The last gather I attended, which ran from the 29th day of March to the 31st day in the year 602, was held inside the mountains of Ironvale, which is located inside the barony of Westmarch, in the duchy of Ravenholt. We were there to celebrate the birth of twins to a dwarven couple named Sven and Olga.
When first we arrived, there was no sign of any dwarves around. We found the tavern, but it was empty. We explored around, but still could not find any sign of the dwarves we had come looking for. What we did find, though, was a strange building with puzzles. Along with my companions Myrick and Kabaka, I went about attempting to solve the puzzles, but was interrupted by screams from outside.
Along with my companions, I ran outside, to see two dwarves, one male and one female, being attacked by a band of brigands. Without thinking twice, I ran down to help. The dwarves were bleeding out by the time I arrived, so I healed the female dwarf while a healer near me cured the male dwarf. Meanwhile, some fighters and casters that had been standing nearby cut down the brigands.
Along with the healer Lorien, I helped the dwarves inside, where they sat down on the couch and began to tell us what had occurred. Baron Jason Askani, who is the Baron of Westmarch and a most fair, just, and noble man, came over as well and aided us in uncovering information. It turned out that the male dwarf was Sven, who was the head of the Hammerforge clan. The Hammerforge clan were the clan of dwarves that lived in the part of Ironvale that we were in. He revealed to us that he was invested in both the earth circle and the celestial circle that could be found in the tavern, and had the power to invest others as well. This proved to be most useful information, since without it people would have been forced to resurrect somewhere else, and be lost to us for the duration of our time in Ironvale. The female dwarf was Kristina, Sven's daughter. She was very grown-up, and was soon to be married, we learned.
We did not receive much more information, and so I went back outside the tavern to explore. It wasn't long after this that a dwarven woman with red hair came running up to me, asking if I was a healer. I replied that I was, and she asked if I could help her, for the lady of her household was dreadfully sick. I told her that I would help her, and so I gathered up two other healers, Dougan and Koven, and some guards, and off we went to the manor house where the sick lady was.
The dwarven woman with the red hair explained to us that her name was Clara, and she was the nursemaid for the dwarven lady called Olga, who just happened to be Sven's wife. Olga had just had twins, but unfortunately one of the babies had been kidnapped. However, Olga did not seem to realize that the baby had been kidnapped, as she was in a state of madness. She constantly referred to her one baby in the plural form, and it seemed as if she could see the second baby that was not there.
I attempted to use a Cure Disease spell, but it did no good. Meanwhile, Koven, a bear scavenger, found a pitcher of juice and sniffed it to discover if it was poisoned. Koven detected something unnatural in the juice, but could not ascertain whether it was poison or not. We continued to search the room, but found nothing. We tried several spells, but none seemed to do any good. Finally, Dougan happened to come across a vial, which appeared to contain an alchemical substance. We sent for an alchemist to come help us, and they analyzed the substance in the vial, but were not able to determine anything.
Clara suggested to us that there was a hermit alchemist in the mountains nearby, so we left Olga's manor and headed towards the caves. The cave was infested with trolls, but we fought our way through and managed to find the hermit alchemist. We discovered that she essentially only made two types of exixirs, those of birth control and those designed to increase fertility. She told us that a woman had been coming in recently and buying the elixirs for birth control. Unfortunately, because the hermit was blind, she could not tell us what this woman looked like, but guaranteed us that she would recognize her by voice. The hermit also warned us that taking the elixir wrongly could produce the effects that Olga appeared to be suffering from, and that eventually she would die from them. We asked her if there was any way to cure these effects, and she told us that she could cure them, but would first require an additional component that she did not have, which was pure water.
We went off to search for the water, but unfortunately we were unable to find any that night. We were told that it ran in an underground stream, but with all the cave entrances in Ironvale, it was impossible to tell which one would lead to the stream. We decided to abandon our mission for the night, as Sven would not be back in town until the next day, and he seemed to be the most logical person to talk to.
I got up bright and early the next morning, and happened to find Sven in the tavern. I explained to him what we had found out the night before, and he told us that he would immediately begin to have crews look into finding the underground stream. It was especially important to him, because it was his own wife's life at stake. Of course, because his son had also been taken from him, he had several things to worry about, and so he spent much time that day shuttling between the mines and the tavern. Every time he re-appeared in the tavern, I asked if the crews had managed to find the stream, but each time I was told that they had not.
The hermit alchemist had speculated that Olga would die by midnight or not long after if a cure was not found, so as the end of the day approached, I became very nervous. Finally, though, around dinnertime we had something of a breakthrough. Sven informed me that the dwarves had found a stream, but it was trapped behind a collapsed cave entrance, and could not be gotten to. They would have to dig a tunnel through the rocks to get in, and that would take yet more time.
Somewhat later in the evening, I believe around eight o'clock, Baron Jason led a group of adventurers to investigate a possible location of Sven's son, and in the process he captured the person behind the nefarious plot to steal Sven's son and posion Sven's wife. Shockingly, this person was none othen than Sven's own daughter Kristina. Because she wished to have her and her husband come to power in the clan, she had to make certain that there were no more children, which is why she fed her mother the birth control poison. Then, when the poison backfired and her mother became pregnant, she had to remove the male son, for in dwarven society the clan leadership passes first to the eldest male son.
Thanks to Baron Jason's brilliant leadership, we had the woman responsible for the poisoning in custody, but we still did not have the cure, and time was running out. That was when luck began to go our way. I was sitting at a table with the Viscountess when I was approached by a group of dark elves. They told her that they had heard rumors that someone was looking for pure water, and she immediately referred them to me. They told me that they had gone to great lengths to acquire pure water, and they wished to trade it for a unique item. I did not have any unique items, so I am most grateful that the Viscountess stepped in and managed to acquire the pure water in trade. She then handed the pure water to me, and I gathered up a group of adventurers to journey to the cave where the hermit alchemist lived. The group consisted of Perdue, Leeorick, Avaron, Kitten, Norfolk, myself, and one other. The last member of the group's name escapes me as I write this, but if that individual reads this and contacts me, I will be more than glad to add their name in.
Once the group had been assembled, we travelled back to the cave where the hermit lived, which used to be populated by trolls. However, since we had killed all the trolls the previous night, there was no need to worry. We walked right in and found the hermit without difficulty. We explained to her that we had come back with the pure water, and so she got to making the antidote right away, with some assistance from Kitten. Meanwhile, Leeorick went back to the tavern to ask Baron Jason if we might transport Kristina to the hermit's cave so that she might be idenfitied by her voice. However, since Kristina had already confessed, Baron Jason saw no reason to risk removing her form her prison at that time.
Before too long, the antidote was completed, and so we sent Kitten and Norfolk back to help Olga. The hermit, who was shocked that her alchemy was used for evil purposes, journeyed with us back to the tavern, where she verbally accosted Kristina for taking advantage of her. Leeorick then took her back to her cave, and I was left standing around Kristina's prison with Baron Jason, Sven, and some other people.
Olga came upstairs to where the prison was, and got to hold both her babies. However, no one had told her what her daughter had done, and so she was heartbroken. She leaned on Sven to cry, and so I suggested that perhaps they should be given some privacy. Everyone shuffled downstairs except for Baron Jason, who stayed behind to comfort them.
Soon, all five members of Sven's family appeared downstairs, in the main part of the tavern, and Sven thanked everyone for their help. He announced the names of his children, and all present were thrilled to learn that Sven's son was named Jason, after the man who rescued him. He pulled out a drinking horn, and told us that it was a dwarven tradition that if everyone drank from the horn, it would bring good luck. Sven and his family of course drank from it first, and then handed it to Baron Jason. After drinking from it, Baron Jason handed it to me, and I do not know that I have ever had a greater honor in the time I have been adventuring than to drink from that horn. Olga was okay, Sven's children were alive and healthy, and even though Sven's family had a lot of mending to do, it seemed at that moment as if nothing in the world could possibly go wrong.
Scribed by Seronia on the 2nd day of April in the year 602.