Post
by sigfriedmcwild » Mon Jan 27, 2020 1:41 am
From the Journal of Iefyr, elven sky raider of the 1st circle
I heard that A'lari, one of the T'skrang swordmasters that's been making forays outside the Kaer, was going treasure hunting and looking for other adepts to join him. It seemed like a good way to start putting together some resources for my future plans and maybe build a bit of reputation, so I snuck out with some excuse to the parents.
We left Throal and started making our way northwest, to go around the mountains and reach the snake river. The first couple of days of travel were uneventful, although I suspect I made myself look like a fool by constantly asking the others what this new noise or sight was. I also started drafting a rough map of our travels.
On the 3rd day we tried a shortcut through the foothills and encountered a number of creatures called q'wril, the others seem to have had previous experiences with them. Rather than going around we fought them to stock up on meat for the trip. The good news is that we all made it through the fight (even if U'k'talla and Jael's goat Headbut got injured) and roasted q'wril tastes delicious. The bad news is that they are annoying little buggers to fight and when I tried to use a battle bellow on one of them, I ended up stratling A'lari instead, ooops.
On the 5th day we reached the river and turned east. A day later we found a bend that matched one of the clues A'lari had, something about "a river on three sides". We spend a while searching and ended up attracting the attention of 3 eagles (maybe they smelt the q'wril meat? Also they are truly majestic birds, I think I'll try to have a tame one as a mascot when I get my airship). The fight against the eagles was even more aggravating than the one against the q'wrils, as they kept swooping in and out like a windling trying to prank you. Eventually we managed to catch 2 of them just as they got in range and knock them to the ground and the 3rd left, but not before Skarn got himself a good raking (I would never have though a bird could do that much damage to and obsidiman).
Jael tried to take the one eagle we didn't outright kill and tame it, but the eagle wanted no part of that and took off almost immediately. We went back to the search and eventually noticed a strange pile of rocks some distance away.
On the 7th day we approached the rocks and with some work revealed the cave they were blocking, inside there were a handful of q'wrils we dispatched with ease and a chest full of valuables. We also found a letter addressed to the "son I don't have" asking to sing a song in his name in exchange for the treasure.
The way back was largely uneventful, except just a couple of days outside Throal, on the 11th day of the trip, we were approached by a fellow claiming to be collecting taxes, the situation was very suspicious and we tried to convince him to go away, but he wouldn't have it and drew hiw bow on us. A'lari approached him pretending to be carrying the valuables (actually safely on Headbut's back), at the same time U'k'talla charged a hidden ambusher, which precipitated another fight. Once the leader realized that A'lari was not in fact carrying the valuables, he made a beeline for Headbut, but was knocked out by Jael and U'k'talla before he could do anything. In the end we managed to capture two of the bandits, another died and the last two fled.
We took the prisoners with us back to Throal for judgement and learnt they had overheard some of our plans and had followed us.
Attached is a sketched map of the areas visited on this journey