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Big Deal

Sanura’s Journal

Murtul 8, 1374, Redlarch

Our patron knows we don’t have the money to raise Flic, but offered to let us stop in Redlarch if we wanted to try and find a way to get him brought back. I didn’t know any of these people a week ago, and based on how Flic acted when we had him restored from stone, I would not risk it anyway. We cleaned up what was left of him as best we could, sat a few rocks on a “burial” spot and said some prayers to take him into the afterlife.

Then we moved on.

We soon passed a caravan heading south. Shield dwarves made up most of the lot, all but the last person who was trailing well behind them. It looked to be an orc, but several feet taller than any I’d ever seen! And, either Eleioni was hit in the head too hard last night, or he’s very naïve, because the first thing he said was, “Hey, that looks like an orc— let’s invite him to join us!” A few of the dwarves paused their wagons and assured us that they were well aware of the mountain orc following them, saying he’d been tagging along for some time and seemed quite harmless. That piqued the curiosity of Quentin, who apparently wanted a replacement for Flic as soon as possible.

And indeed, the orc is very friendly! As he caught up to us on the road, he announced that he was called Kor’tac and that he was headed north to find his “people.” When we pointed out that he’d been traveling south, he admitted to being lost. Quentin swooped in at this point and offered the orc 5 gold pieces a day to travel with us, and the orc readily agreed. He’s dressed to stop an army— huge weapons, half plate armor, and what looks to be a large wooden door strapped to his arm. I felt bad for the horse Quentin offered him, until I realized Kor’tac was distributing his weight fairly well; the orc’s booted feet were still touching the ground as he road.

That night passed uneventfully in our little camp— perhaps no one will attack us with such a large bodyguard on duty.

The second day was a different matter. We finally started to see trees after a few days of mostly barren plains, and within those trees, we saw the ruins of a tower. I really wanted to stop and look, but we had a schedule to keep to (apparently), so we made as if to go on, when Shoshiro thought he heard something in the trees. Moments later he confirmed this by letting us know he’d found a half dozen undead archers ready to attack! I got to attack them first, and I must say that Sharess’s divine will made quick work of them, turning them all to dust instantly.

Unfortunately, that was not all that was waiting for us, and I soon felt the pain of a gargoyle’s stony claws as it swooped down and attacked me! I had to get down from my horse to fight back, eventually resorting to handing the Rod of Wonder to Kanelyth when we discovered that nonmagical weapons did no harm to the creature. I was able to use my new crossbow to sink a bolt into it (making it attack me again), while the hawk woman produced another (or perhaps the same) rhino, a stream of gems, green magical “fire” and finally, an elephant from the rod. The elephant flattened the gargoyle, and I used a spell to calm the elephant afterwards so it wouldn’t accidentally stomp us. It wandered off, as did the rhino and most of our horses.

While all this took place, Eleioni appeared to have been “protecting” his mount for the brief battle, and I suspect that Quentin was doing something similar. Shoshiro and Kor’tac had made their way to the ruins to fight a necromancer and some creature that it had summoned. Apparently they did not put up much of a fight as Shoshiro was soon walking back to us carrying some interesting items he’d pulled of the wizard’s cooling body: a wand, some magical bracers, a spellbook, and an amulet depicting the (dead, I thought) god Moander.

Quentin was rather upset by the entire battle and insisted that we immediately make our way to Redlarch— and since there were only two horses now, we had to force march to get there by sundown. We are currently staying in the Butternut Inn, though of course we still have to keep watch at Quentin’s door. I wonder who he thinks would attack him in an inn?

Posted by Kristin on June 29, 2006, 18:44 | Sanura’s Journal