as written by the cavalier, Olmas Lurecia, himself.

24 Sarenith, Sunday

Kali asked for about 15 minutes to study a new spell. The rest of us examined the caves more thoroughly, especially the pools. Some were actually 8-10 feet deep, but still, we found nothing of interest.

After a brief discussion, the group decided to traverse the Witches Walk and find the 3rd X on the clumsily drawn map. We noticed that slightly right of the path, there were strange footprints. Swamp monster?

We found a saggy shack. While the “warden’s” house had looked to be in some disrepair, it at least also looked lived in. This looked like it had been abandoned, with heavy grown of moss and sagging walls, roof, and even floorboards. Large rodent tracks were evident around the shack.

Oh no. Rodents? Where was Qatana?

Oh of course. She was heading in. At least she waited a bit this time. Qatana, Anavaru, Ivan, and Radella were at the door; Qatana listened, heard more skittering, and excitedly went in. Meanwhile, I and Kali stayed outside; ultimately, I decided to inspect the back of the house. We have been seeing too many strange tracks not to be cautious. Etayne observed with a bit of awe in her voice that this really had all the classic looks of a witches house, and moved closer to the door.

Inside, however, there were in fact some dire rats, and they began to attack those inside. Qatana, Etayne, and Ivan pretty much took care of them without much help from the rest of us.

I found nothing out back. Although I heard some scritchings in the wall back there, I began to make my way back to the front when I heard the sounds of fighting at the front door. By the time I got there, the “battle” was over, and I was astonished to find that Qatana had dispatched a rat herself! She never ceases to surprise.

It as clear that the place had been unused for months. There were signs of an explosion and then … then we found the decaying skeleton in tattered clothes. It had been wearing a womans robe, and the head was oddly elongated and one arm hand ended in talons. It looked like a transformational spell or potion had gone very wrong.

Casting detect magic, we found a bit of magic off in one corner of the room. There was a niche in the corner that held … a tiny human, specifically the head of a human and the body of a rat or large mouse.

“A ratling” Etayine infomred us. “Probably a familiar.”

The little creature had spunk, I’ll give it that. When one of us asked another, “What language might it speak? CAN it speak?” it replied with a little attitude: “I CAN speak Common. Now leave!”

He had the attitude that it was his house now … and I suppose there was a case to be made for that. Qatana continued to try to make nice to it and for her efforts she got jumped upon and bitten.

I rolled my eyes a bit. This “battle” had gone far enough. Etayne cast Daze upon it, which made it all the easier for me to simply but gently grab the ratling, remove it from Qatana, and advise it to settle down.

Radella had the great idea of offering to put the witch to rest with a proper burial. THAT the ratling stopped and listened to, and agreed to.

After having done so he was in a much fairer mood, and he even shared a map that his mistress had created of the entire swamp. Qatana eagerly copied that down. The 3rd X is another shipwreck, although the ratling warned us it was in poor shape.

Now on much better terms with the ratling, and with him resigned to a rather lonely life, we left. The wreck was just as he’d described. It had a Tien glyph that Kali dutifully copied down for translation later.

It was Kali, too, who reminded us we had not examined all of the goblin “fortress” (I will continue to use that word in quotes as it was about as sturdy as two syrup sodden pancakes leaning against each other.) We returned to the fo- I mean place, and did indeed find 23 more gp, as well as

[124] skyrockets [3]

We resolved now to return to Sandpoint and collect our bounty.

However, halfway to the main road, we heard a rustling, a squeal, and then bones snapping. This unnerved us all, so I stepped off the path a bit, looking to see more.

We did. We all saw more, and many of us will remember it far longer than we might like. It was a creature like none I’ve seen before. It had gaping jaws, but they were sideways. Its knees bent the wrong way. Its arms and legs ended in sharp and dangerous looking talons. And it either did not know common or chose to talk in grunts and clicks. This must have been the Swamp Monster.

I and my Greataxe drew first blood (?!) from the creature, but Anavaru followed up with an equally strong blow and killed it.

Some said this was a creature that some at Sandpoint had seen in days past, and that it was evil and unnatural. I could certainly believe that last. There wasnt a bounty on it, and yet it seemed menacing. And it was so unusual! We decided to take back the whole corpse – it wasn’t that far, and people wouldn’t believe just a description.

We did turn a few heads when we walked into town, I must say. And the sheriff congratulated us on a job well done. He called the Swamp Monstar a “sinspawn” and confirmed that they’d been seen in the town a few years ago, but not since. He added 500gp to the goblin money, a welcome surprise.

And now it was time to go to the Inn and talk to Ameiko.

I’ve not seen her much and I don’t know her well, certainly as well as Shalelu does. But she seemed to genuinely rotate between shaken, happy, and angry. She clearly needed some time to digest its contents, and invited us all back to dinner that evening when she could tell us more about her family and what this letter meant to her. She said we could keep everything else, which meant an additional bounty for us. in the end, I received the equivalent of 959 gp plus 6 sp. Added to my 18.9 previous, I now had a total of 977 gp and 15 sp.

It was time to upgrade.

I was able to find masterwork chainmail for sale for 300gp, and perhaps more importantly, a masterwork comnpound bow specially created to take advantage of my strength (+2), but that cost twice as much. I bought 60 arrows and sold my ordinary longbow and my scale mail, leaving me with a total of 121 gp and 1 sp.

And then the dinner.

There were others there I was only vaguely familiar with. Ameiko and Shalelu, of course, and everyone from the goblin group. There was also a man named Sandru who owned wagons in a caravan, and an older woman named Koya who has apparently travelled with Sandru in the past.

Ameiko started out by thanking us all again. This old letter apparently means a great deal to her. She has decided it is time to take her boots out of the closet and follow the lead that this letter provides. She wants to go to Brinewall and solve this final mystery about her family. It is no small journey, and it will involve more than just a couple of horses. and tents. Ah, that is why Sandru is here. A caravan.

A caravan? Why, that’s perfect! Kasimir would be ideal for that situation. Others in the group were buzzing too, and soon it became apparent that if Ameiko was going to make this journey, she was going to do it with the assistance of everyone at the table – including Shalelu. We would be a team, for once, instead of opponents-in-training.

Kali was doing some figuring – apparently travelling is practically second nature in her family! – and we determined we would need more wagons and supplies than Ameiko’s 2000gp stake in this would provide. Then I remembered the jewels from the chest … and that contribution from our group added another 1500 gp to the pot. That put us over the edge. This was really going to happen.

Koya did some fortunetelling. I’m not a big believer in that sort of stuff ordinarily. She displayed five cards but it was all very cryptic. There was mention of cyclones, and attacks from all sides, and something about foreboding. And a place of strength. All very confusing.

2 Erastus, Moonday

Today we left Sandpoint, and began our adventure. We are bound first for Galduria and expecting to take about 3 days.

4 Erastus, Wealday

Reached Galduria. Made a profit on the goods we traded! Bonus! No unusual events.

5 Erastus, Oathday

Relatively short trip to Wolf’s Ear. Again profitable.

7 Erastus, Starday

I suppose we should be glad that scouting and guard duty is so boring. But it is so boring. Today we reached Ravenmoor. We should reach Rodericks Cove by 9 Erastus.

9 Erastus, Moonday

Reach it we did, but not, this time, without incident. Our scouts found an ambush waiting for us: 4 ogres lie in wait a few hundred yards ahead. We discussed our strategy. We’d quietly set up a place to shoot fireworks and arrows behind where they were waiting, and surprise them.

Almost worked. We need to practice this a bit more. I rode out to fight them, but I was the only one there. Skyrockets and arrows were flying, but arriving on my horse meant I got there faster than everyone else, and that meant I was a target longer. Chain mail helps, but it doesnt make one invincible! Eventually we did destroy all four, but not before I was very near death. Thank the gods for the healers!

We recovered about 2 cargo units of miscellaneous valuables that I presume had been obtained from careless or hapless travellers. I was told they’d probably bring about 400gp each.

On tp Riddlesport.

11 Erastus, Wealday

Riddlesport. A large town; certainly much larger than Sandpoint. I realized today that our journey has taken us past Crying Leaf. I note with some discomfort that although I had no plans of “stopping by” that it bothers me to be so close and not stop by.

Our journey to Brinewall will be the longest, and it will not end in a city so we must bring more food and supplies. It should be a week there, and then a week back, and I expect we will spend several days there helping Ameiko investigate things.

15 Erastus, Sunday

Ameiko has been pale and very tired for some time now, and although I don’t know her well I’d say she is ill. She waved it off, but “I’ll be fine” is much less effective when one collapses a few seconds after saying it. Koya checked her over, and everyone with any kind of healing checked her over, and she simply appears to be sleeping. But way too soundly and restlessly.

And she has been talking in her sleep. And only in Tien. Fortunately, Kali is knowledgable in this tongue.

“Beware the birds who wish to fly but cannot.”
“1 treasure beyond 2 seals in the 3rd vault.”

17 Erastus, Moonday

“Beware the cuckolded cuckoo. It is in his shattered silent love that you should seek aid.”
“Key. Key. The key you seek lies in the grip of the ten-handed one. His fear is your greatest ally.”

“Grandfather waits in the dark but he knows no who he was.”

We’ve reached a point where the caravan can proceed no farther. We’ll have to go in ourselves: Shalelu, Sandru, and Koya will care for Ameiko. It’s so … oppressive here. We’re probably about a half mile from the castle.