From the journal of Lythande Syldorei
Fireday, 12th Abadius
As we stood before the defiled doors, Reislin and I both realized this must once have been a dwarven temple. Maria set her pack down and extracted a potion vial from it, which she swallowed at once. Her skin took on the appearance and hardness of tree bark. She, Zander and Arravis pushed the door together and it swung open.
The chamber that lay beyond was the fane of the temple, lined with pillars and with a raised dais at the far end. It had been desecrated like the rest of the fort. Within the fane stood a number of lizardfolk with purple and green scales, clearly not of the tribe we met on the lake. All were armed and painted for war. With them they had two large blood caimans that served them as the troll hounds served the trolls. The lizardfolk all turned threatening looks at us.
Chahana had climbed upon a table at Arravis's suggestion, and now that the door was open she immediately fired an arrow at the lizardfolk who stood directly in line with the doorway. I heard one of the lizardfolk speak, but I didn't understand its words. I had hoped that we might remain in the other room and let our enemies come to us so we could block them at the doorway, but Maria rushed into the fane and attacked one of the lizardfolk. With that I moved into the worship hall myself and thrust my spear at another lizardfolk when two of them moved closer to the entrance. One of the caimans lunged out of a corner at me, while the second turned on Zander when he entered.
A rapid skirmish ensued in which one of the caimans died, as did several of the lizardfolk. Then a smaller door on the western wall of the chamber swung open and an extremely large and well-armored troll entered. The door from which he emerged was close to where I stood and I saw that his face bore an expression of great cunning. He spoke, first in the lizardfolk tongue and then in words I could understand despite his harsh accent. "Stand down!" he commanded. Chahana jumped down from the tabletop and moved into the doorway, calling for us to hold so that she might speak with the troll. He looked at her and his expression changed, though I couldn't read it.
But the lizardfolk didn't listen to his order. The one that seemed to be their chieftain spoke again, and they continued their attacks against us. Maria also didn't cease swinging her sword, declaring that these were our enemies. The troll let out an infuriated roar and much to my surprise used both hands to swing his huge morningstar at the nearest caiman, crushing it! In our common tongue he growled something about "building something majestic that would last through the ages," and how it would not include humans. As he turned his attention toward Arravis and I, I forebore to comment that I am not a human.
Then I felt my limbs tingle as Reislin read from a scroll and I was filled with magical alacrity. Chahana backed into the other room again. The troll swung his morningstar again. I called on the Dawnflower to lend me her aid and used her divine light to heal the wound I had suffered. Then I thrust my spear at the troll repeatedly, but my spearpoint failed to find a weak place in his armor. Fortunately the lizardfolk decided that they had no desire to fight alongside the troll and they drew back, leaving me with only the troll to face. Arravis remained beside me, and a moment later Maria joined us. Three of Chahana's arrows struck the troll.
I drew on all that my Guiding Light has blessed me with, letting myself perceive the aura of evil that surrounded the troll and girding myself with her righteous fury. This time my spear found his flesh through the armor, once sinking in deeply. Arravis and Maria also sank their blades into him. Some of Reislin's tiny but potent missiles flew in from the other room and found him as well. Chahana then ran back into the doorway and flung a flask of acid at him. Much to our surprise and disappointment it seemed to have no effect on him.
Despite this unwelcome occurrence, we continued to focus our blows on the troll. He struck at me several times with his morningstar and even attempted to claw and bite me, but praise the Dawnflower I was able to block each attack with my shield. My last strike took him to his knees, and then he slumped over, blood pooling beneath him, and wheezed out a last few words: "She lied. It was supposed to be mine..." After this he ceased moving.
Arravis sliced the troll's throat, then asked us what we should do to make sure he wouldn't regerate since neither acid nor fire appeared to harm him. Reislin discovered that he carried something magical on his person, which we suspected might be like the runes the other troll we met in the wilderness had inscribed on his skin. We hurriedly stripped him of all of his armor and anything else he wore. Then Chahana suggested that we pour many flasks of acid on him, as the other troll hadn't been invulnerable to fire, only less vulnerable. She handed each of our party a flask and we all emptied onto the troll's body at one time. This strategy seemed to do the trick, as we watched him for a little time and his wounds no longer seemed to be repairing themselves. We discussed whether we ought to remove his head and take it back to Lorewynd, but Arravis recommended that we put it on a spike outside so other trolls would know that he was dead, and we all felt this was a wise suggestion. By this time we had concluded that this troll must be Hargulka, the troll leader we'd heard of. Arravis suggested doing the same with the head of the lizardfolk chieftain. Zander took on this task after he finished skinning the two caimans.
Meanwhile Reislin investigated all of the troll's gear for any magical properties. In addition to his morningstar, which was too large for any of us to wield, he had worn a circlet on his head that increased his cleverness. This was so large that any of us could have put it over our own heads and it would drop to the floor at our feet, but Reilin thought it might be possible to send it to an artisan and have it reshaped to fit a smaller head. He had also worn an amulet around his neck that seemed to be made from some type of nut or seed. But the most concerning discovery was the runes branded in his skin that made him proof against flames and acid. The runes themselves couldn't be destroyed to Reislin's knowledge. If we hadn't poured all the acid on him he might have recovered, even with his head severed or the runes cut from his hide.
After we had dealt with Hargulka and his belongings we entered the room he had come from, finding that it was cleaner and less damaged than the rest of the fort. There he had stored anything taken from those the trolls had attacked, as well as maps and plans for future attacks. In a chest beneath his huge bed we found an assortment of coins, gems, jewelry, wine, a wand, and a dragon carved of exotic wood. There was also a sheath that matched the sheath of the sword Arravis had gifted to Maria.
There was also a strange plant in the room, a flower that glowed red and seemed to give off faint smoke. Even Reislin didn't know what it was, though she suspected it came from the First World. She and Chahana wished to bring it along, and it was decided that it would be worthwhile to visit Tiressia and Falchos before returning to Lorewynd to ask them if they knew what it was. Reislin had already remarked that the headband Hargulka had worn looked like it might be of fey craftsmanship and she wanted to question our fey friends about that as well.
There were no other rooms to explore after Hargulka's chamber. On our way out of the fortress we gathered up the items the lizardfolk had brought to him as tribute, which included more gems and coins, another wand, more than a dozen enchanted arrows, and a magical shield made of a giant tortoise shell. There were also some rare herbs and oils that Reislin may be able to use to help Maraleaf, the shaman of Zander's clan. Maria asked me if I would like to take the tortoise shield, but I prefer to be able to move quickly and use my shield hand to hold other objects and I declined
On the following day we reached the dryad's grove and were met by Falchos, who always seems glad to see us. Tiressia was resting within her tree. We began by trying to ask Falchos about the red flower, but as is the way with the fey folk he steered our conversation into heroic tales of our battle with the trolls before coming back to the topic we were most interested in, and we were obliged to drink with him to avoid being ungrateful guests. In the end he told us that he did agree the plant was from the fey realm but he knew nothing about it. When asked he willingly asked Tiressia to come out to see us. Tiressia could not tell us much about the plant either as she had never seen one before, but she knew it was a lythlorian flower, and she hinted that some more powerful fey might be responsible for it in some nebulous way that only the fey understand.
Moonday, 16th Abadius
When we arrived in Lorewynd again we found to our dismay that an exceptionally large and angry owlbear had attacked the town in our absence and done considerable damage. Fortunately our militia had managed to deal with it, for which we are very grateful, but Zander was saddened that they'd been forced to slay it and its hide showed signs of disease so it was unsuitable for him to take. We were also reminded of the rumored green dragon we'd heard of before, as well as a creature known as the Shamblesnap that was troubling the area.
Oathday, 18th Abadius
An envoy arrived from Pitax today, bearing an invitation from King Castruccio Irovetti to attend a new event known as Rushlight. It is a tourney held on the first Fireday of Saraneth, featuring feats of arms and displays of artisanship. It seems unlikely that the King will attend himself, as he has some other project in which his involved, but perhaps it will still be worthwhile to attend even if we are unable to meet with the King again. My friends looked to me and I told the emissary that if our responsibilities in the kingdom allowed we would be glad to attend. We gave the envoy the hospitality of Lorewynd for a night before he took our reply back to Pitax.
Later
Much has happened since we received the visitor from Pitax. I have been so busy with my duties that I have had little time to write here. Our lands have grown. We have more militia. There are more farms. A road has been constructed between Tatzlford and Lorewynd, and between the north-south road and the western edge of the lands we currently lay claim to. There is now a pier in the Tuskwater on the western side of the town to facilitate trade downstream with Mivon. A temple to Pharasma stands by the burial ground. It is impressive to me how quickly things happen in these lands where humans hold sway. In my homeland deciding to construct any new structure requires years of discussion, and the structure itself will take years to complete. Of course, the buildings here are not as elegant as those in Iadara, but there is charm to their roughness. It is refreshing to watch this all unfolding with such speed, like watching a flower bloom overnight.
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