Revision as of 22:34, 22 July 2009

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History

Youth

A young elf at the tender age of 14 was exposed to her first crime while on a walk with her twin elder siblings. A little boy about 5 years old with jet black hair had snuck on to the back of a carriage and was looting the contents of a trunk secured to it. Sadly for Caelyn, her innocence was shattered when she witnessed the repercussions. The carriage screeched to a halt, a burly man stormed out, harshly cuffed the boy, and threw him to the ground causing the boy to become stunned and winded. After he snatched up the things that were stolen from him, he proceeded to beat the boy and to teach him a final lesson, slashed deeply at his face with a knife down the boy's left cheek. With that, the carriage rambled on down the road with the boy left to his wounds in the dusty street. Caelyn desperately wanted to run down to help the boy, but her brother and sister held her back, chiding to let humans deal with their own problems.

Redemption

Over the course of 17 years, Caelyn never forgot about the boy and how helpless she felt. When she had reached the age of 31, though her aging had slowed considerably due to her elven nature and did not look a day over 20, she finally had a chance to atone her lack of assistance that haunted her. At the edges of the Loren Forest, Goblinoids had surrounded a young man with dark hair and a scar down his left cheek. Things were looking dire for him, but Caelyn was able to save his life by leaping into the fray.

After their enemies lay slain, the man introduced himself as Joshua Blackthorn and Caelyn told him the tale of coming across him several years ago. Joshua then told the elven girl about his sordid past as a teenager. It turned out that the "lesson" the carriage driver taught him had only fueled his anger and caused him to escalate his crimes. It had elevated to the point where he was wanted by the authorities of several towns in the area. When asked why he was in a fight with a bunch of creatures with nothing of worth far away from any town, his deep blue eyes flared in hatred. A few years ago, Joshua had lost his entire family when an army of goblins, orcs, and beastmen had raided his hometown and burnt it to the ground while he was away, but only after torturing the villagers. Ever since then, he stopped his petty crimes and pledged his life to ridding the world of such creatures. Given that Caelyn had devoted her beliefs to Kurnous the Hunter and his wife Isha, she too followed the stricture of doing everything in her power to force them out of the forest. Since they had a common goal, the two decided to work together. It was not long before the two fell deeply in love. Unfortunately, destiny was not to remain kind to the young lovers.

Exile

Members of Caelyn's family were extremely traditional. After hearing of her working with a human, and a bandit on top of that, they forbade her from ever seeing him again. She tried to explain to them that Joshua had changed his ways and has since developed a common cause as the elves, but it fell upon deaf ears. After several months of strife, Caelyn knew that she had just one chance to have her family understand. She was going against traditions, but she was still their daughter and hoped that they would accept her choices. She stood side by side with Joshua and with their hands interlaced, announced that they were in love. However instead of dissipating the situation, it exploded. Caelyn was disowned by her family and banished from the elven lands. Though heartbroken, she held her head high and with her integrity in tact, left the only home she knew to start a new life.

Separation

Caelyn and Joshua had several happy, peaceful years together. One rainy night in June, however, the couple's lives were shattered. Joshua's past from 12 years ago caught up with him and the authorities from the Empire burst into their home to arrest him. Due to eluding them for so long, he received the harsh sentence of death. Luckily, he managed to escape, but knew that he could not go back to anything he was associated with for he'd be found immediately and went on the run.

Caelyn knew that they would have to spend time apart in order for his safety. 6 years had passed and throughout that time, along with her trusty horse, Fenrir, she continued to secretly search for him all the while taking on odd jobs, following rumors, and continuing to vanquish their shared enemies.

Journal

April 10, 2514

In my ongoing quest to search for my dear Joshua, my travels have lead me to the town of Nuln on April 6. As I entered, I saw an immense pole in the middle of the city. Folks were calling it "Craig's Pole" and on it were several pieces of paper. With my limited reading skills of Old Worlder, I was able to discern that they were job postings. There was a giant of a man covered in scars holding up a young kid asking him what they were. I told him to let the kid go, but before I could answer him, a crier had sauntered up the road shouting about recruiting brave souls and to report to a certain address. I asked around for directions, but it wasn't until I overheard an apple vendor telling the scarred man where it was that I found my way there.

An Estalian gentleman was coming out of the house as I was making my way up the path. After cordially exchanging nods, I knocked on the door. A tiny whisp of a man, Zacharie, answered and shuffled me right in without even listening to why I was there. He offered me some delicious orange juice which I graciously accepted. The job was to bring back the torso of a giant. After being offered 10 gold crowns upon agreement and 15 more upon success, I accepted as it would take me to parts of the world I had never explored. Perhaps I could find more leads on my beloved. Little did I know that one of my employers would be a dwarven bumpkin. She made a snide remark comparing me to an ornamental sword so I responded by pulling my sword on her. It seemed to at least silence her long enough for her to process that I was not just an "ornamental" face. Hmpf. The scarred man, Otell, he was called, was also among the hired.

We met with Heinrich Klemperbad, the wizard, and he explained the particulars. The ruffian dwarf, Janna, had heard where a giant was likely to be: in the mountain pass near Ubersreik. After making some preparations, we promptly left the next morning. The day was pleasant and uneventful. I rode slightly ahead on Fenrir to serve as an outrider. We made camp and had a peaceful night.

The next morning started out warm and with clear skies. Around mid-afternoon, however, we noticed a dark storm cloud rolling in. Soon, we were caught in a torrential downpour. Needing to find shelter, we ventured off the road to the edge of the woods nearby. We heard a strange sound similar to a lost sheep and three of us decided to investigate while Janna worked on trying to set up camp.

Otell took the lead, I had his cover, and Zacharie was hidden behind me. We came up to a clearing and saw a dead elk with two beastmen devouring it. Four chaos mutants were with them as well. A fight broke out when one of the mutants alerted the others of our prescence. With a few close calls and Janna running in to help, we managed to kill off all of them, even the ones who tried to escape. Begone foul beasts in the name of Isha and Kurnous!

Janna mentioned that she had seen an inn about 45 minutes away so we packed up our gear to make our way over there. Seemed like making camp was going to be an impossibility in the rain. We arrived at the inn, but the gate was locked and no answer after knocking. Otell picked Janna up so that she can see if the place was abandoned, but mentioned that the lights were on and there was another gate off to the right that was open. As we were making our way up to the main building, we heard singing coming from inside. Otell knocked on the front door and it immediately fell silent. A fat man, Otto the inn keeper, opened the door and I was able to see there was a road warden and another man with a mop and bucket inside.

They all looked rather nervous. Supposedly they were hit by a band of bandits just hours before. The road warden, Hans, started badgering us with questions. Given that I had Fenrir and the donkey we purchased to help carry our gear, I asked if there were stalls available to board them. Janna and I headed over there. As I was approaching the stable door, Fenrir seemed a bit unsettled. When I opened the stable I knew why: six horses stampeded out in a scared frenzy. After securing our two equines, we rounded up the other horses. They were all very reluctant to get back into the stable as something had obviously spooked them. Just as we were securing the last horse, Otell and Zacharie came to join us under the guise that they were retrieving money for our stay from the dwarf.

I wanted to know what had scared the horses so much so I climbed up into the hayloft and found one reason that certainly could have scared them: there was a little boy, gruesomely killed at the base of the ladder leading up to a trap door in the ceiling. The poor child had gnaw marks all over him and a couple significant chunks bitten out of his body. I signaled to the others and Otell came up to investigate. We saw rain water and blood on the ladder leading up, but he had seen nothing even after looking out onto the roof. We closed and latched the door on our way out and made our way back to the inn thinking we were probably taking too long and raising suspicion.

Zacharie slyly inquired if there was a stable boy available to take care of our horses to see if we could catch the strange trio in a lie, but they simply said that he had run off during the fight because he must have gotten scared. Otto, served us some stew. Janna warned us against it and to let her have the first bite. Good thing, for there was certainly something wrong with it. We refused to eat the rest, but not having enough evidence to do anything further, we had them show us to the common room where we'd be staying.

After seeing the state of the filthy room, Zacharie threw a fit saying he'd rather sleep with the horses down at the stable. Otell went along with him thinking no one should be out alone given the incidents of the day. When the inn keeper left, he locked the door behind him. Now certain that something strange was afoot, Janna went to work on getting the door unhinged so that we could make our escape. I glanced out the windows of the room and saw that Otell and Zacharie had geared up for battle with weapons drawn. Soon I saw why: there was some ghastly insectoid creature on the roof of the stable.

I tried shooting arrows through the window to assist them when it attacked, but it ended up being unnecessary as Otell made quick work of it. Knowing that this thing was associated with the suspicious trio at the inn, he carried it with him and Janna and I heard a crash that must have been Otell throwing the body through the window. She had gotten the door unhinged at this point and we kicked in some doors of the private rooms which we were told were occupied. Of course, they weren't.

We made our way downstairs to meet up with our party and started hearing some chanting. Behind the bar was a stone slab slightly ajar and after pushing it aside, it revealed stairs to a cellar. Otell threw the mutant's body down it to see if it would cause a reaction first, but nothing happened. The room was just a root cellar. Zacharie found another trap door in the floor of the cellar and though we threw the body down again, there was still nothing. Just louder chanting.

I laid down on the floor to be able to hang my head upside down to see into the chamber and saw that there was nothing but five corpses and five more people tied to the walls, but unconscious. I swung down and saw deeper into the chamber an octagon was drawn on the floor and four men were singing and chanting around a glowing green statue of a demon. Who else would they be other than Hans, Otto, the mopping man, and another who we hadn't seen?

A green demon was summoned and it promptly killed two of them in one swipe. I've seen plenty of chaos monsters in my 49 years of life, but none as frightening as this. Zacharie had come down as well, but he was scared stiff. Otell and Janna followed. I shot an arrow that normally would have killed any beast on the spot right into the demon, but it still stood. Luckily Otell finished him off with his mighty axe.

When the dust had cleared and our foes lay dead, I noticed a statue of the demon in the octagon. I asked to borrow Janna's hammer and not wanting to take any risks, smashed it into a powder. We made our way upstairs to the inn carrying the survivors and the perished with us. One of the survivors was the actual inn keeper and shockingly for him, he did not even know there was a chaos temple underground. Zacharie took the proper steps to ensure that they would not return while Janna and I gave the fallen a proper burial.

The next day, actual road wardens came in to check on the inn and they requested to take statement from all of us. They also asked that we go and speak to their chief in Stimmigen. When everyone started coming to, the coachman offered to give us a ride there.

What a start to an adventure...