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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Eccles" data-source="post: 488999" data-attributes="member: 5675">Jared Blackspawn’s JournalPart 2----------------------------------Flamerule 10th - We spent the day walking back to Clearwater, nothing much of note happened, apart from some small personal satisfaction as nothing was snared in Edrahil's traps. Serves him right. Flamerule 11th - We got back to Clearwater at around noon, and made our way straight to the Inn to rest, and also to deliver the good news that the goblins had been vanquished. Braddoc and Rand took the silver ore to the smithy, where they learned it would take a good three days work to smelt it down into useable currency. Since Braddoc is the village smiths apprentice, I guess we won't be seeing him for a little while. Reported the location of the cave to Alfgeir so he knows where it is to keep a watch on it in future on his travels, and mentioned the presence of a silver vein to Mayor Butterstone, who decided that while it was a useful resource to know about, it was too far from the village to be readily defensible, so it will remain unworked. Stedd headed off to his monastery to return a set of bloodied robes of ones of his order, that we had found nailed to the back wall of the goblins cave as a trophy. Meanwhile, I fended off Father Norris of Chauntea who having heard of wealth making its way into the village, arrived to make mention of the services his church could provide to our group, namely in the brewing and selling of curative potions to us. I managed to get him to leave me alone eventually after pointing out that the wealth we had recovered was in ore form, and it would be some days before we could spend it anywhere. I also assured him that we would look in on him once we had money to spend on such things. I almost had to deal with Sister Patricia of Kelemvor in the same manner, only she had been listening to my exchange with Norris, and so was already the wiser. While the smelting was going on, the rest of us took the opportunity to unwind for a couple days, and nurse our bruises. Flamerule 14th - Braddoc and his uncle finally finished smelting the ore down into ingots today, which were then divided out. We then took it upon ourselves to purchase some of the potions that the temples of Kelemvor & Chauntea could provide us with. I bought two just so I have some means of saving my own life. Flamerule 16th - Finally!! Something to do, Alfgeir (now fully healed), has to investigate why the tax collectors caravan is more than a tenday late in arriving in Clearwater. The group eagerly leaped on this chance to explore, investigate, get gold, and hopefully have a good fight or two. We gathered our stuff and set off with the sheriff to explore south of the village. After the better part of a days trek we have yet to find anything out of the ordinary whatsoever. I stayed up for first watch alongside Alfgeir who I feel has accepted my presence more readily than my actual adventuring comrades, nothing happened though. Edrahil meditated for a while and then set off into the forest to forage for food to supplement his rations. Honestly, always thinking with his stomach that one. Flamerule 17th - When morning came, we woke up to a distinct absence of Edrahil. After a brief search of the surrounding woodland we found his body, and it looked nearly torn apart. Can't say I'm sorry to see him dead because I'm not. One less elf in the world, the rest of them can't join him soon enough for my liking. We gave him a perfunctory burial in his (shredded) armour and holding his bloodied (all his own) sword at one side of the road, just inside the tree line. After dealing with this sudden loss, we sat down and ate breakfast; trail rations never tasted so good, and then headed on our way. A while later near a bend in the road, I heard snarling sounds from up ahead and signalled the rest of the group to warn them of the imminent threat, so that they might make ready to face it down. Coming around the corner we saw a wagon on its side, and a small group of brutish humanoids who it seemed had spotted a traveller further down the road and were moving to ambush him. We then sprang out ambush from behind them to catch them in a pincer. Combined with the stranger down the road, our numbers were more or less equal with theirs. The battle was fierce with no quarter asked or given by either side and we took some wounds as a group (though none personally), and I felt I gave a good account of myself dispatching two of the hobgoblins with relative ease, though this was offset by an embarrassing slip while trying to kill the leader of the group, who then went on to make a clean getaway. Curse him. Afterwards Alfgeir and myself were able to determine from the tracks that the hobgoblins did not loot the taxman’s carriage, as it seems a larger group had done that the day before. These then were just opportunists seeking to scavenge anything of worth left taking. Their bad luck to have us run into them it seems. The larger group would appear to be bandits by their tracks, and it is clear that they took the tax chest and the collector’s entourage too, possibly to hold them for ransom. Far worse than that though was finding out the identity of the stranger on the road, whose life we (and more specifically me) saved. It turns out that his name is Taeghen, an elven priest of Larethian, the cursed god who banished my kin to the sunless world below the surface. Damn the fates for this development. After a length debate we decided to pursue the bandits, as heading back to town to get reinforcements would only let them gain more ground on us, as they are already a day ahead of us, though encumbered with the chest and prisoners. We reckon from their tracks that the bandits are roughly twenty strong, it is unknown how many of these might be their prisoners though. I had no trouble tracing the route that the bandits took, and we set off after them at best speed, alternating jogging and running, to do our best to close the distance they already had on us. It worked well, as by nightfall we could hear the sounds of their camp in the distance. We decided to camp down a safe distance from their campsite, keeping no fire that might alert them to our presence. I slept in my armour anyway, as it would be just my luck to be attacked by bandits in my sleep, and have to fight them half-naked. I believe a dawn raid on their camp is planned. Flamerule 18th - I am told that during the night the camp was attacked by a pair of dire weasels, however I slept through the entire thing. We set out an ambush using Rand and Stedd as bait to lure some of the bandits around a bend in the road away from their campsite, where the rest of us were waiting in the forested edges of the road to spring our trap. Alas things did not go to plan, as we had reckoned without Braddoc’s battle-lust. Upon sighting the Orc that was chasing our baiters, he charged out of his hiding space too soon, and a ferocious melee broke out. I did well, moving about the battle, taking out one of the bandits (a hobgoblin) and wounding another two, taking a nasty sword blow in return. Alfgeir was nearly dropped, taking three arrows before stumbling off into the brush at the side of the road. After the fight was done, I used one of my potions to help him, and another (looted from Edrahil's body, he wasn't gonna be using it) to aid me. The bandits made their getaway though, and with their prisoners too, though not before we took down nine of their number. Searching their camp, we found the tracks of another group who it seems must have arrived while the fight was going on and taken the captives, the bandits then withdrawing from our melee and joining up with this other group, slavers perhaps? They have headed west towards the mountains. The bandits we slew turned out to be a motley (though well equipped) bunch of hobgoblins, half-orcs and humans, with one orc tossed in for good measure. I didn't get a good look at the leader, but Braddoc (who he nearly killed) tells me that he was human, or at least looked it. And he was amongst those who managed to escape. We have recovered the tax collector’s chest, as well as numerous items of interest that were found in the abandoned tents and on the bodies of the slain bandits.</blockquote>

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