Cellar Door to a New Fear

Once we were over the shock of young Giva turning into a half person half wolf beast and trying to kill us we re-began our search of the area with extra haste.  Who knew what was living around here This is not a place for children what with werewolves living here. Soon enough Oakey spotted what looked like a cellar door that remained in relative good shape, something worth checking out while we were here as the tracks in this vicinity had gone cold.  Oakey managed to nimbly unlock the door that only troubled us as to why it would be locked in the first place since the rest of the orphanage had been abandoned so long ago.  Upon opening the cellar door we were struck with the stench of rotting flesh.  After hearing no movement we pressed on to investigate, hoping that the children were not down there.

Jäger volunteered to go down first and investigate and was met by a scene that did not belong in or near an orphanage.  Chains complete with manacles were fixed to the walls with what looked like blood, now dried, had been sprayed indiscriminately  across the floor and walls.  On the floor was a dead body, killed a while ago and left to rot.  It was in this corpse that Jäger's fear that was soon to manifest was residing.  As he stepped into the room a giant spider and it's swarm of children burst from the corpse and attacked Jäger.  He only barely managed to escape and survive and since then whenever Jäger is in the presence of anything that could be considered a swarm, his skin visibly shudders

Once Jäger regained his composure we continued our search, this was still the only lead we had concerning the children that were missing and we were all starting to dread the worst.  But thanks to Jäger's keen eye and tenacious spirit he was able to find new tracks a little further out but it came with bad news too.  Not only did he find what looked like the children's tracks but what looked like kobold tracks with them.  It seemed as though the children had been kidnapped.  More bad news,  the tracks headed back to Droskar's Crucible.

Ilara's Half Way House.

I met Oakey downstairs, I believe he had finished a few drinks while I was gone and could not see Jäger as he was still outside, hiding in the shadows, ready to jump into our defence if any danger was to approach.  I quickly ushered Oakey away from his table and out of the building as I could no longer bare to be in that establishment any longer.  It was getting late so setting off tonight would only cause us to hugely increase the chances of us getting lost so we reluctantly agreed to set off first thing in the morning.

Before I set off to sleep I went to find Loral to let her know the situation.  She smiled at me when I showed my concern for the children and informed me with a heavy heart that she wished she could join us but the caravan needed to be prepared. She felt she was needed to oversee the preparations as the caravan was what she has been hired to protect and deliver.  Hopefully this errand will not take too much time and we will be back to the caravan in no time.

So Oakey, Jäger and I head off with haste to where we were told we would find Ilara's old orphanage and we were not disappointed with how easily we found it.  Mostly due to Jäger and his tracking skills.  If I did not know better and had only just met him on the road that day, I would have sworn he was half canine with the way he was able to follow the tracks of children that my own eyes could hardly spot even after he showed them to me.

The journey was mostly through light woods and once we had broken the tree line, the orphanage was easily spotted.  Abandoned a long time ago and barely a husk of a building is left from the fire that finally ended the place many years ago.  As we approached we were met by a young girl.  She did not match the description of any of the missing children but that did not calm my nerves and raised the question of who she was and why she was here.  I approached the young girl and she seemed to be completely calm and unafraid, excited even to see us.  The name she gave was Giva and she claimed she knew where the children were.  We started to follow her but something felt wrong about his young girl so I used the gift that Sir Ganther has given me and searched her for traces of evil.  She was indeed evil, it emanated from her strongly, as if she was not even human.  I stepped back from her and drew out my great sword and signalled my friends to stop.

I confronted her about her alignment once she had noticed we had stopped and all three of us had our weapons in our hand.  In response she gave us a toothy grin and transformed into a large beast.  Half human and half wolf.  I have heard of werewolves before but never before had I ever been in the presence of one and hopefully never again.  With no further warning and as quick as a flash, she attacked us with heinous fury.  The werewolf was strong and quick, hard to battle but as a team of three we managed to fell the beast with only moderate wounds on our part.

Our New Adventure Begins.

After discovering that in order to have any time to talk to Ralla we would have to pay for he services, Oakey, Jäger  and myself came up with a particularly odd and perhaps redundant plan in order to get her audience. I have to admit that I believe it was mostly Jäger  and Oakey's plan but the confidence they had concerning it I did not have the heart to object.  In hindsight I feel that devising a plan of action where ales (very overpriced as far as I could tell from the grumblings of my companions) are served can easily lead to, shall we say, needless plans coming to fruition.  Nevertheless, the plan was made and we pulled it off with no problems.  I was to pay the 'pimp' (it was Oakey that taught me that bizarre terminology) for the honour of Ralla's time while Oakey stayed downstairs in the bar and Jäger was to leave the establishment and scale the outside to her window to inform Ralla of my visit.

It was only after I had given over my coin and managed to speak with Ralla did it become overly clear that either my own part in the plan or Jäger's was some what redundant. Nevertheless, it all came together without a hitch so I would not dare to comment to my friends concerning that as it would only upset them.

So, once up the weak, wooden stairs leading to rooms, I knocked rather delicately on the door as I wanted to come across as gentle as possible.  Thankfully I had taken long enough for Jäger to have completed his part of the plan and warned her of my arrival.  I heard a rather apprehensive, female voice call me into her room.  I opened the door to find a rather confused, young woman mixed with a slice of fear in her eyes.  Across the room I could see the window ajar which must have been where Jäger had managed to speak to her.  I began to introduce myself to her but she informed me that she knew who I was as the scary man at the window had told her who I was and why I was coming to talk with her.  I could tell Jäger had used his blunt talk with her.  I admire his straightforwardness but it certainly has its place, perhaps this was not the time to have used it.  It took me a little while to undo the affect Jäger had caused with her but ultimately it worked out well.  The comparison of my composure against Jäger's helped her to trust me more which helped to forge the trust.

According to Ralla, the group of children would often play together and would some times head off to the abandoned Orphanage named Ilara's Halfway House.  It had been burnt down a while ago and had a reputation of being haunted so naturally the children were attracted to such a place.  It made sense that was a good place to start.

As I got up to leave and thank her for her answers, I noticed that she did not want me to leave her.  She let me know that she liked my company and has never met a man who did not want to 'use' her and requested I sat with her for a little longer.  I was happy to oblige.  I felt sorry for her, the poor woman was missing her young brother and the only reason she was in this line of work was to support her and her brother.  That I could respect.  As our time was drawing to a close I gave her my word that once we returned from looking for the children, I will make sure she has the means to start a new life at Cobham.  That was the first time I saw her smile.

Missing Rascals

After a day or so my armour is ready.  I give over my old chain mail as I have no longer any  use for it and my companions prefer to wear leather for ease of travel.  They favour a sneakier tactic in battle whereas I follow the code of the first order of knights of Sir Ganther.  Battle is to be fought face to face, with honour and dignity not skulking in a bush hoping to catch my enemy off guard.  I do not judge them harshly for their ways as they were not taught the chivalrous ways by the brave Knights of the first order of Sir Ganther.  It was my duty to show them and hope that one day they too will be shining examples of how one should live and love.

I was out walking in my new armour, I was proud of the job the smith had done and was eager to show my adventuring friends my new armour as it would serve well to protect me more than my chain mail had and therefore enable me to help my friends more when conflict was unavoidable, when I was met by a distraught mother.  Her eyes were bloodshot from tears and I could visibly tell she was over tired and weak from worry.  She had been looking for me or one f my friends all night as her daughter Kimmi has not come home in two nights.  I managed to calm her as best as I could after I promised her that my companions and I would help her as best as we could.  Kimmi was thirteen years old and would often be seen playing with her friends about town of which she was the oldest.  Her four friends were also not anywhere to be seen.  She gave me their names and who their parents are so we could investigate ourselves.

First there was Savran Vade, the son of a local magic user named Sharvarous.  Speaking to him a waste of time as he was so absent minded that he was even unaware his son was missing.

Second there was Mikra the son of the town's butcher names Colbrin.  He was suitably worried but also proved to be fairly useless.  Although he possessed a kind heart he was also slow of wit and seemed overly gullible.

Thirdly was Durin, the son of the town's Gavel, Mr Creed.  Any dealings we have heard of concerning the Gavel mixed with our own experiences made him out to be  nasty piece of work..We decided any attempt t speak with him would only upset us.

Lastly and my no means least was Hollin the younger brother to Ralla,  barmaid at one of the less reputable establishments.  It was from Ralla we discovered our only decent lead but it was not exactly easy to get to her in the first place.  Once we arrived at the tavern where she worked it quickly became clear that her job description had been some what distorted from what it turned out she actually did on order to support her and her brother.  Putting it kindly, any one was allowed to see her but it cost you money for the pleasure.  What she was doing with her gentlemen visitors I could not guess but I got the feeling that  Jäger or Oakey would know but what I did know is that the poor women who end up in that line of work are not normally happy and if I could some how offer her a better and more wholesome life, I would.

One Good Deed Deserves Another

The journey back to Falcons Hollow was quick and uneventful as though Sir Ganther himself had cleared the path before us with his mighty great-sword.  Once we reached town we headed straight to Cuthbert the herbalist's shop to give him the ingredients he requested from us.  It turns out we made the correct decision to not hold on any longer at the crucible as the poor people of Falcons Hollow were getting worse with each and every moment.  Cuthbert of Roots and Remedies informed us that eighteen or nineteen had died that he was aware of, who knows how many others that were to be discovered.  With no prompting he began to create a cure as fast as he could fro the people.  Cuthbert was a good man and it warmed my soul to have been fortunate to have met him.


It took a few days in order to make enough of a cure to eradicate the Black Scour from Falcons Hollow so we had some time to ourselves as Cuthbert made it clear that we would only get in his way is we tried to help him manufacture the cure.  Jäger spent his time asking about the town to see if any one recognised the signet ring he found amongst the bodies discovered at the great tree. After asking about the town, the jewellers, the inn and any one how resembled a higher class who may recognise the heraldry, he finally found some luck at the temple.  It was immediately recognised to be the ring of Torag.  The wearer would have an increases resistance towards fire, both magical and natural.

Oakey, well Oakey spent most of his time at the inn 'making friends'.  I am not too sure what he was doing but he seemed to be enjoying himself none the less.

During the next couple of days I spent my time helping the people of Falcons Hollow.  From helping the elders carry their shopping to unclogging the gutters around town.  It was during this time that I visited the town's smith.  It turned out that before he decided to settle down as a small town smithy he was once an armourer. We spoke and joked for a while until he informed me that he has been paying attention to me and my deeds amongst the people and how me and my companions brought the ingredients needed to cure the town. Because of this he offered me a considerable discount on some half plate that he saw my looking at.  I was grateful for the offer and payed some extra to have his masterful hands to polish the armour and emblazon it with the symbols and iconography of Sir Ganther.

All in all, that was a good day.

A Wolf in Wolf's Clothing

I could sense a dark feeling deep in my stomach as though something was going to upset me.  It was compounded by Oakey constantly whispering in my ear that the wolf was going to betray us as soon as we let it know we have killed the giant spider, doing it a big favour by doing so in the first place.  Unlike my brave friends, I chose to remain positive about the wolf.  All evil needs is to be shown the light so it can follow the path ahead and be redeemed.  Sadly, Oakey was right. Shortly after we approached the wolf in the room where we last saw him and Jäger threw down the head of our quarry to demonstrate the completion of our side of the bargain, the wolf revealed a gnarly grin complete with a full set of sharp teeth that could easily tear the arm off a small child.

With the speed of a cheetah's sneeze the wolf leaped at me with the intent to kill me.  His attack was so fast that my attempt to smite evil wildly missed but thankfully Oakey was more than ready, probably because of Oakey's pessimistic outlook and conviction that we were about to be surprised, and managed a solid hit from his bow.  Sadly for Oakey this attracted the attention of the wolf and and it switched it's attacks from me to him.  The flurry of claws and bites knocked Oakey down and he slipped from consciousness.  Jäger and I managed to combine our efforts and take the beast down. There was no celebration from me or Jäger as we were to concerned about Oakey.  I managed to stabilise him with some healing.  It was the least I could do because if I was to have listened to his counsel we would have been better prepared to deal with the inevitable betrayal.  I learned a lot that day but refuse to only see the darkness within anyone or anything we encounter as no matter how far one may have fallen from the light one has only to follow the righteous path to reach redemption.  Luckily for me I have Oakey and Jäger to help give balance to my good intentions.

Once Oakey joined us in the land of the conscious we searched the room to see what the wolf may have been hoarding.  We managed to discover a wand of light, some gold, a well crafted crossbow, an axe that has been imbued with magic and one hundred platinum pieces.  Amongst our findings we also managed to discover an old book, a holy book, inside of which we could only make out one passage.

'Torag is not worthy of our devotion.  Only Droskar can deliver us from the failings of King Garbold'. A haunting reminder of the tragic past of this once proud Dwarvern monastery.

During our search Jäger discovered a obscured door that lead downwards.  Jäger managed to successfully sneak a look down the stairs and found kobolds doing whatever kobolds do best.  It was agreed that we were in no shape to further explore the inner working of the cellar of this darkened holy place and furthermore, the people of Falcons Hollow needed us.  We had the ingredients required to create the cure the people desperately needed. So we crammed as much rubble, chairs, desks and anything else we could get hold of and blocked the passage down in the hope of slowing any nefarious activities the kobolds may have planned.