Aporeu chronicles Issue 6: Treasury

Stories from the adventurers

This week

Short introduction

Treasury

I find myself going back to the portal after a message was put up in the guild, where eventually an odd group of fellows gathered to join this quest. A silent person who introduces himself as Azar, that I find hard to read, Gwyn, A man hidden behind a cloak, with an insatiable greed, Cor’Torin an orange elven person, he seems to be quiet most of the time though. And a little guy hiding away in his cloak, but with ears pointing out. He introduces himself as Qah’lir, or Q for short. He’s a kobold, and I’m not sure how I feel about some little beast joining us, but we’ll see. Q is the one who takes the return code without any hesitation from the guild member who has debriefed us.

We enter a forest after stepping through the portal, which is located near a small village of some sorts. I just indulge in taking the surroundings in. Cor’Torin points out a tavern named “Woodlands best tavern”. Apparently this area is called “wood lands” and the owner could get a lesson in creative writing. He also mentions he heard several different people talking about stuff going missing. With this in mind, we enter the tavern and are greeted by a middle aged blond man. While enjoying the, I must say, excellent ale, I noticed a red blur of figures quickly passing by, followed by a tug and a pull, before they vanish quickly through the front door. My fellow companions, must have missed it as I alert them to what just happened. An item held dearest to each of us has gone missing, including the return code, and has been replaced with a note. “Dear client, people tend to lose their belongings all the time, don’t worry, as I will keep it safe. We will secure and guard your possessions, until you are in need of them. Signed ~Malrot. The barkeeper explains to Gwyn this has been happening more often recently, and we recall the stories we’d had heard on the streets. Apparently Malrot has a grotto near the hills, where his vault is. Previous undertakings of retrieving their possessions have failed, as their seem to be a unreliable number of guards, ranging from just a mere 2 to 100. We conclude this should be our first target.
We arrive in a small valley where we find indeed an entrance into the grotto, but closed by some portcullis and a sign saying “Malrot’s safe keeping Enterprise”. 2 goblin guards are spotted by us as we near closer, standing slightly in the overgrowth at both flanks of the entrance. I’d try to peacefully negotiate our entrance, but they seem reluctant and wont share any other information except that Malrot is very busy. Battle ensues, as Q can’t hold his nerves, and accidentally shoots one of the goblins between the eyes. unfortunately these 2, dull-witted, but friendly goblins were slain. I drag them off, and hide their bodies in the overgrowth, and while doing so I stumble across a key and a hidden wild path leading behind the grotto. Kelemvor must be guiding me, as this wild path was nigh impossible to find. In the meanwhile Q has found a way to open the gate, but we asses it may be safer to explore the outer region first, closing the gate again with the obtained key. We stealthily, or some of us try to, move up the wild path. We find a closed booth hewn into the rock with a sign “with opening hours of 11pm – 1am. Those are some strange opening hours, it seems to me that this Malrot is not keen on actually doing his business in a equitable manner. Gwyn, slams onto the shutters “anyone there?”, A voice speaks from the other side, slightly muffled “we are closed, go away”.

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Merlot seems to be a busy man indeed, but we convince him we are here because we are in dire need of his services, we have valuables. He allows us to enter at the back where we were before. A bronze wyrmling opens the gate, and welcomes us. As he shows us the way into his “enterprise” he explains his business here. I find myself thinking that this wyrmling, may actually have good intentions. But his actions have caused misunderstanding with the villagers. To asses if his company is worthy for storing our valuables, we are allowed to explore his enterprise, and test his security systems. Any other guards present have been ordered to allow our passage. For the safety of his enterprise, I will not indulge into the specifics of his security system, but I must say we found ourselves confronted with 2 undead skeletons. With Kelemvor on my side I immediately called forth the denial of their existence as they scurried away into the darkness. If I wasn’t on a more urgent mission of retrieving our items, I would’ve chased them down and made sure they’d stay dead. I still get shivers when I recall these blasphemous beings. Eventually we find the door to Malrot’s vault, and to our surprise, Malrot is within this room. With the knowledge we gained from exploring his security system, we gave him some pointers and tips to improve his security system, and we respectfully decline his services for now. We mentioned things like adjusting his opening hours to be more accessible for daylight dwelling humanoids. Which in this matter would be his prime objective. Malrot was happy with what we did for him, as he seemed to be totally oblivious to the chaos and distress he caused with the villagers. We were rewarded accordingly, and I managed to also obtain some silver, which as reported by Malrot were taken from the mining company, which they never reclaimed. We eventually head back, but not before I place back the key that I found at the entrance. In town my companions took the news of this huge misunderstanding to the tavern. Word should spread through town, and peace should return to this town. I, quickly give the mining expedition a visit, and manage to speak to one of the people in charge, Elsar. I hand him over 1 of the silver ingots, and explain the situation we have been, but I must confess I have lied to Elsar, but with good intentions. He believes now that the silver returned, was an act of forgiveness and good will from Merlot. Hopefully, this little lie will help them establish a better business relationship in the near future.

Under the enjoyment of some ale, paid by the respectful Cor’Torin, we indulged in some laughter, small talks, and some small jokes directed to Q, who, to my surprise is a kobold with good intentions. I find myself quite fond of this little fella.

Signed ~ Custous Vita, Servant of Kelemvor.

On the next issue:

Curse of the unfathomable