(From the jour­nal of Zgard ad-Din, a lieu­tenant of cav­alry in Hamza’s Heretics)

This mis­sion has placed Sharif and me in strange com­pany on a mys­te­ri­ous quest to rid the vil­lage of Hom of a curse placed by a gypsy witch (I spit in her mother’s milk). We were given a map of the Great Old Wood by the wiz­ard Delon and told to make for the druids on the east side of the Wilde River to enlist their aid.

We accom­pany mem­bers of the Black Swan Com­pany in the employ of The­rion the Thau­maturge: Starla, a ranger; Mil­ton, a half-elven illusionist-fighter; and Gar­shak, a half-orc fighter-assasisn. We have been joined by Dan­daly, a cleric; Tris­t­ian, a half-elf thief-magic user; and Norion, a pal­adin who is pos­sessed of con­sid­er­able horse­man­ship matched only by his sense of honor. We are a mighty force indeed!

Day 1: We were ambushed by three gnolls in the night. We slaugh­tered them.

Day 2: Our party dis­cov­ered a small, peace­ful lake in the woods — too peace­ful, it turned out. The whole place had been put to an enchanted sleep, includ­ing a young woods­man in a pavil­ion by the lake. The fix was sim­ple enough — a water nymph made her­self man­i­fest to us and charmed Tris­t­ian into pour­ing a magic elixr into the lake, break­ing the spell. It is for­tu­nate for us that her intent for him was as benign as it was. Tris­t­ian prat­tled about her beauty all the next day.

Day 3: Ambushed by brig­ands. We slaugh­tered them, then dou­bled back with a pris­oner to guide us to their camp. This we har­ried mer­ci­lessly; Norion, Mil­ton and I charged the camp accom­pa­nied by phan­tas­mal horse­men con­jured by our illu­sion­ist while the rest of the party struck the camp from behind. Casu­al­ties: Gar­shak par­a­lyzed by a trapped chest in the camp, Tris­t­ian mauled by a goat.

Charge!

Day 4: We ate mut­ton and set out for for the druids’ abode. We spent the after­noon lis­ten­ing for rumors in the the Wild­wood Inn, a rest­ing place in the for­est just off the Old Wilder­ness Road. We camped by Quiet Lake. The pal­adin and I awoke to find our horses, wagon, and pos­ses­sions stolen! We have been robbed by were rats. The filthy crea­tures had missed Garshak’s magic sword, and he made great use of it slay­ing one and griev­ously injur­ing another. Tris­t­ian charmed her, but botched the inter­ro­ga­tion break­ing the charm. She turned into a giant rat and fled our bonds just as dawn was break­ing. We shall pur­sue them to their lair and slay them all!