February 3rd, 2006

3rd of Icetide, 1977 FG

Griswold and I’ve ended up in Tristen, a respectable city not far from Phoenix. Although I'm not too far from the former battlefield, it's nice to finally relax and set aside the stresses of war. Anyway, we saw a sign on one of the local inns, The Merchant’s Last, reading something about help wanted. Now that I've left the military, I could use some work. I'd also like to see more of the Celestine Empire. Deciding that checking out the local contracts might serve as a tool to fulfill such a goal, I chose to investigate. Griswold also seemed interested in the prospect.

We were the first ones to arrive for the job at the inn. Shortly after we arrived, three others entered the building also seeking work. Most of them appeared to be inexperienced youths with dreams of great accomplishments. They were followed by a strange character announcing that he was a “Grate Wizzard” by the writing on his hat. I can appreciate their enthusiasm but I'll admit I'm a bit worried about how they'd handle themselves should the work require that we face serious conflict.

A few more people followed the Grate Wizzard and then a crippled man in a wheelchair, named Darius, rolled in. Darius was actually our soon-to-be employer. The job he offered consists of transporting some merchandise to one destination and, more importantly, returning with different merchandise. Essentially, we're to act as an armed caravan. The merchandise he expects us to bring back are what he called sun-kissed flowers. Anyway, he said it’ll be 15 copper a day with possible incentive for finishing early. While the pay isn't necessarily amazing, it does give me an excuse to travel. I and everyone else present accepted the work.

4th of Icetide, 1977 FG

There were four packs waiting for us when we gathered this morning. Seeing that there were ten of us in total, I decided to let the others determine who would carry the packs. It probably wouldn’t be smart for a scout to be carrying the merchandise, anyway.

Darius provided us with an odd guide, named Belen, that doesn’t seem very human to me. She marched us pretty hard and didn’t appear to be affected in the least bit. She isn’t a very good guide, either. She marched us at a pace that I found to be a bit excessive, leaving the majority of us extremely exhausted.

When we finally stopped, the youths proved their inexperience when some of them suggested we camp on the road. Although humorous, I wasn't going to let their inexperience create problems for the rest of us. I made sure we found a more defendable position for the night.

I was given watch with Mort, one of the youths. He’s an inquisitive fellow and may have some potential should he survive this trek. A little on-hand experience will help him more than anything else. Speaking of learning from experience, he fell asleep on watch. Seeing as we have a poor and insensitive guide, I decided to do nothing more than toss a small rock at him. He took the gesture very well and stayed awake for the rest of our watch.

7th of Icetide, 1977 FG

We faced quite a deal of excitement today. The Orkist priest, named Oskar, discovered some strange peaches here in the mountains. I say strange because they’re still growing perfectly in the middle of Icetide! Mort decided to eat one and most everyone gave him a really hard time about it. Schmendrick, the Grate Wizzard, especially harassed him for his impulsive decision. He claimed that the peaches were obviously faerie peaches and that they would be very angry at us for taking their food. Chivalry, one of the youths, didn’t make Schmendrick any happier when he started packing the peaches into his pack, having learned they were supposedly magical.

Shortly after we left the peach trees, we found the remains of a caravan on the road. There weren’t any bodies but there were obvious signs of conflict, the ground littered with broken bronze weapons. The scene appeared to be relatively fresh, too.

Schmendrick didn’t skip a beat. He immediately took the opportunity to say that this was the faeries’ doing because the caravan obviously disturbed their peaches. I decided it’s better to be safe than sorry so, while everyone else was investigating the remains, I began to scout out our surroundings.

I was only up the road about twenty yards when I suddenly felt a sharp pain pierce my back. I turned to find a whole bunch of blue pygmies with bronze swords and javelins spilling onto the road. I knew my chances for survival were very slim if tried to fight back alone but running certainly wasn’t an option either. I did everything I could to defend myself from their constant attacks until the rest of the group could reach me.

It seems I underestimated many of my accomplices. They immediately charged forward to release me from my assailants. In the meantime, the pygmies continued to pursue my life. I held on long enough and they were eventually overcome, the survivors choosing to flee. By that point I had lost so much blood that I could no longer stand. I collapsed into unconsciousness.

I awoke only minutes later, completely healed of my injuries. Schmendrick may be an odd character but apparently he possesses the ability to perform magical healing. Oskar also has the capacity to perform supernatural healing through the influence of his deity. Our little group may have some irregular members but I think we compliment one another quite well.

Shortly after I awoke, the snow began to decend quite heavily. Although I'd normally prefer to find a cave in which to find shelter under such circumstances, the presence of the pygmies made me a little worried. Still, traveling in snow usually isn't the best idea. I suggested that we make camp but do so away from any caves we might find. However, the snow continued to descend like a large blanket and eventually left us no other choice. We elected to follow the guide to some known caves.

Late in the night we were awoken as a severly injured man, barely alive, moved his way into our camp. He was a survivor of the caravan we discovered earlier and requested that we save his friends from the little pygmies. Were I in his situation, my friends being in trouble, I would probably make the same request. As a party, we decided to help him.

After some exploration, we found an open room full of unsuspecting pygmies. We positioned ourselves to take them out as quickly and quietly as possible. Kess, another youth, and I dispatched a few with our arrows and the rest of the group moved in to take care of the rest. Contrary to our hopes, an adjacent room discovered our presence. Seeking to press the advantage of surprise, we quickly followed into that room. In it we found a few survivors in cages and easily eliminated the opposition. Although, beating them wasn't as hard as I expected. The majority of the pygmies had retreated further into the caves by leaping into a nearby well.

Having found the survivors, we returned to the campsite to rest. Strangely, almost all of the snow was gone. Only a few hours before the ground outside the cave was completely covered! There's nothing natural about what’s going on here. Something else is at play and I’m curious to know what it is.

March 3rd, 2006

9th of Icetide (Continued), 1977 FG

Once the Troll surrendered, we were able to lick our wounds and start helping our companions. Good thing, too. Mort, the masked chick and I were the only ones left standing.

Anyway, the other soldiers surrendered once their big buddy did and I took their weapons away. I got two swords out of it, too. After that, I explored the area and found Crespin burnt up pretty bad in one of the back rooms. His opponent, at least what was left of him, was in much worse condition, however. A massive explosion erupted back there and didn’t leave much behind. I put out the remaining fire, found some keys I was looking for and dragged Crespin out of there. By that time, a good portion of the group had awoken and was moving around. Having mages in the group sure has its benefits.

The keys I fetched were to Ronald’s “cell” in the back of the temple. He was in there and making alchemical potions from a bunch of ingredients. Fortunately, he didn’t use the flowers yet.

I continued exploring the surrounding area and quickly found a trapdoor under a bed. It was pretty heavy so I called Crespin over to (who had been fully healed by this point) help me. It opened up into a long pit and hallway leading to some secret room. Inside the room were a couple of dead guys and not much in the way of loot. Crespin got his hands on a nice candelabra and all I found was a wooden ring. Though, Schmendrick did say it was magical. Sadly, I have the feeling he just makes things up as he goes. I mean, who would bother enchanting a piece of wood? At any rate, there was also a hole in the wall of the room that led to some investigating but that’s barely worth mentioning; probably just an air hole.

More time passed by and the only room left to explore was the chapel where Pip was attacked by his own shadow. I didn’t want to have to enter that place but decided it was inevitable. Besides, Mort and Crespin were inside the room and nothing happened to them, yet. I wasn’t as lucky.

The moment I entered the room, Mort yelled for me to duck. I dropped to the floor and, a moment later, rolled to my knees as I turned around. There it was, a shadow of myself standing above me and attacking me. Being on my knees, I wasn’t able to defend against the attack that followed. It was a strange feeling that followed for his blade created no pain at all. Instead, I was greatly exhausted. Mort and Crespin then engaged the creature and I fled from the room. I turned around just as Mort collapsed from exhaustion, his body falling into the hallway. Fortunately, the shadow vanished at about the same time. Such an encounter makes me very curious.

We decided our business was done in the temple and left. I didn’t stick around for the conversation with Ugthar but it sounded like we were planning on helping him rescue his child from his former accomplices. Apparently, they were holding him ransom and were forcing the father to fight at their side.

Crespin and I waited on the island while the rest of the group took the boat across the lake. There’re a lot of us and the two of us wanted to see if we could find out anything more on the hole we found in the secret room while we waited for our turn on the boat. We found pretty much nothing, though.

When we finally crossed the lake, there was some grey-skinned kid with Chivalry sitting by a fire. I think one of the soldiers we captured said it was a grey-skinned resident of Redcliff that let them in. This must be the kid.

We followed the directions of one of the enemy soldiers to the location where Ugthar’s kid was supposed to be held and, eventually, found a single guard sitting outside. He was a bit spooked by our arrival so Kess and I let him have it with our arrows. He didn’t last long. Nearby, was a cave and inside it was Ugthar’s boy all locked up. The boy was let out and we went our ways.

After freeing little “Ug,” we made our way back to the temple to get the other soldiers we captured. That’s when Chivalry started hearing voices. Sometime after the battle with the mage and his cronies, Chivalry ended up with an amulet bearing a red fisted emblem on it. Well, it started to make him hear voices while he was in the temple. I wanted to know a little more about this amulet Chivalry found but Mort was so insistent that we should leave and meet up with the rest of the party that I decided to just drop it.

We met up with the rest of the group an hour or so later when Chivalry got the idea to start putting his amulet on other people to see if they could hear the voice. Crespin was the first to volunteer and Schmendrick was forced to be the next one. Both of them heard the voice and it wanted us to return to the temple to “cleanse” it from the evil that was there. With the hopes of receiving some sort of a reward from a deity, we decided to return to the temple and battle the shadow creature we faced before.

Just before entering the temple, Schmendrick cast some spell through Crespin’s candelabra. Schmendrick went in alone, he had to touch the creature to make it tangible or something, and the rest of us positioned ourselves for combat. The creature appeared and put up almost no fight at all. We totally slaughtered it. Of course, we completely outnumbered it.

After the creature was defeated, we cleaned up the room and officially cleansed the temple. When we did, the amulet faded away into thin air and the voice stopped talking to Schmendrick.

I’ve never been much in the way of religion but I considered now a good time to get involved. After all, I was involved in cleansing a sanctuary, a great way to gain the deity's favor.

Once we were done with that little chore, we decided to head back to Redcliff and spend the night there. It's obivous that not much happens around here because because almost every member of the town was outside waiting for our return. As we entered it, they were all cheering us on and excited to see their buddy, Ronald. It was an awkward feeling.

10th of Icetide, 1977 FG

The grey-skinned kid, Drokk, seems to have taken a liking to Schmendrick because he’ll be coming along with us. I don’t blame him for wanting to leave Redcliff. It sounds like he has a bad track record and the people didn’t sound too happy about him letting a bunch of strangers into the city.

Anyway, we got the flowers from Ronald and took off from the city. It wasn’t a direct route back to Tristen, however. We decided that we wanted to take a few hours out of the day and explore that mysterious glass castle that we saw. I like this group. They’re all as curious as I am!

Once we entered the castle, I felt just about completely useless. It's completely magical and I had no way of doing any exploring at all! We found out that the doors, also magical, could only be opened up by a mage.

There were different kinds of doors in the castle that, according to the mages, differ in difficulty to opening them. There were some with orange barriers, that seemed to be no problem for our mages to handle, and a whole ton of other barriers of various colors. There were some purple doors, blue ones, black ones, yellow ones, white ones and even green ones. Schmendrick was able to open one of the blue ones and the only white one we found but all the other ones were too tough. The mages say the black ones hurt them when they try it, too.

Behind the doors, and throughout the castle, we found tons of dead bodies and even a little bit of loot. Schmendrick has been keeping track of what we’ve been finding. I was able to get my hands on a nice metal spear and green cloak. The spear is probably magical, like everything else in here, because it doesn’t weigh as much is it appears. The cloak is definitely magical. It makes me feel faster just by wearing it!

After playing with all the doors, the day almost completely flew by. When nightfall came, we decided to leave and camp a little ways away from the castle. Drokk said something about a ghost that lives in the castle and we thought it best to stay away from it during the night. Oh, he also said that there’s one more door he forgot to take us to. We’ll have to check out that last door tomorrow before we head back to Tristen. These little adventures are paying off way more than our job will!

April 14th, 2006

We officially took the job to guard the alchemist shop. There was an investigation behind it, too, but I’ve mostly been out of the loop. I didn’t really start to get involved until Lydia, Mort and Schmendrick already had everything pretty much figured out. Even then, I didn’t get too involved.

To quickly summarize, Darius hired us to protect his client, Lyman, and his alchemy shop. My new friends did some serious investigating and, at first, almost all of the evidence was geared to making us believe Lyman was the culprit. We found the situation to be a little suspicious and took a deeper look into it. As it turned out, the real arson was Brock, one of the city guard assigned to the case. Actually, he was in charge of the case and was setting everything up from the very beginning.

This Brock was a former companion of Lyman and wanted to get revenge on him for some reason. I don’t know all the details but I guess his name was really Edgar. Anyway, the only point in which I truly got involved is when the group decided we needed to take this guy down and turn him in to some secret contact of Lydia. Her contact was offering to pay us double what the city was so the party reached a consensus saying this was the best option. I just went along with it.

Our plan to get Brock went very smoothly. Crespin and his friend, James, sparred in the nearby streets to draw everyone’s attention to them while Lydia approached Brock’s home. Griswold sat near the scene as support and I was positioned between the fight and the house as the eyes of the operation in case something went wrong. Mort got his hands on some invisibility powder and was right there next to Lydia when Brock answered the door.

The soldier was taken by complete surprise and didn’t see it coming. He let Lydia into his home and was immediately subdued by our invisible friends. All I had to do was walk away like nothing ever happened. Then I got paid! Griswold didn’t seem too happy, though. I think he wanted there to be a little bit of a struggle.

So we got our pay but then the issue came up that we would need to clear up Lyman’s name. The Orkist came up with some plan and was able to somehow link Brock to the crime by use of Pyromancy or something. Whatever the case was, we had all the evidence we needed to prove Brock to be the criminal. We even found the dead body of the real Brock! In the end, Lyman’s name was cleared and the Orkist church was given the reward. Some of the people in the group didn’t seem to appreciate seeing the church take the credit but I didn’t care much. I’m just happy they included me in the pay in the first place!