Kythorn 9, 1373, Nether Mountains

Greycastle wasn’t kidding when he said it was a “small caravan.” In fact, the caravan consists of 3 wagons (including the one Antonio bought) and 4 guards (other than our little band of adventurers). I am even more concerned about our safety now, as 200 gold pieces to guard such a small caravan seems to be a little overkill.

We set of however towards Everlund. I set off slightly ahead of the group so I would be able to spot anyone approaching us. It may seem a little paranoid, but I prefer to be ready, just in case we should come upon a group who would want to take our goods without any compensation….

Other than passing a few Silver Knights shortly after we left the city, I had a relatively uneventful trip, until the storm, that is. It hit almost without warning. We stopped to camp and wait it out, but the wind was keeping the fire from being lit, and we were worried that we would be too exposed to the cold. We set up into the mountains a little, and found a small cave to keep shelter in.

We had settled in and began watches. In the middle of the night, we heard a scraping sound, and then the horses started whinnying. I jumped up to see what was going on and found — Orcs! These were not live orcs though, they were zombies raised for some foul purpose, I brought my greatsword down, ending one’s unlife, and Theona shot the next one to emerge from the secret door we had missed. Deitricha turned the remaining few, and Antonio tossed a “cocktail,” (as he has dubbed them) lighting them on fire.

Now I’m normally not too picky about how a person fights, as long as it is effective, but I don’t think Antonio is picking the best option. His “cocktails” are merely some oil in a fragile bottle with a burning rag sticking out the top. There are far too many ways for him to hurt himself, or us, because of an accident. Not to mention where he throws the bottles. In the cave, it is not so dangerous, but in the woods if he were to do the same thing he could cause irreparable damage. I swear that if something like that should happen, I will consider him just as much of an enemy as any orc that I have meet in the Coldwood.
Anyway, Antonio, Tassar and I followed the passage down the way the Zombies had come, and were ambushed (albeit poorly) by living orcs. We fought our way out of the ambush and discovered that our attackers were fanatical followers of Gruumsh, made obvious by their single remaining eye.

We returned and told Theona and Deitricha about the live orcs and Theona immediately agreed to help us clear the caves, Deitricha reluctantly agreed to go, but I am sure that she would have been just as adamant about killing these orcs, had she seen the things they have done, like I have.

We made our way until we came in to a room filled with undead orcs. They shuffled to attack us and we did our best to hold them off. The orcs proved to be too much however, and soon I lost consciousness. When I came to Theona had dragged me out of harms way and used my wand of healing on me, then given me a potion of healing she owned (I will have to pay her back for the potion).

We returned to the cavern to rest, and Theona jammed the secret door shut with a few copper coins. I tried to rest, but the constant pounding of a zombie on the opposite side of the door kept me wary.

Morning came, but Drake did not want to continue our trek until the storm broke. Much to the horror of Deitricha we decided that we would un-jam the door and deal with whatever came out. When the coins were removed, a lone zombie came stumbling out, and Theona and I each shot our crossbow and bow, respectively, at it. However, Antonio decided it would be best to try and light the zombie on fire, and so he managed to catch both my arrow and Theona’s bolt in the back. He dropped to the ground, but not before catching himself, Tassar, and eventually, the zombie on fire.

We returned to the hall of the big fight we had the night before, and found it to be empty. Theona checked about the room, and after much debate Antonio set a tapestry of Gruumsh on fire. I am now beginning to be very concerned that Antonio may start fire before he thinks about their consequences…and I am afraid I am going to have to be the one to point it out to him. I was about to start, but Tassar claimed that he heard guttural speech down the tunnel from us, and I immediately headed that way. It has been entirely too long since I used this sword as I had intended to….