Adventurer's Journal #2

These are the words of Kryfin Niurgoth, Paladin of Kord...

We've continued our investigation into the evil of the fishing village. We discovered that a fog has been forming at night by the cliffs not far from the village and that there are caves within the cliffs that hold a secret. The fog appeared some months ago and seems to have coincided with a decrease in the daily catch of the fisherman of the village.

About one year ago a member of the village was exiled for suspected dark magic, a man named Seamus, who had also been the captain of the village fishing fleet. He was suspected of being in league with Orcus. It is rumored that he lives South of the village. Interestingly, Bogar, the wounded man and Krycene's husband, is the current captain of the fishing fleet. Maybe some rivalry has gone too far?

Menandahl, the village elder, is Seamus' father. We found this out by accident. The villagers follow an old tradition that exiles are to not be discussed or acknowledged by the remaining townspeople. One old woman completely denied his existence although the children were more forthcoming. It's odd how people stick to tradition when speaking out would help those helping them. As my father once said, "Time is the easiest path to breaking stone."

There are two rock features in the bay that appear to be horns and are called as much by the villagers. A preliminary investigation by the gnome and the diva discovered a possible structure on the top of one of the horns. We should investigate later as we need to try to solve the villages issues before Bogar dies. The gnome thinks they may be the horns of a great statue that has sunk within the bay. Maybe so but archaeology needs to wait.

By Kord's Might! We found out the village was formerly named Orcus' Bane. Minor detail? I think not! No one knows why it was named such. The gnome thinks it could either be good or bad - good if Orcus' Bane was a good and powerful god or bad if Orcus' Bane is more evil than Orcus. I like the way the gnome thinks. He's a survivor.

We decided to stay the night on the path into town and the gnome set an alarm for us to wake upon approach by monster or human. The alarm sounded the first night but we could not find the source of the intrusion. We returned to our rest and decided the following morning to head to the cliffs and examine the cave. The path to the cave was covered in foilage and by an odd magic the foilage became thicker as we moved closer towards the cave. We decided to back off and try at night.

We headed toward the cliff and cave after being yelled at by Krycene who was convinced that Seamus was the cause of the town's problems and the attacker of her husband. She relayed to me later that when boys, Seamus and two others had visited the caves and during an excursion one of the boys died. Seamus was enamored with the caves but no one could tell us why or who the other boys were or what is in the caves. Seamus seems to be the key to our understanding of the caves and what evil may surround it.

When we approached the caves the foilage on the path had receded and we were able to proceed. We were surrounded by the fog and from the fog we were beset upon by the undead - skeleton warriors and what was left of those who had drowned in the waters over the centuries. We dispatched these foul abominations back to the realm of the dead but as we did so a whole other group materialized.

We ran for the caves. We had to find safety and/or stop the person/thing responsible for this aberrant army. As we entered the cave we found who we suspected to be Seamus in a wizard's circle written in Elvish and chanting. From the Elvish speakers it seems that Seamus was forging a  protective barrier around the front of the cave which was keeping the undead horde from entering. It seems that Seamus isn't quite the bad person we were lead to believe as his spell was of good intent. Of course he isn't evil...that would be too simple.

Adventurer's Journal #1

These are the words of Kryfin Niurgoth, Paladin of Kord...

We're heading South to the port city of Rioshad as there is word of employment for our little band of adventurers. We've lost another of our group, the Dragonborn Paladin, but alas the memory of his voice rings loud as we travel.

Fortune would have it (not sure if it's good fortune or bad) but we met a trade caravan coming in the opposite direction. We stopped to talk and they told us of a passenger looking to join an adventuring group. The little guy seemed to have stumbled out of one of the covered carts as he came flying out and landed in front of us. As we discussed his qualifications we noticed the caravan had left us and was gathering speed away from us. Thible seems to be a gnome mechanic of a...trying wit. I prefer to call him Tiny.

As we proceeded towards Rioshad an old acquaintance from our previous work was thrust into our path: Throg. He had a leather strap tied to his ankle and beckoned us to come greet him. The trap was obvious and the little fool had become embroiled in something so the tiefling and I proceeded forward whereby Throg was forcefully yanked back into the shrubbery and we were set upon by orc drudges. I loathe orcs. They were weak and fell easily to our blades. As we finished them we were then ambushed by orc raiders and orc berserkers. Tiny and the rest fought well and we triumphed. Throg was freed at one point during the fight and fought against our attackers but to little avail. Throg is no warrior.

Once finished we learned that Throg had sold us to our attackers to help pay off a gambling debt. Idiotic creature. He'll taste my axe the next time he does something like that to us especially after sparing him the last time we met.

Tiny proved highly proficient and brave for a gnome. His magic added me greatly in the battle.

We continued towards Rioshad and came upon a fishing village which was a cause for concern as the crowd that we found gathered around what appeared to be the village elder's house was tense and things became a little violent when a rather stunning battle-prone woman accused us of harming her husband. Usually we only get that sort of response when our less polite Diva is insulting those around us. He hadn't even time to talk before this woman was pulling a sword. Maybe she'd met the Diva before?

The village elder saved this woman from some serious damage from my great axe and we were welcomed and told of the troubles that have started to plague their village. The woman's name is Krycene and her husband was attacked and missing the lower half of his arm and chanting some Elvish line about following unto Death and Beyond. We tried to heal his wound which was oozing some black ichor but all we did was agitate the poor man. We were invited to stay for the night and were given food and warmth. We told the village elder that we would help them with their issues as it seems that evil has befallen these simple folk and they will suffer more if we don't help them.

Not unsurprisingly, the gnome, Tiny, is rather bossy and he has wiggled himself into leadership of the group...it's always the little ones.