(c) Jack Wood. Reproduced with permission.
An Elf, a Priest, and Some Blue-Blood
Freeday, 7 Coldeven, 576
Progress through the Dreadwood is slow. Too slow. Tried traveling with just Silver, but not a good idea. We’d be picked off by a single monster.
Stayed at the Pickled Wyvern. They actually have one, apparently, in a huge jar. Didn’t order it. Silver made friends with some kind of half-elf musician. Decent skill- actually earned it, looks like, instead of his blood just making it happen. Probably too much of a liability, but seems pleasant enough.
Magic Man at the bar. Enjoying the company of some chick, sounds like both blue-bloods. Really slumming around here.
Also some kind of Bakluni priest. Apparently looking for elves. I hope he finds them.
Starday, 8 Coldeven, 576
Linked up with Hound and his dog. On a quest to recover holy relics, stolen by tall elves on winged beasts. He’s a bit of a puppy, but his heart is in the right place and I have my own reasons for joining a hunt against fae. Maybe I’ll be putting him in danger by coming along, so I’ll have to have a talk with him, but until then we can help each other. Maybe this stolen relic will shed some light of Celene’s endgame, and thus my own fate.
Magic Man is coming along, and at least for now his friend Goldie going to travel with us, at least out of the Dreadwood. Not sure what he can do specifically, but magic has tricks and he’s human. At the very least they can back up Hound if Celene pulls something. Especially since Silver insists on bringing Music Man along.
Also- desperately need more training. Got ambushed outside the tavern and went down to a couple kobolds. Hound got me back up, but I just couldn’t nail the buggers. This cannot stand. Music man earned his place though. I guess talent with a bow really is an elvish thing. He took down three of the kobolds himself, one shot each. Seems decent enough, all I can do is pray he won’t be turned against us.
Potential Job
Sunday, Coldeven 9, 576
Potential job lined up. Goldie has a ‘friend’ who worked for her dad, long time ago. Still knows him, he wanted to talk to her. Works for a blue blood in Anglar.
We were planning to set out in the morning, but a caravan came through, serious folks. Armored wagons, the whole deal. Silver talked us onto the wagons, so we had a pretty luxurious ride out of the Dreadwood. Silver stayed up too late talking with the driver of the wagon.
While registering at the gate of Anglar we learned the friend is dead, one Lionel Drager. Shop burned down, 3 fatalities. Supposedly a demon infestation, but I don’t see no flaming pentagrams. Goldie said her friend apparently didn’t like how his boss was running things, so maybe some bad deals were cut.
Nosed around a bit, found an innkeep that was friends with servant boyfriend. The guard is keeping one of these ‘demons’ in the square on a scaffold, and I’m growing less confident in this story. I’m all for public humiliation, but these mooks didn’t seem to type to be able to hold onto a demon. Squarely in the ‘I learned which end to hold of the sword’ territory. Temple of Pholtus on the square, but the priests didn’t seem all that interested.
Innkeep says that servant boyfriend had exposed his boss’ secret. Dolaman Drake, the boss man, is a local hero for creating a cure to some plague, the ‘summer fever.’ Calls it Emerald Oil, and it’s cheaper than healing potions. According to servant boyfriend the oil is actually made by monsters Drake keeps locked up, with promises that if they make enough he’ll introduce them to the town so they can be friends. Very ‘Blue Oni, Red Oni’ vibes. Anyway, servant boyfriend knows that Drake is lying, and so Drake kills him and plans to whip up a mob of soldiers to go down into the basement and kill these creatures.
We’ll investigate, but this looks like a pretty big payday, and if I get to be the one to gut this liar, I’ll count myself pretty well satisfied. We’ve spent our life savings on emerald oil to get the locals high and happy, so we’ll need that payout.
Met the Huzrael. Just call them Huz, it’s easier. They’re monsters, but from what I can see in body only. Glad we went in on this, they’d be doomed without us, locked in the sewers as they are. The blue bloods and Silver are exploring for other avenues of escape, but I don’t expect much.
I dug around town and took a look at the gates, but the inn looks like the only place to hide these things. Ran into a gnome who’s plugged into the underground, but he was understandably afraid of sheltering demons, and we couldn’t afford his price tag right now even if he was down. Gave him some info, so hopefully we’ll have some of the underground spreading the word on who Drake is. We’ll need all the allies we can get.
The others got a plan together while I was looking around. Gonna try to hide the Huz in the Headless Horse, while Music man runs interference. Then Magic man figures he can get the one in the square free if Silver and Music man keep running interference. Never seen Silver work a crowd that size, but Music man is pretty good. I guess I’ll just stand by and be ready if it comes to blood.
Thus To All Traitors
Sunday, Coldeven 9, 576
No question, Magic Man came in clutch. As much as I’d like to take credit for the beaten animal hanging on the gallows it was really everyone else’s work.
The extraction went off without a hitch. Even the guards were smitten with Music Man, and Magic Man went up, wiggled his fingers, and caught the Huz as he fell from the shackles. I felt just about unnecessary. The Huz with a short fuse that had been watching dropped on Magic Man like a vulture right as we were about to hit the inn from the back alley, but after a moment it (she?) realized that Magic Man had just saved a life, and I got them all in and hidden before Magic Man bled out too much. Hound got him back on his feet, and- credit where it’s due- Magic Man got up like a trooper. Guess not every magic slinger is a coward or a perv.
Anyway, things got pretty loud while we figured out our next move. We grabbed the Huz just in time for Blackheart himself to come riding down the street, and see that someone had snatched his prize right from under his nose. The square cleaned out pretty well, so I floated the idea of getting the Huz sanctuary in the temple, or at least testing the waters. The consensus was that he and I would go, test the waters, and if we got a green light we’d bring a Huz over.
Music Man and Silver kept an eye on the square while Goldie and Hound headed into town to investigate if servant boyfriend had any other allies or evidence. Sounds like they mostly affirmed everything we had heard already, and everyone was pretty smitten with Blackheart, on account of curing the Summer Fever and whatnot.
Temple was accommodating, but we were stuck on the point of how to prove a Huz was a demon or not. I guess the Blinding Light doesn’t blind everything, because it hit me like a rock- Holy Water. That stuff is supposed to be like a flaming cocktail to a demon, and if anyone had some it would be the temple. I did my best Silver impression and managed to get some water for the last of my coin, and took it back to test. As expected, no reaction from the Huz.
Magic Man made one of the cloaks big and we grabbed the short fuse Huz as our example. A couple vials of holy water later, and the temple was convinced. They got the Huz over from the inn all secretively, and we set up outside the temple to wait for Goldie and Hound to get back.
Blackheart Jr. caught on to us hanging around the temple, and recruited me to ‘help with the demons.’ In retrospect I guess he was just trying to spread us out, because he tried a similar trick on Magic Man and Silver.
After that, they sent Music Man to get me back to the temple, to wait for Blackheart’s next move.
I should have seen it coming. I really should have.
Honorless, motherless, scum-sucking animals like him would toss a torch at a church just on principle.
I found some wax in the stall later, so I think they set a candle in there, a genius timer to give their man plenty of time to get away. With the church’s stable ablaze, he had the mob in a frenzy, ready to storm the church for the ‘demons’ inside. I’m honestly not sure what I would have done if they did. The Huz weren’t demons, but their lives in exchange for townspeople? Monsters for men? I can’t really say. I might have tried it, just for the chance to rip it out of Blackheart’s still beating chest. Maybe feed it to him on his way down to the hells.
It didn’t come to that. I heard shouting and didn’t see how it went down exactly, but apparently Music Man and the priestess managed to get the crowd’s attention and break their momentum, and then Silver gave the debate of a lifetime. I finally came out of the temple right when Silver yelled “Lynch him!” and the crowd was on it. I don’t know what those two said, but after today I’d stake my life of Music Man and Silver working any crowd, any day.
Blackheart is still alive, for now, but his lies are out. Goldie got ahold of a master of the Alchemist’s Guild. He talked with the oldest Huz, and he’s completely on our side. The crowd really went at it, I would have been shoving just to get a turn at Blackheart and Blackheart Jr., so I just sat back and enjoyed the screams. Part of me hopes he’s confess to everything in hopes of saving his hide, but I’m fine with him taking those stories to his grave. The three bodies in the temple were killed by blade, so I suppose hanging will suffice. If he had burned them alive…
Today was a great victory. I’m confident that these are people I can trust, and Magic Man was tremendously focused on justice for the dead. He’ll be a good leader. Silver says I should relax and get a few drinks. I think I will…