Poes Adventure Journal
Second Entry (after 11/08 session)

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It seems to me that when a blazing light falls from the sky the gods are trying to tell you something. I can’t figure out why it was so hard to get Kleister Fokken and the rest of them to recognize that. Sheesh, you’d think they didn’t know that they were destined to save the world or something…let’s just say that it’s been an interesting couple of days.

I all started simply enough. I was in town having a few drinks – Ok, maybe more than a few, I never was good with numbers, and hey, they haven’t been charging me – when we were suddenly asked to leave. Something about an orc patrol coming and how we’d raise alarms. So the lot of us head out to Amy’s family’s home to ride out the patrol’s visit. I can see that Kobe is looking to get into some trouble, and I figure I may as well keep an eye on him so I volunteer to head back to town in my farmer clothes to see what all the fuss is about. Kobe naturally jumps at the chance to poke around and Guss joins us, too. While I pick up where I left off with my drinking, Kobe works the crowd. It turns out, he says, that this isn’t a normal orc patrol. Of course not – why would a normal orc patrol be looking for the humans of destiny? Anyway, this patrol is lead by a scion which I guess is an orc who claims to be descended from a dragon. Or at least, is big enough and mean enough to claim that and get away with it. Either way, probably bad news. This orc, Glint, supposedly can smell elves and is here looking for something. He calls for a town meeting the next day where he’ll probably announce a bunch of new taxes and take a bunch of the people’s livestock and food. Frackin’ orcs. I can’t wait until the change happens and my friends kill them all. Anyway, we spend the night holed up with Amy’s folks – where interestingly enough, Kleister Fokken notes that his spear is humming or vibrating. Sounds like a bad joke, but I’d guess that that weapon has a lot more to it than meets the eye. Why else would the Raven Queen send it his way? I guess she’ll let us in on it’s full potential when the time is right…probably when we meet up with this Glint fellow again.

Speaking of Glint, did I mention that orcs are frackers? At his little town meeting, Glint – who really just looked like an ugly orc to me, scion or no scion – was a bit out of sorts. Apparently he hadn’t found what he was looking for. Poor fellow. I almost feel bad for him. It was good to see him go though, even if the orcs did leave with a lot of food and stuff from the townspeople. For us, it’s back to Amy’s family’s house and a restless night. I was up most of the night…and at one point the raven appeared at my window. The prayer beads were like chunks of ice around my wrist, so I knew something was up. I followed the bird outside. It showed me the sky, which suddenly lit up with a flash of light. A loud boom knocked me on my back…and I woke up on the floor on my room. Sometimes I wish the Raven Queen was a little more subtle…

The next day was eventful to say the least. The commune we were staying in was attacked and burned and several humans carried off. We had no idea who or what was responsible. Not like that would stop us. Lucky for us it wasn’t a dragon or anything – just gnolls. And dogs, lots of dogs. I never really minded dogs, but these were enough to change my mind. They kept us pinned down while the gnolls peppered us with arrows. Have I mentioned how much a frackin’ hate archers? Let’s just say I enjoyed introducing several of them to the Queen’s judgement. Heh. The rest of them fled before the combined power of Ron, Kleister (who managed, I think to bleed on at least one of them…), Beros, Guss and the rest of them. We managed to follow their trail and rescue the people they carried off. When we return with them we are, believe it or not, even bigger heroes in this little town than we were before. If this keeps up I shouldn’t have to pay for a drink the rest of my life…

So another slow day of drinking begins – this time I am treated to the diversion of watching some halfling mating rituals. Or at least I think that’s what Kobe was up to. From what I can tell, the young halfling lass he’s mooning over isn’t too interested. Seems to me that he needs a bit more money before that one will give him a second look. I’m about to point this out to him when the town elders kick us out again. Seems the frackin’ orcs are coming back…

Well, now I’m getting interested…so I don my farmer duds again and along with Kobe and Guss, hang around the town to see what happens. It’s that Glint fellow again. Even more upset this time. Ranting about how he know the town is hiding something, how a lot of money’s been spent around here lately on expensive armor and other adventuring gear. He wants to know where the cash is coming from. As he speaks, there is a flash of light in the sky. It streaks westward, toward the horizon as a loud boom shakes the trees and rattles the shutters on the towns buildings. That shuts the big guy up. He drops to a knee and appears to be in pain. Heh. After some long moments, he stands and announces that the orcs are leavin. In mere minutes he has the orcs saddled up and riding off to the west.

Kobe and Guss talk to the town elders and learn that the flash in the sky was probably a meteor which could contain something called star metal. A dwarven smith in town says he could fashion star metal into a powerful magi item. Before I know it we’re headed west, too. A couple of days on the road and we run into some of those ugly goblins again. Apparently they’re after the star metal as well. Somehow they manage to talk us into letting them go. I think it was because they gave Kobe one of their fancy hats. A couple of nights later we’re attacked by more goblins and some larger bear-like creatures. They’re not so tough once you get to know them tough and we make short work of them. It begins to feel however that we’re not really making any progress towards the site of the meteor’s crash. We have made it to a more heavily wooded area though. Elf country. As we’re walking, I see the raven perched on a branch high up in a tree. He was looking right at me and nodding. The beads around my wrist grow cold. Did I mention that I can take a hint? Well, I climbed up after the raven. He kept moving higher into the tree, so I kept climbing. Eventually we were both near the top and from there I coul dsee what looked like the likely site of the meteor’s crash. I slid back down quickly and pointed the group in that direction.

We didn’t get far before we ran into more trouble though. This time it was a group of orcs harassing a large owl…I mean really large – horse size. The owl seemed to be guarding an elf who looked like he’d seen better days. Beros seemed upset by this and hell, I’m always looking for a fight, especially if it gives me a chance to kill some frackin’ orcs, so we waded in. We’re starting to come together pretty well – Sunny struck down several orcs with her magical power, Ron Burgundy stepped up next to me to hold the line, Kobe snuck around the battlefield, sticking his daggers in orc backs when they least expected it and what can I say about Guss – he’s a whirlwind on the battlefield, striking several orcs at once with his flashing sword. Throughout it all, Kleister keeps us going – shouting words of encouragement, instructions to get us into better positions, and curses at the orcs. Together, we do the Queen’s work…

As the last orc’s blood spills, Sunny rushes to the downed elf. She calls for help and I catch sight of the Raven sitting in a bush looking at me. He nodded towards the elf and bobbed up and down. The beads felt like ice on my arm. So I stepped up and pushed the power of the Queen into the elf. This roused him enough that Kleister could talk to him. He’d apparently been poisoned and warns us that “she is coming” before passing out again. I get the feeling he’s not talking about my patron deity…

Poe

1st week of my third life