A dangerous trek through the Mines

Well, things escalated quickly today.
 
First with the assassins in our rooms and general lack of sleep from that nonsense then we find a pair of wagons taken out by a goblin ambush. The goblins weren't too hard honestly although one did through a fireball which caught me by surprise. Didn't think they even knew how to read much less learn magic. To each their own methods I suppose. They apparently captured a fierce woman with a great sword though, that was fun to watch. Rather glad I wasn't on the front lines for that. Thanks to some unfortunate circumstances we assumed she was a foe only to find out after the battle that she was just a victim of the Goblins. Turns out they were hired by the assassins to capture a woman on the road. I suspect that the woman they were after was the one she was protecting. Turns out she was one of the mercs hired to protect our charge's bride, imagine that luck.
 
Anyways we chatted for a bit, found out about her charge. She warned us of some patrols nearby, evidently some of the soldiers were seen by her group searching the land for someone. Personally given this horrid wretched place I didn't want to meet up with them anyways but we did later find out through Ashe and Conrad that they were looking for the Groom and Bride of this little peace making wedding. Charming, and wholly unsurprising. Turns out that some of the nobles, (in celestial) if not all, (in common) aren't too keen on peace talks with Nisar. I know, shocking developments. I swear I can hear the dunes suddenly vanishing into a lush green paradise from here...
 
On a slightly better note I did find out something rather interesting about our charge; he can cast healing magic. Healing. Magic. I imagine that won him many favors in the court but who am I to judge? At least he's nice enough and smart enough to help out whenever possible. Also helps that he doesn't freak out about magic being cast around him. Helped a lot later on in the Mines themselves.
 
Our newest party member is, well he's naive. Wish I could be like that once more but still it could be worse. Well that's what I would have said if he hadn't bum rushed into the mines and nearly gotten the entire party killed by Hellhounds. I like the kid but good lord is he going to be a cavalcade of fun to deal with at this rate. He's got a good heart though so honestly I don't mind him too much. Just wish he'd try to talk about his problems before nearly getting us killed again.
 
As for the titular mines well they were rather dull honestly. Abandoned, body parts strewn everywhere, two horses left outside to pretty much die. The works. We found one of our new friends in there too. He didn't put up much of a fight but he didn't appear like he was planning on being one from the sounds of things. Probably just wanted to get himself killed for the cause, which is likely how we met the Hellhounds in the first place. Did have a fun time with Chain Demon though. Glad I thought to prepare an invisibility spell for that bastard. Used Varex to cast it on the Boy which worked largely like a charm. The only issue we had was when Olo came back to help, smelling suspiciously like burnt charcoal, and slammed into the Boy while he was still invisible. Just glad we finished the demon off in the nick of time to prevent further issues there. Especially since the Demon could animate the chains around us.
 
Lost Varex in battle again. Doubt that's going to be winning me many favors from him. Although I did learn that one of his previous masters was into some dark magic. Not a fan of that discovery but might prove useful down the road if we run into similar magic.
 
We evaded the soldiers thanks to our shortcut through the mines. We should be one forth of the way through our illustrious journey. At least this will make for a good story to retell down the road if only for comedic purposes. I just hope we don't die thanks to the infamous witch hunters. Just waiting for those lovely fuckers to show up. At least I've got some spells that might keep them at bay for a little while this time around. I'm not about to fail in this mission especially if it can mean the end of these glorified butcher's reign of terror. I'll not have Robert's sacrifice be for naught.
 
(in celestial)
As a side note I doubt Freya would agree with the sentiment but I'm sure she'd agree at least that a ceasefire would prove fruitful towards ending the madness of the Inquisition. Might not be the route we wanted to take when it came to avenging our fallen but I see no need for harming those not responsible for their country men's actions. An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. Never thought I'd be saying that about Lealon but Robert's right. If this works out great, if not its not like things have changed that much. Just hope we don't make this worse.
 
(in common)
Oh and Olo is a bit of comedic gold. Clearly not too bright but charismatic to make up for it. I think I'll get along with him rather nicely.