Journal Entry Two

For five days we traveled without incident I spent most of my nights camped out near Reddof’s body.  I made it my responsibility to guard him, one of the nights though I guess a thief made off with some of the good from one of the other merchant wagons.  No loss to me, I don’t remember them hiring me for my services.  On the sixth day of our travel Kari spotted two mounted horsemen chasing a mounted barbarian.  Kari cast a spell and then seemed to fly over to the barbarian and his intentions were made clear by slicing into her with his sword.  The other caravan guards promptly bring him down but not before he cleaves though the caravan’s scout.  Suddenly these giant bugs burst from the ground around the lead wagon cutting one of the horses in half the second cut through one of the surprised guard and the third hit the new fellow calling himself Simon taking him down.  This rattled me a little but not as much as my arrow just glancing off of the armor.  I had heard of tails of these creatures destroying entire caravans and I’ll only admit here that I was a little scared for our chances.  Kessem stood up with her wand and said something, her eyes went wide as the wand sparked and then sent forth a short stream of flame that singed Selena and killed the donkey.  Suddenly a short hairy person charging in from the same direction as the chasing soldiers aided us.  The wagons in front of us tried to get away from the creatures and for once in my life I couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn and even when I did get on target it only deflected off of the creature’s shell.  Thankfully the others in our group were more experienced with this creature then I was and after a hard fought battle only one of the creatures escaped their wrath.  But the remaining creature left several dead and severely injured behind.  The new arrival introduced himself as Ozzy Gizzardsnifer.  I swore I saw a few flies around him and decided to keep upwind just to be on the safe side and check on Reddof’s body.  Kari began tending to the wounded as fast as she could as the Soldiers explained that the town ahead was under quarantine and that the barbarian had started to spread the plague know as the Slimy Doom that the town faced.  As Kari was speeking to the soldiers Kessem asked the head of the caravan for loan of one of their horses and hitching equipment.  Those ungrateful little weasels charged us for it!  I told Kessem that if they were going to charge us for the items we should not stick our necks out for them again and concentrate on defending our own wagon.  The merchants sneered and told us that we would defend them because we were the “Heroes of Sundi” I quickly pointed out that I was not one of the Heroes and if they wanted my help from now on they would have to pay for it.  I would only take action if Kari or the wagon were in danger.  They did not seem to like that response.

Kari gathered us over to where the Soldiers were and filled us in on the situation.  A dwarf alchemist in a nearby tower may have the cure for this Slimy Doom.  Unfortunately several of our group were infected by the barbarian and guards, we feared crossing the stream may contaminate it so it was decided that those of us who were uninfected would cross and find this tower with the help of the younger soldier after Kari cured him.  We decided to rest and make the journey in the morning.  I hope this entry is unnecessary but I can’t escape this feeling of dread from the creatures’ attacks earlier and I was hoping by writing down what has happened it might help me make sense of it.  I’d better get some sleep; we leave at first light.

Alright…who in Palor’s name decided it would be fun to stick me in these situations and could one thing possibly go right for me.  I feel as if the Gods want to end Reddof’s and my father’s line.  We approached the tower and found several dwarven merchants setting bodies out beside the tower.  When we questioned them they said that the Dwarfs were killed before they got there.  Our new hairy companion Ozzy looked concerned and as they approached us it finally donned on me that something was wrong.  They had no beasts of burden or carrying any packs.  Ozzy began pointing this out as well as several other things we missed right down to their beady red eyes.  They immediately attacked us and I got introduced to the working end of a dwarven battle-ax.  For some reason our weapons didn’t seem to do any damage but thankfully our two spell throwers did a number on them.  But not before they turned into some form of wererat hybrid or at least from my explanation that’s what Kari called them.  Revealing themselves for the creatures they are Selena pulled out a silver long sword and attacked with it.  The last remaining beast ran into the tower and attempted to close the door behind him as Selena and Ozzy gave chase.  I quickly dropped my sword and went back to my trusty bow and also gave pursuit as Kessem hit a chime twice and the door the beast was attempting to seal sprang open.  Just in time to see the creature jump over a trap.  We gave a short pursuit through the low hallways before Ozzy and Selena caught up to him.  Unfortunately he had help an Imp of some sort.  Kari wasn’t sure exactly what it was by my discription but it began attacking Ozzy and Selena.  My arrows seemed to do only a little more to the Imp when I actually hit.  The small ceilings forced me to duck and have to turn my bow at an awkward angle throwing my aim off as I adjusted but still…Gods, something must be wrong with the batch of arrows I was using.  The situation seemed to be going from bad to worse.  Selena finally gave up the silvered long sword to Ozzy, who seemed more comfortable with it and was doing more then just flailing around with it.  I thought I heard Simon say something about a withdrawal and I started to back up. We heard more movement from the stairs and Kessem stating that she was out of offensive spells bolted for the exit.  Simon seemed to stop in his tracks as I fell back, I couldn’t do my vow to Reddof any good if I was dead so I continued out.  Kessem was waiting for us on the hill as I came out and the young soldier we told to wait out side was charging in.  I shook my head and calmly gathered my sword, then quickly moved up to the hill to cover the others retreat.  I expected the soldier to run out first but Selena came bolting out of the tower…no…that’s not right it was more like she was skating very fast.  I hesitated to see if anyone else made it out.  When the creatures came out shortly behind I knew the others had fallen and it was time to run.  Unfortunately the wererats and Imp gave chase after us.  After a short time of running the Imp attacked me once and then disappeared.  A while longer it came back and was hounding me as if I was the only target left?  I continued to run but I was starting to run out of stamina and the Imp injured me to the point where I knew if it hit me one more time it would take me down.  Fortunately the Imp pulled up and hovered as if it was warn out but I was not going to stop and ask it.  After a little longer running through the woods I pulled up myself and took cover for a second.  After I didn’t hear anything crashing through the woods I began the trek back to the wagons.  When I cleared the woods I could make out the party members that staid behind and caravan merchants gathered around a flailing gnome who looked like Selena.  I slowly made my way back across the water Selena was babbling almost incoherently and surprised that I was still alive.  I calmly filled Kari in on what happened to the best of my ability as she called upon her deity to heal my wounds.  I quickly went over to Reddof’s equipment and retrieved the silver arrows that he had.  I was not going to be caught unprepared like that again. Suddenly one of the caravan merchants called out that a giant weredog was coming out of the woods.  I took up aim as it started to close and waited for it to get into my standard long engagement range.  Thank Palor that I did because Kessem came out shortly after and I finally recognized it as hers.  After a while of waiting I realized that Ozzy and Simon died covering our retreat.  While I may not say it aloud, they were true heroes.  The head merchant quickly loaned us silver weapons to help protect the caravan…surprise, surprise when it looked like they could be in trouble they were more then happy to help us.  Kari gave me her composite longbow to use, it was much better quality and had a better pull to it then mine.  She said since I was like my brother in preference to ranged weapons it would be more useful in my hands then hers.  We decided to go back in the morning once everyone had healed up.  Well I better get some sleep it’s going to be a hell of a fight tomorrow. 

Well so much for the tower, we did find a survivor of the attack however I found what I believe is the Alchemist’s broken body down a the bottom of a hidden cliff outside the lower level of the tower.  Looks like the attacks came from behind and in front as he looked out the opening.  We set the set the surviving dwarf to looking for a cure.  Kari and Kessem’s dog picked up the trail of the remaining wererats it was fairly obvious to her that they were carrying a lot of goods.  Oh yha one interesting note, apparently one of the wererats opened a crate he shouldn’t have and turned to stone.   I think the two dead mutated chickens had something to do with it so it looks like we’re down to only two and the imp.  We tracked them for most of the remaining daylight and have set up camp for the night. (TRANSLATORS NOTE: At this point the parchment had a hole in it and was stained by what the analysis thinks is dried blood.  Some undecipherable notes were lost but we don’t think at this time the actual journal entries were affected.)

…Ok that batch of Arrows I had been using was bad the batch that I made seemed to really piss of that Troll and take down the Oger.  As I was writing the last entry I was just starting my watch.  Suddenly a Troll came out of the woods and attacked.  I didn’t know what it was at the time and retreated away from it to get a shot off, but not before I was introduced to a new kind of pain when he slashed at me with one of his huge clawed hands.  I had two arrows left in that quiver and both missed as he grabbed the remaining soldier and ripped him in half.  Kessem cast a slow spell on it and it decided to make her a target as finally one of my arrows hit home.  Though it didn’t seem to do much to faze him.  The others also attempted to keep their distance when ever possible with the mages lighting up the night with their spells.  I got a better bead on the troll’s head with my next shot and let fly.  The arrow made a nicely satisfying noise as it went into the back of it’s head and came out the front…That made me a new best friend.  The Troll turned slowly and whaked me again, but didn’t do more then what the Orcs have done to me in the past.  I backpedaled out of his reach and fired again, another solid hit.  The Gods were in our favor as the others peppered it with their weapons and spells.  It tried to get me again but I was a little faster on the getting out of the way part and landed another good shot.  It felt incredible to be back on target as it was.  With all of working together it was tuff but we prevailed.  Kessem’s dog even took a bite out of the downed troll witch it immediately spat out.  We went through our ritual of burning the corpse and with the loss of the soldier I agreed to fill in on the final watch.  That’s when the Oger decided to try and mess with us.  It grumbled something as I again fired and fell back lodging a good solid hit.  Kessem gestured as if casting a spell and suddenly it was at the edge of some sort of green mist.  It started looked sickly and began retreating back into it as I put another shot into it.  The others joined in and as it tried to escape into the darkness Kessem lit it up with some sort of dancing lights and I put the final shot into it dropping the foul smelling beast.  We waited for the mist to dissipate and then searched the Oger.  It had killed a poor halfling and was saving it for latter.  We also found a set of breastplate that fit me perfectly though it would slow me down a little so I packed it up on the soldier's horse for now sacrificing protection for speed.

Well this is quite the turn of events.  We continued to track the wererats (Well Kari and Kessem’s dog did the tracking).  We found the remains of the soldier who went charging in as I left.  Looks like he was last nights supper.  I thought there might be hope that we would at least be able to recover the bodies if the wererats were saving them…(ugh that brings back some painful memories I would have rather left buried)  We continued tracking for a while when who should come cautiously out of the woods then Ozzy and Simon!  I have to say I was happy to see them but I feared that they may have been turned into wererats themselves.  Kessem seemed to think they were all right so I put my silver arrow away and greeted them.  Ozzy didn’t talk about it much but I found out what happened from Simon.  Apparently the wererats stumbled on some undead.  Kari said they were ghasts from the description Simon gave.  The wererats and Imp fought the Ghasts allowing Simon to get free and start up his spell lobbing again.  Taking down the Imp but not before the Imp hurt him pretty badly.  It was a little confusing about what happened but apparently they were able to overtake the survivors of the fight and were attempting to make their way back.  I asked Simon and he said that he would be willing to help me see if I have any potential for magic.  Our return to the tower was uneventful.  However, Simon made a startling discovery while looking through the alchemist’s text on Lycanthropy.  It seems that wererats can infect a person with Lucanthropy with their weapons as well as bite.  It’s a good bet I could be infected as well as the others.  He read further and the only option available to us is to make it to Pitchfield and trust in the powers of the clerics there.  We arived back at the tower shortly after this discovery and hopped that the Dwarf we left behind was all right and found a cure.  As it turns out a Dwarven mounted patrol went to check on the tower and was now occupying it.  The dwarf we left behind had indeed found the cure and most of the patrol went up to the town with him.  I informed the tower guards that we had gotten revenge for their fallen brethren…Ozzy gave me a dirty look but I don’t remember him doing much until Selena relinquished the sword.  I do remember that if not for Simon and Kessem we probably would not have survived the first encounter and could have been laying beside the dead Dwarfs.  I hope that the merchants took our wagon with them if anything is missing from Reddof’s body there’s going to be hell to pay.