Journal Entries 998 Nhym 27th - Lharvion 3rd

998 Nhym 27th

While I was questing for the shrinking spell Vaegar and Zed sought out weapons wrought from exotic materials. Weapons that would be anathema to evil magical creatures. Vaegar purchased the dagger of a Cyran general and Zed acquired a goblinoid curved dagger forged from cold iron.

When the purchases were finalized, we followed a tip that our guide, Failin, was at an Inn by the name of the Clenched Fist. There we did indeed locate our human guide Failin. The confluence of spotting his Orien dragon mark, his drunken demeanor, his wretched state, and the fact that he was working in hobgoblin lands, led me to conclude that he was a pariah in his dragonmarked clan, an excoriate. I overstepped the bounds of social propriety by asking him if this indeed was the case. I apologized when it became clear that I had offended him but his reaction seemed to prove the veracity of my speculations. Failin set the fee for escorting us to Rose Quarry at five and fifty gold Sovereigns, which seemed to me an exorbitant sum for such a short excursion, even given that we are to have the luxury of riding in an elemental wagon.

As we exited Rhukaan Draal, two huge hirsute goblinoids accosted Failin. These bugbears accused Failin of swindling them in some way, and given Failin usurious rates, I tended to give the charges some credence. Although my sympathies were with the huge hairy goblins, we were forced to succor our guide. The stakes were far too high to allow any violence to our only guide to Rose Quarry. We quickly dispatched the two bugbears, one falling before the weapons of Zed and Vaegar and the firebolt spell of Elarin. The other fell before my illusionary rainbow cone spell. Fortunately the hobgoblin constabulary seemed to sanction and even enjoy this unnecessary violence. I saw no sense in slaying the stunned bugbear so we disarmed him and put Rhukaan Draal behind us.

998 Nhym 28th

Taking into consideration our proximity to the Mournland, this is turning out to be a very uneventful trip, praise the Host.

998 Lharvion 1st

My compatriots and I just fought off a platoon of deadly goblin crossbowmen mounted on ponies (12-16 perhaps). These little goblinoids were led by a dangerous looking hobgoblin mounted on a huge charger. This aforementioned goblinoid leader had the eye of the Dragon Below Cult cut into the flesh of his forehead. I suspect that the platoon of goblinoids has been tracking and/or following us since we left Rhukaan Draal. Fortuitously, we were near a stout stone bride when I spotted the goblinoid mounted infantry. My companions and I retreated to the far side of the bridge and used the elemental wagon as a rampart to close off access to our side of the riverbank. One small section of bridge was open but Zed stepped into the gap, well-warded by his mighty tower shield.

The goblins did not swarm after us as I had hoped but instead formed disciplined ranks and plied their deadly crossbows from the other side of the riverbank. If Zed had not been nigh invulnerable to their quarrels due to his impregnable adamantine “skin” and huge tower shield this gap would have ruined us. As for the rest of our company, including myself, we had little protection against the arrow storm. Vaegar, Elarin, and I sought cover where we might, be it huge oak, Zed’s warding shield, or the elemental wagon itself.

As we weathered the rain of quarrels, Elarin and I kept a withering barrage of magical energy on the mounted hobgoblin leader; Elarin with his deadly firebolt spell and myself with my wand of force missiles. It was only a few such magical volleys and the hobgoblin captain quitted the field of battle. Meanwhile Vaegar was providing a deadly coving fire with his crossbow and Zed stalwartly held the gap even though he had little to no ability to retaliate.

Although he ordered the little goblins to stay and put an end to us, their morale and resolve to fight was clearly wavering at the sight of their retreating leader. I sensed the moment was ripe and a sudden fierce blow might rout the entire band. I darted forward and cast my rainbow spell leaving three of the goblinoids insensate. The vicious little creatures retaliated with a deadly volley of bolts. Although I was merely nicked by the first brace of bolts, the last one sank deeply into my shoulder. I was forced to withdraw behind the giant oak tree to staunch the bleeding with a healing magic. Shortly afterward, the goblins began an organized withdrawal in the direction of their cowardly captain. They withdrew in very good order, including posting a small rearguard. I called for a charge on the rearguard and my compatriots eagerly attacked the goblin remnant. After a short but fierce skirmish, we destroyed the four goblins serving as rearguard.

The four of us chased after the pony-mounted goblins, screaming and shouting, in hopes that they would be too panicked to rally for a counter-attack. To assure myself of the goblin rout, I created an illusion of a flying beast which I had observed while visiting Sharn. I sent this illusion of an eagle-horse racing after them as if it might attack. I needn’t have bothered as it seemed the goblins were as eager to leave as we were to be rid of them.

998 Lharvion 2nd

We have arrived in Rose Quarry and it seems that, in haste, Lady Elaydren left out much intelligence that would have, subsequently, proved beneficial. First and foremost is that Rose Quarry is not an inhabited town at all but instead a desolate ruin. I thought to encounter potential allies at a Cannith outpost and instead we found an Emerald Claw raiding party, which included a number of skeletal undead warriors. Additionally the entire ruin of Rose Quarry was covered in glass, likely due to sand or stone melting on the Day of Mourning. The only inkling we had of Emerald Claw strength was that they had 15-20 mounts. The total number of undead was impossible to recon, though I counted six. Undead do not ride horses, at least not living ones.

With so little information, we felt it was advisable to send Vaegar ahead to reconnoiter after sunset when his dark vision would give him an advantage over the night-blind humans. In the meantime, we looked for a likely spot to secrete the wagon and await nightfall. We found a fine refuge for the wagon among piles of broken rocks, probably scree from the quartz quarry that gives the town its name. We then hunkered down and waited out the sunset, seizing what rest we might.

998 Lharvion 2nd late night

Vaegar just returned from his midnight reconnoiter. He provided us with a great deal of invaluable intelligence. The most crucial piece of intelligence was that there appears to be multiple leaders, including perhaps more than one spellbinder. Also critically important was that the Emerald Claw necromancers were employing black magic to imbue a mockery of life in the corpses of the hapless dwarven miners entombed in the ubiquitous glass. And as to our actual obective, Vaegar located the building containing the Cannith map that hides the secret of Whitehearth’s location. It seems that Vaegar will need to return to the building and “remove” the two Emerald Claw warriors guarding the mosaic so that he can get a closer look and divine the location of Whitehearth.

998 Lharvon 3rd morning

We have reached a consensus, it has been decided that we will all accompany Vaegar to the map area, at least as close as we may, lacking Vaegar’s stealth skills. We should be able to enter quite far into the ruin of Rose Quarry given that my spells will prevent the glass-clad dwarven zombies from detecting us. Also the humans tend to stay close to their encampment so we are unlikely to encounter them in darkest night.

998 Lharvion 3rd late night

Vaegar has returned from his mission to report complete success. Not only did his solve the riddle of Whitehearth’s location but he went undetected as well. Whitehearth is thirty miles in from the mist border on the southwest side of the hills of Cyre. Unfortunately he was forced to slay the two Emerald Claw guards but such is the natural conclusion to the path they chose for themselves. Now we need to quit Rose Quarry in haste and in stealth. Should the full strength of the Emerald Claw raiders fall upon us we would be lost. Though we might make them wish they had not caught us before we fell.