Lula, you’ll be happy to know I joined an adventuring company, so you can finally get out of this town and on to the open road as you’ve wanted. You’ll need to introduce yourself to Silvir – he’s the elf putting the group together and he’ll want your name on the charter. I’d guess signing a contract to go wandering about on the open roads might seem counterintuitive to you, but this is the arrangement I’ll agree to, so get used to it.
Silvir, as I said, is an elf. He’s a wizard or somesuch – you can’t miss him in the embroidered robes. He wants to go back to his home in the elven lands, I think. A cute little gnome is signing on, as well. His name is Ziqo, and he did some pretty good battlefield healing. He’s abnormally interested in goblins. Another fellow, Jet Adore he calls himself, seemed intrigued by our negotiations. He took out some goblin raiders in another part of the town, so he must be a good fellow. There’s also Seoni Songbird. She’s the performer we were looking forward to hearing at the festival, the one Cyrdak brought in from Magnamar. She said something about picking up more material for her stories and such, but I wouldn’t mind having her bow skills to get us out of a bad place.
Oh yeah, the festival… Um, sales were a bit slow at first. Savah put out some of my brother’s best work, but most people were just browsing the trinkets. The weather was fine and the entertainment was first rate, though, so I had fun watching the crowds. There were also lots of speeches, but I really couldn’t hear much from the back.
It would have been pretty typical for the Swallowtail festival, except that somehow goblins had snuck in. The place was crawling with them and everybody panicked. I wasn’t even wearing my armor. I handed out a bunch of knives from the stand – better that upstanding citizens gain them for defense than those filthy goblins try to use them on us – and charged in.
One mangy fiend was attacking a woman, and Seoni dispatched him with some top-rate archery. I fell in with two near a cart. Thankfully, their only victim was a dog. Those cursed creatures are always distracted by luckless canines. They knicked me with their dog-slicers, the saddest works of smithing I’ve seen in a while. Silvir shouted that we needed to capture one, and though goblins are much more useful dead, perhaps they’d be able to tell us how they managed to sneak past all our guards. He did something that knocked one clear out so we tied the little runt up. Seoni and Ziqo captured another one – he was sopping wet – and brought him over to join our captive. Ziqo was kind enough to patch me up
We were just starting to catch our breath when another band of goblins appeared out of nowhere over by the church, all wielding torches. The church isn’t going to burn again, I swore. Telling Ziqo organize a fire brigade while I tapped the groggy goblin to make sure he didn’t cause trouble, I charged off towards the intruders, hurling my best goblin insults in good decent Dwarven. I really should have found some armor to put on, but who would have thought the ignorant little savages would have found a way to get two parties in? They must have understood enough, because they turned to attack me. There were four, three of the standard disgusting variety and and a fourth that appeared slightly more cunning. I could tell, because he stood back, singing an obnoxious song about goblin cleverness rather than face me square.
Silvir was doing some sort of magic stuff by the waving of his hands, and Seoni started turning more goblins into pin cushions, a more appropriate use for the creatures than the one they were currently filling. Which was beating on me. At least, two of them were. The third, after throwing his torch into the church, found that it had followed him and began to attack mercilessly. Silvir must have my talent.
I kept my two from doing harm to unarmed villagers and finally brought them low. The third I easily dispatched after the torch had charred up a bit, but a greater threat, a goblin on a war dog of all things, was attacking Aldern Foxglove. I was a bit preoccupied, but it didn’t look like he was doing too well. What a tragic end that would have been for a man who’s life was defined by tragedy.
Seoni and Silvir ran over to deal with the threat and I was left with the would-be goblin bard. Someone had the decency to drop some grease around the fellow, so I took that errant torch and sent it hurling at the goblin singer before charging him myself. Ziqo and Bishop Zantus caught up with me and patched my wounds while I was pounding that nasty little goblin into paste. I would have died twice over from the damage those dog-eating vermin had inflicted on me, if it hadn’t been for good Ziqo’s healing.
Silvir and Seoni dealt with the goblin, because Aldern survived his encounter. He was pretty distraught by his perilous encounter and ran off like a half-wit. We weren’t feeling much better, our new little band, so we agreed to meet up in the more happy environs of the Rusty Dragon Inn for drinks. All agreed we wanted to see what information was in these flea-ridden goblins before we got too settled, though.
Business being business, I did manage to collect most of the weapons I’d handed out, and sold even more. Savah will be really pleased with our take for the day. After wrapping up these details up, we made our way over to the jail. Silvir can actually speak the goblin’s obscene “language”, so he fared pretty well with some prompting from Ziqo. Seems the offensive curs finally bred a goblin sturdy enough to whip them all into one tribe, and a “longshanks” helped them sneak in by way of several carts. I can’t believe anyone would be foolish enough to rely on goblins, but apparently someone is. So this “longshanks” and Ripnugget are in cahoots together, and they planned the attack to burn the town down.
Bishop Zantus came by Hemlock’s office while we were there to report a break-in at Father Ezakien Tobyn’s vault. The poor priest was too terrified to check it out himself, so we agreed to attend to it in the morning.
Then it was off to the Rusty Dragon Inn for some ale. The townsfolk are really grateful for our help, and we drank for free last night. Aldern Foxglove invited us to a boar hunt, so of course I accepted. Then Silvir brought up the possibility of forming an adventuring company. I’m sure he’s busy writing a charter right now. It seems very important that he do everything fairly. He was very meticulous in the distribution of gold and equipment from the goblins we killed.
The vault was a bit of a surprise. There were two skeletons waiting for us. I dealt with them efficiently – I had my polearm this time – and Ziqo had the foresight to scan for magic. He said there was some sort of necromantic magic cast here that was fading fast. Not surprising, given the presence of skeletons. They didn’t look like they came from this vault, though Father Tobyn’s crypt was stripped bare. His daughter’s tomb was untouched.
I know you’re still having trouble piecing stuff together, so here’s what we still need to do if you get control. We need to ask Bishop Zantus if Father Tobyn was buried with anything significant. I’m afraid the goblin raid was probably a distraction to get at this vault, and what a lot of effort to go to for a graveyard raid. Whatever was in here must have been important. If he doesn’t have any suggestions, find out who prepared the body for burial or put him in the crypt. Mayor Deverin or Sheriff Hemlock would be a good place to start. Those are our chief suspects for this traitor “longshanks”, and also the people we need to speak with about the contents of the vault. Ziqo seems to be a good judge of character, so he should be a great asset here.
The boar hunt might be a good chance to check out the countryside in an armed group, but if the goblins are unified, we could be in serious danger. Be prepared for the worst. Hopefully I’ll get to go. I haven’t gotten to do any decent hunting in a while, and this goblin attack has reminded me what fun it can be.