Several weeks have passed since I last bothered to write in this journal. Not a lot has been happening. Most of what we have done for the last three weeks is to wait for Neu Gai to finish his training. Meanwhile I’ve spent my time doing some research and collecting information for future use. Most of the random talk we’ve heard in the bars has been garbage, but I was entertained to find out that some of the rumors were about our last adventure with the red robed guys! More worrisome was some information I picked up from the Thieve’s Guild. It seems a couple of guys at the Goat’s Beard Inn had been asking around about us. I spread some money around and picked up some information about them. They were claiming to be pilgrims of Sylvania, and went by the names of Llab and Erif. The weird thing my informant noticed about them was the fact that they always wore gloves. Pilgrims my ass! They were obviously red robed cultists in disguise. Getting out of town for a while seemed like a good idea.
We had a week to kill before Neu Gai’s sword was finished, so I did some research on the missing caravan as well. It was three days late on its return from the town of Basimar, to the Northeast. It was commanded by Caravan Master Gordon, and its only protection was a contingent of six men at arms. There had apparently been problems with bandits and humanoids along this route in the past, but nothing major recently. We decided to go take a look. Chicot decided it would be a good idea to lay a false trail, so the mentioned our going to Beolon on the Downs as a distraction. I didn’t expect it to do much good but you never know.
Our first days journey north was pretty dull, except for a brief encounter with half a dozen mounted guards just outside of Groat. We mentioned to them where we were headed, but they didn’t have any additional information for us. Partway through the second day, however, a big storm came up. This really was lousy timing, as there was no shelter anywhere in sight. We slogged on through the rain until we reached the crossroads where the road forked to Penol on the Lake and Basimar. I’d hoped for an inn there but all we found was a signpost. Crap. We decided to just camp there and get wet. Chicot had a small tent which he was kind enough to share with whoever wasn’t on watch. I did my best to not be too close to Neu Gai, aka Mr. Lightning Rod, who wanted to keep his chainmail on in a storm.
On the last watch I spotted somebody sneaking towards our camp, so I quietly woke up the rest of the party while Bernina kept an eye on them. We hailed them as they approached and they claimed to be travellers heading to Penol. I told them to pass in peace but to stay away from our camp. A fat lot of good that did. The next thing we know a bolt of lightning streaks out of the sky and blasts Bernina to the ground. The force of the bolt is enough to knock Glug and Chicot to the ground as well, although they weren’t seriously injured. Bernina was knocked unconscious, which wasn’t a good sign. As soon as this happens the people approaching our camp started yelling that they were healers and were coming to help us. This was far too much of a coincidence, so I yelled for them to stay back. Of course they charged anyway since they probably summoned the lightning bolt in the first place. I cast a sleep spell on the guy who was hanging back, since he seems to be the leader. Nothing happened. An even worse sign. And there are two orcs attacking me. Ouch. Several more are attacking Neu Gai on the other side of camp, and Chicot and Glug are just getting up!
The next round I see Neu Gai fighting desperately but missing his opponents. I call Chicot to help me, since he can’t find the enemy in the dark, and he rushes over. Glug heals Bernina and she starts to struggle to her feet. I hear the guy in back chant something and start yelling “My friend, help me. They’re attacking me and my friends.” Chicot looks very confused. Then an orc blade hits me and everything goes black.
The next thing I remember is Glug standing over me and chanting. Damn he’s good. I glance around to get the situation while I stand up. The orc in front of me looks like he’s committed ritual suicide, with his own sword stuck in his bowels. It must have been one hell of a fumble. On the other side of the battle, Neu Gai has felled one of his foes. I yell to look out, because Chicot has been charmed. Bad idea, now he knows where I am. Damn. And I wasn’t fast enough to save Bernina either. She drops below Chicot’s two bladed attack. Then Neu Gai drops under that attack of the remaining orc. Glug heads over towards Bernina and Neu Gai, and yells for me to guard Neu Gai while he heals Bernina. Chicot goes wandering off in the wrong direction, which probably saves us from immediate death. I go and attack the remaining orc, although I’m on the point of dropping myself.
I hit him once and get his attention, which keeps him from killing Neu Gai. Meanwhile Bernina gets healed again by Glug. Then Chicot wanders back and squares up to attack me. I take one last whack at the orc but it doesn’t fall. I then retreat a ways, hoping to draw at least one of them off. I certainly can’t take both of them on in my condition. By this time Bernina is up and has her bow out. Chicot does come after me, and I dodge sideways to avoid him. For once I’m glad he can’t see in the dark. He goes straight and misses me. Glug nails the last orc that’s standing over Neu Gai, caving in his head with a mighty mace swing, and Bernina fires a couple arrows at the spell caster in the back. He starts casting another spell. I charge in from the side and attack with my sword, but I get there too late. Suddenly there’s a circle of light around Glug and Neu Gai. Damn. Chicot can see again.
I figure I better take this guy out before he casts any more spells. Heck, he’s in robes, I’m in robes, it’s all a fair fight, right? Clang! Hey, you’ve got chainmail under those robes! How do you do that? Oh, I can see you now. You’re an *Elf*. That’s how you do that. No wonder you didn’t fall asleep. As he turns to face me I hear a *Thunk*. Bernina crits the spell caster in the back. I can see him wince but he doesn’t drop. Instead he draws a longsword. Shit. I swing my short sword and connect despite the armor, but he still doesn’t drop. He takes a swing at me, and fortunately misses. If I hadn’t dodged that I’m sure I’d be dead. He then cowardly ducks behind me so Bernina can’t fire again. Chicot meanwhile, has charged back to the light, only to see Glug dragging Neu Gai out of the circle. He follows, and I guess he finds them, as I hear more fighting from over there. I hear the thud of a mace striking home, and then the twang of Bernina’s bow as she pumps another critical arrow hit into Chicot. He drops at last. I hate to cheer at a fallen comrade, but in this case I’ll make an exception. I swing at the fighter/magic-user with all I’ve got, and cleave the chainmail asside at last. A critical hit removes a chunk of his side, neatly exposing his liver for later removal (Aslan wants an elf liver, as I recall) and he drops. I pant like crazy for a moment, and then take off the guy’s head just to make sure.
Meanwhile, Glug has staunched Neu Gai’s bleeding and Chicot’s as well. He tries to heal Neu Gai back to consciousness, but can’t quite do it. He falls into an exhausted sleep to regain more spells. A well deserved rest, I must say. He really saved our bacon in this fight. He killed a couple orcs, and healed me, Neu Gai, and Bernina (twice)! While he rested, Bernina and I took care of the carrion. We dragged the orcs as far away as we could from camp to get rid of them, after searching them for goodies. We also searched the fighter/magic user quite thoroughly, as well as removing his liver for Aslan. We found a potion, some platinum (no need to tell the others about this, I say to Bernina with a wink), a pouch of spell components and a few maps. And his long sword looks really nice. I think we’ll take it along. We bury him so Chicot won’t find out we killed him, and hide all the stuff we looted from Chicot’s view as well. We then spend the next few hours concocting a story to tell Chicot when he wakes up. He’s still charmed, after all, and won’t take kindly to our having killed his “friend.” Maybe in a few weeks or months, when the charm wears off, we can tell him the truth. After a few hours Glug awakens, and heals Neu-Gai and Chicot back to consciousness. We’re all still hurting pretty badly, so he goes back to sleep while we feed Chicot the story we came up with.
It seems John, the Elf, had fallen under the influence of the evil orcs. Once we killed all the orcs, the spell was broken and John snapped out of it. He thanked us for freeing him, and Chicot especially for his help, but he wasn’t able to stay to wait for him to be healed. He had to head back to Groat immediately, but he’ll try and make contact there. Amazingly enough, Chicot seems to buy it.
We headed back to town after another round of healing. The first day passed uneventfully, and the night as well, for which we were quite grateful. The next day, we pushed on hard for Groat, in hopes of getting horses, selling the liver, and picking up Neu Gai’s sword. We met up with the guards again, and filled them in on what happened. I pulled the leader aside and gave him the truth about the elf. The guards told us that there were two other guys out looking for the caravan as well, which sounded suspicious, so we asked some more questions. It seems that Llab and Erif had been following us. So much for the false trail. They probably just watched us as we left town. I warned the guard that these guys were probably red robed cultists, and that they should make them take of their gloves to check for fire scars. I also warned them to beware of them casting spells, and agreed to pass the word to the guard in town as well. When I mentioned their names, Bernina started laughing. “Of course they’re fire cultists, she said. Look at their names!” I thought for a moment, and I started laughing too. “Of course! Fire Ball!” Perhaps she’s not as dumb as she acts sometimes.
We made it back to town undisturbed and passed on our information to the local guard. We then went off to the nearest inn, the Pink Flamingo Inn and Casino. Glug, who we’d given all the gold from the orcs as a reward for his heroism happily headed off to check out these new magic devices called “Slot Machines”. The rest of us went to bed. He came back about 3 AM having won an addition 19GP to go with the 12 we’d given him. Some people have all the luck.
The next morning, while Glug slept off the night’s drinking, we split up and took care of some errands. Neu Gai and I went to see the wizard, to get the sword and sell the liver. Bernina and Chicot went out looking for horses. We didn’t get all that much for the liver, but since we hadn’t gotten an advance price, I couldn’t really argue. Besides, he’d wanted a fresh one and this was several days old. Still, 125-150 GP will help towards buying horses. I also found out that the sword we took from the elf is magic. Neu Gai’s magic sword wasn’t quite ready yet, so we had to go back in a few hours. Bernina and Chicot scoured the town for horses, and found three light warhorses available for sale, but it turns out that Chicot didn’t know anything about livestock, so we don’t know if they are any good. What do they teach these rangers, anyway? Beyond those three, we’d have to get regular horses, which might be good enough for me anyway. I went to the mage’s guild to do a little checking on other stuff. The potion we lifted off the F/MU turned out to be healing. That’ll be useful. I picked up a few prices for future reference. We may want to pick up some strength or heroism potions when we can afford them. I also swung by Theo’s, and the sword will cost a bit to get identified, so I figured I better discuss with the rest of the party what kind of horses we want and can afford to buy before I spend the money on it. It’s magic, we just don’t know how powerful. I guess we’ll let Chicot use it for a while an see how well it works. Having both our main fighters armed with magic swords is a good thing! And or course Bernina has her “magic” dagger.
On to Journal Six