We had a couple days before the caravan was scheduled to leave, so we spent our time getting prepared. Neu Gai wanted to go talk to Aslam about his sword, and asked me to tag along. I guess he wasn't so happy about it constantly griping during battle. Maybe if it had given useful suggestions he wouldn't have been so unhappy, but for a combat weapon it was pretty annoying. Anyway, we wandered over to the wizard's tower and did the usual thing with the doors. At one point though, we found ourselves staring into what appeared to be the main temple of the red robed guys. Lots and lots of them! We closed the door quickly. Eventually we managed to track down Aslam. Neu Gai tried to explain what was wrong with the sword, and as usual, had a hard time getting the point across. I hope I'm not that weird when I learn more! It took some time and a lot of hand waiving, but at last Neu Gai thought he'd made himself clear. Then Aslam asked if we could come back next April, when he'd have time to do the work. Naturally Neu Gai wasn't too keen on waiting six months for his sword, so Aslam agreed to do it the next day. He muttered something about going to April to do the work, which we ignored at the time, thinking he was just being confused. Our mistake. While we were there we also got a few additions to his laundry list of spell components. At Neu Gai's suggestion, I even negotiated trading some of the components for bracers of defense! That should improve my success next time I get attacked. So at this point the list reads:
I didn't even bother negotiating a price on some of the items at the end of a list. They're things I'd rather not run into anyway! The giant skunk glands, however, we know where to find! On the way out, we opened doors on several other interesting places. In one place we saw a pale elf with a bow drawing back an arrow. Then we opened the door on us! Obviously from an earlier time, because Bernina was there, and they looked as surprised as we did! Weirdly, I don't remember that from before. We also opened a door onto a blizzard, but that seemed almost normal. Since we had the rest of the day to kill, I wandered over to the Adventurers Guild to inquire about membership. They offered us a group discount of 3000 gold for five of us, rather than the usual fee of 1000 apiece. For this fee we'd get the following benefits: Information on available jobs at different experience levels Discounts on healing, poison curing, and resurrection (really useful for elves) References for training, with possible discounts Access to the Guild reference library, with bestiary information. I told them we'd be back when we had the money, because it sounded like a good deal.
The rest of the day was spent collecting rumors, many of which were about us! It seems our exploits in the Hills had grown in the telling. With Glug doing the telling, this isn't surprising!
The next day Neu Gai and I returned for the sword. Aslam hadn't actually started yet, but when we arrived he picked up the sword and started casting a spell. I watched carefully what he was doing, and then yelled Stop! Aslam was casting a mind transfer spell! He'd taken Neu Gai's comment about wanting a sword with his personality literally! I explained that what Neu Gai meant was a sword that was compatible with his personality, not one that contained his personality! Neu Gai's eyes got very large about this point as he realized what almost happened. Anyway, there was a lot more discussion about swords that help defend you, or raised an alarm, and then Aslam cast a spell I just couldn't follow. It had elements from four or five different realms of magic, but that was about all I got. We thanked him and headed out.
On the way the door open onto a crypt, a steam bath, and then the foyer. I glanced at the table and stopped in my tracks. When we'd entered there had been fresh sandwiches on the table. The ones there now were moldy and dry! I had a really bad feeling, and we opened the door out of the tower carefully. Sure enough, we looked out not into the blustery October weather we had left, but into a pleasant spring day. April, unless I miss my guess. Somehow that lunatic wizard had gone to April to do the work, and had taken us with him! I just hoped he could send us back. Fortunately, he was able to fix things, or at least come close. He told us to try again, and we found ourselves back in October. We'd lost a day however, and we found the caravan about to leave, and Glug, Chicot, and Brother frantically trying to find us. We had the sword, though, so Neu Gai was happy!
The Merchants Guild wasn't paying us very much for guard duty, about five gold pieces a day, but the hope had been that the remaining orcs and red robe guys would attack the caravan, and we'd have help from the caravan guards taking them out. The mayor had promised that an extra detachment of guards would be sent on the next expedition. In the rush of leaving it took me a moment to notice that there were only four other guards, and they were pretty scruffy looking at that. Obviously not town guards. The mayor had seemingly decided not to send any. I began to give more credence to Neu Gai's comments to me earlier that the red robed guys were rumored to have infiltrated the guard, and to be influencing the mayor. In any case it didn't look like we had much help. The first day passed uneventfully, giving us a chance to talk with the guards, and also to talk with Brother Singer, who we still didn't know very well. He seemed a strange one for a priest. He's strong as a bull, and less wise than I am! Oh well, we'll let him hack on stuff, and he can still heal a little bit.
The guards turned out to have little or no fighting experience. These were the desperate ones who were willing to go with the first caravan after the massacre. That evening Neu-Gai gave a basic course in sword sharpening, since most of theirs looked like they'd been hanging over fireplaces for a few generations. These guys weren't going to take on any armies, but at least they'd provide a target other than us for the orcs! That night on watch we saw something really strange. I was on first watch, and after Neu-Gai went to sleep, a ghostly image of a sword appeared to be floating over his head. I went over and woke him from a few feet away, and the sword vanished. We talked for a few minutes, and then he went back to sleep. A few minutes later, the sword reappeared. Somehow, Aslam has the thing rigged to guard Neu-Gai while he sleeps! I told the caravan guard I was sharing watch with that the sword was enchanted to kill anyone who tried to rob Neu-Gai. Who knows? I may be right. In any case we passed the warning on to the later watches, so none of the caravan guards would run off in terror.
The day started with a little excitement, as we discovered that Glug had fallen asleep on watch. Not surprisingly, he'd been drinking, but we hadn't expected the bottomless stomach to fall asleep. Fortunately, nobody had attacked us in the early morning hours. The second day passed quietly as well, until sometime in Neu Gai's watch. I felt him shake me awake and rose quietly to see what was the matter. He'd heard noises over by the horses, so we woke the others and went to have a look. There were shapes moving out of the trees towards the horses, so we challenged them and they fled. A quick check revealed that several of the tethers had been cut. Horse thieves. And not very good ones either. Probably operating freelance rather than under proper Guild supervision. Oh well, we were being paid to stop them, not teach them how to do it properly.
Yet another day slogging along at caravan speed. By this time, however, we were getting close to where the old caravan was ambushed. That night I warned the caravan guards to keep an especially good watch, and I think they were scared enough by what happened to the last caravan to stay awake. Sure enough, that night we were attacked by two robed guys and about a dozen orcs. We quickly took up posts between the wagons and moved away from the fire. This was a good idea, because the fire began billowing huge clouds of smoke. Several people got caught and started choking on the smoke, and things got pretty chaotic.
Neu Gai was standing between two wagons facing four orcs, Chicot was one wagon to his left, Brother Singer was facing four orcs with the help of three other guards (one on is knees choking), Glug and I were still in the circle of wagons, and the last caravan guard fled like a rabbit. Right off, Neu Gai and I downed our potions of fire resistance. With robed guys around it seemed like a good idea. Moments later, I heard yells for help from the other side of the camp. I ran to help while Glug started casting a spell. Neu Gai started dealing with his collection of orcs, and Chicot ran over to help. Brother was having more trouble on his side, as his guards decided to retreat and leave him facing four orcs on his own.
By this time I'd made it around the smoke and found several more orcs attacking the family that was traveling with the caravan. I slept two of them and drove off the remaining one. After killing the sleeping orcs and getting the woman to bind the wounds of her fallen husband, I heard children yelling off in the woods. The woman screamed her children were being taken, so I chased off into the woods after the fleeing orc. Meanwhile, Neu Gai had killed a couple orcs, and ran over to help Brother, leaving Glug and Chicot to finish off his four. Brother retreated and healed himself, as he was nearly spent. Chicot killed two of the orcs by him, and the last one fled back to where the red robed priest was standing. The orc yelled and poked at the priest with no result. Glug had him held rigid! Finally the orc picked up the priest and carried him off. The two guards who had retreated from Brother came back to help, as they saw the tide of battle flow our way. Neu Gai killed another orc, and Glug went to tie up the other priest he'd held. The orcs managed to knock down one of the guards, but we soon finished them off.
I came back, having lost the orc's trail in the dark, and we decided what to do. After a little healing we took four horses from the caravan (much to the dismay of the master), left Brother to rest and heal the guards, and took off after the missing children. Only a hundred or so feet from camp we found the boy, who the orc had dropped in favor of carrying his smaller sister. We quickly carried him back to camp and set out after her. As we expected the trail led straight to the mountain cave and temple we had discovered before. Moving as fast as possible, we rode the horses as far as we could and quickly hobbled them. We raced to the caves and made our way to the temple room I had spotted before. Sure enough, we found the remaining three priests and five orcs around an altar, with the little girl bound upon it. Neu Gai attempted a disguise wearing one of the red robes we had gotten previously, but they weren't fooled. Not surprising considering they knew what to expect. He rushed forward and whacked one of the priests, and the rest of us poured into the room after him. I got off my remaining sleep spell, dropping two orcs and the priest Neu Gai hit. Chicot and Glug moved in, and the three of them ended up with an orc apiece. Chicot got hit by his orc, and the head priest nailed Neu Gai with a flame bolt. The other attempted to scare Chicot, but he stood firm and fought on.
The other orcs were ineffective at best. Suddenly the head priest step back to the altar and cast another spell. Neu Gai attempted to strike twice to foil the spell but the priest somehow evaded him without breaking concentration. The air of the temple was shattered by the bolt of lightning that resulted. Neu Gai caught the bolt straight in the chest, and we all reeled from the sound and scent of charred flesh that resulted. He was flung lifeless to the ground at Glug's feet, but even in death he succeeded in shielding Glug from most of the blow. I critically hit with an arrow, but alas it was too late to save Neu Gai's life. In the end, it was Glug who finished off the high priest, while Chicot and I finished off the underlings.
Miraculously, the little girl was unconscious, but still unharmed, so we picked up her and Neu Gai's body and fled the temple. We returned to the horses, and then to the caravan, and restored the little girl to her tearful parents. They were extremely grateful for her rescue, and a little later gave us a five hundred gold piece reward. A nice piece of change, but I'd have traded it in an instant to have Neu Gai back again. We rested, healed, and buried our fallen comrade. Digging a grave in the woods the elves love so much, we buried him in his armor. Indeed, we would have been hard pressed to remove it, so tightly had the lightning bound it to his body. A mighty fighter he was, and we'll be hard pressed to find his like again. His sword, however, we kept with us, in hopes that it might still serve another of our band. A few short words from Glug and Brother, and we left him to his endless rest. At least he died in good cause, saving a young girl from horrid death on an altar of evil. Her parents have promised to say a prayer for Neu Gai as well, and hopefully it will speed his spirit on to its reward.
With daybreak, refreshed and healed, and with spells regained, we decided to return to the temple. Unlikely though it might be, there could be other prisoners in the caves. A man in Groat had asked for any news of his family, who had been part of the massacred caravan. Several children had been along, and we'd found no small bodies in the wreckage of the wagon train. I feared I knew what had happened to them, but we had to check. Besides, we hadn't checked for loot at all, and Glug wanted to do something about the altar. We agreed to meet the caravan along the road to Basimar, as we'd be able to travel faster then they. The return to the temple was uneventful, and while Glug dealt with the altar the other three of us did some exploring. There were several exits from the temple, not including the lava pit, which I decided we didn't have to explore. To the north, we found several orc barracks, filled with stinking bedding and an even more stinking cesspit. To the south, behind the altar, we found the living quarters of the priests. The passage from the temple room led us first to an armory, full of the cheap equipment the orcs had been using. Next was a robing room, with lots of the red robes the priests wore.
Beyond that was the (much neater) sleeping quarters of the priests, with several chests at the foot of the beds. I opened all the chests, disarming a nasty looking fire trap, and putting some of my new lock picking skills to good use. We found some money in the chests, as well as more cloths and boots, but nothing spectacular. Behind a curtain on the west wall, however, we found another room with a small altar. This seemed to be the head guy's private temple, as his bedroom lay just beyond it, so while Glug did his stuff to cleanse the altar of evil the rest of us explored the head guy's stuff. We found lots of papers on his desk, which we swept up and took for later examination, and a chest full of more goodies. Searching more carefully, I found a secret panel in the back of a small alcove, and beyond that was the good stuff. We found some nice looking gems, more gold and platinum, and some stuff that's too heavy for us to carry. There were several pretty high quality rugs and tapestries rolled and stacked, obviously gleanings from the last caravan. We hauled what we could back to the armory, and I did a quick detect magic to see what we'd found. The priest's ring is magic, as was the amulet we found. A jar we found also seems to be magic, but we can't tell what it is so I don't want to open it. We've got enough cash from all this to get the magic things identified, though, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem to find out. Maybe we'll luck out and it'll be a jar of Fire Drake blood we can sell to Aslam.
On the way out, I remembered a couple more places we hadn't searched, and I'm glad I did. One passage led to a dead end, but the other lead to a small prison area. In it, nearly dead from malnutrition and who knows what else, we found a small boy. Probably one of the missing children from the last caravan. I couldn't manage the lock on the cell door (damn orcs never take proper care of the things), but we found the keys on a peg in the outer room. Glug healed the child as best he could with magic, but it will take a few weeks or even months of decent food and exercise before he recovers completely. Mission accomplished, we headed back to rejoin the caravan. The boy we'll have to take with us to Basimar and then back to Groat, assuming he's who I think he his. And perhaps on the way back we can pick up some of the skunk glands Aslam wants. After that battle, I think some nice bracers of defense would be an excellent idea...
On to Journal Nine