Journal of Kalamitee Wolfsmoon - page 38

This morning I awoke to a light tap upon my door, Master Bourcier presented me with a letter from the Magistrate of the City of Ancor. I thanked him and opened the scroll to see that it was Letter of Summons and that I was to be at the Magistrates office promptly at 1 in the afternoon. I wondered if my colleagues were to meet there as well. When we last met the Magistrate he was overly excited about our extermination of the members of the Cult of Bane and rewarded us with 6 months of training at our respective guildhalls. Though in reality, I don't know if it was as much of a reward as it was us owing a powerful man a large debt. There was something about the Magistrate that left me feeling like we were merely pawns in his game of Chess and were to do nothing more than assist in filling his coffers.

After reading the letter, I had been right about the training coming to an end upon seeing the Rangers return and took it upon myself to pack up my small pack with my supplies, carefully wrapping up the Wand of Sleep and nestling it among the rest of my traveling items. Once I was done, I headed down to the main floor meeting up with Master Bourcier for some final words and his blessing on my journey. I hoped to see the elder man again, he was a kind man full of knowledge and wisdom, and reminded my very much of my father. While I was sad my training was over, I can not say that I was sad to be leaving the City and getting back out into the wilderness into the clear fresh air of the wilds.

I lingered at the Guildhall as long as I could before departing to the Magistrates office, where I found myself escorted through the side door and into a foyer where I found the rest of my companions and the Tiefling from the night before. Nodding to Alek, Zerkorza and Morobunce,  I took a seat in a gilded chair near the corner of the room and looked around. The Tiefling Mage was there preening about the room in his overly shiny black leather armor  thinking that he was royalty or something. The floors of the foyer were hardwood and looked to be hewed of red oak, the curtains were an opulent silk brocade the color of the forest with chairs and a sofa of the same color cloth adorned with embroidery of gold. The two large windows were mostly covered by the curtains, but they let in a stream of sunlight that warmed the room. Elegantly sculpted statues were positioned around the room as well, the Magistrate definitely didn't spare any expense when it came to the space. After about 15 minutes of waiting, we were ushered into his office and told to partake of the food that adorned the sideboard while the Magistrate finished up the business he was tending to.

Just as we finished our meal, the Magistrate came into the room, full of energy and excitement.

"I trust you all have completed your training?" He asked received a chorus of yese and a round of thanks from the group.

"Good! Good! Now I'm sure you all have wondered why I have requested your presence today?" not waiting for a reply he went on to explain that he had a task for us. He explained that there is a keep called Richter's Keep that lay south 2 days travel from the City and it was infested with Kobolds. He went on to say that they last party that he sent out had not yet returned and he figured they had met their demise at the hands of said Kobolds and that since he was so impressed with our prowess and handling of the Cult members, the task was ours to accomplish.

My companions and I looked at each other and I could tell that Alek and Morobunce were thinking that we were being called on to pay for our training over the last 6 months and that we really didn't have much of an option to decline, lest we have the entire army of soldiers of the City coming at us. While we were contemplating our decision, the arrogant Tiefling Mage not only accepted the task, but proclaimed himself the leader of the group. Just as I was getting ready to protest the decision the Magistrate presented all of us with gold coins with a red ruby in the middle. He explained that these were tokens of His office and that for as long as we were in his lands, the tokens would bring us safe passage and aid if needed. He also presented us with 50 gold coins and a tool respective of each of our classes.

His aide presented me with a Symbol of Hope, in which I placed around my neck and tucked into the neckline of my top. Once everyone had received their respective tool, the Magistrate valet handed the maps to the Tiefling Mage, whose name was Kairon Starcaller. After discussing the map and the route we were going to take, we were then escorted out the side door into the City streets to depart on our journey.

Departing from the city, we followed the map to the first guard station near the first fork of the river where our illustrious leader, Kairon tried to gain us passage down the river by one of the barges, by offering him up protection and even tried to go as far to show his token given to him by the Magistrate  and find himself not only shut down, but presented with a similar coin in return. The barge Captain laughed at the Mage and told him that if he wanted rights to anything down river he would speak to the Magistrate himself. After the debacle at the riverside town, we headed just outside the town and set up camp.

The night passed uneventfully and the party woke up well rested. The next morning as we began to pack up we heard a rustling heading towards us through the woods. We all stopped what we were doing and drew our weapons to find a small bear charging at us out of the wilderness. Not knowing the intentions of the bear, I Fey stepped off to the side and the bear changed it's direction towards Alek. The Ranger almost cleaved the poor frightened bear had it not been for me saying something to him. With out breaking stride the bear ran behind Alek just as two Orcs with a crazed look in their eyes burst through the same area in the clearing that the bear did.

 We quickly descended on the Orcs and laid them out, just in the nick of time, as a pair of Dire Bears burst through the same spot into the clearing as well. Fearing that we would have to do battle with these great beasts, we were relieved to find out that they were the sires of the small cub and that they were grateful for us rescuing their offspring. The Ranger was rewarded with more Orc bodies shown to him by the Dire Bears and the loot they carried.

Once we regrouped, we resumed our travels to the guard station at the second river crossing. We arrived at the river crossing just as night began to fall, and the guards at first were wary of our presence until we explained while we were there and showed our tokens of passage from the Magistrate. Well things would have been much more comfortable has the Mage not rattled off in arrogance demanding the best rooms and food they had. We had to settle with straw beds for the night and a bowl of gruel for dinner. Sharing some of our food with the Captain and the guardsmen we settled down for our meal, the Mage then pulled out a bottle of wine from his pack and shared with the lot, I recognized the bottle from the exchange in the alley back in the City or Ancor.

The Captain led us into a wooden building where the walls were lined with straw mat beds and a fire blazed in the hearth. Taking up spaces around the fire we helped ourselves to the stew boiling in the cauldron. While we were eating, I noticed that the Thief pulled aside the Captain to try to obtain some information from his away from the rest of the crowd. He found out nothing more than a party of Orcs, which we informed him that we dispatched on our journey earlier in the day for attacking the dire bear cub. Surprised the guardsman knew the Dire Bears by name and was shocked to hear they had a cub.

While sitting with my back to the wall I heard the Mage babbling and preening about the trip to the Keep and how we'll make it back with no problems. It was then that the Captain made a wager with the Mage for 50 gold that we'd make it back, while I heard the Thief making a side wager against the Mage coming back alive,unable to resist temptation I tossed in 50 gold, betting that by the end of the journey the Karion's armor would be less than shiny  The Captain clapped Morobunce on the shoulder, accepted the wagers and roared in laughter.

After the Captain left the room, with the sound of his laughter echoing out into the night, we resumed our meal to be joined by other guardsmen. One of the men decided that our group was a bit motley looking and started harassing Zerkorza about her small stature. I watched from my seat as he challenged her to a bout of arm wresting. The two sat upon the roughly hew benched on either side of the table and before you could blink your eye the guardsman was on the floor with his arm bent back at an odd angle with Zerkorza hardly out of breath.

"It seems I have underestimated your size" he said as he gasped in pain and slowly pulled himself up from the floor with is good arm. Standing a moment to catch his breath, he looks across the room to see me sitting there with a smirk upon my face. I took a drink from my cup and set it down beside me as he slowly walked over as to not pass out from the pain.

"Pardon me, good cleric, would you be so kind as to heal my arm for me?" he asked wincing in pain and using his good arm to prop himself up against the wall.

"You're stupidity will cost you. What is it worth to me?" I replied.

"I'll give you 5 gold pieces." he answered slowly and out of breath.

I smirked at him, "Make it 10 and you have a deal."  I saw a bit of anger flash in his eyes and went on, "It was not I that was stupid enough to challenge a Tiefling Warrior to a bout of arm wrestling. This should be a lesson in underestimating your opponent."

He nodded his head and agreed to the 10 gold pieces. Taking another drink from my cup I stood, grasped his arm and began to chant. A warm glow emanated from my hands and flowed up his arm, healing back to what it was once before.

"There, your arm is now as good a new. Next time you should think twice when challenging someone no matter what their size or gender." I said as I took the 10 gold from his hand and watched him walk off, sullen about not only his loss of the wrestling match and 20 gold, but also the jab to his pride.

Tired from the journey and all the excitement of the evening, we all retired to our beds to rest up for the next days journey. From what we were told, Richter's Keep was not far off and we all needed to be well rested for any encounters we may come face to face with on the remainder of our journey.

I will write again once we have made our way to Richter's Keep, provided we make it out alive.