With another morning dragging on and on, I spent my time meditating on a local bar on how many talents were being wasted and how I truly deserved to test my meddle against some worthy opponents. Just then as I was about to throw another day away my companions came in to tell me of an unusual plan where Tenedos was going to disguise himself as one of the rogues we had killed earlier and wait for someone in a bar near Hobb’s End to find him. I didn’t think there was really much to the plan and I’m not sure if the arcane user knew what he was going to say but I went along with the plan anyways knowing that if and when the mage messed up that I’d finally get to see some combat.
On the way down we noticed that the streets were quite empty that is… until a few of the patrons of the town dressed in all black who I believe were of the fear clan. The leader in the front gave me an uneasy feeling in the pit of my belly. I knew she wanted our group to get out of her way but because I have my pride and partially because I was bored I decided to keep walking in the middle of the road. Gim decided to follow me which I would have rather not gotten him involved in any trouble but it’s always nice to have a bear on your side no matter how bad the smell. As we crossed paths the woman surprisingly asked politely if we’d move. Deep down I was hoping she would bring trouble but since she used pleasantries I couldn’t resist but to move. Another thing I noticed was that some of my compatriots were shaken as she passed. I couldn’t tell if it’d been too long since they’d seen a striking woman or if she perhaps had an aura about her that I did not completely feel.
Shortly thereafter the incident with fear we reached Hobbe’s End. This was a town that appeared to be the poor section of town. I really didn’t enjoy venturing here but I knew there’d be adventure while we were there so I kept on. While devising a strategy for our attack I, Lochlan, Gim, Jas, and Grizzlegast headed to a nearby forest to await instructions. My brother and Tenedos then proceeded into town to map out where would be a decent place for the rest of the group to hide in case the situation grew troublesome. Once Tenedos came back to the group he was filled with a great plan and a horrible smell the likes of which Gim hasn’t even possessed. I dare say he must have taken a bath in feces. Whatever the case may be he washed himself in the water that wasn’t too far away and then we followed him back into town into a dark alley. Tenedos then placed his disguise on by means of magic and told us that in case of emergency he’d telepathically contact me.
We sat around for about 5 minutes when my vision of what was going on started to blur. Just then a man walked and my vision completely went away. Assuming the worst…well hoping the worst in a sense I told the group that there was trouble and we started running towards the bar. Gim, Kano, and Jas sprinted much further ahead of us and I believe I saw them just well enough to spot them slip into a dark alley. When I turned to look I saw The Shield Of Citadel ganging up on a shady looking fighter with an amazingly well crafted blame. As I took a few steps closer I saw the man start to fight back with amazing strength and even wounded Gim to the point in which I thought I’d have to draw on all of Throrn’s help to give me the divine power to heal poor Gim. With the power of Throrn in my pick I was able to bring my allies health back to where it needed to be. Eventually, after a bite and swipe from Gim the man fell to us and we were victorious. I felt great pride in being able to conquer such a worthy foe but yet a feeling of remorse after having truly seeing how run down the housing complexes in the part of town were.
After the fight we started to question the man who had been knocked unconscious by our attacks. We learned with a spell from Throrn that he was apart of the mysterious fourth cult on the island that served the Aboleths. It’s just at this moment that Lochlan drives his sword threw the man’s head. I had no idea why he did this and couldn’t really explain his next action but he started to turn against the group with the same amount of rage that the beholder of the emerald sword did. Lochlan with the sword in hand turned his wrath on our group. Fearing that my friend had perhaps gotten into the cactus juice again we all tried subduing attacks to try and knock him unconscious without drawing blood. Eventually Jas wrestled the sword out of Lochlan’s hand and magically Lochlan’s sanity returned to him. He wasn’t able to truly explain what had happened to him but we all expected that the sword had possessed him.
Just then a felt shaken by the same presence that was walking down the road before we entered Hobb’s End earlier. The same woman appeared with a man in a red cloak representing freedom. The man’s name was Jaren and the woman’s was Thelasira. They sounded as though they wanted to help us but the woman’s approach was not the same approach an honorable man would choose. Either way they quickly took us away from town and apparently away from danger.
A few miles later we made it to the beach separating Grand Isle to the third island in Barataria. A mysterious boat approached and we all went aboard and sailed across until we made camp on the other side. While there we were able to gain information about the wailing rock and who we were to fear. Also, we had a glimpse of the difference between freedom of choice and fear. While discussing the sword we had recently obtained. Jaren gave us the choice to give him the sword to be destroyed while Thelasira demanded it. Neither had earned my trust yet nor while I wished the sword destroyed I felt this was not the appropriate way to handle it. Later we discussed options of destroying the more powerful Aboleths that could be found out of the water. Perhaps we could capture them by drawing them to land or by going to their domain. Either way I was eager for more battle but for the moment we all needed rest but eagerly I dreamt of nothing but becoming the conqueror of Barataria. For Throrn!
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