Sanura, a (mostly) human of Mulan descent, is a priestess of Bast from Mulhorand. She has the typical black hair and sallow skin of Mulan, with feline-like pupils (and mannerisms) passed through the generations of her family from Bast. Not unlike her deity, she has been stricken with wanderlust and is traveling through the Realms as a cleric of Sharess, and is amazed at the sights available among the humanoids that live outside of paradise. Most recently, she found herself drawn to the city of Waterdeep, which is reported to be nearly as beautiful as her home in Skuld.

During her travels, she has actually made an effort to treat non-Mulan humans with more respect than would be due them if they were in Mulhorand, but she is still struggling with the sheer number of peons (indeed, it is difficult to differentiate them from the nobility) and non-humans that throng Waterdeep. She has entered a contest in which she is teamed up with others to find an item in Undermountain; she is hoping to learn more from relying on a small group of unrelated peoples than she’s managed in the town above. She does miss the group of cats that had been following her around the city prior to the contest.

Character sheet: Sanura Sehet-ib-Bast [Priestess/Cleric of Bast/Sharess]
Monster sheet: Sanura Sehet-ib-Bast [Doppelganger/Cleric of Sharess]

Cause of death: originally replaced by a doppelganger (no one noticed), the doppelganger was killed by Kor’tac after it killed the rest of the party. Status of “real” Sanura is unknown.

Murtul 1, 1374, Undermountain

Since I had not arrived at the Yawning Portal with a pre-registered group to join the “treasure hunt” contest, I was partnered up with a rather diverse group: Kanelyth, a being with a hawkish appearance and big, beautifully feathered wings (she could be a priestess of Horus-Re, in look if not demeanor), Eleioni Di Giorno, an aasimar that was born outside of Mulhorand (I did not know the gods took mates from non-Mulan humans), Shoshiro Tanaka, a soft-spoken Shou (of any non-Mulan humans, the most likely to gain my respect), and a half-drow named Flic. Normally I would not waste my time with an elf, and especially not a drow elf, but he is a magic user so I will give him the benefit of the doubt as to his worth. If we win, not only will we have to split the 10,000 gold piece prize, but we’ll secure work as an established adventuring group.

Having signed up, we were told to retrieve a 1’ tall wooden idol of Mystra from the dungeon below, and we descended as a group 140’ below the building. Though several groups had gone ahead of us, no one else was in sight. The first chamber had a sandy floor so I grabbed a handful for good luck. We were soon exploring in no particular pattern, coming to a room of stone pillars, a metal disc gleaming on the floor in the center. Attempting to carry a magical torch into the room proved impossible; I attempted to detect magic only to learn that whatever prevented the light spell also prevented a detection spell from working. Shoshiro was examining a strange skull on the end of an ever stranger skeleton that was wrapped around one pillar. There was also some writing on one wall that translated from Old Thorass to “Certain Death” with an arrow pointing towards a tunnel where said Death must be waiting. A few of us went into the center of the room to stare at what turned out to be a just a coin, and a rat darted out of the room— Flic sicced his owl familiar on it.

That turned out to be somewhat costly attack when the snow white bird was spotted by a group of goblins, who in turn discovered us. While the males in the party chose to fight the dozen little creatures, Kanelyth and I decided to throw the coin out of the room, hoping it was the source of magic-dampening (which prevented Flic and me from casting spells against our attackers), but it didn’t appear to help. Stranger still, a small beholder came into the room just long enough to watch the skirmish, departing when the final goblin decided to tuck tail and run.

I healed people up as best as I could, and we followed a trail of blood left by the retreating goblin. Shoshiro found a secret door, thanks to the goblin’s trail, while Flic’s owl found a gelatinous cube heading in our general direction— we decided to follow the goblin. We found the goblin, dead from its wounds, a little way past the secret door. I had opted to attempt to detect magic as my companions explored. Shoshiro found a strange hole in a bench at the back of a tunnel— I could see a disc-shaped area of magic in the bottom, but wasn’t entirely sure why it was there. I tried to “dip” my staff into it, as I had a suspicion of what it was for. I was right, but the magical circle sucked the staff right out of my hands; I do not think I’d want to visit wherever that staff ended up.

Moments later, as we were exploring a bit further along, I heard Eleioni say “hello” and a started cry as he was attacked by something from the dark! The something turned out to be a manticore— and the ugly creature was obviously hungry for humanoids. It attacked ruthlessly, nearly killing Flic and his owl, and seriously wounding the rest of us. Shoshiro managed to sneak behind it and stab it between the shoulders— I think that was the killing stroke. I healed everyone up as best as I could while the Shou suggested checking the manticore’s lair. That paid off as we found two vials containing cure potions and 200 gold pieces. Eleioni took a potion immediately.

We are probably only an hour into the contest and resting already, but at least we won’t be coming out empty handed.

Murtul 2, 1374, Undermountain

I can’t believe how much rest this group seems to need. I think we rested about 20 hours, maybe more, and it didn’t seem to help! I did get to know my comrades a bit better, though I obviously said something confusing, as I’ve been getting propositioned a lot. All I mentioned was that my deity, Bast, goes by the name of Sharess in the rest of the Realms outside of paradise, at which point the males in our party began making me “offers.” I don’t believe they had anything to offer, at least, not while we’re in Undermountain.

It was Kanelyth’s watch while some of this silliness was going on, but everyone abruptly became serious as we saw her get smacked with a club by a hulking figure in the dim light from our everburning torch. I yelled for everyone to get back from monster, which we determined was an undead ogre, and I attempted to turn the foul thing while Kanelyth quickly gulped down the healing potion we’d found earlier. I felt the power of Sharess (I’m trying to remember to call her by that name) coursing through me as I attempted to chase away the undead thing, but whatever was animating it was stronger than I. My comrades were whittling it down little by little with arrows, and Shoshiro and Flic were preparing to light it with my oil and a spell, when Eleioni decided he could fight it by going toe-to-toe with it! It hit him so hard I thought he was dead, and it nearly killed me as I ran to stand between it and what I thought was the aasimar’s corpse. Luckily, Flic was able to light the oil with a spell, and with the damage from the rest of them shooting arrows at it, the undead creature fell.

Moments later, that same small beholder glanced in to our room, and then simply glided on past, off to do whatever it is beholders do.

I was so irritated by the entire situation— how can we hope to compete in this treasure hunt when we get attacked in our camp? We have no map, no hint of where the item we seek is located, and this is a mass of dank, dark, dangerous tunnels. What I wouldn’t give to be in the dry desert heat of Mulhorand right now! I tried to calm myself and pray for the power to heal my new friends. By morning, I was able to heal Eleioni; I got him healthy enough to be conscious, but held of healing him entirely— I need to be able to help the rest of the group if the need arises. I knew he’d regain his health faster if he rested; we opted to leave him in a relatively safe room while we carefully explored some areas nearby.

We found a long chamber lined with statues of male and female human warriors in various poses. Flic thought they looked a little too well-sculpted, but since they looked to be made of the same stone as their respective bases, I think they are genuine statues, not humans turned to stone. We couldn’t learn much from them—there had been writing on them at one point which had been scratched off. I noticed a faint enchantment spell on each.

We attempted to slide one, to see if anything unusual would occur. It fell over, cracking into hundreds of pieces, and we found 14 gold pieces in a little hollow underneath where it stood. That was all the excuse Eleioni needed to come see what he was missing!

Kanelyth was horrified by the destruction of such a nice statue. I agreed not to help break any more of them, but Eleioni helped Shoshiro and Flic push another over, revealing a crevice containing a single moonstone hidden beneath the statue. Suddenly Flic looked up and said “Someone’s coming!” just as his owl flew into the long room. We quickly headed back to our “safe” room and tied the two doors shut with rope. Flic accused me of groping him as I grabbed him around the waist to add my weight to the rope securing the door. (As if I’d use such an excuse. For the record, he is definitely male.) Soon, we heard dozens of booted feet clomping past our hiding place, and something attempted to yank the door open, but was unable to with our combined weight keeping it shut. The booted army moved on, eventually out of earshot. Just to be sure, we stayed put for at least another hour, barely speaking above a whisper.

We decided to head out and search for our treasure in a different direction. I healed Eleioni up a bit more, since it was obvious he wasn’t going to stay and rest.

We came to an amazing room, lined with gold and marble, and containing an intricate throne made of bones. There was a definite snake motif— perhaps it was dedicated to Set. There was, however, a lone, purplish and bloated dead orc in the room, so my comrades decided to avoid it at all costs. Perhaps we’ll go back later.

We went back to the room where we’d been destroying statues earlier. Shoshiro got us through a trapped door we’d ignored earlier (getting nicked by a blade in the process!), and we walked through a maze of smaller passages, eventually coming to a room with a lever in the center of the floor, and a shaft in the ceiling. I’m curious to see which of us cannot resist temptation and pulls the lever.

Murtul 2, 1374, Undermountain, continued

After tying a rope around the lever, Shoshiro pulled it and the lever moved. Nothing happened. So, we tried it a few more times, with the same results. So much for that! We wandered a bit, and found a room with a large door and a big magical seal on the floor. Flic asked me to check them for magic, and sure enough, I could detect summoning and binding spells. This was apparently too interesting, as we chose to leave them in quest of safer fare.

Another spate of wandering brought us to some big double doors— nothing could be heard beyond them. I am not sure why this was, because, upon opening them, we were confronted by an entire goblin army, complete with campfires, in a chamber that must have been about 80’ by 150’. As my comrades hastily closed the doors and prepared to run, I cast Calm Emotions on the goblins that were first to reach the door— they could hold back the rest of the army for a minute while we made our escape.

We ran for quite a distance, eventually running right into a room with two sarcophagi in it. I quickly noted that one contained something that was undead, and convinced my new friends that it would be worth opening and providing true rest to the creature within. It didn’t hurt that magic was detectable in both that and the other tomb. The first opened (the one that didn’t have an undead creature in it) contained a skeleton in full plate, with what appeared to be a dragon helm and a greatsword. All carried magic. One quick tug on Eleioni’s armor later, and our aasimar warrior was donning fine new armor and carrying a new sword. Next, we turned to the other sarcophagus. As my friends pushed back the lid, a red-eyed, rotting woman leapt out; my goddess’s divine power quickly had the undead thing cowering in a corner as my comrades finished it off with a ranged assault. We had to, actually, because poor Eleioni discovered he could barely move, covering only about 10’ between attacks!

The battle was over almost as quickly as it started. Flic grabbed the three magic items on the creature, pocketing a silver circlet, slipping on a gold ring, and, after blasting one of the room’s walls, declaring the wand the wight had possessed cast Magic Missiles. He seemed pleased.

Eleioni was not so pleased with what he acquired. We could not remove the helm or the armor, and odder still, what we thought had been a draconic motif, upon closer inspection, appeared to be more “duck” in nature.

There was nothing we could do about it, so we went back to wandering the random passages of Undermountain, hoping to happen upon something good. We managed to not get attacked by some orcs as we passed them, and eventually came to a 5’ crevasse in the floor. There was a glint of metal at the bottom. I cast light on a pebble to get a better look— below us were a skeleton and a bronze pendant, and— movement! Suddenly, a dozen or so disembodied hands leapt out of the pit at us, grabbing and scratching with filthy nails. I spent most of the ensuing battle healing my comrades as they each in turn (with the exception of Flic, who managed to evade the things) looked as though they would succumb to their wounds.

Things were finally starting to go well when those goblins caught up to us. Four of us had no trouble leaping across the pit to (relative) safety, where we could continue to fight the remaining crawling claws without so much interference. Eleioni, who was not only wearing the cursed duck armor that sapped his speed, but was carrying, by his estimation, at least 150 pounds of additional stuff, attempted to lunge across the pit as well. He dropped like a stone, making a sickening crack sound as he hit the bottom. As I scraped a remaining hand off of Shoshiro, Flic took off after two lingering goblins (he’d been picking them off with Magic Missiles). I then looked down and could see that Eleioni was still alive. But, he would not toss his gear up to us, and there was no way we were strong enough to pull him and his gear up— plus, he had the only unused rope left among us. Flic came running back letting us know that more goblins would be in pursuit, so we told Eleioni to be quiet and dowse his light, while we ran off through the nearest doors.

Murtul 2, 1374, Undermountain, continued again

And, we ran straight into a huge black dragon. I barely had time to say “run” before Shoshiro grabbed me and pulled me out through another door. And closed it! I immediately opened it and grabbed the first person I could reach— Kanelyth. I was going to try to grab Flic as well, but before I could, the horrid beast turned its baleful gaze on him— and a huge spray of acid shot from its mouth.

Panicked, I scooped up as much of the damaged Flic as I could with my skirts, and dragged him through the door. Shoshiro was gone, and with him our light source. Could things get any worse? Kanelyth was struggling with someone or something in the door, all the while telling me that Flic was alive; I attempted in vain to provide healing to and awaken what was left of the unconscious half-drow I’d collected in my lap. I was somewhat glad that I could not see what he looked like, but he felt... burnt. I was surprised that I wasn’t burning myself with the residual acid, when I felt a pain in my thigh. It felt more like a bite. I tried scraping whatever it was off of my leg when the door opened far enough for me to see that I was being attacked by a dire rat, and worse, there was a humanoid ratperson standing in the doorway, and Kanelyth was lying on the floor at its feet!

I did the only thing I could think to do— I cast a charm on the wererat. It looked me in the eye briefly, and then brought the filthy rapier it carried straight down— killing the rat that was attacking me. Grateful, I asked if it could help me and my two fallen comrades. The creature agreed, so I set about stabilizing the hawk woman, and waking up the half-drow. Slapping him in the face and saying his name didn’t work, but I knew a tried-and-true method priestesses of my order use— that worked quite well. The burned Flic was alert and on his feet again in seconds, and helped me drag Kanelyth towards the wererat’s lair— a 15’ dark area that was a “bubble” of protection provided by some faint glyphs of magic. I asked the creature (Amis, he calls himself) if he had any healing potions, as I was out of magic. He produced a vial of orange liquid. Having nothing to lose, I poured it down the hawk woman’s throat, and thankfully, it revived her. I asked Amis if I could buy any more of these from him; he rummaged around in his piles of treasure until he found three more. I was hoping that drinking one would somehow restore Flic’s now-misshapen features, but Kanelyth was now assuring me that Flic was completely uninjured, and that the black dragon was an illusion! I looked closer at him and, by Sharess, he looked fine! I’m sure he was almost as relieved as I was. Of course, he has no idea that I’ve decided to allow him to spend some quality time with me when we get out of this dungeon, but it simply would have been awkward if he’d come out of this horribly mutilated or dead.

But, back to the task at hand. While we were allied with this Amis, I figured we may be able to do business with him; judging by the sheer amount of stuff he had accumulated, I guessed correctly that he is a trader. Flic was able to detect magic on a few of the wererat’s wares; we bartered away some of my gold jewelry for a pair of magic boots, a 1’ ash stick, and some (nonmagical) rope. At some point during our trading with Amis, Flic decided to try on the silver circlet we’d found on the wight. It highlights his silver hair very nicely. Yes, I am quite certain I will spend some time alone with this half-drow when our treasure hunt is over, assuming something more interesting doesn’t come along.

Now, we decided it was probably time to find our other companions. Eleioni, of course, was still in the crevasse, so we went there next. There were some dead dire rats and goblins littering the area between us; I’m glad they fought each other instead of us! We tossed our newly-acquired rope down to him and he clambered up. When he got up to the top, he was wearing the bronze pendant that had been on the skeleton below. We asked him if he’d found anything else on the skeleton, to which he replied, “What skeleton?” He’d not bothered to check in all the time he’d been down there! Flic and I climbed down the rope to investigate, and we found an obviously-magical 3’ staff. I’m keeping hold of that for now.

We climbed back out of the crevasse and decided to investigate the area in and around the dragon illusion (which was still there), hoping to find our wayward ninja; in time we could hear some yelling in an obviously-Shou accent. We are off to investigate that....

Murtul 3, 1374, Temple of Sharess, Waterdeep

We followed, each at our own pace, the yelling Shou until we came upon him in the entranceway to that gold and marble throne room. There were at least a dozen goblins there intending to do him harm. He shouted at us to run to the back of the room and through a door— he had a plan. Kanelyth and I went back immediately, while Flic, for reasons that were never clear to me, stayed in the hallway. Eleioni, of course, could only walk at a ooze’s pace, and would not be arriving for some time (though we could hear his full plate armor clanking methodically through the hall as he “raced” to catch up).

So, the hawk woman and I were in this little room off from where the throne sat, and I could hear something going on, but we had shut the door, preventing us from seeing anything interesting. I got her to open the door (hawk women are apparently ticklish) just a crack, as there was light out there but not in our hiding spot. Just enough light fell on us that I was able to make out a word on the rod I’d just found— “Arathog.” I have no idea what it means, but saying it aloud didn’t seem to do anything. So, I pointed it through the opening to the throne room and repeated “Arathog.”

It started to rain. It only rained for a few seconds, but it was definitely rain. How useful this rod would be back in Mulhorand! Unfortunately, it rained on us, rather than my intended target, so I concentrated and carefully “aimed” the rod again: Arathog.

Pretty colors began to swirl around the throne room. Kanelyth must have been bored too, as I felt her reach over me to touch the rod and murmur “Arathog” herself. More pretty colors! It was clearly making the goblins worried, so I added one more word to the incantation: Arathog.

The middle of the throne room was filled with a huge impenetrable darkness! We had to work to keep from laughing as the goblins began to scream in terror. I began to make what I thought would be ghostly sounds, warning the goblins of impending doom if they did not flee immediately. Of course, being in total magical darkness, they all ran in different directions. One ran right for Kanelyth and I, but one more “Arathog!” and its armor turned invisible— and stayed hanging in midair long after the goblin who’d been wearing it was long gone.

I could hear clanking still a few hundred feet from where we stood, as Eleioni tried to arrive during some of the goblin encounter, and Flic was out in the hall casting on the few goblins that had already fled. There was a second globe of darkness where the throne was, and soon a soggy ninja stumbled out of it, clearly damaged—turns out the throne “bit” him and he’d been poisoned. Kanelyth took our last remaining healing potion to him as I went to see what Flic was up to (there was another globe of darkness in the passageway— pretty sure that one wasn’t mine). I aimed at the doorway, planning to hit the next goblin that came or went through— but Eleioni arrived at the scene (finally), and I “Arathog’d” him. He turned completely purple! I explained as quickly as I could that the rod (I was guessing that this was a famed “Rod of Wonder” that I’d actually read about) had made a goblin’s armor go entirely ethereal— Eleioni wished to see if we could removed his cursed duck armor that way. So, I tried it again. In addition to making pretty colors and rain, it can also cast lightning bolts! He leaned quickly to the side as one just clipped him. I did not wish to kill him outright, so I was going to refrain from any more attempts, but Kanelyth came back over and Arathog’d him two more times—once causing him to grow leaves (also purple) and then in turn blinding him and causing butterflies to appear. Thankfully the blindness (and butterflies) wore off.

Other than what sounds were caused by the rod, and a few spasms from Shoshiro as he worked the poison out of his system, we noticed suddenly that it was otherwise quiet in the passage; all the goblins were gone. But where was Flic? We got our answer moments later, when the darkness spell in the hallway ended— he was right there, beside one of those stone statues we’d been pulling over the day before. Except now he was one— apparently the victim of a trapped statue he had pulled over by himself. He hadn’t even turned to stone in a very interesting position, but at least he was easy enough to drag along. We decided it was time to go back to the Yawning Portal and end our part in the contest. Luckily, we’d never really gone more than a few dozen yards from the entrance, so dragging Statue Flic and marching Purple Leafy Duck Eleioni there was not too difficult.

It turned out that we weren’t the first group out of the contest (which was not yet over). We quickly headed off to the local Temple of Sharess, hoping to be able to have our half-drow turned back to flesh, and possibly fix Eleioni as well. Unfortunately, it was going to cost over 40,000 gold, and we had about 200 on us (most of the valuable stuff had been on Flic when he was petrified, and we couldn’t pry it off). As Fate would have it, a man called Quentin Morden of the “Merchant’s Consortium” had followed us to the temple, intrigued at our, well, survival. He offered to pay for all the healing and curse removing if we’d agree to escort him north to a meet with a Northern Uthgardt tribe. Now, I couldn’t really agree on behalf of the statue, but then, we had been in the contest originally to gain such a position and only 10,000 gold pieces, so it seemed like a good deal! Only Shoshiro seemed hesitant, but then, I’ve never been able to understand what exactly his goals are.

I played with a few of the temple cats while the uncursing was done, as I didn’t need any healing myself, and then we met with Mr. Quentin again to go over details. Flic was very upset that we didn’t leave him in statue form! He’s very pretty when he’s angry. He stormed off in one direction to get some of our finds identified (I followed him with the unidentified boots we’d purchased from the wererat), while Eleioni wandered off with the enchanted sword and had it identified elsewhere (and then tried to sell it— thankfully he didn’t manage and we were able to make an even trade for it for another weapon). Flic went someplace that didn’t allow cats in or something, but luckily came back out before I got too bored. The boots were useful to the ninja, the wand wasn’t worth keeping (so we sold it) and the ring Flic wore provides some protection (though not, apparently, against turning to stone). I think there is something wrong with him still— in spite of him propositioning me several times while in that awful dungeon, he now is quite catty, which, while appealing, makes it difficult to progress in any meaningful fashion. It must be a characteristic of his drow half. Quite maddening!

Murtul 6, 1374, North of Waterdeep

Poor, dear Flic— if he’d only known how much he had to live for, maybe he would have tried harder.

We left Waterdeep two mornings ago— our employer provided us each with a horse, tent and provisions. Camping the first night was uneventful, though Quentin Morden had some magical device that erected a house for him to sleep in. I tried knocking on the door once to see how he was, but I’m not sure he can hear what’s going on outside the house. At least, if he can, he must know his limitations, as he does not emerge until morning, regardless of screaming and explosions all about the structure.

Though the two days of traveling was quite peaceful (even boring), the second night was not. During Shoshiro’s watch that we had a problem, but he quickly alerted us all before the attack hit. Even so, I came out of my tent and was attacked so viciously by the goblins and their worg mounts that I lost my first spell and had to step back into my tent to heal myself from multiple wounds. As I did so, the tent itself was rent open from a non-entrance side— I held the Rod of Wonder to the opening and spoke the command word— and was momentarily blinded (and butterflied). Luckily, most of the assailants were as well. Even when my vision cleared, I could not see beyond the slavering jaws trying to fight their way in to attack me— I am told that my next use of the wand produced 4’ tall grass throughout our entire campsite. I tried one more time, and got something useful! A rhinoceros appeared and systematically went through the camp squishing our foes (and Eleioni’s tent, which contained much in the way of weapons and burdensome armor and equipment), but it routed the remaining attackers without damaging any of us.

I am somewhat unclear as to how Owl died, but apparently Flic had him attack the rhino, perhaps not realizing it was something we summoned, and perhaps not remembering how owl had fared against a manticore a few days earlier. I attempted to tell him this, but it was difficult with all the commotion from our friends, a ball of fire that was rolling around and burning up the dead enemies, and I fear I was not heard. Shoshiro must have heard me, actually, or at least had the right idea, as he attempted to lead the rhino away from our camp so it could ransack something elsewhere. Flic, I’m assuming, thought the ninja was in need of assistance. I don’t know, however, because I had used the rod again, blanketing the middle of the camp in darkness. At least the rhino couldn’t see Eleioni as Kanelyth was attempting to treat his wounds quickly and quietly. We did hear a horrible squelching noise as the rhino made another attempt to defend it self— and sadly, that is the last sound I’ll ever hear from my almost-but-never-quite-dearly-beloved. To make his wasteful death even more tragic, he was wearing some very valuable jewelry that was also destroyed by the rampaging rhino.

Our patron slept through it all, or at least, did not open the door to his portable house. I have half a mind to leave.

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?

Murtul 13, 1374, Triboar

Our stay at the Butternut Inn was utterly uneventful. Quentin purchased a wagon and horses before we left Redlarch, and we found ourselves traveling north again. I attempted to charm our patron, and I do believe he was finally warming up to me, when I realized I had lost interest! Well, he had his chance.

A few more days passed with a lack of anything happening as we slowly continued north. On our 2nd night away from Redlarch, our camp was attacked during the night by five ghouls. A few of us were bitten, but Sharess’ divine power destroyed them quickly. It took a while to get Eleioni moving after the assault, and he hasn’t looked quite right since.

Another day and night passed uneventfully, and then on our 4th day out, we encountered a limping farmer on the road. I felt something was amiss and cast to detect evil— both the farmer and Shoshiro’s backpack (where he carried the necromancer’s bracers) radiated a slight amount. Still, I got down from our wagon with Kor’tac and went to heal the farmer. He warned us against bandits and 6-legged badgers (which is what he claimed bit his leg). I didn’t think much of that at the time, but now that I’m reflecting on the incident, it seems odd that a farmer would be limping along a road, and claiming to be walking to Redlarch— he didn’t have any traveling gear of any kind. Hmm... I wonder. Oh well.

The night before we made it to Triboar was probably our worst. We were attacked by a wolf that could not be easily unharmed by our weapons; I had to resort to divine magic and an ensorcelled crossbow, and eventually, the Rod of Wonder, which turned me invisible (thankfully, as I’d been so badly bitten I needed a few precious seconds to heal myself). Though the wolf eventually ran off, it had bitten several of us. Elieoni, who had been complaining of not feeling well since the ghoul attack, was looking the worst, though I could not find anything to actually heal for him.

We have finally made it to Triboar, though it’s too late in the day to do anything; we hope to have some time to replenish our gear and supplies before heading north once again.

Murtul 16, 1374, Longsaddle

Shoshiro and I went into the market long enough to sell our unneeded gear— I managed to talk a trader into giving us an extra 200 gold for that useless wand. I was feeling pretty good about that, so when we returned to our inn, I decided to give Quentin another chance. I went straight to his room and told him to order dinner for two. I figured that I could “guard” him just as well from in the room as in the hall, so I decided to stay the night as well.

It is lucky for him that I did! I woke up to a scream beside me some time later, and in the dim light I saw that a shadowy form had plunged a dagger into Quentin’s chest! I threw myself between the assassin and my companion, getting a knife in the back for my trouble. Fortunately, I was able to provide healing to Quentin before he could succumb to his wounds. Better still, Kor’tac was outside the door and heard my scream for help, and with the rest of our comrades, was able to knock the door down and take down the would-be killer. Unfortunately, the assassin was killed before we could learn more about him.

The whole thing was over in mere moments. As things returned to relative normality, I realized that I was sitting naked in a pool of three peoples’ blood with a knife stuck in my back, trying to heal myself before I passed out. I heard Eleioni mention that he still wasn’t feeling good and I might want to save some healing for him— I just glared at him as he left to he return to his room. The constabulary came and took the body; I asked them to go to a local temple and have someone speak to the corpse before it was disposed of. We also asked the innkeeper for a new, less bloody room for the remainder of our stay.

We learned in the morning that the assassin had been an Illuskan simply known as “Norton” who had belonged to a group called the Kraken Society, who in turn had been hired by the Hand of Moander. Hmm....

I spent the next few mornings of our travel north using spells to restore both Quentin and Eleioni, though Eleioni’s health continues to fluctuate. At least he’s not complaining anymore, though he’s far from better. I spend one night on the road out with my comrades, but the next I decided to go in the building that Quentin sets up, and I refused to take “no” as an answer. I must confess that spending time with him has changed me in ways I could not imagine before this trip; I will be sorry when it comes to an end, I think.

Apparently, during the last night on the road, the group had to fight off a handful of goblins and an ogre. Looks like Kor’tac handled it fine, though I had to heal up a few injuries before we broke camp. We’ve just arrived in the small hamlet of Longsaddle— I will spend the night in Quentin’s room; I am sure I can help more from there than I could from the hallway.

Murtul 20, 1374, Great Wyrm Tribe

We had a rough couple of days, I did not think I’d be able to keep this group alive until we reached our destination. Firstly, we were attacked by a small white dragon the morning after we left Longsaddle. I had to heal my horse to keep it from dying underneath me from a ray of frost— we did lose the orc’s horse, and almost the ninja and aasimar as well. A few spells from the Rod of Wonder convinced it to settle for eating the one horse.

The second day, we were attacked by nine orcs, the “Bloody Tongue Tribe,” that wanted us to pay 100 gold each to pass. I took one group out with a lightning bolt, and most of the rest with a fireball from the Rod of Wonder. Unfortunately, our orc suffered severe injuries from the blast (which I healed up) and the ninja was beyond help. Strangely, the hawk woman smeared the ash from his scorched remains into her feathers, and put on his mask.

Yesterday, we made it to meet the barbarians Quentin sought. I stayed with the other three till he came back, then shared a tent with him. If all goes well, he’ll have the artifact he seeks and we can leave at dawn, if not, I’ll be left behind to “take care” of the little band of bodyguards he hired. Though they all fancy themselves fighters, I’ve had enough time to watch the raptoran and the aasimar to know their weaknesses....