Run in with orcs. After the battle, Caradryan injures Jezeg even more while trying to heal him!
Battle Records (includes last 2 battles): Caradryan = 3 kills. Nadon = 16 kills. Lillay = 11 kills, High Damage Kill at 29 points. Ilmarian = 4 kills. Nivak = 9 kills. Jezeg = 3 kills. Varthlokkur = 23 kills. Growlyn = 12 kills. Klaus = 8 kills. Arvin = 3 kills.
Day 780 (the next day)
We travel on. Caradryan’s upset because Jezeg (our party Cleric) will be a better Battle Mage than him (our party Battle Mage)!
Day 784 (4 days later)
We are entering the mountain region.
Day 786 (2 days later)
We’ve come into a heavily wooded valley. Caradryan, Nadon, and Ilmarian hear humanoid conversation off to our left, so we immediately stop and form a plan of action. Since we’re on the trail of kidnappers, we can’t be sure that the voices are the ones we’re seeking out or other ones altogether – it’s best to investigate before making our presence known. Not that we don’t all much prefer the chain mail armor we’ve acquired, it certainly is very noisy compared to the leathers we used to wear! We are unable to convince Nivak to strip his armor off before trailing after the mysterious voices, so Nadon offers his services instead. He’s gone for about three hours and we’re starting to get concerned about his safety when he returns. He tells us of the compound he found, the humans inhabiting the compound, and how he was very nearly spotted on two occasions. After much argument as to our next plan of action, Ilmarian volunteers to go to the compound to negotiate a price for the girl instead of fighting our way through. He figures that we’ve got 2000 Gold on us and if the kidnappers have ransomed the girl for 500 Gold then we’ll pay them more for less hassle and be done with the whole thing. We wouldn’t be losing out (money-wise) on the deal because Adam promised us 2500 Gold upon our return with his daughter (alive). I’m thinking the kidnappers will have ransomed her for much more than 500 Gold, but I’m out-voted and Ilmarian goes to the compound to work his “magic”. Turns out the kidnappers have ransomed her for 20,000 Gold, but will cut a deal with Ilmarian for 10,000 Gold. He bluffs his way out of the compound and returns to us with this information. It’s decided that we’ll trick the kidnappers with fake bags of gold in order to buy us the necessary time to find the girl. I think this will work – at least in the respect of giving us perhaps an extra few minutes of “surprise time” before launching into an all-out battle. The idea is that this will give Ilmarian time enough to escape before the humans realize they’ve been tricked. On our way back to the compound, the plan evolves a bit more and we now have the entire party walking into the human’s compound with the exception of Nadon and Ilmarian who will be hanging back within the tree line to serve as our archers if and when the battle starts. We go in and set down our bags of “gold”. There’s no one about. We think perhaps the humans won’t come out unless we leave the bags and back away from them. This works and two men come out to inspect the bags. And we’ve now just screwed up our elaborate plan within mere seconds! The men find that the bags are filled with rocks and such and only the top layer contains actual gold. They run back into the compound. Nivak takes off on his horse towards the tree line – I suppose he’s headed for Nadon and Ilmarian, but I’m not sure. We prepare for battle and it finds us quickly. Mid-way through the battle, a 20-foot ball of fire comes towards us and Varthlokkur runs off like a little girl! Stupid dwarf. In the end, we slaughter all our enemies except the wizard who still holds the girl captive. He bargains her for his life and a horse. Ilmarian gives him Lunch assuming we will be able to catch up since Lunch is so slow. I try chasing after him, but can’t pick up the trail. After such a harrowing battle, it’s not worth the risk to go off too far by myself. We learn the girl’s name: Irene. We also learn that she is a spoiled and very annoying little bitch. She’s none too happy with being rescued and proceeds to give me a migraine with her incessant whining about it. Caradryan comes to everyone’s rescue by casting a sleep spell on the brat.
Battle Records: Caradryan = 1 kill. Nadon = 7 kills (including Head Archer), First Blood. Lillay = 14 kills, 2 kills in 1 turn. Ilmarian = 0 kills. Nivak = 8 kills, Horsey McRide is killed in battle. Jezeg = 12 kills, High Damage Kill at 27 points. Varthlokkur = 6 kills. Growlyn = 6 kills (including Fire Elemental). Klaus = 1 kill. Arvin = 4 kills.
Day 790 (4 days later)
We’ve set up camp in the kidnappers’ compound. We’re still recovering from that last battle and will probably be here a few more days. Klaus is hurt pretty badly – he’ll be useless for the next 18 weeks with an arm injury.
Records: Today marks the 2nd anniversary of our travels as an adventuring party.
Day 792 (2 days later)
We set off for Goldum with Irene in tow – bound and asleep in the cart.
Day 796 (4 days later)
Encounter with a band of goblins.
Battle Records: Caradryan = 0 kills. Nadon = 4 kills, First Blood. Lillay = 5 kills (including Head Goblin), High Damage Kill at 22 points. Ilmarian = 0 kills. Nivak = 0 kills. Jezeg = 1 kill. Varthlokkur = 4 kills. Gowlyn = 6 kills. Klaus = 2 kills. Arvin = 0 kills.