Lulubell Turem

My return to the caves of chaos brought with me a plethora of emotions during the 3 day trek. Some of apprehension, others of excitement. The thrill of discovering new things, of slaying unknown monsters and drawing ever closer to my new goal of starting a library, one to rival any found in the main cities of the world. With the inability to return home to the tower until after the war I will pour my efforts into this and, with luck, I may ern myself a permanent outside position, which affords a number of benefits to me, ie. I will not be confined to the tower under close guard from the gildguardians. These thoughts swirled in my mind as I traveled again with my companions to the caves.   We arrived in good time and made to try a different tactic, Instead of finishing the mapping of the goblin holes we decided to try another. Inside we found ourselves caught off guard by a clever trap. A ogre had disguised his home to look like that of a bear. It was not until the oblivious one Gnar went up to touch the thing did we find it to be a ruse, a fake bear dressed in fur and made of sticks. Using our confusion to its advantage the beast attacked us. Despite its size we were able to dispatch it without much difficulty. We found that it had accumulated quite a some of money that it had stashed away and took it for reinvestment. Upon a very scrutinizing search by myself and Mr. Templeton we found that the monster had had dealings with the goblins as they had fashioned a secret door between their two caves.   Since the day was still with us we decided to go to another cave. We chose something we thought would be within the same level of challenge as the previous encounter and sent Mr. Templeton and my faithful companion Luna in to scout ahead. They didn't get very far as the inside tunnel was littered with decaying bodies and foliage. It made Mr Templeton so sick that he emptied his stomach and had to come back.   Mr Liadon then went with Luna to check the other side of the tunnel, as it was split in two, and he was less affected by the smells. They managed to find a room, or rather, a cavern, so they stopped and waited for us to catch up. We entered the cavern and immediately noticed something that looked like it could be quite valuable in a pool of water in the center of the room, but before we could investigate large sentient oozes fell upon us from the ceiling. We fought back against the oozes but some of my compatriots damage they armor and weapons in the process due to the acidity of the oozes. Once the deadly puddings were dealt with we easily fished up what we learned was a very expensive looking chalice and decided to venture home from there with our treasure. It turns out the chalice was so expensive that the merchant could not afford to buy it but instead traded for some of the value with his inventory of spell scrolls, which my companions generously gave to me once they learned of my plans to scribe them and found a library. All in all, venturing to these caves is turning to be a profitable investment of my time.

Upon the request of a well respected if not somewhat senile older gentleman, I set out to investigate the site of an unidentified object that came crashing through the astral plane onto our plane of existence. He wanted us to mine the meteor for a rare material called Starmetal, that he promised he would reimburse us for hauling as well as a hefty upfront payment. As I am ever curios about the mysteries of the universe and this mission while requiring some brawn, of which I am not the best, would still prove to be an enlightening endevor. So, at once, after confirming the trajectory of our quarry, we set out to find the fallen star.   Our journey took us, at length, more than a day to traverse to the site of the impact. We came upon it in the afternoon of the second day after our guide had gotten himself temporarily bewildered in the forest. The site was a large hole and just from being in close proximity of the thing I could feel myself become uncomfortably warm. It was during my cursory examinations of the object that we again heard the child's laughter. I say again, because we had previously been assaulted by the jovial cries of a young child the night before entering the forest. Its voice startling my watch companion so much so that he rousted the rest of the crew to relay his concerns to them. After a brief investigation, we could find no signs of any life other than our persons in the immediate area and so we resumed our rests. Disconcerting laughter aside, my initial investigations found that not only was the object a source of magic, but that it was also of a type and spell that does not exist in our known areas of expertise. That is to say that the standard spells for reading and identifying magical properties revealed an undeterminable source for this mysterious object.   Although I voiced my concerns at this and urged my compatriots t act with caution, I did not stop them from beginning our original purpose of extracting the precious metal. Oh, how I wish I had.   While they set about digging in the general area and breaking the large rock, I tried to busy myself with further methods of identification and assisting in minor things to the extent of my abilities. After a time, the pickaxe being wielded by one of our more impulsive members struck as if striking a solid metal mass and we discovered that, underneath the layer of ore and rock there had been hidden a smooth red object. This discovery seemed to excite my peers as they dug away the rest of the debris with earnest. Once the thing was uncovered we saw that it resembled a large red egg. Despite my urgings, Occulo decided to place his hand on the egg and described it as giving him a cooling sensation. He was very excited and became possessive of the egg when I asked him to put it down multiple times , as we did not know the extent of its magical capabilities. I do not know if it was then that he lost himself to it, or if it was just an eccentricity of his personality, but it was when we found the object that things took a dour turn.   After having breaking up the asteroid debris and gathering it together on a makeshift sled that we had built of the local foliage we settled down to rest before our long trek back to our town. We would not sleep restfully though as we were beset upon by malicious spirts. The apparitions seemed to the presence of the dead, but they were of no race that I had ever before encountered or heard of. They wailed as they reached for us, attempting to steal our lives for themselves. I quickly cast a spell to decipher their speech to see if they were trying to deliver a cryptic message. They screamed baleful apologies to us and interested that our souls were what they needed. We had no choice but to fight for our lives against them.   Barring the fight our night passed with no further events and we rose to journey back with our loads. We made the journey back quickly and were light of feet and energized upon our arrivals home. Whereupon we immediately sought out the old man. We found him easily enough and began to engage with him but where perplexed when he paid us no mind. This greatly vexed one of our members who drew forward as if to shake him back to his senses, only to have his hand disappear within him! We tried to interact with various people and things only to find that nothing would give or react to our presence. Some of us briefly feared we had perished in our sleep, while I surmised that we were somehow transported to the ethereal plane against our will. We quickly discovered that we were not, in fact, dead and that I was most likely correct when Occulo spoke something that sent us all into immediate action. "We never woke up." We all suddenly realized the implications of his words and cold chills ran down my spine at the thought that I knew when he had spoken it, that it was the truth. A ghost appeared to us again and spoke "Watch your back." They had said this before as we fought them off the night before, but this phantom only gave the warning and disappeared. I quickly turned my back to the group and asked if they could observe anything. Their shocked silence was deafening and I apprehensively turned back around to them while they affirmed my suspicions. I quickly took stock of someone else and I saw it, fliting through my periphery, a tendril had attached itself to all of our backs and they all seemed to stretch back along in the same direction, back to the way whence we had come. Nazhim was the first to act upon this revaluation and sprung into a full sprint back the way we had come. This bolstered all of us into action and I ju8mped upon the sled that Jor pulled, with our ghost meteor, so as not to fall behind. We made excellent tie back as we soon realized that our unconcious minds held infinite stamina. We arrived back at the campsite only to make another discovery that made me hold in an involuntary shudder. We weren't there.   Our bodies were gone. In their places deep dragging marks left on the ground. Nazhim again ran ahead and fund the egg, surrounded by our unconscious bodies, wrapped into sacks with the tentacles going from us to the egg as it had multiplied in size, seemingly from feasting on our bodies! Nazhim fired a quick shot that flew wide while Jor took aim and struck the egg with magic as it burst open revealing the hideous monster inside. A large bulbous head of a newborn baby attached to the body of a gigantic spider with legs ending in sharp points. As the child screamed we were awoken. Each within our sacks and had to fight to break free of them. We managed to regain ourselves and fight the abomination until Nazhim's arrow struck it through its hideous eye socket and it ceased moving.   With our remaining energy, each of us looking sunken and starved, we pushed ourselves back to town, now certain that we were whole again. We came upon the old man, who asked us what had happened to us for to take us so long to return, and upon commenting on our physical states I regaled him with th events of the encounter, sparing no detail, until he was wholly convinced of what had transpired. I set myself to sleep in my tent for the foreseeable future.

Weary and almost beaten , my comrades and I traveled back to our small town, or whatever it is to be called, since it has no buildings. I must confess I am growing weary of sleeping in tents but remain hopeful that I will soon have the funds to invest in a small abode, that I will gladly pay the carpenters who have traveled with us, to build. As, I am not one to give up so easily and since I am loathe to admit it but I was quite embarrassed to be bested by a small group of goblins, I resolved myself to reform my my small group and head back to the caves once more. I am convinced that they hide great things if only I can venture deeper.   I found new party members, some from the last group and a new face, A rather boisterous fellow that proved to be quite useful in assisting me in my searches through the caves. We traveled the three days back to the caves uneventfully, but it was not to remain so. We slowly and cautiously continued on into the cave that we had been in before when soon we came upon more of the monsters. Luck was on our side this time as we were able to quickly dispatch our foes, but one was able to escape us and sound an alarm while it ran back down into the depths. As we did not know what lay beyond I suggested that we backtrack slightly and take the tunnel that we hadn't yet gone down that was in the opposite direction of any possible ambush that may be forming.   Going down the other tunnel proved to be as smart a move as I had thought. We were able to get the drop on another group of goblins that were milling about. With the help of some of my ancestral magic and a few caltrops, as well as, a well placed thunderwave spell we were able to finish them off with no harm coming to us. Upon further inspection of where the goblins were we found a small hoard hidden underneath a barrel of goblin swill. Having found this and also mapped out the caves enough to grant us even more branchin paths to choose from we decided to head back to town before our luck ran out.

Sometime after my arrival in my hometown I received news that I should keep my distance from the tower for some time. This seems odd as it was not intended as punishment but rather a warning? I will not begrudge fate if it allows me freedom for a while longer but I also worry as to the state of my current home for as to instead of calling me back has told me to stay away. As I, myself am not so powerful as to be able to ascertain the state of the tower from my current position I decided that I would need to accumulate funds and hone my skills until I heard a summons to return or could gather that it was safe to do so. As much as I ejoy my time with my own kind I must concede that if I were to accomplish this I would have to leave them, at least temporarily. I decided to travel south and east since with the war going on going North is a fools errand and going west would lead me close to Gildengaurd whereupon if they discovered me would surely try to take me back to the tower by force. So, giving them a wide birth and being mindful of the dreadwastes I made my way South east. Whereupon during my wanderings I quickly became lost. If I did not happen to stumble upon something that had seemed like a road and shortly thereafter something akin to caravan of pilgrims, telling me about their journey to create a new settlement by order of the king with great rewards promised to those who are the most useful, I'm certain I would have wandered until I became Gnoll food. Leaping at the oppurtunity to prove myslef and to gain some kind of income I followed the caravan back to the dreary little tent city that they called home.   I did not have long to wait for a chance as the next day after my arrival a rather highborn looking fellow with a small entorage of servants called upon the dining tent and pitched a job to the group that had gathered. It seemed simple enough, chart a set of caves that the knights had discovered to the north and make them safe. Whilst being in the wilderness and delving caves was not something I was entirely keen to do, I latched onto this as a means for further activities should we prove successful. A few other souls, A fisherman weilding some type of dwarven technology from another country, a worshiper of nature who seemed keen on making friends with my pet Luna, and a rather dim-witted young person who seemed to only want to go for the enjoyment of a possible fight. We left that afternoon.   Proving themselves able trackers my companions and I arrived after 3 days of travel. There were a great many more caves than we were originally led to believe but we ssoon chose one and ventured inside where we were promptly set upon by a gang of goblins. So caught off-guard were we that we nearly perished and decided to retreat to muster ourselves some new strength before we continue in again.

After having finally been given clearance to leave the tower with a group of colleagues for a rudimentary "mission". I soon found myself "lost" from them as I made my way north to visit my relatives whom I hadn't had the pleasure of seeing since I had agreed to study at the tower. But now that I had been adorned with the purple robes of the Violet Eye I had earned a small amount of leeway which i promptly used to take an impromptu vacation, I suppose to much of the ire of the Gildenguardians and fellow wizards that I was charged in accompanying. I'm sure their mission will be successful and I'm sure that after the token effort to find me they will see themselves home. I am willing to risk a possible punishment of organizing the grand library for a month to regain a small bit of freedom.