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	As everyone knew, this region was wine country. The finest estate in the area was the Von Kurtz, owned by Baron [[Wilhelm Von Kurtz III]]. He was known to have a wife from Cathay who was the third daughter of the emperor, and a few children, though most were grown. His grandfather, Wilhelm I, disappeared mysteriously 67 years ago.		As everyone knew, this region was wine country. The finest estate in the area was the Von Kurtz, owned by Baron [[Wilhelm Von Kurtz III]]. He was known to have a wife from Cathay who was the third daughter of the emperor, and a few children, though most were grown. His grandfather, Wilhelm I, disappeared mysteriously 67 years ago.
−	Heinrich mentions that Wilhelm I had a private study, but after his disappearance, it was locked up to prevent disturbance. It is here that he said is a wooden roll top desk with a false back. Behind it is a box and it is this box he needs. He claims that the current family knows nothing of this and will not even miss it if it is gone. He only states the contents of it as "knowledge" and that this will be for the good of the empire.	+	Heinrich mentioned that Wilhelm I had a private study, but after his disappearance, it was locked up to prevent disturbance. It was here that he said was a wooden roll top desk with a false back. Behind it was a box and it was this box he needed. He claimed that the current family knew nothing of this and will not even miss it if it were gone. He only stated the contents of it as "knowledge" and that this will be for the good of the empire.
−	I was a little conflicted as the empire was certainly no friends of mine, but they were the lesser evil compared to chaos so I agreed to the job for 25 gold crowns. The four of us conspired to have Zacharie be calling upon the family as nobles do with Otell as a servant, Janna as a master weaponsmith, and me as a "companion". He sent off a page with a message.	+	I was a little conflicted as the empire was certainly no friend of mine, but they were the lesser evil compared to Chaos so I agreed to the job for 25 gold crowns. The four of us conspired to have Zacharie be calling upon the family as nobles do with Otell as a servant, Janna as a master weaponsmith, and me as a "companion". He sent off a page with a message.
	The following day I made preparations for the trip and wandered through town. Unbeknownst to me, someone had stuffed a note in my pocket at some point during the day. The message was slightly unnerving. "Where can I find Joshua," it said and signed "H. LeConte, The Pilgrim's Keller." Henri. What did he want? Last I knew he was imprisoned and hadn't seen Joshua in over 18 years.		The following day I made preparations for the trip and wandered through town. Unbeknownst to me, someone had stuffed a note in my pocket at some point during the day. The message was slightly unnerving. "Where can I find Joshua," it said and signed "H. LeConte, The Pilgrim's Keller." Henri. What did he want? Last I knew he was imprisoned and hadn't seen Joshua in over 18 years.
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	[[Image:paperdragon.jpg|right|Paper dragon]]Unable to sleep that night, I took a stroll in the gardens again. I felt calmer surrounded by nature, but still I wished and prayed for my love's safety and some sort of direction. When I returned to my room, there was a folded paper dragon on my night stand. A pull tab was crafted into it and when I pulled it out, it read, "Look in your heart." Oh, Honan...		[[Image:paperdragon.jpg|right|Paper dragon]]Unable to sleep that night, I took a stroll in the gardens again. I felt calmer surrounded by nature, but still I wished and prayed for my love's safety and some sort of direction. When I returned to my room, there was a folded paper dragon on my night stand. A pull tab was crafted into it and when I pulled it out, it read, "Look in your heart." Oh, Honan...
		+
		+	==May 28, 2538==
		+	It's amazing how many things can change in a split second. I will start from the beginning of the end.
		+
		+	We left the Von Kurtz estate in the morning of my last writing. It was an uneventful trip back to Nuln. My cloud of uncertainty had not lifted so while in town, I paid a visit to The Pilgrim's Keller again. I asked the bar tender if he had seen Henri, but I was told that he hadn't been around since yesterday. It appeared that he had checked out of his inn as well. I still refused to believe that he would remain true to his word and felt that he was still lurking about.
		+
		+	On my way back to Heinrich's place, I stepped into a nursery to see if there was a way to grow the plants I received from Honan. Unfortunately, since I'm always on the move, it wasn't a possibility. I was told that since they were dried, however, they would last a while. Hopefully I can plant them when I have a place to call home. I also stopped in to see the dog breeder and found out that Wilhelm I was a teacher at the college. I wonder if we can find out anything about him there...
		+
		+	After rejoining the group, Heinrich mentioned that he had received a message from Tauer telling him to stop whatever it was that he was doing for it was too dangerous. He then told us that he had hoped he was only endangering himself, but the longer we stay involved, the more dangerous it would be for us. Because of this, he gave us the option to walk away. We discussed it for a little while, but we all agreed to see the job through.
		+
		+	Otell had met a priest of Ulric, [[Karl Gustav]], at a bar and had brought him along to Heinrich's. It was his mission to slay a demon and felt a disturbance in the forests near Auerwald. He was also apparently skilled at lock picking so we agreed to exchanged services. We came up with a plan to pay the Von Kurtz's estate another visit and left to make quick preparations. I went with Karl to serve as protection while he purchased some lock picks. Who would I see there, but Henri... I didn't have time to follow, but I have a feeling it won't be the last time I see him.
		+
		+	It was late, but we left for the estate that night. When we were about 50 feet away from the gates, we noticed a commotion. Alarms were blaring and it seemed like the whole grounds were in a state of panic. I saw someone, or something, climbing over the south wall so I chased after it as fast as I could along with Karl and Otell. Just as we were gaining on it, it looked back at us, jumped, and clearly sailed about 40 feet across the air. We were stunned, but kept following it. We were soon joined by Rose, Petunia, and Kurt, the guard who was on duty at the time. After a few hours, however, we lost the trail.
		+
		+	Klaus came to find us, rounded up the dogs and Kurt, and politely asked us to call again some other time. Apparently there had been an incident and he requested that we respect their privacy. We made our way back and rejoined Janna and Zacharie who had gone into the grounds while we were chasing the jumper. They solemnly told us what had happened.
		+
		+	When Zacharie entered the grounds, he noticed that the study was open so he went to investigate. It was there that he found the baron slain and lying lifeless in a pool of blood. The whole study was ransacked, presumably by the jumper who probably was Wilhelm's murderer. The one blessing was that the false wall at the back of the desk was not disturbed so Zacharie took his chance to retrieve the box. If only the tragedy ended there...
		+
		+	As we were coming up on returning to Heinrich's place, we saw that it was on fire. Zacharie, Otell, and I ran into the blaze to try to rescue Heinrich. I went to the back of the first floor in case the fire's source was from the kitchen. It was not, but I did find the apprentice boy sleeping. I woke him up and shooed him out of the house to safety. When I went outside to the back of the house, I saw a man jump out of the third story window. The way it moved was very familiar: it was the jumper.
		+
		+	Karl had also seen it so he sent his wolf, Siegfried, ahead of us and we pursued after him again. Our chase lead us to the edge of the river. When we finally caught up, a high priest of Manann was there. He said that the jumper had dove into the water. I went up on the bridge to try to shoot it when it came up for air, but couldn't find it.
		+
		+	When we returned to the scene of the fire, Heinrich had passed on. The white college reassured Zacharie that they would take care of his belongings and funeral arrangements. My heart ached for Zacharie's loss. Edgar Tauer came thundering up the lane on a horse and demanded to see Heinrich. We told him the somber news and after recovering from his initial shock, he asked if we could find a place to speak in private. We went out to the woods and Karl consecrated a small area for us.
		+
		+	We told Edgar that Zacharie was able to retrieve the elusive box from the Von Kurtz estate. He divinated the contents when we were apprehensive, and after confirming that it was safe, Zacharie opened it to see what his master had sacraficed his life for. Inside was an amulet, three maps, a stack of love letters, and a piece of parchment with strange characters written on it. Zacharie called it "Arabic".
		+
		+	The letters were written from Wilhelm I to a woman named Helena during a trip of some sort. He had mentioned being able to retrieve a beautiful tiger eye cameo ring. I knew of a legend of such a ring. The son of a sultan was killed while practicing magic so the wizard trapped his soul in a ring and gave it as a gift. The wizard was executed anyway, but the sultan kept the ring. When it was stolen, the family fell out of power. I can only deduce that this ring has some sort of source of power and honor. Given the events of the night, I can only assume Chaos is after it as well. Because of this, and because I would like to finish whatever it was that Heinrich started, I knew we would go on a quest to retrieve this ring as well.
		+
		+	We were, however, at a cross road. Janna had mentioned previously that her master's health was ailing. She was torn about leaving the party, but I convinced her to go see him for it might be her only chance. Karl also had his business to attend to in the Auerwald forest and we had an agreement to assist him. We decided to take care of these things first, find out any information we can about this ring and discuss the possibility of finding it before Chaos after we regroup.
		+
		+	The next day we left Nuln for our respective duties. We planned to walk together as far as we could and then part ways. It wasn't long before Karl veered off the road saying he saw something near the area where we chatted with Edgar. I went along with him and we were ambushed by four men!
		+
		+	I was a brutal fight with Otell nearly getting killed, and even attacking Janna! Zacharie said that it was due to a spell cast by someone in the woods. That someone materialized and summoned a demon much like the one we saw at The Hooded Man Inn. I had an extremely close call when it took a swipe at me, but Fenrir scooted out of the way just in time. We fought desperately and managed to finish it off, but the woman who had summoned it managed to escape! That Chaos sorceress must have had the men under her control as well for as soon as she disappeared, their bodies rotted and immolated immediately.
		+
		+	Who is this woman? Otell and Zacharie said she was in Stimmigen and went under the name Sabine. I'm sure she did not go back to her home and could be anywhere. But I will find her one day and she will pay for this. Chaos scum.
		+
		+	==September 2, 2538==
		+	It has been a long time. Ever since the last writing, I have been hunting Chaos beasts with Otell and Karl. Janna went to go see her ailing master and Zacharie went off soul searching on how to continue on after his tragedies. On August 27 I found myself back in Nuln and met up with everyone again at The House of the Yellow Boot.
		+
		+	After catching up with the others on their exploits, I took Otell aside. He had told me a while back that he may have some information I want, but he found out by doing things he thought I would be angry about. Apparently he did not trust me for I was so secretive so he took it upon himself to investigate me and in the process, found some contacts and some information. Given that I seem to only have one strong purpose, I knew he was talking about Joshua.
		+
		+	Otell's story was that he knew people who knew my love. They were keeping track of his whereabouts for they knew him during his thieving days and even as it had been 12 years since he gave it all up, they wanted him to stay out of being "competition". These people may at least know where Joshua was last seen. Otell also knew of Henri and agreed with me in that he is not to be trusted and is probably lurking about. He said he will ask around for him and I thanked him, timidly. I am not used to being open with people anymore. I retired to my room afterwards.
		+
		+	During the night I was awoken by a commotion. I stepped outside of my room and saw Zacharie headed my way. He said that THE box was stolen from Janna's belongings! I ran back in my room to grab my bow, arrows, and sword and chased after the thief downstairs. The chase lead me all over the immediate area, but eventually I came upon Karl, Janna, and a group of dark skinned people. One was offering Karl a large sum of money.
		+
		+	Allegedly the ring that the clues in the box lead to belongs to them. It will restore power to the woman with them for her to claim her place on the throne by proving to the people that they are blessed by Manann. They wanted to buy the box from us, but Janna suggested that they hire us instead to aid them in seeking out the ring. They agreed to that and we planned to meet in [[Matorca]]. They sent along their manservant, [[Mahmoud]] along with us to help along the journey.
		+
		+	A few days later we were at our first stop on our travels in [[Wissenburg]], a town with a plentiful harvest. Kurnos must be watching over them. There, Zacharie proclaimed that he has changed his identity to [[Guillome]] and started rumors in Nuln that Zacharie was dead. I'm sure he has his reasons for wanting to separate himself from his past. It was here that Otell also told me that his informants should be making contact when we arrive in Matorca.
		+
		+	We left Wissenburg after a night and we came upon a carriage that was trapped on the road due to fallen trees. A well dressed lady was standing outside, dazed, so we cautiously approached to see if she needed help. She said she was attacked by bandits. Two of her attendants were dead and one was certainly knocking on heaven's door. Karl came in to try to help him. The lady mentioned that the bandits made off with some papers that were irreplaceable so to please help get them back. We found and followed a trail of blood, probably from one of the bandits.
		+
		+	This lead us to a clearing. There were three tents, a fire pit, and two posted guards and another roasting some sort of game on the pit. I was intending on sneaking in on the compound, but once one of them shot at us, we had to wage war. There ended up being five of them and thankfully one surrendered so we can get information out of him. We will see what he has to offer.
		+
		+	==September 5, 2538==
		+	It was a whirlwind of events since my last writing. Some mysteries I had to leave behind and now feels like an irritating itch I cannot scratch. Alas, we must move on...
		+
		+	As others were tending to the wounded back at the bandit camp where I left off, I noticed some large pieces of wood sticking out from the woods. They definitely were not trees so I went to investigate. Sure enough, it was a cage fashioned out of poles and inside were two grimy looking halflings. They went by the name of [[Matchwick]] and [[Candlewick]] Greenthistle. After releasing them and sharing some rations as they were very hungry, they related their tales of woe. They were kidnapped, likely by rivals to their family's business of selling meat pies in Wissenburg who presumably hired the bandits, and were being kept to extort their families.
		+
		+	Back at the carriage, Mahmoud was just finishing clearing the fallen trees from the road. I gave him the water from my water skin when he asked for it. I suppose even humans can be helpful when they have enough strength to make quick work of moving large trees. The lady, [[Elise Magirius]], allowed us into her coach to escort her and the halflings back into town. The papers, which we did find, were a contract for her to do business with someone in the next town, [[Pfeildorf]]. After a short while, a couple of road wardens caught up with us demanding to search the carriage. Apparently a magistrate from Pfeildorf had sent them with a warrant because a precious gold necklace belonging to the graf of the town had been stolen. They apparently had good reason to believe that it was aboard the carriage. Unfortunately for them, it was not found and they departed with an apology. We passed the surviving bandit to their care as well.
		+
		+	By the time we arrived at Wissenburg it was well past dark. When going through the rough area of town, the halflings insisted that they be let off there and without an escort. I found this to be very strange and foolhardy, but they explained that they must keep a low profile for their enemies should not know they are back in town and unharmed. We made arrangements to meet at a shabby building called [[Bert's]] the next day.
		+
		+	Contrary to some of the party members' belief, the halflings kept their word and paid us for our help and rescue. They said that if we were up to it, they could use our help in giving them and their families justice. Their family business was selling meat pies. To increase business, they had portable carts and went all around town. Shortly after investing in several carts, a city ordinance was passed to disallow anything being sold from carts. The halflings suspected that it was due to jealousy from the merchant families and thus when they proposed an appeal, they were kidnapped a couple days afterwards. If we were somehow able to prove that these families were behind the kidnappings, they would be shamed into voting in favor of the appeal.
		+
		+	I have no idea how, during the council meeting not only was the law forbidding carts repealed, the Greenthistle family was awarded a seat on the house! This is what I mean when I say that there is an itch I cannot scratch. We investigated the merchant families who were thought to be behind the ordeal, the [[Steinhauger]]s and the [[Ruggbroder]]s, and came up with very little that could possibly be used to further the halflings' cause. Elise was also involved in being blackmailed into marriage in order for her contract to remain valid, but somehow that was taken care of and swept under the rug as well.
		+
		+	These halflings are obviously more than what they seem. No matter what Matchwick said after I asked him how he did this, it was definitely not a simple case where "they came to their senses". They've certainly piqued my curiosity, but it was time for us to continue on our own quest.
		+
		+	==September 9, 2538==
		+	I'm writing now after getting into battle with a band of vile Skaven.
		+
		+	After the events at Wissenburg, we left again for Pfieldorf. As I was riding ahead as the scout, I noticed a pile of wooden boards off to the side of the road. They looked like they had been there a while and were definitely man made. Further on down, my suspicions were confirmed as there was a broken down cart. All of us took the time to investigate. There were skeletal remains of humans, one with chain mail so obviously someone ready for travel, but the curious thing was that he was run through the chest by something sharp. His remains were gnawed upon by beasts of the wild. There was also a symbol carved into a nearby tree that Guillome said was slowly killing the tree. I felt a push from Isha as she taught us how to care for the land and I borrowed Otell's axe to cut out the symbol to spare the tree.
		+
		+	Janna had gone to cool her head as her assumption that goblinoids were behind this had boiled her blood. She returned with an old dwarf by the name of [[Gimbri]]. He said that he had been looking for the old dwarven town of (***insert name here***) and thinks he finally found it just up the mountain. The only problem was that goblinoids, including brute orcs, had taken it over and they would need to first be cleared out before he could retake what rightfully belonged to his people. Though he offered payment with a sizable gem and Otell was intent on negotiating the deal, I cared not about payment for I had no need for money. Just ridding the world of goblinoids was all the payment I needed. I gave my agreement to the old dwarf with no delay. Otell looked annoyed at my haste, but he'll get over it when he figures out what it means to devote one's life to something and not something as trite as money.
		+
		+	We climbed up the mountain and came to a plateau at the top with a beautiful waterfall, a large ornate gate, and a cave off to the side. There was a camp of Skaven there in the clearing. One was a large rat ogre chained down and another had a staff and was presumed a wizard of some sort. We tried to sneak past them, but the wizard saw us and rose an alarm. The battle was victorious in our favor, but not without near deaths and a cowardly escapee. Sigfried nearly died on the spot with a blow to his back from the rat ogre as well as Karl. It seemed like everyone was hurt in some way. I suffered no physical damage, but my pride was certainly injured. That damn wizard attacked me and though I managed to narrowly avoid it at the last minute, it managed to run away.
		+
		+	I became obsessed with finding it. I searched high and low. In and out of the cave, which turned out to be the top of a blast furnace. On a move of near desperation, I took off all of my armor, clenched my knife between my teeth, and leapt into the waterfall because I was convinced there had to be a hiding spot behind it. Thankfully I landed in a cleanly cut cave instead of smacking into a rock face. The one I was in went a short ways in and ended in a dead end. I made my way out and went into a near identical one next to it. This one went further in. There was an alcove to the side with a mangy bed roll, a high quality knife, a plate helmet, and a bag of coins. Though I assumed these were from the people we saw the remains of down the mountain taken by the rodent vermin, I left the helmet and took the other items as safekeeping in case the owner came back for them. I knew the others were likely to get into a squabbling match as to who gets what.
		+
		+	Further down the cave there was a spiral staircase. I climbed up it and there was a panel and a lever at the top. After cranking the lever it opened the panel. I was puzzled as to what it was all for and decided to shut it and return to camp. When I returned, I took Gimbri aside and showed him what I found to see if the items were of dwarven nature. They weren't so he had no interest in them. After giving a fair amount of time to see if the original owner showed up as a hostage or similar, if no one comes to claim it, I will tell the party of what I found. When I mentioned the caves however, Gimbri asked me to show him so a band of us went through to investigate. To no surprise of mine, the helmet was quickly snatched up and given to Karl without any hesitation. Perhaps I am being too optimistic of where these items came from.
		+
		+	In exploring the area, we found a shaft that was carved into the mountain so that sunlight from when the panel was open could travel down it. It was used for farming within the depths of the mountain. I tied rope around me and crawled into the shaft. I had Otell and Karl hold the end with instructions that if they felt it tug sharply three times to pull me up in a hurry. There was not need for that, however, as there was no danger. What I did find at the end of the shaft was certainly a garden of some sort. It was a very bizarre one with multicolored mold, noxious looking mushrooms, and other unpleasantness. A handful of mini-goblins were tending to them. The walls and floor were covered so much with muck that the sunlight made no difference and they took no notice of any changes. I climbed my way back up and reported my findings. In the meantime, Janna had managed to find a secret entrance into the city through the wall of the shallower cave.
		+
		+	We all gathered outside and came to the decision to set fire outside the main gates, throw flammables down the shaft to torch up the "garden", and while the inhabitants were trying to deal with the chaos of the fires, we would make our way in through the secret entrance. Here is to hoping that this is not my last entry. And in case it is, I hope who ever is reading this can find my dear Joshua, tell him that my last thoughts will be of him, and that I will always watch over him.

---

Latest revision as of 01:28, 12 September 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 band 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, 2538

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...

April 23, 2538

A lot has happened in the last two weeks. As I mentioned when I last wrote, our party was requested to stop in Stimmigen to give a statement to the road warden chief. We were accommodated for travel, a night's stay at the Raging Boar Inn and a hot meal as well. When we arrived, we gave our statements to Captain Streicher. He didn't seem overly interested in what we were saying, and just kept nodding along.

After our business was complete, we went asked for a physician and were referred to Karl-Franz. I was miraculously unharmed, though I did have a few close calls during our last fight. The rest, especially Zacharie, were in bad shape. We met the doctor's wife first and after nagging her husband about not taking care of their garden, he attended to us. He said that Zacharie was to stay in his care until he healed and administered a poultice. A similar one was given to Otell. Janna, having escaped with just a few bad bruises, chose to tough it out on the notion that it would heal before we had to face our next battle.

Otell, Janna, and I made our way back into town to grab something to eat at the inn. We were introduced to the innkeeper, Dieter, and his three daughters. Katarina, the oldest and most friendly, especially with the menfolk, hearing from the road wardens that we were to be taken care of, brought us two tankards each of their ale. Though Janna and I both graciously accepted, we almost immediately gave our second to Otell knowing he'd not only finish all four but probably faster than we could finish our first. We went to bed in our provided common room afterwards.

It was a peaceful sleep, but strangely, all three of us woke up at the same time despite Janna being known to sleep through buildings crashing down upon her. Stranger still was that there was a bloody dagger stabbed into the door of our room. The door was still locked, as were the windows. Otell shrugged it off and was more interested in breakfast being served so he went downstairs leaving us behind. Perplexed, Janna washed off the blood to see the knife's markings only to find there were none. We knew the road wardens were staying in the room next door so we asked to speak with Streicher again.

The captain greeted us warmly and recommended the inn's coffee. After seeing and hearing our story of this dagger, Streicher had a dark look come over him and asked us to repeat our statements from yesterday, only this time he actually took notes. Shortly after, he locked the dagger away in a drawer and said he was going to leave town on a hunch.

I had a hunch of my own. Things were definitely not right. Though I haven't known my companions long, I do know that we have never woken up at exactly the same time. Given that something strange happened during our sleep, we all had the same ale, and Streicher, after acting rather peculiar, recommending the coffee, I had the thought that perhaps something like a sleeping draught was in the water.

I ran into Hilda, the middle daughter, and casually asked her about the ale. She told me to speak to her father. After simply mentioning the word "ale", Dieter served me a pint and asked two pennies for it. After a slightly awkward exchange, I learned that the ale comes from Dunkelburg on merchant ships. Not wanting to drink it, but also finding it horribly inconvenient to carry a tankard around, I brought it up to the room and left it. I went to go see if I could help out in Dr. Franz's garden thinking I may find a lead on my water theory, but I came up empty handed. I did, however, feel Isha smiling upon me as I helped with the harvest.

I should have attached a note on the drink for Otell had drank it promptly after returning to the room. Though I suppose it wouldn't have done much good as I doubt he can read. The precautions were unnecessary though, for we had a normal night's sleep that night.

After 6 days in Stimmigen, everyone was finally well enough to travel so we made our way to Ubersriek. On our way, we took turns keeping watch at camp and several times it sounded like there was something large in our midst, but when I went to go check it out, it was simply a woodland squirrel. This continued for a couple more days and by the time we were close to town, we were all on edge. The prissy girlie man kept whining about not having the fine things he was used to, the bumbling oaf kept screaming and yammering on about war, and the pipsqueak was just irritating to look at.

By this time, we were so close to town that we decided to push on even as it meant we would get in around evening. Zacharie promptly asked for the finest hotel in town and was recommended The Swooping Hawk. He even went as far as to get his own suite. The rest of us also felt it was necessary to rest up and be as comfortable as possible for what lay before us and got private rooms as well. The following day, we went around town gearing up as best as we could.

Early on the fateful morning of the 20th, we set off to the pass where rumors stated the giant dwelled. I rode ahead of the group on Fenrir and it was not long before the giant, a foul-smelling, ugly behemoth came charging out at me. I tried to shoot him with an arrow, but in my rush of nerves, I missed. Knowing that while the giant was fast, I was faster, I ran Fenrir behind the beast and shot him from behind. Otell came running up to the fight, but to my surprise, it was Janna who reached him first. The giant dropped his gargantuan axe, fashioned from a tree branch and a grave stone, thanks to a bit of magic from Zacharie who was probably curled up, terrified of this disgusting thing. After a few more arrows and a couple of devastating blows with a hammer, the giant fell to its knees, narrowly missed crushing the dwarf and perished.

Knowing that we somehow had to get the upper torso and head of this thing onto a cart to bring back to Edgar Tauer, the wizard who would harvest the parts needed for Heinrich, Otell took great enjoyment in hacking up the carcass. Zacharie, barely being able to see the fight itself, asked if I wanted to accompany him to investigate the area where the giant dwelled to perhaps find something of importance. I wasn't sure what I was looking for, but I knew I wanted to see if there was anything that lead me to Joshua so I agreed.

We found the path that the giant presumably used and along it, there was a small cave carved far up on the side of a cliff. Curious, I climbed up and crawled in. After a short length, I saw that there was a large hole leading far down, but not enough room to turn around to climb down. So I crawled out, got my rope, tied it to a root of a tree on the side of the cliff, crawled backwards into the cave and part of the way down the shaft. Being able to see in darkness, I saw plenty of glints that I assumed were metal objects. I also saw about four pairs of eyes staring up at me. I tossed a few pennies down to see what would happen and heard scurrying from the creatures and also a splash of water. Feeling uneasy, I decided to try to find another way in.

After reporting to Zacharie what I saw, we walked around the cliff and found near the river, a grotto that would make sense to be right around where I was. I was sure that this would be a way in considering there was water at the bottom of the cave's shaft. I jumped down and was immediately startled by a mass of skeletons that were caught in the tree roots, unable to wash out into the river. As if that weren't enough, whatever those creatures were solidly confirmed their harmful nature when one tried to shoot an arrow at me. It grazed my leg, but no harm was done.

Zacharie jumped down next to me and in a near panic shouted that they were vile, evil creatures called Fimir and must be killed. He told me that they kidnap womenfolk to mate with them to reproduce and turn them to be one of their own. I had already made up my mind to vanquish them as one had shot at me! I shot through the opening of the grotto and heard a satisfying thud, but also a splashing that was a clear sign that it had retreated. Unwilling to let these vermin go, I stepped inside. One was waiting for me at the entrance, but I promptly shot an arrow through its gut. The other who was shot earlier had fallen into the water and was struggling to stay afloat. I sent him to his maker by holding him underwater.

Cautiously, I continued making my way deeper into the cave. I kept hearing hissing and fearful shouting, but pressed on. Just before the area where the cave's shaft would be, I was startled by a Fimir with yellow eyes and holding a bone staff with a hand at one end holding a human heart. I reacted as quickly and it lay dead at my feet before long. Taking just one more step deeper into the grotto made the owner of the hissing noise charge out at me. Heartbreakingly, it was a little human girl, about 10 years old, battered, beaten, and presumably raped often for she had already started to turn into one of them. I apologized to what little human spirit she had left and ended her agony with a single arrow. I'm so sorry, little one...

A the end of the grotto and the base of the shaft, Zacharie and I found three Fimir babies. We gravely exchanged glances and stomped the life out of them. Though there were plenty of goods such as weapons, armor, and coins in the pile, neither of us were very interested in carrying anything back and we just wanted to get as far away from the horrors of this cave as we could. We crushed the bone wand on our way out and washed up in the river. Both of us were shell shocked for the rest of the day. I don't think either of us will ever be quite the same again.

When we made our way back to where Janna and Otell had successfully loaded the giant onto the cart, they asked if we found anything. We denied anything of note. I do not plan on sharing what we went through for it was hard enough writing it down once and I do not want to relive this nightmare again. I also do not want to burden anyone else of the torment. We headed back into town and because of the stench of the carcass, were not allowed into the city and made camp right out side the gates.

The next morning, we were invited as honored guests and heroes to a feast hosted by the mayor in thanks for ridding the giant that was terrorizing the pass and making it useable again. I saw Zacharie take him aside and judging from the color in his face draining, I assume he told him of what we found in the caves. The feast was wonderful. There was even an orchestra!

We parted from Ubersriek the next day and made it to the road leading to Edgar's home. When we arrived with the giant, he proceeded to deconstruct it in a rather gruesome manner. Poor Zacharie, nearly in tears, was made to assist as this was part of his training. I stood around for as long as I could before I was absolutely repulsed and had to excuse myself.

While idly looking at the spines of books on his shelf, I noticed plenty of references to celestial magic. That was where I got the idea that perhaps I could learn enough magic to possibly find my Joshua. I plan on looking into this further while I wait for my next opportunity.

May 27, 2538

It had been a month since I last saw Zacharie, Janna, and Otell. I received a message from Heinrich saying he has a favor to ask of us and we gathered together again at his home. He took the utmost discretion by taking us into the back room and locking doors and windows. He cautiously began his tale explaining that he is in need of us to steal something.

As everyone knew, this region was wine country. The finest estate in the area was the Von Kurtz, owned by Baron Wilhelm Von Kurtz III. He was known to have a wife from Cathay who was the third daughter of the emperor, and a few children, though most were grown. His grandfather, Wilhelm I, disappeared mysteriously 67 years ago.

Heinrich mentioned that Wilhelm I had a private study, but after his disappearance, it was locked up to prevent disturbance. It was here that he said was a wooden roll top desk with a false back. Behind it was a box and it was this box he needed. He claimed that the current family knew nothing of this and will not even miss it if it were gone. He only stated the contents of it as "knowledge" and that this will be for the good of the empire.

I was a little conflicted as the empire was certainly no friend of mine, but they were the lesser evil compared to Chaos so I agreed to the job for 25 gold crowns. The four of us conspired to have Zacharie be calling upon the family as nobles do with Otell as a servant, Janna as a master weaponsmith, and me as a "companion". He sent off a page with a message.

The following day I made preparations for the trip and wandered through town. Unbeknownst to me, someone had stuffed a note in my pocket at some point during the day. The message was slightly unnerving. "Where can I find Joshua," it said and signed "H. LeConte, The Pilgrim's Keller." Henri. What did he want? Last I knew he was imprisoned and hadn't seen Joshua in over 18 years.

After a bit of searching, I found that The Pilgrim's Keller is a rather seedy establishment down by the docks. The place was rowdy, even this early in the afternoon, so I took what precautions I could by lifting the hood of my cloak to try to conceal myself as best as possible. Thankfully, no one harassed me as I sat down at the edge of the bar with an ale. When I scanned the area, I found Henri sitting alone with food and drink down the bar. After a few moments, I made to walk out of the bar, nudged him in the back, made eye contact with him and walked out the door. I stood by the doorway to try to catch him on his way out. It didn't feel right for me to stick around for long as I knew this was not the safest area of town. When he didn't come out after a few minutes, I left to go back to Heinrich's place. At least he now knew I had gotten the note. Perplexed, I did not sleep well that night.

The next morning I went back to The Pilgrim's Keller to try my luck again. He was there, alone, so I silently took the seat next to him. He asked me to escort him back to his room. I agreed, but never took my hand off my dagger inside my cloak.

After arriving at his room, he bolted the door shut and plainly asked where Joshua was. I asked what he wanted with him and was answered that they had worked together in the past and he was in need of someone he could trust. I testily told him that Joshua had long since changed his ways and to leave him alone. He claimed that he would stop looking for him with a "c'est la vie", but not before slipping in that I had better find him before he does. He's probably right about that. After missing him for 6 years I will not have anyone take him away from me again when I find him.

We left for the Von Kurtz estate the next day. I noticed that the guards seemed to be keeping a rather close eye on us as we made our way through the gates. When we reached our destination, Zacharie showed them the invitation we received in response to his message that he sent a few days ago. The captain of the guard introduced himself as Klaus Von Reichstag and showed us inside. A young girl came inside wearing equestrian clothing and awkwardly introduced herself as Mirabella, daughter of Wilhelm III. An old Cathay man named Honan Chang shuffled her off to change. I asked Klaus for a room to change into more formal clothes than traveling gear as well.

That night we were served a fabulous feast of food with the Van Kurtz family prepared by the household cook, Lisabetta. Wilhelm told many stories of war and his travels to Cathay where he met his wife, Laisha. It seemed like Otell and Zacharie were getting along well with Mirabella. I was curious about the gardens the estate boasted and Honan offered to take me on a tour.

As soon as we stepped into the gardens, I felt that this was a very holy place. Isha's blessing was certainly present. Honan seemed to notice my appreciation and told me how he and Laisha brought plants and flowers from Cathay and planted them together so that she would have a piece of home close by. He told the story with such emotion that he nearly had tears in his eyes. I was certainly impressed with the tale. He picked a pouch of seeds from a nearby plant and offered them to me. I accepted the gift with great honor.

We continued our walk out of the gardens and I met Rose and Petunia; two massive mastiff dogs who patrolled the estate. Honan mentioned that as long as guests were accompanied by members of the household, they were completely friendly. I left them sniff me before patting them on their heads. He was right; they seemed like friendly little bear cubs!

When we got to the edge of the estate grounds, I found myself thinking of Henri's note and feeling anxious about now needing to find Joshua more than ever. Honan took noticed and asked why I seemed so distracted. I mentioned that I was looking for someone very dear to me and wanted to protect him from his past. I was told not to worry, but I will not be convinced he is safe unless I find him soon. Honan nodded along and said that I must find him in my heart, and it will lead me to him. I was a bit confused. Joshua is always in my heart...

Unable to sleep that night, I took a stroll in the gardens again. I felt calmer surrounded by nature, but still I wished and prayed for my love's safety and some sort of direction. When I returned to my room, there was a folded paper dragon on my night stand. A pull tab was crafted into it and when I pulled it out, it read, "Look in your heart." Oh, Honan...

May 28, 2538

It's amazing how many things can change in a split second. I will start from the beginning of the end.

We left the Von Kurtz estate in the morning of my last writing. It was an uneventful trip back to Nuln. My cloud of uncertainty had not lifted so while in town, I paid a visit to The Pilgrim's Keller again. I asked the bar tender if he had seen Henri, but I was told that he hadn't been around since yesterday. It appeared that he had checked out of his inn as well. I still refused to believe that he would remain true to his word and felt that he was still lurking about.

On my way back to Heinrich's place, I stepped into a nursery to see if there was a way to grow the plants I received from Honan. Unfortunately, since I'm always on the move, it wasn't a possibility. I was told that since they were dried, however, they would last a while. Hopefully I can plant them when I have a place to call home. I also stopped in to see the dog breeder and found out that Wilhelm I was a teacher at the college. I wonder if we can find out anything about him there...

After rejoining the group, Heinrich mentioned that he had received a message from Tauer telling him to stop whatever it was that he was doing for it was too dangerous. He then told us that he had hoped he was only endangering himself, but the longer we stay involved, the more dangerous it would be for us. Because of this, he gave us the option to walk away. We discussed it for a little while, but we all agreed to see the job through.

Otell had met a priest of Ulric, Karl Gustav, at a bar and had brought him along to Heinrich's. It was his mission to slay a demon and felt a disturbance in the forests near Auerwald. He was also apparently skilled at lock picking so we agreed to exchanged services. We came up with a plan to pay the Von Kurtz's estate another visit and left to make quick preparations. I went with Karl to serve as protection while he purchased some lock picks. Who would I see there, but Henri... I didn't have time to follow, but I have a feeling it won't be the last time I see him.

It was late, but we left for the estate that night. When we were about 50 feet away from the gates, we noticed a commotion. Alarms were blaring and it seemed like the whole grounds were in a state of panic. I saw someone, or something, climbing over the south wall so I chased after it as fast as I could along with Karl and Otell. Just as we were gaining on it, it looked back at us, jumped, and clearly sailed about 40 feet across the air. We were stunned, but kept following it. We were soon joined by Rose, Petunia, and Kurt, the guard who was on duty at the time. After a few hours, however, we lost the trail.

Klaus came to find us, rounded up the dogs and Kurt, and politely asked us to call again some other time. Apparently there had been an incident and he requested that we respect their privacy. We made our way back and rejoined Janna and Zacharie who had gone into the grounds while we were chasing the jumper. They solemnly told us what had happened.

When Zacharie entered the grounds, he noticed that the study was open so he went to investigate. It was there that he found the baron slain and lying lifeless in a pool of blood. The whole study was ransacked, presumably by the jumper who probably was Wilhelm's murderer. The one blessing was that the false wall at the back of the desk was not disturbed so Zacharie took his chance to retrieve the box. If only the tragedy ended there...

As we were coming up on returning to Heinrich's place, we saw that it was on fire. Zacharie, Otell, and I ran into the blaze to try to rescue Heinrich. I went to the back of the first floor in case the fire's source was from the kitchen. It was not, but I did find the apprentice boy sleeping. I woke him up and shooed him out of the house to safety. When I went outside to the back of the house, I saw a man jump out of the third story window. The way it moved was very familiar: it was the jumper.

Karl had also seen it so he sent his wolf, Siegfried, ahead of us and we pursued after him again. Our chase lead us to the edge of the river. When we finally caught up, a high priest of Manann was there. He said that the jumper had dove into the water. I went up on the bridge to try to shoot it when it came up for air, but couldn't find it.

When we returned to the scene of the fire, Heinrich had passed on. The white college reassured Zacharie that they would take care of his belongings and funeral arrangements. My heart ached for Zacharie's loss. Edgar Tauer came thundering up the lane on a horse and demanded to see Heinrich. We told him the somber news and after recovering from his initial shock, he asked if we could find a place to speak in private. We went out to the woods and Karl consecrated a small area for us.

We told Edgar that Zacharie was able to retrieve the elusive box from the Von Kurtz estate. He divinated the contents when we were apprehensive, and after confirming that it was safe, Zacharie opened it to see what his master had sacraficed his life for. Inside was an amulet, three maps, a stack of love letters, and a piece of parchment with strange characters written on it. Zacharie called it "Arabic".

The letters were written from Wilhelm I to a woman named Helena during a trip of some sort. He had mentioned being able to retrieve a beautiful tiger eye cameo ring. I knew of a legend of such a ring. The son of a sultan was killed while practicing magic so the wizard trapped his soul in a ring and gave it as a gift. The wizard was executed anyway, but the sultan kept the ring. When it was stolen, the family fell out of power. I can only deduce that this ring has some sort of source of power and honor. Given the events of the night, I can only assume Chaos is after it as well. Because of this, and because I would like to finish whatever it was that Heinrich started, I knew we would go on a quest to retrieve this ring as well.

We were, however, at a cross road. Janna had mentioned previously that her master's health was ailing. She was torn about leaving the party, but I convinced her to go see him for it might be her only chance. Karl also had his business to attend to in the Auerwald forest and we had an agreement to assist him. We decided to take care of these things first, find out any information we can about this ring and discuss the possibility of finding it before Chaos after we regroup.

The next day we left Nuln for our respective duties. We planned to walk together as far as we could and then part ways. It wasn't long before Karl veered off the road saying he saw something near the area where we chatted with Edgar. I went along with him and we were ambushed by four men!

I was a brutal fight with Otell nearly getting killed, and even attacking Janna! Zacharie said that it was due to a spell cast by someone in the woods. That someone materialized and summoned a demon much like the one we saw at The Hooded Man Inn. I had an extremely close call when it took a swipe at me, but Fenrir scooted out of the way just in time. We fought desperately and managed to finish it off, but the woman who had summoned it managed to escape! That Chaos sorceress must have had the men under her control as well for as soon as she disappeared, their bodies rotted and immolated immediately.

Who is this woman? Otell and Zacharie said she was in Stimmigen and went under the name Sabine. I'm sure she did not go back to her home and could be anywhere. But I will find her one day and she will pay for this. Chaos scum.

September 2, 2538

It has been a long time. Ever since the last writing, I have been hunting Chaos beasts with Otell and Karl. Janna went to go see her ailing master and Zacharie went off soul searching on how to continue on after his tragedies. On August 27 I found myself back in Nuln and met up with everyone again at The House of the Yellow Boot.

After catching up with the others on their exploits, I took Otell aside. He had told me a while back that he may have some information I want, but he found out by doing things he thought I would be angry about. Apparently he did not trust me for I was so secretive so he took it upon himself to investigate me and in the process, found some contacts and some information. Given that I seem to only have one strong purpose, I knew he was talking about Joshua.

Otell's story was that he knew people who knew my love. They were keeping track of his whereabouts for they knew him during his thieving days and even as it had been 12 years since he gave it all up, they wanted him to stay out of being "competition". These people may at least know where Joshua was last seen. Otell also knew of Henri and agreed with me in that he is not to be trusted and is probably lurking about. He said he will ask around for him and I thanked him, timidly. I am not used to being open with people anymore. I retired to my room afterwards.

During the night I was awoken by a commotion. I stepped outside of my room and saw Zacharie headed my way. He said that THE box was stolen from Janna's belongings! I ran back in my room to grab my bow, arrows, and sword and chased after the thief downstairs. The chase lead me all over the immediate area, but eventually I came upon Karl, Janna, and a group of dark skinned people. One was offering Karl a large sum of money.

Allegedly the ring that the clues in the box lead to belongs to them. It will restore power to the woman with them for her to claim her place on the throne by proving to the people that they are blessed by Manann. They wanted to buy the box from us, but Janna suggested that they hire us instead to aid them in seeking out the ring. They agreed to that and we planned to meet in Matorca. They sent along their manservant, Mahmoud along with us to help along the journey.

A few days later we were at our first stop on our travels in Wissenburg, a town with a plentiful harvest. Kurnos must be watching over them. There, Zacharie proclaimed that he has changed his identity to Guillome and started rumors in Nuln that Zacharie was dead. I'm sure he has his reasons for wanting to separate himself from his past. It was here that Otell also told me that his informants should be making contact when we arrive in Matorca.

We left Wissenburg after a night and we came upon a carriage that was trapped on the road due to fallen trees. A well dressed lady was standing outside, dazed, so we cautiously approached to see if she needed help. She said she was attacked by bandits. Two of her attendants were dead and one was certainly knocking on heaven's door. Karl came in to try to help him. The lady mentioned that the bandits made off with some papers that were irreplaceable so to please help get them back. We found and followed a trail of blood, probably from one of the bandits.

This lead us to a clearing. There were three tents, a fire pit, and two posted guards and another roasting some sort of game on the pit. I was intending on sneaking in on the compound, but once one of them shot at us, we had to wage war. There ended up being five of them and thankfully one surrendered so we can get information out of him. We will see what he has to offer.

September 5, 2538

It was a whirlwind of events since my last writing. Some mysteries I had to leave behind and now feels like an irritating itch I cannot scratch. Alas, we must move on...

As others were tending to the wounded back at the bandit camp where I left off, I noticed some large pieces of wood sticking out from the woods. They definitely were not trees so I went to investigate. Sure enough, it was a cage fashioned out of poles and inside were two grimy looking halflings. They went by the name of Matchwick and Candlewick Greenthistle. After releasing them and sharing some rations as they were very hungry, they related their tales of woe. They were kidnapped, likely by rivals to their family's business of selling meat pies in Wissenburg who presumably hired the bandits, and were being kept to extort their families.

Back at the carriage, Mahmoud was just finishing clearing the fallen trees from the road. I gave him the water from my water skin when he asked for it. I suppose even humans can be helpful when they have enough strength to make quick work of moving large trees. The lady, Elise Magirius, allowed us into her coach to escort her and the halflings back into town. The papers, which we did find, were a contract for her to do business with someone in the next town, Pfeildorf. After a short while, a couple of road wardens caught up with us demanding to search the carriage. Apparently a magistrate from Pfeildorf had sent them with a warrant because a precious gold necklace belonging to the graf of the town had been stolen. They apparently had good reason to believe that it was aboard the carriage. Unfortunately for them, it was not found and they departed with an apology. We passed the surviving bandit to their care as well.

By the time we arrived at Wissenburg it was well past dark. When going through the rough area of town, the halflings insisted that they be let off there and without an escort. I found this to be very strange and foolhardy, but they explained that they must keep a low profile for their enemies should not know they are back in town and unharmed. We made arrangements to meet at a shabby building called Bert's the next day.

Contrary to some of the party members' belief, the halflings kept their word and paid us for our help and rescue. They said that if we were up to it, they could use our help in giving them and their families justice. Their family business was selling meat pies. To increase business, they had portable carts and went all around town. Shortly after investing in several carts, a city ordinance was passed to disallow anything being sold from carts. The halflings suspected that it was due to jealousy from the merchant families and thus when they proposed an appeal, they were kidnapped a couple days afterwards. If we were somehow able to prove that these families were behind the kidnappings, they would be shamed into voting in favor of the appeal.

I have no idea how, during the council meeting not only was the law forbidding carts repealed, the Greenthistle family was awarded a seat on the house! This is what I mean when I say that there is an itch I cannot scratch. We investigated the merchant families who were thought to be behind the ordeal, the Steinhaugers and the Ruggbroders, and came up with very little that could possibly be used to further the halflings' cause. Elise was also involved in being blackmailed into marriage in order for her contract to remain valid, but somehow that was taken care of and swept under the rug as well.

These halflings are obviously more than what they seem. No matter what Matchwick said after I asked him how he did this, it was definitely not a simple case where "they came to their senses". They've certainly piqued my curiosity, but it was time for us to continue on our own quest.

September 9, 2538

I'm writing now after getting into battle with a band of vile Skaven.

After the events at Wissenburg, we left again for Pfieldorf. As I was riding ahead as the scout, I noticed a pile of wooden boards off to the side of the road. They looked like they had been there a while and were definitely man made. Further on down, my suspicions were confirmed as there was a broken down cart. All of us took the time to investigate. There were skeletal remains of humans, one with chain mail so obviously someone ready for travel, but the curious thing was that he was run through the chest by something sharp. His remains were gnawed upon by beasts of the wild. There was also a symbol carved into a nearby tree that Guillome said was slowly killing the tree. I felt a push from Isha as she taught us how to care for the land and I borrowed Otell's axe to cut out the symbol to spare the tree.

Janna had gone to cool her head as her assumption that goblinoids were behind this had boiled her blood. She returned with an old dwarf by the name of Gimbri. He said that he had been looking for the old dwarven town of (***insert name here***) and thinks he finally found it just up the mountain. The only problem was that goblinoids, including brute orcs, had taken it over and they would need to first be cleared out before he could retake what rightfully belonged to his people. Though he offered payment with a sizable gem and Otell was intent on negotiating the deal, I cared not about payment for I had no need for money. Just ridding the world of goblinoids was all the payment I needed. I gave my agreement to the old dwarf with no delay. Otell looked annoyed at my haste, but he'll get over it when he figures out what it means to devote one's life to something and not something as trite as money.

We climbed up the mountain and came to a plateau at the top with a beautiful waterfall, a large ornate gate, and a cave off to the side. There was a camp of Skaven there in the clearing. One was a large rat ogre chained down and another had a staff and was presumed a wizard of some sort. We tried to sneak past them, but the wizard saw us and rose an alarm. The battle was victorious in our favor, but not without near deaths and a cowardly escapee. Sigfried nearly died on the spot with a blow to his back from the rat ogre as well as Karl. It seemed like everyone was hurt in some way. I suffered no physical damage, but my pride was certainly injured. That damn wizard attacked me and though I managed to narrowly avoid it at the last minute, it managed to run away.

I became obsessed with finding it. I searched high and low. In and out of the cave, which turned out to be the top of a blast furnace. On a move of near desperation, I took off all of my armor, clenched my knife between my teeth, and leapt into the waterfall because I was convinced there had to be a hiding spot behind it. Thankfully I landed in a cleanly cut cave instead of smacking into a rock face. The one I was in went a short ways in and ended in a dead end. I made my way out and went into a near identical one next to it. This one went further in. There was an alcove to the side with a mangy bed roll, a high quality knife, a plate helmet, and a bag of coins. Though I assumed these were from the people we saw the remains of down the mountain taken by the rodent vermin, I left the helmet and took the other items as safekeeping in case the owner came back for them. I knew the others were likely to get into a squabbling match as to who gets what.

Further down the cave there was a spiral staircase. I climbed up it and there was a panel and a lever at the top. After cranking the lever it opened the panel. I was puzzled as to what it was all for and decided to shut it and return to camp. When I returned, I took Gimbri aside and showed him what I found to see if the items were of dwarven nature. They weren't so he had no interest in them. After giving a fair amount of time to see if the original owner showed up as a hostage or similar, if no one comes to claim it, I will tell the party of what I found. When I mentioned the caves however, Gimbri asked me to show him so a band of us went through to investigate. To no surprise of mine, the helmet was quickly snatched up and given to Karl without any hesitation. Perhaps I am being too optimistic of where these items came from.

In exploring the area, we found a shaft that was carved into the mountain so that sunlight from when the panel was open could travel down it. It was used for farming within the depths of the mountain. I tied rope around me and crawled into the shaft. I had Otell and Karl hold the end with instructions that if they felt it tug sharply three times to pull me up in a hurry. There was not need for that, however, as there was no danger. What I did find at the end of the shaft was certainly a garden of some sort. It was a very bizarre one with multicolored mold, noxious looking mushrooms, and other unpleasantness. A handful of mini-goblins were tending to them. The walls and floor were covered so much with muck that the sunlight made no difference and they took no notice of any changes. I climbed my way back up and reported my findings. In the meantime, Janna had managed to find a secret entrance into the city through the wall of the shallower cave.

We all gathered outside and came to the decision to set fire outside the main gates, throw flammables down the shaft to torch up the "garden", and while the inhabitants were trying to deal with the chaos of the fires, we would make our way in through the secret entrance. Here is to hoping that this is not my last entry. And in case it is, I hope who ever is reading this can find my dear Joshua, tell him that my last thoughts will be of him, and that I will always watch over him.