(G334 18/11/2017 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ) WA16

(G334 18/11/2017 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ) WA16

DAY 305 (7th Hammer)(January) cont ...

Arahel (in the form of a will-o-the-wisp), Fenrir and Veddic entered the portal and found themselves standing in a room made from carved stone.
Now, of course, if I had been there I would have taken the time to examine the stonework, determine who carved it and when, was it the yuan-ti or someone before them? Could any meaning be determine from anything etched onto the walls?

Their attention was not drawn in that direction though, their curiosity was focused on the only door in the room. The door was made of strong wood, bound in iron. They were not interested in its construction though, only what was on the other side of it.

It lead into what can certainly be described as a dungeon. Not the type that is a prison, but a properly large network of corridors and rooms that are often built by crazed wizards or other types of weirdo.

The corridor bent round to where some darkmantles were roosting. For some reason they did not want to attack the party and they simply flapped away down side corridors.

They tried the first door they came to, but it triggered a trap which caused a cave in. All of them were injured by falling stones, but no one was killed. None of them were any good at searching for traps.

The door lead to a large room which was empty apart from some writing on the wall that read:

''
The Order of the Emerald Falcon killed a hydra here" on the north wall.
''

They continued on their way, down more corridors and through more empty rooms until the came to a T-junction where they were attacked by two ettercaps. One of the monsters tripped a trap though and fell down a 100ft pit. The other one was easily killed by the party and then Fenrir dumped its body down the pit as well.

He then realised that they might have had treasure so flew down the pit to take a look. They monsters didn't but there was other loot down there, including a fine set of plate armour (with a skeleton inside it). He took the gold and left the armour for now.

As they continued deeper into the dungeon they realised the monsters were no huge threat, but the traps were. Without a rogue they had no real defence against them. They accidently triggered a spear trap at the next door that hurled dozens of spears everywhere. They were all hit by several.

The next room they came to was small and completely filled by a black pudding. These creatures can be dangerous, they had battled one before under the Devil's Brew Tavern, and it nearly got a hold of Fenrir when he got too close to the door. Once he had got out the way though Arahel was able to zap it to death with her lightning.
The black pudding, much as it lashed and thrashed about, could not get a hold of her.

Down the corridor, in a room on their left, they met a large animated suit of armour. It was a shield guardian which had the ability to cast Fire Shield on itself. Fenrir and Veddic kept their distance, but Arahel needed to get close to use her lightning which meant that she got burnt each time she attacked.
Again though, their foe struck at the will-o-the-wisp and only hit her once in the entire battle.
With the lightning and Fenrir's eldritch blasts, the thing was destroyed in less than a minute.

They were tired from all the fighting and getting caught in every trap they blundered into though and decided this would be a good place to rest for a while.

Before they did so Veddic requested that Fenrir drag all the corpses up from the pit he could find and dump them in the black pudding room. Veddic wanted to raise some dead.
Fenrir obeyed the order without question.

(G333 4/11/2017 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ) WA15

(G333 4/11/2017 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ) WA15

DAY 303 (6th Hammer)(January) cont...

Roztov here again reader! You may remember Fenrir, Arahel and Veddic were taking on a squad of Night Masks. Well, from what I can gather there never was a chap book revealing what the motivation of the Gruesome Giant was, not that I've located so far anyway.

In any event, on this night, the Night Mask attack had been broken and the remaining rogues and the other warehouse guards slinked back into the night.

Once the coast was clear the six men that had been sent by Nebulus to take all the warehouse goods away managed to catch one of the runaway horse and carts, then they sped off back to Westgate as quickly as they could.

With no other reason to stick around, Arahel turned into a giant owl, and with Veddic on her back she joined Fenrir in flying back to their cottage.

They were tired and went straight to bed. A couple of hours later, at around three in the morning they were all startled awake by something crashing through the roof.

Now, follow me here readers, and see if you can guess what was happening based on these facts.

1. Fenrir and Co had recently raided Castle Cormaeril.
2. Fenrir, when captured, had told Lord Cormaeril their address.
3. The Cottage is roughly six hundred yards from the Castle.
4. The Castle had several very visible and pretty large bolt-throwers mounted on its battlements.

Can you now guess what had just knocked half the slates off their roof?

More fell, not always hitting the house, but those that did penetrated the slates and continued down right into the rooms. One of the thumped into the bed beside Fenrir, narrowly missing him.

Wisely they all headed downstairs. Veddic started putting on his armour, with the aide of Groza.
As more bolts landed in the lane outside they could see that some of them were aflame and that smoke was coming from inside. Fenrir and Arahel went back in and managed to put out the fires, but after a while it seemed futile. They did not fancy taking on the castle, so they simply packed up all their belongings and after a short discussion they decided to fly to Ferbone.

An hour later they knocked on the door of the Dead Badger and woke up the landlord. He arranged them a small apartment in the inn and they slumped back down into their beds, weary and extremely annoyed.

In the morning they went to see Weynay in her shrine.
'What brings you back to Ferbone?' she asked.
'Our inability to gauge the range of ballista,' muttered Veddic.
'We are hiding!' declared Arahel.
'It's not fair!' said Fenrir. 'All we did was raid them, kill some of their guards, leave a big hole
in the side of the castle and release a demon inside! Some people are so touchy.'

She was a friend of theirs, so she presumably bit her tongue on any sarcastic thoughts that may have entered into her head.

That night they got drunk at the inn.

DAY 304 (6th Hammer)(January)

Fenrir and Arahel did not report for duty with the Day Air Watch that morning. They took a look at the cottage though. It was a smoking ruin.

They spent the rest of the day sulking in the Dead Badger back in Ferbone.

DAY 305 (7th Hammer)(January)

They were all set for another day sulking in the pub, when Weynay came to them with some information to cheer them up. She knew of an ancient tree ent that had long since taken root in the forest south of the bridge.
It would occasionally give out treasure to people, or so it was said. They thanked her and decided to take a look.

Following her directions, and with Arahel using her tracking skills, they found the ent in a clearing beside a waterfall.

Arahel did the talking and it appeared that the ent would tell them of the location of some treasure in return for answering riddles.

The first was:

When you went into the woods you got me.
You hated me yet you wanted to find me.
You went home with me cause you couldn’t find me
What was it?

The answer was:

A splinter

They didn't get it.

The second riddle was:

The one who makes it, sells it.
The one who buys it, never uses it.
The one that uses it never knows that he’s using it.
What is it?

The answer was:

A coffin

They didn't get that one either.
In the end they got this one right:

It cannot be seen, it weighs nothing, but when put into a barrel,
it makes it lighter. What is it?

The answer was:

A hole


The end then said:

''
Hum, hum, hum...

Follow the narrowest trail to the largest lake,
What shines in the middle is the thing you should take,
Down in the depths, guarded by scale, gill and fin,
Courage and strength together riches will bring.
''

Above the waterfall was a large pool with water so clear that they could see a golden chest at the bottom of it.
They could also see some aggressive looking fish.

Arahel jumped in and turned into an aboleth and made short work of them though.

The chest contained a reasonable amount of treasure and was valuable in itself.

After this, they decided to get back into the swing of things by taking all the loot they had gathered recently into Westgate to sell. They went in disguise.
Among other things Fenrir purchased a bag of holding.

Later in the afternoon they flew out to the '100 islands', a cluster of small islands five miles north of Westgate.
This was a region used by smugglers and low level pirates. The water was shallow and full of hidden rocks so was dangerous to ships any bigger than a rowing boat. It was also where the Night Parade had told them that the portal they knew of was located.

The island they were looking for was a finger of rock that jutted out of the sea by about ninety feet. There were some ruins on it, and on landing they went to investigate the largest of them.

They were attacked by wraiths and a spectre, but Veddic was powerful enough to send them packing. The portal they were looking for (a glowing red circle on the cobbled floor) was in the ruins and while the others perished one  of the wraiths made it through.
Not before it was zapped a few times by Arahel who had turned into a will-o-the-wisp.

They explored the rest of the island but it was no more than a 150 feet or so across. The other buildings looked like sheilings, temporary shelters that had been built by persons unknown long ago.

As the island offered no more threat or excitement they decided to enter the portal.

(G332 28/10/2017 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM)) 60

(G332 28/10/2017 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM)) 60

DAY 150 (tue) cont...

The crew of the Cacophony were delighted to see their errant captain, but informed him that Voyager had gone on without them, to follow up information they had heard about a planet called Sikaris.

Without any more waiting about Kirk ordered the Caco to follow Voyager at a steady Warp 7 or so.
This would average them about 1.5 Light Years a day.

DAY 151 (wed)

Caco does 1.5 LY

A base on a rocky asteroid was located with scanners. Kirk logged it and maintained course.

DAY 152 (thu)

Caco does 1.5 LY

DAY 153 (fri)

Caco does 1.5 LY

DAY 154 (sat)

Caco does 1.5 LY

DAY 155 (sun)

Caco does 1.5 LY

DAY 156 (mon)

Caco does 1.5 LY

DAY 157 (tue)

Caco does 1.5 LY

Today Crewman Dell reported that some of the ships systems needed more attention. Kirk helped out as best he could.

He was also working on his Repair Bot every day, as much as he could. His plan was to adapt it to the Caco's systems so that it would take much of the load from Dell.

DAY 158 (wed)

Caco does 1.5 LY

DAY 159 (thu)

Caco does 0.5 LY

About halfway through the day of travel the Caco encountered a mixed Talaxian/Occampan merchant vessel.
They established comms then drew alongside so the ships purser could come on board.

He was a friendly chap and willing to trade. Kirk purchased three more sensors which were also fitted as part of the price. He also filled the ships water tanks - a total of 826 gallons.

DAY 160 (fri)

Caco does 1.5 LY

The main deflector went off line and Kirk repaired it.

Meanwhile Voyager had arrived at Sikaris.

DAY 161 (sat)

Caco does 1.5 LY

Kirk completed work on the Repair Bot. He then set it into action. It still required a few tweeks in its programming but in general it appeared to function very well.

DAY 162 (sun)

Caco does 1.5 LY

DAY 163 (mon)

Caco does 1.5 LY

DAY 164 (tue)

Caco does 1.5 LY

Crewman Sandra "Crasher" Paterson fell down the stairs and dislocated her shoulder.
Crewman Murphy fixed her up in sickbay.

DAY 165 (wed)

Caco does 1.5 LY

The main communications went down for a few hours today. Kirk and the Repair Bot fixed it.

DAY 166 (thu)

Caco does 1.5 LY

DAY 167 (fri)

Caco does 1.5 LY

Today they found an errant cargo pod and took it on board. It contained various possibly useful items.

DAY 168 (sat)

Caco does 1.5 LY

DAY 169 (sun)

Caco does 1.5 LY

DAY 170 (mon)

Caco does 1.5 LY

DAY 171 (tue)

Caco does 1.5 LY

Today the Caco arrived at Sikaris
 
Voyager had already been their 11 days. The crew were enjoying some well earned shore leave.

(G330 07/10/2017 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM)) 59

(G330 07/10/2017 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM)) 59


DAY 149 (mon)

Kirk awoke at 4 am and lay for a while, trying to come up with another plan. He had his comms badge still and for that he was thankful. He realised this was the only thing that could help him escape.

With the lights dimmed and hiding under the bed covers he interfaced with the badge to redesign all his intrusion programs into the Vhnori police systems.

By about 8 am he was done and got some rest.

At 4pm he was awake again and ready to have another go at escaping. He watched the security cameras and waited for the stairs and the area outside his cell to be clear. As he waited he made further modifications to the programs to make all police comms die when he made his escape.

At around 9pm all was clear and he went for it. At the top of the stairs he was spotted by some guards  unfortunately, but he was able to lock down the stairwell doors to hold them back. He made it all the way down to the ground floor.

Looking through the door window at the bottom of the stairs he could see a large foyer with about ten cops and a couple of dozen people milling around and waiting in queues.
Using his comms badge he triggered the 'Fire Alarm Cascade' and the foyer began to clear.

He could hear banging from upstairs, the guards were trying to break down the doors. Kirk was in a hurry to get out, but he could see that a few of the police had not left the foyer. They appeared to be confused as to why their radios were not working.
Kirk routed a message through the tannoy;
'There is a bomb threat! This is not a drill! All guards to muster points!'
He looked again, the guards had not gone out, but they did notice him and came to the door.
Kirk hid under the stairs, then used his comms badge to unlock all the doors on the landings.
This had the beneficial effect of releasing all the people trapped upstairs, who then came down the stairs in a confused flood. Kirk made it outside hidden in the hub-bub.
He then locked the main glass doors, opened all the cell doors and reactivated all the radios.

The confusion this caused was enough to get him clear of the police headquarters. He then put in a call to 'RenegadeX' and arranged a pick up.

RenegadeX was an intelligent but weak looking Vhnori. There was a female in the car and another male who was doing the driving. As they drove away all three asked Kirk many breathless questions about the afterlife and the Next Emanation.
Kirk wasn't really in the mood for theology so told them that they were most likely just people called "NPCs" in an "RPG" played by two middle-aged Scotsmen.
Whatever they were expecting, it wasn't that, but regardless of this they took Kirk to their hideout, a 'terraced' mansion in the suburbs of the city.
Kirk was very glad to get a shower, change out of his prison clothes and eat something other than  prison food.

He asked for some tools and other gear to build a 'Sub Space Gubbins Box' which he said would be able to communicate back from the Next Emanation. He knew very well it wouldn't work, but counted on the fact that they would not know that.
Even if it was bunkum it took him hours to make and he went to bed after he'd finished. The Vhnori were on a much longer day night cycle though and remained awake.

DAY 150 (tue)

The Vhnori, unsure of how humans bodies worked woke Kirk up at what his comms badge told him was 3 am on a Tuesday morning.

After breakfast he realised that if he was to survive on the other side, the "Next Emanation", he would need an environment suit as he'd most likely arrive in a vacuum or a deadly atmosphere.

The Vhnori civilisation was not advanced enough though and while some second-hand spacesuits could be purchased they would be non-functional. He opted for arctic gear, a full face mask and oxygen tanks, and hoped that this would be enough. It was all paid for by a hacked bank account.

He then asked RenegadeX and his girlfriend to take him to the safest option for a 'coffin' and they reckoned on a temple in a village out in the countryside.

When they arrived at the village Kirk simply and boldly walked right in to the temple carrying all his gear.
There were a few people about and the verger said for Kirk to wait while he consulted the Thanatologist.

Kirk waited for ten minutes, then grew impatient and burst through into the next chamber. The Thanatologist was on a communicator (and it didn't occur to Kirk why that might be!) and seemed nervous when he entered.
'Come on and do this ceremony so I can get out of here!' demanded Kirk.
'I'm in the middle of one now!' returned the Thanatologist.'You'll have to wait!'

A minute later, of course, the local police arrived. The Thanatologist had been on the communicator to them to report an alien acting very strangely and when asked by the police to describe said alien it matched the description of the one that had just escaped from jail in the city.

Initially Kirk tried to talk his way out of the situation, but in the end his frustration and desire to get back again won through and he started shooting with the 9mm RenegadeX had given him.

The cops, out gunned by one of the best marksmen in the Delta Quadrant, made a run for it and with the doors locked and the Thanatologist and verger as hostages he forced them at gun point to take him through to the 'coffin' chamber and dispatch him. Anxious to get rid of him they did it as quickly as they could!

He arrived on an asteroid. Luckily there was some atmosphere trapped inside it, otherwise his oxygen mask would have probably exploded off his head. It was toxic though, so the oxygen came in handy, and the arctic gear kept him alive long enough for the Cacophony to detect him and come get him.

He'd been on the Vhnori planet for eight days, and his crew had not deserted him.

(G331 21/10/2017 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ) WA14

(G331 21/10/2017 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ) WA14

DAY 303 (6th Hammer)(January)

[Hail dear reader! Roztov here. Just to write a note at the front of this next entry. I recently came across this West gate chapbook that describes what happened next in good detail. You may recall that Arahel, Fenrir and Veddic were clearing a warehouse of denizens on behalf of Nebulous the Rascal.]

''
Mythes, Escapades, Monstyrs And Strange Goyngs On in Westgate and Envyrons

by

Modrick Templeman

Greetings readers, to this, the 36th edition of "Mythes"! In this book I will firstly describe what has become known as:

The Gruesome Giant of Westgate.

The giant was first reported at the South Gate one dark and stormy night. This dreadful creature stood a clear fifty foot high, and as the guards trembled in fear it threw the corpse (or what remained of it as it had chewed her legs off!) of Lady Dreggleblot over the wall.

The next time it was seen was on the battlements of Castle Cormaeril where it tossed guards and hapless servants over the wall and into the sea before descending into the castle proper to slay many more. It finally knocked a hole in the side of the castle (plainly visible to any that cared to go take a look!) and again escaped into the night.

For the third sighting I was lucky enough to be present on the scene soon after it was spotted. It is an area of a few dozen warehouses west of the city. It is well guarded. Each warehouse employs some form of individual protection and there is a central tower that watches the entire area.

I spoke to one of the tower guards and here I will relay his story:

-- I am a guard employed by the local merchants to man the old tower. Anyway I had heard that a couple of the Night Masks were hiding out in the rooms under the warehouse where it all happened, names of Hackerman and Nafta. I'd seen 'em about the place a couple of times.
Old Hackerman came charging out screaming about how his mate had just been killed by a tiger. Well, we got the gang together to go take a look. I reckon Old Hackerman and Old Nafta had been playing cards down there when they were set upon and scared out. Nafta, well he got eaten by the tiger, but Hackerman managed to get out.
Just as we were getting ready to go over to him, it was night time you understand and we were carrying torches, he was hit by this big long line of green light and went flying into a ditch. I didn't see where it came from, but Bertle our wizard pointed out it was magic. Seemed bleeding obvious to me.
Well anyway, we grabbed his dead body and took it back to the tower.
After talking about it for a bit we decided we weren't going up there to get blasted, not on what they pay us, so we sent word back to the Night Masks and a few hours later a squad of them came, lead by some tough looking girl in black leather.
Anyways, they went up and we followed, being a bit braver now that there was a dozen of us, like. Well, it was just carnage really. The warehouse was being raided, no big surprise there, and there were a bunch of guys and three sets of horse and cart.
We all charged in, but suddenly there was this bleeding giant standing there and then the green magic started hitting us.
It hit Bertle a couple of times and he went down. I helped drag him back out of it and watched the rest from behind a bush. The Night Masks charged in, but they were just swept aside by the giant like a man swatting away kittens. Those that didn't get killed ran off into the woods on either side of the warehouse and began sniping with their crossbows.
There was another man there too, a cleric I think, and I just made out the outline of a man on the roof of the warehouse every time the green lance of light hit one of the Night Masks.
The girl in leather was nowhere to be seen, but there were three horses there with the three carts and two of them just toppled over stone dead during the fighting.
Then suddenly she appeared right behind the cleric and tried to stab him. Her dagger just bounced off his plate mail though. She was hit by that green light and then vanished into the dark, running for her life. I just hung back and helped get a healing potion down Bertle's neck. --

There we have it readers! The first part of an eye witness account of the third sighting of the  Gruesome Giant! Where happens next? Why is it here? What is it's motivation? Don't miss the instalment when all will be revealed in all its terrible bloody glory!
''

(G329 30/09/2017 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ) WA13

(G329 30/09/2017 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ) WA13


DAY 300 (3rd Hammer)(January) cont...

It was evening and Fenrir was still in the cells under Castle Cormaeril. Sure that he would be able to talk his way out it somehow, Veddic and Arahel went to sell all their loot at Gondeth's Magaries.

Fenrir was indeed trying to talk his way out of his cell and started by requesting a guard to fetch him a 'Fire Knife'. Sodder, the wizard they had battled earlier, arrived and Fenrir turned on the charm.
He made a friend but it was not within Sodder's power to release him.

That power was Tagreth Cormaeril's alone and he arrived later to interrogate Fenrir, who was tied down to a bench in another larger room. Fenrir tried to be as friendly and charming as he could, but Tagreth kept the questions direct and simple.
From what I gather this was how it went:


Who are you?
    - Raziel Lightningrod

Where are you from?
    - Waterdeep

How long have you been in Westgate?
    - couple of weeks

What brought you here?
    - a life of grand adventure

Who do you work for?
    - Day Air Watch but also
    - freelancing for a mysterious third party who recently hired me to spring the Diablos.

Why did you want with the Diablos?
    - see above

What do you know about the Night Parade?
    - very little, the guy was a member of that?

How long have you been in the watch?
    - 6 days

Who are your associates?
    - Dressdelle of the watch
    - Arahel
    - Veddic

Where are you accommodated in town?
    - small place in town

From what else I have heard about this encounter there was a bit more back and forth after that:

Fenrir: Before you go, my lord. Consider having me work for you as a double agent in the watch?
Tagreth: After your cack handed attempt at jail breaking? And proving so lose and easy with your secrets?
F: Ah, but I went softly on your guards. I did not wish to kill anyone I didn't have to.
T: That was first of your many mistakes then!
F: I did not wish you to appear weak my lord, just to do what I had been paid to do.
T: You should have killed them all, ruthlessly. I would have done.
F: (Growling) Make no mistake, I could have easily slaughtered them all!

Tagreth was affected by Fenrir's intimidation, but turned to leave anyway. The impatient warlock at that point made the fateful decision to chance his arm with an old 'friend' and called out,
'Hello dear, you're home early!'

You may remember, dear reader, that this was the phrase that summoned Bnurgstickslackskin (if he was in  the mood to be summoned) and Fenrir's luck was in (well, if you consider a fifteen foot tall, four armed glabrezu demon suddenly appearing in the room lucky).

Needless to say Cormaeril near soiled his trousers when Bnurgstickslackskin appeared, his mighty bat wings filling the cell. Bnurg grabbed a guard in one of his massive pincers and held him like a child clutching a doll.

'If you could unchain me now old chap,' said Fenrir.
Terrified, Cormaeril did so, then backed out of the cell.

Fenrir helped himself to one of the magic crossbows as he left, flying out the hole that Arahel had made while she was a giant. Bnurg was too big to fit down the side corridor so for reasons only known to himself he ripped the guard he held in half, threw the two bits at the other cowering guards then snarled 'Today is your lucky day!' at them. He then dematerialised back to the Abyss.

Fenrir was halfway home when he slapped his forehead and turned back again, remember that he should really have taken Bwabazwards the diablos with him!

Back in the cells he politely requested the guards release Bwabazwards to him and with trembling hands they opened the door and let the diablos out. Fenrir carried him home through the air on his back.

He arrived at the cottage at about eleven in the evening, then with Arahel and Veddic they all took Bwabazwards to the house on Fish Street where the Night Parade dwelled.

In return for the glad return of Bwabazwards, the Night Parade told them that the portal they sought was on a small island five miles out to sea. They could provide them with a boat if required.

Also while there Fenrir finished chatting up Bezebelle, their leader, and then disappeared upstairs  with her for a couple of hours of very mysterious and dream like passion.

Arahel and Veddic waited awkwardly downstairs for him.

DAY 301 (4th Hammer)(January)

At about one or two in the morning they finally made it back to the cottage and their beds. Only to be up again a few hours later to report for their Day Air Watch shift at seven.

Well, Veddic got a lie in, but Arahel and Fenrir reported for duty and were immediately called in to
Trepplemar the Magnificent's study.
When asked about what had happened up at Castle Cormaeril, Fenrir lied his head off saying they had been up there, but just at the market and certainly had not seen any big scary demons!

As ever his smooth manner managed to keep Trepplemar off their backs for the rest of the day, which they spent, as usual with Dressdelle. The weather was snow, sleet and rain so they mostly took shelter on the towers and watched for trouble from their while drinking sugary tea and eating the local food (burritos and chimichangas).

Nothing exciting happened at work so they made their way home at the usual time fairly well rested.
They found that a letter from Cavu had mysteriously appeared on the kitchen table. It was in code, but using the book 'Lady Lovelace and her many gnomish lovers' as the key the swiftly decoded it.
It read:

''
Use whatever extra funds you need to make this happen, but you need to become the leaders of the  faction you have chosen. Do it gently, but do whatever it takes to make this happen. If this seems  impossible at this moment, then see how far you can get investigating the Snake Gate. From what
I'm picking up from Gerty, I think that whatever you find there may help you with what you are doing  in Westgate. In order to reply to this message, please write it in code and hand it to the merchant I named in my previous letter. You may expect a reply the next day.
''

Fenrir wrote a short reply telling Cavu that they were planning a boat trip out to the location of the island, but did not immediately deliver it to the merchant.

DAY 302 (5th Hammer)(January)

Day nine of Arahel and Fenrir's shift with the Day Air Watch was clear, but over cast. They patrolled around the city but it was uneventful. They talked to Dressdelle a bit, she was pleasant company. She had previously told them that she was doing 'community service' for the city of Westgate but as yet was not willing to reveal why.

After their shift they were once more summoned to the chamber of Trepplemar the Magnificent. She had obviously learned more of the events at Castle Cormaeril.

She started with:

''
Although I'm not unhappy in the slightest that you went after that old bastard Cormaeril and the  Fire Knives, you brought the watch into it. This is going to cost us a lot of political capital to smooth over. I see no other way but to kick you out of the watch.
''

Fenrir once more managed to talk her round, admitting that they had been their to rescue someone. She relented and went on to say:

''
Lady Dreggleblot and then the Fire Knives. That's two big mistakes in less than ten days. One more and I've got to get rid of you, for good this time. Any more and you'll bring the watch to its knees!
''

That evening, back at the cottage, Nebulous the Rascal, their friend the jolly merchant arrived at their door, hooded and cloaked. When safely in the kitchen he offered this sage advice:

''
If I knew your plan was going to be go in all guns blazing then I would have cautioned you. My advice would have been to either use stealth to get in and strength to get out, or strength to get in and stealth to get out. Only use strength both ways if you have it and surely you must of known you needed some extra muscle when I told you how strongly defended the castle was?
And to not go in disguise is unforgivable, I'm trying not to think about it, it's an insult to plan making, really! I, of course, would have chosen stealth in and stealth out.
You'll live with this mistake for a long time. In Westgate you see, it's all about factions, and political power. It's much better to know where to apply just a little pressure, than hammering away with brute strength in the hope that this compensates for lack of understanding and preparation.
''

His advice fell on deaf ears though. Fenrir had his own way of doing things and Arahel was too young to understand most of it.

Nebulous also told them that if they planned to help him with the warehouse he wanted to knock over it would have to be this night or the next so they agreed to do it that night.

A guide took them to where the warehouse was, a couple of miles along the coast. He was a gnome called Charrlo "Chuckles" Marnon and they arrived at about eleven o'clock that evening.

The plan was that they were to deal with all the warehouse guards, then shine a light at the door to let the others know it was safe to come and start taking away the merchandise.

To start with Arahel turned into a spider and skuttled under the door. She found a large room full nearly to the ceiling with bales and boxes. In the walk ways were large skeletons, standing motionlessly.

When she reported back, they broke the main lock and entered. The skeletons were bigger than human, but easy for a powerful cleric like Veddic to deal with. Fenrir finished them off as they ran away.

The warehouse was clear, but they found a trap door at the back and opened it up. There was a ladder down to a stone carved corridor. At a crossroads they saw a flesh golem that attacked them.

Arahel turned into a tiger and went for it. As the thing was immune to magic, Fenrir could not help and all Veddic could do was heal Arahel whenever she required it. Bit by bit she tore chunks off the golem with her claws until it was nothing but a heap of flesh and bones.

They golem vanquished they moved on further into the dungeon.