Sunday, March 11, 2012

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.

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