Caves of Sorrow: Journal of Golin Strongbeard

Expedition with Golin Strongbeard, coward and abandoner of friends, Phalanx, succumber to poison, Murdock, slayer of Ankhegs, Welkin, screamer until the end, Ophe, stopper of Patrick.

''This journal is of one of the worst days of me life. It all seemed like an easy enough mission, escort some miners while they survery and get them back, safe and sound, sounds easy ain't it? Yeah right lad, not even close. Sometimes I wonder what gods these people are following because they surely don't have their favor. Most things went fine for me, but for my compatriots... Well that's a different tale.''

''We got the mission from Gundrak, back in the town. The leader of the miners were called sam, later I found out the names of the rest of them aswell, Patrick, Herc, Bob, and Mario. Sam seemed like a normal lad, human, late 50s. Gundrak even gave us a beer for the road, the only one to drink theirs were Welkin. When he was lying on the ground screaming like a stuck pig... Anyhow, getting ahead of meself here.''

''We traveled for one day without any problems in the west/south-west direction. That is, until we came to a river just as nightfall was approaching. I sent Ophe over with my rope so we got something to hold onto as we crossed it. Strong lad that one, just walked across like there was not a care in the world, and I guess at that point there weren't. I then crossed after him, we kept watch on that side of the river and the others on the other while the miners safely crossed. ''

''After them... was Welkin, and that lad was clumbsy let me tell ya. He jumped into the river strongwilled as he was and was immediately swept of his feet. I guess he was to weak to hold onto the rope. Murdock, brave lad that one, jumped in after and saved him from being swept away. He simply waded across the river with Welkin in tow. Unfortunately for us though, Welkin was not quiet during all of this. There were quite a lot of screaming involved.''

''As such, soon after we had all crossed, just a couple of seconds really an Ankheg, huge jumped up from the sands right next to old Murdock. Welkin got a shot of right of the start, and boy let me tell ya, that boomstick is loud! Not much good that did though because it seems to only have made it angry. The big one spewed acid from his mouth, all over Murdock, Ophe, and Welkin. Welkin fell unconcious and contributed nothing more during the fight. There were also swarms of bugs biting and gnawing that eventually brought down Ophe aswell. I managed to get him back up but the hero of this fight was Murdock, without a doubt he did well there. He finished off each and every one of the creatures. All Welkin did, was moan and drink. Murdock managed to pull the plating of the Ankhegs head and get a rough shield of sorts. Anyways, night were approaching and we set up camp. If ya don't know what an Ankheg is, it's a huge natural monster, it looks like an enourmous insect, an antlike creature.''

''The next morning we were up bright and early, still strong of mind with optimism in our hearts. The miners let us know we were getting closer to the cave, so we took it slow, making sure we wouldn't be surprised. We got into the cave, and the miners went of to the side, letting us know we should clear it before they started surveying. Now there was one problem with that plan.. Welkin was skiddish, the cave was dark and full of spiderwebs, as such he immediately got scared and fired his gun into the roof letting the entire cave know someone was there. After that sillyness, I wondered how he was going to see in the dark, being a human and all. The rest of us were fine, being of races that don't have that kind of problem. ''

''Welkin then began trying to tie a torch to his boomstick with a rope, it was amusing for a bit watching him struggle until I cast light on his weapon so the lad could see. What was he thinking?! Going to a dark cave with no plan for how to see anything, silly one that was. ''

''I sent Murdock up first to carefully scope out the cave, now that they knew we were here. Welkin, being scared stood right in his back. Therefore when they walked into the trap, they both got caught instead of only Murdock. Now I don't know how I forgot this but when in a cave, always look up! In the ceiling there was a roper, concealed as a stalactite. It tried grabbing them both, only catching Murdock and lifted him straight up to him in the roof. Now Murdock managed to get free first and consequently fell down on his back on the floor. I did some spells managing to damage the beast while at the same time, staying in the back out of reach. ''

''However, no one else was quite so lucky. As soon as the monster could act it caught the three of them, Welkin, Murdock and Ophe with his tendrils and dragged them towards it. Now this fight was going poorly as well, at some point Ophe fell unconcious but I managed to bring him back to life thanks to Moradin. At this point, the first death of the expedition happend, unless you count poor Filas of course. The roper, having dropped Murdock turned its attention to Welkin who was dangling and screaming trying to fire his boomstick. And just like that, the lad was no more. One single bite from the creature took his head clean of, now I may not have been a fan of the lad but that is no way to go out.''

''I eventually managed to kill the creature, but with a melancholy heart. Now there was nothing I could have done to save him, but there is no joy in winning when there is such a loss as well.''

''Now we had a little chat of what we should do, we took a short break and decided to press on. This turned out to be another poor decision for us. One of the miners, Herc felt brave enough to join us. The walls were glistening with moisture and as we moved further into the cave I saw something, it looked like a spider or something hiding behind a stalactite. I warned Murdock, little good that did. We got maybe 60 feet into the cave before we were ambushed again. A creature, a mixture of a halfling and spider, with four arms and two legs jumped out and attacked him, shortly thereafter another one jumped out and attacked me. ''

''We managed to slay these creatures but Herc panicked and ran straight into the cave attracting even more attention. As he did this I took a closer look on these creatures, they had a shell like a lobster and were covered in fur, they had green blood. For weapons they had sharpened bonedaggers with the hilt wrapped in silk.''

''Murdock tried to save Herc but was too late, another miner felt brave and went in and died as well. I'm not sure what curse got into these miners but their job was to stay safe, not run in and die for no good use. All they did were attract more of these creatures. ''

''Eventually Phalanx decided to join us, good was that because we were in a rough spot. These creatures had some type of leader whose daggers were coated in some poison. In just three quick strikes against me, I went from feeling fine to almost unconscious. Had I not been a dwarf I would have that's for sure. I had to pull back at that point because one more of those strikes would have brought me down, so once more I stayed in the backlines casting aiding spells for the group.''

''However, it was not meant to be. My companions, fell one after another, overwhelmed by their large numbers and many attacks. First, Murdock fell, cursing them with his last breath, later Ophe fell and last but not least Phalanx. Now this is far from my proudest moment, but I ran.''

''There was nothing I could have done, I didn't have any spells left, and any single one attack would have brought me down but still.. Dwarves do not run. The last thing I saw before I turned a corner was the monstres wrapping my compatriots up in their webbing. My only hope, is to get back to town, tell the others what happend and the three of them might be saved.. Sweet Moradin I am tired...''