Emtih's Journal

This is going to haf to be brief cuz I gots m'self pretty badly beat up.

Following this dwarf's advice, we went into this room with a big blue magic thingy which allowed a ochre jelly to ent'r the room and fight us. I was in the rear tryin' to give cover fire but then I was attack'd from behind by this weird ghostly thing. Bassha and Arel did a good job killin' the jelly, but the ghosts kept going invisible on 'em. So Arnie started throwing his magic around and blasting parts of the room where I thought they had run to.

The next room contained a couple of gnomes tryin' to hide in the shadows.. fortunately And had popped a sunrod and there was no where for them to hide. Chargin' into the room we made short work of one of 'em, but the other two went runnin' away. We gave chase, but once again, I got ambush'd, least this time Arel was with me. These fire elementals came bursting through a side doorway and got me and Arel bad. And used her magics pounded one into nothingness in short order. It was a good thing too.. I have this feeling that in a few more seconds I would have become more roasted than a pig on a spit.

I don't remember much of the battle oth'r than that, but I lost sight of Corrin for a bit, although I could still hear his war cries, screaming 'I have yet begun to fight'. Well, that's news to me, I had hop'd he would have been fightin' all along.

Its my own fault, I should have known better than to have gotten ambushed twice. But, I don't think I can go any further today, I need to lie down. Thinkin' back, I've gotten close to death before during my huntin' trips, but never this badly beat up. Even in Cendrianne...

The hobgoblins back then had started lootin' the town aft'r their orgy of violence. They had run 'round and caught and killed anyone or anything they could get their claws on. I saw my neighbours dragged from their hidin' places kickin' and screamin' before they were killed. There were a couple who tried resistin' but it didn't do them much good. Once they couldn't find any elves or eladrian to kill, they moved on to horses and other animals in their frenzy.

They found the wine cellars and promptly got themselves so drunk they were just stumblin' around like the townies aft'r a festival. They weren't payin' so much attention to the dead bodies, although they had been mutilatin' a few, so I didn't attract no attention for much of the night.

Seeing an opportunity, I crawled out from under my father and ran through the city and into the woods. My head was spinning so fast that I couldn't think about anythin' other than running. I had escaped the hobgoblin blade that night, but I was far from safe...

I signed this time for fightin' hobgoblins, I'd at least prefer if I died fightin' hobgoblins.. not ghosts or wierd jellies or gnomes or lava thingies.

Emtih's Journal

**bloodstain**

Aft'r we got through that first room we took a right and headed up some stairs to this crypt with funny lookin' magic symbols on the floor that glowed. 'Course, there was also some lizard types there which tried to swarm us. Arel and Bassha, the two half-dragons decided to teach these small fellas to respect their elders while I snuck around into the room. It was at this point that I saw this gnome guy sneaking 'round in the corner with a hand crossbow. He got off the first round and nailed me good, but my return shot knocked him good. He did this funny disappearing act but reappeared to take a shot at Bassha, and I pinned him with a couple more arrows.

Bassha was hurt pretty bad but I heard Corrin yell at him something 'bout how they could take our lives but never take our freedoms. It seemed to make Bassha fight harder but I thought it was sorta ridiculous consid'ring that hobgoblins are more than happy to just take our lives...

I tell ya, its kinda funny actually. I think I was more angry at this gnome because he was siding with the hobgoblins than because he shot me. Although, the **bloodstain** thing still hurts to tell ya the truth.

Seems like the gnome was guarding this room where a dwarf was tied up against a wall. After that gnome I get an uneasy feeling 'bout this dwarf guy. And said that she knows him from the town, but that doesn't make me feel no better. For all we know, this guy, like the gnome, could be in league with the **bloodstain** hobgoblins! Well.. if I think he looks like he's goin' ta help the hobgoblins.. I'll kill 'em.

The dwarf gave us directions ta get to one of the other hostages so we started off in that direction and found this hobgoblin garrison in one of the rooms. I tried to spy on them all secret-like but I got spotted and they tried rushing us. One of the leaders got himself in front of us but the other four were a bit slow off the ball. The rest of the group started mobbing him, but I realiz'd that we were getting ourselves boxed in ag'in, just like earlier. So, I rushed the group of four hobgoblins slicing the one dead in a single stroke. The oth'r three got around me and I got mys'lf stabbed in the shoulder and sliced under the arm pretty bad. **bloodstain** hobgoblins... I killed them all pretty quick-like but they got one more good strike at me slicin' me pretty deep.

Just to make matters worse, this archer came runnin' into the room. Arel and I dispatched him pretty fast but I'm feeling worse for wear after that whole fight. I got a feeling that I don't have anything left in reserve after this fight.

Makes one think about death... I never really had time to think abouts it before. The closest I came to death before was when I was young 'n living with my family in Cendrianne and that time I didn't really have time to think about it either.

We were running through the city tryin' to escape the hobgoblin attack. I remember my father shielding me from a hobgoblin arrow after I.. froze up in fear seein' one of the hobgoblins killin' one of my neighbours. It killed him but before he died, he pushed me to the ground and cover'd me with his body. He whispered in my ear that he forgave me and not to be afraid... but the screams.. oh the screams...

I'm not afraid to die.. I'm just afraid of being left alive ag'in.

**bloodstain**

Emtih Tnod, 14 Freyja

Emtih's Journal

Well, I tell'ye that could have gone better.

We manag'd ta sneak our way into the castle alright, avoiding the sloppy watchmen fairly easily. When you're perch'd on top of the highest tower in a castle, its a might difficult to miss a large group as big as ours, but the hobgoblins on watch were quite inept. As I expect'd, their position left a blind spot 'round back that we used to sneak closer in. Typically, Arnie would've said something about how 'the League of Justice' woudla done it this way, but perhaps he was tired from all that walking and didn't say nuthin.

So into this decrepit ol' building inside the castle we went. Sneaking abouts the place we found some books that Arnie decided to borrow and more importantly, some tunnels that lead down beneath the ruin'd castle. After walkin' down some stairs we finally gets to this heavy wooden door, and wantin' to know if there be some hobgoblins on the oth'r side I put my ear to the door and listen'd real good. Fate smiled on me and I heard well and good the sound of hobgoblin voices. I dunno how I did it even, I probably shouldn't have been able to hear them.

Tryin' to get a closer look at the room we slowly open'd the door, the hinges creaking loudly and warnin' the hobgoblins of our arriv'l. So out I run hackin' and slashin' at a hobgoblin in the corridor, but he was a might tougher than some of the others we've faced and though I'm sure I landed a few solid hits, he didn't fall. The others were right behind me but soon, we got ourselves stuck in a bottleneck of sorts, unable to advance as there were lots of hobgoblins blockin' our way and under fire from these two archers in behind the rest of 'em.

The fight got a mite confusing and the one hobgoblin I was fightin' had a delayed death of sorts. My blade had severed him from life but he still liv'd on for a bit before his body realized it was dead. With him out of the way, I went after the arch'rs only to get myself shot up pretty bad, but Corrin came up beside me a'yellin' that no one every won a war by dying for his country, but won that war by making the other idiot die for his. I don't know how, but hearin' him say it inspired me ta finish the battle.

After the battle ended, And went about turning off a trap that one of the hobgoblins had trigger'd while the rest of us rested a bit. These hobgoblins were a tricky bunch. They had a pretty damn'd good defence plan and we fell right into it. Someone must be directin' these hobgoblins cuz they ain't smart enough to do something like that.

I don't like waiting here for any amount of time, feels like we're sitting ducks... I should go check on the others, I'll write more once we get deeper.

-Emtih Tnod, 14 Freyja

The Currency of Baden Part 1

The great Krynn empire was formed by the coming together of all the good nations at the end of the Time of Chains. The empires fledgling economy had a great many problems as different groups had their preferred currencies no one could agree on the value of commodities. Trade wars almost borough down the Empire before it had a chance. In the year 234 RM the emperor gathered all the financial leaders together in a summit to solve the problem. This lead to the adoption of residium as the standard currency for trade across the empire.

Residuum was a transportable, universal and stable unit of valuation, and quickly became the empires dominant economy. Residuum is extremely valuable in small quantities. To aid in it's use for small frequent transactions it was mixed with precious metals and minted into coins called electrum. These had a much more reasonable value than a tube of pure residium which is valued at a small fortune in itself. The coins where then enchanted to bind in the residium. This made them virtually immune to counter fitting as it was simply not profitable to do so.

Over the age of the empire various electrum pieces have been minted using different metal bases. Silver was used for low denomination coins while gold and even platinum was used for larger denominations. On average 90% of a coins value is based on the residuum contained within it while the other 10% is the residuum equivalent value of the precious metal it is made out of. In all provinces destruction of electrum coins for use as a ritual component is an imperial offense. It's also pointless as any bank will trade electrum for pure residium in a one to one ratio. If one where still inclined to do so, say in an emergency situation, one would find it quite expensive as only a master minter has the knowledge necessary to extract all the residium from a coin. If one where to simply use coins to fuel a ritual only half the value of the coin could be harvested. Using the disenchant ritual can increase this up to about 75% of the coins value.

First post from Corrin Kheldar, at last

The Aeviternal Adventures of Corrin Kheldar
~Chronicled by Biloquy Barnard

Issue Three: early Freyja 894

When last we left our hero, he had not long made his egress to the city of Brindol ere his talents came to the attention of a Lion of the city guard, one Basha, whose aid he in turn enlisted in sundry matters. We find Corrin Kheldar in the wake of a most successful evening, that of the city’s Mead Festival, in which the streets flowed with wealthy merchants and guildmasters, to say nothing of fermented honey, even bigger marks than usual.

It was the following day, as evening fell, that Kheldar arrived at the Laughing Manticore to celebrate the graduation of his new associate, the wizard Arnold Sol, from Brindol Academy. Just as he raised his cup of mead in toast, the doors to the place burst open and in poured a platoon of hobgobins, garbed in the livery of the Red Hand and shouting cries of “Sidroth!” In one smooth motion, our hero drew a dirk sharpened to a razor’s edge, vaulted over the trestle-table, and pitched it through the black of a hobgoblin’s eye, without spilling his mead, and with such force that it sank to the hilt as the foul creature collapsed, its death too swift to permit a cry of pain. His movements too quick to capture, Kheldar first dispatched another goblinoid, then deftly dodged a burst of mage-fire as the enemies fell around him. As thrown torches lit the bar ablaze, he roused a patron, deep in his cups, aiding his escape from the inferno, before returning to the battle to dispatch two more of the invaders.

Moments after finishing this skirmish, Kheldar spotted a new threat: a mighty ogre pulling a cart laden with archers and incendiaries. Valently charging this new foe, and stinging it with his mordant blade Arondight, he accepted its attacks unbowed. As battle raged his potent phrases inspired his comrade Arnold to fight on despite his grievous wounds, a ball of flame setting the ogre’s cart alight and bringing the beast to the ground.

As word of these latest exploits spread, our hero and his new associates were invited to meet with a young member of the Brindol council, Efram Toys, and begged to take on this quest: to retrieve mighty artefacts and frightened hostages taken by those hobgoblins who attacked the South of Brindol while our hero was occupied in the North. Modestly assuring Councilman Toys of his abilities, Kheldar took on this charge, his valiant associates eager to begin.

If the city fathers had any doubts in Kheldar’s abilities, they were laid to rest as he led the interrogation of one of the Hand’s crack operatives, fortuitously found by the city guard and captured at much cost. One glance at the proud creature, battered and besplattered yet defiant nonetheless, told our hero that force alone could never break such an adversary. Only a mixture of force and favour, wisdom and wounds, glory and guile, would serve. First he called the imposing dragonborn warrior Basha to menace the creature. Then, remarking on the heat, and coiffing from a flask he’d bought for the occasion, Kheldar called her off and offered the goblin a drink. Informed by the paladin of the creature’s belief in his vision of conquest, and aided by a beguiling fey-elf, our wily hero, convinced the foe that while Brindol would never set him free, some measure of cooperation could spare his life, leaving him to serve his lord again at the city’s fall. The pact was sealed when the wizard Arnold’s rich knowledge yielded a hobgoblin blood-oath which Kheldar slyly adopted, duping the naïve foe into drawing a map to his master Sidroth’s lair.

This map in hand our hero and his party began their quest. Here the ranger Emtih proved his worth, tracking ever onward, albeit with the help of the map. As Emtih led, the others marched on through the wilderness, Kheldar’s endurance inspiring his comrades (especially Arnold), and his efforts, swimming rivers and scaling cliffs, guiding the way.

As for what took place in this Sidroth’s lair, the catacombs below a ruined castle, we must await the next instalment in the Aeviternal Adventures of Corrin Kheldar.