I had been sailing with the pirates about a month, when we heard that a rival band of pirates, led by a blustering cutthroat named Sempronious had staged a raid in the Luftgren area.  Among other things, some rare silks had been stolen.   The Captain of the

I had been sailing with the pirates about a month, when we heard that a rival band of pirates, led by a blustering cutthroat named Sempronious, was trying to smuggle counterfeit silks in the Lufkin area.  The Captain of the ship on which I sailed was Gerard, and I felt an affinity with him almost immediately.  Like me, he had trained to be a Paladin with the Monks of Kord but with him it didn’t quite take.  He had left the order about twenty years ago (shortly before I had started my training) but had maintained a relationship with the monks and they supplied him with special silks bred from magical worms.  The colors of these silks swirled and changed, responding to the mood of the wearer.  They also had the property to help sailors gain and maintain their sealegs.  Apparently, Sempronious was trying to pass off his silks as ours.  

As the months went by, I had grown quite close to one of the deckhands.  His name was Apemantus, and I could tell he was in awe of me.  I decided to take him on as an apprentice and teach him the ways of a Paladin.  Several days ago Gerard had called me to his cabin:  There were rumors that Sempronious had an ally.  My ears perked up when he told me what kind of ally.  If Gerard’s information was correct; a goblin was imbuing Sempronious’ silks with a type of magic that mimicked our genuine silks.  That’s all it took for me to volunteer to go ashore near Luftkin with Apemantus, and find out if this story was true.

Gerard wished us luck as we disembarked at the river mouth just south of Lufkin.  As a cover story we had decided to fill a cart with our silks to sell them along the way, if we ran into any locals (I realize now that this may not have been the best idea).  We followed the south side of the riverbank and the first thing we noticed was a strange conical spire sticking out of the middle of the river.  Next we passed an old mill on the north shore.  Finally we came upon the Old Kingdom Bridge.

We crossed over to the north shore and began following the road north toward Lufkin.  As we neared a bend in the road, I realized that my armor was trying to warn me of something.  I put up my hand and Apemantus halted in his tracks.  We left the road and then circled back to it.  Through the trees, we saw an encampment of soldiers.  As we watched, the soldiers began to march off toward the north east.  When we were sure we were alone again we returned to the road. 

Apemantus noticed the column of smoke first.  We decided that that must be the soldier’s destination.  After some discussion, we took off in the direction of the smoke and soon found its source:  A cabin was burning just on the other side of the clearing we had stepped into, and we realized that a battle was taking place just outside the cabin.  I was astonished to see that one of the fighters had intimidated a band of goblins into forming a bucket line to put out the fire.  As the fire dying down, the person I perceived as the leader of the group was entering the cabin and soon I realized he had pulled a soldier to safety.

Suddenly there was a commotion by the well the goblins had been using to draw their water.  They were jumping into the well to drown themselves.  I put up my hand as if to stop this from happening.  I had so wanted a chance to interrogate them.  That’s when my armor started vibrating again.  Two Bugbears had broken from the fight and running in our direction.  The first one nearly toppled Apemantus to the ground before making a beeline out of the clearing.  My first shot with the crossbow missed the second beast, and my next did little better.  Apemantus recovered his footing and took two quick shots both of which hit home greatly wounding the creature.

I noticed that the Captain was setting a perimeter around the cabin.  It wouldn’t be long before we were spotted, and I really wanted to at least examine the bodies of the goblins in the well.  So I called out our position.  This is when I realized I had made a grave tactical error by bringing the silks.  A female Druid bounded into the clearing, and as soon as she saw our cart she began to accuse us of being thieves and things didn’t get any better as the fighter who had intimidated the goblins approached, followed closely by the leader of the group. 

Now that he was standing in front of me, I knew who he was by reputation.  This was the famous Captain Regdar.  I had heard Captain Malek talk about him hundreds of times.  This must be how Apemantus felt about me.  I was in awe of the man. I heard myself telling them we had wounded the Bugbear, and could feel them eyeing us suspiciously.  I thought about trying to tell them about Sempronius, but Regdar didn’t seem open to the concept of good pirates vs bad pirates.  It took all my diplomatic skills to calm the situation, and even then the female druid insisted that I turn over the silks to the fighter (whose name, I later learned, was Begdemagus.  The Druid’s turned out to be Dani) in exchange for our lives instead of the 1000 apiece I had hoped for.

When I heard that Captain Regdar was concerned that the goblins had contaminated the well, I breathed a little sigh of relief.  I told him I had the power to purify the water, but it would take at least 2 hours.  After that he was open to letting me examine the bodies.  I ended up being disappointed; Numbilung was not among the drowned goblins.  I was almost finished at the well when an alarm went off and a soldier came running in from the south where goblins were massing in a field.  Captain Regdar had gone so far as telling me that he could help Apemantus and me find lodging in Lufkin for the night, but now that would have to wait.

At the new battle site Begdemagus and Dani quickly coordinated their attacks:  Dani would lay down a thorn wall and Begdemagus would set it on fire killing the goblins behind it.  I told Apematus that we had to prove our loyalty to our new companions, so we joined in the fight.  As Dani moved in position to lay down a new thorn wall my armor started to vibrate I looked across the field and there he was Numbilung!  I could swear he looked right at me before disappearing just before Dani’s thorn enclosed the rest of the goblins.  My armor was now working overtime.  Smoke Dragons began to strafe the battlefield and I was also able to perceive a small hole to the right of  Apemantus position.  For a moment I didn’t know what to do.  I bore no real allegiance to these people but I knew Kord would see it as cowardice to leave them in such circumstances.  I told Apemantus to go in ahead of me and then I shouted out the position of the hole before quickly following him.  I just hope I made the right decision.

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