September 6 - Made scroll of Marathon Prowess. Robyn thinks we will need
to take Gaius with us, pointing out that, as a half-elf, he only needs
four hours of sleep a night, and his vision will not be hampered by lack
of light. Since we wish to travel as fast as possible, having everyone
maximally rested is important. I don't know, though. The boy's so young;
and there's so many monsters marked on that map! I have asked Alfredus to
put him through his paces with javelin, crossbow, dagger, and
quarterstaff, and see what he does best with.
September 7 - Another scroll, and our money is gone, except for 200
solidii I intend to leave with the captain against need and 35 I am
entrusting to Greta. Alfredus says Gaius is well enough with a crossbow,
but is actually comfortable with a dagger. He may as well have mine.
Lord knows I'm not comfortable with the things.
September 12 - On Monster Island. As planned, Decimus altered himself
into a dolphin and explored the marked passage through the rocks, and a
good thing, too. Not only did he hurt himself crashing into rocks that
didn't look as though they were there, but when he fought his way through
to the other side, outside of the hallucinatory terrain spell, he found a
number of small boats containing halflings who wondered among themselves
why we waited outside instead of trying to come through; no doubt so they
could loot our wreck. He said they spoke vulgate with a peculiar accent,
which is not to be wondered at this far from civilization.
Returning around the north side of the small island in the bay, where the
rocks appeared thickest, Decimus found a clear channel through which we
could easily bring the ship, and the Captain proceeded to do so, carefully
marking the route on his copy of the chart. Watching the ship around us
vanish, and then reappear, in the hallucinatory terrain was unsettling, to
say the least. Rowing across the bay to the point nearest the "elf port"
took some hours, and the halflings had vanished in the mean time.
Presumably they expected us to be pirates, and vanished for fear of our
molesting them; but it is also possible that they are professional
wreckers. I wonder if they have mages of their own, or whether they are
using an old elven defense?
Elf Port has sturdy stone docks and the remains of stone buildings, quite
elaborate ones for warehouses, which these presumably were. Robyn says
this was probably a business center, and if we knew what to look for we'd
find traces of the living spaces further inland. We have stabled the
mules in one of these ruins, close by a river mouth which, conveniently,
flows from the direction in which we wish to go. On the opposite bank of
the river is a broad marsh, full of birds and, alas, of mosquitoes. We
spotted some unusually large fishing raptors as we rowed in, large enough
that I was actually nervous for Gaius. Gaius is coming with us, a
prospect that pleases him visibly when he thinks no one is looking at him.
We are all packed, and have enjoyed our last cooked meal for the
predictable future - in fact, Gaius is still enjoying it. I hope we
brought enough food.
I have given the Captain the 200 solidii and told him, if we aren't back
in 30 days, to return to Brigantium and contact the major domo at the
villa, who will report to Uncle. Whatever he must do in the meantime to
keep this ship afloat, our people safe, and our line of retreat open, I
trust him to do. Greta has the salary chest and my formal report for
Uncle. The Sunshine Boys have instructions to follow the Captain's orders
until we return, and to do their utmost to keep the ship and our people
safe. We will complete our mission as quickly as we can, and everything
else is in Orus's hands.
September 13 - I had forgotten how profoundly uncomfortable mule travel
is, or perhaps it's the increased speed from the spells. Fortunately I
brought plenty of liniment. The river still flows in the desirable
direction, and the valley is tolerably easy to traverse. Plenty of
forage.
I had the power to cast Marathon's Prowess on ten beings, and we only
have
eight mules, so Robyn and Gaius got the excess, for scouting and running
away purposes, respectively.
September 14 - Evaded an ogre, a village of what are probably giants, and
a lone hill giant, whose marksmanship with a boulder impressed Gaius
greatly.
We ran out of one river and crossed a drainage divide to locate another,
again flowing conveniently. Robyn is investigating some lights, and I can
barely see to read. This is delightful countryside, if only it didn't
crawl with evil creatures. We must be very close to the tomb. Tomorrow
we search.
Alfredus has been tormenting Gaius by telling him we planned to curl his
hair. I think he begins to like the boy.
September 15 - Robyn reported that the lights were torches on a stockade
in the confluence of two rivers. Decimus went aloft in the guise of one
of those enormous fishing birds, to scan the fortress from above and see
if he could detect the traces of ancient buildings. The only sign he saw
was a stone staircase in the middle of the stockade. He counted a total
of 40 hobgoblins, 20 of which went on patrol in groups of five. Decimus
and I stayed to comb Giulia's paperwork for better clues while the others
(except Gaius, to his annoyance) sallied forth to intercept a patrol and
learn what they could. After all, not all hobgoblins are evil, though
outside of Tarantium I wouldn't lay any wagers on the subject.
While Tamara and Robyn covered him from the cover of the trees, Alfredus
accosted the hobgoblins, the sergeant of which spoke vulgate, more or
less.
They took him for a lost pirate, and he did not disabuse them, but told
them he was looking for a hidden treasure, and would split it with them if
they helped him. They said they could do nothing of the sort without
their captain's permission, and led him toward the stockade. He prudently
refused to come closer than a bowshot into the cleared area, and the
Hobgoblin leader came out to parley with him. During the course of this
conversation, he learned that the Hobgoblins are aware of the Tomb of the
Archmages, which they wish to find for their King, who will use it to
conquer the elves. According to the Hobgoblins, the current population of
elves slaughtered the indigenous humans of the island, and we don't know
whether to believe this or not. It was impossible to tell whether they
suspected that the staircase inside their stockade is the entrance to the
Tomb, or how much progress they have made in its exploration. The
Hobgoblins recognize Gaelish as the "speech of the slaves."
Not surprisingly, the Hobgoblin Captain refused to deal, and instructed
Alfredus to tell his captain that, if he had any knowledge concerning the
Tomb, he should communicate it to the King.
It appears that, in order to complete our mission, we must go through the
hobgoblins. A number of plans were bruited about, some involving
recruiting the elves (whom Alfredus, bless him, doesn't think capable of
the crime of which the hobgoblins accuse them), another involving creating
bad blood between the hobgoblins and that giant village. Thanks to
Decimus, it appears possible, though distasteful, to remove this obstacle
ourselves, quickly.
I pray Orus that the ship is all right, and that he look upon this
expedition with favor.
September 16 - Leaving Gaius in a tree overlooking the mules, armed with
my crossbow, the remainder of us rose before dawn and proceeded to the
road down which the hobgoblin patrols march on exiting the stockade, most
of us lying concealed and Decimus waiting, invisible, in the middle of the
road. When the patrols were lined up conveniently in front of him, he
struck them down with a lightning bolt, then disabled the door and placed
a flaming sphere on the battlements. I was kept busy blessing and
fortifying us against possible magic use while Tamara and Robyn shot at
sentries and Alfredus charged the gate with his new warhammer. It flames,
which was a tolerably terrifying sight in the morning dimness. The
Captain, cursing him as a double-crossing pirate, engaged him directly
and, after witnessing the effects of two shockwave spells and the flaming
sphere, gave an order which caused most of his men to attempt to flee, no
doubt to warn their King. Robyn, saying grimly , "No one escapes," cut
them down coldly as they ran. I killed one myself, but managed to save
another with a hold person spell.
We have saved the Captain, who speaks vulgate fluently, and the sergeant,
who speaks it understandably, as well as my private, who speaks only
hobgoblin, but may be used as earnest of their good behavior. I think we
have impressed them with our ruthlessness, though I doubt my own capacity
to appear stern and piratical, and will leave most of their direct
handling to Robyn, Alfredus, and Tamara.
Questioning the Captain under detect thoughts revealed that they know
they
have the Tomb, but are merely guarding it until the King's team comes,
probably in a month or so. It only takes a week to get to the hobgoblin
capital, but they must supply and so on. This does not appreciably
shorten our deadline.
Tamara and Decimus are studying the door; not that we expect to get
through today, or that it would be wise to open it, or that we have the
necessary spells to do so with confidence. I don't know about Decimus,
but I have only enough power for two more spells - dispel magic and detect
secret doors. I don't flatter myself I could dispel anything left by the
archmages, but perhaps I'll stroll over and find out soon. It is
important not to let our captives guests know how much the assault took
out of us. At the moment, the captain fears me as a witch, and it's just
as well, for him as well as us, for him to continue in that state. He is
an honorable Hobgoblin, according to his lights. I would sooner leave him
alive at the end of this.
Our victims are cremating, slowly, in the remains of one of the wooden
buildings. Gaius is poking through the equipment we removed from them.
If we can find a chain shirt and a gladius small enough, I'll put them on
him.
I make take a couple myself. Alfredus is always nagging me to get what
he
calls "decent armor." The Hobgoblin captain wore a ring of feather fall,
which I think Decimus should probably wear; but it's hard to divvy up
possessions with the dead eyes and living ones of the former owners
watching us. Trophies of war, says Alfredus; but he also wants to turn
our captives loose. I explained to him that, if we did, the Captain would
send the private to warn the King, and he and the sergeant would hang
about using their suprerior knowledge of local resources to harrass and
delay us.
Robyn says "slit their throats," and I'm not sure how serious he is, but
I
think he understands how serious I am when I say "no."
We had a terrible time containing the fire in the stockade, but with some
contrivance we can probably stable the mules in one of the buildings.
Gaius will go with us, which pleases him no end. While Tamara and Decimus
are figuring out the door, the rest of us need to contrive a prison.
