Charis! (Unfinished, damn Tatzylwyrms..)

My dear, I’ve been remiss in sending these letters. So many a thing has been happening I’ve scarce seen the time to write down, let alone send. Included is a package of drawings our locale and the sketches of the buildings as we designed. I’m sure you can find many a thing to comment on, and I repeat my offer of joining us here.

Sarenith, 4710

Awoken by the fifth bell I stepped onto the balcony, the early light glinting of the marbled battlements. A light patter of rain drops. Short sounds of laughter float over from the brewery. Looking out over the slowly awakening town, my night dreams fade until only this one remains. The living dream. Our realm, our Wyrm’s Reach.

The last year has passed in a blur, getting my notes together has proven difficult as many were damaged by the water during the battle with the Tatzylwyrms at their den. We’ve had many an encounter while mapping the area, some violent, some enlightening. Among these we had a meeting with a Treant, a wonder of walking nature as a follower of Gozreh once wrote.
After collecting the bounty on the Tatzylwyrms a well deserved rest was taken once we returned to Oleg’s. Later we set out again and in the end found the location of the notorious Stag Lord, the bandit king of the Greenbelt. He was holed up in a ruined monastery near the shore of the Tuskwater. I will regal you with the story of that later but suffice to say, the Stag Lord and his men are no more.  The remainder of the charting of the Greenbelt continued without much problems following these events.

Having achieved all the objectives set forth in the Charter we returned to Restov in good spirits. We slept at the estate of my uncle where the rest of our group was introduced to our niece. Hadak seemed especially enamoured with her.

For our efforts, and no doubt through much manoeuvring on our  uncle’s part, the four of us we’re granted a new opportunity. In a daring political move the Sword Lords of Rostland have given us the chance to start our own realm with their tacit support. In return for a stable southwestern border we have received funding from our Uncle’s branch of the family and from various interested merchant houses.
I must confess our own part of the investment mainly comes from an ..not completely legal round of betting on Asudai in a tournament.
Though I know you will not approve I stand by the event. Without it I would not be writing from quite such a beautiful, and well designed if I say so myself, keep tower.

After initial succes in clearing the area of the Stag Lord’s old position, we set up camp in the old monastery ruin. We started attracting people due through our efforts in Restov and via Oleg’s, much expanded by Asudai’s marriage to a a tribal leader.
Making good work of our own charts we’ve managed to claim land at a prodigious rate. In the northern reaches we’ve made a deal with the expanding Oleg. He and his wife are now on our council, and we are getting much needed supplies we cannot as yet produce ourselves through his trade connections. The following is a map of our current state in this winter of 4710 AR.

After a good half year of frontier life the proceeds from the mines and good harvests are now being gathered and counted. We managed to find a good location for a quarry giving us a steady supply of good quality stone to build from. The western reaches are also coveted by our woodsmen and after some investments we have a steady supply of lumber coming in.
Looking to connect the trade routes to the River Kingdoms and Restov, after much wrangling on my part, we’ve also started fielding a small standing force. Drawing on Hadak his connections with mercenary forces in the River Kingdoms we are negotiating deals to hire guards for the trade routes and have some military advisors to train up our troops.

Fearies, cartography and a lost temple.

We have started mapping the area again, as a whole group now. A certain day early in mapping the great forest west of Oleg’s we started having all kinds of small problems. It seems like we’ve gone down to the level of playing prank’s each other.  

After two nights of strange occurrences it turned out some fearies took interest in us as we traveled through their home area. As we managed to befriend them they shared many a detail of the surrounding area making our work quite a bit easier. They traveled west with us and we encountered the westernmost border of the area chartered to us to explore. I wonder how the other groups are faring further out west.

The fearies told us about a natural hot spring we then visited and mapped, it was guarded by two of the vilest most overgrown frogs you can imagine. Needles to say Asurai proceeded to show why we call I’ve always called his fighting style barbaric and the bothered us not for long.

In an other area they showed us to an abandoned temple carved out of a rock outcropping. At first glance it was obvious it was the temple we we’re asked to look for a fortnight ago by a priest of Erastil as he warned about a guardian he wanted to try and deal with himself we finished our mapping and then returned to Oleg’s. On the way however..

Suddenly a shiver ran down my spine, a quick glance showed I wasn’t alone in that. In the distance a light was visible in between the trees. A light that was bright but terribly cold. One of our feary friends flew ahead to see what it was and came back with terror in it’s voice, saying it would not go near. As we sneaked closer we could see the soucre was in fact a skull floating in a corona of light. I recalled a lesson of old, it was a dreaded will-of-the-wisp, they who draw travellers to their doom in swamps and forests. I shared the information with my fellows and though fearing being no match for the apparition we set ourselves to fighting it. Each for his own reasons, I for one could not let one who preyed so on travelers pass, Lyrian saw it as a creature of abominable to his goddess, and Asudai. Well Asudai likes to fight.
We sneaked up and engaged the creature from a distance, unfortunately it had seen some of us and was just pretending it did not to draw us in. As it deftly dodged the assortment of ammunition propelled at it, with lightning speed it was upon us. When it engaged Asudai the rest of us surrounded it, except for Gin who’d disappeared from sight. A strange aura seemed to be around it, but with strength of will we pushed through. The Wisp struck at us with flashes of light and static, lightning flashing between it and those it struck at. Once one of us was hurt we saw it change glow as it started drain the life force and regenerate itself with it. As fast as it was, managing to hit it was extremely difficult. In the end, working together to force it into certain positions where another could strike it, we managed to defeat it. Hadak feigned an attack then as it dodged, Asudai swinging into to it with a mighty blow and as it fell I proceeded to smash the skull that remained.
In hindsight we were mighty lucky. 

When we we’re recovered from the ordeal we continued our journey back to Oleg’s. There arrived we informed the priest of the temple’s discovery. After a quick rest the priest then accompanied us straight back.

Upon entering, still quite weary from the journey we were met by a deafening roar. The guardian had noticed us, it mauled the priest heavily so we decided to intercede and managed to slay the beast. It turned out to be a priest of Erastil who had turned his back on his duties in ages past and for this was punished by his god. Transformed into the unthinking form of a grizzly it was bound to guard the site for eternity. A fate I have no regret of releasing him from.

Afterwards the priest informed us he was staying to re-institute the temple and promised us lodging and the lasting use of his divine powers, should we need them.

Of travel and Kobolds.

It has been many a day now since I’ve been able to send a writing to you. Be assured I am fine and so are my compatriots. I hope this letter finds you in good health and cheerful of spirit.

Apologies for the haphazardous nature of the letters. As you can imagine the wilds do not allow much chance for posting mail. I have included in this package various parts of writings I had yet to send to you. Would you be so kind as to send the sealed letter to my father?

With Oleg’s help, I’ve busied myself in the first fortnight since our return at inspecting and making plans for the trading post’s buildings and fortification. I will not bore you with the details, Desna knows I’ve done enough of that on nights past. Much of the second fortnight I was exploring the local surroundings of Oleg’s Trading post. Meanwhile the rest of our Charter group explored further out and mapped the area. The open land would amaze you Leatitia, so much beauty in it.
Having just met up with the rest of the group while on a forage trip, we are now on a search for a local tribe of Kobolds that seem to have been causing trouble.

We just got past a quartet of Trolls. With the luck of the goddess, no other explanation. By Desna, the size of these things! We’ve clearly marked their location on our maps and will avoid this area in the future.
The Soothscale tribe seems to be in a state of war with a nearby tribe of Mites over a stolen relic. The Kobold’s shaman has them all riled up about it, there is something off about him, cannot put my finger on it though. We’ve spoken with their chief and we will investigate the matter to make peace return. We must make haste though, it seems they just sent out a war party.

As the Mites proved vicious we ended up fighting them to the last. There we’re also two, what seemed to be, enormous centipedes that had tunnels running through the caves. It seems Lamashtu’s creatures are many here.. After defeating the Mites and those filthy creatures we emerged out of the dank tunnels with a surviving Kobold. I then engineered a collapse so the cave system could not serve as a hideout anymore.

Once returned we presented the relic statue to the Chieftain who then proceeded by smashing it on the ground. As a look of fear passed his face as he glanced over his shoulder to the Shaman’s lodging, I whispered to Hadak, to improvise it. Well. On the message of ‘wing it’ that oracle gave the most convincing theater performance since the fall of Taldor. A vision, a curse being lifted, the half-orc had me convinced, a loss for the opera, a gain for us. The Kobolds then took upon themselves to dispatch their erstwhile Shaman, with some help of us. Strange revelation from his diary (written in undercommon, no less), he was a Gnome. A reincarnated one that is, with a fierce hate for Kobolds.

After this had all passed Chief Soothscale gave us many a treasure from their hoard and a peace offering for Oleg. The heavy bag later turned out to be raw silver as the Kobolds made home in an abandoned silver mine. On the way back however..

As we were making our way through a forested part suddenly Gin was thrown to the ground as a large Warg leaped on him. I immediately charged in and dealt a heavy blow to the monster yet it and it rewarded my attention by almost tearing my throat completely out. As I in turn fell to the ground, Gin sliced open it’s side and dealt the finishing blow. As this all happened in an instant the other then just managed to run up and Sarenrae be praised quickly healed us. If it was not for Hadak- and Lyrian’s magical healing we would surely have bled out.

Our band then managed to avoid another encounter with the rest of its pack later on. Though it was more based on the unluck of a group of nearby bandits attracting their attention than anything else. Desna surely smiles on our charter group. Once we had arrived at Oleg’s Trading Post we handed him the peace offering and having solved many a problem took some well deserved rest for a week.

Our arrival in the Greenbelt.

Desna praised our company arrived at Oleg’s trading post in good spirits accompanied by great weather. I will mark this as day one in our endeavour.

‘This old military outpost has clearly seen better times’ is one of the first thoughts that entered my mind. Though there are signs of attempts at repair the structure clearly needs more hands for the work needed.  Oleg himself is a gruff man who shows the signs of worry, who runs the post with his wife Svetlana. He was friendly enough to us though when arrived especially after we showed our charters. The trader couldn’t hide his despair at fact we were not the reinforcements asked for however. Plagued by bandits, who not only extorted him but also killed the other worker at the post, he was at the end of his tether. Hearing part of said bandits where to arrive in the morning we decided to ambush them. He also revealed their leader was a woman.

The brigands never saw it coming, in a few short second we overcame them before they even realized they were under attack. Gin nearly cut one in half with that exotic sword of his the bravos always laugh with. I missed my charge because of the sheer amount of blood that spattered in my face. Asudai felled the two in front of the door after pulling our willing decoy Oleg inside. The last one, burned by Lyrian’s magical fire, I grabbed in a bearhug and lifted of the ground. He surrendered. 

After Hadak eloquently explained to our prisoner the meaning of our charter, after hearing the words; ‘sword, rope or repent’, he rapidly and honestly decided to better his life. Our prisoner, named John, revealed us the approximate location of their camp. Gin rather gruesomely severed one’s head, and much to Oleg’s approval put it on a spike in front of the gate.  Our erstwhile bandit John got a letter from Lyrian which I undersigned declaring his repentance and having gotten travel rations from my brother set of to Restov. Whether he will still be hanged remains to be seen. Having buried the bodies, we ate the lunch Svetlana prepared and set out immediately for the bandit camp. Being slowed by a rainstorm we arrived near the forest which housed the bandit camp by noon the next day. Gin scouted ahead but feared he was spotted.

This was confirmed several hours later when we discovered a clearing housing the encampment. He got an arrow in the shoulder approaching the treeline under haunting laughter. Hadak gathered much respect when he darted in between the arrows to heal him. I must admit our group really worked together well, more as a military unit than the rabble they probably expected. While I provided covering fire Asudai raced towards the the two tree platforms the bandits were in gathering more fire from further on. Meanwhile the rest of us making use of the cover moved up. Hadak climbed up with Asudai, Lyrian with his keen eyes spotted the other bandits and charged in accompanied by his elk companion, Gin shortly following. What a sight a prayer to Sarenrae on his lips the bandit he engaged, was impaled on his sword the wound literally bursting into bright flame.  As Lyrian withdrew for a second healing himself with his druid gifts, I charged in, dismembering the bandit Gin was engaging. Engaging the next one Gin shouted to capture their leader. As I moved in, blocked by one of her underlings, she threw a dagger that went straight through my armor and nearly ended me there and then. Asudai, having overcome the enemies at the platforms shot her then, clean through the neck. I used magic to knock out the last one, at least we had one more prisoner.

Counting the fallen realization struck we defeated twice our number. A remarkable victory, after treating our, sometimes grievous, wounds we started further searching the encampment. As of this writing on day two of our undertaking we have reduced the bandit population in the greenbelt by fourteen. Not a bad start. Now for the exploration.

Oleg’s Trading Post

This rather worn structure looks like an old fort converted by Oleg. He, and his wife Svetlana, run a trading post from here, they used to be helped by one other but he was killed by bandits in the previous months. When we arrived here Oleg, self-reproachingly, revealed he was being preyed upon by group of bandits in the area. Normally the proud man would not have let this happen but his wife’s live was on the line. When a small group of bandits came tot this place we made quick work of them, later clearing out their camp.

Ibahalii! Iokharic, the ancient Dragon tongue, for hope.

Hereby starts the travel journal of Dahrehn Shukuris El Fayoum, Cayosin di wer Iski. Wherein are recorded and annotated the, possibly quite peculiar, events and sights as encountered by this faithful chronicler during his travel into the Stolen Lands.

On this, the second Oathday of Pharast in the spring of 4710, we the undersigned have gained the Charter for exploration of the part of the Stolen Lands as is known as The Greenbelt by the esteemed swordlords of Restov.
Our charter includes re-opening the old trade routes along the rivers and scatter or defeat the bandits who have made them too dangerous to use. We have learned three other groups have gained their own charters in other areas of the Stolen Lands. These seem to exist of a rather experienced group of adventurers, a band of mercenaries and third is to be rumoured to consist of actual Brevic government agents.
It seems the swordlords might make a landgrab soon although there are rumours afoot of something altogether less conventional being in the making.

When I say we, currently I can only add my steadfast brother is a signee. As the only true family I have left my thoughts are gladdened by the prospect of him being along.

To these notes I must admit, excited as I am for this venture, a certain trepidation cannot be held from my mind. My father’s late wife had a hand in my nomination for this contract. Is it merely to keep me away from her children’s claims that I am sent out or does she indeed mean for me to meet my end? Sincerely, I feel her capable for it. My mind still rages at the plausibility of her hand being in my father’s death. Fortunately I have at least someone to count on holding my back in my brother. But no, I must not fall to thoughts such as this. Nassaler would say it helps ones mind none to cloud it with idle speculations on the eve of voyage.

Soon we will depart Restov for The Greenbelt, leaving civilized Brevoy behind. In the wilds there will be no support to rely on, for of civilization there is known to be none. Henceforth it will depend on our own savvy if we are to be successful.

My heart is filled with eagerness to set forth!