Volume 1, Chapter 5 - Rhobur's Diary - Wizard in a Bottle
General Summary
Extract from the Diary of Rhobur
23rd Tummony
Dear Diary
I have decided to write in you as the adventures I have with this new group keep getting crazier and crazier.
Today started in an interesting fashion as Bluestone had finished polishing and mounting Jed orc skull onto his armour. As you can imagine diary, Jed was quite pleased.
It seemed however one of our group was a little worse for wear today, I’m not sure if the dwarf had actually decided to try and drink beer like a dwarf should and fallen ill because of it, but in any case Helda decided to stay behind, with Jed instructing Bluestone to look after her with plenty of port. I’m not sure that was the best idea, but Jed’s house Jed’s rules I guess.
We headed towards the grand stables by the north exit, stopping by an eccentric potioner recommended by Jed (and yes diary, it did have the whiff of illegality). The place was called Hony’s Oils and Elixirs. It was a smoky place, dark and filled with exotic scents that irritated my nostrils.
Surprisingly, Filbim Hony knew not only mine but also everybody else’s name, apparently due to a backfired potion of clairvoyance.
I bought a Potion of Hill Giant Strength, not that I need it with my mighty bear shape diary, but I just had the urge to spend some money after my disappointing trip to the real estate agent in this town.
The others bought some health potions and Lavanel exchanged some sort of gemstone for some Alchemists’ Fire – it was a bit too dark to see what it was.
Then, as if I wasn’t poor enough, I was dragged to Sandy’s Projectiles as Jed wanted some new hand crossbows. Lavanel bought some studded leather armour & shield and Gamble bought 3 (yes 3!) daggers. I bought nothing diary, A) because I am poor and the others seem to find all the good treasure and more importantly B) I don’t need armour because I am so mighty and draconic.
I was embarrassed greatly at the stables however when struggling to control one of Jed’s family horses. The black stallion “Bastard” was particularly challenging. Luckily the others seemed to struggle too, apart from Lavanel who performed some exemplary dressage. Bloody elves.
We left the stables and crossed the river. There were some inspiring views to the right of the Belt Mountains, I could just picture a dragon living up there, definitely one to explore another day! We rode for half a day which gave me plenty of time to daydream about one day fulfilling my dream of transforming into a dragon.
My daydreams were interrupted however when we reached a decidedly dodgy looking outpost. I was half asleep, but luckily it seemed as though those elvish folk were paying attention. Before I knew it diary, I was witnessing a goblin being dragged out of a river by Apollo and Gamble taking the head clean off another!
Then diary, I did something that is still weighing heavy on my mind now. In my haste to join the fray I transformed into bear form, crushing my horse underneath my bulk in the process, before ripping a vile goblin to shreds with my claws.
Jed had one of Hony’s potions to hand to help the horse and guess what diary? Yep. Purple horse. Alive, but purple.
Anyway, I digress, we mopped up the goblins and goblin leader and I had the satisfaction of killing one of the bastards by breathing fire down hole it had fled into.
We rode for another hour or so to the Sorcerer’s Tower, by the light I would say it would have been around 3pm.
Gamble and Lavanel scouted around the tower and found an entrance, I thought that elves were meant to be stealthy but apparently they can be detected by a dim-witted troll!
Luckily Jed remembered (eventually) that trolls don’t regenerate on fire damage and Lavanel used Hony’s Alchemists Fire on troll. Is was a bit weird as the flame was green and smelt strongly of chocolate – did the trick though and we took the troll down.
We found a strange statue in the troll room, holding an iron tablet with the words “ore pod patron” inscribed on it. The clever half-elf, Gamble, worked out that we could type “open trap door” and a spiral staircase appeared. Lavanel led the way down the dark, musty staircase. I know, I know, diary clearly that was a bad idea as a found out when I followed down to discover the group surrounded by two spider swarms!
Fortunately, we made light work of the spiders and I had a good giggle when Lavanel got drunk on a Hony health potion.
Well, I think that’s all for today diary, we have decided to get some sleep in this dark tunnel, with no less than the corpse of half elf for company. He has a necklace on with “Swords of Vimar” inscribed on it – sounds like a mercenary group to me.
24th Tummony
Well it’s been another day full of surprises diary (actually, night since I made it about 12am when we decided to move on). One of the highlights of the morning was finding a secret door by poking the one discoloured eye in a wall made up of hundreds of eyeballs. No diary, I did not just make that last sentence up. We decided to ignore the newly discovered door and gritted ourselves for what may lay ahead. I believe that we headed north next. Jed (of course not me) found a cabinet full of trinkets including a necklace and leather bag with beans in just before some creatures made of dust sprang up to attack us! Not sure what they were (Editor’s Note: Dust Mephits) but any excuse to use my wild shape. Gamble found some robes and clothes, not sure what she is going to use ancient musty clothing for but hey, each to one’s own. The next part of my day was extraordinarily creepy. We went through what I would describe as a hall of murals, filled with disturbing pictures of barren wastelands. I found myself drawn to the pictures, until Jed wisely recommended we avoid looking into their depths. Two real enemies appeared and were quickly dispatched (I believe someone mentioned they were called Quasits) before we moved into the next room, which was full of alchemical equipment. How can I explain what happened next diary? Well, I’ll try. Firstly the bottles on the shelves started to fly towards us, showering us with toxic fumes. The whole attack seemed to be originating from a bottle which contained a maniacal face in a green liquid. (Editor’s Note: This turns out to be the last essence of the Sorcerer seeking immortality that Amilya & Salenis had sought). Once we took care of the green bottle the attack stopped, only for Jed to release a floating lady in a blue bottle. I’m not sure I would have done that myself but it was lucky he did as it turned out to be the girl we were looking for, Amilya! It turns out that the Swords of Vimar were Amilya’s hired mercenary group, we had a tough time explaining to her that many years had passed and that her party were dead. She insisted on finding the rest of her lost party and giving them a proper send off, which actually almost killed me diary! It was while looking for her last fallen comrade that we entered a room filled with a putrid pool with a dark shape at the bottom – turns out it was a water weird and the less said about that encounter the better. Two things: I got wet and thank god someone had a sun sword. Also, Jed nearly drowned. The rest of the day was fairly mundane… I jest of course. We encountered a screaming enchanted door, found a treasure chest and I dug graves in bear form for the members of the lost Swords of Vimar. Just now Amilya has told us some crucial things about how to reset the balance. Using a map of Ara, she showed us it could be divided into 4 segments, each of which held a Shrine to one of the four elements. The locations of these Shrines are hidden, lost to time. However, she could recall from her research four clues to where they are. It seems the key locations are: The Snowless PeakAra’s Bleeding Scar
Behind Blue Stone
The Forgotten Land.
Now diary, I think it’s time to head back to Kelador and spend more money I don’t have!
Report Date
21 Oct 2016
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