The
celebrations lasted longer than we thought. Can you blame us for taking
a break after our hard fought battles and trials? In any case, a week
passed by and we were getting restless again. Ga researchers had been
poring over their texts, looking for clues to aid us in our quest, and
they had found a couple of likely leads. Still, Tok and a some of the
others wanted to get good armor while we had the chance. It was just
going to take a good season and a half to get everything done.
That was too long, so we compromised. There is some sort of fire temple
up north, about two weeks travel away. We can be there and back and in
that time some armor can be crafted for Tok and Krelga. Gorg will have
to settle for Krelga's hand-me-downs. The rest of us would live with
our current armor since we weren't front-line fighters in any case. And
off we went, on the road again.
About a week into the trek something strange happened. I was sleeping
when I felt something on top of me. I woke up with a start, catching
somebody by surprise. A small dark shadow was all I glimpse as he ran
away leaving some sort of umbrella behind. Hmm, must be a gift from a
suitor, for that is how Razors do their courting. I didn't give it much
thought and expected another gift in a few nights, in keeping with
tradition.
So the next night I'm woken up and once again it's the little guy. Hey,
he's taking the umbrella back. A vile insult! I chased after him
immediately as the rest of the camp was woken by my uproar. Sheesh, the
little guy can run! But I caught up with him and wrestled him to the
ground. "Let go, it's mine! My precious!" Ok, obviously I was being
courted by some lunatic. I dragged him back to camp and we cleared up
the confusion.
Ellum the Darkling hadn't meant to insult me. He hadn't meant to give
me umbrella either. It was just that he had dropped it in his haste to
flee the night before. But it's nothing sinister, he assured us. He's
been looking for a band of brave adventurers to help him. An evil band
of weasels has driven him out of his underground home. He can't offer
us much, but since we're heading in his direction we decided to help.
How much trouble can a few weasels be?
|
We reached a
river and followed it up. Ellum explained that his home
was on the bank of the river. Then a boat came floating down the river.
It was Itar, Ellum's Rock Slug friend who had brought us some
sandwiches. This whole adventure was getting weirder and weirder. But
Itar had a better grasp of the situation. They weren't just weasels,
but undead bootmere and some undead rock slugs building a dam.
Apparently they wanted to dam up the river and divert it away so they
could cross it and attack the Fire Temple.
That piqued our interest? Fire Temple? Sure, we'll help! We got to the
partially built dam later in the day. It was quite and Itar explained
that the bootmeres didn't come out until dark. Well, a group of
bootmeres can be quite tough, so we decided to split up into two
groups. Tev, Gorg and I would remain here out of sight and recon to see
how many bad guys there were. Tok, Nakaro, Krelga and Timroth were
going to "investigate" the Fire Temple (and if a fire artifact should
accidentally fall into their packs, we wouldn't be too upset).
Our group waited quietly and saw the bootmeres and rock slugs come out.
The rock slugs were doing the building since bootmeres are just weasels
and besides they don't like water. They were a strangely silent group,
and they moved stiffly too. Obviously undead. It looked like they'd
only be another night to finish the dam.
When the others came back they told us about Dotregidim, a crazy
jiliroth (yes, that's redundant, or he could be really crazy) who lived
at the Fire Temple. All he wanted to do was roll a log as fast as he
could. Meanwhile there was nothing at the Temple that they could find,
though they did find out about a reclusive Yeti named Regab living in
the forest. The forest infested with bootmeres of course. |