Escort to Arno-mot

Year 1456 Date Unknown...

I've been signed up to an escort mission by my supplier. Seems he's calling in the favour I owe him. The job sounds simple enough, escort some rich fella and his wears from Kormul to some town in the middle of the desert for a 5% share of the cargo. The man seems quite well set up for the trip, a slew of servants and a large carriage at his disposal. Two others have signed up for the job, a Goliath by the looks of him and a dwarf. They both seem fairly capable, but time will tell. I've never been this far into the desert, hopefully it'll be an easy trip.

JH
 

New Entry - Day One
Weather has been fair today as we set of from Kormul. The servants Bombastus has brought along are proving useful, when we stopped for camp the served us a cooked meal. Far better than the rations I brought. Hopefully the weather will continue to be good in the coming days. It should take around one week to get to Arno-mot.

JH


New Entry - Day Two
The road to Arno-mot was peaceful again today. Weather was very hot this afternoon. Not much else to report.

JH


New Entry - Day Three
Another peaceful days travel. Servants cooked a beef stew for supper, was one of the best meals I've had in a long time.

JH


New Entry - Day Four
It's been four days since we left Kormul, we're over halfway now, and to our luck the journey has so far been peaceful. I could see myself setting up with this Bombastus fella full time if the jobs are this easy. A crew of staff to prepare food, and a comfy carriage to sleep in, sounds ideal.

JH
 

New Entry - Day Five
Trouble! We came across some strange house in the middle of this nowhere desert. The whole thing looked suspicious as soon as I saw it, though not to anyone else it seems. Bombastus and the servants must have thought it some type of half-way house for travellers. No sooner that they opened the door were they set upon by undead and demons, clearly the work of a mage. The meathead barbarian charged straight in of course and to be honest, to his credit he did seem to dispatch the abominations quite quickly.

The dwarf on the other hand only added to the trouble. Whilst I stood back with Bombastus and the servants, that machine of his set fire to half the bloody building! It was a sight to behold, but the mage upstairs didn't take kindly to it. I barely caught a glimpse of him before he cast some type of earth spell beneath my feet. I managed to avoid it for the most part, but the servants and the horses caught the full blast of it and were killed. I thought it got Bombastus as well but he seemed to disappear during the chaos. He showed up shortly after, mumbling something to the dwarf.

After the dwarves flames had spread throughout the building, it began to collapse. I'm not sure if the mage fell with the building or if he escaped. Either way our group took a serious loss. No more servants, so no more lovely meals served in the evening, I guess I'll have to rely on my rations until we arrive. The loss didn't seem to phase Bombastus, I guess they were only hired help like myself, rather than personal staff. So now our journey continues with Bombastus and the barbarian taking turns pulling the carriage. With any luck that's all the excitement we'll have before reaching Arno-mot.
 
JH
 

New Entry - Day Six
More trouble! Today we ran into two gangs in the middle of nowhere. Bullywogs and Yuan-ti. They looked as if they were fixing to fight each other, but after the bullywogs saw our damaged carriage they must of thought us an easy target. They attacked without hesitation, fortunately the yuan-ti didn't join in the affray and we managed to finish the bullywogs off with relative ease. Gave me a chance to clean the rust off my sword. After the battle the Yuan-ti left and we set about collecting the spoils from the dead. Bullywogs don't carry the best of weapons, a few rusty scimitars and a halberd, still we might be able to sell for a few gold. Nearby the encounter was a large lit tent, we assumed is was some type of camp. When we got closer to the tent we saw the entrance was being guarded by a Bullywogs and a Yuan-ti, odd given they were about to fight each other. I managed to sneak round the back of the tent and take a look under. I thought it might be a meeting between gang leaders, but what I saw was a large glowing candle in the centre of the tent. As soon as it met my gaze I felt it try and influence me, fortunately I managed to resist whatever magic it emanated.

All of a sudden the candle rose up, floating. It floated towards the entrance and out of the tent. I entered the tent, walking past the guards who seemed a bit lax. Thinking my companions would be subject to whatever magic I resisted I quickly grabbed the candle, threw it to the floor and kicked sand over it to extinguish the flame. Not a second sooner that the candle was out, the Bullywog and Yuan-ti at the tent began fighting. Bombastus took this opportunity to disappear again, I managed to catch him after following the footprints in the sand. He had picked up the candle and pocketed it in his coat. Later I saw him dividing some of his coin, apparently there are toll gates at Arno-mot that we'll have to pass through. Hope that's the last trouble we have for this trip!
 

JH


New Entry - Day Seven
We finally made it to Arno-mot, only to be greeted with toll gate after toll gate. I think we passed through nine before we got to our destination. Turns out the poison we were escorting was for the town's Mayor. We were each paid our share, though the dwarf received a considerably larger share for some reason. It wasn't mentioned why, not did I hear of any reason before we left Kormul. Well regardless, thats the contract fullfilled and our business complete. Guess I'll have to look for passage back to Kormul. After leaving the Mayor's residence we headed to the market area and found a shop that sold magical creatures, all manner of strange beasts and sprites locked up in cages. I bought a ring, the shopkeeper claims allows you to breath underwater, we'll see. If it is magical, it was a bargain compared to prices up north.

JH.