Year 2 - Day 1

It'd been more than a year since our group's glories in the subterranean bowels of Sharn but we found ourselves in the city of towers once more. We'd been working together on and off throughout the year, primarily for Lady E, our House Cannith connection, but we followed our own desires during the off times. For me that meant finding a job that paid me to get into fights, which I always won, of course. I'd also been able to get some practice in on my acrobatics maneuvers throughout the year so that I could pull in a few more gold pieces here and there. Everything helps after all, and if word of my exploits was spread by whispers of my acrobatics feats or combat prowess, then who was I to complain.

On that average day in Sharn, meaning it was pouring of course, we met up and headed over to the message post to see if lady E had left us word of any work. After our sewer venture last year we had suffered some mishaps. Rasnian, Alric, and Tam had all died shortly after our triumphant return with the schema which, I suppose, was a sad event, but I hadn't gotten to know them very well. It must have been especially tough for Aramel in losing a brother, but for an elf he doesn't say much so I don't know how he feels about the situation.

On our way to the post I looked over my other three companions. Kaellana had definitely become more accustomed to displays of overt civilization, such as Sharn's towers, but I knew as one of her core beliefs that she hated all such vestiges with a passion. Why she put up with the surroundings I didn't quite understand, but she had been a valuable ally so I overlooked the inconsistency. Tara looked as happy as she always did when her thick arctic fur was completely soaked by the falling rain, but padded along silently nonetheless. Arad, the Traveller cleric, had eventually revealed that he was actually a changeling only recently. At first I had been suspicious and angry that he had hid his true self from us, but I grudgingly accepted his motives. His type is never really given much of a chance anywhere given their, frankly, unique appearance and the fact that they can change their appearance at will. If we had known what he was from the beginning would we have still treated him the same way? Probably not, and he too had proved to be a valuable ally.

I trusted these four more than anyone else I had met during my life, which was saying a lot, but it probably stemmed from the fact that we had all helped each other survive some pretty tense situations. As we finally got close enough to see the message post through the pouring rain I realized we were probably about to head into another. The front door had been torn off a hinge and hung askew so we readied weapons and magic as we prepared to enter the shop. There were no foes that we could see, but the carefully arranged message scrolls and shelves had been scattered and toppled in some sort of struggle. Ink footprints were scattered about the few exposed portions of the floor but whoever had done the ransacking had clearly departed. A groan from behind the counter revealed an injured female store attendant who had survived the attack and through some quick healing and questioning we learned that the attackers had arrived shortly after a message meant for us had been delivered to the store.

Intriguing.

We tried to follow the trail of the attackers, but the fierce Sharn rain had washed away any scent for Tara to follow. Soon after losing the trail, though, what had to have been some sort of magical owl delivered a sealed metallic tube to us. We questioned the message post attendant and resigned ourselves to the fact that the only way to determine the tube's contents was to open it, what a shock. Inside lay a message from Lady E, warning us that the normal means of communication were being watched and that she was being pursued. We hurried to the assigned meeting place, a halfling establishment on a lower level we had frequented last year, and found Lady E sitting alone at a table in the dark interior. Before we were given a chance to receive and explanation, a group that resembled the message post's attackers barged in and demanded the backpack Lady E had been in the process of giving us.

I shook my head as Lady E vanished and turned to face our foes. She always seemed to get us into the most interesting kinds of trouble, but that always meant we 'd have more foes to kill. Chuckling I turned to view the interlopers, a small horde of kobolds lead by a warforged. This brought back memories of our journey to retrieve the schema but for now I relished the possibility of combat. Muttering an activation phrase, my spear head became coated in an acidic coating that would be deadly to the enemies I struck. The kobolds mindlessly charged in and the spears reach allowed me to dispatch some of them before they managed to reach us. My compatriots added their own efforts and after but a few moments, the first horde had been decimated. A second group charged through the door and Aramel unleashed a fireball into their midst, crisping their bodies nicely as they fell to the floor in death. The warforged and a few of his kobolds remained, but we could only laugh at their audacity. Had they really thought that they could take us down? We'll never know I suppose.

Turning to the contents of Lady E's backpack, we found some money and instructions. After we left the only slightly signed halfling establishment we found that the only way to reach Rhukaan Draal, capitol of Darguun, was by ship.

Whoowee, we're goin' on a boat ride!

~ A.N.