Summer is nearly over and that worries me a great deal. All the other people in the group seem to be working much like the grasshopper. I would prefer to be more like the ant. But they think that honor and glory will keep them warm this winter. Personally, I think it is time we find an abandoned building and get it set to survive the winter. Trying to put a roof on something with 6 inches of snow on the ground and a roaring wind is the wrong way to go about it. Well, we have a few months left, to get set up, hopefully everyone else won’t wait to long to listen to sense.
Since the last time, we went out to the monastery, we finally delivered Melchert’s head to Phaellym. He was upset. Evidently he was more attached to the boy, than any of us thought. We tried to explain the situation to him, but it was to no avail. At least he didn’t hold it against us too personally.
Personally, I see no reason why not to bring back just the head of such a deadly enemy to the light. He was summoning and creating Skeletons and Zombies. By the Light! How much more evil do you need to be! Human sacrifice and cannibalism?
Besides, once the spirit is released from the body there is nothing left but meat. Where I come from, we burn our dead to release the soul more quickly…
Anyway, Phaellym admonished us to stay away from the monstery, so we will do that for a while we will stay away from it. Instead, we have made 2 raids on the Mines. I Had thought that they were already all picked over. It seems I am wrong. We found a whole new section full of traps, and I do mean full. We found 4 or 5 traps in an area of halls that encompassed less space than some inns that I have been in.
We found a section where some people have been digging and discovered a few gems there.
Joe, a new member of the party discovered a large statue in another side room. It was a weird thing that I didn’t much like, but Joe seemed to be fascinated by it. Go figure?
Just for the hell of it, we decided to tear down a section of one of the many barricades we have found scattered around the mines and uncovered a stairwell that went very deep into the earth. We traveled down a long distance on a steep and narrow staircase, for more than a half hour until we nearly reached the bottom. We came up on a rent in the staircase, where we were attacked by some type of Brachiopod, somebody later identified them as probable dark mantles. In and of themselves they were no great threat, except for one that managed to smother Claude, one of my bodyguards. At this point, we decided to leave.
Next time we went down about a week later, we came with most of our present membership available for action. We reached the bottom of the stairs without incident, but the party began to spread out too quickly, and alerted a pack of Dwarf sized skeletons to our presence. It took a while to feed the rest of the party down to the floor and into the fight, but we were eventually able to defeat these vermin.
At this point there was a healthy debate on whether we should turn back or continue on. It was then that we discovered that the scrap of map I had found a couple of weeks ago on a body on the upper level, matched the level we were now searching. This started a major greed attack among several members of the party, because one of the symbols for treasure was very close by.
Before we found this treasure though, we ran into a group of ghost or wraith like beings that feared a significant chunk of the party and tried to chew on the rest. It might be interesting to note here that the people most in a hurry to find said treasure seemed to be the first to succumb to the effects of the undead. Ragnar, was the only one to suffer major attacks from the undead and if I had not run back to get him, he may well have stayed and joined. Even so, if it wasn’t for the heroic efforts of several slingers and archers in the party, I may not have been able to escape either.
At this point, there was no more discussion on staying and we hightailed it out of there as fast as possible.
The trip back was uneventful. Once again, we reached the town to find the guard on the gate increased yet again! I tell you, soon there will be more guards than citizens at this rate. I don’t know how much longer it will be before we will have to fight our way into the city. This is something else that worries me. Where is it all going?
At the end of each trip, I have taken stuff over to the jeweler, who is more than happy to look the other way in the interest of a good profit. I won’t say that he is willing to accept stolen goods, but if we happen about with trinkets we find in our adventures, and forget to mention it to the tax collector, he feels no need to do it himself.
All the gems we found, have been raw, uncut and unrefined, but have peaked his interest and gained us a tidy little profit in the process. No doubt he stand to make a great deal more from the final product but that is the nature of business. For lack of a better source, we are taking most of our stuff to him now, because there are just no buyers for this kind of stuff in a town of this size. He has sent off messages to dealers and collectors to see if there is interest and good buyers for our finds and we wait for replies for these messages.
At present we are holding the following items waiting for interested buyers.
- 8 sets of dwarven chain mail at least 500 years old
- 8 Short swords, filigreed and rune marked made by dwarves again 500 year old.
- 1 Gold inlaid and rune marked ancient dwarvish helmet
- 150+ coins of ancient and beastial design.
- There are probably some other items that escape my mind right now…
Aramin, tracker, ranger and hunter of the dark