I don't know if this is what my mother had in mind when she sent me off with two of her friends and said, "go have an adventure." The place where her friends left me for a while quickly ran out of locals to solve their problems and I was pressed into service with an interesting bunch of characters. I was sad to lose Torvald, and that spell book we found, but Civlis has seemed more of an adventurer. It's probably all that hunting experience he continually boasts about. I've been feeling useless in almost every situation. Father had many good stories to tell about adventures he recorded for our lord and the wondrous items those heroes had found. Even Mother used to tell some pretty vivid stories of adventure, and even showed me some wonderful, magical trinkets she had come across though I don't know where she got them. It made adventuring sound wonderful.
Killing at least one of the demons that has been troubling The Bastard was great since it allowed us to get out and look for help. The trip to the other stronghold down the road was nearly fruitless. I tried to get Civlis to let me add a few things to our little wish list but it seems it would have been useless anyway. The stronghold we visited is even smaller and less well equipped than The Bastard. They also have their own problems. We cut down a number of Rangers who had been killed and strung up just outside the walls. We dragged one poor Ranger out to help us go back to The Bastard but he would have served us better staying drunk under the table and would be more alive than he is today.
The only good we've really done since leaving The Bastard is cleaning out that thieves' den at the old inn. We thought something wasn’t right so, while Krieger talked, I used my magic to read minds. The “innkeeper” claimed to be there alone but I sensed 16 minds, most of them hoping we were coming in and looking for a fight. After giving them a chance to give up without bloodshed, we stormed the place with Civlis working his way around the back to cut off escape and Friar Gregory watching the front door in case anyone got past us. Krieger's become like a man possessed when evil is around and the bison Civlis summoned were a real step up from the fire beetles he used to summon.
The night in the inn, after we had routed those bandits and before we went looking for their main encampment, has improved things for me. I was able to figure out two more of the spells I copied into my spell book from borrowed books before I was expelled from school. One proved quite useful as Friar Gregory's Spiritual Weapon and it finished off that Displacer Beast with only minor trouble. The second beast really hurt Krieger. I guess that's why the others were taken captive so easily. We shouldn't have let Civlis scout so far ahead of us. There was no sign of him throughout the whole fight and I hoped he was also out alone in the forest until I was able to get a count of the number of prisoners the bandits had taken to that first camp. I was a little far away to see clearly but it looked like the leader of that camp ate Lanfell right in front of the others! My useless feeling was back as all I could do was follow my friends to the two camps. I was completely out of spells and I need to avoid a straight fight. It would have taken a raging barbarian with a Greatsword to fight all the bandits, wolves and hobgoblins alone.
I got only about ten seconds into my attempt to sneak in and get my friends out of their prison before I was discovered and locked up with them. Oh well, we're unharmed, we have all our stuff and we're all back together. Civlis said our prison is an old elven burial mound. I think there's more to this place than he's telling us but I'm eager to explore it more anyway. It'd be better if the only way out we know about wasn't back into the hands of our captors.
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