Excerpts from the journal of Moiyar

November 8^th

            I have decided that either the elves do not know the whereabouts of the Bands or were not going to tell me during my lifetime.  Perhaps if I’d had two or three more lives to spend with them they might have gotten around to telling me.  That is the thing that is most frustrating about elves.  They take their time with everything.  Whereas most humans take less than half an hour to get through the formalities of greeting a guest (stoking the fire, bringing wine, cheese and bread, asking about relatives and friends and so forth) it takes better than two days with elves.

            Having exhausted my funds in the search I decided to return to Ashton to rest and seek a new patron.  Perhaps this time I will find one that understands the virtue of patience.

November 11^th

            The elves seem to wish to take their time saying goodbye as well.  Every time I thought I could leave I was made to understand a different custom had to be observed.  As I hope to one day return and resume my search for the Bands I did not wish to offend them.  Parnell has loaded and unloaded poor Merewether at least four times.  Sheriandrialianchal presented Brandywine with a gift of a small pouch of seeds and other foodstuffs.  We have at last headed out nearly two years after we arrived.

November 28^th

            Parnell has told me he will be returning to his family estates upon our return.  I shall miss him.  He is a decent and trustworthy companion.

December 4th

            We arrive at Ashton and secure a place to stay.  Parnell will be leaving in the morning.  I take him out for a fine dinner and after nearly two years of elven fare I enjoy the meal far more than I expected.

December 6^th

            My previous patron, Bellig of The Five, has died but fortunately he left arrangements to settle his account with me.  I am able to square with Parnell and have a small amount left to live on for a while.  I give him a gift for his mother and young sister and we say goodbye.  I shall truly miss Parnell and doubt I shall find another companion as moral, loyal, and hardworking.

February 9^th

            I have exhausted my few contacts at Ashton in search of another patron, although I have heard news of increased marauder activity I will travel to Astur to follow word of a merchant called Shreggural who may have a scroll containing a mention of the Bands.  My time with the elves has taught me many new magics with which to defend myself.  I am loathe to travel alone, but am unable to find a group heading North anytime soon.  I shall keep Brandywine close at all times even though he prefers to sleep in trees.

February 15^th

            After three days travel I have managed to attach myself to a small group that consists mainly of halflings and a gnoll who claims to be a Road Warden.  Apparently Baron Kessig has been trying to get the barbarian tribes to help him overthrow King Astur and the lands are not safe.  My only time in Port Kessig I found the people did not seemed to be overly fearful of their lord, but that was many years ago.

February 19^th

            I find my travel companions to be quite refreshing.  One of the halflings, a randy little fellow called Lauren, entertains us each evening with ancient myths and tales of elder heroes plus his own adventures.  It seems they recently cleared out an abandoned temple to Bacchus.  I suspect the temple was abandoned when it’s followers staggered off drunk but I shall not say so since the other halfling, called Harrow, claims to be a cleric and it would not do to insult him without reason.  Of my other travel companions there are a pair of rather large humans called Mogg and [XXXX].  Mogg seems tolerable, though not a great thinker.  [XXXX] is also tolerable and a bit smarter, but his speech pattern can be annoying.  The gnoll spends most of his time scouting ahead so I interact with him the least.  Perhaps he feels I am put off by his appearance.  Tomorrow I shall speak to him in his own tongue, despite the social error this would be in his culture.

February 20^th

            The gnoll, called Jik, was first shocked at my knowing, much less speaking, his native tongue but seems to have warmed up to me.  I like this small band.  All in all they are quite a friendly bunch and don’t seem concerned with my presence, even discussing their plans once they reach Astur.  They talk of being on a mission for the king and must report to him.  It appears to have something to do with the maneuverings of Baron Kessig.  We should arrive at Astur tomorrow.

February 22^nd

            Having taken my leave of my traveling companions I have begun my search for the scroll concerning the Bands.  So far I haven’t managed to discover this Shreggural.  It appears his caravan was overtaken on route from Smithton.  His son knows of no such scroll, but has promised to search for it.  I shall return there in two days, hopefully to better news.

February 24^th

            My travel to Astur may have been in vain.  Shreggural’s son was unable to find the scroll or any mention of it.  My funds are nearly exhausted and many of my contacts and patrons have retired or died in the past two years.  I am not sure if the gods are testing me or it is merely bad luck.  I trust in either case I shall overcome my current predicament.  I honored Corellon tonight with a display of magics for the masses.  They applauded warmly and threw money, but I gave it to a small child I saw who looked as if he hadn’t eaten in weeks.

February 27^th

            I ran into Lauren in the marketplace.  It seems he and his companions are off on a new mission for the king.  He has offered me a place in their group.  I told him I would return an answer by the end of the evening (as they are leaving in the morning), but I knew I would join them.  My He wouldn’t tell me the details, except that we would be traveling to Mt. Maergoth.  I secured some equipment and sent word to Lauren I would travel with them.  Now I have to break the word to Brandywine that we shall be going into caves.

February 28^th

            We begin our journey to Maergoth.  Mogg and Raven did not rejoin us.  Mogg went to help a dwarf with mining or something along those lines.  I haven’t been able to determine what happened to Raven.  In their place is D’arkkyn who sets the hairs on the back of my neck to rise but I cannot place why.  Perhaps he has some elven lineage and I am reacting to that.  We traveled well for the first day, but Mt. Maergoth is several days off.  I purchased several tomes and scrolls regarding the myths surrounding the dread mountain and will spend most of my evenings delving into them, although I suspect Laurens tales will draw me from them.

March 3rd

            The scrolls I brought have taught me nothing I can put to use immediately although I have learned our mission is to retrieve the Sword of Astur, which is rumored to be able to establish true lineage to the throne of Astur.  We are either to reclaim the sword to secure King Astur’s position or to prevent Baron Kessig from getting it and leaving succession in doubt.  We have tonight camped in the shadow of Mt. Maergoth and it is very cold.  Tomorrow we shall arrive at the waterfall that is to be our way into its depths.

March 5^th

            After some difficulty we managed to get inside through an underwater passage.  Lauren had an oiled bag in which I secured my books and scrolls from the water.  I shall have to make myself such a bag as soon as I can as it prevented possible disaster.  Once inside we traveled through caverns and tunnels of many different sizes, including one so small I feared we might not get Jik through.  He had many small abrasions by the time we reached a strange but extremely well made dwarven archway.  I spent some time studying the construction as we rested before pushing on.

March 6^th

            The archway leads us to a long stairway broken by a several landings.  At the top we discover a room with eight of what D’arkkyn said were very old suits of armor.  As D’arkkyn explored the far end of the room I examined one of the suits and discovered the inside was overgrown with vines.  Suddenly all the armor began moving accompanied by the sound of breaking branches.  I would later discover the vines were part of a larger plant that had grown into the suits and was controlling them from the far end of the room.  D’arkkyn would later destroy this vile plant.  Before that I was surrounded by no less than three of the suits, which attacked and knocked me to the floor.  The next thing I know Harrow is kneeling beside me and had poured wine into my mouth.  He later claimed he exercised the power of Bacchus through the use of wine.  I was shocked as I do not drink alcohol to avoid dulling me senses, but I must admit it did clear my head and ease the bruises.  I was able to retreat from the suits and attack them from a distance, felling two of them by myself.  After destroying the plant, D’arkkyn discovered a pair of orcs standing as if frozen.  He set them ablaze from across a chasm that split the far end of the room.  Behind them was a tunnel that led us downward to this cavern.  It appears to be a supply room for mining equipment.  We heard the sound of orcs basically grumbling about having to mine the caves.  I have found most orcs to be stupid and lazy, but in numbers they find courage and are dangerous when under a strong leader.  I sent Brandywine to scout the orcs, but he was discovered and wounded slightly.  We retreated back to the room with mining equipment after I cast Spheria Toriadium into their midst.  As I was casting into darkness I don’t know how many I killed, but I saw many orcs in the flash of the sphere.  The remaining orcs and those coming from another passage attempted to overrun us, but were shot with many arrows and bolts before Harrow or Lauren, I couldn’t be sure which, threw oil into the passage and the survivors retreated.  We decided to rest and recover our strength before moving on.  As we prepared a makeshift camp a kobold appeared and Lauren said he knew the kobold from a previous tale regarding an evil Road Warden and a house with a false floor.  The kobold, called Kr’thulnak, was impressed with my Spheria Toriadium and asked if we would assist in freeing others of his kind from a Wyrm.  After much negotiating we agreed to help in exchange for direction to the sword.  The kobold, Lauren and D’arkkyn scouted the Wyrm while the rest of us rested.  I would need my strength to face this Wyrm.

March 7^th

            We have rested and I have regained my magic. The trio returned as I slept and drew a detailed map of the creatures’ lair.  They had also encountered Kunk, a wandering gnome who is no siege engineer and I can only believe they took pity upon him.  I planned out an attack that eliminated most of the creatures’ monstrous companions and provided for the longest time before it could reach our position.  As most plans do not survive contact with the enemy several things went wrong including Kunk running directly up to the beast, perhaps to prove himself to us so we would not cast him out. . He was caught in the flames of Kr’thulnak’s spell that is very much like the Spheria Toriadium I also cast upon it, although I took care not to engulf my own companions.  After many magical and physical blows the beast was felled.  I do not believe it to be a dragon, but some similar type of creature.  I gathered interesting pieces of it, including a large section of skin that I hope to use to make a sack such as Lauren has.  We search around and discovered the beasts’ lair nearby and recovered much platinum and several gems as well as a wand that I later discerned to be capable of casting a magical bolt that burns on contact and continues to burn for several second.  I shall have to investigate to learn more of this spell as I may wish to add it to my own repertoire.  We also discovered a bow with which D’arkkyn seems to be quite taken.  While we prepared to rest after the fight Lauren, apparently trying to show Kr’thulnak one of his lesser spells managed instead to upset the kobold and he cast what I can only assume was his own Ahnpoda Discernibla and disappeared.  I hope he does not come back and attempt mischief or worse.  Fortunately he had already told us of the path we needed to take to get to the sword, which included passing through a bazaar of some sort.