Aporeu chronicles Issue 22: Supply Caravan

Stories from the adventurers

This week

Two letters by two brothers

Supply Caravan by Gerolt

To Aveline, Sentinel of the Most Radiant Temple of the Smiling Sun.
Hi Aveline, it’s me, your big bro Gerolt. Doubt I’ll be able to get a letter back to the temple, so I figured maybe you can get the Chronicles over at the sanctuary these days. Long shot, I know.
I’m assumin’ dad and the priests told you I’m dead, that’s a bunch of kazaht. Still very much alive over here. Sorry I left without sayin’ goodbye, had my reasons, which are not for printin’ in a newspaper.
Did mercenary work for a while and that was good, but the band split up so I had to look for coin elsewhere. Heard there’s good money in adventurin’, so I went to Arnheim to sign up at the guild. Didn’t really know what to expect, but figured it shouldn’t be too different from being a merc; fight stuff, get paid.
Anyway, newspaper’s not just gonna print some sappy letter, they want a proper story. My friend Jade, you’d love her, writes to her little brother about the work we do at the guild, so I figure I’d give that a shot. Here’s how my last mission went:
I’d been recoverin’ too long from some hits I took last mission, so I decided it was time for some light work to get back in the swing of it. Phaedra, a priestess that’s been nursin’ me back to health, cleared me for duty, so I took a look at the quest board and noticed a caravan escort mission. Simple, familiar, straightforward, perfect.
Caravan in question was a riverboat headin’ upriver east to some outpost called Doetencham. Seems the guild decided to show some guts and put an outpost right up in the wasteland. Been a while since I worked on the water, but that should be fine.
I arrive at the docks first and spot the boat, crewed by three women lookin’ tough as nails. The captain, Hilderid, a wild-eyed berserker named Halla, and Bothild at the bow keeping watch. Good, looks like no worries about babysittin’ any soft merchants on this caravan.
Didn’t get a chance to meet my team before the mission, so I was fully prepared to be saddled with a bunch of rookies and wannabe heroes. Thank Lathander, I couldn’t be more wrong. Next to show up was Gwyn, bit high-and-mighty, but seemed like a decent enough fighter. It was uphill from there. Then, dwarf named Brynjar shows up, I can tell from his battle scars that I can count on this guy. Last up, Svæin, big damn mountain of a man stomps his way over, tall as Richard, my innkeeper who can barely fit through his own front door. Guy’s not wearing any armor, but I doubt he needs it anyway.
I give the team a look over and like what I see, every single one of us is geared for close combat. Plan is simple, form a shield wall and don’t worry about a thing ‘cept the enemy in front and the men at your sides. Glorious. I talk to Hilderid and ask what to expect on the river. Turns out there’s pirates that frequent the river, but she’s got some sort of agreement with ‘em. Smart woman.
We set off and the trip’s pretty quiet ‘till Gwyn spots some ships headed our way. Captain flashes them some signals and they veer off. Seems pirates around here keep their word. I keep an eye out just in case and spot a shark fin off the side of the boat. Didn’t figure sharks show up in rivers much so I go to ask the captain about it and she seems confused as me.
Before Hilderid has time to make a call on the situation, the thing lurches out of the water at the dwarf. Monster’s lookin’ like a shark did the horizontal tango with a grizzly bear and then grew some tentacles just for fun. As per the plan, we all charge up to Brynjar and form a shieldwall, keeping the Sharkbear from clambrin’ aboard. Remember when we used to play bodyguard as trainin’? I’d forgotten the tricks I’d learned from that, but Jade helped me dust ‘em off after last mission. Good thing too, came in real handy.
While stayin’ defensive, we manage to get some hits in on the thing. I made note that Gwyn was getting some real nice work done with his rapier. Good man, understands a heavier weapon ain’t always better. Right when we get the river monster on its last legs, not sure if it had any but you get the point, Halla comes lunging over the shield wall, frothing at the mouth. She stabs it in the eye for a killing blow. Refreshin’ when the VIPs you’re escortin’ can handle themselves in a fight.
We sail far as the river takes us and unload the carts and horses, making our way to the White Stag, an inn some madman built right up against the wasteland, no doubt hopin’ to profit from caravans like ours. The women head back to Arnheim with the promise to come pick us up in 2 days. Fine by me, work better on a time limit.
Svæin’s pretty decent with animals, so we leave him to stable the horses while I go check out the inn. They don’t seem too keen on actually receiving guests for some reason, but I convince ‘em that leaving a bunch of mercs out in the rain’s bad for business. Walkin’ in, I look at the poor sods huddled inside, maybe a single man worth his salt among ‘em. Outside, I hear a horse run off, but it’s not one of ours, so not my problem.
I sit down for drinks and grub when Svæin ducks in through the door and tells us there’s a dead stable boy with half a head. Gettin’ ready to deal with the situation, I have the boys huddle up to discuss strategy. Before the mission, I got me a little somethin’ that’s supposed to help with morale and teamwork. Now, I can’t say I trust the guy I got it from, but his work has shown results before and I felt we could use the edge.
The big guy declines, can’t say I blame him. Rest of us drink up and I can feel my battle bond with them sharpen like a pack of wolves. Gotta hand it to the doc, didn’t expect his stuff to actually come through. Sweeping the area, we check around the stables. Area ‘round the inn seems clear, so Gwyn goes up to check the roof, only to get jumped by some kind of undead abomination and falling 2 stories down.
Without hesitation, Svæin hustles up the ladder to get at the enemy. Brynjar goes with him to help, but there ain’t much space so I stay down to support with some darts. Big guy sees me strugglin’ to get a hit in and just tosses the damn thing off the roof like a ragdoll, right at the feet of me and Gwyn, great teamwork. We finish the walking corpse off and dump the body in the river.
Job well done and the coast lookin’ might clear, we have some ale and stew to celebrate before headin’ to bed. Of course, it couldn’t be that simple. Turns out, stew’s laced with some sort of sleeping agent. I straight-up black out for a sec before Gwyn kicks me awake. Him and the half-giant are lookin’ pretty groggy, but Dwarves being Dwarves, Brynjar is fine.
Door got locked behind us, and much as I’d love to try out the lockpickin’ tricks I learned recently, I’m seeing quadruple from the poison, so I lend my kit to Gwyn and he gets us out. At this point, I’m stumblin’ pretty bad, but there’s fightin’ to be had, so I focus hard on keepin’ my eyes open.
We head down to the common room, which is now empty. Svæin finds a suspicious lookin’ flagstone in the cellar and stomps on it before fallin’ straight through. Big guy doesn’t seem the brightest, but he gets the job done. We crawl down into the tunnel and straight into a damn cult gathering. Some weirdos chantin’ ‘round an ugly statue that just reeks of the abyss.
The objective clear, we rush in and get to killin’. Seein’ as I can barely stand on my feet from the poison, I decide to focus all my ability on putting my shield where it needs to be and creatin’ openings for the others to strike. Cultists go down pretty easy and Brynjar starts choppin’ down the demon statue. Seemed like a good plan until the thing started screechin’ bloody murder before a damn demon rips his way into the mortal world.
Trusting our instincts, we surround the thing and get to work. I focus on protecting the dwarf, who seems to have pissed off the hellspawn pretty bad, while tryin’ to create opportunities for Gwyn to land one of those big hits he made on the Sharkbear. Unfortunately, seems I overestimated him and he keeps screwing up. Some of the hits are slippin’ past my shield and Brynjar’s not lookin’ too good, so I decide to take things into my own hands. For a split second, I manage to focus my vision and thrust straight into the demon’s blackened heart. Not sure what happened after that, passed right out until next mornin’.
Turns out, the cultists had been sacrificin’ the inn’s guests and actual staff. Handlin’ that wasn’t part of the job, but for once that didn’t bother me much. I remember the lockpickin’ kit I loaned to Gwyn and demand it back. Sneaky bastard claims he forgot about it but I’ve got my eye on him. With that sorted, we grab the carts and set off on the road to Doetencham. ‘Fore long, we spot the place, and of course it’s on fire. Guess that’s what happens when you try to settle this far east.
We ride in, weapons ready, and find some adventurers holed up in a tower getting besieged by an army of skeletons. I notice an especially strong scent of undead comin’ from the graveyard next to us, so I get up to block the entrance and hold ‘em off. Svæin takes care of the archers while Gwyn picks off some others. Brynjar comes to fight shoulder to shoulder with me and I gotta say he’s a good one to have next to you.
With the undead taken care of, we head over to the tower for info. Local guildmaster, some wizard by name of Harold, tells us there’s some necromancer causin’ trouble in the area. No big surprise considering the damn army of unholy abominations we just took out. We get the supplies delivered and head inside to rest up.
Next mornin’ we get woken up by another attack, this time they brought a damn catapult. We get ready for another fight, but guild master tells us to get on the carts and go back to Arnheim for help. Not one to argue, I accept the new job and we bust through the siege line. Skeletons weren’t too happy ‘bout that, so the send a group of lancers to run us down.

Brynjar and Gwyn are on the rear cart and they get hit hard. For a second I think about leavin’ em there and focus on the mission, but coming back with half a team is bad for business. Svæin turns our cart around and we go back to help. Just when I thought I could make Phaedra proud by coming back from a mission with barely a scratch, one of the damn undead horses hooves me in the head. The bloody things give us some trouble, but in the end we mop em up. With the riders taken care off, we get back on the carts and haul ass back to the inn. We wait for the boat there and get back without further trouble.
So, turns out routine escort mission was not so routine after all. No matter, we did our job, had some good fightin’ and all came back in one piece to get paid. Was good being in a shieldwall with some sturdy fighters, sure beats takin’ all the hits alone.
Aveline, I’m not holdin’ out hope you’ll ever see this, but if you do, I want you to know I’m sorry for leavin’ you behind. Phaedra, the priestess I mentioned earlier, is teachin’ me some stuff about redemption. Not sure I can ever fix what I did, but I’ll damn well try.
your big bro, Gerolt

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Supply Caravan by Brynjar

To Einar
I hope you are still alive and can read this newspaper article.
At the noticeboard at the guild hall in Arnheim I saw a paper that said something about a missing supply cart and taking two supply carts to doetencham. It also said, that the ship was waiting at Dock 49 and that it was urgent. I hurried down to the dock and found a longboat, already set to sail. No need to mention that it was the boat that i needed to take. When I stepped on the boat there were already five People on board. The captain Hildred and her crew that included two other Shieldmaiden named Halla and Bothild. The other two were my fellow guild members Gerolt and Gwyn. After my arrival Svæin stepped on board and we were ready to set sail to the drop off point where we would go further by foot and carts.
Most of the trip was peaceful until Gwyn spotted two ships on the left side of us. He told our captain, which then signaled with a lantern to these ships. They signaled back to her and backed away. We still don't know what exactly was going on.
After this someone spotted a shark fin, coming too fast and too close to our ship. Before we could even react to this a Sharkbear lifted itself out if the water, ready to attack me but luckily it just hit my shield and the fight started. It wasn't easy but after some good hits from us the Shieldmaiden Halla gave the beat the final hit and it sank back into the water.
We then arrived at our drop off place and we managed to get one of the carts from the ship and after he scared a horse almost to death, Svæin lifted up the other cart and placed it on the ground in front of the ship.
On our search for a place where we could spend the night we found the White stag Inn but the gates from the outside gate were closed. Gerolt hopped easily over the fence and opened the gate from the inside , so we could walk in.
While Svæin took the horses to the stable we walked to the front door from the Inn, which was also locked. Gerolt banged against the door and after that the Inn keeper opened it, just to tell us that there was no room left anymore then another voice from inside the inn said to the inn keep let us in and then we finally entered the Inn.
They served us Ale and a Stew but before we could start with our meal, Svæin entered the Inn telling us that he found a stable boy murdered and that he secured a hatch. We were alarmed and rushed to the stable to investigate the scene and find evidence of who or what did it. Gwyn went up and opened the hatch and then fell down the ladder because something attacked him, so he told us later. Then Svæin climbed up the ladder and to face the ghoul on the roof. As soon as he had a chance to attack our opponent, Gerolt threw a dart at the creature but failed to hit it. After this, Svæin pushed the Ghoul off the roof and it fell on the ground, where Gwyn killed it with his rapier.
After the fight we went back inside and finally were able to finish our meal. The Inn keeper told us he had a common room for us because we killed the ghoul and this was his way to thank us for it.
While walking to our room I noticed that the carpet on the floor was ripped out and missing but didn't thought about it further.
Our room was small but enough for us. For some reason the locked up the room after we closed the door behind us and Gerolt instantly fell asleep. Gwyn and Svæin felt dizzy. I didn't felt anything. Things started to get really weird. Gwyn then tried to wake up Gerolt but was stopped by Svæin. Gerolt woke up but vomited all over the floor and soon we knew that they were poisoned.
Something bad was going in there so we decided to unlock the door and to check what exactly was going on. We went downstairs but all we found was the empty Inn. Gwyn looked into the kitchen and found an open trap door through which we went. It was the basement of the Inn filled with beer ale and wine. Beside this, Svæin spotted a stone that was different then the others on the ground. It had a red marking. He stood on it and jumped a few times up and down and finally the floor broke under him and revealed a hidden cave under the basement.
We went down and started to hear chanting from a room straight in front of us. We walked closer to it and found the ripped out carpet, which was rolled up around something which was of course dead bodies. Beside that we also saw six Cult Members which were standing in a circle around a strange looking stone. Gerolt explained that it had some kind of fiendish energy. We also saw prisoners, chained up on the side of the room. Gwyn tried to sneak in to free them, but was seen by one of the cult members.
We all rushed into the room and started to attack them. After I killed two of them, I attacked the stone until it cracked. Something from in the stone started to scream and fog out of it started to form itself. I didn't had time to watch it, because the fight was still going on and i turned around to attack another cult member. Svæin and Gwyn finished the leader and the last standing cult member off while Gerolt gave us protection with his shield. The leader was cut in half by Svæin and the cult member was stabbed by Gwyn's rapier.
After all the cult members were dead, the stone broke complete and a demon stood in front of us. The fight was hard and Gerolt blocked most of the blows from the demon some came through and hit me so I nearly got killed but before this could happen Gwyn came to me and healed me so i could keep going while Svæin and Gerolt tried to kill the demon Gwyn and i got a few swings at him before Gerolt killed the demon.
We saved the prisoners and found the real Inn keeper, which thanked us for our work. Then we stayed the night (free of charge) and I've got my full strength back.
On the next day we continued with our journey on the carts.

After we travelled half a day we arrived at Doetencham and we saw from far away something burning. As we came closer Gerolt started to sense undead. Svæin was the first one who actually saw our new enemy and rammed his cart into a skeleton that was standing in front of him after that he went in the house that was a cross the graveyard. After this Gerolt walked to the graveyard that was close and while I stopped the supply cart that I drove i spotted another skeleton behind the missing supply cart. I killed it quick and followed Gerolt to the graveyard, where soon also Gwyn came by and helped us to defeat the undead. Meanwhile Svæin fought his fight in the house. After Svæin finished in the house he came to our aid and killed a skeleton archer before he would get stuck on the graveyards iron fence when he tried to go over it. After he got free from the fence he crushed one of the skeletons to dust. Doetenchams guild hall also fought brave against the skeletons and started to clean the barricades up to get the horses safe.
After the last skeletons were killed we went to the guild master Harold and dropped off the rest of the supplies, got our reward and Gwyn and Gerolt helped the healer to cure the wounded. Then we slept a round.
We woke up to the sound of something hitting the tower and screams of people. We grabbed the horses and tried to get as fast as possible back to the Inn. As we looked back Gwyn noticed we were being followed by skeletons on… Skeleton horses.
Gwyn shot their leader and they came at us. After i tried to hit their leader I steered the cart towards the left and it stopped, missing the skeleton leader.
After a fierce battle we killed all the skeletons and their skeleton horses. Gwyn Svæin and Gerolt finished their enemies Quick. While i struggled to kill the skeleton horse. But in the end of this fight the team helped to finish the skeletons off. So we could return our way back to the White stag inn.
The way back to the Inn was peace full and we were greeted by the Innkeeper and stayed there to wait for our boat back to Arnheim.
The way back to Arnheim didn't involved any Sharkbear attacks.
Now you know that I do well and where I am right now. If you're still alive and read this you can send a letter to the guild hall in Arnheim
Sincerely, Your small brother Brynjar

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On the next issue:

Unrest in Wentel part 2