30th of Tarsakh, 1376, Year of the Bent Blade

We go to Captain Darren's office. Gilbert hasn't shown up for work. Captain Darren asks us to join him on a walk to Gilbert's house. We arrive at his house, and asks us to guard the back. I go up to watch from the roof. Vondederp and Vondal are asked to open the door. Captain Darren goes in and upstairs, and finds Gilbert stabbed in the chest, with a curved dagger. Gilbert has no tattoo. 

 We head back to Captain Darren's office. He asks us for help on the 5th of Mirtul, as well as help with the orcs, right away.

 We get Lilac, and head out.

 In the evening, we are greeted by a bunch of orcs. We destroy them, but they did hurt us. We stop for the night.

 

29th of Tarsakh, 1376, Year of the Bent Blade

We are heading through town and Guntor runs up to us. He says that there will be slavers coming at midnight. We decide to inform Captain Darren, with Vondal and Guntor grumbling. Vondal told Gilbert that we would stop the slavers after they got in the city.

We set up near the gate. Some thugs have appeared. Slavers come and we attack. The thugs and guards join the fight with the slavers, so we also fight them - but make sure to just knock them out.

After the fight, more guards join and get the captain. The captain claims to not have known, even though we had told Gilbert.

Captain Darren was disturbed. There are a lot of curved dagger tattoos on the slavers, and some of the guards. He asks us to come by at 9am to help him speak with Gilbert. 

Good guards, Jeremiah and Roderick show us a note:

 

Guntor goes to the Sleeping Goblin for the night. We go to our normal inn.

27th of Tarsakh, 1376, Year of the Bent Blade

See Captain Darren. Talk to Gilbert. Let him know about the banshee. Still wants us to go south. Vandederp finds out there are trolls and he walks off - and seems extra eager for a fight. He mumbles something about dead parents and tries to hurry us up.

We get to the farm that Gilbert mentioned, and there had been a fight. And big feet prints. Vandederp immediately starts tracking. We find them, trolls, and Vandederp charges. Damn! We manage to beat them with fire eventually - they regenerate. Farmer thanks us with lunch. We return to town. We let the guards know that we got the trolls and that fire was an excellent way to fight them. We head to the inn to rest and bathe (trolls are stinky!).

 

20th of Tarsakh, 1376, Year of the Bent Blade

We go and see Captain Darren to see if we can help with any problems. His secretary, Gilbert, mentions a couple problem areas outside of town. One sounds like it could possibly be Hondal, so we tell him that we'll look into that one. 

We head north, outside of town.

 

25th of Ches, 1376, Year of the Bent Blade

We go to the Captain's office and are told the bugs are called Ankhegs. Apparently, they burrow and will multiply to numbers enough to destroy towns. And Captain Darren mentioned that if we needed work, he could probably help us out. The wizard that figured out what the heads were, is named Zhartan.

We asked if there was a library in town, and Gilbert said that we should try Stefan Lightseeker, the sage might be good to see.

So we head over to Stefan's, and he says that my research subject is intriguing, and he'll help me find information, if I can get him a book from an Olencamp Ruins in the mountains.

Of course, we say "Sounds good" and head out, with a new helper, Lilac, the donkey.

The book we seek is Treaty on Planetars by Teatron.

 

21st of Ches, 1376, Year of the Bent Blade

We continued walking and run into that salesman we saved before. Vanderderp bought a bedroll and Vondal nearly blew his top - but instead bopped Vandederp on the head. I will never understand them. We also bought a bag of holding. I suspect that will be rather handy if we continue on our trips!

We got to the gates and the guards don't believe our stories or that the other guards said we should go in and speak of the bug monsters, but they do bring us to the guard captain. It feels typical to be marched through town like guards - I wish people weren't scared of me, I don't want to hurt them.

This place is so BIG! There are so many people and alleys and even garbage! And then we get to a square and there are more roads and they are huge, and crowded. And I am already lost - if there wasn't so much new stuff I would believe that we had walked in circles. We arrive at a stone building with a statue of Tyr in front. We enter, and go to the back  and enter an office with the Captain and a clerk (Gilbert). The guards leave, and we speak to Captain Darren about the giant ground bugs, as Orrig, Sylvia and Jereth have asked us to. The captain says that Jereth is actually distant family, so he hears us out - and asks if we would be willing to hunt them down. Of course Vondal and Vandederp jumped at the opportunity. So after we stock up our rations, we head back out of town. Barnaby, the guard we met when we entered, mentioned that if these bugs were real, his cousin would like to study the stomach juices, and handed us some vials. We head out to night and set up camp.