Notes and Crap (entry seventeen)

[random written notes about the great library of the dwarves, their history of going underground and remaining isolationist for centuries, millennia even due to a vampiric incident ages ago]
 
*written after the events of the scouting session and the talk with Kosuke*
 
What an eventful last day this was... nearly lost my life and all. That's normal at this point yeah? Well it seems in retrospect, I bit off way more than I could chew, and should have leaned on others, instead of being a fanatical martyr, because I want to live, and I would hope the others do too. Well, might as well get writing on what happened, can't not have context no?
 
So, after we fended off the Underdark armies on behalf of Mountainhome, the king of the dwarves brought us to his throne room and handed each of us this sort of tracking stone while we looked for the Cu's Fist. After that roughly brief meeting with him, he sent out of the caves to begin our search. Naturally bickering ensued on where to start, and while that was going on, Rad figured out quick as a wink with his pathfinding skills that their monastery... was smack dab directly on top of the mountain that we entered!!! It was just out of sight, and he caught a glimpse of it, saw footsteps or whatever magic he performed to figure that out. So naturally, we had to start climbing, and by sheer miracle ~~brilliant planner~~, he had several sets of climbing gear at the ready. Well better to have it, than need it and not have it. We all started climbing, I'm terrible at it, Goth's a natural, everyone else was fine, so I just started flying up to scout ahead. With that, we eventually made it to the top after a few hours, and found ourselves at the midst of the Cu's Fist monastery. Thing was built like a fortress, walls dozens of feet tall, tall guard towers, well paved out paths nearby, and patrols throughout the area.
 
We decided to split up, where Varis, Gothmog and Filea snuck forward while Rad took to the rocks above, and I snuck around all invisible like. I later heard commotion on my way to the walls, when I look back, Varis got spotted by one of the monks, and tried to talk him down. Not taking any changes, I draw my sword and wait until he starts attacking, which eventually, he did. Turns out fighting hand to hand with a trained monk is a terrible idea, he disarmed my sword. Filea grabs Varis and bolts (like carry the man over her shoulder strong), then my boy Goth literally walks up with his axe and intimidates the dude. The guy turned tail and ran, then went back inside. We checked if he told anyone, but... Varis in retrospect was right, dude was one of those guys who was captured and forced to become a monk.
 
[disclaimer: this is Eligius' thoughts, not mine]
 
Seeing that some of the others bolted, might as well have gotten some intel so we didn't leave empty handed. I thought at the time, screw that, we need any edge we can get. I went invisible and flew up to one of the towers to scout the area. The one monk earlier was getting chewed out by this Ran'jit man, dude looked scarier than what the dossier described, and I swore he looked in my direction, or saw Joryth or something because he stared right at me on the tower. So after waiting a bit of time, I shifted away from the tower, and on top of the monastery. My suspicions were correct, he climbed the tower and checked out my hiding spot, then went back inside. After... maybe 10 minutes, he went inside, and I decided to go inside as well after a bit more waiting. Turns out I found his room, with him in it... I opened the window and snuck behind his desk, by sheer miracle at the time, I thought he didn't spot me, he or his pet pseudodragon apparently. Eventually, he left the room, giving me the golden moment to steal everything of his that wasn't nailed down. Books, journals, papers, nun-chucks, even a purple crystal shard. As soon as I was about to leave back out the window, a bullet shot right through the wall and I heard a grunt of pain, dude was climbing the wall and WAITING FOR ME.
 
What next happened felt like a blur, I bolted out the door instead of the window, sprinting up the tower trying to find an exit. There was literally no windows anywhere else to exit, so I was thinking I was doomed. And as I was running up the stairs, I heard more gunshots and hitting the tower on lower floors, dude was climbing after me! Eventually I found an exit at the top of the tower, and as I jump out to fly, the Ran'jit guy ripped a chunk of the tower out and chucked it at me, somehow he missed, and in retaliation, I tossed a fireball at him and flew off. The whole monastery knew I was there now, so we had to go. So I found Rad, and got him off the mountain by tackling him off one of the cliffs and using my flying spell to slow us down.
 
Everyone else didn't seem to appreciate the stunt I pulled, despite what I pilfered. Only now do I realize that I got too greedy, I talked to Kosuke post-mortem, he spoke of teamwork, being a cohesive force instead of just doing it all by myself.... yeah, I should have done that. Guess I'll have to fix that next time. Novia, if you are reading this and shaking your head, know that I already know the lesson of team work, no need to hit me over the head with it or whatnot.
 
Now, we're about to now raid the monastery and defeat the Cu's Fist, destroy their crystal... hoping for the best.