The Goblin Cave

I did not know that the gods answered prayers. But I for one have been touched by the divine. Or maybe something else but I cannot tell. Well there was more than one strange occurrence today. Firstly, a as we were about to leave, a bug bit me. I thought that it was nothing more but a change came over me. The change was not physical as far as I could tell. Not poison or anything. It seemed that I could comprehend more than usual. As if I could understand more about the world around.

It seems that my intelligence had been increased. The gain was at a price though. I lost my dexterity. I feel clumsier. I did not understand these implications. But to me, it was for the best. Now I can fully realize my mission to learn the arcane. Since this is a world full of mages, I can make it a reality. I have been learning basic spell casting from the dwarf, Ekusuos. But so far I have only been able to do minor tricks. Nothing great as I have not the intelligence to cast higher level spells.

But no I feel that I can fully progress in the arcane. Though I will never be able to fully wield the powers of the arcane, I think that what I can learn will be able to supplement my fighting skills. Just last night I even had a chance to learn a bit of spell casting from Lady Azalea. I know that I should attain a proper master, but this constant moving around does not permit it. I will have to learn where ever I can.

As for the other… incident, this was far weirder than what happened to me. As we were about to leave, the cleric got pulled into a portal. We were too stunned to realize it until it had happened. As if that was not enough the clouds above our heads swirled and shaped a hand. It was a closed fist with the middle finger sticking out. What does that mean? Is it a sign from Wee Jas? Maybe it was a sign from some other god. Maybe it was the cleric’s patron. We will never know.

We still pressed on after that incident. We headed out to hole from the outside in hopes that we would be able to find the general direction of the cave. As luck would have it, there was a stray goblin there. A lookout perhaps. We were able to get to him and persuade him to tell us where the cave was. He seemed helpful enough. He even told us that there was a bugbear named Hogr in charge.

This all seemed a bit weird still. Especially with the weird sign in the sky and my sudden gain in intelligence. We headed to the cave. We soon came to a clearing. We saw two bugbears standing guard. Using a minor trick that I was though, I created a sound further up from us. That gave us the surprise we needed to dispatch the guards with haste. We didn’t want to make too much noise as we did not want to fight the whole cave of goblins and bugbears at once.

We entered with as much stealth we could. Almost every chamber in the cave held a group of goblins. Since we had killed the guards without the alarm being raised they did not expect us there. We were able to clear room by room of goblins. There was a room with hobgoblins as well. Thankfully they were asleep.

As we were clearing the last of the sleeping quarters, another portal appeared and the cleric was kicked out of it. He had a stick in his ear and he seemed dazed. He did not talk much after that incident. He was too stunned. We did not have time to ponder the implications as we were it the middle of the enemies’ base. We had to press on. We were no so lucky further in as they seemed more organized.

We had to fight for every inch that we gained. What was weird was that at some parts of the cave it looked that masonry work had been done. It did not fit with these goblinoids. According to the cleric they carried the symbol of Vecna on their shields. It was a hand clutching an eyeball. This was not surprising. But then we came to a door with a huge symbol of the nation of Dol-Guldur.

Dol Guldur is a nation of necromancers. This was weird indeed. But I do not know how they are involved in this. I have only heard stories of that place as I am not as well traveled. I only know what I have read in books. We were able to hear voices beyond the door and we listened to their conversation. A human voice and a goblinoid voice.

Apparently they were to attack the town and burn it to the ground. The bridge was to be destroyed after we had passed it. They did not want us present during the attack. I think that they did not want Gorak and Lady Azalea in Free Haven when they attacked. But the goblins were too excited and destroyed the bridge too early. The human voice said that he did not want any part in the failure. The goblinoid voice was trying to implore the human. This could be none other than Hogr.

They started to discuss about other matters when they realized that the cave was too quiet. We knew that we had to attack. As we entered the room we saw the human. He looked like a wizard in all accounts. He sat on a throne while the bugbear stood before him. He had tattoos all over his body. But these were not normal tattoos. They were spells. How was that possible I do not know. He left through an opening at the back of the room behind his throne. He left Hogr to deal with us.

We fought Hogr but he was not alone either. There were two worgs with him. It was the hardest battle I have ever fought. We went down a few times but in the end, we proved victorious. We were able to defeat Hogr and his worgs. We then went through the opening that the wizard went through. It came to a wall with 12 buttons on it. We tried opening it but could not.

We returned to the village to tell Lady Azalea of the news. It was good that we were able to clear the cave of the goblinoid threats. The town of Free Haven was safe. As for the wizard we could not do much. Lady Azalea and Gorak went to see if they could find a way through. We have earned a well deserved rest.

I sit now in my room thinking of the days events. The sign in the sky, the bug. It was too weird. I hope that one day Wee Jas would be kind enough to tell me. But for now I am going over the spells that I have learned from Lady Azalea and Ekusuos. It will do for now but for me to be better I will have to learn more.

I will have to learn how to combine the two into one. How to be able to cast spells and wield a sword. To be able to cast spells while wearing armor. I think that would be the biggest challenge yet. But as I said before, I will cross that bridge when I come to it. For now I just want to learn more spells. I hope the dwarf is not too busy.

The Begining

Last I left off; I had joined a caravan guard. The owner, Torgan, was a dwarf. As I had said earlier, I joined the caravan guard in hopes that I may be able to learn spell casting. It was a good way to see the world and earn my keep. But I had one big fear. I know that my intelligence was not high enough and I feared that even if I did lean spell casting, would I be able to do it. But that did not matter. I would cross that bridge when I came to it. For now, I had a job to do.

There were other people also hired to guard the caravan. Ordanil a human cleric, Daro a monk, Elrion an elven rogue and Ekusuos a dwarf mage. It is with Ekusuos that I am most interested in. As he is a mage I might be able to learn spell casting from him. Our job was to guard the caravan. We sometimes transported goods and people. It was usually easy as we are never attacked much.

We were based in Free Haven. We would hang out at the tavern that was conveniently located next to our building. One day we got a job to escort Princess Azalea, the sister of the Lord of New Sporigal. Lord Magtaroth. We were to escort her to New Sporigal. It should have been a routine job.

We met her at the tavern. She was half elven. She was fair indeed. With her was a half Orc. Torgan seemed to know him. His name was Gorak. He was a paladin by the looks of his full-plate armor and holy symbol. But to which god I do not know. We talked a bit. Lady Azalea was very polite.

But soon we had to be on our way. We wanted to make it to New Sporigal as soon as we could. It started off fine enough but we soon came under attack. Goblins. It seemed that they ambushed many caravans as they had quite a lot of gold on them. We dispatched them easily enough but further up the road again we were attacked by goblins.

They seem intent on stopping us for some reason. It got worse when we found the only bridge across the river to New Sporigal destroyed. To what purpose I have no idea. Were they trying to stop us from reaching our destination? The only way was back and around Free Haven to reach our destination.

As we journeyed back to Free Haven only then did we learn the extent of the attack. Free Haven was under a full scale attack from goblins. This was odd indeed. The goblins have never been this bold. There was more to this. We went to the tavern and learnt that the goblins had blown a hole through the wooden fence. They were rushing through that hole and the guards were hard pressed to stem the tide. How very familiar this was to me.

Having lost my father almost the same way. But this time, I could do something about it. We were told to find a carpenter so that he may be able to fix the hole. We would have to guard him while he did it but it would not take that long. We agreed. The guards were busy trying to stem the goblin attacks that were happening around the whole town.

We went to the carpenters place. It was a man named Giles. He agreed to do it. We then helped him carry the supplies to the wall. The hole was big indeed. We had to clear the goblins and hold our position on the other side while Giles fixed up the hole. It was not natural as goblins were rarely this smart. We held off 3 waves of goblins but the deed was done. Giles worked fast. We then returned to the tavern as the guards were able to clear up the remainder of the goblin threat.

At the tavern we learned that there was a cave nearby that the goblins were gathering. They were afraid that they were gathering for another massive attack and we were to go and check it out and clear them out if possible. It was not far from Free Haven. It was decide then. We were to go and do what we could.

I am writing this just before we are scheduled to leave. I am writing this because something within me is not right. My people have worshiped Kord for many years. It was our way of life. We followed His teachings. But now that I am looking for other powers, I feel that my heart no more follows His ways. I find myself asking “what is religion?”

I grew up with only knowledge that religion is a way of life. A belief of a people. Something they can look to for guidance. But now that I have traveled. I think that it is that and more. It is what we feel in our hearts. What we think is right. It is the way we live our lives. If that is the answer then I believe that I have a new patron that fits my heart. I believe that Wee Jas is better suited to what I believe to be right.

So from this day forth, I follow the ways if Wee Jas. I will live my life day to day in Her name. It is not that Kord is a bad god. But my heart no longer follows His ways. I look to Wee Jas for guidance now. If ever I lose my way then I will know where to seek answers. But this does not mean that I shun my people and their ways. I do not know how they will react once they have learnt of my new deity. I hope they will be able to look past the difference of gods and see that all I do is for their sake. For my people to survive, we will have to learn. As will I.

My past

I was born Marcus Destos Aurelias. Son to Mathias Aurelias, chief of the Wolf clan. I am the 5th generation in line of leading the Wolf clan. We are fighters. Even in this world where wizards number in the many, we devote ourselves to the sword. We live and die by the sword. For years our people have gone against the ways of the world. Where wizardry prevails. It is considered weak to resort to such methods. We believe in the strength of arms and the skills of battle. We look down upon those that resort to such “cowardly” methods. That is why my clan, my village has not and will never open up to the world. The other towns with their wizard rulers. They are viewed as beneath us. We are a proud race.

That is until me. I was born with the most dangerous quality a human of my village in this world can be born with. Curiosity. I was curious to the ways of magic. I read a lot about it growing up. Although my people only wrote of how magic was for the weak, i wanted to know why. Why was it bad? Why was it shunned by my people? So i learned and read as much as i could growing up. I could not learn much, but what i did learn told me that there was a vast energy in our world that wizards had learned to untap and use to their will. I wanted to learn to do that.

My dreams to learn magic were quashed. As soon as i reached the age of 13, my training began. My training to be a fighter. A fighter and the future leader of our people. I did not have time to learn more about magic. There my dream ended. I lived the next few years as a fighter. Nothing more and nothing less. Day after day i was trained. Perfecting my skills with a sword. Time moved fast in those years. My strength grew each day, my skills with the sword were considerable. This was my life until i reached the age of 16. That was when things changed.

We were attacked by Orcs. This was a surprise as they were never so bold to attack us in the wild, much less in our own village. We were able to hold them off at first. Orcs were never a threat. They were weak. We held of wave after wave. But they just kept coming… and coming… and coming… For everyone Orc that fell 5 more replaced it. Soon we were overwhelmed. We started evacuating as fast as we could. The men, veterans in battle, held of the Orcs as best they could. But it was clear that they would not be able to hold the enemy for long. My village was doomed.

I ran with the others. As i was still young i was charged with protecting the elderly, women and children, as were others my age. We were to lead them to a cave where the men could fall back and hold the entrance from attacks. It was a big cave and able to hold all the people of my village. There was only one entrance so it was a perfect defensible spot. We had stored supplies there if our village ever fell. Which was happening now. I led the others to the cave. The last i saw of the battle was my father rallying the men of the clan to him. That was the last i ever saw of him.

We made it to the cave within the hour and started setting up a defensible position so that we could better hold of the attack that we knew was going to come and also for the wounded that would arrive. As soon as everything was ready, we got into position with ranged weapons and waited. But the attack never came. Soon it was night and our hopes grew as we thought that the men of our clan had triumphed as the enemy did appear. We waited.

As Dawn approached, none of the men came. Neither did the enemy. But no survivors either. I left the cave to scout out the situation in our village. Maybe the men were still holding the enemy at bay. I prayed to Kord that was the truth. When i arrived at the village, I fell to my knees. All dead. They were all dead. Not a single man alive. There were many more dead Orcs but they had killed all the men, all the brave men of the Wolf clan. It looked as though that was all they wanted to do. Kill the men. They did not ravage the buildings nor did they loot the village. They did not come after the women and children either. The Orcs killed all the men.

I went back to the cave, weak in the knees. I told the others about the situation. It was… strange. Why? Till this day I do not know why the Orcs attacked or what their intentions were. But we were able to rebuild what was left. We buried all the brave men and sang praises of their names to Kord. They had all died a heroes death. Some months passed and we were able to carry on as best we could. I was made the chief by right of my family.

I fear that they may return again. The foul Orcs may return to ravage my village again. But this time, we might not be able to stop them. We need to be stronger. I need to be stronger. I know that we cannot rely on strength of arms alone. We need a new power. We need magic. Knowing this, i have left my village in hopes to learn as much as i can about the arcane arts. I have left in charge of the village my trusted friend Maximus. Until the day i return, he is in charge.

We are more vigilant now. We constantly survey our surroundings. We have scouts everywhere. If ever the orcs come again, we will have sufficient notice. I just hope that i will be able to have enough power by then to defend my village. My home. I have joined up with a dwarf that runs a caravan for hire. I am to be a guard. It is a small job but it is a good place to start. We would travel a lot and i need to learn as much as i can. I just hope that i will be in time to save my village this time.

I know that our people looks down upon magic. But if i am able to stop the coming Orcs with the power of the arcane, maybe they will be more open to accept it. Maybe there is a way to combine the two to create a fighter that also has the power to wield the arcane. This would be able to make my people better, stronger. But for now i can only hope. I have even learned Orcish so that i may be able to question them when i see them. So that i may curse at them in their own tongues as i kill them.

I will not let my people perish. I will protect them. As their chief. As their leader. But until then, i will have to be stronger. I will…