No matter where you go, there you are.
Dear Grun,
Well, to continue our tale from Smallville..
We spent a few days in town, settling our account of the treasure we’d found and what some of the objects were for. We made a lot of cash outright! I would have been happy with just my axe but they insisted on dividing the rest up evenly. A good party! There is also a wand of colorspray — at least, poor Trap is currently several colors and Fafnir suspects he didn’t trigger the spell quite right. We can’t figure out what the cloak is for — it fits Valon and Drusilia nicely.. poor Father must think we’re a bit cracked, we kept trying to see if it would make them invisible or do anything special , which started in the kitchen and worked its way out to the warehouse. “Everyone close their eyes! Now, Valon, hide in a shadow somewhere! OK, everyone look for Valon!” ..
I spent some time working in the forge and catching up, and checking on the recovering party in the inn. Valon performed there every night — he’s pretty good! Fafnir learned some spells from the scrolls we’d picked up, which didn’t stop him from making some pictures for everyone to enjoy.. mostly of Trap setting off traps. He’s got it in for him right now. Everyone healed up nicely, and went shopping with their newfound loot! I think Father forgave us when several dropped by with orders for weapons..
I’ve started working with Trap, teaching him some fighting techniques. Either he’ll stop hitting party members by mistake, or kill one of us really well next time!
We decided to follow the map from the ghoul’s room. I have no idea what it leads us to, while others wonder if it has something to do with the Heart of Nerull artifact. Either way, it gives us an excuse to be out on the road — although we still have to destroy that necromancer’s wand, as well. We have a full plate!
Trap is certain that the trip will take only two weeks. It’s actually more like three, but I didn’t have the heart to tell him; he’s been catching so much flack lately! I’m carrying extra food for now and will mention it later..
Of course, we started the trip off by barge. Ugh. At least this time I sat in the middle and held the mule, and nothing happened! We then headed off toward the mountains and travelled all day. As night fell, we approached a farmstead at the base of the hills..
And it was far too quiet. There were big footprints in the yard and, as we approached, we could see the door had been bashed in. At this point the elf suddenly asked us what his stick looked like. I don’t know if he had a moment of lucidity or is slipping further into his own world, to distract us like that!. It didn’t matter, however — there was no one to be found, and no animals in the barn, but terrible bloodstains everywhere, and drag marks toward the mountains.
We realized that the people couldn’t be alive, and so rather than track in the dark, we camped further up the road for the night. The next morning, we followed the tracks into the mountains with Trap scouting ahead. He stopped at a hole in the rock and waved — when we got there it turned out he wanted us to wait. Oops — we need to work on hand signals! There were skulls on stakes outside the doorway, but no one around. We tied the mule outside, and headed into the passageway, but Trap tripped a wire and we heard alarms. We decided to retreat and wait for whatever was in there to come out.. which didn’t happen!
Suddenly, Trap was hit by an arrow — a goblin sniper was above us on the mountainside. Someone shot it — and we charged back down the tunnel! Valon was ahead of me, unfortunately, which meant that the ogre we ran into got a good shot at him first. Down went the elf, singing even as the ogre started dragging him away! Fafnir pegged it with some magic missiles, Drusilia killed it with a well-placed arrow, and we found more goblins at the end of the tunnel. One of them stabbed Valon to make him stop singing, poor guy! I killed one goblin even as another managed to get the ogre back on its feet. Fafnir started a flaming sphere, which he used to kill the goblin from a safer distance, while Drusilia and Trap shot arrows down the hall. We killed everyone but one goblin, which I chased through the room and down another hall. (Drusilia, by the way, proved a real berserker as she charged through battle and kicked a goblin so hard it passed out, just to get to Valon before he could be killed. Go, Drusilia!).
As the next hallway opened out to a room full of goblins, there were suddenly five Fafnirs around me — which was startling to me but quite a distraction for the goblin javelin-throwers! The Fafnirs stunned four of them right off with that new wand of colorspray. I took out the last two, even as Valon showed up and accidentally shot the real Fafnir with an arrow. Not again! His bow broke, too, so Fafnir accepted his apology to some extent.. Trap had been watching our rear during the battle, and arrived to search out a very smelly bedroom and a locked door. He got the door open, and was hit by needles from above. (It’s a point of pride for him that none of us have been injured by any traps, but I think he’s a little masochistic!). We found casks of wine and a locked box, which Trap tried to open. He got the lock all jammed up instead, so I suggested we just take the hinges off. That worked out OK, but it still had a trap — he opened it to a cloud of gas! We did get some more treasure out of it..
I went and got the mule, and we searched the rest of the place, found the bodies of those the goblins had killed, and made sure the place was cleared out. I dragged the bodies of the goblins out the front door so anyone passing would know it was cleaned out, and we prepared to move on.
Which reminds me, I ought to go back and say a prayer for those poor farmers. It’s all we can do for them, now.
Hope all’s well at home!
Love,
Ghelt