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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Damon Griffin" data-source="post: 2645705" data-attributes="member: 3568">Paladin's Journal - entry 4We'd sat there for an hour or two, making plans as best we could and deciding to take Belak's sickle along as a kind of trophy, before we roused ourselves and went to talk to the goblins that showed us in.  We woke three of them easy enough, but the fourth one was still knocked out even though Lance had bound his wounds before.  We told them about Belak and about how the rest of their folk had run off into the deep underground, and they told us about a safe way around the thockwa, and led us along that route with me carrying the last goblin.  Well, the route they showed us was safe as long as we didn't open any extra doors.  Behind one of them they said there was a ghost or some other kind of bodiless undead.  The layout of this place is crazy!  Everything seems all twisted around, you go downstairs just so you can go back up again, and neither the "long way" nor the "short way" seems very straightforward.  We met another bugbear gardener, and told him that Belak was dead and showed him the sickle as proof.  He asked if that meant that the grove was now unowned, and I allowed that was true, but thought it best we didn't say how we'd destroyed it.  He took off, hurrying back the way we'd come, and we went on, soon enough coming to the garden we'd been in before, and told that bugbear about the grove and how to get past the thockwa safe, and he took off running hoping to get there before his buddy.When we got back to the goblin barracks, some of 'em was awake and banging on the doors we'd wedged.  I set down the goblin I'd been carrying and the other three goblins went about removing the wedges and explaining to the rest how things stood.  We went straight on to the big room at the bottom of the vine covered shaft and dug around where Sharwyn pointed until we found Talgen's body.  We bundled him up in what was left of his cloak and bedroll, and then Lance and Jack climbed up the shaft and began hauling Talgen, Braford and Sharwyn up, and the rest of us climbed up after.  There at the top of the shaft, the kobolds was having themselves a fine old time, laughing and drinking and, well, enjoying each other's company in a big way.  Yusdrayl was right in the middle of it all, but stopped just long enough to hear how we'd killed Belak and drove away the last of the goblins.  We told her about the bugbears and the twigblights, and that the goblins had told us about other dangerous things down there we didn't see, and went on our way.  A bit past the prison where Wulfgrim and Lance and I had been, we got to where Sharwyn and the others had run into rats, and worked out how to deal with them and get the ranger's body back.  Garik moved real quiet and spread some oil on the floor near the door where we thought the biggest rats were, and most of us readied bows and slings.  I had no arrows, so I went down to just the near side of the oil and started making noise, hoping to lure the rats out into the oil.  They seemed to notice but didn't come out, so next I tried singing, and that had no more effect.  I tried throwing in some caltrops we'd found scattered in a nearby hallway, but that didn't interest them either.  I guessed the next step was to walk on down there and look in the room for myself, but Lance said wait until he could tie a rope around me, that way if I fell he could pull me back.  That made good sense, and we did it.  Walking down to that doorway, I could see into another room, with two trapdoors in the floor spiked open and another door out.  I walked over to that other door, out of sight of Lance, and started in since I couldn't hear anything, but soon as I got one foot in, I was set on by a rat twice the size of those we'd run into before.  Big as me!  She snapped and hissed and some other smaller ones -- the size I used to think was as big as a rat could get -- come out with her, but they couldn't get at me through the armor, and I backed up 'til I was back in the main hallway where Lance could see me.  Mama rat jumped at me and knocked me back into the oil, where I slipped and fell.  Lance was ready and pulled me on back, and Garik set the oil afire as soon as I was clear and the rats got to it.  Mama and one other ran back after getting burned, and fell into one of the pit traps that had been spiked open.  We killed one other, and the last one ran off and squeezed through a hole I would have swore was too small.I guess what with the pounding and throwing things, and singing and then falling in the oil, I must have looked a right fool by then, but I hadn't been hurt and we got the job done, so maybe that's all that counts.  A minute later when the oil burned down, we went and pulled the spike that kept that trapdoor open, and left mama and the other rat trapped below, and went on to recover the ranger's body.  His name was Karakas, I was now reminded, and we had to figure out which bones was his from a gold ring with his name on it, and a belt pouch marked with a 'K'.  His body was in worse shape than Talgen's, but we got him bundled up and Sharwyn told us how to go to get back to the cliff without having to backtrack all around where we'd been before.  I must admit I am not very good at drawing maps.  Somehow the crazy layout of this place got me turned around and we went through some spaces that there shouldn't have been no room for, according to my map.  Along the way we went past the room where those two goblin prisoners were still being kept, and we let them out.  After we told them what the state of affairs was down below, they decided they didn't want to chance going through all them celebrating kobolds to join up with their people, and begged to come with us.  I made them swear an oath to not interfere with us nor with the people of Oakhurst and they swore.  We and climbed up about dawn, and the goblins run off while the rest of us rested for a couple hours and ate and drank before we started back for Oakhurst.  Braford was quiet, even when we took off his gag for food and water.  Hadn't said but one thing since we left the grove area, and that was he wanted his sword Shatterspike.  I just said "Not right now" and we didn't hear no more from him.We moved slow on the way back to town, what with having to watch Braford and Sharwyn and carry the two bodies, so it was sunset before we got back.  Coming into sight of the town Sharwyn started to complain she didn't want to be seen like she was, and Braford started to pull and kick against his ropes.  I told Braford "Don't make me come over there and smite you again" and he decided to put his nose up in the air and just march ahead.  I offered Sharwyn a bag to put over her head but she didn't want it, so we went straight on to the Hucrele place.  As if we didn't already know how bad we looked and smelled, it really showed once we got inside the Hucrele house.  Jack stayed outside with the bundled up bodies.  Sharwyn's older brother sent for the clerics, had baths run and heard our story.  I told him we'd take Braford up to the monastery to see about having his curse removed, if that's what it was, and it was agreed that Sharwyn should go along, too.  Hopefully this would all be done before their parents got back, due some two weeks hence.  Soon as daddy heard I was back he had to hear everything that happened, so while everyone else rested a while, I went out to the keep and gave him the tale.   He gave me more credit for it all than I deserved, and at first I tried to set him straight, but then gave it up as a lost cause.  Aristide Thibodeaux always did hear what he wanted to hear, and if his own stories are anything to go by, I imagine my role in this story will grow in the telling as he relates it to other people over the next few months.I came back to the Hucrele place where we all divided up the money and treasure we'd found and were given 250 pieces of gold each for bringing back the Hucrele kids.  That seemed mighty generous considering Talgen was dead and with the shape Sharwyn was in, but the Hucreles never was a stingy bunch and I could sure use the money for better armor and such.  I gave Jack five gold coins for his services, and he was pleased as punch since he'd only expected five silver.  Truth be told, I wasn't entirely sure what day it was by then, but I thought five days was right.  After we'd divided it all up, I'd got near 450 gold pieces, plus some vials of antitoxin, a dagger and six javelins, and the spear and longsword I'd been using while we were down below.  That big bugbear's morningstar was magic, but none of us liked the look of it, so we decided we'd take it along to the monastery next morning to see if we could trade it, along with a book, a magic scroll and a magic wand couldn't none of us use.  There had been two books, but when we opened up the one called "Secrets of the Fire Lords" it blew up and caught fire.  Good thing the clerics was already there to do healing, so no real harm was done.Just after sunup we loaded Sharwyn and Braford into a covered coach, got some extra horses and headed off.  Erky Timbers -- I'd misheard his name before -- decided to stay in town a while since one of our clerics is also a gnome and they have that in common.  After a couple days at the monastery, the clerics worked out that Sharwyn and Braford wasn't affected by a curse but by an enchantment, which is harder to break, but they did it.  I bought myself a very fine breastplate and was given the blessings that will allow me to remove diseases and turn away undead.  We didn't get to trade the morningstar, but we did swap the other stuff and got Winter a magic scroll and got a wand for Wulfgrim to use that does healing spells.  Wulfgrim says the spells in the wand are more potent than the ones he can cast, for now.Sharwyn hasn't strayed five feet from a mirror since her enchantment was broke, and keeps checking to see all traces of that tree bark are gone.  Braford is his old self again, though no longer a paladin and feeling mighty down about it.  As part of his penance he is required to give up everything he owns, and offered Shatterspike to me.  I wanted to say no because that sword is his family's heirloom, but then got a better idea and said I'd take it.  I went to the priests and told them my decision, that I'd hold onto Shatterspike like a trust, and when Braford had done his full penance and was a paladin again, they was to have him look me up and I'd give back the sword.  He couldn't know about that ahead of time, because it was important for his penance he believe he was giving it up for good.  I said I would let my daddy know about this as well, so if I chanced to die before Braford was ready, he'd still be able to get the sword back.I feel like I've aged two years in the past couple weeks, but I'd have to say the experience has been good for me.  I am no longer entirely green and know I am capable of some rough work and handling unfamiliar situations, though there is a lot of room for improvement.This ends the Sunless Citadel adventure; up next: Forge of Fury.</blockquote>

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