Journal Entries 998 Nhym 7th-27th

998 Nhym 7th late afternoon Last Haven Inn

After we received our generous reward from Lady Elaydren of house Cannith, we retreated to the Last Haven Inn and debated on the most advantageous utilization of her largesse. After a lengthy discussion, we settled on the purchase of a mithril chain mail habergeon for Vaegar, 2 scrolls of the Shadownet spell for myself, a healing wand for all of us, and a wand of repairing for Zed. I will, of course, personally carry the wands but the group as a whole will retain ownership. The three of us also made a covenant with Elarin that we will purchase him a mithril chain shirt in the near future. After these purchases Vaegar, Zed, and Elarin divided the remnant of our specie. In the course of selling the ancient coins, I gained a critical contact at Morgrave University. His name is Provost Garum and he is a collector/aficionado of artifacts from Xendrick. I mentioned my interest in organizing an expedition to the Mournland to both Provost Garum and Lady Elaydren.

998 Nhym 15th

Strange events with ominous portent continue to pursue us. Someone appears to have performed an inverse pick pocketing to plant broken Dohkanni Empire dagger (made of the heavy violet metal called byshek) in Zed’s backpack. I can only assume that because the reverse pick pocket occurred during a rally of the heretical Cult of the Dragon Below that someone opposed to the cult placed it in Zed’s backpack. Perhaps it could be someone who is allied with the Gatekeeper druids?????????????

998 Nhym 22nd morning

Unusual events continue to plague us. We were on our way to Dorsharn Tower to check for messages from Lady Elaydren as we were instructed when we stumbled on a most distressing scene. When we arrived at Dorsharn Tower’s Sivis messaging service we found an unconscious young gnome woman. Furthermore the premises had been ransacked but we were later told by Gala d'Sivis, the gnome woman, that nothing was missing except our message from Lady Elaydren! I can only deduce that the Lord of Blades is somehow behind this as he continues to attempt to abscond the adamantine star-shaped schema we recovered for House Cannith. While the message was missing the youngster did recall that Lady Elaydren had requested our presence at the Broken Anvil Inn at once.

998 Nhym 22nd noon

Once again we rendezvoused with Lady Elaydrin at the Broken Anvil Inn. That is the extent of the similarities with our previous clandestine meetings at the Broken Anvil. Lady Elaydrin was clearly agitated and refused to engage in protracted economic negotiations. She thrust a backpack at us along with two travel vouchers, one for water travel with House Lyrander and one for air travel with House Orien. We were later to discover that the backpack was a near priceless magical artifact whose compartments were actually linked extra-dimensional spaces outside our own reality! A princely gift indeed! Lady Elaydren bade us to leave immediately for Whitehearth in the Mournland, something we were loathe to do given that we were totally unprepared and unaware of any need for haste. Once again Lady Elaydren bade us to seek out an adamantine schema. This though in the shape of a rhombus or diamond rather than a star. Before we could get to the whys and wherefores of the need for haste, we were ambushed by a small band of reptilian kobolds. Presumably the very same kobolds that vandalized the Sivis messaging depot.

Lady Elaydren’s terror led me to the conclusion that these kobold assassins had come for her and were the very cause for the above mentioned haste. I feared for Lady Elaydren’s safety and I joined Vaegar and Zed in engaging the enemy at close quarters something I am normally loathe to do. I was unable to do anymore than distract the kobolds with my spells, at first, but I did keep them from Lady Elaydrin which was my true objective. Shortly after the initial rush, their leader, a warforged named Cutlass drove into the melee clearly intending harm to Lady Elaydren. Zed closed with Cutlass and they dueled in a furious exchange of clashing swords. Vaegar and I focused our lesser combat skills on his kobold henchmen and made short work of them. My illusionary rainbow spell left two kobolds insensate and Vaegar slew the rest. Elarin remain with Lady Elaydren to ward her and pounded Cutlass from a distance with his searing firebolt spell. Once again Zed proved his powerful design superior to that of the Lord of Blades’ war forged by cleaving through Cutlass’ adamantine armor with a few powerful blows, thus leaving Cutlass deactivated, though not destroyed. After our victory, we discovered that Lady Elaydren disappeared in a cloud of mist. We allowed the insensate kobolds to escape as I could guess what fate would await them should they have the temerity to return to their masters with nothing to report but abject failure. Given that Cutlass was deactivated, we brought him back to our home base at the Last Haven Inn. We had thought to question him and glean some understanding of the Lord of Blades’ purposes behind all this intrigue.

998 Nhym 22nd afternoon Last Haven Inn

It may be a paranoia born of this endless intrigue but we all have the feeling that we are being watched. In all likelihood we are being spied upon by agents of the Lord of Blades, or those of the Emerald Claw, or a renegade Cannith as Lady Elaydren seems to suspect, or perhaps even the Cult of the Dragon Below. Or the Host only knows, perhaps all three!!! In any case we need to get out of Sharn before events spiral out of control……

998 Nhym 26th aboard the Lyrander elemental Galleon, the Kraken’s Eye

The voyage that began as a peaceful reprieve from our trials and travails turned frighteningly macabre. Whilst we slept in our comfortable cabins someone, perhaps agents of the Emerald Claw, debarked a small unit of animated skeleton marines onto our elemental galleon. These undead warriors surprised the crew and would have butchered them all if not for the timely intervention of the Lyrander guards. Fortunately the cacophony of screams and cries woke us (myself last of all) and we rushed up on the deck to lend what aid we might. And twas good that we did so, for the Lyrander guards were getting the worst of it and would likely have been slain to a man, if not for our timely interference. Zed waded into the furious melee and gave some reprieve to the hard pressed guardsmen near the prow. Upon arrival I shouted at the top of my voice that skeletons are vulnerable to blunt weapons and can be easily overcome by cleaving the spine or crushing the skull. Vaegar had engaged the skeletons near the hatch and was clearly in control of the situation thus Elarin and I then rushed forward to support Zed. This was not as foolhardy as it may have seemed to the others because I know of another vulnerability shared by all undead: healing magic. Their necromantic negative-energy metabolism is easily destroyed by the application of the positive healing magic of the Sovereign Host. Thus my healing prowess simultaneously warded Zed and de-animated the ossiferous undead. Elarin supported us with covering fire from his undead slaying ray (which operates under principles similar to my healing magic). With the four of us united against the skeletons remaining on the bow, they were quickly overwhelmed and reduced to splinters. Now we are left with a mystery: who sent the skeletal assassins and how did they get aboard our ship? If they did so once, they can do it again, perhaps in even greater numbers………

998 Nhym 27th Rhukaan Draal, Droam (independent hobgoblin kingdom)

I have resolved the most critical concern dealing with an expedition to the Mournland: healing. It is said that neither normal healing nor magical healing functions within the Mournland. I have just learned a spell from a hobgoblin spell binder that will allow me to shrink my two living allies. This will allow myself and either Vaegar or Elarin to enter the enchanted backpack together. Given that the backpack’s inside is actually on alternate plane of existence, a pocket universe if you will, and the curse of the Mournland should not hold sway, thus allowing me to use the healing powers granted me by the sovereign host. It would probably be wise for us to test this theory when we actually enter the Mournland, well before it becomes a matter of life or death.