~An excerpt from the Journal of Devin Swift~
Day 1 of my return home.
It's amazing how the storms of life lead one along paths they never expect to follow. Such is what has happened to me. I left home, thinking I would never be back, and boom, here I am, once again in dreary little Diamond Lake. I thought that as a sailor, life would take me great distances away... but Procan apparently had other ideas. I've been praying alot lately, and I believe Procan wants be to preach to those in town. The only problem is, I need to make a living somehow to support that....
Day 4 of my return
I've met many I know since I last wrote in here, including the wretched creature who once called himself my older brother. To think that he had the nerve to drop the Swift family name for that of some shining Cuthbertian hero. What, are we not good enough for him?!? Well, I say good riddance. If he would forsake us, I say we should foresake him. Besides, the only good thing any Cuthbertian ever did was get himself killed so's the rest of us don't have to listen to him prattling on about laws and such...
That said, Ive met some of the more useful members of the family too. I stopped in at the old farm where my younger brother Jack was working hard (as usual) repairing the barn, and who should show up 15 minutes later but Richard. It's funny though, he seems a little more standoffish than before and there is something about his appearance... eh, maybe I am just imagining things. But he mentioned that Hal and May, tow of my other siblings, are also in town and they have a potential job. This could fund me for months if it works out...
Day 6
So after talking with May, Hal, Richard and a couple of their friends, (including a weird little bat creature with a nasty looking barb on his tail called Kupo) we have decided to head across the lake to the Whispering Cairn, where rumors say there may be treasure to be found. Like as not we find nothing, but such is the will of the Storm Lord. The Mighty One may be capricious, but I pray for his allowance...
We ended up crossing the lake on the boat of some cult who embrace death... they tried to convert the small bat creature, but I did my best to convince him that death is something that may happen, but the Storm Lord teaches us to embrace the storm of life, not the blackness of death. Then he went fishing, and by Procan's grace wasn't pulled overboard by a giant pike.
I should also mention there were some snooty Greyhawk adventurers aboard who seemed to think they know everything about where the real treasures lie. When they went off in the opposite direction when we were ashore I could barely contain my laughter at their idiocy. Everyone knows the cairns they went to were cleaned out long ago.
Day 6, after lunch
We stopped at an old overseer's shack on the way to the cairn and laid claim to the property rights. After setting out again, some lizardmen tried to ambush us, and the lone survivor tried to claim we had snuck up on them and they were only defending themselves. Likely story! After sending the paladin, who is as snooty as they come, off on a little jaunt, we dealt with the remaining survivor and headed off for the Cairn.
After a search, we found the Cairn and I must say that the sounds coming from it still raise the hairs on the back of my neck. After some exploration (where we found some interesting markings on the wall, an old sleeping bag, and a strange device)several in the group moved deeper in because it seemed likely the sounds were just the wind. I advanced forward to this rocky area that looked interesting, and tumbling out of an opening several growling and nashing balls of fur leaped forward and attacked me. I went down within seconds.
I found out when I regained conciousness several hours later that they were wolves, and the party was lucky to survive the attack. I found out that we have moved into their lair and are staying here while the wounded members of the party are tended to.
Day 8
We are finally healed enough to move on...
Cool. I was going to start up the campaign journal, but I kinda was putting it off until this weekend cause of the new job... tonight and tommorow night I get to pull allnighters to get ready to work graveyards starting sunday... so the middle of the night is the perfect time to write DND stuff like campaign journals and queries...
expect my entry(s) tonight.
~An excerpt from the Journal of Devin Swift~
...We are now healed enought to move on...
Um... some of us were always able to move on under our own power, others of us (unfortunately the ones with magical healing abilities) had to spend a few days healing before they regained conciousness... :-)
Note: We really need to try and buy a wand of healing or some scrolls, so that the three of us with UMD can heal Devin if/when he goes down again.
Journal of Halloran Swift - Day 1
We met at the Feral Dog early in the morning, all eager to hear Kupo's plan to earn enough money to get out of this gods-forsaken hellhole we call home... well, all of us except Devin and Asuna. Those two want to earn money to help them establish their ministry(s) and clean up this town. A worthwhile goal, but hardly one I think is realistic. I'll settle for making enough money to never have to come back to Diamond Lake again.
Kupo's plan basically boiled down to investigating the old Whispering Cairn on the other side of the lake for any left-over treasure that previous generations had somehow missed. Not the most brilliant plan, but it beats going back to being a dirt farmer or toiling in the mines.
Richard was all for it, and so was May. Both of them wanted the money like I did, and perhaps more importantly, both wanted out of Diamond Lake for a few days, since apparently they were feeling the gaze of our estranged brother more than usual.
Leah is a friend of Richard's. I don't know much about her, but he vouches for her. If he'll take my word about Kupo, I can't hardly doubt his word about Leah.
Asuna is another friend, or rather former friend, of Richard and May... last I heard she was on the fast track to becoming the latest town crazy, but she sounds intelligent enough. When she isn't arguing with herself. Apparently she can more than handle herself in a fight, which is reason enough to bring her I guess.
We set out from the Feral Dog to the docks, and quickly booked passage on a boat across the lake. Unfortunately, those adventurers from the Free City were on the boat too, and it almost came to blows when they saw Kupo. And again when my idiot friends told them what we were doing. Turns out they had the same idea, just they weren't heading to the same cairn. And I lost a handful of silver dicing with Kupo, Leah and one of the sailors. All in all, not a good voyage.
After we got off on shore, we had a bit of a standoff with those Free City jerks. Neither team wanted to leave first, and give away the direction of their "claim." Eventually, they left the beach first, then we headed towards where Devin and I remembered the Whispering Cairn was.
Along the way, we detoured to an old mine building nearby. May had remembered it was out here (I don't know how she knows where it was, but she did), and we figured it would make a good campsite if this took a few days.
After that, we headed towards the hills in the general direction of the Cairns. Next thing I know, Kupo is screaming in that high pitched voice of his, and a bunch of scaly Lizardmen are jumping out the bushes!
Lucky for me, most of them jumped on Kupo and his riding dog. I guess they thought that he was a demon or something... well, I guess he is technically, but I don't really think of him that way. Anymore.
Devin, Asuna & Leah leaped into the fray to even the odds, while May used her bow to good effect. Which reminds me to ask my sister how exactly she became such a good shot working at the Emporium...
Dark shadow claws raked one Lizardman to bloody gibblets as Richard worked his newfound powers, while I quickly invoked my own limited repetoire. A few short spells later, I was dead tired, like I had worked a whole shift in the mines. But I had burned a hole right through the chest of a lizardman who was about to spear Kupo, and I'd also stunned a pair who were charging Richard and myself.
May took a look at the situation and read my hand gestures, and she talked Asuna and Leah into scouting the area with her, to make sure there weren't any more scaly monsters in the bushes.
That left the two lizardfolk with Richard, Devin and myself. We bound them before they could recover from being stunned, then asked them a few questions. After getting past the language barrier, we got a few answers. Apparently they were the only raiding party, and they had been sent forth by their shaman to collect a few human scalps. Not exactly a good enough answer for why they ambushed us, so Devin and Richard made quick work of our captives. I'm not exactly inclined to show mercy to someone that looks at me as lunch.
The lizardfolk did have a few javelins and some coins that we recovered, which doesn't bode well for whoever they got the coins from in the first place. And they all had some sort of talisman around their necks as well. I don't recognize it, so I grabbed one to take back to Allustan later. Oh, and they had a lot of smoked fish. That made Kupo happy, but I for one would of liked it a lot better if they had been carrying some nice steaks. As long as they were beef.
Journal of Halloran Swift - Day 1 continued
After the fight with the Lizardmen, I was ready to call it a day and head back to the mine office to rest. Maybe with more practice I'll be better, but right now I feel like sleeping off the hangover caused by firing off those spells in quick sucession.
But I got outvoted by the rest of the group, since they didn't want to waste any daylight. Devin prayed to his seagod and patched up our wounded, and off we went.
And then it started to rain. Hard. Maybe we should of looked a little farther a field from Diamond Lake and recruited a ranger from the Lodge, since none of my idiotic companions had thought to bring a cloak. Devin didn't seem to care that he was soaked, but everyone else was b&@*~ing and complaining. I wanted to head back to the office while it was still nice outside, but I didn't want to rub it in while I was warm and dry under my jacket.
Anyways, after a bit of searching, we located the entrance to the Cairn behind an overgrown hedge, and entered.
I'm surprised any of them remembered torches, since they forgot their cloaks, but they did bring some. While they tried to get the wet torches to light, I ignored my headache briefly to invoke a light spell.
I started to examine the carvings and glyphs in the entrance hall, while the others got their torches lit and moved off deeper. Kupo and I had progressed to the second set of alcoves and was starting to investigate the remains of a mystic device when I heard screams. And growls.
I found out later that Devin and Asuna had stumbled upon a pack of wolves lairing in the cairn. Devin went down almost immediately, and Asuna didn't far much better against those steep odds, although she did go down swinging and crying out to Heironeous.
May, Leah and Richard moved in with bow, sword and shadow magic respectively, while I tried to invoke the brilliant cone of light I had used to stun the lizardmen earlier. I tried, but failed, and my headache got worse.
Gripping my staff, I rushed in starting taking 2-handed swings. Luckily for us, Asuna was down, but not out, and her flail knocked a few of the buggers down to her level. I seized the opportunity and repeatedly hit the felled wolves while they couldn't evade me.
A few short seconds later the fight was over. 7 wolf corpses lay around us, and a few other wolves had fled after we established dominance, but we had taken wounded as well. Devin had gone down in the first onslaught, and Asuna had succumbed to her wounds and slipped into unconciousness as well. Leah had also passed out from blood loss after a nasty bite. And Kupo was nowhere to be seen. I last remembered seeing him "riding" one of the fleeing wolves as he repeatedly stung it.
Richard kept watch while May and I tended to our fallen comrades, stablizing thier wounds and dragging them into the wolf-den, our "new base of operations."
Kupo eventually came back, after having gone for a wild ride and tumble down some stairs before his ride had fallen to his poison. Leah was ok, just needed a little rest. Asuna looked a little worse, but nothing major. Unfortunately, the only member able to heal with magic was Devin, and he was in the roughest shape.
May and I made him as comfortable as possible, and then we settled in to the wolf-lair and waited, With half our group down, there was no way we could trek back to the office, let alone back to town. So the only choice was to wait in the cairn until at least one of them could walk under their own power.
Day 2
Still waiting. Getting low on torches.
Day 3
Still waiting. I hate smoked fish.
Day 4
Finally, everyone is up and mobile again. We did a little more exploring, and then I set fire to the cobwebs blocking the hall.
Maybe cobwebs isn;t the right term, I'll have to ask Allustan what the exact term is for webs that house one big-ass spider the size of pig. And also thousands of little spiders the size of my thumb.
Well, hopefully the fire took care of those little buggers, since I'm starting to hate spiders as this wound starts to throb, May says it doesn't look good, but Devin doesn't think he can cure it. Maybe my brother should of chosen a real god to worship.
Now we are back at the office and resting overnight. I'll have to see how my shoulder is in the morning. If I can operate with it in a sling, thats what I'll have to do. I refuse to go back empty handed to my eldest brother to get healed. I'll have to either tough it out, or hang in there long enough to get enough loot to pay the heironeous priests to cure me. I wonder what those crazy Wee Jas cultists charge for healing poison?
Day 8, continued
In order to make things easier when we get back, the party decided to burn a little of the webbing blocking the tunnel further down. A bunch of spiders came out, including one rather large one, but luckily the bat creature seems to immune to their bites and he was front and center. After killing the big one, we fled when a couple others threw torches into the webbing and a swarm of the eight-legged creatures came out.
Running outside, we realized at this point that it was very dark and storming, and while I didn't mind it so much, I suggested we head back just inside the entrance to the cairn so some of the weaker ones wouldn't catch cold.
I examined some of the markings near the entrance at this point and realized that the sounds of moaning appeared to be coming from some small holes in the walls, and they seemed to be man-made. Perhaps they were designed to scare us and those like us away? If anything maybe this increases the likelihood of treasure...
From there I decided to pray for some more spells as my selection was largely depleted at this point, and it was lucky too. Though we managed to burn out most of the webbing and get by the spiders with no major catastrophe, when my brother Richard and the imp snuck down the stairs afterwards and began exploring, disaster struck.
It seems Richard was enveloped by some hideous cloaklike creature that had hidden in the shadows above and dropped down to engulf him. Since the rest of the party had no idea what had happened but heard screaming, we ran down the stairs and attacked the writhing body-shaped object. Luckily we only knocked my younger brother unconcious killing the monster, and my spells soon got him up and walking again.
At this point I realized we were in some vast chamber with an ornately carved sarcophagus in the center with 5 lanterns hung at the end of 7 hallways, with a green one being lit. But with my eyes looking for treasure, it took little prodding for Hal to convince me that prodding off the lid to the sarcophagus might be a good idea. With a crowbar we soon had the lid open, and just then a flash of fie singed us all. Assuming that this was a one-time effect, Hal shone a light into the slightly ajar coffin just as we were hit by another burst of fire. Hal went down and someone in the party pulled him back as the rest of us stepped back just as another burst of flame eminated, narrowly missing us. With the few healing spells I had left I healed Hal just enough to wake him, but at this point now the only spell I have left is one to help with communication, which may be useful later but is of little help now...
So with the fire trap going off every 6 seconds or so, we decided to light the lantern above the alcove that the coffin was pointing towards, and a strange tube came out of the floor, with a door that opened.
After much cajoling, we convinced Hal to come into the tube despite his fear of small, dark spaces. While waiting for the whole party to come down, we noticed that there were carvings down here similar to those on the sarcophagus above, and a large rock blocking a passageway ahead. Kupo the bat creature has decided to squeeze past and look to see what is there and is bringing his report back just as I am writing this and the rest of the party is coming down the large tube device....
Well, alot has happened since I last had a chance to write anything in here, and not alot of it was good. It is now the 20th day of our group's adventure, but I think I'll go back to the 8th day...
I last wrote that we had found a way to make the tube device work and had headed down the tube. Well, when we had all gotten down there we realized that there was a passageway ahead, but it was blocked by a gigantic stone block. Kupo, being the adventuresome soul he was, decided to squeeze between the stone and the doorway and explore ahead. As the rest of us were attempting to dislodge the stone, he was attacked by a hideous flying cave creature that looked something like a bat only larger and more disgusting. It somehow stunned him, but by this point we had knocked over the stone, only to have it fall on my brother Richard. At this point some sort of gas was released and half the party went down, including myself. It actually came down to only my brother Hal and the monster. I shudder to think that this creature might have eaten us all had my brother gone down too.
Luckily the gas had only knocked us out, and shortly after most of us were up and able to move again following a few healing spells. However, we decided that it might be best if we were to rest up a bit before moving on.
Day 9
After my daily prayer-chant to Procan, I was able to heal the others once more and we decided to explore farther down the tunnel. So we discovered a room with a large column in the middle with three rooms off of it, a fountain of some sort, and some creepy looking fungus. In the room opposite the fungus we found what we thought might have been a magic hat of some sort. So of course instead of waiting for the rogue to look for any traps my silly brother Richard decides to head forward and try to put it on. At that point the hat started trying to eat him, and someone, perhaps Hal, mentioned that it was a monster he had heard about that could disguise itself as items to fool prey. Of course, Asuna the paladin tried to swing his morningstar at the beast but managed to injure the rest of the party more than the creature. (It just shows what happens when you allow rigid-thinking types to impose their rules on life!) Finally, we took down the creature, but not before Asuna had taken down most of the party with it. So we hunkered down and planned to wait a few days before moving on while healing up.
Day 10
I healed most of the party but the rogue is still down and several party members are still feeling quite bruised. I healed Kupo well though, and it may have been a mistake to start with him because he is quite antsy to get going.
Day 11
Hal and Richard decided to check out the mold across the central room from us, and while fooling around with it, they somehow made it expand to fill more of the room. They said it had something to do with fire, even though it is intensely cold. Richard thought to bring some back with him as we had decided to leave as we were running short on foodstuffs and torches, but it may have been a mistake. The stuff is so cold everyone near him was injured even though we could somehow withstand it. We made him travel behind the rest of the group, but the moss had started to eat through the bag. We all ran ahead before he ran past the fire trap we had set off, and the moss went crazy. It somehow destroyed the trap, but not before the moss filled the entire floor surface of the sarcophagus chamber. Richard was lucky to make it out alive after I went back and dragged him out, and we went to the foreman's shack we found before and spent the night there.
Also, Kupo managed to disappear somewhere. Several party members saw him heading off to a room with a toilet near where the moss originally was and he never came back. There were no signs of him in the bathroom and I wonder if maybe he was just getting bored with sitting around. Maybe we will see him again sometime soon.
Day 12
We marched back down to the waterside and started a fire to signal the death goddess ship, which took us back to town, and after we all bought supplies, Asuna headed off on some business and the rest of us went to the druid grove outside town to find out more about the moss. We found out that the only way to get rid of this moss was to hit it with lightning, which none of us can currently do, or to put lime, a byproduct of mining, on it. We headed back to town and stayed at the Feral Dog for the night.