The past couple days have been pretty eventful. Shortly after finding an old road which seemed to lead in the direction we were headed, we came across two decrepit looking dwarves who claimed that they had just been attacked by an Ettin! Always willing to help, our party immediately took off after the Ettin, with hopes of saving the dwarves’ companions.

When we arrived at the Ettin’s cave, we soon discovered that we didn’t have all of the information.... the whole thing was a trap!!! And furthermore, this was no ordinary Ettin, it was some sort of undead monstrosity!

With Ghelt and Jonathan taking the lead, we did manage to dispatch the creature, but not before they both took a lot of damage. Jonathan particularly looked ‘drained,’ and Drusilia fears that the damage will be permanent. As if he didn’t have enough strikes against him.

At least he found a magical amulet of some sort for his trouble... maybe it will make up for the energy drain. Magic is always fun!

While searching the Ettin’s lair, two pathetic creatures came stumbling out from the rear of the cave, and offered us a large reward if we would allow them to leave peacefully. I was all for this, having seen enough fighting for one day, but the rest of the party seemed thirsty for blood, and wanted to attack.

We didn’t have time to really discuss it though, as Korin, who had been waiting outside (I had noticed that it was unusually quiet up until then...), rushed in and began shooting arrows into them! This ended all posibility of a peaceful resolution, and the two creatures attacked us in desperation. We were able to defend ourselves, but I felt that it wasn’t necessarily the best way that the situation could have been handled.

The next day’s travel brought us to what could only be the dwarven stronghold of Barraktor. Deciding that our best choice would be to cleanse any evil from Barraktor before moving on to Arun-tosa, we cautiously entered.

Our explorations didn’t last long before we had to make a hasty retreat. Apparently Barraktor is infested by Shadows that can drain every last ounce of strength from you. Poor Jonathan found this out the hard way, and was so weak he couldn’t even stand! We had to literally drag him back outside to safety! (Or at least relative safety - we were attacked again in the night, even though we were a good distance from the stronghold. Luckily we managed to fight the Shadows off.)

At this point, I am not sure what our best option is. Instinct tells me that if we cannot hold our own against whatever is infesting Barraktor, we won’t stand a chance in the true ‘City of the Dead,’ so our only real choices are: Go back and face the peril, or turn-tail and run for home.... Which I guess leaves us no option at all.... I am sure we will be going back in. The stakes are too high not to.

~=Fafnir Flamebrewer=~
Starday, Flocktime 8

P.S. - We still do not have a rogue. We have been discovering traps by having Jonathan trip over them, setting them off.... this method probably won’t work for long, as one of these times the trap that goes off will just kill all of us.... Unfortunately, once again, no solution seems to be available to us, so I guess we will just have to risk it.

~FF~