The protectors diary

[Pibemanden]

*A battered notebook filled with scratches and burn marks, when you open it you see that many of the pages are stained with blood. But the writing in the book is that of a wizard, a hastily scribbled headline indicates a new event in the life of this strange wizard…*  Hunting for cougar and the events that followed

 I was sitting on the benches in Hlint, like I normally do when I am thinking of what to do. A dwarf asks for my assistance with some smelting, I help her by casting bull’s strength and cat’s grace. Suddenly a half-giant announces that he’s going on a trip to hunt cougar, I enjoy hunting and joins a hunting party consisting of a drow female, an elf, one half-giant, Spungle, and a wizard whose race I couldn’t determine/remember. We head out to find a cougar and only one because the drow had a problem with me enjoying hunting. Well we got the cougar after some running and a ambush in the broken forest and an attack while running by some griffin nests, cursed the necromancers who are responsible for these beings, then the other mage suggests that we go clean a cave of its inhabitants of ogres. Everyone agrees that ogre hunting could be fun and we head out to find the cave. We are attacked by harpies on the way to the cave, but nothing exceptional and we do fine in the battle. We also get attacked by another cougar on the way; we kill it of course displeasing the drow drow who has a problem with hunting. We arrive at the cave and goes down into the darkness. First we encounter a skeletal ogre, some necromancer apparently though it was funny to mingle with the bodies of ogres. After a short battle we emerge victories, we continue deeper into the darkness and fights our way through the many ogres into a chamber filled with bat guano and some minerals. The other mage chisels some of the mineral of while the rest of the party rests a bit.  We decide that the resistance of the ogres are no match for our skills and goes even deeper into the cave. We get ambushed by a huge group of ogres as we progress, and we begin fighting back. But unfortunately some of the ogres have spotted the drow and me as easy targets, so they run past Spungle and goes straight for the archers. While I and the drow are trying to run more and more ogres join the fight, after being knocked unconscious twice my soul returns to soul mother. Later I was told, that I, when I woke up from being close to death didn’t realise that I was invisible and tried to attack the ogres who immediately spotted me and brought me down again. When my soul returned from Soul Mother I found myself back in Hlint, moments later Spungle Appeared, Spungle was too affected by his recent passing that he could go with me back to look for survivors. I went to the campsite outside Hlint, here I rested and meet another female drow, She helped me get back to pray by my grave to gain my former strength. On the way back to the cave I meet the drow who wanted the skin of a cougar in the first place, so I knew that someone survived. After praying at my grave I talked the drow into showing me where garlic could be found near Hlint, and together we went to Sielwood to gather garlic. On the way back to Hlint I had my second encounter with Soul Mother, when I meet some stink beetles who spotted an easy target and killed me with their gas. Luckly the Drow helped me once again getting to my grave and praying by it. When I returned to Hlint I meet the elf female again, she told me that she too had been in the hands of Soul Mother and the other drow and the mage survived the battle fleeing from the cave while invisible.

[Pibemanden]

Helping a paladin to find friends in Hlint, after saving her from death by goblins

  Sitting on the bench again watching the world go by, I suddenly see a wounded female paladin enter the west town gate. She is hunted by some red-light goblins; I get up and ready my crossbow shooting one of the goblins right in the heart while another, whom I later learned bore the name Na~Hani, take care of the second goblin. When we’re done fighting we go to see how the paladin is doing, she says a few words and collapses. We carry her to the Wild Surge Inn, we but her on a chair and I go look for Ayla who I recently saw in the back room making some food. I find Ayla and make her tend to the somewhat wounded paladin, after getting her story about being ambushed by the goblins and running back to Hlint, she takes a small nap in one of the inns rooms. I have by this time learned that she is a paladin of Toran and her name is Rowena. We go outside because Rowena is a bit scared of the drunken regulars of the Wild Surge. We head out to the benches because Rowena want to get some friends in Hlint, by the benches is four figures two I know, Klugger and Reef, and two unknown, a mage and some other guy wich I don’t really remember. After introducing Rowena to the people by the benches Klugger and the mage decides to go to the Broken Forest with Rowena and me, so we head out to put a stop to the undead plague in the forest. On the way to the forest we kill of a couple of ogre bandits. When we get there we fight the undead back to the ruins just before Sielwood. After doing that the party breaks up to go separate way, I go Sielwood to gather garlic and the rest of the party heads back to Hlint. When I am done getting garlic I head out to the goblin caves west of Hlint to mine some greenstone. While there I decide to call upon my friend Horthat the fairy dragon, I wish for him to help battle the goblins who’re setting up ambushes on the Hlint-Port Llast road. Mostly as a test of his fighting skills so I can find out whether he can protect me while getting garlic, greenstone and aloe. He manages fine with my help and I decide that I will call upon him when I need some assistance gathering components for my alchemy work. The result of this day is lots of greenstone dust, some garlic and 2 mystery minerals, that turn out to be Feldspar and Garnet.

[Pibemanden]

My first step into death on a trip to Sielwood and a cave in the said wood

  I started the day by going for some sand and trying to make Horthat kill the kobolds camping there after they attacked me, this didn’t work out as planed and I had to run and then kill a kobold with my skinning knife outside Hlint. Back in town I go look for help getting the sand and find Na~hani. I ask him to help me mine sand and we agree that we’ll go after I have rested at the Wild Surge. When I return at the benches Na~hani was talking to two other people who turned out to be Maelstrom and Reasta. They where going to Sielwood to find a necklace which was lost by a bard. We, Na~hani and I, decide to join up instead of going for sand. Another elf the one from the cougar-hunt joined in. When we got to the caves we where meet by kobolds and some bugbears, we managed fine and when we where done cleaning the cave of hostility Na~hani left. The rest of the party decided to kill some birds for their feathers we found their nests and killed them swiftly. On the way back to Hlint I ran a bit too far and didn’t notice the kobolds that made an ambush and killed me. My soul got some severe scratches in the hands of Soul Mother, but it returned to Hlint. I got into talking to Rowena and a male. They had been out getting cobber and where killed by the goblins who live in the deep caves. Rowena had to go, and later my senses powers told me that I had to go, because someone was waiting for me. I returned to the party and we went out to so I could pray by my grave. Unfortunately I where killed twice and the party almost died on the trip. I really hate those spiders…  Note to self; don’t go to Sielwood again unless invisible…  Back in Hlint I made some glass vares and ended the day at the inn.

[Pibemanden]

Dreadful information and taking the consequences of it…

  Trying to use Horthat help me dig up some sand I die again, I use invisibility to get to my grave too pray. Back in Hlint I meet Na~hani again, he wants to discuss a matter of great importance with me. First he apologised for his behaviour before we went to Sielwood, he talked about not killing the creatures living in the cave just for fun.  I had to tell him that I backed his views and I didn’t need an apology, he was glad to hear that but then he talked to me about a thing that had been worrying him for some time. He is apparently a follower of Toran, which I got the feeling of when he talked to Rowena when we rescued her. He had been saved by Toran once and feels that he’s now in dept to his deity. The gods apparently have problems, maybe related to a dream I once had, with people wanting to become gods themselves and had massive armies behind them. I felt bad listing to Na~hani and suggested that I should try to help the gods by finding some god to pray to. He agreed that this might help, and I too suggested joining a god’s clergy to help spread the word and save some people who are severely injured in battle for a good cause. I began my quest to help people by healing a half-orc which helped me dig up sand. I spend the rest of the day gathering stuff for making healing potions and making a few of them…

[Pibemanden]

An uneventful day, where I visited Soul Mother twice…

 I started the day by getting some garlic and made some more healing potions. Then I went to Rangers Vale in Sielwood to get some bandages because I knew they where cheap there. I then tried to mine some greenstone together with my friend Horthat the fairy dragon, but we both died… When I had returned to my grave to pray and got back to Hlint I joined a party set up to go mining in the Haven mines. We got trough the first level without problems, but the second level was too hard and Maelstrom and I died. I returned to my grave and then healed Spungle, I am really happy to help people get healthier and thinks that I will be a good cleric…

[Pibemanden]

About earning money and getting killed in a crypt…

 I sat on the bench as usual, suddenly this man approaches me. He wants to sell me some very expensive things, a ring and some clothes. I say to him that I can’t pay for the things, and he tells me about how to earn money by gathering things for other people who are making varies things. Maelstrom joins the discussion and I realise that I can earn a decent coin doing this. After Maelstrom and the other man left, I got invited to talk to a wemic. We talked a bit, the along comes this woman who wants to go to the crypts to get some money, I agreed to go based on the fact that the undead plague needed to be cut down a bit. We fared well down there, until I ran out of bandages and healing potions… Then the wemic almost died, and I died… I returned and made the wemic invisible, then got killed on the way back... Note to self: Never run out of healing again…

[Pibemanden]

The scared elf and hunting for bear

 I started my day at the bench waiting for fighters to help me mine greenstone. I meet Klugger and Spungle who where looking for cobber which could be found in the same cave as the greenstone. We agreed to travel together and got off to the red light cave. I got my greenstone mined and followed the two half-giants deeper into the caves. Here I got killed because I ran too far ahead and ran into a couple of goblins. I returned and prayed at my grave, I then returned to Hlint to avoid further deaths that day. I talked a bit to the wemic Jautuaza whom I meet yesterday. We talked a bit about my alchemy luck and then suddenly someone shoot an arrow against us. It turned out to be an elf that apparently was afraid of Jautuaza. The elf had a almost mute companion who got her down from the platform and close to the vemic. That helped and they got along fine. Meanwhile I made some healing potions and returned to the campfire outside Hlint. There I meet Rugo who helped me get even more greenstone, I then in return helped him get a brown bear hide in the High Forest. This day I also meet Orrin again, I healed himm and got some scrolls in return.

[Pibemanden]

Going trough Sielwood without invisibility, but with an army…

 The day started on the bench and ended in Fort Velensk … I meet a dwarf, Vig, who was keen on adventuring and wanted to go to the Hlint crypts together with me and a mage named Robert. We meet a lady just before entering the crypt, Her name was Jil…, so we went down I the crypts with a party of four. On the second level a fighter named Mongo joined us and helped a bit. When we got back to Hlint a small group of people joined us making the party even bigger, we then decided to go to the Sielwood to test our skills against the vile creatures who prevent a safe passing through the woods. We did just fine and with zero casualties we ventured trough the ruins and the broken forest. Now we decided that the time called for some topaz mining, and we hurried to the cave near fort Velensk the one with the ogres that wiped the entire party out the last time I was there. We fared a bit further in the caves than last time, but at last we where rushed by the ogres and the entire party, except Jil got killed. We returned to pray at our graves and I ended the day at a inn in Fort Velensk.

[Pibemanden]

Opening a resource store and the consequences…

 I was on a trip to Benhagen Mountains and didn’t get killed, thanks to the great clerics I journeyed together with. I got a lot of money from this trip and where happy to have attended this trip suggested by Kaizer. Then I opened my own resource store selling the resources close to Hlint. The store is running ok, but lacks customers until today where I meet a guy who has given me and order for elderberries, 800gp a box really something to get me started. Then I have been on some small trip in Hlint and the surrounding areas together with some of my friends, Jautuaza, Orrin, Rugo and Robert. I am pretty bound in Hlint right now because of an order from someone named Amber which hasn’t been delivered yet. I have talked to a guy named Joe about buying a house and we agreed to buy one as soon as we have got some other interested people and raised some more money.

[Pibemanden]

Becoming a faithful of Lucida

 I was visiting spellgard while I was looking for a house for Joe and me. While there I decided to visit the local temple, which happened to be a temple of Lucinda. I spend some time studying the tomes of their great library, and I talked a bit to the priests and the other people at the temple. Then I decided that this was the faith I had been looking for my whole life. And from now on I will place all my prayers to the Lady of Spells Lucinda. I have talked to some people about this change of faith and have only gotten positive responces, except for the halfling who thought it was silly to give up being an abjurer for being a cleric of Lucinda. Any way I would like to spend some more time in the temple than I do now, but have been forced to stay in Hlint because of my pack being too heavy for me. I have sent a warning to the ones who have orders that if they don’t get their stuff soon I will sell it to someone else.

[Pibemanden]

Settling down...

 I have been very busy gathering things and crafting molds and glass the last few months. I have become quite good at it and are currently trying to craft crystal rods that I can sell to the people that enchant these. I have decided to quit adventuring and become a full time crafter, if I use all my wake hours making stuff I'll soon become much skilled in glass making and alchemy.  I have also been doing my duties as an initiate in the church of Lucinda. I have healed and helped a lot of people. I use most of my time crafting though, so I don't see that many people in desperate need of help. But I usually help the people in and around Hlint.  I used some time to discuss my skills with some of the people I meet, that really helped me see my potential as a mage. But I still have no intentions of becoming an active adventurer again. My goals are to advance in the church of Lucinda and some day get to own a house from which I can conduct my business.

[Pibemanden]

The protectors

 After finishing of some deals in Hlint I return to the temple in Spellgard. I have since my last entry healed a couple of really injured people in Hlint, they where all pleased to have been helped and some even gave money to the church. I went back once to restock my bandages and give some money to the church along with the money I received for healing. When I was in Spellgard I meet some kind of knight wearing Lucinda’s symbol on his shield. I approached him and asked if he was a faithful, because it's strange for me seeing a knight being faithful to the Lady of spells. We talked a bit and he revealed to me that he was a paladin in the Lady's service and that he also was a spell user like me. He told me that the ranks of paladins where small and only a few where committed enough to both focus on the melee part of combat and still be able to choose the right spells to prepare for combat. I was really interested in knowing more about his order, but he was in a hurry and had to assist some of the church’s Clerics in a journey to another isle. I hope to see him again or some of his order, until then I will try to study the library’s of Spellgard and talking to the clergy to find out more.

[Pibemanden]

The divine favour

 I has sitting on the bench in Hlint, talking a bit to Acacea who where searching for a puppy she saw by the benches. Then these two old men joins me and begins talking about who old they are, the one that seems to be the oldest walks slowly towards the town gate and disappears. Acacea and I talks a bit more to the old man, then suddenly Acacea drops a stink bomb. This causes the man to have a heart attack, and falls to the ground. I run around town trying to find someone to help me, but no one seems to notice me. I then try on last time to wake up the old man I end up breaking his arm not making the scene look nicer. I then thought that the only one that could help me bring this man back to life was the Lady of Spells herself, so I prayed to her that his old heart would start beating again. Then a miracle occurred the old man started breathing and his heart began to beat again. I bound some bandages around his arm to make him feel better, and helped him get up on the bench again. He later recovered from all his injuries and was very glad that I helped him. I told the clergy at Spellgard about this event, they where very excited about it and said that if I could make Lucinda revive a person at my current status as an initiate I will become a great cleric. I then told them about the paladin I saw and that I wanted to know more about the duties of a paladin before I made my decision about joining the clergy. They tried to convince me that being a cleric would be the best for one like me, especially after me telling about the dead old man. But at last they directed me to the paladins training facilities. There I talked to the paladin I met before. I told him about how I was fascinated by the skills of the melee fighters he then told me that if I wanted to join it shouldn’t just be about being a melee fighter. I should be willing to sacrifice my life for the protection of the weave if I was that I would indeed become a paladin some day. He then asked me a bit about myself and I told him about my spell school of choice, abjuration. He was very happy to hear that I specialised in abjuration as I could become a member of the same chapter as him. Before I left Spellgard he told me to get a sword and begin training while travelling with friends, he told me that it might be very hard to hurt someone with the sword before you get more experienced and that I should train for at least a month before I could use the full potential of the sword. I then left for Hlint to train and to make sure that the adventures that travel through the city will be cured of their wounds.

[Pibemanden]

When undead attack…

 I was walking through Hlint when suddenly Mith came running around, on fire. This was just a sign of things to come because as I walked down the north road Hlint was attacked by undead from the crypts. Garenth, Talon and me defeated the foul creations but Garenth was touched by a wraith in the process. He soon after passed out and began having visions. He saw himself buried surrounded by scratching hands on his coffin. He kept hearing a voice saying the name Kobal. I have decided to contact this Kobal to find out whether he knows something about this attack. I have found out where he lives and has sent him a letter with some questions. These happenings were indeed strange but even stranger were what happened when I was walking from Spellgard to Hlint the other day. Suddenly I was transferred into another plane. This was what I was told by the people at this place at least. The people I knew that where at this plane was Ayla and Rolf. I told them what happened but soon after I had finished my tale I was standing in Hlint. Apparently I must have found some shortcut from Spellgard to Hlint that involves some plane walking.

[Pibemanden]

Joining the ranks of the paladins

 After some time of training with my sword and some time spend in Hlint I was assigned to find out what happened and what caused the undead to roam the streets of Hlint. I had called upon the citizens of Mistone to help me; especially the Lucindithes. I got some answers and some said that the might make it but it ended up being Ayla, Tia and me that where going. We hoped to get some people in Hlint to help us out. As we marched for Hlint we meet a bard who is coming from the moors just east of the town. He approaches us and we see that he is very frightened and has some scratches. He tells us that he has been attacked by some undead creatures in the moors and that he tried to use his invisibility spells but they all failed. I send him off to Hlint and talk the party into investigating this presumed disturbance in the weave. We enter the moors and find that it’s only the regular lizardmen that inhabits it. We are just about to leave and go back to our investigation in Hlint when we spot some ghouls that are walking around in the moors. We soon find that the undead are coming from a rift in the moors that comes from a recent movement in the earths crust. After some though we end up going down into the rift and find ourselves in an old structure. We make your way to a chamber inhabited by a psychotic male that tells us that he is trying to summon the master. Most of his talk doesn’t make any sense at all. When he is done talking he tries to attack us with a spell but end up turning himself into a ghoul. He attacks and we slay him at once. He had made some kind of summoning circle before we arrived and it seems that this is the course of all the disturbances in the area. After taking a brief look at it I decide that it might be broken by casting dispel magic. I try and succeed in destroying the circle. Then in a flash we are teleported back to Spellgard and I am told to report back to the paladin order. I tell them what happened and why I didn’t help the citizens of Hlint with their problem. After giving a full report the head of the order tells me that I have proven myself worthy of joining their ranks.

[Pibemanden]

ATTACK ON MISTONE

 Mistone was attacked by Bloods forces today; it was horrible wave after wave of trolls, giants and constructs. Soul Mother wanted a piece of me too, really not my day  The teachings in Spellgard

 After joining the ranks of Lucindas protectors of the weave I have been training in some of the things that my branch specialises in. I have been training both my arcane and fighting skills. In the arcane classes they teach me to cast my spells without moving. This art is very hard and might take some months or maybe years to master. Meanwhile I try to train my combat skills to become a better frontline fighter. When I am done doing these classes I hope that I am able to strike faster and more precise than I did before and be able to cast my spells without failures. I have also met a fellow protector, Maelker, who serves the pure combat part of the protectors. He seems that he is just as keen on defending the weave as I am. We travelled a while together and retrieved the ashes for the little girl in Krandor together with some other Lucindites. We also found some very strange spiders that apparently resided near a tower outside Krandor. We never discovered the true nature of these beasts but I have heard that they usually is found in the great rift, a very hostile area on Dreagar.

[Pibemanden]

A sort of vacation to Saudira

 I was having some time off from the temple after days of guard duty and decided to visit some far of place where I could get some rest and maybe some new experiences. I decided to go to Saudira which lies in the middle of the desert on Dreagar. I was kind of enjoying life in the local inn and didn’t really think that anything interesting would happen. Then suddenly the town gets filled with some adventures that are just passing by. A man runs towards some of the adventures that happen to be members of the more shunned races of the world, goblins and dark elves, he accused them of being responsible of the disappearance of his son and later the accusations also include the disappearances of other people that used to live in the town. Some of the adventurers talk the man down and makes him understand that it isn’t the drow or the goblin that took his son. Things turn out for the worse when a local law enforcer that is clearly a toranithe comes by. He also accuses the drow and goblin for kidnapping all the missing people. After talking him down too the adventures suggest that we could help the man, Peter, find his boy. We also found out that two of the people who disappeared were digging in some ruins trying to find a big treasure which no-one has ever heard of. We decide that the two treasure diggers must have found something that had made them disappear. We searched their house/shed and found a secret tunnel leading from their shed to a place in the desert not far from their dig site. We made our way through the tunnel which was full with rats were rats and were cats. When we arrived in the desert we where attacked by some one who was apparently guarding the ruins. I fell twice trying to get to the temple, but luckily I was resurrected by some of the clerics in the party. When we arrived in the ruins we where spotted and the guards began killing the kidnapped people. We saved two of them but all of the others where dead and we left them there. We also found a very interesting crystal that apparently was enchanted with some very strong magic. Several party members where drawn to it including me. When I looked into it I saw all the happiest moments that I could remember. I couldn’t let go and kept staring into it. One of the party members that weren’t drawn to the crystal threw a cape over the crystal and I was freed of the magic. We got out of the cave and then suddenly a gnome member of the party rushed out of the cave and encouraged us to run as fast as we could. We escaped to a place a bit away from the cave and found out that there had been an explosion that where caused by the gnome that had shot an arrow towards the crystal. We soon got back to saudira and reported what we had seen and what had happened. The towns people where sad but understood that we could have done nothing to prevent this. Shortly I set out to get back to Spellgard and got there some days later.

[Pibemanden]

Almost done with training

  After long hours of honing my combat skills in the desert against the snakes and trying to get my arcane spells cast without the usual gestures. I have finally arrived at the point where I can begin to pray to the Lady and have a chance to receive those gifts from her. Besides from that I’ll when I have finally mastered the arcane and combat knowledge begin to work as a true paladin in the Lady’s service.  My next classes will be on the subjects; elven and advanced alchemy. These two classes will help me in my work as a defender and as a scholar of the arcane magic. Elven will be good but also hard to learn for me; not only because many of the Lady’s followers are elves, but also because most of the really good books on arcane knowledge is written in elven (at least the ones at the temple). I also need to expand my alchemy knowledge to make a larger variety of potions to aid me in the heat of battle.  *In the margin is written* Remember to get some more information on the angels tear story

[Pibemanden]

The death and wake of a dear friend

  I can’t believe that Ayla is dead. She who has helped so many people overcome their first difficulties with finding friends and maybe given some advice on how to live their lives. I am also deeply affected by her death and had to go to her wake which was held outside blackford castle. I told her would be husband Gier, Skarp’s brother, that I was really sad that this had come to pass and gave him my condolences.  The wake was attended by a large number of people. Most of them I knew in but also some strangers. Everyone was gathered to remember the great woman Ayla for her great deeds and good advice. A couple of hours after the wake had started a priest of Aeridin joined it and explained that Ayla’s belief stated that she would be all right even though she had died. It made me light up a bit and I walked from the wake sad but at the same time determined that this wouldn’t put me down for a longer period of time.   I’ll always remember Ayla for helping me and I am sure she is well where ever her soul is now although it was sad to see her leave this world so early.

[Pibemanden]

Making progress

 I have finally mastered the art of still spelling and can now cast freely in my armour. This blessing comes together with my promotion that makes me suited for both guard and field duty. I look forward to joining the others of my chapter in combat. I can also use this progress in my part time job as a glass maker to get sand from the desert so I can fill in my order quicker and get some better equipment. I have received my lightning enchantment for my short sword from Rolf but I am still waiting for my new armour from Skarp. I am now beginning to embrace the elvish language and truly come to understand it in all detail. But it’s going to take some time. Perhaps even years… But I hope that I’ll get better at it soon so I can continue my arcane studies and become a better user of the weave. I have also on a side note been to the Dire woods and found out that it was not at frightening as I thought as the group I was travelling with took no casualties.