And Then What Happened?

Well, much has happened since writing in here last time.  I'll start at the beginning and hopefully it will come together.

My last entry had our group with the elves at their camp, trying to gather some more information about our newly acquired spellscars, however, that turned out to be a ruse.  With some shifty drugs and some quick fingered magical work that would make my teachers gape, they managed to put all of our group into a deep sleep.  When we awoke, we found that we had been surrounded by a dense fog with a beast bearing down on us.  It turns out that these Elves had some past history with our resident amnesiac and called out that this was punishment for some kind of indiscretion.

We disposed of the apparition and discovered that the camp-site we were in had been an illusion as well.  What was left clearly hadn't seen any use for months.  I will admit that our newest companions in the group, the Shadar-Kai, Alar'riel and the Shifter, Brambles, proved quite valuable in the fight and both seemed willing to accompany with us as we searched for the elves.  Brambles seemed only interested in the possibility of more fighting and mauling, and I'm not ashamed to say that as long as it's someone else, I'm happy to have her along and the Shadar-Kai is rather scary too, but in a "massive-and-silent-you-are-merely-a-speck-of-dirt" type of way.  We did need to rest from the fray, so we did, and then set out in search of the elves.

Because of the heavy rain, they weren't easy to track and before we caught up with them we were set upon by a group of foul goblins. During the fight something odd took place, although, with everything else that happened, it's probably not the most strangest thing to occur.  I attempted to conjure up an Illusory Ambush at one of the foul creatures and when it flew towards it, the spell coalesced into the shape of a pelican with blood-red eyes.  It flew straight at the goblin, but flew right by it's head and I missed it completely. I really need to work on my aim.  I was quite shocked, and it seems to now be a constant occurrence, as it's happened every time I cast that spell now.  During my magical studies, I had read of this phenomenon.  It's called "Transference".  Now, if I remember the text correctly, what happens is a mage's spells sometimes take the shape of something that causes deep and powerful emotions within the caster.  One's lost spouse for a grieving wizard or in my case, a pelican for my intense fear.  Rather humiliating.

After dispatching the goblins, we decided that the rain was too heavy and the tracks too few to continue tracking the elves, so me made our way back to the road with two new companions in our merry band.  A pleasant note from the battles, our half-elf gained some of her memory back, able to recall a name: Eramita.  She is unsure exactly what it is, but she believes it could be her name.

We made it back to the road and continued south along it, headed toward the city we had chosen as our destination in Brandenburg, when we spotted a landing on the shore that is used by ships.  We decided to set up camp there to rest and possibly await a vessel to book passage on.  I was only too happy to oblige, as my feet we quite sore.  Brambles and Alar'riel went out hunting and managed to get some meat and pelt that we dried while we waited.  Eventually a ship headed down river came into view and we hailed them down.

The Deva and myself decided it would be best if we were to talk to the captain to try and arrange passage.  It turns out that he wanted to charge us an outrageous price for passage AND food.  Well, Yraen wasn't too happy with this and tried to lower the price, but the captain became enraged and ordered her not to set foot on his ship.  Luckily I was there to intercede, and through my superior capabilities at negotiating, managed to calm him down and get passage for us to the town in exchange for the others helping to unload his cargo at the town.  I agreed, however as that is manual labour, I pointed out to the good captain that a mage would be better at helping elsewhere, like making sure the sails are filled with a good wind for his vessel.

The trip down river was uneventful.  We arrived at the city and Yraen and myself made our way to the harbour-master to advise that the captain had picked up passengers and was not smuggling them in, another condition on our travel.  We also spoke to a city guard who said we would need to talk to the city guard commander with our adventuring recommendation.  We went back to the docks and joined up with the rest of our party and made our way to the watch house being escorted by a guard.  He mentioned that we could get the commander in a good mood with a bottle of his favourite drink so we made a stop off and purchased one.  On the way there, he also made mention of some "lowies" disappearing or some such, I really wasn't paying much attention to what he was saying.

The meeting with the watch commander went smoothly.  He was impressed with our offering and would allow our two new members to become part of our adventuring party if we would investigate the matter of the "lowie" disappearances.  He said that he was only doing this much, because family members of the ones who have disappeared keep coming in.  We agreed and he gave us a token to show we were on official business and requested that we assign a name to our group.  We chose "Bramble's Keepers".  How droll.

We split up, each deciding to go our separate ways for now, I chose to locate the magical quarter of the market, and found a quaint little magic shop, where the shop owner was performing some kind of ritual.  We spoke for a bit, I even asked him about the disappearances.  Heh, I would love for father to see me now, all experienced with worldly matters and what not, taking an interest in the common folk.  Anyway, he said that he didn't know anything apart from the fact that they were vanishing.  I perused his wares and found a rather interesting flaming staff for sale.  It was quite expensive and I had to barter and bargain with everything I had.  I even offered my magical assistance with his ritual but the price was still much too high, so I offered him the orb we obtained in Brandenburg in exchange as well.  Rather oddly, right after I made the offer, I swear I head this massive, blood-curdling scream clear across the city from the direction of the temple.  I took that as some kind of sign to hang onto the orb for now.  So I asked if he had any knowledge of the orb and he said he knew exactly what it was and would tell me for a hefty sum.  I will have to consult with the rest of the group to find out what they want to do.

So we set to work at the ritual, and once done, I headed back to the inn where we said we would take lodging for the night.  I managed to get in just before the innkeeper closed up and he gave me one of his premium rooms for only 2 gold pieces, can you imagine that?  Tomorrow we will begin looking for signs of the "lowies".  The watch commander said that one of the younger ones may have actually seen someone being taken, so we will try and find her tomorrow.