Kira's Journals

Journal,

Seeing as it's my turn on watch while everyone else sleeps, I think I'll let you in on a few recent events. We're all here, just outside of Axalalail, with a relatively new friend of ours, a dwarf by the name of... I forget his name right now. We are all recuperating from a fight with some ghouls that we just had a hour our two ago, but I'll get to why that happened in a minute.

We met our newest friend on the road heading out of Urupa, walking in the same direction we were going. He seemed a bit lonely, and we had extra room in the cart, so we offered him a ride. He didn't talk very much, and was very reluctant to answer any questions about himself and his past. We came to find out why he was so secretive about his past later that same afternoon.

We had barely traveled two hours with our new-found friend when we were ambushed on the road. They shot at us from the trees on both sides of the road, and came at us from every angle it seemed. I saw orks and one giant troll emerge from the bushes and after seeing that none of them carried bows, I knew there were more where they came from. I didn't waste any time. I flew straight into the bushes and found myself an elf to tangle with. I didn't see much of what went on in the road, but after a minute of fighting, I heard a deep bellow coming from behind me that made the elf I was fighting turn and run. I would have chased him, but I was too curious to find out what was happening on the road.

As I emerged from the bushes I saw a number of things. The first thing that caught my attention was our over-turned cart. Then I saw the masses of fallen orks, the one massive troll lying with a slit throat where our cart was, and my comrades all standing, though Malorrin looked a little worse for wear. A sheet of ice covered the width of the road. At first glance this seemed strange to me. Ice covering the entire road in the middle of the afternoon on a nice day like that? But then I remembered our friendly neighborhood elementalist. I will get used to those spells eventually.

Any way, the other thing I saw was our new dwarf friend trying frantically to pull on his shirt, which must have been torn sometime during the skirmish. I found out then why he was being so secretive. He was trying very hard to hide it, but he couldn't hide it from all of us at once. He had a tattoo covering his entire back, but it wasn't just a design. It was a map. Once he knew he couldn't hide it any more, he told us his story.

He said that he had found an artifact of some sort a while ago during his travels. What the artifact was isn't important, though maybe I should find out what it was for information's sake. Anyway, it turned out that the passion Chorrolis wanted this artifact and was willing to pay anything for it. So, our friend, being the opportunist that he is, asked for a map to one of Chorrolis's ruined temples. However, he also asked for this map to be in a way that he could never lose it, and it couldn't be stolen from him. He got his wish exactly as he asked it, and he had the full map on his back to show for it. He told us had not yet seen this map, but had figured out only enough about it that he knew it was somewhere near Axalalail. That's where he was headed when we found him, and that's why we were attacked.

I found out from everyone else's descriptions of the fight that the enemy troll completely ignored Thrak's attack and was only interested in getting to the dwarf. That's why our cart was overturned, because the dwarf was hiding under it. Our friend also told us that he believed the troop that attacked us was sent by someone in Urupa named Steel, and that the ones that got away would surely return to Urupa, report what happened, and more goons would be sent to get the map, no matter what. I don't think the fact that we killed the troll, probably a lieutenant, would go over very well with Steel either.

After interrogating one of the fallen orks, who was just knocked unconscious, we found that the suspicions about Steel were true. So, after letting Gir dispose of the ork, we set out as quickly as we could to get a head start on Steel's goons.

With a few days travel, Malorrin's wounds were looking much better, but everyone was getting a bit wary. We were sure Steel's men were on our heels and gaining, but we were getting very close to Axalalail, and there was no sign of anything so far. We finally reached the outskirts of Axalalail, and decided to camp outside the city for the night, setting watches just in case. I had the last watch, so I fell right to sleep. I had a really strange dream though. I think Fellidra Jer and the glorious Queen Alachia were there. We were at a tea party or something of the sort in a beautiful garden, but there was a horrible noise in the back ground. But that's a totally different journal entry.

Gir woke us up in the middle of the night. She heard something coming out of the woods, and my nose told me it wasn't anything that was still living. Sure enough, we saw a group of ghouls shambling towards us. We all went head-long into the battle, and without too much difficulty sent them back to their horror-tainted slumber. The message got through though. Steel wasn't going to give up this map without a brutal fight, even if she has to come for it herself, which I not putting out of the question at this point.

So, anyway, here I am, on the last watch of the night. The smell of the undead still lingers in the air making me a bit nauseous. I figured out what the horrible sound in my dream was though, and I'm surprised the whole of Axalalail isn't bearing down on us. Thrak's snoring should have woken them all by now. How I've slept though it these last six months, I may never know. But I don't think I'll mention it to him. His shoulder makes too comfortable a saddle.

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