Aporeu chronicles Issue 26: Human Enclave

Stories from the adventurers

This week

Back to the place of Halrûn's death.

Human Enclave by Heubald Wanderfoot

Once again it was time for Heubald Wanderfoot, son of the Great Adventurer Brindlo Wanderfoot, to go on an important mission on his way to become the next Great Adventurer!
The companions accompanying me this time were Ranra, Orla and Arkonn. Arkonn I of course remembered from my first adventure where he fled from the skeletons. This time however I would be seeing quite a different man in him!
We made our way to and through the Gate to a world that was hot. Very hot even! My compatriots seemed to think they would encounter some enemy outside of the gate, it seems a previous trip was encountered with a large group of Kobolds! This time however, no such Glorious Battle awaited us. We did see that a village up ahead nearby was in ruins. It seems this was a village of Halflings, I sure hope no family lived there as it was destroyed and empty! A lot of the buildings were burned down and deserted. I am glad we did not find any bodies, which give a man hope, but we also found no tracks, which was very weird indeed. Heavy stuff remained, any food and valuables was gone as well as the people.
The sun was burning hot above as we made our way to the East, slowly finding greener surrounds until after a few hours we got to the edge of a forest. It was sundown by then, and lowering of the sun combined with the forest did make the temperature a lot more pleasant. Although we did not travel through the desert for which Cor’Torin warned us I was still very happy to have brought the two waterskins.
As we entered the forest I did put up some lights, and after a short time we heard rustling in the bushes and two humans came out. They certainly were friendly enough, and took us to their settlement. It was an awesome sight to behold, I wish I had a way to quickly make pictures to put in the chronicles. Their entire settlement is built high up in gigantic trees, with bridges running between separate islands up there. To even get into the village a bell needs to be rung to cause a ladder to come down.
We were led to a big party hall where a party was going on for the God of Luck. We were lead to the table where the leaders of the settlement, Musharraf and Khadija were seated, along with two other humans, Khadir and Takisha, a gnome named Enisir and a halfling named Danyl. I certainly had a great time exchanging stories of our worlds with these esteemed people. At some point, a voice in my head alerted me that there was trouble, and I was called to come along to have a chat with two humans outside of the hall. They however denied hiding a jewel in a nearby mine, so we went back inside.
We did offer the rulers of the settlement to investigate a new mine nearby as there was some trouble with goblins in there.
During the party we, apart from exchanging songs and stories that will keep me performing for quite some more time, also found out some more about the land. The ruined village we had seen was attacked 8 or 9 days ago by kobolds and a red dragon, most of it was burned down as we had seen, some Halflings however escaped and went to the city in the south.
In this world Dwarves have not been seen for hundreds of years, the last legends report they went far north into the mountains.
The next morning we had a grand breakfast in the now deserted party hall, and then went to meet Mussarav to see about going to the mine. Heard from him that some jewel went missing, I am just glad we were not accused of taking it! We promised to keep an eye out for it, and then were escorted to the mine. On the way my companions told the guard to look out for Tarik and Kadim, the two men we had interrogated the night before, as it seemed that they had something to do with stealing the jewel.
As we reached the mine entrance, in a cliff side we told the guard we would take care of matters and find our own way back, so he could return to his duties. Going inside we explored the tunnels and quite soon found the ‘new tunnel’ that had been reported. Quite soon we heard a low rumbling sound: The snore of a dozen goblins! We made short work of them, however one did start to run while shouting and even though I killed that one as well, more were sure to be on their way.
We decided to set up an ambush of sorts, and I called out in Goblinoid that help was needed, to lure any help to fall into our trap. Great was my surprise when the next to come were far bigger than I expected: Hobgoblins! A heavy fight ensued, in which I damaged some, and with my scathing remarks managed to prevent some damage to Arkonn as well! Eventually we prevailed! During this mission Arkonn showed himself to be a true hero, putting himself in front of us, taking out many of the enemies and protecting his compatriots!
We continued our search through the Dwarven Halls where we had stumbled into, in which apparently the Goblins had taken up residence. We did not encounter more of them, and did close up a hole leading further into the ground.

When we returned to the settlement, we reported a job well done. We were thanked for our earlier warning of the two men, unfortunately they had disappeared, but it seems letters from some criminal lord were found in their home, so at least that knowledge was now out among the rulers!
We exchanged pleasantries, were given a reward for clearing the mine, and Ranra made work of some trade agreements before we had to return home again.
All in all quite a different mission this time, but certainly an enjoyable mission where I was pleasantly surprised with the actions of my fellow adventurers. All in all I trust that soon I will have stories to tell to rival the great Brindlo Wanderfoot!

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Human Enclave by Orla

Human Enclave, a Happy Story by Orla
I think it is high time I write another report. Just like it was high time I went on an adventure again. I did not want to after the last couple of times, but I started feeling restless. Even Ulfgar, ever the protective big brother that he is, said that I might have to go on an adventure again a couple of times. So why not? I already knew the world I’d be going to this time, so I could bring a lot of water, a shawl to protect me from sunburn a bit, and off course my awareness of the dangers. It was time to go back to Ilvorea, this time to a human enclave, in the hope we could have a successful diplomatic mission now.
I went through the gate with my shield up, the Traveler’s symbol in my hand, ready to toll the next hostile red critter I saw to death. It was not needed this time though, there was no kobold in sight. (Sorry Q and Rurik! You both know I love you, and those kobolds are different. If it had been hostile changelings I’d have blasted them too.) The village where Cor’torin dearly bought the water skins last time was deserted though, with many buildings burnt down at high temperatures, while in other houses it was clear that people left in a hurry. As we learned later, it had been overrun by kobolds and probably the dragon that killed Halrûn, rest his soul. I am glad we did not meet them.
So we started walking in the direction the guild’s map lead us. It got greener, and we found the edge of the forest with a path leading into it. After about half an hour in, we heard noises, and lo and behold, we were found ourselves - by Mahmut, who took us to the village where the humans stay. As we were told they prefer the shade the trees bring them, and I can totally relate. Both because of the protection from the sun, and the being more hidden from dragons and kobolds.
When we arrived, there was a party going on in honor of the god of luck. As in our world Tymora and the Traveler are closely connected, it felt good to party in honor of such a god. The music and ale were good too, Ranra probably agrees to the latter. I did what I could not to drink too much though. Oh, another thing that was very interesting about this place, was that the whole village is made out of tree houses! This was very funny when I was awake at night, and heard the drunk people who had to be hauled up again. I believe Arkonn is the only other one who heard that though, the others were just so tired they slept through it all. But I digress.
We were introduced to the rulers of the village, a human couple called Khadija (her) and Musharraff (him). They were nice, and very interested in Heubald’s tales about adventures and our world. There also were two humans at their table who might have been important, Khadir and Takisha, as well as a halfling (Danyl) and a gnome merchant named Enisir. To my surprise, Enisir was polite, and did not come across as mean. This did put me at ease a bit more, I must say. There also was a funny little story-song about Torb, who tricked a dragon into not killing him.
Well, we also mingled with the other guests off course. We talked to a trader, Farik, who will be very happy to set up trading connections with us through the gate. We have talked to Lornan about opening the gate for this. We also heard from him about how there was trouble in an iron mine nearby, because of goblins. See, if people tell us nicely and we offer to help ourselves, I think none of us is against a bit of danger during a diplomatic mission - as long as it is not unasked and only for funsies of the other party. So we offered to help, especially since we heard some men whispering about a stolen jewel and a treasure in connection to this mine. We did a bad job talking to them, trying to have them give us the exact location of those, though, so in the end it seems they got away with both. Or eaten by giant worms, and the mean Orla in me hopes for that a bit. We did warn Khadija and Musharraff though, the next morning, because it appeared to be Khadija’s jewel that was stolen. At that moment that was the only way we could help - apart from trying to find the jewel ourselves that is, which we did not manage.
We went into the mine (a nice guard, Bashir, brought us there), killed the goblins, got a reward and went back home. I believe we made friends in this world, and that’s a good thing.

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On the next issue:

Retrieving a helm