Journey to Raven's Rook

Thus begins the personal journal of Nowhere

 Teifling Monk to the Goddess Shar

I have been journeying long from my home in the Ardeep forest, but this is the first place I have found a face that looks like mine. It is a singular experience meeting a person of your own race for the first time. Blank is his name. He is a magic user, and seems quite skilled at it as well. We met in a pub in Fireshear. We spoke long and found that we enjoyed each others company enough to consider traveling together. A few days after our meeting, a pair of heavily injured dwarfs entered the pub. Curious about what had happened to them we approached. They told us they had been trying to free the town of Raven's Rook from an evil force that was killing their people. The town had been evacuated, and the dwarfs had attempted to vanquish the evil, but only just escaped with their lives. The mentioned a hefty reward for riding the town of this problem, so Blank and I set off towards Raven's Rook.

Our first few days were uneventful. We passed some simple travelers on the road, but nothing untoward happened. One afternoon we came upon a bridge crossing a deep gully. There was an orc sitting by it, with a rather large club. He demanded that we pay him to cross the bridge. Neither Blank, nor myself had any gold to our names so we did our best to distract and confuse the creature. Blank talked at him trying to convince him that copper pieces were just as good as gold. While he distracted the orc with this, I slipped across the bridge with the aid of my Lady Shar. Blank threw some coins at the orc and made it across as well. As we continued along the road, we heard something in the trees. An awful screeching. Suddenly, we were attached by three harpies. Thinking that the easiest way to escape them would be to run where they can't fly easily I ran deep into the woods on the side of the road. Unfortunately, Blank did not think the same as I and did not follow. When I realized that the harpies were focusing on him, I went back and did what I could to aid in their destruction. After some chastising from Blank for leaving him, we continued on.

We reached Raven's Rook mid day next. It was a quiet place. Somewhat eerily quiet. We walked around the base of the first plateau we came to and found a metal ladder attached to the rock. It seemed this was the only way up, so we started to climb. After some time, Blank noticed a shape in the distance. Flying quickly towards us. It was a Peryton, determined to eat a heart to start it's reproductive cycle. I found myself rather ineffective against this foe. Not having much training in long range attacks I tried to hurl darts at it from above. Only later did I realize that I risked hitting Blank with this tactic. I didn't hit him, but I think I will try to avoid maneuvers like that in the future. When we reached the top of the ladder, we found a rather deserted sight. After some looking around, I noticed a strange, very small creature in front of us. It looked like a mouse made of metal. Blank called it clockwork...I am still unsure what exactly this means. We killed the creature, thinking it was a scout and continued on. We found more of these...clockwork mice, and killed them as well. We continued searching the area. It seemed this town was built on several large spires of rock. The main part had what seemed to be a town hall, and a few houses. We decided to take a look in the houses, mostly to see if there was anyone around to talk to. There did not seem to be any people, but we found a few useful items, like a ring of jumping and a wand of detect magic.

The next pillar was a market, and mercantile area. We explored this area thoroughly, and came out with some baubles. I picked up some jewelers tools. I have been interested in the art of jewel craft for some time, but have never had the opportunity to learn much of it. While we were examining the continence of the jewelry store we noticed two very large figures walking around the square. They seemed to be large metal men. We let them go by, and decided to explore the next part of the town. This seemed to have a large place of learning Blank called a University. There was also a large tower that was used for observing the stars. We decided to have a look there first. It proved to be a bit of a poor choice. The large metal creatures followed us and some unfortunate lack of quiet we were found. The fight was intense. Blank and I worked well together. We had come close to dispatching one of the constructs when a small man, who seemed reluctant to show his face to us, appeared and started attacking us from behind the metal men. I noticed he seemed to use his voice to cast spells, much like Blank, and I thought if he could not speak he could not do magic. I summoned the power of the Dark goddess and created a sphere of silence around us. It was not the best choice, as I discovered it meant that Blank couldn't cast any of his normal spells either. Finally we managed to bring the creatures down. The little man fled. I rushed after him, and caught up easily. He was so small he could not go very fast. I had only intended to wound him, but I underestimated his weakness and killed him in two blows. Blank seemed unconcerned as he told me he was planning on killing him anyway. We searched his person for some indication that this might be who we were endeavoring to find in the first place. We found his name was Plex. He had a few items of interest on him, and as he had been trying to kill us, I felt no qualms about taking them.

Blank became quite intrigued by his staff and picked it up. I was still examining the body, and looking around when he suddenly slashed his sword at me! I evaded the blow easily and shouted at him asking what he thought he was doing. He told me not to worry, he would bring me right back. Not knowing what he meant by that, I kept avoiding his blows. After only a few more attempts at stabbing me, Blank somewhat came to his senses and sat down to examine the staff more closely. He told me it seemed to be causing him to have a compulsion to cast a particular spell called 'Animate Dead.' When I told him to put the staff down and leave it, he couldn't, and wouldn't let me touch it. I have a feeling that this staff is cursed somehow, and may cause problems for us in future. For now, we are taking some much needed rest. In the morning, we will explore the rest of the pillars. Blank seems to believe Plex has a book of spells hidden away somewhere and he wants very much to find it. I don't care much for spells, but they seem to be useful for Blank, so I don't mind indulging him a bit more. He is an odd person, but it is nice to have a regular companion on my journey. I am learning a great deal from him.