The Journal of Eraamion Firaal

This is Eraamion Firaal's personal account of the adventures so far.
Events portrayed in this journal may not necessarily be factually accurate. If you notice an inaccuracy, politely message Spookystorm and ask him to fix it. 
==Entry I (Malareth's Lair)==
I'd been on the road with Traveus for a day now and we were heading to Fallcrest. He found Thofire and I on the road and offered to guide us on our way if we guarded his wagon. He already had four other people with him: a human botanist called Meredith; the half-elf cleric Jedcit Proudspark; Orklan the dwarf warrior; and a half-orc paladin whose name escapes me. Everything was going fine, until we were ambushed on the road by some goblins and wolves. We fought them off easily enough, but Traveus lost a box after a goblin ran off with it. I would've thought it was worthless if Traveus had not offered us thirty gold each to retrieve it. Just as we were about to head there we noticed a hooded figure observing the scene from a nearby hillock. We believed this man to be the goblin's leader, so we approached where they went and entered.
We were immediately encountered by a group of goblins. Before I could move I was struck by a hex, temporarily blinding me. While my allies were fighting one of the goblins had opened a door and released a drake into the room. We slowly fought back and I even managed to intimidate the drake (impressive to me, since I'm not such a frightening person). After a team member had pushed it into a burning brazier I used what little draconic I knew to frighten it out of the room. The next room we entered had some rats and more goblins. We dispatched of the rats, then took down the goblins from afar. Thofire managed to find a short bow on the corpse of one of them, so he took it. We believed the next room to be similar to this one so we created a quick strategy of how to dispatch the enemies.
The next room was different though. As soon as Orklan charged in he was injured and repelled by an invisible wall. I cast my light spell into the centre of the room, revealing it was set out in a set of alternating black and white squares. This confused the others, who could not understand what happened. However, I quickly realised that it was set out like a game I played in my youth: chess. Orklan had stepped onto the square of a bishop, and so I told him how he could move around the room. The rest of us then started to progress onto whichever squares were available to us, those of the knight and the bishop. Suddenly, some chess piece automatons approached us. They came in different varieties: from pawns to rooks to queens. I speculated that they had to move in the same way as their corresponding piece would. Then, the battle started.
Quickly, the situation became dire. Meredith went down after a vicious blow from a rook; the half-orc was knocked out by a surprise attack from a knight and Thofire was knocked down by the queen him and I were facing. As a last resort, I told Jedcit to drag as many people as he could from the room. I then gathered as many automatons as I could in a small area and fired my sleep spell. It was much to my surprise when the spell knocked each and every one of them out. They fell to the ground, unconscious, and were unable to get up. We then recovered for a long while after the battle and got back to full health. We then progressed.
The fourth room was strange as well. A group of cultists noticed us and were immediately hostile. We noticed a statue of a god in the middle of the room and Meredith identified it to be Bahamut. We attempted to pose as followers of this god too. Despite hiding my mark of The Watcher, they knew we didn't worship Bahamut and they attacked us. This was odd, since Bahamut was a good god and I assumed that the statue was already here when they moved in. We soon realised that they actually worshipped Bahamut. My allies had foolishly cajoled me into going in the front and I was the first to pay the price. One of the cultists hit me hard and I fell down. In the excitement, I panicked and fired another sleep spell. This time it hit so powerfully that it killed them all outright, bar one: a shapeshifter. When Thofire questioned her, she told us of her race and that the hooded man we had seen was Malareth, a necromancer. This information was valuable but she then tried to sell us more for a bribe. I was about to attempt to convince her to give me a lower price, but someone in our group tried to intimidate her to gain it for free. Unfortunately, it didn't work as expected. She turned into a rat and ran off. All that was left was the shattered vial of a potion she had on her. Needless to say, I was quite annoyed at this. I did not let it show though. We knew the next room would be the last, Malareth would be in there. Orklan opened the door, and moved in.
Surprising no one, Malareth was indeed in the room. The necromancer was standing over a desk, studying Traveus' box. Malareth noticed us, but did not move. Instead, he sent a group of three skeletons and a zombified troll to destroy us. We were not so easily defeated. The troll got a hit on Orklan, who in response sent it flailing to the floor with an almight smash. Another hit and it returned once again to death. Unfortunately, I was stuck in the back of the corridor throughout this and could not fire a spell without risking an injury to one of my friends. I could not fey step in without risking being hit by the zombie. Malareth then became interested in us and approached my party. He fired magical, necromantic rays at us while his lifeforce was attacked. Finally, Meredith killed him with an arrow through the heart. He flew towards the back of the room and became pinned to the wall. 
Their master dead, the skeletons' life force started to ebb away. Finally, my allies started to disperse into the room and I could enter. We made short work of the skeletons, including one which I hit twice with the same arc lightning. I progressed to Traveus' box and against his wishes, I opened it. We had to know what was inside and know why it was worth stealing over everything else; why it was worth a total of 180 gold from Traveus. Inside it was a skull.
We came back to Traveus and we immediately interrogated him about the skull and the necromancer. Apparently, Malareth was an old enemy of Traveus and the skull was an evil magical item that pulsed with necromantic energy. Traveus then told us that he was on the road to the Cairngorm Peaks and would give us all 70 gold each, on top of the 30 gold each for getting the skull, for escorting him there. Apparently a monastery existed in the peaks that could purify the skull. I could sense the energy of the skull, so I knew that Traveus was telling us at least a smidgen of the truth. We all decided that we should trust the merchant for now so we carried on along the road. We could see Fallcrest in the distance and we would stop there for the night.
Kill total: 1 drake, 1 goblins, 3 chess automatons, 4 Orcus cultists, 1 skeleton.
==Entry II (On the road to the Peaks)==
We arrived in Fallcrest and Traveus gave us two hours to buy extra supplies and a map of the Nentir Vale. A few of us bought torches and minor supplies and we then entered the map shop. An old human man was running it and I told him we would like a map of the area. He immediately turned around and pulled an old map of the area off the shelf. At first, he attempted to charge us 20 gold for it! None of us had that amount but I managed to convince him to give it to us for 15 gold with a bit of magical suggestion. I looked around to see if anyone could pay for it. Unfortunately,nobody seemed willingly to help pay for the map. More than a bit annoyed, I handed over 15 of my 18 gold to the old man and I stowed the map in a safe compartment in my satchel, next to the Eye of Odjervith.
We carried on along the road until we reached a checkpoint at a bridge over a river with 4 human guards and a captain waiting there. As soon as our cart stopped the captain approached us and told us to turn itaround so he could he what was inside. We did so and he saw everything that was inside. All was well until he saw the box. Taking it in my hand, I told him exactly what it was and what we were doing with it. Not convinced, he told me to open it. I did and he was immediately enamoured by the necromantic energy coming out. This worried me: the skull shouldn't be influencing his decisions. So I immediately teleported to the other side of the stream and somehow nobody noticed I had done so. However, the captain still asked for a toll for the rest of us to pass. Somehow, we didn't have to pay. Orklan, against all the odds, managed to trick the guard into thinking that he had a magical saucepan that makes rainbows appear while cooking on it and that he also owned a magical cooking book (for some reason misspelled 'How to Cok'). The cart travelled across the bridge without further troubles, but I couldn't resist making one of the guards whisper a demonic message to the other using ghost sound. I gave the box back to Traveus.
Further down the road our cart was ambushed by a group of goblins, wolves and a bugbear. Two goblin snipers were hiding over a chasm and the rest of the enemies were hiding behind large boulder. A duo of goblins snipers hit us with arrows and the wolves attempted to bite us, but by then they had lost the element of surprise. I jumped off the cart and ran across the road, firing a magic missile at the snipers in response to the arrows. Everyone else got off successfully, except Ghazghkull (the slightly slow-witted half-orc, I'll have to remember that name). He tripped off the edge of the cart and landed on his face: right next to the bugbear. Luckily, he was relatively unharmed by the bugbear's attacks. Thofire jumped the chasm and approached the snipers, killing one with a single well-placed hit. However, the next one gave him troubles as he could not land a hit. To further his misfortune, a wolf jumped the chasm and started giving him trouble. I managed to hit both the wolf and the goblin with an arc lightning, killing the latter. I hypnotised the wolf into falling to his death in the chasm soon after, much to Thofire's discontent (I think he would have preferred to handle it alone). By running towards Thofire, I could now see over the boulder. Orklan, Jedcit, Ghazghkull and Meredith were all clustered close together, taking on the bugbear and a goblin. I quickly fired a missile at a wolf that was about 60 metres away, then I hypnotised the bugbear into hitting the goblin. A follow up missile to the goblin's chest and he was dead. The rest of the party took down the bugbear soon after.
I turned to see that Thofire had picked the lock to a chest that lay in front of a large statue. His thieving skills had obviously not betrayed him. Inside it was what looked to be a valuable moonstone, so Thofire took it. I looked back at the statue and identified it to be Orcus, the same demon that Malareth worshipped. He is also hated by a god followed by the rogue, so we opted to pull the statue down. Thofire, Orklan and Ghazghkull threw a rope around the head and all tried their hand at it but ultimately failed. They asked me to have a go, which I assumed was a joke. Wizards are of course very well known for their physical prowess. However, much to my surprise, and everyone else's, I made the statue come tumbling down. We jumped out of the way of the tumbling statue, bar the half-orc. His heavy armour seriously affected his skill to evade large falling objects. We got back on the cart and continued.
A while later, some of us noticed a small pathway through a clearing of trees. We stopped the cart and headed for it, except Meredith and Jedcit who stayed to guard it. It turned out to be the door to a seemingly abandoned living space, which was surprisingly locked. My halfling friend started to pick the lock, which was apparently not as easy as he thought it was. After a while, two buttons appeared. One with a symbol of a snake, the other with an eagle. I remembered that the snake is the symbol of the locality and then advised somebody to press the former button. It was done, and a click was heard in the lock. A few more adjustments of the lockpick and the door flew open. The first thing we were greeted by was an arrow flying from a trap towards Thofire. Luckily, he nimbly dodged it. We found a few coins inside and, to my disgust, a gold statue of Lolth. Many people know that the Queen of Spiders is the enemy of the Preserver of Life (Corellon to the layman), so it was my first thought to damage the statue. However, I noted that it would be worth a substantial amount of money if sold. I simply stained it using magic and walked out the room. It could be undone later.
Not long along the road, disaster fell. Hidden vents on the roadside started spewing out a cloud of gas. It surrounded Traveus' carriage and we started to feel drowsy. The last thing I remember was losing control of my limbs and slipping off the edge of the cart. I was unconscious before I hit the ground. 
We woke up in a tent with our equipment removed. We could hear people outside and we realised that we had been robbed by bandits. Fortunately, they also mentioned another tent that housed our stolen goods. We heard three of them walk off and two guards remained. I easily untied myself using mage hand, Thofire dexterously slipped out of the knots and Ghazghkull ripped them apart. We then untied the others and prepared a quick plan. I was to lead the guards behind a bush using ghost sound and then Thofire was to run to the other tent and retrieve our gear. With a wave of my hand, the sound of clanking armour came from inside a nearby bush. The two guards we could see walked towards it, obviously fooled. Thofire then nimbly ran into the other tent, barely making a sound. One of the guards turned, but saw nothing. Thofire retrieved everything, cut a hole in the back of the equipment tent and then ran back into ours. He handed the box back to Traveus. I sheathed my family dagger, tucked away the dragon's eye and held my staff at the ready. As a finishing touch, I put my hat back on and cocked it forward. It was time to go.
The problem of the two guards still remained though. However, they were quickly dispatched of. I hypnotised one into killing the other and then the survivor was shot through the neck with an arrow from Thofire. We then spread out and explored the area. Judging by the tree density, the river direction and the wind speed Meredith used her nature skills to determine that we were near the Winterbole Forest, next to the Winter River. She also found a pouch full of gold inside a tree for some unknown reason. I peered into a pond, trying to see if there was anything at the bottom when we were sprung upon by a group of kobolds and goblins from all directions. I sprung behind a rock to take cover from the snipers on the other side of the rier, then the battle begun. 
I was targeted by two kobolds immediately. They both got a hit on me before I downed them both with a blast of lightning. I then proceeded to aid the rest of my allies by firing missiles at the goblins. I managed to kill one or two, I can't quite remember which. For some reason Ghazghkull kept  trying to move a log that bridged both sides of the river. Maybe it was to stop the snipers crossing, I don't know. Thofire was viciously hit by a goblin, temporarily downing him. But he was up before long. Eventually we repelled the attackers, killing most of them. The finishing blow was carried out by Meredith, who killed two of the snipers in rapid succession using her crossbow. 
We barely had enough time to rest before we were attacked again. This time, by the other bandits of the coalition that owned the camp. Immediately, one rushed towards me and the other two went to attack Meredith, Thofire, Jedcit and Orklan. I called to Ghazghkull for assistance, but he was still too interested in the fallen log. The guard stabbed me with his halberd. I knew that I would go down quickly if I didn't do something fast, so I used my reliable sleep spell again. I fired the sleep spell into an area that would affect all of the guards. Fortunately, it worked. Each of the guards fell into a peaceful slumber. We were off again before they woke. 
Not long later, a group of four wolves sprung upon us. Instantaneously, I teleported to the top of the nearest tree. I didn't want to be on the receiving end of yet another wolf bite. Ghazghkull seemed to be trying to do the same, but ultimately ended up flailing against the tree. Orklan scared one of them off into the wild, then I fired lightning at two of the remaining wolves. I repeated this, until Meredith managed to convince the survivors that there was food elsewhere. I don't know how she does it, but she has a way with animals. The wolves ran off in the opposite direction.
Towards dusk, we came across a tavern called The Lusty Argonian Maid. We entered and decided to stay here for the night. I wondered why the landlord had named his inn after such an obscure creature, especially one rumoured to live in my homeland, but I would have to ask him or her later. I bought a meal and decided to enter reverie where I sat. However, before I went into a trance Orklan used all of his money to buy 40 tankards of ale. He then proceeded to drink it and, much to our amazement, he managed to drink it all. Drunk, he fell down and slept on the floor. Meredith also bought a room to sleep in. I also overheard a rumour of an evil cult in the stone circle at Gardbury Downs. I would ask the party if we should investigate it in the morning. 
Kill total: 4 guards, 2 kobolds, 1 wolf. 4 goblins.
==Entry III (The Cult and the Temple)==
I ended my trance and looked around. I saw a hooded man with a cape, a dwarf drinking mead and an overweight human barmaid. I walked over to Thofire and Orklan (who had finally woken up) and we decided that we should ask those people for clues. I approached the barmaid, Thofire to the hooded man and Orklan went to the dwarf. I asked her any strange happenings and immediately she became flustered, claiming she knew nothing about a cult. I pointed out that I never mentioned a cult and then quietly cast suggestion to convince her to tell me what she knew. She then took me into the back room. Thofire and Orklan obviously got the wrong idea, as they both sported grins and the latter even winked at me. I pride myself with my fidelity to Caelynna, even though we are not even in a relationship. The barmaid then told me that the cult was to the west, in the centre of the Gardbury Downs. However, they had spies everywhere and we should be careful. I thanked her, walked out and relayed the information to Thofire (I didn't tell Orklan as he seemed to be too busy with the other dwarf). Thofire told me that he had spoken to the hooded man and found out he was an adventurer. When questioned how much it would be for him to accompany us to the Gardbury Downs and the Cairngorm Peaks, he said 100 gold. After a quick discussion we unanimously decided that it was too much and declined. Meredith then woke up and came downstairs, so I filled her in on what had happened. We then left the inn. 
It was cold outside and beginning to gather frost. Traveus came out to tell us he had no stomach for this adventure and would be staying in the inn. We acknowledged this, and moved out. Ghazghkull and Jedcit would also be staying behind. The former had fallen ill and the latter was staying to take care of him. We headed west to the Gardbury Downs, hoping to find the cult. After about an hour of travelling we came across a set of crisscrossing tracks. At first, we had no idea where they were going but Meredith realised thet they were kobold and goblins tracks, heading east and northwest. The ones heading east were fainter and as east would be back the way we came, we headed northwest. I hoped this would lead us to the cult. 
Eventually, we came across a large chasm that was far too wide to cross. There was a drawbridge we could use to cross, but it was not down and the crank to lower it was on the other side of the chasm. A well placed projectile could snap the rope though. I looked around for the possibility of an ambush and I heard the distant skittering of feet. I warned the others, then fired a magic missile at the rope. It hit, but it was not damaged (some kind of magical resistance protected it). Meredith then fired her crossbow at it, and it took some minor damage.
Suddenly, five goblins jumped out of the bush and approached us. We were prepared though. Orklan cleaved one down with his greatsword while I killed another two with my lightning. Thofire fired his bow at another one, bringing their total down to one. Meredith shot her crossbow at the rope and hit. It looked like one more would bring it down. Just as Orklan killed the final goblin, seven kobolds appeared as reinforcements. Thofire killed one with an arrow right off the dot. The arrow went straight through the head and shattered on a rock after exiting. Needless to say, it was dead. Meredith missed the rope for the first time with a bolt. The six remaining kobolds charged at us. One threw a javelin at me and hit, but it was not a deep wound. I yanked it out and threw it off the edge of the chasm. Orklan then impaled a kobold with his sword. Two approached me and swung their swords at me. As I weaved around them, I saw Orklan decapitate another one and Meredith snap the rope. The drawbridge fell, but on the other side a group of kobolds and goblins was amassing. I disintegrated my attackers with lightning then, hardly thinking about it, charged to the bridge. I threw myself infront of the crossing enemies and shouted, "You shall not pass!" I then unleashed an almighty blast of fire from my staff. Every kobold and goblin on the bridge was instantly incinerated. I turned to see the final kobold being floored. We continued across the bridge.
We eventually reached the stone circle where the cult were based. To our right were some graves, but the headstones were all too weathered to read anything. We looked around, but saw nobody nearby and no ambush possibilites. It was then that it clicked with me. I remembered the stone circle's formation from my education: they were a moon-worshipping cult. The kobold and goblin tracks we followed were gone, with human tracks now in their place. Across a small chasm, Thofire noticed a chest. He ran and jumped across the chasm and approached the chest, hoping to pick the lock. However, it was much to complex even for the great Sir Psycho Sexy and he decided he would need the key. Meredith was climbing up a slope to investigate a firepit. It was still smouldering. The cult had been here recently. Orklan was investigating the graves by digging one of them up. Reportedly, there was nothing down there. Was it really worth digging up someone's grave? An act of vandalism in my opinion, but standards change from person to person. Meanwhile, I was inspecting the stone circle. In the centre, there was a dirt mound with a pedestal on top. The pedestal supported a black orb. On the top of the stone circle's pillars, there was a magnifying lens in the path of the sun. I realised that they used the full moon, which coincidentally was tonight, was used to power the orb. They were a cult of Zehir, god of darkness. As nobody was here and the cult worshipped the moon, we decided to wait until the night.
We waited... and waited... and waited. We were beginning to think that the cultists would not come tonight, when four of them walked up to the pedestal. They spent an hour tinkering with the machinery before something happened. The light of the moon intensified through the lens and turned the orb white. A beam of white light then shot high into the sky. The cultists seemed happy, like they had never achieved this before. Suddenly, a roar erupted through the sky. I recognised it at once: a dragon. A fledgling white dragon flew over the stone circle and landed, crushing all the cultists and the orb. A key clinked to the floor next to the dragon. Remebering the chest, I looked to Thofire (who was hiding behind it). He seemed to have noticed it too. Luckily, it did not notice us. Using my arcane knowledge, I realised the white beam was a beacon that summoned the dragon from its lair in the Cairngorm Peaks. The dragon fired large shards of ice from its breath. If we killed it now, our journey would be safer later.
Meredith slipped out from behind a bush and started talking to the dragon in draconic. Apparently, the conversation was something about female dragons at Lake Nen. However, the dragon did not buy it. He attacked Meredith with his breath. She dodged, then fired a bolt at it. It flew up next to her and bit her. Thofire then launched an arrow, but missed and alerted the dragon to his presence. I knew Thofire couldn't take the dragon alone, so I fired a magic missile at the dragon. I hit and, supposedly enraged at my accuracy, the dragon flew down into the centre of the stone circle. It unleashed a terrible blast of frost at Orklan and I, severely injuring us both. I knew we couldn't take another hit like that, so I used the ever-reliable spell on the dragon: sleep. The dragon was hit and was slowed. Before long, it slumped unconscious to the ground. Before anything else, we beat the dragon until it was dead. We knew the spell would not wear off anytime soon. As a trophy, I reached into the dragon's mouth and sliced a fang off using my dagger. My comrades also took trophies from the dragon, with Thofire cutting off a claw and Orklan gouging out an eye. I felt as if I was carrying on my ancestor's legacy by slaying this dragon, even though I did not do it alone. I tucked the tooth next to the Eye of Odjervith. Meanwhile, Thofire had retrieved the key and had unlocked the chest. Inside was an enchanted piece of armour with a resistance to fire. He handed it to Orklan.
We returned to the inn and picked up Traveus. Ghazghkull was still ill, so Jedcit told us they would meet us in Winterhaven. We set off and after a long slog we arrived. Seeing the great market was open, Traveus told us to have a break for an hour to buy supplies. Thofire sold the moonstone to a merchant for 100 gold, 20 of which he gave to me (for buying the map the day before). However, the statue of Lolth could not be sold. The locals around there didn't seem to like the Queen of the Demonweb Pits. Meredith bought an amber pendant and Thofire bought a grappling hook. I considered getting a copper ring with Corellon's symbol on it, but I decided against it. I could do this later. We then regrouped with Traveus and set off to the monastry.
For several hours, we climbed the slopes of the Cairngorm Peaks. It only got colder the further I went and frost started to form on our clothes, much like in the north of Tynval. When we finally reached our destination, it looked eerily abandoned. Traveus found this odd, since he had been here only two months earlier. We offer to take the skull in to cleanse it, but the merchant said he would rather do it himself. Orklan smashed down the wooden door and we entered. Immediately, the stench of death greeted our noses. The entire place felt forboding, much like in Malareth's lair. At the end of this room there were two steel doors, one on the left and another on the right. I asked Traveus if he knew what was through them, but he didn't. We decide to take the door on the right. Orklan pushed it open and we entered. 
Nothing stirred inside the room. It was empty except for a pile of corpses by the left corner of the room. There was a door behind them, a door ahead and a door to our right. Thofire went through the right door and Orklan walked over and prodded a corpse, as if to check that they really were dead. Suddenly, a group of zombies and skeletons rose from the pile. I ran to the furthest corner of the room; I didn't want to be in close proximity of the undead mob. Most of them surrounded Orklan and Meredith but two skeletons crawled over a brazier to attack me. Luckily for Thofire, none of them saw him enter the room. I unleashed arc lightning at both of the skeletons and vaporised them instantly. Noticing the threat I posed, a zombie and a skeleton came to attack me. The skeleton hit me with his greatsword, so I used burning hands in an attempt to repel them. Unfortunately, this only wounded them. I used this distraction to turn around and retreat through the door behind me. Through this door there were two more doors, so I took the one on the right. I made sure to close the doors so I would not be easily followed. The skeleton with the sword followed me through the first door, then chanced to choose the door on the right. He saw me, pulled out his bow, then fired. It hit me and in response I fired arc lightning at it then ran through a door to my right. The skeleton followed me and hit me with his greatsword yet again. I was getting sick of this undead aberration. These attacks had wounded me greatly and I knew I couldn't endure much more. I hypnotised it, walked it towards the wall then shot it in the back with a magic missile. The skeleton crumpled into a pile of bones and I returned to the rest of my allies. I found two zombies dead, one split in half, and the final one being killed by Thofire. We then move on.
The next room was almost empty, except for one defiled statue of Corellon. I was enraged; who would do such an act of evil? I had to ignore it for a second though, as Thofire had found a note in the corner. At the time it seemed like nonsense. It read:
"90R to end. 90L 4. 90L 2. 90R to end. Glory be to Corellon the mighty." 
We could not understand it, so moved on to the next room. Meredith took two steps forward before being hit by a blast of psychic damage. I admit, it made me smile a bit. Not because she was getting hurt but because exactly the same thing happened a few days ago in Malareth's lair. Looking at the note again, we realised it to be instructions for getting around the room. We turned ninety degrees to our right and walked to the end of the room. We turned ninety degrees to our left and stepped across four squares on the floor. We carried on with these instructions until we reached the end. The purification room was next.
It was nothing like I expected. Two cascades of lava created a river that cut the room in half. There were a few stones in the lava that were the remnants of a bridge. On the other side, an altar with a chest underneath stood. Traveus pointed to the altar and said he would purify the skull there. He hopped over the lava stream; placed the skull on the altar and started chanting. Using my arcane knowledge, I tried to identify these chants. It was too late that I recognised what they were: a ritual to transform him into a demon lord. In a burst of flames the weak dwarf merchant morphed into a hulking demon. Two core hounds leaped out of the flames. Only one side was to get out of this room: Traveus or us. 
The demon lord unfurled his wings and flew across the stream. The core hounds began swimming, but one became overwhelmed by the lava and died. Both Meredith and Thofire tried to shoot him but both missed. I hypnotised him into walking back into the lava, but he was unharmed. He flew up to Orklan and raked his claws across him, wounding the fighter. I fired lightning at Traveus and the core hound, instantly killing the latter and wounding the former. Enraged at my ability to hit him with magic, he released a firestorm from his mouth that wounds me and all of my allies. I then moved closer to the lava stream while firing two lightning bolts at him in response, both missing. Suddenly, the ground cracked open to my left and a large inferno emerged. I could not, and cannot, understand why there were so many fire storms in this room. It was getting ridiculous. Three core hounds jump out, one attempting to spit acid into my face. I ducked, the acidic projectile flying over my head and into the lava. In response, I fired a lightning bolt at Traveus and the core hound, killing the latter instantly. Enraged by this, the Demon Lord flew over to me and smashed me with his claws. I fell down, unconscious. 
I woke up to Meredith reviving me. Although she doesn't have the powers of Jedcit, she's an unusually skilled healer. I gave her a quick word of thanks, then teleported across the lava stream and wounded the demon and killed yet another core hound with lightning. The demon was even more enraged than last time, he spewed out yet another fire storm. I could only watch in horror as each of my allies was knocked unconscious, on the brink of death. This was unacceptable. Just as a large inferno erupted out of the ground behind me, I killed the demon and another hound with a bolt of vengeance-infused lightning. Traveus roared in pain, then burst open in a ball of fire. His original form lay helpless on the ground.
I healed all of my companions, then Meredith grabbed Traveus and started interrogating him. The merchant tried to tell us that the skull possessed him and forced him to do it, but Thofire, Orklan and I didn't believe him (though Meredith had doubts that he was guilty). After drawing a coin out of my hat, it was decided that Thofire should execute Traveus. Thofire jumped into the air then brought his blade down into the screaming dwarf's head. He was killed instantaneously. The only thing we could find on him was an emerald, which Thofire took, but no sign of our payment. Meredith opened up the chest under the altar and found a silver idol, which I identified to represent a panther. She also found some gloaming leather armour, which went to Thofire, and a runic battleaxe which we decided to save for Ghazghkull. I closed Traveus' eyelids, then walked out of the temple. I would have buried him, but in my eyes a traitor like him does not deserve that kind of respect.
When we finally arrived in Winterhaven, we found that Jedcit and Ghazghkull had already reached the inn. Unfortunately, the latter was unconscious after drinking too much ale. We exchanged the axe for the half-orc's enchanted shield, which we then gave to Jedcit. We decided to stay here for the night. I contemplated Traveus' innocence while in reverie. He didn't have our payment on him and his argument was unconvincing: he should have known if the skull was going to corrupt him, and then get around it. However, he could have had our payment elsewhere. I also looked forward to the Wintertide festival, which would begin on the following day. 
Note: I must remember to buy some leather armour as soon as possible. It would greatly improve my durability in battle.
Kill total: 6 goblins, 4 kobolds, 3 skeletons, 4 core hounds, 1 fledgling white dragon, Demon Lord Traveus
==Entry IV (The Wintertide Carnival)==
I ended my reverie, then checked up on my friends. They were all still asleep so I bought a tankard of ale. By sunrise Meredith, Jedcit and Orklan were awake. However, Ghazghkull was hungover from all the alcohol he had been drinking the night before, and Thofire was struck down by corpse fever which he had caught from the Cairngorm Peaks. It was a shame, as I hoped they would be able to enjoy the festivities with us. The members of our party not struck down by disease or alcohol stepped out of the inn.
In the space of a night, everything had changed. The whole city was decorated and it was clear that Wintertide had truly begun. When we arrived at the main square, a massive carnival had been set up. The owner gave us all 100 tokens and said that we would need them for the games. Each game would cost tokens but each game could also win us tokens. There were prizes for the people with the first, second and third most tokens at the end of the day. Unlike most people, we were interested in the prize and not just the games.
The first game we came across was darts. Aside from our group of four an elderly human man was present. He called himself Mr. Llaryt and was apparently a veteran of the carnival. We got into pairs for this game and payed 10 tokens each. I was with Meredith; Orklan was with Jedcit and Llaryt was with a miniscule halfling who seemed to have just been pulled out from behind a sack of rice. Orklan and Jedcit went first and scored a grand total of 12 points. I'm sure this was due to their lack of dexterity and Orklan scoring no points. Meredith and I scored near on eighty points, which was a large improvement over Orklan's score. Llaryt scored decently but the halfling was too small to see the dartboard very well. Meredith and I won, earning twenty tokens each.
The next game, a curious one where we had to roll a die to build a beetle, was frustrating to say the least. I was with Meredith again and I rolled the die, seeing as I had some sense of luck. I got off to a good start most of the parts I needed, but I could not get the last two legs for the beetle. Orklan and Jedcit soon caught up and won. On top of all this, our beetle kept falling apart due to the shoddy quality of the models, or "pushing them in too hard" as Mr. Llaryt put it. We eventually came second, but we claimed first place back in the next game. We had to line up some small figures of deformed trolls and other hideous creatures (one looked like a tree stump with a rabbit on top) in this game and then flick them at our opponents', while they flicked their trolls at our ones. We won, partially due to our above average accuracy compared to everyone else and also Llaryt being unable to hit our trolls. Our fourth game was dominoes, where we had to get rid of all our dominoes by matching them with others on the board. For the first time, we lost a game. Twenty of our tokens had been lost, but compared to the eighty we gained this was not a large problem.
For the other games we were no longer in teams. Meredith and I split our tokens between us and moved on to the next game. The halfling had also disappeared from view, but we did not notice this at the time. It was known as bagatelle and it involved using a stick to knock metal balls into holes worth varying amount of points. It cost ten tokens per ball, so I put in twenty and had a go. I managed to score 35 with one ball and 50 with the next, giving me a profit of 65 tokens. Everyone else except Meredith managed to gain tokens with bagatelle. She did not seem to have a knack for this game as she lost almost thirty tokens to it.
We next played a game of perudo, which originated from the ancient desert kingdom of Pyrzya. We were each given five dice and the last person with any dice at all in the end won the game. I was in the lead in the beginning, but everybody decided it was in their best interest to attempt to get me out. I was the first to lose, the last being Llaryt. Jedcit won in the end. We then played a card game called 'Duke.' The aim was to become the 'Duke' by the end of three round, with this ranking system: Duke, vice-duke, neutral, head slave, slave. I was the neutral at the height of the game, but was slave for most of it. Llaryt was the duke at the end of the final round and thus won the game.
The final event was the decider. We all had to make parchment birds, then throw them. Whoever's went the furthest would win. Llaryt was an expert at this event, making a perfect bird. The rest of us were unfamiliar with it and made poor imitations of his. Although Llaryt won by a landslide, I was second due to my height advantage over the other contestants. At the end of the day, Llaryt won the grand prize of the carnival. We should have known this would happen. After all, he has already won the carnival over forty times. However, I came second and Jedcit came third. We received a silver and bronze medal respectively. Overall, the event was a fun end to our first venture together as a party. We agreed to split up for a month, then meet up again at Fallcrest. 
==Entry A (Visit to Cullero)==
By the following morning, everyone had left. Thofire went to Greenhills and Meredith to her questionable place of education. I did not know where Ghazghkull, Jedcit or Orklan went but the latter was muttering something about a hole. I finished the last of my ale (once again, flavoured like King Street brandy) then initiated my ritual. Within a flash, I was at the temple of The Watcher in Cullero. With a quick greeting to the priest, an old man who had been running the place for several decades, I stepped outside into the warm sunlight of Serosin.
It was just like I remembered: well-dressed people walking around; great villas sitting majestically on the hillsides; brightly-coloured birds flying overhead. It was a welcome change to the Nentir Vale. The market district still attracted the large swathes of merchants and customers it always did. Eventually, I reached the beachfront district. The mansions here stood proudly above the sea, all except one. This one was in disrepair. This was the Firaal Manor. I entered through the door, the lock still broken, and looked around. This is not what I came here to do, but I was compelled nonetheless. It was as bare as I left it twenty two years ago. At least the people of this city had respect for what has been lost. I stepped out the back of the manor and walked down the steps to our garden. There I layed an oxrush flower on the memorial for my parents and brother. I still hope my brother is alive, despite the general consensus that he was killed by the drow's pirates. I then moved on. I could not spend a fortnight dwelling in the past.
I walked over to my old tutor's house and it was good to see that the old elf was still alive. We caught up on the twenty years we had not met in over a bottle of wine. He had retired while I was gone and was living comfortably. He was actually surprised to still be alive, which I found to be a strange thing to say. On the topic of my brother, Elberon had not seen him since the incident. After several hours, I told him I had to meet Caelynna and promised I would drop in again. I left and began the short journey.
Eventually, I arrived at the Ardarume manor. I had not been here in a while and a mix of happiness and anxiousness shot through my body. I knocked, and was greeted by my young son. He was just as happy to see me as I was to see him, so he led me inside to see Caelynna. After a short bit of awkward conversation, we decided I should stay for the rest of my hiatus from the party. I walked up the stairs and put my possessions in the spare room. 
The next twenty six days passed as a blur. I caught up with my family; told them about my adventure (including that traitor Traveus); visited a few more old friends and managed to teach Immeral how to use the 'light' cantrip. I also came up with a new idea: a language, only usable by our party. I began working on a small dictionary for it and decided to name it Firaalic, after myself. I hoped to start teaching it to the other party members as soon as possible. But most of all, I relaxed. As much as I enjoy incinerating kobolds, I enjoy being able to slow down for a while too. But eventually, I had to return to Fallcrest to regroup with the party. I waved farewell to them all and told them I would return soon. But before I was to return to the Nentir Vale, I thought I should buy some Cullero Cigars for Thofire. I have wondered if Thofire would enjoy smoking these since Greenhills doesn't have any cigars (nor does anywhere else, for some reason) so I thought I would give him an opportunity. Personally, I believe they are a threat to one's health, but I know others who enjoy them greatly.
I then made my way to the Temple of The Watcher, my final stop, to give a monetary donation. However, I was on the front steps of the building when I heard some running behind me. I turned then ducked, as an axe whistled over my head. Two masked thugs had approached me, both wielding large axes. I pulled out my staff, then proceeded to battle. As they swung their axes at me, I dodged and ducked while firing blasts of ice and lightning at them. Eventually, they fell dead. I pulled off their masks, revealing them to both be bald humans in their 30s. Upon further searching, I found a note on the taller of the two that read: 
"Eraamion Firaal has returned to Cullero. Find and execute him. He cannot learn the truth."
Although this intrigued me, I still had my obligations to my allies in the Vale. I would have to investigate the plot to murder me and try to discover this 'truth' later. I stepped into the temple to continue my business, when I was stopped by the elderly priest. He told me he had seen me take care of the thugs and would like to invite me to join his organisation: the Guardians of The Watcher. He told me that Watcher-worshipping combatants are needed to defend the faith and the temples of The Watcher. I accepted this offer without much thought: why shouldn't I join? I then waved goodbye to the priest an initiated my ritual.
In a flash, I was back in the inn at Winterhaven. I stepped outside into the comparatively-freezing air and began my journey to Fallcrest. It was fairly uneventful except for one man dressed all in blue who was screaming about 'Kifflom,' 'Kraff,' and 'the Fourth Paradigm.' He was clearly insane, so I just walked by and hoped he wouldn't follow me. Luckily, he didn't. I eventually arrived at Fallcrest, and I headed towards the inn. Orklan was already there, so I greeted him and bought myself an ale.
Note: This journal will be written in elven instead of common from now on. This is so less people will be able to understand it in the event of it being stolen. I apologise to Thofire as I know he likes to be able to read it while I'm not looking. I would write it in Firaalic, but it's not advanced enough as a language to be able to express everything I would want to.
==Entry V (Journey to Harkenwold)==
Orklan and I saw the other party members approaching the main gate of the town so we went out to meet them. We were about to go back to the inn when two guards stopped us, saying that the Duke wanted to see us. We went with them into the Duke's Longhouse, which some of the other party members mistook for toilets. At the other end of the room was the Duke, sitting on a chair draped by a red cloth. I had expected something slightly more regal, but I suppose they had to make-do with what they had. 
The duke thanked us for ridding the world of the evil skull, calling Traveus a hero for purifying it and us heroes for enabling him to get there. I only just resisted telling him about how that dastardly dwarf tried to murder us when he was 'purifying' the skull. He then goes on to tell us that a new evil is plighting Harkenwold and let us know that a substantial reward will be given, which will be discussed upon our triumphant return. He handed a map of Harkenwold to Meredith. We unanimously decided that we accepted the proposal and began walking out of the longhouse to begin our journey to Harkenwold. Suddenly, a thought struck me. I asked the Duke who the guards who took us here were and I was told they were called Modestus and Strythio.
We travelled along the King's Road for many days, stopping at some seedy inns with a few 'working women' present along the way (I thought I saw Jedcit eyeing one or two up, but I can't be sure). I gave Thofire the cigars during this time. Eventually, we emerged from a forest into Harkenwold at around midday. The first thing we saw was a tower of smoke in the distance that seems to be situated down a dirt track. We thought someone could have been in trouble, so we hurried there at once to investigate (Thofire did seem keen for a reward though). 
At the end of the dirt track was a burning house, surrounded by black-cloaked brigands and two wolves. This was obviously the source of the smoke. While most of us were watching the brigands prepare oil-dipped torches and taunting the house owner, Meredith seemed to be more interested in the cabbages on the vegetable patch. We attempted to sneak round to the back of the house, but the clanking of half the party's armour alerted a snarling wolf to our presence. A brigand turned around to us and told us to move on because we were interfering with Iron Circle business. As far as I knew, the Iron Circle was a large section of land but this didn't seem to be what those thugs were referring to. All of a sudden, a woman screamed from inside that it was more like robbery than business. With that, Ghazghkull walked forward to the house's fence gate and our fight with the thugs had begun.
Meredith acted first and fired her crossbow at one of the brigands, but he ducked under it. I quickly followed by firing a freezing burst at two of the brigands and a wolf. It hit and slid them all backwards. Thofire followed by hitting one with an arrow. Jedcit, Orklan and Ghazghkull charged a group of brigands on the other side of the house's courtyard. Both Orklan and Ghazghkull swung at the same brigand, but only the latter hit. The two brigands and the wolf that I hit then charged Meredith, Thofire and I. The wolf arrived first and attempted to bite my arm, but it missed. However, Meredith and Thofire were not so lucky as they both got hit by a crossbow bolt from the brigands. While the other wolf bit Orklan, Meredith shot the brigand that hit her and knocked him over. I then tried to fire another freezing burst, but it missed. Orklan then scored our first kill of the battle on one of the brigands with a mighty strike from his sword. While I was watching this the wolf bit me. I slapped it off but it seemed unharmed by my blow. While one bandit failed to push Thofire back, two hit Ghazghkull through his armour. He seemed injured, but thankfully not critically. A second later Meredith shot that accursed wolf and knocked it back. I turned my attention to one of the bandits who hit Ghazghkull and hypnotised one of them into trying to shoot the other. He missed, but Ghazghkull jumped on the opportunity to stab the hypnotised one while he was not in control of his actions. As Thofire jumped over his brigand nemesis, Jedcit stabbed the one next to him. All of a sudden, the damned wolf was back and it bit Meredith. I dodged a bandit that charged at me in an attempt to knock me back. But past him  I could see Ghazghkull getting critically injured and becoming close to falling unconscious. I had only just met the paladin (I don't know which deity he was a paladin for. He muttered something about Gork and Mork at one point though) but I didn't want him to be taken down yet. I fired a bolt of arcing lightning at the brigand next to me and one of the brigands next to Ghazghkull. Somehow, this hit and killed both. While one bandit watched his comrade fall, Ghazghkull took him down with a vicious uppercut. We had just taken down three enemies in under ten seconds. Thofire stabbed the bandit next to him and Orklan stabbed a wolf I didn't even know was there. Thofire is knocked back by the bandit next to him. Seeing as nobody was opposing me I decided to try and help the woman out of her house. As I ran I fired lightning at the wolf by Meredith and a brigand by Jedcit, killing both enemies. The only reason I didn't help Thofire was because he seemed like he wanted to take down the brigand next to him on his own. It was then that our surviving foes realised that they could not win this fight. The two brigands and the wolf  started to flee, lashing out blindly in their escape. Most of these hits missed, but one hit Ghazghkull and knocked him unconscious. Despite this, we had won the battle (and Meredith seemed pleased that the surviving wolf ran across the cabbage patch). 
While Jedcit healed Ghazghkull I shouted to the woman inside the house, asking if she was okay. I heard the sound of a bolt being pulled back, then a half-elf woman and two boys who looked to be around 15 stepped out. As I walked with her around to the front of her house she asked who we are. I informed her that we were just a lowly band of adventurers (I would have given her a party name, but we don't seem to have one). We then found out that her name was Ilyana and that her two sons were Jarek and Jarl. Her husband was killed in battle (no further details were given, but I assume he was a guard or a soldier). Thofire then asked her who the Iron Circle were, to which she responded that they were a group of bandits and cutthroats who had imprisoned the duke. They were now apparently taking ridiculously high taxes from the citizens of Harkenwold. It was then that Jedcit said something about putting his 'sword' inside her 'iron circle.' This remark was met with disgusted glances from most of the party, including myself and Ilyana. She went on to tell us that the people of Harkenwold were ready to rebel against the Iron Circle. She recommended that we spoke to Reithann, the druidess of the Druid Grove, or Dar Gremath, the rebellion leader in Albridge. She went on to tell us that Albridge was safe, but Harken Village was dangerous. We thanked her, but before we left I asked her if she would be safe on her own. She responded that she would, but would eventually have to join the resistance in Albridge and that we should tell Reithann and Dar Gremath that she sent us. We decided to visit Reithann first, and set off.
When we finally reached the Druid Grove we noted that it was predominantly leafy, trees were everywhere, and it had multiple mossy pillars sticking out of the ground. Using my religious knowledge, I found out that the people here worshipped the primal spirits, such as Stormhawk and Stoneroot. All of a sudden, Reithann emerged from the trees to our right, surprising even Thofire. She greeted us with some kind of nonsensical nature quote and noticed we were strangers to Harkenwold. After telling her that Ilyana sent us after defeating the Iron Circle raiding her home, the druidess recommended that we kill the bullywugs in the Toadwallow Caverns that were guarding the hamlet of Tor's Hold (once again, using a nonsensical nature quote). This would allow the fighters of the hamlet to join the rebellion. We bade Reithann farewell and began to walk out, to which she replied:
"Farewell, but the mouse does not see the shadow of the eagle; and so should you be." I replied that the mouse does in fact see the shadow of the eagle before it is eaten, but she responded with another proverb, proving that she was certainly a natural expert. We decided to visit Dar Gremath in Albridge. As we made our way there, I hoped he would be more coherent than the druidess we had just visited.
Half an hour after leaving the Grove we arrived at Albridge (to be more specific, the low wall of wooden stakes surrounding the town). Two guards on the wall decided that we were spies of the Iron Circle (seemingly just for turning up) but we told them Ilyana sent us after saving her. They took us to Dar Gremath, eyeing us suspiciously along the way. However, the old man greeted us warmly (which was a pleasant respite from the scepticism we were originally met with). We told him that Ilyana sent us and that we wanted to help the rebellion, so he replied that he was once an adventurer and that he had two pieces of advice for us. The first was that we could attack an Iron Circle convoy passing by tomorrow and the second was that we could pick a bar fight with some of the brigands. He also told us that the Circle were led by Redthorn. Thanking him, we went to stock up on some supplies. I bought a pouch and some leather armour (hoping it would improve my survivability) while the emerald and panther idol were sold for 100 gold pieces and 250 gold pieces respectively. There was some trouble with the Lolth statue, but it was sold for the aforementioned amount when Thofire tricked the merchant into thinking that it was the Raven Queen (although I disliked the bluff, good riddance to the damned thing). We then set off for the Toadwallow Caverns.
We reached our destination in the late afternoon. A small vertical rock face and a vine-covered waterfall blocked our entrance to the cavern. We decided the easiest way up would be to climb the rock face. We all got up, excluding Jedcit and Ghazghkull who fell off. Ghazghkull tried again to climb and succeeded while I pulled Jedcit up. Insects constantly harangued and buzzed around us, but apart from that it seemed to be deserted. Ahead of us the cave opens up into a dark, dank chamber with a pool of stagnant water in the corner. It was then that we noticed three humanoid creatures that sat towards the back of this chamber, behind some fungi. Meredith determined them to be of primordial origin and entirely evil. We immediately realised that they were bullywugs. It was then that they attacked.
Thofire reacted first and hit one with his bow while Orklan rushed to his side. I fired a freezing burst between our the two and scored a hit on all three (I noticed at that point that Jedcit seemed to be getting wounded for no visible reason, so I was, and still am, forced to assume it was some kind of infection. It lasted until the end of the battle, then mysteriously stopped). The bullywugs then moved in to attack, one hitting Thofire hard and knocking him down. Immediately, Ghazghkull rushed through the water and slammed the closest bullywug down into a bullywug-sized hole that was not there previously. Needless to say, it was killed instantly. Ghazghkull had now effectively formed a blockade with Orklan to stop the bullywugs getting to the rest of us. the Jedcit cast a spell then, making both Ghazghkull and I more powerful for a short amount of time. Unfortunately, my freezing burst failed to fire so the boost in power was effectively wasted on me. Suddenly, two more bullywugs emerged from the shadows and one hit Orklan with a javelin. Ghazghkull responded by doing the same thing he did earlier to another enemy, leaving yet another bullywug-shaped hole. Thofire, back on his feet, leaped over Orklan and stabbed one of the newly-emerged bullywugs that was standing in the corner. I then jumped into the air and fired a lightning bolt over the blockade's heads and hitting multiple enemies. Orklan then killed the last of the original bullywugs and moves to flank one of the others. To avenge his comrade, one of the bullywugs then attempted to spasmodically leap on him. He missed and I can safely say that it was one of the most hilarious attempts at an attack I have ever seen. The creature's limbs just seemed to be all over the place. The creatured missed and Ghazghkull was quick to flank and hit it. We then all ganged up on that final bullywug; Thofire stabbed it with his sword while I shot it with a magic missile. It was then at four stirges erupted out of the pool behind us. I'd never seen one of these pests before and I hope I never see one again. While three flew over to the larger group of the party the other flew to Meredith (I haven't mentioned her role in this battle at all as she didn't really do anything. When asked later about her role, she claimed that she was unable to shoot over our two-man blockade). The bullywug used this distraction to attempt a spazmodic leap, this time at me, but fortunately missed. However, I was not so fortunate when two stirges decided to grab Ghazghkull and I. This caused our paladin to unleash a mighty roar, scaring them into releasing him and fleeing. Again, I was not so fortunate. The stirge flew over the waterfall while still carrying me. I attempted to hypnotise it into crashing into the other stirge by Meredith, but to no avail. It then dropped me into the plunge pool of the waterfall so it could fly faster. I was only lightly injured thankfully. I climbed back up to find the bullywug was dead.
As we rested, I noticed that the water in the pool the stirges emerged from was slightly poisonous. I filled my pouch  with it, and then added one of the mushrooms the bullywugs were originally behind because Meredith identified them to be poisonous too (and definitely not hallucinogenic). We then walked to the back of the cavern, where a dragon skull lay. Behind it was a pool of water being slowly fed by a water stream dripping from the wall. We realised it must have been taken there by someone, so I had a look inside. I noticed another bullywug, but this one seemed different. He exclaimed that he was called Gloorpk and subsequently two more bullywugs emerged to our left. Gloorpk fired a magic poisonous dragon fang bolt at me from his staff, which hit and exploded, injuring both me and Meredith. In retaliation, Meredith shot and immobilised the bullywug wizard. Orklan then smashed him with his sword and the bullywug was then surrounded by Jedcit and Ghazghkull. Seeing an opportunity, I hypnotised Gloorpk into shooting himself with one of his magic bolts. This gave the others that were surrounding him the opportunity to hit and severely wound him (I felt guilty for hitting them with some of the poison, they seemed fine about it when I asked then later). Seeing my chance to finish him off, I repeated the action I had just finished. This final bolt finished Gloorpk off. Suddenly, three more bullywugs emerge from the shadows to the right to avenge their fallen leader. Two lunged at Ghazghkull, both missing, and one of which was swiftly taken care of by the paladin. Thofire then killed another with a backstab while Meredith shot one to her left through the eye, killing it instantly. Just as the bolt pierced brain, an ooze jumped out of the pool. Remembering that I could still use my sleep spell, I fired it. It knocked the remaining two bullywugs and the ooze unconscious before they could even act. As we ripped through their helpless bodies, I noticed the ooze was poisonous. I then took some of it and put it in my pouch. This poison, if applied correctly, now had the potential to be lethal. We rested in the cave overnight.
Kill total: 3 brigands, 1 wolf, 2 bullywugs, 1 ooze, Gloorpk.
==Entry VI (The Shadowfell Crypt)==
While resting up from our attack on the cave, we drank from the pool at the back. It was not stagnant or poisonous like the others, so all of us except Jedcit drank from it. Suddenly, we were transported into a strange crypt (except Jedcit. We believe it was something to do with the water). I deduced from our surroundings that it was the Shadowfell, and it seemed that we had landed in what looked to be a burial chamber. Foyr coffins lay in the centre of the room with a chasm to the other end and a strange door to our left.
Suddenly, 4 zombies and 4 skeletons burst from the coffins. We prepared to fight, but Thofire reacted first and shot a zombie through the throat, killing it instantly and sending it back to death. I then unleashed my burning hands. I conjured a blast of fire from my palms, killing each and every remaining member of the dead and turning them to ash (and, according to Thofire, singed Orklan's beard). However, the battle was not over. Four more zombies crawled up from the chasm and balanced precariously on the edge. Ghazghkull lumbered forth, but was unable to do anything due to his heavy armour impeding his speed. Orklan however was able to charge at the zombie opposite him, jump and do a triple spin in midair before kicking one of the zombies down the pit. This killed it and another kill followed from Meredith after she shot another zombie through the chest. Out of the two remaining zombies, one shuffled up to Ghazghkull and hit him on the helmet. The paladin did not even seem to register the blow. But the other knocked Orklan off balance, sending him tumbling down the chasm. Fortunately, I could hear from his shouts that he was alive (and as well as someone who just fell from such a height could be). Thofire then vaulted over a coffin and spin-kicked the zombie down the pit, which then had its head crushed by Orklan. I then took care of the remaining zombie by firing a freezing burst at it; turning all the remaining moisture in its body to ice. With seemingly nothing better to do, Ghazghkull started innapropriately rubbing himself against a coffin and happened to find a single gold coin inside it.
At that moment the ground shook violently and a giant zombie erupted through the floor. Meredith reacted first by shooting it between the ribs and knocking it over. The zombie pulled itself up and, noticing that Ghazghkull was 'occupied', decided to punch the paladin. It missed and smashed the coffin, but sent Ghazghkull rolling to a spot a few metres away. During this time, Thofire had pulled Orklan from the chasm using his grappling hook. I then hypnotised the zombie into punching itself in the head. Unlike its attack on Ghazghkull, this one hit. The paladin, who had managed to make himself decent by this time, smote the zombie with an divine smash and left radiant energy emanating from the wounds. Orklan followed on charging it and slicing it across the stomach, causing more green pus to spill out. Meredith then shot it in the face, very nearly killing it. Outraged at its wounds, the zombie pummeled Orklan with its fists. Fortunately, Orklan was not wounded due to his sturdy shield. Thofire used this distraction as a chance to do a flip and use his bow to shoot it in the face. He then roared at the zombie in an attempt to intimidate it, and although it didn't understand, it roared back. It was then that I fired a magic missile down the creature's throat, blowing it apart in an explosion of innards and slime. The undead's thick, green blood covered us all, so I prestidigitated myself clean. The others were not so lucky. Thofire then ran over to the door and opened it and immediately the two skeletons on the other side turned to shoot him. Both missed, so he ran forth and decapitated the closest undead. While I rushed to aid him, I couldn't help but notice the rest of the party's fascination with searching one of the coffins (they found one copper piece for their efforts). The skeleton stabbed Thofire in the foot (leaving him with a scar) and it was at that moment that Meredith decided to do something. She shot the skeleton through the eye socket, splitting the skull in two. She threw the halfling a copper piece as compensation for killing his enemy, which was then deftly caught by the intended target. Thofire and Ghazghkull then turned their attention to the lever at the end of the room, but they could not force it to budge. Orklan, however, moved it by doing little more than leaning on it (this seems to be one of the only advantages of being overweight). We then heard a whirring, grinding noise and the floor beneath us descended by a few centimetres but nothing apart from that. We then allowed Ghazghkull to smash his way through some crates at the other end of the room. There was nothing in them, except a solitary rat. Seeing an opportunity for a personal companion for my adventures, I attempted to tame it. I had no such luck, but Meredith did. She tamed it then made it go to Thofire, effectively making it his pet. He called it Bubonic, and after that we climbed the stairs to the next room.
The room at the top of the stairs was larger than the last. Judging from the torture devices, locked-up monsters and the corpse lying in the corner of the room, it was a dungeon. The corpse rose, and turned out to be yet another undead in this forsaken place. While we entered, the monsters glared at us menacingly and stand up, as if preparing to fight. Suddenly, a zombified man in the centre of the room rose too and announces himself to be Jailor Kassan. As he asked what we were doing there, I noticed from his equipment that he was a skilled duelist. He immediately asked what we were doing here, so I spoke up and told him we were just passing through (this wasn't exactly a lie; we were just trying to get through this place. Whether going past him was the right way or not, we did not know). He believed us, and asked what we wanted from the area past him. I replied once again that we just wanted to leave this place and that we thought there was an exit door past the stairs behind him (not exactly a lie again. We had no idea what was past him). He didn't believe me this time, saying that it was unlikely that in all of the years he had been here he had never heard of any door. It was then that Thofire tricked Kassan into thinking that we were archaeologists. I'm sure Thofire had never once met an archaeologist, but fortunately I had because the Jailor wanted proof. The archaeologist was a dwarf who met with my father one day and asked for his expertise on the Serosinian Rainforest, which he would need for an upcoming expedition. Recalling the man's permit, I prestidigitated a copy into existance and showed it to the dungeon keeper. It fooled him and so he waved us past, claiming that he had no reason to kill us. There was a short moment of tension when Kassan shouted at Orklan for washing his bloody shield in a font, but we just hurried up the stairs. We did not want to fight.
There must have been a few thousand steps, as the journey up seemed to takes hours. When we finally reached the top, we were in a large square platform in an even larger room. Although we could not see the walls, we could see what looked like living shadows swirling on smaller platforms to our left and right. In the centre lay a large, black dragon. Luckily for us, it was sleeping. While we sat and plotted what we would do, it shifted in its sleep and revealed a small chest underneath it. This seemed to interest Thofire, since he used his armour to become invisible and sneak over to it. However, we could hear him fumbling with the chest from the other side of the room so it was no surprise when the dragon woke. It saw us instantly, so Meredith attempted to shoot it in the eye. She missed but instead hit the side of its head and knocked it over. While it fell, I noticed a missing scale under its left wing. I told the others about it, then missed it with a freezing burst. While Orklan charged at it, I saw the chest open and two leather gauntlets hover in the air. They seemed magical, but I would have to examine them later. The dragon then regained its footing and unleashed a blast of poisonous green fire, hitting all of us except Meredith. Ghazghkull reacted first by brushing the lingering flames off and smashing the dragon with a holy smite to the face. I then brushed the flames off too and reacted with my ever-reliable sleep spell. But for the first time, it failed to do its job on the dragon. I followed on with hypnotism, making the dragon bite its wing. It missed the weak spot, but still succeeded in hurting it. We then had a bout of bad luck: Orklan missed it with his sword; Meredith's crossbow bolt bounced off its scale and I missed again with freezing burst. It also seemed to plague the dragon, as it missed Ghazghkull with a bite. Finally, we broke the chain of misfortune with a stab from Orklan to the weak spot. It was then that the shadows decided to make their purpose known. One flew to Ghazghkull, gripped him and started to fly away with the paladin. The dragon made a clumsy bite at Orklan and missed during this time. Meredith, Orklan and I then attempted to save Ghazghkull. She fired a bolt into the shadow, injuring it. I followed up by attempting to hypnotise and dispel it, but it resisted both attacks. Orklan then tried to slash it with his sword, but missed. Suddenly, Thofire entered the battle by becoming visible on the dragon's head and stabbing it through the left eye and pulling it out, half-blinding it. But in this time Ghazghkull had been taken to one of the smaller platforms by the shadow and corrupted. As the corrupted Ghazghkull started drifting back to us, a different shade targeted me. I was grabbed and lifted into the air, unable to move in any way. The dragon seemed to have recovered the use of his breath attack, so he unleashed yet another poisonous barrage. All of us were hit, except Ghazghkull (who was still drifting back to us) and Thofire (who was on the dragon's head), and poisoned. At last, corrupted Ghazghkull returned to the battlefield. He walked right up to Meredith, knocked her unconscious with a single blow and promptly regained control of himself. Not wanting this fate to befall myself, I blasted the shade with an explosion of pure arcane energy. This dispelled its very existance, and I fell to the floor. As I fell, I could see Thofire completely blinding the dragon by cutting out its other eye. Enraged by the loss of a sense, the dragon swung its claws wildly and somehow hit Thofire. I then got up from the ground and fired arc lightning at the dragon, but missed. Orklan and I then both hit the dragon's weak spot, causing it to roar in pain and topple over. Thofire capitalised on this by lunging at its weak spot, but missed. I'm not sure how intelligent the shadows were, but I started to doubt that they had much sense when another decided to grab me while I watched the dragon fly behind Orklan. Suddenly, some kind of primal energy flew from Meredith's fingers and hit the person who knocked her down. Ghazghkull was unfortunately knocked down by this as well, leaving us with only 3 conscious party members. We were not to be defeated by this, as I promptly dispelled this shade by repeating my previous action while Orklan slid under the dragon and stabbed it through the weak spot. Thofire followed on by stabbing it through the open mouth, wounding it. It tried to retaliate by biting the halfling, but instead succeeded in biting its tongue off. It was then that I had a near-suicidal idea: blasting the dragon from inside its mouth. I fey stepped from my position on the ground into a prone position just inside the dragon's mouth, then fired a freezing burst down its throat. This hit (there was absolutely no way it could miss. After all, I was surrounded by dragon) and seemed to harm it greatly. Although I couldn't see it, I could hear what sounded the dragon being stabbed and something small hitting the floor. The next thing I knew, Thofire was in the mouth as well. He quickly stabbed upwards, causing the dragon to roar in pain. Suddenly, the dragon came to its senses and seemed to hack some acidic bile up at us. Thofire managed to dodge it by jumping out of the mouth then swinging back in using the creature's fangs, but I was not so lucky. I knew that if I was hit by it again, I would be downed. I wounded it with the ice once more, then jumped and out the mouth, backed away then dispelled a shade which was grabbing Ghazghkull unconscious body. Just as Thofire sliced through the back of the dragon's throat and cut its windpipe, Orklan unleashed a mighty downwards slice that severed the creature's tail right off. Thofire then jumped out of the dragon's maw and brought Ghazghkull back to consciousness, which is surprising since he has no medical training whatsoever. It was then that I noticed the dragon's brain through the open eye socket. Raising my hand, I fired a magic missile directly into it. The dragon spasmed in pain as bursts of arcane energy erupted from its eye sockets and the newly-opened hole where its tail used to be. It then slumped to the ground, its grey matter reduced to a pile of ash. I believe we could be certain that it was dead. However, I hoped that this would have no long-lasting consequences. I have heard tales of ancient black dragons finding their children dead and then going on to murder the family of the killer.
When the fight was over, I finally had a chance to examine the gauntlets from the chest. They were made of leather and seemed to be dripping an endless supply of acid and, after a minute of examination, I concluded that they were caustic gauntlets. Thofire gave them to me to keep and in return I crystallised the two dragon eyes he had ripped out during the fight. When Meredith was healed, we realised that there was no way out of here. As we walked by the edge, looking for a door of some sort, the ground shook and we fell down into the abyss. As we fell, I noticed a statue of Agmar (a hero who fought at the fall of Bael Turath) and started to wonder what it was doing here. After what felt like days (though was probably a few minutes; an hour at most), we dropped into the caverns. We were exhausted, so we decided to rest for a while. A note was left by Jedcit, who said he had gone to Albridge to get help. We would regroup with him later.
Kill total: 4 zombies, 4 skeletons, giant zombie, 3 living shadows, 1 black dragon.
==Entry VII (Tor's Hold and the Bar Fight)==
When we were finally ready to leave the caverns, we heard a loud, guttural, growling noise emanating from a distance away. The bullywugs were returning. We hid by the entrance and heard their leader, who seemed to be named Uggloor, trying to communicate with the sentry we had killed earlier. Although none of us could speak primordial, Meredith and I gave it a try. Unfortunately, we failed and the enemy became suspicious. As I peered over the edge (still hidden) I noticed three bullywugs, two giant toads and a halfling boy. This boy, to Thofire's shock, was his son: Paolino Du Bec. We had to act fast, while we still had the element of surprise and could save Paolino. Meredith started our assault on the enemy by shooting Uggloor, but the bolt glanced off his armour. Ghazghkull then jumped down from the ledge to challenge the champion, but ended up falling flat on his face. I could see that the battle hadn't got off to a particularly good start, so I fired my sleep spell directly at Uggloor. While the spell was taking effect, Thofire launched himself the champion and attempted a backstab, but missed. Orklan also jumped down from the ledge, but fell over just like Ghazghkull. The spell's effect took hold; the champion and the other two bullywugs fell unconscious, but the two toads and Paolino resisted it. Unfortunately, Ghazghkull had also succumbed to the spell. Paolino used the sudden lack of guards to run and hide a short while away. Orklan got up and tried to kill a toad, but failed. Thofire and I then took care of the creatures with a stab to the face and a magic missile. Finally, we took care of the unconscious bullywugs. Now that the area was clear, Thofire called to Paolino. We found out that he had been captured while out with his friends, who had escaped. We decided to take him with us to Tor's Hold. But before we left, Ghazghkull had to be awoken. Orklan solved this problem by throwing him into the cold plunge pool, which snapped him out of the slumber with a start.
We arrived at Tor's Hold after about fifteen minutes. Although I had been told it was a hamlet, it was much more like a small, stone keep. We walked up to the guard at the portcullis, who asked what our business there was. He did not believe me when I told him we had killed the bullywugs, but he was suitably convinced by the bullywug eyes Orklan presented him with (I didn't see him take these. It must have been when I was not looking). Disbelieving, the guard handed Orklan a large form which had to be filled in in order to see the duke. I don't know what compelled him to do this, but the dwarf threw it back in the guard's face. This would not be good for our reputation, so I apologised and got to work on it. It took me nearly an hour to fill in the incredibly long and complex form, but it was eventually finished. We were then told that our appointment would be in fifteen minutes time.
At last, our appointment with the duke had begun. As soon as we walked into the throne room, he expressed his gratitude and asked if there was any way for him to help us. Thofire immediately asked for some guards to escort his son back to Greenhills, so the duke immediately called for two men (I believe their names were Rory and Rickard) and ordered them to carry out the halfling's request. The guards gave the boy a look of disgust, but nevertheless carried out the orders. The rogue then asked for a rapier and is promptly lead to the armoury of the keep. He allowed Thofire to take one for free on the condition that he took nothing else from the place (luckily, he didn't. At least, I don't think he did). As we re-entered the throne room, he handed Meredith some kind of poisonous crossbow and claimed it was one of the best weapons he owned (Meredith seemed a bit disappointed by it for some reason though). In a sign of good faith, Meredith gave her old crossbow back to the duke. It was then that our appointment ended, but before we left we were given 50 gold pieces each. Thanking the duke, we set off for Albridge.
We went straight to Dar Gremath when we reached the village. He seemed to be slightly annoyed that we had attacked the bullywugs first, but then told us that he hoped we were ready to do some real fighting. It was then that Thofire told the rebel that he needed some beer, a cart and a horse (it was for some strange plan that involved stopping the Iron Circle convoy then raiding it). Gremath offered us the beer, but was unwilling to hand over the other two parts that we needed for the rogue's plan. I then asked him to go to the townspeople to ask for the horse and cart, but this time he stated that the citizens would be unwilling (for a barony in need of freedom, this place seems to have many unwilling people. It almost seemed as if they were okay with oppression). Thofire then told the rebellion leader his plan, but the old man did not seem to believe the halfling. It took my intervention for Dar Gremath to believe us and come to a deal: if we eliminated the Iron Circle men in the Mallard Inn, he would get us what we needed. We accepted his offer and headed off, but not before regrouping with Jedcit.
We reached the inn, but we could hear some kind of upheaval going on inside. As our halfling and dwarf entered, we saw five of the brigands harassing the bartender. They asked who we were, but not nearly as politely as I would expect of people, and aggressively inform us that carrying weaponry is forbidden. Thofire tries to tell them that we were mercenaries who had come to help them, but they did not believe him. Orklan had a go at tricking them too, but ultimately suffered the same fate as Thofire. Not wanting to start a fight just yet, Thofire and Orklan put down their swords. However, the guards promptly arrested them and started marching the two out of the inn. Thankfully, it was then that Ghazghkull used his imposing presence to intimidate the brigands. This caused the nearest one to stagger back in fear and the others to let go of the duo they had arrested. Orklan and Thofire grabbed their weapons and threatened the enemies with decapitation and castration respectively, but they were not scared off. The bar fight had begun.
As soon as the bar fight began, Ghazghkull fell unconscious. Meredith, Jedcit and I dragged him round the corner of the bar and immediately noticed that my sleep spell seemed to have come back into action. Essentially, he was out of the fight. Meanwhile, Thofire had charged one of the brigands but missed. Fortunately, the miss was made up for by an absolute bloodbath by Orklan. It begun with him approaching the nearest enemy and decapitating him with one great slash. Needless to say, the man was dead. At this, one of the three bystanders sitting at a table at the back of the room jumped out of the window and ran away. However, the second bystander tried to jump out but ended up falling on the floor and ended up blocking the window. The bartender tried to crawl into a barrel, but failed. The Iron Circle began to fight back, with three of them sending chairs flying as they charged at Orklan. One managed to injure him, the second one missed but the third also managed to land a blow on him. One of the other brigands charged Thofire and smashed into him. Meredith, Jedcit and I were still outside when we heard an Iron Circle cutthroat emerge from a house nearby. I came up with a plan with Meredith: we would both run around to the other side of the inn, taking care of the cutthroat along the way, and then enter through the back door to surprise the enemies inside. We didn't know that our plan would be scuttled by a rustling in a bush; we assumed it was nothing at the time. Jedcit gave a quick prayer which improved our defences to aid us (it sounded like 'my for all bids dar god,' but I wasn't entirely sure), and then picked a leaf from a bush that was adjacent to him for some unknown reason. As I ran forward, casting light through a window to blind a brigand that was attacking Orklan, another cutthroat jumped out of the bush and shot me in the back with a crossbow. I quickly shouted at Meredith to abandon the plan, then blasted both the cutthroats with burning hands. Meredith jumped into the inn through the window closest to her and ran to the bartender. She told him to escape over the barrels, then fired some sort of mist into the middle of the room, concealing our allies. As Thofire missed a brigand with his rapier, part two of Orklan's bloodbath began. With a spinning jump and a roar, he sliced one of the Iron Circle bandits clean in two. Once again, the man was killed instantly. But as he did this, the two cutthroats moved in to flank me. Only one managed to hit, but she seriously wounded me with a stab from he short sword. Soon after that, Orklan had finished part 3 of the bloodbath by slicing the legs off of a retreating bandit. The remaining bystanders fled through the window and the bartender followed Meredith's orders and escaped. As Thofire resisted an attempt to push him back, Jedcit cast a spell on Orklan to make him resist some wounds enemies may inflict upon him. I, however, was still flanked by the two cutthroats. To counter this, I infused a freezing burst with acid from my new gauntlets and fired it at the enemies. This injured both and the force of the blast pushed them away from me. I followed this by blinding the male cutthroat with light, then teleporting round the corner and hiding behind a wall. Inside the inn, Meredith used her new crossbow to poison one of the brigands while also weakening and knocking him down. Thofire followed this up with a stab at the closest brigand and a failed attempt at intimidating him. Orklan then tried to stab the floored brigand, but somehow missed. The cutthroats, who now had no idea where I was, decided to target Jedcit instead. The blind one flailed about and completely missed him, but the other successfully hit with her crossbow. One of the brigands then got up from the floor and hit Orklan, but the charm Jedcit had cast on him earlier completely negated the injuries. The other brigand failed to drive Thofire back once again. It was then that Jedcit dropped his weapon and tried to punch the cutthroat nearest to him. He missed, then picked up his axe (I don't know why he wanted to punch the enemy instead of using his weapon. It is just another unsolvable mystery). I finally managed to enter the inn by clambering over the barrels, but I was unable to do anything other than blind the poisoned brigand with light (I used this trick a lot during the battle. I'll be using it more often in the future). Thofire finally had some luck when he stabbed the brigand, frightened him into fleeing (he made a rather humourous yelp as he fled) and then stabbed him in the back. The other brigand attempted to flee from Orklan, who slashed him as he ran, but fell over at the window. Our mighty dwarf finished his bloodbath by decapitating the floored brigand with an overhead smash and then kicking his head out the window (although he would have killed me, I did feel a little sorry for the guy. He had been poisoned, knocked down, weakened, blinded, repeatedly stabbed, decapitated and then had his head kicked out of a window). The blind cutthroat and the remaining brigand then attempted to flank Thofire, but failed to land a hit on him. Unfortunately, the other cutthroat hit Jedcit with a swing of her sword and knocked him out. I then attempted to fire my sleep spell and arc lightning at the Iron Circle bandits flanking Thofire, but I missed with both. Meredith had much better luck: she hit the brigand straight through the eye and killed him instantly. Thofire sliced off a finger of the blind cutthroat, then scared him into clumsily fleeing the battlefield. Orklan then jumped out of the window and stabbed the remaining cutthroat, making her bleed heavily but failing to kill her. Fuelled by revenge, I ran up behind Thofire and blasted the cutthroat in the face with a magic missile. The arcane energy killed her instantly; the inn was safe.
With the enemies gone, our dwarf fighter thought it would be a good idea to help himself to the inn's beer. Despite my objections he somehow ended up breaking a keg open and drinking the whole thing (I have no idea how he is able to drink so much. It's probably some kind of obscure blessing). A few minutes later, a rather portly woman wandered into the inn and asked what all the noise was about. Unfortunately, she promptly fainted after seeing the numerous corpses strewn around the room. When she eventually came to, she thanked us for dealing with the Iron Circle and, being a barmaid of the inn, gave us a free room and food for the night. We dragged Ghazghkull into a room, after which I used prestidigitation to clean the blood away in return for her kindness. After I was done I promptly retired to my room for the night.
Kill total: Uggloor, 2 bullywugs, 1 Iron Circle Cutthroat.
==Entry VIII (The Convoy and Dal Nystiere)==
The next morning, we thanked the barmaid and headed back to Dar Gremath. Unfortunately, we had to leave Ghazghkull behind because he was still unconscious. He congratulated us, and gave us two wooden kegs of beer, a cart and a horse with fur as black as the Shadowdark (it was fittingly named Shadowmere and to be honest, I would be proud to own such a fine steed). He then told to travel through the village of Marl on the road to Kalton Manor because it would be where the convoy would be travelling. The rebellion leader also informed us that Marl had been burned by the Iron Circle. As Meredith, Thofire and I poisoned the kegs of beer (my poison into the first keg, the other's in the second) Dar Gremath told us that Redthorn had sent out search parties after what we had cleared out the Toadwallow Caverns. As we set out, the carnival plan came into action. I became Joking Broden (after the legendary bard/mage of Tynval) and took upon the role of running a magic show; Orklan became a strongman known as 'Duffman'; Jedcit became the fortune teller 'Madame Predicto' and Thofire became 'Lord Peter Wimsey' (he has used this name previously when destroying the Pericuzio criminal family). Meredith, although not actively running an act, decided to give out the beer instead. We then set out for the convoy.
By the time we we reached Marl, it was heavily raining and a dense fog had covered the land. We were wary by what looked like shadowy figures, but they turned out to be dilapidated buildings. These buildings, husks of their former selves, surrounded us in the scarred fields that once were green. Farms lay in ruins, with no sign of crops or livestock except for the occasional horse. It painfully reminded me of what I had caused at Draisia. It may have been intended as a warning, but only served to fuel my anger at the Circle. Eventually, we passed a house that was unlike the others: it remained intact. Through the window we could see an old halfling man and his wife, who were talking quietly. Thofire waved to the man, who in turn waved back. I then turned my attention to listening in on their conversation. I heard him praising our actions at Toadwallow, but wished that we should get some bows for the rebellion from the elves at the Woodsinger Camp. I made a note of this and we shall do it at some point after the attack on the convoy.
Further down the road, we seemed to reach a checkpoint. It was guarded by 8 guards, one of them riding a rage drake (I was rather impressed by this; rage drakes are notoriously difficult to tame). Thofire greeted them and introduced us as Lord Peter Wimsey's Flying Circus. The guard on the drake did not seem to be impressed. He immediately responded that we should only be here for official Iron Circle business. Thofire immediately responded that we may as well entertain the checkpoint while we were there, and they seemed to agree. We quickly set up the carnival. I conjured a translucent purple platform to stand on, Thofire pulled out a wooden beam and some hoops, Meredith pulled out a wooden stand and Jedcit did the same. As Meredith poured the beer out, I fired a ball of ice into the air over the tankards then shattered it with a magic missile. The effect was as I desired: small chunks of ice fell into each of the cups. I earned applause from the guards for my efforts. Thofire then made Bubonic run along the wooden beam and jump through some hoops that I made to look like they were on fire (to everyone except Bubonic, that is. We could not have the trick ruined by the rat being scared by some fake fire). This also earned applause. Next up was Orklan, who lifted Shadowmere into the air. At first, he seemed to be having a bit of trouble so I magically aided him. He then lifted the horse over his head and the Iron Circle cheered. Jedcit then 'predicted' that the guards would go into another world in the near future. Despite the lie, the guards were intrigued. They then picked up the beer and drank. It was then that my poison came into effect, with each and every guard dying from it (Jedcit's prediction was actually rather accurate, since the guards could well be in the Shadowfell now). Unfortunately, the rage drake noticed that the guards had dropped dead and roared in anger. Moving quickly, I fired sleep into its mouth. It fell unconscious instantly and we swiftly finished it off. We then decided to search the guards. Thofire found a magic vanguard sword on the rage drake's late rider, which he handed to Orklan. Meanwhile, I found a pouch with 110 gold pieces inside. My halfling friend also opened two chests and looked rather frustrated afterwards, which reportedly contained 'a bone and 12 silver pieces'. We then moved on.
Soon enough we reached an area that would be suitable for the ambush. It had multiple bushes nearby and a stone circle to our south. While I noticed that the stone circles have a tiny amount of magical energy in it, Orklan had pulled a wheel from the cart and hid it in a bush to make it look like we had crashed. It was just in time; the convoy converged from the fog seconds later. But the six guards on it did not seem pleased in the slightest that our carriage was blocking the road. The leader, some kind of mage, seemed outraged. However, she was calmed when Thofire claimed we had crashed and that his 'circus' could 'entertain' her soldiers while he spoke to her in private. As our 'ringleader' led the woman round the back of our cart, Meredith called out that she was giving out free beer. This shout scared the Iron Circle horse and, despite my efforts to enchant it to stay still, managed to run off after a while. The guards did not seem to notice and the poison set to work. Within seconds, all but one had succumbed to the poison. The sole survivor stumbled over to 'Madame Predicto', 'Duffman' managed to kill him instantly with a vicious strike to the back. It was then that the leader of the guards started to walk away from Thofire, but luckily he was able to knock her out by smashing her head against the cart. We promptly tied to her to a rock and, when she awoke, began our interrogation with a rough greeting from Thofire. I then magically enchanted her to tell only the truth and she entered a dreamy state. Through this, we managed to find out that Redthorn planned to march on Albridge five days from then. We also managed to glean that he was a human with red hair; he had hundreds of soldiers; we could enter Harken undetected through some sewer grates; the duke was heavily guarded and that Redthorn would host a massive celebration if Dar Gremath died. She then fell unconscious yet again. This allowed us to formulate a plan, which I will explain later. But on her body, which had not been searched previously, I managed to find some mithral plate armour (which I gave to Jedcit) and a pouch with 90 gold pieces. We put her on the cart (tied up of course) and reattached the wheel. Speaking to the dark adept (who had awoken), I apologised for the interrogation and said I would try to make her imprisonment as comfortable as possible. In return, she spat at me. Although I was offended by her action, I still voted against the party's choice to 'knock out all the guard and dump them in a ditch'. Nevertheless, we went ahead and dumped the unconscious, or dead, bodies of the guards and then sent Jedcit back to Dar Gremath with the horse and cart. It was then that Ghazghkull arrived with us, seemingly having run all the way from the Mallard Inn (he can't have been unconscious for too long). It was then decided that we should walk to the Woodsinger Camp, and off we set.
It took us a few days to reach our destination. As we headed along a path into the forest, we felt an ancient presence around us. Because of this, we walked cautiously. Even so, we were still surprised when an elf wearing a tunic approached us when we stopped to gain our bearings. He introduced himself as Israfen, then asked what we were doing in the forest. After I told him in Elven that we were here to ask for their help in the rebellion against the Iron Circle, a look of worry crossed his face. He said that it was something that Eriyel should deal with, then lead us deeper into the forest. As we approached a clearing, two more elves came to our side and we walked up to a middle-aged woman, who I assumed to be Eriyel. She had green-gold hair and wore different clothes to the other elves - I could tell that she was the chief. 
We greeted her with Thofire introducing us, then I followed up by asking for her to lend her men to aid our fight against the Iron Circle. She seems unwilling, but she said she would agree to it if we did her a favour. A nearby eladrin village called Dal Nystiere, long since abandoned by my kind, had recently been overtaken by an evil presence. If we were to put an end to this impurity, she would send her men with us. Most of us seemed willing to agree, but Meredith was less happy. Eriyel tried explaining to Meredith that her camp could not afford to send any men, due to the many kobold and goblin attacks of late. Meredith then had her best idea yet - asking Eriyel to send the children of the camp to fight. The elf chieftain was understandably outraged, so I apologised on the behalf of my associates in Elven. Eriyel then pulled out a vial with some liquid in it, which I assume was going to be handed to me. However, Thofire (of course it would be Thofire) snatched it from her hand and backed away. The halfling tried to explain it away by saying that Ghazghkull would have smashed it, but I could tell Eriyel was not pleased. The liquid turned out to be dragon blood, which would be needed to activate a teleportation circle to the lair of the evil presence: a necromancer called Yisarn. We departed for Dal Nystiere immediately.
We reached the old eladrin village at midnight as we entered a clearing. A short distance away, we saw a stone circle with a hill in the middle. Atop the hill lay a bowl, which we assumed is where we must pour the dragon blood. Down a dirt path, a dilapidated cart covered in sheets rested in the road. As we were about to approach the stone circle, Orklan noticed a giant tree spider in a tree to our left. Luckily, it had not seen us. Meredith pulled out her crossbow and fired, but unfortunately the shot missed the spider by a great distance. As her bolt hit an entirely different tree, a spider suddenly fell out of it. I then ran up to the trees and unleashed my burning hands. My flames hit the spiders and ignited the trees, causing the arachnids to writhe in pain. Thofire then ran over and missed with an arrow. It was then that Orklan ran straight into the inferno and sliced the nearest tree spider with his sword (although this seems foolish, he was resistant to fire due to his armour). Ghazghkull ambled over to my side, seemingly choosing to guard me rather than rush into the flames. To my left, three goblins leaped out of the cart and charged at the party (it seems they had been asleep in there all along). They were quickly dispatched by Meredith, though. Meanwhile, Orklan had been bitten and poisoned by one of the spiders. From behind the cart, yet another tree spider came running towards us. Orklan, seeming to have recovered from the poison, charged at the two spiders in the blaze again. Unfortunately, he missed them both. To compensate, I fired lightning at two of them: the one by the cart and the one who had poisoned Orklan (I managed to hit and injure both). Luckily, one of the spiders I had just hit then succumbed to the flames of the fire. Unfortunately for us, this seemed to rouse an entirely different spider from beyond the stone circle. Spider 2 (this is what I'll call the one from behind the cart for now on to prevent confusion. Spider 1 is the one in the inferno and Spider 3 is the newest one) approached Ghazghkull and attempted to bite him, but failed to penetrate the paladin's armour. He retaliated by smashing that spider, which caused some kind of divine glow to drift over to Thofire. Meanwhile, Spider 1 bit Orklan and Thofire jumped over my head to flank Spider 2. To finish his job, Orklan charged through the fire once more and decapitated Spider 1. Meredith and I followed up, but both of us missed our attacks. Spider 3 then bit Thofire from behind, giving Spider 2 and it a chance to retreat. Meredith and I both attempted to shoot the retreating arachnids, but missed. Ghazghkull had more luck by charging Spider 2 and killing it with one swing. We then focused our fire on our final opponent. Thofire stabbed it with a rapier, Meredith shot it in the leg and I followed that up with a magic missile. Meanwhile, things had not gone so well for Orklan. He had been poisoned and then fell unconscious. Seeing this, Ghazghkull rushed (rather slowly, but that was due to his armour) to the dwarf's aid. The final spider jumped in the air (for no apparent reason) then bit Thofire as it landed. Thofire struck back with another stab from his rapier. As Meredith shot the spider again, this time in the eye, and knocked it over, Orklan came running towards the spider. He was not needed though, for I swiftly finished off the spider by firing a magic missile into the air then redirecting it into the top of its head.
As we approached the stone circle, Ghazghkull managed to discern that it was old (no, really). After observing the bowl in the centre of it, I noticed it was covered in some strange runes. Although I could not have studied them, I could sense that the area was emanating faintly with magic that was not at its full potential. We then gathered around the bowl and Thofire poured the dragon blood in. Immediately, we were transported from the forest to a wizard's laboratory. There were desks in each corner of the room, containing various alchemical ingredients. Atop a staircase to the north of the room was a red armchair made of bone, with a desk holding scrolls adjacent to it. However, we were not alone in the room: several goblins, and two bloodseeker drakes in cages, stood surprised at our entrance. We wasted no time capitalising on our accidental ambush. Orklan slid over a table almost as soon as we entered and stabbed one of the goblins, killing it instantly. Thofire then unsheathed his weapon and lunged at the leader, an emissary called Snilvor who carried a skull-tipped rod. Meredith then followed up Thofire's attack with a crossbow bolt, knocking Snilvor over. However, when I tried to hit two of the goblins with a freezing burst I missed. As Ghazghkull decapitated the one I missed, Orklan picks up a substance he thought was cocaine off of a table (I did not know that Orklan liked these harmful substances). However, it was then that a goblin, probably a young adult, ran past the two cages and unlocked them. Immediately, two bloodseeker drakes lumbered out. While one approached Orklan, the other started walking up to me. The drake by Orklan tried to bite him, but missed, and then Snilvor cast some kind of dominating spell on me (for some reason, I think he was aroused by this). For a while after, I could not control my actions at all. I was defenceless as the drake bit me, but luckily the two goblins that tried to attack me missed. To avenge me, Thofire attempted to stab the drake but missed. Meredith then slid up beside one of the goblins and killed it with her scimitar. Then, under the influence of Snilvor, I fired a freezing burst at my feet. This would have hit Meredith and Thofire as well as some of the goblins, but fortunately it missed. I then felt the emissary's control over me fade. However, it seemed my misfortune had passed on to Ghazghkull as he managed to get his axe lodged in the cracks between the floor tiles. Snilvor then raised his rod, seeming to heal his wounds by taking life from his recently-fallen allies, and then fired a phantasmal purple skull at Orklan. Luckily, it missed, but the drake that slashed Thofire did not. As a goblin attempted to hit Thofire with its mace, the halfling dodged and attempted to retaliate with his sword. Unfortunately, the blow glanced off the goblin's helmet.  Not wanting to be surrounded by drakes and goblins anymore, I teleported to the top of the stairs and fired lightning at Snilvor's rod, who was a few steps away. I hit, knocking it out of the emissary's hands and then followed it up with another bolt, but this time I missed. Then Ghazghkull, not wanting to pick up his axe, pulled a potted tree (I think it is called Esmerelda) from his armour and swung it at the nearest goblin. Amazingly, it killed the goblin instantly. But by then, Snilvor had picked his rod up. He healed himself again, then used it to gain control over Orklan. A drake attempted to use this opportunity to bite Orklan, but failed. The other drake had the same result with Meredith. As a goblin's blow glanced off Thofire's armour, my friend roared something in Giant at it. Terrified, it ran into one of the drake's cages and locked itself in. As Meredith's scimitar failed to penetrate a drake's scales, I attempted to take Snilvor's rod with mage hand. However, I was not able to. Ghazghkull then found a pouch of 700 silver, but meanwhile Orklan was charging at Thofire. Under Snilvor's control, the dwarf smashed Thofire, who then fell unconscious. Meredith then faced a similar fate as a drake seriously wounded her, as did Orklan (now free of Snilvor's control) when he was hit by the emissary's blast. As Meredith revived Thofire, I managed to grab Snilvor's rod while he was distracted and bring it back to me. I then shot him with a magic missile for good measure. Ghazghkull went over to help Meredith with Thofire, but at the same time Orklan charged at Snilvor, asking me for the rod at the same time. I threw it to him and, grabbing it with both hands, the dwarf did something bizarre. He shoved the rod and proceeded to ram it straight through Snilvor's clothes and up his rectum. The goblin's expression was a hilarious mix of pain and embarassment. The best bit was that, when he had managed to pull it out, the rod apparently malfunctioned. A drake then missed Orklan and then, while Meredith was injured by the other drake, Thofire managed to seriously wound it. Meredith then slid back and fired a bolt her opponent, which missed. I followed this up by using mage hand to take Snilvor's rod again (I didn't want to touch it personally for obvious sanitary reasons) but then suffered the fate of missing both Snilvor and a drake again with arc lightning. Orklan (who seems to be fond of shoving things where they shouldn't go) grabbed an unlit torch from his pocket and plunged it down the emissary's throat. The blow was so strong that it ripped a hole through Snilvor's stomach on its exit, killing him instantly. It seems that killing the goblin leader was not enough for our dwarf. who then spun around and decapitated the drake behind him. The final drake makes a desperate lunge at Ghazghkull, which hits, but is then promptly knocked down by Meredith's crossbow bolt. I fired a magic missile at it and then Orklan stabbed it through the chest, finishing off our problem.
Our party then rested for a while. While Thofire picked up some bones from a table, I went upstairs to inspect the scrolls on the table. I found them to be something on necromancy but, other than that, they were illegible. I kept them nonetheless. I then cleaned Snilvor's rod (using prestidigitation) and put it in my bag. While I was doing this, I could hear some incoherent, high-pitched screeching in the background. This was the captured goblin responding to Meredith's interrogation. I could understand one word (which was 'Yisarn') Before Ghazghkull roared and scared the runt unconscious. We then turned our attentions to the two doors (I couldn't find any hidden ones). Not wanting to split the party, we all gathered in front of one and entered the next room.
The ground was covered with runed tiles and on the far wall was a mural of eladrin soldiers in a forest. On the left side of the room was a dragon skeleton. A glimmerweb spider, two skeleton warriors and a robe-wearing skeleton I can only assume to be Yisarn also stood in the room. Thofire reacted immediately by running forward, then jumped back as the ground beneath him fell away into a pit. He instead shot the glimmerweb spider through the head, injuring it. I then teleported over the pit and used burning hands to injure all of our foes, but it did not weaken them as much as I desired. The two skeletons then closed in on me, both carrying longswords. As I dodged one, the other stabbed me hard. The spider, fortunately for me, decided to focus on the rest of the party by firing a glimmering web at them. The web seemed to both blind and restrain them, while also dazing them a little. Yisarn then followed the web up with some kind of lightning storm. I managed to block it with my arcane shield, but nobody else could avoid it. It killed the glimmerweb spider, but also knocked Orklan and Ghazghkull out. With our two sturdiest members down, the battle was starting to look grim. Meredith ran back to attempt to stabilise Orklan while Thofire, still blinded, decided to pull out Bubonic. He commanded Bubonic to jump at Yisarn in an attempt to harm to skeletal mage, but it ended terribly. The rat sailed past Yisarn's head and was quickly disintegrated by the skeleton's lightning claws. Thofire looked devastated, so to avenge his rat I fired my sleep spell at the enemies. When this failed, I used an acid-infused freezing burst to knock the two warriors back and also knock Yisarn down the pit. One of the skeletal warriors, attempting to prey on a distraught Thofire, tried to run at him but ended up falling down the pit too. Thankfully, it died. Our two remaining opponents then seemed to coordinate with each other, with Yisarn firing ice darts at Thofire and the warrior trying to slash me at almost the same time. While Yisarn missed Thofire, I was not to lucky. The skeleton slashed my forehead, leaving a horizontal scar. Enraged, I shattered it with a freezing burst to the chest. Thofire then shot down the pit, injuring Yisarn. Unfortunately, the skeleton then unleashed another lightning storm. I was thrown back and fell unconscious.
I awoke (once again) to Meredith healing me. After thanking Meredith and touching the scar on my head (which, hopefully, I can get healed someday) I inspected the room again. It appeared that Meredith had managed to kill Yisarn by shooting him with a crossbow bolt. The others were already up, so we gathered around the dragon for a short service for Bubonic. As Thofire spread the rat's ashes out, I gave a short sermon in the name of Sehanine and the Raven Queen (the two deities Thofire favours). He still seemed angry at Yisarn, but hopefully he would calm down eventually. Orklan found a set of plate armour of cleansing (which he gave to Ghazghkull), Meredith found (another) emerald and Thofire found 12 gold pieces in a pouch. I took the longsword that scarred me, then decided to rest here for a while.
Kill total: 8 Iron Circle guards, 1 rage drake, 2 tree spiders, 1 skeleton
==Entry IX (The Battle of Albridge)==
We stepped on the teleportation circle and were transported back to the stone circle, where the sun was just beginning to rise. We travelled back to the Woodsinger Camp and met Eriyel, who thanked us for cleansing the evil that dwelled in Dal Nystiere. She then promised us 50 elf archers to help fight Redthorn's army. We then set up camp for the night, but before long we were disturbed by beat of an oncoming horse's hooves. Emerging from our tents, we found a young halfling woman waiting for us. She worriedly informed us that she had been looking for us and that Nazin Redthorn was gathering his raiding parties. In two days, they would march on Albridge. The messenger rode off, but we still had the problem of getting to Albridge. By foot (and at Ghazghkull's painfully slow walking pace) it would take us almost 4 days to get there. Our first action was to inform Eriyel of our plight. In response, she mobilised the rangers and gave us some donkeys to ride. We set off straight away and only arrived the on the eve of the battle. Unfortunately, Meredith went missing while we rested one night. We would have searched for her, but we presumed she had been kidnapped by the Iron Circle. She was bound to turn up later. 
We found Dar Gremath just outside of a barn inside the village walls. As soon as he saw us, he beckoned us inside to meet with the rest of his rebellion's leaders. He thanked us for arriving, but then informed us that Redthorn's men were around as numerous as the rebellion's and were much better armed. Gremath then requested us to rally his men and make plans for the upcoming battle. He hoped that we could make up for in morale and tactics what we lacked in manpower. Immediately, I pulled out a map of Harkenwold and our party began planning. We considered burning the bridge in the middle of Albridge (wouldn't accomplish much; the bridge was built over a ford in the river), burning the southern half of the village (not preferable, Gremath wanted Albridge intact) and sending scouts to Dardun (it would be unlikely for the Iron Circle to bother going through there; the road near Marl was much more direct). Eventually, I came up with a plan to dig a trench all the way along the southern half of Albridge's perimeter, filling it with spikes and then covering them with Serosinian fire (looking back now, I would have used a pincer movement to counter the Iron Circle's charge). Our men could then retreat to behind the pit, making it nearly impossible for any of the Circle to get close to Albridge. Thofire then went on to pitch my plan to the rebellion leaders, who unanimously agreed on it. We go outside, where Ghazghkull instantaneously intimidated the closest men into working on the pit and making wooden spikes (using words! I had no idea that the paladin was capable/willing to do this). While Orklan gave a rousing speech to the soldiers of Albridge, I brewed enough Serosinian fire for the pit. As Thofire convinced the Woodsinger elves to split their force (half just inside the village, half by the front line) it became apparent to us that we would only just have finished preparations before the battle's beginning. Through more inspiring speeches from Orklan and Jedcit, with some 'aggressive motivation' from Ghazghkull added in, work pace drastically increased and all preparations were made in time. As dawn approached, Dar Gremath pointed out the building that would be used as our command post. If the front line was to be breached, we would be sent in to plug the gap.
Dawn arrived as we stood around a map in the command post. The day was clear, so we could see our men wielding pikes and swords a mile away. A mile further and one could see the Iron Circle's men, armoured in chainmail. An hour later, the Circle initiated a charge which was quickly followed by a countercharge from our men. As we heard the battle cries of soldiers and shouting of commanders, messengers constantly flowed into our command post to update us on the status of the battle. All the while, Dar Gremath expressed his fears of a breach in the line. 
After a while, we all heard a rustle in the bushes outside. We sent a sentry outside to inspect it, but he never returned. As Thofire and I approached the window closest to the noise, we noticed a tiefling spy trying to remain hidden in the bushes. Fortunately, he had not seen us. The party, bar me, attempted to sneak out of the building in an attempt to ambush the tiefling. However, he noticed us. A dark adept and another tiefling then emerged from the bushes, ambushing us. Both tieflings then threw hooks, one hitting Orklan and the other latching onto Ghazghkull. Both were sent sprawling through a bush of brambles, before being assaulted by the khopeshes of the tieflings. This left Orklan with a wounded head and Ghazghkull with a deep cut on his leg. The dark adept then made herself known by launching a fireball in an arc through the air, burning both with tendrils of flames as it landed. In response, Orklan and Ghazghkull struck back at the tieflings. I exited the house, then hit both tar devils with beguiling strands (a new spell I had discovered while researching Snilvor's scrolls). It was as if an occult hand had punched them, sending one recoiling through brambles and the other down a chasm. As the tar devils moved, our slayer and paladin once again hit the them. To Thofire's apparent joy, I had pushed one of the tar devils next to him. Thofire sprung back, then shot his opponent in the back using his shortbow. Unfortunately, this caused an Iron Circle cutthroat to jump out from behind a rock (the hiding skills of these cutthroats are truly amazing; the rock was little more than an oversized pebble in the middle of a field) and slash Thofire's face while another emerged from a bush (which was around the size of a shrub) and stabbed Ghazghkull. The cutthroats then proceeded to feint and stab my allies, with one stabbing Thofire's stomach and the other bouncing of Ghazghkull's armour. Unfortunately, it was then that a hook flew out from the chasm and latched onto our paladin's foot. The half-orc was then dragged into the chasm and stabbed by the tar devil. The other tar devil, enraged, missed me with a hook. The dark adept then walked forwards and fired a fireball at Jedcit and me, which we dodged. Jedcit whispered a quick prayer, healing Thofire, then charged the cutthroat, injuring him. Orklan then charged the dark adept and stabbed her straight through the chest. While Ghazghkull missed the tar devil in the chasm, I fired two beguiling strands. While the first had no effect, the second managed to penetrate the minds of the dark adept, a tar devil and a cutthroat. Jedcit and Thofire struck the cutthroat as it recoiled, while the dark adept is pushed onto some rocks. The tar devil, meanwhile, is thrown into the brambles again. Covered in many small cuts, it falls down dead. Thofire then killed the cutthroat with a stab to the neck. While the remaining cutthroat slid down the chasm to get to Ghazghkull, the dark adept walked up to Orklan and stabbed him with a dagger. The dwarf was sent flying into some brambles and fell unconscious (how in the Hells did she do that with a dagger?). Seconds later, Ghazghkull fell to the unconscious to the stab of the cutthroat in the chasm. While Jedcit stabilised Orklan, I blasted both the dark adept and the tar devil with lightning. As Thofire loosed an arrow straight through the dark adept's head, killing her, I dodged the tarry net of the tar devil that used to be preoccupied by Ghazghkull. However, the khopesh strike that it followed up with wounded me. Just then, Orklan came charging and stabbed the tar devil (Jedcit must have healed him). I then fired arc lightning at our two remaining foes, killing the tiefling. While Thofire and the cutthroat stabbed each other, Orklan charged forth and decapitated the Iron Circle soldier. Thofire found 60 gold on his corpse, which he gave to Jedcit, and, after being healed, Ghazghkull managed to find 13 gold.
The command post's door then swung open and Dar Gremath walked out, angrily asking what all the commotion was about. His question was asked when Orklan threw him the cutthroat's decapitated head. Obviously, Gremath was rather shocked at this. He then told us that we were being sent to the centre of the front line, but just as we were leaving a messenger arrived. A section in the line in the east had been broken and the men have scattered. Immediately, we start running there while the messenger goes to inform Eriyel's rangers.
Trees were burning everywhere when we arrived. Obviously, it was the illogical work of the Iron Circle men who stood in a line in front of us (why prevent sustenance in an area you want to claim?). Thofire reacted first by running forth and shooting an arrow at a soldier, killing him instantly. Orklan and Jedcit then moved to back him up as the Iron Circle's line split (one half approached Thofire while the other prepared to jump the chasm nearer Ghazghkull and I). Due to the fact a small chasm was before us, the only way for the Iron Circle's line to conventionally get to us was past the small natural bridge that Orklan and Jedcit stood on. Behind the enemy line, a drake reared up on a large rocky formation then fired a ball of acid from its maw, injuring Jedcit. As Thofire was hit by a mace, I moved closer to the second half of the force and fired a shock sphere (another spell I managed to learn from the scrolls). It arced across the chasm, then exploded as it hit one of the men in the chest. Of the six men in the second half, the only one who was not disintegrated was the force's commander. Ghazghkull then tried to charge the commander by jumping the chasm, but ended up falling into it. As Thofire stabbed a soldier to death, Orklan killed another by slicing his legs off then crushing the man's neck. We seemed to be doing well, but it was then that another line of soldiers marched on our position. The Iron Circle commander then jumped the chasm and hit me with his flail. However, the new line was conveniently within range of my 'burning hands' spell. I extended my palms and, although I lightly singed Orklan, I took every one of the nine men in the line. Ghazghkull then managed to climb out of the pit and cleaved into the commander with his axe, healing me with divine magic in the process. The commander then made a failed retaliation attempt while Thofire launched an arrow at the drake, puncturing its scales and a vital organ in the process. Seemingly inspired by this, Orklan climbed onto the rock with the drake but unfortunately missed a swing at it. However, as Jedcit used some divine magic to heal himself, a third group of Iron Circle soldiers had arrived from behind us. A group of three surrounded Jedcit and bludgeoned him and two hit Ghazghkull while a sixth soldier missed me. Angrily, the commander hit Ghazghkull again with his flail. I then carefully stepped back and fired beguiling strands at our enemies. The soldiers surround Jedcit and Ghazghkull were killed instantly while the commander is pushed into a burning tree. With no other adversaries present, Ghazghkull charged the commander, once again seriously wounding him and healing me. Meanwhile, Thofire dealt with one of the four soldiers surrounding him with an arrow in the knee and Jedcit healed Orklan slightly. The drake then retreated (worried after seeing its masters fall so swiftly, I presume) and completely missed Orklan with some acid. The commander then fails to penetrate Ghazghkull's armour while the two soldiers flanking Thofire miss him as well. Another soldier went after Jedcit, but was unable to stab through his armour. As I missed the drake and a soldier with arc lightning, I noticed the Woodsinger rangers a short distance away. This skirmish was all but won, but we kept fighting anyway. Ghazghkull sent the commander flying into the flames as he tried to retreat, killing him. At the same time, Orklan had sliced the spitting drake in two and Jedcit had managed to heal everyone with a sunburst. The elves then arrived on the battlefield, quickly dispatching of the remaining soldiers and also a quaternary force the Iron Circle had sent in to take advantage of the former gap in the line.
We could not rest for long though. A mile away, we saw Nazin Redthorn himself was advancing, troops scattering before him. Using repeated ghost sounds, I order the retreat to behind the spiked pit. While Jedcit and Thofire ran on one side to outflank Redthorn, Orklan, Ghazghkull and I ran on the other side in order to slow his advance. It quickly became apparent, however, that Jedcit and I would not get there at the same time as the others (I suppose it's my punishment for spending much of my life unlocking the means to unravel the universe and reshape it to my will rather than, say, jogging. It has a tendency to leave one rather unathletic). Since he arrived behind Redthorn, Thofire used his situation to be able surprise Redthorn with an arrow in the back. This seemed to enrage Nazin, since he then dismounted his horse and charged Thofire, seriously wounding him with his triple-headed flail. Ghazghkull and Orklan then stood side by side, blocking the makeshift bridge that crossed the firepit. This caused the two tar devils standing on the other side of the pit to throw tar bombs at them, injuring both. As Redthorn made a monologue about us 'foolish heroes' causing problems for him, Thofire stabbed him in the back. As this happened, two soldiers ran onto the bridge to try and take down Orklan and Ghazghkull. Unfortunately for them, Ghazghkull lashed out and killed one of the soldiers as soon as he was in range. Three more soldiers then ran onto the bridge, apparently thinking it would be a good idea to die too. They managed to wound the bridge's defenders, but only lightly. After taking a blow from a soldier's mace and another from Redthorn's triple-headed flail, Thofire then fell unconscious. The only immediate threat gone, Redthorn then advanced on the bridge. Ghazghkull and Orklan then attempted to throw one of the soldiers in front of them off the bridge, but only Ghazghkull succeeded. At last, I arrived on the field and fired both sleep and shock sphere. Unfortunately both had little effect on our foes. Jedcit then arrived too and was able to heal Thofire, who got up and shot Redthorn in the back again. Nazin, rather badly wounded, roared that we had defeated him this time and ordered his men to retreat to his castle. He then mounted his horse and rode off, trampling Jedcit and Thofire in the process. At this point, Ghazghkull and Orklan destroyed the bridge and sent three men to their deaths. After searching the bodies, Ghazghkull managed to recover a jade while Thofire looted an amethyst.
We returned to Dar Gremath, who informed us that we had won a decisive victory. As a reward, I was given a set of leather tactician's armour, Orklan was given a collar of recovery and Jedcit was handed a golden statue of Pelor. But the Iron Circle were not wholly defeated. Soon, we would have to assault the Iron Keep. Orklan decided that he wanted a new greataxe. We walked up to Cathrid's Smithing, which was run by a dwarf lady, who charged Orklan 37 gold for a newly-smithed one. I also bought some ball bearings, which I could use to trip enemies up. Also, Thofire bought a dagger, Ghazghkull bought an everburning torch and Jedcit bought some robes. We then rested in the Mallard Inn for the night, where Orklan passed out from a tankard of ale he drank too quickly.
Kill total: 2 tiefling tar devils, 20 Iron Circle guards
==Entry X (Assault on the Keep)==
When we woke, Meredith was worryingly still absent. We could only hope that she was alive somewhere. We were about to set off to rescue Baron Stockmer from his gaol, when Dar Gremath handed me a map of Harken. He also advised us to look out for Old Kellar, the dwarf architect who designed the Iron Keep (formerly Harken Castle) nearly a century ago. However, the Iron Circle would recognise us if we turned up as we were. To counteract this, I came up with a plan to find a set of Iron Cirlce armour for Ghazghkull, Jedcit and me. We were around the same size as humans, but Orklan and Thofire weren't so we tied them up as 'prisoners'. With minor magical alterations, I was a passable-looking human. I also made Thofire and Orklan look slightly roughed-up, so suspicion would not be raised. 
We entered Harken without trouble. It seemed like every other house had been ransacked, most likely for anti-Circle sentiments. Shouting and merriment could be heard at one of the inns, but not as loudly as one would expect (most likely due to Redthorn's oppressive regime). Before long, we arrived at Old Kellar's house. It was boarded up, with an Iron Circle soldier stationed outside. It was clear the Kellar was under house arrest. Jedcit, who acted as our 'squad captain' due to him being the most human, managed to trick the guard into letting him in to 'interrogate' the inmate. We entered, with the door being locked behind us. Kellar sat by a table, reading a book while eating some crumbs that were supposed to be a meal. Orklan spoke first, asking him what he was reading and offering him some ale. However, Kellar was rather unresponsive and politely declined the ale. Thofire then asked him how to get to the Baron, but the dwarf would not respond due to our disguise. It became clear that we would need to convince the architect that we were allies, so Jedcit convinced the soldier outside into entering the house. Thofire and I attempted to persuade the soldier that he had the symptoms of corpse fever (a supposedly airborne disease), but he would not listen. I was hoping that we would be able to use this to surprise him and take him down swiftly, but I ended up having to kick Thofire to difuse suspicion (Thofire, if you can read elven somehow, I'm sorry about that). Fortunately, Ghazghkull knocking the guard unconscious followed by Orklan stamping on his neck was effective enough. Kellar went white as a ghost, shocked at the execution he had just witnessed. He knew we were not from the Iron Circle then and showed us the plans of the keep. He told us that there were no sewer systems under the castle (how did that dark adept lie while under the influence of my spell? I'll have to work on the formula) and that the portcullis, the only conventional entrance, was guarded. However, a secret entrance could be found on the other side of the castle. There were two hidden doors in one of the towers which had to be opened from the inside. The only other ways in were through an arrow slit (we're not the size of a pixie) or over the walls (not a good idea, in my opinion). Kellar also told us that Redthorn's living quarters were in a newer section of the castle that he had not designed. There were two entrances to Redthorn's rooms - a door on the eastern wall and a drawbridge accessible from inside the grounds.We thanked the architect and as we started planning our entrance, he told us that the chapel in the centre of the grounds had possibly been defaced in the name of an evil god and that the slopes on the east and west of the keep's walls were too difficult to climb. As we departed, the dwarf wished us good luck. Thofire invited him to live in Greenhills, to which the dwarf said he would consider it. 
We hid in the forests to the north of the keep and made camp until night. The plan was for me to teleport through an arrow slit in the wall, then open the secret door. The sky was cloudy, with a waxing gibbous moon occasionally visible. Sentries and their torchlight were clearly visible patrolling the battlements - the fort was obviously well-defended. We crawled slowly up the slope on the north side of the keep until we reached a ditch filled with spikes. For me, the situation was simple - I easily teleported over. Thofire then somersaulted over, followed by Orklan being thrown by Ghazghkull. So far we had been able to cross the ditch silently, but Ghazghkull's jump ended with a loud thud. By chance, the sentries didn't notice. Finally, Jedcit attempted to jump the pit. However, he hit the sides, lost his balance and rolled down onto the spikes. Ghazghkull then threw a rope down and pulled the cleric up. This movement seemed to draw the patrolling soldiers attention, but Thofire was able to deflect their attention by imitating a bird. The wall of the keep was around 10 metres away at this point. By getting under it, we would not be visible to the sentries. This was an easy task for Thofire, who was able to turn invisible using his armour. The rest of us advanced slowly, but due to the heavy armour of some of my allies, moving silently was easier said than done. They kept patrolling normally, but repeatedly made quick glances in our direction. We would not arrive unseen like this, so I made the sound of clinking armour come from inside the castle while Thofire threw his voice so it sounded like a woman was calling from inside a tower. These managed to distract two soldiers each and we successfully made our way under the wall. However, the two guards that went to investigate the woman's voice called to double the watch - they knew trickery was afoot. Finally, we arrived by where the secret door was supposed to be. I teleported through the nearest arrow slit and landed under a table, injuring myself in the process. The room seemed to be the barracks, but fortunately it was devoid of soldiers. I unlocked the secret doors, but just then some soldiers were audible entering the barracks and coming down the stairs. Thofire quickly ran in and closed the secret door without the soldiers noticing. Although they could not find us, they kept searching. 
When they had left, the rest of the party filed into the room. Thofire, being the most stealthy, decided to sneak out and scout the area. For three minutes, the rest of us waited inside the barracks and listended for enemies approaching. For the first two minutes, nothing unusual happened. But in the third minute, the noise of an alarm bell ringing out was very clearly audible. Every soldier in the castle seemed to be on a path to the keep's eastern wall. The only explanation was that Thofire must have been detected. Somehow, a soldier must have found Thofire despite his invisibility. We slowly departed from the barracks when, almost immediately, a patrol of soldiers could be heard coming in our direction. Orklan jumped into a nearby well, while the rest of us hid in a tree. The patrol moved quickly past us, still none the wiser. Redthorn, infuriated, could be heard giving orders to the keep.. From here, it was clear that the drawbridge had not been lowered yet and, due to the mass of confused soldiers on the eastern battlement, Thofire must have evaded those who were searching for him. Suddenly, the drawbridge dropped. We jumped on to it and entered the tower. However, we had been detected and as such had no option other than to enter combat. 
When we entered, 4 ordinary Iron Circle soldiers and a dragonborn were in the room. One of the soldiers died almost as soon as the skirmish started when Orklan ran up to him and dropped him with a lethal slash to the chest. However, a dragonborn soldier and another human then exited from some rooms to the west of the room. The newer dragonborn soldier to the combat missed Orklan completely with a crossbow bolt, but burned him with a blast of icy fire from his maw. Somehow, Thofire was then injured by two soldiers hitting his invisible form while another two, fortunately, missed. Ghazghkull then charged a soldier and killed him, who died uttering curses in the name of Asmodeus. Thofire then appeared next to a dragonborn soldier, who he stabbed through the stomach. I then fired a shock sphere at one of the soldiers' chests, which exploded in a ball of lightning. Three soldiers were killed and the dragonborn soldier originally in the room was injured. I then teleported next to Ghazghkull. Uttering a short prayer to Pelor, an unlit torch of Jedcit's caught fire and he burned the drawbridge. He then charged towards Thofire (he was injured by a soldier as he ran) and fired a ball of holy light at him, strengthening the halfling. To the right of the room, the door to the eastern battlement opened and five more soldiers streamed into the room. One of the dragonborns, seemingly liking the tactic of using its breath, managed to injure all of us bar Orklan with the cold flames. However, this also killed two of his allies. Orklan and Jedcit were then wounded by attacking soldiers. I then attempted to fire off a freezing burst and beguiling strands, but both failed to cause any noticeable effect. While Jedcit healed Orklan and himself, Thofire ran to the dragonborn that he had not yet attacked and backstabbed him. Orklan then made a swing at a dragonborn, but failed to penetrate its armour. Many more soldiers then rushed from the battlements into the room, making communication difficult due to the noise. Ghazghkull, Orklan and I were then injured by the soldiers' slashing swords. The pyromaniac dragonborn (can one call a lover of cold fire a 'pyromaniac'?) then wounded the same people as last time with its fire. Stupidly, it killed 3 of its allied soldiers in the blast. I fired beguiling strands for the second time, this time managing to kill the final four human soldiers and wound the pyromaniac. As he recoiled away, Thofire and Ghazghkull took the opportunity to end the dragonborn's fire-loving life. Orklan then slashed at the last dragonborn, which was followed up by Thofire stabbing it to death. 
Orklan managed to find an amethyst on one of the corpses, while I found an amber. Thofire also found an  6 gold pieces. Orklan then noticed the stairs in the room, one of which lead down to Baron Stockmer's gaol and the other led up to Nazin Redthorn's private chambers. We decided to take Redthorn on first, then go down and rescue Stockmer. 
I had allowed Thofire to ride on my back up the stairs (to conserve space, I think) and we were the first up. Immediately, I could see this was a bad idea, because two fierce hobgoblin armed with morningstars stood down the corridor to our right. My attempt at sneaking in had failed, and they noticed us. They stared at us intently as Thofire loosed an arrow at one while jumping off my back, but unfortunately missed. One charged at me and swung its morningstar down, but I jumped back just in time. The other started approaching slowly. Orklan then charged up the stairs and stabbed one of the hobgoblins, but Ghazghkull was too slow to follow it up. Jedcit, though unfortunately stuck behind Ghazghkull, managed to strengthen us against our foes' attacks. A door on the right wall of the room then swung open and another hobgoblin charged in. The hobgoblin that tried to attack me earlier missed again, while the other one that was originally in the room managed to push Orklan into Ghazghkull and knock them down the stairs. To buy them some time, I fired off beguiling strands and pushed our opponents back. As they recoiled, Thofire and Orklan managed to wound them. Our dwarf and half-orc then formed a metaphorical wall in front of me. Jedcit then reached the top of the stairs and fired his crossbow, but missed. Thofire then moved closer to the enemies and hit one in the back with an arrow. At that point, a door on the left wall opened and Nazin Redthorn, followed by a dark adept, emerged into the corridor. Redthorn roared about how we had not yet defeated him, and ordered his soldiers to charge. His eyes then flashed red, setting the battlefield on fire and dazing us all. However, it seemed that this attack had also strengthened his hobgoblin allies. The dark adept laughed maniacally, then missed Thofire with a fireball. A hobgoblin then charged at Thofire, but missed his follow-up blow. Ghazghkull was then wounded by a hobgoblin, but it was then wounded in turn by a roaring Orklan. I fired my sleep spell into the midsts of the combat, hitting all bar one hobgoblin (but also managing to hit Jedcit). Jedcit then fired a crossbow bolt, missing its intended target, and shrugged off the effects of the spell. Thofire then failed to stab a hobgoblin through its armour. Redthorn then charged Thofire and struck him with his infamous triple-headed flail, knocking him unconscious. The dark adept then burned Orklan with a fireball while a hobgoblin managed to knock Jedcit out. The battle was beginning to look bad at this point - two of our five combatants were down. Fortunately, a hobgoblin and dark adept then fell unconscious due to my spell. I then fired an acid-infused arc lightning at Redthorn and a hobgoblin, missing both. I then shrugged off the dazing effect. Orklan lashed out at one of the two remaining hobgoblins, injuring it, while Ghazghkull failed to stabilise Thofire. Unfortunately, Ghazghkull was then knocked out by one of the hobgoblins. Redthorn then managed to wound Orklan with his flail. Retreat was becoming a serious option now - most of our allies were down, including our sturdiest member, and Orklan was wounded. I then cast charm of misplaced wrath, a spell I had almost forgotten about before now, to force one of the hobgoblin soldiers into attacking Redthorn. As I teleported down the stairs, I could hear Redthorn berating the 'traitor'. Orklan then attacked Redthorn twice, slashing him across the chest and stabbing him, making the Iron Circle commander roar in pain. Nazin then ushered to one of the hobgoblins, who started to drag Thofire to the dungeons. The other hobgoblin then wounded Orklan's leg. To give Orklan some breathing room, and also stop Thofire from being taken, I fired off beguiling strands and pushed our foes back. Orklan backed onto the stairs in front of me and quickly healed himself. As Redthorn moved up to Orklan, the hobgoblin started dragging Thofire while the other started to take Ghazghkull. The commander's eyes flashed red, and the room caught fire again. Unfortunately for him, the stairs did not. I then cast beguiling strands once again and healed Orklan. But it was then that Jedcit and Thofire stopped bleeding out - they were dead. It was impossible. Before this, we were immortal - nothing could kill us. There's nothing that drives the point home more than two of your friends, one of which you'd known for 17 years, dying right in front of you. Roaring with glee, Redthorn and the hobgoblin that was dragging Thofire rushed back to Orklan. Nazin hit Orklan in the chest with his flail. Orklan, roaring in pain and anger, then cut him deeply straight across his chest. I then healed Orklan slightly, hoping to prevent yet another death this evening. Redthorn, looking seriously wounded, then hit Orklan again and told the hobgoblin next to him to protect him as he retreated. As Nazin backed slowly away, Orklan mocked him about 'running home to his mammy'. He took the bait, and ran back at Orklan (and missing a blow in the process). I then penetrated his mind with beguiling strands, while Orklan sliced off part of his left hand and knee. Redthorn was now bleeding profusely and was visibly close to death. He missed Orklan again, most likely due to the severity of his wounds, and proclaimed that, if he was to die, he would die here in battle. I then shot him in the chest with an acidic magic missile. With a loud groan, Nazin Redthorn collapsed and was dead before he hit the ground. Orklan then approached the dead commander and cut him in half at the torso, then decapitated him.
The hobgoblins fled from the room, followed by every soldier in the camp fleeing the keep. We healed Ghazghkull, then decided to check the area for anything of value. In a chest we found a vengeful mace and an acidic rapier. Because none of us used these weapons, we put them on the corpses of our fallen comrades as a sign of respect. Ghazghkull managed to find a jade, while I found a set of letters between 'Commander Nazin Redthorn' and someone called Lord Vhennyk. They detailed Redthorn's conquest of Harkenwold, and the planned conquest of the Nentir Vale, up until the Battle of Albridge. Vhennyk had sent a response, calling the Iron Circle's loss 'unnacceptable'. These letters also stated that he could be contacted by sending dispatches to Mr Veren at Wrafton's Inn, Winterhaven. We would have to research on who he was later. We then headed to rescue Baron Stockmer.
Weapons of the fleeing guards were strewn across the floor of the dungeon. Only two of the cells were occupied. One contained Baron Stockmer, as we expected, and the other had Meredith in it. An Iron Circle patrol had managed to kidnap her while she had been split from the rest of us just outside the Harken Forest. Our archer was unharmed, but Stockmer could barely stand. Orklan supported the old manon his shoulder, and we departed from the keep. The Baron asked us to take him to the hospital, which he directed us to, while we told him what happened. In the streets, flags were flown and flowers were thrown through the air. The citizens of Harken, recognising our deeds, gave us small gifts while others nodded solemnly. We dropped Stockmer off at the hospital, which was a small wooden building staffed by one lady. He thanked us with 150 gold pieces, which we split between Orklan, Ghazghkull and I. He told us that the items we had procured were likely those of the Harkenwolders, but we could keep them. He then pointed out the temple which we could use in case we wanted a resurrection for our fallen.
We headed to the temple straight away, which we found to be rather busy. There were two large shrines dedicated to Pelor and Erathis, while a smaller one draped in a black cloak was dedicated to the Raven Queen. We headed to the two clerics of Pelor and, after inquiring about why we interrupted their service, led us into an antechamber in the back of the temple. They agreed to resurrect Thofire and Jedcit due to what we had done for Harkenwold. We put our friends on two stone altars and also handed over Jedcit's gold statue of Pelor, which was needed to be consumed in the lengthy process of resurrection. We were then told to return in the evening to see if the ritual had worked. We decided to rest until the ceremony had been completed.
As the sun set we entered through the temple's familiar doors and, knocking first, entered the antechamber. The two clerics of Pelor stood inside, saying nothing. Orklan asked them what had happened, and they confirmed my dreaded suspicions - hanging their heads, the clerics informed us that they had failed. The ritual could not be repeated. I cannot blame the clerics for their failure, for what becomes of the deceased souls is of the deities' choosing. Coupled with the fact that resurrection is also an almost unheard of feat in this age, the odds were heavily stacked against them. If anyone is to blame, it could be the Raven Queen. I can only hope that Thofire and Jedcit found their way to Arvandor and Hestavar respectively so that I may meet them once more. However, my thoughts of loss were interrupted by a dwarf cleric of Pelor approaching out of the corner of our eyes. He expressed his condolences and, going down on one knee, offered himself to adventure with us in Jedcit's stead. His name was Magni Bronzebeard, and we accepted his offer. The other clerics then turned to us and said that they had organised our fallen comrades' funeral, which would happen after tomorrow's celebrations. I informed them of Thofire's wish to be immortalised in crystal back at his home town, to which they informed me that something could be arranged. However, Greenhills was very far from here and the temple had not the power to transport us there. My ritual would also be useless, since I knew of no shrines to The Watcher in Greenhills and Wiwic.
Solemnly, we walked out of the temple to find Baron Stockmer. He had organised accomodation for us at the Silver Nail, formerly known as the Broken Gaol under Iron Circle control, free of charge. He also wanted us to visit him in the Harken Castle tomorrow morning. We thanked him and headed on our way to the inn. As we walked down a dark alley on the most direct route, we noticed nothing out of the ordinary until a drow stepped out in front of us, apparently bearing a message for Thofire Silvertouch. Meredith told him about my friend's unfortunate death and, when I told him who killed him, the drow became furious. Dark elves who fled from the Underdark are supposed to not be as racially prejudiced against their sibling races, but this one seemed to be angry at me just for being an eladrin. He then asked if I was Eraamion Firaal, to which I responded honestly. Unfortunately, the situation only worsened - I was being targeted by the same assassins as Thofire was (there are three left, I believe - Daud Attano, Hush and Nyyssa Ratko. I am unsure if Adewale recovered his career after the loss of his ship, and both 47 and David Jones are long dead. I only hope that no further assassins have been hired). It turned out to be Noraver's son, name so far unknown, who had hired the assassins. He was not in Draisia during the siege. Begrudgingly, the drow then offered his service as a 'protector' to us. He seemed to have known Thofire well, so we accepted. His name was Algrim Shadowstep. 
At the Silver Nail, the innkeeper, a large human man, welcomed us and offered us a large variety of food. We ate like kings, though some of us were not ready to be joyous after earlier's events. We then went to our beds and rested for the night. As I entered my trance, I decided to accept Thofire's idea of calling our adventuring company 'The Harken Eagles'. If the party wanted me as the leader, I would choose Orklan as my second-in-command.
Note: I do not trust Algrim - I am certain that he, like most drow, can read elven. I'll have to keep a close eye on this journal. If possible, I should learn a new language.
Kill total: 7 Iron Circle soldiers, 1 hobgoblin soldier, 1 dark adept, Redthorn
==Entry XI (Winter in Fallcrest)==
Our rest was comfortable and thankfully I had no troubles with our newest addition to the party. However, when we got downstairs the air had an odd chill to it. Quickly observing my surroundings, I noticed the source to be an open window (adventuring seems to be making me more paranoid). The innkeeper then emerged from a side room with breakfast and coffee, which was possibly even greater in size than the previous night's dinner. However, we could not eat for long - the Baron rushed in when we were halfway through and told us to hurry, for the celebrations were about to begin. We finished off our meal and walked up the zigzagging path to the castle. We entered through the gate and found the keep decorated with flags and citizens cheering for us. Baron Stockmer turned to us and thanked us for our deeds in the Barony and said that he would give us many a reward, but first would be our ceremony. He acknowledged that some of us were not involved, but since we were all members of the same party then he would knight us all nonetheless. At that moment, I was officially knighted Sir Eraamion Firaal, Defender of Harkenwold. Three of my allies also accepted the title. Magni was the first to decline, politely stating that he did not deserve it due to not helping in the Barony's liberation. Algrim was much less polite, rather uneloquently stating that he did not want the Baron's titles (I later found out that he was a formerly a prince in the Underdark. I would have thought that, even in drow culture, proper manners are taught to royalty). The Harkenwolders then celebrated their liberation, while my allies celebrated the lives of our late friends. In the afternoon, we followed the Baron into the castle to receive our rewards. Once again, Stockmer thanked us and we were informed that the gifts were from his personal treasury. He held out his arms and a set of summoned leather armour appeared, which he gave to Meredith. He then gave a set of plate armour and a quartz to Orklan, a silver necklace inlaid with an emerald to me, a pouch of 120 gold pieces to Algrim, a moonstone to Ghazghkull and a bloodstone to Magni. He then let us know it was time for the funeral.
We made our way to a small graveyard, where we found a 9-foot deep grave and a hastily-carved, but still well-done, headstone had been created for Jedcit. As Jedcit was lowered slowly into the hole, Magni gave him his last rites in the name of Erathis. As we left, it occured to me that I didn't even know where our former cleric came from. Baron Stockmer, who was also present during the funeral, said to us that the anniversary of this day would be dedicated to us. The morning would be a time of celebration, while the afternoon would be for mourning. We placed Thofire's body on a cart, where Magni blessed it to protect it from rot. We then left via the King's Road on our way to Fallcrest. The citizens of Harken cheered behind us, despite the unnaturally cold air and lightly drizzling rain. We were greeted in Albridge by a celebrating crowd, but nobody approached us except a small man and woman. They asked us if we were on our way to Fallcrest, and that they were former caravan guards who had quit for a better job. They wanted us to guard the boat of the Turnfin Halflings, an organisation from Fallcrest, as it travelled north and also said we would be well payed. They must have noticed my indecision while I was trying to check for deceptions (they seemed honest), because they reasserted that we would be payed well. Surprisingly, only Algrim and I agreed to help (though I suspect that the drow was only in it for the money). Meredith later stated that she 'may' help after finding out that the boat would go towards Thofire's hometown. We then continued on our journey.
As we headed through the Harken Forest, the air ever getting colder, the intensity of the rainfall increased. Meredith had realised that the weather was highly likely to be unnatural by this point. Nevertheless, we continued on through the heavy rain until nightfall, where we decided it was time to set up camp (where had the inns we stayed in on the way here gone?). Unfortunately, only Meredith, Orklan and I happened to own a tent. Meredith must have been used to camping, because she was able to set up her tent with little trouble. However, my tent was blown away halfway through and got stuck in a tree. Unfortunately, there was no convenient tree placement for Orklan. His was lost deep in the woods before the dwarf managed to retrieve it. While he trekked back, Meredith had managed to put up my tent. After Orklan was done, we then came to the awkward situation of sleeping arrangements. Meredith wanted some privacy in her tent, so Ghazghkull opted to sleep outside for the night. The two dwarves shared Orklan's tent, which left me with Algrim. Obviously, nobody had thought that leaving me with the racist drow (who possibly wished to murder me) was a terrible idea. He immediately flew into a rage about me being 'racially prejudiced' (the oaf conveniently forgot the moment last night when he became angered by my existence) and how he was a 'former prince in the Underdark' (do princes even carry any real political power in drow culture?). Furthermore, he stated that he was a member of the League of Whispers (this proved he's an assassin, as I highly doubt he was employed as a secretary) We argued through most of the night and eventually tranced without coming to any formal conclusion.
When we emerged from our tents, the ground around us (and our tents) was covered in snow. With a wave of my hand the snow in a small area around us evaporated. The donkeys (and Ghazghkull, to a far lesser extent) seemed to be weak from the cold though. Despite Meredith and Magni's best efforts, we would not be able to ride them for the rest of the journey. We slowly pushed our way through the snow and against the harsh winds. When we finally made it out, the snow suddenly stopped falling and the winds died down. We could see several columns of smoke in the distance that were in the general area of Fallcrest. We carried our journey on, but approximately halfway there the storm restarted in earnest. It was severely cold, but fortunately only Algrim seemed to be affected in any noticeable way. Two of the donkeys had also fallen unconscious and had to be loaded onto the cart, making progress even slower than it was before. The storm stopped once more shortly before we arrived, but started again as we walked through the gates. A crack of thunder resounded through the town as if on cue. The place looked abandoned, except for some people with tents huddling around a campfire. Algrim stealthily made his way over there (probably thinking they were a bandit tribe) and noticed that it was only some citizens of the town. The rest of us carried on walking and noticed a warehouse being filled with barrels and crates. Members of the town watch stood outside. Although one of the guards at first firmly told us to move along (rather odd, if you ask me. It made it look like an effort to sustain the town was a criminal activity), he seemed happy to share that the food was being stockpiled here and then rationed out to the people. We then headed to the Lord Warden's Longhouse, which also seemed to have been abandoned. We pushed in to see that the room was, as we suspected, devoid of all life. We tied up the donkeys and used a flint and steel to light a fire for them, then walked over to the camp.
By the time we arrived everyone seemed to be on the verge of a riot. The Lord Warden, dressed in fine fur clothing, stood in the middle of it all shouting that everybody in the Vale was suffering the same problem. The crowd, who had noticed our arrival, parted to form a path from us to the the Lord Warden. We told him of our success in Harkenwold, to which he responded that the town was in the process of rebuilding the Tower of Waiting (which is situated on an island in the middle of the river. It's in an ideal location to look out for attacks coming from upstream) for use as our reward. However, this sudden winter had halted the construction. A different finely-dressed man (who was later identified as Armos Kamroth) then shouted out that the Lord Warden's approach to the winter should be, in effect, every man for himself. The Lord Warden rebutted this, defending the poor who would not survive. However, this caused Armos, a tiefling merchant called Naerumar and the rest of the crowd to erupt into furious argument (that was admittedly very hard to keep track of). Algrim then roared for silence, and surprisingly the noise level dropped dramatically and most of the crowd turned to him. Although he didn't have much to say, it bought time for Meredith and I to look around quickly. The guards seemed nervous (almost as if expecting a riot); the Turnfin Halflings were backing out; the farmers were hostile to the merchants; the merchants were supporting Armos and the porters seemed to have made a silent alliance with some shifty looking humans and halflings. A cleric of Pelor then spoke up to break the silence by preaching his god, but was swiftly interrupted by a priest of Erathis trying to gain some extra followers. Just then, the greatest storm yet surged out of nowhere. As if they had rehearsed it, the porters and the merchant's minions drew their weapons and charged at the farmers, who pulled up pitchforks and other farming implements in defence. Algrim then repeated his angry roar, which caused the crazed crowd to stand down. In the following silence, we could hear a deep chanting between the storm's bouts of thunder. It was reminiscient of an old sea shanty, but as it grew louder it took on the tone of a war cry. Suddenly, in a flash of lightning, an ancient warship fell from the sky. The crowd scattered and fled as the warship crashed into the river. Fur-clad undead jumped out, roaring furiously and they pursued the retreating people of Fallcrest. We drew our weapons and leapt into battle.
It was apparent that some of the undead were stronger than others. While most were simple skeletons, some were zombies and others had slightly stronger armour than the others. Ghazghkull reacted first by rushing one of the armoured skeletons and striking it with a great cleave, shattering some bones. Meredith then ran between two of the fleeing civilians, shooting one of the zombies and sending it staggering back towards Ghazghkull. Orklan then entered the fray by charging a skeleton and reducing it to a pile of bones on the floor. As Magni slid in behind an armoured skeleton to flank it, most of the undead advanced in a wall in front of him and Ghazghkull. A silently-screaming zombie approached Orklan while Magni was repeatedly bludgeoned by skeletons. Unfortunately, it was then that two of the civilians that were caught by the undead and fell almost instantly to their blades. Meanwhile, the undead around Ghazghkull pulled out what looked like planks of wood filled with nails and tried to beat him down. Needless to say, their crude weapons failed to cause much harm. Algrim then sprinted forward and loosed a crossbow bolt from his hand crossbow, killing its skeletal target. He then jumped back and performed a spinning decapitation on a different skeleton nearby. While he was doing this, I had walked close to Meredith and fired a freezing burst at three of the zombie mob near Ghazghkull. Two of them were hit, one of those being killed. Using my knowledge (and experience from Malareth's lair), I remembered that zombies were weak to powerful attacks. However, they also had a chance to rise up even if they had previously 'died'. Meredith then fired a rapid volley of bolts at a group of three zombies, hitting each in the head and knocking them down. While a zombie shambled away from Orklan's attacks, Ghazghkull managed to split a different skeleton at the waist. Meanwhile, Magni battered a different skeleton down with his mace while healing Ghazghkull. However, it was then that one of the zombies that Meredith had previously downed rose from the ground to continue fighting (fortunately, the other two didn't). As two more civilians were killed by the undead, the crowed behind us shrieked in terror. One of the zombies then made the terrible decision of trying to get to Ghazghkull by climbing over a lit fire and moving straight past Orklan and Magni. They both hit the smouldering creature as it shambled past them. The four undead around Ghazghkull, angered at not being able to injure him earlier, then pulled out swords and attempted to slash at him. While two missed, the other two roared in happiness as they managed to wound him through the chinks in his armour. A zombie also managed to scrape Orklan. As Algrim killed a skeleton with a crossbow bolt to the ribcage, I unleashed beguiling strands on six of the undead. I injured four of them, two of which were knocked down by it. I then repositioned them into places that our party could flank them from. Ghazghkull then sliced through the skull of one of the armoured skeletons and then cut it again when Meredith shot it and pushed it back. Orklan's blade then bit into the zombie that had previously avoided while Magni released a ball of holy light, healing both Ghazghkull and himself. Meanwhile, the Lord Warden had taken cover behind a log pile at the front of the crowd and the two remaining civilians on the battlefield had escaped. While one of the zombies rose and charged Magni, lightly clawing the priest, the remaining skeletons failed to harm Ghazghkull. Algrim then stabbed one of the armoured skeletons in the back, making it writhe in pain, and I fired an acid-infused beguiling strands at the remaining undead. I then turned and launched a magic missile at a skeleton approaching the crowd of citizens, destroying it. Ghazghkull then finished off the two armoured skeletons while Algrim charged and killed the last zombie on the battlefield.
With the undead vanquished, the severely rattled crowd, led by the Lord Warden, tentatively approached us. They stopped suddenly as the longship's figurehead shook and requested in a booming voice for the ice sceptre to be returned to the Winter King or else the storm would become permanent. When Algrim said that we didn't have the ice sceptre, lightning struck the ship's mast and hit him in the face. A city guardsman then tried to express that the Winter King was naught but a myth, but an old human wizard (later identified to be Nimozaran the Green) confirmed immediately after that the Winter King did, in fact, exist at one point. Armos then accused us of bringing the winter to Fallcrest and attempted to order the crowd to lynch us. None followed his orders though, possibly due to seeing us kill the undead just moments earlier. Orklan then pinned the old miser to the ground and Algrim pointed his crossbow at the man's head. Thoroughly terrified, he was thrown back into the crowd. The Lord Warden then stood on a chair and proclaimed that somebody in the town had the ice sceptre and that if the thief did not give themself up, they would be executed. As he said this, we saw a half-elf man trying to sneak out of the crowd. We followed him, but he began fleeing as soon as there was nobody in his way. As he ran, a jewelled rod fell out of his pocket. As he scurried to retrieve it, I shot him in the leg with a magic missile to incapacitate him. Orklan and Ghazghkull then restrained him for interrogation. His name was Marko Lancet, a petty thief from Hadrakar. He had escaped his prison sentence in the mines and hid from the guards inside a cave high in the mountains. In it, he found the ice sceptre and brought it to Fallcrest with hopes of selling it. Algrim then handed the sceptre to me (I noticed that it had magical properties and would work as a powerful staff) and together we 'coerced' Marko into coming with us to the Cairn. I then presented the sceptre to the figurehead, which allowed us to board. But before I did so, I located Viclamin and asked him to come with us (he did) and sent a letter to Masamune informing him of Thofire's death. As we pulled on the boat's oars (the figurehead had informed us that we wouldn't go anywhere if we didn't row), the ship soared skywards into the clouds. Our faces grew numb from the cold and we lost all sense of direction.
Kill total: 2 skeletons, 2 zombies.
==Entry XII (Into the Cairn)==
For what felt like hours we rowed through the clouds. The ground was not at all visible and what was visible was monotonous. Until we saw some whirling funnel clouds up ahead, that is. I looked ahead but I could see no routes around it - we had no choice but to go through. We were all buffeted by the freezing, howling winds. These winds also caused the ship's lines to snap and the sails to flap madly. The figurehead ordered us to fix it, so Algrim climbed the mast and secured the sails while Ghazghkull tied the lines back up. After that we had a short period of plain sailing, but the cold was back before long. Only Meredith and Orklan were unaffected. The ship was then struck by a squall, sending Ghazghkull, Magni and I tumbling. Magni even flew off the edge of the boat and only just caught on to the side. Ghazghkull and Orklan were able to pull him back up, but the loss of 3 of the rowers caused the longship to start tipping into a plummet. The figurehead ordered them to row or die (obviously, they chose the first option) and the ship righted itself. It was not long, however, before we entered a hailstorm. I cast conjured an arcane shield above my head while Magni and Ghazghkull pulled up their physical ones and Orklan put the armchair he was formerly carrying for Thofire on his head. All of us who had cover from the hail were fine and so was Meredith, although the armchair was smashed to pieces, but Algrim was battered by the falling ice. Unfortunately, the figurehead was hit too and it started to babble madly in common, causing the ship to weave unpredictably. Orklan attempted to tinker with it, but to no avail. The draconic figurehead was fortunately able to repair itself, but not before wounding us all with its reckless flying. Unfortunately, we could then see another group of funnel clouds through the hail. Once again, we had no option but to go straight through them. We were buffeted again, but it was clear that Algrim was the most adversely affected party member. Once again, the lines snapped and the sails flapped loosely and the same two people took care of it. This time, however, Algrim secured the lines and Ghazghkull held the sails. Soon after, the ship dipped again and threw Magni off balance (he didn't go over the edge again though). Eventually we passed into a break in the clouds, but it was clear that this was the eye of the storm. The temperature dropped dramatically, seemingly freezing Algrim. As another hailstorm started, we could see a large cliff ahead of us. The hailstones caused the figurehead to malfunction at the worst time, as it forced us into a steep descent and we crashed into a blanket of snow. Fortunately, we were all unharmed. Although Marko fell off the edge, his brief drop was cushioned by the snow. As Orklan pulled him back on, the figurehead told us we had arrived.
We disembarked, but suddenly Lancet became delirious. He was dumbfounded as to how we got there so quickly (possibly the magic, flying longboat we were just rowing?) - it had taken him weeks to walk from the Cairn to Fallcrest. He managed to convince himself that he was dead and that his skull was trapped inside the pillar of ice outside the entrance to the Winter King's Cairn. Fortunately, a quick shake from Meredith managed to convince the thief that he was alive. We then noticed that not too far away there was a cave in the cliff. We approached it through the knee-high snow and saw a large stalagmite of ice at the entrance. It seemed to be what Marko had referred to earlier - there were thousands of skulls of a variety of races inside. Orklan lit a torch, and we followed him into the cave. Inside it was barely six metres deep and the floor was covered in ice. We set up a campfire and set up our tents on the flagstones (Marko wouldn't join the rest of us) so we could rest before turning our attention to the large, ice-encrusted stone doors behind us. As a deep fog descended on the cave, I conjured some fire and melted the ice away. Although we were tired, we pushed the door open and entered. 
Surprisingly, we were immediately greeted by the rather pleasant smell of rich food. A long table, lit with candles and holding the food, was perpendicular to us. Beyond it was another table with a human man, a servant woman, and two hunting dogs sat around it. Behind him were two doors, one on either side of the wall. Another door was off to our left as well as some beds to our right. The man invited us in, gesturing to the table, and told us to take a seat. As he told us that he was the Winter King, I noticed that he was slightly anxious. He told us that he wanted to know how the world had changed during his slumber. However, none of us answered that question. Instead, we asked if he had sent the ship. Although he looked slightly confused, he told us that he had while Ghazghkull, Algrim and Magni sat at the table (the rest of us stood by the doorway). He then asked us to return the ice sceptre to his servant, Zanna, but we didn't - instead, I was focusing on the magical veil I had detected in the room. I called him out on it, but the Winter King denied that such a thing was present. Zanna then began handing out wine to those seated at the table, although Ghazghkull was the only one who had any. When asked, he told Ghazghkull that the wine had been made in his finest lands that he ruled long ago. I kept pushing the Winter King about the illusions, but he continued to deny their existance. Algrim then did his signature roar and joined in asking about the illusions, but the man shrunk back into his chair and continued lying. I then remembered that I had to look for faults in the illusion in order to dispel it, so I quietly asked my allies to distract the Winter King for a while as I did so. They did their job perfectly, and a minute later I ripped the veil away. Zanna was a small, staff-wielding gnome; the hunting dogs were dire wolves; the table was made of rotting flesh and bone and the wine turned out to be blood. The Winter King looked the same, except he now wielded a greataxe. The man shouted in anger as we attacked.
I immediately told Viclamin to guard the entrance and to ensure that Marko would not flee. As the words 'do you think you are guests in my house?' appeared on the table, one of the dire wolves roared and failed to injure Ghazghkull. The paladin then slashed its leg in return, enveloping Algrim in a protective divine aura in the process. Orklan attempted to charge the wolf, but fell over while trying to jump onto the table. Meanwhile, Meredith had moved around the table shot Zanna in the foot, pinning her to the floor. Magni then gave a quick prayer to heal us all, but fell over in the same way Orklan had. While launching a freezing burst, I noticed that Zanna was nimble and had the ability to become invisible. The freezing burst wounded the Winter King. sending him sprawling into the brazier behind him, and one of the dire wolves. The Winter King then jumped onto the back of the dire wolf I had just hit and flailed madly while attempting to decapitate Ghazghkull. Zanna then raised her staff and fired a blinding white light at us all, disorientating and injuring us all bar Ghazghkull and Meredith. Algrim then ran forward and threw a vial of ungol dust at Zanna, but it hit the floor behind her. He followed it up with a quick shot from his crossbow which missed too. The dire wolf the Winter King was riding then bit Ghazghkull on the left arm, while the other failed to injure Magni as he rolled out of the way. Ghazghkull responded by swinging a furious holy smite at the Winter King, dazing and seriously wounding him. Orklan then made a swing at the unmounted dire wolf, but his blow was deflected of its back spikes. Magni stood up and hit the closest dire wolf lightly, then healed Ghazghkull. I then cast my charm of misplaced wrath on the Winter King and momentarily took control of his mind. He sent his mount through the brazier and then attempted to slash at Zanna, but missed. I then followed it up with a maze of mirrors, locking all bar the unmounted dire wolf in a temporary illusion. While the Winter King missed Ghazghkull with his axe, the gnome then cast a spell that caused her to injure and become invisible to everyone except Algrim and me. As Zanna dodged another crossbow bolt from Algrim, the two dire wolves once again failed to wound Ghazghkull. The paladin then hit back at the Winter King and once again wounded him. While Meredith fired a rapid spray of crossbow bolts, wounding only the Winter King, Orklan stabbed the unmounted dire wolf through the stomach. Magni then, once again, healed Ghazghkull with a whispered prayer while bludgeoning the closest dire wolf lightly. I then waved my hand and fired an acidic freezing burst,  yet again wounding all of my foes except Zanna. This caused the Winter King to roar with rage as he spun around on his seat while swinging his greataxe, hitting Ghazghkull on the head and sending him stumbling back. Zanna then teleported to behind Orklan, flanked by two illusory gnomes, and tried to beat Orklan with her staff. She failed miserably. Algrim then shouted in elven, saying that we should focus on the gnome (honestly, I didn't see the point. Zanna could likely speak elven since she was a gnome) while missing her with a running shot from his crossbow. The dire wolves, no longer directly threatened by Ghazghkull, moved in sync to attack Meredith. She managed to dodge one of the wolves, but the other bit her ravenously. Ghazghkull then charged at the Winter King, swinging his axe twice. One attack missed while the other hit, dealing a powerful strike of hope to the wolf. Orklan then charged at the unmounted one and, although he was wounded by Zanna as he ran past her, jumped and decapitated the dire wolf with one fell swing of his weapon. Meredith then shot the Winter King in the chest while Magni healed Ghazghkull as he ran next to Orklan. The cleric of Pelor then used a magical effect to safeguard Orklan from harm while missing a mace swing at Zanna. I then walked over to Meredith and fired beguiling strands, wounding Zanna and the remaining dire wolf. As the Winter King missed Ghazghkull again, Marko ran into the centre of the room. He shouted out that the man riding the dire wolf wasn't the Winter King, then started backing up towards the eastern side of the room. As he did that Zanna used her invisibility power again, affecting Meredith, Orklan, and Ghazghkull. Unfortunately, this knocked the dwarf out. Empowered by the enchantment on his mace, Magni then charged at Zanna and hit her hard in the face with his mace. Meredith was then bitten by the dire wolf again, but the injury was healed by Ghazghkull when he sliced at the wolf's leg. As Meredith failed to stab the dire wolf with her scimitar, Magni stabilised Orklan. I then killed the false Winter King's mount with beguiling strands, causing him to topple off it and land on his back. He then stood up and sent Meredith flying with an uppercut from his greataxe, knocking her unconscious. Sensing her allies were losing the fight, Zanna then teleported away and fled down a corridor. Marko then scrabbled underneath one of the beds in the room as Algrim stabbed the false Winter King hard in the back. Ghazghkull and Magni then both missed a charging strike. I fired a magic missile at the last remaining enemy, hitting his stomach, just before Algrim hit the man's temple with the flat of his blade. The false Winter King then fell to the ground, unconscious. 
We all healed each other, then inspected the chests at the foot of the four beds. Unfortunately, they were all empty. Marko, seeing the threats had been neutralised, crawled out from under the bed and flopped on top of it. He was asleep almost instantly. I quickly inspected the room for threats as the rest of the party decided it was time to rest. Orklan got into the bed in the northeastern corner of the room and slept while Magni pulled a chair up next to him while taking a pack of cards from the smaller table. Ghazghkull then pushed the door in the western corner of the room open and found it empty except for the rags littering the floor and the nigh-overpowering stench of dog. He then tried to push the leftmost door on the northern wall open, but failed, while Algrim looked down the corridor Zanna had fled down. Magni carried Marko into the dog room and slept in there with him while Meredith, Ghazghkull and Viclamin fell asleep in the unoccupied beds. Algrim then decided to keep watch while I tranced on the chair next to the smaller table. It would have been uncomfortable if not for the ice sceptre to keep me warm. When I finished my reverie and started my watch, I made sure to lend the drow the sceptre.
Around 8 hours after we started resting, everybody had awoken. Unfortunately, those who had slept in the beds had suffered terrible nightmares involving being trapped in the ice pillar (caused by the beds, of course. I must remember to collect one of them on my way out). However, the false Winter King was also conscious and was trying to escape. Algrim shouted at him and asked where the real Winter King was, but he had no idea. I then asked for the man's name, to which he responded that he was Torbek. It was not difficult to see through the lie. Ghazghkull could too, and so moved his face right up to the ear of 'Torbek' and shouted my question again. Shaken, the man responded that he was Bortek (this time it was the truth). When questioned about the locked door, he let us know that he had no key and did not know where one was. While we continued to question Bortek, Meredith had asked Marko about how he got the Winter King. He could not remember, although he knew it was not through a locked door. Magni then asked where the gnome had gone, but he didn't answer. Instead, he slipped free of his bonds and ran for the corridor. Fortunately, he didn't count on Orklan grabbing and flipping upside down. I then asked him to tell us the truth about who Zanna was, but he kept to the same story he always had - she was his servant. After Algrim poorly delivered a threat, Magni hit the defenceless man in the groin. He groaned and fell unconscious. I kept watch over him in case he came around while the others attempted to pick the locked door (and accidentally breaking it in the process), but he never did. It was obvious from the growing pool of blood that Magni had killed Bortek. As a punishment, Algrim used shadow magic to conjure an illusion of a giant spider (one of Magni's fears, apparently) and used it to chase him down the corridor. Seconds after the cleric fled into the dark, we heard muffled cries of pain and boots pounding on the flagstones. We knew he had been ambushed and charged into the fray.
We could make out the figures of three human men attacking Magni as we readied our weapons. Two stabbed him with halberds while another, unable to fit between the two men in front of him, shot our cleric with his crossbow. A further four soldiers, this time tieflings, then jumped from the shadows. Two of them drew daggers and threw them at Magni, severely wounding him, while a gnome jumped out from behind our cleric and stabbed him in the back. In less than a quarter of a minute, the dwarf had gone from uninjured to unconscious and bleeding out. In vengeance, Ghazghkull charged at the gnome but missed his attack. Meredith too then ran into the corridor and fired a bolt at a human soldier, who dodged out of the way. I then walked behind Algrim, who was already in the corridor, and launched a shock sphere into the ranks of the tieflings. It killed them all, injuring the humans in the process, and caused the survivors to try to figure out where the ball of lightning had come from. The soldiers then surrounded Ghazghkull and two attacked, hitting him once on the head and the other knocking him to the ground. Algrim then quickly fired a hand crossbow bolt, which was evaded by the man closest to the rest of us, and moved into the middle of the battle. As Ghazghkull attempted to stand up he was stabbed in the chest by the gnome, knocking the half-orc unconscious. As Meredith lightly wounded a guard, I cast beguiling strands and knocked the soldiers back (allowing Algrim to stab one as he retreated). The gnome then charged at Meredith and, although he was slashed by Algrim, managed to stab our hunter in the stomach. Two of the humans then lashed out at Algrim, knocking him to the ground. Although disadvantaged, from the floor Algrim was able to slice the gnome's legs off and kill him. Orklan then charged past me and killed the closest soldier with a blow to the torso. Seeing that Magni was close to death, Meredith managed to somersault over the two soldiers ahead of her (one of which injuring her) and stabilised the cleric of Pelor. I then cast beguiling strands again, which had the same effect of wounding both of the soldiers. They fought back though, one of which knocked Algrim unconcious and the other stabbed Meredith. As Orklan missed two strikes at one of the remaining soldiers, Meredith stabilised Ghazghkull and failed to wound the same soldier with a scimitar slash. For the final time, I cast beguiling strands, injuring one soldier, and then killed the other with a magic missile. The last guard was decapitated by Orklan.
As I healed Algrim back to full health (I may have gained his trust from this action), the others seemed to have been cured of the nightmares that had plagued them. We then rested for a while, in which time Magni had wandered into the dog room and back out again for no particular reason. However, he was negatively affected by the coldness of entrance room and seemed weakened when he returned.
Kill total: 1 dire wolf, 4 tiefling soldiers, 1 human soldier
==Entry XIII (Through the Corridors)==
The smell of blood mixed with slush had filled the corridors. I then approached Marko and persuaded him to fight with us in exchange for his freedom from the authorities that wanted him. After all, I could see that he was not a bad person and that his punishment had been unnecessarily harsh. He seemed to be scared of the suggestion, and worriedly stated that the guards were frozen when he last came here. I handed him the longsword I had received from Yisarn's lair, and then talked to him about having a more active role in combat. He agreed to help us, then said that the he used the first door on the left to get into the throne room. But instead of going taking the direct route, we decided to explore a little. The first door on the right of the corridor was locked by a large, iron padlock that was chained around the handles. Magni tried to push the door open, to no avail, and then tried to smash the padlock, also to no avail. Ghazghkull, seemingly also interested in what was through the door, grabbed a segment of the chain, ripped it in two, and threw it down the corridor into a pool of blood. Inside was a small room, with an unlocked wooden door at the end. Four empty alcoves were spread along the two side walls, and the ice that coated every surface of the Cairn was thinner in there. I then cast light in the room and entered with Ghazghkull, and found that the floor was, strangely, the rough floor you'd find in a cavern rather than flagstones. Turning to look at the iron door behind me, I found that the words "do not open on pain of death by the Winter King' had been written. Marko, seeing me as someone he could trust, stood just behind me as I used mage hand to push the wooden door open.
Meanwhile, Orklan, Meredith, and Algrim had been investigating the next room on the right. They found a small room with a table covered with paper, pens, and spilled ink in the centre. Three potions in glass vials, the liquid inside frozen, were also present. Algrim inspected them and found them to be three potions of healing. He handed one to Orklan, who was trying to read the papers (unfortunately, they were too damp to read), and kept the other two to himself. At the same time I was admiring a teleportation circle, which glowed softly and took up the entire room, when three terrible black creatures of shadow (that I soon realised to be wraiths) materialised out of nowhere and rushed to attack.
Ghazghkull reacted first, and responded to the threat by activating his protective holy aura and smiting the closest wraith to him. This sent it reeling back in pain, a large portion of its body destroyed by the paladin's divine power. All the while, they babbled in unintelligible broken common. Ghazghkull then lashed out at a wraith as it hovered towards me, but he seemed to be affected by some kind of aura of madness that these undead abominations possessed. The wraith also somehow possessed him and forced him into trying to attack me. Fortunately for me, I dodged out of the way of his axe. As Magni failed to harm a wraith with a crossbow bolt, I heard Algrim and Meredith (Orklan was absent from this battle for some unknown reason) running down the corridor to help us. I then cast beguiling strands and entered the minds of two of the wraiths, compelling them to retreat back into the room. Their minds were a terrible mass of barely-retained memories and incoherent screaming, and the pure madness of it all caused Magni and me to be knocked back. Surprising all of us, Marko was true to his word and charged straight at the nearest wraith. He tried to slash it with his short sword, but failed to hit the swirling mass of shadows. Algrim then entered the room, running straight past me and loosing a crossbow bolt at a wraith. This ripped the shadows from its body mass, causing it to shrink in size. Ghazghkull then lumbered to the wraith that attacked him and smote it with radiant light. The wraiths then converged around him, the first plunging a shadowy appendage straight through the paladin's chest while the others sent him flying using their shadow magic. He smashed into the far wall of the corridor and fell, unconscious, to the ground, but not before knocking me over. Fortunately, Magni was able to stabilise his wounds. I then teleported in front of everyone else (since I had honed my mind through several years of training to become a mage, I believed that I could resist the psychological effect of the wraiths best), pushed two of the three wraiths back with a single casting of beguiling strands, and fired shock sphere at them while they were still recovering. As Marko missed the wraith again, I realised that they were resistant to conventional methods of attacking unless wounded with some kind of divine power. Algrim then prayed to the Raven Queen to bless his sword, and brought it down upon a wraith's head. This caused it to dissipate into air, and killed it. Meredith then entered the room and fired a volley of bolts, wounding one wraith by hitting it between its red 'eyes'. The wraiths rushed forward after the shots, both placing their hands on my head, and knocked me to the ground (as well as launching me a few metres back) with their maddening touch. At that point, Magni managed to heal Ghazghkull, and then the priest rushed forward to smite the shadows (he must have had some kind of anti-undead prayer, which would have been useful back in Fallcrest). However, he fumbled the incantation's words and failed to hit the wraiths. I then stood up and, casting beguiling strands, made both creatures recoil to the back of the room. Marko then charged forward and, surprisingly, managed to land a hit on one of them. Algrim then pulled out a vial of ungol dust and tried to throw it at the wraiths, which dodged it, and then shot one between in the head with a quick shot from his hand crossbow. This had the strange effect of giving it some kind of necrotising injury, so I can only assume that the crossbow possesses magic properties. While Meredith launched another salvo of bolts, both missing, Ghazghkull managed to stand up and lumber up to the wraiths. The wraiths then attacked Marko and Algrim, the latter forced back by shadow magic, while Magni once again failed to smite the undead. I then temporarily took control of one of the wraiths' mind and attempted to compel it to attack its ally, but it failed to land its attack. Algrim, after attempting to bless his crossbow, shot the wraith I had just controlled and seemed to seriously wound it. Meredith subsequently tried to attack the same wraith, but her crossbow misfired and the bolt landed on her foot. While Ghazghkull failed to harm a wraith with his axe, the undead creatures then lashed out at Magni. In response, Magni yet again failed to smite the undead but made up for it by healing Ghazghkull with his god's light (why does he only ever heal Ghazghkull?). I then inflicted pain unto the wraiths with beguiling strands, and Marko followed it up by wounding the wraith he had stabbed earlier. Algrim then sliced into the wraith closest to him, and Meredith finished it off by making it fizzle into nothing with a bolt. The final wraith, seemingly discouraged by its allies' 'deaths', flew back through the wall behind it and disappeared.
While recovering from the rather disturbing encounter we had just experienced, I used prestidigitation to thaw the potions of healings and, in exchange, Algrim gave me one of his. Magni had also found out that the teleportation circle only worked as a destination and, despite my efforts, I could not make it work both ways. Strangely, it was also fully functional. We then left the room and continued down the corridor, finding yet another door on our right. However, behind this one we could hear a woman softly crying out for help. Orklan tried to smash the door down to get to her, but it didn't budge. Algrim then used a lockpick to open the lock (which I helped him with by heating) and we entered. Inside we found a dank prison, with several corpses caged up around the room. To our left were two women in the same cage. One of them was lying on the floor wearing torn fine clothes and seemingly near death while the other was a servant girl. However, certain members of the party seemed to be more interested in the owlbear on the other side of the room. The woman on the floor thanked Sehanine that we came, and Ghazghkull, Orklan, and I went to let her out (Algrim, Magni, and Meredith headed straight to the owlbear). Orklan broke the cage open with the hilt of his axe, and the woman told us that she was the Winter Queen, wife of the Winter King. Apparently, if we gave her the ice sceptre she could use it to persuade her husband to cease the endless winter. The cage door opened then, and the Winter Queen slumped into Orklan's arms. She then managed to stand up, and informed us that there was a secret entrance to the throne room of the Winter King, and yet again asked for the ice sceptre. I, for my own reasons, did not wish to hand over the ice sceptre and offered to guard it myself. After all, the inhabitants of this place may well be hostile to her. Orklan then questioned her why she was locked up, and she said that it was because she tried to stop the Winter King starting the endless winter. She had apparently been locked in the cage for several months, and as a result she and the servant girl could remember little of what came before she was imprisoned. To calm her down, Orklan then tried to give her a bottle of ale. However, she threw it away seconds after taking it and refused to drink any. Once again, she begged me to hand over the ice sceptre. I was still apprehensive, and managed to persuade her with Algrim that she would be in danger if she took it alone. We eventually agreed that we would take her to just outside the throne room, and then she would negotiate with the Winter King alone. Although we were set to leave then, the others (everyone bar Ghazghkull, the Winter Queen, and I) wished to tame the owlbear. Although the Winter Queen warned against it, Meredith still threw the beast some of her rations. It ate them, and squawked affectionately. While Algrim turned invisible and opened the cage door, I found out that the Winter Queen's name was Asrinda. Unfortunately, the owlbear charged at Orklan as soon as it left the cage with what looked like the intention to eat him. The owlbear then fell asleep however, as Orklan had managed to quickly throw it some of his rations. As I entered the owlbear's mind to determine whether it could be tamed (it couldn't), Asrinda pushed Ghazghkull out of the way and rushed into the corridor. We all then walked out into the corridor, except for Algrim, however, who killed the owlbear with a quick stab to the back of the head. 
Immediately, Asrinda ran down the corridor and opened the first door on her left. Down it was another corridor with two doors, one on the left wall and one at the opposite end. She and the servant girl raced down it, with us close behind, and flung open the end door. Inside was a large room with two wooden tables in the centre. Scenes of dwarves revelling and dining adorned the walls. To our left was a door (which I assumed led to the door the others couldn't open in the first room) and to our right was a staircase going down. However, Asrinda then realised that she had gone the wrong way, and walked sullenly back down the corridor. She turned left at the end and approached some stairs heading to a lower level. We headed down (ignoring the large iron doors behind us that led to a different room) and entered into a hallway which branched off into a T-shape. On both sides of us were closed doors, but we progressed to the large wooden ones directly in front of us. Asrinda then told us that the Winter King's throne room was behind them, and told us all (including her maid) not to come with her. The servant girl, who was previously standing next to her Queen, then walked back and hid behind Orklan. As I could not see any lies, I then passed her the ice sceptre. Asrinda then walked through the door into a small chamber with another one at the other end, and closed it behind her.
After a minute, Marko, Ghazghkull, and I walked into through the first door Asrinda had closed behind her. I could hear nothing from the throne room, but I decided not to step into it. Meanwhile, Meredith and Algrim walked back down the hallway and looked debated whether to investigate what was in the rooms. Orklan and Magni instead walked into a room that seemed to be a kitchen. Inside the found a hearth, several wooden tables, cupboards, and a refuse pit off to the right of the room. However, a human man in black robes and three dwarves, two men and a woman, were also there searching for food. One of the dwarves then noticed the visitors, and asked who they were and if they had come to search for food too. However, Magni was answerless and Orklan was, by this point, too busy trying to hit on the female dwarf (she rejected his advances). While the human recounted about how he was encased in ice and thawed out in a room with a dragon, Magni then spoke up and told the others how to escape the cairn. It was then that the man realised that the two dwarves who had just walked into the kitchen had not once been frozen, and became nervous and slightly hostile towards them. He then told them to leave, and his dwarf allies started reaching for their weapons. However, Orklan happened to own some rations, which he held above his head. This only caused the dwarves to become more hostile, actually drawing their axes. However, Orklan and Magni seemed to think this would be a good time to antagonise them further by dangling rations over the refuse pit. Unfortunately, my allies did not account for a monster living in the bottom of the pit, which Orklan noticed at the last minute as it tried to grab him with its tentacles. Magni was not so lucky, and he was dragged down into the darkness. Trying for some diplomacy now, Orklan offered his rations and some ale to the others in the room in exchange for them helping him rescue Magni. The female dwarf approached him threateningly and took the food, and it was then that the rest of the party heard Magni shouting for help. Drawing our weapons, we rushed to the kitchen.
Orklan's first action was to run to the edge of the pit and throw a rope down, which he then secured to floor at his feet. Algrim then ran in and arrived next to Orklan, but it was at that moment that the dwarves decided to attack. Two of the dwarves tried to shove Algrim and Orklan into the pit, with only the former falling, and the third's axe swing bounced off the latter's armour. I then entered the room and opened with beguiling strands, knocking two of the dwarves into the pit (one on top of the other) and sending the one that failed to injure Orklan careening into the human, causing both to fall over. Ghazghkull then entered and swung his axe at the human, but he rolled out of the way at the last moment. He then stood up and slammed his staff into the ground, causing earth to fly towards us. The barrage of small stones caused every member of the party in the room to stumble back, and also caused Orklan to fall into the pit. Meredith entered as soon as the barrage ended, telling the servant girl to escape, and missed a crossbow bolt fired at the human (who I identified as a transmuter mage shortly after his initial spell). Marko then entered after Meredith and, running up to the transmuter, attempted to use some charm magic on him. However, his attempt failed. The beast in the pit, which had Magni trapped in its tentacles, then bit a large chunk out of him and threw the cleric to the ground, unconscious. Orklan then struck the monster hard, but the blow failed to penetrate its thick hide. He then tried again, but received the same result. Algrim then stepped over Magni's body, stabbing the creature with his longsword and critically wounded it. The two dwarves in the pit then tried to climb the rope out, with the first falling off and the second reaching the top but failing to push me from my position at the top of it. The other dwarf then tried to attack Marko, but he failed to penetrate the half-elf's armour. I then cast shock sphere, wounding all of my opponents that weren't in the refuse pit. Ghazghkull then charged at the human and swung his axe at him, but the transmuter dodged out of the way. In response, he then hexed our paladin and, in a strange turn of events, turned him into a chicken. Somehow, As Meredith somehow managed to shoot herself with a crossbow bolt, Marko failed to charm the dwarf warrior next to him. The tentacled beast then lashed out at Algrim, injuring and pulling him off the ground. In an attempt to rescue the drow from the same fate that befell Magni, Orklan then tried to cut off the monster's tentacle, but missed and ended up buring his axeblade in its head. Algrim then tried the same thing and succeeded, slicing it clean off and landing on top of Magni, and drank his potion of healing. While one of the dwarves in the refuse pit managed to climb out, the other walked up to Algrim and knocked him out. The other dwarf then wounded chicken Ghazghkull. Seeing that Ghazghkull was vulnerable in this state, I cast beguiling strands, wounding two dwarves and the monster, then grabbed the paladin and carried him into another room, and gave him my healing potion. Unfortunately, my effort was wasted as the transmuter managed to knock Ghazghkull out with the earth barrage spell, and injure Meredith. Fortunately, I managed to block it with my shield spell. The human then cast another spell, and both him and Marko vanished for a second and reappeared where the other was previously. Meredith and Marko then attacked the dwarf together, with the former's bolt flying over the dwarf's soldier and the latter succeeding in stabbing him in the stomach. The beast in the pit, with no other conscious targets to attack, then grabbed Orklan, lifted him into the air, and wounded him so much that he nearly lost consciousness. However, this meant that nobody was able to prevent Magni from bleeding out from his wounds and dying. This was the third death of a party member in a week and, although I am loathe to say it, it didn't hit me nearly as hard as the loss of Jedcit and Thofire. I suppose it must have been because I barely knew Magni or anything about him. Enraged at the loss of an ally, Orklan then sliced off the monster's other tentacle and fell into its mouth. He was then able to drink his potion of healing. The dwarves then moved to attack Marko and I. Although Marko was injured by one of the attacks, we dodged the other two. However, this also brought about the best time for me to use sleep. I managed to enter the minds of the two male dwarves and the transmuter, but I was unable to affect the female dwarf (as I was doing this, I also recognised the monster as an otyugh). The transmuter, seemingly displeased by being attacked, charged at me and tried to hit me with his staff. However, he fell asleep immediately after the blow connected. Meredith then stabilised Ghazghkull (who had reverted to his ordinary form) and shot the male dwarf next to Marko. Marko then followed Meredith's attack up by stabbing the warrior in the chest and, to everyone's surprise, killing him. The otyugh then stumbled forward as Orklan stabbed it through the stomach, then slit it open and jumped out, covered in slime. Meanwhile, the other male dwarf warrior charged at me but fell down, asleep, before he could harm me. I then cast beguiling strands, sending the dwarf woman recoiling into the flames of the hearth. Meredith then ran into the refuse pit and stabilised Algrim while Marko stabbed the final dwarf woman. Suddenly, the otyugh exploded open as Orklan stabbed it again, spraying everyone in the pit with stomach acid. However, the victory in the refuse pit was short lived as the dwarf woman, as a last-ditch attempt to take down anyone she could with her, decapitated Marko, sending his head flying into the refuse pit, and knocked me unconscious with a blow from her axe. She fell backwards and died, her body burning.  
Kill total: 1 human transmuter, 2 dwarf warriors
== Entry XIV (The Winter King) ==
While we rested, I recovered Marko's head from the refuse pit using mage hand and cleaned it with prestidigitation. It also turned out that Orklan and Algrim had contracted lesser otyugh filth fever, but they recovered quickly enough. Algrim also took Marko's short sword (for defence reasons, I believe) and sheathed it. However, none of us were able to retrieve Magni's body due to the high risk of catching a disease and also its heaviness.
We then headed back down the corridor and stood outside the room that was on our left as we descended down the stairs. Turning invisible, Algrim then stealthily entered the room, opening the door slightly then slipping in and closing it behind him. I entered a few seconds after him (closing the door behind me), but did not try for stealth since I very much doubted that there were any creatures, hostile or not, inside. It was a library, with three rows of bookshelves and stone shelves on the wall. The walls were covered in ice, and brazier slots were visibly encased within it. However, all of the books and scrolls in the room seemed to be damaged beyond legibility. To my amusement, Ghazghkull, trying even less to be stealthy than me, simply punched the door open and stepped in. Meanwhile, Orklan had ignited one of his torches very loudly and Meredith heard the pattering of shoeless feet coming from the unexplored room opposite us. Meredith then told my dwarf ally, and he stood just in front of the door, while our botanist stood behind him. Both had their weapons readied. I then quickly investigated one of the bookshelves and, under a book, I managed to find a small vial made of bone. Opening the stopper, I found it to be empty. Despite this, I kept it anyway with the intention of inspecting it later. Meanwhile, Ghazghkull had found a large horn with a wooden stop on the end. Algrim responded by approaching the paladin and convincing him to hand it over with a (likely false) story about his life in the Underdark. Algrim then took it and identified the liquid inside as an elixir of dragon blood, but Ghazghkull snatched it back before the drow could pocket it. While I continued looking around the room, I cast my mind back to the Winter King. I remembered that he once controlled the Nentir Vale before being driven back by the Empire of Nerath (which was in turn driven back by orcs and gnolls). The ice sceptre was also the focus of his power. While I was doing this, the others had gathered outside the other door since they had heard murmurings coming from inside. In an attempt at surprising the room's inhabitants, Orklan tried to kick the door down. However, the door did not break. Ghazghkull then pushed the dwarf aside and punched it open.
A tiefling soldier, an ogre, and a skeleton stood in the room, which had two forges burning with azure flames in the centre. The tiefling (who we later found out to be called Anger) put a golden key around his neck, and asked how we got to him and that he had sent his ettin after us. We had not attained the element of surprise, since they heard Orklan's first attempt at breaking the door, and so fought with no advantage on either side. Immediately, the skeleton burst into flames and the tiefling charged straight at Ghazghkull, swinging his longsword. Fortunately, the blow could not penetrate the paladin's armour. The blazing skeleton then ran behind one of the forges and hurled a flaming orb at the paladin, burning him slightly. Orklan then tried to shove Anger back, but he stood his ground and ended up pushing the dwarf back instead. As soon as Meredith shot the tiefling in the stomach, sending him stumbling a metre back into the room, Ghazghkull then ran straight at him. However, his axe swing missed the tiefling's head by a couple of inches. To make up for this, Algrim then ran into the room and shot Anger in the throat at point-blank range, critically wounding him (it was not quite enough to kill the man, since it must have failed to completely sever an artery). The ogre, angered at his master becoming injured, dipped a javelin into a forge and then hurled it at Algrim. It connected with Algrim's chest, sending him recoiling back and wounding him. It was then that I walked to the library doorway, having been disturbed by the combat outside, and fired a freezing burst at Anger. It hit him on the left side of his chest, and seemed to freeze his arm to his body while also stabbing ice shards into him. However, the fight took a turn for the worse when a patrol of a skeleton, three human guards, four tiefling warriors, and a gnome came rushing down the stairs and into the corridor. While two of the tieflings stabbed Meredith with halberds, Anger retreated into through a door in the back of the forge room and told the ogre to protect him. The flaming skeleton then threw another blazing orb, this time burning Algrim. The non-burning skeleton that had just entered the fray then crept up behind Ghazghkull and stabbed him in the back with a flaming claw (why do all the skeletons in this place seem to like fire?). Moments later, the human guards surrounded Meredith and attacked both her and Orklan with their longswords. The latter of my allies then backed up slightly and swung his axe in a downward arc at the nearest tiefling, splitting him cleanly in two (do I need to mention that this killed the tiefling?). Ghazgkull then tried to run at the ogre, but could only manage a slow lumber due to his heavy armour. Meanwhile Algrim, who was obviously more agile than the paladin, then ran close to the ogre and threw a vial of ungol dust at it. However, it shattered at the creature's feet and failed to harm it. However, the ogre, despite its kind's shocking stupidity, must have known what Algrim was trying to do and threw another javelin at him. The blow knocked our assassin back across the room, and he lay unconscious on the floor. I then retreated back into the library while launching a shock sphere at my enemies. This disintegrated the remaining three tieflings, while wounding all of my other opponents. In an attempt to lure a few of the opponents away from Orklan and Meredith, I also closed the door loudly using mage hand (after all, they would likely give chase to a 'coward'). Meanwhile, both skeletons attacked Ghazghkull simultaneously, with both their flaming claw and burning orb failing to wound him. However, my plan to lure the guards seemed to have failed as none of the humans came after me, instead knocking Meredith and Orklan unconscious with halberd slashes. As I heard them go down, I knew that Ghazghkull and I could not triumph over our enemies alone. I cast ghost sound into the corridor, which loudly called Viclamin to our aid, but this seemed to attract something invisible to open the door. I backed further into the room, realising it must be the gnome I had seen earlier, and quietly cast beguiling strands. Meanwhile, Ghazghkull had drank the elixir of dragon blood and spewed forth a huge plume of flames. This wounded all of the opponents near to him and also burned two of the humans to death. In response, the ogre charged at Ghazghkull and swung his club at him, but he failed to injure the paladin through his armour. I then cast beguiling strands yet again, and caused the gnome to appear. I used the spell to force her out of the library, and jammed the door's lock with my mage hand as she stumbled out. The blazing skeleton then left the forge room to aid his master as the other skeleton repeated its flaming claw attack on Ghazghkull. The final human guard, seeing no opponents to fight, decided to wander down the corridor towards the throne room. Meanwhile, the gnome tried to pick the lock of the door, and managed to unlock it slightly. Fortunately, she still could not force the door open. Ghazghkull then swung his axe at the ogre and, although it dodged his first swing, swung yet again, this time putting his full force behind the attack. The blow connected with the creature's chest, causing the axeblade to become buried deep. The creature became dazed by the blow and staggered around the room, allowing our paladin to strike it again. While he was doing this, I realised that Meredith was bleeding out fast. I cast charm of misplaced wrath on the gnome in an attempt to force her to heal the botanist, but I could not compel her to take any action. The skeleton then failed to wound Ghazghkull while the gnome kept trying to pick the lock. Ghazghkull, noticing that Algrim was also bleeding out, then ran over to the drow and, although he took a claw from the skeleton in the process, managed to heal the assassin. The paladin then turned and smote the ogre, leaving a large gash, while Algrim shot the ogre and then stabbed it. This finished the brute off, and it fell loudly to the ground. It swung its club as it fell, but fortunately no one was hit. Meanwhile, I had finally managed to compel the gnome into stabilising Meredith. As the skeleton ran up to Ghazghkull, but stumbled on the floor and made no attack, the human guard entered the forge room through the other door. The gnome then furiously kicked at the door, succeeding only in stubbing her toe, just when Viclamin ran into the corridor. Ghazghkull then missed a strike at the skeleton as Algrim tripped the guard with a bola. Seeing no need for keeping up the distraction in the library, I teleported out into the corridor and, thanking Viclamin with a friendly greeting, fired a magic missile at the gnome. Unfortunately for Algrim, he fell unconscious for the second time during the skirmish as the human guard pulled out a hand crossbow and shot him in the leg. The gnome, seeing Viclamin as a potential threat, then teleported to the hexblade and tried to attack him. However, her short sword bounced off the tiefling's chainmail. Just as she finished her attack, I fired another magic missile and caused the back of her head to explode open. Needless to say, she died from the impact. Viclamin and I then ran into the forge room in time to see the skeleton take Ghazghkull down, but my old friend managed to reduce the skeleton to smouldering embers with a well-placed strike of his sword moments later. Seeing as all of our opponents had been neutralised, we were about to stabilise our allies when Anger barged into the room and charged towards me. However, he could only yell obscenities before Viclamin plunged his blade deep into the warrior's chest, absorbing his soul.
We then rested again, for we would need all of our strength to defeat the Winter King. I spent most of my time researching some pages of a spellbook I found on the transmuter in the kitchen, and managed to copy two new spells from it into my own book. Visions of Avarice, a rather interesting spell that forced its targets to chase after illusory treasure, and Tasha's Forcible Conscription, an incantation formed by the dark wizard Tasha (who is rumoured by some to be Iggwilv, lover of Graz'zt) that forced its targets to follow out the caster's will. Algrim also managed to concoct a new poison and Viclamin managed to find a way to channel Anger's soul to produce a shield of emerald. I also told the former of the two of a theory I had - he would kill the Winter King. Long ago, Khala (the former evil goddess of winter) tried to cover the world in a permanent winter, but her plans were stopped when the Raven Queen killed her. It would only be fitting if Algrim, a follower of the Raven Queen, would deal the final blow to the Winter King. We also managed to find numerous treasures, with Meredith found 2 large rubies, me finding three smaller rubies, Orklan finding a pouch of 50gp, and Algrim taking the fire key from Anger's corpse. It burned his hand, so he put it away. He then went to investigate the room the tiefling had just come out of, which he found to be empty except for a gong. Orklan also knocked down the library door to let the servant girl out, but she fled up the stairs instead of coming with us. I also went around using mage hand to lock all of the doors into the corridor, just in case somebody tried to attack us from behind while we were fighting the Winter King. After we were all refreshed, we entered into the throne room.
The room was large and cold, with four chandaliers burning with blue flames hanging from the high ceilings. A high-backed throne sat on an elevated section of the room and on it sat a large, skeletal man entombed in ice. A slot by his right hand was just the right size for the ice sceptre. Before we entered, Algrim had turned invisible and we had came up with a battle strategy. If I nodded three times while talking to the Winter King, Algrim was to fire a poisoned blowdart at him and then we'd all attack while he was surprised. As we progressed into the room, a female gnome ran up to the Winter King's body. We recognised her as Zanna, from the entrance room, and she told us that there was no Winter Queen - Asrinda was a disguise of hers. She then placed the ice sceptre into the slot, and the ice entombing the Winter King erupted out. His first words were to ask who disturbed him, while Zanna slinked behind his throne and hid. I then walked forwards onto the steps leading up to the throne, and I told him that I was Sir Eraamion Firaal, Patriarch of House Firaal, Defender of Harkenwold. I nodded once while saying it. We told him that we had returned the ice sceptre to him, as per his requests, but, unfortunately, he decided that we would no longer be useful to him alive - he wished to freeze us and bring us back as undead minions for his army. Of course, that was nowhere near a top priority for any of us so we slowly persuaded him that we would be more useful alive. Viclamin said that even the devils bowed to him; Meredith stated that she could control nature; and Ghazghkull shouted that he could kill things (yes, really). I, on the other hand, told him about my knowledge of battle strategy and how the Empire of Nerath had fallen while he slumbered. I nodded for the second time while saying this. While this seemed to interest the Winter King, he became angered when I stated that reanimating us as undead would be a foolish mistake. Not wanting to lose our advantage, I then nodded for the third time. A blowdart, followed by Algrim, then materialised to the left the throne and penetrated an artery on his arm. As poison seeped into the Winter King's blood, we attacked.
I started by casting sleep, which was unable to affect him unfortunately, and then followed it up with Visions of Avarice. The illusion worked, the large pile of treasure catching both Zanna and the Winter King's eyes and binding them to the spot. Algrim then lobbed a vial of ungol dust, hitting with it for the first time and causing the acidic poison to cover the Winter King's flesh. Ghazghkull then charged and attacked twice, missing his first strike but unleashing a holy smite with his second. This second attack visibly dazed the Winter King, and left him open to Orklan's following attack. Roaring a dwarven battle cry, Orklan charged into the fray and plunged his axe into the King of Winter's stomach. He gave a huge roar of pain, and was very visibly weakened. Viclamin then used his new emerald shield spell, and then charged at the Winter King. He unleashed a powerful, magic-infused strike from his Blade of Annihilation his foe's leg and cloaked himself in a protective shell of frozen wind. Meredith followed this up by surrounding the Winter King in mist which only we could see through, then knocked him down by shooting him in the leg. Algrim then tried to attack with both a crossbow bolt and a sword slash, but both somehow hit the throne instead of their intended target. Ghazghkull then plunged his axe down, using a new incantation that infused his axe with holy ice, but failed to wound the Winter King. It seemed, rather fittingly, that he was immune to the power of cold. Orklan then made up for this by slashing his axe downwards across his enemy's body, leaving a large, deep gash. I then injured both the Winter King and Zanna with a shock sphere (it affected the latter more) while Viclamin impaled him with a necrotising strike and Meredith shot him with another crossbow bolt. However, the Winter King was finally able to act as he resisted the effects of my Visions of Avarice and stood up. He then raised his ice sceptre into the air and launched shards of ice everywhere, injuring Orklan, Viclamin, Algrim, and Zanna. In response to being attacked, Viclamin blasted his opponent with a blast of light from his shield and fire from his hand. The Winter King then followed his attack up, he reached out and tried to encase Ghazghkull in ice and, although he failed, managed to seriously wound the paladin and sending his flying across the hall. Algrim then jumped and stabbed the Winter King in the back, causing him to roar in pain for the final time, then explode (it seems my prediction was correct). Unfortunately, this death explosion caused Algrim and Ghazghkull to be knocked out from the shards of ice it sent flying, while also injuring Viclamin and Zanna.
I then walked up to the throne and reclaimed the ice sceptre, but I also noticed a crown of ice on the throne. I took it and put it on, and found out that it was magical. Meanwhile, Viclamin and Orklan had approached Zanna, who was lying on the ground and begging them not to kill her. Orklan tried to deliver a non-lethal blow first, but failed to hit her as she rolled out of the way. Viclamin then tried to do the same thing, but he accidentally stabbed her too hard and stole her soul, killing her in the process. Suddenly, we heard a cracking noise coming from the ceiling, and noticed that the ice all around the Cairn was melting. The ice had been holding up the walls and ceilings all along, and very soon the entire building would collapse. Immediately, we ran to grab our unconscious allies (we had no time to heal them) and ran. Orklan lifted up Algrim, while Meredith, Viclamin, and I carried Ghazghkull (this was because the paladin was far heavier). We were fine carrying Ghazghkull, but by the time we reached the door of the throne room Orklan had begun lagging behind. Fortunately, when we reached the stairs Orklan had caught up. As the chandaliers and parts of the ceilings in the throne room began to collapse, I remembered Marko's body. I ran back to the kitchen, hefted the body under one arm and the head in my other hand, and started running. Unfortunately, there would be no way we could have rescued Magni's corpse in time. By the time I reached the top of the stairs, I could see Algrim had awoken and was no longer being carried. I hurried after them, when the door behind me suddenly burst open. Soldiers fled in all directions, despite me trying to tell them the way out. I eventually caught up with the others at the end of the corridor, but it was then that I saw what the soldiers had been fleeing from - a white dragon. It was flying after us, and fast. We then pushed the entrance to the Cairn open and ran into the cold, seeing the flying ship slipping across the ground towards the edge of the cliff and the pile of skulls beginning to collapse. As fast as we could, we charged to the ship and jumped on just as the dragon flew out and set off into the skyline. Luckily for us, the ship then set off and we started flying back to Fallcrest. The figurehead told us that it only had enough power to give us one journey back, so we rushed to man the oars. As it flew into the diminishing storm that the late Winter King had summoned, we heard a thundering boom as the Cairn of the Winter King collapsed into itself (and unfortunately, trapping Magni's corpse beneath tons of rubble). However, we were not back yet. Much like on our journey to reach the Cairn, the sails and ropes of the ship snapped, but Viclamin and Orklan were able to successfully secure them. After a while, the clouds then parted and, about a mile away, we could see Fallcrest. Worryingly, parts of it were ablaze. As we descended towards it, we could see rioters running around with torches, burning many a home, including that of the Lord Warden. I then stopped rowing and approached the figurehead, and managed to persuade it to try and land without hitting any burning buildings or people. He said he would try his best, but as we swooped down for a landing in the river, the figurehead lost power. The ship entered a downwards plummet and crashed through the roof of a house near to the Lord Warden's longhouse, and then levelled out and made another hole in the wall. Fortunately, we could see nobody in the building that would have been harmed. An angry mob of commoners then surrounded us, thinking we were more undead barbarians, but cheered when they saw that who we were. As the Lord Warden's roof caved in, he thanked us for our deeds and told us that the had not expected us to survive. It was then, however, that I remembered that we had left Thofire's body in the longhouse. Viclamin, Orklan, and I rushed there as fast as possible and threw open the door. All of the mules were dead, but we could see no sign of Thofire. The Lord Warden then came up to us and, much to our relief, he told us that Thofire had been taken to the coffin maker's shop. He also informed us that the rioters had been led by Armos Kamroth and 'a tiefling' (there were only three tiefling families in town, so I would have thought that he'd have known who it was) and that they had all been exiled. We headed to the shop straight away, and we noticed that the worst of the fire had burnt itself out.  
We pushed open the door of the shop and entered. The room was bare except for a solitary coffin on a table. Lifting the lid, we saw Thofire's body dressed in traditional burial garments. The coffin maker approached us and thanked us for what we had accomplished. He offered to bury Thofire in Fallcrest's cemetary, but I told him of our plans to take him to his home town. Although Greenhills was too far away for the coffin maker to journey to, he kindly lent us his horse and cart so we could get there. Instead, Marko would be burried in town. We decided to set off tomorrow, and headed for the inn opposite the shop. A large crowd had gathered outside, thanking us and asking how we did it. While most of the party just headed straight inside, I stayed out for a while and talked to everyone. In the morning we set off down the road leading out of the west side of Fallcrest. Once again, a crowd of civilians had gathered to wave us off. As we leave, we are told that we will always be welcome in Fallcrest and that the Tower of Waiting will be finished within a week. It was a perfect day for such a send off, being rather unaturally hot for autumn. Our journey to Greenhills had begun.
Kill total: three tiefling warriors, one human guard, one gnome spy
==Entry B (The Party Splits)==
Only Algrim, Viclamin, and I ended up travelling the whole way to Greenhills. Meredith returned to the University of Botany to become a lecturer; Ghazghkull went back to his community of half-orcs (and trees); and Orklan moved from Highpeak to Hammerfast to train the army. The rest of rode the cart past Winterhaven then went to Padstow, a town in Reoldia. We stocked up on supplies and bought a boat there and, after hiring a worker to take the cart and horse back to Fallcrest. We faced numerous threats, including a pack of Blackfang Gnolls, an Iron Circle assassin flanked with several devils, and on my 42nd birthday, a hunting blue dragon. After a month of river travel, we reached Wiwic and stocked up again. A week later, we arrived in Greenhills.
I visited the Silvertouch family first and, after informing them of their loss, gave them all of Thofire's belongings. Since my friend never created a will, I thought it would be fair for his family to keep everything he earned. A month later, his funeral had been arranged. Thofire's crystal-encased body (the coffin had been transmuted) was placed into a shrine of The Watcher in the town centre, as per his wishes. It was a sombre affair, and it was only then that I fully grasped that my friend was gone. 
I left soon after the service, and decided that I would be settling down soon. Before that though, I had some unfinished business to clear up. I visited the Lancet family and informed them of where Marko was buried, then checked Winterhaven for any signs of Lord Vhennyk. Unfortunately, he seemed to have escaped long ago while I was occupied. After checking up on Fallcrest (and installing a shrine of The Watcher in the Tower of Waiting, just so I could reach it quickly if needs be) and Harkenwold, I assembled an adventuring party so that I could stop the biggest threat to my friends once and for all - Breunor Darkeyes. The party consisted of two former members of the Harken Eagles - Algrim and Viclamin, as well as a few new additions: Lotgeir Voarmice (a warforged man who fought alongside me on the Windstrider), Zdravko Renaza (a dragonborn sorcerer who left his town to explore the world), and Jeanele Arlette (a human battlemind working as a mercenary in Fallcrest). Fortunately, it did not take too long to track down Breunor. The boy and those who worked for him hadn't been too discreet, and we found him to be living in a mansion on an island a mile away from Porta Ak'hadia. We set sail almost immediately using Lotgeir's ship, Nerevar's Respite.
It was a few months before we arrived, since we had to avoid going near the Gnarian Archipelago (Lotgeir was still wanted by their Pirate Hunter Force). We landed the ship as close to the island as possible, then stormed the mansion. The guards were, of course, hostile towards us, but we overpowered them relatively easily. Within five minutes, we had made it to Breunor's personal chambers. Lotgeir kicked down the door, and we found, as predicted, Breunor Darkeyes and his bodyguard, Madoc, inside. The battle lasted less than a minute, with Madoc dying almost immediately after Zdravko bombarded him with fire and Algrim cutting his throat open. Breunor, however, proved to be more difficult. He used his psionic powers to overpower Jeanele's mind, and forced her to attack us. Meanwhile, the boy flung bolts of lightning at us. Fortunately, Lotgeir and Viclamin managed to pin Jeanele to the ground and knock her out before she could injure us too badly, and I used the power of the ice sceptre to freeze Breunor's hands together. Now that every threat had been incapacitated, we debated on what to do with the last of the Darkeyes. Viclamin and Algrim wanted to kill him, but I was not the kind of person to permit the killing of teenagers, no matter how despicable in nature they are. Instead, I managed to persuade the others to remove all chances of Breunor threatening us again without resorting to murdering him. After knocking the boy out, I used some Fey charm magic to tamper with his memory. He would no longer remember who he was, what had happened, or that he had any psionic or arcane powers. His spellbook was then confiscated, the mansion burned, and his unconscious body dropped off at a small fishing village a few miles away. We parted ways soon after that. The assassins never bothered any of us again, although I heard rumours over the decades that Adewale had been captured and executed, and that Daud Attano had left his assassins' guild and taken up residence in Shinaelestra. 
For the first time in a year, I returned home to Cullero. This time, I intended to stay. Following in my father's footsteps, I joined the Serosin Mage's Guild and got a job as a teacher of wizardry. I quickly gained an outstanding reputation, with many of my apprentices becoming adventurers around the world. I moved in with Caelynna and, after a couple of years, became her husband. We had one more child, a daughter called Siltalma. I kept in touch with my old friends (with the exception of Ghazghkull, who I couldn't contact despite my efforts to locate him), and occasionally met up with them. I later became Serosin's Governor of Defence, and I have held this position ever since.
Several months ago, our world received contact from other material planes called Toril and Oerth. As soon as it began, I started working with other mage's guilds to try and travel to these planes. So far, we have had no luck.
Category:Eraamion
Category:World Backstory