Seebo: Disappointments

Once upon a time a man's talents were revered; they were cherished; the experts were shown the proper respect. There was a time when a man's ability to make a real contribution were appreciated. Those were good times.

We were resting at Father Abstinence's mission before heading to the Temple of Kharad. Through the torrential downpour came trudging a walking tin can. He showed up out of nowhere and had no clue where he was. He had to be another Starborn.

I make jokes at his expense but the truth is he turned out to be a really friendly guy. A dwarf from Underdell, apparently right here in Caldraza, so that Lady didn't have far to take him. What bothered me about him was his particular expertise. He called himself a dungeoneering expert or something. In common speak, he was a bigger, heavier, harder to hit me.

But you know what? I took the high road. Maybe he wasn't a threat to me and my abilities. Maybe he was an ally to help me do my job better. Perhaps it wasn't even my job. I mean the less danger I have to deal with the more likely I won't get burned alive? Boy was I naïve.

So we left the mission and made our way to the Temple, pretty easily at that. Neil made us walk on water and we got to the doors. Neil did some strange magic thing to open them and we all entered. Unfortunately he couldn't do the same thing to get us out so we were trapped. Only one way to go so we ventured in.

A lot happened in there, most of it important so I'll just sum up. We learned the Ragged Man did in fact reside there and he had taken 3 brides who were trapped in undeath in the Temple. We freed the Brides (in other words sent them packing on a one way trip to hell) and opened the doors to the Ragged Man's chamber. Along the way we encountered all sorts of undead monstrosities, apparently all creations of the Ragged Man. I understand he was kind of a loner but sweet mother he went to a lot of trouble.

I expected a fight once we got to him but surprisingly enough he just wanted to talk. Neil was right about him being Severil Blackthorn from the last equinox. Imagine a thousand year old wizard still lived from the last battle. How wrinkly was he! He had apparently kept himself alive by siphoning magical energy from this nifty blue orb that was keyed to the Starborn. The damn fool drained all of the nifty abilities it had and left us with a shiny bauble.

So he gave us his stuff and promptly died. The bastard was supposed to be preparing us for this equinox but instead decided to sit up in the Temple and wank off for a thousand years to his undead cronies. I was a bit pissed off, but only a little bit.

Looking back on it, I'm glad I decided to accept Kettle as an equal. I probably couldn't have done as good a job as I did without his help. I have to say, the man did know what he was doing. I still don't know how I got volunteered to be the live sacrifice to be burned alive. Oh yeah, I wasn't kidding about being naïve.

We had done what we came to do, we cleaned the Temple out of all the treasure. Information? Oh yeah, Severil told us some stuff about the Starborn and what was happening and stuff. That was the whole ‘I was here to help you but I was a selfish prick and got my rocks off on this shiny ball' thing.

We found out that most of our Starborn items were in Crescent City – how convenient – and that there was a Node there too. It was a good thing too because Casey bit the big one against the Drow. That's right, Drow.

About a dozen or so of the sneaky bastards tried to ambush us on the way back. How stupid were they? We spotted their scout and peppered him with arrows but he got away. I immediately made my way to shore and started shadowing him. The Drow turned and made their way deep into the swamp. I followed the trail up to where they made camp. I came back and warned the rest and we decided to make a decisive strike and ambush them.

We quietly made our way up to the camp but unfortunately some of us are quieter than others and some of us can't help but bang like drums when they walk. The element of surprise was lost and battle ensued. We were victorious though we lost Casey. We were able to take two prisoners back with us.

We decided to come back to the plantation, getting Casey to the Node was our first priority. It was a tough call because Greenroot's village (the swamp elf that led us in) had been wiped out by whatever was dominating the plantation. Casey was first priority but we all agreed we'd come back and fix that.

Thus ended our mostly fruitless venture into the swamp. At least we got some nifty trinkets out of it.

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