Earthday 20th of Planting, 643
Trouble at Temple
At breakfast (which was amazing after three days of travelling rations) Pennich visited and gave us our club cards for the Westford Trading Company. These turned out to be mini actual clubs!
On the way to the Underbrow branch of the Westford Trading Company, Grun noticed a plant store and nipped inside, returning with a small vine attached to his backpack.
At Westford, we met Alf and looked around the shop. He showed us some nice new weapons and armour, but they were out of our price range. Tooms and I both bought some armour for our horses - Alf would send the armourers out to the Silver Oak to fit the armour to them.
We then headed over to the Temple of Lathander and asked to see the Abess. Once we had presented the letter from Lady Cabell, the Abess invited the other two heads of the orders into her office: Lendrew and Prendell.
They tell us that a novice called Emers went missing about 10 days ago. She was seen going into her room the night before, but didn’t appear for morning prayers. Novices are expected to stay in their room at night, and the room currently appears to be empty. There is only one way in or out of the temple, which is guarded at all times - she did not exit through there.
She is an excellent novice, and has been with the temple about six months. She worked in the shelter, and was particularly friendly with one of the residents, Andrew.
The Abess hands over a silver hand-shaped brooch that she tells us will give su the authority of her throughout the temple.
We investigated her room but it was mostly empty. We did find a letter written in Elvish, but that was it. We then headed to the shelter, and found Andrew.
He was not very talkative, but he did tell us to “follow the ants”, and Grun noticed a line of ants in the shelter that head behind a portrait. On investigation, we discovered that the portrait was in fact an illusion, and we all headed through the portrait and into some caverns.
As we travelled through the caverns, we discovered a juvenile dragon, which demanded that we leave - we left it in peace. Just around the corner we were attacked by a silvery ooze, which damaged my axe as we attacked it and destroyed it.
We then met a human who appeared to be some sort of dark priest. We later found out that he was a cultist of some kind. He attacked and tried to run, but Tooms put an arrow through his knee. We attempted to interrogate him, but he refused to give us any information. Tooms removed his arrow, causing even more pain.
As I headed round the next corner, I set off a tripwire that brought down a portcullis behind me, trapping me in a room with two more cultists, two ghouls and some sort of leader. I also noticed that there were a number of bodies in the corner.
With Tooms and Grun trapped outside the room, I rushed into the Ghouls and attacked. Grun and Tooms found a release for the portcullis and started working on it whilst the ghouls fought back an paralysed me.
As they continued to attack me, Tooms finally got the portcullis up, and Grun rushed in and cast moonbeam across everyone, killing three of them. Tooms then appeared and dispatched the last one with an arrow through the back of the head.
Furious, and released from the paralysis, I then rushed the leader and dropped him with two strikes of my hand axes.
With all the enemies dead, we noticed that the bodies were in fact only unconscious and we started to revive them. As we were doing this, Lendrew walked into the chamber, and was clearly surprised to see us - he turned on his heel and ran, and I gave chase.
I saw him leave the temple and quickly rushed to the Abess. I gave her a quick update and directed her to take medics to the caverns, then ran out into the plaza, ordering the guards to not let anyone out.
As I rushed out of the temple, I see him across the plaza getting into a carriage. I sped across and jumped into a new carriage giving chase through the city streets.
During this time, medics from the orders of the Hand and the Horse arrived in the caverns and helped Grun and Toom revive the people there and bring them back to the temple, one of which turned out to be Emers. She has no idea what has happened or how long has passed.
Meanwhile, Lendrew disappeared from the carriage he was in. Frustrated and annoyed, I returned to the temple to find Grun and Tooms returning from the caverns.
Tooms was clearly angry, and asked the Abess to call all members of the Order of the Moon to the temple hall. He stood in front of them and told them what had happened. As he talked about the cultist he shot through the knee, he pulled out the arrow he retrieved and brought flames from his hand to burn it.
One of the order tell us that Lendrew had a close group with him, one of which we captured and the others we killed. A search of Lendrew’s room turns up another letter written in Elvish.
As no one in the temple speaks Elvish, we head to the Silver Oak and ask Vayne to translate the letters.
The letter to Emers was from Lendrew, asking her to meet him secretly. Lendrew’s letter is pasted here.
Lendrew
You are doing excellent work but I must remind you that this must remain secret. Remember to only recruit novices and acolytes that you can fully trust and who won’t be missed.
Your recent activities have bolstered our forces from your region significantly. Please continue to send all troops to mountains with haste.
Together we will achieve our objective. Have faith and you will be rewarded.
We returned to the temple and discovered that Lendrew has family in the Stonefarrow mountains to the south, in Caltan's Roost. We also informed the Abess of the juvenile dragon in caverns, but explained that we can’t currently help with it. She thanked us for our help finding Emers.
Finally we return to the Silver Oak for dinner, and Marta brought us a message from Alf - he would like to see us tomorrow.
During my sleep, I was visited by a Genesi who I seemed to know was one of my ancestors.
He congratulated me on my work today, continuing to fight against the evil undead, and hands me a gift that he tells me will help - a bundle of +1 arrows.
As he disappeared, he asked me to find his wife.
When I awoke, the arrows were by my bedside.
Tooms
