The Diary of Silvan the Dryad
Session date: 7.9.2003

2.2.

We came back to the city after visiting the old man, who'd told me
 the value of many things.

Buran suggested we go talk to the forester and see if he'd be
 willing to give us a boat. Nobody protested, so he went to talk
 with the man. Longfoot went with Buran, since he had a way with
 words. This left me alone with the demon and the undead. I didn't
 like it at all - those two scare me, even though the demon has
 treated me nicely at times, too.

After a good while, they came back. They said there had been people
 recruiting folks for some sort of scouting mission. Apparently
 there'd been trouble with the undead earlier. The forester had told
 Buran and Longfoot he wasn't interested in giving us a boat, but
 suggested we'd join the scouting party instead. Buran thought the
 forester was a little clueless about what the master was doing, and
 wanted us across the river so he could spy on us.

The forester got us past the scribes doing the recruiting and told
 them to give us any equipment we wanted. I took a hand axe as my
 weapon. A large thing, I have to hold it with my both hands in
 order to wield it. The way axes are used to cut down trees adds to
 the intimidating feel of the weapon, as well. This is truly a
 powerful thing I'm now carrying. 

The others equipped themselves, as well.

The man in charge said we'd get going when it was dark, because
 these undead didn't sense like normal undead and couldn't see well
 in the dark. Longfoot protested that he couldn't see well in the
 dark either, but was told to deal with it.

An elf calling himself Rendan, leader of the sword elves, came to
 talk to us recruits. He said our mission would take about two days.
 We'd cleanse this side of the river of the undead, and find 
 out what the Great Burning Hollow had been going on. He introduced
 Renael, his lieutenant, who'd lead this mission. All in all, there
 were 28 men going on this mission.

We marched out of the city. While passing Wiltshire Keep, the top of
 it was suddenly illuminated by a lightshow that made our eyes hurt.
 Some grumbled about Lord Wiltshire's magical experiments, but the
 lieutenant said Wiltshire was influental enough to do whatever he
 wanted. This was slightly odd, since we saw Wiltshire die and even
 returned his body to the keep.

After marching a bit more, the lieutenant stopped us and said the
 road ahead was broken by a lake. He wanted volunteers to act as
 scouts and messengers. A mage was living in the middle of a lake
 and might know something about what was going on. The lieutenant
 wanted somebody to go fetch the mage so he could talk with him.
 After a moment's hesitation, I volunteered, since I wanted to
 finally do something useful. The others decided to come along to
 make sure I didn't run into any trouble, but the lieutenant 
 said our scouting party was becoming bloatware and told Grunk to
 sit and stay like a good undead.

The lieutenant gave us a crystal we could use to contact the mage,
 and Buran was confident he'd correctly memorized the sequence for
 it. We left for the lake, and there was some peasant who tried to
 follow us, but the lieutenant stopped him. We saw more lights and
 shouting coming from the Wiltshire Keep.

We came to the lake and found a boat waiting. We gave the signal,
 but there was no response. I found some tracks a human had left,
 leading to the west. Longfoot suggested we follow the tracks, but
 Buran said we should report to the lieutenant first, and said he'd
 go report no matter what we others did. I didn't want him to leave
 me behind, so I went along, and the others followed.

The lieutenant said the mage had probably left for a walk or
 something, and sent two sword elves and me to follow the tracks.
 After I'd shown them the tracks and we'd followed them, we came to
 a fresh tree that had been burned down. Then we came to a strange
 stone formation. The elves commented about witches, and started to
 study the now-burnt ground. I saw a corpse to the north, and
 pointed it to the elves. It was Grafnar, the mage we'd been sent to
 find. He'd been hit at least by a fireball and several throwing
 weapons, one of which had severed his arm.

We looted his body and returned. Some suggested Grafnar might have
 been killed while conducting an experiment, but the lieutenant
 didn't think so. We marched onwards.

We spotted an ambush before it was sprung. The lieutenant said the
 undead weren't usually smart enough to lay an ambush, and wondered
 if there might be a more powerful undead directing them and if we
 should turn back for reinforcements. In the end he decided to
 continue anyway. He rearranged our lines for the battle and led us
 forward.

When the battle began, Buran spent a while arguing with his god
 again. I didn't even try to understand the logic in the god's
 answers. Aside from that, the battle went smoothly and the undead
 were beaten without difficulty. I didn't get to do anything, even
 though I suppose it was just a good thing. *cute pout*

We were offered a share of the loot. Grunk was the most eager of us
 to loot, and found money which was divided among us. I didn't get
 anything because I hadn't participated in the fight, though. I
 tried to find somebody who'd give me something as well, but they
 were all mean cutthroats and wouldn't. *pout*

The lieutenant said these undead had been unusually agile, and
 seemed to also need their eyes to see. Having dealt with the
 ambush, we got moving again.

3.2.

We began to reach the river and the lieutenant asked for a volunteer
 for another scouting mission. I stepped forward and was tasked with
 checking out the area. Aside from a few corpses by a ship, I didn't
 see anything particularly interesting. I reported this and the
 entire team moved to the beach.

The lieutenant then asked for volunteers to secure the ship. Grunk
 was one. He found cannon balls and black powder inside. He thought
 the ship might've been attacked so the crew couldn't report about
 the broken bridge, and the lieutenant agreed. The lieutenant
 suspected the weapons might've been going to pirates, and believed
 orcs might be responsible. In support of this theory, the ship's
 log didn't contain any notes of the journey it had been on. The
 lieutenant also noted that so far we hadn't seen anybody who
 might've been the ship's captain.

The lieutenant decided we'd still check out the area to the north. 
 After marching for about half a mile, he took the signaling device 
 from Buran in order to give some signals to the elven port on the
 other side of the river. After traveling for another half a mile,
 the lieutenant noted that the northernmost lighthouse was still
 giving signals, while the one on the graveyeard isle wasn't. We
 heard the distant sound of miners at work.

The elven port was lit and there seemed to be no undead about. The
 lieutenant wondered why the people at the port hadn't sent anybody
 to this side of the river yet. He thought about making a raft, but
 was a little hesitant because the currents in the river were so
 strong.

As we were chatting about rafts, the harbor master from the port 
 responded to the signals we'd been sending. The lieutenant asked
 for volunteers to come with him to cross the river, and all of us
 signed up for it. The guy who'd been trying to spy on us earlier
 also volunteered.

A barge arrived to pick us up. The lieutenant and three sword elves
 boarded it with us. As a bonus with the barge came an old man, who
 unleashed a barrage of questions at us. Apparently they didn't know
 anything about the undead on the other side of the river. After
 wondering about this, we got aboard the barge and to the other
 side.

On the other side, we persuaded the lieutenant to keep us in his
 employ, and send us to Cenoby to conduct scouting. By now we were
 already pretty tired, and found an old beard who told us the
 nearest inns were in Aries and Cenoby. The old beard also told us
 the owner of the nearby mine had had business with the "pirate"
 ship, and the ship had taken some cargo from there.

We set camp in the harbor and I went to sleep in the nearest tree.
 In the morning we predictably woke up. Our pursuer didn't openly
 follow us as far as we could tell, so I stayed behind to see if he
 would. He did, the creep.

I rejoined the others at the mine. The mine owner reluctantly agreed
 to pay us for information about the "pirate" ship, claiming to have
 no real interest in it.