Geode Fe

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.