Author's note: I fell behind and eschewed the dates. Infer where the break in days are. It fits for Merrin.
We’re headed into the Briars, to pursue a minor band of bandits. Info seems to indicate they’re Freetown stragglers. Captured some folks, and holed up somewhere in the Briars.
Setup camp at the Patrol Station. It’s hot in here. Much worse than the other side of the stones. Keeping alert is hard in this heat.
Midnight now: something happened up at the Mountain. Something big. Night turned into day, and thunder rolled into the brush. An unbelievably large lance from the direction of the Mountain struck something in the heavens. WHat was that?
We went looking for trails and stumbled upon the bandits. Their watch succumbed first to the heat, and this Dismas’s blade. We captured the bandits, and liberated the captives, one of which swore his way into our services as a man-at-arms. How about that? We also got some decent goods, which we hauled back out, and a trinket that seems to unerringly point north if one lets it. I got to keep it.
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We returned to town, it was on lockdown after the skylance. Messengers sent off already. THe baron hinted at sending us into the mountains, but we schuttled it with Bill having discovered some dangerous information. We left for the Stone Hills through Oldbridge and Ekull, trying to intercept forces. Sounds like the Baron isn’t himself.
Met with the reinforcements. Passed on the information we had, which they took well.
Shared an evening meal with some pilgrims and attended mass the next morning. Good people. Dismas looked as if he was looking for someone through part of it.
We hired some goblins at Goblintown, sappers they called themselves. Moved into the hills, no trouble. The mine was where we expected, and entered. Encountered a skeletal monster through a door on the otherside of of a underground river ravine. I leapt back, and Soren and Dismas dealt with it. Netted us two little eye gems.
We proceeded cautiously into the corridor thereafter. Tunnels continued left, right, and forward, and we decided to creep forward. Bill muttered fervent prayers as we stepped over the threshold. Shortly forward, we found a sealed set of mining tunnels, very crude in their carving, and then came across the great furnace room. Tracks led further into the darkness, away from the doors, curving northward.
Nothing immediately in the room, but the next had a automaton. Took us a little by surprise, but not too badly. We took it down quickly, and were relieved. Investigation over the machine revealed a few values, as well as detailing it’s degradation before we came. Good for us.
The rest of the room contained a small fortune in ingots. Rustless metal or some such. We deliberated briefly, and then decided to heft into our packs all of them and get them out.
On the return to the entrance, I heard a tapping begin. It continued until we left, and left me in a daze for a while. Dismas and Soren didn’t seem dazed, but Bill’s mutterings grew more fervent. Retroactively, it seems there was some more rumors about this place we had missed…
Returning to Ekull and Goblintown, we sold our treasures in bulk, and the goblins left. Soren floated the idea over drinks of hiring additional men. There was general agreement, and so the next week we spread the request.
Some of them were… exhausting let’s say. The boy, Cosmin, and Brother Cuy is complemented by a poor noble but one who hasn’t let circumstance crush his spirits, and two mages hired by Soren and Dismas. I think. I was asleep.
I hired into my employ a selkie, one Ms. Mary “Molly” Poole. I’ve heard about what selkies can do, and she affirmed them. She was quiet for the first couple of days and during the interviewing, but has opened up afterwards, or during patrols in the country. Has various strange sayings. A good traveling companion I think. Hopefully her resolve in a fight will be there as well. She’s kitted for swimming, and combat in that environment. But I insisted on a tougher mail when on dry land. We’re not canoeing on the river….
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We decided to pursue rumors of a dead master thief to the south. We arrived in a town that the local priest said had burned to cinders years before, and that there is a wizard in the woods nearby who at least seems to be an occasional church going man. I’m not going to write the wizard’s name. Z for short.
Z’s abode is on the edge of the briars, and the heat hit us occasionally. HIs compound was manned by… I don’t think they were dwarves or gnomes. Strange folk they were. But we were treated to a meal and information, and promised additional information with the return of a share of the gold and treasure. As if I couldn’t have found it myself….
Soren left for Esber to purchase mercenaries, while the rest of us skulked around a place called The Haunted Tower. Even the deer avoided the lush patch, so I wonder if there’s some truth to the rumor. Nothing in and out for a few years. Seems only the field mice will get close.
The wizard’s information is bad. Real bad. When we approach the clearing where we saw kobolds and a small manor, Dismas in shifting about, discovered a large illusion. The ruins of a manor were present, but there was a wizard’s tower too, and men with livery of a black tower. They emerged from the bubble of illusion and we caught them by surprise. Though me too. The others had them dead for rights.
Then apparently another wizard emerged, and bellowed a threat. And unleashed some monsters that probably didn’t really exist on us. I think? Maybe? Unclear. We retreated back out, and Dismas persuaded us to check back in on the wizard. He has misgivings he quietly shared. We didn’t share it among the mercenaries, and mutedly among the henchmen.
We’ve returned to the village town, (drink the cinder not the ale. Bad ale.) A number of us are considering returning to our towns and cities to train. We’ve the confidence in our experiences now, assuredly, and before we take on whatever is in this Haunted Tower, we want to be secured first in the best possible odds.
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