I'll be honest, I did not expect to come out of this in one piece. It's not that I doubted my battle prowess, I think I've proven there's no one tougher than a dwarf through my actions, but when you're down there in the dungeons, it's not always about skill or strength. Sometimes, you're just unlucky enough to fall in a spike pit or inhale something you shouldn't have. Dungeon crawling can be heavily dependent on good fortune and given what we've been through so far, I wasn't completely sure our luck would hold out.
Randallo was dead and so was Godric, though I knew them only for a short time, I had consider them part of my unit, my brothers in arms, and I took their loss harder than I imagined. Especially Godric, poor bastard, it was definitely not his time.
When I stood toe to toe with that blasted Fire Spawn, it was not my skill that I doubted, but my luck. I was sure that the blighter would get at least one stray hit in and it'd be the one that would end me. I was right, partially, the wanker got a lucky shot in, but had it not been for Rahimira tagging in for me so I could run out I would likely not be writing this right now. I ought to buy her some ale sometime, she's an alright lass.
We finally made it out of the desecrated temple and for the first time I am not saddened to leave the underground. I've had my fill of tunnel warfare for a while. Now it's time for open field warfare! I like to keep my fighting fresh and innovative, Bay-wynn says it keeps a story from getting stale but I just like to mix it up a bit.
And so we marched back to town, lugging around Godric's corpse with the hopes of resurrecting him, the six missing children, and our two newest companions, the half-elf sorcerer Njord and the goblin bounty hunter Nobbla. Well, one doesn't get to pick his companions in this business. But then again, I've known that since I got stuck with Bay-wynn.
We started the day the right way by doing some light killing to stretch the muscles. As we neared town, we found some undead wolves preying on some hapless traveler's body. All things considered I should be thankful that we didn't find Falcon's Hollow up in flames and overrun with skeletons or something, because that would have been just our luck.
Rahimira went in first to soften the mangy mutts for me before I finished them off. A quick stab on the back of the neck to sever the spine did the trick, nothing too fancy with these critters.
The traveler's corpse turned out to be elven in nature. He was apparently some sort of courier and had gotten jumped on by these wolves who had collars on them to bring them back as zombies when slain. The whole thing reeked of black magic, although it was mostly the messenger’s fault for walking around here without a weapon, I don't know if he got the memo but there's been kobolds kidnapping people recently. Then again he was an elf so I guess I shouldn't be surprised, I literally had to beg Bay-wynn to carry around a sword so I didn't have to jump in and take hits for her all the time.
We went to the temple first to drop off Godric. The priestess informed us that it would be quite expensive to resurrect him and also they would have to haul him off to the capitol city where they had an experienced enough cleric to do the job. Figures, wouldn't even give us a discount to resurrect one of their own paladins, and they call us dwarves greedy. Then we handed the elf's corpse and left before the priestess gave us more dirty looks or told us her temple wasn't a dead elf storage. We'll be back as soon as we have enough cash to resurrect Godric.
Bay-wynn decided that the best way to make a grand entrance back in town was to bring all the kids to the tavern and announce our glorious return. There's food and drink in taverns so I agreed.
Here's when Bay-wynn's got to shine as she was drumming up a big act and singing the party's praises while the parents lined up to pick up their children. Guess we all have our talents.
Hollin's big sister came to pick him up first. Comely lass, she was very thankful, Nobbla kept running around pinching every woman's buttocks he could reach, but I just couldn't be arsed to stop the bloody goblin from making a mess of things. I get enough baby-sitting taking care of Bay-wynn.
Njord is a young lad and he doesn't know any better. He started flirting with the lass, and though she was receptive she told him they couldn't hook up because her employer wouldn't be too keen on the idea. Didn't have the heart to tell the lad she's a prostitute.
Mikra's father came to pick him up. Fine fellow, offered us free food from his butchery if we wanted any. He's alright in my book.
Savram's father came next to pick up his son. Very suspicious man, town folk say he's a necromancer. Must check on him later.
Kimi's mom showed up next. Kimi is an interesting case, at first her naïve bravery annoyed me to no end, I half expected her to run in front of us to try her luck at fighting kobolds. But she's not as foolish as I initially thought, she has potential to become a great warrior some day, and I've thoroughly enjoyed our conversations about fighting techniques. She's an alright tyke and I look forward to hearing of her adventuring exploits when I am king under the mountain.
I tried to tell all this to her mom but she was more interested in getting in me pants to show me her gratitude. I have a strict policy of not getting involved romantically with people I save unless that was the whole point and pretended not to understand her advances. Njorn on the other hand was all for that, with some help from Nobbla and Bay-wynn I saw the lad walking off with the woman out of the tavern arms locked.
I'm slightly concerned that Kimi is asking me how to break knees all of the sudden. Also, I hear that Kimi's dad is a ranger that just happens not to be in town very frequently. This will most likely not come back to bite us in the arse.
Last child to be picked up was Jurin, the lad that Nobbla was sent to rescue. Jurin's father is the town's major. Very sleazy bastard, has all the town's officials in his pockets according to what Bay-wynn gathered. We turned down our cut of the reward if he would instead donate to the temple to help with Godric's resurrection. We later found out that he donated the exact amount he planned to give us. I don't like this bloke one bit.
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Woke up today with big plans. Bay-wynn heard plenty of rumors about zombie wolves running around in the town's outskirts and of a wandering necromancer raising them up. There's a reward for him too so we decided hunting him down will make good sport and quick cash.
First we stopped by the post office to send Glintaxe back to my clan. Nothing against axes, they are the best weapons ever, but this was my uncle's weapon and was tailored for him not me, plus I prefer the versatility of my urgrosh. I've sent the magical gauntlet we found in the dungeon too and copies of Bay-wynn's songs about our adventures. I hope they send me something back. That is useful. I half expect some of my relatives to show up in Falcon's Hollow trying to cash in on my fame now.
Talked to the local necromancer next, Savram's father. Very anti-social, didn't offer any help to track the other necromancer other than what we already know. Guess we'll be doing this the old fashioned way.
With Rahimira leading the group, we set off to the nearby hills where the necromancer was last spotted. She's caught a few tracks already so we're making surprisingly good pace. That probably means we'll run into some foes soon.
BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!!!!!
Okay, those weren't bees. I heard buzzing sounds and immediately assumed. A large swarm of stirges attacked us. They got a few good bites on some of us but we dispatched them without too much trouble.
Finally made it to the hills and it's littered with caves. The group thinks the necromancer is probably making his lair in one of them so we'll have to check each one until we find him. Oh boy.
Found a wolves' lair, left them alone. Next.
Some kind of catacomb was found with a wight inside. I lobbed its head off. Nothing to loot in the tomb or any clues about the necromancer. Next.
This looks promising; a cave with some mountain lions inside. Nobbla reports that the cave is deeper inside that it looks from the outside. Maybe the necromancer is holed up in there. I figure we don't have to fight the mountain lions if we don't need to so I put some meat the butcher gave us outside and have Bay-wynn make goat noises through magic to lure them out. Otho didn't look too amused, he is really fond of goats.
That didn't work, the cave lions smelled us. How am I supposed to know this!? I'm not a bloody ranger! Rahimira should have warned me. Oh well, guess we're killing them after all. Fine by me.
Nobbla ran in first and got completely mauled by the lions, crazy goblin, what on earth was he thinking? We piled in after him and slaughtered them all with Rahimira cleaving the last one apart. They were surprisingly tough for a couple of beasties so maybe the necromancer is nearby after all. There's indeed an entrance deeper into the cave so I guess we'll be finding out soon enough.
