Adventure Story
Our journey began upon a boat and carried us at last to the gates of Valkengard. No sooner had we arrived than local robbers tried to make prey of us, and no sooner had they struck than we answered in kind. After the scuffle, we made our way to the Brick Mammoth and secured a room, taking our first shelter in the city.
Our rest did not last. While we were still settling into the rhythms of Valkengard, the dark mage Zarkcan came for us. The battle was bitter, but we endured and struck him down. In the aftermath, we secured our delving permit and began gathering threads of intrigue that wound through the city. Notes tied Sutter Izen to the Shahn black market, and the city itself began to reveal deeper troubles beneath its rough exterior.
After a period of shopping and preparation, we pushed deeper into Valkengard’s secrets. At the Emperor’s Fancy, we found Sutter Izen gambling in the back room. There we won Lord Emmotatch’s wife, Lady Thora, in a dangerous game of chance, though his missing son remained beyond our reach. The trail then led us toward the Gooch, who held information on the Beavered Battleaxes and their disappearance.
Once our business in town was settled for the moment, we struck north into the wilds. Along the way, we brought down a moose and sold off what we could, but the greater discovery came when we found a barrow mound crawling with zombies, a place that may well have been the Tomb of Morkaal. The dead were too many, and prudence won over pride; we withdrew rather than be buried there ourselves.
Continuing north along the road, we encountered the Zecko Kobold Team in catacombs at 11,21. Their leader, the kobold wizard Zecko, struck a bargain with us and shared vital intelligence: the outlaw Cyrus was holed up in a tower at 12,22. With the kobold scout Glipto at our side, we devised a ruse to approach the tower as wine merchants, preparing to spring the trap alongside our uneasy allies.
The plan held. Together with the kobolds, we overwhelmed the brigands in the tower, took Cyrus alive, and claimed half the saffron stored within. Zecko was pleased to inherit the tower for his own, while we returned to Valkengard with our prisoner and turned him in for the reward. By then, rumors of rogue zombies had begun to reach the city, yet we kept our own counsel, knowing the wilderness still held more dangers and more unanswered questions ahead.
Tags #Journal Chronicle Valkengard Wilderness