Some letters sent from Joven

Ken,                                                                              June 14th
Friends and I are heading west in company of ex-traveling companion. I have message of some importance to bring to Rinos; once delivered, I shall seek you out. Have much I want to tell you and would like to introduce you to said group.

Still no word from R and am rather worried, hoping you have news.

See you in a week or so,
~C

This first letter was tied to a bird and sent off about a day's travel away from Joven.

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This letter was sent north from Joven. Cyneric is from the south, but his parents have since relocated to the northern coast. This is quite to his liking, as it means he has an excuse for infrequent contact.

Father,
After spending my entire life avoiding what you tried to force me into, I've stumbled onto a path much like that anyway. Hope you are happy and thank you for leaving me so screwed up that I feel too guilty to enjoy it properly. You elitist snots can bite me.
... Where did THAT come from? He really needed to pay more attention to what he was writing as this clearly isn't what he wanted to say... although he'd sheepishly admit that getting those words out felt good. Crinkle that up and toss it into the waste basket. Try again with more tact.

I figured now would be wise to send you word as I am traveling through Joven and word would reach you quickly with the least amount of effort on the part of my brethren. No use asking one to travel far to where he won't be appreciated and likely will be thrown out on his arse as soon as he hands over this letter.
... Sigh. Crinkle that up, try once more. It's not like they'd actually do that. Probably. Possibly. Hopefully.

I am traveling through Joven and thought now would be a good time to contact you. As I've learned recently, word of the endeavors of my traveling companions and I has spread far, so I imagine you have an idea of what I have been experiencing, should you have cared to listen. Likely this is exaggerated, but perhaps now you will finally be pleased with your pacifistic, pariah son.
Crinkle crinkle, curse, grumble. One more try and if that doesn't work, he'll admit defeat and go back to pretending that his parents don't exist for a while.

Father,
I am traveling through Joven and, as I am relatively nearby, wanted to contact you. However, since it is west to Rinos my companions and I are headed, rather than north, a letter shall have to suffice. I hope that you and Mother are doing well and that the coast has proved an environment of comfort to the both of you.

Upon reaching Joven, I learned that news of my traveling party's exploits have reached great distances. I am not overly pleased with this, but I am going to assume that it means you've heard word of me, as well. Likely this has been exaggerated. However, yes, it means your clerical son has become an adventurer of some distinction. It is certainly not the path I wanted to end up on, but I am sure this is more to your liking than the thought of me toiling away in the backwaters, delivering mail from anyone who wandered into the mosque that day. I know you have always disliked that I entered into the priesthood (and this one in particular), so any amount of heroics is probably an improvement.

While in Rinos, I shall try to keep track of who is what and what is where because I know that sort of thing is of interest to you and Mother, but I have a feeling that Kendric is far better at relaying such news than I. Still, I will dutifully try to keep my eyes open.

We are setting out momentarily, so I must quickly seal this letter and ask one of my brethren to take care of it for me.

As I wrote above, I hope this finds you both well.
Your son,
Cyneric
Well, that'll have to do. It's unlikely his rather obtuse father would catch the contempt he felt, anyway, and this was about as civil as he could bring himself to sound. At least it appeared that he said all the right things, even if in actuality he'd either "forget" about that promise or give slightly wrong information, depending on what kind of mood he was in that day. Why did his family always have to be so difficult to deal with?


((Typing up the last few adventures now, but figured I may as well post these letters here as well as on my writing blog. What the heck, right?))

Into the endless goblin mine- a rescue mission filled with chaos and monsters

Once again I have been lax in updating this journal, so this will be an incredibly long entry. I shall try to summarize as best I can to keep this short, but no promises. Where to begin...

After our druid was slain, we finally pulled back from the mine, unfortunately not soon enough for Dormaggs. After some time and heated discussion (er... largely on my own part), we decided to try locating a different entrance to the south. We were successful, but quickly became lost as the mine tunnel branched and turned every which way. Fortunately Ghost is a skilled tracker so we had something to follow.

After wandering for a bit, we came across a group of goblins: the first of many to come. We surrounded them from two tunnels and quickly eliminated all but one, whom I charmed in order to gleam information about the humans and halfling we were seeking (humans were downstairs, he hadn't seen a halfling). The goblin led us through more of the maze-like mine, but only to the stairs down. Leaving him there, we continued downwards.

Soon we came to an area where the floor appeared to be swept clean. Unsure of what to make of this, Ghost tossed a rope forward. When nothing happened but a "thud", Ayman cast Detect Magic and discovered a flask floating in the hallway. Shocko, being Shocko, stepped forward into a stinging blob and was pulled out by Linora- it turns out it was a gelatinous cube that had swept the floor. Ayman and Ghost teamed up to melt it into a stinking pile of goo and another cube nearby was taken down with yet more flame, and we began our search again.

Ghost located more tracks and led the way- into a shallow pit, as it turned out. She climbed out without much harm and we followed her on. Next we came to a lit room with a table, benches, boarded-up walls to the left and right, and an assortment of goblins, hobgoblins, and a bugbear waiting for us in alcoves to either side of the door (I'd have preferred more tables instead). We killed this group of monsters, too, and this time it was the dying bugbear I charmed for information- we'd have to "go deep, very deep" to find those we sought. We dragged the ex-monsters into the alcoves and poked at the boarded areas to no avail; likely it was just more rock behind them.

Wandering on, we came across another room like this one, minus the monsters. This time one of the boarded areas housed a secret door and a very dead wizard holding a scroll and quill in his skeletal hands. Unsure if the scroll was harmful, we had the illiterate Shocko take a look at it. He found it to contain three-quarters of a page of writing in a script he didn't recognize- certainly not Common. Another scroll the dead man possessed was much the same, but figuring now was not the time to read something mysterious, Ghost stashed these away. Detecting Magic on the body showed us some glowing objects, which I removed: a ring, two potions, and an iron wand. After saying a quick prayer over the body, we continued on, ever downwards.

Soon Shocko discovered another body, this time propped up against a large iron chest, in a cavern that smelled of old fire. The box was locked, so we decided to leave it alone. Finding this area to be a dead end, we backtracked and went a different way at the fork in the corridor. Here we found a room with stairs that led down about five flights into an unlit chamber. Hearing echoes, we decided to head back up the stairs and rest instead of exploring further.

Rested, we continued on. Well, down, then on. We left the room at the foot of the stairs and found our way into another one, where a piece of the ceiling suddenly decided that it wanted to squash Ghost. We took it down with the help of my air elemental and Ayman's Enfeeblement spell, but I warned everyone to try to not pop it- this was the creature I'd been seeking to create a mischievous item. After retrieving its bladders (don't ask), Ghost led us to another door- which proceeded to grab her and talk of how it wanted to eat her. Clearly this was not Ghost's day. Ayman attempted to Grease it, but only ended up with a slippery floor. Figuring the door was at least slightly intelligent since it was still threatening our elf, I used my Rod of Beguiling to charm it into dropping her. This turned out to work better than I'd expected, and we were able to get some information from the door: more humans than our party had been past and killed goblins, but it didn't recall any halflings recently. The door kindly moved aside and we went the way it directed us. Who knew doors could be so friendly? (Okay, yes, it was a mimic, I know, but a door sounds so much more amusing.)

Through more of the mine we went, and found yet more goblins, as is to be expected in a goblin mine. Once again we took them out and I charmed one to serve as a guide. Most of the group scouted ahead, finding more goblins, hobgoblins and bugbears. Gribble, my new goblin friend, informed me that humans were being used as slaves in the big mines in the warrens and that he could take us there.

As we followed the goblin, Ghost quickly got rid of a slumbering goblin guard and stole his keys, then used them on a nearby door, behind which she found a box of silver coins. Traveling on again, Gribble led us to a creepy room with bones in a deep pit and a single column in the center. We found planks to place across to the pillar and, as we crossed to the other side, the bones began to rumble below. This faded as we quickly left the room, none of us wanting to stay to check it out further.

Into another chamber we went, this one lit by torches on pedestals around a pit- and an open wall all around the outside housing monsters, which took Ghost by surprise. More hobgoblins and goblins, more attacking, more monsters slain. Exiting the room via a door at the bottom of the pit (Ghost using her newfound keys), we continued on to what turned out to be a room with traps in the ceiling through which goblins would drop things down on whoever tried to cross. This Linora discovered by flying up through the ceiling in bat-form, irking a few of them in the process. Instructing my air elemental to go up through the ceiling, it chased the goblins out of their hiding place and down to us. Chasing them again with the elemental, they turned and ran off the direction we were heading.

More tunnels, more traveling, another staircase down. Gribble carefully led us where monsters weren't... until he stumbled into a room filled with lots of goblins. More fighting, but this time the goblins again got away. The room now cleared, Ghost and SwampFox scouted ahead and found a group of hobgoblins. Hearing their shouts, the rest of us ran in to help, and cleared this room, as well.

We rested, but not for long. Ayman had cast the image of a giant wyrm in the doorway to keep monsters away, but it had the opposite effect: instead of scaring them away, they came well-armed and aware of our presence. They shouted at us to come out and we came up with a quick plan; Ayman cast Invisibility on all but Ghost, who went out as a decoy. She claimed that her group had left her behind and, when they came in to search the room, we were able to invisibly avoid them. This plan was not perfect, however, and Ghost was taken away.

Sneaking out, Gribble told us that they were taking her to the king in a big room to fight Gralla, a big monster that eats goblins and had never been defeated, and that she would be kept in a small cell until then. He also told us that humans had been pushed into a "snackrificial" pit (clearly we lost something in the translation) by shamans and were never seen again. He led us, still invisible, through a huge chamber where slaves were mining, which contained a big pit with seating all around, and through a small tunnel to a small, musty room that he informed us was secret.

Here we were able to rest, plan, and, in my case, pray for guidance. Hermes granted me a detailed poem of what we should do to rescue Ghost and those we came to save, and, armed with that information and an idea of what to do, we set off to get Ghost back. Still under Ayman's invisibility, we followed Gribble back to the large room and downstairs to the arena, where we passed a huge thing being brought in. Hurrying into the arena, Ayman tossed Ghost her sword and we beat a hasty retreat back upstairs. Once in position, we proceeded to cause as much chaos as possible; I magicked one of the large fires into a screen of smoke, then used the air elemental to dispense the smoke in a wider area. Linora, SwampFox, and Shocko attacked wildly, while Ayman yelled out confusing phrases he'd learned from Gribble, then Greased the stairs, causing hundreds of goblins to fall into the pit with the monster, which turned out to be a troll. The troll thus occupied, Ghost and the two men captive with her (a wood elf we'd met earlier and one of Dorian's men) were able to leave the arena and aid the chaos.

Linora and Shocko reached the bugbear goblin king (what I mean is the goblin king was a bugbear, not that he was a bugbear goblin), but he escaped with his guards, casting a giant hand to block the tunnel. Here the party split up again; switching back to bat-form, Linora flew off to follow the king, while the rest of us regrouped to head back downstairs. Ayman turned into a wraith to open the gate for us, we set the nearby slaves free, and proceeded down.

Here we reached a tunnel with goblins in rooms to either end. I charmed the one group to go after the other, thus saving us the trouble, and we continued on until we reached a room with four bugbears- exactly what Hermes' rhyming advice had told us to look out for. We killed them and stole their keys, using those to open the door they were guarding. Once on the other side, Ghost locked the door behind us so we could rest and those who were injured could recover somewhat. Soon, though, two hobgoblins came into sight- but our pirate captain had been following them, and we made short work of the monsters.

Linora told us of what she'd discovered during her time as a bat: an underground lake, a fortress where the king was now housed, and a dragon. These, too, were what Hermes had somewhat cryptically alluded to. Following Linora, we continued, with Ayman marking walls with ink should any of us get lost, to a room with more hobgoblins. These were behind small windows, wielding pikes, and blocking the way through. Ayman had the rather amusing idea to cast a spell on himself, effectively making ten Aymans, and distracted the hobgoblins while the rest of us crawled through to the other side of the room, where we discovered crawl-holes which the monsters had used to get to the windows. Those strong enough tried to grab the pikes, but this wasn't successful. With no other way to keep the hobgoblins where they were, I again used my charm magic to tell them to stay there and not follow us, at least giving us some time to get away. I was also able to learn that they'd never seen any humans, we'd meet large monsters if we went the wrong way, the dungeons were through the warrens, and some things we already knew- that the king was powerful and could do magic and there was a dragon down there.

Here we discussed it again and decided that instead of traveling on to face the king and dragon, we'd backtrack to try to locate Dorian's group. Retracing our footsteps, we headed back to the room opposite where I'd set goblins against goblins and found a staircase down. Here we found a thick wooden door; Shocko attempted to pick the lock, but had to rely on SwampFox breaking it down with his axe. On the other side we found a torture chamber, much to our disgust and anger, and another door that had to be broken down. Following the tunnel on the other side of that door, we reached a room with cells. Shocko and SwampFox worked together to get the cell doors open and we freed a group of Dorian's men. The lieutenant in charge told us that he'd seen Dorian dragged past, but he wasn't here. Leaving SwampFox and Linora's dog to guard those who weren't in fighting shape, we continued through the next door Shocko opened.

In this room we found a bugbear; he sounded an alarm horn and five more came at us. Not wanting to waste time on another battle, I charmed the group of them into dropping their weapons and giving us their keys and horns, and we locked them into one of the large empty cells. They told us that Dorian had just been taken away a few minutes before to the pit- not good! I volunteered to stay behind to free the rest of the prisoners while the rest of the group hurried off to follow Dorian, and I sent my fox to retrieve SwampFox and the dog.

I later learned that bugbear and hobgoblin priests had been about to shove Dorian into a pit, but instead got pushed into the pit themselves after our party killed them (serves them right). They successfully rescued the paladin and retrieved Ghost's possessions from the high priest's room, then came back to the cell area where I'd since freed the prisoners: the rest of the Joven party, Katah's (the wood elf) companions, and our friend Homer, the halfling we'd been seeking. We'd also located the armory, so the once-prisoners were now armed. Ayman explained to me exactly what the monsters' holy symbol tattoos had looked like, and I knew them to be priests of the cult of Skiggaret, the bugbear god of fear. Ugh, evil priests. Here's to hoping my friends exterminated all of them, but evil priests are like rats- they spawn en masse right where you don't expect them to be.

So here we sit, resting and plotting for a plan to take on the dragon and king at the underground lake. At least we now have the benefit of numbers, so that's an advantage.

~Cyneric Conroy, Order of the Fleet Fox
May 22nd, 1st day of Darkmoon... ish. Honestly, at this point I have no idea of the date. Just for the hell of it, I'm calling it Tuesday.

A letter to Cyneric's best friend

Raff,
I hope this letter finds you safe and not getting into too much mischief, but I know you far too well to assume that wish to be at all likely. (That no one is catching on that you are the cause of the antics you wreak would be a more appropriate hope.) I have a great deal I want to tell you since my last letter, but much will have to wait until our paths next cross, partly because I don't want this letter to turn into a tome and partly because some of this information I do not feel safe sending even with our brethren. Yes, I know you are rolling your eyes and thinking me overly paranoid but I do have my reasons to be so worried.

I will give a vague warning here that I will elaborate on when I next see you: please, please be careful with a certain disguise. My party has become unfortunately high profile and as a result that disguise may no longer be safe for you to use on this side of the continent; in fact, it's probably not safe since being conspicuous means my group has made enemies. Once again, I am likely being unduly paranoid, but... well, please be cautious. And do not worry about me; you know I am not a risk taker, and traveling with adventurers has not changed that fact. I even have a bodyguard now who I trust to always have my back; he's an orc we met on the road who is bereft of his kin, so I'm hoping that traveling with my group makes him feel less alone. I know from experience that having friends can fill that kind of void, as you are quite aware.

So much has happened to me and my traveling companions lately that I can't possibly fit it into one letter, so I'll just give you a short summary. (Honestly, there are so many monster infestations around the area that I'm having some trouble keeping track of what's happening where and what the locations are that we're likely to be sent next; you know I have a horrible head for anything involving battle plans and fighting.) I mentioned earlier about being high profile; well, you know the dragon Khrom-Vel that I've mentioned before? We've become his champions (complete with uncanny wrist tattoo) after we helped heal him from a battle with two other dragons. I'm not entirely sure what this entails, but it seems like it means that we now can call on him if we have the need, and having a dragon on your side cannot possibly be a bad thing.

We've been traveling up and down the coast for a while; we were in Joven recently helping out Dwight, our old traveling companion, with a gnoll problem in that area. While there we also had an ill-fated encounter with a wizard that resulted in the death of one of our party members, the gnome Caleb. (I'm beginning to think that wherever we go, trouble is bound to follow close behind.) Our travels have finally taken us back to Woodland, but since the mosque has no assignment for me at the moment, I'll be going south with the rest of the group on a task set by the mercenary's guild. Between my duty and the tasks set by the guild, I'm rarely in Woodland anymore for more than just a quick stop over; I'm aware that sounds silly when you spend even more time away from there than I do, but I can't help feeling a bit homesick when on the road for an extended period of time. I know that soon enough I'll have permanent duty there, though, and will then yearn for all this traveling. Go figure!

Anyway, I've had an ongoing assignment for a while that you will find quite interesting. The Messengers in Port Town have developed a kind of magic... thing (I still do not completely understand it) that allows one to travel between mosques in a matter of moments, no matter the distance between them. It involves a stone altar-type thing and a canopic jar; the jar powers the Gate and allows it to function. (I think.) I have been dropping off the plans for this gate at each mosque I pass through and sending some along with those I deem trustworthy. Once every mosque has one, I'd imagine our assignments will be safer and quicker, but I'm still having mixed feelings about it since it means less traveling and that has always been what Messengers do. I can't say that I dislike being able to get home from, say, Joven, in seconds, though!

There is so much more I want to tell you, but, judging from the length of this letter, it will have to wait until I see you in person. Speaking of... do you think you could perhaps hint that you'd like some assignments that will take you back towards Woodland? I have no idea if the mosques you've been working through have any deliveries that have to come that direction, but I know you're quite good at persuading people to do things to your advantage. I'd like to give you a copy of the Gate plans to take back in that direction and have new information to give you for a disguise, but I'll admit that my wish to see you is not entirely (alright, not even close to entirely) duty or mischief-related; I miss you terribly. I'd joke that Hermes is having a good laugh over our assignments keeping us so far apart, but knowing Him, that's probably the truth. Hmph.

Sending my love,
Cyn


((I posted this on Cyneric's blog earlier today, but figured what the heck, I'll post it here, too, since we haven't had any other game-related stuff for me to put here. This isn't quite up to date since Cyn would have handed it to a Messenger heading west before the group left Woodland a few gaming sessions ago. It's also a bit chronologically wrong since I wanted to include some parts that probably would have gone in an earlier letter- that warning, for one.))

Logging Town, the Hidden Village, and monsters

I just realized I've fallen behind with this journal again, so bear with me; this is going to be a fairly long entry.

Dallas finally came to in the House of Healing in Joven; the woman who was with her and also unconscious is still out, however. After finding her way to the Joven Messenger's Mosque, she was Gated to Woodland, where she was able to hitch a ride south to meet us in Logging Town. She shared with us a strange nightmare she'd been having about a creepy voice telling her to free it from an amulet. Ayman has an amulet on him, but we're not sure if that is the one that was meant.

Ghost and I wrote up a message for Dwight (about Dorian going missing) that I sent via a crow to Woodland in the hopes that it'll find its way to Armand, who can Gate it to Dwight. After the group tricked Shocko into a much-needed bath, we set off northwest, following the river for a bit, then though the trees. On their watch that night, Linora and Shocko found a group of traveling halflings, which she managed to get to follow her back to camp; the halflings introduced themselves as Old Pete, Lenny, Bruce, and George. During much drinking by most of the group, Ghost snuck off to follow their trail while I charmed them in the hopes that they'd give us more information while they were pleasantly drunk. The halflings told me that our friend Homer was in their village a few days ago, but wasn't there now, and that we should ask the sheriff. They then offered to take us to their village, but since I was afraid that they'd go back on their word once they were sober, I pried them for more information; they let me know that the village was a couple of hours north of here in the trees and camouflaged, and you need to say a password (which had been "ham and cheese") to a certain person.

The next day we set off north by northwest; we begun to see clouds rolling in (Dorrmags had been warned of a bad storm coming). After a while we noticed the ground starting to look tilled and doors set into the side of the hill (but painted to blend in), and the halflings led us back into the treeline. He knocked on a tree and gave a password ("old reliable"), and we were allowed into an elevator in the tree and taken up to the village.

Ghost inquired about Homer again and Old Pete told us that two weeks ago some of that group stayed and some headed back to Logging Town, but Homer stayed longer and snuck out of town in the middle of the night. We found the sheriff and we learned that he does not like Homer (our friend apparently doesn't pay taxes and also wanted to ravish the sheriff's daughter), and he and his daughter came with us to have drinks.

At the tavern, Ghost asked the barkeep about Homer- he knows him and had seen him last a moon ago, and that Homer had headed east. The sheriff informed us that Old Pete knows a way into the mine. At this time Dorrmags and the sheriff's daughter Edwina began flirting; not wanting to miss a great opportunity, Ayman and I decided to try to be mischievous and make Mags look silly, which worked almost perfectly. Meanwhile Ghost went looking for Old Pete, who told her more about that secret way into the mines.

We set off soon afterwards and traveled back through the forest, making camp at the river where an interestingly placed fish made for much amusement in Linora's tent. As the group was laughing hysterically, we noticed a random person laughing with us- it was the short man called "The Master" who a few members of the group had last seen in a tent under a cemetery. He invited us into his tent (always larger inside than out) where he told us about a new credit system he was starting and that he had seen Homer go east to the mine and that the paladin was still in there. Then, going into sales-pitch-mode, he told us that if we signed up he would give us a helpful item. The rest of the group quickly agreed and put their hands on a midnight blue orb he had put on the table, but I held back, not trusting this. Not wanting to be separated from my party or the like, I (and SwampFox) finally did the same; The Master chanted and lighting hit the orb. When our vision cleared, we were again sitting in camp and The Master's tent was missing; our left wrists also felt warm and when we looked, we noticed The Master's midnight blue symbol integrated with Khrom-Vel's before they faded again.

We spent the next day and night back in Logging Town, then headed east towards the mine. The rain began that morning and became a heavy storm the day after as we traveled. That night the lightning started and while on watch I noticed a crowd of something moving west. I sent my fox to look and woke up Linora so she could fly out and see while Ghost went off, as well. My fox came back terrified and unable to tell me what he saw, but when Linora came back we learned that the crowd were lots of howling shorter-than-human figures. Fog rolled over, then a huge shape (looking like a dragon) blasted the crowd, which stopped and the fog rolled away.

Meanwhile Ghost noticed her tattoo glow faintly as she went to look at the figures; they appeared to look frozen to death and were grey hairy things with manes and two toes. Even though the creatures seemed to be dead, I sent a messenger crow to Logging Town to warn them to be on the lookout just in case.

The next day it continued to rain but the storm stopped as we continued east for half a day until we reached the mine. Ghost informed us where the guards were stationed and the group made up a plan on how to get in. Unfortunately the plan went awry because of Ghost and some hobgoblins, and all hell broke lose when the enemy noticed us and sounded the alarm. Most of the group ran in every direction to fight after this (for some reason), instead of retreating and making a new plan, and Mags ended up getting killed by a pair of bugbears (luckily he was able to seal up the mine entrance with a wall of thorns before that unfortunate occurrence). After this nonsense had gone on for far too long, I yelled at the group that we had to get far away before the creatures inside made it out another exit or the wall went away (or was chopped through). Adventurers we may be, but we're no match for an entire mine filled with goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears, and who knows what else.

~Cyneric Conroy, Order of the Fleet Fox
May 17th, 3rd day of Bleakmoon

Logging Town- spiders, goblins, and a missing halfling

We set off south the next morning (with a slight delay caused by Linora breaking Shocko's nose) and arrived in the area where we had once met with a werewolf. The party checked to make sure our spells and silver weapons were at the ready, but instead of anything "were" we came across large spiderwebs strung between trees, positioned to catch the unwary. Fortunately Ghost noticed these as she ranged ahead, but when Dorrmags sent his parrot up to check out the area, it got ensnared up in a tree.

Dorrmags climbed up after the bird while Ayman cast his favorite Grease spell on the tree tops, dislodging three things from the branches: the bird and two large, ugly spider creatures. As we fought the spider-men-things, six large regular spiders came down from the trees. We defeated all but one of the normal spiders, which Dorrmags decided to keep as a pet. (Ugh! Thanks, Mags.)

We continued traveling and reached the abandoned outpost we had fought at before; however, it wasn't entirely abandoned- we found a handful of goblins in the tower. We teamed up (I cast Silence on the tower and sent up some fire ants, Dorrmags sent his spider up, and Ghost shot arrows at the tower), then when Ayman cast a spell to frighten the remaining goblins, they jumped from the tower covered in fire ants. Goblins destroyed, we searched around the fort.

We camped in the fort that night and, while on watch, Linora flew above the trees and saw a plume of smoke to the southwest miles and miles away, in the direction we're heading. When I was on watch later that night I was surprised to see a kobold peeking in through one of the holes in the wall of the fort. He ran away, leaving his lunch behind (was he on a kobold picnic?).

The next day we made it out of the treeline and reached the plains, where we met with a group of centaurs. One of them told us that they'd seen a group with a paladin pass by a week ago heading towards Logging Town. He also told us that they saw a halfling with a war band going west; he thought it may be because the group was looking for a hidden halfling village in the trees.

We finally reached Logging Town where we heard the tale of Maxwell from the bard who was in the tavern. We asked around about Homer and Dorian and learned that the paladin was in town but went east, and some of his group stayed behind. Ghost and Dorrmags went to find the mayor and found out that goblins come every few days and that two months ago they saw a black dragon to the east (but not near the town). Meanwhile Ayman and I found the people who had been left behind from Dorian's party: two teenaged boys. They were left behind because the group didn't want to take them into the mines, so they're in town taking care of the horses. They told us it's been two weeks since the group set off for the mines, but they should only have been gone a few days. They sent a message to Dwight a few days ago, but as soon as we have all the information together, I'm going to send a message to Armand to Gate to Dwight so that the duke will learn of this sooner. It is definitely strange that Dorian has been missing for so long, and I'm wondering why Homer went west when he was supposed to go south.

~Cyneric Conroy, Order of the Fleet Fox
May 13th, 6th day of Brightmoon