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<blockquote data-quote="PHDungeon" data-source="post: 5204003" data-attributes="member: 86320"><p>Bjorn's Journal:</p><p></p><p>It is with heavy heart that I put quill to parchment, for Torfinn is truly gone. Let me recount from the beginning. We had just killed Kisanth and learned that Brianna had been taken in the direction of the ogrefist hills most likely to the old temple we had earlier explored. The town was still in disarray but we could not spare the time to set things right if we were to have any hope of rescuing Brianna. This being the case we set off the following morning taking horses and a dozen of Vesna's men, one of whom was a good tracker. We knew generally where we were going, but this time we were cutting across land, instead of following the road and heading south, which was the path we took during our first visit. This should save us some time provided we did not get lost. We left Deryl behind to support Lady Marklehay in her grief and provide a little aid if it should be needed for the troops.</p><p></p><p>Once we reached the Ogrefist hills we left the horses with Vesna's men, and our party; myself, Bella, Torfinn, Vesna, her tracker Snorri, and Darren. Headed into the hills on foot. The ground of the hills would have been treacherous for the horses and the time we gained getting here would have been lost. We pushed hard and made our way to the valley of the temple in good time. When we arrived, Bella sent her familiar ahead to scope out the situation.</p><p></p><p>The Temple which we had cleared out when he last visited had new occupants. The upper area had a number of ogres patrolling and it looked like it would be a tough fight to go through them. That and the fact that the sound of the fight might alert those who took Brianna to our presence made us decide to enter through the lower entrance where the black substance came out. The only problem was that what had been only a small trickle had expanded into a stream and had flooded the entrance area. From previous encounters with it, we knew we could not just wade through it. There was a barely scalable path along the wall and into the cavern. Darren went first, acting as lead climber and laying a path of pitons and rope to aid the rest of us along. </p><p></p><p>Even with this assist it was a hard climb and falling into the black liquid would not have been good. Here luck was with us and we made it into the cavern. The climb continued as we made our way along the way of a tunnel that led to the interior chambers of the temple. We were almost through the tunnel when we encountered a partial cave in. This was actually an aid to us and made progress a little easier if a little slower, as we could brace ourselves between the wall and the collapsed rubble. Derren still had the lead and this far in there was almost no light. In order to see Darren activated a sunrod. As he lit it just as a trio of gargoyles launched an attack. If not for that light we would have been at a serious disadvantage. Again the cave in aided us, giving us a bit of a slope to fight from and allowing all of us into the combat. It was a quick and dirty fight, as the gargoyles attempted to haul us from our precarious perches into the nasty ichor. Luckily, the black substance proved to be as inimical to the gargoyles as us. We managed to hack our way through them and cross the pool of black liquid with little additional injury. We were not in too bad shape and felt we had to press on for fear the fight had alerted others to our presence. </p><p></p><p>We made our way through the flooded catacombs with out incident and approached the well room. This room was occupied by a variety of nasties including the air archon we encountered and fled from under Fallcrest, a lich, two more gargoyles and a trio of human cultists. Fortunately, Brianna was here and still alive; they had not sacrificed her yet. It was our tack to see they did not. This was a hard fight, and we fought well together, focusing our attacks to take down the threats before us. As the tide turned in our favor one of the cultist moved over Brianna threatening to kill her if we did not surrender. Immediately Darren and Vesna leapt to her defence drawing his attacks to themselves and preventing harm to Brianna. It was Bella's well aimed shots that ended the threat of that culist however. The fight was made easier by a well timed blow by Torfinn against the lich, knocking it into the well and taking it out of the battle. The fight had been a hard one and many of our resources had been used. We had been pushed to the limit but were victorious. We now had to get out. With Briannah in bad shape from her ordeal we decided not to go through the ogres but to attempt to go out the way we came in. </p><p></p><p>It was here tragedy struck. The way out was as difficult as the way in. Bella and I had made it out Torfinn was behind me, followed by Vesna and then Darren who was carrying Briannah. Given the precariousness of the line and pitons we were quite spread out so as not to put too much weight on any one point. It was as Torfinn was half way along the outside wall, myself and Bella at the path and Vesna at the entrance to the cavern, that he lost his footing and fell into the black liquid, he was out of range of my healling powers, and before we could get to him he had suffered enough wounds to kill him. To have fought through so much and die in such a matter was more than I could bear. I retreived his body and resolved to bring him back. The rest of the party made it out and we left the area to where I could preform a gentle repose ritual to preserve Torfinn until we made it back to town. Briannah was in some shock from her ordeal and we soon learned that they had preformed some sort of ritual on her and implanted something into her womb. I preformed some minor healings on her to get her back to Fallcrest where we could aid her better. As much as I wanted my brother back Briannah took president. After gathering the necessary supplies I performed a Remove Affliction ritual, this was trying on Brianna but successful, and with some rest she was physically well. In time she will heal in her mind as well, as she has begun to show some signs of recovering. Though given her interest in Darren you have to question how sound of mind she was to begin with.</p><p></p><p>With Briannah taken care of I now began the preparations to revive Torfinn. The Aesir Temple, though damaged in the latest attack had not burned down, and was in sufficient repair for me to perform the ritual. With Torfinn laid out upon the altar, cleaned and garbed in muslin, I began my meditations to prepare myself for the raise dead ritual. I was in the middle of my meditation when a most peculiar thing occured. A stranger came into the temple, and approaching Torrfinn on the altar he shook his head and said, “Our enemies have grown strong.”. He drew closer and continued saying, “I must send my son home now. His time as a mortal has ended. He was sent here to atone for his misdeeds and now he must face judgement.” Suddenly Torfinn burst into flames and the stranger disappeared. All that was left was a sprig of mistletoe. There was no trace of Torfinn and no scorch marks from the fire. Even as I write the details fade from my mind. </p><p></p><p>I offered up prayers for Torfinn and hope that he is judged well, for he was a true friend to me and I will miss his sometimes taciturn companionship. The others in the party only knew the front he put forward; they did not come to know his lively sense of humour and keen wit, or his true loyalty once earned. My bother you will be missed. </p><p></p><p>With Torfinn's final passing and the healing of Brianna, it is time to turn our attentions to Fallcrest and the coming months. With the orc raids and battles of the past summer, there is little to harvest in the area, and it will make for a very difficult winter. There is the possibility of starvation, as well the town's defences have been compromised- add the damage to the temple, and the murder of Lord Marklehay, and the town is at risk both physically and spiritually. We have decided to seize the hoard of Kissanth in compensation for Markelhay's murder. The bulk of this will be used to purchase grain and food stuffs to help the town through the winter. I have put forward that the provisions be earned by work restoring the town's defences and Temples. I have dedicated the restoration of the Skanzi Temple to Torfinn's memory. In the morning we will head out to the silver mines to parley with the kobolds. We will take the hoard however by force of arms if necessary, but it should not come to that. The one other matter we have to see to is the trial of Olivia, Lady Markelhay's maid for her part in the murder of Lord Markelhay.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="PHDungeon, post: 5204003, member: 86320"] Bjorn's Journal: It is with heavy heart that I put quill to parchment, for Torfinn is truly gone. Let me recount from the beginning. We had just killed Kisanth and learned that Brianna had been taken in the direction of the ogrefist hills most likely to the old temple we had earlier explored. The town was still in disarray but we could not spare the time to set things right if we were to have any hope of rescuing Brianna. This being the case we set off the following morning taking horses and a dozen of Vesna's men, one of whom was a good tracker. We knew generally where we were going, but this time we were cutting across land, instead of following the road and heading south, which was the path we took during our first visit. This should save us some time provided we did not get lost. We left Deryl behind to support Lady Marklehay in her grief and provide a little aid if it should be needed for the troops. Once we reached the Ogrefist hills we left the horses with Vesna's men, and our party; myself, Bella, Torfinn, Vesna, her tracker Snorri, and Darren. Headed into the hills on foot. The ground of the hills would have been treacherous for the horses and the time we gained getting here would have been lost. We pushed hard and made our way to the valley of the temple in good time. When we arrived, Bella sent her familiar ahead to scope out the situation. The Temple which we had cleared out when he last visited had new occupants. The upper area had a number of ogres patrolling and it looked like it would be a tough fight to go through them. That and the fact that the sound of the fight might alert those who took Brianna to our presence made us decide to enter through the lower entrance where the black substance came out. The only problem was that what had been only a small trickle had expanded into a stream and had flooded the entrance area. From previous encounters with it, we knew we could not just wade through it. There was a barely scalable path along the wall and into the cavern. Darren went first, acting as lead climber and laying a path of pitons and rope to aid the rest of us along. Even with this assist it was a hard climb and falling into the black liquid would not have been good. Here luck was with us and we made it into the cavern. The climb continued as we made our way along the way of a tunnel that led to the interior chambers of the temple. We were almost through the tunnel when we encountered a partial cave in. This was actually an aid to us and made progress a little easier if a little slower, as we could brace ourselves between the wall and the collapsed rubble. Derren still had the lead and this far in there was almost no light. In order to see Darren activated a sunrod. As he lit it just as a trio of gargoyles launched an attack. If not for that light we would have been at a serious disadvantage. Again the cave in aided us, giving us a bit of a slope to fight from and allowing all of us into the combat. It was a quick and dirty fight, as the gargoyles attempted to haul us from our precarious perches into the nasty ichor. Luckily, the black substance proved to be as inimical to the gargoyles as us. We managed to hack our way through them and cross the pool of black liquid with little additional injury. We were not in too bad shape and felt we had to press on for fear the fight had alerted others to our presence. We made our way through the flooded catacombs with out incident and approached the well room. This room was occupied by a variety of nasties including the air archon we encountered and fled from under Fallcrest, a lich, two more gargoyles and a trio of human cultists. Fortunately, Brianna was here and still alive; they had not sacrificed her yet. It was our tack to see they did not. This was a hard fight, and we fought well together, focusing our attacks to take down the threats before us. As the tide turned in our favor one of the cultist moved over Brianna threatening to kill her if we did not surrender. Immediately Darren and Vesna leapt to her defence drawing his attacks to themselves and preventing harm to Brianna. It was Bella's well aimed shots that ended the threat of that culist however. The fight was made easier by a well timed blow by Torfinn against the lich, knocking it into the well and taking it out of the battle. The fight had been a hard one and many of our resources had been used. We had been pushed to the limit but were victorious. We now had to get out. With Briannah in bad shape from her ordeal we decided not to go through the ogres but to attempt to go out the way we came in. It was here tragedy struck. The way out was as difficult as the way in. Bella and I had made it out Torfinn was behind me, followed by Vesna and then Darren who was carrying Briannah. Given the precariousness of the line and pitons we were quite spread out so as not to put too much weight on any one point. It was as Torfinn was half way along the outside wall, myself and Bella at the path and Vesna at the entrance to the cavern, that he lost his footing and fell into the black liquid, he was out of range of my healling powers, and before we could get to him he had suffered enough wounds to kill him. To have fought through so much and die in such a matter was more than I could bear. I retreived his body and resolved to bring him back. The rest of the party made it out and we left the area to where I could preform a gentle repose ritual to preserve Torfinn until we made it back to town. Briannah was in some shock from her ordeal and we soon learned that they had preformed some sort of ritual on her and implanted something into her womb. I preformed some minor healings on her to get her back to Fallcrest where we could aid her better. As much as I wanted my brother back Briannah took president. After gathering the necessary supplies I performed a Remove Affliction ritual, this was trying on Brianna but successful, and with some rest she was physically well. In time she will heal in her mind as well, as she has begun to show some signs of recovering. Though given her interest in Darren you have to question how sound of mind she was to begin with. With Briannah taken care of I now began the preparations to revive Torfinn. The Aesir Temple, though damaged in the latest attack had not burned down, and was in sufficient repair for me to perform the ritual. With Torfinn laid out upon the altar, cleaned and garbed in muslin, I began my meditations to prepare myself for the raise dead ritual. I was in the middle of my meditation when a most peculiar thing occured. A stranger came into the temple, and approaching Torrfinn on the altar he shook his head and said, “Our enemies have grown strong.”. He drew closer and continued saying, “I must send my son home now. His time as a mortal has ended. He was sent here to atone for his misdeeds and now he must face judgement.” Suddenly Torfinn burst into flames and the stranger disappeared. All that was left was a sprig of mistletoe. There was no trace of Torfinn and no scorch marks from the fire. Even as I write the details fade from my mind. I offered up prayers for Torfinn and hope that he is judged well, for he was a true friend to me and I will miss his sometimes taciturn companionship. The others in the party only knew the front he put forward; they did not come to know his lively sense of humour and keen wit, or his true loyalty once earned. My bother you will be missed. With Torfinn's final passing and the healing of Brianna, it is time to turn our attentions to Fallcrest and the coming months. With the orc raids and battles of the past summer, there is little to harvest in the area, and it will make for a very difficult winter. There is the possibility of starvation, as well the town's defences have been compromised- add the damage to the temple, and the murder of Lord Marklehay, and the town is at risk both physically and spiritually. We have decided to seize the hoard of Kissanth in compensation for Markelhay's murder. The bulk of this will be used to purchase grain and food stuffs to help the town through the winter. I have put forward that the provisions be earned by work restoring the town's defences and Temples. I have dedicated the restoration of the Skanzi Temple to Torfinn's memory. In the morning we will head out to the silver mines to parley with the kobolds. We will take the hoard however by force of arms if necessary, but it should not come to that. The one other matter we have to see to is the trial of Olivia, Lady Markelhay's maid for her part in the murder of Lord Markelhay. [/QUOTE]
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