Moraina's Travel Log
Day 1
The elders chose me to go with a bunch of sunlighters and escort them to Khazefryn. Trying to see why any normal dwarf would want to visit such a place is like trying to find gold in a lump of limestone. There were thirteen of them which will make for some hard marching. I am sure that the weak footed elf in the group will need to be carried before too long. Then there is that freak of an Orc who can't seem to be quiet. I bet her and the two Elves are best friends from some stupid battle they fought together. It must be the sun beating down on their heads all the time that causes them to be so strange. The group does have the good sense to have one dwarf with them, even if he is acting very strange too.
There are two human females that seem to understand this is not an easy time coming up for them. The way the others act you would think they are going to face something easy like a bunch of giants. Those two women can feel something else is going on here. One of them even speaks dwarven with a decent accent. She must like dwarves fairly well. The other carries a decent mace, so she must have some skills in combat.
Then we started off on the trip and I understood more about why these people need guides. They have some pet of some kind that flys around sniffing things like a trained rock mole. As if anyone couldn't smell the stench from a Trog's camp three caverns over.
The female in charge it turns out has a name Kylia Wolfslayer. Seems she is some sort of Ruler in a distant land. It can't be that important if it is above ground. This Kylia insisted in talking with the drow captive we are taking with us to Khazefryn, some thief who calls herself Xulltyrr. It seems that the little thief is more willing to talk when presented with a human female in charge. At least everyone seems to understand that the first chance either side gets they will kill the other one.
Then the clattering sunlighters disturbed a nest of piercers with all their racket. Poor Bofgur got caught up in the hailstorm, but I healed him up after wards. I told him that we had to expect such things, people from above ground just are not that smart.
When we reached the Sauna Bridge I did have to admit that the magic their group used made it quicker to get across. Old Ovkulik missed the heat on his joints I am sure but saving that time allowed us to get to the way point cavern in plenty of time before any dirty Svirfneblin got there first. After we climb the Staircase things will go faster with the trip all downslope.
Day 2
The day started out ok, but then we got a bit of a jolt when a gigantic purple worm jumped out of a crevasse and nearly ate Naola. The group of sunlighters did a good job of saving him and driving off the worm. The group felt more like a team as we were trying to find our way through the maze of caverns. Moving along we came upon an old battle field, and then found some scavengers that were taking advantage of the bounty. As we attempted to sneak by one of them decided that our prisoner looked especially tasty. She did not suffer badly, unfortunately, but her manacles were dissolved. We took a different path to avoid the rest of the pod.
Reaching the Staircase we came upon a nasty surprise. The entire stonework was in ruins, collapsed into a heap of rubble. We started to organize ourselves to rebuild something that would be serviceable, planning on trying to finish the task in only a week. It would be pitiful work in that little amount of time but we did have a journey to complete. Then the sunlighters came up with a plan that actually worked. When it was all finished the new stairs very roomy and with some work will do nicely.
We came out on the upper slopes and were starting our way out of the maze when we heard some sounds. When we stopped to get a better feel for where they were coming from a swarm of centipedes carpeted the ground and flowed through our group. Three of the sunlighters succomed to their poison right way and that weak useless prisoner. One of the other sunlighters quickly saved one of the females, the one with the mace. Good sense to save someone who knows how to use a good weapon.
Then the drums started and we got ready for battle. It was over much faster than I had thought it should be. It turns out that the sunlighter dwarf knows how to use his weapons after all. The goblins tried a standard sneak attack that we were prepared for, but he was able to defeat that group single-handedly. The main attack force was a cover for an eye tyrant and a decoy, which did present more problems. The elf archer thought that shooting would be the answer, but did not look first. He exploded a gas spore over the crowd of goblins, creating dozens of walking spore homes instead of only one floating one. Then when the eye tyrant unleashed its anti-magic upon our group everyone seemed paralyzed. The goblins were able to fight their way into our midst, and the eye tyrant withstood the elf's arrows as we all expected it to do. All he did was infuriate it to use its more dangerous eye attacks on us.
Finally someone in the group had some common sense and created a fire that burned out the infected walking spore goblins. The eye tyrant went down from a well placed dagger, and then a quick blast finished off the rest of the goblin swarm.
Cleaning up I saw the strange nature human picking up the prisoner still stiff from her centipede poisoning. Maybe he thinks carrying her like that will be easier than just helping her out like they did with their comrades. Who understands what these sunlighters really are thinking.
We pushed on to reach the scree slope before resting for sleep, knowing that getting past that barrier would mean we were over one third of the way to our destination. We made it down the slope in mostly one piece. For some reason one of the humans chose to slide down without a shield and failed to miss the wall. There were no other problems before we were able to take a rest break.
Day 3
We were met by an odd dwarf when we were starting off. The human who gets along best with dwarves went forward to talk with him, and apparently had a disagreement on which path we should take. It was an interesting choice the sunlighters made. We went the way we were asked not to go, which only caused a short delay for us. There was much grumbling about rocks falling but that happens everywhere I don't know why they should be so surprised. As we made our way through several passages I have to admit they seem adept as dispatching the huge worms that are everywhere in this area. Perhaps we should try and capture one the next time.
I must admit that the tremendous winds that they summoned swept all the flying things from the air for quite a while, I wonder if that can be harnessed when we reach the starless lake.
Day 4
We made it to the Single Bridge late in the day's travel. The sunlighters seem to suddenly be asking questions and trying to learn. The orc that is friends with the elves went first across the bridge and got snared up in some sort of web. Then the bug did more magical stuff again to try and free her. After a few moments it was able to break her free. But he sent her out into the webs more rather than bring her back to the rest of the group. Then suddenly she disappeared and the bug disappeared to go after her. Now we need to figure out how to deal with this crossing and if we should or if we should wait.
Eventually we made it past the bridge and only lost the sunlighter orc, and luckily we did not have any encounters in the caverns after wards. We moved fast to try and avoid notice and is seemed to work. I guess even the Drow forget to set an ambush once in a while.
Day 5
Then we made it to the shores of Starless Lake and more chaos ensued. We were properly spaced out in the boats, following along the cavern wall. One boat got off course but the flying bug solved that. Then apparently everyone forgot the rule the dockmaster told us about. We got to the next river and when the Monster from the Deep appeared no one did what they were told. Even the Drow prisoner understood what to do and ended up saving at least one of the sunlighters. We lost Krun and Loptk to the lake but the rest of us all made it out alive.
The short journey to Khazefryn was accomplished, and now we wait outside the gates. Naola will go in with the dwarf friend sunlighter to exchange the prisoner and I hope to see them both return with our comrades soon.
Well that was interesting. The entire group comes back from Khazefryn and then in a big meeting of the leaders all the sunlighters called on some sort of magic and they all disappeared. Naola said they might see us again in Morten someday. Shrugs, not sure if that is a good thing or not.
<< thus ends Moraina's travel log with the Dragonslayers.... for now >>
