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August 2, 2005

Looking for Fun

Ebin's Journal

Well, now we are in the desert and traveling at night to avoid the effects of the intense heat. The past few days have been kind of slow. The only real excitement was when we were attacked by this thing called a bullet. We defeated it and skinned it. We’re going to sell it to an armor smith. We also came up against some ghouls, but Deitricha dusted them real quick. I hope we get to our destination soon, that’s when the real fun will begin.

Posted by Fred at 19:08 | Ebin’s Journal

August 12, 2005

Tremors

Theona's Journal

Eleasis 25, 1373 DR, edge of Anauroch Desert

I divide my time between wanting to protect the humans in our party, and wanting to flee with Areon from this quest. Drinking seems to help squelch most of these ambitions.

Our days are mostly uneventful. We passed a ten-wagon Zhentish caravan heading west; my friends seemed surprised I didn’t try to take on all forty of the drivers and guards (I admit, I did some quick math and decided it wasn’t worth the attempt). I take my cues from Areon’s reaction to such things.

Watches during our downtime are another matter entirely. He doesn’t seem to panic when we are assaulted, so I do not get the “sense” that there is anything amiss. Well, if my emotional response to an attack on my watch doesn’t wake him, my screams do. Two nights ago I felt a rumbling coming up through the ground, and had the entire camp alerted before the thing erupted from the ground. It was a bullette, a huge armored creature that appears to be mostly mouth. I could not hit it with bolts, but Tyan’s magic easily wounded it, while the bulette itself was attempting to eat Ebin. I used the wand of enfeeblement on it, which may have weakened it, but the armored beast then attacked Deitricha, so I spent the rest of the brief battle trying to keep myself between her and the creature, while also trying to push her back from its threat range. Darn thing bit me once too, but by then it was staggering. It quickly expired from its wounds, and, ew, someone suggested skinning it for its naturally-armored hide. I’m sure that will be smelling wonderful in a few days of desert heat.

I decided a stiff drink was in order at this point, but once again, I found a big blue rat butt and tail sticking out of my mug. If we survive this trip, I may have to purchase an “everfull thimble” for this creature. I am suspicious that Glitch does not sit watches with me for the stimulating conversation.

We’ve decided to try traveling at night so that we are not exerting the camels (and ourselves) during the hottest part of the day. This also means that we are all likely to be awake when attacks occur, such as the ghoul attack we just survived. Areon and I tried to keep our wagon between the undead creatures and our human companions, who would easily succumb to the paralyzing claws of the ghouls, but we needn’t have worried, as Deitricha summoned some divine power and turned the things into dust without so much as a by-your-leave. She then rolled out of the back of their wagon onto the dusty path, laughing uncontrollably. Areon and I did a quick search of the area from whence the ghouls shambled, but thankfully found no amassing undead army.

Of everything out here though, so far, our own human companions are the scariest things.

Posted by Kristin at 09:55 | Theona’s Journal

August 14, 2005

Desert Wonderings

Areon's Journal

We are 11 days out of Llorkh now, and into the Anauroch Desert. We have begun traveling at night and resting during the day to keep us out of the heat.

The tenday before we made it to the desert we were attaced twice, once by goblings led by a strage wolf-goblin creature, and once by a bluette. We have the armored plates of the bluette stored in the back of the wagons now, and I hope that we will be able to trade them for something once we return to civilization.

I am still working on my bow...though the lack of excitement has allowed me to work a great deal on it. I belive I will finsh it in another tenday, and be able to start working on the huge pile of fletching supplies I have stacked in my backpack.

I have started wondering though about learning some arcane magic to aid my skill with a bow. My mother told me of elves who learn some arcane arts to make their attacks more powerful, and I have seen how well theona’s wand seems to work on strong creatures. Perhaps it wouldn’t be a bad idea for me make my arrows sap a creatures strength.

Posted by Tim at 11:14 | Areon’s Journal

August 16, 2005

Just Deserts

Theona's Journal

Eleint 6, 1373 DR, heading north in the Anauroch Desert

We traveled north for a few uneventful nights, then during my daytime watch on the 28th, I heard some movement outside of camp, and as I was alerting my friends, we were attacked by four hell hounds. Glitch, who had been “helping” me, alerted Tyan while I woke Areon, and the infernal canines hit the edge of the camp as Deitricha and Ebin were woken. Ebin charged the creatures, killing two as he was in turn attacked by them; I dropped one and Areon killed the other.

After the battle, we saw that there was a half-lion/half-woman creature standing on a ledge a good 150’ away, but she took off before we could do anything.

The next day we were attacked again, but this time it was by a glowing ball of light, which, if memory serves me, was a creature called a nyth. Memory, unfortunately, did not recall a way of dispatching such a creature, which apparently wanted to harm us, as it continuously shot bolts of magic at us. Well, at Ebin, anyway. I tried sending moon motes after it which made Ebin think there were more creatures, and Tyan hit it with a blast of magical energy which split it into two creatures! We lobbed bolts and arrows at them until they disappeared, though we have no way of knowing if we injured them. But, we haven’t seen another since. Afterwards, Dietricha cast a spell which allowed her to fly around and make sure there was nothing else looking for us. We also moved our camp a few hundred feet for good measure.

We traveled a full seven days after that with absolutely nothing of interest happening at all, though Areon was pleased as it allowed him to finish the bow he’s been working on this entire trip. Earlier today, however, I caught some sounds of activity ahead of us, and since it was too dark to see what the source was, Areon and I left our wagon (and Tyan and Glitch left theirs) so we could walk ahead a ways to investigate.

I’m glad we did, as we would have driven our camels right off of a steep cliff! About 50’ below us, we could see a big camp, and hear the sounds of shovels and pickaxes. Upon closer inspection, we saw many humanoids in desert gear, several gnolls with whips and about twenty tents. It appeared that the humanoids, who we had to assume were slaves, had just unearthed some sort of buried structure. As we tried to determine how best to proceed, one of the humanoids collapsed where he had been digging, obviously exhausted; a gnoll picked up the body and tossed it into a ravine. I decided to run back and alert Ebin and Deitricha to the situation lest they bring the wagons closer, while Tyan and Areon worked out a way to hide Areon from sight so he could creep into the camp for a closer look and headcount. Areon was back up safely by the time I returned, with a guess that the gnolls numbered between four and twenty-eight (we’ll need to watch and see how many shifts they take) and he’d found what we assume is the leader’s tent, or at least, the only tent in the camp bearing arcane symbols around the door. He also could see that the workers were not chained or shackled in any way—it will make it difficult to rescue them if they are in some way charmed, or working off a debt or blackmail of some sort. For now though, we will have to plan a rescue with caution— we should certainly attempt to free these people if possible, but we are also many miles from home should one or more of us not survive the encounter.

Posted by Kristin at 12:36 | Theona’s Journal