Our battle had been a desperate one, although we had won in the end. By the valor of Skalrag (how often does one say that?), most of the prospectors had been rescued. However, as we sat a few minutes to gain our breath, my head hurt something terrible—and not just from the heavy axe blow it had taken from one of the orcs now dead on the temple floor. It hurt because this, like every other victory we had won since the Omen of the Goats, only made the whole evil-plot-threatening-to-destroy-all-good-things seem that much more complicated. It all felt rather like trying to unravel a basket of Kalonian water-eels.
Adding to both our information and the complexity of it all were a series of communications that we found on the bodies of our foes. The first was a letter from Nalric to Svernizug, the latter being the treacherous Dark One that we had first encountered in Treepo’s shop in Phirul and which I had now just slain. The second was a message from Grimbol Dune to Torg, the leader of the orcs we had just defeated. The third was from Beauchelain to Zaelis, Skalrag’s nemesis, the shadar-kai witch, together with a letter from Nalric to Zaelis.
In addition to these, we also had the pages from Treepo’s letter and diary, as well as our letter of instructions from Chancellor Invictad, and the weapon’s order placed at the goblin foundary at Bortho.
Aunt Petunia always used to say, “you’ll never keep yer ferrets tidy if you don’t write them down,” so I started a list of everyone we had met these recent weeks, and how they all seemed to tie into this dark plot…
