The yetis stole your spellbook

As I write this we stand a chance at taking out our pursuers in an open fight, having gained several allies and a ship since coming to the frozen island. It was truly an inhospitable place, and I'd like to avoid anything that cold, from now on, excluding the strange egg we recovered from the peak of the mountain. It seems to generate a field of cold around it, no matter what is around it, including fire. But before discovering the mysteries of the egg we must ascertain how we acquired it.

As we came upon the frost island first we encountered some marauders, openly flying a pirate flag, and believing us to be a mere merchant ship open fired. This was disadvantageous to both groups, damaging both of our future ships. Luckily ours was significantly more durable than theirs, and we took the direct approach to their boat, ramming straight into its side. I then strode up to helm and stared the captain down, as he has previously survived a cannonball he seemed the toughest opponent.

He flew before me, hiding in his cabin as we were forced to slaughter some of his crew. After seeing what we could do however I was able to convince them that it was not in their best interests to continue fighting, and they surrendered nicely, excluding the first mate who was forced to be put down. When the captain surfaced from his forced flight a little convincing on my part and he became a devoted member of our crew, and his fighting expertise was useful on the relatively dangerous expedition to the icy tundra.

We landed onshore without much difficulty, but unfortunately the arcanists who were said to occupy this island were round the other side, requiring significant expenditure on our part to get there, including a days journey and special winter clothes. Once there however I was affronted to find a sorcerer who greeted us. Luckily there were several wizards around who I was able to converse with on a near equal level, though only their so called master was close to my intelligence.

We took the opportunity to rest for the night, then set off up the mountain, with the wizard behind, hoping to collect some samples from the golems at the top of the mountain, who would unfortunately be resistant to my magics. It was on the way up that we encountered yetis, a large group of them, who were able to deal significant damage to the entire group, including myself, my innocence not enough to protect me. I was able to drive several away, and demoralize others, and in the end we fought and killed a good number of them, at least 15, and were on our way to the top.

The wizard died though, which while tragic news to his followers was a boon to me, for I collected his spellbook thus increasing my number of spells enormously, a fact which I'm sure will help the so called 'greater good'. This was the best treasure gained so far, and will assist in my pursuit of knowledge. At the top of the mountain we found two golems, but also a mercenary group we had met earlier. Luckily the mercenaries took the brunt of the attacks from the golems, though our resident druid contributed with several effective flame spells.

Once we had finished with that we found the cold egg ontop of a plinth, and seized it for our own, unsure of what it contained but sure that it would be of some use if we could hatch it. After descending down the mountain we stopped by the research lab to deliver the corpse of their master and to take as many books from the library as we could, as they were granted to us by his last request.

The rest of the day was spent tramping back to the ships, knowing that before too long our would be pursuers would catch up, if they hadn't already. Overall it was a prosperous trip, with no one of great importance being hurt, at least not severely. I did experience a certain fear, that of imminent death as the yetis had extremely powerful fists, enough to wound if not kill me immediately, I must do something to sort that out.

A death and an arm.

Over the past couple days we have had some interesting adventures, I will begin where the last entry left off. I continue my quest for knowledge, but unfortunately the island we were on seemed curiously absent of it, with no arcane casters of any kind. Luckily our activities had not attracted any unwanted attention, despite some minor arson, though it was justified according to the others in the party. We now had a choice, to kill a so called 'evil' man or to kill the relatively undefended dwarf who issued the request. The dwarf could be no better for accusing him of such a silly thing, and with a much easier, and less bloody path, we had chosen to murder the dwarf.

After some scouting we had determined that the best way would be for the warlock face to go and climb up the building, and to infiltrate it from the roof. We had also ascertained a sample of the dwarf's handwriting, and faked a suicide note, thus implicating everyone but us in his murder. He simply fell out a window after the warlock had done something to him, I am unsure of what, though he seems to fire some sort of arcane energy, weaker than my own but still of note. With this done we were able to claim the reward from the aristocrat, who we would eventually betray.

He delivered a fair sum for the murder, and showed us his ships, and the crews on them. Unfortunately the plan to take the flagship was impeded by the 20 or so men aboard, a difficult fight especially given the aptitude or lack of it shown by certain members. Instead we burned them down. I constructed another timed explosive device, and we delivered them to the ships as supplies, then sailed off as they detonated. Unfortunately this did not bring down all of their ships, just one of the three, adding some time pressure to our adventures on the next few islands, until we are sure we are rid of them.

Over the course of the journey I spent much of it with my tools, creating scrolls and alchemical items, still exploring this new art. The warrior as well spent much time crafting, making several small daggers, a small token but not entirely useless. Once we arrived though I was disappointed to see a lack of life, and though the island was claimed to be uninhabited, my raven saw a shack in the middle of the land that claimed otherwise. We set off in pursuit of what the aristocrat was looking for, and why he might investigate such a desolate place.

As we tramped out through the miserable land we were ambushed by some bandits with bows, who did quite a number on us, given we had expected no human presence. They were frightened of me though, and rightfully so. The rest of the party was able to dispatch them, though mostly due to our nature lover's crocodile, who at home in its natural territory excelled in combat. Unfortunately the warrior fell due to losing to a much physically weaker warrior, something which bears further examination when there is time.

With those defeated we could easily hazard a guess of what the shack would contain, and though it did contain an arcane caster, he was a sorcerer, without any physical evidence of spells I could learn nothing of value. The bandits that were with him proved to be some trouble, but in part due to a new spell I had picked up, summoning a slippery surface, they were defeated. The sorcerer however fled and we were forced to pursue.

All was not good with this victory however, as the warrior yet again showed his incompetence, though luckily it only affected himself. He had managed to cut off his arm with his axe. I almost felt something for him there lying on the ground, but given it was entirely his own fault it was difficult to empathize with him. Despite this seemingly disabling setback he still managed to push on ignoring all blood loss and pain to power through the shack, charging forwards foolishly, being hit by a bucket for his troubles.

Luckily we did find the false scholar, hiding in his room rummaging for one thing or another. He was guarded by three archers, but they were easily dealt with when the crocodile launched itself at their faces, ending them quickly. Now the one armed warrior was the one to get the finishing blow on the false scholar, delivering it with his own arm used as a bludgeoning weapon, barbaric but seemingly effective.

With that we took all the bandit's gold, a fair amount, and set off for the next island which is said to have real arcane casters, who I may learn from. They are apparently researching a frost covered mountain, which may prove to be of some interest, maybe the cold can preserve things for eternity.

Dawn of a new day

Throughout my tenure with this crew of 'adventurers' I had believed them to be largely competent, over the past few days I have learned this is largely not the case. I enlarged the warrior type, and he collapsed into a heap, missing as many blows as he hit. The foolish druid managed to get his crocodile to attack its own self, and the warlock had climbed his way up to the roof and proceeded to do little to nothing in the fight. The only semi-competent one is the priest, an inquisitor from one religion or another.

I began the day by setting out for this new town, which seemed to be in great need of help. There were four tasks and the townsfolk seemed helpless to accomplish even the simplest of them. We decided, or rather I decided, that we should head over and help the tavern owner, so perhaps we could get a good nights rest for once. That is what I miss most about Gol, he would always get the best rooms in the best taverns, now I am forced to scavenge like a beggar, though the people in the town pay fairly well. Upon arriving at the tavern we met an elven barmaid who the animals subsequently drooled over, typical. She requested us to go out to the forest and deliver some boars for the feast.

We set out for the trees, and without too much effort found a boar lying, apparently sleeping, in the grass. After some concentrated shots from the rest of them it still was not killed, just the beginnings of the day of failure that would happen. The boar was not alone however, and its few companions attempted to assault us from the sides. They were all quickly dealt with, in no small part because of my fearsome presence, though one of them seemed strangely resistant to it. After that I made sure we could deal with the rest by enlarging the resident warrior, and a few hits later and we had 6 succulent boar corpses ready for presentation.

Upon delivery the lady was most gratified, and though intimidated by the group and me, had not more money to give, so we were delivered a barrel of ale, which may come in handy later. We then set off and decided to deal with some disheartened shopkeepers, one in particular who requested we go deal with a man who had been buying up a large amount of property around the town, of course the shopkeep was a weak-minded fool, as so many of them are, so we were able to dupe him out of a small sum of gold. We went and saw the man, the aristocrat, who had been purchasing so many buildings, and decided that it would be better to work with him rather than against him. He drew up a fake document which we gave to the shopkeep, and he declared it enough and payed us for our services, we then offered to guard his shop from any potential arsonists.

Before this though, and we had some time, we escorted a doctor to go and collect some herbs. The druid here showed himself to not be completely incompetent, showing some initiative by calming some wild skunks who were hanging around the herbs patch, and collecting them himself. This was a minor diversion but we gained some useful healing devices, though they are mundane.

Little did he know that we had been payed to burn his shop to the ground, though not before helping ourselves to some useful equipment. No one around town cared anyway, an it was definitely not our fault, we were seen in the tavern at the time the place burned down, due to a clever little device I had rigged up, a delayed explosive of some sort. After this we prepared to go see the mayor, who had been complaining about one thing or another, and it turned out this time it was ants all throughout some abandoned gold mines. Unfortunately as is the case with mindless vermin, they have no sense of fear, so would not be affected by my significant talents.

This was where the party showed their true capabilities, with the warrior successfully missing a great deal, and me with my crossbow as the major damage dealer to the ant mother. The ants were surprising ineffective as well, damaging themselves and collapsing down even with no apparent cause, perhaps I overestimated the potential of these mindless creatures. Even with their terrible combat skills the ants managed to knock both the druid's pet and the warrior unconscious, so I was forced to finish the large ant off with a dash of acid into its vulnerable parts. With that done we were able to collect some of the gold from the mines which I'm sure will help in my research in how to become immortal.

With that done we returned to the mayor for another substantial monetary reward, though as we were leaving his son offered us a large reward if we were to kill the aristocrat who had been buying up the town. The reason given for this was that he is 'evil' and thus has to die, which is ridiculous by any logic. After seeing the aristocrat about it we were tasked to kill the boy for simply making such threats, and would be given a sizable reward for it. We were also offered the ability to sail with his 'fleet' which consists of only 3 ships, a pitiful number as I have ever seen. Instead we plan to burn them all down, and to escape from that place with his map, and hopefully to learn more about the islands featured on it, and attain as much wealth as we can find.