This being the journal of the travels of Aeldrin Oakwood, once of Selenica, ranger of Dymrak, now chosen of Oghma.
It has been a halfmoon now since I acted upon the visions that I have been receiving for the last several moons. The visions were clear, if confusing – I have no idea why I should have been chosen by Oghma to receive these visions, for I have never worshipped or paid reverence to him. The message was clear however; I am chosen by him to travel to Cragmaw Castle and cleanse his shrine there. I assume that I have been chosen, unworthy as I am, for my many years hunting goblins in the Dymrak, for he has also revealed that it is they who desecrate his shrine.
The vision also told me to go to Phandalin, and meet a Sister Garaele there, at the shrine of Tymora. I found Phandalin on my map and so headed west out of the Dymrak. At the first homestead I reached, I inquired of the road to Phandalin, but the owner, Pyotr Sukiskyn, had not heard of the town at all. Looking at my map he remarked that it was missing a town called Threshold as well, which was on the road to where Phandalin apparently once was. These humans change things so fast.
Anyway, I took the road to Threshold without any major incident, and found a bustling human town. There are a new set of men here, from Thyatia, who seem to have taken over the rulership of Traladara recently; they call it Karameikos now. At Threshold, I enquired of Phandalin, and discovered that it does still exist, but is a mere village now, having been over-run and pillaged by orcs many years ago. As I was asking for information on it, I was approached by a dwarf named Gundrun Rockseeker. He recognized me as a ranger and offered me employ escorting a wagon-load of supplies from Threshold to Phandalin for him, as he was concerned about bandits and goblins on the road. I readily agreed to take his commission, as I was already intending to make that my destination, and being paid to travel my own road seemed a stoke of fortune. He introduced me then to three others that he had hired to protect his wagon; two half elves, one a priest of Helim, the other a sell-sword, and a halfling who seemed altogether too fond of his own voice and opinion on all matters.
3rd day of Tarsakh
The journey to Phandalin was initially uneventful, until the third day around noon. Rounding a corner as the track made its way through a cutting in dense forest, we saw two horses lying in the roadway ahead. I moved up and identified them as belonging to Gundrun and his bodyguard, a man named Sildar Hallwinter. There was no sign of either dwarf or man, but as I looked for more clues, two goblins leaped from the undergrowth and attacked me. As I turned and drew my swords, I felt an arrow hit me in the back – an ambush! One of the goblins then hewed my leg, and I collapsed to the ground. I came round as Aramil, the priest, cast a benediction to heal my wounds. The two goblins by me were dead, so I snatched my bow and killed one of the two ambushers on the hill above with a single shot. Elaina, the half-eleven warrior, felled the other with an arrow. We saw that actually one of the other goblins that had attacked in close combat was merely asleep; it turned out that Garret the halfling actually knew some magick as he had boasted the previous night in his cups.
Casting around, I found tracks belonging to many goblins leading to the north-west. It looked like they had dragged their captives or victims in this direction as well. Returning, I questioned our now-bound goblin captive. He revealed that he was part of a goblin tribe led by King Groll at Cragmaw Castle, although he was part of a warband led by a bugbear called Klarg in some nearby caves. According to the goblin, their king had been paid by a mysterious stranger called Black Spider to kidnap the dwarf, so they had ambushed the two of them. The dwarf would be sent to Cragmaw, but the bodyguard was destined for the goblin cookpot.
We rapidly evaluated our options. We could follow the goblin tracks to their cave now, and try and rescue Sildar, but that would mean abandoning the cart and its supplies, and we were also weary and wounded. Questioning of the goblin revealed that Sildar would probably be kept alive for a while, so we decided to continue to Phandalin first and see if we could recruit help.
4th day of Tarsakh
We arrived at Phandalin after another uneventful day on the road. There we delivered the cart and supplies to Barthan’s Provisions as required. The halfling seemed very jumpy when we approached Phandalin, and admitted that he had once lived here, but had fallen in with a bad set known as the Red Blades. Talking to Elmar Barthan, he revealed that Gundrun had two brothers, but they were not in town at the moment. It seemed that the whole town lived in fear of these Redbrands, who were a bad lot entirely, running a whole protection racket. We were paid by Elmar and left Gundrun’s wagon with him, and took rooms at the decent inn in town, where we heard more tales of the bad deeds of the Redbrands. We tried to see if anyone would help up rescue Sildar or deal with the Red Blades, but the local population seemed completely cowed. Even a half-elf called Darren Endermarth who Elsa the barmaid claimed was a great warrior claimed that he was too old to help us out when we spoke to him.
Disillusioned, we retired to bed. In the morning, we decided to do some quick shopping and the go and see if we could rescue Sildar. I need to see if I can see Sister Garaele as well quickly, if only to find out why I am here. Especially if I am going near to Cragmaw.