Graham's Journal

tentaclelove asked: Saturday night to Monday morning sir!

Saturday night to Monday morning what?

Journal entry 27 part 2

19 Rova 4711 AR

It appears that that chest was more a means then an end. Inside we found the spoils of what appeared to be a Tian pilgrimage, full of various coins and memorabilia that managed to survive their crash as well as what looks to be an odd blade of the far east. The ninja Thaiden has become quite attached to it since then and has asked me to repair the damage of it’s age but during his inspection managed to find it contained a scroll.

After that the rest of the time was a blur. We rushed our finds back to Sandpoint as quickly as we could and by dawns light we were back at are inn going over our finds with our compatriot Ameiko Kaijutsu back in town. She seemed enthralled by what we had found and when I mentioned seeing her family name in some of my own readings back home she seemed hell bent on deciphering their meaning. And after little more then a days rest and recuperation we had our answer. It seems as if the papers were about a town known as Brinewall and that it had something to do with the Kaijutsu familyand the rest of the treasures we had found thus far, from the cherry wood chest and odd sword to the rockets the mad ones tribe had stolen from a nearby wreck all of them connected to this place and what’s going on.

Unfortunately what we would find at this mythic place as well as it’s whereabouts are far less clear. To that end Ameiko has decided to enter into a joint venture with our team and a number of other talented individuals to form up a caravan and journey forth to this mysterious Brinewall and get to the bottom all this. Of these hires she has managed to convince a local caravan trader named Sandru, the enigmatic ranger Shaeylu, and the old cleric Koya. Sandru is a competent sort from what I have seen thus far and from what I have been told a stellar caravan operator, the fact that he is also Koya’s adopted son, Lilly’s brother, and a Velzar’s former employer shows that at the very least his investment in our cause and loyalty to our party are far beyond what we could have ever hoped for. I only know so much on Shaeylu, she is a mysterious sort to say the least and my interactions with her even in my time here have been minimal. I must say though that she is quite beautiful even by elf standards though she seems to carry herself and her burdens at a distance from the rest of us. I shall have to get to know her better before this journey is up lest I find myself missing out on a companion not yet met. Of all of these new allies the one that has me most at worry is Koya. She is a great friend and has helped me out more then I can state since my arrival in Sandpoint but she is a woman advancing in years it worries me as to whether or not she can make this journey without mishap. This has just become another one of my worries now it seems with my word to aid Koya in any journey’s she may have yet ahead conflicting with my ability to keep her and her daughter out of harms way. Luckily they are both still powerful acolyte’s of The Dream Tender and so are blessed with her healing touch. I hope that in the end that will be enough.  

Journal entry 27

19 Rova 4711 AR

Hello again father and once more forgive me for the long delay between posts, though I know it has been not long since my last letter so much has happened that I feel I must write again lest I lose track of it all. We had entered the cave and return triumphant though not all together unscathed to our misfortune. Whilst exploring it’s confines we discovered this mighty cavern had become a tomb for the restless dead, their corpses rising up to protest our intrusion. Luckily our team showed skill and strength beyond our living stations against these damned souls and we managed to quickly route them. Suffice it so say though Krupt was not the most happy of companions though even he managed to crush a few under hoof. Oddly enough though many of them were dressed and armed with weapons and gear I had rarely seen back home in Cheliax, armor of leather plates and swords pierced with rings all pitted and rusted with time but no less effective then they once were. I do have to say had I the chance I would have loved to have picked their forgers brain on his technique the work was intriguing to say the least.

But back to business before I find myself too far afield of the topic at hand, on top of our run in with the skeletons of these lost souls we happened across some other wildlife that had taken up residence within these brine soaked caves. Normally I would not mention these more minor encounters but one in particular bears mentioning. You see while exploring some of the smaller passages within the cavern we stumbled into a massive geode, its size large enough to fit four grown men with room to spare inhabited by by a giant ball of protoplasm called an amoeba. Suffice it to say the caustic creature was not too thrilled with our intrusion into it’s home but we managed to quickly dispatch it with no real injuries. The odd thing about all of this though is that when Lillie and one of our rogues went to collect up the crystals that were beneath the amoeba’s corpse our rogue’s hands were burned by contact while Lillies suffered no harm. It seems as if she had acquired a resistance somehow but from what source I do not know, though I know she is an acolyte of Desna I would be truly surprised if she had managed to garner such boons this early in her devotion and upon asking found that she had always been as such. To this day I am still intrigued by this girl, it seems as if the fact that she is still barely fourteen seems to hold no ground with her! I find myself at once proud of her skill & prowess in these situations and at the same time worried that one day the harsh realities of this kind of life will find her and cut her down before she herself gets a chance to live it. I also worry what Koya will do should her daughter be brought back to her in pine, I pray that I will never have to perform this task.

The whole affair finally came to a head as we entered the last of the caverns tunnels. There we discovered what I can only assume to have been the former commander of these lost warriors, clad in steel and wielding a sword the likes of which I have never seen. We gave it our formal introduction offered him surrender to avoid the bloodshed, he offered a counterpoint at the end of his blade. The battle was raging and even five against one he still held his own fending off my charging offensive as well as the flying chains and flicking claw of our two rogue companions. In the end though his skills couldn’t hold back our numbers and skills and fell to my blade. Afterwards we managed to discover storeroom of sorts in an alcove along the back of the cave and within a chest of cherry wood…

Journal entry 26 

16 Rova, 4711 AR

Forgive me father for it has been too long since I last wrote to you of my travels, though I fear it will be longer still until I find myself able to return home. As I have told you before I am still living within the town of Sandpoint, helping them rebuild after the tragedies they had faced in recent years and restore the peace they so desperately deserve and maybe find some answers for the peace I seek myself.

As I have stated in my last few letters though things have begun to become more and more adverse within the last few days, the mysterious treasure discovered within the Licktoad’s camp and under the guard of the malicious Chief Gutwad would have been more then enough excitement for this little town to last a lifetime but the evidence of recent attacks and the claims of the mad one we found there seem to be setting this as little more then the tip of a far more unsettling tale. From what we had found there it seemed as if the goblin tribe had been set upon by some other and far more sinister force of what we can only guess to be the dessicated corpses of the unquiet dead. From what we had gathered there the beasts had come in droves from out of the swamp itself searching for the treasures the little mad one and his compatriots had discovered. The goblins rallied to the compounds defense sending their greatest heroes to their defense, yet as the fight wore on even they were not enough to hold them all off and from the evidence only our mad compatriot and his stealthy compatriot Chuffy managed to survive the fray with our compatriot walking out the more damaged of the two, though I wonder how much of it was to his mind rather then to his body. From what we can tell they had managed to actually defeat at least 5 of the monsters which is quite impressive to their credit considering the power of the unquieted dead as I have encountered them before. The most interesting find of it all though seems to be the treasure itself which though rather rudimentary all in all seems to have origins far removed from the Varisian coast we have found it on.

After quick return home and a report to the captain of the watch of what we had found we preceded back into that haunted quagmire to discover the source of these darkly preserved souls and cleanse the town of this supernatural threat. While in town we had managed to use some local maps and the tracking skills of one of our compatriots to deduce the whereabouts of their lair and traced it to an old sea cave nestled within a 50ft high sea cliff within the marsh. With any luck these creatures will be dealt with quickly and I and the rest of my party will walk out of this unscathed.