Safe, At Last (on behalf of Ajiesha)

Safe, At Last

Soon after we leave Daiche` the party is hit with a dilemma - Jarl and Elessar want to go to Throal in order to deposit the Second Book of Harrow. The rest of us put forward their arguments and finally reason prevailed and the other two agreed to go with our plan subject to a couple of reasonable conditions.

The first day on the way to Travar passes without mishap…by the second day we pass Lybaden, where we are given a warm welcome by the villagers. Darren, who still appears to be the spokesman, invites us to his house and replenishes our rations. We accept his invitation to spend the night resting there but by the crack of dawn we on our way again.

During our travels, Ivor finds great success with the sword we found in The Temple of Twelve - he discovers that it has Runes in Elven script in poetic format on its side and that the sword was actually used as a ward against horrors. Ivor also finds out that the sword belonged to Farley’s The Great, a famed horror-hunter. The sword had helped him grievously injure a horror - great things were definitely tied to it.

Later during the night, Elessar and Ahmok wake up to find that there’s a lion stalking our encampment. Although we try our best to get rid of it without killing it, the battle ends up with the poor beast definitely on the losing end and Ahmok decides to give it a fast, humane end rather than leave it languishing for days…

The next day we set off again and it’s not long before trouble strikes in the shape of a troll raider ship. Somehow we all manage to hide and to find safe places for our horses - all, except Ahmok, who finds himself on the receiving end of a couple of arrow shots. Luckily the raiders decide that one solitary t’skrang is hardly worth the effort of stopping and the ship continues on its ominous way.

A couple of hours later we reach the river - tired of travelling, we decide to catch the ferry to Travar and to go straight to the Throal Embassy in order to let the Ambassador know what happened to his mission.

The Ambassador gives us a very warm reception and it’s easy to see that he’s impressed with our achievement. He offers us a job on the spot and, after some discussion between us, we decide to work for him on a freelance basis. The extra money will certainly come in handy. The Ambassador also gives us a kind of messenger stone that will keep us in communication with him wherever we are, as well as an official seal for each of us - all this besides the generous remuneration for the job, of course.

There’s only one thing left to decide: what to do with the Book. Again, discord threatens our group but finally we agree to entrust it to The Ambassador in exchange for access to it whenever we need it. Equally importantly, we are given a list of names of people who will provide a safe-house should we ever need one.

That evening, the Ambassador throws a party in our honour. It’s finally time to relax a bit before deciding what path our immediate future will take.

Heavy Load

So a simple piece of magical paper turned our situation upside down. What set out to be a simple investigation of trade disturbances suddenly became a responsibility to prevent an insane cult from killing all name-giver races - or did it? Was it in fact our responsibility, or should we just report it back?

A lot of names were mentioned in Aubrin's (Forest) report, two of which were familiar. Silas we knew from the Temple of the Twelve, and Freya just brought me back to health after the Experience Death ordeal. And how could it be that the heiress of the most bloodthirsty of the troll moots becomes a questor of Garlen? She was definitely not faking beneath a white-robed disguise, my scars can vouch for that. We decided that this lead was too close to let pass, and sent Ajisha back to Daiche to try and bring her out to talk to us.

The windling disguised herself as a bulky male of her race, using that uncanny talent troubadours have. She later reported that, since it was late, the town was deserted and the inns all but closed. Her search yielded nothing, so she headed outside of town to the encampments beyond. There she changed her disguise to that of a sickly female windling, in need of healing. She was given directions, not to where Freya was, but gruff man who offered here another type of healing - in the form of a vial of mescal. This was the new drug mentioned in Aubrin's report, and I hope to gather some useful information from studying its alchemical properties. This man gave her more than a vial of the drug though, he also let her know that he had plans for Freya, as she was probably intent on stopping his trade in that gold mine of a drug.

Meanwhile Jarl and myself decided to try and learn more about the huge tome brought back from the Temple. Little did I know then that I was about to make the single most important discovery in my whole life, the though of which makes my hand tremble even now, when the initial impact subsided. We pitched our magic reading abilities against it. First we found out that it was in Theran, and obviously very old. Then that it was none other than the Second Book of Harrow, translated from the original by Elinar Messias, as written by the scribe Tarish Ferros. The Second Book of Harrow. Literally one of the foundations of Thera and a huge repository of arcane knowledge. It lay there on the ground, beckoning me with a nasty grin. Half remembered tales of scribes dying while translating the Books of Harrow came back to me. I exchanged a long silent glance with Jarl, and in unison we closed the tome. Two thoughts crossed my mind then. What was Silas planning to do with this ancient knowledge? And more importantly, how could we prevent it from falling back again into his hands?

We were interrupted by Ahmok, who announced that he was off to see why Ajisha was taking her time. It seems he met her on the way back, and tey returned to share what she'd learnt. Ahmok decided to go back to town during the day, to attempt to confront her. They found her at Pappi's, in the company of Dvorak. He scowled at them, but they explained why they were there. They took her by the side, and told her about how they thought she was the daughter of the troll Chorak, and that if she reclaims her rightful leadership then the senseless raiding and pillaging of the different moots would stop, and stability be restored. She stared back blankly, denying she was Chorak's daughter. Ahmok and Ajisha were not too convinced, and tried talking her out of it. She would have none of it, and would not even come with them to talk outside town, as it would be seen as a sign of defeat in her struggle against the Mescal pusher.

While this was happening we were beset by windling thieves. Injuries were inflicted on both sides, my left and my right... We didn't want to kill them off, and so Jarl managed to convince them to leave in exchange for their leader's life, who he had downed. This encounter was enough of a nuisance to warrant a return to Freya's healing touch, for which I shall be eternally grateful. Long story short she was not going anywhere. We thanked her anyway, and I think she realised that we were not quite buying her story.

Back outside of town, and we had our first major argument as a party. Jarl and myself concluded that the most important thing to do at this point was to take the Tome to Throal, to deposit it with the Library there for safekeeping. The others wanted to finish the mission and return Aubrin's note and news of his fate to Varadi Farion in Travar. It went on and on, and Ahmok and Jarl were the most stubborn about it. Issues of the party's leadership inevitably came up, as a leader would have solved this argument quickly. Finally I suggested a compromise - we would take the note and report to Travar, on condition that we resolve the issue of the Tome immediately afterwards. I realised that if the party split up to reach both goals at the same time we would be more vulnerable to attack, thus a greater chance that the Tome falls back into the wrong hands.

Daiche (written by Jarl)

20th of Rua

After the strange encounter with the gargoyle, we decide we had more than enough of this temple and head back to Libaden, leaving behind the mysteries of the accursed place and its restless ghost in the library. Once in Libaden we decide its time we get ourselves a good draft horse, and we soon as the proud owners of a fine horse we name 'Butters'. We soon pile Butters up with our gear including the accursed tome we found in the temple. On the road again, we try to make up for lost time, the road to Daiche should not take more than two days on horseback. The first day of riding passes uneventful, and likewise the night.

21st of Rua The following morning , as we turn a bend in the road, we spot a white clad troll walking towards Daiche. We signal our approach and the troll, a female we get to learn is a Questor of Garlen, present herself as Freya. She looks friendly enough and pretty soon she joins us on the road. She is quite the taciturn type, but a good listener. After a whole day of riding we set camp and Freya takes up guard duties with us. The night passes uneventfully.

22nd of Rua After a good breakfast we hit the road again, and once we head clear of the forest the sun shines on the peaks of the Tylon's, my birthplace. Pretty soon we slowly creep back into civilisation as we see in the distance several groups heading towards Kratas and Daiche. By late afternoon we walk into the border town. The first impression of the place is not exactly reassuring, it seems like the bordertown has taken as resident a distinctly unsavory bunch. Several individuals clearly under the influence of alcohol or drugs loaf about uselessly, the town of about a thousand is build very haphazardly and it will be quite some time before any semblance of order is established; unless the town destroys itself in the meantime, as we were to hear from the barman of a local tavern 'The Satyr and Stiletto'. Seems like the town has two warring gangs 'the Force of the Eye' (the same group who had a hand in saving us from the dungeons in the very first adventure) headed by a powerfully built black woman referred to as 'the Duchess' and the 'Brochers Brood' gang. After a few beers, a buzzing sound and a distinct smell signal the approach of a long time acquaintance of ours - Longfellow the windling. The small guy is still upto his old habits and he is pretty quickly sloshed up. Nonetheless we do manage to tell him of our mission to find a man going by the name of Forest and he promised to keep an eye out and meet us the following day. After renting rooms for ourselves, and Ivor getting his own room with one of the local wenches, we rest.

23rd of Rua The following morning we head off to market to sell some loot, unfortunately we realize we had forgotten to pack some of the non magical gear we had scrounged from the temple. Instead we decide to sell off a medallion we had found and the silvers should be enough to cover our costs for a few days. Longfellow meets us again and directs us to an tavern named Pappi's before passing out. Once at Pappi's we are pretty sure we spot our man but he seems elusive. Telepathically he instructs us to meet him at another Inn named 'the Pit' in the evening. After spending some time away from Daiche to do some training, we head to the Pit. As the name suggests, the place has a fighting pit in the middle and we spend time having a few rounds and watching the fights and competitions. Time passes and we start growing restless. As midnight approaches Ivor and I head back to Pappi's to investigate what happened to Forest, but once there we find someone else expecting us. A huge troll by the name of Dvorak, who describes himself as a sort of sheriff for this town, is pretty intent on getting info about Forest from us and the situation is pretty tense. I manage to find an excuse to call back the rest of the group over. Once we are all in the now closed tavern, we get to learn that Forest has been brutally murdered at Pappi's a few hours back. As the midnight hour strikes we head up to his room.

24th of Rua
Opening the door revealed the grisly scene of walls covered in blood and a mangled and cut up Forest lifeless on the floor. Elessar steps in to do some investigating and suggests he performs a necromancer talent to reexperience Forest's death. Ajisha goes out to find Freya, on suggestion from Elessar, as the process is obviously very harrowing for Elessar. Once Freya arrives, we are told to head downstairs and wait. After an hour or so Elessar descends, visible distraught and rather incomprehensible. Dvorak is still asking him what he discovered but Elessar asks if he can go pay last respects. After he returns he tells Dvorak some facts and the 'sheriff' instructs us to head out of town. Once safely out of ear's reach, Elessar tells us that he saw Forest being brutally murdered by an expert female assassin and that he transformed the note into a gem. Elessar also shows us a magical ring he manage to slide off Forest. After he utters the command word the gem unfurls into a note, we read it in earnest...

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