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Joined: 6/29/2007
Posts: 205
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September 18th, 2009
Rickie's Record
Oliver was sent to my apartment to wake me up. Mick had reported that Khegan was released from his captors so an investigation was necessary. He also said that Khegan might have been alone, but he didn't want to take any chances and get killed himself.
Duri asked that I take a primary role in the investigation. His plan was to lay a trap for him at the widow's home and then have me disguise Oliver as Khegan's smith, McClay. Oliver would then notify Khegan that his lady is in danger. It's a simple plan but Khegan is so easy to manipulate when we bring her into the picture. Plus, he doesn't know that she left for Khorinis this morning. His "guards" never let him out much.
It didn't appear to take Oliver very long to get Khegan to come with him to the home. I watched Khegan through one of the windows as he foolishly ran to "save the day." Upon his approach, I dropped a cloth down the laundry chute to signal his arrival to those below. In addition to Oliver, Khegan had two guards with him. I dropped two more cloths to notify our men of the amount of guards we'd need to deal with. Mick, Reggie, and I then prepared ourselves for a short skirmish.
Jade started calling for help from the basement. I had disguised her to appear and sound like the widow, a mockery of Jade's true beauty. Don't get me wrong, the widow is a pretty lady, but she's nothing when compared to my Jade.
We stationed a few men in the basement with Jade and one of them had a gonne in case things didn't go well. I considered Khegan's odds and shook my head. It wasn't going to be a pretty evening. At least not for him and his guards.
I started counting the moment I heard the door to the home open. Shortly after, just when the three of us were ready to go block off the stairs, the door to our room opened; one of Khegan's guards, with a spear in hand, stood there looking in. The guard was surprisingly young, maybe sixteen or seventeen years-old, and didn't have the muscle I'd expect from any real combatant.
I immediately began casting with hopes of magically forcing him to the ground, but he bolted away far too quickly. We attempted to chase him down, but he was significantly faster than all of us. When we finally caught up with him, he had just exchanged attacks with Oliver. Oliver dashed by the guard and moved to our position, recovering his sword from Reggie. The guard then took his position near the top of the stairs and faced us.
I was fairly surprised by his choice. He was a much faster runner than any of us and we outnumbered him four to one. I shrugged and the group of us charged forward to engage the boy. We were all shocked when the guard released an enormous burst of flame from his mouth. I was able to avoid the attack, but Mick was caught in the very center of it and was scorched pretty badly.
Once we had discovered the boy's ability, we were much more careful in approaching him. Furthermore, he was sufficiently skilled with the spear, making it very difficult to land a blow when we were close enough to do anything. That left us few options. We simply needed to keep him busy long enough for our men below to flank him.
Things must have been difficult below because they finally resorted to using the gonne. We didn't want to make that much noise, but the fight was taking far too long. Once the guard downstairs was taken care of, the fire-breathing one wasn't too hard to take down.
We didn't kill the guards; we only beat them until they fell unconscious. We wanted information out of them. You see, when the fight was over, Tedrik pointed out that the guard that went to the basement with Khegan was one of the guys involved in killing our three friends in the street. Duri was really happy when we reported that fact to him. That led to the next stage of his plan. Oliver and I are to return to Khegan's shop to impersonate the two captured guards. That means I might get a chance to get revenge for Jade's brother and kill those responsible for his death.
We took our three prisoners back to the Laughing Halls where we had Henril extract some information out of Khegan. He would have interrogated the other two, but they weren't in any condition for that at the moment. They'll be saved for another time, I'm sure. In the meantime, I'll be posing as "Core." Oliver will be "Neo."
Jade's Record
Rickie reported back in the late afternoon. He had lots of new stuff for our apartment, too, including an assortment of some of my favorite wines. He told me that he got paid a ridiculous amount of money for Core's work. He insisted that he didn't intend on spending it, but he couldn't help it when much of the group decided to go spend their latest spoils.
He attempted to figure out where John Griff lived, but most of the group was exhausted and didn't really want to be around anyone else. He did have a lot to say about him, though. He even had a bobble head (honestly, why would he waste his money on such a thing?) that represented "Johnny the Knife", another name for the man. Apparently he spent some time fighting in The Pit.
Kor's Record
I don't know how much time passed before I finally woke up. I was in pretty bad shape with several wounds all over my body. They had all been treated, probably even with magic, but I still felt very weak.
Khegan, Neo, and I were all in strange dome that rose from the stone floor. Khegan had a few bruises, but was in far better shape than me. Neo, however, was in really bad shape. He had a deep wound in his torso and some other smaller injuries. It was obvious that he didn't receive any magical treatment, just some rough patching to stop bleeding. I did my best to treat his wounds and attend to his needs. He remained unconscious far longer than I did. Fortunately, our captors provided me some basic supplies to attend to his needs.
The dome appeared to be indesutractible. I had attempted to break it several times, but seriously hurt my right arm and hand in the process. Fortunately, when Neo awoke, I learned that the dome was magical and, therefore, could be neutralized by his abilities. On the other hand, Neo stated that he could only take it down for a short period of time and that just beyond the dome was a stone room with a heavy wooden door. Because of my training, I knew I could take down a wooden door. Everything has a weakness, it just takes time to find it.
We formed a plan. I would take some time to prepare and then Neo would take the dome down. It worked. Neo took the dome down, then neutralized some additional magic on the door, and I leapt towards it with all of my might, my right leg extended. The door didn't come completely open, but I managed to pass completely through the upper half of it, splintering and cracking everything above the bar used to secure it.
After breaking out of the prison and getting some rest, we began searching for our friends and ultimately tracked them down to governor's mansion. When we arrived, we found signs of recent battle and a large score of zombies roaming the place. Our comrades were just inside the main entrance; with them were two men magically impersonating Neo and me.
It wasn't difficult to prove that we were the real Neo and Kor. A simple test of magic-use on Neo was all that was necessary. Once that had been done, it was only a matter of moments before we subdued them. Following that, we joined our companions in defending the mansion from the undead.
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Joined: 6/29/2007
Posts: 205
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June 18th, 2010
DAY
Mayor Blackwood invited our group to stay in the the governor's mansion. He seems to like the idea of having mercenaries around. I found the opportunity very appealing and ended up taking him up on it. It sure beats living in the Rusted Gate trying to get work through Walter. Living in the mansion gives me much better access to good work. In fact, I've unofficially been adopted into the group with my associates as if we're an actual mercenary company.
DAY
A somewhat disturbing man named Galstaff approached our group to offer us some work. He was looking to acquire a theological book being carried by a Blue Temple official named Furton. The pay for the job was 100 gold royals given to us in advance. He implied that it should be enough to purchase the book and leave enough for ourselves, but he didn't think the official would sell. Our methods for obtaining it would be up to us.
I wasn't a fan of the idea of mugging Furton. I'm not interested in going down the path that Riz chose. Fortunately, it didn't come to that. I'm not certain what I would have done had we been put in such a situation. I suppose if he seemed like scum I would have had no trouble with it, but the man appeared decent enough.
Anyway, contrary to what Galstaff said, Furton was more than willing to sell us the book. We encountered him at an inn about a day's travel from Cauldron and made the offer there. Well, Griff made the offer. With the help of Rain's magic, he was teleported into Furton's room where they made the exchange. Griff was interested in keeping it from being public, fully expecting the man to refuse, and didn't want any witnesses to state that we were after it.
After easily making the purchase for 80 gold, Griff began to have some second thoughts about how much he paid. He felt ripped off. The man probably paid 5 silver for it and we just bought it for 80 gold. Feeling a bit ashamed, he began to divise a plan to get some of the money back. At that point, I went back to the common room. I didn't want anything to do with the plan.
DAY
When we got back to Cauldron, Griff immediately took us to a shop called Cauldron Printing, where he had the book magically copied. He didn't seem to trust Galstaff too much, so he wanted to make a few copies before giving the original to our employer. Several other members of the group did the same.
When we finally did deliver the book to Galstaff, he immediately offered us more work. It was far more appealing to me than the first. Rather than encouraging us to become thugs, he wanted us to investigate a cult called the Church of Razmir, a group he suspects is a thief operation that he's hoping to shut down. He needs us to get him the evidence. Of course, as a group we decided the easiest way to investigate them would be to get recruited.
Getting recruited wasn't hard at all. They hold nightly meetings at a tavern called the Happy Dwarf. It was what followed that I didn't enjoy too much. When we accepted joining them, we got drugged and dragged into a prison where we waited an entire day without food or drink. Then we were taken into their temple and given a bunch of menial tasks likely meant to brainwash us into taking orders. Finally, we were given the job of transcribing their tenants for a couple of hours. The food we were given was horrible, too.
We've already been down here a couple of days. They're definitely thugs. They carry themselves like thugs, they talk like thugs, and one of their tenants is to relieve non-believers of their money. They even trained us on the use of a sap. In fact, one of the priests in charge of us decided to have a little competition between us. He organized us into a circle, put a mace in between us, and then stated that the last man standing didn't need to do any transcribing that night.
Crash, a new member of the group that joined us at the mansion, was unbelievably skilled. He broke a broom in two and clobbered a real recruit four times in the matter of just a second. A priest began to respond to the situation, likely to heal the man, and he got knocked down himself. In fact, Crash managed to kill the priest with the two sticks. At that point, the competition was over. One of the heralds, a head priest, stepped into the room and put a stop to the fight.
I found the idea of competing a bit interesting. I would have liked some good sported fighting. However, I wasn't looking forward to hurting any of my accomplices while we're trying to investigate these thieves. Perhaps under different circumstances I'll challenge Crash to a fight.
Speaking of the investigation, Griff, Eloc, and Rain found obvious evidence that could get these guys shut down. They found a room filled with human bones. Among them were the robes of several recruits and a tattered guard's uniform. The room acted as a sort of pit where they apparently throw bodies, probably both living and dead, to be eaten by an enormous snake that lives down there.
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Joined: 6/29/2007
Posts: 205
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July 2nd, 2010
DAY
We spent a few more days among the supposed Church of Razmir before finally exposing them. We had collected some evidence that incriminated them as thieves, but it wasn't solid enough to forever ban them from Cauldron. In an attempt to find something more defining, we ended up blowing our cover and took the entire place over. Fortunately, we had just barely found the evidence we needed when we were forced into open conflict.
In the head priestess' room were records that clearly layed out their operations as a thieves guild. Rain had found the room and teleported Griff and Elric into it to search through her belongings. Unfortunately, she had already triggered some magical alarm so they were keeping a close eye on the priestess' room. We all ended up getting teleported up to the room where we engaged the lead herald and several of his priests. After dealing with them, we were quickly able to secure the entire complex.
I had Rain teleport me back to the basement where were supposed to be sleeping. One of the other heralds was just outside the door and I didn't want him getting away. I was also intent on finding Krant, a despicable priest that had been in charge of guiding us in our progress in the guild. He was a vile man that seemed to only find entertainment in watching others suffer.
I found Krant just outside the treasury and had a short skirmish with him. He was clearly upset at seeing me near the treasury and charged me with a club. I wasn't far from a ledge that led to the snake pit, so I decided to draw him over to it and knock him down to suffer the fate he forced on so many others.
When all was said and done, we ended up looting their treasury for incredible amounts of money and turning the remaining thugs over to the authorities. The evidence we presented was more enough, exposing them to all sorts of crimes. We were even able to provide evidence that the local guards had been getting paid off to not investigate their "temple".
During our facade as thugs, we were ordered to enfoce a protection racket on a local bakery owned by a name named Welton. In order to keep up with appearances, we complied and took 50 silver from him, half of what he supposedly owed. I felt horrible for the man and asked Griff that we reimburse him for we took. If we don't agree to give him the money from our company funds, I plan to give him some of my earnings. This is all stolen money, anyway.
Speaking of the company, we're getting a lot of pressure to establish ourselves officially. So far, we've gone by the "Blackwell Adventurers" and a rival company known as the "Storm Blades" has been giving us a lot of flack about not being true heroes. I don't know why they're taking things so personally. It seems to me that they're other up to something and worried we'll eventually find out, or they're worried that everyone will ultimately decide we're better.
Anyway, the Storm Blades just got back from dealing with a bandit bugbear that was terrorizing the roads. They intend to go back out and deal with some goblins, so we decided we're going to show them what real heroes really are. We'll be setting out as soon as possible to handle the goblins ourselves.
Also, in an attempt to make ourselves more like a company, we've decided to purchase the old Church of Razmir and the Happy Dwarf connected to it. It should make for a good company headquarters. Now we just need a real company name.
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Joined: 6/29/2007
Posts: 205
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July 16th, 2010
DAY
Griff seemed somewhat reluctant to go after the goblins and compete with the Storm Blades. He made some good points that I hadn't thought of. First, we're being permitted to purchase the former Church of Razmir for an incredibly small sum of money, considering what we're getting out of it. Second, one of the Storm Blades is Blackwood's niece. Third, Blackwood has gone through great efforts to keep us in the city. In summary, Griff seems to think that Blackwood is setting us up for something. It could be something so simple as to keep us in town to provide competition with the other mercenary companies, but it could also be much larger than that.
Regardless of Griff's concerns, we decided to go after the goblins anyway. In fact, the captain of Cauldron's military formally hired us to completely rid the area of the creatures and even gave us documents giving us the legal authority to kill any of them in the city. It didn't make Griff any less suspicious, but it did compel us to at least go along with whatever Blackwood has been planning.
The goblins had left graffiti all over the town and, after deciphering their messages, ended up providing us several hints. Using those hints, we were able to get a lead by asking the church of Adanos to do some divining through one of their artifacts. First, we were able to learn that we can't trust a dwarf with a red eye and that the goblins are working to please their master, Drakthar.
Griff and I went to visit a dwarven girl named Henna that seems to have taken a liking to him. While we were there, I couldn't help but think that maybe Henna could help find us someone to work at the Happy Dwarf. After all, it only seems appropriate that the place be managed by dwarves.
More importantly, we learned that there was a dwarf with a patch over his eye and that he owns a bath house. His patch has a red stone embedded in it. Some of our other friends also went looking for information and got leads that pointed in the same direction. As a group, we went to visit the bath house.
When we arrived at the bath house, most of us attempted to keep Orak, the dwarf with the patch, distracted while Griff went snooping around. Orak went ballistic when Griff "mistakenly" opened a locked door leading downstairs. He drew a hatchet and charged Griff, almost as if under the influence of something else.
My friends seemed more than happy to beat the dwarf into unconsciousness. Such actions seemed likely to get us into a lot of trouble so I, instead, swept the dwarf off his feet and pinned him down. At that moment, everyone else seemed to catch on and assisted me in tying him up.
The stairs led to a large and dark dwarven complex that was filled with goblins. It didn't take us long to discover them. We accidentally tripped an alarm that resulted in the creatures pouring out into the hall where we had entered the place. Seeing this as a prime opportunity to breathe my flames, I positioned myself towards the front of the line and started torching the hallway in their direction.
The goblins quickly realized that attacking us from the front was suicide. Many of them retreated down the hall and turned a corner. I broke through the remaining goblins and chased after them, only to find them turning another corner that might potentially result in them flanking us. Not wanting to walk into a trap, I stopped and called out that they might attack us from another direction. Then I heard some noise behind me.
I turned just in time to find a large creature wielding a morning star. It smelled absolutely foul, grinned at me, and then swung its weapon. I narrowly avoided the heavy strike and then responded with my own dragon roar, both to notify my friends with a battle-cry and to stun him through the power of the Path of Tyas.
Almost immediately following my roar, one of my accomplices came up behind the creature and knocked him down by bashing into him with his shield. I was ready to end the creature's life with a swift thrust of my spear into its heart when it suddenly transformed into mist. At that moment, I decided this creature was probably Drakthar himself.
Another of my accomplices turned the corner to help me and the three of us moved back to back down the corridor to see if we could find anything else. Both of my comrades had just joined us in our search for goblins earlier that day. One of them had his home broken into goblins and, being a trained warrior, was intent on getting rid of them. The other was more mysterious. I couldn't help but wonder if they were some of Blackwood's spies. After all, one of Blackwood's men had tried to get us to bring his brother along with us for the hunt. The brother was supposedly in need of work.
The rest of the group was down by the entrance. Surely enough, the goblins that I chased attacked them from another direction. The little creatures didn't stand much of a chance, though. Elric has miraculous abilities with the bow and quickly dropped the creatures before they could manage to do much harm. The others helped, too, but it was easy to determine that it was Elric that killed most of them. After all, he's the only one using a bow.
I didn't want this Drakthar or any of his goblins to get out of the place without us knowing about it, so I recommended that a couple of us stay back and guard the entrance. It also might not be a bad idea to keep an eye on Orak, just in case he possessed some powers of his own to get out of his ropes. Anyway, I think my recommendation got me nominated for the job. Eloc might also stay back with me, but I'm not certain.
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Joined: 6/29/2007
Posts: 205
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July 30th, 2010
DAY
Eloc, Vonail, and I all stayed back to collect goblin ears and guard the entrance while everyone else continued. The last time I stayed back while the rest of the group explored an underground hideout didn't turn out so well. As if establishing a tradition, this time wasn't much better. Drakthar got the drop on me.
I was hunched over a goblin and cutting his ear from his head when I heard a few steps behind me. I didn't think anything of it. I knew Eloc, his elemental he calls "Crunchy", and Vonail were off in that direction, so I though nothing of it.
I felt a hand touch me on the shoulder followed by an overwhelming urge to attack Eloc. At about that same moment, I heard Eloc shout a warning about a bugbear being directly behind me. I whipped around and stood up straight to find the same creature I faced before, jumping away from me with one hand extended and the other gripping its flail.
Crunchy charged to meet Drakthar, raising its hand above its head as it prepared to slam the bugbear to the ground. I stepped toward Drakthar and, just before Crunchy could strike, directed my battle-cry against the elemental. It immediately stopped its advance.
I was completely aware of everything I did, but it didn't bother me at the time. I didn't feel as if I was doing anything wrong. It felt natural and right to help Drakthar. In fact, it was almost as if I were a totally different person.
Vonail wasn't present for the fight. I don't know where he went nor do I know when he disappeared. I had thought he was watching my back while I was cutting the ears from the dead goblins. With Drakthar and me against him and without Crunchy's help, Eloc didn't last too long before he was beaten into unconsciousness. Once he went down, his elemental disappeared, too.
Ultimately, I too fell unconscious. Once Drakthar no longer had a use for me, he sunk his large fangs into my neck and I eventually passed out. Fortunatley, both Eloc and I were both found by the rest of the group. Drakthar, a vampire bugbear as they called him, had also been put to rest.
Drakthar and the goblins weren't the only problem my friends put an end to today. They also found a few humans involved in smuggling supplies and people in for "the blue duke" or something of the sort. They, as well as what we assume to have been some potential recruits for the duke were turned over to High Captain Terseon Skellerang.
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