It has been a while since the last time I did a journal, but this weekend’s gathering in Richland was interesting enough to give me material to write about.
The gathering took place on the island of Trulam, in the town of Crimson Cross, which is in Richland. Being the only adventurer noble of Richland, Sir Kyth Wild was in charge of the gathering, especially since he had been specifically tasked by the Lady Contessa De’Genovia with leading the expedition of the island. Other nobility present included Count Davy of Lyonesse, Count Valoric Treehawke of Stormcross, Sir Noah Darkshanks of Blackstone, Lady Kestrel De’kiernan of Havencrest, and Sir Jokarius Bashere of Avendale. It was good to see Sir Jokarius, for he is an old friend of mine from the beginning of my adventuring days, and reminiscing with him all weekend brought back a lot of positive memories.
At the beginning of the gathering, Kes announced that she was going to go scout the area and see if anything had changed since the last time she was on the island. She asked if anyone wanted to go with her, and I volunteered to come along as backup. I’m not nearly as stealthy as Kes, but I can usually make up for my lack of stealth with general utility.
About a half mile north of town, Kes and I discovered a cave. Kes said she hadn’t specifically noticed it before, so we went inside to take a look. Once there, we found about thirty goblins and orcs, cowering in fear. They explained to us that they were being killed by a hunter on the island, who wished to slay them only for their skins. They also explained that the orcs and goblins they sent out to forage for food never ended up coming back, and so we volunteered to help bring them some food.
We went back to town, and explained the situation to Sir Kyth. His ship navigator, a gorbe named Baltazar, informed us that he had some dried fish and potatoes on his ship, and he would be willing to donate them for use by the orcs and goblins. So, Kes and I went with Baltazar and delivered the food to the starving orcs and goblins, and they expressed their gratitude to us.
When we again came back to town, Sir Francisco De’Genovia was about, and I got my first chance to meet him. I had heard of him before, as I knew that he was in charge of the poker tournament at the last gathering, but I had never actually met him. When I did, my impressions of him were very favorable. He did a good job of keeping himself up to date on what was occurring around the island, and he seemed to have a good, logical mind. He seemed to think things through before deciding to take action, which is obviously a strong trait in anyone.
Around the time all of this was going on, the town was under continual assault by rats and deep trolls. I do not know where the rat problem came from, but I was told that the deep trolls came through a gate that had been opened at the last gathering. The rats were not very dangerous. Their swings hurt about as much as a polearm in the hands of an unskilled user, and if they breached your armor, they could cause disease with their touch. They seemed to go down after two of my swings, and my swings are as effective as a magic missile spell. The deep trolls were tougher. I believe they had the body to be able to take four stone bolt spells, and they swung damage equivalent to my own. Thankfully, they were one spell takedowns when everything else went awry.
Shortly after I met Sir Francisco, a dwarf named Ragnorak Brewmaster came into town, complaining that the deep trolls were overrunning the dwarven forges. He wished to speak to a noble, and so he spoke to Sir Francisco, as Sir Kyth was out of town. Sir Francisco had me also attend to the conversation, and then asked me to point Ragnorak in the direction of Sir Kyth when the latter arrived back in town.
In the meantime, Ragnorak wanted to talk to people who may have been there when the trolls were released through the door. Brin and I escorted him, and we talked to anyone who said they were there. We were able to piece together that the door was opened for the purpose of getting a flute. Based on a delve history cast by Adrafae, they believed that the flute could help cure afflicted townsfolk, who had been cursed so that they transform into spirits at night, and their living and spiritual selves have no awareness of each other. However, there had been a ward cast by Sir Jokarius upon the building when they left, and supposedly the County troops were supposed to put a ward upon the cave every five days thereafter, to keep the deep trolls inside. Why the wards had not been put up recently was the big question.
Before we could answer the question, though, my good friend Caliphar came running into the tavern shouting that he needed help, because a group had gone to fight pirates and lost. Well, Ragnorak, Brin, myself and the rest of the people in the tavern all went to help against the pirates.
When we got there, it was very dark and hard to see. I had a hard time telling who was who, but I did manage to pick off a couple pirates. Then, I found the pirate caster. He had a clear pattern in the way that he threw his spells. I timed myself on his pattern, and then right after he threw, I rushed him. I was into body on him before he could even react, and he fell quickly. When I searched him, I found a white bag on him. A detect magic revealed that it was magical, and so I was going to put it up for town divvy, but had no way of ascertaining what it was without a lore cantrip or a celestial circle. Thus, I held it until I could find one of those things.
Meanwhile, we hunted down the rest of the pirates, and then Nikki and I thought we saw glowing eyes off in the woods, so we went to investigate. However, it turned out to be Baltazar, looking for any last pirates that might be wandering around, and so we turned around and headed back to the tavern. Once back there, Sir Kyth finally managed to get a chance to talk to Ragnorak, and I believe their issues were sorted out.
Not wanting to take any chances, we headed to the cave to discover what had happened with the ward situation. When we got there, we found two deep trolls, who had clearly just finished eating some Richland soldiers, and were spitting body parts at us. Sir Jokarius dispatched them easily, and then he put up a new wall of force and ward to re-trap the deep trolls. Hopefully, this time the wards will be able to be maintained.
After the incident with the deep trolls, we were told of a ghost ship floating in the harbor nearby. We decided that this was clearly something worth investigating, and so we did. It was filled with mostly undead, and they were fairly easy to clear out. Unfortunately, it was not the ghost ship from Blackstone I have been looking for.
The last event of the evening involved a cave filled with deep trolls that needed to be cleared out. I led the initial charge and was doing a lot of the stickwork at the beginning, but it wasn’t much of a challenge for more experienced adventurers, and so Sir Kyth pulled out the experienced adventurers to let some younger adventurers have a go at it, and they performed admirably.
After that, Nikki, Caliphar, and I retired to our ward to go to sleep. It was a cold night, and my blankets were insufficient to keep me warm, so I didn’t get much sleep, and when I awoke the next morning I was probably a little more out of it than usual. Thankfully, there were no heinous monsters around. I walked to the tavern, where Pharaon was serving oatmeal, which is the best tavern breakfast I can remember having in a long time. I downed my oatmeal slowly, savoring every last bite of cinnamony goodness, and then it was time to face the day.
Not much happened in the morning. We had some skirmishes here and there, and I got to meet a couple new people, but nothing serious. One of the new people I got a chance to speak to was Pell Melrun, the hobling chef. I asked him to distribute some potions and other items amongst the younger adventurers for me. In general, all younger adventurers (and older adventurers as well, for that matter) should know that if they need something, they can come to me and I will try my best to help them out with it.
The first time I can remember anything exciting happening in the morning was when I was sitting talking to Brin, and she noticed Baltazar running across the field towards us. He looked like there was trouble, so we ran out to meet him, and he explained to us that the ship the Red Mave was under attack by orcs. I dashed off immediately.
When I got to the ship, I saw that the orcs were fighting the hunter. Not wanting to see any more blood spilled, I jumped in the middle, and yelled, “Everyone stop fighting now!” They stopped fighting for about three seconds, and then the hunter started swinging again. The orcs swung back, attacking both the hunter and I, and then the rest of the adventurers got there and engaged, and any attempts at peace were finished. We took out the orcs, and the ship was saved.
Later that afternoon, there wasn’t much to do, and so we started circle fighting. For those who don’t know, circle fighting is excellent combat practice. Everyone stands in a circle, and then you can attack only the people two spaces or more to your right or left. In other words, you cannot attack the people next to you. When someone gets five hits on them, they step out, and then the circle reforms.
Unfortunately, our first circle fight was interrupted by water elementals several times, but it came down to Ander, Sir Kyth, and myself in the final three. I vanquished Ander, and then Sir Kyth vanquished me, becoming the winner.
The second circle fight was different. It was interrupted by fire elementals instead of water elementals. We beat back the first few groups, and continued circle fighting when we were finished. The finals came down to Sir Kyth and I again, but they were interrupted by fire elementals teamed with undead. We got swamped, and I thought I was dead for sure, but Pharaon saved my life, and for that I am most grateful. I chucked banishes into the huge fire elemental thing until I finally got rid of it, and it dropped a celestial cantrip tome as treasure. I was able to give the cantrip tome to Count Valoric, who was able to use it to lore the snow pouch from the previous night. Once identified, it was able to be given out as treasure. Ironically, I ended up winning back the snow pouch in the divvy, and I traded it out for an item more useful to me.
As far as I know, the fire elementals and undead are allied because the undead leader controls the fire elemental leader. I tried reasoning things out with the fire elemental leader in the past, but failed miserably.
After the fire elemental battle, dusk fell and spells reset themselves. I took some time to eat dinner (which was impressive, since I often forget to eat), and some spiritual townsfolk came into the tavern. I didn’t get much of a chance to talk to them, but it doesn’t seem like much has changed with them.
At one point, an orc representative with a white flag came into the tavern. He informed us that we had violated our deal to help his people, and as such they were going to war with us. I ran up and asked them to re-consider. I told them that we had not violated our deal, but instead had been attacked and defended ourselves. I informed them that it was all a big misunderstanding, and the representative agreed to go back to his leader and request a meeting for me. I made certain that the deal was approved by Sir Kyth, and then the orc ran off back to his camp.
Pirates attacked the tavern multiple times, and Juniper’s good eyes saved several people’s lives. She told me that she thought she saw something moving around outside the tavern. I went out to investigate, and found that there were a couple adventurers out there who had been taken down by pirates. I was able to dispatch the pirates and heal the adventurers. They were lucky, because without Juniper noticing the pirates, the adventurers probably would have resurrected.
On another pirate attack, it was me who was lucky. I got taken down by a pirate spell caster, but Peregrine saved my life with a cure serious in the back. We beat back the pirates a few more times, but our resources were being depleted by the casters. That was nothing compared to how the next situation depleted our resources, though.
I was standing talking to Kes, explaining about the developing orc situation, when Kyth came by and asked us to join him in exterminating some undead. I was more than happy to help out, but as soon as I saw what we were up against, I knew we were in serious trouble. There was a giant chaos elemental, a giant undead with glowing eyes, and several smaller undead, who were still powerful.
The undead came at us, and washed over us. I started seeing people drop, and I knew this would be over fast if we didn’t get help. I took off and dashed full speed back to the tavern, where I found Caliphar, and some others playing a game of poker. I told them that we needed help, and Caliphar immediately jumped up and ran out with me, with others close behind.
When we got back to the fight, the best we could do was to try to heal people and make an orderly retreat. I got killed by the chaos elemental, but Peregrine thankfully saved my life. We met up with the others near the entrance to the undead cave. It was about this point where His Excellency Lyonesse took over control of the battle from Sir Kyth. His Excellency Lyonesse ordered us to attack again with our new companions, and we surged forward. I personally went after the chaos elemental. I unloaded a series of banishes into him, and he just phased or dodged them all. Finally, once Peregrine, His Excellency Lyonesse, and I were all throwing banishes into him, one finally connected and he went down. The other undead soon fell in succession, and we managed to clear the cave. It was risky, but thankfully we were victorious.
Back in the tavern, I discovered that His Excellency Lyonesse had reached a deal with the orcs to contract them to Richland, but meanwhile the goblins were being slaughtered. Every time I asked someone why they killed a goblin, there response was that it was annoying them. I’m sorry, but just because something is annoying is not a justifiable reason to kill it. They were hungry and looking for food and we could have shown sympathy toward other living beings instead of killing them outright because they were annoying us.
To this end, I came up with an idea. The goblins needed food, but they were being slaughtered in the tavern. Caliphar and I went off into the woods, looking for a good place to hunt large game. We came across an area right on the edge of the woods that seemed to have a lot of large game. Working together, Caliphar and I managed to down two loping antelopes, but he didn’t figure that would be enough food to feed all the goblins.
Thus, we went back hunting for more, and eventually came upon a large bear. This time we split up. Caliphar roared at it to draw it out, while I snuck up to the side of it. It went after him, and we both struck it. It fell, and the bear must have been nine feet tall, so we figured it would provide the rest of the food that the goblins needed. We put all the food out in a cool area, and then we made sure that the goblins were informed of where it was.
On our way back to town, we noticed screaming down by the docks. We ran to get there, but by the time we arrived, the battle was pretty much over. Caliphar did do an amazing job, though, of taking down a pirate that was sneaking up behind me. Just as it was about to strike me, he jumped and threw his shield in the way, saving me from a nasty cut. He then proceeded to tool the pirate down.
We thought that the gathering was pretty much over, and everyone was pretty tired, so Brin and I enlisted Sir Jokarius to help us put up a celestial circle in town, since the town had none. Unfortunately, as we were doing this, a messenger from Sir Francisco came into town and told us that his path to the docks had been blocked by a large force of water elementals, earth elementals, and undead. I assume this had something to do with the elemental towers, but I don’t really know much more about it.
At any rate, we rallied the town together, although we were so tapped after the fight with the undead and chaos elementals that I wasn’t sure we could handle this fight. After a frost giant began throwing imprisons at us, I became even less sure that we could handle the fight. However, we did manage to push forward. I got dropped at one point, but Baltazar managed to save me, and then the two of us went after the giant earth elemental. We managed to back him into a corner, and then Sir Kyth and Caliphar joined us for the kill, with Caliphar throwing a ton of lightning into him.
After the earth elemental fell, the rest of the forces seemed to pretty much scatter. We were able to split what was found, and then we went back to town and finished putting up our celestial circle. Thankfully, now the town can identify items and people.
As a whole, I think we did a lot of good for Richland this gathering. We didn’t directly solve any problems, but we moved closer to solving some. Ultimately, our success or failure will be measured over the long term, not immediately. However, I for one was proud to help Sir Kyth and Richland and I thank all the other adventurers who showed up to do the same.