Geode Fe

We traveled on to a little town. We stopped for supplies and for a rest. It has been an exciting journey so far!

We woke up in the morning to find Bailey's bed cold. He left a note, saying he wasn't cut out for such a journey, and decided to go back home. I can't beleive he would just run away like that. I hope he makes it back ok.

It's amazing how fast I spent up my 10 gold. I talked to the shopkeeper in town, and he is willing to take a few chests for trade. I spent the day fashioning some chests out of the nice, aged wood we found in the abandoned farm. I was able to trade these for some snare wire, and a few other items I will need for our adventure.

Evy is holding something back on us. She somehow had hid the gold to buy a wagon and horses! I am not sure if blowing up one of the shopkeeper's display cases had anything to do with it. She also produced a very expensive silver rose. She pricked both Cal and my hands, and now we each have a rose shaped scar.

We somehow manage to make it out of town without the townspeople chasing us down. I am not sure if I want to stop here again on the way back. It will be difficult to drive this heavy wagon that the smith had built around the town.

4 days out of town, we where ambushed by 5 giant spiders. We had driven out onto a huge web, spun tight against the ground.

I managed to shoot 2 of the spiders, only hitting one of the horses on accident - twice. The horse is ok, that silver rose scar somehow has a magical healing power to hit.

Further down the road, we are attacked by 3 giant scorpians. They attack the wagon and cart, and break tow of the wheels. They also killed one of the horses. It took me much of the day to repair the broken wheels into a wheel, and put on the spare wheel. That wagon is way to heavy for what we are using it for.

We make camp not far down the road, exhausted from the past 2 days ordeals. Short 1 horse, and the rest quite worse for wear.

The next morning as we are breaking camp, I start hualing water from the pond where Cal and Evy are bathing to the water barrels. I am nearly finished when those two start a water fight with each other. Next thing I know, I am pulled into the water. At first I thought they where including me in their fun, but they where on shore, and looked quite as much surprised as I was. I fought and struggled to swim to shore, but the water kept pulling me deeper into the pond. Cal threw a rope and after much kicking and near drowning, he managed to pull me out.

Then the water came out after me. Evy said it was a water elemental. I didn't think they where real! She magiced a fireball at it and I think she killed it, or boiled it, or whatever you do to a water elemental to make it leave you alone.

We hadn't so much as dried off or made it out of site of the pond, and a wizardly looking fellow appears and tells us he would need to take care of us himself. Evy and him seemed to know each other, as they shared words. I don't know who started it, but the next thing we know, we are all fighting for our life.

Somehow, I still can't remember or figure out how, the fight is over, with Cal, Evy and I still standing, and this Alrec fella dead on the ground. I didn't think I would be killing people on this journey. Maybe that is why we are being paid so well.

Evy made a big deal out of cremating the body - getting every single part of him.

This guy had some weird stuff! There is this bag, the size of a gunny sack that on the inside is like the size of a whole smokehouse! I really don't understand this magic stuff. I am dealing with the stuff of leagends - stuff my dad had told me about in the storys. I didn't know it was all real!

We where running low on water. Traveling can be tough this time of year, with water being scarce. I am not familiar with this area, so I don't know where the next stream is. We decided to go to the next farm we found, knowing there would be water there.

We ended up traveling past the farm, before we found the cart trail that lead to it. Backtracking a couple of miles was probably a lot faster than trying to take a cart across country.

When we arrived at the farm, we where quite dismayed to find it abandoned. The thatch roof on the house had fallen in, and the doors on the barn had fallen off. But the worst thing, is there wasn't a well in sight!

We decided to stable there for the night anyhow, as it was too late to travel down the rough path to the main road. I discovered the well in the barn, covered up. Who would put a well in a barn? I guess they where too lazy to haul water for the livestock, and built the barn over the well.

I think we found out why the farm was abandoned. The well was essentially dry. We worked on digging some of the mud out of the well so we could get some water out after we let it settle.

I put the wolf up in the chicken coup for the night. Lets see how he fares in the morning.

There is an interesting aspect to traveling with an enchantress. They seem to be quite impatient, and some mighty strange stuff can occur when they decide they want something now.

Elva blew my horse up, and didn't even ask me first! No no, she didn't call a ball of fire, she made it HUGE! Just like I got to be really huge, she made the horse giant. She had me rig up a harness from the rope I had so it could pull the cart.

Man did it fly! Whoever thought that making a horse's stride twice as long would make it travel twice as fast.

I guess that much meat was more then the local wolves could ignore, as we attracted a following. by the end of the day, only 4 wolves had managed to keep up. Being that they where desperate enough to follow 4 people, Cal felt it prudent to set out our bear traps over night to possibly deter or prevent them from entering camp.

I must say, for a city folk, he makes sense sometimes. He caught 3 of them over night. Quite dramatically too, I might add!

In the morning, I decided to track the 4th one for a ways, to see if we had ran it off for good or not. You would never believe it, but I tracked it right around camp and directly into it! Here, this wolf was so desperate for food, it snuck into camp in the middle of the night, and started rummaging around in our cart.

It looks like it hadn't expected Elva though. She caught it unawares on her way to the cart for bed, and she spelled it to sleep.

I managed to put a rope around it and tied it to the back of the cart short enough that it can't reach our gear and tear it up. I then brought over some food for it. It has obviously gotten over a lot of it's fear of humans, so I am thinking I might be able to tame it enough that we can use it for hunting and night guard.

I hope I didn't leash a monster...

Our journey is taking longer then it ought to. I had expected to arrive in the next town tomorrow or the next day. It appears we are probably only about half way there! It doesn't help that Bailey is out cold. I think Elva was practicing some of her magic, and cast a sleep spell on him. She was probably sick of his inane yammerings about his one true god and so on and so forth. Can't say I blame her, but couldn't she have just told him to shut up? Now we gotta cart his heavy ass around until he snaps out of it!

We encountered a traveler bringing some grain to market on a pack-horse. I couldn't see how that could be profitable until I purchased half of his load! 5 times the normal rate. Talk about highway robbery!

About noon a storm overtook us. We decided to keep traveling in the rain. I am used to the rain, so that didn't bother me. Everybody else seemed to cope with it better than I thought they would. Even Bailey, with a lot of help for me. I set up some of the canvas father had me buy over the cart like a tent so he wouldn't catch cold or rust up in his sleep. We trudged through some NASTY rain until sunset, when the rain lessened enough that we could see more then 5 feet in front of us. We must have missed a turn in the road, as there was a tree right in front of us.

We decide that enough damage had been done, walking however far off the road we where, and set camp under the tree. I curled up under the cart. I woke up to something a little larger then any of us going through the cart. I look out from under the cart to see a bear paw. I reach over and tap Cal awake, and he starts muttering to himself.

I roll out from under the cart and try to start calming the bear, and convincing it that Bailey wasn't very good to eat. Much to tough, more work then it's worth. This was going well until Elva woke up and freaked out. She started screeching and carrying on to get away from the cart. I reach out grab my bow and quiver out of the corner of the cart and back away from the cart. Then she did something even more rash, she attacked the bear by casting a spell on it. I am not sure what turning the bear blue was meant to do, but it did mean I can see it well in the dark. About this time, it finds one of the bear traps we had set and disguised in the cart for bandits which clamps down on it's paw. Elva then does something sensible and summons a dire scorpion.

I start shooting at the bear. I am not sure if it disliked that more then the scorpion, because it turned and ripped it's paw right off! The scorpion vanishes and I feel myself stretch. I look down and I grew twice as big as I was. I take off after the bear, but cant catch it.

Now we are lost, and have an angry three legged bear wandering around nearby. I slept great underneath the cart the rest of the night.

I wish we could say we had an uneventful day. While we didn't get into any trouble ourselves, we did come across a lot of other people's troubles.

A couple of hours into the day's journey, we came across a broken wagon along the road. Beside the wagon where 9 dead bodies. 8 of them looked like they had been decapitated in their sleep. The ninth had been hit by lightening, but not during a storm. Quite a gruesome mess!

We buried the bodies and searched the broken wagon, but it had been picked clean. This could only mean bandits. But to murder 9 people in their sleep? I would think if you let them live, you can rob them again next time they came through.

Farther down the road, we came across a ditch dug across the road in a spot where you can't drive around it. We had to stop to dig the sides shallower and fill it in some so we could get our cart across it. A bit of searching around revealed that this looks like it was an intentional trap designed to slow travelers down and allowing for an ambush.

The best we can figure, the party we had met yesterday where the rouges bringing their booty to market, and they stole it from the dead people we buried along side the road.

They have 2 full days ahead of us, even with the cattle, they would make it into town and be lost to us before we could do anything to bring them to justice. I guess we will just have to let the next town know what kind of trouble there is on the road.

We packed up at dawn and returned to the road for the forest. I wonder what these mushrooms taste like. They have got to be good if we are traveling all this way for just a couple of them.

We make half a day before we notice smoke back towards the direction we came from. It appeared to be from on the farms we had seen from the road. We decide to see if we can offer a hand in putting out the fire, so we hurry to the location of the fire.

We could not believe what we came upon. The farmhouse was on fire. A quick search around the house showed nobody living in the house. There where a few wolf bodies in the building. Bailey went charging in the front door. I had to drag him back outside before he killed himself.

Cal and Elva where attending to Bailey. So I went around to the barn to see if there was anybody around. I just about walked in on 4 wolves eating a sheep in the middle of the barn. I drew and fired on the closest wolf and slammed the door shut. Cal came up to the barn door and opened the door and went in with Bailey right behind him to attack the wolves. I ran around to the back of the barn as I couldn't shoot with them in between me and the wolves.

Cal and I where doing a good job of taking care of the wolves when Bailey caught up with his cross bow and shot at one of the wolves. I saw shot at and not shot because, well, he hit Cal in the calf.

This gave the wolves an upper hand, and if Elva hadn't showed up about the same time a wolf had Bailey by the arm, those two may have been lost. She cast some spell causing the wolves to go into convulsions, and Cal and I managed to finish them off even with his bum leg.

While Cal and Bailey where busy fixing themselves up, I searched the barn and found a little girl up in the hay mound. I handed her down to Elva. The little girl calmed down under Elva's care.

I did a quick search around the perimeter of the property looking for more threats. Upon finding none, and the house fire dieing down, I did a quick search of the house. There where several human bodies and several wolf bodies.

An evening storm was fast approaching so we decided to bunk down in the barn for the night. We weren't in much condition to travel anyway. I brought the horse and cart into the barn for the night.

We had a restful night sleep. In the morning Bailey and I buried the 6 bodies we found in the house. It had been decided to see if the farm we had seen a few miles away knew this family, and would take the little girl in. The trip to the neighboring farm was uneventful. I think the little girl was in complete shock from loosing her family. When we arrived, the neighbors where just finishing up digging a small grave. They had also been attacked by wolves, and lost their youngest boy. They where quite shaken that the other farm had been essentially wiped out save this little girl. They agreed to take her in as she was the same age as the boy they had just lost. We left the few valuables we found for the little girl in their care.

We had an uneventful journey back to the road. Save a single farmers cart, we saw nobody else on the road the rest of the day.

Journey's Start

Packing up all my gear, I left early so I can make it to meet my friends at sunrise outside the 11 story tall octagon tower located in the south east corner of the city.

We all arrive at sunrise and have a terrible time trying to knock on the front door of the wizards tower. There is a 40 yard area around the tower that looks like it was used as a horse corral, and then a funeral pyre. All churned up and covered in ash. Bailey, such a trusting cleric, goes to walk right out into this death zone. A hasty grab pulls him back with only an acid burned foot.

A bit of careful searching finds what appears to be a path, but the first step down it, the side of the tower falls down like a draw-bridge and nearly smashes us flat. We gingerly traverse this wall-stone bridge over the death zone to reach a trap door in the floor. Bailey heads down the 3 story ladder and puts up quite the fuss when he gets to the bottom. He started hooting and hollering about where did we go, and why did we leave him all alone. I reach the bottom of the ladder, and I see what he was making the ruckus about. The ladder quite disappeared, and the room we where standing in had a ceiling much lower then the height we had climbed down from. It was quite unnerving watching Cal step through the ceiling, and climbed down nothing towards us. He seemed rather amused about the whole stunt.

After the deadly front yard, the overly aggressive front door, and vanishing ladders, I was almost relieved to see Mikhail the wizard in the next room. I say almost because he is either lieing to us, or intending on us getting killed. He is offering to pay us each 200gp to assist a student of his in gathering a few unique ingredients for on of their projects. I was going to turn around and leave if the door hadn't vanished like the ladder had.

Then he called in his student. The most beautiful creature you have ever seen! A stunning young red headed woman. We where all tripping over our tongues to help. There was something strange about her, every time she turned around, I would swear she was wearing something else. Her name is Elva, or Evy for short it seems.

We ask her where she need to go to find her items and she rattled off the following items.

4 mushrooms that grow only on the oaks in the Ucashica,

Thupan shield of green fakes,

2 lbs of raw Ronen ore,

Two sprigs of cedar from the Eltan forest,

and a lock of dwarven hair.

Turns out she is as silly as she is beautiful. She has no clue as to where she is going, or the dangers involved. We asked Elva if she was ready to go, and she said she was. Standing there in a dress fit for a ball! I pointed out her shoes where not fit for travel, and the shoes changed themselves 3 times until they became boots that would leave blisters something fierce just walking across a village green. Thinking I was fighting a loosing battle, I figured she would learn by the time we reached the next major village a week's journey away.

Baily, Cal and I where each given 10gp as a down payment for the travels. Cal went to see some merchant he knew about some gear he needed. Bailey went to fetch himself some travel rations, I asked him to pick up some for Elva as well. Elva and I went to an herbalist in the city whom I knew received regular deliveries from the village nearest my house and left a note for my father as well as 3 gold. I told him that a mage had hired me to find some ingredients and he was paying enough for me to buy a team of horses!

Bailey caught up first and tried to give Elva her rations. She refused them, the silly twit. I started to ask Bailey to carry them for her when Cal shows up with a run down cart pulled by a tired old nag. The cart, while worn looks to be in serviceable condition. He even has a spare wheel for the cart and a barrel of food and water for the horse. He sold me the horse on our future earnings. I am not sure why he kept the cart. It is much too heavy for him to pull without the horse. City folk never did have much sense.

Elva produced a horse out of thin air. Maybe that wasn't why she was concerned about her shoes. The thing didn't seem to be alive even though it moved as a horse should. Creepy.

I showed my 2 friends my armour and decided to put it on for our journey. With one of the four of us in armour, maybe the bandits will leave us alone.

We made good time during the rest of the day. We found a little copse and boulders to stop for the night. We unhitched the horse and I brushed it down and fed, watered and hobbled it. Cal undertook hiding our passage off of the road. Baily, well, he did what he does and started praying. Elva thought to make herself useful and make a fire ring. Her methods where... bizarre at best. She arranged pink rocks around in a circle and set a fire beetle to firing the stones. I am really not used to being around a magician. Quite unnerving the way she disregards a quite dangerous animal like the fire beetle.

After a bit of confusion on Elva's behalf about where the house wasn't that she was to sleep in. We got her settled down in the cart for the evening.

I drew first watch. I wish I could say it was uneventful, but it wasn't. A lame wolf limped into camp with that glazed, half crazy look in it's eyes. A single arrow put it out of it's misery. It appears to have been in a foot trap very recently, and chewed it's own foot off to gain freedom. I can't even imagine.

I was awoken right before dawn. The rest of the pack was snooping around the camp. We built up the fire and they left.