Aeric's Journal #11

Aeric’s Journal for Session 11

It has been a busy year for us. Building up our fledgling domain Anna, we have decided will be our ruler, her code of conduct should help keep us to stick to our plan and beliefs for our future kingdom. Maladan as the high priest is a bit disturbing, especially when he keeps wanting to open a brewery to help ‘preach to the masses’. We don’t see much of Blaidd, he and his wolf are almost always out of Stag Falls, mapping and tracking the wild things. Jonah and Auchs have spent considerable time in the basement of the castle, I would be concerned, except that Jonah seems to enjoy his time down there, and when he is down there it is less time that he is disturbing the citizens.

For myself, I have made a trip into Restov to gather some supplies and information. Specifically I’m looking to acquire some new formulas to help with my duties as spymaster for the kingdom. However, events have shown that I still have a lot to learn about my new trade. I successfully managed to get most of my purchases done, and found a small store, which may have the specialty items, that I’m looking for. It is only open at night, so I prepare carefully. I do not wish to cause a scene in Restov, after all I may wish to return here at some point. Unfortunately, I have found the proprietor to be somewhat difficult to deal with, he thinks that I’m some rank amateur and attempts to pawn off cantrips and the like on me. This delay has allowed others to enter the establishment, one of whom I recognize as General Swan… this concerns me greatly since when I met Maladan and Tomaz almost a year and a half ago in New Stetven, Maladan showed considerable concern about Swan, something about the war. The man’s arrogance fills the room with the anticipation of violence. Swan is not a man I particularly wish to tangle with, especially by myself. Swan demands the old proprietor to produce the item immediately. I try not to get in the way when a pair of guards also enter the store. The store seems awfully busy for this time at night. The guards mention something about the city being under curfew due to some warehouses burning down by rebels. This is news to me, unfortunately when questioned about who I am and what I’m doing, I make the rankest of mistakes, I tell them the truth! As soon as my name hits the air, General Swan orders me arrested! I quickly drink an extract I had prepared in case things went south, and I quickly flee into the back room after the old man.

He is fiddling with a book and when he sees me running at him he drops his book and vanishes from sight! I grab the book, it seems rather unique but I don’t have much time to study it as the guards show up at the top of the stairs. I was hoping there was another way out, but apparently the old man doesn’t have a back door to his place. Then General Swan floats down out of a hole he made in the ceiling, his eyes spot the book and rage comes to his face, apparently this is the item he is looking for! I run back towards the guards at the top of the stairs and drop a smoke pellet, obscuring us. In the smoke the guards seem to attack each other. I don’t see what Swan is doing, but I hear a loud smash and I suspect he came running after me. I manage to squeeze around the one guard, feeling me on his back he attempts to stab me, but I slither out of the way at the last moment and he stabs himself instead. The air fills with the smell of blood, and an odour I recognize, Adder’s Tongue, there is poison on the blade. Outside, I quickly flee the store, I must get away from Swan, he is bloody dangerous. I notice something is stuck to my cloak, it seems like some sort of tracking device. I palm it off on a caravan heading to New Stetven, I feel somewhat guilty about this as the caravan will surely face Swan’s wrath, but I need the head start to get back to Stag Falls. Unfortunately, due to my loose lips, Swan knows that I’m somewhere down in the Stolen Lands. I warn Maladan about this encounter… rarely have I ever seen a man shit himself who wasn’t sick, but Maladan turns white and smells like a privy when I tell him about Swan. One of these days he will tell me what is going on. In the meantime, I start a file on Swan, hopefully I’ll get some information about what he is after and what he is capable of. I also start to make inquiries about why my name would trigger such a violent reaction, I’ve been gone for over a year, what has changed since I’ve been gone?

Returning to Stag Falls, I study the book to find out why Swan was after it.

Deciding that we have spent too much time inside, Anna gathers us together and we go out exploring, moving to the west. We encounter a bunch of gnomes on the river bank trying to save a wagon caught in the current of the Skunk River. I’m surprised they managed to get the wagon that far across the river in the first place. We can’t seem to move the wagon, so Anna and myself and Blaidd start to unload some of the equipment. Unfortunately we unload just a bit too much and the current grabs the wagon and it floats off downstream. Jubilost and his band of gnomes turn out to be explorers. We trade them information about the region. He passes on to us information about a witch to the south, an abandoned tower (he indicates it is in the lake?), an abandoned castle which gave his group a bad feeling, a tribe of lizard folk, an abandoned ferry station and a burial mound. We point him in the direction of Stag Falls if he wishes to resupply. He also mentions that there is a rumor about a dwarven stronghold somewhere in the Stolen Lands.

We wave the gnomes goodbye as we continue our trek west, following the Skunk River. We encounter an angry group of loggers who have just felled a number of large trees which has made the local fey (a nixie) quite irritable. She charmed a couple of them, and the loggers have decided that they will recover their men no matter what. After a lot of confusion and hostility, the loggers back off, only to realize their leader has been taken by the nixie. We have agreed to try and replace the trees (doh!) and the nixie suggests talking with a dryad who inhabits the woods on what magic might be used to help do this. The loggers have given us 3 days to get their leader back before they start ‘burning the fey’ out of the woods.

Jonah, asks Fredderick for help, but to do so, he requires a magic item. Anna gives up the magical bow that we took from the Stag Lord. Apparently the dryad is somewhere further west. We camp for the night and are attacked by taztlworms! (sp). They kill one of our horses and cause a number of injuries. I barely manage to escape their clutches, but my wounds are severe. Good thing I have an extract for that! Drinking it most of my wounds heal, the Aqua Vitae is very useful I find. We salvage the best head from the lot to take back to Oleg who was looking for one.