26th day, evening, 4th moon, 26AF
We took a bit of a beating, so we are going to be spending some time here. After yesterday's evacuation to the fire base by the crypt, I set up the standard travelling clinic. Kip must be getting tired of this by now... Stannis healed Dermond, Throth and Kip each once, and we dropped our excess healing into Kip. Cilmo is resting peacefully, we will tend to him tomorrow. Some rest will do everyone some good.
27th day, evening, 4th moon, 26AF
I wish we had had the ability to heal Cilmo yesterday, and he did not have to wait to have Thoren close his wounds for a full day. But my ministrations and Stannis' spells have restored him to the point where he will be fine by tomorrow. We put the rest of our healing into Throth - the man (well, dwarf) is truly a rock. I did not think anyone could take so much punishment.
He won't be back to full by tomorrow, but he says he will be fine. Tomorrow we re-enter the crypt.
28th day, one hour past noon, 4th moon, 26AF
We made a few torches out of some sticks, rope, and oil. We are going back in. We'll use the same pairs we used on the original assault and see how the situation unfolds.
28th day, 2 hours past noon, while in tomb, 4th moon, 26AF
There was no combat, but quite a lot of speculation on the dwarf statues. I let Stannis deal with all of this. When there is indecision in combat I will take charge. When there is indecision out of combat, and there is no real danger, I should not assert authority and risk making the rest of the Blades jaded to my point of view.
There are 6 dwarf statues. I will refer to them by number according to this list:
We looted the bodies of the free-willed undead in the tomb and found this set of gear, which we piled by the arch entrance to the compound:
Dwarf 3, who I will refer to as "the chief guardian" from now on, as "Dwarf 3" seems disrespectful -- told us a bit about an old elven circle in the valley. I think he referred to it as a barrow at one point, implying it is also a grave site. It was a large hill surrounded by 13 standing stones. Kip says he knows where the hill is but doesn't know anything about the standing stones. They have probably fallen down due to time. The chief guardian taught Andrew the song of opening for the barrow, so that we could actually assault the complex.
The chief guardian told us that the 5'x10' box in the big room is not part of this complex. We will search it and dismantle it and remove it from this crypt. The chief guardian rewarded us with the sword he had been holding - "The name of this sword is engraved upon it, have the person who wields this sword learn its name well." Kip is playing with it now; I think he is saying something about it being too unbalanced. Andrew muttered something about overcompensating. Normally I would stop them from bickering but I believe I am still allowed to have a sense of humor. The chief guardian thinks we should check out the place we found Throth as well, so I think we are likely going to try to clean out a bit of that before assaulting the elven barrow.
Note to self: Remind Jovvi when we get back to town to construct a crossbow for Andrew. Also, perhaps I should start to train on a ranged weapon myself.
28th day, 2nd watch, 4th moon, 26AF
We think that the 5' x 10' box in the crypt was the evil necromancer-thing's crypt. When we ripped it apart, we found a bunch of rotted and rusted gear and a still shiny shortsword. The shortsword is faintly evil. I hope that it has simply been used for evil acts and that the Blades can redeem it to good, as a magic shortsword (it has not rusted) would help us greatly.
But since it was evil at the time, I took custody of the sword. Jovvi cast "detect magic" on the magic weapons we had gathered (and Cilmo's staff just for good measure), and this is how they showed up in order of strength:
However, when I say the name of the elven longsword while Jovvi is detecting on it, she says it goes from cantrip-level to stronger than Cilmo's staff. I suppose it is activated by its name.
I've sketched a continued picture of the dwarven crypt.
We cleaned out the crypt and left. The door at the back of the big crypt did not open for us, so we respected the wishes of the dwarven guardians (which were basically "respect our crypt") and left it alone.
I am playing a bit with the evil short sword before we bless it and see if it can be reclaimed. The pommel unscrews, and the handle is hollow! There is nothing in it, though. Perhaps a foul device for dispensing poison? If that is what it has been used for, it best not be used for such around me, if it is cleansed and then becomes evil again there will be Thoren's wrath upon someone.
1st day, midmorning, 5th moon, 26AF
We just went back into the entry portion of the crypt and laid the Aramyr priest to rest on one of the now-vacated biers (where the necromancer-undead had stockpiled skeletons for easy activation). Perhaps this will begin the process of erasing the previous evil.
I had Stannis cast bless and magic weapon on the evil shortsword, but it did not wipe it completely clean of the evil. A small change was visible, though, so perhaps Mother Elaine can do better.
We are heading back to town now.
1st day, night, 5th moon, 26AF
Mother Elaine was able to bless the evil shortsword so that there was no evil lingering on the blade, so I was comfortable giving it to Kip as a backup weapon. Some enemies will only be affected by enchanted weapons. We thought of perhaps dispensing holy water through the poison dispensor system, if it is such. I should really have tested that out. Anyway, I don't know how well it will work.
We briefed Mother Elaine on the situation in the valley so far. She agrees with our decision to check out the waterfall area and then the barrow. We will be in town for a week anyway, as Jovvi is making Andrew a crossbow.
3rd day, dusk, 5th moon, 26AF
After failing to do anything useful for Throth's armor yesterday, I chose to go and gather medicinal herbs for the Blades and the town. Kip accompanied me. We got enough herbs for 4 coagulation packs, but no herbs for a draught were to be found.
4th day, dusk, 5th moon, 26AF
Dermond has been flaunting some silver jewelry he recently came into the possession of. I suspect strongly that said jewelry used to be on the bodies of the unfortunates in the dwarven crypt. This irks me, though I don't really know why - is it grave robbing or is it spoils of war, to help further our cause? It feels somewhat dirty.
Stannis apparently doesn't feel that way, though, because he was been trying to get Dermond to hand over a set of earrings to him earlier this morning, and just now I saw Jovvi go by with a new set of silver earrings.
5th day, dusk, 5th moon, 26AF
Today, Andrew presented a wooden whistle with each person's name engraved in it to the members of the Blades. They each blow a different note, and we can use them for signalling and to find each other when lost. Not a bad idea and a good little token to show "membership", something that the others have been kind of looking for. I don't really care. I belong to the Church, and I suppose I belong to the Blades too... perhaps I should make an effort to care. Perhaps this is part of what I am missing out on, not being part of everyone else's social scene in the village.
We have been trying to figure out the powers of the longsword etched with elven runes that we received as a reward. The name of the sword, transliterated to a present-day alphabet, is Elemacilingolesilatelquillelquil. Each chunk of the name seems to activate some power of the sword:
6th day, dusk, 5th moon, 26AF
Today, Dermond presented a piece of polished silver jewelry to each member of the party. I think he wanted everyone to realize that he was marking his comrades just like Andrew was. I'm pretty sure he got the jewelry from the crypt, though. So I donated mine to Mother Elaine. I wonder if that will upset him. I think the thought is nice, I just think we should give something back to our sponsors as well.
7th day, dusk, 5th moon, 26AF
Jovvi has completed her work on Andrew's crossbow. We are re-equipping to head out to the waterfall to explore the complex that the water gnomes emerged from, before the elven barrow awakens.
8th day, dusk, 5th moon, 26AF
Heading up to the waterfall, Kip found tracks of some large cats - at least, something large with claws - in the area. Mikael had mentioned something to him, so we are all a little wary.