Bellie Stoutleg
Bellie Stoutleg (a.k.a. Groover)
Bellie Stoutleg, also known as Groover, is a Halfling Bard who partook in the failed Fellowship of the Gospel Era, and was present at the historic Conclave which elected Aligroil XI.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Fairly muscular
Facial Features
freckles
Apparel & Accessories
Simple light brown tunic with a black belt. backpack with a scroll case strapped to it.
Social
Contacts & Relations
Iymbryl Elwarin- an elven traveling bard who stayed with Bellie and her mother one day and developed a fond acquaintance with them during a several-week stay at the Yanville Monastery. He taught Bellie a little bit about Elven lore, how to play the Lyre, and before leaving gifted her with a pristine white pearl, her most valuable possession.
Family Ties
Mother: Yesvyre Stoutleg
Father: Unknown
Religious Views
Worships Halfling; Devotion to Elf
Wealth & Financial state
poor
A slightly brawny young halfling woman raised in a hermitage by her mother. She has a keen interest in music and derives spiritual delight creating experimental music with improvised instruments and her sweet voice. Bellie uses the nickname Groover.
View Character Profile
Alignment
Neutral Good
Age
18
Birthplace
A hermitage Southwest of the Yanville monastery
Children
Current Residence
Somewhere in Matten
Gender
Female
Eyes
brown
Hair
black, wavy
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
medium tan
Height
3'0"
Weight
25lbs
Aligned Organization
Other Affiliations
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A Voyage from Beyond Death
I awoke in a small cot, my weak and frail body just sentient enough to feel the now familiar rocking motion of a ship at sea. At first I couldn't move, only able to shift my gaze back and forth around the tiny wooden chamber in which I lay. Over a couple more days, complete numbness gave way to painful aches that surged through my my whole body, yet these were somehow assuring to me... a sign that I was still alive. Or rather, that I was alive once again.
I ....had.... died. The last thing I remembered was an arctic blast of ice and wind that completely overtook me as I tried to hide myself in a magically produced cloud of fog. We were... fighting. Torsten and I, and Wolfgar? But why were we fighting? Who were we fighting? Alec Ger. We saw him in a field hemmed in by a circular stone wall on most sides and a cliff drop-off into a rushing river on one side. But we didn't actually fight Alec Ger. That's right. He grabbed Wolfgar and disappeared with him, leaving Torsten and I to fight off three or four soldiers. And then a magic user came to join the fray... He must have been the source of that icy blast. I remember the soldiers all descending upon me...me doing my best to defend myself.... I put one of them to sleep.... but I remember feeling trapped in by these men with their swords, taking gashes out of my skin... and on the brink of death I summoned that cloud of fog as a final effort to survive.
But how did we get to the field?...That's right, we had been in the Forevale Priory. I had turned invisible and snuck into the Hoofenshatz Mall, while Wolfgar and Torsten pretended to be tourists interested in looking at some ancient texts. But I triggered an alarm when I tried to open a shining magical door in the furthest back section of that restricted treasure trove of artifacts. That was where there seemed to be the most promise of finding one of the evangelii, even though Dirge had failed to find one here. I managed to sneak out of that dungeon before they locked it up again, but at that point the entire Priory was placed on lockdown, and we were not allowed to leave while the break-in was being investigated. That is when that mysterious elf, the one who had delivered us Dirge's letter, came to us saying that he knew a way out, but it may be a trap. It seemed like he was earnestly trying to help us, but alas, it was a trap. That was where we stumbled into the portal that led us to the field where Alec Ger was waiting for us.
So no evangelus. No Wolfgar. Or Dirge. Or Mel. Just me and my pain. As I try to slowly regain my capacity for motion.
...And Torsten. The day that I regained consciousness he stepped into this little room to lean over me and talk to me. It was he who brought me back. Well, actually a powerful cleric in Ludde brought me back, with divine healing magic that I had no idea existed. But he had finished the fight against the mage and the last remaining soldiers, scooped up my completely frozen corpse, and carried it around the city of Emmaugh till he was able to find such a cleric. The magic worked, but took some time before taking its effect. So once again, he took my limp unconscious body and carried it all the way across the continent to Eastport, and made accommodations for me on this ship, which is now headed towards Down. I think it would make me laugh if it wasn't making me cry-- remembering all of those annoying little jokes about being my Da. He has truly cared for me like the father I never had. I am deeply grateful.
A few more days have passed on this ship, and most of the pain and achiness in my body has subsided. I can get out of bed and walk around, though I still feel week, perhaps mostly from all this inactivity over the course of almost two weeks. But now that this miraculous healing has nearly taken its full effect, Torsten approached me to talk seriously about what we may face as we head towards the Council where the new Archrector. We do in fact possess one of the evangelii! It is in the form of a long tube, of a similar size to a scroll case; though he warned me that touching it could be fatal, or lead to the same insanity that consumed some members of the past fellowship. He was able to locate it by following a lead Dirge had left him, again by letter, this time delivered by Helena. He found it at the estate of Steele of Emmaugh. Dirge reported that he himself had located another evangelus in Ludde, and that he would meet us at Down Cathedral. Yet, just two will not suffice to save the Blue Rose. We go to the council practically empty-handed, and with precious little time before the Rose's last petals fall.
Yet perhaps the eternal Rose will guide us somehow to find the other two.
Torsten reminded me of another important thing we overheard back at the Hoofenschatz. Prior Dannien expressed astonishment that the someone would try to break into the mall and tamper with the door, given that the evangelus had already been stolen. As far as we could tell, this could mean one of two things... Either Alec Ger anticipated our arrival and so hid or took the evangelus himself in advance, using Dirge's break-in as a scapegoat for its disappearance, OR Dirge himself had lied to us about failing to find the Evangelus. Torsten was highly suspicious of Dirge, and insisted we form a contingency plan to plant the final evangelus on my person while reporting to the rest of the group that Torsten had it, allowing me to go invisible and escape with it if it became necessary. I have to say, for my part I don't think Dirge would lie to us about not having found the evangelus. He lies about many things, and has behaved like a scoundrel in many ways, much to my distress, yet I'm convinced that he is completely committed to the success of our mission. If anything, it seems to me that it is his zeal for completing our task that has motivated some of the evils he has descended to and dragged us all into during this trip. That, and a fervent desire for self-preservation from death or imprisonment. And by the report of his letters, he has been trying harder to avoid these same evils as he continued on ahead of us. On the other hand, Alec Ger showed himself to be in opposition to our mission by kidnapping Wolfgar and sending soldiers to attack and kill us. It is amazing to reflect that I have come to trust a roguish thief's word over a vicar of the ecclesia, but this is what I've come to, through witnessing first hand the terrible corruption that seems to have taken over the souls of so many of the Ecclesia's highest ranking churchmen. Torsten does not seem fully convinced, and I am willing to be cautious with him if we succeed in meeting up with Dirge at Down, but I think if we have any hope at all of averting the great catastrophe of emerging planes or whatever doom comes to pass if the blue rose dies, it will be important for us all to work together.
Tomorrow we make port in Down. May the great Rose help us and reveal all that is still hidden!
Home
We spent the last three days trekking with the remaining 30 or so refugees back to the abbey, where I felt the monks would likely give them shelter and care for as long as they needed. Abbot Manfred was quite generous in taking them in. Mel received a letter at the abbey ordering him all the way back to shale with the knights of Elk, so we are now down to three. I was surprised both that he remembered me, and that once he did, he welcomed me into the abbey even to share a dinner and pray evening prayer with the monks. We talked with Abbot Manfred about our quest and learned a couple of details about the past of Vicar Alec Ger and Eldred of Sunda. Apparently Gur, whose been vicar here for 20 years, and Deher were classmates back in the seminary and Eldred was rector at the time. The Abbot also told us that Eldred was obsessed with the evangelii, and that his part in the quest changed him, drove him to insanity. Reminiscent of what Torsten heard from Urdick before he died... Yet the most helpful piece of information from the abbot is that we may be close to actually finding one of the evangelii; the third one is rumored to be at Forevale Priory, and the abbot hinted that perhaps it is hiding away amid the heavily guarded collections at Hoofenshatz Mall.
Even if we can get in, how will we know how to identify it?! (I could use the identify spell, but we would have to have a lot of time to cast it on many different items, and even then I only have a limited amount of magic capabilities...
After a monk named Franklin showed Wolfgar and Torsten to their quarters (and offered me sleeping quarters in the monastery as well!) I made the hour and a half walk through the forest to my dear home. I have been away from this place for nearly a month, and yet it feels like an eternity! How overjoyed I was to see my mother's face, to wrap myself once more in her arms. I cried through the whole night as I recounted our travels and the terrible misdeeds we have gotten mixed up in and even initiated ourselves. I bore my whole soul to her and spoke of the unbearable stain upon it left by the bloody violence of our journey so far. She has spent my whole lifetime in exile atoning for one sin, for one mistake, and doing so with such an admirable grace and virtue. Yet here I am in front of her, full of sin and ugliness-- having played a part in so many deaths, and now having helped trade with a bloodthirsty warlord who the very next day somehow destroyed an entire city. Did those crates have anything to do with what happened at Trader's Haven? Perhaps we'll never know. But I do know I was too afraid to check what was in those boxes, too afraid to know for sure the truth about the delivery we were making....I think I fell asleep in my mother's arms, my face soaked with tears. She kept saying to me, "The Rose can forgive all. You don't need to go any further. You can stay here with me."
Perhaps I will. Perhaps I'll live out the rest of my days in the same fasting and prayer that Mother has dedicated herself to for my entire life. But how can I ever make right before the Rose all the wrong we have done, all the evil we've been mixed up in, from Darren Calla's execution to Dolmition's murder to the needless loss of all those crew members that didn't survive the shipwreck we caused, and now to this decimation of an entire city by a villain we traded with. How can I ever hope to be forgiven? You chose the wrong Halfling for this quest, great Rose! I have nothing to give to it but evil, ugliness, and fear! I must go back to sleep again, and perhaps the best thing that could happen is for me never to wake up.
Terror in Matten
4/26/500
When we arrived in Matten, it became clear that the 'price' Torsten had negotiated for our passage was to escort a cart full of crates to a warlord named Giorvana. This had me nervous because the warlords of these desert lands have long been a source of great violence and destruction in the land, but we were assured that the contents of the four crates which we loaded onto the cart were nothing but illegal liquor. Still not something I felt too comfortable being a part of, given the great evils of drink, but by this point the agreement had been made and I felt it best not to protest. Why, oh why could we not have just pooled our resources for an honest payment for passage?! Yet again our group seems to have gone ahead and taken the initiative, choosing expedience over goodness and truth. And why did we not look and check to make sure that vodka was all it was??!! Nobody seemed to want to question our errand, and to be honest, I think on some level I too was afraid of what we might find.
And yet again this rashness and heedlessness on our parts has led to the death of many! This time, not only a crew full of sailors but an entire city. At least, that seems to be what all the signs point to. Just after we made this delivery to Giorvana's men, he managed to completely destroy Trader's Haven. The coincidence is too startling for me not to think there's a very good chance that our delivery provided them with whatever terrible magic or equipment allowed for that amount of destruction. Oh Rose! We are terrible sinners. Everything we try to do in your service seems to go wrong, and lead to terrible death and destruction!
When we heard and saw the explosion behind us, after having already travelled for several hours away from Trader's Haven, all of us except for Dirge felt compelled to go back to Trader's Haven and see if there were any survivors to be helped and rescued. One man whom I was trying to treat was nearly on the brink of death was the one who informed us that Giorvana was behind the attack, but he died in my arms before he could tell me any more of how it happened. I could not speak or think any longer about the responsibility we bore. I somehow managed to just shut down that part of my brain, and instead spent the rest of the night working tirelessly as many as I could help bring back to health, using my basic medicine training once I had run out of magical energy for curing.
The next day we scrounged up everything useful from the charred and burnt city we could find and took this group of displaced people (about 80 in all-- though we lost ten along the way) to the nearest settlement, a small but very insulated and guarded community to try to convince them to take them in for the night. After some negotiating with a halfling and then a man named Andelman who were rather harsh at first, they eventually agreed to accept 40 of the refugees though they insisted on picking which ones got to stay and which ones got to go. Following Torsten's lead (And here his nobility began to shine through) though, we for our part insisted that no families be separated. The only conditions on which they would make allowances for someone Andelman chose, were if I agreed to stay in the community as a minstrel. All of this was very strange and unreasonable, especially given that Andelman and the other guard were at first reluctant to take any of the refugees in. He said something else strange when I first followed Andelman into the city, once someone enters the city walls, they don't leave. It has me a little wary about the kind of rules these refugees must live under, but they need the shelter and food. And as harsh as they were in responding to our request, they seemed sincere in their intentions to care for the people they took in, as far as I was able to tell. Well, I agreed to there terms and while Andelman's selection of the 40 did end up separating some spouses, the spouses seemed willing to undergo the separation, I suppose in order that those invited could still be guaranteed safety for the night. I did not have to stay, though I was ready to make an escape the following day if I had been.
We camp tonight outside the city walls with the other 30 or so travellers, whom the people of this community provided with some rations to stretch us through the trek to the monastery, where I believe the remaining 30 people will be taken in, through the goodness of the Abbot there.
Homeward Bound
4/22/500
4/22-- 4 days of mostly uneventful travel have passed. I spent most of my time in the day practicing this new cittern, It is a way for me to momentarily escape my troubled conscience, to focus on something apart from the horrible things we've done and the terrible decisions that we might yet have to face. Yet each night I struggle to fall asleep. I spend somewhere close to an hour begging the Rose for forgiveness before eventually falling into an uncomfortable slumber in my hammock. One night I dreamt I was back on Dolmition's ship, again watching Wolfgar place his flaming hands on the wall holding in the captain and Dolmition's bound guards. I saw the same flames coming from his hands glowing in his eyes, and an insane laugh escape from his mouth before he turned his face to me with that same frenzied look on his face. I awoke in a cold sweat, terrified. And then even when the relief that it was only a dream slowed my racing heart down a bit, that relief was quickly replaced by the sickening dread of remembering that that moment did really happen in actuality. Wolfgar, his reverence, the one who I had come to know as the grumpy but kindhearted priest, used his divinely given magic to destroy humanoid lives in that way. I did not go back to sleep that night at all.
I think it was the next day or maybe the day before that dream that Elena, Dirge's owl came back. It lightened my heart to see her. I'm quite fond of that creature. She came back with a segment of the original monster-related documents that Dirge had sent off to his friend Boxer. I think we'll need to spend more time going through them in detail, but one bit of correspondence was mixed in there that no one had caught before... A letter from Vicar Alec Gur to Vicar Dolmitian Delfresco. It was hard to tell the context, but it said, 'it would not be well to succeed where Eldred failed,' and it also revealed he does not have much confidence in our mission of trying to find the four evangelii.
We expect to arrive in Matten sometime tomorrow. I'm excited to be back to my own homeland, though from Westport, we will have what may be a dangerous journey across the desert to get there. Great Rose, continue to protect us on our way!
Another Ship to Board
4/18/500
4/18-- Having already used up the only Invisibility spell that my cittern allows me to cast daily yesterday, we had to wait until I could get a good night's rest to put into action the plan to free Wolfgar from the Magistrate's. I concentrated on the spell from within the newly purchased magical storage bag while an invisible Dirge snuck into the Magistrate's office and searched for Wolfgar. He spent the better part of an hour searching but to no avail. After the failed mission we met Mel outside, and already speaking with Torsten. He brought shocking news that he had visited Urdick yesterday and spoken with him, and witnessed his sudden death caused by some dark demonic curse that seemed to destroy him from the inside as soon as he had shared a certain bit of information with Torsten. (Trying to remember what bit of information that was...) Before he could finish catching us up, who should hobble up to us, but Wolfgar! He had managed to be spared from a prison sentence, seemingly due to some of Torsten's political maneuverings. But even apart from that, news reached us that Frentish forces practically proudly took the blame for the sinking of Dolmition's ship, so as quickly as that, it seems that we need no longer live as fugitives of the law in this city. It is quite astounding to me that all of us managed to escape imprisonment and possibly life sentences in Northport; perhaps it is a sign that in spite of the evils we have committed, the Rose still desires for all of us to continue on this quest.
At any rate we spent the whole walk over to the docks trying to compare the information each of us received. I shared some of the more cryptic things spoken to me by the halfling woman in my vision yesterday. Torsten explained in more detail how his interaction with Urdick went. We almost considered staying longer in Northport, now that we are no longer wanted, in order to seek out and speak to Vicar Eldred of Sunda... he is after all the only remaining survivor from the original fellowship of Patten, now. We really have very little that we know to look for in Matten, only the hope that perhaps the Prior of Basley Forevale or other elders there may preserve some memory of the old fellowship's activities. However, both Torsten and Dirge already detest Eldred of Sunda, and wished to avoid an encounter with him. Given how our time aboard the ship of the last vicar who our party disliked turned out, I'm just as keen that we don't meet up with Vicar Eldred. Though I can't help but feel we may have missed an important opportunity to speak with one of the only people in the world who can help us on our quest. Eventually, amid much discussion, we arrived at the ship we are taking to Matten, apparently captained by a roguish relation of Torsten's. The sort of person that Dirge gets along just a little too well with, which was enough to make me nervous about this trip. I also found it curious that we weren't asked for any payment before boarding the ship. Not that I have a great deal of experience with these things, but at least that's not how it was done when I made my first journey from to this continent from my home. Rose, protect us on our journey! The seas are particularly dangerous at this time, as we hear that several defected vessels from the Frentish army are on the prowl for easy prey upon the water.
Scattered in Northport
4/17/500
The morning after sinking the vicar's ship, we made the rest of the journey to Northport on foot. It seemed that rumor of our involvement in the ship's destruction, and perhaps even in Dolmitian's death had reached authorities before us. Otis is most likely the reason for this, since he was the only one left alive who witnessed Dirge murdering the unconscious vicar; but it seems possible any of the sailors might have pieced things together as well. Still outside Northport, Dirge and I scouted ahead to try to figure out the safest way to enter the town (Dirge using magic to disguise himself as a woman and sweet talk a guard), We were stopped by a guard seemingly on the lookout for people of our basic description. Torsten fled the scene immediately, whereas they took in Wolfgar, but a little coin offered to the guard by Dirge (and then stolen back), was enough to persuade him not to take the rest of us in.
Quite suddenly, as I was watching the guard lead Wolfgar away and following behind at a distance, my mind was transported to this unusual place of peace. It was some kind of a vision, and almost seemed to come as an answer to my prayer from the previous night. Though I felt I was quite a while in that transported place, I snapped back to reality as though no time had passed.
In the afternoon, Mel, Dirge and I split up throughout the city with different errands planning to get back together at the cathedral to hatch a plan to break Wolfgar out of the magistrate's office. Mel stayed at the cathedral across from the magistrate's to have his leg healed (injured in the escape from the ship)... Dirge went to arrange sea travel for us in the morning to flee quickly from Northport, and I went to try to speak with Urdick at Dagwood Hospital. My errand proved fruitless, and more dangerous than I expected, since the instant I asked the Dagwood security guard about Urdick, he started to suspect me of his murder, as he had just been found dead not a quarter of an hour before my arrival! I was almost taken to a magistrate but managed to escape with the help of my cittern, using it for the first time to make myself invisible.
Dirge's errand had been more successful, by his report, and as it turned out, Torsten had already had the same idea and booked passage to Westport on the same ship. During that time, Mel managed to get his leg healed back to normal. When we got back together, we started to formulate a plan to try to get Wolfgar free from the magistrate's office, and Dirge and I went to a magic shop to purchase something to help with this plan... A little magic bag that can somehow hold a seemingly unlimited amount of objects, of just about any size. The shop took a lot longer to find than I expected--we did nearly two hours of walking there and back! I had no idea how large a city Northport is!...* In the morning, as soon as I can get a good night's rest, and use my invisibility again, we will try to get Wolfgar free.
Shipwrecked
4/16/500
Boarding Domition's ship and setting sail at the beginning of the day.
Offering to lift the crew's spirits with a musical performance below deck.
Cut the performance short when Dirge and I heard the clamor of fighting on upper deck...Two monstrous sea hags (thought to be mythical beasts) were boarding the ship. The party managed to fight them off successfully.
Went back downstairs to find the crew all cowering in fear, leaving the ship totally unmanned, and several surprises... A captain who had died of a heart attack; and Domition in his quarters drugged into a deep sleep by some cordial of poisonous gas left in his room. Thirdly and finally a set of detailed documents ousn Domition's table showing detailed diagrams and facts about monsters, that were long assumed to be the stuff of legend.
For my part I worked to encourage some of the crew to get back to work so that the ship wouldn't inadvertantly crash, and also tried to implore Dirge not to steal the monster documents... When he refused to listen, I used a song of Creation to create a counterfeit set, so that it would at least be a while before the vicar noticed they were missing. We stirred Domition awake, and he was evidently enraged about our allowing the crew up on deck to see the dead sea hags before we pushed them overboard. He demanded we dispose of the bodies immediately. Our party got into a little debate above deck about whether to defy his orders or not, but we decided to push them overboard, (or in Mel's case smash a body to smithereens and then sweep up the pieces)...
The crew above deck were still too petrified with fear to actually man the ship, and even the first mate downstairs-- who was not the default captain-- refused to go above deck, but he appointed me first mate (with all my years of sailing experience! Ha!) and left me to go upstairs and rile the men into action. After considerable effort and encouragement I managed to do so. I later gave some sailors a rest by performing some experimental poetry about my homeland for them, but this was a distraction and a cover for Wolfgar to hold a secret meeting with a fellow dwarf downstairs, who shared with him that he too thought Domition was a terribly evil person, that he believes our quest to find the Evangelii is impossible and the goal of saving the Blue rose unnecessary. In the meantime Dirge had been hiding out somewhere else below deck reading as much as he could out of the monster documents. At the end of it, he sent out his owl friend to take them to a place where they could be copied down and disseminated out to the world.
While discussing what to do with this new information, we heard the Vicar shout in anger about his missing documents from below deck. We all scrambled to come to a decision about how to respond to the crisis of the stolen documents. Dirge brought up the suggestion to assassinate the Vicar, but thankfully no one else in the party seemed willing to go this far (I was pleasantly surprised to find Torsten even resisting this path.) Instead we decided to be truthful about the fact that we found the documents, but to lie and say that realizing how dangerous they were we decided to tear up the documents and throw them overboard. Domition did not accept this explanation, and threatened to bring us all to justice. At this point I could see our whole group begin to get defensive ready for a fight. I tried desperately to calm the emotions of the vicar, and the captain with a spell, but as soon as I got the spell off I suddenly grew quite dizzy and I was out like a rock....
Shame of Heroism
4/15/500
King Ginlear brought in. More of his forces executed IN the cathedral. Ginlear will be the first sacrifice to the guidestone. Our group are celebrated as heroes, but I feel far from being a hero. If anything it seems like we've enabled the cruelty and brutality that the Downian rector here seems to have fallen into in this time of war. Vicar John Deher showed up at the Cathedral today as well, but I didn't talk to him, not yet. I'm worried maybe he too has the same violent and intolerant treatment of heretics and non-Downians as Vicar Dalmation. Tomorrow we will leave with the vicar on a barge to Northland (finally). But I want to be as far away from this terrible man as possible. Are the four evangelii really going to save the Blue Rose, or is our main mission too only helping corrupt men in the Church to respond to the violence and persecution Downians have suffered with a terrible vengeance?
Also, I picked up a new instrument--a Cittern-- as a reward for our work. I don't feel comfortable about accepting such rewards (and I feel I must get rid of the gold we were paid for our guidestone task), but it will be tremendously helpful in our mission to come.
The Cathedral in Wartime/Quest for the guidestone
4/14
4/14- Spent the day in the cathedral. It doesn't seem like prisoners are being treated well here, and I get the sense that Vicar Dalmation is actually quite ruthless in his attitude towards non-Downians and heretics. This makes me a little uneasy about working for him...
Night: Went back to Thieves' Passage and were transported underground, where we found the room containing the guidestone. Fought and captured Darren Calla, captain of King Ginlear's army (?)
We brought him back and he was brutally tarred and feathered and his body hung from the Cathedral. I couldn't watch.
Fighting our way through the City
4/13/500
Arrived safely at Cathedral of Down, with the aim of getting safe passage out of town under the Church's protection. Instead we received a mission from Vicar Dalmation to attain the 'guidestone.' We are spent after a day's fighting and will wait until tomorrow night to go.
An Afternoon in Shale/ Sudden Violence
4/12/500
Visit to the Cathedral with Torsten/ Check-in at the Dallyballow Inn
Riots and chaos break out as we hear that the Shalick government is ordering Downian Church are being put to death!
By a stroke of luck, Dirge was able to find us after the other three visited the palace, and found out about how endangered we all are. They all managed to get to the Inn safely. But getting out was not an option after that. I'm going to sleep very little tonight.
Lore
Ginlear Greathammer (the heretical ruler of Shale): Too tolerant of other faiths, an abuser of power, is raising an army for war with Accland, and even tried to invade once.
Dalmation Delfresco-- Vicar of Shallick East
There's about to be a new election for the position of Archrector of Down.
The Road Back to Shale
Spent the full day travelling overland, through the Forfitall Forest (?).
Encounter a couple of backwoods bandits caught Torsten in a trap in a clearing just before the river and then started fighting the rest of us. Our group took them down but, twice we needed to revive Mel with healing magic, as they brought him precariously close to death. People are very ruthless here in Mares, it seems. On the other side of the river I fell in a similar trap, and another bandit came to attack us. He too was dispatched by the rest of the team.
Made it across the river by some boards that had been set up (since the bridge had been destroyed). We were trying to move pretty quickly because we could hear a small military outfit marching behind us going in the same direction, seemingly Shallick soldiers. Dirge scouted back and found that they made camp on the other side of the river.
Arrival in Accland
4/10/500
4/10- Arrival in Accland
As I entered town, I started to hear news from people about war on the horizon--ships from Stratis Empire ambushing Downian ships, and an invasion on this very continent, I believe it was Boleclaw, coming from Frent.
As for my quest, Lodgings prepared for me at the Red Feather Inn, where I met the other four people selected for the job: Mel, Dirge, Wolfgar and Torsten. We were barely getting through introductions when a man introducing himself as Spot came to take us to John Deher. Spot disappeared immediately after leaving the room where we were gathered
Encounter 8 or so guards, looking rather aggressive. To my shock, Torsten and then all the others started shooting and swinging at them, killing many of them, before we even got the chance to find out what they were doing or what they wanted at the Red Feather. When asked why they were menacing us, another said, 'Cause we heard you've got money' or something to that effect. So our group kept fighting them, meanwhile they were throwing swords at us and trying to beat up on Mel, the knightly fellow in the group. Wolfgar discovered Spot in the corner and shook him awake after all but one of the guards were killed (the other was merely knocked unconscious), and then Spot suddenly pulls out a dagger to attack him. Apparently he was an imposter. Most likely the guards were too, and all of them in cahoots.
Two other ominous details-- I could smell death in rooms near to mine on the second floor when I went up to gather my things, preparing to leave from the Inn.
A conversation overheard in another room b/tw the Vicar Kalleny and another deep mysterious voice, who was talking about making the gods fall, and then struck the vicar with a deadly blow before escaping. None of our group gave pursuit but instead waited to report to the guards about this.
I stayed with Mel at the inn, waiting to question the unconscious 'guard, while meanwhile the other three went to Holden College to try to find John Deher. Once Mel and I were able to inform the real guards about what had happened (with, I admit, a little bit of twisting the truth to not make Torsten seem so bloodthirsty), we went to find the others at Holden College. Eventually we were all taken to see Vicar John Deher, who sent us on the quest to find the 4 Evangelii. We were told this was an important mission because its the only way to save the Blue Rose. A similar quest had been undertaken about a century earlier but had failed apparently. Our next move is to find Urdick in Northport- one of the original questers, and the only dwarf to have set foot on the continent of Jogn. We're also told that Eldreck the Vicar of Lakeland and Warr, will be an important contact.
We received 200 gold to aid us on our mission, with which we bought a donkey and some other things (I got some improved armor, since it looks like this mission may be far more dangerous than I was anticipating!) We would set out the next day.
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