Chapter 3: The Haunted House, Part 2

Written by Skarth Diem to Dronaet Klingstone

While we were tidying up after finishing our luncheon in the cellar of the house, Ms Riellian’s sharp elvish eyes spotted something in the corner where we had bound our two prisoners. I believe the odd behaviour of one of the prisoners made her suspicious. On closer inspection, she discovered a hidden door.

Behind the door, we found a set of stairs going further down into the ground. The stairs led down a short way into a natural cavern. We had barely started moving through the cavern when we were attacked by two more of the bandits. I am a little confused about the exact sequence of events as I was at the back and much of the cavern was in shadows, but there was much running and shouting and the clash of weapons.

At one point I ran around the corner and saw Mr Seaforth with an arrow protruding from his left calf as he and Ms Kelshann struggled with one of the bandits. The other bandit had run straight into Mrs Fisher. The one fighting with Mr Seaforth and Ms Kelshann ended up dead. I was prepared to offer my aid to Mr Seaforth when he reached down and pulled the arrow from his leg, then called on his own power to close up the wound. The smell of the sea surged in my nostrils and then washed over me as Wrack invoked the power of his sea god.

I turned and saw that Mrs Fisher was still fighting with the second bandit. Ms Kelshann was running to her aid but it occurred to me that with my thorn whip I could briefly bind the bandit and that might give Mrs Fisher the opening she needed to defeat the bandit. I called on my magic and flicked out a tendril of thorny vine. It wrapped around the bandit and Mrs Fisher took the opportunity to soundly wrap the bandit on the skull. I jerked on the vine and a senseless bandit slid along the ground towards me. Now that the magic was used up, the vine withered and vanished.

Mrs Fisher looked much the worse for her encounter and she sank to the ground beside a small campfire the bandits had lit. I poured some water into my bowl and sang the song of healing. Mrs Fisher drank from my bowl and she seemed much refreshed.

But we had no time for rest. There were shouts of alarm from further down the cavern as my companions encountered more of the bandits.

Once again there was a great deal of confusion and I don’t have a clear knowledge of everything that happened but there were more bandits, together with their leader who was some kind of wizard. The cavern continued to turn and slope down further underground. I completely lost my bearings as I ran down the tunnels towards the shouting.

I turned a corner in time to see Ms Riellian struck by some sort of spell – a series of bolts of light seared into her chest. She staggered into an alcove and collapsed to the floor. I ran to her and laid my hand on her chest. She looked very bad. I could barely feel her heart beating. I sang the song of healing and pushed my power into her chest. Within seconds, she gasped and sat up. A flush had returned to her cheeks and I sighed in relief.

My head was spinning from using so much magic, but I could not relax as the fighting was still going on. I left Ms Riellian to regain her senses and ran down the tunnel. There was a large cavern to the left stacked with barrels and boxes and rolls of cloth. I could see Ms Kelshann in the process of subduing one bandit and another lay dead on the floor behind her. So I left her to deal with that and ran on down the tunnel.

There was another small alcove with more bales of cloth and barrels and so forth. I don’t know if these goods were leaving or arriving. Later we examined them more closely and there was a significant amount of good quality supplies.

The fight had already moved on around the corner, so I kept moving down the sloping tunnel. Suddenly it opened out into what looked like a cave mouth with a small beach.

I could hear the sea and I could smell the sea but I could not see the sea for my vision was blocked by a thick fog. I could hear shouting and I could make out two hobgoblins at the edge of the fog. One of them was pushing on the prow of a small boat and I could hear the wizard yelling from within the boat for him to push it out. Mr Seaforth was down in the mist and swinging his axe.

I tried to use my magical thorn whip to grab the hobgoblin who was pushing the boat and drag him away from it but my first attempt missed. Mrs Fisher ran up beside me and flicked out a length of rope towards the same hobgoblin. I could see sparks of lightning running along the length of the rope. I had not known that Mrs Fisher had such power. I suppose I should not be surprised at anything people can do. Perhaps, here in this place, every second person has some sort of power that they generally keep hidden from the world.

With the efforts of the hobgoblin, the boat had moved further down the beach and further into the fog. More of my companions had arrived and I tried again to pull the hobgoblin away from the boat. I had to step forward and peer into the fog to locate him. Eventually, I spotted him and this time I succeeded in wrapping my thorn whip around him. I assume that gave Mr Seaforth an opening to strike the hobgoblin, for when I pulled backwards on the whip, all that came out of the fog was a body.

That left the wizard exposed and Mrs Fisher took the opportunity to draw her dagger and scramble onto the boat. She started struggling with the wizard, but I could not see what was happening as it was hidden by the fog. I could also make out Mr Seaforth getting involved in the struggle.

Then the wizard must have broken free because he yelled that we all must burn and then he sent balls of flame flying in every direction. I ducked and felt a whoosh as one of the flames flew over my head and spent its energy on the wall of the cave behind me. But the wizard had given away his location from within the fog and illuminated himself with his outburst, so I took the opportunity to lash out again with my thorn whip. I felt it bite into him and I pulled. The wizard came tumbling out of the fog to fall limply at my feet, as dead as the hobgoblin servant he now lay beside. I assume that, again, Mr Seaforth and Mrs Fisher had taken the opportunity my distraction provided to strike the final blow, but the sharp thorns on my whip had also scratched him somewhat.

The remaining hobgoblin, seeing his employer defeated, immediately indicated that he yielded. Ms Riellian spoke to him in the language of the goblins and we learned that he was a member of the Guild of Mercenaries. I had not known such a thing existed but I assume that it is something like the Miner’s Guild.

From the hobgoblin, we learned that we had accounted for all of the bandits. He confirmed that this was a group of smugglers that we had encountered. To our surprise, we learned that the smuggling operation had been going for several years and that another boat was due at the dark of the moon in about two weeks.

That was the end of the excitement. We bound the prisoners and escorted them back to the village where they were locked in the cells. The hobgoblin waved his mercenary guild badge and walked off to the west. We alerted the council about the smuggling operation and suggested it might be possible to trap the ship that was due to arrive in two weeks.

I made a point of visiting Mrs Copperlocks and tried to describe the situation that we had discovered. In doing so I tried to convey my suspicion that some of them may have been involved in the raid that resulted in the death of your father, but my head was spinning for having used so much magic so I don’t know if I was clear. I suspect that it was only after she asked numerous questions that she understood what I was trying to say.

It was harder than normal to conduct my usual evening rituals because my head was spinning so badly. Then as I held the small sheet of bark that my first teacher had wrapped the seed in, I suddenly found myself weakened in the legs and sank to the floor. A burst of small stars appeared on the sheet and swirled around before suddenly emerging from the page and spiralling up to spin around me. Then it seemed that I heard my first teacher’s voice singing softly in my head. She sang in her own language, of course, but I shall do my best to translate it, though I doubt if I can convey the beautifully poetic nature of her song.