Day 9 – The Trap

From the diary of Vida Pankhurst

When darkness falls only fools with eyes of carapace dance within the void…he waits and he watches, forever dreaming, ever dying

Joe turned up this morning complaining about being stuck outside in the rain and no one bloody responded to our note.  So, the four of us continued our investigations within the tavern and questioned those who had abstained from worshipping on God’s Day.

Much to my amusement the dolt Joe decided to play cards with the beautiful rogue Fernoc the Ferd. I noticed she was using tinted cards but credit to her for fleecing these stupid men out of their gold. I winked at her though to let her know I was in on her little secret.

Sameson, during this time, was busy casting Detect Evil by the tavern entrance and four figures that had not been at yesterday’s prayers were revealed as being of an insidious nature. This included the locals known as Zert, Ranos, Doroco and Kobort. Regrouping by the entrance we opted to send Joe upstairs to riffle through their rooms for clues, whilst the rest of us kept a watch on them downstairs.

I was so distracted talking to the charismatic Fernoc, and arranging a little one-on-one time with her, that I didn’t notice Zert about to go upstairs where Joe was searching his rooms. Luckily Sameson convinced that drunkard Elmo to spew on the stairs just in time to block Zert’s path. It was damn close though.

So Joe finally got his sneaky arse back downstairs and told us he had discovered a note in Vert’s room arranging a meeting at the shrine with temple spies that very night. Having few hours to kill I spent some time with the illustrious Fernoc. It’s so nice to finally see a woman excelling within this patriarchal domain. I promised her I would return later. How the bloody hell was in to know I wouldn’t have the chance.

At nightfall we waited in ambush by the shrine. Zert arrived and saw through our efforts to hide, so we had to bloody pretend to be from the temple. He didn’t fall for it though and attacked us. We made short work of him but as Ugg and Joe attempted to dispose of his body they were attacked by an invisible force. Suddenly appearing out of thin air the trader Gromag appeared and attacked Ugg with a rather pernicious looking dagger. Pfft no wonder he bloody ripped me off for my axe earlier.

So I bloody taught him a lesson by smiting him with the deific vengeance of my goddess and he vanished into thin air again and scarped. Realizing that his partner in crime must be no other than Rannos the other trader we headed to the trading post in the hopes of catching both of them. The door was locked so Joe picked it and we were greeted by an angry looking Rannos demanding to know what we were doing there at this time at night. So it seems that the ‘R’ from the first letter had been Rannos, not Rufus after all.

The elemental temple scum realized his number was up and attacked us with his swords just as Grommag appeared behind us. Whilst Ugg went toe-to-toe with Rannos the rest of us teamed up against Grommag. Sameson knocked him down with a Command spell and I summoned my ever faithful spiritual warhammer to knock some sense into him. When Grommag bit the dust Rannos slammed the trading post door and retreated inside.

We pursued the coward but he’d hidden himself somewhere in the darkness. I wanted to burn the whole bloody place down with him in it, but the others stopped me because apparently the other villagers might find that reprehensible. Therefore, I deployed tact again and cast Detect Evil to locate the area he was hiding in. The bastard was in the rafters and jumped down in ambush. He was powerful but no match for our combined might when we surrounded him and hacked him to pieces.

First we nabbed as much treasure as we could from the trading house and then we fetched Hestia, Burne and Rufus to explain what had occurred. Of course they didn’t take our bloody word for it and put us under a Zone of Truth spell. When the truth was revealed they finally got around to actually thanking us - pfft don’t bloody mention it we only risked our bloody lives - and then they had the bloody audacity to “suggest” we leave. Ungrateful wretches! They did let us take most of the treasure we found though, with the notable exception of an amulet which helps it’s wearer avoid detection, and they did stock us up with rations.

Also, that bloody popinjay Sameson is now walking around with some feather in his hair that Jaroo gave him. I don’t think I will ever understand men! What’s more I had no chance to say goodbye to Fernoc. What a bloody mess! Nevermind, onwards to Nulb and from there… The Temple of Elemental Evil.