: Warbal, a female goblin who acted as an ambassador for the local goblin tribe, the Bumblebrashers. The goblins lived in an old fort atop Hellknight Hill, about a mile out of town. They had failed to make their regular weekly meeting with Warbal twice now and this morning she saw red smoke rising from the fort. She assumed it was a distress signal and she was hoping the city would assign heroes to investigate.
Then a door opened and flames leapt in. And then another fire. Amidst the flames two little fiery humanoids skittered about, chittering and fanning the fires to spread outward.
There was chaos. There was pandemonium. There was panic. And there was good reason for it all.
The seven of us sprang to our feet and while some attacked the creatures that were spreading the fires the rest of us ran about ushering the locals out the front doors and urging them to form a fire brigade and douse the flames.
As a team we worked mostly well together — especially considering it was our first time doing so. But we were not very effective against the bratty little pyromaniacs. Fortunately they blinked out of existence after a few moments and the townsfolk were able to extinguish the fires.
“They were summoned,” said Aemi.
A pair of guards reported that a local named Calmont had been seen lighting the fires and setting loose the fire imps. He was then seen running out of town up the road that led to Hellknight Hill.
The council president, Greta Gardania, approached us and thanked us for helping out with the fire. She then tasked us with tracking down Calmont and bringing him to justice, and along the way investigate what was going on with the Bumblebrashers.
We were given some potions and silver (the latter for helping with the fire) and the promise of gold at the successful conclusion of our tasks.
We found that Calmont was employed by Voz, the owner of the Reliant Book Company here in town.
A short while later we were interviewing an uncooperative Voz, which is when I learned that some of my companions were quite effective at making threats. We discovered that Calmont was new in town and not a particularly good employee. We searched his room and found a page from a diary that implied the halfling had a lot on his mind.
Aemi had sent her familiar, the bird Iskaryn, to scout out the fort and she has returned with the report of goblins hiding in the upper level, but no other signs of distress.
1 Arodus 4719, after noon
Citadel Altaerein, Hellknight Hill
No, the fort doesn’t look spooky at all. I did have a chance to make a quick sketch as we looked for the best way in. A fallen section of wall to the left looks like a good point of ingress.
I will admit to being eager to move forward and find what is going on within.
