Nell's diary

Rise of the Runelords

This is the diary as written by Nell. She is writing it as an exercise in learning to read and write.

To End

First entry

Hello diary.

I am to write here to learn how to write. Velicia will help me write, when needed.

The big feast

Today a lot happened.

I was at the big feast that the whole town have been preparing for for a long time. I went there with Velicia. There were lots of food. There were three tables filled with the best from each of the inns. I liked the Rusty Dragon best, even though it was quite spicy. Loads of butterflies were released, flying around everywhere. I was eating when mayor Kendra Deverin stood up and talked about something. Then the sheriff Belor Hemlock said boring stuff and Cyrdak Drokkus talked about his new play. He's nice. He has been flirting with a lot of us young girls. I like him as he don't try to grope as some others do. It's almost suspicious how he don't. I will try to make sure I get invited to see that play. Then Father Abstalar Zantus was just about to speak even more, when Velicia had had enough of food and wanted to go look at the bonfire, or rather the pile that would become the big fire. I grabbed some more salmon and followed her. The salmon was really good. I wonder how its done. I've never been a good cook. Velicia said something was stirring somewhere towards the gate and we were just going that way when lots and lots of goblins poured in towards the central square where the feast was held and we were.

There were one big goblin riding a strange dog and a few others singing a silly song. Velicia rushed ahead and threw some of her magic, powerful great magic, at them and several fell to the ground. I loaded my sling with several stones and hit many with my barrage of stones, blinding one temporary. I ran up to a goblin and made a move I've often used when in trouble. I showed plenty of thigh and stabbed with the dagger. Even if it worked I was a little put off as the goblin rather looked hungry when looking at my thigh. Not the usual response. There followed a big melee where I felled goblin after goblin saving many of the villagers. Some of the people living here also fought with us. There was Nathaniel Deverin who I have met before. He is a nobleman from one of the four noble families here, but after today I think he's nice anyway. Actually it's the same family as the Mayor. Also there was a strange looking rhenne with pale skin, white hair and red eyes called Dorothea Caiphon who used scary magic and a female satyr called Honeypot who helped us fighting the goblins while playing the flute. We killed most of the goblins and a few fled.

The boneyard

We were very proud when the sheriff told us that he had seen how good we were and asked us to check the gate. When we got there there were some commotion in the boneyard. I tried to sneak in but they noticed me, so I threw a bullet at a big goblin with my sling. Velicia waved her fan at a group of goblins and almost all flew away. I hit mine again with another sling stone and then stabbed it with my dagger. The rest of us ran up to a group of goblins trying to protect some others next to a ladder raised to the wall. Several goblins suddenly surrounded me. They hit me from all over and I just barely got out before I got really hurt. Honeypot played some really refreshing tune and I attacked again. Soon most of the goblins were dead.

The goblins were dragging a sack from the cemetery and Velicia used her magic to suddenly appear on top of the wall where the goblins were trying to climb ladders to get away with the sack. She stopped them, blowing and burning them with her mighty magic. Then Nathaniel really showed what he could do. He ran up to the ladder and killed the big awful goblin dog that were chewing on Honeypot and continued up the ladder and skewered the goblin leader with his sword helping Velicia. Then he climbed down and retrieved the sack that were on the outside and back up to the wall. He dumped it down the ladder right in front of me, and pulled up the ladder on the outside of the wall. I peeked in the sack and it contained the remains of some yucky old dead body.

From the wall the others said that there came lots and lots of more goblins demanding to get the sack. Honeypot faked another sack and threw it to them. I went looking for an open grave the body could've come from and found one. It was marked cleric Ezakien Tobyn. Nathaniel went to talk to the guards by the gate and I ran back to the square and told the sheriff. He was busy but said they were handling most of the goblins now that we had broken their attack. I went back and saw them throwing a live goblin over the wall. Strange. That fall would probably not even kill it.

The white deer

I told them how things were and we brought the ladders and the remains of the body to the guards at the gate and went back to town to help cleaning up the last goblins. When we were approaching The White Deer, there were a really, really big goblin riding the biggest, meanest goblin dog so far attacking an ordinary dog while a man was trying to fend for himself a few yards further away. I put a bullet straight in the chest of another goblin skulking nearby. Nathaniel charged it and split it in two in a mighty blow. Velicia ran up to the mounted goblin leader and used her incredible magic. Nathaniel joining in too. Dorothea and Honeypot used their magic on other smaller but still very tough goblins. Those threw javelins at us hitting with most. Nathaniel was hit several times and one pierced him and fell to the ground bleeding.

Honeypot ran up to him reviving him and killed the leader goblin. I moved up to the awful, monstrous dog sure to kill the poor man trying desperately to defend himself, and hit it well with my dagger and tripping it making it stumble into Velicias impressive magic swarm of dancing daggers, slicing it to shreds, thus surely saving the mans life. It turned out to be Aldern Foxglove who is a nobleman passing through town. I've seen him partying at an inn earlier. You can never trust noblemen, perhaps except Nathaniel who seems to be nice.

Now I will go to bed. It's already late. Good night.

The day after

I hurt a little all over this morning when I woke up after the big fight. We who fought together met up and hung out. We took it easy talking all morning. Aldern Foxglove who's life I saved yesterday by killing that monstrous giant dog, showed up and invited all us girls to go hunting the next day. Then there was some commotion, and when we checked what it was it turned out that some elf scout called Shalelu Andosana had come back from running around in the woods keeping an eye on the goblins. She went to the sheriff and we followed her in. The Sheriff greeted us and said that it was good we already were there so he didn't have to send for us. He sent for the Mayor though. The half elf told us a lot about all the goblin tribes around here.

There are five of them.

• The first is led by someone called Bruthazmus. I think that one was a bugbear.
• Second is led by Big Gutmut. I didn't really pay attention to all she said about them.
• Then there's Ripnugget who had a lair called Thistle top.
• Korovus led a tribe called seven teeth or something.
• The last one licked toads in a swamp where a cannibal goblin called Vorka tried to eat them.

I'm guessing the last ones are losers.

The one we killed yesterday was called Gortmurt. Not that that makes much difference.

I juggled a bit with some apples that where in a bowl in that room. The sheriff told us he was going to Magnimar tomorrow to ask for more guards until the goblin problem is solved. He asked us, as the big heroes we are, to help keep an eye open for trouble. We told him we would and that we would especially keep an eye on a suspect we have that might be the human helping the goblins from within the village. The meeting was over and I put back an apple in the bowl and kept the others as lunch.

We thought that we should start looking for traitors right away so we went to the Rusty Dragon to see if any one had heard anything. They greeted us as the big heroes we are, that saved the entire village from being overrun by all the goblins. I told them the story once again of how we realized that there were goblins in the boneyard that no one else had noticed and how we saved most of the remains of Ezakien Tobyn. As Nathaniel wasn't there I took both his and my place in the story and told it climbing the chairs as ladders up onto the table posing as the wall where I and Velicia fought imaginary goblins.

It was easy to get food and drinks after that show. Dorothea really likes beer. Then we asked the others at the inn for stories but those were mostly of how stupid the goblins were, like when some goblins crept into the bonfire while others set it on fire. Someone heard about how several mills had burned down and suspected the Scarnettis to be involved. But there were no strange humans lurking in shadows helping the goblins. It was late at night before we turned in.

The hunt

I woke early, but not early enough to be up when Alden came. He though hunts should start very early. Some of us had had more to drink than me and were less than happy about the time. As we were a little late he had a second breakfast together with us talking about the hunt. When we got out he had several horses waiting and presented us with them as a gift. A GIFT! Horses are really expensive and he just gave them to us. He must be loaded. I acted unimpressed as usual when I get men to give me gifts.

When we left for the hunt and he helped us up on the horses he groped my behind. When I shot him an angry look he didn't see it at all as he was looking up my skirt. I bit my lip and got the horse moving. He then did the same to the others. Then we were off to where we were to hunt. It was called Tickwood. I hate ticks. They are disgusting little bugs. On the way out of town we met up with Nathaniel who was out riding early and to Alderns dismay Velicia immediately invited him to the trip too. Honeypot kept Aldern company. That was fortunate as Nathaniel and Aldern didn't seem to get along that well. During the hunt Honeypot and Aldern got separated from us others, but we found them again after a little while. The hunt was a success and Aldern and Dorothea were the sharpest with the crossbows with Nathaniel close behind. Honeypot was really happy about the competition and cheered when anyone had a clear shot. She celebrated Alderns hunting success with a lot of hugging. During all the time in the woods I kept a sharp lookout for ticks and not much else.

When we got back I took the two boars we had shot to the Rusty Dragon to get them done. Ameiko promised to make a great feast out of them and in return could keep the rest of them that we didn't eat.

I and Dorothea saw Nathaniel being approached by Shayliss who asked for his help to get rid of a rat problem. Apparently it was in the cellar and she led him down there. As we knew of her reputation as "loose", we decided to see what would happen. Stealthily we followed and watched. When Nathaniel was half undressed and Shayliss mostly undressed her father appeared. The two of them didn't notice until he shouted at them waving a club about. Nathaniel answered by saying: "What I have done to your daughter, many has done before me." I could not believe my ears. It was hard to not laugh, but he continued "None the less, I know what I have done and will take what punishment you think would be just, as I respect you as her father." Her father beat him, but his anger was apparently soothed by Nathaniel's willingness to take the punishment. Dorothea and I made sure to leave before we were noticed.

We all met again at the Rusty Dragon later for dinner. Velicia asked Nathaniel what had happened to him as she noticed his bruises and was very impressed at how he respected Shayliss' father. I think she is a little smitten by him. Honeypot showed up a little late together with Aldern. He gave a big sack of coins to us as a payment for saving his life the other day. It was a thousand gold coins! He must surely be very rich. Then the boar arrived and it was delicious.

I have earlier hinted at being good at sneaking around and keeping an eye on things to Velicia so she used one of her magic tricks and whispered in my ear that now that Aldern was here someone should check out his room. I asked Dorothea to come with me. Before I left I filled my bag with bread, cookies, some vegetables and filled a small plate with boar to eat while walking to the other side of the whole village. When at the White Deer we saw his servant eating in the first floor dining room and went up the stairs to his room. I picked the lock while Dorothea kept watch. We got in and looked around. He didn't have that much stuff, as if he isn't really that rich. I mostly found a lot of papers. I asked Dorothea to read them but she said they were too boring. She was right. The papers were hard to read and very boring. I only got that it was about estate and there were the Foxglove house, the Foxglove manor, Foxglove estate and the Foxglove farm, or something like that. As we left I locked the door.

When we returned I was thrilled to get back to the dinner that I had been promised would be refilled all night, but it was mostly finished when we got back. I asked the servant girl for more but there were some problems in the kitchen. We went there to investigate and found lots of food. Most of it wasn't cooked, but there were some pastries, bread, butter, cheese, apples, pears, cookies, cakes and other cold dishes ready to eat. The others said something about the halfling cook and some strange letter, but I mostly looked for the best cold dishes. I always get hungry after acrobatics, and I love cartwheeling, jumping fences and such things, so I do it all the time. But anyway we found out that Ameikos brother that we had heard about earlier, and planned to ask Ameiko about, but never got around to, wanted to meet with her at the glassworks at midnight. It was already after midnight so we hurried over there.

The glassworks

On the way there Honeypot prepared a ritual and we took the time to get it done. It made sure that we could whisper to each other even if we were at the other end of the glassworks. To test this Velicia, Nathaniel and Honeypot went to the exhibition end of the glassworks to peek in through glass dome on the roof, while I and Dorothea went to the service entrance at the other end, where Ameiko were supposed to meet with her brother. The doors were locked but after some work we got them open. The others told us that the glass in the exhibition was smashed. We entered into an empty hall. There was an awful smell of goblin. You could hear goblins making noises through some double doors. The others got down from the roof and ran over to us. I listened to the other door and heard goblins making noises there too, but not as loud. I thought I heard a human voice in pain through that door so I suggested we storm through there. As we did we saw lots of goblins and a glassworker being treated badly as entertainment by the goblins. We took them by surprise and there was a big fight. I did my part and showed all the others my formidable skill. Honeypot did it too when she jumped over a goblin into another room. That was a nice move. I have to try it myself sometime. After a while we had killed all goblins and freed several workers, but we were too late to save all of them. There was at least one that had been hacked up as if butchered for meat. I felt sick but tried to look the other way. I don't think the others noticed.

We took a short rest while Honeypot tried to heal us and the workers. We told them to leave as we would make sure the all goblins doing this would be killed. They were quite taken by the experience and asked for protection. We helped them out of the glassworks and sent them on their way to the Mayor before we headed for the other room, which turned out to be where all the glass were made. I charged right up to a big goblin boss standing next to a big oven-looking fireplace in the wall. I tricked it to get right in front of the open doors to the fire pit and skewered it so it fell right into the fire. With a scream it died a fiery death. Dorothea also had time to get in and use some of her scary magic before a goblin made an awful cloud of disgusting goblin vapors that filled the room. It didn't quite fill the entire room, but the whole part we were in. It made my eyes tear up and all goblins very hard to hit. A goblin charged me with a glass blower pipe. It was like a spear with a melted glass tip. I easily jumped out of the way. Nathaniel sliced a goblin in half with the mightiest blow I've ever seen done with a sword, or anything else for that matter. Velicia improved on my idea of throwing the goblins into the ovens by doing it to three at a time with thundering magic that blew them like leaves in the wind into the fire.

After some more hard fighting we succeeded in striking down most of the goblins. The magic using goblin and another one tried to flee but Velicia put her ball of whirling daggers in front of the door and I and Nathaniel both charged the mage goblin. I jumped up on a long table, running along it and springing forward with feline agility I lashed out, cut deep into the mage with my new magic dagger and rolled on to box it in. It didn't last long when we all surrounding it cut it to pieces.

The cellar

We took a short rest and Honeypot played her soothing music again. I felt sore from several cuts from those awful goblins, but it fell from my mind as I listened. We took a final look around before we went down to the cellar. Once more I saw the horrible parts of that poor worker that had been cut up by the goblins.

Don't read this, Velicia. Skip to the next paragraph.

We started down the stair, but I was distracted by my thoughts and stumbled into more goblins. I had horrible visions of being cut up by them as that worker in my mind and missed with my sling. The others stormed right by me while I got back in the stairs and hid. I just peeked around the corner and flung bullet after bullet at the goblins, but the shots went wild. I think I need more space to use the sling properly. Nathaniel took several hits and a particular nasty one made him stagger and fall. In this dire situation I tried using the dagger instead and threw it at the goblin around the corner. It flew true and hit it in it's belly. It was hurt really badly and to my surprise the dagger appeared in my hand again. I knew it was a magical dagger, but I didn't know that it could do that. That gave the others enough time to help Nathaniel. I hid behind the corner again and tried to do the same again but never got it quite right. At least the dagger didn't take any damage from hitting walls, floors and doors and it still kept appearing in my hand right after hitting whatever was behind what I aimed for. Nathaniel charged right up to a half elf who came around a corner and started shooting arrows at us. Nathaniel gut him down after a short fight up close.

After a long fight we finally killed the last goblins. It was Velica who felled them with magic. Nathaniel told us that a few got away through a storage room in the back. There was a tunnel leading away from it. I though that we'd better search every room before entering the tunnel so no goblins could sneak up on us from behind. Nathaniel had showed me how bad that could be, even though it wasn't even from behind. I looked around and found Ameiko tied up in one of the storage rooms. I talked to her some as I freed her and suggested that she'd stay behind as we searched the tunnel. She told me she could take care of herself and joined us. She was less saddened by her brothers betrayal and her fathers death than I would have thought she'd be. When I checked on the half elf it turned out to be her brother and I told her he was dead. I searched him and found a crossbow, a diary and <something>. I started reading the diary and thought about comparing it to my own when Velicia took it. I continued to search through the place. I found nothing else, but the goblins had gold coins that turned out to be quite a sum when put together.

We checked the tunnel and found it to be longer than we cared to explore at the that late hour. Ameiko told us it lead down to the waterside and that it was an old smugglers tunnel. We barred it from inside and went back up to the glassworks. There some guards had arrived and the mayor did as well. We told her our story in short and then we left for bed. As Ameiko lives in the Rusty Dragon as I do, we walked home together. I walked close to her. It seemed as the whole experience had been worse for me than for her even though she lost both her brother and her father.

I slept uneasy and was woken by the others for a late breakfast at the Rusty Dragon. At breakfast Velicia started talking about taking some of my money for spells. I didn't like that at all. Then Nathaniel and the mayor joined us and he also liked that tax idea. I opposed it until the mayor said that we all should pay 20 gold each to buy magic components for. I did but still didn't like it and asked who would decide what to buy. The mayor said that the leader of the group would do that and that it was Nathaniel. As it was the mayor that said it I can't complain too much. After all she's some kind of boss here and typically put her nephew Nathaniel in charge.

By the time I met up with the others Velicia and Honeypot had been up some hours trying 
out magic that recreated the glass art that had been broken in the showroom.

The tunnel

After breakfast me, Nathaniel, Velicia, Dorothea and Honeypot headed down into the tunnel the goblins had fled through. Quite a long way into it we found that it had a bricked wall that had been broken down. It was smashed from the inside and hadn't been used much. We entered it and soon found our way into a cave. There a hideous monster suddenly appeared out of nowhere and attacked poor Nathaniel. It looked really disgusting with big strange jaws and a long scary tung. It had awful black claws that teared into Nathaniel and he seethed with a strange unreasonable anger that distracted him from the fight. Honeypot ran up to it and distracted it back with her strange combat dance. Dorothea could use that to kill the monster.

Then a second monster looking just as scary, ran right past us and on into the tunnel we followed. Velicia and Honeypot ran after it. I hid in the cave to get in a good position to attack if yet another hiding monster would run by. Dorothea saw me straight away and asked what I was doing. "Just looking for more monsters..." I answered not quite truthfully. But it was a good idea so I did look through the cave. It was now empty. I joined Nathaniel instead. He guarded a tunnel heading straight ahead and said that Velicia and Honeypot had ran down another tunnel to the right. We continued through the one he had guarded and met up with the others in a room where a statue stood.

Old rooms beneath the town

The room was old and heavily decorated. The statue stood in the middle. It was of a woman with flowing robes, a book decorated by a star with seven points under one arm and a big burning ranceur that illuminated the room in the other. The book was part of the statue but the ranceur wasn't so Dorothea took it. We continued on.

The next room was strange with a wooden platform overlooking what seemed to be some kind of prison area with several cells. Nathaniel suddenly stopped and pointed out that more monsters where hanging under the wooden walkway. I immediately threw my magical dagger at one of the monsters wounding it heavily. Then I retreated back out of the room stealthily. I sneaked out of hiding and surprised another monster by throwing my magical dagger into it.

Then Honeypot stormed up some stair from the room below, enraged, charging straight at me, but when she furiously attacked I ducked behind the corner of the wall I was standing next to and she hit it instead of me. She seemed to settle down some when realizing she just tried to attack me. One of the monsters followed her up the stairs and hit her from behind. Nathaniel ran up to the monster and with a dashing move hit it and tricked it to leap to where he had stood, but he had already moved on. Soon we killed all four of them.

When killed the monsters disappeared. Dorothea said that they were some kind of avatars of rage. I don't understand what that means, but they were scary and angry monsters that made you really angry if you got bitten. Honeypot was really shook up by the experience and Velicia tried to console her. I found the room to be awful and stayed up on the wooden platform the whole time. Nathaniel touched a skeleton in one of the cells and it fell apart. That was really scary and I tried to think of nicer things so I took out an apple. Before I could finish it there was an awful smell coming from a corner of the room where Dorothea had done something. I didn't even want to know what. I just wanted to leave.

Soon Honeypot was returning to her own self and started to sing and dance again, but perhaps not that cheerfully. I took some comfort in that and felt a little better. But only until we entered the next room.

It was a torture chamber. There were lots of pointy things and straps and spikes that could hurt you in every way. Dorothea didn't look spooked at all. She just said; "Look. This rotating rack has seven points. It's made for a creature with four arms." Velicia joined in her strange discussion. I still just wanted to continue on.

The next room was small with three doors with each a seven pointed star on. It was some old study room for magic. Velicia and Honeypot were really interested but I wasn't. I couldn't decide which room was the worst, this one with unknown dangerous magic or the torture chamber. I waited by the door and tried to listen for any sounds from the next room. There were some strange noises, but I wasn't sure what made them.

At last we finally continued on to the next room. We were all prepared for fighting. It was a large room with several wooden trapdoors on the stone floor. At the other end was a very strange looking goblin. It had four arms and small legs sticking out of it's head. We entered and as the goblin charged us it screamed "Korovus Kill!". Nathaniel, readying himself to receive the charge, suddenly fell through one of the rotten trapdoors not able to hold his weight. Korovus sprayed some awful, disgusting gas at us that hurt my eyes and nose.

In the fifteen feet deep pit that Nathaniel had fallen into he was not alone. There was a zombie trying to attack him as Nathaniel tried to climb out. I threw my dagger at it wounding it badly. When Nathaniel was almost out of the pit Korovus attacked him, making him loose his grip and fall down again. Honeypot distracted Korovus so Nathaniel could make a second try and this time he climbed out uninterrupted. I moved up to the grotesquely deformed goblin and stabbed him making him stumble back and fall through a trapdoor and down into a another pit. Velicia put a cloud of dagger in it to keep Korovus, and another zombie, company.

After a short rest when I got the last of that awful poisonous gas out of my face and Dorothea killed all the zombies in the pits with her strange magic, we continue on to a yet another strange room filled with weird magic. It had dangerous walls shifting in color by magic and things floating around in mid air. There seemed to be a wand, a book and a dead raven. Dorothea was strangely interested in the dead raven. Velicia and Honeypot got very interested in the stuff and wouldn't leave until we got hold of the things. They started talking about strange magic that I don't understand and instead I went and got a piece of wood from the last room and threw it in to see what would happen. It just floated around with the other things. I then mounted a piece of cloth at the end of my excellent silk rope. With it I trapped the wand and hauled it out of the room. Then Nathaniel suggested that someone should tie a rope around their waist and jump into the room. That someone should be small and agile, he said looking at me. I ran out into the zombie room and stayed there until they were finished fishing for treasure. The book turned out to be about prayers to the mother of monsters and different awful ways to give birth to more monsters, one worse than the other. When Dorothea found out that the raven had been nibbled on it wasn't that interesting any longer. Someone said that it had been nibbled on by some tiny demon thing.

We went back and searched on through new corridors that led into a room with an altar in. On top of the altar there was a basin with murky water. Velicia said that you would turn into a mutated monster if you drink from it. Probably that's what had changed Korovus.

The temple

We continued into a temple hall. I stayed behind in the shadows ready to strike if something bad happened. The ceiling was high and at the other end there was a raised part of the room with two stairs leading up to it. In the middle was a pool with a circle of polished human skulls in it. Then a strange voice started talking.

It threatened us and said that we should show respect for the mother of monsters and leave immediately. We couldn't see anything but somewhere something talked with that high pitched voice. Velicia mentioned something called a quasit. It was apparently some tiny invisible demon hiding in there. I hid outside and the others told of more of the awful monsters appearing out of some other pool further in, on the higher part at the other end of the room.

I peeked around the corner and threw my magic dagger into one of the monsters. It returned as it does and I hid again. Once more I successfully used the same trick. I saw Nathaniel kill another of the monsters attacking Honeypot as she struck and blinded yet another one. I seemingly couldn't miss with my dagger as I threw it into that monster too. When peeking out for another kill I saw Nathaniel jump into the air and trying to grab a tiny little winged demon that had become visible. I threw my dagger at it bloodying it.

Changing hiding place to a small side room to not become to predictable and closing the doors making sure the little demon wouldn't get away I was joined by Velicia, who were impressed by my superior fighting technique and tried to imitate me. She wasn't as good at it as I am, but I have had a lot of training on the streets of Magnimar.

When I peeked out one last time I killed the last monster and Nathaniel said he had killed the tiny demon.

Honeypot and Velicia did their magic stuff on that bad pool where the monsters were created, while I looked around for valuables.

A few untroubled days

The next day a town meeting was called were we were supposed to attend. Me, Velicia, Nathaniel and strangely enough Dorothea but not Honeypot did. There were several others; Niska Mvashti, an old rhenne, Mayor Kendra Deverin, the Priest Abstalar Zantus, Ameiko, the smith Das Korvut, as acting sheriff and Brodert Quink. We all sat down and had a meeting. We told our story of what happened. Korvut complained that we had gone down into the tunnels without approval by the town. We told him that the mayor had agreed to it. He still complained and Velicia started to argue with him until he tried to hit her. She easily avoided his obvious swing, but after that they all settled down. They thought we should study the diary we found carefully for clues. They also said we shouldn't leave town until Sheriff Hemlock got back as they needed our protection. I argued that if we were guards we should get paid and they agreed. Nathaniel convinced them that the best way to make sure that the evil temple below would be destroyed would be to get Zantus down there, but he wasn't thrilled by that idea. After we had assured him that not only had we killed all monsters, but could also escort him down there he reluctantly agreed.

We returned down to the old rooms below the glassworks escorting Zantus and while he did his thing I examined the walls and looked for anything hidden. There was nothing.

Velicia helped Ameiko by continuing to use her magical rituals to mend the broken glass in the glassworks.

Nathaniel renewed his contact with Shayliss. Even though he tried to keep it hidden, it's still a small town and soon her father had found out. Nathaniel wasn't welcome in the general store anymore and Ven Vinder even stares angrily at me and the others of our group. As if I had anything to do with Shayliss affairs. As long as I still can buy the homemade pies made by Ven's wife Solsta I can live with it, but sooner or later Nathaniel has to confront her father.

After being gone for five days Sheriff Belor Hemlock finally returned late in the afternoon. He brought with him ten men, which was an obvious disappointment for him. He had been wanting five times that many to be able to protect the town from the thought goblin attack. When they were a couple of miles out from Sandpoint along the road from Magnimar, he and the men had come upon a horse trader and his son that were being attacked by goblins. They scared off the goblins but not before the goblins had managed to grab the horse traders valuable warhorse they had brought with them. They sang the praise to Shadowmist as it was called. I'm sure it can't be cuter than my own horse. The one I got from Foxglove. He's adorable. Creampuff that is, not Aldern. The horse traders begged us to see if we could make sure that we bring it back. After some hinting they offered a handsome reward.

I convinced the others that we had to save this poor horse from the awful fate of being tortured and eaten by goblins. Nathaniel wanted to leave immediately, but I convinced him the wisdom of waiting until tomorrow. I can hardly believe that he wanted to sleep out in the woods with all the insects and bugs. Thankfully I can go to sleep in my comfortable bed tonight.

Reaching Thistletop

We got up all to early today and to not risk our own horses we decided to walk to Thistletop. It's just a couple of miles and can be walked in just over an hour, but due to the dense forest and all to many bushes and other dense vegetation it took several hours.

I told the others that I think we should keep out of the woods. Velicia said it was very important to know a lot about the nature, but I disagreed. She asked "Would you walk through there?" pointing towards high vegetation. "No." I answered. "But you can." she said doing it. Returning she added "It's nettles and hurt, but it's not dangerous." while her legs slowly turned a little red. "Or you could wear proper trousers." Nathaniel added. I muttered "I like my clothes and I want to stay in civilized areas where you know what to do and not to do and if you get it wrong it wont kill you. Usually..."

It was late morning when we exited the forest and overlooked the sea. Along the coast we could see a strange cliff rising out of the water. It had strange formations making it look like a head with four eyes, a nose and a mouth. On top of it we could see a wooden fort and a hanging bridge made out of ropes and stocks.

We retreated some and discussed the next course of action. The bridge was short and could be ran across in a moment, but if it was rigged to collapse it would be hard to not be noticed and dropped down to certain death. The bridge ended in a close thicket that we would have to get through without being noticed to even get to the bridge. Nathaniel though he might climb across hanging below the bridge without drawing to much attention. In the end we decided that Honeypot and Shalelu would get to the other side and make a distraction while we swim out to the cliff and climb the vertical sheer surface.

Honeypot put up a magic connection so we could whisper to each others to make it easier for the distraction to be well timed. The range of it was still to short for where we would be but it could still aid some. We climbed down to a small sand beach. We had to pass over a small stream before swimming over to Thistletop. Nathaniel swam across bringing a rope that we others hold on to while crossing. Velicia splashed some while crossing, but no goblins seemed to notice even though it was a still day. Sneaking on along the water edge we reached the point where we would have to swim. As last Nathaniel swam first with a rope. We others followed and tried as best we could. Velicia splashed some more but not as much as I did. There were no waves to talk about but suddenly a small wall of water hit me in my face and I got water in my nose and mouth. Coughing and snorting I reached the cliff wall hanging on for dear life.

There were some small rocks just above the water that we could climb up to rest on with the help of Nathaniel. Velicia looked like a drowned kitten, and I got a feeling I did too. Looking up at the cliff side contemplating the task ahead I spotted some cracks that would make a good path to follow while climbing. I pointed them out to Nathaniel who climbed first trying to secure the rope as we progressed. There were several mishaps along the way and we make more noise than I cared for as we approach the fort.

We barely got over the edge before almost ten goblins greeted us. I threw my returning magical dagger at one of them and hid around the corner of the fort. I could barely see Velicia but she was using her magic and from the sound of it killing half of them and soon the rest followed as I appeared with deadly precision killed another. When they were defeated we threw their bodies off the cliff to hide the traces of battle.

Thistletop's defenses

Looking closer at the fort we concluded that it was once built by humans. It was both the walls of houses and palisades. Dorothea remarked about the smell of horse. Nathaniel lifted me up to the palisade top so I could look over it. There was a grass courtyard inside and just below me inside there was a shed on which we could climb down. A few goblin feet stuck out of the slightly open door. I told the others but when I was looking down I noted that Nathaniel seemed distracted. "Don't look up my skirt!" I climbed over and secured a grappling hook for the others. From the outside I heard him say "I wasn't. She just said that to get attention." I didn't say anything. When all had come up we put the rope on the inside until all but me were down in the courtyard, then I jumped down with the hook.

I peeked into the shed. There were three dead goblins, beaten to death perhaps by a horse. It was dark and hard to see but in there there was a black horse. Nathaniel said that from its motions and breathing he could tell it was hurt and tired. We entered slowly, careful not to scare it. Nathaniel tried to befriend Shadowmist, talking about how he had been thinking of buying a war horse. I suggested he should bribe it with an apple. It works on me so why not on a horse. He started to look around so I had to offer one of mine. Straining to see in the darkness I noted that it had some wounds. Nathaniel tried to hold it so he could apply bandages, but couldn't quite control the big strong black horse. After some struggling I used a couple of carrots to trick it to a position where it could be treated by Nathaniel, who applied bandages.

Dorothea's "viskar lugnande" till Shadowmist var en höjdare för mig.

Satisfied that Shadowmist was feeling better and could fend for itself we continued on through a door into a corridor to a conference room and a toilet. There was also a stair leading down behind a door. We noted that the toilet didn't seem to be that much used. We were kidding around about how we could hide there, but it would be tight when we noted that the room should be lager and that there was some dead space. After some convincing I hold on to my plait and put my head down the seat. There behind barrels of shit I saw a treasure chest. Nathaniel stepped up and dragged it out. We noted that there might be a trap on it, but I couldn't bypass it using my practical tools, so Dorothea tried too. It turned out that the trap was a blade slicing harmlessly through the air. Dorothea continued to try to open it and concluded that the trap only worked once.

We broke the chest open and it was filled with coins, mostly copper, but some silver and a few gold. There were also a holy symbol, a dress and a magical leather armor. I suggested that Dorothea would put on the armor immediately and she not only did that, but put on the dress as well. I thought it a little too much. We didn't want to go down the stairs while there were goblins that could attack us in the back so we brought the chest to the shed with Shadowmist and continued our exploration of the fort.

We choose the double doors leading into the courtyard to go through next. There was a watchtower in the other corner of that house. It had a wide corridor leading to the base of the tower. We went up the stairs with Nathaniel in point. We charged up through a manhole as best we could and killed one of the two goblins that were up there. Then it seemed we were discovered. There were some kind of alarm and two goblins in the next tower shot crossbow bolts at us. None hit but we could guess that it wouldn't be as easy from now on. Velicia put a cloud of daggers on the last goblin in our tower. I shot a sling stone and Dorothea shot her crossbow at the goblins in the next tower. Unlike the others I hit my target, but it didn't do that much damage. The goblins ran over to the further wall and did something strange. I noticed that they dumped something over the wall. Dorothea said that it was vinegar. I hid behind the wall so I could surprise them. Nathaniel went back down and Velicia followed. Swinging my sling I popped up and threw my bullet, but missed. I heard noises of dogs and fighting from below.

When even Dorothea left I went prone next to the manhole, hid and flipped through it throwing my magical dagger and landed on my feet, killing a dog. There were only three dogs at the base of the stairs which was a lot fewer than I thought from the earlier noise. A group of goblins further down the hall threw a lot of javelins and ran out being replaced by a another group doing the same thing. I continued on down the stairs and threw my dagger again, killing another dog. Nathaniel slowly advanced through the wide corridor killing the last dogs and goblins as he went, aided by Velicia and Dorothea. A few goblins turned and ran out the doors closely followed by Velicia. I heard her thunderous wave of the fan and I guess those goblins might have had trouble staying on the bridge.

I caught up with the others in the entrance hall and the last of the goblins were killed. It was an impressing hall but had soil floor which I found to be strange. It had been "decorated" by the goblins. They had put up heads of dogs and horses on the wall. A pair of giant bat wings caught my eye as they were fastened to the wall by daggers. I pulled them out as you can always use an extra dagger or two. One of them turned out to have an ivory handle.

Ripnugget

We took a short rest catching our breath. I and Dorothea searched through a few storage rooms nearby while Nathaniel and Velicia put bandages on their wounds. There was nothing of value, but we found a barrel with more vinegar. Why did they have that? We were gathering to press on through the double doors when they opened and we charged the surprised big leader of the goblin tribe, Ripnugget, riding on a lizard, Stickfoot. His headgear looked like a mix between a crown and a jesters hat.

I was standing next to a corner and threw my dagger at him. Velicia used her magic on both Ripnugget and Stickfoot. Nathaniel slashed at him with his longsword leaving wounds. I threw my dagger once more leaving a big bloody gash in it's chest and ran back around the corner and hid. I appeared, threw my dagger and diappeared again. As I turned and ran back out of sight, I noted that Nathaniel hit Ripnugget particularly nasty with his sword that burst to flame setting Ripnugget on fire. I worked hard to not be predictable but how many ways can you deceive them about throwing a dagger around a corner? It was growing thin and I stayed out in the entrance hall after throwing my dagger. Stickfoot had been slain and the cheering goblin had backed up further into the rooms beyond, but still aided her boss. The other goblins used a hide and strike tactic somewhat similar to mine, but throwing javelins. Nathaniel was heavily battered by Ripnugget and even though being defensive and drinking healing potions he was still heavily wounded and the heavy beating dazed him. I concentrated hard, following the the edge of the dagger with my left hand and suddenly grabbing it threw it toward Ripnugget. He dodged it behind the door frame. With a curse I cartwheeled back behind the corner.

From my hiding place, gathering strength for my next attack I just barely saw how Velicia, that had no wounds, in just a moment was hit by javelin after javelin. She staggered and fell from yet another javelin. Nathaniel tried to protect Velicia by attacking Ripnugget even more ferociously. As I jumped out around the corner and threw another dagger I saw Dorothea pouring a healing potion down Velicias throat. Coughing she came back to life and got up. As I was joined behind my corner by Velicia it got a little crowded. I threw my dagger and just barely missed him lodging it deeply into a door frame just before it appearing in my hand again. I turned and ran out the entrance instead and hid outside. This wasn't working. We had to change tactics before any of us got killed. I decided to run straight into the middle of the fight. As I charged I did a hand flip passed a goblin, trying to stab the dazed Nathaniel, to get to Ripnugget. With an acrobatic move I buried the dagger deep in the goblin leader, killing it, rolling on to my feet in front of Nathaniel, giving him cover from the hiding javelin throwers. When the rest of the goblins realized that Ripnugget was dead they retreated and with me following them it turned into a flight.

We were in a terrible state, heavily wounded and had used half of all the healing potions. We were all tired from the hard fighting and with the fort empty we decided to take a longer rest recovering our strength before continuing down the stairs. We actually don't have to go down there but Velicia is insisting saying that she knows that there will be magical treasures down there. I just think there will be an insane woman called Nualia trying to free that evil demon Malfeshnekor as Tsudo wrote in his diary.