Lonasha's Chronicle

Shadows of Dagma
Sarennor, Lairura 66th, 1419
A short while after leaving home, I bought a journal and some writing supplies. Now I can chronicle my adventures in the world at large!

I was earlier enjoying a night at the tavern, listening to the boisterous stories of the drunks, when a man, pale and naked from the waist up, came in off the street. The barkeep invited him over, and I offered my blade in help when he stated he had been mugged.
We forewent preparations and swiftly followed the trail to Dagma Grotto. I fired an arrow for distraction, not actually expecting to hit either of them. It worked, and as they went to investigate we moved in as quietly as we could. The man, though, bumped his staff into the cave wall. Of course they spotted us and engaged us in combat. They hit like bricks, even when one of them was shrunken down. Iendross, as I found his name later, clocked one of them out on his way to me. The shrunken man took Iendross out, leaving it to me to end the fight and resuscitate my new friend. Unfortunately, we had to leave the loot behind, but hopefully we'll be better prepared tomorrow morning!

Deepening Roots
Iomenor, Lairura 67th, 1419
A fresh new day, a fresh new start! The sorcerer and I hit the town, got a feel for local rumors and all. Apparently there’ve been reported sightings of kobold activity to the east. The scouts say that they seem agitated.
Learned a bit about the town too. Barkeep said it was founded as a crossroads haven for caravans. Then we got drunk. I think I sang something.. I can’t remember how it went, though. I do remember that my half-elf friend outshone me, though. A short while later, we departed town to try again at reclaiming Iendross’ belongings. In our distinctly inebriated state, though, we took a wrong turn and wound up at the entrance of a clearing.. What we saw on that sign quickly sobered us up. There, with blood dribbling down the wood and marring what was normally there. Most disturbingly, though, the kobold’s forehead had a symbol.. an eye carved into its center. Beyond, in the clearing to the far side, lay three kobold bodies.. poor bastards were slaughtered.
As you can imagine, we left that scene right quick. We regathered our bearings and headed north, arriving at the cave. The floor outside the mouth of the cave was littered with bodies, of bandits and kobolds alike. The guard wasn’t kidding.about the kobolds, and by what we saw, I can’t exactly say I blame them. Getting in was really easy, after we searched for anything useful on the bodies outside. Inside, the sound of blades clashing rang dull, echoing off of stone and reaching our ears. The kobolds and bandits were embroiled in conflict with one another. We, of course, were quick to press the advantage against the first bandit we found, tossing a rock to distract him and opening him up to the little dragonman’s spear before stepping up alongside the kobolds to take the bandit jerks off-guard. Iendross slapped them around, I leaped over and plunged my daggers into the cutpurse’s back. Our little scaled friend was unsure of our motives, but Iendross managed to convince the critter through a series of gestures and pantomimes that we weren’t enemies to them.
The other kobold picks up his spear after and looks on as we carve our way through the cave. It was cute to watch him fruitlessly ‘stab’ with nothing in hand, I have to admit. The rest of the way was simple enough, after we discovered the first offshoot we went down was a dead end. The next kobold we helped in combat was a little less accepting of our friendship, though he still let us move on by without issue. Once more, I leapt over another battle, but missed my stabs. When I stood, though, Iendross tried to clock the bandit in the head, wound up hitting me instead. Swear I’m gonna get him back for that. Though, I suppose we did have a great time bullying a bandit after he’d slain his kobold combatant. I pushed my iron pot down over his head and tripped him. Together, Iendross and I harried the guy and eventually won out. One more bandit, and we broke through the door to the headquarters, as it were. The chief, a half-elf who knocked my friend out the night prior, was quick to greet us. Fed up with the whole ordeal, Iendross fired off a blast of fire from his palms, scorching Strimlin’s leather gear. The mysterious figure on the far side of the room stood by and watched as we engaged the bandit leader. With a practiced lunge, Strimlin skewered Iendross on the end of his rapier, piercing something surely vital and dropping the sorcerer. I, of course, picked up the slack and finished the guy off. I then knelt down, grabbed one of the potions we’d been stockpiling, and poured it down my friend’s mouth, resuscitating him and standing then to face the figure.
For whatever reason, he was here in negotiation with the bandits, trying to hire them on for... something. He radiated some kind of vague, but overwhelming danger… had my hackles all on end. There was no way I was raising my blades to take him on, and Iendross was too disoriented from being stuck in the gut to put up a fight if he wanted to. We let the guy pass, and after he had disappeared from sight, we set about looting the place, then left ourselves, greeting the band of kobolds and paying due respects to the fallen before heading back to Kilmarik.
Back home now, food was great. I’m turning in for the night, though.

Howls in the Deep
Iomenor, Lairura 74th, 1419
After a week of relaxation, and getting to know one another, Iendross and I returned to the Shielded Heart, where we were handed a notice by Jugbirn. Apparently the guard captain has been hearing reports of a strange howling coming from the sewers below. We prepared ourselves, I got drunk, and we picked up a helping hand there; a big, scary guy with hands wrapped in plates of metal and leather straps. Apparently I was stumbling and slurring all the way there and struggled to get armored. By the mere fact that I’m currently still wearing my stuff, I’d say that I did eventually succeed. We gathered our supplies and headed to the north part of the city, where we found an entry. It’s a good thing that Iendross always packs some perfumes, the scent down there was utterly appalling.
All was fine, boring even.. but then we turned the corner and saw a goblin… crouched over the bloody form of a guardsman. This goblin, though, looked much paler than normal, and according to Iendross, after we engaged the thing in combat the only thing that it said was “Brains”. As a team, we all took down this monstrous goblin, though I did break my bow's string in the process, and then moved ahead- after our barbaric friend nabbed the guard’s potions- to the north of the sewers we found a skeleton… just loitering about. It stepped out of the shadows and swung at us. This, I hear, is where I seriously started to falter. My blades could find no purchase against the weathered bones, leaving it to the barbarian and Iendross to truly pick things up. After falling flat on my face more times than I care to admit, and with no small amount of frustration I plunged a blade into the eyesocket of the skeleton, only afterwards realizing that it was a futile effort; no soft, squishy parts to damage.
After its skull was dislodged from its shoulders, we headed onwards. Further in, we found a dead end cavern, with a strangely out of place structure just lying there. Finally a moment to shine down here as the door to this structure was quite veritably locked. With a quick, deft motion I drew my tools and undid that lock, letting my companions loot the spoils found within the chest inside.
Retracing our steps and heading south, around a bend and hiding in another alcove, a pair of skeletons lie in wait, toting another treasure chest. The barbarian hoisted and tossed us at the beasts.. we, of course,fell just short of the targets. We made fairly quick work of them- or, they did while I tried and failed to- and circled west and then south again. There we found an impasse. The path we were walking to the east came to an abrupt end, so we all jumped across over the river of muck. Lucky none of us fell in, that stuff was nasty!
On the other side, we heard the sounds of combat coming from ahead. We never expected to find an undead beast barking orders at other undead, but there we saw it. A platoon of skeletons assaulting a den of kobolds, led by a withering corpse. We and the kobolds teamed up and took out these beasts, though Ravi was experiencing difficulty with a particularly ornery, slippery skeleton, and wound up quite cut up in the end. After the battle, Iendross presented a little trinket, and as a result we were offered refuge in the kobolds’ den.
I'm turning in for a quick nap, though. Fingers hurt. Hopefully I’ll be actually able to hit something later.

Venom of the Wilds
Desnor, Lairura 74 - 75th, 1419
So, today started off rough. Head’s been pounding for hours now... shouldn’t have drunk so much. We woke up a short while after the last entry, and found the barbarian gone. I think he went above ground for his daily things. As I was swapping armor, Iendross gave me the strangest of looks... like he was thinking I’d done something lascivious. Think he forgot that I wear clothing under my armor at all times.
Eventually, we departed and surfaced again. We did a bit of shopping, I sold this bow I’d picked up, and met with the mayor. News from a village to the north is dire, to say the least. Apparently there hasn’t been word from the village in months now, and there didn’t seem to be any refugees being harbored in Kilmarik either. Instead of sending us out that way to investigate, they opted to let us relax and get back to us when they’ve arranged transportation that way.
With that, we went to Iendross’ house, relaxed a little, ate some food, and while he went down into the basement to retrieve his spellbook I swear I heard something yapping from the stairway. Heard him talking back to whatever it was, though.. So I mustn’t be merely hearing things. When he came back upstairs, though, the voice just faded away.
After figuring out the scrolls and potions we’d snagged from the bandits, all the while I read and understood nothing of the spellbook, we resolved to go to the guild hall to fill our time with something to do.

Spiders… it just had to be spiders. Buying antidotes and antivenom, without a doubt, without question.
One of those devils bit me in the leg after I pegged it with an arrow.. I thought I was going to die! I got some of its eye juice on my claws… this day has taken a very, very sour turn for me. Iendross smashed both of them, and left one of them really crispy.
Killing them, though, has filled me with... energy... with resolve. I’ll have to talk with Iendross, see if he felt the same thing. Retiring for the day, I’m gonna curl up and try to not think of eight-legged crawlers... wish me luck!
Also, before I turn in for the day, I just remembered that we saw another ‘third eye’ thing right before the spiders pounced on us. This one was made of bones, both bleached and bloody fresh, arranged in a very deliberate manner. It’s a bit presumptuous of me, I know, but I think we might have some kind of cult on our hands here.

Assault at the Castle
Ironor, Lairura 76th, 1419
As we all woke in the morning, we all parted ways. Iendross did his morning stuff, I hit the tavern. A curiosity has been hitting me ever since Dagma... just who was that mysterious man? Over the next 4 hours, I found that the villagers didn’t seem to be all that helpful in finding any clues about him, not that I realistically expected much from them.
With my dead end, I headed up to the guild hall, met up with Iendross, and then caught up with the barbarian, who was watching some guild members clobber the life out of one another. He, though, threw a rock at the one he wasn’t rooting for. While he was being escorted out, we spoke with him, made sure that his share of the loot was dispensed.
We stood around, discussed our avenues for a long while before Iendross got the idea to use his influence to draw answers from the locals. After discovering that a strange man had been supposedly trying to infiltrate the castle, we decided to catch a carriage, which Ravi so graciously payed for, to the castle. It didn’t take us long at all to notice the strangers standing by the drawbridge. Ravi, taking notes from his earlier ordeal, hucked a rock at one of the figures... Iendross, as I later learned, took note of the guy’s pale skin. Unsurprisingly, while Iendross was backing away from the whole matter, the figure leaped forward and lunged at our barbarian, who promptly caught the guy and wrestled him to the ground. One fifteen foot throw later, we followed our sorcerer into the castle proper. We informed... well, okay, Iendross informed the king of the threat, and in the middle of our talks, one of the guards nearest the entrance clasped his head and struck out against another guard. We all acted quickly in subduing the guy before he harmed the king. As he fell to the ground, there was a flash of purple dissolving from around his head... magic of some kind, I think.
As we were preparing to leave, I got hit in the leg with an arrow. That hurt. The man was gone, and in his place was an army of bandits. We were forced to retreat while the guardsmen fended the brigands off. We recuperated quickly and resolved to assist the guard. Ravi hurled an arrow he snagged- no bow involved, he literally threw it like a spear- and hit one of our adversaries in the shoulder, forcing him to flee. I tried to fire an arrow, and lost it over the ridge, but one rock further sent the other running.
Iendross and Ravi picked up the scent, that coppery, earthy scent. I must have been in too much pain to notice. The trail took us north into the woods. We traversed for a fair few hours before my injury caught up and we needed to make camp. Iendross had first watch while I tried and failed to comfortably sleep. Apparently there was a goblin that accosted us in the night, though I only found this out after the sorcerer calmed down.

Darklore Manor
Shelynor, Lairura 77th, 1419
We grouped up and made our way to the northwest, following the scent of blood to a clearing. In the clearing was a tall, ominous manor house nestled away behind an ancient wrought iron gate. Ravi made it look like child’s play as he heaved the gate open, leaving massive scores in the long-undisturbed earth. Despite most of us being less than present in the moment, we did make it up to the front door, and pushed our way inside. The front room.was full of chaos; bones and splintered furniture littered the entire floor. Ravi snagged a skull out of the pile and we headed to the northwest door, and a little ways to the north through the thin passage, Iendross was bumped into and fell forward, only to receive a bolt of acid right to the shoulder.
After some apologizing and all, we traversed into the room to the east, happening upon a surprisingly vacant, empty space, with only a tall chair sitting in front of a long-cold hearth. Sitting in said chair, as it turns out, was the skeletal remains of what seemed to have once been a knight or combat-oriented nobleman of Feybrandt descent. Lucky for us, the skeleton didn’t animate as we fiddled with and searched around it.
To the north of this room, we found a locked iron doorway, discovered to be so after Ravi knocked on the door. Despite his show of force earlier, Ravi was unable to muscle this one open, and instead they were forced to look around for a key while I pulled out my tools to try and spring the lock. Turns out the stuff was too worn and seemed to have rusted firm into place. My efforts, though, were interrupted as a small trinket hit me in the back of the head. Ravi found a key on the skeleton somewhere. I didn’t see him do it, so far as I know he found it in the guy’s chest cavity. Before parting, there was a brief discussion about taking the armor, but we figured it was all too rusted to be of much use.
With that, we unlocked the door and exited the dusty confines into a molding courtyard. North of us, hidden among thick vines and dense foliage, was another door. My dagger was used like a machete to clear the way, and was cleaned by the sorcerer’s cloak. After another set of knocking, and being told that something’s making noise ahead, Ravi busted the door open, breaking the door frame as we headed to the east, and ran up against another locked door. Beyond this threshold, though, we heard shuffling and moaning, and Iendross proposed it to be zombies. Ravi, having apparently had enough with these doors, rushed the door with his new shield, splintering the door open and knocking the undead pair inside to the floor. These zombies (yes, Iendross was correct) stood no chance against us and were dispatched with ease, one even got thrown across the room by the raging barbarian.
With them out of the way, we headed further to the east and ran into a thankfully unlocked door. Downside? Iendross took an arrow to the chest and crumpled. Ravi and I stabilized him through the use of a potion, and we took a moment to remedy ourselves before pressing on. The passageway was long and wide, leading north to south. We went north, hearing a rattling as we drew closer and closer to a door. Expecting a trap after the column that fell on Ravi’s foot, we opened the door and rushed through, with me taking point.. I realize now that I was being used to take the would-be hit. Thanks, guys. Inside, we found ourselves face to face with a towering skeletal construct, which had the skull of a human attached to the serpentine vertebrae. We were in no condition to actually fight it and so we fled back to the courtyard, nearly missing the door we came from along the way. The creature, though, didn’t leave the room.and we were left to ourselves as we made camp in the courtyard. Here’s hoping we can recover enough to actually find our man here. My watch is over, I’m turning in.