The Journal of Sarindel Lightleaf (Part I)

Day 1:
 
Decided to keep a journal of my travels, now that I have put some distance between me and Losana. Alsona is nice. It is a bit cooler here than back home. Will need to look for work.
 
Met another elf, Zedarius, and a human, Vance. Both seem honest, but I have not made up my mind about them. I will travel with them as Zedarius seems to know the area, and I can move faster with him. Should reach the capital any day now. Then I can slip away and find work.
 
Day 12:
 
Made it to the capital. Impressive for northerners. Sniffed around, found a job to go after the "Centaur King" north of Alsona. Gets me further away, so I accepted the offer. The others did, too.
 
The queen assigned us to teams. Vance and Zed (he seems to enjoy this name) decided to come along too. It did not matter to me, though I did not see any indication they may be hunting me so I am going to stay with them. We were teamed up with a young halfling, Ollie, some half-elf, Basil, and an adventuring scholar named Henry, a human. I think Basil is a wizard. I do not trust them, the halfling seems to be acting naieve in order to lull me into a false sense of security. The half-elf seems to be of noble stock, might be running from something, too, or down on his luck looking to make some money on an easy bounty. I will not be easy. However, Henry is probably fine. But I will keep an eye out.
 
Update - we were attacked in the night, the other adventuring parties save the one headed by that scoundrel Hakim were killed. Hakim tried to frame us, gave Vance a ring with the signet of the attackers, claimed we were behind it. Queen did not believe either side, told us to just go out and do our task.
 
Entry 3:
 
Lost track of the days, we have been traveling. It does not matter, season is autumn and that is the only real important thing. Found our way to the trading post, did some work, and the Centaur King's men attacked. They killed the owner, it was a shame. The leader of the attack escaped. Will need to hunt her down and kill her.
 
Checked Ollie, Basil, and Henry's belongings while on night watch. Did not find anything to indicate they were hunting me. Ollie is probably just an idiot, then. Do not know how he got himself wrapped up in this adventure, seems to young. Almost got caught, though. We were attacked in the night after I had just closed up their bags and they did not notice anything. Fought off the attackers. Will need to increase night shift security in the future.
 
Entry 4:
 
Have been traveling for some time. Came across what seemed a large encampment, was actually mostly an illusion from the mage in the center of the site. He works for the Centaur King. Centaur King is not a centaur, but a human, according to the mage. Possible lie, will need to keep my ears out. They had numerous goblins enslaved, we freed them and they attacked us before running away. Ungrateful beasts, you cannot trust a goblin. We have some info on this Centaur King's lieutenants at least. That should be useful.
 
Entry 5:
 
Found some large standing stones in our travels. Henry was interested. He is an archaeologist so wanted to find out more, unfortunately the secrets of the stones escaped him. Reached a river, decided to follow it to the east. Found an old dwarven ruin and numerous orcs and a tiefling treasure hunter outside. It was tense, no one in our party speaks orcish, but the tiefling understood and communicated with us and the orcs. We agreed to help them enter the ruin and split the treasure. It was harrowing, numerous zombies and other monstrosities. Almost lost Zed, he gained a new mouth from some creature. Very odd, I hope it is not permanent, it is difficult to look at. In an old lab was a crazy skull that could speak, fly, and shoot fire. We put it down, but only barely.
 
We managed to get through the ruin and find the treasure. Upon leaving, the tiefling attempted to betray us, but Ollie's innocence won over the orcs to our cause, and they attacked her. This enabled our retrograde back to the west, back to our mission. The ground here is soggy and difficult to traverse. We are thinking of returning to the prairie and traveling that way.
 
Entry 6:
 
More stones. We spent much to much time examining them. Henry seems intent on discovering the secrets of these lands while letting Hakim accomplish the task and be named leader before us. This is not acceptable, and I try to explain this to the rest of our group. Only Zed and Vance seem to agree, the others are more interested in secrets than success.
 
We finally peeled away from the stones to find sick and injured centaurs. They said there was a disease that wiped many of them out and they were doomed. Seems the Centaur King is ridding the land of his namesake.
 
We came across a bridge after following the set of tracks we had been on for days. In a small building on the bridge we found the dwarf Thud. He was part of Hakim's group. Claimed Hakim fired him and the rest of their crew and brought in new members. Likely the prints we were following. Thud offered to join us. We let him tag along, he seems a capable combatant but not a reliable traveling companion. We will find out.
 
NOTE: Do not open rations found in ancient dwarf ruins. This should have been a self-evident fact, but now we know for sure. Merde, the stench.
 
Entry 7:
 
Followed the tracks through a forest, to an abandoned structure. Guards in small towers engaged Zed and I while we scouted ahead, but we made short work of them. Entered the structure to find numerous traps and large cages of gold. Will be useful once we are rulers, I am sure, but doubt we would be able to take any with us.
 
The important thing about this structure was that we confronted Hakim at the bottom of the vault. He released a monster on us that turned any who looked upon it to stone. Unfortunately, the beast transformed Vance and myself, I believe Zed as well, to stone. When it was finally killed, the effects wore off, but Henry lay dead. So did Hakim, but it was still tragic to lose our companion in that manner. We must press on.
 
Entry 8:
 
We buried Henry.
 
I hope his soul can find peace, though none of us knew the funerary rites of his sect. I pray he has not been damned by our ignorance.
 
I pray none of us have been damned by this foolhardy venture.
 
Entry 9:
 
We have teamed up with Izmela, the woman who attacked the trading post. I do not trust her. We encountered large insectoid creatures and they killed one of her men, but we found a new companion who was among a party that was slaughtered by these things previously. Another dwarf, this one named Bogdan. I am concerned for Ollie, he seems unmoved by death. I thought he was an idiot, then just a naieve child, but now I believe him to be a psychopath. Will need to keep an eye on him.
 
Later, we engaged a group of goblins attacking centaurs. There was one goblin that was odder than the rest, truly crazy. I do not know its affliction, but when we dispatched it another appeared to act in the same manner. We killed the leader and most fled. The centaurs, which spoke common, thanked us for our support. They agreed to help us kill the Centaur King's mage, and told us to meet near his tower.
 
That night, the centaurs attacked. The strange little goblin returned before the attack and warned us. It seems we supported the wrong side. The other two men who traveled with Izmela died, courageously defending our camp site. They may have been bad men who did bad things, but all are entitled to redeem themselves. Again, most of my companions were unfazed by this. Merde, are these good people? I do not know. I hope so, but if not I will leave them if I see an opening. I could continue traveling north, beyond the frontier. No one would find me there. Alas, I do not know what dangers lie in wait for lone travelers in that part of the world. I will remain for now, but will watch this group closely.
 
Entry 10:
 
We attacked the wizard's tower today. All-in-all it was successful, though I and a few of the others very nearly perished. The wizard was an illusionist, Vance apparently did not have much experience with illusions. I used a simple trick as a learning point to show him what he could possibly expect to see within. It is difficult when we do these kinds of assaults as we do not know the layout or enemy strength within the structures. Still, we had momentum on our side and hoped it was enough.
 
The tower was surrounded by a moat of lava, by all appearances. I reckoned it was not actual lava. It was not. Merely water magicked to appear as lava. I led the group across the moat, as it was fairly shallow, and was beset upon by strange, animated sludge. The sludge damaged some of our equipment but we made it across relatively easily.
 
The door to the tower was animated. It asked us a riddle to pass. "What has six letters, but when you take away one, twelve remains?" It claimed failure would result in a curse. Vance showed masterful cunning in immediately determining the response, "Dozens". The door congratulated the man and allowed us safe passage.
 
Once inside, we stepped on teleportation portals that sent us across the tower and the floating cubes orbiting it. After a few minutes of exploration, we found what we assumed was the wizard but was actually an apparition made by the wizard to fool us. We dispatched it easily and it set the tower to shaking something fierce. Fearing the imminent collapse of the structure we presently found ourselves in, we began entering portals to escape. We crossed blades with one of the wizard's henchmen, and struck him down. We then found the wizard's laboratory and were bushwhacked by the invisible rapscallion, nearly killing myself, Vance, Ollie, and Zed. After a prolonged engagement with our foe we were able to bring him down, though I suffered injuries as well as Ollie. However, we survived, and took what things of value we could from the room.
 
I now find myself in possession of a most bizarre set of armor that is covered in decals that appear nautical in nature and of ocean life. It will apparently benefit me should I attempt to swim in it, so I am now wearing this ridiculous looking armor as my last set was damaged beyond repair by the sludge monsters.
 
Now that I have had some time to clear my head and reflect, no longer acting on pure muscle memory and adrenaline, I wonder what could have been different. We do not know, would this wizard have assisted us in betraying his "king" as Izmela is? He was not a good man, but if I seek redemption, should not I attempt to let others seek it too? We were the ones to initiate hostilities against the wizard - I am curious how things may be different had we decided to try diplomacy instead. Perhaps we would all be dead. Perhaps this is for the best. I must not dwell on what has been done, only turn my attention to the future. To our goals.