Day 6, 24 days remaining.
The Beginning
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| The Dalliance at night. |
We spent most of our day gathering any tools we may need for this venture. We stocked up on what food we could gather from The Dalliance and began our trek. We knew it would take the rest of the day and most of the next. So we cleaned up the inn as best we could as to not raise suspicion about Bellam and Alicia being gone.
Drae met up with us before we proceeded onward. We thanked him for his excellent work and welcomed him to go forward with us to take down Balentyne. As I write this, the trip is unbelievably dull. Bellam must have really been hurting for money to want to make this trip by himself. We lugged our gear for miles with no real indication of how far we had traveled. It was starting to stink to high heavens as well. Grumblejack insisted on bring the bodies of Bellam and Alicia for snacks. It didn't matter much. The stench was worth the moments of peace.
12:00 A.M Day 117, Rova 17, 3042 AP (After Peace)
Day 7, 23 days remaining.
Faith in Grumblejack
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| Into the tunnel we go. |
We had spent the last five hours traversing the dark and dank tunnel on our way to Balentyne. We finally decided to setup camp and rest. Maldrake and Stryder worked to get a small flame going, which left eerie shadows among the tunnel walls. Grumblejack sat down with us.
"Grumblejack has question." The ogre blurted out of almost no where. After all he had been deadly silent the entire trip thus far.
Maldrake looked to the ogre and replied, "Yes Grumblejack. What question do you have?"
“Hmmm...” said the ogre suddenly suprising contemplative. “Grumblejack not know much about the gods. Men who wear Mitran suns always hated Grumblejack, so Grumblejack hate them back. What gods like ogres?”
Maldrake later confessed to us that he didn't know which gods gave two shits about ogres but he knew Grumblejack wasn't exactly privy to the information either. He told the ogre, "Asmodeus is the only god who does."
“So, Asmodeus likes ogres, eh? Can Grumblejack still fight and worship Asmodeus?” Grumblejack questioned.
Maldrake nodded.
“Can Grumblejack eat people and worship Asmodeus?”
Maldrake smiled and nodded.
“Can Grumblejack get revenge on people who throw him in prison and worship Asmodeus?”
Maldrake nodded.
“Then Grumblejack worship Asmodeus.” His mood immediately shifted from contemplative to joyous. Grumblejack danced around with almost childlike glee. “Yay! Now Grumblejack have god too! Nobody stop Grumblejack with god on his side! Wait ... isn’t Asmodeus god of badness, devils and telling fibs? Does worshipping devil-god make Grumblejack bad person?”
Maldrake shook his head.
Grumblejack gently approached Kallista and placed his fingers around her holy symbol. He inspected it carefully. Then he walked back to the bones of Bellam and Alicia. He began snapping bones and biting down to create fine details. He bit down on a strand of rope to break up the threads and began weaving it around the bones.
We looked upon these actions for about an hour as he worked on some sort of artwork or contraption we really were not sure what. During that time we finished our little camp and setup our bedrooms. We downed a little mead and some bread.
Grumblejack stood up holding a mess of bones and string. He turned his back to us, put the string over his neck and turned back around. "Now Grumblejack have symbol too!"
An oversized symbol of Asmodeus is what he had created. He laughed out loud and pat him on the back. Grumblejack had smiled and we went off to bed.
10:00 P.M Day 117, Rova 17, 3042 AP (After Peace)
Day 7, 23 days remaining.
The Arrival
There was not much more to write about this day. We spent the entire day walking and finally made it to the end point. The storage area was above us. We pried open the secret door and it revealed that Bellam was telling us the truth. There was no way this place was used on any sign of a regular basis. Dirt, mold, and cobwebs were everywhere and on everything. We left the area and went back down into the tunnel to discuss what we needed to do.
Our group was far to large to go together. We would be making too much noise. We picked out Stix and Drae to begin scouting. They were clearly our stealthiest members. We brought this up and they agreed. Grumblejack did not.
He stepped on and said, "Listen, Grumblejack be stealthy. Grumblejack is going."
We looked at each other nervously.
Grumblejack went on, “Grumblejack have no problem with plan. Grumblejack quiet as death! One time, Grumblejack sneak up on a farmer to steal sheep. The farmer turned around and look me straight in the eyes. He so scared, little man make water. Grumblejack asked him if he saw anything. Farmer say no.
Grumblejack stopped and smiled.
“See...Grumblejack VERY stealthy.”
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