The Lochmar Clan Storyhour (aka Men in Skirts)

[Ao the Overkitty]

Journal Entry of Seth Lochmar - July 16th

July 16th, 1002

Having finished the last of the law books, I returned to Taggert’s today. While we had decided to go do some cleaning in the manor house for today, since it was raining yet again, we had a rider approach. A frail, emaciated boy rode up to the manor house looking for Father Clancy, who had apparently visited during my sojourn. When told that Father Clancy had been gone for two days, he looked rather upset. We offered him our help. He didn’t seem too happy with that we were the best he could do, but took it.

This man, Bean Moorhouse, led us past Caledon Vale into some Moors, which were the lands held by Moorhouse. Apparently the Clan’s Laird, as well as most of their more experienced members were all off fighting somewhere when the trickery of their undertaker was found. Apparently, he had not been properly burying the deceased, and had even animated some. While Maxi Moorhouse is a very powerful Illusionist, the undead were more then she felt she could handle (I guess she didn’t stock any attack spells). She is a rather beautiful woman, if a bit severe in appearance. She had set up an illusion masking the undead guarding the morgue.

Booth Moorhouse made no attempt to hide his hatred of our family. Bean informed us that he was an instigator and have done so with the last group of Lochmars. Bean, Maxi, & Booth did a lot of arguing amongst each other, before letting us do what Bean had asked us to.

The front guards, a group of Zombies in Scale mail, were not too tough. Arvin took most of the damage, but not enough that my light healing spell couldn’t fix. I also took a few nicks myself, but nothing major.

Inside, a mummy guarded the first room. With Padraic having our only magic weapon, we could not seem to harm the thing. It took a lot of quick thinking on our part, along with all of our holy water to take it out. It saw that only Fiona was doing substantial damage, so singled her out. We managed to take it down enough that a single arrow shot by Bean could slay it when it followed Fiona outside.

Further inside, we found a lot of unburied bodies. One of them was very unhappy about not having been put to rest yet. We quickly took care of that. A secret passage was pretty easy to spot. But this is where things turned ugly. Splint Mail doesn’t allow for a whole lot of nimbleness, not that I have much to begin with. So, when the pit trap opened up beneath me, I was unable to stop my fall. Forty feet and two spikes later, I should have been dead. The only reason I had been left staggering was I had not gotten around to asking Arvin to not use his powers upon me. In fact, I have yet to inform anyone that I know what is going on with him at all. The temporary health he granted me saved me from death. While I’m still not too sure of him and his abilities, I will have to muse on them further. After stripping myself and using my last minor healing, I replaced my armor. The others hoisted me up, where we took a breather.

I helped bury the dead while the others went to go talk to the Undertaker. It sounds like it was a good idea I did not go in. He would have made it far too hard for me to deal with him. It turns out he had fallen in love with the Baker’s daughter and neglected the other corpses. He animated her and maintained her appearance, so that they could… Ugh. I can’t write anymore on it. It is far too disgusting. Needless to say he was a very sick man.

I was in no condition to be in combat again, so I handed Wallace my Claymore and decided to stand in the bodies’ room, at the front end of the secret hallway. The others entered the room, waking her. She got up and ran past them, but as she mowed down Fiona, Wallace got two very good hits on her with my sword. When she got down to me, it only took a light smack with my Carpenter’s hammer to take her down. It would have been very bad if she had managed to make it outside and terrify the Baker; very bad indeed.

When Laird Whallical Moorhouse returned, Bean gave us stellar praise, while Booth’s damning was somewhat lacking. Not happy about it, Whallical told us he was in our debt. With that, we headed back to Taggerts. Hopefully we’ll have the manor house cleaned up soon so that we can move out of his house.

 

[Ao the Overkitty]

Journal Entry of Seth Lochmar - July 17th

July 17th, 1002

Well… yesterday’s triumph has yet again been turned into a defeat. I’m really starting to hate when this happens. Arvin, Fiona, and Wallace woke up sick this morning. It was worse than Arvin suspected when I diagnosed it as Mummy Rot. It seems the only reason why I was spared was because of my recent connection with our lord. Against my better judgment, Wallace decided he was going to head home to seek the help of his father, a great healer by his own accounts. I am sad to see him go and fear he will not make it more then a day, but he would not see reason and it is not right to force someone to stay against their will.

Now I fear we must venture into the City once again. That seems to be the only place that will likely to have anyone capable of removing this disease. That means a trip to the Basilica. Hopefully we can search out Father McLar and gain his help in this. Of course, for this, we need cash; something we are lacking. Sure, we have lots of sellable items, but we need someone who will actually buy from us; at a reasonable price, that is. That will be the tricky part.

There are also our unknown enemies within the city. Last time, we barely made it out of town alive. I do not hold out much hope that we will have the same amount of luck this time.
------------
Well... things went much better then expected. It seems that, if we do not stay overnight in the city, it does not give our enemies enough time to deal with us. But anyway, here is what transpired.

Before leaving for the city, two more family members arrived, riding one horse together. Nio-lu Lochmar is a brash sort. He is prone to bold statements and seems stubborn. I wouldn’t say he’s quick to sling insults, but he certainly stands his ground and openly challenges those that may subtly challenge us. Though he claims to be a hearty warrior, his skills in combat left a bit to be desired, but perhaps he just had a bad day. In his first confrontation, he fled like a little girl (admittedly, there was magic at work).

The second one was Lamard Lochmar. Now this one was gifted with a smooth tongue. He has a way with words I have not seen before. I swear, he could convince Galibur to become a monk if he tried. He has already smoothed over many confrontations in just this one day. I feel that he will swiftly become the spokesman for our family.

On our way to the city, while on a narrow part of the Dars we ran into a trio of Darsguards. While I did not get all of their names, Rob Darsguard was a pompous ass who spoke down to us and generally just taunted us. Louis Darsgaurd, a mage of some sort, went along with Rob’s lead. The final one of the group was a woman who’s name I did not catch, but she wanted Rob to just leave us alone. It took a bit of time, since we were trying to avoid a fight. When Fiona got down off the wagon to deal with them, I tried to charm Louis, to no effect. Louis used some sort of scare tactic, but thanks to the courage our lord has placed in me that I now exude, only Lou, as he has said we can call him, bawked and ran away. Fiona was much more successful in charming Rob and with well chosen words got him to just move past us. That encounter could have gone much worse; Saint Michael must have been watching over us.

Within the city, we first made for the marketplace, to raise some capital. Haggling and bargaining, we were able to sell most of our stockpiled items. We also found out that Andreas used to buy cases of Potions of Maximized Extended Bull’s Strength. Gah! To think of what we could do with the money it would take for such a case.

Moving on to the Basilica, we met a snooty priest and found out that Father McLar leads the chapel of St. Andrews. They also told us to piss off when we saught to have Arvin & Fiona cured of their diseases. Apparently the Lochmars are supposed to be paying a tithe of 1,000 a week to the Basilica. Not likely! We made our way to the chapel of Saint Andrews, where we saw Fletcher again and now met his father, Father McLar. A nice guy, if a bit lacking in the judgment department when it comes to the Lochmar family. He was more then willing to help us, but did not have the healing power himself. He did have a solution for our dilemma, though. Apparently the shrine of Saint Raphael had become inhabited by a toad daemon. He was trapped there by some binding spells, but was still considered a nasty foe. With Saint Raphael being the Patron Saint of Healing, the fount within his shrine had the power to heal diseases. Of course, this is also where the toad daemon was trapped. We agreed to take down the daemon for the use of the fountain’s water.

The chamber was locked up and the keys were entrusted to two individuals. Lamard used his glib speech to talk them into allowing us entry. Father Craig was a nice enough, if inexperienced priest. Still, he was better off then Father Torrent. Father Torrent had fallen under the influence of the daemon and tried to talk us out of our errand. Of course, when he saw we would not do this, he set up a trap to spring upon us within the shrine, outside the door. His betrayal came as no shock to us and we made quick work of him. Seeing that a dead priest on our hands would not help us any, I tried to knock the man out, while the rest aimed to kill. After he was knocked out and tied up, we proceeded to enter the chamber of the fount and daemon. We made short work of the daemon, though Lamard did free him from his prison before we killed it.

The fount itself did much more then cure diseases, though. We were quite happy to find that it also heartened our bodies and strengthened our breath.

 

[Ao the Overkitty]

Journal Entry of Seth Lochmar - July 21th

July 21th
I’ve been spending some time with the Lantern Archon lately. We’ve mostly been talking about faith and religion. Most of what I’ve learned on that subject has come from it. On the subject of religion, though we have truly only had that one experience with the Church of Arleans, I was left with a loss of faith in the clergy. Father McLar and his son Fletcher are the only ones so far that truly seem to care more about helping people then improving their lifestyle and position in the church. One that devotes themself to god should do so to help all who live in his glory, not do it for power. Yes, I know that I’m hopelessly idealistic, but I have to believe in a better world. The clergy from home never seemed to be this wrapped up in heirarchy and politics to help those in need. Sure, we’ve got a bad reputation, but to just write someone off because of what their family has done in the past (which, while there is a lot of bad on Troy’s side, the part they’re angered about seems to be the exposure of devil worshippers in the church). Even Father McLar seems a little skewed, since he seems to think that Troy wasn’t that bad a guy. Perhaps at first he wasn’t, but anyone that follows Eshu crosses the line far too much to be considered a good person.

Perhaps our relations will improve some, but so far I’ve found the Dunkirks to be a much more amiable and holy people then those at the Basilica. As long as they still worship god above all, their heracy isn’t as much as others make it out to be. Sure, they are raising an icon, but not above the worship of our lord.

 

[Ao the Overkitty]

Journal Entry of Seth Lochmar - July 26th

July 26th

We had a run in with a giant poisonous snake. It took me a couple of days to recover from its venom. From what the others have told me, we apparently have had more devils living in our manor house. Padraic, Fiona, & Arvin took on a winged lady who beguiled Fiona. She seems a bit shaken up from the experience. The winged lady & her honey have been enslaving people from the free village, it seems. From what Arvin has told me of her honey, I’m seriously afraid.

But anyway, it seems Padraic has done a fair amount of work repairing the damage done with the Druid Sunny. She sent a messenger to get us. She had an important mission for us, as she put it. The Oracle of the White Pines, whatever that is, pretty much told her she shouldn’t do this one herself. Apparently one of her dryad friends had some friends stolen (rose bushes) and ran off to find them. Sunny needed us to return the dryad before sundown or she’d die. Of course, being all city folk, none of us could track. Sunny lead us to the edge of the forest, the border with Caledon Vale, while her messenger retrieved Kelwyn and our horses.

We found out that the Sheriff has an unofficial bounty on Lochmars; two hundred gold a piece. Oh, how I want to catch him in that. An ogre that seemed to be trying to take us alive ambushed us. Could he possibly work with Honey? Got a nice Greatsword off of him.

We ended up at the house of the Huntslord of Caledon Vale, though we didn’t know it. With all the plants around, I think he was either a druid or a ranger, though I can’t be sure which. His little Goblinoid things affected the minds of everyone but Padraic and myself. I’m not sure what they did, but my family members were acting very strangely. While searching around, the Huntslord came down from upstairs, ready for battle. He was very furry; a werewolf. He had on some weird, horned hide armor and wielded a longspear. Seeing Nio-lu near where Lorna the Dryad was being kept, he charged the unaware man, skewering him and nailing him to the wall. He never even had a chance to look his killer in the eye. The man’s pet, a wolverine, came at me while Padraic tumbled in to trade blows with this Marcus Caledon. While I probably should have stayed and dealt with the wolverine, I figured it was a very bad idea to hit it, since those things get REALLY angry if attacked, I’m told.

I charged in to try and knock out Marcus, but he skewered me like a pig on a spit and everything went black. The next thing I saw was Arvin was standing over me while Fiona was talking to Marcus. Padraic used the last of his healing magic upon me, so that I would remain conscious when Arvin’s temporary healing wore off. Padraic made his way out to the horses and collapsed back into unconsciousness. Thankfully, he had thought to make sure he wouldn’t die from his wounds before hand. Looking around, I could see Lamard was also dead, over where myself, Fiona, himself, and the wolverine had been. Fiona later told me that Lamard sacrificed himself to protect her, stepping between the wolverine and herself. He is a true gentleman. I could tell that Arvin was twitching to take down this Huntslord, so we had to get him out of the house quick. If he had attacked, we surely would have all died. I’m not sure that was effectively holding him back. Given a few more seconds, I’m sure he would have attacked Marcus anyway.

Fiona seemed to have Marcus well under her spell and was able to get Lorna and her friends back from him. Lorna was to be used in a meal, though I do not know who was going to partake in the feast. For some reason, I hope it would have just been the goblins, but I’m not sure.

With speed being the issue, I took Lorna and one of the horses and rode hard back to the dryad’s tree. After she was back in her tree, I told Sunny of what had transpired in our journey. The others arrived a while later, slowed down by four rose bushes, two corpses, and not enough horses for the lot of them.

It’s kind of weird to see Lamard as a Centaur now, but we are all very grateful that Sunny reincarnated him. He has decided to stick around with Sunny for a while, to get used to his new body. Perhaps she can teach him a little about the forest while he’s there.

 

[Ao the Overkitty]

Journal Entry of Seth Lochmar - August 4th

August 4th
It has been a busy couple of days. Geffen Sandhaven, the Laird of Clan Sandhaven, visited us. Friendly man looking for strong allies. Apparently history repeated itself in misfortune because, when he visited the clan for the first time with the last group, he was murdered by agents of Risenson, in an effort to frame the family. At least the last Lochmars had the means to Raise the poor man (and I do mean raise and not animate). No corpse, no crime. Well.. this time, he was captured by the skulks that worked for “Honey.” Accompanying us on our mission of rescue were two new arrivals for the family, along with Mary and Anne McSaven, redheaded twin tenants of the Sandhavens.

Cyrus Lochmar, Lamard’s brother, are complete opposites. Where Lamard is a lover and a diplomat, Cyrus is a fighter and a jerk. He managed to insult the McSavens several times in the course our conversation with them. He is, however, very good with his sword. The skulks stood no chance against his cleaving sword.

Conrad Lochmar is kind of Galibur with a work ethic. He flees in fights a lot, but is good at finding the traps laid out by the former inhabitants.

The search for Honey’s base was mostly not fraught with peril. However, I did think we were dead, or worse, slaves when we ran into a pair of Mind Flayers while we were dealing with some Hobgoblins. For some reason, those of us with the gift of the gab, namely Conrad and Arvin, went off to fight the Hobgoblins, leaving myself and Fiona to talk our way out of the situation with the Mind Flayers. Lucky for all of us, Fiona was very persuasive.

The confrontation with Honey was tough going. Between him, his hound, and one of his buyers, we had our hands full. It seems that Geffen’s abduction was just a ploy to get me down there. Near the beginning of the fight, I moved in to take out Honey. Unfortunately, he was very wicked with his Urgosh. A hit when I approached and another shortly after and I went down once again. I woke up some time later to Cyrus pouring a bottle of healing wine down my throat. The buzz I felt wasn’t just from its curative ability. Stepping back, I quickly healed myself some more before rejoining the fight. Honey was on his last legs, his pooch was dead, and the buyer was chasing Fiona around the lower half of the room. After Honey got knocked out, I forced him to drink a vial of acid, taking him out for good. The buyer soon followed.

As expected, we were all, with the exception of Fiona, seriously hurt. Arvin, however, laid dead on the ground. I know that is not right to say such things, but I cannot say that I feel much remorse at his passing. The two of us never got along and a major confrontation between us would have happened eventually.

We found Geffen, along with several others that were taken as slaves, and limped our way back out.

 

[Ao the Overkitty]

Journal Entry of Seth Lochmar - August 8th

August 8th

We have Duergar in the basement… Isn’t that… lovely? Zaran, the Dwarven Blacksmith that we freed, along with twenty-four other Dwarves, invoked the covenant and I agreed to honor it. Fiona has set the shaft to alert us if something tries to use it. That way we’ll know if something is going down.

A momentous couple of days. Myself, Fiona, Padraic, Galibur and Miriam have moved into the Manor house. It’s still kinda messy, but at least we’re there should the alarm go off. Still have to go down to Taggert’s to eat meals.

Oh yes… we met Andreas. Not quite what I expected. When we came up from downstairs, we found a bunch of men in clan colors striping the house of cold iron. Andreas was ordering them around. Very brief encounter. He abdicated his position as Laird, saying that it was more trouble then it was worth, since everyone was always trying to kill him. Turns out he’s been waging a war on the Nine Hells with his army. At least we know where the soldiers are now. We also managed to get the keys to the Archives from him before he left. It is a mess and will take lots of time to sort through it. Feels weird to be officially the laird, though. Always kind of figured he’d return some day to try and take back his position.

After an accounting of our funds, we’ve got a lot more money then Arvin was telling us about. The tinkerer that we rescued a while back came buy. In gratitude for saving his life, he offered us a nice belt at cost. Padraic wears it for now. We also bought a lot of nifty stuff from him. Of course, that belt cost us roughly half of our resources. Let him roll in his grave, just so long as he doesn’t rise from it.

Had an interesting encounter with the Dars. Apparently they’re a splinter from our clan. And it seems they took out some assassins that were heading our way. We are very greatful. The three Knights we met on the road, Arthur, Waltor, & Holland were very nice and sent word back to Laird Carlisle that we sent our greetings and an offer of help. His response was a somewhat cryptic one. It seems to be a test of our desire to restore the alliance between our clans. While it requires a bit of research, I am up to the challenge. Hell… after spending ten days reading law books, reading history should be no trouble at all.

One other thing… The Anne and Mary McSaven returned with gifts from Geffen; a thank you for saving him. Things he felt we needed, apart from soldiers, that is. The Bracelets of Stabilization will come in handy.

 

[Ao the Overkitty]

Journal Entry of Seth Lochmar - August 20th

August 20th

I guess I’ve forgotten about this for a while. Things have been very busy these past few weeks. We’ve had another new arrival for the family. Tellsford is a woodland type. I really haven’t spent much time with him. He seems to be off in the woods somewhere whenever I’m around. The only time I’ve truly been around him is during the beginning of our recent troubles with the kobolds. They decided to shoot at him.

It turns out some of the tribes questioned my leadership, due to one of them having seen Andreas when he was around briefly. We made nice with Yellowfeather, giving him a nice little ceremony to let him know he was important and even got him a miniature courtier’s outfit for him to stand out. We declared we were going to smite the unbelievers in a couple days. With the help of Mary and Anne McSaven, we were able to do so. It took a few forays into the Winery and ended with the kobolds having kidnapped a few people (including Kelwin’s daughters). We had to fight a battle with their “champions.” These consisted of Kelwin, who had to because his daughters were hostages, a Doppelganger disguised as Gramps Howard, and a man named Geoffrey Freeman, whom Fiona has since taken a liking to. We pitted Cyrus up against Kelwin, insisting that he use my Greatsword. I’m no fool, so did not tell him how to turn off its subduing ability. It was a very close fight, but Cyrus just barely prevailed. Padraic faced ‘Gramps’, with Gramps turning into another Padraic during the fight. We were a little unsure which one won, but I was able to determine it was indeed our Padraic. Finally, I faced this unknown, who we later learned was named Geoffrey Freeman. A skilled man in combat, but I seriously outmatched him. Unfortunately, he disarmed my Greatsword and I was forced to actually draw his blood with my longspear. The kobold leaders were very surprised that we actually won the contest, and as expected by the rest of our expedition, they attacked us. I was currently under the effects of a charm spell, so didn’t see it coming. However, when the little bolts of light smacked into me, it broke the charm. We made sure the children were safe while we took out the remaining combatant kobolds. Thankfully, most of the kobolds acknowledged our victory over their champions. We should not have problems with them again.

We have also had several encounters with other clans recently. The first was Kelvin Larkhal. A Magineer, as he calls himself, a man that builds with magic. Apparently he used to be Ariel’s fiancé, before she broke it off to go gallivanting with the Prince. A nice enough guy, and still seems to have a hang-up on Ariel. He lent us the use of some of his cleaning staff to clean up the manor.

The second of encounters during the kobold problems was Harold and Jay Risenson. The kobolds were in a panic about members of Rising Son being on our lands. Conrad made the mistake of telling them these men were our friends, which further freaked them. Anyway, Harold is the new laird of Rising Son. He wanted to make sure that what was in the past was in the past and said that his family was on a short leash these days. He said they were the victims of several accusations and to go to him if they were suspected of something. I don’t really trust them…

 

[Ao the Overkitty]

Journal Entry of Seth Lochmar - August 27th

August 27th

A mostly quiet week. I’ve been researching in the study on the items dealing with the Dars. The book “Words of Wisdom” is a religious text from somewhere other then Arleans. That’s all I know on it for now. Also, we’ve had an intruder. A Half-Orc from the Scorpion gang was trying to steal a book named Blue in the archives. Thomas stopped him. These are the same people as the woman that came back with the beaten up Galibur a while back. I can see why they wanted to steal Blue, though. It’s good source material.

Padraic, Cyrus, Conrad, Tellsford, and Galibur went into town on the twentieth. It took Padraic and Galibur a week to return, and the others still haven’t. Apparently they had a very eventful time. Padraic returned with a friend in tow. Sir Constantine, a paladin who feels he has sinned and needs to make penance, has decided to follow Padraic for a time to repay for his actions. He hasn’t told me the whole story, but apparently it involved Padraic pulling him down off his horse. As for what they’d done, they were dealing with a Plague village of some kind that was actually infested with Shadows. Apparently Cyrus came very close to becoming a shadow himself. Of course, that man is not all right in the head. Well… he at least has a sick sense of humor. He had a custom made wineskin for me that looks like a human skull. It’s just not right.

After waiting a week due to other obligations, Fiona and myself set out to the city in search of the others. This is when we met Padriac and Sir Constantine on the road, past the Caarnbridge. As we headed back to our lands, we were welcomed to meet with Laird Charion Caarnbridge, which we, of course, accepted. Their house is quite impressive. It is made out of the same material as the bridge itself; the bones of their ancestors. We got along pretty well with them and found that I share a lot of views with Charion, though our view on some undead do differ…

We ended our meeting on a good note and I think we made good progress there. When we got home, I took Padraic aside and showed him the Half-Orc intruder. Oh, in addition to Padraic’s friend Sir Constantine, Fiona has made friends with the Half-Elf named Jeffrey Freeman. He’s not exactly a pacifist, but he doesn’t believe in killing. A very diversified man, he’s a deserter from the army, a former priest, and a bit of a delinquent in his youth. Fiona thinks he’ll fit right in.

We spent the next day trying out our new friends in battle. We decided to clear out the rest of the vines in the vineyard. Sir Constantine and Jeffrey performed adequately in the fight. Now Fiona informs me that she has a visitor from home that I should meet.

 

[Ao the Overkitty]

Journal Entry of Seth Lochmar - September 5

September 5th

Yet another eventful couple of days. A servant of Arvin’s family arrived with a letter for Arvin and a foal for breeding. The servant seemed most upset to learn that Arvin was deceased, especially since they had received a letter from him saying he was fine. Apparently his mother is the worrisome type, to the point of making herself deathly sick. This is not going to go over well when we get the news to them that Arvin is dead. Father Clancy believes that a letter in Arvin’s own handwritting would suffice to quell her fears.

There is too much around to fuel my paranoia. We were attacked in the middle of the night by an Ogre Mage assassin. He targetted Miriam, and it was only her bracelet from Sandhaven that kept her alive. Tellsford also almost died in conflict with this creature. It fled after Fiona started casting spells at it, and we could find no trace of it once it left the manor. Since then, we’ve taken to sleeping in Galibur’s and Padraic’s rooms with alarm spells up to ward us.

The next day, two carriages and two riders arrived on the land, and were attacked by Hill Giants illusioned to look like Trees. The driver of one of the carriages got squished by a rock, leaving that carriage unmanned and the horses panicking. The riders, Mary and Anne McSaven, went off to fight another of the Tree Giants while we worked on taking out another. Conrad was most gallant, running up, jumping on the runaway carriage, stopping it, then taking down the Tree Giant that was about to kill Mary and Anne. Of course, that Giant had a rather large hole in it, due to a disintegrate spell cast by one of the passangers in the second carriage. The first Tree Giant almost took me out before I was able to fell it. Luckily, Father Clancy had gotten out of the first carriage and moved up to heal me just before it could take another swing on me and drop me.

Geffen Sandhaven and James Bearsden had come to discuss the issue of the frigates. Big Jim, as he prefered to be called, is a very ostentatious man. He wears ritzy clothing and a huge diamond ring. His family, of course, owns the only diamond mine in the area. He seems far to interested in his own wealth and power. He also seems to be a man that holds grudges and not someone you should cross lightly. The two of us didn’t really get along and he had the “it’s my way or the highway” attitude. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was the one that staged the assassination attempts to try and show that the other side was not playing fair. Obviously, I do not like the guy.

After they left, and Father Clancy stayed, we dug up Arvin’s body, only to find it missing. Checking the others, Dancin, Lamard, & Lou’s bodies were also gone. We have since found out that their corpses were stolen and turned into a hideous type of creature. What puzzles me is that these creatures are created from extreme torture of the person before death. If they were all dead, and one must be willing to return, how could this have been done to them. We are told that some of Troy’s apprentices may still be on the grounds. They are most likely to blame for this.

We have met the Laird of Highwatch. An interesting man, and seems trustworthy. This came about when we were exploring some tunnels that we had found underneath our lands. Fiona had brought up once seeing something within a hole in the Gardener’s Shed. We figured they were connected to the meenlocks, so we investigated. The tunnels are quite small and and winding. It is very tiring and hard to crawl around in full plate, especially since once you pick a tunnel, there is not enough room to turn around in it. Anyway, we found a secret burial chamber underneath the shed that was guarded by some strange snakes. I recognized them as creatures used to guard the graves of nobles and, sure enough, there were some Lochmar corpses further on. We also ran into a couple of Meenlocks, who attacked us. When one of them dropped and the rest were injured, the lot of them disappeared the next chance they could. It was odd, because one of the Meenlocks was missing his left hand. In a secret compartment along the wall, we found a rather extravagantly decorated sceptor.

After visiting the lantern archon for healing I had a short chat with him. I explained that we had more tunnels to explore to try and find the missing family members. He explained that, after gaining so many of our memories, it made him want to go out and explore. He said that he needed a name. His kind don’t usually have them, but now he wanted one for some reason. I think some of our humanity rubbed off on him. He seemed to like the name Lumin, when I suggested it to him.

So Fiona, myself, Constantine, Padraic, and Lumin picked another tunnel, which turned out to be very long. We crawled for hours, all the way under the Mountain. It was nighttime before we reached the end of the tunnel. We were all dirty, standing in the middle of a forest, unsure of exactly where we were. Lumin made for a nice beacon for a Hippogriff rider to spot us. He led us back to the Highwatch Manor, where we cleaned up and met Laird Leslie. He actually seemed glad there was a tunnel between our lands, claiming that building one had been an old plan between the clans. He gave us lodging for the evening.

 

[Ao the Overkitty]

Journal Entry of Seth Lochmar - September 11th

September 11th, 1002

It seems the others have been busy while I’ve been busy reading Words of Wisdom. It was a rather interesting book. Though it took me a while to read, I feel I have gained much from the experience.

During the night at Highwatch, something evil tried to kill Fiona. Thankfully, she had placed an alarm upon her bed and the creature was scared off by the noise. We informed Laird Leslie of the attack, but they could find no trace of the intruder, save for the forced open window.

In the morning, we returned to our Manor via Hippogriff. I sat down to start reading while Tellsford went to talk to some plants to see if he could find the Meenlocks. They explored another tunnel, which opened up into a chamber with four other exits. The farthest right tunnel did not go very far before it turned upward and ended at a closed hatch. When Conrad opened it, water rushed in, pushing everyone back into the chamber. Conrad was almost drowned as he was pushed into their entrance tunnel. Luckily Cyrus was able to get some rope down to him and pull him into a side tunnel. They were all able to get outside through the side tunnel to see Minter Creek empty and Minter Lake draining. Cyrus quickly found a Giant Toad and killed it. Conrad took the toad and threw the corpse in the lake. When the lake had settled, Cyrus swam down and closed the hatch. He then freed the toad corpse from the entrance tunnel, escaping through the side tunnel and allowing the water to drain. Feeling they had done enough damage for the day, they returned to the manor.

That evening, I got to meet Simon Highwatch. He was rather happy about the fact that had been asked to come over to help us and the prospect of getting to hit things with his sword. Friendly enough guy, but I had to get back to reading. He spent the Sabbath with our family before accompanying Fiona, Padraic, Tellsford and Conrad back to the chamber under Minter Creek. The water had drained from the main tunnel, but left the left most tunnel submerged. After Conrad disabled a summoning trap on the middle tunnel, they continued on. They were attacked by some flying heads that said they guarded the family catacombs. From what they’ve been able to piece together, the heads attacked them as they left the catacombs. They left entrance to the catacombs and entered what looked to be a basement. There, they were attacked by something Tellsford identified as Feyrs. He obviously considered them to be very frightening since I’m told he yelled, “Feyrs!” and promptly ran away. I’m told that fight consisted of a lot of Simon and Tellsford running away and running back.

After the Feyrs were finished, they found a small room filled with stuff, including a heavy crossbow with a cross carved into it, a cloak, and several barrels full of copper coins. On one of Tellsford’s trips away from the battle, he had run up into a church where he saw a man knelt before an altar. They all retreated back to the Manor for some healing before continuing into the church. Conrad decided to stay behind.

Walking into the church from its basement, the four of them saw the front door to their right, stairs up to another level ahead of them, and an opening into the church proper to their left. Past the pews, they saw a large man bent over in front of the altar. After a quick nod to the others to follow, Padraic started forward. Almost upon the man, the group could hear him praying. But it was the oddest praying they had ever heard before. One line would be in Latin and another would be in Common. It was almost as if he was responding to his prayers as he made them.

Up close, they could see that the man was a bit of a brute. Large, but had a bit of a lopsided hunch, causing him to lean to the left. Without turning, the man’s head twitched as he said in a gravely voice, “More Lochmars to raise?”

The conversation that followed was an odd one. Sometimes this man, whom they learned was named Mentahl, would answer their questions and other times his responses just didn’t make any sense. And it seems his head twitch rather unnerved Fiona. It turns out that Mentahl was Troy’s acolyte. He is fanatically devoted to the Lochmars and Saint Eshua. He had been raising the bodies the “Little Lochmars” had been bringing him, though they always seemed to come back screaming. This makes me wonder what the Meenlocks did with Lamard’s body. Since he was reincarnated, his body no longer has a soul to be brought back for raising.

When Fiona asked Mentahl what the Meenlocks do with the people, he got a frightened look upon his face. “HE takes them… HE tortures them!” It was then that Padraic noticed that Mentahl’s focus had been on a point above and behind them. Turning around and looking up, his eyes focused upon an Infernal being standing upon the balcony. Fiona described him as a Large Orange Furry Ape (think orange cookie monster). As Padraic laid eyes upon Mentahl grabbed his head and cowered, yelling out, “NOOOO!!! I won’t kill them!!!”

As the Torturer grinned at those below him, the group sprung into action. Fiona cast a glitterdust upon the being, somehow getting through his resistances and blinding him. Simon drew his bastard sword as he ran and took a mighty leap off of some pews to reach the balcony above. As he came down in front of the beast, he put his strength behind his sword, slashing hard into it. Padraic sprinted back out of the church and up the stairs to get behind the Torturer. The fiend roared in pain and surprise as it wildly swung at Simon. Seeing what should have been a fun taunting session turning into a losing battle, the Torture screamed in rage as he vanished back from where it came.

I don’t know what all went on after that, but Simon now has a rather nice heavy crossbow and Padraic has a nice cloak. The next day, when they came back from exploring tunnels, Padraic and Tellsford had to be dragged in they were so weak. They didn’t tell me what went on, just mumbled something about a purple wyrm. So, of course, the assassin struck again that night, and once again managed to escape.