Excerpts from Etrigan’s Journal

Excerpts from Etrigan’s Journal

by Kevin

I arrived at the determined meeting spot a little early. The Thirsty Throat . A decent enough place. Relatively safe from prying eyes and ears. The bartender and others in the bar are loyal enough to their patrons, and their is even a backdoor exit in the bathroom. Pholtus knows it smells as if the bar’s pet raccoon uses it often enough.

Kaylo was already there when I arrived, so I sat with him. Kaylo – former Gladiator, dislikes humans. Also seems to be ill. I noticed him coughing a number of times on the caravan trip we made together. Hopefully he is over that or that it won’t be a hindrance in battle.

The next to arrive was Emjad of the house Dan’alla. An elf, but not from around here. I am not sure where he is from in fact. He grabbed a seat and told me we were waiting for his brother. Emjad seems smart, but I am unsure if it is a crafty smart, or just that he simply knows how to present himself.

Soon after his brother Rhys arrived with a half-elf in tow. Never have I seen a half elf working with elves. I assume he is a slave, or indentured servant of some sort. His name is Drake. I pity the half elves and the hatred they receive.

Rhys apparently hates Dragonfall. Perhaps cities in general. Or at least human cities. His face is tattooed quite a bit. I was curious of its origin but felt no need to pry. I hope this group pays me the same favor.

It appeared that this was the entire group. A small team to say the least but they all appear confident enough. We agree to meet here nightly until we have work......

......A Dwarf by the name of Dessarin approached me on the street today. He requested my aid in moving a box, but there was something suspicious about him so I helped. My suspicions were understandable for after a while he informed me this task was simply a cover to request the services of my newly formed band of mercenaries. Word travels fast. Either the brothers are spreading news of our need of work too fast, or I shouldn’t trust this dwarf. Still, I plan on telling the brothers. It should be their call......

....Emjad and I met the Dwarf, Dessarin today at the Griffin’s Sword and Scepter this evening. Dessarin offered us work. He wishes us to create a distraction outside the building site of the Tower of Rauvin. No one should be hurt, and all we need to do is distract the guards for roughly 5 minutes. Easy work, and I hope whatever he hopes to accomplish during that time is nothing too sinister.

Dessarin is untrustworthy. He keeps switching from confident ( he uses a magical device to shield us from eavesdroppers with much professionalism ) to idiot ( his haggling was pathetic. He upped his offer before Emjad even re-acted. Even I know better then that ). Why is he trying to fool us?

Emjad accepted the offer.

Later we made plans on how best to create the distraction. I suggested the Minotaur might drunkenly get in a mock fight in the street. Others suggested everything from crashing carts to starting protests against the tower. I pressured us away from actions that could lead to jail time, and we settled on a combination of things. The minotaur will cause a cart to crash, which will give Emjad time to preach the end of the world in the middle of the street. He also plans to throw coppers on the street to lure beggars to further stop traffic. It should work.

The end of the world angle was inspired by a strange even that occurred this eve. While we were planning, a beam of light burst from the Rauvin’s half-built tower for a little under a minute. At one point I felt some force wash over me. Yet there seemed to be no effect. Strange things are afoot in DragonFall.....

.....The distraction was a huge failure. Our timing was off, and Kaylo’s knocking the wagon over seemed to be too obvious, followed by Emjad’s antics. Once the coppers were thrown and the beggars were on the street a full blown riot was unleashed. We were asked not to spill blood, and while none of us did that directly, many lives were lost. I hope to donate some silver to the nearby temple of Rauvin to atone for this travesty....

...Apparently Dessarin was not upset over the riot as he has hired us again. We are to head to Stonnerin to look for some spell components, some of which are illegal. Despite the legality issues, this does not seem like work that best suites are band, but desperate for wages we agreed to go....

.....The ride has been uneventful. Dessarin seems to like me. I suppose he’d rather talk to the human of the party. Hah. This is new to me. Most often then not, I am the one no one wants to talk with. I guess putting me up against a Minotaur and some elves causes an upper class dwarf to settle. I am still suspicious of him, but have learned nothing new.....

....We were attacked by wolves last night. That in its self is not strange, but these were bigger then normal wolves ( I think I heard one member of my party use the term Worgs to describe them ) and they seemed to be controlled. Often before they leaped into battle I could hear a pipe flute playing in the woods. I decided not to head into the woods in search of this stranger, as I could easily find myself lost.

We took heavy damages, but no one was killed, so for that I am thankful......

....On the way into town we were attacked once more by wolves. Again the fight was vicious, but no one was killed. After we arrived we checked into the local inn. Stonnerin doesn’t seem to get too many visitors. Why are we here to search for herbs? Even if the rest of the party has no questions, I am extremely suspicious. There is also some sort of scribe staying here. I wanted to ask him about the flute playing I heard during both wolf fights, but he was not local and knew nothing. Tomorrow we begin looking for the herbs....

....Dessarin was gone this morning. What is he up to?

We located a bog where we should be able to find peat moss tar, once the moon is full. Also someone in the party arranged to purchase a scroll of silence to aid in the picking of the shrieking mandrake, and a scroll of darkness to aid in the collecting of the deadly nightshade.

The nightshade grows in a cemetery outside of an old manor, with a collapsed tower. We searched through the tower. The half-elf found some sort of ring, which he gave to Rhys, and also discovered a secret passage. He is more useful then I once suspected. I also no longer think he is a servant of the elves. Which is odd. Why would elves have a half-elf with them. Perhaps half-elves are not looked down upon by their type of elves. Perhaps.

We entered the secret passage and passed dead bodies under shrouds. At the end of the passage was a blood splattered door with a thin slot on it. Suddenly some of the corpses animated and attacked us. I found myself fending off dark shadow like tendrils, and the minotaur’s sickness proved itself to be more serious then I had thought. As well as poorly timed. He began coughing up large amounts of blood. Some quick thinking by Emjad was able to get us out of the tunnel and back to a safer part of the passage. Above us, there were men up to something. Later we found the remains of a ritual ash circle. For what reasons the strangers used it I know not.

Also we ran into Jack. Jack is a local forest ranger whom we have bumped into a number of times. He is wary of us, as I would be if I saw us. Jack was speaking with the scribe I met before. Or the non-scribe. I am not sure what that man is writing about, but he has talked with Jack as well as local farmers about something, and I wish someone would tell me what.

We headed back to town to rest before collecting our herbs.....

....We collected both the baneberries and the peat moss tar with little incident. Some strange creatures arose but we defeated them quite handily. While collecting the peat moss tar we spied a humanoid in the mist that seemed to have bat wings, but he did not come close enough for us to see.......

...........Dessarin finally told us his real reason for being here. He informed us that there have been a string of murders throughout the lands, and the man we first mistook as a scribe is Dragonfall Justicar. He is here to discover the cause or culprit of this murders. Dessarin was sent by his mistress to aid the Justicar ( why, I am not sure ) and we were simply Dessarin’s cover. But now for some reason Dessarin has been called back, and we can abandon our herb collecting. Instead we should find the missing Justicar, and aid, or take over his investigation.

This leaves me with the nagging question of why we were really hired. For Cover? that seems pointless. He could have made a cheaper or easier cover. There is more here then he is telling us......

.......We went to the cemetery and found the Justicar dead, and buried in newly dug grave. We found his notes and red up on a series of murders dealing with slit throats and wrists. The Justicar was killed by a slit throat. Obviously connected. He must have gotten close. By why is he in THIS town....

....We went to a clearing in the ruins near the bog, where there is a circle of mushrooms and some stone arches. At sunrise a portal opened in one of the arches, and I entered. There was some sort of otherworldly creature there to greet me. H explained that the tower was waiting for me or us and that the portal would continue to open at sunrise and sunset for a few more days. At sunset the entire party entered through the portal. We walked to the tower which stood unbroken were the manor with the mummy stands in our realm. I suspect that this realm is some bizarre afterlife. The being I spoke with before, came and talked to us, and shared breakfast with us. He told us of another tower to the west...a Dark Tower, and how the inhabitants of that tower wished to enter this tower. He also warned us to stay clear of the Dark Tower.

After realizing the tower was locked up I decided to leave this plane and head back to my own. Most of the rest of the party decided to try and break into the tower. I wanted no part of that. They joined me at the portal and the end of the day, and we left. I never asked if they got in.....

.....Jack introduced us to a carpenter this morning, who offered to help us go about our tasks. He seemed to have some skills in the healing practice, and we have needed that.

Together we all journeyed back to the manor. We entered through the tombs, and opened the blood stained door.

Inside there were some ghouls that we made short work of. We explored a small portion of the upper floors of this lair, killing any beasts that lay within. Then we decided to sleep the night, but first Rhys stumbled into a trap. He was transported into a sealed room where he was attacked. I was weakened from earlier fights so the minotaur, our new friend Kren, Drake and Emjad ran to his rescue. In their weakened state the mummy that was battling Rhys made short work of them, and then after I summoned up the strength to help my companions he laid waste to me as well.

By the time I awoke it appeared that Drake, Emjad, Kaylo and I would be working for this mummy. He or it sent us to gather some items from a lower level. Which we did. I was simply biding my time until I was strong enough to lay waste to the creature. Hopeful that he did not get much stronger. After gathering his items he healed Rhys and then freed Rhys and Kren from the tomb. Next he recruited us to go collect children for him to feast on. We agreed and left.

The moment we left I knew I had no plans on going back. I had no idea what the others thought, but after talking with Kaylo and Emjad and Rhys we all agreed that if we did return it would be to kill that creature. Drake seemed suspicious. Was he under mental control of the mummy? I never did find out.

Upon returning to town we bumped into a Dragonfall guard complete with Rauvin interrogators looking for the missing justicar. Jack fingered us as likely suspects, and after searching our belongings they found the Justicar’s ring in Drake’s bag. Drake seemed as surprised as the Rauvinite. Drake was then subjected to some grueling torture. After he revealed our true story, the priest decided to torture one more of us. As a lesson. Thankfully Rhys accepted that task. Shortly after that the guards left town, satisfied, but telling us not to head to the manor again. But by now we had decided to go back and kill the mummy no matter what. If nothing else we had a lot of pent up anger to deal with. We headed out of town and camped in the woods to let our wounds heal....

....On the way back to the manor Jack and some townspeople attacked us. We made short work of them but not without sustaining a few injuries. After making sure no one had died, we took Jack with us back into the tomb. The mummy was waiting for us with a army of skeletons to attack us. we fought as long as we could, but in our weakened state had to turn back.

On the bright side, the experience scared Jack so much that I don’t think he will stop us from entering again....

....I died. Last I recall was entering the mummy’s tomb a third time. We had won the battle against mummy, skeletons, and spiders using a silence scroll ( that we had prepared to help in collecting the shrieking mandrake ) But when I attempted to bash open a chest some sort of poison dart hit me. Rhys dropped me off at the Rauvin temple to be raised.

SECTION CUT OUT

Rhys came to me in the back alley where I have been staying. We have work. A caravan job. Hmpf. I was doing that work before. Without this team. But I agree anyway. I need to leave Dragonfall for a while. I wonder if we have abandoned Dessarin’s task altogether.....

...I inform Rhys I can not accept payment. Not for a while anyway. I need to repay him for having me raised. He agrees, despite telling me it is not necessary. Of all the members of our band I feel I trust Rhys the most. Yet at the same time, I feel that is a mistake. From time to time I gaze at those tattoos and wonder how they came to be and what they signify. I doubt anything good.

For a while the caravan journey went fine. Kren taught me quarterstaff along the way.

Then one rainy day we were attacked by elves. I guarded the first wagon, but whoever was watching the back wagons left their post, and we lost the back 2 wagons. A few men sadly died in the attack. We regrouped into the remaining two wagons, and I took the reins of the front wagon and we continued on. It seems that few others in this band have much experience guarding caravans.

I realized I am not sure what we are transporting or to where. I must ask Emjad at the next camp......