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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Eccles" data-source="post: 489012" data-attributes="member: 5675">Jared Blackspawn’s JournalPart 8----------------------------------Eleasis 26th - Woke up this morning and while we enjoyed a hearty breakfast downstairs in the Inn, Tanus burst in, having travelled to Dagger Falls alone on the road, setting off the day after we did. My respect for him increased a measure hearing this, as I recalled our own troubles on the same trip. He arrived carrying a large sack of silver coins, and apparently was attacked by large rats and goblins on the journey. There is no justice, we get mauled by ankhegs and werewolves, he gets rats and goblins! Clearly Tymora smiled on him during the past few days. Since the group (minus myself) are off to a party in their honour tonight, I urged them to consider investing in some new garments suitable to be seen in at Lord Morn's court. We have just gotten a group reputation; I did not want them ruining it so soon. Having said this, they are bound to mess this up, the only one of them with the slightest sense of etiquette is Taeghan, and that isn't saying much. I will be spending the night in the Inn guarding our wealth and updating this journal, so as to be a better record of our endeavours to present to my superiors, should anyone ever turn up to collect it. As the others set off to the dinner, I bought myself a fine Aglarondian wine dated 1362, and took my evening meal up to my room to guard the chests and bag of silver we have accumulated. My disguise as a regular half-elf seems to be fooling people well enough. As the evening drew on, and I made notes clarifying past entries in this journal, I was visited in my room by an elf of incredible skill. He took me completely unawares in my room, me not having seen or heard him make his entrance, no easy task. He warned me that I was under observation and would remain so for the foreseeable future at the behest of the committee, a group of powerful individuals headed by Lord Morn who really run Daggerdale. A clever way to run a regime, it is hard to kill off a government if only one person in it is publicly known. I take the elf to be an assassin in the service of the realm and he mentioned assigning me a task to prove my worthiness. Should I pass this test then he offered to train me to make better use of my dark nature. I was left in no doubt though, that should I do anything suspicious whilst in this place my life would be forfeit. He left as gracefully and silently as he arrived, pivoting out my window and into the alleyway... a three storey drop. In the couple seconds it took me to recover from having had his blade at my throat and look out into the alley, he had vanished. I poured myself a full glass of the wine, I needed a drink after that! The others came back as I was getting ready for bed, and it turns out they had no luck in getting the silver stamped, as there has been a recent glut of silver flooding the local economy. Lord Morn would have taken a 75% cut for exchanging it, as he is buying up silver stocks to avoid an economic meltdown. The groups account of Randal Morn shocked me, apparently old age is catching up to him fast, and from what I was able to glean, he is halfway senile and quite frail. The group have however, picked up a contract from a wizard who they are to meet tomorrow. A wizard with red robes and a tattooed head... great! Eleint 27th - We hauled the silver to the Temple of Lathander. It is a very grandiose building named Lathander's Light, rebuilt after the Zhent's burnt it down during their occupation. We paid to keep the chests in one of their vaults, as the temple is used to acting as a bank also (though in larger settlements, this would normally be the provision of a Waukeener temple). We then set off across town to see what this Red Wizard wants with us. We entered the Thayan enclave, small but functional, and the signs of industry were clearly apparent. Our contact was a mage by the name of Darius Sandford (evidently a name assumed to help him fit into the Dalelands, Thayan names are quite different). He wants us to make a journey to the mountains on an errand he says he is incapable of making himself. Great... the mountains. I thought by not taking on Mayor Butterstone's mission to the old dwarfhold and the ogres occupying it, that we had avoided going to the mountains. Curse Beshaba for this development! He created a scrying bowl and showed us a scene of a small (about 10' long) Red Dragon sleeping on a pile of coins in a cave. He wants us to kill this dragon and bring back to him its brain and spinal cord. We can take whatever of its hoard we can carry too. The lair is about three days away to the north-west of Dagger Falls in the very northern end of the Desertsmouth range. The dragon is living with it's father, who goes by the name of Gran'Rath Tendathaloth, a ferocious beast of a wyrm, who in known for his cunning and knowledge of the area. However, over the years, the dragon has lapsed into a predictable routine, hunting for two hours at around noon each day. This gives us a window to get into the lair, kill the offspring and do the messy deed, gather what we can and get out of there, as confrontation with the parent dragon would certainly be fatal for all of us. Darius provided us with a scent proof bag to carry back the body parts in, as well as 4 scrolls of spells designed to clean us of the blood and smell of our work, so as to not leave a trail for the father to follow, which would lead him to us, and thence onto to Dagger Falls itself to enact revenge. Darius offered to enchant two items as the reward for doing this deed for him, but as I have no suitable item and due to not being able to change our silver cannot afford to buy such I will gain nothing from this endeavour save for whatever may be found in the dragon's lair. We returned to the Inn and gathered our things, getting in a meal before heading off. I was able to pick up some scraps of information from those who know the area and its legends. Apparently this male killed his mate once she had given birth and raises this infant himself, most unlike red wyrms from all accounts. It is said that he makes magical weapons and armour for a pastime, though I am not sure how much credence to give to that rumour, I think the fellow I got it from must have seen my desires for such items too plainly on my face, I must take better care to guard my expressions. I gathered the following tit bits of information about him: - He's known for his immense cunning and knowledge. He makes certain enchanted items for a hobby. - His lair is rumoured to be filled with nasty tricks and traps. - He's been known to make armour and weapons in the past. - He has acted as a knowledge broker. - He'll sell information for the right price and knows the area of the mountains like the back of his hand. - He's a ferocious red monstrosity. Most of the time he's immensely cunning and hard to read. He has a large repertoire of magics and uses them well. - When angered, his fury has been known to make the mountains shake. - In all his years he has never been known to use verbal trickery, illusions or to change his form. - He mated with the mother of the smaller dragon in his cave, waited until the baby was born, and then smashed her into little tiny bits a few years later when she tried to steal from his horde. He's decided to bring up Junior in his own image. Apparently he tore her head from her shoulders with his teeth in a frenzy. After he'd killed her. All in all this does not bode well! I am sure somewhere Beshaba is laughing herself sick at my misfortune. We set off immediately after lunch, wasting no time in the town. I am unsure if my late night visitor will be pleased that I am in the employ of a Red Wizard. Hardly my ideal assignment, as taking on a dragon in its lair at the request of an evil mage is not conducive to a long life. What is worse is that Tanus had caught a disease on his journey to town (probably from the rats, though I wouldn't rule out goblins being infected with something). In any event it was not contagious, and I believe he got it cured by Lathander's priests before leaving the town, he certainly slipped off early during lunch and rejoined us as we were leaving the town. Since we expect to be away for a few days we paid up on the vault, and I paid to retain my room in the Inn, as if I get back I have a feeling I'm going to want a bath and good nights sleep in a comfortable bed. We had made good progress through the forested foothills by the time we made camp tonight. Eleint 28th - We headed on our way, though the weather was terrible today with icy rain driving down, overcast skies and chill wind. Braddoc couldn't have been happier; the rest of us trudged on in silence, our spirits quashed somewhat. In the mid afternoon I heard something stalking us from my place at the front of the group, though I could not make out what it was in the gloomy forest to either side of the crude trail we were following. It revealed itself seconds later as the group stopped on my warning signals, charging into Stedd. A Displacer Beast by nature, it obviously viewed us as an easy meal picking on the monk, who was our rearguard. It reckoned without Braddoc who swiftly dealt a grievous blow to the strange creature. It's bizarre blurring ability however, kept us fighting it for some time, it injuring several of the party, as we scored minor hits here and there, until Tanus finally finished it off. Rand then slit the beast open and from its guts pulled a wooden rod, which he believes to be a wand of some sort. Rather him than me having to handle that. Eleint 29th - Nothing much happened today, though the trail got steadily steeper. Around noon, we caught a sighting of the father dragon... the local rumours do not do this beast justice. It is the largest creature I have ever seen, and I think none of the others had seen its like before either. We are now more than ever convinced of the necessity to avoid a confrontation with this creature, as it would result in all of our deaths. Eleint 30th - We set off at dawn, and not long after we were attacked by a minotaur, it crashed out of the forest into Tanus and badly goring him. We then surrounded it and attacked, it slicing into Braddoc with its axe before Stedd dropped it with a well-placed punch to a rather delicate part of its anatomy, and I finished it off. We found a sack of its loot nearby that it had clearly dropped as it ran towards us. The haul was mostly copper coins; a couple of gems and a bastard sword that is apparently enchanted... why oh why is there never anything I can use on these beasts? By the end of the day we had gotten close enough to the lair so that tomorrow, we strike... it is an irony that tomorrow is a holiday, Highharvestide, and that while most other people of Faerun will be feasting and celebrating autumn, we will be battling for our lives against a dragon of all things.</blockquote>

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