Rise of The Runelords - David Drake's Saga

by Raulfur

This is the Rise of the Runelords series as told by of David Drake, an American pagan who got tricked into the adventure. This series shows how he comes to understand the world and his journeys through it. The first three posts detail his companions, Faunra: a time displaced elven Magus, Dame Rebekah: a child of crusaders, and Jonathan: a skinwalker monk/kineticist. Still ongoing.

19. Day 15 or Enter the Jabberjaw

Day 15: It could be… Wealday the 3rd Lamashan, 4707

When I had gotten to the ESR, Savah's clothes were there, along with all her gear. I wondered if it was wise for her to just leave everything in a heap on the floor. I put everything on the set of shelves that she had unofficially claimed and got changed. I still loved these Pajamas. I stopped by the washroom to relieve myself before bed, and to wash up. I realized that if I put a tank on the roof, that we could have hot showers.

That would be worth almost any price to me. I'd just need to find a way to make sure that the water stayed warm, and get some piping made up. Get a drain going out of the building and this place could be top rate. Hell, I mean Dame Rebekah can just cast Purify Food and Water on it and we could even re-use it if necessary. One I added a flushing commode then I could write my meal ticket anywhere. We could have a three tank system, with a hot tank, a cold thank, and a grey water tank that got purified and sent back up to the cold tank. I'd have to learn more about the Create Water spell that Dame Rebekah has access to.

I finished my musing and headed down stairs. Just as I thought, Savah was in the bedroll, already asleep. I thought to myself for a minute about my future. To get home, I was going to have to a) find someone who was of sufficiently good moral compass to not take advantage of my home-world; b) that person has to be able to cast the spell that I need to make it there; and c) we need to either be able to take my car with me, or I need to figure out a way to bring back enough valuables to permit me to pay off that loan as a loss and get a new car, almost immediately, and d) I needed to do this in less than two weeks to prevent a lot of strife in the job area.

Well, those are some pretty long odds. I don't know who might be able to cast that spell, but I would guess that it was a very difficult ritual. It would likely only be masters of the art that could cast it. Pursuit of that level of power would likely only appeal to those of extreme focus and dedication. I was sitting there for a good long time, pondering the impossibilities of my situation before I heard a voice quietly tell me that sitting there would do me no good, to come to bed. I did as was suggested and Savah snuggled up to me. I know that it might be weird to be sleeping vertically, but it really seems to stop my snoring. That's some good information right there. Savah snuggled right up to my side and put her head on my chest. I fell asleep quickly.

I remember waking in the middle of the night, with her still having her head rested on my chest. Her hand had moved over to my stomach at some time in the night, and I thought that was a little too close to something else, so I hugged her tight and she moved her arms to hug me. I looked around and didn't see anything in the red lighting night-light that would have woke me up. I got my flashlight from right beside me and turned it on. I could not see anything in the room or in the hallway. I felt her shift on my chest and I turned the light back off. I remember going back to sleep, enjoying the chance to rest.

The dream that I remember from the second part of the night was a reflection of the vision that I had back when I was in the military. It was Odin's hall, but this time instead of walking up to him and taking a knee and requesting help, and thus being laughed at, I walked up to him, proud, and he told me that he had a question to ask. He asked that if someone were faced with a decision where they could get what they wanted, and it would be okay for a little while, but it would turn out horribly bad for everyone, or they could never get what they wanted, and it turn out less bad, although worse in the near future, which should be the decision that the person should make.

I thought about this for a good long time, and I said that this was kind of the no good decision question. I mean with advanced knowledge one can try to offset the bad, but that if the destiny is foretold, then it won't matter what methods one uses to try to avert the negatives. But with the other side, I would presume that you are sparing a much larger cross-section of people a much more horrific fate. He nodded and said that this was the general assumption. So I asked if it would properly be boiled down as the first choice was selfish and destructive, but the second choice was selfless and much less destructive. I told him that the only honest answer was to try to make do with the latter, as you could never commit a large number of people to worse suffering just to fulfill your own desires. The All-Father nodded and asked me if I knew why he asked me that. I told him that I had an inkling.

Odin told me that he could get me home, that it could be fairly soon, but that if he did, I wouldn't be able to save this world from a far distant menace that we wouldn't even discover until much later. Odin added that after this world, my home-world would be next, since I had left enough footprints to make the entity want to follow me back eventually. He told me that at best, it would be half a decade of my home-world going by day by day, just continuing to get worse until the entity found its way to my planet and the planet descended into destruction and chaos. Odin told me that if I chose to stay here, I might not be able to get back to my home, but I at least stood a chance of stopping the thing. He told me that I was going to have to figure out my own way to deal with magic if I was to stand a chance. I asked why magic didn't exist on my home-world. He smiled at me and said, who says it doesn't?

I woke up to what might have been the best feeling in the world. No, not that. Okay, the second best feeling in the world. Not that either. Okay the third best feeling in the world. Fine, it was a pretty damn good feeling. It felt so good that I didn't even realize that I was nearly naked at first. I was laying on my stomach; from what I could tell from the gravity. I was still wearing my boxers, so that was a good thing. I felt hands on my back, deeply rubbing into my muscles, and I felt legs straddling my hips from behind. Their legs were clenched tight against my hips, I guess to keep themselves in place, and I couldn't tell if I felt fabric or not. The back rub made me forget about all of it though. I didn't even know I was that tense. Savah had whispered in my ear good morning as she leaned over. I murmured thank you to her as she continued my back and neck. I swear that I haven't relaxed this much in months.

It lasted for a good long time before she stopped and I heard clothing rustling. She handed me back my clothes and I got dressed. When I carefully turned back around, she was already dressed in her sleeping clothes and pulling herself back into the bedroll. I got myself in as well, and could not stop telling her thank you. She just smiled and said that she could tell I needed it somehow. I asked her if she knew what time it was. She told me no, but that no one had come to get them yet. I told her that just once, I'd like to stay in the makeshift bed for a little while and relax. Savah said that she had no problem with that. I spared a glance at my arm, and sure there was a scar, but it was fully healed. No easy reopening wound, no seeping or angry cuts, just healed. It was a good fifteen or twenty minutes before we heard someone heading down the hallway.

It was Faunra, she said that the Mayor called and that Sheriff Hemlock would be arriving in town shortly. I asked how the Mayor knew, and Faunra just shrugged her shoulders, and headed back upstairs. I looked to Savah and told her that I guess that this was our wake-up call. She shrugged and said we didn't HAVE to go yet. I frowned and told her that we better. She accepted that and we made our way out of the room together. We got to the break room and several people were there. Shayliss had made her way here from Ven's General Store, and told me that whatever I had said to Ven last night got him in an odd mood. Chelger was here with Dame Rebekah, and they were both in good moods. Apparently Dame Rebekah had gotten a little attached to him in the time that they had spent together and they were getting quite close. Hannah was here and Faunra had just sat down next to her. There were cinnamon pastries, fried bread, sausage, eggs, and juice. It might have been the best morning that I have had since I got here. I might have said as much. Enthusiastically even.

We all tucked in to breakfast. Apparently they had waited for us, since Faunra had promised them that we were getting up. Discussions ranged from what everyone had planned for the day, to what everyone thought of the comedy show last night, to what everyone thought of the double wedding. I early told everyone what Shalelu had said, and Jonathan filled in any parts that I had misremembered. Savah noted that she had to get to her shop early today, especially since we were not looking at making any suits of armor today. I got up and walked her to the ESR. She asked me to come in and help her, and I did. I still turned away from her when she was down to smallclothes. She giggled and said that I would probably get tired of doing that someday in the future. I got changed into my clothes and reinforced my notes on pockets. I guess it wouldn't be a surprise to say that Savah didn't turn around when I was getting changed. She also was a little… friendly… when she helped me get my armor all positioned right. I tried to be a bit more professional, but there were times when I accidentally brushed against a thigh or a side and she giggled and smiled.

She gave me a kiss on the cheek and said that she had to head off to work. I asked her if any of the armors I wore had sold, and she said not yet, but that she knew that they would soon. She told me to make sure that I visit her today sometime before she headed out to her shop. I agreed and headed back to the break room. Chelger, Shayliss, and Hannah had all apparently left by that point, so it was just the four of us. I asked the group if they knew a spell that could tell if something was actually true if the person saying it believed it was true. Faunra asked in what context. I told them about my dream, and how I could have accepted a quicker path home, but didn't. I wanted to know if this was a true dream or not. Faunra and Dame Rebekah both said that they did not know if it was truth, but that he might want to ask Father Zantus. I noted that I would do that when we got back.

I also broached the subject of the Round room, and how I didn't want to be monopolizing the room as my sleeping quarters. Dame Rebekah asked if my sleep was better in that room. I told her that yes, I did feel like the rest I was getting was better than sleeping on my side or back. Jonathan said that this settled it. Faunra agreed, that it would be better for me to be rested and prepared than for them to get a little fun. Besides, she added, that it kept me someplace where I couldn't keep them up with my snoring. I thanked them all, and noted that if I was allowed to take over that room as my own, then I'd likely modify it a bit to make it more functional for me, if that was okay. They all agreed, and I thanked them again. I asked if they were going to be looking at modifying any rooms to better fit what they needed.

Dame Rebekah asked if she could have dominion over the cathedral to reconsecrated it to Iomedae. I told her that I had no problem with that, Faunra said that she was okay with it, as did Jonathan. Faunra noted that she didn't want any specific room modified, but that she felt that there should be separate bedrooms, rather than one communal one. I agreed, and said that if it wasn't an issue, we could get the carpentry guild up in here to wall off some areas to split up the old servant's quarters. If it was, we could reassign the closets or storage rooms to better suit the needs. Faunra, Jonathan, and Dame Rebekah were all okay with that, so the three closets that were by the display room and the servants' quarters would now be their individual bedrooms. The former servants' quarters would be our communal equipment area. We'd ask Ameiko if she could get the Carpenter's guild on getting skylights and such built into the rooms later. As it stood now, it gives everyone a bit of privacy.

With all of that dealt with, I told them that I had an idea for something late last night that I'm going to be looking in to that would be of benefit to all of us, not just those who wore armor. A non-combat based idea. They were a bit intrigued, willing to wait for me to check out the feasibility of it all. We packed up our gear, did a once over to ensure that the place was fully locked up, and headed to the Town Hall.

By the time we had gotten there, Sheriff Hemlock was already there. He looked at us and asked what this, pointing to the radio, was. I gave him a brief description, and what the theoretical ranges were. He wanted more for his guardsmen, saying that they could call for back up. I told him that they were not magic items, but that I would be looking into something that might at least allow call boxes to call in to a centralized location. He was intrigued by that and said that we'd talk about that later. He asked us if we could fill him in on everything that had happened since we left.

We each took turns, filling in where others might have gotten something wrong or forgotten something. Dame Rebekah and I described the possible informant and what information he had. He acknowledged that none of it would stand up in any kind of legal way, but that he had suspected as much. The last bit was what we had heard last night from Shalelu. He asked us why we had not left yet. I told him that the Mayor had asked us to be representatives of law and order while he was gone trying to get help. He accepted that, especially when we told him that Shalelu was operating as our forward eyes, and reporting back to us fairly frequently. Sheriff Hemlock told us that trying to get help was a fool's errand, that the Magnimarian governor wasn't willing to spare so much as a copper let alone a detachment of guards.

I shook my head, and muttered, that's government for you. I know that Sheriff Hemlock heard my comment, but didn't make anything of it. He looked around and asked about the semi-matching armor that we were wearing. Faunra told him that it was something that I had designed, and that it was pretty strong for only taking a day to make. Without any warning, he took a swing at me with his sword and the armor caught it. The sword edge dulled. He was suitably impressed and asked how hard it was. I told him that it would be almost as hard as diamond. He was a bit dismissive at that, but looked at the edge of his sword and figured how long it would take him to get it back into shape, and acknowledged the likely truth of the matter. He asked if we would be making any more. The mayor got a sad look on her face, and I said that he would have to check with Savah and Ameiko, as they were the owners of the formula and the procedure. I told him that I just knew how to make the stuff. He nodded and noted the Mayor's countenance. He told us that he wished us luck if we were heading off to deal with Thistletop. We wished him well with dealing with the Scarnettis. He smiled. I told them that we would keep a radio on us, and that we would inform whomever we could if everything went sideways.

We left from the meeting with hope that we could do this. Dame Rebekah said that she needed to drop by the Cathedral before leaving town, and I said that I had some stops to make of my own. Jonathan said that he was going to go say goodbye to Shayliss. Faunra offered to go get the horses and meet us all at the North Gate. We all went our separate ways. Jonathan and Faunra headed South on Main Street, and Dame Rebekah and I went East on Tower Street. I stopped at Savah's to check in with her, and Dame Rebekah headed on to the Sandpoint Cathedral.

My conversation with Savah was fairly brief. She told me that she knew I had to go, but that I better make it back here. I told her that I had no intention of dying, and that I would be using every trick I had at my disposal. She wished me luck and said that we would have to have a conversation about the last time I was in danger when we got back. I told her that we would and that I would update her as I could.

I stopped off at the second stop, the place I had visited the night before and gave them instructions and payment for if I didn't make it back. They accepted that, and said that it wouldn't be ready for a while though. I was okay with that and told them to just keep working on it, and that I would report back in if I survived stopping the goblin horde.

When I got to the North Gate, I sat down to type this up in my Journal. I hoped that if it came down to it, that I would be able to fill in more later.

I fucking hate nettles. I hate them so much. We made our way up the road, going at a good clip. Dame Rebekah said that the horses could do it no problem. I was more than happy to cede decision to her knowledgeable recommendation. We took off on a trot, with the intention of getting there before an hour had passed. I tried Shalelu on the radio but didn't get a response. I hope that she is okay. We found our way to a trail that the goblins had taken. It took an hour to find it, but it really should not have. They are worse than litterbugs. By the time we had made it there, it had started to have a fine rain. Hopefully it will help us stay under the radar. We made our way through the trails until we got to a veritable forest of nettles and thorns. Jonathan, our point man, easily spotted the woven door and carefully opened it.

The space was cramped. I'm a big guy and this was made for things half my height. I definitely wasn't comfortable. And the first room that we came to with a good degree of height was filled with almost a dozen Goblins. Jonathan reported back to us that this was the case, and I asked everyone what they thought the best solution was. It was decided that we would fire on them from hiding, and try to take them out quickly. It worked fairly well, with us taking out six of them before they could even react. Even when they did react, they did not do much of anything. They charged in on us but their blades clanked off of the armor, when they even managed to hit at all. There was none of the tomfoolery that the first batch of goblins had participated in. These goblins were fighting with pure aggression. Rebekah drew her sword, but wasn't used to the confined space, so she missed on her first swing. Jonathan fared a little better since he didn't need to draw a weapon. He was a weapon. Now I just have to find a way to make his fists light up when he attacks.

He took out another goblin with his brutal pugilism, and Faunra had snuck in a few arrows here and there and I may have even hacked at one with my machete after they got too close. There were two goblins left before one of us even got a wound. It was Dame Rebekah who got hurt, and even then, it was just a slight bruise where the goblin had swung its sword against her thigh and there wasn't any hard armor there. I would have to fix that. The goblin that hit her passed out after hitting her. I don't have a clue why for that, but hey, whatever helps.

The last one was taken out by a launched arrow from Faunra. Jonathan went to work harvesting ears for Daviren Hosk back in Sandpoint. Continuing to try to get through this mess as quick as possible, we saw where there was a hidden lookout area that wasn't currently manned. Jonathan whispered to me that there was a seagull that was being tortured by some goblins on the far side of the island. He said that they had it tied to a string and were throwing rocks at it. I levelled my air rifle at the string and prayed that I could make this shot. I got my sight lined up, and took my shot. I hit the string just as the goblin yanked the string to tug the bird back. The string burst and it looked like the seagull just got away. I heard yelling between them and Faunra said that they were complaining that they needed to get a new rope and a new bird.

I hoped that this would keep them busy for a while. Maybe we could stop them before they got another bird. We looked back to the chamber where the dead goblins were and realized that we would have to do something about them. We remembered the pit that we had passed earlier, and drug the goblins back there. We heard some growling and saw what I recognized as the cryptid called a bunyip gobble up the goblins. At least they had some kind of disposal system here. Jonathan thought that he had seen something shiny down at the bottom, so we tied him to a length of paracord and lowered him down 60 feet. Dame Rebekah was a bit impressed by the strength to weight ratio the paracord. She still doubled it up for Jonathan though. It was a few minutes before a separate length of paracord that we had sent down along him was yanked. We pulled him up and showed us all kinds of goodies. Apparently, the thing he saw was the violet garnet embedded in the hilt of a kukri. We gathered up everything and continued on.

It was during this time that I decided to get some updating done in my tablet. Might as well not waste the inactivity.

Shortly after we had gotten Jonathan up we started exploring again. We came across of group of four of those rat-dog things that we had encountered the first day in the market. We snuck in and took some opening shots. We got them mostly near death before they broke free and charged us. Dame Rebekah took several down with the blessed sword of hers, and Faunra got in several good shots with her bow and launched arrows. We carefully drug those things to the pit as well, apparently they cause quite a rash. We wisely took caution and used some of the goblin's bows to drag the corpses to the pit. The bunyip would feast well this day.

We were wandering through the maze when we came across the a firepelt cougar that had made its nest here. It got up and rushed at us. Jonathan hit it with a launched ball bearing, I waited to hit it with my machete until it got with range. I nicked one side of its neck. It snarled at me and went to bite me. Before it could, Dame Rebekah came up and sliced its head clean off. We heard a scream from off in the distance and a rushing through the tangled thorns and vines. A wild looking goblin in leather armor with a flaming scimitar that looked way too big for him to wield came rushing in.
I just happened to be looking that way and hit him with a pellet in the forehead. I think that might have annoyed him more than the arrow that Dame Rebekah hit him with. I know it did less damage, but he was staring at me when he cast his spell that caused the thorns and vines to grow all around us. I managed to give them the slip, but they caught Faunra up pretty good. So good that she actually missed with her arrow. She did hit with her launched one though. Jonathan slammed the druid with a one two punch combo where the second one was a right cross and knocked the old druid out.

We killed him quickly while he was unconscious, Jonathan and Faunra worked him over for anything that might be useful for us, nicked his ears, and tossed him in the well. More bunyip chow. We made sure that the area was secure before pausing for a bit. Again, I decided to write a bit in my Journal, while everyone else went over their gear and made sure that they were ready to continue. I wanted to make sure that everything is up to date in case the worst happens.

The oddest thing just happened. We were about ready to look at the rope bridge up ahead. I started packing up my stuff, and I dropped my tablet and noticed that the screen had a crack in it. I swore to myself for dropping it and I wished harder than anything that it wasn't broken. I rushed over to Faunra to see if she had that Mending spell prepared. When I got over there, Faunra took a look at it and determined that there was nothing she could do. I looked at it again and there was fixed. I asked her how she fixed it without casting anything and she looked at me oddly and told me that she didn't do anything. I took her for telling the truth and figured that I just imagined that I had seen it be messed up. I hope I'm not beginning to imagine things. Maybe it was just a worrying flash to get me to be more careful with my important things. I'm going to back up my Journal file on my phone and the thumb-drives that I have too. Oh well, time to pack up and get back to work.

Wow, that was an experience. We just got done with the clearing out all of the rooms on the top layer of this ruin, and we decided to take a minute to catch a breather and check what we have found out so far. Faunra, and Jonathan are looking to figure out what all we found, while Dame Rebekah is working to get the Heavy Warhorse back across the bridge that I fixed, but maybe I should start there.

After I put my tablet away for the second time, we came up to a rope bridge. Now I've seen the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, so I know that someone could just cut the bridge from the other side, so I asked to be given leave to check it out before we went. I cautiously made my way over to the other side, hiding as best I could. No one apparently noticed me going over. Sure enough, it was rigged. Not only could someone easily set it off from this side, but it was also rigged to collapse on one side if there are more than say three people of Jonathan's size, or me and two elves. I do seem to have been losing weight since getting here, so that's a positive. I wasn't morbidly obese, but still, I can stand to lose some.

I decided that we couldn't just leave the trap like it is, so I worked to disarm it, using the seven hundred and fifty-pound capacity paracord that I kept with me. I ran the paracord back and forth three times, so that the slats should be reinforced enough to hold all of us no problem. It's not like I'm going to leave the paracord anyway. We got everyone over and Jonathan snuck around to take a peek at the goblins he had seen from that watch post that we encountered. They were apparently back trying to lure some seagulls for their game. I may not have any love for sky-rats, but I don't like seeing anything tortured. Clean, quick kills are fine. I'm even okay with hunting, but tormenting animals if a bit too far for me.

We resolved to do something about them later, but first we had to sneak in to make sure that there wasn't going to be a horde coming out to deal with us. We crept inside and apparently no one noticed us. We made our way inside and quietly shut the door behind us. We found ourselves in some kind of trophy room, where the trophies were all dogs or horses, with a single set of wings mounted to the wall with daggers. We took the daggers, because at least one of them looked valuable. We also didn't need to leave weapons anywhere that goblins could encounter them and use them against us.

We next came to a door that was nailed shut. We left it alone at first, but came back to it after we were certain that there was nothing left alive on this level that was a danger to us. It seemed to be full of bags of grain and pickles. Faunra told me that apparently Goblins love pickles. Go figure, just another reason for me to dislike them. I am glad that we didn't bother with this room while we were under a little bit of a time crunch. We continued on to a set of double doors that led to a set of wooden stairs that led up to a watch tower. We carefully shut the doors behind us and went up the wooden stairs. There were a pair of goblins at the top of it that were apparently in a food coma. There was a bag of half-eaten pickles near them. It didn't take too much intelligence to figure out what had happened.

I guess it was a kind of mercy to kill them in their sleep. I mean it was also a lot easier on us. We took a look out at the goblins that were playing that game with another gull. I smiled to Jonathan, lined up a shot, and promptly missed. I line up another shot and hit this time. The Goblin that was going to throw a rock at the gull threw the rock at the goblin that held the string. I ducked back down quick and smiled to Faunra and Jonathan. Dame Rebekah shook her head. Jonathan whispered to her that it should keep them busy for a while longer.

We took the opportunity to look down in the common area and saw some of the goblin's rat-dogs running around, screeching at a shed. We decided that we would deal with them after we dealt with the other things. Jonathan figured that we should check out the other watch tower, as it isn't likely that we would be lucky enough to only have one group of goblins that could raise an alarm. We walked quietly back down the wooden stairs, and were glad that we had closed the doors, because the stairs creaked a little under our (my) weight.

We slowly opened the doors heading back into the corridor that has the piss-poor excuses for makeshift taxidermy lining the walls. We made our way across to the hallway to where we expected the find the tower and Jonathan opened the doors and creeped up the stairs. He told us that there were two goblins armed with polearms. Most of the goblins that we had encountered had short-bows and whatever passes for a sword or machete. The only time we had encountered one of them before was when one was attacking Aldern. That might mean that these are better trained or something like that.

We roughed out a plan to see what we could do. Jonathan had told us that they were playing cards, so if we attacked with overwhelming force, quickly, we might prevent an alarm from being sounded. I realized that I would probably be the least useful part of something like that, so I volunteered to be the door opener. Everyone took up positions and I pushed the door open and jumped out of the way. The combined massive toxophilitic assault of Dame Rebekah and Faunra, combined with the telekinetically barrages of Jonathan and Faunra meant that the Goblins didn't survive long enough to perform any kind of warning, aside from a kind of death rattle.

Jonathan and Faunra checked them out for anything that would be useful for us, and we tossed them out into the water, for our little bunyip to snack on. Jonathan said that he saw the bunyip drag the bodies into its lair for later consumption. We made sure that everything was secure and then headed back down the stairs. We had passed two doors on our way to this tower, and there was another door in the ground floor of the tower. Faunra wanted to check the front rooms before going any further into this place. We all agreed, because why not?

The first room we saw was a kind of barracks. There were six goblins sleeping in beds. It was very reminiscent of the Glassworks. They lasted about the same, with everyone picking targets and killing them in their sleep. It wasn't very climatical, but then again, killing things in their sleep usually was. I can only say that it was easier for all of us to get this done than have to face them later. These were goblins who had attacked the town and escaped. As far as I was concerned, they earned an execution, and doing it in their sleep was pretty much merciful.

We looked in the next door and found it led to a set of stairs heading down. We decided that we wouldn't bother with that one for now. Might as well make sure that we won't get flanked between upper level and lower level forces, if we can. We cautiously shut the door and looked to the next one, or next two, because it was a pair of double doors. I asked if we wanted to check this one out. Apparently, the group did, so we quietly opened the first set of double doors. We made ourselves ready, and opened the doors to see a short hallway leading to another set of double doors. I sighed and moved up to the second set of double doors. Jonathan listened at the doors and nodded. Dame Rebekah whispered a bless spell, and we pushed open the doors.

I basically blinked and a bearing had launched from Jonathan's hand and imbedded itself in the center of a goblin bard's skull. It dropped before even the rest of the group was aware of what was going on. I don't even know if Jonathan knew what he was targeting before he killed it. Two of the underling goblins that wielded polearms came rushing at Faunra and myself. The first one's polearm glanced off her armor, without any effect to her. I wasn't as lucky. His polearm swung high, and even though I jerked back, I still took a nasty slash on the cheek. I know it will scar, and I hope that there wasn't anything diseased about it. I had recently gotten my tetanus booster, but I don't know that it was designed for the kind of squalor goblins produce.

Before anyone could do anything else, the goblin chief, I believe that Shalelu had said was named Ripnugget, leap from his throne in the back of the room to land on a waiting gecko the size of a mastiff. He spurred on his mount, rode forward, and got a good stab in on Jonathan. The lack of armor, and him ventilating the Goblin Bard's skull probably led to his being targeted. I tried to hack back at the goblin that had attacked me, and realized that I probably wouldn't fair that well if me and the goblin went round to round. I saw Faunra take a step back away from the goblin attacked her, notch three arrows, and telekinetically hit one in front of her square in the throat, dropping it. The other two arrows both traced their way to a third Goblin underling, dropping it through their combined force. Before the goblin that had a chance to attack me a second time, Dame Rebekah stepped up and slashed with her longsword. She smiled at me once it was obvious that I was fairly safe. She yelled to everyone something about not targeting the mount. That only left Ripnugget and his mount.

Jonathan took aim at Ripnugget with one of his bearings and hit. It was a solid hit; I'd swear that it is at least as strong as a .45 caliber. Ripnugget tried to run down Jonathan another time, but Jonathan was ready this time, and managed to dodge at the last minute. I pulled out my pistol and fire a round at him as he was wheeling back around for another attack. I only barely hit him. I really need to find a way to practice. It must have thrown Ripnugget off his screamed something about demanding we give him the fireworks. Faunra took the opportunity slow down her attacks and get a better bearing on him. She fired two arrows at him and got two solid hits. I think that they were both thighs, but I wasn't focusing on where he was wounded. I just wanted to make sure that I didn't get hit by an attack like Jonathan had.

Jonathan looked at the goblin shortsword that was in a sheath of one of the ones that had attacked us. He reached down, and by touching it, launched it right at Ripnugget's neck. The giant gecko must not have realized it, because it ran back at us like Ripnugget was acting on his next charge. Dame Rebekah tried to calm it down and received a bite for her efforts. She looked at the rest of us regretfully, silently telling us that she didn't think we could save it. She distracted it while Jonathan walked up to it, said "That'll do", and put a ball bearing into its skull. I think I might be having a really bad influence on some of the people here. It passed out immediately and was slowly dying. I walked up and sliced it's throat quick, to try to give it those last few moments of peace. I really hope that Faunra would be available to clean up all the blood from me, as I didn't want to be coated in lizard blood any more than I liked being coated in bird blood back home.

Faunra, Jonathan, and Dame Rebekah were all staring at me in confusion. I had not even asked her yet, so I asked what they were confused about. Faunra told me that I had just activated a spell-like ability. Jonathan told me that the blood just disappeared from my clothing and knife. I looked down at my hands and knife and it was just like they said. I asked Faunra how I would be able to activate a spell-like ability. She didn't know exactly, how, but she thought it might be due to an interaction between my people being magic starved and encountering so much magic recently in comparison. Dame Rebekah just looked at me oddly, trying to process exactly what might have happened to me. Faunra said that she didn't think that I was immediately in danger, and that we could try to look into it further later.

We gathered everything Jonathan and Faunra gathered everything of value that they could. I swear that Faunra was looking at me from time to time. I helped Rebekah carefully take the body of the Giant Lizard over outside to the edge of the island to toss for the bunyip. I think we'll have to come up with a name for him if we keep this up. I'm thinking Jabberjaw, it's not exactly right, but it should be close enough. We did not pay anywhere near as much attention to detail when we were taking the bodies of all of the goblins. I could swear that the one that gave me my cut got accidentally dropped by Dame Rebekah a few times more than the others. Maybe he was just a little slippery. Jabberjaw was dutiful in the grabbing of the bodies and relocating them to his murder pile. I'm sure that one day we'll hear a story about a massive bunyip being around this area. Not massive because it is muscular, but massive due to the amount of weight it put on. Again, if it becomes an issue, we'll deal with it.

Faunra and Jonathan got their messy business done, apparently the headless corpse we dumped over the side was that of Ripnugget. Something about Daviren wanting it as justice for his family. I can understand that a bit, but mounting the things in the stables seems a bit macabre. Maybe the goblins really did a number on him. I fully support vengeance, but cold revenge seems a bit wasteful, but then again, he is a business owner with a business supporting what could be the most profitable on in the town. I supposed he can afford to have his individual peccadillos. I hope he gets closer with this. After we cleared out the throne room, we went back to the northwest side of the island. The goblins were back playing that sick game with the seagulls. I took aim with my rifle and freed another one. They got pissed at the one holding the string, but Dame Rebekah whistled to get their attention.

The battle was brief. Although they were mounted, they showed none of the skill with their mounts that Ripnugget did. The combined forces of Jonathan's ball bearings, Faunra's arrows (telekinetic or otherwise), and Dame Rebekah's powerful bow took down their mounts before they could get into range with us. I know I managed to shoot one of those rat-dogs with my rifle, but I don't think my contribution amounted to much. The Goblins rushed us with their swords, with Jonathan and Dame Rebekah answering their charges with their own abilities, either Dame Rebekah's punishing sword or Jonathan's enhanced kama/siangham combo. Faunra got in a few hits with her gladius and I tried to get a hit in with my machete, but my utility was basically in helping everyone else get hits in with distractions.

Jonathan and Faunra basically rolled them over for pocket change and stuff while Rebekah and I rolled the bodies of the dogs and then the goblins off the edge of the island. I wished for myself to be clean again, and I was! I could get used to this. I offered to do the same for Dame Rebekah, and she politely declined. Oh well, no big deal. Faunra came up to me and told me that I should probably hold off on using the abilities until we get a chance to figure out the source of these abilities a bit more. I acknowledged that this was a good idea.

We decided that we should deal with those rat-dogs now, since we had left them before. We went back to the closest door that courtyard area that we had seen when we looked out from the first tower. The rat-dogs were all waiting for us there, so I volunteered to do something stupid. I ran over to a different door to the courtyard, opened it, and ran across the grass, trying to keep from the rat-dogs from biting me while trying to keep myself from stepping in their crap. I was mostly successful, in that I didn't die from them attacking me. And I didn't step in any of it. The problem with my plan was that the rat-dogs are much faster than me, as befits a creature that others ride as a mount. The first two were right on my heels, biting but missing me entirely. Maybe they were just trying to herd me somewhere that they could all team up on me. I could almost see my life flashing before my eyes when I saw the third one leaping towards my face. I saw the brick smash into its neck and the thing was flying limp through the air. I dodged very ungracefully as it passed. The two that were on my tail got quickly out of the way, but one of them veered straight into an oncoming arrow courtesy of Dame Rebekah. Faunra took out another one with a pair of well-placed obsidian arrows. It might just be me, but I would swear that her bow looks different now. I never noticed that it changed, I wonder when it did.

That left me contending with one rat-dog, a much fairer fight. I wheeled around with my machete and slashed the diseased skin of the rat-dog. I was pretty sure that I would have to clean and oil the blade after combat in this place. Incidentally, Jonathan actually missed for once, as his ball bearing went into an area where the rat-dog was before I hit it. Maybe he was planning for my lack of luck? Dame Rebekah apparently was able to correct her swing and bring it down on the rat-dog and end the conflict. Again, we drug the bodies out to the cliff and dropped them over to the side. This time, we all helped, since there was no one to mug.

We looked at an outbuilding that was boarded up with two dead goblins in front of it. Jonathan listened at the door, and told that he heard something big inside. Everyone got ready and I opened the door. I was rudely shoved back and knocked out for a minute. When I came to, Jonathan was standing over me. He told me that he had determined that I was fine and that they should just wait for me to come out of it. I looked up and there was a Large Stallion standing in the courtyard. Dame Rebekah was giving it straw. Faunra was standing off to the side. I stood up groggily, hoping that I wasn't unconscious for too long.

Apparently Dame Rebekah has made a pronouncement that we will not be leaving this horse here when we leave. I agreed and told her that as long as we can get it over the chasm, I would be fine with getting it back to the town and away from these goblins. She was a bit perplexed for a minute and then realized what I was saying. With a voice of authority, she told me that we would be helping her. I told her of course, but asked if we could wait until we were certain the area was safe before jumping into constructing a windlass crane?

We (Jonathan) noticed that there was a door behind us, and a door across the Courtyard beyond the storage shed. We carefully went to the first door, opened it up, and found what looked to be a very poorly maintained rabbit hutch with dozens of rabbits. I asked everyone what they thought we should do with them? I told them that being food for goblins was bad enough that I thought that we should just release them. Faunra said that they might cause too many problems with the local environment. Jonathan countered that they had to be poached from the environment, so would going back be better. Dame Rebekah thought that we should just ask Shalelu her opinion when everything was done.

I agreed with that, as did Faunra and Jonathan. We tabled the matter for now and decided to check out the door at the far end of the courtyard. It entered into a short, narrow hallway, with a door near the end. We got to that door and opened it. Another hallway. This time with two doors. The door back to the south led to a small room without anyone in it. There was also little in the way of furniture, it looked like a goblin meeting room. Deciding to leave this room, because it didn't hold anything of interest, we went back into the second hallway and went across to find, yet another hallway. With two western facing doors. The first western facing door led to a foul smelling privy.

We were about to leave when Faunra noticed something in the back of the privy. She pointed it out to Jonathan, who promptly found the catch for a secret door. Luck wouldn't have it that this was from before the goblins got here, especially since this place looks like it was built by goblins, but it did have a chest. Jonathan had a set of keys that he had lifted from somewhere, but before he could try them Dame Rebekah noted that there might be traps. It is a chest after all. She looked at me. Jonathan looked to me, and Faunra followed suit. I guess they wanted me to check it out, or maybe it was because I started snickering about traps and chests. I spent a LOT of time on the 'net back when I was on my home-world. I think I'm going to abbreviate that as ITRW, just to make it easier for me.

I went over reluctantly and started giving the chest a once-over. I just barely noticed the filthy scythe blade that would come out and slash whoever was in front of it. I didn't want the kind of tetanus shots that would be needed to deal with that. I figured that if I jammed some B4C in the crack, with a little left over glue, that it should hold, which is precisely what I did. And it did. Thankfully. We got the lid opened and took a look inside. We saw something absolutely amazing in the chest, and I am so glad that we didn't destroy the chest. Inside was the perfect dress for Jonathan and Shayliss' wedding. It I almost like it was intended to be this way. There were some other things in there, but a lot of different coinage. Some of these things were obviously stolen from merchants or travelers, unfortunately, a lot of them are likely dead. We might as well use what we can and hope that our killing of these fiends will bring them some form of justice.

We backed out and looked down the other door in this short hallway, and surprise, another hallway. Just kidding, a set of stairs going down. We locked up the door as best we could, and headed back out to the rooms that we had seen earlier when we dealt with those polearm wielding tower goblins. We quickly headed back that way and started to check those rooms out. We got to the first room and unlocked it. It showed what we were really dealing with here.

Sure, there were hunks of meat that I would guess were dogs or horses. But there were hands and faces of people. And not even crunchy hands. These things were basically the psycho midget version of the Hills Have Eyes. I don't know that I even feel sorry for them anymore. I am not ashamed to say that I may have vomited a bit. We locked up the room and calmed down for a bit. Faunra, without even needing to be asked, fired up a prestidigitation and cleaned up all the vomit and viscera that was still on us all. I gave everyone a few of my meal tabs once we got clear of the smell. I think everyone was a little grateful to be smelling something else, and the taste wasn't the worst, at least that is what I am hoping.

The next room we found a whole bunch of goblin sized weapons and armor. I told everyone that we should bring all of this back to Sandpoint and make a statue commemorating the victims of the attacks both in Sandpoint and along this road. Dame Rebekah liked that, as did Faunra. To Jonathan I added, but no mercy to the Goblins or other inhabitants of this rock. He nodded. We went on to the last room before we stopped to get everything together. It was a bedroom fit for a goblin chieftain, or at least what a goblin chieftain would think is suitable. There were various things that were trashed or ripped up and the silk sheets that he had were stained beyond even the repair of magic. Somethings even magic can't fix, I guess. Not that I would have tried with this. Still, Jonathan, as always noticed something shiny under a pillow and grabbed it. It was a Holy Symbol to Lamashtu, Dame Rebekah noted. She told us that since we had arrived in Sandpoint, she had been taking lessons with Chelger in identifying religious material. I remembered that the shrine and Chapel underneath the town were dedicated to Lamashtu. Not a good sign, and certainly not a good coincidence. I fought the urge to burn this whole place down. Jonathan must have been reading my mind, because he came over to me, patted something in his pack, and said, later.

This was where we decided to stop and get our bearings. There was a lot that we needed to clean up before it would be useful. I asked if it would be wiser to head back to Sandpoint but Dame Rebekah noted that we didn't know how deep this went. I thought for a second and agreed. Everything I knew about goblins said that they loved dark deep places, and if we only encountered the first few, we might be leaving this place as a danger to other travelers. I was asked if I needed healing, and noticed that I still had that cut on my face. I asked for some and Jonathan hit me with his fast healing thing. Now I'll have a scar. At least it is a story. I'll finish writing these notes and get ready to head to our next goal. It's almost noon, and we just decided to eat a bit more of those meal tabs and drinking some water before heading down.

There are some things that really do suck about this world. I just feel the need to put that out there. Not everything is beauty and wonder. We've cleared out everything except a final room that looks like a set piece from some unholy combination of Hellraiser and the Black Gate. I suggested that if we lock this room back up, and come back on another day when we are fully ready, it might be the best solution. They asked how we could keep the place safe until then. I told them that we had been the first people in here in a long time, so if we locked everything up behind us and politely asked Shalelu to keep watch over the place, we could just come back tomorrow and deal with what is left.

Faunra didn't like the idea so much, but it was what it was. As it stood, the dust was absolutely think where we had walked, so I guess that we should be able to leave it for a day or two. We also had a pair of prisoners to escort to Sandpoint to be held until we can get them to Magnimar. Apparently the jail in town is only a combination holding cell and drunk tank. It figures, they aren't really designed to deal with people of this caliber. We also have to have a feast, but that's beside the point. I'll start back where I finished before.

We had decided to take the first set of stairs going down that we had found on the top floor, mainly because it was by the location of the chieftain's room, and as such should have the most goblin activity in it. We came down into what looked to be a former goblin dining hall, but was now devoid of tables and chairs. It was clear that it had only been used for passing through for a while. The main problem with the room was that there were six exits to the room, not including the stairs we just came down. It was annoying as all hell. We went to the first door on our left, quietly opened the door to reveal… Another hallway. We were about sick of hallways at this point, so we marked the door with a little "H" in chalk to remind us to come back to it.

We looked at the next door in the clockwise circle of the room. The room was lined with little wooden cages, with piles of straw in them. That wasn't the worst part. There were goblin babies in there. The goblins kept their babies like animals. Questions of Nature versus Nurture go out the window when you treat beings like rabid animals from birth. I asked the rest of the group what we should do. Jonathan had no care what we did with them. Faunra said that she had never heard of a good goblin. Dame Rebekah noted that she had met a goblin that wasn't evil once, back at the Abbey, but even they had acknowledged that they were an aberration. She told us that he didn't mention much about how he was raised, only that his clan had been wiped out while he was young. I asked if anyone knew what would happen to them if we tried to get them to another tribe. Faunra said that if the goblins around here were anything like the goblins she grew up with, then they would probably sacrifice them to some foul demon. Dame Rebekah agreed.

We couldn't come to any consensus on what we should do. I offered that we should ask Shalelu when we talk to her about the rabbits. Everyone agreed with that, for the most part. We would figure out how to get them across the bridge when we figured out how we get the horse across the bridge. We left the room and shut the door, glad to not be thinking about vicious razor toothed green skinned monsters. We opened the next door to see, another hallway. We noted that this one had a turn in it, so at least it didn't lead to another door immediately. We still decided to skip it and try the door right next to it, and go back to it after.

I don't know if we were ready to see what we saw in that room. I don't know if anyone would be ready to see what we saw in that room. Apparently there are things called Bugbears on this world. They are related to goblins in a manner that I guess is similar to how Homo Sapiens are related to Homo neanderthalensis. Able to interbreed and everything, but vastly different in body structure. Well, the main point about bugbears is that they are not the "next size up" goblinoids. He was seven-foot-tall and around four hundred pounds of pure muscle and aggression. Goblins are about three feet tall and between twenty-five to thirty pounds of hostility and violence. Suffice to say that we opened up the door to what could have been the worst possible scene that I could imagine. There were four goblin females sexually cavorting with a bugbear male.

I'm going to ask Faunra later if she knows of any spells that can remove someone's memory. Even if I can only get rid of this fight, it would be good. Jonathan had listened at the door and nodded to us with the implied meaning of get ready to fight. Dame Rebekah threw open the door to show us full detail of the bugbear and the goblins in very compromising positions. Faunra told me later that she had noticed that he was wearing a necklace of elf ears and that was why she acted as quickly as she did. I won't judge her, because it was true. The bugbear was wearing a necklace of elf ears. That was all it was wearing.

Faunra launched all three of her arrows into the thing. They all struck various areas of the chest. For my part, I shot it with my rifle. For all the good that did. I'm still hoping for that mythical "You'll shoot your eye out kid" thing to happen, but my luck is that it would only happen to me. The female goblins leapt off of the bugbear and ran towards our wall of steel, Dame Rebekah. I'm so thankful that she was blocking the sight line of that individual event. One of them even managed to find a gap in the armor to work her shortsword into. One managed to take a swipe at me when I was trying to not notice it, but it glanced off my armor. Jonathan stepped around me and activated his Super Saiyan combat mode to empower his weapon, a kama. He struck down the goblin that had tried to attack me and the one that had hit Dame Rebekah.

The final Goblin female worked her way free of the… situation that she was in the bugbear, and threw a dagger at Faunra, probably trying to show her value to her… lover? It glanced off Faunra's armor and once more I am glad that I could manage to get my group safer. The Bugbear leap to his feet and grabbed a very vicious looking ball and chain. With a bit of psychotic glee, he tried to get through us. As he tried to get past us, Faunra punched him in the face with her spiked gauntleted had. That's fairly new too. I think she got that back in Sandpoint though. For my part, I used what I had in hand in that circumstance, I rifle butted him. It didn't slow him down in the least. But Jonathan, Jonathan was the winning play. His took his enhanced Kama and do the bugbear up a treat. It dropped.

There were only two female goblins remaining, but they proved to be very wily. Faunra stepped back five feet to get a clear shot, and took aim at the other one that had attacked Dame Rebekah previously, and missed with two of her arrows. He telekinetic launched arrow struck true, but the other two just shattered against the wall behind the first. Thankfully, that one arrow was enough. I tried to take a shot at the one that had thrown her dagger at Faunra, and I hit her in the shoulder. Jonathan finished her off with a launched ball bearing. We checked out the room and put all of the deal back into it. We would deal with them all later.

We locked up the room and went to the next door. Another Fucking Hallway. We went back to the second hallway door because why not. At least it didn't end in another door immediately. Nope, it turned a corner and had five doors. We decided on trying on the first door on the right, because why not? Jonathan opened the door to find a man sitting on his bed, in full armor, thinking to himself. He saw the door opening and grabbed his shield and sword. It didn't help him that much. Rebekah charged in and hacked him good with her righteous blade, Jonathan hit him with a launched ball bearing that hit him in the solar plexus but still managed to dent the armor and wound him, Faunra hit him with an arrow that found its way into a crevice and I even got in a pellet from my rifle somehow.

I guess that the barrage was all too much, as he threw down his sword and shield. He dropped to his knees, held his hands up, and said, and I quote, "Fuck it, I give up. I'm not being paid enough for this bullshit." We shut the door behind us and Dame Rebekah stood over him while Jonathan and Faunra removed him of his armor. I re-slung the rifle over my back and pulled out my pistol to help cover him. After we were certain that he wasn't a threat, we slapped a pair of my handcuffs on him, behind his back. I gave Jonathan the spare key. I don't know if I should be worried when his eyes lit up upon seeing the handcuffs.

Orik, as he told us his name, was a down on his luck mercenary who had been hired as a bodyguard. He told us that he was from a city called Riddleport, a home of wizards and alchemists. He told us that he had to split after a con job went wrong, and he ended up having to kill someone who had screwed him over in the deal. The victim's brother wants personal vengeance, and Orik skipped town because of it. Oh and the person that wants him dead is a crime lord. Orik says that one day he might want to head home, but that he knew none of his plans would ever work. He also claimed that he planned on taking over the crime lords criminal empire if he ever succeeded in his goals.

I interrupted him in asking him if it could really be his home anymore. He was a bit confused, so I related to him that I had been from a remote area, and had went off to join a military service. I told him that while I had grown in some ways, that my town had grown in other ways. Ways that I could not change, no matter how I tried. Now I wasn't wanted by someone who wanted to kill me, but I was falsely accused of a crime while I was away from there. Now my name is smeared in a way, even though I could not have done the deed that was claimed of me. I told him that I had decided that sometimes, a place breaks with you and you can't go back again, because both you and the town have changed. I asked him to think it over but to continue with his story for now. Dame Rebekah was looking at me oddly.

Orik continued, and said that his plans had all required money and allies, and that when a strange, beautiful woman came to him offering to hire him as a bodyguard, he accepted. Since then, he added, he has come to realize that this was yet another of his bad decisions. He admitted that he had been helping to plan the future assault on Sandpoint, but that he was regretting it, since he had found the place friendly and charming the one time he visited it. He has been fairly okay with the whole situation, as Nualia pays regularly, and in platinum, and he hasn't had to really do anything in the way of body guarding since we all got here to Thistletop.

I asked him for clarification on what role he played in planning the raids on Sandpoint. He told us that he was mainly asked for pointers on weak points of the town. He told them that he had noticed that there wasn't that much in the way of walls where the river met the town. Dame Rebekah was a bit furious at this, but I asked him if he knew that they were going to send the raid that they did. He shamefully lowered his head and acknowledged that he had been told that it was going to happen, but that he didn't suggest it.

I stayed the hand of Dame Rebekah, who I knew was ready to execute this man, and asked him if he knew anything else that could help us. He told us that his employer was looking for something in the level down below. He didn't care much to find out what she was looking for, as what she had become involved in since getting here is bad enough. He told us about the other workers that Nualia had hired, Tsuto the half-elf that we had dealt with in town, Bruthazmus the bugbear ranger that acted as another bodyguard, and Lyrie, the feisty wizard that had an obsession with Tsuto. He complained that everyone was getting some but him.

I sighed and asked him to try to stick to stuff that would be useful to us. He thought for a minute and told us that he hasn't been around too much of this area, and has mostly stuck to himself. He told us that he doesn't like the Temple of Lamashtu, as the religion gives him the chills. He told us that the temple is guarded by a pair of flying monster dogs that have horrifying howls, but he isn't sure what they are.

Faunra immediately provided other details to him about a monster that she knew of, and they clicked for him. She identified them to us as Yeth Hounds, and that they were hard to kill, but made easier if attacking with silver, and that their howls and bits caused fear in the strongest hearts. We asked him if he was willing to try to help us to not be summarily executed. He immediately agreed to help. I told him to think about this for a second. I told him that as a man, his word was all that he had in this world or the next. He had agreed to serve as a body guard for pay. Was he willing to give up on a job, suffer that hit to his professional reputation, and suffer whatever punishment might await him, just for a chance to not be killed right now? He thought and told us that yes, he realized that the things he was doing right now were not a good way to lead his life. He might not ever be able to go home, and he was starting to realize that, but that he had made some very poor decisions in the past few years and he's seen where they have led him.

We kept him locked up with Jonathan guarding him. Orik might have thought we left the least defended one to keep him contained, but we actually left the guy who could kill him the easiest. Dame Rebekah, Faunra, and I stepped out into the hallway to discuss this, quietly. They looked at me and asked if the only reason why I wasn't willing to kill him was because he was human. I told them no, the reasons why I was willing to not kill him were because he surrendered firstly. That makes it a war crime. Secondly, he had been involved in the planning of the attacks, that much is true, but he didn't participate in the attacks. Because of that, he should be tried by a judge, not by us. Especially because this isn't life or death combat anymore. He's a prisoner effectively. If he tries to stab us in the back, I will be the first to unload a bullet into him. I don't have much sympathy for him, because he is a criminal, that killed another criminal. Maybe he can be reformed, maybe not. But we owe it to the families of Sandpoint to be able to confront the ones who engineered this assault on their town, if at all possible.

They asked why I hadn't thought that when it came to Tsuto. I asked them if they remembered me rushing over to him after Faunra's arrow sliced his throat open, only to see that he was dead before he hit the floor. One unlikely hit had taken him out. I told them that if I could have taken him in to be tried, I would have. That is why I was gathering all of the evidence that I could. To assure myself that he was a bad guy and that it was okay that he died. I added that I didn't have a problem with people dying, but that it was best if it was in combat or if they were verifiably evil, and committing or about to commit evil acts, preferably the latter. Dame Rebekah looked at me a bit oddly. Faunra said that she understood my reasoning, and that we could always kill him later if he betrays us. Dame Rebekah relented.

We went back in and explained the situation to Orik. He would help us if we needed, and we would escort him to Sandpoint. We would not appropriate his equipment, but we would expect that he would surrender his equipment to the authorities of Sandpoint to pay for any remuneration that might be required. We would take his potion of healing, so that he could not weasel his way into getting into a position to betray us. We would leave him here handcuffed, but as long as he did not try to escape by the time we got back, we would consider him being compliant. If we came and asked for his help, and he provided it dutifully, we might be persuaded to speak on his behalf to the authorities in Sandpoint, and if necessary Magnimar.

I know that it chafed him, but he agreed to these terms. We told him that we would move his hands to in front of him, but that if I saw that he had tried to damage the hand cuffs when we got back, we would treat it as him not being compliant. He nodded. We redid his handcuffs in front of him and he sat on his bed. He asked if we had dealt with any of the other minions of Nualia already. I told him that he need not worry about Bruthazmus or Tsuto anymore. He nodded.

We left him in his room and looked at the next room in the corridor. It was apparently Tsuto's old room. He had various notes about his plans for the raids on Sandpoint. Apparently it was Nualia pushing for the raid, but that he had always felt that he had been wronged by the town. Something about his father treating him poorly, and sending him to the Turandarok Academy. We gathered up all of his notes to give to firstly Ameiko and then to Belor Hemlock, and closed up the room.

We got to the end door and were confronted by a very well appointed room. There was a fine wooden bed with silk sheets. I yelled dibs! before anyone even understood what I was saying. I told them about the ancient earth custom of yelling the word dibs when you saw something that wanted to place a claim on. Jonathan immediately liked the custom, and Faunra took a shine to it as well. I told them that it was usually for something that had only minor value, that it was something between people who considered themselves friends or close associates. Dame Rebekah relented to the strange new custom I had brought to our group with a slight smile. I told them all that I didn't intend on yelling dibs on anything that was truly useful or valuable to the group or especially another member of the group. That mollified Dame Rebekah a bit more.

We left the room and I marked it with the FEMA symbol for the room's current status and we went to the next room. There was an everburning torch in there, that Jonathan yelled Dibs for. I gladly told him good call. He smiled. There wasn't much in the room aside from that, so we got to the next room. It was apparently Bruthazmus' room. We saw all of his gear here and noted it for later. We went back to Orik's room and told him that we were going to move him to a different room, if he was okay with that. He nodded, and we moved him to the room with bed with the silk sheets. He told us that this was Nualia's room, but that she didn't spend all that much time in it. I noted that I might not want the dibs anymore when I heard that. Everyone laughed. From what I had heard about Nualia, she was down for some strange things, and being a worshiper of the mother of monsters didn't bode well. Orik was a little uncomfortable and I asked what was the last thing he had eaten. He told us that he tried to be fairly careful in only eating the horsemeat or rabbits from up above. I nodded, and gave him a few of the meal tabs I had with me.

He was amazed by the chocolate and strawberry flavors, that he had only had chocolate once before, in a brothel in Riddleport. I showed him that I had a whole bunch of it. I might give him more if he was more helpful. He just nodded and helped up pull in all of the stuff from the other rooms. I told him that we would have to lock him up again, but that even if we failed, he should reconsider his life choices. He accepted that and sat down at a desk in the corner. He told that he remembered that there was a tentacled thing in one of the rooms that we had not looked into yet, but that it had killed a whole bunch of goblins.

We went out of the corridor and back into the first room we were in when we came down the stairs. I chalked up a small FEMA symbol for one inside, safe, and stable on the hallway we just left. We went back to that first hallway that we had seen when we came down the stairs. We got thru the hallway and into the next room. There was a LOT of trash in here, some of which Jonathan recognized from seeing back at Junker's edge. I realized that what they were doing was actually supplying their enemies with the materials they needed to make weapons. I'd talk to the Mayor when we got back. A recycling program would probably be helpful for the town. I'm not a greenie but I've lived by a philosophy of don't shit where you eat. It applies to a lot more than you would think at first.

We got into the next room and saw the tentacled thing that Orik had talked to us about. After we had slain it, Faunra told us that this was called a Tentamort, and that we were lucky to not have been paralyzed by it, because it lays its' eggs in the carcasses of its prey. What we encountered was bad enough. We thought we got the drop on it and three of us launched somewhat successful attacks off on it. Jonathan hit it with a piece of trash from the previous room, I shot it with my puny rifle, and Faunra hit it with two arrows. Then it struck Jonathan with its stinger and tried to grab Rebekah. Rebekah cut the top part of the thing's head off and we all looked to Jonathan. We waited to see if there was anything we needed to do for the poison, but he looked to not be affected. We rolled the thing off the ledge and realized that we could dispose of the other bodies in such a way when we were done with this level.

We continued through the room and found the thing's lair. There was some armor and weapons from the previous goblins that had entered this room, but we decided that we could look through all of this later. We came back around and found that we were in a hallway that was clearly the designated entrance to a chapel to Lamashtu. It had three doors, one of which led back to that first room. We decided to go back through the last door in the first room we had been in only to discover, yet another hallway. We sadly continued down that hallway to find a door to what looked to be an empty prison. I guess whoever they had here had either been sacrificed or taken for food. One door led to a room that looked to be a jailer's chamber. Not much to speak about there. I thought I heard the start of Faunra saying dibs, but I guess I was just hearing things because she was looking very nonchalant when I turned to look at her.

We went back to the prison and Jonathan noted that there was some kind of sound in the room. Silently opened the door and peeked inside. He just as quietly shut to door and whispered dogs to us. We decided to handle them later. We went off to check out that last door in the chapel entrance area. We still had not found the stairs that had led down this way from the back of the courtyard. We crossed the chapel receiving hall to the last door, aside from the chapel itself. We opened the door to the room and re confronted with what we could only describe as Goblin propaganda. It wasn't on any intelligent level, but it was an attempt at being to scale. If this was in any way true, Nualia was seeking to release a thirty-foot-tall goblin demon with snake eyes. I muttered to myself that I definitely didn't want to deal with any Kaiju right now, but it would be my luck.

Faunra perked up and asked me what I knew about Kaiju. I told her that there were legends of Kaiju on my home-world, and that movies had been made about them. I might have one on my spare hard-drive, but that I didn't have the kind of firepower that would be needed to deal with one. She asked me how we could deal with these things if we didn't have magic. I told her brute force and very advanced weapons. The things I had with me were not very advanced at all. They were basically in the same form for almost seventy-five years, with only minor improvements. She looked at me oddly, so I told her about how they had weapons that continually fired bullets like my pistol's but much larger. And that there were weapons that harnessed light or sound to damage things, all without magic. I told her that we should talk about it later, but for now we really needed to stop Nualia from releasing this thing.

Dame Rebekah agreed and we got ready to storm through the door leaving this room. I almost think that it would be more surprising if there wasn't a hallway on the other side of a door anymore. I mean any good architect will tell you that hallways are basically wasted space. All they do is serve to keep one room from being right next to another room. The problem is, if you wanted to do that, you should just not connect the two rooms. The only real time where a hallway is useful is when it is being used as a corridor to connect multiple rooms. Even then, you could save space by rearranging the floorplans to accommodate the desired function. Maybe there's some aesthetic on this world that says that hallways prevent negative chi from getting into a room, or maybe they never heard of insulating a doorway to keep cold drafts out. I don't know. I can only hope that I can learn to deal with the idiocy.

Jonathan listened at the second door, and noted to us that there was no one on the other side. We opened the door cautiously and all huddled into the room. It looked like a place where Nualia would muster her underlings and update them on the plans. I whipped out my phone and took some pictures. It was easier to just have something to show, rather than to try to explain. It looked like Nualia referred to what was trapped in this island as the Whispering Beast. No one knew what it was. We finally saw the second set of stairs heading up. Glad to know where we were. There was another door ahead of us, that Jonathan went to take a listen to.

He noted to us that it sounds like is one person, who is talking to themselves. They do not seem to be expecting the door to be busted down. Never let it be said that we bow to expectations. We rushed through the door and Faunra, quick as a whip, hit her with a vicious arrow from her bow. The second one glanced off of some invisible force field, but the telekinetically launched one found a gap. This dropped her, much like she had done the same for Tsuto. Jonathan took a step forward and swung at her familiar twice with his Kama, the one he enhanced with telekinetic fury, missing the first time. I took aim with my rifle, hoping for the best, and managed to strike the cat and knock it out. I asked if there was much good in keeping the familiar of a wizard alive after the wizard's death. Faunra told me that it would always seek revenge. It met my Cold Steel a few seconds later.

Me and Jonathan looked around the room while Faunra and Dame Rebekah rolled the corpse for cash. I mean this person had been involved in planning the Raid on Sandpoint, and they were actively trying to research a way to release a Goblin Kaiju to further destroy the town. Probably to raise some demon goddess or something. Isn't that the kind of circuitous thinking that demon cults follow? There were a set of stairs heading down, so we shut the door and asked ourselves what we should do. We decided to dump all of the bodies we could off the edge and have another talk with Orik. Then we would decide what we would do between trying the otherworldly demon dogs or the demon priestess.

We got everything from the bodies that we needed to, and pushed them all off the edge. It was helped greatly by fact that Jonathan had developed a new ability. The ability to haul large amounts of weight telekinetically, at a distance. This was quite possibly the biggest advancement that I could think of. His previous limit was ten pounds. Now he could lift four hundred pounds easy. We still needed to lop the head off of Bruthazmus to fit under his weight limit, but the clean-up was so much easier now. We got everything dealt with and collected. We also made sure to hide any signs that there were battles where we were. We went back to Nualia's room and brought everything with us. He saw Lyrie's dress and looked a bit sad. He told us that there now was definitely nothing holding him to this place anymore.

I thanked him for his honesty, and asked him if he could tell us more about the Temple. He told us that the Yes Hounds, Faunra corrected him Yeth Hounds, were gifts from Nualia's goddess. She had been given three of them and one of them stayed with her at all times. I asked the room if anyone knew if the hounds could communicate intelligent ideas with each other. Faunra told me that the hounds were at least as intelligent as stupid human children. I chose not to take offense to that, and asked her if it was likely that the two would come if the third called. She said that it was likely, so I pushed for us to deal with the Temple first. My reasoning was that if we got lucky, we could take them out before they could tell the rest of the complex that we were here. If not, then at least they wouldn't show up behind us when we were in a pitched battle.

Dame Rebekah thought that this was a good idea, but that we needed to be able to hit them from different angles. I suggested that we break into two groups. Me and Jonathan in separate groups, because neither of us needed both hands to shoot, if needed. Dame Rebekah told me that I should use my secret weapon, but it would invalidate the chance of us being able to attack them fairly silently. We were puzzling it for a minute after that, because we really needed two sets of attacks on either one to try to make sure that they were down. Orik stood up from his chair and said that he would be on one team, if we wanted to use him. He said that he has had some time to think about things, since we left him in here. He does want to help us, even if it doesn't help him, because the people of Sandpoint had never done anything to hurt him, and his goal for gold kept him from seeing that. I looked to the others and told them that it would be best for him to be grouped with Jonathan. They asked why, and I pointed out that Jonathan had the most experience with my technology. He could be listening to his radio on one side, and me give the call on the other. I pointed out that both Faunra and Dame Rebekah had learned a bit about not being in the other's firing lines, while Orik had never worked with the other before.

They all accepted this and I took the handcuffs off of Orik. He rubbed his wrists and told me that he had never had a pair of manacles on him quite like that. I told him that the watchmen from where I was from used them, but that everyone could buy them. He understood that and went to pick up his bow. Dame Rebekah asked if he was going to put on his armor, and he said no. He intended to come back to this room after dealing with the two hounds, if we allowed him. He had some things to write out. I told him that I'd understand that, but that he shouldn't do anything rash. He said that he was just trying to write out an apology. I wished him all the best for that.

So it was that we lined up at the temple. Dame Rebekah had enchanted a bunch of arrows and split them between Orik's, Faunra's and herself. She also enchanted my rifle, her own sword, and Jonathan's Kama. They were all enchanted to be weapons that cut through the protections of evil. Dame Rebekah, Faunra, and myself at one door, with Jonathan and Orik at another. We hit the doors at the same time, with Dame Rebekah hitting the one in the South corner with a solid hit. Faunra followed up with an arrow straight through the eye of that southern dog. She wheeled around quick and hit the other dog just as Jonathan's silver coin hit it. Orik dropped the thing with a mighty hit. He nodded to us and we escorted him back to the room. I asked if we could trust him to stay in the room. He said that he would not try to flee. I shut the door behind him but didn't handcuff him again.

I had not heard any howls anywhere in the facility, so I hoped that they had not had another method of communication. I wouldn't guess that we could get through all of this dungeon without tipping someone off. Damn, did I use the word dungeon? I guess I am beginning to fit it. Oh well, I guess that I am adapting to meet my new environment. All I can hope for I guess. We had decided that we would deal with destroying the temple after we dealt with the lower level. We got set back up and went to the only set of stairs going down. It wasn't much of a choice, but at least we knew it would be the only way down or up. I can say that we were expecting to be confronted immediately when we got down the stairs. Nope.

When we saw the room at the foot of the stairs we were a bit taken aback. The floor was on a distinct slant. It made no sense to engineer a floor like that without it being an industrial abattoir, and I couldn't see any drains in the downward side. We decided to stay towards the highest end of the room anyway.

The door we saw was fairly well damaged with chisel and hammer marks. Only scattered gems and crowns remained of the design that was on the door previously. We went through the door and saw something that settled a verdict in my mind. The next room had a set of alcoves with statues in them. The statues were of a man holding a book and a glaive. Quicker than I thought possible, I saw an arrow fly through the air and strike the face of one of the statues. Faunra was seething. I looked around the room quick and saw that there were no monsters that I could notice, so I asked her what the issue was.

Faunra told me that this was the Runelord that had cursed her people to disappear and make it look deserted. She told us that this bastard, her words, had sent an underling demanding ten test subjects a year for his experimentation. Her village refused, and geared for war, but war never happened. It was years later when she had left the village to talk to a mephit that he struck, and destroyed her village and everyone in it. I told her that I would have no problem in joining with her to hunt down this person, but we have to deal with this Goblin Kaiju first. She acknowledged that and said that she would try to keep her temper in check. I thanked her.

We went to leave that room and we came across a suspiciously cleaned section of hallway with a glaive wielding statue in an alcove on either side. Jonathan looked at me with a look as if to say, come on, really? I inspected the obvious trap and found that it was a sequence of events. First you would likely be trapped by falling portcullises on either side. Then it looked like the glaives would come down and slash you to bits. Then everything that remained would be deposited in a pit trap, to trap whatever remained until someone came along to finish the job I guess. This was easy enough to bypass by just jumping over, but Jonathan had another idea. He asked to borrow Dame Rebekah's shield. She accepted set it on the ground. I saw the shield wobble slightly, and then he asked me to sit on it. I did. He telekinetically lifted me up and over the trap and dropped me off on the other side. He took the shield back and had Faunra do the same. Next came Dame Rebekah, and finally he, himself. I asked him why he didn't just levitate himself, and he said he couldn't for some reason, but that he would work on it. He said that if he really needed to, he'd just concentrate on a harness and use that. I nodded.

Before we headed into the next room, I realized the quarters were getting much too cramped for my rifle to be in play. I asked everyone's permission to swap out from my rifle to my pistol. Dame Rebekah asked why I was asking, and I held out my hand with the earplugs. She got the message. Everyone took a set of earplugs, and walked everyone through the process. I made sure that I checked everyone before heading in. I didn't need to damage someone's hearing in the middle of combat. I did a once over check to see if everyone was ready, they were. Dame Rebekah prayed for protection from Evil for me of all people and blessed her sword with a righteous flame sprouting from it. Jonathan spent a round looking over everyone and then did his Super Saiyan focus. Faunra cast a spell temporarily enchanting my pistol and another focusing her aim to ensure the best capability of hitting. I pushed open the door just as soon as Dame Rebekah's sword burst into flames, Jonathan's Super Saiyan stance completed, and Faunra's Aiming spell completed.

We were face to face with one of the most beautiful creatures I had ever seen. Except for the horrifically scarred stomach, and the demonic arm, and the armor that looks like it belongs in an anime. I mean, bare midriff? That's just stupid. I had the drop on her, I guess, so I fired my pistol, and hit her in the gut. No doubt there. Faunra hit her with a pair of arrows, both to the stomach as well. When someone gives you a target, you take it. Jonathan jumped the five feet to be next to her to hit her with two enhanced strikes from his kama. Rebekah ran in and ran her through with her longsword, the wound self-cauterizing.

I only have a moderate level of knowledge in medical procedures, but I could swear that the angle of the stabbing could have cauterized the areas that would be needed to get pregnant. I don't know that it was intentional, but I can't say that it wasn't. Nualia fell down, unconscious, and her Yeth hound leapt at Dame Rebekah. It missed. It didn't live to regret its mistake. Not with Jonathan's vicious blasts and Faunra's silver tipped arrows. I checked Nualia and was somewhat relieved that she was stable.

We breathed a sigh of relief, and I got the ear plugs back from everyone. We looked around and found that there was no one else in this room, so we took stock of what was around. A couple of burning skulls, a few well cushioned chairs, some old books, scrolls, teeth, bones, scrimshaw artwork, jars of deformed creatures soaking in brine, taxidermied animals and limbs, and other oddities. Dame Rebekah took a look at everything and said it was likely all related to the religious practices of the Lamashtu faith. I sighed. I didn't burn books, and scrolls would fall into that category, but the teeth, bones, artwork, and so on, I couldn't support keeping intact. I gathered up the books and what not, and told the others to do what they should with everything else. Nualia's notes were also there, and I gathered them as well. I left the room to go back into the hallway, and heard some smashing behind me.

After a few minutes, everyone else came out and I assumed that the room was beyond trashed. All of the magical effects had worn off by then. I was looking at all of them and suggested that we finish up our investigation of this layer, to make sure that nothing remained for us to worry about. We went across the corridor to find… another Hallway. It led to room with six alcoves in it. We entered into the room and three black shadows poured out of some of the sarcophagi that were in the alcoves. We promptly ran out of the room and regrouped.

Faunra mentioned that she had some experience fighting these kinds of things, so we opened the door and let her fire away. Jonathan took some pot-shots with his ball bearings, but me and Dame Rebekah stood in the back, because we wanted to be sure no one snuck up on us, and we couldn't do anything against the things anyway. Faunra was still the MVP here, as she just kept pelting them in some ways that just didn't make sense but still managed to hit and dissipate the undead horrors. Dame Rebekah identified them as shadows, remnants of those who die horribly. If one of use was to be killed by one of them, we would have risen as a shadow after that. I shuddered.

We walked through the room and Jonathan found a secret door in the side. He opened it up and we found another hallway, that branched off into two different sets of stairs. We took the first set and found a room behind a door. We came to a room that looked to formerly be a treasury, before nature took its course. There were carvings of a mountain with a stone face on it, and a beautiful city beneath it. We looked down into the depths and saw items ravaged by time. There were some things that could be recovered, including a large gold helmet. Then the helmet started to turn to face us. Jonathan noted that he could see that it was a giant hermit crab, and that if we killed it, he could make a great crab dinner for Sandpoint. That was enough motivation for us. We poured in arrows, pellets and ball bearings until it was good and dead. Jonathan gathered up as much treasure as he could and we got everything upstairs.

Jonathan parted out the crab right then and there, and ended up with a good two hundred or so pounds of edible flesh. He got it in bags, and got all of the gold and treasure in the helmet. He levitated the thing in front of us and we went back up through the crypt to the L shaped hallway. It ended in a pillar of gold coins. Jonathan immediately noticed that it looked like the pillar should slide down into the floor. He also found two locations for coins to be inserted. We did so, and the pillar lowered into the hollow beneath it. It was a room three sets of double doors, North, East, and South. We decided to try the North because Jonathan heard a voice speaking. We came in fully ready to fuck some shit up just to see a repeating hologram. Faunra still put an arrow through its head. She told us that this is Karzoug, and translated his final words for us, "…is upon us, but I command you remain. Witness my power, how Alaznist's petty wrath is but a flash compared to my strength. Take my final work to your graves, and let its memory be the last thing you…". Alaznist is the one that the statue is of that Faunra is currently defacing in the Catacombs. Karzoug is of course, the one that sentenced her people to be Thanos'd. I don't think I'll tell her about that little bit of info. We don't need to try to create the infinity stones here. Or the infinity gauntlet. Or both. Especially since I would make a piss-poor version of Star Lord.

We decided that this room was safe enough to be left alone. We went to the Eastern door, and found a set piece from the movie Hostel. We grabbed all of the surgical tools, because if anything, maybe Hannah could use them. She seems the sort to be the actual practicing surgeon in town. Being able to heal someone up after the fact just reduces the recovery time. There was an odd star shaped thing that Faunra picked up. Maybe she knows what it is?

That was when we went to the last door. Faunra opened the door and was about to step in when Jonathan noted that he heard something in there. Heard, not saw. We heard some laughter and all suddenly felt all hope escape us. Faunra quickly shut the door and lock it. We knew that we were not ready for this. We decided to head back up to Orik's room and figure out what to do. We took Nualia along with us. Before we did though, while she was unconscious, Faunra and Dame Rebekah divested her of all her items, save garments that we made from Tsuto's sheets (she apparently wore next to nothing underneath the armor, the monster). She was handcuffed behind her back, a gag placed over her mouth, and her eyes were blindfolded.

I even sacrificed a set of ear plugs for her ears. She'd have trouble seeing, hearing, speaking, or moving her fingers. We gathered everything we could, including the bed that she had apparently rarely used, and got everything back to the other side of the bridge. I removed my paracord and we tore down the bridge. That might make it a little more difficult to get over there for at least a day or so until we get back. We called over the radio to see if Shalelu could hear us. She responded back that she could. We asked her if she was anywhere near Thistletop. She responded that she was about two hours away. I asked if she was back in Sandpoint. She told us that she was. I asked her if she could pick up Dame Rebekah's wagon and horse, and to bring them along the Lost Coast Road to Thistletop. We would try to make our way to the road in the meantime.

We got everything to the road and are waiting for Shalelu and the wagon. I decided to fill in my journal while we wait so that I'd have less to do tonight. I think I hear her now. Time to save and get stuff set up.

Well, we made it back to town somewhat triumphant. Shalelu had shown up with the wagon right when I stopped writing, so yay! me. She saw the veritable hoard that we had, and asked if we were starting a shop. I laughed and Dame Rebekah said that we had other reasons for asking her to come here than just bringing our wagon to us. She asked me to explain. I sighed. The first thing I did was have tell her that we had good news and bad news. I would tell her the bad news first, but then Faunra, perking up at the mention of her name, would tell her the good news. Shalelu told me to go on.

I told her, the first thing is fairly simple. I pointed out the hutch or rabbits, and told her that they were being kept as a food source for the goblins, and asked if she thought that there would be problems just releasing them into the wild here? So thought about for about ten seconds before saying no. I thanked her, and pointed out our second problem, the other cages. I asked her if she knew what we should do with the Goblin Babies in those cages. I told her that as a group, we had decided to fall to her experience on what to do, because we couldn't decide. She said that it is hard to decide to kill something that hasn't done anything negative, but that it was difficult for a goblin to break the mold. She said that we should take them back to Sandpoint and have the town decide. I thanked her and told her that we had two prisoners to go back as well. She nodded to that, seeing the tied up form of Nualia, and the only handcuffed form of Orik.

Shalelu nodded and asked if that was all of it. I noted that no. We had one more thing. I told her of the evil thing in the chamber that we had not faced. I told her that we had locked the chamber, every door, and taken down the bridge. I asked her if she thought that we had a little while to get things in order before heading back. She told us that we had a week at best before goblins tried to move in. Locking all the doors adds a day or two, but removing the bridge adds a week or two before a goblin gets across successfully. I thanked her for her assessment. I gave the floor over to Faunra.

Faunra presented her with the necklace of ears, the heavy flail, and the head of Bruthazmus. Shalelu told her that they had fought to a standstill several times in the past and she was glad that he was dead. Shalelu told Faunra that they could hold a ceremony tonight in the forests outside of Sandpoint to bury the ears. Shalelu told her that they could have a wake for them after. I asked if there was anything she would need from us for it. She looked at me oddly. Apparently she had been speaking in Elvish that whole time. Shalelu knew that Dame Rebekah and Jonathan both spoke Elvish, but she didn't expect me to. I was shocked how well I understood it. She replied back, in Elvish, that it would be an elf thing. I told her that I was sorry for intruding and hoped it went well. Shalelu nodded.

We got everything and everyone loaded up. We checked on Nualia and she was still stable. I know that being unconscious for a long period of time can be a bad thing, but I don't think we had a way to keep her contained, at least before we got her into a cell. Orik was there watching her and the goblin babies in the back. He might actually be redeemable, who knows?

We made our way to town and were greeted by the town guard. They stopped us and asked to inspect our belongings. I thanked them and made a call over the radio to the Mayor. I told her that we were her, and asked if she and the Sheriff could come to the gate, that we didn't want to come into the town until we got a few things sorted out. It took a few minutes for the Mayor to get there, and a few more for the Sheriff. He looked a little disheveled. I didn't bring it up.

I was voluntold by the rest of the group to be the unofficial spokesman. I started to tell Mayor Deverin and Sheriff Hemlock about Thistletop, the Goblin village outside of it, how it has been made into a goblin fort, about Jabberjaw the bunyip, and how they shouldn't be bothered by it for at least a few months. I told of how several merchants and travelers must have died to that group of goblins, that we destroyed the group, but that there were other, more unsettling things that would have to be discussed and dealt with. Mayor Deverin nodded and asked if we should discuss these things more in private. I brought both the Sheriff and the Mayor in for a quiet huddle. I dropped the bombshell that we had two prisoners and that we wanted to get them into the jail without them dying, and we had five goblin babies that we didn't know what to do with.

They both looked to each other and nodded. Sheriff Hemlock went to his town guards that were stationed at the gate, and they rushed off ahead of us. Shalelu followed along with us into the town. We all went to the Sandpoint jail and requisitioned seven cells. Well, two cells and what looked to be a series of a large dog kennels. The babies were each put in a kennel, which looked to be larger than their cages, but small enough to keep them from getting out. Orik helped us get Nualia into a cell and Hemlock replaced my handcuffs on her with a specialized set of caster restraints, that restricted the hand movements. I told him that I'd have to look at getting a set of those in the future. He told me that he picked them up in Magnimar when he went to get reinforcements. Pug's contraptions, he told me with a smile. He whispered that he had been worried when I was talking about a necromancer, and thought it practical.

I smiled, and Orik walked into his own cell. I took the hand cuffs off him, and told him that I would explain everything to the Sheriff and the Mayor. We left them to be there and left our wagon inside the loading dock for now. Hemlock had the guards watch our stuff. When the group was all up in a secure meeting room, with a few things for snacks, including a fondue set, much to my surprise and amusement, we started talking. Shalelu had puzzled out one of the wands that we had gotten from the goblins to be a wand of silent Image. It helped greatly. She used it to make the images that I had captured on my phone to be much larger. I could make the size of the pictures up to eight times larger if I made one of those DIY projectors, but this was so much easier and quicker.

I told them the full details of our expedition to Thistletop. How we slew a goblin tribe outside of Thistletop and how we got across. I gave them a full, accurate tally of how many goblins were there and I brought up to Mayor Deverin how the goblins were using the scraps and trash that the town throws over Junker's edge to build their weapons and armor. The mayor nodded gravely, and said that she feared that this was happening. I showed the picture of the rubbish pile and she recognized something that had been thrown out of the Town Hall a few weeks ago. She asked if we had any recommendations.

I told her that on my home-world, we had people who had made a living out of finding things that could be broken or melted down to be reused. I told them that we had composting of organic materials, we crushed up glass for it to be reused, and even melted down the metals for them to be recast. She nodded to all of this. I told her that I could give the town council a brief on it, if she wanted. She shook her head, and saying that if this was a cheap expenditure, then she would take the risk and authorize the outlay herself. I told her that I would work some plans up for her, and we continued on.

We showed the Sheriff and the Mayor all of Tsuto's and Nualia's notes. I told them that Thistletop was apparently on top of an old Thassilonian ruin that contained a bound extraplanar entity. A type of Barghast, Faunra added, was the most likely thing anyway. I continued. We told the Mayor that Nualia was trying to release it in preparation for another raid that would be coming in the next few weeks. I added that I don't know if the raid was stopped, but that we may have taken at least one piece off the chessboard with Nualia. I told them that we had not dealt with the demon, because we were not ready to do that yet. We needed to get better equipment to do that, and the Mayor nodded, saying that they didn't have much in the way of demon slaying equipment here. She recommended that we head to Magnimar.

I told her that we were considering that, but that we had to discuss both of the prisoners. She listened as I continued. I told her that Nualia was the one who pushed for the raid, who had started the planning, and was going to dedicated the burning of the town to Lamashtu. She was a priestess of the faith, and that she would not stop. I added that she felt a personal betrayal at the town, and that I felt she would keep coming back. She nodded and asked what my recommendation was.

I looked to the group for any thoughts. I told her that on my world, someone would be tried and then if found guilty, punished up to and including execution. Assuming she was found guilty, Nualia had planned to have a whole town murdered, and definitely ordered the raid on Sandpoint. She had ordered the exhumation of her father's body, and made allies with extra-planar entities. The last time we had anything anywhere near this happen, the person killed himself when the police, watch as I explained to Sheriff Hemlock, tried to apprehend them. In fact, that is how it usually goes. Those who go on terroristic rampages try to off themselves before being caught.

I told them that I would recommend that she be tried by a council, that she be given adequate legal representation, and that she be subjected to whatever truth verifying procedures they would need to use to use to ensure veracity of her statements. They said that they would think about that, and asked about the other one.

Dame Rebekah spoke up for Orik, before I could even continue. She told them that he was from a town called Riddleport, that he had been run out of town by a crime lord, and that he was in Magnimar trying to save up money to make his way back home when Nualia hired him as a bodyguard. She added that he served in that capacity mainly, and his addition to the any plans were noting where the town defenses were weak. She continued that he had a crisis of conscious when he learned that the raid had happened, and was planning on leaving once his bodyguard position was done.

She added that he had no connection to the faith of Lamashtu, and even helped slay two of Lamashtu's servants, despite being hired by their owner. She told them that he had asked her to read the following statement.

"I know that I have done bad things. I have made a lot of bad decisions in my time and I only realized that when I saw where they led. Sandpoint was never bad to me, and was quite charming and friendly when I came through the only time I had seen it. I had been told lies by Nualia about how it was a den of villainy when we were planning the raid, but I realized that it wasn't after the attack. I want to say that I can't fully express how sad I am for what has happened. I only hope to find some way to make it up to the town. Thank you for listening to my statement."

The Mayor and the Sheriff were thoughtful about that. I asked if they wanted any advice. The said to go ahead, but that I shouldn't count on it changing their decision. I told them of course and continued. I told them that Orik had been hired to do a job, and he did that job to the extent that he was hired. When he was required to do more for the job, he did so. After doing so, he saw the foulness of his contribution, however small, and wanted to leave. He was bound by his word to stay and finish his job. I told them that I did recommend punishment of some sort, but that I thought he might be able to help the community by doing what he did for Nualia, by pointing out flaws in defenses. The town could use that since they were possibly going to be under the threat of another goblin raid in a few weeks, and he might be very willing to help to assuage his conscious. I added that at the very least, you could confiscate his equipment and give the proceeds to the families of those who lost loved ones during the raid.

They said that they would take that into account. I continued on to the subject of the goblin babies. I told them I had no clue what to do with the goblins. They were so far out of my bailiwick that I could only guess. I told them that on my home-world there were great arguments about whether people's behavior was due to it being their inherent nature, or the way that they were raised. The way that these goblins were being raised throws all of that out the window, as even if they were not evil by nature, by nurture they sure as hell should be. I asked that they could be offered as orphans for adoption, if that was at all feasible. If not, then any kind of culling should at least be merciful. They said that they would think on it. I told them that I wouldn't begrudge them their decision either way.

There was a knock at the door and Sheriff Belor opened it. It was Father Zantus, apparently he had been asked to show up because of his knowledge of faiths. We reprised the issues of the Lamashtu temple, and how there was an extra planar entity trapped in a room. He noted our description, and Faunra's visual representation, coincidentally using the last charge of the wand. She shrugged, and noted that she would get rid of it. I noted that I'd like to take a look at it, later, but continued with our discussions with Father Zantus.

He noted that we should be safe with the thing being kept in the room it is in. He said that he would be willing to send an acolyte with some troops of watch if we felt it was needed to keep the grounds safe. I said that I would certainly feel safer if there was someone watching over Thistletop. I added that in fact, it would probably be a good idea to make it a better jail, to keep those truly unsafe people away from civilization. The room that has the creature locked in might be a good way to keep other things from escaping, who knows?

Sheriff Hemlock nodded to that, and added that it would at least keep goblins from infesting it every time it got cleared out. I noted that it could be a good position for the people that he trusted, but were best away from others, and since it was only a few hours walk, escorting people there wouldn't be the worst. He added that it would also decrease the requirements that Magnimar place upon us. I couldn't help but agree on the principles of self-determination. We wrapped up the meeting and I told Mayor Deverin that I would get the information about the recycle program to her within a day or so. I noted to the group that we should drop off some of the things we had gotten from the goblins as supplies for the town guard. Dame Rebekah agreed with that.

Shalelu and Faunra volunteered to take the mounts, including our new heavy warhorse to Daviren Hosk's stables. I'm also expecting them to take a few other things, since they had a huge sack with them. I gave them the surgical tools that we had found, minus the key of course, and told them to get them to Hannah, that she could probably use them most of anyone in this town. Dame Rebekah was looking over some of the stuff that we had acquired, and I do mean stuff. We got everything back to the Glassworks, and into the building. By the time that everything was unloaded, Faunra and Shalelu were already there.

I asked what we were going to do with all of this stuff. Shalelu said that adventuring parties usually split it up between themselves, as they saw fit. I asked if that was what we were, and everyone except me laughed. I guess this is my life now. I shrugged and asked how they would usually do it. Shalelu said that normally, we would tally up all of the stuff, get the values of everything, and parcel out the things that we could use to the people who could use it. The stuff we couldn't use could go into a pool that we would sell, usually in a larger area, like Magnimar, and be used to buy other things that we needed.

I nodded to that, it seemed logical. I asked if there were any provisions for emergency funds. Shalelu said that she had heard of some groups setting up emergency funds, but that others required the individual members to be able to provide for any emergencies. I asked the group what they thought about it. They all thought that it might be a good idea, but that if one person seems to be more prone to getting aid, that we might have to re-evaluate later. I accepted that, realizing that they were talking about me. I asked what our first step was. Shalelu said that we should probably begin by making sure we knew what everything was.

Faunra and Jonathan had already taken some time to figure out a lot of the stuff. Detect magic helps a lot with that. They separated the magical from the non-magical items, and I went about trying to figure out what things were worth. Surprisingly, I had a fairly good ability at it. I guess the time I spent looking around Rings and Things while Jonathan was on his ring quest had helped with it. I noted that the most expensive item was definitely the gilded helm. I guessed that that could be worth about three thousand gold! Not enough to pay for a trip home, but almost there. Especially with everything else. But there lies the issues. I would be leaving this world to the fate the it has been foretold, and they wouldn't have my help. I asked Dame Rebekah if she had time for a quick discussion. She nodded, and we went off to the break room. I grabbed us a couple of drinks and wished that they were cold for once. Then they were. I needed to remember that I had to be careful with this.

I told Dame Rebekah about my dream, and how I couldn't be certain that it was real, but how I had developed these powers today, after that dream. She told me that it would be better for Father Zantus to talk to me about this, but that it did make her feel a little easier about my new "powers". I called over the radio to ask the Mayor if Father Zantus was still there. She told me that he was just about to leave. I asked her to please ask him if he could drop by the Glassworks, that we had some things to discuss. The Mayor passed the message along and returned with saying that Father Zantus would head right down. I thanked Mayor Deverin again and let the radio down.

Dame Rebekah smiled and asked if I had anything else to talk to her about. I told her that she was a good ally, but that I was worried about my own utility in all of this. She looked at me for a minute and said that she didn't know why I was here, but that the armor alone had helped us so far. She asked what this was really about. I told her that I was still thinking about what my dream meant. I told that I was confused about how I would be able to help more than any other "adventurer" that they might be able to help out with this. She seemed a bit confused, and I told her that Jonathan could hit harder than anything I could ever do, and he could see the traps far better than I could. Faunra was at least as intelligent as me, if not more, and could pick up everything that I could when we came across them. I added that Dame Rebekah herself could find better armor than this in Magnimar, and that it wasn't the be all and end all. Adamantine would prove to be that for her at least. I told her that I was sure that there would be someone who could round out the party better than me, and that I was feeling like I was just a drain on resources. I told her that I basically just opened doors and took pot shots to keep goblins busy at Thistletop, what can I actually do that couldn't be done better by a hireling and another warrior.

Dame Rebekah thought for a minute and asked what I would do if I didn't adventure. I told her that I didn't know. That I didn't think I could go home yet, because I had not found someone who could cast the spells that I needed, that I trusted to not take advantage of my home-world. I continued that I would probably just keep on trying to make the town the best that I could and save up money while reaching out to whomever I could to try to find a safe person. She nodded to all of that and asked if I couldn't work to make Sandpoint better wile adventuring. I told her that of course I could, that most of my time was spent trying to figure out how best to adapt the technologies to this place, and the more that I got to see that this world offered, the better the chances I had to figure out what I could do to rig things to work, and figure out what this place really needed. She said that this seemed to be a sufficient reason to keep adventuring with the rest of them. She told me that she was certain that I would be able to figure out some ways to keep useful. She left to join the rest of the group in the "Loot sorting".

I took another swig of the chilled cider and went back to trying to appraise the various things we got. I found out that Jonathan and Dame Rebekah had worked to get all of the crab meat free of any toxins, and sent word to Ameiko that we would need to set up another feast. Along with a request for any thoughts on what to go with it. The messenger ran off with a smile on his face, because it meant another feast. I surreptitiously radioed the Mayor to let her know that we would be doing something like this again. She asked if it was going to be a weekly thing, and asked if we could do it tomorrow. I asked the group, and Jonathan said that it would be better to be tomorrow, as it might take a while to get soups and everything done up. We had almost one hundred and fifty pounds of crab meat. Maybe we could use something else to go with it. Shalelu hit on that idea and told us that she'd go get us a stag or two, since we were feeding the town. I thanked her and silently thought to myself that we should get her something nice.

Faunra had taken her time figuring out everything and had the magical things sorted into groups. There was magical armor, weapons, some cloaks or capes, and some amulets to go along with our various potions, scrolls, and wands. She noted that we likely wouldn't be bothering with the armors. Because we had better already. I blushed a bit but she told me it was true, and that I should accept the complement. I told them that I'd still work on improving Dame Rebekah's armor, since she could utilize heavy armor better than Faunra or I could. We had been working on who might get what when Father Zantus knocked on the door.

I graciously let him in and asked if he would like something to drink. He thanked me and I went to go get him a chilled cider while he talked a bit with the rest. When I came back, there was some shaking of hands and smiles all around. Apparently, the group had reached an agreement with Father Zantus that he would provide even trade for some of the things we had. For all of the evil items that we recovered, we could get an equal value's worth of magical items to what we surrendered. I thanked him for his generosity, and Dame Rebekah brought forth the two holy symbols of Lamashtu that we had found. He took them and asked if we'd like something specific or if we'd like to start a pool. I suggested that we start a pool, as we might not know what we need right now. The group agreed and Father Zantus said that was wise. He asked if there was anything else. I told him that I'd like to talk to him for a bit if he had time.

Father Zantus said that he'd be glad to talk. We went into the break room while everyone else was working on other things. I briefly reiterated the doctrines of my faith with him, my previous vision and the results of it, and my vision/dream last night and what had happened since. He asked if I was willing to give him a demonstration of what all I could do. I told him that I didn't know what all I could do, but that I could give him an example. I proceeded to show him how I could make things cooler or cleaner, and how I could repair things.

He told me that from what he could tell, it seemed that I could now use the Prestidigitation and the Mending cantrips as spell like abilities. He told me that Faunra could answer better to that, but as to my question about the dream, he told me that his Goddess was the Goddess of Travel but also the Goddess of Dreams. He told me that from what he understood, it sounded like my god had come to talk to me in my vision or dream as it were. He may have also unlocked some power that resided within me, as it wasn't a divine source. He told me that something was a bit important about the wording in the vision.

He brought up the bit about "that I was going to have to figure out my own way to deal with magic if I was to stand a chance." He mentioned that it was very specific as to "deal with magic" and not learn magic, find magic, or stop magic. Father Zantus told me that it seemed like my deity was very specific when it came to wording, and that I should really try to puzzle the meaning out of that before anything else. He said that it might be good for me to talk to a priest of Nethys, but that the only place to talk to one of his worshipers near here was Magnimar. I told him that it was very convenient since we were going to have to head to Magnimar for a variety of reasons. He nodded, noting Nualia's defense.

I asked him if he could tell me anything about what might come to happen with the prisoners. Father Zantus told me that a final decision would have to be reached for both of them, but that our defense of Orik had been a factor in him not being officially charged with anything more than being an accomplice to Nualia. The fact that he was willing to testify helped his case as well. I was glad about that. He told me that he was also going to see to the rehabilitation of the goblin babies, to see if they can be civilized. I thanked him for that as well, and for his time. He was more than happy to have these discussions with me. I escorted him back out to where everyone was and everyone said goodbye to him. I saw Dame Rebekah press something into his hand as he was leaving. He looked at it nodded and left.

Everyone was standing around the various piles, and we were determining who should get what. We decided that the burning skulls and the everburning torches would be best used to light the ways to the catacombs, and everyone agreed. We set them off to the side. I noted that this would be far easier than running electrical lines down the catacomb tunnels. I wondered how much it might cost us to have this cast periodically throughout the tunnels. Dame Rebekah noted that it cost about fifty gold for just the materials. Huh, that put a damper on my plans.

The things that we set aside to figure out what to give to each person were a pair of cloaks and a pair of amulets. Both of the cloaks and one of the amulets provided a slight benefit to resisting effects, be they poison, charms, or fireballs. The last amulet worked to toughen your skin and make you harder to hurt. I thought it was a no brainer that Jonathan should get the last one. Dame Rebekah and Faunra agreed with me. Jonathan took the jade necklace of a turtle and put it on.

The rest was kind of a crap shoot, but I thought that Faunra would probably be the best person to get the other Amulet, especially since it was designed similar to the seven pointed key that she had found and used to unlock and lock again the last door in Thistletop. She accepted it an informed us that it had a secondary effect that it could be used to generate a kind of field that mitigated a little bit of damage every day. I told her that it was a good thing for her to have, since she was more limited in armor choices than Dame Rebekah or apparently myself.

That left the two "cloaks" one of them had been sized for a goblin and the other was cut correctly for a woman of Dame Rebekah's stature. I believe that it was obvious even to me that I was going to end up with the goblin one. I figured that I would do my best to remove it of any lice, bugs, or stains. Maybe I can modify it to be a part of a larger jacket or something, so that it isn't just a quarter cape. I wished that I could use some of my prestidigitation ability to kill anything that might be living on it and heard some slightly audible pops and zaps coming from the cloak. I wished that it was clean and the brown became a brilliant white. I don't know if I really appreciate the brightness of it, but maybe it can be recolored magically. I went to drape this quarter cape around my shoulders and it resized and extended itself to be full length with a gold embroidered edge. I'm glad that I look fabulous now.

Dame Rebekah announced that she was trading in her bow to get the one from Bruthazmus, which we all agreed was a good idea. Anything that helps our accuracy is a good idea. She also noted that she had passed the gold holy symbol of Sarenrae to Father Zantus to give to Naffer Vosk. I looked at everyone and said that I was fully on board with that. Everyone else agreed. I said that as long as we are doing that, I feel like I have to give something to someone. They all accepted, and I told them that I would be back, grabbed the blue silk dress and ran to Ven's Grocery Store. Ven barely saw me as I asked him where Shayliss was. He told me that she was dealing with the stock in the back, and I rushed down with the dress. Thankfully, she was dealing with the stock, and I yelled to her, telling her that I had found her dress. Something blue! She looked at it and nearly fainted. It was clearly very valuable. I told her that if she was to be wedded on the same stage as Cyrdak and Jaspar then she should have an impressive attire. She noted that my new cloak looked very impressive. I told her that it as a new acquisition and that I didn't have long before other mischief was managed by my group.

I ran back to the group without anything else being said between me and Ven. I wasn't there long enough to do anything untoward, so basically I guess he thinks that I honestly delivering something for her. There were some smiles on the faces of the rest of the group, but I couldn't place what else was missing. Apparently, Jonathan had taken off directly after me and delivered something to some other people, but they wouldn't tell me, other than to say that Daviren Hosk got the crown to go with Ripnugget's head. I said that this wasn't the worst thing and that this might help him get a little closure. They nodded solemnly to this and managed to keep their faces straight for a whole minute before busting out laughing. They told me that Jonathan had delivered a lot more stuff in the amount of time that it had taken me.

I apologized for my slow speed, and just left it at that. We went back to the piles of loot, and split out the coins and other goods as we could. I felt really bad that Faunra wasn't getting much because the item that she had gotten was really valuable. She assuaged me of this when she noted that this was a tool of her enemy, and she would rather know the tool of her enemy rather than one of her allies. I thanked her for her sentiment. She did mention that she was going to requisition the elf-bane arrow that Bruthazmus had to destroy at the remembrance tonight. I thanked her for telling me, but that I had hoped that she would do something positive with them.

There was a knock at the door, and we looked to see who it was. It was Savah, having just closed up shop. She ran over and hugged me before noticing the new scar on my face. She asked me how I got it, and Jonathan told her that I got it bravely fighting one of the Goblin chief's guard, protecting Faunra from getting attacked so that she could rain down terror upon the court. Savah's eyes lit up with that, and I told him to shush, that he was making it sound a lot more heroic that it actually was. Savah didn't pay what I said any mind. She was back to hanging on my side like this morning. I feel bad to say that it felt good. Savah asked me what my plans were for a helmet. I told her that I would try to think of something, but that I didn't know how good it would be. Savah told me that she was sure it would be great, and that she'd be there to help me.

Savah added that she just remembered, she had Jonathan's split from the sale of the dagger and the longsword in Magnimar. She produced a bag with a close to five pounds in coins in it. She noted that they were mostly platinum, but there was some gold thrown in there. She asked what he might plan to do with it. He said that he was going to be looking for something to help keep himself defended. She accepted that. Not everyone can wear armor after all. She asked if we had any plans for the upcoming weekend? I told her that we were going to have to head to Magnimar sometime in the near future, to offload a bunch of stuff and see if they might have some things that we needed before… I trailed off.

Savah asked before what, worriedly. Dame Rebekah continued for me, telling her that we were going to be getting supplies to kill a demon that was contained at Thistletop. She looked a lot more relieved for some reason. I think that she might have been thinking that I was heading back home already. I had not told her about the dream that I had the night before, or what it might mean for my stay on this world. I didn't want to raise her hopes or ruin them abruptly. I just wanted to be able to think about it for a good minute for myself and what it means to me before bringing anyone else into the turmoil.

Savah went back to the topic of us going to Magnimar. She asked if she could tag along with us for the trip to Magnimar. I told her that we were looking at leaving tomorrow after the feast and she told us that she wouldn't have any problems with that. Faunra told her that she should definitely come with us, Dame Rebekah agreed. I told her that I'd be glad to have her come with us. I realized that I had never asked how far it was to Magnimar, so I asked the group. Savah said about a day and a half travel by horse, or about fifty-five miles. I couldn't resist the urge to face-palm.

Everyone was a bit curious about that. I told them that I had left a vehicle that would cover that distance in an hour back home. Savah was a bit incredulous at that, but Dame Rebekah backed me up that she had seen it go really fast. I told everyone that I was sorry for my theatrics. Where I was from, it was a daily occurrence for me to drive the distance from here to Magnimar every day to work for ten hours, and then drive back. They asked why someone would do such a thing. I told them that I had chickens back home and that I didn't want to have them and be in a city.

They let me finish before making plans. Savah asked why we just didn't go via ship if we wanted to get there fast. She noted that they could probably get there in a day, especially if they were willing to charter the ship for there and back. I asked if there are sea serpents in the ocean. Savah noted that she had heard of such things. I told her that we would probably be better off just going via land. Dame Rebekah laughed, and I just said that I wouldn't trust my ability to swim when I was in the water with anything wanting to kill me. Jonathan nodded to that. Savah looked up to me and asked, so what are we doing tonight.

Dame Rebekah spoke out and said that she was going to be helping Chelger to iron out some details about the group going to Thistletop to keep an eye on it. Faunra mentioned that she unfortunately already had a commitment. I looked to Jonathan and he told me that he was committed to helping Ven with some things and having dinner with the Vinders. Savah looked at me and said that it looked like it was just us. All of the group got everything packed up for moving it all out tomorrow as quick as possible, and Savah noted that she'd have the store locked up by the time we are all ready to go. One by one, the rest of the group peeled off to go to their commitments, with smiles on their faces. Dame Rebekah was the last one to head out, and mockingly said to us to not wait up. Savah replied back that we likely wouldn't.

I asked Savah what she might like to do. She said that she'd like to get something to eat, preferably at a nice place. I laughed, and asked her where she would like to eat. Savah said that she'd prefer someplace quiet too. I told her that the only places that I had eaten in this town were The White Deer, The Rusty Dragon, The Hagfish, and Cracktooth's Tavern. I added that both The White Deer and The Rusty Dragon could both be considered nice, but that they likely wouldn't be quiet. Savah told me that she'd prefer The White Stag tonight, because The Rusty Dragon would be much more boisterous tonight, now that word will have spread about the newest exploits of the Saviors of Sandpoint. Savah asked me to dress nice for the dinner, and that we should be fine for now, but that having one or two weapons on me wouldn't be that far out of the ordinary.

Savah said that she would meet me there, in about forty-five minutes. I told her that I would meet her there. I told her that I had some things to check out quickly, but it wouldn't take too long. She said that this would be okay, and she kissed me on the cheek and walked off with a sway in her step. I knew that I didn't have long, so I quickly got changed and performed a trick that I had seen Faunra do once before. I focused on wishing that the color would change to be hunter green. It was, with gold embroidery at the edges. Ugh. There were some limits on this. The color was obviously fake, but it wasn't what it was before, which was a bright white. I locked the door quickly and first headed to Vernah's. I didn't have much time, so I looked quickly through the fur section. I picked out a nice mink stole and asked Rynshinn if this one would fit Savah. She told me no, but that this one would, pointing to an arctic fox stole that was soft as could be. It was twelve gold pieces, so I dropped her twenty gold and told her that I might need something later. She wished me luck as I ran out the door with it.

The next place that I ran to was Rovanky Tannery. I asked him if he could do up a second vest in my measurements. He nodded, noted I was in a hurry and said that he would get them from Rynshinn. From there I made a beeline to the Locksmith. He was about to close up for the day, so I offered him double if he would make the mold while I waited and I would come back for it tomorrow. He made a bit more of a fuss, so I dropped him an extra five gold. By now it had been roughly half an hour of running and talking. I guessed that it would take me no more than two minutes to get from where I was to The White Deer. I had one more stop but I had to be the sneakiest about it. I knew that I could take the Northern most roads and get there without too much effort, but I had to get into one store without Savah noticing me.

I made my way to Rings and Things, to look around quick for something. I didn't have time to get anything specifically tailored to the situation, and I didn't want to use the one thing I had prepared for the wedding on this, so I rushed into the door and told him that I was on a mission. I needed a specific item. I settled on a set. A silver necklace with a bluish-clear sapphire and a pair of silver earrings with smaller blue sapphires that matched. It set me back thirty gold but it was worth it. Maver Kesk even threw in a nice ornate greenwood case to house them in until I showed them to her. Maver asked how long he might have to hold on to the other thing. I told him that it would have to be close to Crystalhue, but I would get back to him after we went to Magnimar tomorrow after the feast. His wife Pennae asked what feast.

I told them that we had just slain all of the goblins at Thistletop and we were throwing the people a feast to celebrate. Then we were heading to Magnimar to get some supplies to go back and make sure that it doesn't happen again. She nodded. I thanked them both for their time and Pennae asked if what I was wearing was what I was wearing to dinner. I thanked her for reminding me. I took off the cloak and wished it was back to being brilliant white. It took a try or two, but it succeeded. They looked me over for my attire, and said that I looked a bit disheveled.

I thanked them again, and slowly, from foot to top hat, cleaning and pressing my clothes and making myself clean and well scented. I even styled my hair as best I could with their mirror. I asked their opinion and Pennae said that any lady should be more than happy to be going to dinner with me. Pennae wished me luck, and I thanked them again. I left with a much more relaxed pace. I ended up leaving Rings and Things just in time to see Savah ahead of me on Church street. I was a bit annoyed and impressed, because she was wearing the dress that Lyrie was wearing back at Thistletop. She did fill the dress out well. On her hip was a pearl handled dagger. Another thing that we got from the investigations today. I'm glad that it suits her well.

I walked up beside her and asked her to stop for a minute. She turned to look at me and looked at least a little appreciative of the work put in to the clothes and everything else. This cloak apparently really ties in the rest of the attire. I told her that she shouldn't wear a dress like that without this, draping the arctic stole around her shoulders. She looked at it and I think she liked it. I told her that there was something else missing from her attire, and I pulled out the carved greenwood box. I opened it up and resisted the urge to snap it down on her fingers playfully. She took a look at the contents and back up at me. She asked if this was real. I told her to check for herself. She took the earrings out and put them in her ears. I took the necklace and put it around her neck. I used my prestidigitation to braid her hair in an "updo", to clear the way for the necklace. I got it on her and she held my arm as we finished walking to The White Deer.

We entered the tavern and were greeted at once by Tannsy Viskalai, the Inn owner's wife. She looked at us and she remembered me from the first night we were here. She asked if the rest of the group would be joining us, and I told her that it would just be my lady and me tonight. Savah was speechless. We were escorted to an excellent table right in front of a window. It was fairly obvious that they wanted to show us off. Tannsy asked if there was anything that she could get for us. Savah was fairly speechless, so I asked if they had a bottle of Corentyn Wine. She told me that she would go check. I thanked Tannsy and told her that if she didn't have a bottle, we'd be glad to figure out something else. Savah wasn't saying much as I held her hands above the table. She was just staring at me. To be perfectly fair, I wasn't saying anything either. Tannsy came back with what was probably her last bottle, and I thanked her for it. She asked if we wanted anything else. I asked Savah what she wanted.

Savah told me that it wasn't important, and that I could pick. I accepted that and told Tannsy that we'd both have the Peppercorn Venison, with whatever came with it. I also whispered in her ear that I'd like something special for afters for the both of us if she could arrange it. She said that she'd get our venison steaks in and come back around. Before she left, I asked if she could bring us a small loaf of bread, some olive oil, and some vinegar. She nodded curiously and get our requests set up. Savah asked if she was dreaming. I asked if I still had the scar. She noted that I did, but why would that mean anything. I told her that I certainly didn't want a Goblin almost taking out my eye, so it can't be a dream if I still have it. She smiled for that, and Tannsy brought the bread. I tore it into chunks, and showed Savah the dipping of the bread. I fixed the flavor of the vinegar to be more correct, with my residual prestidigitation magic. It wasn't a four-star restaurant, but it was decent.

Tannsy came back by to ask how we were doing and to ask what the request was. I whispered it too her so that Savah couldn't hear. She said that they could probably do that. I told her thank you, and that we'd like that when we were done with our meals. Tannsy nodded and went to go check on our steaks. Savah looked to be absolutely beaming. Savah finally worked her way through whatever she was thinking about to ask me what the special thing was. I told her it wouldn't be a secret if she knew before it came out. She smiled. Our venison came out shortly after that, and we had to let go to eat. Mine was cooked to just absolute perfection, as I expected. I asked Savah how hers was. She told me it was great. I smiled and she smiled back.

We finished what we could, I had previously warned Savah that she should save some room for the afters. I signaled to Tannsy that we'd like to get these boxed up if possible, for taking with us and we'd like the desert. Tannsy came out with this place's best fabrication of tiramisu, using a strong whiskey for the liquor, and having shredded chocolate over the top. It was one dish, to be split between us. Garridan had come out with it and told us that no one had ever asked for something like this before. He told us that he had tried it and that might make it onto the regular rotation. I thanked him for his ability with all of this and told him that I was glad that I could come back and enjoy a finely cooked meal at his establishment. He smiled for once and went back into the kitchen.

Savah and I took turns feeding each other the desert, and sipping on the Corentyn Wine. By the end of the evening, I was feeling that the night had went exceptionally well. I asked what the bill was, but Tannsy said that Garridan wouldn't dream of charging one of the Saviors of Sandpoint. I laughed and thanked them, but told them that if they didn't give me a price, I was going to have to invent one out of my head. It might be a good deal more than what they would have actually charged. Tannsy stuck to her guns, and I did some light math. I figured that the wine was a certain amount, the Whiskey a bit more, and everything added up wouldn't be more than fifty gold. I left them one hundred gold on the table and we grabbed our three bags and a bottle and left from the establishment. There was an open topped carriage waiting for us. Apparently Tannsy had summoned one when we arrived and they were waiting for us.

Apparently it was already paid for. I still planned on leaving five gold on the seat. Savah was sitting leaning against me, and we were both staring up at the stars. She had her arm wrapped around mine and were just enjoying our time together, relaxing. I asked if I could take a picture with her. She didn't know what I meant to I told her to just stay still for a second. I got my phone out and took a picture of us, together. I showed it to her and she smiled. She rested her head on my shoulder for the rest of the short trip.

We got back to the Glassworks and I unlocked the door. She came in and I barely had time to shut the door before she had leapt on me, kissing me. I made sure that the door was locked behind us and I fell against it. She wasn't stopping and I was failing in stopping her. I heard someone clear their throat. Savah jumped off of me and we turned to see Jonathan staring at us. He looked at the food boxes and said that we should get that to the pantry before we cause a mess. I told him that he had to try this. Savah agreed with me. We all went into the break room and we got out the venison steak. He had some and acknowledged that it was good, but not that mind blowing. I told him that he had to have some wine with it. He agreed and said that it went well together. I told to now try this, showing him the tiramisu adaptation. He took a bit and his eyes opened wide.

He thanked me for this and that he was going to figure out how to perfect this. He said that he wanted this for his wedding. I must have been very drunk, because I told him that I had figured out the something old for Shayliss, for the wedding. Now she needed something borrowed and something new. He shushed me and told me that it was late, that we should get to bed because we were going to have an early morning. I gave it a think and nodded. It was going to be an early day. I went to the new ESR, the former servant's quarters, and started to get changed. Savah was right there alongside of me. It felt good to walk down the path to the bedroom together. We got there and the bed from Thistletop was there, cleaned silk sheets and all.

Savah got into the bed, in her silk sleep outfit, and fell asleep immediately. I was kind of relieved in a way, because there wouldn't be pressure that I would not be able to keep myself from succumbing to tonight. Instead, I watched her sleep and finished up my notes for this day. Here's hoping every day from here on out can be as good of a day as today.