22 Rova 4719, night

Jungle South of Akrivel

It has been five days since my previous journal entry, and while the disturbing events I recounted then may have contributed to this, the primary… the real reason is that I have been distracted. No, distracted is not the right word — it is more like captivated.

The jungle has me enthralled: the nearly infinite greens of the tropical canopy and storied underbrush, the vivid color of the fauna, the murky muddy browns of the river stained to russet at the edges where the fallen leaves steep to make a riverine tea in which brightly colored fish and other aquatic life frolic. And above bright hues flit against the splashes of deep blue sky.

And the sounds: the nonstop clamor of a thousand insects thrumming — one chorus for the day and another for night. The raucous call of the birds. The soft “hrumph” of some hidden jungle cat. And the sound of wind and water in the trees.

When the storms come they come hard as the wind whips the tree tops to and fro and the warm downpours drench everything below, making the already humid air nearly impossible to breathe.

I was raised in the temperate forest of the Chitterwood and found it a place of remarkable beauty, but here in the jungle is a different kind of beauty: it is more saturated and noisy. 

We have Renali as our local guide, but mostly she serves as a councilor on how to move and survive in the jungle, while I eagerly scout a little ahead of the team.

We took to the river on the 18th and finally made good use of our boats. While the water is wide the current is slow and so we paddle to make way even though we were heading downstream.

On that first day we met Gerhard Pendergrast, the famous archaeologist (in his own mind — none of us had heard of him). He was arrogant and mostly clueless and had led his team to a dragon totem — a blue one — where he expended them fighting the boggard guards and the effects of the blue totem. They managed to triumph in the end, but only Gerhard remained standing because all of his workers had been turned to stone by the totem. He had managed to topple it and get it wrapped in burlap and was trying to drag it back to his boat on the riverbank.

We had detected that it was magical and thus a threat, and had pleaded with him to let us disable it, but no, he knew better: he had the situation well in hand. Except he couldn’t drag the thing on his own and he offered to pay us each a shiny gold piece to help. Liberte and I exchanged a look and he smiled and stepped up to help move the totem. And at the first patch of rocky ground he managed to “accidentally” drop his end. Hard. There was a loud crack and a split now graced the totem and it was no longer radiating magic. Gerhard was a little upset at this, but his good spirits soon returned and we helped him load the thing into his boat.

The last we saw of him he was paddling desperately against the current as he headed upstream.

Later that same day we realized we were being followed by a band of Cinderclaws (well, we assumed they were, and they were) and so we stopped and set a trap for them. Two ran away, one — a boggard — Qantrip put to sleep, and the rest we killed.

We questioned the boggard and he was surprisingly helpful. We learned about the  location of their main fortress, the composition and general number of their members, and the different colors of the other dragon totems that they had placed in the jungle. Apparently they can detect when one is disabled and this patrol had been sent out to find the people who had “shutdown” the green one.

We let him go and advised him not to tell his superiors about us because it would make him look bad. He blanched at that and said he thought this was sound advice.

Over the next two days we continued to explore along the river before crossing over to find the village of the elephant people. The village had been torched and a pair of very upset elephants eyed us suspiciously from the far side. We heard someone within one of the burned out huts cry weakly for help, and we were able to help him.

Edka had been the village elder and after he calmed down the two elephant guardians he explained what had happened. A group of Cinderclaws showed up at the village and demanded that they be given elephants to work in their gold mine. The villagers refused and the Cinderclaws set the huts aflame. The elephants then attacked, stamping some of the Cinderclaws to paste as the rest fled. The villagers had escaped south, but Edka had been trapped beneath a fallen timber.

He shared a lot of information about the Cinderclaws and warned that their fortress had a lot of things that looked like dragon totems on the walls. He set off to find his people while we followed the Cinderclaw trail east.

Today the ground became more and more swampy and we had to be careful with our footing and even used the boats to cross some of the larger and deeper mires.

We stopped early enough this afternoon that I was able to draw a number of vignettes from our recent exploration and encounters.

12 Rova 4719, night

Ekujæ Treetop Village of Akrivel

We spent all day preparing for our exploratory trip into the jungle and to coordinate with when Renali can get here.

We are taking boats because there is a river that we may need to cross. I am opposed to this extra burden: rivers can be crossed without carrying watercraft with you through a dense tropical jungle. But then others in the party are not as adept at swimming or just surviving in the wild and for them the presence of the boats provides comfort, which has its own value.

Renali is to arrive tomorrow morning and then we can get started.

13 Rova 4719, night

Jungle South of Akrivel

With Renali leading the way we set off into the jungle, retracing the path we took from the gateway that brought us here. We were planning to head south and cross the river to get to the settlement of the “Elephant People” — a village of humans who live near an elephant herd (hence the name). But at the temple/gateway we followed the tracks of the Cinderclaws, which veered to the southeast.

We found an old Cinderclaw camp but other than verifying we were indeed following back along their trail we found little of interest.

Renali asked if it was okay for her to revert to her normal form, to which we all agreed. As Iskyrin said early, Renali’s people are amazing.

We’ve set up camp for our first night on our own in the jungle and begun our scheduled watches.

14 Rova 4719, night

Jungle South of Akrivel

Yeah… so, no. I’m not much in the mood for recounting the day’s events. And this alone should be enough to tell you just what an awful day it was.

I was charmed into abandoning my friends right when they needed me the most. Qantrip quickly recognized what happened and tried to counteract the spell, and seeing her act, Marcus also tried, but both were unsuccessful.

This is my team. My family, and I abandoned them. Sure, the spell robs you of your will, but this sort of magic doesn’t work if you are compelled to do something against your nature. And so apparently my nature is to leave my friends when they need me.

Qantrip spent years under such a compulsion. I simply cannot imagine what that must have been like.

And yet she was the one who cleverly realized how to break the enchantment when she called out, “Gath, Tarsius has been killed. We need you now!” That was enough for me to cast off the mental malaise and rejoin my team.

That I was able to make the killing blow against the fiendish kishi was satisfying, but I was still left pondering what happened to me.

The kishi had captured an angle that it was going to eat, or something. To be honest I was distracted and don’t recall much of what happened until we were some distance further into the jungle and set up camp for the night.

Maybe tomorrow will be a better day.

15 Rova 4719, night

Jungle South of Akrivel

Nope.

We found another of the Cinderclaws’ pillar/totem things. This one was green and very much active, with wisps of smoke wafting up from the dragon head’s gaping maw.

We approached cautiously to the edge of the clearing where it had been placed and peered out from the cover of the under-story. We saw a pair of drakes attempting to hide in the trees at the far side of the green.

But our caution and stealth were for naught and a ghastly beam of green light sprang from the totem’s eyes and I instantly felt… less healthy. It felt like some kind of poison and it kept working its way through my blood stream, stealing my health and making it harder and harder to resist.

All of the while there was a battle going on with the drakes — a battle in which I actually fought, but the details are hazy. One died and one fled.

I vaguely recall dropping to my knees as the entire party rushed over to help. Finally with all of their efforts they were able to stem the cursed poison and I lived, but only just.

Marcus had also been poisoned, but by the sting from one of the drakes, and he slumped to the jungle floor, too weak to even stand.

I have some healing skill and tried to assist, but was ineffective. Fortunately my other team mates were able to stop the poison from stealing more strength.

We then turned our attention to the totem. Renali had become invisible during the battle and was able to approach it, and so Qantrip was made invisible and used a sack to cover the thing’s head. The rest of us then nervously approached it where I discovered that it could be disabled and did so.

I then hacked away at its head with a dog-slicer and pounded on it with a mace until it was unrecognizable. But like killing the kishi this retribution did little to make me feel much better about the day.

We made camp some distance away as I tried not to think about the past two days.

16 Rova 4719, night

Jungle South of Akrivel

Today was a day of rest. Our magic users devoted much of their spells to restoring Marcus and I and so tomorrow we can continue with our exploration at full strength and health.

Thinking about the previous day I am not sure what I could have done differently. Clearly there are magical devices that would have helped in both encounters, but these tend to be expensive and we are not wealthy.

It is maddening that such small turns of fate can yield such dramatic changes of fortune. But then hiding away to avoid all such risks is no way to live.

11 Rova 4719, night

Ekujæ Treetop Village of Akrivel

This morning’s trip through the Hunter’s Gate went exactly to plan. Magically granted resistance to fire Qantrip, Aemi, and I passed through and we were able to quickly locate and disable the trap. We let the others know the path was clear and we all walked through the lava tube to the exit gate and stepped through.

We were among the ruins of some sort of temple complex and the intense heat and humidity instantly made themselves known. But what caught our attention the most were nearly a couple dozen elven archers all with arrows knocked and drawn and pointing at us.

Those more gifted with communication skills explained who we were and what we were doing here, and that we had slain the group of Cinderclaws that had gone through the gate to our section of the world. Qantrip produced the head of Malarunk to prove our story. This latter revelation eased the tension a great deal and we were invited to accompany the leader of this band, Jahsi, back to his village.

Renali left us at this point to rejoin her people, but she offered to be our guide should we need to travel through these tropical lands.

It was a ten mile hike through the steamy jungle. Along the way we learned that Jahsi and most of the people in his village were Ekujæ elves of the Leopard Clan. The presence of the Cinderclaws cultists was a relatively recent change and they had worked some sort of magic that blinded the elves, which made it nearly impossible for them to drive them off.

A few hours of walking later and I noticed a village of sorts perched upon platforms up in the jungle canopy. Each platform was built around a massive tree, or cluster of trees, and boasted either a single large structure or multiple smaller buildings. Wood planked bridges connected the platforms to one another with rope ladders ascending to upper (and lower) levels.

Standing beneath this village was a slender half-elven woman, who introduced herself as Nketiah, Jahsi’s daughter. She welcomed us to her village and invited us to a feast and to safely spend the night among her people. That’s when I noticed that one of her arms was extraordinary: it was made up of twisted interlacing twigs.

Jahsi quickly scrambled up a tree to the village and Nketiah followed, but she simply raised her… other arm and it branched upward, grabbing onto some vines and lifting her upward.

Well, I can climb, and so I quickly followed them to the village where I saw there were rope ladders available but they were rolled up. I asked the elves to lower them so the rest of the team could easily ascend and laughing they unfurled them.

There were a few more introductions in the village itself and we were invited to rest or explore their village. I wanted to see the village and decided to walk the perimeter, where I found elven archers on watch peering out and down. Maybe halfway around the village I saw something unusual: a lioness was perched upon the broad branch of a tree staring at me. Sure, lions can climb, but they usually don’t go very high and they certainly don’t… well, lounge on a tree limb.

The guards laughed and said they called the lioness Harriet, and they joked that she thought she was a leopard. And she was still looking at me. The elves didn’t seem concerned about her presence — in fact they had a rope ladder they offered to extend over to Harriet if I wanted to get closer.

Yes, I decided, I did want to get closer. And so I walked over and sat next to the lion. She stared at me and I said a few calming (I hope) words to her, but it was a little awkward. I then remembered that I had salted meat in a pouch and so I offered her that.

That broke the ice and she seemed quite content to sit there with me. Presently I stood up, said farewell and bowed to her as I took my leave. The guards seemed pleased with this and maintained that Harriet liked me.

I’d rather not think about what would have happened had she decided that she didn’t like me.

I returned back to the others in time to meet another elf, Akosa, who was from the Hawk Clan. He was taciturn and did not seem happy to be with us, but he was in charge of providing fresh game for the evening’s feast and he came to ask us what we would like to eat. Almost as an afterthought he said we could join him on the hunt, which I think he immediately regretted when most of us jumped at the chance.

But we proved our worth and we brought back quite a few river boars, which the elves prized as a delicacy.

And yet still Akosa was prickly almost to the point of being offensive. It turns out that he and his people had been kept as slaves by the Aspis Consortium and forced to mine for gold at their Whitebridge Station outpost.

Yes, I knew of it. Geography was one of the things Natre would teach me, and it was a subject I delighted in learning. Although now, looking back, how a goblin from the Chitterwood knew so much about the world was yet another mystery in the enigma that was her life.

Qantrip speculated that his dour attitude was probably due to problems with his love life, and the way Akosa clammed up after that Qantrip was likely right.

We returned to Akrivel and were introduced to the Twin Leopards — the clan leaders, Ose Panin and Ose Atsu, who were literally twins.

They quizzed us about our goals and outlook and then tested us on skills we knew. I opted to demonstrate unlocking a lock using a training device I had — earlier I had already proven my abilities with a bow during the hunt, and I thought it unwise to search for some secret hiding place or to unlock some door or chest that might hide something private.

This culminated in a friendly musical competition between Ose Panin and Aemi in which Aemi performed at her absolute best, impressing the Ekujæ onlookers.

And then it was time for the feast. We sat near Nketiah and Aemi noticed that she was a little distraught, because she notices things like that to which I am completely oblivious. Her father, Jahsi, and Akosa liked one another — really liked — but kept away from one another because they were from different clans and they worried how it might look.

Aemi and the others worked out a clever plan to get these two star crossed lovers together over dancing. Aemi provided the music and the rest of us started to dance, pulling in Jahsi and Akosa separately until all of a sudden we handed them off to one another.

It worked and I was happy to have a hand in making them happy, but it’s a good thing the party doesn’t rely on me for these sorts of things.

Later Nketiah led the clan in a ritualistic telling of the Great Darkness. After which they asked if any of us had a story to share.

The day’s successful hunt for river boar had reminded me of the time a pack of boars had menaced our local goblin tribe in the Chitterwood, and so I recounted the tale of how I led a band of goblin hunters in the quest to slay the beasts.

Aemi told her story of the loss of her first team to some unnamed horror.

Liberte gave a precise and fascinating history on the cowardice of the Order of the Nail.

Marcus told of his visions of dragon-fire.

Tarsius told of an attack on a walled city by a clever band of thugs that he helped drive off.

And then talk turned to the business at hand: the Cinderclaws. We made it clear our goal was to find and defeat them and this was probably why the Ekujæ had welcomed us into their village. We discussed the likely location of the cult in the jungle and the means by which we could hunt for them.

They also gave us a number of items that should prove useful in our quest, which we gratefully accepted.

Later still we were shown to a place where we could sleep.

13 Arodus 4719, evening

Seven Card Consortium Citadel

It has been an unusual week in that nothing has tried to kill us, and even more extraordinary we have not sought out those who are trying to kill us. Instead we have settled into proper ownership of the citadel. All of us have been busy cleaning and rearranging the interior spaces while two teams of professional stone masons from Breachill repair the outer walls.

We moved in right away and made do with the comforts the old structure provided which quickly improved as we toiled on.

Today we took a break from the citadel work and spent the day sorting through Voz’s papers, books, and other paraphernalia at the Reliant Book Company. This was done at the request of the town council because… well, the best person in-city to do the work was Voz herself.

Dinner in town tonight. To be truthful with Breachill only a mile away from our new home we can easily walk to a hot meal whenever we feel like it.

17 Arodus 4719, evening

Seven Card Consortium Citadel

With the bulk of the cleaning work completed and the wall repairs still underway we each had time to do our own thing. For me this was crafting arrows, which I find relaxing and almost therapeutic. Tarsius and I have situated ourselves in the old weapon and armor workshops where we spend our days contentedly toiling away.

Today in our spare time we addressed the undead in the basement. We needed to get rid of these creatures before the hired masons began to clear the stairwell leading from the courtyard down to this level.

Tarsius spent some time in the crypt studying what had been done to create the undead and determined it was a trap left by the Hell-knights and triggered by Voz.

Okay, can we stop and consider for a moment just how evil and fucked up you have to be to make a trap the creates undead? The more we find out about Hell-knights the more repugnant I find them.

Liberte and I were able to disable the trap, which destroyed the skeletons and the wights.

This still left the flying skulls in Hell-knight helmets.

Consider this as well: the Hell-knights created these undead monstrosities. So why don’t people consider them to be evil?

There was nothing to disable here, although a plan was put forward to capture them in bags rather than destroy them. I’m sure it would have been useful and maybe even valuable to have bags o’skull, but netting a flying hostile skull isn’t the same as catching a butterfly. The first attempt went about as well as you’d expect. We quickly settled on a new plan: beat the little flying, nail shooting shits to death. This plan worked much better.

I think we need to remove every last taint of the Hell-knights from our new home and so was encouraged that others thought we should “relocate” the bones in the crypt. I’d be content just to lump them in a pile outside and invite the Bumblebrashers to piss on them before soaking the bones in oil and torching them.

We did claim the weapons and other items from the sarcophagi, some of which are magical. Alek had made some noise about it being okay for us to use some of the equipment from down here if our cause was worthy. It’s pretty obvious what I think Alek can do with his feeble sense of what is worthy and what is not.

24 Arodus 4719, evening

Seven Card Consortium Citadel

More crafting! I have made a thousand regular arrows and 500 cold iron arrows. I have made them available for everyone in our group: just take a bundle of 20 and put a mark on the tally sheet so I know to make more.

30 Arodus 4719, evening

Seven Card Consortium Citadel

I worked with Aemi over the past several days to hire craftsmen to construct a gate in the tunnel that runs to the basement of the Pickled Ear and another in the secret tunnel that leads from the back of the citadel to the basement. We’re talking solid metal doors with superior locks that require a key on both sides.

This week the stone masons cleared the stairway from the courtyard to the basement and repaired the steps, which means we don’t need to use the “secret” tunnel any longer to get down there.

8 Rova 4719, evening

Seven Card Consortium Citadel

More crafting (a thousand blunt arrows) but more importantly the masons have cleared and repaired the long flight of stairs leading down to Alseta’s Ring. We had covered the entryway into the actual Ring itself with blankets and one of us was always on duty while the workers toiled to protect the Ring from prying eyes.

Qantrip then used castings of Anthropomorphic Animal to move the rock and spoil from the excavation to block the entrance from the Guardian’s Way caverns and so now we have exclusive and controlled access to the Ring.

9 Rova 4719, evening

Seven Card Consortium Citadel

Earlier in the day we spent time studying the Ring and discovered a few additional details about some of the gates. Most importantly we found that the Huntergate, through which the Cinderclaws arrived, is damaged and that we needed to repair it. Special spells from our magically inclined folk will make this task possible and so we’ll attempt it tomorrow.

With Alseta’s Ring now secured and studied we decided it was time to tell the authorities about it. Specifically we told Greta, the head of the council, because Qantrip had discovered some unsettling information about one of the council members.

It turns out that Voz had already told her about the Ring, but with a good bit of misinformation and exaggeration all intended to make the situation seem more dangerous and out of control than it really was.

10 Rova 4719, evening

Seven Card Consortium Citadel

Well yes, we did manage to repair the gate and we were able to activate it and pass through to an intermediate dimension. It was in the shape of a long lava tube, but it was very warm — actually hot and getting hotter. Renali and the two Charau-ka were with us (they were all anxious to return home) and told us that this was not how things were when they originally passed through.

Aemi called out to return back through the gate to the citadel but before all of us could make it through a large smoky, ethereal image of an angry red dragon materialized and breathed fire on us. Alas, but the Charau-ka both perished while Tarsius, Marcus, Liberte and I were severely burned.

We regrouped back in the Ring and discussed what we had seen. The consensus was that it was some sort of magical trap, which meant we could disable it and safely cross the tunnel to the gate we had glimpsed at the far end.

It was generally agreed that some sort of fire protection was in order, and that spells that could buff my ability to both detect and disable the trap were essential. This meant putting off the second attempt until tomorrow.

This means Aemi and Qantrip will accompany me through the gate tomorrow morning for the attempt.

I am totally on board with this.

6 Arodus 4719, Night

Breachill

After sorting through the items Malarunk and his cronies were carrying we turned our attention to the elf gate, or Alseta’s Ring as it is properly called. A partially melted archway allows access from the natural caverns into the circular chamber, for “ring” it is: a set of gateways set in a circle with facing statues beneath a domed ceiling.

On the far side from where we entered is the rubble-blocked stars leading up to the citadel. But to the right of where we entered is a pair of polished metal double doors.

The stairs were blocked and the gateways required more research, which left the double doors for immediate exploration. I volunteered because I genuinely enjoy this sort of work, and Liberte stepped over to the side of the doors to offer support.

In a flash of inspiration Aemi handed me the seal of Alseta that we had found above, and this turned out to be key (literally) to passing through the doors. As I approached the form of an elven warrior stepped out from the door — not “opened the door and stepped through” but literally stepped out from the door as if the door morphed into him (which it may well have, because the elf looked fairly metallic).

It spoke to us in Elvish, which I have been learning and so I got the general meaning as, “The custodian of Alseta’s Ring dwells beyond.” It then looked at me and said, “Only those who carry her blessed sign may pass.”

After flashing a smile at Aemi I turned and passed by the elf and found a chamber with empty shelves, open (and empty) chests, and a table. On the table was a stack of papers. Included in the papers was the dead for the citadel.

I searched the room but found nothing else of interest and so I returned to the gate room and informed my team mates that we were now the proud owners of Citadel Altaerein. Personally I think a name change is in order.

We then spent some time identifying each gateway from the writing on the gate and the identity of its corresponding statue. The writing was in elvish and so I used chalk to write in common the name of each gate. 

Lotusgate [faced by a statue of Alseta]. Jewelgate [Yuelral]. Duskgate [Findeladlara]. Huntergate [Ketephys] — it was through here that the Cinderclaws and Renali arrived. Vengegate [Calistria]. Dreamgate [Desna].

We realized that we had much work to do in the coming weeks, both research and physical labor, but we wisely addressed the immediate challenge: we needed to get past Ralldar. And by “get past” I mean slay. It was no good pretending that having an insane barghest beneath our home was a bad idea.

Our battle plan was simple: rush in and engage it and beat on it until it died. The execution wasn’t quite as simple because when we marched into his chamber he was flying ten feet above the floor and he was flickering in such a way that made striking him more difficult.

And this is why I appreciate (and prefer) archery. Those of us who could attacked him with our ranged weapons and spells. Liberte and then Kyira used a spell to increase their size, but by the time they had done so Ralldar had vanished. Liberte struck at the space where the barghest had last been and felt a satisfying thud, and he called out that he was still there but invisible.

While we pressed our attack on the space we last remembered him being Qantrip moved into the adjacent treasure room only to find the Ralldar was already there. She shouted his whereabouts and we rushed over to the door as Ralldar hit Tarsius, which ended his invisibility, and so Marcus and I peppered him with arrows as Tarsius and Liberte clobbered him.

After that it didn’t take long to overwhelm Ralldar, who dropped to the floor dead.

We gathered up his possessions — both worn and stashed — and identified some of them before heading back to town.

It was fairly late by the time we made it to Breachill, but fortunately we found rooms at Cayden’s Keg.

7 Arodus 4719, Noon

Breachill

We took the deed to the town clerk’s office as soon as they opened. They accepted it and were quite hopeful when we told them we planned to repair the citadel and live there. They were especially keen to make use of the old fort’s defenses if the city faced a threat. This makes sense: much of the citadel’s appeal is its proximity to Breachill and helping to defend the city and its people is of mutual benefit.

We met Warbal soon after and she was happy for us, and became ecstatic when we told her that as legal owners of the citadel we were granting the Bumblebrashers clan the right to live there. We already had this conversation the evening before as we walked back into town and decided that because they had been living there for so long and taking care of the place (within their abilities) then it was only fair that they should keep their home.

Goblins get kicked around a lot in this world and it was nice to see them at the fair end of a deal for once, and even better that we were the ones on the other end of the deal.

We’ll need to work out details of exactly where in the citadel they live, and what sort of creatures they can bring in with them (no more bears, for instance), but we are confident in a successful long term collaboration.

And already Aemi and Qantrip are working out a schedule of repair and cleaning projects for the citadel. Obviously the outer walls need to be repaired and the doors made secure. The collapsed stairway down to the basement needs to be cleared as do the stairs leading down from there to the ring.

For the upper level work (including the first set of stairs) we’ve agreed to hire skilled workers from Breachill, which should bolster our standing with the community. Better still, Warbal has agreed to act as the overseer for these construction projects. She was so happy that we are allowing her tribe to continue to live there that she is only charging half her usual fee for the first month, which is quite generous.

We’ve also had discussions about what to tell the town council about Alseta’s Ring. My preference is to not tell them at all — ever. It really isn’t their business. But Aemi and Tarsius seem to think it important as good citizens to “keep them informed.”

Hmm, I am all about being a productive and contributing member of the local community, but I do not consider telling city officials about something they do not own and provided no assistance in recovering. I’ve also heard many tales from Natre and the goblins of the Chitterwood about city officials using the laws to benefit their powerful friends. I even witnessed this first hand in Elidir where the wealthy were always treated preferentially.

But we are a team and so compromises must be made.

Before we tell anyone else about Alseta’s Ring we need to secure it. The stairway that leads down from the citadel to the ring must be cleared. You can imagine the legal argument against our ownership and access to the ring if we did not have direct access to it: “My lord, how can this gate be considered part of their citadel when they have to march for miles to Guardian’s Way and then even more miles through caverns just to reach it?” And of course we need to seal off the ring from those caverns. Right now anyone can enter the caves and follow the trail left by Vos and us straight to the ring.

Qantrip is keen to learn how the gates work before telling the council about it, and I can see her point her too.

And I just realized that once we open up the stairs all of the way down to the ring we still have two unsecured entries into the citadel’s basement: the hidden tunnel out back that the goblins showed us and the tunnel that leads all of the way into Breachill and the basement of the Pickled Ear. These two tunnels need to be made safe, and so I will volunteer to organize the effort to install gates and doors to control access.

Enough writing for now, there is work to be done!

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?

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.

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.

2 Arodus 4719, midday

Citadel Altaerein, Hellknight Hill

The others sifted through the stuff, both useful and useless, that the boggards had with them and we were ready to continue exploring eastward. I opened the door and was met by another boggard who was soon joined by his companion.

Things were again taking an unfriendly turn when amazingly the boggards called for a truce. Mercifully Liberte spoke their language (Boggardeese?) and we were able to work out an arrangement where they would help us in exchange for their freedom.

I like it when people are reasonable and was quite happy with this deal, but clearly Alak was not. Up until this point I had only been slightly annoyed by the want-to-be Hellknight’s attitude, but his comments made me glad that the Hellknights had abandoned the citadel and we only had to deal with the one arrogant prick.

Our two new allies were named Skort and Venak and they were a font of information. Back in their homeland, far to the south, their leader had been overthrown and a large number of their people joined up with a group of cultists called the Cinderclaws. These cultists were led by a priest called Malarunk and it was he who led them through a portal and into the citadel. Once here the plan had been to take over the surrounding lands, but this was delayed by the stairwell collapse that isolated Malarunk and a large group of Cinderclaws on the level below us from the remaining cultists on this level.

Skort and Venak were done with the entire shit show and just wanted to get back home. They confirmed that there were a handful of others still on this level waiting to ambush us and that the goblin’s bear was trapped in a chamber to the north. They said bear had already chewed through several cultists before they gave up on trying to deal with it.

This gave us the idea to release the bear into the room where the remaining Cinderclaws were waiting and let it deal with them. Combining skills we were able to do just that and we were left with only one grievously wounded boggard. Sadly the bear perished.

We searched the chambers and found a handful of useful items and saw where they had been trying to tunnel their way out (they did not know of the secret way we had used to get down here).

We began to wonder about how to get down to the lower level which led us to searching more on this level. There was the problem of the wicked little creepy doll to deal with and so we came up with another cunning plan to lead the doll into the catacombs and let the skeletons finish it off. This plan did not go as smoothly as the previous one. The doll’s lust for vengeance against Hellknights made it focus on Alak. But in the end the doll was destroyed.

Alak guessed that the doll was created by a Hellknight back when they lived here and they decided not to take it with them when they left. And thus the doll’s hatred for the order. I can’t blame it and the best part about the encounter was seeing the little mini Hellknight devil doll fearlessly attack Alak.

We found a few more useful items and briefly entertained the thought of attacking the jelly cube in the back room but decided (wisely) to return later with more fire based magic.

This left the doors at the east end of the catacombs to explore.

There was a chamber with a table and a store room beyond these doors, and recent footprints that showed someone had come this way, left through one of the doors into the catacombs and then hurriedly returned through the other door.

We found more interesting items in the chamber, including a ring which had belonged to Alak’s father. He was thrilled because this was what he came to the fortress to find, and he announced he would be returning home.

While the young fighter was certainly useful to have around in a scrape, his narrow world view did not fit in with the rest of the group and I will be happy to see him leave.

But this was not the most important find beyond the catacombs. We found a tunnel that took us all of the way back to Breachill and into the basement of the Pickled Ear! With this knowledge in hand we returned to the citadel and took Skort and Venak up and out into the surrounding woods. We advised them to be wary but to hang out in the vicinity because we might at some point be able to return them to their homeland.

2 Arodus 4719, night

Breachill

We returned to Breachill with Alak and Warbal. Warbal agreed to update the town council on what was happening at the citadel while the rest of us joined Alak for a last drink before he departed.

Over dinner Aemi told us more about her past. She was apparently a child of a well to do but highly dysfunctional family which eventually left her penniless and homeless and put her on a perilous path that brought her here. It sounded a lot less pleasant than my humble background.

After that talk turned to our next actions. Aemi felt that Voz, the bookstore owner, was deeply involved in what was happening at the citadel, and her theory made a lot of sense. We decided to head over to the Pickled Ear and talk to the owner, Roxie Denn, to see what she knew about the secret passageway between her place and the citadel.

Some folks are people persons — not just those of us who enjoy the company of others, but those who actually know how to interact with people, read their body language, and sway them to different ways of thinking. Hanspur knows I am not one of them! But Aemi and Liberte are. Tarsius acts as if he is, but, well I’ll get to that later.

As such I found it is best to let Aemi or Liberte do the talking for the group. If I have an idea or an opinion I want conveyed I find it better if I pass it on to them and let them integrate it into the conversation.

Thus at the Pickled Ear it was Aemi that did the talking as Liberte carefully watched and the rest of us hung around, trying hard not to look threatening. It helped that we were officially employed by the town council. It also helped that we already suspected Voz and so had a convenient person whom Roxie could throw under the bus when she realized we were totally onto her.

Yeah, Voz paid her for discrete access to the tunnel and had used it just days before. Aemi looked at me and suggested we might need to get into someplace we weren’t supposed to be.

I was totally on board with that.

3 Arodus 4719, morning

Breachill

On the way to the Reliant Book Company Liberte split off to see the Breachill archivist and share some of what we had discovered at the citadel.

At the bookshop a notice signed by Voz was prominently hung on the door stating that it was closed until further notice.

“Well that’s convenient,” I offered, “because it means there is no better time to go in and look around.”

Tarsius thought it was a good time to get a search warrant from the town council. Bless his heart. But Aemi suggested he go do that while we waited.

Some time later, after the rest of us had searched Voz’s place, he returned a little dejected. It seemed that council woman Gardania was more interested in protecting the rich and powerful than administering justice, and nothing Tarsius said had changed her mind.

While he was away keeping the authorities distracted we entered the building through a back window, and after disarming a few traps and unlocking a few locked doors we found that Voz had left in a hurry. We didn’t completely loot the place, although it was tempting — what better way to counteract someone bent on harming the community than to use their own tools against them? We did find a book, some magical scrolls, and more importantly a scrap of paper that read, “Aha! Entrance to Alseta’s Ring-Guardian’s Way.”

We learned that Guardian’s Way was a fortified outpost some six miles out of town.

Now what?

2 Arodus 4719, morning

Citadel Altaerein, Hellknight Hill

Qantrip suggested inviting the goblins down to feast on the dead turtle creature, and so they joined us in the court room cum dining room where they feasted on turtle meat and seemed quite delighted with their change of fortune. One of them croaked out a strange little song that sounded vaguely familiar.

Gamera is really neat,
He is full of turtle meat,
We are eating Gamera!

From the court room we moved west, exploring various libraries, where we found some mundane legal books (as expected considering the chamber with the turtle was a court room) and in the first and more interesting history books in the second. Books are heavy and so we will need to return with a cart to haul away what we found.

We then found the jail with a desk at the near end and cage like cells at the far end. A closer look showed the skeletal remains of former prisoners — or so we assumed, which begged the question of what sort of sick bastards leave people to die like this?

Of course that’s when the bones stood up and we found ourselves facing four formidable skeleton warriors. We shifted into our usual combat positions and roles, but it quickly became obvious that we could not stand against all of them at once. We fled the room and closed the door behind. We heard the scratching of bony fingers against the door for a few moments and then silence.

Some might have called it running away, and for others it was a strategic retreat. I really didn’t care: we would gain nothing by standing toe to toe with these monsters and would have lost precious health and resources. We can return later if we feel the need to clear out the fort and set up a kill box where the skeletons can only come at us one at a time.

We continued to explore, passing by the ante chamber before the grand entry hall where we left a pack of goblin dogs earlier. In the next room we stumbled upon a lone bugbear, which insanely tried to attack us. I think Liberte killed it with just a look.

No, seriously, our half orc scholar in addition to being quite learned and steeped in lore has also nurtured an imposing stare that often causes our foes to piss themselves. He glared at the hapless bugbear and it kind of filled its pants before we dropped it.

At about this time one of the town guards called to us from out front. He brought a message from the council expressing their concerns about a band of cultists and monsters taking up residence less than a mile away from Breachill, and yes, of course they would pay us for dealing with the potential threat.

“It never hurts to ask,” was one of Natre’s favorite expressions whenever I was forced to go into town and negotiate for the goblin tribe in the Chitterwood, and so I am in the habit of asking

We decided now was a good time to deal with the spider swarms we had left in the kitchen earlier, and so we dragged the bugbear’s corpse outside to act as bait. I opened the kitchen door and scampered back into another room while Tarsius slammed the door behind me. Qantrip kept a stealthy watch and called out that the swarms had left the fort and dissipated into the surrounding countryside.

With the main floor of the fortress cleared and explored we returned to Helba and Warble who pried themselves away from the heaping herptile flesh long enough to take us outside and around back where they pointed out the secret entrance into the vaults below. Helba gave us an annotated map of the vaults, including the location of where they had trapped a bear some time before.

Their idea was that it would make a great mascot, but mostly it just wanted out and mauled numerous goblins as they tried to tame it. Helba seemed quite fond of it and expressed concern for how the cultists might be treating it. Hmm, yes. They also marked where there were old graves and other hallways and rooms.

The problem with underground spaces is that they tend to be dark. Dark can be your friend and it can conceal you, but in the absolute blackness of the underground vault most of us were blind. Being a half orc and a goblin Liberte and Qantrip could see easily enough, but most of us would need a light source. Aemi had a dancing light spell she used to keep a glowing ball of light moving about and lighting our way. Tarsius also put a light spell on his sword, and I could bring out a hooded lantern to supplement the magical light as needed.

We climbed down and moved down a long corridor that eventually opened into a wide hall with many passages and doors leading off in all directions. Waiting for us were a pair of enormous birds that began to squawk and make a horrific racket. They were quite beautiful to behold and their rustling feathers glinted with exotic colors. In fact at some point I was so transfixed by the shimmering colors that I lost track of time for a moment.

But of course the birds were hostile and attacked. Qantrip used sleep spells and Liberte used his fierce “don’t fuck with us” look, and Aemi sang, and the rest of us hit the exotic birds until they dropped.

The noise from the birds and combat made us extra nervous because there were three doors ahead of us that were open. I crept up and peered through the doors. To the north and south were mostly empty rooms that led further back, but the center room had a desk with the bodies of a couple of boggards behind it, and a creepy little doll standing on the desk.

And the doll was talking. I couldn’t understand it, but Liberte could and said it was pleading for us to help it and take it with us. Uh huh. Keep in mind that it was saying this in Infernal. And when we showed no signs of coming closer the freakish thing began to scream and lept of the table and ran towards the door. Liberte slammed it shut and we heard a distinct thud as the doll must have run into it.

Okay. We’ll return to deal with the devil doll later. Strategic retreat. Running away. Staying alive.

We decided to explore the corridors leading south, which the goblins had helpfully identified as being burial areas. We opened two regular doors and found various crypts. Alak said that this was indeed where the Hellknights buried their dead, and there was clearly a class system in effect even after death. We saw no reason to go into the room until I noticed that some of the cap stones had been damaged and that there were fairly recent tracks in the room.

Alak and I entered to investigate when a large number of skeletons sprang to life and shuffled towards me. Interestingly they ignored Alak, and so we retreated to the main hallway, where I fished the badges we had collected previously and handed them out to everyone. 

Tarsius bravely volunteered to test this hypothetical ward and it worked! He was able to walk about the crypt rooms unmolested by the skeletons. We returned to the main hall where we heard new voices speaking another language I didn’t know.

There were two kobolds living in the chamber to the north of the devil doll room. They had lived at peace with the goblins to the north and were chased out by the cultists and were clearly living hard by.

Fun fact: everyone is a servant to kobolds, even if they are not aware of it.

They were delighted with the fresh bird meat we offered them, and agreed that they should leave the vault and join the goblins upstairs.

I checked out one additional southern passageway that terminated in a dead end, but with some searching I found a secret door. Beyond that were more sarcophagi and three wights.

Nope. I closed the door and returned to the others.

Looking at the goblin map we decided to avoid the eastern most northern corridor because that’s where most of the rooms were and we assumed that is where the cultists would be. We also dismissed the central corridor because that’s where their bear lived.

And so we went west and introduced ourselves to a pair of boggards. They were not friendly and so we were not friendly back and again combined our various skills to remove the threat to the party.

1 Arodus 4719, late afternoon

Citadel Altaerein, Hellknight Hill

I am sure Natre would disagree, but there is such a thing as being too eager!

We found a large gap in the southern wall of the old fortress and carefully climbed up the slope of rubble into a training room. Straw stuffed dummies were mounted on posts with which trainees could practice combat. Snooping around yielded a few coins and I found a secret door in the southwest corner.

I carefully checked this door for traps and opened it. I then eagerly stepped inside without checking for traps and found one the hard way… or the pointy painful way to be precise. A spear launched out and struck me right in the side, which was a painful lesson that eagerness needed to balance with caution.

Fortunately Aemi was able to cast a healing spell that closed the wound and greatly eased the pain. The embarrassment will take longer to fade.

I found a handful of interesting items in the small space beyond the secret door and we gathered them up. A silver longsword was resting against a wall and I put it in my pack, not realizing its usefulness at the time.

The space led westward a short way to a closed door, but we decided to return to the training room and pick one of the many doors that led from there.

I listened at the western door and heard the sound of someone shouting. I motioned to the others and used some of the basic hand signals we had agreed upon before setting out to indicate trouble. After the party positioned itself to handle the threat I opened the door.

Beyond was a large room with a knight fighting a handful of imps. He called out for us to lend us a hand, and given that imps were a common foe we did just that and filed into the room. Tarsius and Kyira rushed in to join in melee while the others stood back to offer support or attack at a distance. Both Aemi and Qantrip were able to use magic to good effect.

I had planned on using my bow — I am not opposed to being on the front line of combat, but I am better skilled with a bow — when Liberte called out that the silver sword should prove particularly effective against imps. I took a moment to pull out the longsword and waded into the combat, and Liberte was right and the imps were none too happy.

Once the battle was over we saw that the room’s floor was black with a blood red arena painted into it, and a pentagram painted within that. Hmm.

The knight introduced himself as Alak, and we each (rather awkwardly) introduced ourselves. He was a hell-knight initiate (and so not actually a knight yet) and had returned to the citadel (what I am calling the fort) for personal reasons and had encountered a number of wild animals and monsters and so he had moved on (ie, fled — nothing wrong with that!) to this chamber when the imps appeared.

When asked about the goblins who lived here he said he wasn’t aware of them, and had not seen them, which was likely given that Iskaryn saw them hiding on the battlements above. Alak was quite happy to accompany us outside and up to see the goblins and so we worked our way out to a large courtyard.

Before entering the courtyard I heard voices speaking goblin — someone was angry and threatening to throw someone else off the top of the wall. I passed this on to the rest of the team as we entered the square.

There, from a shallow pool of stagnant water against the west wall an enormous lizard creature rose up. Someone asked, “Do we kill it or go by it?” to which I replied “It seems unlikely we’ll be able to get by it.” “Okay, so kill it.” “Yup.”

It was a nasty beast and powerful, gouging out chunks of flesh from anyone within striking distance. Tarsius and Kyira joined Alak in melee assault and the rest of us began our ranged attacks and Aemi began to sing. I know, sing, right? But the sound of her voice definitely made me feel like I was doing better than I normally would. And she has a nice voice.

The lizard puffed out a blast of sickly vapors at Alak and Kyira, and then dropped Tarsius with a single blow — holy shit! Fortunately Qantrip rushed in to stabilize him and Kyira managed to heal him.

With a determined effort we managed to slay the beast and its body splashed back down into the foul water of the pond.

From the wall tops we heard a chorus of goblin voices cheering, but then one different, unpleasant, whiny, nasal voice cut through them. “Who are you? You better stay away or I’ll kill her!”

We looked up to see a group of goblins huddled together, but apart from them, to the left, stood a halfling holding onto a goblin woman with a knife pressed to her throat.

Obviously we had found Calmont, and it seems his evil behavior extended beyond trying to burn people alive. Aemi began to talk to him, which caused him to froth at the mouth and gesticulate wildly with his free hand about how nobody was going to take what was his. The rest of us stood still, trying to figure out what to do, but I saw Qantrip blend into the shadows along the wall and begin to climb the steps. Aemi must have seen it too because she continued to engage with Calmont.

Alak had seen enough and began to climb the stairs, apparently not having seen Qantrip moving stealthily ahead of him, but we couldn’t call him back without the risk of exposing her. Fortunately she made it within range of Calmont and he dropped like a sack of flour onto the battlements. That’s never going to get old.

Some of us ran up and bound Calmont with the halfling sized manacles we had picked up from the town guard earlier.

I spoke with the goblin leader, Helba, whom Calmont had held hostage. She was relieved to hear that her friend Warbal had sent us and she explained that Calmont had only arrived that day and was not the cause of their distress smoke signal.

“Cultists appeared some weeks ago and kicked us out from our home in the vaults beneath the citadel,” she said. “Then the monsters arrived and the lizard beast collapsed the main stairs leading down from the courtyard. But the goblins have a secret way we can show you.”

I thanked her and we decided we would return to Breachill right away with Calmont and then return to continue our exploration of the fortress in the morning. Once we were done with the main level the goblins would show us the way to the vaults below.

1 Arodus 4719, evening

Cayden’s Keg, Breachill

We spoke with Calmont on the walk back into town. Aemi was good at making him feel at ease and getting him to talk about his purpose at the fort. He was looking for a very valuable magical ring, but not the type of ring you were on your finger, but rather a teleportation portal. “It would be valuable, and we would control it and the access to it. Yes, I would operate the ring and you could guard it, and I would share the wealth from the fees I charged to use it. Just think of the riches!”

Right. Whatever. We dropped him off at the town guard and after Liberte did some more research at the town archives we updated Greta Gardania, our contact on the town council. She paid us our reward and then expressed concern about the presence of cultists at the fort so close to Breachill. I offered the city our services if they wanted to hire us, and she agreed to consult the rest of the council about the matter.

The extra coin has allowed me to have a nice meal at Cayden’s Keg and a room for the night.

2 Arodus 4719, morning

Citadel Altaerein, Hellknight Hill

We set off for the fort this morning along with our new ally, Alak, as well as Warbal, who wanted to check in with her friend Helba. The fort is only a mile away and so the walk was a pleasant half an hour stroll up into the hills.

We thought we’d go through the main gate this time, but we discovered a small pack of goblin dogs living in the entry way. Maybe they belonged to the resident goblins and so we let them be and entered through the training room.

We escorted Warbal through the safe route we established yesterday up to the goblins and then returned to the training room. Qantrip wanted to approach the goblin dogs from the opposite direction and so we took an eastern door into a kitchen. We snooped around a bit and found some old food.

And then swarms of spiders came out from the cupboards and engulfed us. Swarms! I remember encountering swarms of stinging bugs with Natre, but she was able to blast them away with spells. I don’t know any spells, and swatting at them with the flat of a sword is no more effective than shooting at them with arrows.

“Run away!” I don’t know who yelled it — hell it could have been me — but it was a damned fine idea. We scrambled out from the kitchen and Alak slammed the door shut.

“So not that way,” I offered rather lamely.

“How about we go through the door in the secret passage,” Liberte suggested.

I checked for traps like our lives depended on it. Door. Check for traps. Listen for noise from the other side. Clear. Hallway. Check. Listen. Clear. Bend in the hallway. Check. Listen. Clear. Another door, another hallway, repeat and rinse. I need to improve my skills here so it doesn’t take so long.

Liberte was so bored by the process that he went outside into the courtyard to see if he could predict where our passage would take us before we got there.

Eventually we found ourselves at the base of one of the towers with a pair of closed doors. I checked the door to the east and opened it to reveal a hallway with a wall that collapsed into the courtyard. Liberte was there and waved.

At the same time Qantrip opened the other door and squealed, but not in a good way. There was a room with half a dozen dire rats and one of them sprang forward and bit her. She scampered away while the rest of us sprang into action. Once again we proved to be an effective team and were able to dispatch all of the rats.

Yes, I follow a deity who’s avatar is a giant water rat, and I do have a fondness for our rodent friends. But aggressive, disease ridden dire rats are altogether different.

Oh, and that part about being disease ridden isn’t just hyperbole. Iskaryn maintained a lengthy dialogue with Aemi throughout our fight describing how Qantrip was most likely infected and would need healing, and well, let’s just say that bird really doesn’t know how to be brief. And she appears to lack tact, but then I think that’s not something Aemi would disagree with.

We searched the room and found a few items of interest and then went through a door leading east (after searching and listening, of course). Another hallway and another door. But this time while listening I heard a soft yipping noise, like puppies. We opened the door and found an untidy chamber.

The yipping came from the north. It was from a pair of wolf pups — no, warg pups! We all thought they were cute, but we were all concerned about running into the parents. And sure enough, a large and angry warg sprang into the room. A few of us tried to reason with it, but it wasn’t in the mood for talking and attacked. We had to kill it.

Qantrip locked the puppies in another room with some food (imp and dire rat body parts she had thoughtfully harvested). While the rest of us explored.

There was a large room like a lecture hall and through an opening we saw daylight and a pool of water. Laying in the pool was a humanoid corpse in armor. Not suspicious at all.

Liberte and I went into the room from whence the dire wolf had come and that’s when we heard shouting from our team mates, but by the time we got to them the threat was over. There was the corpse of a giant turtle-like thing with spiny spikes across its back, onto which the body was impaled. Apparently the thing used the body as a lure for… well, for people like us. Someone had killed it with a spell, I think, but it just happened a few moments ago and so I’m not sure what really went down.