Journal of Seth Lochmar - September 23rd
September 23rd, 1002
Another fun and exciting two days. I got back to town on Sunday to find a party going on in the town house. Apparently Galibur had found a rather interesting solution to dealing with assassins in the city. Since he and Miriam had been there since shortly after the first Ogre Mage attack, he’s been holding parties at the townhouse every day but Saturdays. A crowd certainly keeps the assassins away, but being the host of the party everyday is very tiring.
I didn’t find the rest of the family at the house, though. Apparently they had all headed to the docks to see Leetah’s arriving ship. Heading back there, I found them all standing before the roped off dock which lead to Leetah’s ship. They weren’t sure if we were allowed to cross or not, but I quickly assured them we were permitted to. Obviously something was up, so we proceeded cautiously. When we got close to the ship, a large vase smashed down on the deck in front of us. A rather drunk Half-Ogre on deck started yelling, demanding we bring him a crew. When we approached to negotiate, his pet cats attacked us. Well, they weren’t really cats so much as strange catlike beasts with floppy skin. I was a little leery of fighting these things, but at least they weren’t real cats.
It didn’t take too long to subdue the Krenshar. Padraic and Simon got a little wet from being knocked overboard, but the Half-Ogre just broke down and cried after a couple of whacks. Apparently Leetah’s grandfather had cheated him out of furs and other items in trade. He had offered to make Peak’s axe more sharp, but had merely cast a spell that lasted a couple of hours instead of actually enchanting the ax. Leetah coaxed him off the boat, promising to actually make his weapon keen. When he turned his axe over, it took a couple of us to carry it. It was a very nice large adamantine axe. We told Peak where our Estate was, since he seemed to want to go up into the mountains with his cats. We told him it would take a bit more than a week to enchant his weapon, so we figured we’d see him in about that much time.
This left us with the problem of getting the axe enchanted. I had heard tales of three different mages for hire in the area that could do the job. Unfortunately, my knowledge was sketchy. We had found a slip of paper back at the manor a while back that looked like transcribed conversation between Ariel and the Grey Mage, but we had no clue how to contact him. I had heard stories of a mage named Vectur who, if you tossed a copper piece in the air in a graveyard, he’d catch it before it hit the ground. I had only heard of the existence of the third, with no other knowledge.
Padraic and Leetah headed off to the graveyard, dragging the axe behind them, while the rest of us returned to the town house. There, they caught me up on their activities over the past couple of days. It mostly consisted of getting restorations for Tellsford, Leetah, and Simon, and some partying.
When Padraic & Leetah returned, they said that one of them would have to return in a week to pick up the axe. We gathered up all our people and said goodbye to Miriam and Galibur as we rode home. Simon stopped off at Highwatch on the way with intentions to arrive at the Lochmar Estate late in the evening.
When we actually got home, we were shocked into silence by what we saw. The lawns were covered in tents and people milling about. There were several men in armor, some in robes, and a few that just looked odd. Sir Constantine was talking with a few of the armored men while Jeffrey Freeman was chatting with a woman in clerical vestments and another in a breastplate. Padraic seemed to recognize one of the men in robes and rushed over to greet him.
Fiona and myself headed over to talk with the woman Jeffrey was talking to. She introduced herself as Ursula Lochmar and her bodyguard as Bethany. She seems to be a rather nice person. She’s seems rather devoted to helping people and has a particular knack for healing, which is something we could really use around here.
Padraic then introduced me to his friend from home, Doyle. They had grown up in the orphanage together and Leetah had carried a letter to him from Padraic a while back. Doyle was a security specialist and a priest. He had brought a small contingent of monks from their monastery to set up a new one on our lands. In exchange, they would help secure our estate and help keep an eye out for threats. Doyle wasn’t the happiest when he found out he’d be working with kobolds, but was at least grateful he had some resources here to draw upon.
While Padraic introduced me to his friend Doyle, Fiona was approached by the contingent of odd-looking monks. They were definitely not from the Kingdoms of Kant, or any place I had heard of. I later learned that they had traveled for eight years to get here. They had brought along a, for lack of better word, being named Neron. She is an intelligent sword with a very child-like personality who had a vision of the last group of Lochmars. She felt she and her caretakers could possibly be helpful to us.
While Doyle took Padraic off to meet with a group of armored men that bore the crest of the Templars, I was introduced to another group of armored men. Apparently, they had all been just hanging around Arleans and they had heard a few good things about me and decided to come out here to, well, follow me. I really wasn’t sure exactly what to do with these people. I mean, I know we need guards and an army and such around here, but it still just feels weird to have people looking to me for orders.
Well, once we got introduced to everyone, we headed inside for a short meal. Tellsford let us know that a Percival Darsguard had been by while we were gone, having wanted to use our library. Having been allowed to do so by Conrad, he went in search of information on a place called the Isle of Souls.
Fiona had a big itch in her butt to go and explore the tower. Ever since she had gone up to the Loch and talked to the dragon, she had a feeling she’d be able to clearly see the door and open it. It had been a long day, but we figured that now was a good time as any, since we were without our Highwatch spy. So, we headed up to where we knew the door was. Funny thing is, I could see the door clearly now too. Not sure what exactly changed with me. I mean, only Fiona and myself could see it clearly and I didn’t talk to the dragon at the Loch. Perhaps it was my experience with the Water Elemental on Kobold Island that altered my perception of things somehow.
But anyway, Fiona opened the door and we entered the tower. The first room was a throne room. I guess they must have had a steward who could open the door and let people in and out to receive. Or maybe they just left the door open all of the time. There must have been some way all the servants got in and out to clean the rooms. The throne room itself was very nice looking. It had flags and crests lining the walls and a set of steps on each side of the throne for the laird and lady of the clan, leading up to a door behind them. I had remembered an old bit of etiquette about always keeping your left side to your lord, so he could watch the evil in you. This turned out to be good advice, since we later found out from an older family member that the stairs were trapped with pressure plates. If you went up or down the wrong side of stairs, it would trigger a large explosion that would surely kill any man.
The next room held a staircase in the middle that went both up and down and was lined with several doors. We didn’t get to do too much exploring, mostly because the place was lined with bunk beds and unconscious soldiers in armor. The Trophy room seemed to be the only room on this not occupied on this floor. In Andreas’s bedroom, we found a rather large bed with Andreas sleeping on it. Also on the bed was a pair of pseudodragons with a litter of little ones. We couldn’t progress further into the room without the pseudodragons hissing at us. Now, I know Andreas is waging a war in hell and all, but what are they all doing just sleeping in there. Shouldn’t they be, like, in Hell?
Deciding it was getting late, we returned back out to the Manor proper to find we had two more guests. While we had been inside, Simon had returned from Highwatch and Braiden Moorhouse had dropped by. Braiden had been traveling towards the city and had heard good things about us from his cousin Bean, so decided to stop in for the night.
Simon had a request from the Highwatch clan to deal with the large bats that had been living in the Great Barn on our property. The bats were making it unsafe for Highwatch to patrol the skies at night. Braiden decided it would be fun, so volunteered to assist us in this. Since the bats housed in themselves inside the rafters of the barn, we could only get to them when they were entering or leaving. We decided to go out to the Great Barn a little before dawn to catch the creatures as they returned. Braiden felt he could easily hypnotize them so that we could more easily take them out.
Before we went to bed, Braiden also informed us that some people, or things, had been wearing our colors, even though they weren’t of our house. Also, a Coastham ship has been spotted off the shores of an island, despite their being mostly slaughtered and banished. My knowledge is still a little sketchy on why Coastham was banished, exactly. I know they tried to take over our place as the primary water clan and I think they aligned themselves with the Risenson vampires back before the great battle. Once the vampires were destroyed, Coastham was banished.
In the morning, Fiona, Padraic, Simon, Braiden and myself loaded up for battle and headed to the Great Barn. What we saw inside was definitely not what we expected. A man in Lochmar colors was bound by a strange rope and being suspended in midair. He appeared to be in a lot of pain, though the cause of said pain was not readily apparent. Standing near him was a man in Wizards robes but no colors and an Ogre Mage. The wizard seemed to be conversing through a small orb. At our approach, he whipped around to look at us, and then snarled at the Ogre Mage, “I thought you said they never come in here?”
The mage moved up into the air while the Ogre Mage moved over to engage us. Braiden moved up to take on the mage while Padraic took a beating for the Ogre. I scored a particularly nasty hit with my sword, downing the creature with a single blow. As this happened, we were pelted with a barrage of crossbow bolts from Skulks hiding in the stands. Braiden had his hands full with the mage, since he seemed to be dodging all his spells. It took a few moments to realize that the mage wasn’t really there at all.
While we took a beating from the Skulks, Simon and Fiona made quick work of them. Padraic pulled the bound man down, at which point a little fungus creature that looked a lot like a gingerbread man jumped off of him and cackled as it tried to flee. I whapped it with my sword before it could get too far. While I was only trying to subdue the creature, I did a bit more damage to it than I intended.
Just as Simon, and Fiona were finishing up the Skulks, the bats rained in. Braiden hypnotized most of them, leaving us to clean up a few stragglers. Once they were dealt with, we turned our attention back to the bound man. The little fungus man was a type of mind mold that drains the memories of the person it is applied to so that someone can eat the mold and absorb the memories.
Having heard rumors that Othello had returned from Eshan, we were pretty sure that this was him. We untied him and woke him up, but he was delirious. He recovered some after we fed him the moss. It was at this time that Braiden bid us adieu. He saw we had a family matter to attend to, so hurried off to the city.
Once Othello had recovered his thoughts, he actually gave us a wealth of information. But very little got out before he noticed the orb on the ground. After looking into it, the orb immediately went dark. He growled as he chucked it against a wall. He told us he had seen Nicene through the orb before it went dark. Othello cast a couple of spells to confuse nosy people before he continued.
He seemed more than happy to answer his questions. He asked about Andreas and Thomas and was happy to hear that we had met Narthas. He told us that there was a fountain at the center of the hedge maze that unlocked a person’s psionic power. If Cohen’s apprentice was about and made his way through it, he would certainly become more powerful, because of the effect it has on those who have already unlocked their powers.
He said that he didn’t trust Troy. While Troy thought what he was doing was right, he works for Nicene now. That seems to make Fiona think that the Death Knight might be Troy. I have a feeling that, when we meet Troy, we’ll definitely know it.
Well before Troy was turned, a fledgling priest named Nexus had accused the family of being Darkling worshippers. This is what led to the slaughter of the Lochmars, but the church continued to support and propegate the stories hoping to cover up their own corruption by shifting suspicion to Othello’s group. Now this sounds like a pattern with the church, with their condemnation of us as devil worshippers. After all, why else would Father Lars, a Church Inquisitor be sniffing around the Cathedral?
We picked up some knowledge about Ardella, but he told us to check with the clan’s bookkeeper, a man named Token one hand. Other than that, he let slip a couple of things about the Dars riddle. Apparently the Dars and Lochmars are sitting on a holy relic called the Altar of the Peace. Together, the clans keep it hidden and safe from those that would seek to use it for evil.
The only other shocker of the morning was, when we mentioned cousin Galibur, Othello chuckled. Apparently he’s been here a long time; since Othello was an active member of the family and still Minister of the Sewers. Oh yeah, he said that we need to make sure that position is covered, because it is a very important title in the city. But anyway, apparently Galibur isn’t actually a Lochmar by birth. He won a letter off of an actual Lochmar in a poker game and showed up to live the high life. It was years before they figured out he wasn’t actually related. When they did find out, Othello made sure he was inducted into the clan quickly and quietly. Andreas was one of the last to find out and I don’t think they ever did tell Troy. But the real kicker came when we found out what title Galibur held. It seems that, when all the other Lochmars went off to take care of their own quests, he didn’t feel it was safe anymore to be in such a public place, so he went into hiding and came out to the Manor with us as a new arrival. Certainly explains how he was able to get writs for everyone so easily, being the King and all.
