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.
