Aporeu chronicles Issue 35: Unrest in Wentel part 3: Recon
Stories from the adventurers
This week
Another story about Wentel, I hope these adventurers can finish that up at some point.Unrest in Wentel part 3: Recon by Cahir
Dear reader, I thought I had done it this time. I promised I would change for the better, but now I am not so sure if I am the broken one or the world. But let us not be to hasty in making these decisions! I’ll start at the beginning of today's story and you’ll see the events unfolding in their natural order. Perhaps when you are finished with it you could tell me what is right and what is wrong! I had been keeping an eye out on the quest board for more news about the situation in Wentel as I had been there previously. When checking it I passed by Gerolt and Jade who were having a nice conversation. Apparently, they are a thing now, who would have thought that the Gerolt who would “think about the children” would be this invested in someone else. But the same goes for me! I have also changed a lot during my time here, but I digress… One by one more brave adventurers gathered, Lothrien a previous companion who is highly skilled, Quen also a previous companion whose skills are more… indirect but nonetheless still very effective. And finally, a new face, a brave dwarven adventurer who goes by the name of Ruzak. He looks the part, I was sure that he could also act the part. Finally moving out we decided to head straight to the mountain and check the magically concealed back exit of the mountain where we left during the previous mission. Jade and I started looking for this concealed passageway. Jade having suddenly found it almost stumbled through the passageway. Upon peeking further inside she noticed that the goblins had blocked it. So, we decided to climb over the mountain and have a look at the front entrance. Quen, like last time, went into his trance divining for us what he could see. He told us about a rather large-scale activity at the front entrance led by a big ”red goblin”. It seemed as if they were loading everything up into carts and preparing to move out. We decided to ambush them a bit further on the road outside of view from the watchtowers. With a bit of Quen’s magic we managed to make the road appear to be blocked off. When the carts stopped to investigate, Lothrien instantly killed a goblin. Seeing this happening I conjured my dark flames filled with branches from the everlasting tree and blasted another goblin to pieces resulting in a confetti of blood and gore. How beautiful of a death it must be to die by the gifts of the Archivist. How I envy this goblin as I will probably die by the hands of some dirty vermin. I was lost in reverie when suddenly a shout from Ruzak snapped me back to my senses. He commanded Jade to kill the goblin and thus Jade contributed by performing her trademark trick with a “volunteer”. Moving on Gerolt decided that killing the horse would be a smart move. I guess he didn’t want them running off and decided to block all of the carts in this narrow hallway. However, the horse seemed to be full of life and vigor. So, I decided to give him a hand in his endeavor and finished the horse off. Again, I could hear Ruzak commanding Jade. An interesting ability for sure! However, this time Jade missed, it saddened me not being able to see her trademark move. With much regret and apologies I will cut this part of the story short, I will not recount the whole fight with you in all its details as it can be summed up with us obliterating them. For as you have already noticed our encounter mostly consists of goblins and one hobgoblin. I did keep one of the higher ranked goblins alive in order to get more information. I nicely tied him up, however he seemed unwilling to cooperate even though I had placed both of my weapons on his neck. So, I stabbed him in his foot with the hopes of increasing his willingness to cooperate. From here on Jade took over the talks as she suddenly seemed more approachable. The goblins suddenly started cooperating and revealed the names of certain leaders. This included the now dead hobgoblin by the name of Orbug next to him, an arcanely gifted goblin called Wrash, a very pissed of Bugbear by the name of Julb and finally their leader a hobgoblin by the name of Daknek. I did not know exactly what kind of magic she used but even I felt like wanting to answer her questions, it took me a bit to gather my bearings. Gerolt being the more experienced decided to secure the perimeter. After gathering more intel on the goblins operation and inner circle I was stumped on what to do with the goblin in front of me. I thanked him for his service and mentioned that the Archivist would remember him through me! But remembering what happened previously with Ms. Alyr and Mr. Rurik I did not want to tap into that part of my past. I wanted to just leave him there tied up, give him a chance for life as all living things deserve… You see I did try my best! But Lothrien and Jade decided otherwise and executed him. “What the fuck!” I yelled within my mind. I don’t know what these “people” want from me. When I killed the goblins and kobolds previously I was frowned upon, and when I let them live others kill. It frustrates me, no it maddens me. I don’t like this feeling of not being sure what to do. I liked it when my only criteria for killing or letting things go was “Will the thing I let go become a problem for me later?”. The world then was just black and white, no in betweens, no grey areas. Oh Mergen please help me! I feel like I am slowly losing my mind... Leaving my jumbled thoughts aside we moved on and decided to head to last base of these goblins. We would move with a cart and ambush them outside as to whittle away their numbers. I chimed in with a suggestion of faking “wounded” goblins on the cart and then setting the lot on fire while they were tending to said “wounded” goblins. Everybody agreed so we moved along. Quen would be the bait on the cart and we would move from the bushes to ambush the remainder of the goblins. But not all plans are foolproof, as we move along Quen noticed a weird wall on his left and spotted a broken-down hut at the top. The more silent ones decided to approach the hut, this included Lothrien, Jade, Gerolt and me. The two wolves we spotted were dealt with by Jade and Lothrien. As we went up closer I saw Gerolt just rushing to the door, so I quickly followed him and tried to aid him while readying my arcane gifts. Upon bursting through the door we could see two humans! Wait humans? I faltered with my actions upon seeing this sight, but the arcanely gifted one among them retaliated with a wave of thunder. Gerolt got hit but I did manage to dodge it. I was stupid! Gerolt got hit due to my lack of decisiveness, my stupidity could have led to his death. This compassionate approach of mine seems to muddle my thoughts and actions. Jade tried to hit one of them with her arrows. Again I tried to mediate and tried to ask them who they were and stop their stupid actions. But they ignored me, they are humans living in goblin territory of course they would be collaborating with them. But why? Why would they side with goblins? Frustrated, I let go of my arcane energy which was still swirling in my palms and hit one of them. They should just die! I will get my answers from their corpses if necessary… Gerolt rushed in further and finished the mage. The other vermin ran away. I decided to cut him off and ran towards the backdoor. Upon noticing sudden movement from the corner of the backdoor I let go of all other thoughts and just focused on the killing. I concentrated and held up my longsword at the general area. A sudden thunderous noise erupted and I heard shrieking as two of goblins immediately fell dead as their bodies were charred and unrecognizable. The other one still stood, but not for long! At this point I could hear Jade yelling “Don't touch him” from inside the house snapping me back to my senses. I was busy so I just trusted their abilities and focused on the garbage in front of me. However, suddenly I saw claws coming out from the same backdoor these goblins came from. Slowly it crawled out into the open, the last rays from the days sun reflecting from its scales. It’s cat-like eyes were darting around to see if any prey was around. And there it was, I was in its immediate view. It was a young wyvern, I assume the same one from those caves in the previous mission. It unleashed a series of blows upon me. At this point I did not care anymore, I tried to go toe-to-toe with the vile beast. Blood oozing from almost every part of my body I decided to stay put and laughed like a maniac in the face of death. I cursed the wyvern, I damned it with the gifts I had received from my patron. I just wanted to eat him alive. At this point the rest of the party had also finished their side and came to my aid. Even Quen came and apparently healed me. I had lost myself so much that I didn't even notice these events at that moment. We went on for a couple of rounds as I did not falter. Suddenly I saw a certain misty energy leave the body of the young wyvern and enter my body. It coursed through my veins reigniting my life force. I knew what this meant, the wyvern had finally perished. Lothrien had ended its life with an arrow through its chest. The young wyvern which was standing proudly before us just minutes ago, full of life and a primal urge for killing was now lying dead beneath our feet. Finally having ended this fight we moved into the house and investigated for a bit. Lothrien and I noticed a hidden trapdoor in one of the rooms, which we decided to come back to later. Moving up to the dragon I filled an empty vial with its blood and drank it then I refilled it again taking another batch with me. I’m not sure why I did that, it just popped in my mind. The others decide to butcher it and take the wyvern with them in Jade’s handy bag of holding. I went back to the two dead humans, staring down at their lifeless corpses. I thought to myself maybe they can answer my questions. I raised my longsword and cut their heads off, as this was the only part needed. Heading back to the trapdoor we investigated earlier we noticed it leading to the encampment of the goblins. This opened up new ways of entering the camp. But for now it had become too late and our party was quite low on strength and I had many questions. We decided to head back and inform the guild after investigating this hidden pathway. Signed ~ Cahir Isengrim, Child of the Heather Valley and follower of Mergen the ArchivistUnrest in Wentel part 3: Recon by Jade
More goblin slaying heroes! The adventures of The Catlady I had been hanging out in the guildhall for a bit, when I noticed that there was a follow up on the mission to Wentel. Last time I had been on a mission was before,… well before I was away for a bit. Gerolt really didn’t want me to go on a mission, because my legs are still in no shape to do any running or climbing. But you know Spark, just like with you, it shouldn’t hold you back right? And I have been to Wentel before, so I knew what was coming and I knew the way. So after convincing him that it was going to be fine, we had breakfast at the guildhall and watched the others of the party gather around the board. I was relieved to see the main crew for this mission return. The amazing Quen with his colourful magic, Goldie locks who is more deadly with a bow then I am (okay his real name is Lothrien or something, but his golden hair keeps distracting me so this is quicker to say!), followed by the shapeshifting Cahir who can’t see in the dark, and a new face arrived too. Apparently this dwarven fellow was called Ruzak, and known by a couple of the rest of the party. Gerolt mainly seemed very happy with the many shields that were available. With a grin, my paw in Gerolts hand and on my cane, we left for the follow up mission. You have to know though Spark, my legs were hurting a lot on that first bit. Normally Gerolt gives me his blessing of Lathander in the morning, but because we didn’t know how hard it would be, we decided to wait with that until we would reach the forest. He dragged me behind a tree and gave me his blessing, a warm sensation rushing through my body and taking away the horrible stiffness in my legs. And then, I have to tell, the funniest moment of the whole mission happened. We reached the tree line and the team was impatient to push on, but I knew I had to remind Gerolt to use my gift. A couple of days before, the lovely Orla had come over to me after a mission she had done and had handed me a gift. This gift was a green bow on a hairband which would make me more sneaky if I stayed close to Gerolt. The annoying thing is though, that would require me to take off my tiara,… and I am already really good at sneaking! So I decided to gift it to Gerolt instead, after all, I ruined his previous hairband. So his expression became all manly and stoic, saying we couldn’t laugh, when he pulled out the cute green little bow. When he pulled up his hair and got it back in his normal hair style, I was happy but all the rest of the group burst out in laughter. I have to say, his grumpy expression was quite the opposite of the cute bouncing bow on his head. When the laughing died down, we went to strategic planning, which is Gerolt’s strength. I really don’t get how he does it, but together with the rest they made up a plan quickly.
I was holding Quen’s hand when he was using his scouting ahead skills, while we were slowly following the path he would tell us that was clear. Spark, I think I have a good sense what he is doing, with all the research I have done before at the library about magic of all sorts, but he seems to be secretive about this. I don’t want to disappoint him, so I can’t tell you okay? But when I come home, I will point out in which book you can find out what he is doing!
Quen told us there were no patrols and we safely got behind the hill where we last time found the secret exit at the back of the cave. With a squeeze in Quen’s hand, he comes back to his senses and his white eye turns back to normal. I spend some time searching for the secret exit, but there were barely any clues. Which then caused me to find it on touch, having me topple into the secret tunnel. Gerolt of course immediately started screaming, but I was fine so I calmed him down. Frustratingly enough, they had sealed the back door with rocks and when I came out I told them this wasn’t a way we could use anymore.
The next decision was made by the rest of the team, namely climbing up the hills. I know I can’t make that on my own, and that it will probably strain my legs but I can’t argue that it’s a good advantage point for the entrance to the cave. So I hold Gerolt, and it takes me forever to get up on the hill. My legs really don’t want to, but as you taught me Spark, I won’t give up. Even if I wanted to give up, Gerolt is stubbornly reminding me that you also never gave up Spark. So you’re the hero that is secretly on this mission too! Don’t forget your sis misses you!
Anyway, when we’re reaching the top of the hill, I spot the commotion at the entrance of the cave and immediately tell everyone. I could see three carts, and movement of a handful of creatures. Quen his hand slips into mine, and he scouts ahead again. He tells that he can spot about thirty goblins, being bossed around by a big red goblin. The watchtower we had seen from before is also manned, so its going to be hard to get closer. With this information Gerolt and the rest agrees to set up an ambush, which makes Goldie Locks and me quite excited. That’s where we excel the most!
I kind of zoned out during the preparing phase and discussion, because my legs were hurting so much. So here is just the end result of the successful ambush! There was an illusionary rock blocking the road through the forest, and we were all ready to attack the carts. Goldie locks is across the road and he signals to me that he had spotted the cart, Gerolt who is standing quite close nods as well. I have to say I am very relieved he knows the signals too, it makes it soooo much easier to communicate in silence! He is truly amazing Spark, oh! Because he rescued me, and Quen wrote a song about him, he is now called Shield of Dawn! He is my own personal hero, isn’t that amazing?! I really should take him home one day, so he can tell you all his fantastic stories. Sorry, getting distracted, but there is just so much I didn’t get to tell you yet.
So the fight starts, Goldie immediately gets a clean kill, Cahir blasts one with some magic beam, and I follow up with a clean shot on a goblin who got of the cart. Then something weird happens, Ruzak is across the road and sees an opportunity for me to shoot again, so with a firm voice he yells to me that I should kill the one I just shot. Without a second to think, my reflexes kick in and follow up his order, and I shoot it clean through his eye socket, dropping him dead on the ground. I’m a bit surprised, but it worked really well. Gerolt goes for a clever kill, trying to take down the horse that is pulling the first cart, so it can’t escape and causing the carts to get stuck on the road. I then hear Quen’s voice, “Why don’t you repeat that and kill another?”, which makes my blood rush through my body. Some goblin shoots at Gerolt, but with an easy shield deflection he stays safe. Cahir finishes the horse off, and I line up another shot, instantly killing another with the inspiring words from Quen before. Some arrows are aimed at me, but they luckily miss. Then the weird commanding voice of Ruzak says to me that I should aim at another one, but I didn’t expect it this time and I miss.
This started a lot of fumbling on our end, but Gerolt is also deflecting their arrows. Then a familiar violet glow is surrounding a couple of the enemies, and I see Quen smirking in the back. I kill another one, Ruzak starts fighting a goblin and I have no eyes on Goldie locks. Gerolt misses a dart, but he creates a solid shield wall with Ruzak and challenges the big red goblin (later I was told that such creatures are hobgoblins). Then for the first time I hear Quen play some music during a fight, and it almost sounded like he was impatiently singing over it as well, urging us to finish up this fight. Cahir rushes up to fight the hobgoblin, who seemed to predict this, but his attack misses Cahir. Although Cahir misses his longsword attack, he manages to follow up with his rapier and hit. Now Gerolt is also jumping on the cart, getting next to Cahir and on his face frustration is visible. I would have guessed that I could get in a clean shot, doing the job for him, but Gerolt is fast and with a clean swipe with his rapier, he kills the hobgoblin.
There was one bigger goblin that was still alive, and Cahir convinced him to surrender. He seems to be really good at that, but he was horrible at asking him questions. He kept threatening him, and that didn’t get us any answers. So with a kind smile to Cahir first, and then to the goblin I did the interrogation. He gladly gave the answers we needed. I thought Gerolt would be proud of me, because he could make a better strategy because of these answers. But midway through the questioning, he just left! LEFT?! Why? I really have no clue, so I guess I have to talk to him afterwards. Maybe he just went to scout the area, yeah that’s probably the case.
Obviously after the questioning, we couldn’t have any goblins doing any backstabbing on us, so after thanking him for the answers, Goldie locks and I draw our daggers and murder him in a clean swipe. It’s so nice when your ideas align!
The fighting had tired my legs a lot, trying to sneak through the bushes, so I chilled on the front cart while the rest made a plan for the next part. Really I don’t know how they come up with all these epic plans, I thought just going back to the cave and murdering the goblins would be good enough. Totally forgot we had to take out the big guys too.
Quen disguised himself to look like the hobgoblin, then they filled the back of the cart with dead goblin bodies and with some illusions they added some alive but wounded goblins to the pile. I would be on the cart with Quen for a bit, so he could use his scouting ahead, while the rest would stay next to the cart in the bushes. Isn’t that epic Spark? Quen creates some colorful stuff that makes me hit stuff better, then he can also scout ahead, make himself look different and create illusions! Oh and don’t forget about his amazing songs and healing powers! I feel so under-qualified when I go on jobs, I hope Gerolt will still think I’m useful. I don’t want to bother him by constantly needing his protection. Ah well, back to the mission report.
After a while we spot a weird wall at the left side of the road. It’s some rock wall, making it impossible to stay on the left of the cart. Quen scouts ahead and explains there is a hut on top of the rock hill. With some arguing with Gerolt, we agree that Gerolt, Goldie locks, Cahir and myself will sneak up onto the hill and if it’s clear then Quen and Ruzak follow. Quen will then keep his “scouting” active so he can tell Ruzak what is going on, while Ruzak takes care of the cart.
We try to silently get up the hill while we follow the path up. We spot two wolves, and both Goldie and me line up two arrows and shoot them down in an instant. Alright, I do have to say, that felt pretty cool.
Gerolt heads over to a door on the side, while Cahir takes a position next to him and Goldie and I stay back a bit. He kicks in the door, and spots two humans sitting at a table. Gerolt yells something about dropping weapons and not attacking us, and because I don’t want to let him down, I hold my shot. Frustratingly, they don’t give in and I should have just shot that stupid magic caster in the face. Now he got to use a spell, pushing Gerolt backwards and hitting Cahir as well. With frustration, I miss my shot, which just makes the situation worse. Cahir starts his rain of magic down on these guys, while Gerolt holds the door and Quen magically jumps up onto the rock ledge, appearing behind Goldie and me. One of the guys runs away into another room, and Goldie gets a clean shot on the other guy. Probably being really mad at this stupid magic guy, Gerolt storms up to him and with a clean stab drops his body to the floor. Damn, I really miss my rapier. It’s way less messy then Gared. Ah well… May it rest on the floor of that lake forever. Gerolt runs in further, and without thinking twice I follow him in and ready my shot for any enemy I can see. Cahir has been outside together with Goldie and Quen, and after a loud thunderous bang I hear familiar goblin screams. I don’t know what’s going on, but they are probably doing a great job. Then the door in front of Gerolt opens and the second guy is ready to attack, but no way I’m letting that happen! While yelling “Don’t touch him!” his body falls limp onto the ground with one shot. Gerolt gives me a smile and starts running outside, where we hear loud unfamiliar noises.
Okay so Spark, you know I never lie, so believe me in this next part okay? It’s really what happened! And it was epic, and amazing, and everyone did so well! I chased Gerolt outside, and my eyes immediately lock onto A WYVERN! Yep, actually a wyvern! Alright, a small one, but still huge compared to us! Without hesitation I stare him down, trying to figure out his movements and when I’m certain, I let my arrow fly and hit him hard in his wing.
Cahir is ridiculously brave, standing in front of the Wyvern and another goblin and even further in the back there is an even bigger goblin, luckily not a red one though. Cahir gets a good hit on the goblin and brings him down while he is being mashed down by the wyvern. Quen isn’t letting him go down though, and is healing him without hesitation. Someone else without hesitation runs towards the danger, Gerolt takes position next to Cahir and slashes with a loud roar at the wyvern. I think I spotted some sort of … light coming from his weapon, but it’s so small I am second guessing myself now. He did really well anyway. I quickly seize the opportunity and shoot it again in the wing. Cahir follows up with another attack but it misses, but it creates an opening for Goldie locks, who locks his arrow dead straight at the chest of the wyvern and kills it. In the back the bigger goblin is running away, running straight at Ruzak who is coming with the cart. Gerolt isn’t going to gamble though, and with a dart he kills the goblin, who drops dead at Ruzak’s feet. Okay so, I don’t want to be annoying or anything, but besides the earlier fight, I haven’t seen Ruzak do anything in this fight. He got me an epic shot earlier though, so it’s hard to figure out what he does in a fight. I like him, but I don’t feel too safe with him. I prefer to have Gerolt at my side. Okay shuddup Spark, I can hear you here. Yes I prefer Gerolt over anyone, but that has nothing to do with his fighting skills!
Aaaaanyway! While the rest searches the whole house, I start cutting up the wyvern to bring it back in my bag. Hopefully we can fetch some nice money for it from Viktor. They find a secret trapdoor to a tunnel when I get done with my rough cutting up. I really want to check out what’s down there, and after some nagging, Gerolt goes in first and then me and Goldie locks go next. The tunnel ends in a slightly bigger room, and there are rusted weapons on the floor everywhere but it’s empty. When I want to go sneak peek through the hatch, Gerolt pulls me back and asks if Goldie can do it. He does, and explains he sees a hut and hears a lot of noise from outside of the hut. Because we all feel really tired, and we don’t really have a good plan for infiltration, we decide to go back and bring this information to the guild, together with the heads of the hobgoblin. We also manage to bring back all the alive horses, which gave us some extra coin.
I really wish I could’ve kept a horse, but I don’t know where I would keep it. Argh. Maybe I should just take a small pet instead. Would it be weird to get a cat? I don’t think Nightshadow, the innkeeper, would appreciate it, neither would Gerolt. Oh right, I never told you, but ever since uh… Gerolt became the Shield of Dawn, he has been living with me. It’s really nice! I’m glad I am back and he is really making me happy. As well as all these missions with my friends. I really misjudged Quen too. Spark, there are so many wonderful people here, protecting the city and the land! It’s amazing!
I will write you soon again. Much love from your sister,
Jade
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