Agenar’s journal, page 231

After a short rest, we returned belowground to purify the desecrated shrine of Moradin. After helping dispose of the orc, I left the others scrubbing gore from the walls and went to commune with the now-toothless black dragon. While kneeling before the skull, I noticed the gleam of a necromancer’s black onyx in the eye socket, and had just removed it when Teal called that they had finished and were leaving. He, as a water gensasi, had purified the temple faster than I thought possible, and the others were, understandably, anxious to be elsewhere.

Now we travel over the mountains toward the ruin of Selu’tar, where Travis was discovered. Wynlynn has provided two fat kids from a herd of wild goats, and our bellies are full as Val and I settle into first watch. Travis joins us tonight, and offers us ale, because he has always wanted to see someone get drunk. I hope we do not disappoint him.

p. 232

We made good time as Wynlynn led us along the mountain shoulder this morning, but as the sun crested, Tymora turned her smile away. As she looked elsewhere, arrows came at us from out of the bush. I turned and saw three archers –orcs? – their armor emblazoned with the red hand of Jo’vak. Tilia, the fubolg, muttered an incantation and thorns sprung up around them as I unleashed the magic missile. While each bolt found flesh, it also made me a target for orc arrows, and one stuck home. It is only near the end of a long rest that I can now compose these lines.

These orcs, alas, were not along. At their cries, another three rose from the bush ahead. Though I had been rendered useless again, Val, Wynlynn, and our brave paladin Pantaghion overcame them all soon enough. Travis tells me it was likely a scouting party, as he found footprints to follow leading, eventually, to a trail from the north. Perhaps rumors of an invasion are true.