Fighting Chance

Sharn, Therendor 17, 998 YK

And we found ourselves face to face with another warforged assailant!

It was a long fight (for we chose not to turn over our hard-earned item!) and K’ehleyr was knocked unconscious once. I managed to pour that last healing potion down her throat while the guys kept the creature occupied, and within a second of Gib striking the killing blow, we were all trying to jump the warforged before the body hit the ground, hoping to prevent another one of those “Final Messengers” from fluttering away. It was too fast for us, though we were able to see that it flew off in the general direction of the shaft we’d climbed down earlier. We did manage to get a nice sword off its body, and Jin and Gib worked at taking some of the adamantine off of it, which K’ehleyr and I thought was tantamount to skinning a sentient creature.

We were in no shape to climb the shaft back to the surface, so we opted to hole up in the ancient temple for eight hours; hoping that no other warforged would be dispatched to find us. I estimated that they were looking for us about every twelve hours, but had no way of knowing if they were keeping to a schedule. I was able to cast some small healing spell on Gib, who’d been severely beaten up during our last encounter, and used what I had left to mend, or at least strengthen, the tattered map we’d found in the foundry. It appears to be of land between Cyre / Mournland and Darguun, though I do not recognize any of the symbols marking the map. I also attempted to get some practice in on my fiddle, having lugged it all the way down with us, but I managed to break two strings in two minutes.

This morning when we were ready to head back to the surface, Gib tried to find another route that would avoid the one the Lord of the Blades and his warforged assailants might be watching, but all tunnels out save the one had collapsed. He did find four large fire beetles though, which we fought (I killed two with a whip!). Gib and Jin took the “lanterns” off of the bugs, which provided us with enough light for the rest of the trip up.

Luck was with us; there were no complications on the long climb out of the catacombs, nor was there any unpleasantness waiting for us. I cast a quick spell to clean everyone’s clothing, and then we set off to the Broken Anvil again, both to eat and send a courier to House Cannith. At this point I discovered that the journal I’d earlier taken from Gib for safekeeping was no longer in my possession. I am sorry to say I accused the goblin of swiping it from my pack, but he was sincere when he told me that he did not and I was free to search him. Jin believed Gib to be telling the truth, so I let the matter drop.

Lady d’Vown soon arrived to meet with us, and was delighted that we’d retrieved the schema (and better yet, she made no mention of the journal), and mentioned that she may have other work for us in the future; we can check in periodically at the Sivis message station at the Barmin Tower. She paid us and left; and we went to sell off what we collected that we did not wish to keep. K’ehleyr and I went to sell the ancient coins to a collector and also sold the gold ingots and some various armor and weapons. Jin and Gib were gone for a long time, as they wanted to sell stuff that no reputable dealer would purchase.

They eventually arrived back with us for our next meal, but had not managed to sell the “warforged repair kit” and seemed a bit distressed about that; they were glad to take their shares from what K’ehleyr and I had sold.

I have a bad feeling about this.

Hope all is well with you!

Your sister,

Jak