Filmed in the Miracle of Skeletorama!
Once free of the ilithid’s cave, we buried Areon’s blue cat, and moved on into the wilderness. Areon and Beowulf led us toward the settlement of Beorunna’s Well, as Theona thought it was both the closest town, and the most likely to provide us with a safer trip to Silverymoon. There are regular caravan runs and we need safety in numbers! We’ve all given up on the idea of getting our horses back; they’ve surely been sold off long ago.
We travelled all day, and settled into a niche, a depression in the ground, for the night. I had everyone pile their food and water, and blessed the lot for Theona’s peace of mind. We have collected some of it from questionable sources! Areon actually admitted he wasn’t feeling well. The elf has refused to complain when seriously injured, so I was quick to give him a once-over. Sure enough, he’d been bitten by a rat during the underground battles. I cleaned out the wound and used spells to restore him to health as best I could, but promised to pray for the ability to cure disease outright in the morning.
It seemed like I had barely closed my eyes when Beowulf was shaking me awake. It wasn’t second watch yet, though - it was that something had just overflown our camp! Gathered around the fire, we all pulled out whatever we could shoot or throw at the thing which was swooping back toward us. When I saw the wingspan, I feared a white dragon; I caught a glimpse of a horn on its head and no arms just as Beowulf shouted, “Yrthak!” and we all fired. I hit Theona with my shuriken instead, and suddenly the ground in the middle of our party exploded!
As the yrthak flew around for another pass, Areon shouted at us to spread out. Everyone ran for cover away from the fire, toward the rim of the depression. I stayed by the fire, thinking perhaps to give it a target while the others could take a shot. Or maybe I was just guided by Tymora, for the yrthak used the rocks that Rosorc and Theona were using as cover as weapons instead, causing them to explode and doing a lot of shrapnel damage! Rosorc did it some damage, but Theona was barely on her feet. I raced up the hill to heal her as the creature flapped off into the night.
The rest of the night passed uneventfully. Theona took second watch with me to quiz me about “interspecies relationships” again. I pointed out to her that my own attempt had failed badly, but then she implied something about Rosorc and me. I looked at her, I looked at Rosorc... what? I was glad that he stopped mooning after her, but now that I think of it, he does seem kind of sad. Poor Rosorc doesn’t need any more complications in his life, but maybe I can cheer him up without his knowing?
In the morning, I prayed to Tymora and cured Areon’s rat bite fever. We packed up and set out, but it was a wet and windy day. As we struggled along, it got colder. Finally, our scouts found a cave and we settled in around a fire for a few days. Beowulf went out every day to fly around and watch for trouble, Areon made some arrows, and I found some sling stones. Theona talked to me about Rosorc, using elven, which he apparently doesn’t understand. Or else he’s gotten very good at ignoring us! He polished his armor to a fine shine before the weather changed and we all set out again.
The next few days were uneventful, which I thanked Tymora for every night! Beowulf in the sky and Areon on the ground were a good team, apparently leading us around various trouble spots. The only fight they got into, they didn’t even need any help except for looting the body and burying the skull of its last victim. I was passing a little stream the first day when I saw some wildflowers by the bank. I don’t know what came over me, but I picked one quickly and hid it. That night, I managed to tuck it into Rosorc’s beard without either waking him or being seen by Theona, a creditable feat! I suspect Areon thinks I’m nuts, but I hope it makes Rosorc smile. If he gets too worried, I suppose I’ll tell him it was just a joke on my part.
I managed to find a flower or two every day for the rest of the trip. If nothing else, it seemed to get Rosorc wondering about the group he was a part of instead of walking along deep in his own thoughts. By the time we were in sight of Beorunna’s Well, he was sharing out the last of his ale and singing some utterly reprehensible tavern songs with Theona. The two of them had a lot of “the last of the ale” stored away!
As evening fell, we saw the wooden palisade of Beorunna’s Well across the plain. A caravan was just entering the gates. We were soon there, too, and asking for the nearest inn! A good night’s sleep and a proper wash sounded like just the thing! Lucky for us, there were four rooms left. Beowulf and wolf, Theona and Areon, Rosorc, and I each got one. Sleeping out for days makes you really appreciate a mattress and blankets! I did get up in the middle of the night for a trip to Rosorc’s locked door, however. There may not be many wildflowers in the rocky foothills, but that walk across the plain found me quite a few. I hope he notices that none are roses; I don’t want him to think it’s Theona being a tease.
The next morning, we all met at the elves’ room to divide up our treasure. Beowulf used detect magic to separate out anything special, and mentioned that my new staff definitely glowed. This is a rough frontier town, but it has several shops, so we set out to find someone to identify our magical items. With over 2500 gold apiece, we also kept an eye out for anything else that looked useful! The trip to the magic-users’ shop went very well; not only did I get a wand of cure light wounds, but the mage gave me the command word to my staff - of shocking! When he told me there was no limit on the staff’s charges, he got a tip!
Areon found the armory, and we really made some inroads on their stock of mithril. Even Rosorc got new armor, had more spikes added, and headed right back to the mage’s to get it enchanted. I stocked up on shuriken and asked about the local shrines, but there were none for Tymora, so I saved my donation for when we get back to Silverymoon. For that matter, how do we plan to get back? I decided to ask the innkeeper about any caravans back to the city, and found out that the one we’d seen earlier was going that way soon. Beowulf, Rosorc and I went to speak to him while Theona and Areon went searching through the pawnshops for something.
Rosorc, being our best advertisement, did the bargaining. Lukeon, the caravan master, was quite glad to have more folk travelling with him, and even hired us as guards. At 25 gold a day and a 15-day trip, it’s a bonus! I’m just happy to be travelling in a bigger group. We’ll be passing through an area of Uthgardt raiders, the Sky Pony tribe. They’re focusing on dwarven caravans but will attack anyone. Beowulf told us that he expected clear weather for the next several days, and soon we were on the road.
The elves, by the way, did find something in their search of the shops. It’s a silver tiger statue, vaguely familiar. Areon hopes to find another one like it, or even the maker of this one. I guess both of our elves are searching for mysterious artifacts!
The next morning, we headed out. Beowulf handed me a wand to carry for him, while he and Areon continued their scouting pattern. The first day went uneventfully, and the night passed quietly except for Theona suddenly realizing that Midsummer was nearly upon us. She’s wondering what Beowulf and I, the two religious folk, plan to do to celebrate. I’m starting to think she’s obsessed with the human body!
The second day, we passed through the region called the Night Trees; strange lights floated in the woods, and could be seen even from our campsite in the fields outside. We wisely let them alone. The third and fourth days went well, but the weather began to change for the worse. The druid thinks it will be warm and windy like this for the next few days. At least it’s not raining! The fifth day was quiet, except for Rosorc’s growing boredom. He bought all that new gear and hasn’t had a chance to use it on anything! Day six, and that changed. Beowulf flew back to tell us that there is an Uthgardt ambush ahead, maybe six riders. After a little discussion, we decided to keep going, hands on weapons. There’s going to be a fight!