998 21st - 23rd of Lharvion

998 Lharvion 23rd aboard the Lyrander airship, the Dauntless

Yet again I have evaded death by only the narrowest of margins. I know I should be thanking the Sovereign Host for sparing my life but I seem unable to get beyond my shock at all those young lives cut short while I look on to my 107th year. Before I can explain the earlier quote, which almost certainly is a fragment of the epic dragon prophecy, I must first relate the attack on our former transport the Lyrander airship known as the Cloudant.

As I wrote in my previous entry, I was resting in my cabin oblivious to all but my own studies and ruminations, when an alarm sounded. Before I even made the deck the Cloudant shuddered under the impact of what I discovered later to be a ballista missile specifically designed to bring down airships. This ballista was strategically placed on a mountain ridge to bring it within range of commercial air travel. If I tended to the paranoid, I should think this more than mere coincidence, but I place my trust in the Sovereigns and face the challenges they wish to set before me, as tests of my faith.

As I gained the deck, it became rapidly apparent that our position was untenable. The opportunity to effectively counter attack the ballista and its crew had come and gone. The hull damage and flames turned our thoughts to mere survival. Elarin, however, showed irrepressible pluck by employing a firebolt spell to destroy one of the large oil barrels employed by the ballista crew, likely killing a few of the goblins in the fiery explosion. Brave but hopeless, however, as the Cloudant was rapidly hulled through multiple times and Captain Ardaen called for an immediate evacuation. At first we thought him mad, given our current altitude above deadly mountainous terrain, but then it became clear that he meant for us to use the enchanted life-rings that allow four persons to float slowly to the ground.

Depending upon where each of us was in relation to the life-ring locations on the ship, we formed groups of four or less and abandoned ship. Zed the warforged stayed on the ship far longer than was advisable, presumably attempting to persuade Captain Ardaen to abandon ship. The captain, Sovereigns rest his soul, was courageous to the point of foolhardiness for he chose a crash landing in the mountains over bailing out. We were to find out later that Captain Ardaen somehow managed to preserve both himself and his airship, at least in this the first crash. It is a tribute to the man that he succeeded this first occasion, even if not on the second.

Zed was the last to float to earth so we all rallied at his location to take stock of our situation. Of course the core of this group was our little company; Zed the warforged warrior, Elarin d’Phairlan the elven sorcerer and swordsman, Vaegar our dwarven scout and expert treasure hunter, and of course myself. Our company included Koros the grizzled human veteran of the Last War, Gora the shifter warrior-woman, and Johanas d’Jorasco the halfling healer and priest. Also present was our patron Lady Elaydren of house Cannith and a single surviving half-elven Lyrander marine whose name escapes me. After a brief discussion it was decided that Lady Elaydren, protected by the Lyrander marine, would proceed to the small city visible in the distance (we were later to find out that its name was Cragwar). Meanwhile the balance of our group would search for Captain Ardaen and the Cloudant.

The seven of us followed a mountain path that seemed to be leading in the general direction of the crash site. After a short while we were approached by a handsome human woman with a small black draconic familiar. Aside from her name, Pteris, all we had from her was the aforementioned cryptic verse, which I immediately recorded without date, preamble, or explanation. I think it likely that this piece of verse is drawn from the enigmatic Dragon Prophecy and that Pteris herself is one of the cryptic and mildly deranged Dragon Prophets. I will peruse the verse thoroughly when we arrive in Fairhaven, when I finally have time for intriguing conundrums.

At length the path led us to a cave, and although we were skeptical about it leading to the crash site, we thought it a likely lair for the goblinoids operating the accursed ballista. We were only a short way into the tunnel complex when we came upon a creature of nightmare, one of the dreaded dolgaunts. I had heard of these vile creatures but never thought to encounter one, much less under peaceful circumstances. Dolgaunts are a type of aberration originally created through a horrible perversion of the basic hobgoblin stock by the god-like delkir. They appear much like pale demented hobgoblins but with two great tentacles growing from the shoulders. They carry no weapons as they need none. Their entire bodies are weapons as we were to discover later to our woe.

The creature made no move to attack us and even seemed to want to communicate with us. Against my better judgment, I drew upon the long quiescent power of my Sivis dragon mark to magically translate his abominable language. It seems that he comprehended the human common speech of the Galafarian Empire but was unable to form civilized words with his warped vocal cords. It was a most bizarre situation, speaking to a Xoriat-spawn in Galafarian, and hearing its abominable speech translated into my own native Zilargan.

The gist of this unpleasant and awkward conversation was that the dolgaunt’s “family” had been slain by goblinoid cultists of the vile Dragon Below faith. The irony of that situation seemed to be lost on my compatriots, but it provided me with a moment of grim amusement. Unfortunately this also meant that we were temporary allies as it seemed likely that the goblinoids that shot us down were the same ones that slew the creature’s “family”. The dolgaunt gave us directions to the cultists but would provide no other assistance.

I count it a blessing from the Host, that Vaegar is gifted, even beyond that of ordinary dwarves, in his ability to navigate underground. It was only a short time and Vaegar had located the cult’s subterranean head quarters. We had only entered a few steps into the large cavern when all Khyber broke lose (pun intended). We were fighting for our lives against a mixed host of goblin, hobgoblin, and orcish cultists. Elarin, Johanas, Vaegar, Koros, and I rallied together near the exit while Gora veered left and disappeared in the darkness. Zed remained with our main party just long enough for me to cast a spell that would enable him to see in magical darkness and then he charged the goblin center. It was fortuitous that many of the goblins hung back and plied their bows rather than surge in and surround us. A huge ogre entered the fray against us and I was greatly in fear of our lives. But a searing fireblast from Elarin followed quickly by a mighty blow of Zed’s great sword and the giant was laid low. Just as we began to feel the tide of battle shift to our favor, the leader of the humanoid cultists, a hobgoblin wizard, stepped out of hiding and blasted our main party with a searing explosion of magical fire. Nearly all of us received severe burns excepting only Zed and Gora who had moved away from our immediate defensive position, but also Vaegar who seemed somehow miraculously unscathed. Although at the time we feared the tide of battle had again shifted, the truth was that this desperate act was our opponents’ last gasp. Not only did the wizard slay a number of his own troops, he also exposed himself to retaliation. Had the same blow been delivered early in the battle, we might have been overrun. Zed and Gora engaged the wizard at close quarters, and with minimal assistance from the remainder of our party, the hobgoblin was quickly slain. After the battle we took stock of our surroundings and healed our injured. Of the items we acquired, the most notable were; an enchanted ring, magic bracers, and most significantly from my point of view, the hobgoblin wizard’s spell book.

My companions spared time for a short rest and then we continued on in our search for the Cloudant. Vaegar once again proved his value to us by quickly locating the hidden grotto that contained the wreckage of the once proud Cloudant. Captain Ardaen was hiding below deck, though he sounded hale and in good spirits. It seemed that the captain was under threat of sniper fire and therefore was unable to effect repairs. We sent a rescue party in the form of Gora and Vaegar and were immediately set upon by a small group of elite half-orc archers. Arrows fell like rain around us. We could not see our attackers in the darkness and thus could not effectively counter attack. And we, instead, stood out like beacons with our magical lantern ablaze. Despite the range, one arrow found my chest and even pierced my left lung. The pain was indescribable, far beyond any of the minor cuts I had yet taken. Had it not been that Johanas’s healing prowess exceed even my own, I would certainly have bled to death. Thanks to Johanas, I was back in the battle in a trice. I drew upon my gnomish magical heritage and created a ghost-like shape formed of light and hurled it at our tormentors. Revealed by the light and fearful of the “ghost” the archers fled to the dark recesses of the cavern complex.
Now that the complication of the snipers was removed from the situation, the majority of our company climbed down into the grotto’s valley to assist Captain Ardaen with the repairs. Amazingly, the captain was a sorcerer with Cannith-like powers of repairing as well as his dragon mark powers of House Lyrander and therefore he required minimal assistance. Within a few hours Captain Ardaen had effected enough repairs for the Cloudant to become airborne once more. The captain insisted upon an immediate take off despite our warnings. Zed, Elarin, Vaegar, Koros, and I thought it better to track down the half-orcs to prevent them from firing on the Cloudant with their bows or worse with another ballista. Gora and Johanas preferred to remain with the ship presumably because they did not wish to be left behind to continue the journey on foot (as we risked).

The five of us were unable to witness all of what transpired after the Cloudant became airborne but it was not difficult to infer. We did witness a pair of dolgaunts leap, seemingly out of nowhere, and gain the deck of the airship. It seems likely that the dolgaunts realized the best way to destroy the airship and its guardians, Gora and Johanas, was to assassinate its captain. We heard sounds that indicated a brief but furious combat and then the Cloudant fell. It disintegrated in a catastrophic crash from which there could be no survivors. We counted ourselves lucky to have chosen to remain behind. Of course we hoped that the dolgaunts had destroyed themselves, as well as our friends and the Cloudant, but we could not depend upon it and therefore we began to make plans to rest and heal ourselves before searching the wreckage. Our grief for our new friends had to be pushed aside for the grim necessity of survival.

Before we could dare risk resting in some likely cavern, we had to hunt down the archers and either drive them from the tunnels or eliminate them, if they refused to flee. While searching for the band of half-orc archers, we were approached by a dwarf by the name of Vergus Hote. The story he related indicated that he was a siege engineer and an “unwilling” slave of the Dragon Below goblin cultists. Hote helped Vaegar track the elite archers into one of the most distant tunnels. Vaegar crept silently up to the small band of half-orcs and surprised them. The remainder of our company closed in and the archers were quickly defeated. Skilled in archery though they might have been, they were not much of a threat in a stand up fight.

Vergus Hote then warned us of a delkir-spawned abomination known as a cloaker in a nearby cavern. We thought it prudent to eliminate this creature of Xoriat before it killed us in our sleep. Vergus led us to the small cavern thought to be occupied by the cloaker. Zed volunteered to enter first, trusting to his golem-like physiology and adamantine skin to carry him through an attack.

The skirmish with the cloaker began well enough, even given the unusual challenges we faced due to its uncanny powers of shadow and fear. The creature enveloped Zed as we had predicted and we began to lay into it. A cloaker appears much like a demonic stingray that flies in the air instead of water, but the similarities are superficial. Events went very bad, very quickly. The cloaker ran its dagger-like tail right through Koros’s heart, killing him instantly. The Xoriat-spawn revealed the true measure of its alien intelligence when it obviously deduced that Zed was inedible and nigh-invulnerable. At that point the aberration leapt upon my back and tried to consume me. Had it not been for quick action by Elarin, I would have been torn to bloody ribbons by its claws and teeth. Revealing a level of skill and precision beyond anything we had previously witnessed, Elarin thrust his elven estoc through the triangle of tented alien flesh where the creature’s “wings” were stretched tight by my struggling head and shoulders. Elarin must have pierced some alien vital organ because the creature suddenly became inert. My companions took advantage of this momentary paralysis to hack the cloaker to pieces.

As I suspected the cloaker’s den provided an excellent location for us to rest as it had only a single small entrance. Zed has no need for sleep so he stood guard while the remainder of the party rested. Elarin stayed near Zed so as to offer assistance and then entered that recuperative trance-like state that serves as sleep for elves. After resting we once again sought out the shattered remnants of the formerly majestic Cloudant. Even as we approached the edge of the wreckage, we were set upon by two deadly dolgaunts, a male and a female. Our combat plan originally involved my casting a spell of concealing darkness along with a vision enhancing magic on my comrades. But, as they say, a plan works perfectly until you encounter the enemy. I had absolutely no time to cast spells. The male dolgaunt quickly wrapped one of his tentacles around my chest and then began to feed on my life force. Vaegar and Elarin came to my aid by engaging the male dologaunt while Zed squared off against the female unsupported. It soon became apparent that we might well lose this encounter as the dolgaunts not only commanded life draining power through their tentacles, they were devastating martial artists with their hands and feet as well. Only Zed seemed capable of withstanding a sustained assault from the dolgaunts without the application of healing magic. Furthermore the weapons of my companions seemed to have little effect on the aberrant hobgoblins. Our only hope was in the broken byshek dagger blade that Zed drew and wielded against the female. And even then the two seemed evenly matched. Elarin’s fire spell proved able to cause the male’s skin to char and the elf therefore plied it over and over. For my part, I was only spared a killing blow because the large male was using my stolen life force to heal the injuries caused by my very own companions. Thus it was in his best interest to keep me alive, for the short term at least. I dared not give the dolgaunt cause to believe himself better off with me eliminated. I felt keenly that the draining of my life force alone would kill me, if the battle kept on long enough. Just when I was offering my soul up to the Sovereign Host, Zed disemboweled the female and then joined the others against the larger male. Even the fearsome male dolgaunt could not stand up to the combined power of my three companions. It was quickly hacked to pieces.

A few moments passed as we stared at each other, each of us hardly daring to believe that we had survived that battle. Now that the immediate crisis had passed, I could begin to feel how enervated and dizzy the dolgaunt had left me by feeding on my life energy. I could only pray that the effect was temporary and that I would recover in time. I used my wands to heal our hurts and then we began to stagger in the direction of Cragwar. When we arrived in Cragwar a guard was kind enough to take us to the inn where Lady Elaydren was staying. We explained the situation to our patron and then we were shown to our own rooms. I was too exhausted to even bathe. I collapsed on the bed and slept until Lady Elaydren woke us the next morning. The late Captain Ardaen was as good as his word. He had indeed sent word ahead and another airship had just arrived to take us the rest of the way to Fairhaven. This is, of course, the very location from which I am penning this missive, the Lyrander airship the Dauntless. Sovereigns allow that we may we have better luck on this leg of our trip than the last.