7th of Shesti 2783

Gissette fell on the road to Ratheld. She was an old horse and perhaps I was fooling myself to think she had much riding left in her. I spent more time burying her than I probably should have but Gissette was good horse and riding mount and I didn't much care for the idea of leaving her to the wildlife.
Upon reaching Ratheld I was able to quickly meet Thiran Vonthal of the Vonthal Royal Trading Company he seems a friendly enough fellow and he's willing to pay me an honest wage to help guard his caravan to city of Myrkian. I will admit that Vonthal's choice of hirelings has caught me a little off guard. I had expected to work this job with the random mercenaries and veteran soldiers that tend to seek work guarding merchants and nobles. I was quite surprised to find that Vonthal had found himself a couple of half-orc brutes and a lightly armored human armed to the teeth with axes and knives. This crew may not be the most professional I've ever worked with but they are good enough in a fight and we should see ourselves safely to Myrkan.
Only a few hours outside of Ratheld we were accosted by bandits. Vonthal had stopped the caravan because another one of his wagons appeared to have been attacked on the road ahead. As we were preparing to discuss what we should do an injured Hobgoblin wandered out of the hedge holding a broken sword and ranting and raving about us being bandits. I was able to talk him down and he introduced himself as Azar. Vonthal offered to hire him to help investigate and secure the damaged wagon. The driver appeared to be injured and I rushed forward to help him but luckily Vonthal stopped me before we were ambushed. The half-orc Krull quickly dispatched one of the bandits while a combined effort of the other fighters managed to take down the larger bandit. I implored the remaining bandits to surrender but they instead took flight likely returning to their hideout.
I was able to interrogate the bandit and was able to find out the location of the bandits hideout inside the wailing woods just south of the ruins of Earwich. Additionally the half-orc Trask was able to pull a map off of the bandit which leads to the Glittering Mines. I haven't heard anyone mention the Glittering Mines in 100 years but surly these bandits don't have the permission of the king to be mining that ore.
Oddly enough the bandit was equipped with a mace made of castle forged steel bearing the makers mark of the fortress Eastwatch and had a platinum coin. I've dealt with many a bandit in my time but rarely are they so well equipped and compensated. I feel that whoever is distributing these supplies out of Eastwatch should certainly be dealt with sooner rather than later.
Vonthal has decided to return to Ratheld with as many of his supplies and personnel as he can and will attempt to travel to Myrkan in a couple of days. The half-orcs and hobgoblin would rather investigate the bandit hideout than Eastwatch and the human seems reluctant to travel to an abandoned fortress and so I reluctantly agreed to deal with the bandit den first. We decided not to travel the roads in case we were accosted by bandits and have instead decided to travel over the plains to Earwich.