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My earliest memories are of Henrik Bowyer, a man that is like a father to
me. He told me that he did not know where I came from, that he found me alone in the street on the 22nd Highsummer morning 16 years ago. Henrik raised me as a son, as he had lost his wife and three children three days before as they had disappeared, presumably murdered or taken into slavery.
I have always felt a force within myself that has told me that my family is
alive. Whether that is one person or many, I am not sure. I have had many nightmares of my parents and my siblings in various situations, all of them which frightened me. The fear was not always of horrid events, even though at times they were. Instead, the fear that I felt was generated by a sensation of hopelessness, sadness, and suffering.
I grew up as an apprentice to Henrik in his Bowyer and Fletcher Shop,
"Henrik's Bows", located in the city of Tristen. I have become adept at
making, repairing, and maintaining the products of his business.
I never had a shortage of friends, as I knew all of those that lived in my
area. I grew up with a good friend, Zaras Fultano, with which I practiced
shooting a bow. We both become very good archers, I being the better shot. We did everything together in our free time. He managed a local inn, Fultano's Flagon, with his family. He was like a brother to me, and his family treated me like I was one of them.
Now, Zaras' younger sister, Shadrii, who is 16, has had my interests for
quite some time. I am almost positive that it is mutual, but I am afraid to
find out otherwise. It is so strange that while I can flirt with most
anyone, I am afraid to find out what she thinks. It is the possible fear of
rejection, even though I am almost positive that she cares for me as well. Zaras told me that she cares for me, but for some reason I am afraid to act on it.
Four months ago, both Zaras and Shadrii disappeared. I was told that the authorities had looked into it. Nothing ever came out of it as of yet that I am aware of. His family continues to run their inn without them, but it is not the same with their absence. I miss them, as does their family.
For the past few months I have been bullied by Slaine, a street punk that
always seems to have two to four friends with him. He is jealous of my most wonderful good looks and my relationship with Shadrii. He was also jealous that Zaras was my friend and not his, and now with Zaras gone he has decided that I am fair game.
I have yet to go to anyone about Slaine. I am doubtful that the authorities will do anything, as they have done nothing to recover my family, the family of Father Henrik, or my good friend Zaras. I am sure that he and his friends are affiliated with a local criminal group, for I have seen them steal from people and yet do not seem to be the much richer for it.
One day, Crespin and his best friend, James, were on their way into town and passed by the shop. Witnessing my being bullied, they intervened. After chasing off Slaine and his toadies, they tried to teach me some different combat styles, but close combat doesn't really fit my style.
I have known them for quite some time, and I have tagged along with them on several occasions, but as a whole they were usually too busy training and I didn't have much interest in joining them. I would rather practice my archery with Zaras. Or visit with Shadrii.
Yesterday, Crespin and Mort were passing by and I asked where they were going. Mort informed me that we were replying to a Help Wanted poster in The Merchant's Last inn. At first I was not interested. I mean, I have heard that some of those jobs are dangerous. And yet there was something that pulled me in that direction - that pull towards my family and friends - and I decided to go along.
I signed up as an able archer. I hope that I can live up to that claim, as
I have built up a reputation for my skill in my neighborhood. Even more so, I hope that I don't get hurt. Especially not the face, I need to stay
handsome.
Henrik Bowyer: Owner of "Henrik's Bows", a Bowyer and Fletcher Shop that is located in Tristen. He is 46 at the start of the campaign. Wife and children disappeared just before Kess was found. Took Kess in and raised him as a son. A very good craftsman with a high Armory (Missile Weapons) skill.
Zaras Fultano: Age 18 at the campaign start and the best friend to Kess. Also an archer, disappeared 4 months ago. He was feared and respected by Slaine.
Shadrii Fultano: Age 16 at the campaign start and the mutual romantic interest of Kess. She was lusted after by Slaine, who somehow had something to do with her disappearance. She has some magical ability and uses "gypsy magic" like her mother.
Slaine: An 18-year old street punk. Bully and coward. Probably a member of a "thieves' guild". Likes to bully Kess, as he is jealous of him, but aware of his cowardice (which Slaine likes to exploit). He is afraid that Kess will eventually do something about him, a reason that he has never bullied him alone - he always has at least one friend with him, usually more.
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I entered the inn with Mort and Crespin. We applied for the job. We
joined with other people, totaling 9. Also there is a 10th, some freaky
lady that I think was probably created by magic.
We were to take 4 backpacks to a location, drop off the contents, and come back with something else. The pay was 15 copper per day, plus possible incentives. I was told that it is a soldier's pay. Wow, I am a soldier!
After marching for what seemed to be forever, the icy man named Griswold had selected a good place to camp. He is buddies with another soldier, a scout named Vance. Wow, real soldiers, and one of them is a scout.
I even got to learn how to stand watch. The first time that I did, I was
paired up with Schmendrik. He fell asleep. I wanted to put a sock in his
mouth, that would be funny. But I didn't have one handy, so I started to
put his super-long beard down his throat. I thought for sure that he would wake up, but he didn't, so I figured that I might as well see just how far that I can make it go before he does wake up. I was careful to not kill him. He isn't Slaine, after all. Eventually he woke up.
The next time that I was on watch, I was paired with him again. I fell
asleep, much to my pride. What kind of soldier am I that I can't even stay awake? Schmendrik returned my little joke and put his beard down my throat. I woke up with a lot less of it in my mouth than he did, but it was so disgusting that I puked. I tried to aim for him, so I managed to get some on him.
The third time that I was on watch, I fell asleep. AGAIN. I think that
maybe Schmendrik cast some sleep spell on me. I woke up wet with pee. I think that he peed on me. I went into my tent and changed my clothes (good thing that I brought my backpack and some changes of clothes, I gotta look good for the ladies after all).
The next day, Vance was scouting ahead, and he was ambushed by a little blue monster with a spear. To think that I thought that being a scout would be exciting. You could get hurt! He did, and he knows what he is doing. I don't want to be a scout. No way.
The group rushed up to fight the monster. There were a lot of them that
broke out from their hiding places. I shot one of them in the vitals. The
others seem to be impressed by my archery skills, I had never really thought much about it. I figure that a good merchant must know how to use his wares. I shot a three others as well, missing only once as it ran too far away.
That night we camped in some caves so as to avoid a snow storm. I stayed awake while on watch. There was some boy that came into our camp. Someone had poked holes in him. He whined about those little blue monsters. Oh boo hoo, I didn't care. I didn't want to risk my handsome face for some losers. Well, maybe there was a pretty gal. The others decided to help, and I didn't want to be left alone and without the cargo, so I went along.
We went into the caves where the monsters were hiding. Vance scouted ahead. He has got guts, I tell you.
The group coaxed me into sneaking ahead with Vance and we both shot some monster in the chest. The group then attacked a bunch of monsters in another cavern where there were a bunch of prisoners. We took them out without difficulty. This is fun, shooting monsters with my arrows.
We left the caves and all of the snow melted away and the weather was like it was supposed to be. I knew that the weather could get weird, but this was really bad. Probably magic. Sometimes I hate wizards.
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8th day of Icetide 1977
This morning I stayed at camp with Griswold, Oscar, and the people from the cages. The others went to investigate some caves.
Griswold told me that he would cast an invisibility spell on me if I went to
go find them. I don't trust him, though. I may be a kid to him, but I am
not gullible.
Besides, I can see how he looks at me and the other "kids". He always seems to have a look of disgust towards us. So, given that I think that he was trying to play a prank on me, and who knows what kind of spell he was going to cast on me.
The group came back and told us that there was some ghost there, and a bunch of temple stuff. They met up with Pip, a "kid" that I have seen a few times in Tristan. He was sent by our employer, Gregor, to help us. He must have left a little after we did.
Around noon we got to a place that had a lot of pine trees. At this point,
Belen told us that she would go no further and she went back to Tristan with the caged people. She told us to follow the path, even though she admitted that she had never seen it. She gave us an envelope to give to a man named Taylor. I half-jokingly thought to myself that it said "these fools brought you something, please kill them".
The place was filled with a fog. Someone got an idea that we should hold a rope among our group so that we didn't get separated. After a quite a while of following a path without seeming to get anywhere but circles, we set up camp.
While we were encamped, some guy came by and told us that his name is Alan. He told us that he will guide us to Taylor. Without having much choice in the matter, it was decided that we would trust him and set off immediately.
He shook our hand, stating that we were "welcome to Red Cliff", at which
point the mist would disappear. He told us that it would reappear if he bid us farewell.
As he guided us, the trees and plants would make way for him and an easy path was formed for us to follow.
While we were walking, Chivalry showed us a bunch of scratch marks that were all over his body. He has itched like crazy and had not noticed how severely he had scratched himself in the process of attempting to relieve the itching, albeit to no avail.
At about 9:00 pm, we were led to a clearing with a small village of some 20 buildings. There was a massive glass castle that was behind it.
Alan retrieved Taylor, a middle-aged man, for us. We gave him the packs and the envelope. We were to set back to Tristan in the morning with the Sunkissed flowers that we were after.
Taylor told us that we were to rest the night in an uninhabited house.
There were four beds, but I had grown fond of my bedroll so I slept on the floor. I didn't want to sleep near Chivalry especially. I also kept my
distance from Griswold and Schmendrick, who both seem to have a thing with wanting to cast a spell on me.
9th day of Icetide 1977
I had a decent night's sleep. The nightmares didn't seem to trouble me. We noticed a horrible odor, only to find that the peaches in Chivalry's pack were rotten. In fact, they had small white worms crawling in them. Yuck!
Oscar used his prayer magic to determine if we had worms in us. Mort had one, Griswold had two, and Chivalry had at least eight.
Mort pulled out his knife and went hunting. At first he missed the worm,
but then he got smart and asked Oscar to show him where to aim. He stabbed the little beast and flicked it on the ground, followed by a stomp that made a *splat* as the worm gooshed on the floor.
Griswold used his lightning magic on himself, shocked the worms, and Oscar guided Mort in their destruction.
Oscar poked a flaming finger at a worm in Chivalry, and caused the beast to explode in a goo inside his body. Griswold then gleefully shot Chivalry with his lightning magic. After an hour of torturing Chivalry with their respective prayer and lightning magics, all of the worms were destroyed.
I knew that I couldn't trust Griswold's magic, he only seems to like to hurt people. Even when "helping" he hurts in doing it. I wonder how he would make me invisible, probably by some painful spell that is not worth it.
Some of us went to get breakfast. Sarah, the cook, was a good seven years older than me but she was quite beautiful. I couldn't resist the temptation to flirt with her. Oh well, she was only interested in serving a good breakfast, not in any, uh, additional services.
While we were eating breakfast, Schmendrick sang a song about a sow bitch. It was terrible to hear, who wants to hear about a pig anyway? After clearing his throat a bit, he sang a decent song about a snow witch. He said that he learned the words from that temple, but he made up the tune. Sarah told us that there are other temples that also have the poem about the snow witch.
After breakfast we went to get the sunkissed flowers from Ronald. The place was trashed. It looked like a big 10' tall man had walked through the wall. Not a whole lot was taken, as many valuable things were left. Ronald was gone, there was some blood on the floor, and his clothes were gone. And, of course, the sunkissed flowers were gone.
Alan joined us, and Vance tracked the big man and the small group of people that were with him. After a bit, Alan refused to leave the valley, telling us that if he did he would be changed and lose his powers.
Vance lead us to an area where they climbed up. Pip climbed up and then lowered a rope for those that cannot climb (I can, but I figured that I might as well use the rope since it was safer). Schmendrik used his floaty magic to float up in the air, showing off as usual.
There was a lake up above that had an island in it. Wow, this adventuring really is like those bard stories.
Most of us decided to swim across the lake. Schmendrick used his floaty
magic again and just floated above the water, acting like he was walking on it. Vance was having trouble with his swimming and he used his floaty magic to pull him out. Griswold was cowering on the shore, stating that he can't swim. Schmendrick used his floaty magic on him, too.
Griswold sure can be a wuss at times. I swam in my leather armor, and Mort swam in his over-sized heavy plate armor. To think that he seems to look at me like I am a coward. He is afraid of water! No wonder he stinks. He can't even take a bath. Old man stinky.
After we got to the other side, we found the boat that they had used. Vance took the boat back to get Chivalry, who we forgot to notice was waiting back there as well. Not too chivalrous, is he? Afraid of the water, too. Haha.
There was a 25'-tall building that was shaped like a T. There were windows on the upper floor, but they were shuttered closed. It was 100' long by 80' wide at the largest locations. The place looked like it was built to withstand a siege, at least when it was new.
Pip climbed up, and after a while he came back screaming that his shadow had attacked him. The cut was real, so whether or not that really happened there was evidence of something. Maybe he tripped or something.
After some debate on what to do, we tried the front door and got in easily
enough. It turned out that this place is a temple of Omni, or at least it
used to be. It was desecrated.
We found the big guy. Or at least Mort did. He was accompanied by five men. Two were unskilled archers, one had a crossbow, one had a sword in his hand, and the other was a mage. I sure am getting tired of mages.
In the battle that ensued, the only shot that I was able to make, due mainly from cover and the fact that my allies got in the way all of the time, was when I shot past Schmendrick and hit the giant guy in the left eye. Giant guy complimented my shot by attacking me with his maul. The first swing I dodged, the second one knocked me out....
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9th day of Icetide 1977 (continued)
I woke up with Schmendrick nudging and poking at me. I felt sore where the troll had whacked me, but there was not any damage that I could see. I think that Schmendrick had used his magic to heal the mess that the troll had made of my ribs. At least he didn't hit my face.
There were four mercenaries that were tied up. Their footwear, armor, and weapons had been removed.
Crepsin had quite a bit of soot on him, so maybe I should call him Crispin. It appears that he had gotten into a fight with a mage, who had burnt himself to a crisp.
The troll, who was named Ugthar, was looking for his child. One of the mercs that was tied up seemed to know something, and Ugthar bullied the info out of him. We left with Ug and the talker, leaving the others shackled up to some shackles that we had found.
When we left the temple, we saw Chivalry sitting on the ground with a blanket around him. There was a grey-skinned guy with him, named Drock. From what I was told Chivalry had a spell cast on him during the battle (by crispy mage) and had disappeared, only to reappear in the middle of the pond. This Drock had saved him from drowning. He also lost his swords somewhere, probably in the water.
While we were traveling to the caves that had Ug's child, Chivalry kept talking to himself. He had obtained a necklace with the symbol of the god, Omni. I don't know where he got it, and he claimed that he didn't know, either. He said that this voice belonged to some guy named Smith. I don't care who it is, so long as they don't cause trouble.
We located a guard to the cave. Vance and I shot him with an arrow each and he dropped dead. We then entered the cave and found Ugthar's child. They left together, and we returned to the temple for the other prisoners. They had tried to escape, but had no luck. I think they thought that we would have left them there to die. Chiv and Crespin went into the chapel and messed around with some shadow-ghost thing.
We set out to go back to Redcliff again. Chiv kept talking to Smith. He tried to get the others to hear Smith, too. When he put the necklace close to Crespin, he heard it, too. Then Crespin put it around Schmendrick's neck, and he started talking to Smith. Schemdrick then pulled out his little unicorn and sought it for guidance. Mort gave the mercenaries their footwear back and let them go. It was decided that we would go back (yet again) to the temple.
We went inside the temple, gathering just outside the chapel. Schmendrick held the candelabra that Crespin had stolen from the temple. He cut the candle that Crespin had put into a slot in three and put the two pieces into the other slot. All three grew to full-length candles and lit up. Schmendrick said some prayer to Omni, some smoke swirled around from the candles, and then their flames extinguised. We then got into combat positions. I stayed at the doorway with Vance, our bows at the ready.
Schmendrick entered the chapel, and touched the shadow-demon. It then materialized and looked like Schemdrick. During the quick battle that ensued, I shot it in the eye, but I doubt that it made much difference. I just wanted to shoot it there because I can. It wasn't like it was a long-range shot or anything. The group quickly dispatched the so-called demon.
We cleaned up the temple. Schmendrick would touch a phantasmal body and it would become solid. Tossing around dead bodies is a lot of work. It took quite a while, but we managed to set the place in order again. A couple of people have said that we were blessed by Omni for our services. Whatever that means, maybe we will get something good somewhere.
We (finally) went back to Redcliff. There was cheering as we had returned with Ronald, who had been abducted by the mercenaries. I smiled and waved at the ladies. We got some free food, too.
10th day of Icetide 1977
We woke up and got some good breakfast. We were also given a week of rations each. We set out for home, with Drock as a new addition to our group. He showed us how to get to the glass castle. We went into it, the whole place was filled with magic doors. We went around to different locations, including a library. We looted some armor and weapons, including a magical sword that Chivalry took out of somebody's skeletal remains.
We left before nightfall and camped away from the glass castle.
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We went to dinner at Gregor's place [or is his name Darius, some names are hard to remember between sessions]. He introduced us to a friend of his, named Lyman. This Lyman is an alchemist, and he always wears some special green cloak wherever he goes.
We were hired to protect Lyman's alchemist holdings for 6 weeks, at a rate of 15 copper per day each. That's a soldier's wage. I even dress like a soldier these days, with some magic chainmail and a magical broadsword. The ladies like it.
We decided to divide up into different shifts so as to better defend his holdings. I took a day shift, watching his front shop. It felt strange being on guard duty at a shop when I am used to working at the shop itself. Sometimes I miss making bows and selling fine archery gear.
In the early morning of the third day I was awakened to find that we were going to break into the shop and see if we could find some incriminating evidence that showed if Lyman was behind all of this nonsense.
I think that he was set up by his son, David. For some reason, David's beautiful daughter is staying with her grandfather (Lyman). I don't know why she is, but I will let her stay with me. At least for a little while.
While a lot of evidence points to Lyman, I don't think that it is him. Besides, he is paying us to protect his stuff. It is bad business to turn on your employer. Like I said, I think that it is David. Too bad we will have to be nice about turning him in, as I don't want to upset his daughter. Or, maybe she is away from him because he is such a creep? It would be quite the hero to take a creep out of the scene...
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