998 Lharvion 28th - Barrakas 19th

998 28th of Lharvion early morning Fairhaven, Aundair

I must confess, if only to myself, that I do feel somewhat foolish. In trying to protect innocents and minimize destruction, I have been made to look the buffoon. In the days prior to the Cannith gala my companions and I were haunted by the same strange dreams. The dreams seemed to be hinting that assassins, perhaps from the Dragon Below cult, would launch some sort of attack at the Cannith ball. Dark figures that might have been dolgaunts or undead shadows slaughtered the dream-revelers mercilessly in this seemingly prophetic vision. This attack “dream” was also somehow connected to another surreal vision of a babe falling from the heavens. Given that the four of us, including an unsleeping war forged, shared seeming identical dreams, I was sure that this was divine intervention from the Sovereign Host themselves. I was so convinced that we were facing a blood bath that I wrote a less than complimentary letter to Lady Elaydren insisting that she enhance the security forces at the gala. I was concerned enough that I even had the temerity to imply that she was responsible for those slain by Xulo. Now that my fears are proved groundless, I am worried that I have alienated our former patron beyond hope of reconciliation.

Despite all my anxious vigilance at the Cannith ball, little out of the ordinary occurred. I was so upset that I nearly murdered a cloaked and cowled “mistress of the dance” with a force missile. This was due to her uncanny resemblance to the dark figures in our dreams. In the end the only violence that actually occurred at the ball was the abortive kidnapping of our elven companion, Elarin d’Phiarlan. What was seemingly a Dragon Below assassin attempted to knock Elarin insensate and take him prisoner for some nefarious reason. It was not much of a fight from what I heard. Elarin managed to stay conscious after the initial surprise attack (a severe concussion from a lead-filled sap). In rage and desperation, Elarin imbued his enchanted elven blade with his own magical might and drove it through his assailant’s chest, thus killing him with a single blow. I suppose, as they say, if you poke a lion with a stick, you deserve the mauling. Of course, as it turns out, I was correct about someone dying at the gala. The only problem being that we were the ones that killed him!

998 Barrakas 15th Fairhaven, Aundair night

We have decided to investigate the second part of the dream, that of the child falling from the sky. This vision seems to be somehow associated with the range of small mountains know as the Far Cry Hills. We are now organizing an expedition there in hopes that this part of the dream was a true vision and not a hoax as was the scene at the gala. Traveling with us are Dorb Grittar a rowdy swordsman and Borin an animal handler of House Vadalis. Borin travels with us only to care for the horses and ponies. Grittar however intends to fight along side our company at need. He is a friend that Zed made in Fairhaven and, if I am any judge of men, his sword will be of significant aid in battle.

998 Barrakas 19th somewhere between Fairhaven and the Far Cry Hills

Horror of horrors. Our horsemaster Borin met a hideous end last night. Some sort of vile tentacled Xoriat-spawn was living inside him like a monstrous parasite. The creature slew Borin when it was unable to use him to destroy us. It killed him by exiting his chest as though launched from a ballista. My companions, Grittar, and I ganged up on the squid-like aberration and hacked it to pieces. I sincerely hope this living nightmare does not happen to the rest of us. It occurs to me that the tentacled horror might have crawled up into one of Borin’s orifices while we were camped out. In which case, it could happen again to any of us. It is a most gruesome and unpleasant way to die.

998 Lharvion 24th late at night

Lharvion 24th Fairhaven, Aundair late at night

We are finally safe and sound in Aundair preparing for the Cannith gala at the Royal Wynarn Court of Fairhaven. We had only a single crisis since arriving here. And that wholly unnecessary. Lady Elaydren offered to take us on tour of Fairhaven’ s Cannith manufacturing enclave. In retrospect, I suppose I should have been suspicious as Elaydren was far too cooperative in submitting to my request to view Cannith’s utilization of the schemas. I suspect she used the “tour” as a ruse to gain free security services from our little company. We had thought to view the on going research and instead we became party to an ill advised debacle.

Lady Elaydren brought us into a huge chamber that contained a titanic thirty foot tall warforged. I was shocked to speechlessness. The Treaty of Thronehold contains a prohibition against creating more warforged. Elaydren was skirting dangerous territory with this little experiment. Without a by-your-leave, or any basic safe guards, or even clearing the room of hapless non-combatants, Lady Elaydren began assembling the schemas by placing them into the creation pattern. I was very apprehensive as this seemed a foolish and poorly planned piece of stupidity. By the by, this action of Lady Elaydren’s clearly put the lie to her supposition that the creation pattern was unimportant and thus not particularly valuable. When Elaydren placed the last schema into the creation pattern, it became clear that some sort of magical energy was at work, drawing the schema toward the creation pattern like iron to a lode stone. When the last schema melded into the creation pattern, the whole “wheel” rose into the air and floated toward the giant warforged’s chest and it became apparent that the entire artifact was nothing more than a monstrous docent!

As soon as the schema-artifact attached itself to the construct’s chest socket, the creature came to life and began to speak and move! The giant war forged smashed the pillar around which it was wrapped but seemed unable to move very far due to the many enchanted cables that seemed to provide it with life. At first we hesitated, not knowing if the huge golem was friend or foe. Given that Lady Elaydren was in some sort of trance-like state, we hoped that her consciousness controlled the creature.

Then the huge construct seized a piece of column the size and shape of a large drum and hurled it at one of the innocent bystanders thereby dashing him to pieces as though he were an overfilled wine skin. At that our company sprang into action. Elarin and Zed charged the huge warforged. Vaegar attacked Lady Elayrden in hopes that if she fell unconscious the golem would be de-animated, unfortunately such was not the case. Elarin was dealt a bone jarring slap and was forced to limp out of reach in order to preserve his life. Zed engaged it at close quarters while Vaegar and I supported him with distance attacks, me with my force-missile wand and Vaegar with his crossbow. However, Vaegar aimed not at the creature, but at the cables that seemed to be providing it with sustenance. After quaffing a healing potion, Elarin joined the barrage with his searing firebolt spell. Zed laid into the creature with his enchanted broadsword but was scooped up by Xulo, as the creature called itself, and was then held far above ground. When Zed hewed the giant’s forearm it threw him forcefully to the stone-slab flooring causing serious damage to Zed’s fibrous and wooden internal structure. I darted in and employed my repair wand on Zed. The giant dealt me such a blow that I thought I felt ribs crack. Zed was also struck another devastating blow and we simultaneously decided a strategic retreat was advisable. It was now clear that the “cables” held the creature in place and missile fire was the preferred method of attack, even if meant we would incur thrown boulders as a counter attack. Elarin passed his bow to Zed and thus we all could engage the creature at a “safe” distance. After a few such volleys, I was struck a glancing blow by one of the column-boulders and my courage finally failed me. The monster had killed every innocent bystander and I was sure to be next. There was no need for me to die here and now, so I thought, not with hundreds of Canniths nearby. So I fled the chamber of death thinking to summon aid. Elarin saw the wisdom in this plan and did likewise. It was at this point that Zed loosed an extremely improbable shot. The arrow sped into the huge golem’s mouth and lodged in the back of this throat. Somehow the damage to this particular spot caused the creature to seize up, almost as though magically paralyzed. Vaegar was, at this time, retreating like myself, though much closer to Xulo than I. The deadly dwarf seized the opportunity presented by an unmoving target and drove a crossbow bolt deep into the creature’s chest at close range. Elarin followed this up with two mighty bolts of fire and the titanic golem was reeling. Hiding behind the chamber threshold I saw my chance and fired one of my wand’s force missiles into the creature’s mouth on the same trajectory as Zed’s arrow. My force missile struck true and the creature came crashing down. The creation pattern and schemas broke apart upon impacting the floor, robbing the huge golem of its sentience.

We had again survived, although on this occasion we had risked our lives needlessly. Presumably the facility had Cannith guards trained to deal with rampaging warforged as was necessary during the Last War. Certainly there were dragonmarked Cannith artificers, with access to construct-destroying spells, on the premises. And yet Lady Elaydren took no precautions! I am not so gullible as to believe that she would perform such an experiment unsupported. Clearly House Cannith politics are somehow involved. Perhaps this was a secret operation and she dared not make a formal request for security. Or Lady Elaydren was making a grab for glory by seeking all the credit for re-animating the huge living weapon. We will probably never learn the whole truth. However, we can learn a valuable lesson; we may work for Lady Elaydren but we must never ever trust her!

On a more positive note we were able to exchange our plethora of unnecessary magic items with the Fairhaven Canniths for more universally utilitarian items. We managed to scrape together sufficient funds to purchase an enchanted adamantine great sword for Zed, a magic byshek mace for Vaegar, and a mithril chain shirt with magical enhancement for Elarin (as promised). For myself I chose a wand that will allow me to protect my comrades from a safe distance. I plan to assiduously avoid hand-to-hand combat in the future. Sadly, we were compelled to sell a powerful ring that allows one to float to the ground as per the airship life rings. That and now we are nearly destitute. Time to find seek honest work as a scribe, I suppose.