A/N: Hoo boy, I stayed up way later than I should have to finish this. I hope you're ready for the Firewine Ruins, because it's time for the sodding Firewine Ruins. Enjoy.


Day 108, Hour 22

Evening, Mr. Journal. We've just made it into Gullykin. Luckily, we ran into exactly zero basilisks on the way, thank Tymora for that. In fact, the journey were rather uneventful. Pretty soon, the plains all full of statues gave way to woods, and before I knew it, it were already nighttime, and there were Gullykin on the horizon.

We met with Mayor Luckyfoot soon after we set foot in the village. He says there have been several kobold raids since we left, and that he knows that they've got a base in the ruins, but he's got no idea how they're getting into town. We told him we'd set out for the ruins first thing tomorrow to investigate. The halflings in town were a bit alarmed to see a drow among us at first, but they welcomed Viconia soon as we vouched for her. She were right surprised at how quickly they warmed up to her after that. It were almost like she couldn't figure out whether to be pleased or a bit uncomfortable about it.

There's no inn here in the village, but the priests at the temple have been kind enough to let us bed down in their basement for the night, so long as we don't disturb any of the wine. They've even shared some of their food with us! Everyone is so nice here, Mr. Journal. Gods, but I hope we can put an end to their troubles.

It's real cozy in here. I'm a bit surprised, considering wine cellars tend to be a bit less hospitable than this, as wine is usually best stored in conditions that are, well, slightly less comfortable. Yeslick is especially happy with the place. Says he's always preferred being in a more closed-in place like this to wandering the vast outdoors. Viconia agrees with him, though she thinks the room could stand to be a bit less bright. It is rather well lit for a wine cellar, Mr. Journal, but I think that's part of what makes it so nice. Anyways, I'd better turn in for the night. We're like to have our work cut out for us tomorrow.


Day 109, Hour 8

Gods, Mr. Journal! We were attacked by kobolds last night! They, they just showed up in the wee hours, and...Gods. It were a good thing Viconia only rests for a few hours each night and were wide awake when they showed up, or else we would have been done for. The fight were over pretty quick, but the clamor woke up the priests and they came rushing down to see what had happened. Caused quite a stir, as kobolds had never gotten inside the temple before. They even woke up Mayor Luckyfoot and brought him down here to survey the damage.

After a bit of sleuthing, it were clear they'd come up from the secret door in the cellars. The priests confirmed that it did in fact lead into the Firewine Ruins, but that they'd always kept the thing locked, and didn't know how it ended up unlocked.

...I knew, though. And judging from the look on her face, Immy knew, too. I remember the last time we passed through here, she unlocked it, wanted to look inside. And I just stood there and watched. Either way, we didn't say anything. Just helped the priests re-lock the thing. After all, weren't no harm done. The priests say this is the first time the kobolds have gotten into the temple, which means they got in some other way during the first two raids. And since we took care of this group, it means there were no real harm done from the whole thing. That and, well, honestly, this one is mostly on Immy. She's the one what unlocked it, and I didn't have no active part in it, even if I didn't do nothing to stop it, neither. Which means I've got no business ratting her out. Confessing my own mistakes is one thing, but pointing fingers at someone else is another. If she thinks it's best to tell them, she will. That's what I think.

Anyways, after we sealed that door up but good, we all went back to sleep for a bit, as we were right exhausted. Woke up again about an hour ago. We had breakfast with the priests, and then started preparing for our foray into the ruins. We've talked it over with the mayor, and he agrees it may be faster to use the secret door in the temple to enter the ruins, rather than travel to the main entrance. Besides, if the kobolds are getting into the village through the ruins, we're more likely to find out where they're coming from if we start in the portion of the ruins near the village.

Luckily, we were actually able to restock here this morning – the temple's got a huge supply of healing potions, and we bought enough to totally replenish our supply. It were a real relief, after not being able to get any back in Beregost. We're back down in the wine cellar now, doing a final equipment check before heading down into the ruins. One of the priests is standing guard by the door – says he'll seal the thing after we go down. Precautions to make sure no more kobolds get in, and all. If we absolutely have to get back in, we're to knock on the door three times. That way, the halflings will know it's us and not some kobolds.

I'm a bit nervous, Mr. Journal. I've heard all sorts of rumors about these ruins, and most of them aren't good. If even half of them are true, we're in for a real rough time. Tymora preserve us.


Day 109, Hour 15

We have not had a good time these past few hours, Mr. Journal. The halflings were not kidding when they said there were a lot of kobolds down there. It might be more accurate to say there were swarms of kobolds. Endless kobolds. So many kobolds I don't know how they all fit into a ruin that size. You cut two down, and five more come out of a tunnel you thought you just secured! It were almost like they were coming straight out of thin air, Mr Journal! I'm still not entirely convinced they're not. We're out of the ruins now, and in sight of the Firewine Bridge. Half our group is pretty badly hurt, but at least we made it out alive. I've got to admit, for a while there, I didn't think we would. It really were that bad.

I certainly never would have expected that many kobolds from the way our investigation started. In fact, we didn't meet a single kobold down there for the first hour or so. It were dark down there, and right quiet. Also, real cramped and narrow. In most of the halls, you could barely even walk two abreast, and that were only if you squeezed in real close to someone. It were real claustrophobic, and the way the passages twisted and branched all mazelike gave me right terrible flashbacks to that sodding icy rock we got trapped on a tenday back. Yeslick and Viconia were both happy as clams to be underground, though. Yeslick were even whistling a jaunty little tune as we inched down the hallways step by step, waiting for Immy to look for traps ahead. He told me the place reminded him of the tunnels of his clan, though I certainly don't remember the Cloakwood mines being this creepy.

Anyways, yeah, there were no kobolds around at first. Just traps. Gods, but there were so many traps. It's a good thing Immy is so great at disarming them, because let me tell you, there were so many sodding traps. To hear Immy tell what she'd seen of them, it sounds like most of them were right nasty, too. Some of them might've even killed us outright if she hadn't found them and taken them apart first.

After a while of crawling down all those twisty hallways like a bunch of sodding rats, we came to this small room with a pillar in the middle of it, and there were a big group of ghostly figures in there, and soon as they noticed us, they started chanting these words:

Together enter, together fall.
That was the vow agreed.
None will leave until all are one.
Such as the vow remains.
We must be one.

Um. At least. Something like that. I might have gotten one or two words wrong. I can't remember it exactly, you know. If I could remember everything everyone said ever, word for word, well, it would be a lot easier to tell stories. But there would also be a lot more words bouncing around in my head and I imagine it would get right tiring after a while. So, all in all, I'm glad I can't. But, you know what I did remember, Mr. Journal? I remembered that other bard we met the first time we passed by the Firewine Bridge, and I remembered the story he told. One about knights who went down into the ruins and died after one among their number betrayed them. So, I told the others the story, at least, what I could remember of it. After all, only Immy and Rasaad had been there when we first heard it. We met the others after that.

It were pretty clear then what needed to happen. We needed to find that one traitor from the story. The knights couldn't move on until all of them were reunited, after all. Everyone agreed helping these spirits move on were the right thing to do, so we decided to keep an eye out for the missing knight as we moved onward. Well, except Viconia. I mean, she didn't exactly say anything against the decision, but I'm pretty sure I caught her rolling her eyes as we left the room.

As we turned the corner, I were pretty sure I heard an eagle or some other bird of prey crying in the distance, but it were probably just in my head. After all, it would be right strange for a bird to be underground. I kept my mouth shut about it, as I didn't want the others to think I were losing my mind or anything.

Soon after that, we finally ran into some kobolds. The little buggers jumped us as we turned a corner, and one of them shot a flaming arrow right into Immy's shoulder. I reacted right quick, Mr. Journal. Shot him full of magic missiles before he could do anything more to hurt Immy. The rest of them went down when Rasaad rushed them. Gods, but he's so amazing, Mr. Journal. You should have seen him moving like lightning straight toward them. They never stood a chance. We ran into another small group of them just around the next corner, but Ajantis and Yeslick took them out, working in perfect unison. Those two have been getting along real well lately. It's nice. They act almost like they've been friends their whole lives. You should have heard them complimenting each other on a job well done after they took down those kobolds. It were really cute, Mr. Journal.

We stopped after that while Viconia healed Immy's arrow wound, only for more sodding kobolds to rush us from behind! It were ridiculous. Luckily, I were near the back of the group at the time, so I BOSSHAMMERED them into the ground right quick. But right as I finished with those, more rushed us from the front! It were absolutely ridiculous, Mr. Journal! Ajantis charged forward to take them out, and pushed them back into the next corridor. When we ran forward to join him in the fight, we found the kobolds dead and Ajantis standing face to face with a heavily armored skeleton. The two of them were talking, though I only caught a few snippets of their conversation. Something about the skeleton wanting Ajantis to end something. Before I could puzzle out what that meant, Ajantis and the skeleton locked blades in one hell of an impressive sword fight.

After it were over, he explained to us what had happened. Turns out the skeleton was the traitor knight, and he deeply regretted what he'd done. He'd asked Ajantis to strike him down and bring his armor back to his companions, so they could move on to the afterlife. So, we helped Ajantis remove the armor from what was left of the skeleton and headed back to the room where we'd first met the ghostly knights.

As soon as we entered the room with that armor, all the other knights seemed overcome with relief. They looked just about as relieved as a ghost covered entirely in armor could look, which is a lot more than you'd think. They all chanted something again, this time about being completed and free and all, and then, they disappeared. I suppose they were all able to move on. Felt right good, Mr. Journal. We did a good thing today. If we ever run into that bard again, I should let him know how the story ends.

Of course, the warm fuzzy feelings didn't last long, as after that, it were right back to searching the ruins to find out where all those sodding kobolds were coming from. And that meant more traps and more sodding kobolds. It were real terrifying. Even before they started really swarming us, you could hear them, Mr. Journal. Scurrying around through nearby hallways that you had no way of knowing whether or not they were connected to the one you were in. When the attacks started, they were in small groups, mostly, and there were usually some time in between fights. But they started getting more and more frequent, and before we knew it, they were attacking us from all sides, coming out of all corridors, and showing up in places we'd just checked only minutes earlier. It were almost like someone or something were conjuring them up straight out of thin air.

Long story short, tons of kobolds and traps later, we found ourselves completely surrounded in a small room right at the center of the maze. There were kobolds pouring in from every direction and we were already in bad shape as we'd been chased by a group of the little sods right into a trap what magic missiled the shite out of us and then, as if that weren't already bad enough, gotten pincushioned by their sodding flaming arrows. We'd fled from them back to the room, which we'd been in not thirty minutes before, only to find kobolds swarming in from all sides, coming in through passageways where they had no business being. I thought it were all over then, Mr. Journal. We were in no shape to stand and fight them all. Hells, Ajantis was already near death's door, needed Rasaad's help to even walk. If it weren't for Viconia's spells, we would have died long before that. One cleric just weren't enough, Mr. Journal. I sure am glad we brought her along.

Anyways, it were about then Yeslick spotted a hallway with much fewer kobolds than the others, and he shouted at us to break through. He didn't need to tell me twice. We rushed the handful of kobolds in that hallway, bursting through their ranks, and we didn't stop running. We couldn't stop running, else it would all be over. A few twists later, by what I'm convinced can only be Tymora's grace, we ran straight into a hallway with stairs going up at the end of it. We rushed up the stairs, with Rasaad pulling Ajantis along, and the next thing we knew, we were greeted by the open air. A couple of the kobolds followed us up, but we made short work of them as we had the high ground.

After that, we looked around for somewhere to lick our wounds. We ran into one kobold patrol before we got anywhere, but they weren't near as well equipped as the ones down in the ruins. They're not much of a threat without those flaming arrows, Mr. Journal. After that, we managed to find a small alcove in between several ruined walls where we could hide from the kobold patrols. Yeslick and Viconia have had their hands full with healing ever since we stopped, especially with the condition Ajantis is in. Viconia has been complaining the whole time about how it weren't even half a day before we ended up chased out of the ruins and were stuck back out under the sun again, and how she wished we could have spent more time underground. Yeslick's just been nodding in agreement to her tirade this entire time while he does his healing. It's nice they've found something they can agree on, even if it's about being complete weirdos who like cramped, creepy underground tunnels.

Anyway, we've decided there's no way we're going back down there without any idea what to look for. Those kobolds aren't gonna get any less numerous unless we find out where they're all coming from, and honestly, I doubt it's something as simple as them moving into the ruins. Immy thinks it's something most unnatural, and I think I might agree with her. Once we're rested up, we're returning to Gullykin – over the land, of course, and not back through those sodding ruins – to report to Mayor Luckyfoot and do some investigating in the village. It might be easier to find out what's up with these kobolds if we can find out where they're getting into the village from. And, we're probably going to be a lot more likely to make it out alive if we conduct our investigation topside. We've just learned that much the hard way.

Gods, but I hope we can resolve this without getting ourselves arse-deep in kobolds again. A few more attacks like that, and I may end up even more terrified of the little buggers than Xan is. Gods, I never thought I'd be saying this so emphatically, but it really is a right good thing he's not with us right now. He'd be completely flipping his shite by now if he were. All these sodding kobolds. Anyways, speaking of kobolds, it's time for me to take over Immy on watch duty and make sure none of those little yapping arseholes find us back here. Talk to you later.


A/N: And that's where we're stopping for the night. A short note about that bit about Linn hearing a bird of prey in the ruins - I debated whether or not to leave that in. I'm not sure if it was a glitch or what, but in-game one of the ghostly knights kept making eagle noises. It was pretty ridiculous and I did a double take the first time I heard it. I kind of wanted to find some way to put it in because it amused me while I was playing. Ahem. Anyways. Tune in next time as our heroes return to Gullykin and find out what the Hells is up with all these kobolds! See ya!