We finally left glimmering today! I thought the day would never come. As we headed back to the inn to pack up our things, however, we saw a most unusual sight. I don’t think I would have noticed it if Kess hadn’t froze in place and gawked on in absolute horror or envious pleasure. I’m not quite sure which one. But he was definitely staring; more than any man should, watching in awe as a man walked by in some assless chaps. I turned to see where the man came from and it appeared that he was leaving one of the local clothing shops. I watched in amusement as Kess began grasping for air. Apparently he was so enthralled in the situation that he had forgotten to breath. I waited for him to gain his composure and he scuttled back to catch up to the rest of the group.
We gathered our things and then collected a sizeable reward, which was definitely unexpected. Then we continued our journey to Pangoria. Before leaving, however, I snuck over to the clothing store and bought Kess a pair of those assless chaps. He will either love them or hate them. Either way I think I should get some amusement out of it.
Our next spot on the map was a place called Knight’s Bridge. The town was cut in two by a huge ravine going down the center. The only way across, for who knows how long, is a toll bridge. Before paying the toll we decided it best to stay the night. As we entered one of the inns we met a crazy old man who kept asking if we wanted to see a trick. I love tricks! He walked outside and began waving his finger around and out came a huge fireball that crashed into the side of one of the local buildings. Luckily all of the people in its path dove out of harm’s way. Shocked, we reminded him that magic was frowned upon and hostile magic in city limits was illegal. He frantically looked to his right then to his left and then he disappeared. I figured that was the last we would see of him but I guess I was wrong.
Later that night Flaming Pete, as we named him since he couldn’t recall his own name, returned and said he had a prophecy for us. We were to find a boy, ironically named Pete, to help us in our venture which would ultimately save the world. But we only had two weeks to complete our task or we would fail.
Not wasting any time we left at first light to find Pete. I don’t know why we trusted this crazy old lune but there seems to be at least some merit in his words because, thanks to his directions, we actually did find a boy named Pete. Well, we actually found Pete’s mom. Pete had been abducted and was being held prisoner in a keep up on the hill.
Upon arriving at the keep we were greeted by a huge stone creature of all things and demanded to talk to the owner. Our audience was refused so we stormed the keep and began pounding the doorman to pieces. We were annialating the creature before he got one good shot in, but that would be his last. He tossed me from the cliff and I plummeted to the earth. I cursed at the cowardous creature and hurried back up to the keep as fast as possible. Darby met me part way there and suggested that maybe he should heal me before I continue in the fight. By the time I made it back up to the top the creature had been destroyed and the gate was opened.
I ran in behind to find the others checking doors. Most of them were locked so Griswold and Schmendrick began making their own. We headed in the direction where we thought Pete to be, based on Griswold’s spell. We descended further and further into the basement but were ultimately blocked by some magical barrier. We headed back up to the top to search for other areas. There was a small room near the stable that I thought they may have used to teleport so we shoved a couple of horses in there just in case it would impede their success in teleporting. Vance kept asking me if I wanted to explore some of the other doors. I thought he meant the doors we passed in the basement so I said I wasn’t interested. What I didn’t realize is there was another door just as we came inside that I had overlooked. As soon as he pointed that out I rushed over there with him and we started down the stairs. I can’t believe we missed this!
As we went down the stairs we came in contact with, what Schmendrick refers to as, a magic mist. We were definitely at a disadvantage at that point. We didn’t know how many opponents we had and we couldn’t see them. On top of that the mist is disorienting for some. Vance and I were shortly joined by the others. We made our way through the mist and began to make some headway on our opponents, who appeared to be some sort of wolf type creatures. I heard Vance crying out in pain and I was afraid for his life and the lives of the rest of our group. Mort and I can handle ourselves but the rest of them can hardly take a beating, in these conditions anyway, that is, without a healer present. I yelled out several times for someone to go tell Schmendrick to use the orb but I wasn’t sure if anyone heard me or not. Apparently someone heard me because all at once the mist started to vanish and then everything went completely black. Vance managed to fish out a torch and by the time it was lit our foes were gone.
A huge crashing sound came from the basement. Upon further investigation we determined that there was some sort of creature trapped in the basement. But from the looks of things it wasn’t going to be trapped for much longer. We decided it best to vacate the premises as the keep was seemingly increasing in instability.
Darby came down to greet us and immediately attended to Vance. We continued our search for Pete but it looks like they got him out. We headed back upstairs to find some of the mercenaries. They laid down their weapons and told us that they had taken Pete out of one of the windows down the side of the keep.
We began chasing a group of armed men as one of them broke off from the group on horseback. Everyone began chasing the two on horseback supposing that one of them was Pete. Convinced it was a decoy I pursued the armed men. I tried to seek the assistance of Vance and Alex but they declined. No matter!!! Spooner and I engaged in combat with the men. Spooner was fierce and between the two of us we were able to subdue all of the men by either death or surrender.
After a brief interrogation we were lead to some wolf tracks which lead to a cave. To make a long story short, the man from the castle surrendered Pete to us with the understanding that we would leave and never come back. Mort was disgusted with this man and it was hard for him to leave without delivering some punishment. Reluctantly, however, he walked away happy that we had at least accomplished the goal of saving the boy and continuing our mission to save the world.
We then headed back to Knight’s Bridge. We paid the toll, crossed the bridge, and spent the night on the nicer side of town. We were able to get 2 gold for the loot from the keep and discovered that there was now a dragon on the loose that was pillaging local farms and what not. We all looked at each other knowing that is probably what was in the basement of the keep.
When morning arrived we continued our journey. We passed several small villages along our way that had claimed to have seen the dragon. Some of the villages were completely destroyed by fire. We arrived at a small town just outside of Pangoria where we stopped to stay the night. With all this talk about a dragon I figured I had better stay outside with Spooner. In the middle of the night I was awakened by Spooner frantically trying to break free from his chain. I looked behind and saw an enormous red dragon flying straight at Spooner and I. He would be on top of us in a matter of seconds. Knowing that I wouldn’t be able to free Spooner in time I decided it best to run and try to lure the dragon away from Spooner. My plan failed however, and the dragon plucked the tree from the ground with Spooner still attached. During this time I felt a feeling that I haven’t felt in a long time. I felt frantic and helpless. I’m guessing it was fear. Regardless, it was unpleasant. I was able to make it back to town without harm but sadly, Spooner did not.
The following morning we continued on to Pangoria. The walk felt extremely long and lonely.