2/3/2006

I was recently discharged from military service in the army of Duke
Yurin. I have served in the military for somewhere in the
neighborhood of 5 years and fought hard against both the Suul and
Phoenix.

I saw a sign on the local inn posting something about help wanted.
I had absolutely no idea what they are looking for but I can't stand
being idle so I decided to look into it. Turns out Vance and I were
the first ones to arrive so we were directed into a corner at a
large table, presumably to wait until the employer arrived.

After only a few minutes, a bunch of kids filed in little by little,
all of them interested in the job. What had I got myself into? I
think the oldest kid was probably 17 or 18, barely old enough to
wield a weapon in my opinion. I thought perhaps this is some minor
task and I a fool for signing up. Aside from the kids, there was a
hedge wizard that came in (or at least, he claimed to be a wizard)
wearing an awful hat that had the words `Grate Wizzard' written on
them. If this individual was a wizard he surely couldn't be more
than a dabbler in the arts.

Not long after the last individual filed in (bringing us to a total
of 8 people), an older man came in riding a makeshift wheelchair
accompanied by a strange lady with a veil over her face. He
explained our job – nothing more than transporting goods – and
seemed reluctant to hire so many of us. The strange lady joined up
with us also bringing us to 9 people for the job. He offered 15
copper per day, a soldiers wage, with possible incentive for early
completion.

We spent the night preparing for our journey, collecting rations or
other supplies and set out early in the morning. The employer sent
with us a guide – some strange construct or powerful illusion – to
help us on our way.

The dang guide marched us half to death the first two days before I
stepped in and forced her to allow us a break. I have never slept
through a night watch before, that is, prior to this mission, so it
was rather unusual for exhaustion to take me. Oh well, I was paired
up with the Orkist and he didn't seem to mind.

On the third day we reached the base of a large hike and I decided
it was prudent to rest again. We detoured to a nearby village and
spent some time in the local tavern eating away. Upon returning to
the mountain, we began hiking back up and settled down for the night
amidst a nasty snowfall. It was rather unusual for snow to be
falling at this time of year – hell, it was unusual for snowfall at
all!

One thing that strikes me is how these kids act with each other.
One night our friend the hedge wizard fell asleep during his watch
and Kess, a wimp of a boy, shoved Schmendrick's beard down his
throat. Schmendrick woke up eventually, gagging out his beard along
with quite a bit of phlem. The following night Schmendrick
attempted to pull the same stunt but that caused Kess to vomit all
over himself and Schmendrick's beard. Schmendrick eventually (on
the third try!) pulled off a spell to create some water and washed
himself then spun around spraying vomit, mucus and water all over
from his beard. I think Schmendrick got him back though, because
when it came time for my watch the following night (this during the
snow storm), Kess had pissed himself something fierce and while he
seems to be quite a pussy, I can't imagine himself still bedwetting
on his own.

The following morning we set out to hike further and during our
break the Orkist found some peach trees giving fruit. Like an idiot
Aerig plucked one off and ate it! I couldn't believe he would just
pluck away when this was OBVIOUSLY magic in nature. If that wasn't
bad enough, Chivalry starting packing a whole load into his bag
because they were `magical' and he thought he could make some money
off of them. I was amused with Schmendrick, however, as he spun a
tale about how this was obviously the work of faeries and they would
come to curse us and/or destroy us if we disturbed their orchard.
Aerig vacated himself of his peach, but Chivalry didn't seem to care.

It wasn't long after that (minutes even) that we came across a wagon
that had slipped off a small cliff and the ground was covered in
blood, but strangely, no bodies. It looked like a bandit attack so
we picked up our pace to distance ourselves.

Vance went ahead like usual but after only a few minutes we heard
him scream out in pain. We all sprung into action and found him
under attack by a bunch of scary looking midgets. Trogs? Didn't
matter to me, these things were dead one way or another.

Crespin charged forward (for a kid, gotta admit, he either has guts
or he is just plain crazy) and I began charging up an ice dagger. I
pelted one pretty hard but didn't drop him (I was impressed that he
stayed up, I can honestly say that couldn't feel too great).
Schmendrick ran forward and smacked one over the head.

The other kids ran into melee with the beasties surrounding Vance
trying to free him. I began charging up another spell while the
Orkist dropped an explosive fireball just behind a small group of
the beasties, completely vaporizing one of them! I let loose with
my spell – rain of ice daggers – and pretty much ended the fight
then and there. I tell you what, I never get tired of watching
enemies get shredded into little beefy pieces of meat after that
spell is done with them.

Shmendrick is actually an accomplished healer for his incompetence
in other magic, and patched up the wounded. We moved on.

That night while camping, during my watch (I was conveniently
sleeping again – this is getting ridiculous) some kid meandered into
our midst from deeper inside the cave we were staying. Orkist woke
us up and lemme tell you, I'm surprised that little meathook was
still alive! The kid had spear holes all over his body and looked
like the walking dead (and I should know; I've re-killed my share of
them).

This kid was one of several survivors from the wagon incident,
apparently they were attacked by the little beasties, not bandits
(of course, we pretty much figured that out by now). The kid
somehow got out of his cage and escaped unnoticed but didn't have
the strength to let his comrades out.

I was all for letting his friends rot it out and have us move on –
while the beasties were easy to kill I wasn't too interested in
finding out how many more there were. Well, I guess I'm in with a
bunch of softies because they wanted to go free the kid's comrades.
Oh well I thought, more to kill.

We sent Vance in after I made him ultra quiet with `Mage Stealth',
but he couldn't get too deep before he lost light and came back. We
decided to move in. Aerig scouted out a room with several of the
little buggers eating, and even a couple of them performing sexual
acts on each other ON THE FRICKING table. I wanted to open a geyser
under them all and cook them up nicely, but the kids wanted to do
this a little more quiet. Fine, I let them.

Wasn't so quiet though because just after they finished dispatching
the little buggers, another one came running into (and right back
out of) the room, only to catch a couple arrows in the back. Oh
great, now they are all aware of us, I thought.

Apparently them being aware of us was good, they were totally afraid
of us because of our awesome magic. They scattered all directions,
most of them jumping into a well so I followed through with an
explosive lightning ball which never landed. Must be some sort of
portal? We freed the captives.

3/17/2006

10th Icetide (late night)
-------------------------
I awoke a moment ago in a cold sweat. For some reason I don't
remember anything that happened yesterday after our battle with the
bandits. I remember Ug telling us he didn't want to fight anymore
followed by him telling the other bandits to stand down... but
after that, my memory is failing.

What little flashes I can conjure up relate to the glass castle we
saw just outside of Red Cliff. I see myself trying to open some
magical portals of some sort differing in colors including green,
orange, blue and black. I vaguely remember that only Schmendrick or
myself were able to open the portals, everybody else was completely
useless in that realm.

I hope this memory lapse is a temporary thing, I will need to
monitor myself and my health to see if I can notice anything
different.


11 of Icetide - 15th
-------------------------
We returned to the castle this morning as Drokk mentioned there was
another room he forgot to show us. The room had a large "machine"
with various blocks centered on a disk surrounded by several disks
moving, each one rotating counter to the one prior. As Mort and
Crespin were playing with the many levers and switches on this
device, an apparition appeared to me.

He asked if I was Ellisar, though at first sound, I thought he asked
if I was a "rising star". silly me, might this be a side effect
of my memory lapse? I corrected myself and stated that I was not
this Ellisar he spoke of, but rather, my name was Griswold. He
seemed to think for sure I was Ellisar and that perhaps I was
kidding, but I assured him of my identity. He stated that I looked
remarkably similar to Ellisar and asked my family name, to which I
answered. This sparked something, for he recognized my family
name. It seems that I have some ancient ancestor of the name
Ellisar who was friends with this man (Edward was his name, we come
to find out later).

He declared that the staff which was in 3 equal pieces (dispersed in
the cubical canisters at the center disk of the machine) was
property of Ellisar and that he (Edward) promised to fix it for
him. Since Ellisar is no more, I am rightful heir to this staff.

Edward wanted us to help him fix it, to which he created a portal
and asked us to follow him through.

Upon entering the portal, we came out in some very strange forested
area, devoid of any path and way out. I thought to myself how I
sure wish we had a path, when lo one appeared right under my feet
and extended forward. We began to follow the path for a time when
the party began to complain we were getting nowhere, and hoped that
when we arrived, there would be beautiful women. I stated that I
was certain (though jokingly) there would be beautiful women when we
arrived. It was then that we noticed a house in the near
distance, the path leading right up to their front door.

We knocked and received no answer, so I decided to try the door. It
opened to a horrific scene. There was blood pouring down the
wall seemingly out of nowhere, yet upon closer inspection, a woman
appeared before my eyes, hanging from a rope with her neck slit
deep. I pointed it out to the party who seemed startled (apparently
they didn't see it until I pointed it out).

Crespin cut her down and put the cap on her head, hoping to heal
her. Her wound healed up but she remained dead. Upon removal of the
cap, she disintegrated into dust.

I began inspecting the room and noticed, out of the corner of my
eye, a black man leap from the window. I yelled pursuit and Mort
was first after him. We were running after him and never seemed to
gain any distance, that is, except for Mort. Mort tackled him to the
ground and began interrogating him, yet we still seemed to lag
behind.

Finally a man appeared over Mort and his prisoner and told them to
go back to work (as the slaves they were). I asked the man if he
knew Ellisar, which he did not and went back towards the house.
Mort's prisoner enlightened us to the situation -- all humans were
slaves to these "First Born" and he was trying to escape. He killed
the lady for that reason.

Next, we saw a light and upon approach, found ourselves looking down
into a room where a dark man was beating a woman senseless.

Without question, Mort jumped in and we after him and we took the
man down. Again, Crespin desired to help and placed his cap on the
girl's head, healing her up. She inquired if Serith sent us, to
which we answered no. Asked her if she knew of an Ellisar, to which
she replied she knew of him, or rather, the name was familiar.
About the castle she was surprised that it was finished building
already as construction had only recently begun. Her name was
Sariah.

We were able to exit after that, finding Edward wondering where we
had been. I filled him in. It turns out we were in his memories
and that Sariah was his daughter -- killed by a Fallen. Serith was
Edward's son, left charge over Sariah while Edward was away.

Edward empowered me to open the portals with ease and charged me
with the task to turn on the "power plant" (as he called it) within
the castle. I rushed through and turned on the machine given the
instructions he gave me, and returned to watch him repair the staff
and give it to me. The staff is very tall (I'd say 6ft or so) and
is entwined by an idol of a cobra, the head of the cobra being the
head of the staff. The staff also has several rubies and other
gemstones set throughout. Quite a gift! Edward explained that the
staff would make me almost as powerful as a First Born, though not
quite... I wonder what that means?

Edward began to fatigue greatly after the "power" was turned on and
he showed us the armoury (to which I gleefully took to a suit of
enchanted chainmail, somehow lighter than normaly). We took him
back to his study and he and a couple of my comrades continued to
turn off the "power plant". When they returned, he seemed haggard
and went into his room, after which we hurriedly left the castle
due to some tremors shaking the entire building.

As we took our journey to Tristen, we came across a wagon that was
moving slowly (due to a broken wheel, they say). A man there
recognized Schmendrick and offered him wine. I was not interested
in sticking around and hoped to move on quickly, which feeling
seemed to echo throughout my comrades. We moved on after the man --
Fred -- gave Schmendrick a fine wine.

We arrived back to Tristen and turned in the flowers. Seems that
Gilbert is interested in keeping us on for additional work because
of how well we worked as a team. We are all for it. Crespin kept 2
of the flowers and took them to his sisters, some herbalists in town.

A mage friend of Crespin's friend (James, I believe) helped us
identify our magical goods. The armour is lightened just as we had
previously deduced, but also fortified to help deflect attacks. My
staff has the ability to increase my magical prowess by up to
three times! It also has a store of magic within it, much like my
other staff, so I shall have the ability to cast more magic as
necessary.

This adventuring certainly pays better and is more interesting than
military duty ever was!

4/28/2006

19 Icetide, 1977

This morning Schmendrick approached us with another job
opportunity. Apparently the city wished us to go to one of their
outposts in the West Wood forest that they had lost contact with.
He mentioned that they had sent out a scout that has yet to report
back and they are concerned about the safety of their post.

Not knowing the area full-well, and Schmendrick having forgotten to
actually ask the specifics, I hired ourselves a guide from within
the city by name of Jim – a former trapper of age. He agreed to 10
cp / day which is likely much more than average wage but I wanted to
make sure we were covered. I paid him 10 in advance and asked him
to immediately get ready as we were to travel as soon as possible.

Returning to the Merchant's Last with Jim, we united with the rest
of the group and waited to Mort to show. He came meandering in
around midday and ordered breakfast… we asked him to pack it and eat
on the way.

After several hours we reached the edge of the forest and ventured
in on the trail. I asked Jim if there were any locations of note
within the forest (thinking that perhaps these might correspond with
the outpost) and he told us about some ruins. Without any other
idea where to go, we made that our target.

We eventually came across several large trees that were obviously
hewn down crossing the path. I asked Vance to scout around in order
to prevent us from falling into a trap but he returned stating that
there had previously been a struggle (blood in the plants) but no
bodies nor ambushers to be found. He scouted ahead off the path
with us somewhat close behind and found several "forest pygmies" as
he called them – that would be a goblin – dead. Tracking ahead, he
located a still breathing but barely alive man missing part of his
arm and sent for the healers.

Crespin put his magical skull cap on the man's head which near
instantly healed him, arm and all. The man at first thought us foe
but was quickly calmed especially considering the strange healing
(normally an arm takes a month to regrow). He identified himself as
Drury, the scout sent to find this outpost we are searching for.
Who knows how long he has been out here, but amazingly enough he is
still alive.

We asked Drury to lead us to the outpost (he was suspicious of all
of us, which led me to believe there was more to this story than
Schmendrick is letting on). We located the "outpost", merely a
cabin in the woods. Vance, Lydia, and Pyp snuck ahead with Drury to
scout it out while the rest of us held back. After a few moments
Schmendrick and Crespin decided they were sneaky enough and followed
suit. It wasn't long after that that we heard the most horrific and
ear-shattering woman scream so the rest of us (minus Jim) charged
forward.

I was so intent on getting there quickly that I managed to collide
with a tree along the way – dang that hurts! By time I got there I
saw Mort round a corner and decided to follow. I charged up a
concussion bolt and as I rounded the corner saw a necromancer bowing
before Mort in submission. Having served in the army and knowing
their dirty tricks I knew I must act immediately. I let the bolt
fly and landed it adjacent to the mage. The explosion was deafening
but appropriate, hurdling the necromancer into the side of the
building and breaking his already battered body. I believe some of
the group was a little too close to the blast and were momentarily
stunned but thankfully all the other assailants vanished upon the
necromancer's death.

It is quite strange, actually, that his skeletal minions vanished
upon his death. Most undead I have encountered can persist without
their master, though they are obviously no longer under their
command. Were I interested in the dark arts I may investigate this,
but the arts are not to be trifled with.

Upon searching the desk, Schmendrick located a letter identifying
this necromancer as one Simon, part of some sort of army (perhaps
the bandits plaguing the area?) under the command of one Hugh.
Schmendrick noticed the platform in the corner and found it prudent
to step upon it – idiot – which apparently teleported him to another
location where he found a crystal ball of some sort that showed him
answers to his every question. It was by this means that
Schmendrick was able to locate Hugh's location, where we plan on
heading next. The letter Simon was penning before his demise also
stated that he and his minions eliminated the men who inhabited this
cabin – some "Brethren" or mages or some sort – causing me even more
suspicion.

I decided to be vocal if not outright sarcastic about my suspicions
which brought my desired outcome. Drury took me aside and explained
that this "Brotherhood" was the remnant of the Tower of the Magi and
that upon its disbandment, some decided it must live on. I stated
that now that I was "in the know" I needed to be contacted and
extended invitation to join.

These next couple of days shall prove most enjoyable as I will be
able to ploy my trade of utter destruction on the unsuspecting
goblins and the general Hugh. I think I'll prepare an especially
huge concussion bolt just for him… this staff I have acquired on my
family's name shall prove most useful in that endeavor.