From the journal of Fliver of Middle Jothan.
We heard that the Windlings of the newly formed village of Wilowailey sent out a call for assistance. Brigands are reported to be waylaying their citizens and interfering with trade shipments. Count Therynyn, their leader, is asking that a party of adventurers explore the surrounding area and root out the threat. In addition to myself, Django, Jael, Cordwaine, and Grulchuk set out to answer the call for help.
Wilowailey is quite far away (5314). We walked to Borgins Rest and negotiated riverboat passage via Lake Ban. The Riverboats are becoming quite frequent and river travel is slowly becoming almost routine. We were dropped off on the bank nearest the village with no problems and quickly found our way to the village. We had some small problem finding the person in charge. Nobody answered our hails at the Counts residence. When we went back to the center of town to find out where he might be, Cordwaine started a kerfuffle. I had thought it might be nice to be traveling with another windling. But Cordwaine is not a pleasant traveling companion. It is more than just that "off" feeling that some nethermancers give. It is that he is an unpleasant person. He seemed to take it as a personal affront that the villagers went about their business instead of making a huge deal about his arrival. His attempt to bully a villager almost lead to a fight with the town guard. Eventually the guards sent us back to the Counts residence and told us to just go in. I found him on the 2nd level reading. He seemed senile and very unfocused. Eventually his assistant Analia arrived and gave us the briefing we needed.
The attacks had been happening for quite some time. At first they were sneaky, but are growing steadily bolder. They are always in outlying areas and hit almost every trade caravan. Most of the raids have been to the south, but that might be because that is where almost all of the trade caravans travel. They suspect the bandits base is to the East. The raiding parties are almost always 4 to 6 persons, mostly mixed dwarves and humans, but reports are that at least two are adepts, a spellcaster, and a troll with a 2 handed sword. None of the raiders have been captured, though some half dozen have been killed.
There had been a fight between some bandits and a hunting party 2 days earlier, and we were able to talk to a wounded survivor of that, and he gave us detailed directions on how to reach the site of the skirmish. We arrived to find two dwarvish bodies (unburned and unburied). Nether bodies nor clothing had any distinguishing marks. Cordwaine cast experience death upon one of the, but did not learn anything we did not already know (he died from a poison arrow in the fight with the hunting party). We were however able to backtrack the raiders, which we did for a goodly number of miles before making camp at nightfall.
During the night, the watch heard "something" pass nearby (we were camped near the trail we had been following). We waited until morning to investigate and found fresh dwarvish tracks, which we followed. Several hours later we caught up with 5 dwarves, who immediately and silently attacked us, seeming to go for us windlings by preference, though they did not disdain to swing their swords at our melee fighters where they mixed in. We soon slew all the dwarves, which seemed strange that none of them were merely unconscious. I examined the bodies specifically looking for why they went straight from fighting to dead, but found no explanation. I also did not find anything distinguishing about their bodies, clothing, nor equipment.
The only one seriously wounded was Cordwaine. However he is so sickly and frail that he was two whole days recovering. I can't help think that maybe the adventuring life is not for someone so unhealthy.
After waiting two days for Cordwaine to heal, we continued following the path the 5 had been taking. We eventually spotted a figure mounted upon a Trojin. He identified himself as Ranik Goldspire. He wore a fine red tabard over chain-mail and a fine brocade shirt, and bore a masterwork lance. He challenged us with boastful and disdainful words (we were the annoyances that the "insects" (windlings) sent) and after he and Cordwaine exchanged a few choice insults, he charged us and was quickly slain. Jaol bonded with his mount.
We saw some movement on a ridge, but investigating, found nothing. It took us a day to find what might have been the bandits camp, but by then nothing was to be found. We never saw a spellcaster, we never saw a troll with a two handed sword. I am fairly sure that the two days we spent waiting for our frail and unhealthy nethermancer to finally heal his wound caused their leadership to grow concerned about their recent loses. They established a watch upon the trail, and had another watcher watching the first watch. They made contingency plans to decamp and withdraw. When they saw us, they sacrificed that Goldspire idiot to assess our power, and having decided they did not wish to face us, sneaked away. I suppose the mission is technically a success, but our slow caution let the majority of the villeins escape.
As I mentioned earlier, Ranik Goldspire's body was dressed much more richly than the other's I had examined. In a pouch I found an unfinished report, written in Throlic that mentioned that several patrols had been "taken out". It was addressed to "my lord Baron", but there was no clue as to which Baron he meant. However I was reminded of some research I did in the library before we set out. Among other things I had read some adventuring journals from last year, and among them were some
battle logs of one "Bobitanthalnasatrythomoloso" (I had to return to the library to recall how to spell that) in which it was mentioned that a certain "Baron Cranshaw" of Throal ether had a grudge against windlings, or at least for some reason wanted to kill or enslave us. So it is quite possible that the Baron that Goldspire was writing to might be this same Baron Cranshaw,
After I returned to Throal, I had quite a bit of time on my hands and sadly, absolutely nothing worthwhile to do other than follow up on this. As I write this I have just spent over two weeks of downtime on research and conversation, trying to learn everything I can about "Baron Cranshaw", probably a Baron of Throal, and "Ranik Goldspire" (deceased), also probably of Throal. Who they are and what relationship they might have had to each other. I also researched any other Barons that Goldspire might possibly have been writing to. I have taken the time to apprise windling leaders of my findings.
Any adventuring groups looking into problems that windlings or windling settlements might have, might do well to peruse these findings, a copy of which I am attaching to this journal entry being submitted tot he great library.