The Harrowed Land: Entry 1

Recently I met up with my old friend Dortan Kaas in response to his letter - and was introduced to his other rather interesting friends. The others and I were sent on a quest to the town of Ryek, to investigate why a number of people had been going missing. We were able to speak with the families of the missing people, with some being far more welcoming than others. There seemed to be a pattern where disappearances occur in the afternoon/evening, in a forest past a creek in the West. I'm also becoming suspicious of the town's priest, as the townsfolk seem to have a very low opinion of him, and he reportedly had contact with some of the missing shortly before they disappeared. We began to investigate the West in the late afternoon, and I was able to find a path and follow it through the forest, until we arrived at a grassy clearing where there was a hill with three obelisks standing on its peak. As we snuck closer to the peak we saw a robed figure wearing an antler headpiece standing among the obelisks. When the robed man walked out of the party's line of sight, Piplic and I crept through the grass to obtain a better viewing point. All of our sneaking around was in vain, however, as Emen gave us away. He raised his staff at Emen as she rose, yelled at her in Kargish to stop. Emen mustn't have understood, as she then charged the robed man, killing him in one violent blow with her axe. At the top of the hill, Arlineli reported that carvings on the obleisks appear to be of Kargish origin, much like the other carved bone objects we saw on the way through the forest. We also noticed a staircase descending into the dark. Arlineli led the group down, his magic lighting the way, followed by myself, Emen and Piplic. When we entered what appeared to be catacombs and saw firelight flickering from a room further along the hall, Arlineli extinguished his light source, leaving us in the dark and Piplic unable to see. Emen picked up the disoriented Piplic and I crept ahead to investigate the firelight. There were two robed figures in this room and a gong. Arlineli began to walk up to meet me, but stumbled on a pile of bones, alerting the two inside the room. In a panic, I yelled at them not to move so I didn't have to shoot, but they didn't listen - a man drew his sword yelling to alert the others, to which the woman proceeded to run towards the gong. Regrettably, I had to shoot the woman so our presence would (hopefully) remain secret for a while longer. As she fell, the man came at me with his sword - thankfully Emen appeared in time to stop him.
 
To remember: Don't get on Emen's bad side - she appears to have poor impulse control