Chainsaws: Aisle 6

"You've got him bound and now you want to do what?!" Cliona asks.

"Cut off his hand." replied Shu.

"What benefit do you think that is going to have? I really don't think that cutting off his hand is going to solve the problem" stated Cliona as the party stood there looking at their Cleric, Kalen, who was bound and passed out on the floor. The black rock that he had touched earlier, had adhered itself to his right hand and there had been no separating it from him.

"Do you have a better idea? The think is making him waste away." replied Shu. Sighing, Cliona shook her head.

Caramon sterilized his axe while Osfred cast his magic, making a tourniquet and tied it on Kalen's arm.

Caramon raises his axe over his head and brings it down severing Kalen's hand from his arm. The pain from the blow shocks Kalen back to consciousness and as Shu goes to swing and knock him back out he over calculates the blow and punches himself in the groin and then musters the strength to kick Kalen in the head knocking him out.

Osfred moves quickly grabbing Kalen's arm cauterizing the wound before leaning against the wall and sliding into a sitting position.

Shu grabs a set of tongs from the earlier discovered workshop and uses it to pick up the hand with the rock still attached. Walking out of the room he drops it down the stair well, the arm and stone clattering all the way down to the bottom.

After cleaning everything up and clearing the room of the smell of burnt flesh the settles in for the night.

Trading off watches for the night, the night progresses uneventfully until Shu comes on watch. Glancing out the window he notices a slight movement and hears a scraping noise. Shining the light out into the main room, there is nothing to be seen.

The room slowly lights up as the scene on Shu's cloak transitions from night to day.

"Everything was quiet for most of the night, though at some point I thought I saw movement and heard something scraping outside the room" Shu explained.

"It was probably Kalen's hand dragging the stone, coming back in search of it's body." joked Caramon.

Osfred turned to Caramon, "I don't know, I mean we tossed that thing down the stairwell, that's an awful lot of climbing."

Shrugging his shoulders Caramon replied "We'll it's been about 8 hours, so you never know"

Gathering up their gear the party hoists up Kalen to carry him out of the room. With a groggy look on his face he turns to his companions "I can't hear my God any more. Why can't I hear my God?"

"Maybe it had something to do with us cutting off your arm, we had to separate you from that stone and that was the only way we could do it." Shu said as he walked towards the double doors, but then paused as he heard the same scraping sound from earlier in the morning. Turning to see where the sound was coming from, showed that the room was still empty.

Caramon & Shu turn back to lift the bar that is holding the double doors closed.

"Uh guys...." Cliona said.

Kalen's eyes are wide open in awe and horror. Turning around, they notice the hand slowing pulling itself across the floor with its fingers, the rock still adhered to it's palm.

"Quick, through the doors!" Shu said as he looped a rope around the bar as they pulled the door closed, the party tugged on the rope and felt the mechanism pull the bar back into place, locking the doors tight behind them.

"You just had to mention the hand coming after us, didn't you Caramon." scowled Cliona.

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.

Journal of Kalamitee Wolfsmoon - page 37

At last, I have time to put quill to paper. The last six months have been filled with long hours of training and meditation. The High Clerics here, at The Moon's Haven Guildhall, have gone through extraordinary feats to assist me in expanding my knowledge of the Arcane. While it is exciting to learn new spells and absorb the knowledge these Elders are willing to share, I will be happy to be done with my training so that I may find a quiet place to retreat. Who knew that Holy Men could talk so much and for so long, debating the most minute detail of religion and faith. Thankfully my Eladrin heritage helped me "participate" by sitting in the back corner mediating yet listening enough to answer up any questions that may be thrown my way.

How I miss the wilderness too! The trees at night with the moon streaming through the leaves, the sounds of the owls, wolves and other creatures prowling at night. I've been holed up in this city too long, the stench has become unbearable. Even at night sitting high a top the Guild House has done nothing to help clear the odor from my senses though it has allowed me to watch the comings and goings of the city folk, and what a queer lot they are. I've also seen the comings and going of my travel companions, well most of them. The Ranger called Alek, left the city a week after our training began to spend time out in the wild with the Elders Game wardens, and just returned this morning, which makes me wonder if our training is coming to an end.

I still have a bit of distrust for the Tiefling Warrior, Zerkorza. I have not forgotten how she left us tied to the tables at the Caverns of the Cult of Bane. It will take a large feat of redemption on her part to regain my trust, though I do venture to say that she has been training hard. Many nights while I sat upon the roof to feel the wind through my hair and the moon on my skin, I could hear the clash of steel and the shouts of combat from the Warriors Hall along with the calls of triumph and victory as well as those of defeat. One night I Fey stepped over to watch the battle, and while she may be small, Zerkorza is not to be underestimated in her prowess and it not afraid to best the biggest and strongest warriors.

That leaves the Rogue, Morobunce. He is quite the interesting quarry, sneaking out and about about the city well after the masses have retired for the evening. I'm certain that not all of his adventures have been training exercises though. One evening I saw him sneaking out of the Rogue's Hall, scaling down the drainpipe of the building, intrigued, I followed him via the roof tops where I found him sneaking down a back alley way to meet up with a shadowed figure and do his bidding, almost like he was playing a fool instead of being his usual thief self. These actions of course made things about the Halfling Thief not only more interesting, but also made me quite wary of him and his secrets that he kept enveloped in his mind. As I was preparing to depart, I noticed another figure heading towards that same alley way; a Tiefling doing his best to sneak through the city and hid the fact that he wore the robes of an apprentice Wizard. The Tiefling made his way to the figure and engaged him in conversation, for a moment I thought that he might recognize Morobunce as the Tiefling's gaze seemed to linger on him, almost as if he had seen him before. I tensed in my hiding spot wondering if the scenario might be a test of the Thief's skills or if an altercation was going to take place. I relaxed once I realized that the Tiefling was only there to procure some wine and a pouch of tobacco. Upon completion of the business transaction, the three went about their business and I returned to my room at the Guildhall to get some much needed rest.

Journal of Kalamitee Wolfsmoon - page 32

Red, Green, Blue, Bronze, Gold, and Silver, the simple yet brilliant colors of the Ancient Dragons that rule Draconia, a continent equally divided into 6 pieces, regions based off the rule of each of the 6 Dragons. The Dragons preface that they are neither good nor evil, that all they seek is a willingness to maintain peaceful and orderly rule of their domains.

Among my race the Dragonkin are revered with awe and ion some cases fear. Many of the elders remember a time when the Dragonkin were not so kind and would give little thought of other races and creatures on the continent in their quest for gold and precious jewels.,

My name is Kalamitee Wolfsmoon and I am a Cleric of the Eladrin and have spent most of my years in the Feywild forests among the creatures of my Goddess Sehanine.

10 years past I left the Feywild, at the request of my parents, so that I may learn of the other races outside of our home and see the worlds and maybe even the various regions of the Dragonkin.

The land outside of the Feywild was vast and vacillated from beautiful fields, mountains and forests to desolate arid deserts not to mention cities and towns laid out precariously and at random by the Human Race. Some of the humans, such as those in the smaller towns, were welcoming and friendly to travelers regardless of their race, whereas the humans of the larger towns, keeps and cities tended to look down upon me with scorn and ire. How so many people could live in the conditions that the city dwellers did, was beyond me. The stench of the bodies and waste enclosed in narrow winding streets and allies was way too much for me to handle and I made sure to arrive and depart as quickly as I could, occasionally stopping at the local Clerics' hovel to greet my colleagues and maybe learn a new skill or two.

At the town of Lochlainn, while visiting the local Clerics' hovel I was told of a city called Ancor where there was Cleric's School that they thought that I may grow in my studies at. Though I was not fond of the human cities, the next morning I packed my small backpack and headed off towards the North.

Towards dusk of my third day of traveling I came upon an Oasis with a merchant there selling wood and food. Since he was the only merchant there, his prices were quite steep I was able to barter 13 logs for the fire for 10 gold. With the sun sinking quickly I prepared the fire and asked the Ranger stand off in the shadows to spare some fire from his pipe to light it ablaze. Once the warmth of the fire began to emanate a bit beyond the ring, the other travelers began to relax and take part of the warmth. The Ranger who introduced himself as Alek Redmont was a human male who kept to himself and spoke very little. Next to him stood a Tiefling Warrior name Zerkorza Zaidai who spoke even less. The last of the travelers was a Halfling Thief....sorry Rogue (just a fancy name for thief if you ask me), name Morobunce Greenhills. The other travelers had moved off into their own groups earlier in the evening which left just the 4 of us at the fire. After the merchant had packed up his wares and left for the evening we all agreed that it might be good to set a watch for the night.

Alek and Morobunce took the first and second shifts respectively, and once they turned in Zerkorza took over. While on her watch she heard chanting, but it quickly faded when she stood to investigate. Returning to her seat near the fire, she resumed her watch and then chanting came again. This time the chanting was close enough that it pulled at the edges of my trance and alerted me to potential danger. As I exited my trance, we were approached by three armed strangers. Alek and Morobunce were knocked unconscious when they started to wake at the commotion caused by Zerkorza who was still near the firering. I has used my Feystep abilities to move back into the shadows to see where the chanting was coming from and that was the last thing I remembered until I came to in the most uncomfortable position tied down onto a stone slab.

In the dim light torchlight I could see the walls were lined with skulls that seemed to hold not only secrets, but unanswered screams and cries of torment. Others gave you the feeling that there was something otherworldly watching you waiting for your demise. There were 4 stone tables in the circular room, each containing grooves for bloodletting. I could see that the Ranger and Halfling were tied down much like I was, and the ropes from the 4th table had been broken apart and laid upon the floor in shreds. I could hear the Ranger struggling to get free from his binds, not knowing if they had been enchanted or not I tried to Feystep away and found myself going nowhere. (That answered that question, didn't it?) I gave a good yank on my arm ropes and they came apart, from there I proceeded to undo my leg restraints and then went over to help the poor ranger with his.

I asked Alek if he knew where the Warrior had gone and he just shrugged and said he had no idea, but wondered if she had wandered down the open doorway that was dimly lit. He then asked if we wanted to go look for the Warrior or free the Halfling who was still unconscious on the table. I yanked on the upper ropes holding down the Halfling who came to as we struggled to get him untied. Once free we decided that we would explore the hallway and see if the Warrior had exited through there or if she had been taken off to her own demised or , running away leaving us to our own demise at the hands of the religious nuts that were probably on the other side of the door where the chanting was coming from.

Much to the surprise of the party, we found the Warrior rummaging around in a barracks room.

“Were you trying to escape without freeing us?” asked the Halfling.

The Warrior turned, startled. “No,” she said rather quickly. “I was looking for our weapons and armor.”

Something in the Thief's eyes and body language told me that she was lying. I guess I couldn't really blame her for trying to take flight. After all, when you wake up starting a skulls stripped of flesh & muscle starting at you with empty eye sockets from the walls of a dimly lit room, while being tied to a bloodletting stone, you're first reaction it to get out of there as fast as possible, plus Warriors aren't always known for doing much more than charging into whatever is coming at them. I couldn't have left anyone behind though, too much of my upbringing and the fact that the pack mentality of the wolf courses through my veins, it would have bothered me for eons.

As we rummaged through the room looking for something to use as a makeshift weapon I turned around and came face to face with an alter with an image of the God of War, Bane. As I told the history of Bane and how it was his desire to rule and enslave the world while crushing his opponents and non-believers of his rule, the Halfling sneered in disgust and flung the idol across the room.

After ransacking the room and finding nothing of use aside from a makeshift club that the Ranger made from a bed leg, we headed back up the hall. We could hear chanting from the door opposite the room and the faint smell of copper came from the door to our right. Taking a chance we entered that door and began to walk down the hallway, the coppery smell of blood growing thicker the closer we got to the door at the end of the hall.

As soon as we opened the door and saw the skinned, beheaded bodies hanging from the rafters with our gear piled off to the left of the room. The smell hit us all and Alek doubled over and began to vomit, followed soon by the rest of us. It took everything we had to grab out gear and run back up the hallway to the room with the tables. After taking inventory of our gear, we redressed and rearmed ourselves and made our way to the third door. Morobunce checked for and disarmed the traps that had been placed and we started to make our way down the hall when we came to a second door where the chanting was much louder. The Thief again checked and disarmed the traps at the door and peered in. He counted 6 cult members in a circle around a sconce chanting in some foriegn tongue.

Closing the door he reported what he saw and we formulated a plan of attack. I could see in the Halflings eyes that this was not something that he was thrilled with doing, but he knew it was a necessity for us to survive. Slowly he opened the door and disappeared into the shadows momentarily before springing on the first cult member, and digging his knife deep into his back. From there we all moved into the door as a well formed unit. I took out one of them with my cross bow and then Alek and Zerkorza took out three more. We tried to break the final member from his trance to no avail and in finally put a crossbow bolt through his neck ending his chanting. As the 1st cultist fell we noticed the sconce began to close on a reptilian hand and you could hear the agonizing, yet angry scream as the portal closed.

Taking a moment to regroup and piece together what was going on, we turned and headed down the wide hallway on the opposite side of the room, each step bringing us closer to a door where we could see daylight peering through.

Morobunce checked the door for traps again and disarmed a very nasty poisoned needle trap before peering out the door noticing a caravan of three men sitting on their packs. As we came out the door the men jumped up and stood there in shock as we exited into the sunlight. I recognized one of the men from the Oasis and approached him trying to be diplomatic and negotiate information from them to no avail. They clearly didn't want to give us any information other than the price of 1000 Gold on each of our heads that they were to be paid by the Cultists. They then drew their weapons to attack, the third member of their party staying toward the back of the group. It took me a few seconds to realize that he was a Mage of some sort and that he was preparing to cast spells against us. I tried to counter his spells with a few of my own, but I was not yet experienced with my magic and I missed my quarry a few time. Morobunce went after the Mage with a fury equal to not other and with no regard to himself or his life.The Mage went to cast one last spell, unaware of his surroundings he took a step back into a puddle of water and his spell rebounded into him knocking him down. Just as the Halfling was about to fall, I cast a healing spell to keep him on this side of the grave, he was a brave soul despite being a thief.

Exhausted and injured the Mage explained that he and his companions had been approached by the Cult member to capture us and deliver them to this secret location. They were to await payment from the Cult upon the completion of our demise and were astounded to see us exit the cavern door.

Alek and Zerkorza wanted to leave him to a tree, but even that was too cruel for us to do, so we decided to bring him with us to the city of Ancor. I took his wand and his spell book although it was encoded in text that only the Mage himself could decipher.

Upon arriving at the City, we were stopped by the guardsmen who wanted us to surrender our weapons and queried why we had the Mage bound. Not believing our story, I requested that we speak with the Captain of the Guard wherein we turned over the Mage, who was as well known felon and was wanted for his actions of kidnapping and other dubious deeds.

After speaking further with the Captain of the Guard about the Cultists and their locations, a runner was sent and we were informed that we were to go see the Magistrate. Tired, hungry and in much need of a bath we all protested, but our grumbling was ignored.

We were escorted by one of the Guards to the Magistrate's office where we again told our story of our encounter with the Cult. He then sat there for a moment taking it all in and then turned to us and asked if we would be interested in taking on a few jobs at the request of the Magistrate. We all looked at each other and shrugged, wondering if we could really take on the jobs and work together as a cohesive unit. Warily we accepted his offer and were rewarded with training from each of our respective Guild houses and the promise of pay.

While I should have been happy at the prospect, all I really wanted was a comfortable bed and a hot bath.

After I acquired those and some dinner at the Cleric's Guild House, I laid in bed and wondered just what I had gotten myself into and if I could trust those that I would be traveling with.

Read Morobunce's journal entry  and the letter from Kairon Starcaller to his sister.