Year 2, Day 6-8

It took us a while to walk to the outskirts of Ruuqan Draal but after surviving our most recent battle I could care less. Receiving some healing from Kaellana and Arad had me feeling like I was fully hale so the short trip wasn't too onerous. Faelian led us to a small cave off of a road and we started to get suspicious as we realized that there was no wagon in the small cave. Before we could over react, Faelian told us not to worry and muttered some words at the back of the cave. I gem encrusted wagon slipped from the wall, sans any obvious means of pulling it, with its wheels smoothly flowing through the dirt as it sank in about four inches for some reason. Faelian also introduced us to his, as before yet unmentioned, partner, an half orc driver whose name I don't recall.

Explaining that the wagon used a harnessed earth elemental, we squeezed into the back and promptly zoomed off at ridiculous speeds as the wagon whipped along the countryside. It was an exhilarating experience and Aramel was so taken by the wagon that he tried to make the half orc driver an offer but realized he'd made a mistake when the guy quoted an amount of gold I doubt we'd see unless we found a hoard of treasure somewhere.

Anyway, the elemental seemed tireless and ended up pulling the cart the entire distance to Rosequarry in one long haul, Faelian and his friend switching off driving while we rested for the two day trip. We finally slowed to a stop at the top of the hills surrounding the former town and looked down on the old ruins. Some buildings seemed to have been destroyed, others crumbled into decay, and a few seemed to be covered in ice. The firelight of an encampment glittered from amongst some ruined walls and as we approached, Kaellana's sharp eyes were able to make out a number of warriors and skeletal creatures. from her, we also learned that the warriors wore distinctive open mouthed helms that Arad recognized as belonging to the Emerald Claw. Now all I knew about their group was that they were somehow linked to the Blood of Vol, some other group that was involved with death or some such and so I didn't necessarily assume that we needed to be on guard but that turned out to be a mistake.

Making our way down the old road that went through Rosequarry we were soon encountered a group of what appeared to be dwarf zombies with glass embedded in their flesh as they mined the shiny substance that seemed to cover portions of the area. Upon closer inspection, the clear substance scattered throughout the ruins was actually glass. Maybe a remnant of magic gone awry from the Last War or just strangeness due to proximity with the Mournland? My musings had to wait because once we got close enough to the zombies they turned out to be hostile and charged us with their pickaxes. The smooth surface of the glass proved to be treacherous footing and we all had to contend with it as we moved to engage our dead foe. I was soon joined in melee by Tara and Arad's skeletal minions and we lashed into our foes, learning that successful attacks caused razor sharp glass to explode from the dwarven zombies. Shortly after our battle started, a three man patrol from the camp came to investigate the sounds of combat and with a cry of "Intruders!", promptly joined the fray, though they didn't seem to pose as much of a challenge as their undead comrades.
We seemed to be holding our own for a while, but the numbers in the camp soon started to tell as more undead and guards emerged, made even more dangerous by the emergence of two spell casters. The first one to emerge drew my immediate attention as I knew he had to be taken down fast to prevent any of his ridiculous shenanigans. Leaving the fight with the initial zombie miners, I raced across the slippery glass, maintaining my balance, to the first caster's group. While doing so, Aramel cast a web spell at one of the entrances to the enemy camp to hinder their reinforcements. A few seconds later, three skeletons surrounded my but I managed to avoid all of their blows. I was not so lucky when my own blasted wizard hurled a fireball at my group, singing me with the damage, though it also brought down the three skeletons that had attacked me. Meanwhile, Arad was buffing our party members while Tara withdrew from the glass zombies and Kaellana called down lightning from the sky, sizzling into the ranks of the undead.

Time only seemed to add numbers to our enemy's ranks as undead skeletons bearing torches emerged to burn their way through Aramel's web. Warriors wielding bows started targeting him in turn as they too sought to bring down our magic user. Successive hits laid him low but Arad's divine healing allowed him to stand once more. We finally brought down the first spellcaster to emerge from the camp, a large bearded man, but a second one, a woman, appeared moments later behind the torch bearing skeletons. I changed positions once more, moving back towards the dwarf zombies as Aramel webbed the space I left and was lucky enough to receive another fireball for my troubles from the woman. The number of foes had started to daunt my comrades and while I was relishing the fight, I recognize that not everyone can stick it out as long as I can. Aramel was running low on spells and health and so they started to withdraw back towards our wagon. Just in case our enemies sought to attack the other while they fled, I tarried a few moments longer at the front of the battle so that I could strike our enemies if they sought to move past me. In short order we disengaged from the battle while Arad left three of his skeletons to occupy the Emerald Claw force and we made our way back to Faelian's wagon.

Looking back at the battle longingly I realized that we might have to utilize other methods if we wanted to explore Rosequarry for any information about Whitehearth, the secret Cannith research facility. It's not really my style, but maybe some circumspection and stealth are in order. Maybe if we move around the edge of the town and approach from opposite side as the Emerald Claw camp, though now they're aware of our presence...

-A.N.-