Dearest Grun,

I got home and sent my first note right off — and now I’m starting another letter-journal. Hard to believe the first one was only three days’ worth!

We managed to pull everyone out of the hole in the ground, eventually — Drusilia being last; she heard something move, but we were so sick and tired we went on.

Valon, luckily, had a tent we could put to use, as the three we’d rescued couldn’t even walk on their own. We dragged them through the woods, back to the poor lonely cleric, piled him onto the tent, and headed back to town. You can imagine what a stir we caused!

Everyone at the bar helped us put the four to bed upstairs, and I paid for them to be fed and sheltered for a couple of weeks. They are very eager to get on with their travels, but it will take a little while for the poison to wear off. I hadn’t noticed Trap was missing until we came back downstairs and discovered the innkeeper in the middle of firing him — by kicking him out the front door with some choice words! The impudent one immediately dusted himself off and came back in as a paying customer.. chuckle..

Of course, my father and brother were there too, so we sat down and I told them all about where we’d been and what we’d done. Father, of course, pointed out that he’d been a little worried — I felt bad, but we really hadn’t planned to be gone for so long! The axe wowed everyone, but the holy symbol I’d made got his attention, too. Seeing me heal Trap made him get up and ask me to come home for a minute..

Can you imagine my surprise, Grun, when he pulled out a beautiful silver holy symbol, gave it to me, and told me it used to be Mother’s? We both got a little teary! I’m glad he has decided to accept my calling so well, but it made me realize that things at home won’t ever be the same. He went off to the forge for a bit, so I changed clothes and went back to the tavern.

Drusilia asked me to come with her to an old lady’s house — apparently, something had been making noises in her home and she thought a cleric could clear the place of evil — or whatever it was! Somehow, all of us ended up in her little home, listening to something in the attic. Drusilia climbed up and looked while I tapped at the spots I’d heard noise.. and things started flying about!

Trap led the old lady outside for a moment (but he returned), and we went to war with a bunch of stirges. What a small ending to a great adventure! It was funny, though, to see us trying to dispatch a bunch of vermin without destroying the little old lady’s furniture. I was throwing rocks, Drusilia and Valon slashed carefully with their swords, and Trap shot an arrow into Fafnir — poor gnome! Trap got attacked by the creatures, which started sucking his blood. This made for a mess when we bashed the things, of course. Fafnir got to throw daggers at Trap (at least he was hitting the stirges and not Trap, but the thought was there!). Trap stabbed himself a few times, while the rest of us finally killed off the rest of the creatures.

Aftter Fafnir fixed the hole in the attic so no more could enter, and the rest of us cleaned up bodies and blood, and Drusilia loudly blessed the place for the widow’s benefit, we all went home to bed!

With much love;
Ghelt