Editing Journal 5: Diamond Deal (section)

== 17 Broadsummer 807 ==
It’s finally over, but the mission went sideways very fast today. I woke up after one of the most pleasant nights of sleep I’ve ever had. I took my time getting ready, reluctant to leave such a fine room, and when I came down I was planning to eat a long, large breakfast. I took samples of as many of the different local foods as I could find, including some of the glowing mushrooms, cooked in a variety of ways, and something called a liken, which I did not enjoy, but I am glad I tried it anyway. It tasted kind of like dirt. But the mushrooms were very tasty. Before I could eat my fill, however, I was interrupted by sounds of commotion from the courtyard outside. I went to find out what was happening, and was horrified to find one of the passengers from our Tramm had gotten his hands on the Deck of Many Things and was offering it to people to draw from. He told everyone that he drew three cards from the Deck himself, and they all canceled each other out, and he thought that was proof it was safe. I know how dangerous that Deck is, so I was not willing to allow him to endanger anyone else with it. Me and the others shut him down and dispersed the crowd. Bula grabbed the thief and led him to the basement to tie him up. After this, Lady Worthington offered to lock the Deck in a safe place. She also chose the basement, and she led us there with a couple of her gnome guards. But after they closed the door behind us, she locked it and turned on us. She dropped the glamor she had been hiding under to reveal herself to be the Drow mage we thought we had shot down in the first attack on the Tramm. She and her guards attacked us, and we had to fight them off. During the fight, one of the guards used some kind of weapon I have never seen before. It was a metal tube that sprouted an explosion of fire at one end and launched a projectile faster than I have ever seen, though I managed to stop it with a magic shield. After he used this weapon, Bula charged and cut him down, but as soon as he died, his body exploded. Our other enemies and, unfortunately, the captive card thief, died in the explosion. We all survived, though it roughed us up pretty bad. The explosion also did a lot of damage to the basement, and pieces started falling away into the cave below. It looked like the whole basement was about to collapse, so we ran for the stairs and broke through the locked door. Upstairs there was even more chaos, though. The mansion was under attack by a swarm of giant spiders, apparently led by a creature called a Dryder, half spider, half drow. We bickered over whether to fight the Dryder or run away, but I knew civilians were in danger, and I could not allow any more of them to die, so without waiting for agreement from the others, I attacked the Dryder. The others had no choice but to help me, and we managed to bring it down, then we started gathering civilians to try to herd them towards our Tramm. There were more passengers than one Tramm was made to hold, but we managed to get most of them on board. Just as the Tramm was about to pull away, the dwarf merchant who gave us gifts earlier pulled us aside and said he had a faster way out. Knowing those aboard the Tramm were going to get away safely, we agreed, and he pulled out a strange metal disk. When we all grasped is, it teleported us directly to Augsenet. We had a moment to breathe, then our contact Thayden found us. The stay in Augsenet itself was brief. We met briefly with the Allfather and delivered the Deck to him, telling him of the attempts to steal it, then Thayden gave us the diamond we came for, and  led us to a teleportation circle which sent us to Stonett. There, Landallyn and my friend Steve the Donkee met us and led us back towards [[Wodesville]]. While we traveled, she told us that a member of the Redfang group [[The Lost Ones]] appeared recently with no memory of where she’d been or what she had been doing. But that is a mystery for later. For now, I just want to get home to my fish.
[[Category:Recaps]]
[[Category:Lore]]
[[Category:Writing]]
[[Category:Dragonslayers]]