Zeva Journal (Session 7)

After stopping the theft at the iron works, we let Argyle and Breken know about it. We saw that the townsfolk were able to get the fires under control. We went back to the keep and stayed the night.

Argyle came through with his promise. He outfitted us with these wonderfully crafted armor and weapons. I received an amazing chain shirt, a well crafted rapier and a new short sword. I practiced using the two swords at the same time. I think this fighting style can be quite effective.

After some discussion we decided that we needed to make our assault on the underground layer. Lord Cerwin agreed with us and gave use two men-at-arms, Red and Shirt.

Several days travel gave us time to plan. We repelled down the hole on ropes to as to not tumble down the hole. Of course it was just our luck that the kobolds were ready for us. We started our approach, arrows flew out of the magic curtain. I was hit with a bag full of sticky goo. It really messed with my ability to attack. Then the spiders came. They had no problem with the slope.

One spider got me good, I felt this burning and was drained. Everything went black.

I woke up to Max's healing hands but was weakened quite a bit by the poison.

I made my way into the cave. There was an elaborate underground cavern. We made our way into the cave deeper and deeper. We went up these rickety stairs, through this old secret door. We ambushed a few of the little bugs. They're everywhere.

We explored a little more and found an old prison. There was this very strange creature chained up in there. He said he was a Maug. He seemed like a living statue. He told us that he was brought to here by ancient wizards.

We were able to free on of his arms. We gave him the flail and he was able to free himself of the chains. Glox seems like a good ally.

We have held ourselves up in jail it was quite a defensive position. It gave us time to rest and mourn the lost of that crazy half-orc. I can only imagine how complicated this labyrinth will be and what other strangeness the ancient wizards have in store for us.

Zeva Journal (Session 6)

The only course of action was to invade the keep. We needed to see if Lord Cerwyn was alive or not. Pargo and his cronies had taken over. I hoped that he was not stupid enough to waste Lord Cerwyn just for the fun of it. Still I had no idea what Kennet and Mox were doing siding with Pargo. Strange events indeed.

After some of our typical debate about tactics. We decided to send Goldar in as a spy. He would tell Pargo he was looking for work and get us into the keep without Pargo and his crew knowing about it.

From what we could tell, everything was going according to plan. Goldar arrived at the northeast tower and threw a rope down. We climbed up and got around to the front doors of the great hall. When Goldar opened the door we were all surprised to see that Pargo, Kennet, Mox, some henchmen and a stranger were all prepared for us.

I was able to act pretty quickly. Having worked with Enron these past months, I knew it was important to get Mox incapacitated before he started putting the non-elves to sleep or worse. I ran in and got a shot off with my short bow. The arrow flew directly at him but it stopped midair. He must have some warding magic against ranged attacks.

We all got into the great hall. Enron as able to put a couple of Pargo's cronies to sleep. Mox set off a spell that created these spider webs from floor to ceiling. Enron got totally tangled in it. I was able to miss being trapped by it but it was very difficult to get out of. With Enron out of the picture it would have to be a melee fight. Iuz was hitting a bit with his bow slowly picking off guys. Goldar and Pargo were totally ready to go at it. Goldar got a good hit on Pargo but Pargo wasn't down for long. He took a huge swing at Goldar's axe and knocked the blade clean off the handle. Goldar was stunned and only had a dagger for back up. I got into fray and tried to skewer Pargo. All I remember was looking down at my chest as a long sword was driven into my back and straight through the front of my armor. The point of the sword was covered in my blood. I could feel nothing. I heard my heart beats slowly dwindle. The room went black.

I came very close to death but something pulled me back. I woke up to find Kennet and Max hovering over me laying on hands. I looked over and saw Iuz bolt through one of doors to the basement. I figured the real fight had moved down there. I followed as quickly as I could.
I got down to the jail to find five people tied up and what must have been Mox's raven familiar. Two of those nasty cat creatures had shredded it and one of Kennet's apprentices. Goldar was attacking the mystery man that turned out to be one of those metal men. I did my best to attack the nasty metal cat but it was too quick for me. I finally got it chopped to bits.

We rescued Lord Cerwyn, his wife, his steward Brekan and the other of Kennet's apprentices. Lord Cerwyn was quite grateful but exhausted. He gave us rooms in the keep and said he would reward us in the morning. We locked up and looted Pargo and his henchmen. Goldar tried to interrogate them but got nothing.

Pargo and his cronies were executed for their treason. Lord Cerwyn gave us each 50 gold pieces and told us to get some new equipment from Argyle. I was quite content. Getting top quality arms and armor would sure help me fight better.

As all thing are the way they are in Branton our "rest" would soon some to an end. During the middle of the night, strange fires sprung up on the west side of town. We got out to find the arsonists. We quickly discovered some kobolds were to blame. We dispatched of them and tried to get some information from the last one alive. But of course the little barkers told us nothing. Something however about this was funny. The kobolds had never been so brazen as to attack the town. Iuz had a hunch that the fires were just a distraction. He could not have been more right!

We got over the smithy near the river to find some kobolds, some metal men and some rotting animated corpses coming out of the building. The metal men dropped the sacks they were carrying. Iuz got the kobolds pretty quickly and Goldar using Pargo heavy flail were able to destroy the metal men and corpses.

The bags they dropped contained the smithy tools. We found a couple of bodies by the forge. We were lucky they were not able to get away with stealing the tools.

Why do the kobolds and metal men want to shut down the forge so badly? They tried to just steal the ore but now they're attacking directly. I can only see that our next course of action is a decisive strike on the abandoned towers to put a stop to the metal men once and for all.