Logbook of Jerek Stonewall - Entry Number 1
March 1st, 908 TA
Well, now that I’m in the big city, I figure that writing down my musings on paper will help keep everything in order as so much seems to happen all at once here. I ain’t been here more than a minute, and already have had to contend with vamps, evil cults, and some rather strange bedfellows. I hope that with time, I will earn my place in this city among all of these tall folks, and be worthy of the Stonewall name. At least I have my trusty “Horse” beside me for this journey.
Let me talk a little about the folks who I have been destined to walk with on this journey, for they are a strange bunch, but I believe are good folk. The first is a another of the little people, a gnome feller named Telek. He is one of those folks who moves stuff’n with his mind, and seems content to use those abilities for card tricks. There is one female half-elf among us, a lady by the name of Spring SB, although what the SB is fer I ain’t a clue. She is a fighter who perpetually has ants in her pants for all the amount of time she can stand still. We have another half-elf by the name of Vance Goodwood, whose quiet, being used to the woods and all. We have a human by the name of Neptune Ganymede, whose a bit of a shifty fella, and goes on and on about his commune that he came from, and their odd customs. There’s another human by the name of Korag Blackice, and he is a monkey’s uncle supposedly, and so fights with his bare hands. And finally, we have yet another human by the name of Malika, who is one of those religious types, and a decent healer.
This motley bunch came together by circumstance as we all had to find a place to stay in the big city of Teufeldorf, and we all saw the same ad for room and board at an old house along Nightingale Way. We arrived at the house about dusk, where the flyer told us to come and knocked politely on the door. Hearing no response and seeing as how the door was unlocked and all, we went inside to wait in the entrance hall. Spring doesn’t seem to be one for waiting, and so started searching the house, only to run smack-dab into our host, a Mr. Dourmoor.
Mr. Dourmoor is a very gaunt man, with a very unique accent, and he told us the terms of our stay. In exchange for ensuring that the house remain clean and dark, he would give each of us 10 whole gold pieces a month, as well as room and board for the duration of our stay. His only rule was to keep mirrors away from him and his family, and that we were to stay away from the second floor, where he and his wife and children stayed. We all thought that was a mighty fine deal, and accepted the generous offer. With our deal concluded, our mysterious benefactor went upstairs, leaving us to explore the first floor.
Other than the entrance hall, the first floor consisted of a library, a kitchen, and a living room, which had been converted into a bedroom for us to use. Out round the back was a bath and outhouse, as well as a dilapidated garden. Searching our rooms for anything interesting as we settled in, Neptune found himself a book about the city, and when he opened her up, a note with a map came a tumblin’. It looked as if the map was of some tunnels that led ‘neath our new home and went every which way. The entrance to these tunnels seemed to be under the stairs of the house, and when we went a looking for ‘em, we saw that behind a very unique mirror, there was a secret doorway. The mirror had an odd look about it, and Malika said it was enchanted. When we moved the mirror out of the way to get a better look at the secret door, Neptune had himself a convulsion, which he told us after was a vision of sorts, along with the cries of a ghost screaming murder.
With the mirror moved, and the door clear to us, Neptune said he would check the thing fer traps. He said he didn’t see any, but he was a clever type, and as he opened the door, jumped out of the way just as a log swung down that would have knocked him down what was now a stairway down. We walked down the stairs to a room that had a bunch of eyes in the walls. We looked at our handy dandy map, and the riddle it had, and it seemed like we needed to line ourselves up with the mirrors upstairs in the room a certain way to open the path. We went back and grabbed the mirrors, and as we took the three various mirrors down, each person who held the mirror had a similar vision as Neptune. When we got everything just right, a part of the wall came down, and a passageway opened up. We followed it through, and it led us right into the sewers.
It seemed our map was made for this section, and so we used it as a guide, going down into the area called, “here be monsters” first. As we walked down the sewers, on either side of the wastewater, we saw a peculiar creature hanging from the ceiling. It had a bunch o’ legs, and a bunch o’ tongues, although some of those tongues were tied up in a colorful scarf. The monster came at us, and we charged at it. Apparently though although our monk was fast, fighting this thing with your bare hands is not advisable, as soon Korag was convulsing on the floor incapacitated. The rest of us swung at the beast, and after a brief tussle, the creature fell dead. Malika revived poor ol’ Korag, and I picked up the scarf. It was a beautiful piece, and as I put it on, I found my vocal range extended and my neck much more fashionable.
We went on further down this path, and found the lair of that beast, and saw many more of its brethren. We decided that discretion was the better part of valor and left as quickly as we could before they turned their lickers toward us. With that path cut off to us, we went down the road called “unexplored”. It ended after a while at a grate, that led into a natural cavern that seemed to be outside the city walls. Pushed up against the grate were several skeletons, and on the head of one of them was a fancy looking headband. Spring decided to go into the water in order to pry the headband loose, and we all agreed to help her with rope against the rushing water. As she went in, and started pulling at the band, the skeletons came to life, and the skull the band was on came flying up. A great battle ensued, as the skeletons came out of the water, and we just managed to destroy them all. The skull tried to fly away, and if it weren’t fer horse, it might’ve. Luckily, Horse got her jaws on it and brought it down. Korag took the headband, and on the other skeletons we found a couple of nice bloodstones which held spells in them.
With our supplies slightly depleted, and all of us rather tired, we made our way back towards our new home. Just as we were settlin’ in for the night, I noticed that my compatriots started heading back down one by one. First it was Telek, but soon, everyone but Vance and Spring headed back down. Mostly out of curiosity I followed, and it seemed that it was curiosity that brought the others down, as we all followed our gnome friend down the path called “Eyes on Evil”. As we made our way along, Neptune noted that this path would take us right under a large house that was ruled over by the local Thieves’ guild called The Family. We went along, til’ our path ended at a wall with a face set into it, and looking through the eyes and mouth of the face we could look into a large theater.
The theater was packed at this time of night, and around 30 robed figures were watching a man tied to a table on the stage. The man seemed to be a knight, and he was getting tortured. Couldn’t hear much down there, but the knight did say “The Angel King Comes Tomorrow”. Once he said that, the lead robed figure, who had been torturing the knight, prepared to execute him. Knowing that we had to help, I used my new scarf to throw the voice of Mr. Dourmoor into the room to sow confusion. The man yelled to find the source of the voice, and as he did, several small winged creatures flew into the room. These creatures started swirling around,, and one flew through our little mouth opening. We immediately attacked it, although several of our members, who I will not mention for the sake of their honor, fled for the hills. Horse grabbed the creature, and we retreated, hoping to get away from the rest of the carnage. We killed of the creature now that it was trapped, and made our way back to our home, closing the hidden entrance behind us.
With us back in the relative safety of the house, we put ourselves to bed, although, We were awakened shortly after by a commotion outside. We looked through the window and saw a large winged jackal like creature feasting on the corpse of a wolf. Since it wasn’t disturbing us, and we were tired of the night’s events, we let it eat its meal, and go off over the walls of the city into the wild. With that, the night came to a close, and we are now resting up for a big day tomorrow. We don’t know what we witnessed, but we do know it ain’t good. Luckily, we have evidence we can show to the authorities straight from Horse’s mouth. If this is an average night in the big city, I’m not sure I shouldn’t have stayed home.