Coming back to my kin, a dwarf story

21st December 5000

After an undermined time underground the notion of time elapsed for our heroes, they couldn't tell how long the thieves made them turn around in order for them to never find the entrance again. Unfortunately for both the guild members couldn't imagine they were lost after the first turn in the sewers. They managed to get out in the middle of town, knowing for sure this was not the only exit or entrance, depending on the need. A simple hour took them to the Sommerlund Ambassy, where they received their hardly won paid.
As they were now together and bounded by the one day group pass Ricaro gave them, Rameldin was eager to go around on her own, reminding the group of how well they were without her. As a cherry over a cake, she pressured everyone to pay her due as she wanted to be sure she'll get Alast money. Gustavius requested a receipt, quite insistent over this matter. Dwarves will always be dwarves.

All were glad to have left the sewers, their pouches still heavy even after paying the first part of the repairs for the "Green Rat Inn" to Rameldin and quite content of themselves they headed towards "The Bluebeard Inn" on recommendation of the two dwarves. The evening passed by in a joyful athmosphere as all were enjoying the food and drinks and for a moment all the darkness of this world were far from them. As Gustavius was paying for the dinner a small discussion arose in the background about where to sleep, the inn having only dwarven beds and they decided to simply head back to the "Dragonfly" and spend the night there.

The night passed by uneventful and the next day around noon, Captain Padoka set course for Bor, the trip would last only six days. A welcome break for all.

But not all was well, there seemed to be some tension lingering between Erleothir, Gustavius and Mulchanor. Nothing hostile but it was clear that some slight incertitude was rising. Erleothir caught Mulchanor and Gustavius having some discreet discussion and neither the frown he received from Mulchanor nor the dark glare Gustavius threw at both of them was reassuring.
"Gustavius, I know you have the feeling you have lost your time, but... I know we will find someone who can help us in Bor..." seeing no acknowledgment on Gustavius' part he continued "Listen, I am also more than disappointed and you know that I intended to save Mellini in Shotia, now she has been carried away and..."
"A waste of time !" Interrupted Gustavius "I had told you we should have headed to Shotia first, but you were the one to decide otherwise." Gustavius stopped, quickly thinking if he should continue blaming Erleothir, it itched him to, but he decided otherwise "well, we all do bad decisions from time to time..." a short silence followed.
"We will need your help in Boradon. You know the place, you live there, can we... can I count on you ?" asked Erleothir in a friendly tone
Gustavius sighed "yes... yes I'll help you out as much as I can in Boradon"
"and then ?"
"then what ?"
Erleothir sighed and started closing the door "is there anything I should know about ..." but the rest of the discussion was muffled.

The next day Mulchanor surprised Gustavius in the forge
"you closed the door to the forge, that's unusual of you..."
"yeah, we ran out of grenades... and for some rather obvious reasons, I don't want the girl to see me crafting explosives."

Rameldin, the girl, was on the upper deck. Erleothir had thought that it might be a good idea to train her a bit in sword fighting. He was training her with wooden swords and was showing Rameldin how to hold it correctly as well as the basic parrying moves. this lasted on for several days and the rest of the company sometimes gathered on the deck with their tankards in hand to watch. At some point he thought it might be a good idea to start a small duel to test her abilities. On his first attack he swiped her wooden sword out of her hand.
"But I wasn't ready !" complained Rameldin as the wooden sword slid across the deck.
"it's not like the thugs will be waiting for you to be ready" replied Erleothir
all eyes were locked on her as she bowed to lift the sword from the ground, Erleothir could not help to notice.
"also your dress isn't exactly appropriate for such training" he muttered for himself.
After countless other tries and a rather large number of wooden swords stroke overboard Erleothir started showing some signs of fatigue.
"you're so strong Erleothir, can't I just rely on the fact that you will protect me?" fluttered Rameldin with her most charming smile while coming close to him. Erleothir's attempt at keeping a stern expression at her failed miserably while the sound of his companions respectively chuckling and choking on their beer could be heard on the background.
"hey, strong guy!" said Yesnarel while putting a hand on his shoulder, "we should have a quick look at the ... thing... we recovered." he turned to Rameldin "so that your new 'pupil' can take a break." and they headed down, leaving the young woman contemplating the landscape...

Unfortunately their investigations proved to be in vain. The stone they had recovered from the underwater temple was now lying there in their hands but its secrets could not be discovered.
"It's a very ancient artifact, from the Shianti. that is no doubt. also the design of the temple were we recovered it does not leave any doubt about it. but now... hmm the surface is absolutely even, nothing there...." started Yesnarel
"were they actually worshipping a stone?" wondered Gustavius
"hmm well it was indeed glowing... why is the glow gone?" continued Erleothir.
"maybe it only glows when immersed" hazarded Yesnarel

a few minutes later all were standing around a bucket filled with water.

staring at the stone bathing in it.

"nope.... still not glowing"

"maybe it's not the element that makes it glow. maybe it's about the location where it is ?"
"we could try with another element ? fire for example?"
"NO FIRE! ... you know.. let's just lock it up again for today, maybe we'll find something more helpful in Bor..."

*
* *

The "Firefly" was now whirring between snow capped mountains but the weather was clear. They had reached their destination. Jack turned over to Gustavius and Mulchanor asking if they knew a good parking spot by the city. Both just stared blankly back at Jack. Before leaving Boradon they had never seen any skyship not to mention traveling aboard one. Gustavius was feeling uncomfortable that they had crossed the border and how the Bor military would react upon seeing a skyship trespass over their country. His fears soon turned out to be unfounded.

Padoka and Jack had found a suitable place to park the skyship, above a collapsed mine entrance, close to the south gate of the city. Some patrol arrived very quickly and Gustavius was the first to head down the ladder and speak with them.

"I am really sorry if we trespassed in some area we should not be..." he started apologising. but the guards just turned it down.
"no need to worry... as long as the ship stays were it is everything is fine. what's your business?"
"coming back from a trip, I'm heading back home..." he produced his id out of one of his pockets "and I have some friends I wanted to show the place."
"humans?"
"yes, three humans and a fellow dwarf.... they are all trustworthy."
"fine fine, that will be enough, you can enter the city..." the guard waved Gustavius away and was about to continue his patrol or head back to whatever task he and his colleague was doing.
"but..." started Gustavius "... no need for papers for the three humans ?"
the guard turned back and sighed "no need, we have your name and address, and you arrived aboard a flying ship, if stuff goes wrong we know where to head. now if you excuse us, we have business to tend to"
"but..."
"listen, we don't have time for you, we took your id, that's all we need for now. Materials and guns have been disappearing recently, we are sure you'll understand that it keeps us a bit more busy."

Pictures of sealed crates stored at Rakuniki's shop, then being carried across Shotia and loaded aboard a ship at night flashed through Gustavius' paranoid mind.

"oh my... that's err... terrible. what ... fellow dwarf would do that ?" he muttered... but the guards were already gone.

The company crossed the immense south gate of Boradon and started walking down a corridor of impressive dimensions. Soon enough the corridor stopped abruptly and opened on a cavern of gigantic dimension.

"behold Boradon!" under the stalactites hanging some hundred meters over it, the circular city could be seen lying before them, like a large circular amphitheater in which center the palace of king whathisname was standing. the city was divided in 3 different terraces down towards the palace. shafts of light were falling from the surface and reflecting by large mirrors atop towers.
Rameldin could not hold her curiosity and started bombarding Gustavius with questions while the rest of the group seemed also quite eager to listen.
"so where are we heading?"
"to my place."
"oh great ! where do you live?"
"the second terrace"
"will we stay at your place?"
"no, it's too small, but there's a tavern just on the other side of the street"
"oh... will we meet your wife?"
"i'm not married"
"you have any pets?"
"er.... what ?"

and on and on. soon enough they turned into the Frothing road and reached the Hrimrath plaza just at the the promenade over the innermost circle of the city. and there they were. at the end of the street a sign was hanging "Gustavius Anvilsong's Antiques and Rarities Emporium" written in fine dwarven runes. And another sign hastily written and hanging below just stating "and repairs". but the door was barricaded.
"that's not how I left the place...." muttered Gustavius
"looks like there was a break in at your store...." started Erleothir.
But Gustavius was already rushing the door of his house.

28th December 5000

XP!:
Alast: 500xp for global session (yes he is making Xp on his private adventure and yes, he managed to survive alone),
Gustavius: 350xp for global session, 300xp for the receipt request, 300xp for trio discussion, 200 xp for getting them passing over Dwarf police control,
Rameldin: 300xp for global session, 200xp for training, 200xp for the idea of checking the keys, 150xp for fishing info,
Yesnarel: 300xp for global session, 300 xp for the key discoveries,
Erleothir: 350xp for global session, 300xp for trio discussion, 200xp for training Rameldin,
Mulchanor: 200xp for global session, 300xp for trio discussion,

In the sewers of Shotia …

15 th December 5000

In the sewers of Shotia …

A week has passed in the city of Shotia and now it is time for our heroes to enter the sewers of Shotia to clean the place up a bit, that is….from creatures and evil beings. It was early morning, fog was dense and Ionevan, the guild leader, escorted the company to the entrance of the sewers. “I have here a small leather bag. When you have reached the end of the sewers, I want you to give this to Ricaro.” Erleothir took the bag and carefully opened it to see what was inside. Rameldin quickly tried to catch a glimpse of the contents, but our knight was fast enough to make sure that he was the only person that could see it.

“I have some instructions for you all”, continued Ionevan. The sewers are filled with rats and so called Lapillibores. They both attack in groups and the problem is that they are very hard to hit. They are small, but very agile and they have a nasty bite. Lapillibores don’t attack unless you disturb their nests. Alast quickly asked then: “So how do these nests look like?”. “Well, that’s your main concern this week. Lapillibore nests are easy to stumble into, because the insects are the colour of stone and they rest with their grey shells covering the entrance.” Our company was quite dazed when they heard these words. How would they ever see a grey nest in a grey environment?

But they had no time to think about that. Ionevan was not yet done with his instructions and so he continued. “I have here a map for you. After a day’s march, this will lead you to your first resting point. A second map awaits you there, which will lead you to the next resting point, and so on and so on, until you reach the backdoor entrance of the lair of Ricaro. I want you to leave the old map behind, while you take the new map. We might need these again for new adventurers. On each resting point, you will food and torches for the next day. Is this clear to all of you?”. Everybody nodded and our heroes were ready to go.

Ionevan opened the entrance to the sewers and since Rameldin would not join them inside, she hugged everybody goodbye and told them to be careful. Everybody descended inside and looked into a tunnel system where they knew that they would never find a way out without a map. The tunnel consisted of 2 pavements which are 2 meters wide with a little “river” between them, that was 3 meters wide. The dwarves felt rather well inside compared to the others, as they were the only ones who were able to stand straight. Since the tunnel system was only 1,75 meters high, all the others had to bend a little. As the entrance door slowly closed, they heard one last instruction from Ionevan. “Whatever happens, never…I repeat…NEVER come back up using this entrance. You will be killed at first sight!” Then the entrance closed and they looked into a dim-lighted tunnel system.

5 minutes have passed. The atmosphere was grim and only 1 torch at a time could be lit so they would not wander in the dark at a later time. They discussed who would go walking up front and after some time, it was decided that Erleothir would go first, followed by Gus, Alast, Mulchanor and finally Yesnarel. But it did not take long before they heard movement from the side. Before they even had time to react, Alast was already bitten by several Lapillibores. Erleothir, who was up front had no chance to get past the others so there was nothing for him to do than do check for more incoming vermins from the front and pray to Ishir that the rest could handle it. Gus, Yesnarel and Mulchanor were doing all they can to attack them and keep them away from them. However they did not see 1 Lapillibore who was now underneath Alast who was already lying on the floor. Alast was critically wounded and lost his consciousness. Yesnarel provided Alast with some potions of Laumspur and then went back into the fight. However due to Gustavius' enthusiasm to kill evil beings, he was pushed away by the dwarf and fell into the river. was now very busy drowning and being taken away by the streamlet. Erleothir quickly grabbed Yesnarel, but Yesnarel’s coat slipped through his fingers. Since all the Lapillibores were now dead, Gustavius - aware that it was because of him that Yesnarel fell down - quickly turned around and ran after Yesnarel. In a short moment where Yesnarel’s head came above “water” again, Gustavius shouted to keep his staff up. Yesnarel did and Gustavius took that chance to grab the staff and pulled him out of the river.

After everybody gathered around again after this chaos, they were wondering on how to continue. They were in just 1 fight, 2 of them nearly lost their lives, all their potions of Laumspur have been used, 10 minutes have passed in the sewers and they had to stay here for another week! They looked back at the entrance again, but then the warning of Ionevan echoed in their heads. “Whatever happens, never…I repeat…NEVER come back up using this entrance. You will be killed at first sight!”. Well then, as there is nothing else they could do, they decided that they might as well continue forward then. Luckily the rest of the day passed by without further interventions and they arrived at the first resting point.

Carefully following the instructions from Ionevan, they left the old map behind, took the new map for the day together with food and torches and continued their way. After some hours, the road is blocked by some stones. Yesnarel carefully went forward to have a good look at them and – using his keen eye – he saw 10 Lapillibores. Unlike his usual behavior in killing all evil beings, Mulchanor preferred to go around them. However the rest of the group did not see a way to get to the other side without casualties, they decided to attack instead. “This time we will be prepared”, said Erleothir and they quickly made a battle plan. Alast threw in a poison bomb to divide the animals. 6 were heading away and 4 came towards Erleothir, who stood ready with sword and shield. Mulchanor, Yesnarel and Gustavius were a little further behind. Mulchanor used his rifle to wound 1 beast and Yesnarel quickly finished it. Erleothir was swinging his sword and shield, but the animals were too agile for the knight. Alast took out his weapons and stabbed 1 Lapillibore to the ground. “Hey, did you see that? I just backstabbed him.” and he laughed. From the back, Gustavius killed another one with his rifle and Mulchanor finished the 4^th and last creature with 1 shot. Suddenly they saw the other 6 Lapillibores using the ceiling to head to the other side of the river and running back towards the company. Mulchanor shouted to follow him quickly and he ran off. The rest of the group realized that they would never be faster than these creatures and decided to fight them off first. In the meantime they hoped that Mulchanor would still wait at the next crossroad since he has the map of the day. Gustavius used one of his self-created flash-bangs to blind and daze the attackers. With the attackers being less agile, Erleothir used this opportunity to swing his sword and kill the first one, immediately followed by a shield bash on a second vermin which is squashed underneath its weight. Alast stabbed 1 Lapillibore to the ground. “Hey, did you see that? I just…”. “Yeah, we know!”, the rest shouted. Gustavius had his gun ready for another shot and killed one, immediately followed by Yesnarel who struck another one. Erleothir used his sword and wanted to stab the last Lapillibore to the ground, but missed and – even worse – his sword was stuck into the ground. The Lapillibore used this opportunity to attack Erleothir, but the effects of the flashbang were too heavy on the little vermin and instead of Erleothir’s neck, it jumped right into the sword, decapitating itself in the process. Erleothir mentioned: “This will still count as my kill” and the morale of the company rose again. At the next crossroad, they saw Mulchanor waiting for them. “Thanks for your help”, said Erleothir in a sarcastic tone. “Don’t expect me to help you next time.”, Gustavius informed him. Clearly they were not happy with Mulchanor’s decision that day and so ended another day for the company. Day three in the sewers went very smooth. Nothing happened and the company got used to the stinking smell of the tunnel system.

After another night of rest, the company continued their way towards Ricaro. But suddenly they were stopped by some unusual sightings from afar. Red eyes, 15 pair of them. “Rats!”, shouted Erleothir and only seconds later he was covered with all of them. Yesnarel reacted fast and used an arc storm to kill 4 of them. Alast threw a rope at Erleothir and shouted he should jump down into the river. Due to Erleothir’s quick movements, 6 rats fell off and got squashed underneath his feet. The rest of the company took the rope on the other end and prepared for Erleothir to jump into the stinking river. He prepared to jump down, but then slipped on a loose stone, making him fall on the floor and then slided into the river. Luckily he killed another 2 rats in the process. Mulchanor and Yesnarel then pulled the rope to help Erleothir on the boardwalk again, but in their enthusiasm they pulled so hard that Erleothir bumped his head against the wall (killing another 2 rats in the process). The last rat was so shocked at the sight of this that it died of a heart attack. The rest of the day passed by without anything worth mentioning, except that Erleothir now smelled really bad and the rest took some more distance to him.

The night was calm and Gustavius took the chance to start repairing the shield of Erleothir. The next morning they continued their way again towards Ricaro. Apart from the first 10 minutes, the trip towards him went rather smooth. After a while they hear some squeaking from behind and they looked again in the red eyes of a group of rats. Since Gus was now at the back, he did some quick thinking and created a fire using his torch. That killed 2 rats, but now the other rats all jumped onto Gustavius and started attacking him. Erleothir who was standing at the other side of the group started running towards Gustavius. “Brace yourself!”, he shouted. Gustavius looked towards Erleothir, asking himself what he was about to do. He saw Erleothir coming closer and closer and faster and faster. Realizing Erleothir’s plan, he raised his hands towards Erleothir, waving as much as possible and shouted: “No, Nooooooo”, but Erleothir just kept coming and bumped into Gustavius at full speed. 7 rats between Erleothir and Gustavius were squashed and they both fell on the floor. Gustavius looked at Erleothir in a grim and very surprised way, but then said: “Quick thinking. Thanks!”. 6 rats were still around the 2 heroes. They looked at each other as Gustavius mentioned: “Hey, since we are on the floor anyway, let’s roll them over” and so they started rolling over the rats. However in the meantime, Yesnarel also started killing rats by trampling on them. This caused the three to bump into each other and Yesnarel was now also a part of the trampling squad. “Very unconventional, but still effective against rats.”, they thought and continued their way again towards the next resting point.

After a night of rest followed by a calm day, they finally arrived at a wooden door, which was closed. Erleothir knocked and out came a hand, accompanied by a voice: “I believe you have something for me?”. Erleothir handed over the little leather bag and the door was about to close again. Gustavius however planted his foot in the doorway, but after a little struggle, he had to give up and pull his foot back. A few minutes passed by where nothing happened. Erleothir knocked on the door, still nothing. Then an hour passed by….and another hour. “Well, that’s just great. We are here in the sewers standing in front of a closed door, which we cannot enter. Even if we survive the way back, we are not allowed to get back to the surface.” Then suddenly they heard a voice from the other side: “Are you willing to behave now?” Erleothir quickly responded that all would go according to the will of the Thieves Guild and they entered into the lair of Ricaro, the new leader of the Thieves guild. Ricaro welcomed the heroes of the sewers and they were allowed to take a much deserved bath. He informed them that Rameldin will be joining them later for dinner.

Rameldin was very happy that the company returned safe. At least she was sure now that she would get her monthly payment from them to rebuild the “Green Rat”. After a while, the hazardous company ate and drink well, Ricaro stood up and took the opportunity to speak to our heroes. “Excuse me, my dear friends that I had to let you come through the sewers, but we were at war here and I had to make to an agreement with Karnelian. He said that I should keep Erleothir’s troublemakers busy for a week and that is what I did by sending you through the sewers. My deepest apologies, but I had to do this to avert a war. Now I have some entertainment ready for all of you.” They all wanted to stand up, but Ricaro immediately added: “…except for you, Erleothir. I would like to speak with you in private.”

The rest of the group left the room and enjoyed some entertainment. 2 hours passed by until they were called back into the room again. There they saw Erleothir sitting alone at the table. His face was pale and he looked distressed. Rameldin walked fast towards him and put her arms around him. “Are you okay, my strong knight?”, she asked, but Erleothir could say nothing and just mumbled something unhearable to the others. When everybody returned, Erleothir stood up and provided Ricaro with a red flag. “Wise choice, my friend”, responded Ricaro and he provided Erleothir with a letter, which he opened and read immediately. Erleothir asked some more time alone with Ricaro and after another hour, only Alast was allowed to enter the room. Another hour passed by until the rest of the Hazardous Company was called in again. When everybody seated again, Alast took the word: “You have to excuse me, my friends, but I am called away on a mission of high importance. I will be leaving your company for now. I cannot provide you with more details, but I will join you once I finish this journey. Ricaro will make sure that I can contact you.” As if that was not surprising enough, Ricaro then asked if the company is ready to head to Boradon now. Boradon, the capital of Bor, the home of the dwarves. Gustavius answered grimly: “So you are trying to tell me that I’ve made this long trip from my home country to Sommerlund, through the icy wastes of Kalte, via the Kai Monastery to the Boari Jungle, finally making my way to Shotia, where I planned to go and this only to hear that my journey now continues to Boradon again!?!” Erleothir responded fast: “Don’t worry master dwarf. We still have some errands here, which we are going to finish first. I suggest we first take a good night rest. I know for my part that I need it.” Erleothir then left without saying anything else, leaving the company dazed at the table. It was clear to the rest that he was feeling really bad. Will Erleothir be able to recover from this?

21 th December 5000

XP:

Erleothir: 500xp for general play, 1000 xp for the blog, 1250 xp for the killing, 500 xp for the out of gaming session,

Rameldin: 500xp for general play, 200 xp for the out of gaming session,

Alast: 300xp for general play, 1250 xp for the killing, 500 xp for the out of gaming session,

Yesnarel: 400xp for general play, 1250 xp for the killing, 500 xp for the out of gaming session,

Gustavius: 300xp for general play, 1250 xp for the killing, 500 xp for the out of gaming session,

Mulchanor: 150xp for general play, 1250 xp for the killing,