[Cerek the Barbaric]

Greetings once again. I sincerely apologize for not updating my journal for so long, but my adventures have been extensive and my travels have been far and wide recently. Events have moved at such a pace that I am just now finding time to sit down and write about them. So, without further ado, allow me to recount my most recent exploits.

Slavers in the Slums
After defeating Pebblecrusher and his friends, I returned to the Copper Coronet. Hendak was very friendly, but also "gently reminded" me that I had promised to pursue the rest of the Slavers still operating in the area. He showed me a staircase in the back of the Inn that led down to the Sewers area. The Slavers had apparantly used this underground passage to transport the slaves to and from the Coronet. I cast a couple of spells in preparation for battle and started down the passage.

I hadn't gone more than a few feet when I heard a lot of mumbling ahead, along with the rattling of armor and swords. I used my newfound ring to turn Invisible and crept forward slowly, only to discover a group of goblin bandits encamped in the passage ahead. I began casting a spell, which dispelled my Invisibility. The goblin leader saw me and ordered his henchmen to attack - but my spell was quicker. One well-placed Skull Trap wiped out the entire group, except for the captain himself - and a couple of swipes from my sword finished him off. I noticed an opening to my right that had a horrible smell coming from it. I took a few steps in that direction and discovered another Otyugh (or Ottie-YUCK as I call them - incredibly disgusting creatures). My experience in the dungeon where I awoke had shown them to be susceptible to magical attacks - and since the beast was standing/floating in a pool of sewage, I decided to try my Wand of Lightning on him. It worked wonderfully, killing the creature quickly as the bolt rebounded off the wall and struck it a second time. I moved closer to the pool of sludge and noticed that parts of the water appeared to be moving. After a moment, I realized that the water was moving - except it was some kind of slime creature instead of water. My sword had little effect on the thing. It just sliced straight through it without doing any noticeable damage. So I pulled out the club I had retrieved from Illyich and tried that. It worked much better and I soon splattered the slime monster into small chunks of floating grime. A second creature approached from the other direction and met a similar fate. After killing the two creatures, I realized I was standing knee deep in a pool of filth, which meant I would definitely need some new clothes once I finished the business at hand. I was about to continue down the original passage when something in the water caught my eye. My curiosity overcame my revulsion, and I reached into the water to retrieve a severed hand that looked like it had been there for a very long time. I instinctively dropped it back in the water, but then I thought how odd it was that this hand had not been ...consumed...by the Otyugh or the Slimes as everything else had. Not sure if there was some purpose for it's presence or not, I decided to err on the side of caution and retrieved the hand a second time. After wrapping it securely (to prevent it from getting filth on the rest of my belongings) I placed it into my knapsack and continued on.

Just past the goblin corpses, I found a small room with two skeletons on the wall. One of them was wearing a ring - which looked very much out of place. I retrieved it and put it in my knapsack also. Hmmmm.....a hand and a ring. I was even more sure these items were more important now than they appeared to be at first.

A small corridor beside the skeletons led to a staircase guarded by another large slime monster. I simply wasn't in the mood to deal with another one of those disgusting creatures right now, so I turned and went down the corridor on the opposite side of the room. It lead to an open part of the sewer. There was water running down the middle of the opening, but walkways bordered each side of it. I followed the flow of the stream and encountered a group of kobolds. They started shouting that these were their sewers (as if I really wanted to move in down here) and they began to fire arrows at me. It was a shame really, I would have been glad to leave them here in "their" sewer, but I wasn't going to let them attack me without reprisal. One well placed Fireball ended their threat and I gathered up several arrows to add to my quiver. I also found a nice staff on the body of the leader and decided to take it with me too.

Turning from the kobolds, I crossed a bridge across the water and followed the passegeway on the other side. It led me to a room that was home to the strangest couple I believe I've ever seen. A beggar in raggedy clothes was standing beside a small table and a carrion crawler was beside him. The beggar said the crawler was his "pet" and only true friend (which I felt was very sad indeed). He spoke to me of a riddle and a treasure to be gained, so I decided to explore the area a little further. I met another small group of kobold archers, and had a bit more trouble dispatching them, since this group was actually smart enough to use some available cover. I was hit by a couple of arrows before I could kill all of them this time, but a quick drink of a Healing potion soothed the pain and helped close the wounds. Beyond this group, I found a room with four large pipes. Suddenly, a loud voice began reciting a riddle. It spoke of the ring, hand and staff I had already found, but also mentioned "the blood of a true friend". I was puzzled by this part, until I remembered the beggar and his "pet". When the voice said that the beggar would be used as the "vessel" to give me further clues to solve the riddle, it suddenly made sense to me. The crawler wasn't really the old man's pet - he was just there to provide the final component for the riddle. I returned to the room and questioned the old man about the riddle. He gave me some rambling clues about the proper order in which the component should be placed in the pipes I had found. I expected the crawler to attack me after the clues were given, since his blood was apparantly the last component I needed. To my surprise, though, it just stood there and nuzzled against the begger. I began to question my assumption that this thing wasn't really his "pet", but just couldn't imagine someone wanting such a beast as a friend - even someone in as pitiful a state as this begger. So I fired a couple of Magic Missiles at the beast, which prompted it to return the attack. After a brief struggle, I killed the beast and collected a small portion of it's blood in a glass bottle from the table. I returned to the room with the pipes and the voice recited the riddle to me again. Thinking back over the clues the old man gave me, I started placing the components in the proper order - or so I thought. I obviously got at least one of them out of order as a lightning bolt shot out from the pipe and scorched my arm. I retraced my steps and finally placed the items in the proper settings and the proper sequence. A large sword appeared before me and I grasped it firmly. It was a nice weapon, but far larger than what I was comfortable with. Two-handed swords aren't my specialty. The sword also had some intelligence and began talking incessently. I placed it into the large wolfskin bag I had taken from one of the slavers in the Coronet and it quieted down.

Now I was finally ready to actually enter the Slaver Compound itself. I found a staircase leading up to a sturdy door. I decided to cast several spells in preparation before entering the room above. Improved Invisibility, Haste and Draw Upon Holy Might made me feel much more comfortable. I climbed the stairs and tried to open the door as quietly as possible - hoping against hope to actually sneak into the room undetected. I should have known better. There were a large number of people in the room, and the apparant leader was just off to the right of the entrance - so he immediately noticed the door opening and closing. He couldn't see me, but he let me know that I was foolish to enter thier stronghold nonetheless. Some rogues on the other side of the room began approaching me while the leader started throwing axes in my direction. On the other side of the room, a mage started casting a spell. I quickly pulled out a Wand of Cloudkill and pointed it in the direction of the rogues. The noxious vapors soon filled that whole side of the room, but he leader and the mage were not affected by them. I used Dire Charm on the mage and sent him after the leader (whose axes were still missing me, but were starting to come too close for comfort). I used my own offensive spells on the leader and he was soon dead. The mage then recovered from my Charm spell, but he had taken some damage from the leader and I was able to kill him with a couple of Melf's Acid Arrows. As the Cloudkill vapors cleared, I could still hear a couple of rogues on the other side of the room. They had apparantly survived my spell and had taken the opportunity to Hide from sight as I fought the leader. I used the Dryad's Acorns to summon the moose and nymphs to help me out, and they used their spells to discover the rogue's hiding spot. The battle with them was brief due to the damage they had taken from the cloud. After searching the bodies (and finding some rather nice items), I noticed a door on the far right side of the room. I opened it cautiously and was confronted by a very large troll with a nasty temper. My invisibility had worn off and he charged to attack me. I backpedaled and cast Melf's Minute Meteors. I began pounding him with these as the moose and nymphs moved to aid me. The troll killed the moose and injured one of the nymphs before my Meteors finally killed him. My relief was short-lived, though, as a second troll came charging from the same room. I managed to kill him with my remaining Meteors, but not before he had killed both of the nymphs. Realizing there could be even more of these nasty buggers in that room, I approached it slowly and planned to launch a Fireball straight into the middle of the room to deal them some heavy damage before they could attack. THANK THE GODS I crept a little closer before doing that. Just as I was about to unleash the spell, I saw a small girl standing in the center of the room, exactly where I had planned to target my spell. I remembered my experience at the circus and wondered if this might be another illusion, but discovered that she really was just an innocent little girl. I went into the room (which was thankfully empty of any more trolls) and found her brother standing a little bit behind her. The thought of how close I came to killing these two little children consumed me with guilt. The girl said they had no money to help them return home, and I couldn't resist those innocent blue eyes. I gave her and her brother some gold and showed them the way out. They thanked me and left quickly.

By now, I was physically and mentally exhausted. I needed to rest and restore my spells. A staircase in the room led up to another doorway. I didn't want to get caught sleeping by more of the Slavers, so I retreated back into the sewers to take my rest. As I slept, I dreamt of the begger and his pet. In my dream the old man stood over the carcass of the dead crawler, stroking it lovingly and talking to it in comforting tones. I awoke in a cold sweat and realized that I had let my greed blind me to the real truth of the relationship between the two. The begger really was a pathetic figure, and I felt like a monster far worse than any I had faced in my adventures when I realized that my greed had led to me to brutally kill the only friend he had found in his pitiful life. I started to go to him and offer some gold in return for my heinous act, but realized the gesture would be futile in relieving his grief. The begger didn't seem to have any real need for the gold, and no amount I offered could have replaced his lost friend. With a heavily guilty heart, I re-entered the Slaver Compound.

The anger and loathing I felt toward myself found release in the attacks I unleashed on the remaining slavers. My first encounter was with some creatures called yaun-ti. They looked like large serpents, but had a penchent for spellcasting. Fine by me. My wrath was fueled white-hot by my self-loathing and by the plight of some more innocent children I found locked in some cages. The last battles were a bit of a blur, as I was lost in an almost beserker-type rage against the circumstances and events of the last 24 hours. The spellcasting serpents were slaughtered without remorse. More Cloudkills took care of the last large group of slavers, and I even got up-close and personal with the last mage to fry him with a Shocking Grasp spell. I had never used that particular spell before, and the surge of electricity along my arm sent a tingle all the way into my soul as it fryed the spellcaster into a charred corpse. I found a two lone guards in the last room and one standing guard outside the front door. Magic Missiles and a heavy club reduced them to bloody pulps. It took several minutes for the rage I felt in my soul to abate, and I was left utterly exhausted once it wore off. I took time to go back through the compound and search the bodies and boxes for treasure and items I could use. My efforts were greatly rewarded and I actually found more items than I could carry, despite having an extra-dimensional bag that would hold up to 10 items of any size or weight and two smaller bags to hold gems, rings and necklaces. I filled the containers and the rest of my knapsack with as many items as I could possibly squeeze in, then went back through the underground passage leading to the Coronet. I sold all the excess gems, necklaces, armor and weapons I had found to Bernard - then went back to the Compound for the rest of the stuff I couldn't carry the first time. By the time I was finished, my purse was much fuller and I had found a some nice scrolls to add to my collection of spells. Another wave of guilt hit me as I sold the 2-hand sword I had gained from the Sewers to Bernard, but the coin I recieved in return helped ease the feeling somewhat. Still, I vowed to make an effort from that moment forth to keep my greed in check when evaluating any future encounters I may have.

While trying to decide which area to explore next, I remembered the little girl that approached me outside of the circus and the lamp she had given me that supposedly gave Kalah the power to take over the circus the way he did. She had said that Kalah got the item from a merchant near the City Gates, so I headed in that direction. Before I could enter the local inn there, however, I was approached by a man asking for my help with some trouble in a place called Trademeet. He told me it had been a thriving community of trade until recently, but was now suffering mysterious attacks from the local animals. That sounded strange indeed, so I decided to get a good nights sleep then move on to Trademeet to investigate. Besides, my purse was heavy with gold, but my knapsack was light with equipment. I had visited some of the more prominent merchants in Athkatla and was anxious to see what new items I might find in a community set up as a trade market. So I took my rest, then left the city early the next morning to find this community called Trademeet.