Reaping 16, 594 CY
Rattedaumen
We rested in the cave with the hive creature— or mother, apparently (we figured out it was a mother after a few oval shaped items were brought to the water surface and pulled back under by tentacles).
Constant ranged attacks finally defeated the hive mother— Elizair blasted it with spells, and put some sort of magic on my weapon as well. Janet was everywhere, pulling on tentacles and dumping oil on the creature, which Elizair lit on fire. I only had to rescue him one time when the creature played dead and he got too close. It seemed unable to heal itself when out of the water, so Janet and I hauled on the tentacles and stabbed at all the exposed areas. When we were absolutely positive it was dead, we dragged it the rest of the way onto the beach of the little lake and slit it open. We found Munthrek’s body and his equipment and buried him in that cave, which I plan to call “Muthrek’s Mine” if anyone asks. We made sure no eggs survived either.
Our only remaining problem was getting out of the mine— but some dwarves and other people from Turnel had come and cleared the entrance, just finishing as we staggered wearily to the surface. We were greeted by a very strange-looking gnome who calls himself Fash. He doesn’t look like any other gnome I’ve ever seen, though he was raised by dwarves, which I don’t imagine helped any. Janet seems to like him (fresh meat?) and Elizair seems to think he can join us. I’m not sure I trust him, but if Elizair thinks he’s okay, I’ll go along with that for now.
It turns out we actually collected quite a lot of nice things on this latest excursion. I traded a magical hand axe for a light mace of similar quality for Janet. Elizair gave me a ring that will prevent me from suffering from that awful paralysis again. Janet, Elizair and I also each got about 5000 gold for the items we found, including a lot of those ant-scorpion tails. The shopkeeper we sold those to explained that they are called “’karg” and are normally found in the desert. When we told him how they seemed to get harder to kill as we fought them, he explained that the drones closest to the hive mother are stronger. We found (and sold!) a runestone that was in the mine too— perhaps that is how the hive got in the mine to begin with. Elizair and I must hurry back to the inn— I can hear Janet from here trying to find a “companion” for the homely Fash….
Reaping 21, 594 CY
Exag
Elizair and I wandered over to the Staggering Lich, by which point Janet and Fash were getting ready to go “bar hopping.” We only have one other drinking establishment in Rattedaumen, so it was looking to be a short night. As we gathered our strength to make the 200’ trek to the Rat’s Thumb Tavern, we heard sounds coming from the now-closed apothecary where Elizair and I had just sold our loot to Mr. Vendor.
Janet and I snuck around to the back door of Arkon’s Apothecary while Elizair and Fash went to the front. The thief was bold as brass, leaving the door open and not bothering to be quiet. I took that opportunity to attempt to dispatch him, but he somehow dodged my blade when it should have skewered him. My companions burst in to take up the fight with me, but we could barely hit the thief. Elizair must have managed to hit him once though, the thief only parried my blows and attempted to disarm me—he struck at Elizair to kill. Thank Pelor that Janet was there or I’d be mourning my dearest friend now.
The thief must have felt we were wasting his time, as he began to demand that we turn over the runestone (we’re pretty sure he means the one we’d just sold to Mr. Vendor). Elizair managed to stall him for some time by declaring that the runestone was worthless without the “redstone” companion. I worried he’d attack Elizair again, or me, so when the thief demanded we open the apothecary vault, I used a little bit of my innate magic to make it sound like a crowd of people was surrounding the building. The thief, in desperation, blew the vault door off its hinges—we took that opportunity to run. As it was, I was apparently hit by a sleep spell protecting the vault. When I came to, the thief was long gone and there was smoke billowing from the building. Mr. Vendor, the town guards, and many curious townsfolk surrounded us. Lucky for us Mr. Vendor knows us so well, else it might have looked as though we’d been trying to rob his store. He assured us that he keeps his real valuables in a vault “in the ether” whatever that means, though the runestone, which he’d not yet had a chance to study, had been in that physical vault.
We offered to chase after the thief. Mr. Vendor was happy enough to let us do that, though somehow the thief had covered 100 miles in a short time—he was at least as far north as Exag. After a brief rest, we headed north on foot.
The journey was uneventful, though we did stay at Lord Zadrian’s “camp” (his mansion not yet rebuilt). Unsurprisingly, the kobold sorcerer that had been staying with him had already moved on. We got warnings of ogres, bad weather, an old outpost called Hightower that had fallen to barbarians, and ruins once in habited by the “Lord of the North.” We did see a rather largish footprint going east at one point, but all was peaceful enough during the remainder of our journey to Exag, at least.
It was raining by the time we arrived at the walled town. We were let in by the watch, and talked to a very tall human called Commander Bragus. Of course, no one had seen our thief, but at least one group of “adventurers” had passed through recently, heading towards Hightower. They had not been seen since.