Recap
The morning of the 17th of Davor, 1329, Fort Erion in Southern Galanth

Four adventures awoke, itching for another adventure. Horus, Jacob, Kai and Gemini were building a good reputation for themselves in Fort Erion. The four approached the day ready to do more good and kick butt on the way, but there was not much for adventurers to do. There were no job offers on any boards and nothing the guards needed help with. Walking into the Dead Eye Tavern, they find a young girl surrounded by five farmers trying to sooth her.

Katy lived in a house with in the fort. Lately she has heard some funny noises coming from the attic. Upon investigating it, she was scared by a glowing creature that moved swiftly and moved silently. The party quickly decided to help the little girl out. Both of Katy’s parents were merchants that were out of town. She was staying at her Aunt and Uncle’s house while they are away. The Aunt met the party at the door. The woman was tall and rail thin with sharp features that ruled the house with an iron fist. Said Aunt was not going to let any common adventures into her house. It took much convincing and one sneaky halfling to get the party into the house to investigate.

Once in the house, the party moved directly to investigate the attic. The attic was octagonal in shape, like the rest of the house. It was filled with trunks of old clothes, crates, barrels, and furniture and rolled up carpets. Gemini and Kai went up while Horus and Jacob stayed below with Katy. Neither the monk nor the rogue could see much through the dust, but once it settled down they noticed tiny glowing prints on some of the carpets. Shinning a light on the spot made the glowing spots disappear. A through search of the attic turned up nothing more than a few prints from some small animal.

The two retired from the search upstairs and joined their companions downstairs. The Aunt was calling for the pet cat Snowball, who had been missing for the past couple of days. In the hallway of the second story, the party encountered the Uncle. Katy's Uncle is a tall, thin and lanky man that is constantly hem-pecked by his wife. His gray hair and beard is always wild looking. He looked a bit worried to the party, but they were not able to get much out of him. Suspecting something a-foot, the party entered the main bedroom and searched around the Uncle's things and dirty clothes. All his robes had odd stains upon them that smelled sharp and bitter.

Having finished in the bedroom, the party went downstairs to search some more. Behind the curtain they found a secret door. A short study of the door and they had it opened and were heading down. No traps other than some squeaky steps deposited our four heroes into a secret alchemy lab. Uncle was quick to notice where the nosy party had gone and quickly followed. He quickly led the party back upstairs where they could talk.

Uncle spilled all the beans. He was an amateur alchemist, but kept his hobby secret lest the Inquisition come and lock him up. There was a small accident when Snowball got into the lab and covered herself with a phosphatant powder and then hightailed into the attic where she was hiding. Uncle had tried a couple of times to catch her, but for a glowing cat, she was hard to find. With this information, the party girded their loins, raided the pantry and headed back up to the attic. Gemini and Kai set out some food and then they tried ambushing Snowball. The rogue made a nice flying tackle, but was unable to hold onto the little critter. Moving the food again, they tried once more. Surprisingly, this little glowing cat was hard to see and the ambushers had to rely on their ears to catch the cat. Another grapple attempt and Snowball was caught. Snowball was handed off to Kai who muffled the cat so as not to alert the Aunt and Katy. Uncle waited nervously downstairs and wrapped the cat up in his robes. He asked the party to take her out somewhere and wash her off and then return.

The party took Snowball over to a water barrel a few houses down to wash her off. Kai did the honors and did not drown the poor cat in the process. A thoroughly clean Snowball was returned to the Uncle. In return for the party’s help and more for their silence, they were paid 25 gold pieces.

With this task complete, the four adventures headed back to the Dead Eye to catch lunch and find out what else was going on in the fort. Talk in the tavern indicated that a merchant caravan was due in tomorrow and would be leaving two days later. The merchant was planning on picking up 10 guards from the local mercenary guild. With an eager gleam in their eyes, the party headed off to the guildhall.

Entering the guildhall, the party met up with Rynel Felldon, a large human mercenary. He explained that there were almost thirty mercenaries in town that were looking to get hired for the caravan guard duty. The merchant had this crazy idea to hold contests on the next day at noon outside the walls. Nodding their thanks to Rynel; Horus, Kai, Gemini and Jacob went to rest to prepare for the next day.

Gemini took this time to hide some of his extra cash and trap his front door. After springing the half set trap once before setting it, the rogue spent a night at the Dead Eye rather than mess with his own trap.

Jacob woke up feeling sick from the rat bite he had received two days earlier. Horus, knowing how much hi dwarven friend wanted to be part of the caravan guard and knowing they would need his axe, bundled up his friend and dragged him out to find the cleric of Whalin that lived in the town and helped all the settlers in the area.

Luck was with them, for the cleric was in residence. He was a medium human of middle age and of average coloring. Cel was pretty average except when it came to his healing skills and devotion to the tenants of Whalin. Seeing how bad the dwarf looked, he quickly ushered the pair into his house and sat Jacob down by the fire. Cel did a through examination and found that the dwarf was diseased. After a quick talk with Horus, he concluded that the fighter had been diseased during his encounter with one of the large rats in the sewers. Horus asked if he could heal his friend before the competitions. Cel assured him he could. He laid his hands on Jacob’s bright red head, his hands took on a glow of the bright green of new leaves filling the dwarf with warmth and cleansing his body of the disease. The healer declared the dwarf cured. The pair offered to pay him, but he refused any payment and wished the two well.

The people of Fort Erion took advantage of the coming competitions to throw an informal festival. Food hawkers and ladies selling ribbons fought with men selling beer and children laughing to be heard. The governor and the merchant sat in seats on a raised platform to watch the competitions. There was a foot race around the walls of the Fort. It was one by a half-orc barbarian. Gemini won the archery contest. Kai fought valiantly, but was defeated in the wrestling match. The halfling was the best at the throwing contest. Kai prevailed in the arm wrestling match, winning against Jacob. The dwarf had his victory in weapons competition. Gemini nearly won the horse racing and was beaten out by a farmer’s son by only a head. Everyone of the party except the cleric Horus had won the right to be included in the merchant guard. Over looking his winners, the merchant declaimed the lack of a healer to accompany them. The party was quick to point out a friend of theirs that was a cleric of Rahne would be more than happy to join in the task. Horus was welcomed with open arms.

The morning of the 19th of Davor dawned bright and sunny as the merchant’s caravan rolled out of the west gate of Fort Erion. The land between the Fort and the borders of Kalla was wild. The only safe places were fortified inns called Havens along the main trade route. Each Haven held an inn, a stable, a blacksmith and a wagon wright. Wooden palisades surround each and the gates are closed from dusk to dawn to protect travelers staying within.

The first day of travel got very exciting rather early in the morning after leaving the safety of the Fort. The party spotted a pack of nine zombies heading for the caravan. Horus stepped up as the undead approached the wagons and Turned them away. The zombies proved to be stubborn, sensing living flesh to devour; they continued to follow the caravan. Knowing that the undead monsters would not easily give up the pursuit, the party decided to fight the foul creatures.

Most of the party knew they did not posses weapons that would harm these creatures. They were surprised when their weapons did more damage than they expected. Kai was knocked to the ground unconscious after a vicious slam from one of the zombies. Horus was quickly there at his side healing him. The monk rose unsteadily to his feet and continued to battle beside his friends. In a few minutes, the grass around the roadway was decorated with bits and pieces of the undead monsters. A search of what remained of the zombies turned up a total of 40 platinum pieces. Horus did the best he could to bandage up Jacob and Kai at the Haven that evening after exhausting his spells. The end of the day saw a tired and sore party settling in for the night at the Haven.

So ended the 19th of Davor, 1329 Avard, Fort Erion Haven in Southern Galanath