Erastus 20th 4712

Holy crap! I can’t even begin to describe the visions the group received from the seal hidden away within the warding box. If not for 9 others having the same visions I might have considered myself crazier than Qatana. I don’t even really want to write down the visions in some part because of the fear of someone finding and reading this journal and partly because it kind of makes it too real. This seal for some unknown reason has decided to link those that retrieved the warding box from the castle to Ameiko.  I was ready to go see the world but I had no idea that it would become something this big. This trip is going to be very exciting.

Yesterday as we finally made our way through the castle. Etayne seemed to be obsessed with the egg  shell that appears to be where the ten handed one spawned. I think she gathered up a sample of the gooey stuff. We of course collected up the money and valuables discovering the second seal in the process. Qatana also found a statue to Pazuzu that she picked up and hit against a rock. Turns out that this is a cursed item that bound itself to her. From what we could tell she was not able to get rid of it and it weighed her down to the point where she was moving about half as fast as before. Olmas and Sparna seemed to be a little overly pleased with the situation. Once we fully investigated all of the paths we went back up to some stairs that Qatana says goes down to a place we have not been. Oddly enough Qatana was at the back of the party.

As normal Kali quickly figured out how to use the seals to open the portcullis. Once open the ghost of ameiko’s grandfather appeared. It was then that Kali spoke his name and apparently he pointed to where to find the warding box and disappeared. I was up the stairs so I only got this information second hand. Raddella got to work finding the door and then working on the three chests inside.  In one of the chests we found gold coins from Tien and the third one had interesting magic items including a bag of holding.  The second chest held the item that we searched for. The others talked about opening it but I insisted that we should take it back to Ameiko before even trying to open it.  We placed the items from the chests and the chests into the bag of holding and then headed back up to gather the other stuff that we had found here at the castle. We arrived back at the cemetery late. Kali sent her friend up to the caravan to see if Ameiko’s condition had changed. The reply was no and inquiry about remove curse from Koya revealed that she is not able to cast that spell. It looked as if we would have to travel somewhere to get this removed.

We place Ameiko’s hand on the warding box and nothing happened. After several minutes of looking over the box it was decided that this was like a puzzle box. Several of the party had turns and I am not exactly sure who opened the box as we all blacked out. I wouldn’t have considered this real expect that all 10 of us had the same exact visions. The royal seal is indeed a high level magic item. We also discovered that it has several other capabilities that will likely help us on our trip. For today remove curse was a welcome sight to Qatana. Once the statue was unbound to Qatana we place it inside a bag and then its own box. Once in the box we place it in a safe place on one of the wagons.  Qatana wanted to continue to carry it but we all insisted that it remain on the wagon. Oh and when we awoke from the shared vision Ameiko also awoke and was actually one of the ten that had this shared vision. The others such as Koya, Sandru, and Shalelu did not share in this vision but Kelda was included. I am not exactly sure why or how this royal seal has the power to make the rest of us in line for the throne.  If this thing is that powerful it should have known that I would have gone along for the adventure. We really need to make sure Ameiko claims the throne and then starts creating heirs.

Erastus 22th 4712

Our plan was to help Ameiko with her situation and head back to the castle and clean it up, repairing the Desna shrines with mending and make whole. Once we realized that we have just set off a beacon that all changed. We quickly removed the curse from Qatana and then closed the box.

We are on our way back to Riddleport (or Riddlesport as Olamas calls it) to supply up and so that Ameiko can go back to Sandpoint to make arrangements.  It is likely that Ameiko and Kali can pay someone to teleport them back to Sandpoint for a few days. Otherwise it will take many weeks round trip for the caravan.  The rest of us will have a few days to look for new gear or rest. I am still a little freaked out about the whole situation and I have decided to not risk these demons or devils tracking me back to my family. Besides my family is well aware that it will likely be years before I return to visit.

Before the magic seal imparted us with the knowledge about Ameiko’s birthright I was planning to part ways with the group upon the return to Riddleport. I am excited about the adventure but the whole thing about demons and devils perusing Ameiko and now all of us is a little bit disturbing. I am still just not sure what to think about the entire situation yet.

Erastus 24th 4712

We arrived in Riddleport today. Eytane ask me to help her make a protection from evil potion for Raddella so I spent part of the day helping. I learned that simple potions of first level can be created in 2 hours. Higher level potions take a lot longer and a portion of lessor restoration is a whole day event.  It’s very interesting because I think Kali told me that she can make a standard caster level scroll up to and including 2nd level spells in two hours. I found the whole process very interesting, but I have no interest in learning how to create scrolls, potions, or wands. Kali has agreed to create some scrolls for me with the help of Qatana; Qatana has agreed that she will provide the spells for the scrolls. My plan is to get a couple of spells that either I do not plan to learn or may not learn in the near future. Qatana has stated that she is going to learn to create wands and Kali is going to create those wondrous items. My first thoughts are creating magic weapons or wondrous items. I was leaning towards wondrous items for things like efficient quiver, belt of dexterity, headband of charisma, and other cool magic items. These all get a lot harder to do if you don’t have spells; with my limited spells I would either need help or scrolls to make some of these items. It doesn’t make since so I have decided to learn how to create magic weapons.

I spent the rest of the day following along as Sparna search for a weapon. I am pretty sure I was walking around in a daze as I did not realize until later that he bought materials to make a weapon and not actually a weapon. The whole gravity of this situation is still a little much to comprehend.

Erastus 25th  and 26th 4712

From advice form Raddella I shopped at some places that would sell efficient quiver but the cost is just a little more money than I have. I already knew this but I figured checking doesn’t hurt; at least as long as you stay out of the bad parts of the city. Walking through the city I was hopeful to find a cinnamon bread bakery like the one they have in Magnimar. Maybe I just didn’t go to the right area but I never found cinnamon bread. During my wandering I found a shop that has leather scroll holder with a caps to keep the scrolls dry when it is raining. I settled on the three scroll holder.  It is a simply three leather tubes each holding a scroll and it also has a slot for a wand. I tried scroll tubes and other ways to hold scrolls but they just didn’t work for me. This will allow me the ability to use up to three scroll and a wand during combat.  This is much better than the dagger sheath that I have the cure moderate wounds spell in today. Although it could be very interesting to try to find the wand after I drop it.  The fact that I can use scrolls and wands still seems a little wild.

I actually found an Oracle enchanter to give me the basic training on creating magic weapon. I spent two of the days as Margo’s assistant. She actually has the same Oracle issue that I have so the mess was everywhere. Her work area was a mess and as part of the deal is that I had to clean it up and build some new shelves to organize all of the stuff she has. I am pretty sure that some of this stuff went bad before I was born. I can’t tell from looking at her if she is or is not older than Koya.  The two days spent with Margo were very enlightening. Although she is an Oracle of waves her advice was very sound.

“Don’t try to be a healer. If the gods wanted you to be a healer then they would have given you the life mystery.”

“The spells that are multi-taskers are great to learn.”

“Make sure to have spells that can be used outside of combat.”

After spending an entire day working to clean up her messy work space and building shelves we finally started working on the magic. She was hired by one of the shopkeepers to make a masterwork sword into a magic weapon. I watched as she worked on this sword infusing magic into the very metal. At the lunch break she explained the process she was using to create the magic. By the end of the day she had completed the project.

Ivan speaks “I thought that is took two days to create a +1 magic weapon”

Margo speaks “If you are skilled enough in spellcraft you can reduce the amount of time that it takes. This was a simple weapon so it was easy for me to create it in one day. Weapons with higher magic are a lot harder. As agreed I will drop off the weapon this evening. If they wanted a rush job that would have cost more. Make sure you don’t let people take advantage of your abilities and always celebrate when you can.”

I waited for Margo as she delivered the now magic sword to the shop keeper. Once she returned we celebrated into the late hours of the night with food, drink and discussion. She recounted story after story of her pirating days in the inner sea. In her day Margo must have been one piece of work. For the first time since I have been learning from her I realized that she would likely not think twice about killing me if she thought that I had something she needed or wanted. Her stories relished in the slaughter seemingly of anyone that stood in her way or if is fancied her. She claims that years ago there was a bounty on her head and she call Riddleport her home port to be with other like herself. Margo asked where I planned on going next and I simply told her that the caravan I am traveling with is heading out in the next few days, I will find out the details likely just before we leave.

Erastus 27th 4712

I returned to the caravan before Ameiko and Kali returned from Sandpoint. Once they returned we will head north. I picked up some cold weather gear but efficient quiver will have to wait. Sparna offered to lend me some money but maybe I just wasn’t ready.  Over the last several weeks that I have been traveling with this group of people thinking that we would part ways after Brinewall. Deep down I was still thinking that we all would be parting ways so borrowing money didn’t seem right. Since the reveal I have been focused on excitement about the trip across the world and the danger from my now association with Ameiko. I hadn’t thought about the fact I will now be traveling with these people for a long time and we have to rely on each other to survive.

Erastus 31 4712 Brinewall revisited

It was a little reckless but I pushed far ahead of the caravan to reach the Brinewall turnoff.   For some reason I needed some time near where everything started to think about what has happened and think about the visions.

The vision of the terrible fiend army with burning skin emerging from a vast forest during a storm is very odd. I instinctively wanted to ask Kali what these are and if bane outside subtype evil weapons would work against these things. But at the time I am not sure if I really wanted to ask the question and looking over at Kali it was obviously not the right moment to ask. Is this a vision of the future? Or something that has happened in the past. My first thought was that Ameiko taking the throne is the way to stop this army but you only need to send in an army like this if you have someone opposing you. It looks to me that Tien is going to war.

The image of the friend turning into some type of demonic warrior in a suite of jade armor striking down his royal friend is a powerful vision. If the Tien royalty can’t tell these things from their personal friends how will we ever know when one is in our presence? Either Spivey or Kelda could be one of these things. I guess technically anyone could be one of them but how would they even know who to pretend to be. Clearly I am jumping to conclusions as if they knew where find us I think they would just come after us. What kind of creature can pretend to be someone else?

We have determined that the grandfather sold the sword for gold to the richly dressed Ulfen man. I have to wonder; If they have been waiting this long at Brinewall wouldn’t they also seek out the sword. A sword that powerful shouldn’t be hard to find with the right magic; that is unless you have it hidden in the warding box. I am worried that the sword has already fallen in the hands of more of these demons or devils. Why would devils or demons be involved with something like this and why do they care so much about the last of a royal bloodline. If they have the power to take the land how is the last of the royal bloodline going to stop them.

The vision of Ameiko waking from a deep sleep within the arms of the jade throne seems clear. The revelation that everyone at the crypt is now in line for the throne is kind of scary. If something happens to Ameiko I am not sure which of the others I would support to take the throne.  We need to make sure she takes the throne and then starts making heirs. It is important that she has someone to take over the throne once she grows old. While she is an attractive women it is going to take a special type of person to live that type of life. I can’t really imagine not having the freedom to just wander off.

Arodus 3 4712

Early in the day we spotted a strange raven that seemed to be following us. I went back to the caravan to tell the others but Kali had also spotted the raven as well. She however hadn’t seen the red feathers on the wings. The raven was less than 200 feet away so I suggested that we shoot it down but Kali insisted that we wait. I was going to explain that the max range on composite longbows was 1100 feet but she did was not interested so I kept it to myself. Koya told the group that raven with red feathers is a bad luck. I knew I should have just shot down the raven.

Koya offered to do a reading and Kali agreed. This still makes me uncomfortable. When I asked Koya about knowing the future she responded with something about at least being prepared for what is to come. I guess if it is going to happen anyway it would be better to be prepared for it.

We arrived in Jol somewhat late and of course Kali knew about this city as well. We were only going to be here until morning so a few ales at one of the local taverns provided some distraction. I entered the tavern and sat in the corner facing the room. I order a tanker of ale and some stew from the attractive barmaid Angela. Angela brought me the drink and commented on not seeing me here before. After discovering that I could from the south near Sandpoint she shared that her mother was from Magnimar. She has always wanted to visit Magnimar but she is not sure if she can get her husband and daughter to make this trip. I sat there for a little while drinking the ale and listening. The table to the left was boisterously giving a detailed story about a recent hunting trip. The table off in front of me was telling what seemed like legendary tales about monsters that roam at night. The story centered on vampires that live in the local area that are the reason why people go missing from time to time. The story teller suggested that this vampire lives in the Thassilonian ruins that Jol was built on top of. The same story teller then proceeded to tell stories about how giants are still known to live in the ruins as well. It was about this time that I realized that the story teller was just entertaining the people of the tavern and was expecting a hand out.  I have to admit that it was entertaining. I signaled Angela to bring me another ale and continued to listen to the bard continue to tell very entertaining stories. After I finished the ale I called Angela over and tipped her a few silver to help with the family or to save for a trip to Magnimar.  I have always felt as if the barmaids and tavern owners of the world are ambassadors to some great religion.  I know that it is crazy talk and if I ever speak it out loud the other my think that I am crazier than Qatana.

I headed back down the street towards the caravan thinking about my traveling companions. I feel like that I can truly trust them but I am not really sure that I know them very well.

Arodus 6 4712

Yesterday we traveled through the Grungir forest. These are fey controlled woods that are dangerous.  I think someone said something about a ritual where potential kings seek out powerful Fey in the forest in order to prove their claim. I can understand how the Fey would be less than happy to have strangers enter their forest. We stayed on the path and just got through the forest without any issues. As we exited the forest the raven was spotted but flew off before anything could be done.

We arrived at Losthome this morning.  I remained with the caravan as the others did the trading. After the trading was completed we were back on the road.

Arodus 7 4712

We arrived at Skalsbridge this evening and setup camp just like normal. In fact this was a normal uneventful day until a little while ago. During first watch while a lot of us were sleeping they spotted the raven. The alert went out and we all came to alert about the time we heard a large number of what we now know as Ulfen warriors. I had the bow out but in the dark I could not see well enough to properly shoot. So I pulled off the first bead of fireball and tossed it to what sounded like the center of the incoming force.  The momentary light from the fireball showed that I had good aim so I put the second one in the same spot. The rest of the party was moving forward so I did not throw the last bead. Instead I moved forward with the bow in one hand and the starknife in the other. When I got close enough to at least see a little bit it was pretty clear that the others were taking care of the rest so I checked on the ones already down to make sure they would not recover.

This starknife really doesn’t do much damage. The returning ability is really cool in concept but it only has an effective range of 20 feet and frankly the bow does more damage. I am really thinking that the money from selling this weapon would be more helpful to the group than the weapon.

I have noticed that there are cases where shooting with the longbow does not always work. In the dark and in the enclosed spaces hand to hand is a much better option. After I get an efficient quiver I think it will be time to find better armor and maybe even a shield. While the longbow in my hands is effective it lacks that punch them in the mouth factor.

Kelda said something about seeing the Raven. It really sounds like the raven was tracking us for an ambush but was there anything that we missed that would have provided more clues. Other than the raven following us I don’t recall any evidence of this pending attack. Now I wonder if the raven is someone’s familiar or is this some type of creature that can shapeshift.

The castle plans showed that there are a couple of places that we have not checked on the main level. Back to the court yard we go searching everything just to make sure we are not going to be attacked on two sides. In the stables we found a creature that seems to have spiders as pets or minions. Etayne rushed in past Sparna so that she could cast her burning hands and as a result was poisoned losing strength. Since she is the healer I gave her the lessor restoration potion from my pack and let her decide how to use it. We may need a lot more lessor restoration before this is all said and done. At the moment Qatana shows no interest in memorizing lessor restoration and I don’t even know if Etayne has or can learn the spell. Oh well I will leave it up to the two of them to figure it out.

We decided to make our way down to the next level through the trog room. Down the stairs we went to the next room with Sparna in the lead and in the room Sparna found more trogs. The plan was to go back up the stairs and make them come to us. Things got funny at this point as Kali used a spell to make the stairs slippery and the trogs kept stumbling back down the stairs. I was able to kill the two that made it to the room but the rest of them closed the door and fled. While this was funny tactically this plan was a disaster as they retreated to a room where they would have the advantage. Qatana and Kali came up with another plan where they would get to throw spells in the room. Obscuring mist, sound burst, and color spray kind of seemed like a lot of spells to spend on trogs that I was able to kill with two arrows. Since we still have to storm the room I cast enlarge person on Sparna.  While it did allow him to do more damage the spell is not as useful as I had hoped and I am not exactly sure why the gods gave me this spell. There must be some grand plan that I as yet do not understand. He was able to split the Trog leader in half so that is something. All in all the time required to cast this spell makes it use situational at best.  The Trogs now dead we found yet another magic weapon and in fact a cold iron magic weapon. I have no real use for it as the bow is much better for me. Although for a few minutes there was a thought towards getting a weapon that I could use to beat someone senseless. Looking around at the others I realized that there is sometimes too many people trying to get to the front, well except for Etayne who prefers to have someone buff in front of her and Kali who uses her crossbow or spells. In the end for this group of people it is just best that I continue using the bow.  While the fight with the trogs worked out it would have been better to not impede there path to our melee kill zone and I should have waited to shoot arrows as well. We got lucky that these Trogs were on the weak side, except for their leader.

We continued to Search around and found a dungeon with ogrekin in the room. Qatana began some type of strange dialog with these creatures.  Kali and Etayne suddenly started discussing something about feeding the Quickling to the Ogrekin. They had a plan to put the fire potions in the Quickling and then feed it to the Qgrekin. This just seemed like one of those things that if it backfires then most of the party will get hit with a number of doses of Alchemist’s fire that could get us all killed. After some more time to think about it I can almost hear Abby’s voice in my head telling me that feeding a sentient being to Ogrekin is wrong. Although I would really have to ask her if it is worse then what the Quickling was doing. Well I could be completely wrong about it. No one in the group seemed to have an issue with feeding a sentient being to another creature so maybe I just got it wrong again!

Anyway Etayne and Kali really got miffed at me when I shot the arrows at the Big Ogrekin to end the nonsense. Yes it was tough and Olmas almost died again but we made it through with everyone still alive. It could have happened even if we waited around for the 10 minutes to let them get everything in place.

In one of the cages we found a woman in her early 20’s. She called herself Kelda Oxgutter and comes from the north. It turns out that her party was here to raid for loot and the rest of her party was killed. After the harpy I don’t feel as trusting of new people but the others seemed to trust her quickly. In retrospect I was a little rude to her. She has asked for us to help her back to her town and some of us have agreed to travel with her once we have finished up here in Brinewall. Still not sure if that is going to be a good idea or not but I did want to go somewhere interesting. She has agreed to continue further into this quest with us. Clearly her remarks indicate that she believes that the people of the north are far better at combat then southerners.  I guess she has a chance to prove it to us now.

Searching, searching and more searching. We encountered some ridiculously locked and hidden doors earlier. These even took Radella some amount of time to unlock. After opening the second and last lock we found ourselves overlooking the beach. The water marks clearly show that this is underwater at high tide. Water breathing would be very handy if one were to get caught out here as the tide is coming up and could not open the doors. There also must be some type of magic item that will help with breathing under water. Maybe something that also worked in smoke and other situations as well would be handy. Here I am going on about magic things when I haven’t even purchased the magic bow I am carrying from the party or purchased an efficient quiver.  I wonder if I kept raiding castles, fort, and encampments not being held by civilized people what kind of cool magic items I could get.  How many raids would I need to go on to get good equipment? The people from the land of the Linnorm Kings have been using the southern lands as there raiding grounds for a long time so maybe it is not all that bad of a plan.  Kelda herself also admitted that she was down here to raid. So I guess that makes it somewhat profitable.

If I am heading north then it might be wise to look into things to stay warm. The endure elements spell would do the trick but again this may be better on a wand or some type of item that permanently  protects from the cold or maybe some type of magic item that is usable once a day. Endure elements does last for 24 hours so having a magic item that allowed me to cast the spell once a day would work just fine and then I would not have to actually learn the spell. I am not so sure that comprehend languages was the best spell to learn, a couple of scrolls or even a wand seem like they would be just as effective and I don’t really need to use it in combat. I guess in years to come comprehend languages will remain useful as a spell that I always have available. You never know when you want to listen into a conversation or read material written that you normally could not understand. Watching Qatana utilize sound burst today made me wonder if I should learn that spell. The area affect is nice but it really doesn’t do as much damage as my bow. Against small swarming things this could be a useful spell. I wonder if this could be used to kill weeds and unwanted plants. That could be very useful someday when I return home to visit. It sounds like I might be traveling with Qatana for a while longer after BrineWall I will have to ask her to try to see if it effects plants. I don’t think it will effect plants but it would be cool if it did; No more hours of weeding. Oh and I guess that won’t work for weeding between crops. All of this magic at my disposal and I don’t even have something to kill weeds. That burning hands used by Etayne would at least be something or maybe a minor cantrip that does damage would be nice. Clearly the gods do not feel that it is important to take care of weeds or they would have given their followers the proper magic to deal with the weeds.

I wonder if I could create a skeleton and train it to pull weeds but not crops. I could call it ice.

I – indentured

C – Crop

E – Employment

If I need to create more than I can call them ice1, ice2 and so on. Although I think there may be a couple of problems with creating skeletons. The obvious first problem is I can’t create them yet. Secondly I am not sure how trainable they would be. Next I am not sure that people want to be around someone with skeleton slaves working a farm.  Lastly why would I ever go back to farming?

You know insects were always a harder problem to get rid of on the farm. The information on some of the Oracle spells that I have access to in the future show that there are very few spells to help here but holy smite looks like it will do the trick. The spell only affects creatures so that plants will be save. It just seems appropriate that the spell named holy smite would be useful for getting rid of pesky insects.

After freeing Kelda the other door in the room led to one of the sections that we have already seen but have not explored yet. Here we find an interesting decorated wall and doorway dedicated to Pharasma. I stayed in the back to watch for anything coming from behind and to watch the others position themselves to be as close as possible to the action in the front.  There is a part of me that wants to pick up and big metal weapon and jump into the fray but I really like shooting the bow. With this group it is a big advantage as I don’t need to jockey back and forth with the others to get into position.  Granted in small rooms or when Kali uses obscuring mist that puts me out of the battle but that is just the way it works sometimes.

We entered what looked like a crypt. A woman the others thought looked like Pharasma appeared and was insisting that we put down our weapons and enter the temple to receive her blessing. This was obviously a trap but the others continued to talk with this thing. I needed to do something so I ducked into one of the alcoves to wait. Since they are trying to talk with it I decided it would just be best to let them decide when to attack. If the creature attacks first at least I likely would be spared damage from the first wave, well maybe. Once they finally decided that this was an illusion they attacked it and it disappeared. The party started heading one by one to the main part of the cave. Since I had light cast on my armor I remained until last so the others could see their way. The attack of the creature started before I was able to rejoin the party. Once they pointed out the creature I began shooting arrow after arrow at the creature. I heard Kelda complain about not being able to hurt it but frankly I didn’t seem to have any issues hurting the creature. Qatana and the others kept trying to get everyone to talk about how their divine presence is here to defeat this creature. The creature was visibly scared by divine presence and kept attacking Qatana and the others in its defense. This all worked out great for me as I hit this thing with arrow after arrow and it kept attacking the others. I really wonder if this is one of those creatures where you have to have magic weapons to hurt it.  I was told that there are some creatures that can only be damaged by magic weapons. If the party was having that much trouble with the creature I would have used the fire arrow but this creature just didn’t seem that hard to damage. The flying would be a problem for melee but a lot of the major melee people now have bows. I also wonder if the bane arrows for outsider subtype evil would have worked on this creature. Kali would likely know the answer.

Sarenith 24, 4712

While Kali worked to memorize a new spell Qatana and I took turns throwing lighted rocks into the water to see if there was anything in the water. We did not find anything. We still had some business to do checking out the last mark on the makeshift map.

Heading towards the X we came across a shack that got Etayne excited. Turns out this was the home of a witch and Etayne really wanted to speak with another witch? Not really sure. Anyway the witch appeared to die from an experiment gone wrong. The familiar was annoying so the others helped it by burying the witch under a bush. Moving on we found the next ship again with the Tien writing plus some gold and rockets. So we decided to head back to town but we were attacked by something we later found out was a Sinspawn. The others killed it before I even got a chance to get a shot off. We took the body back to town and actually got a bounty equal to the goblin leaders head.

Out of distain I stayed back while the others took the letter to Ameiko. Luckily Ameiko seems to understand the plight of adventures and provided Kali, Olmas, Anavaru and Etayne with the ruling that allowed us to keep the loot. Later at dinner we all agreed to travel with Ameiko to Brinewell to investigate. I had originally planned to collect money and head out on adventuring but this looks to be an exciting adventure so I will travel to Brinewell with the group. With so many of the group tending toward order my chaotic ways could be an issue for the others, that is except for Qatana. I am not exactly sure about Radella she has seem secretive on this.

The group was up late planning. I brought up a couple of suggestions but Kali explained in detail how they would not work. At least she took the time to explain why the ideas would not work. Clearly my planning skills have not improved and I will have to start learning caravan skills.

I kept my tongue and did not bring up the subject of how we are going to share the loot from Brinewell. Obviously her family treasure would belong to her but what about everything else. I just know that Kali, Olmas, Anavaru and Etayne would claim that everything in Brinewell falls under the ruler ship of Ameiko so I decided to not challenge there need for rules and lawfulness at this point. Ameiko will likely give us at least a small cut of the loot but I am mainly going because we are leaving Sandpoint.

While Kali and the others continued there planning I thought about my motivations for going on this trip.

First we are going someplace. I originally was trying to earn money to get out and see the world. I now have some money and soon we will be leaving Sandpoint.

Secondly I am going to get some caravan experience. Yes getting paid for the work would be better but this prepares me for traveling with a different caravan. I have begun to learn how to driver a caravan wagon as an additional skill.

Thirdly I am now curious about Brinewell. Although there may or may not be much profit going on Ameiko quest it does sound very interesting.

Again while the others were working on the caravan details I began planning what I was going to do. My first thought was to travel with the group to Riddleport gaining caravan experience and then hiring on with a different caravan heading to some far off place. But I have committed to helping with the Brinewell Ameio legacy and you should always keep your word. Besides I am very curious about Brinewell now. I have no interest in returning to Sandpoint and I have heard that Riddleport is actually one of the three biggest cities around so that is the logical place to part ways with the others.

Sarenith 29, 4712 Sandpoint

With our departure from Sandpoint just a few days away I decided to finally talk to Melissa and ask her out on a date. I have really wanted to talk to her for over a year now but just didn’t have the courage to talk with her. So Yesterday I went to talk with her and ask her out on a date. I was pretty rudely rejected and she told me that she would never date someone of such low standing. I headed back to the rusty dragon and began drinking away my shame. I was pretty drunk when Sparna dragged me away from that woman adventure and back to my room to sleep it off. I am pretty sure Sparna kept me from doing something very stupid. I thanked Sparna this morning and paid for his lunch as a small token of thanks.

All of that time wasted thinking about Melissa only to find out she is not someone I want to spend any time with anyway.

Erastus 4 Galduria

This evening we pulled into Galduria. My job as scout provides me with the freedom to wander about with no one around to remind me of the rules and laws created by those that just want to control us. Anyway the trip to Galduria was not really very eventful. I scouted and also found supplies for the caravan. Kali seems to have it all planned out and written down.

Erastus 10 Rodericks cove

Four hours outside Galduria on the way to Rodericks Cove I found this interesting mouse. I had stopped for lunch when I noticed the mouse just sitting on a log looking at me. I set down a piece of cheese and the mouse gobbled it up and looked at me as if waiting for more. I ignored the little mouse and finished my lunch and then continue doing my job. A little while after leaving the mouse it occurred to me that maybe this was a person trapped in a mouse body. But I decided that if this mouse really wanted to travel with me it would have come over to me. Maybe this is a sign that I am going crazy. I would be more worried if the mouse had talked.

A few hours from Rodericks cove we spotted Ogres hiding just off the road waiting to ambush travelers. We split into ranged fighting and those that wanted to get up and close. We caught the Ogres by surprise and I never had to get within 25 feet of them. I had some good shots hitting a couple of them thus contributing to the defeat of the Ogres. Anavaru must have taken the final shot on a couple of them as she was proclaiming to be the one that kill those Ogres. Even though it is difficult to shoot at someone in melee combat I was trying to help out Olmas instead of seeking the glory. Once again Olmas was on the brink; Etayne jumped in to provide him enough healing to keep him alive. I did a post combat heal to get his health back to full.

The Ogres had some 800 gold of treasure that we decided to use for caravan upgrades. I signed up for this likely non profitable adventure so I will just have to conserve the money that I have until I can get into a group or situation where I can make some money.

Erastus 12 Riddleport

“A wretched hive of scum and villainy” are but some of the phrases that have been said about Riddleport. Looking over the city it actually looks like an interesting city. From Riddleport one could travel by ship or caravan to far off places. Abby would simply love to be here to see the arch. I found an artist with a drawing of Riddleport and the archway for a reasonable price so I spent just a little bit on one to send to Abby. I found a caravan heading back to Sandpoint to deliver the letter and drawing back to Sandpoint and Abby.

Wandering through the caravan area I found a number of caravans looking for extra people. I am currently committed to helping with Brinewell but I have little interest in traveling back to Sandpoint with the rest of the group. Looking over the harbor it is possible that a ship adventure may be in order. I will just have to check on caravans when we get back into Riddleport.

Erastus 17 outside Brinewell

A couple of days ago Ameiko collapsed and has not woken up since. I attempted to help the healers with there investigation into want happen but when they started getting personal with Ameiko that was my sign to be somewhere else. My experience helping the healers reinforced the fact that people prefer there healers to be old people. In the future I believe that it is just better if I stay out of there way when they are doing the healer thingy.

Anyway despite Ameiko condition we moved forward. Kali at her side we learned that Ameiko was speaking in Tein in her sleep. Not surprisingly Kali was able to translate. It appears that she is giving clues as to how to find the family heirloom. We have had several days to look these over but it looks like we will have to go into Brinewell to truly figure out there meaning.

Ameiko is still not awake so it has been decided that the 8 of us will travel into Brinewell to find the warding box talked about in the letter. The others will stay with the caravan to guard it and take care of Ameiko.

Dearest Abby,

We have made it to Riddleport today. First encounter with Ogres as good as we can hope for, I never was closer then 25 feet from any of the Ogres. In Riddleport we spent most of our time in the trader area and not so much in the city proper. The archway over the city is as amazing as the stories that we have heard about it growing up. If it wasn’t such a long and dangerous trip I would suggest that you and Billy make the trip.

It was really great to get out and start seeing the world. I am still trying to figure out and fit in with the others. I finally feel like Etayne has stopped watching me just waiting for me to do something she would not approve of. I have not figured out if it is me or just human men.  I get the strong sense that Kali, Sparna, Olmas, and Etayne tend towards having things orderly. It is not clear to me if Radella and Anavaru tend toward chaos as I do or toward order like the others. Luckily the beloved Qatana is far more Chaotic then even me so the attention is not on me at this time.

On the trip here through the smaller towns I have been assigned as a scout. I think this has gone a long ways to reducing the tension between me and the ones craving order. I have also been working on new skills to make me more valuable for future caravans. To that end I am learning how to be a caravan driver. Guard and scout pay a lot better but being able to be a backup driver may in the future get me a job on a caravan going some place interesting.

I am excited about getting to our destination (I will keep the name out of this letter just in case) and see the wonders of this great adventure. I talked with some of the other caravan owners to get a feel for how often they hire on help. It looks as if they routinely are looking for help. Once we get done with this big adventure I will have to see what the others intend to do. The plan is to go on this adventure and then return to Sandpoint. I am wondering if I should make the trip all the way back to Sandpoint or just get a job on a different caravan heading someplace interesting. I have decided to wait until we get back to Riddleport and then find out what the others plan to do.

Love Ivan

P.S. Here is a drawing of Riddleport. It is not as good as being here but still interesting.

=== Sarenith 23, 4712; later in the day===

We fought our way through to the goblin king’s throne room; I guess this is really the goblin chief. I looked down the hallway only to discover that there is no way that I am going to get into that room. These were not big rooms so I am not sure how we would all get into the room and have the space to fight. I stayed back and watched the gate through the doorway. My first real use of the bless spell. I know Koya really believes in the little words of encouragement before casting spells such as these but I couldn’t remember what I wrote down. Instead of taking the time to find the paper with the message I instead just decided that I am no longer going to even try to encourage people; the effect of the spell should be enough.

They allowed Qatana up front and she was the one to break open the doors. I couldn’t really see much but I did see the explosion as the fireworks engulfed a lot of the party. Qatana said that she after that did something called a channel to do a group heal. I think it is like my spell bless; where it bursts out from me. Whereas my spell only affects people that I trust her channel affects everyone within range. She said she has the ability to exclude some number of people. Through this discussion I learned from her that burst spells like bless or her channel are blocked by things like walls. So I have to remember that people around the corner will not get the goodness of the spell.

Those that could fit  inside the room finished off the goblins and the goblin chief. Ears have been removed and we have the head of the goblin chief. Someone found a hidden room and Olmas used his Axe to create a door way. Kali was on and on about the strange language on the box and some of the items. A fan in the chest provides a crude map of Brinestump march with X’s to mark spots. We decided to first go to the one towards the coast near by.

I found my arrows and mended them. I also found and mended Radella’s arrows. We have the goblin ears and the chief’s head. The chief was using a masterwork composite longbow. After discussion I am currently the holder of the longbow. Radella wasn’t sure if she could use a longbow. I really need one that adds my strength to the damage.

The longbow is not as good as the one over at the general store. The composite masterwork at the store had a stronger pull so that it would do more damage. They said that they had recently obtained this longbow for a good price; normally most people just by the standard composite masterwork longbow. The longbow I wanted was 600 gold; 200 gold more than the standard composite masterwork longbow. I originally went to pick up cold iron arrows. Alistair told me that when I go out into the world to get cold iron arrows to help against those pesky red caps. While I was there the clerk showed me these blunt arrows. When I asked why someone would by them she didn’t really have a good answer. She just told me to think about it as being able to punch someone from 100 feet away. I had money and could not resist. She also showed me blanches for weapons. It’s a one use type of thing that for me would cover 10 arrows. I was going to skip these until she explained that I would have to pre-treat with a hot flame to set it. It cost 5 gold to make 10 of my cold iron arrows to also have the silver trait. She explained it as getting through damage reduction of some creatures. Maybe someday I will figure out what to use silver on.

I still remember how much fun it was to create a hot flame to set the weapon blanches on the 10 arrows. It actually didn’t take that long and I kind of wish I bought more. I spent more time playing with the fire then actually applying blanches to the arrows. I will just have to carry around the blunt arrows and the blanched silver arrows until I can figure out when to use them.

Speaking of bows Rarallo has some supper cool bows. The last time I was there He showed me a +1 holy darkwood composite longbow that was ordered. When I asked about cost Rarallo said this cost 18,000 gold. How can anyone afford that much gold? When I asked him what holy does he told me that it does more damage to those that are evil and aligns the weapon good. When I asked how to you know if something is evil he just said “just wait for the Paladin to proclaim that it is evil”. I didn’t really understand. I thought if the bow is expensive then I will maybe buy some arrows. 50 arrows of holy cost as much as the bow; 18 thousand gold. He doesn’t normally stock holy arrows so I would have to buy all 50. Some things like fire arrows sell better so he sells them by arrow for 160 gold per arrow or 8,000 if you want 50. There was something called bane that he sold buy the arrow but only the version for animal. Turns out that some well to do merchants get together for hunts and they each secretly buy these bane animal arrows to get the edge. These bane animal arrows can be purchased for 160 gold each. If I ever get lots of money for magic bows I might need more then one. Oh, Rarallo also showed me this efficient quiver that would hold 60 arrows and store other things like extra bows. We went out back and Rarallo let me try a flame longbow and the efficient quiver. Way cool. This quiver actually lets you pull the arrow you want. For demonstration he had me shoot two arrows one blue and one red. This is really cool. When I mended his arrows with magic Rarallo suggested that maybe I should in the future consider learning to enchant weapons or magic items. Rarallo sells the efficient quiver for 1,800 gold; much more then I have. Coming from the farm I have a hard time figuring out how people can afford these things.

I am also carrying 2 of the 5 bane animal arrows that we found. I wonder if these were created by Rarallo. These plus the longbow are really on loan until we get to town and begin selling things.

Let see. Ok we headed through the marsh over to the “X” near the coastline. At the point where the “X” was we found a ship with some strange writings on them. The goblins were piled up out side and have been there for a couple of weeks. Some of the others did some searching inside the ship but they really didn’t find anything and this ship is dangerous and falling apart. There was some strange writing on the ship and even Kali could not read. Kali really puts a lot of importance in knowing languages. Once again in the goblin fort they kept speaking in some strange language so I had no clue what they were talking about. Supposedly I was supposed to know what the hell they were saying.

Finding nothing of interest we head out of the marsh. We headed over to one of the next “X” spots. We arrive just before sunset and discovered that the boney footprints come and go from a cave. We back tracked and made camp near the lost coast road.

=== Sarenith 24, 4712; ===

Morning arrived and I spent my 15 minutes of focus on energies of my spells to refresh. I looked over to see Kali and Etayne still focused on this task. I have been watching the other spell casters over the last two days to see how they perform this ritual. As far as I can tell Qatana prays similar to Koya. Kali seems to spend her time reading through her book and Etayne does some animal thing with her fox. It all looks so natural when they are doing there thing. What they do looks complicated. It looks like these people have been working on there magic for some time. The other three kept talking about what spells to memorize for the day and I don’t know what this means. When they ask me I just say that I have cure wounds, bless, and magic weapon. They seem to be oh ok so I guess that is the right answer? I have the spells that I can cast continually throughout the day and then those 3 spells. I keep practicing the new spells that I am trying to learn but I just haven’t yet gotten it correct.

The snare trap I set last night didn’t catch anything so rations for today. We broke camp and headed back down the path towards the bottom of the cliff and then over to the cave. On the second spider I moved in behind Ana and shot the spider. In the end Ana took her nice looking Greatsword and carved up the spider. I retrieved my arrow and used mend to fix the arrow. With a light source Qatana pushed her way forward. Sparna and Etayne checked out a path that led to a pool with a strange creature inside. I took a light over so Etayne could see but in the end Sparna pretty much took care of this thing. The others had a name for the creature but I don’t remember what they called it.

A little further down we found the large group of skeletons. I think it was Qatana who said that you need blunt weapons against skeletons. Ha how I found a use for those blunt weapons. So I out 5 in my quiver and held two for the first shot. The fist shots were dead on and took down a skeleton. After that it was the luck of the draw. I really wish I had that efficient quiver.

Qatana said “fall back” so I did. But then the rest of them had no way to fall back so I move forward. Qatana’s health was becoming and issue so I started to move in to help with healing. I indented to cast then step into melee to keep spell casting simple but Olmas backed up bringing the skeletons with him. Olmas was almost dead so I attempted a tricky defensive casting. It’s really hard and I wasn’t really sure if it was going to work. I either need to learn how to get better at casting defensively or stop doing it at all.

Olmas now healed he runs to the other members of the group to help them leaving the skeleton attacking me when I don’t have a melee weapon out. I took damage staying there to help him and he just runs off to find glory. Luckly Sparna stepped over to help out with the skeleton. I am not sure if Olmas running towards what he thought was a bigger battle or afraid of this skeleton. As we had defeated all of the skeletons I got after him about it and he just said that the others needed his help. I am clearly not running into melee to heal Olmas again; it is too dangerous. He has been almost dead twice in the last two days; he is on his own if it happens a third time. These skeletons didn’t have anything of value so I just repaired my arrows and put the blunt arrows back in my backpack.

Moving onto the next room we of course find a skeleton on another chest. He wasn’t moving so I took the time to pull two blunt arrows; At least I will get one good shot off. After several failed throws to get his attention Qatana throws her light rock and hits the skeleton. He stands up points at Olmas and says something that I do not understand. Olmas responds spouting some crap and steps forward. Sparna goes to disarm the skeleton and gets hit really hard before nicely disarming the skeleton. I was able to heal up Sparna after his bold move. This may have saved a lot of damage from this skeleton.

With the skeleton dispatched we found that his sword had some heavy magic on it. It was magic and did something special so it is even more expensive. From my talks with Rarallo it is worth 8000 to 18000 gold if purchased from a store; not sure how much they will buy it for. Even at half price this is a lot of money. We also have a number of other magic items that can bring in money as well. I didn’t pay attention to everything in either chest but I saw Qatana creating inventory and she has normally been straight forward on things.

We have a lot of stuff so we need to go back to town. It would be nice to check out the other ship but we figure that we would need a boat from town to get there. Once I get my one eighth of the loot plus what ever we find out the boat I will hopefully have enough to get away from Sandpoint and see the world.