Breakout! part I

No news from home.

My stomach churns with anxiety and frustration. Still, I have spoken to the others, and they have agreed to accompany me to Vodacce after we take this opportunity to rescue Montegue from the clutches of Posen. I hope we can go to Vodacce soon. This anxiety is like a blanket of depression covering my entire life.

But first things first. We need a new home, and the city authorities have told us that if we wanted to repair Erhart's manor we can have it. Sounds good, however after a few enquiries it seems that repairs will cost about 20,000g!! Oh well, nothing for it but to dig deep. Everyone contributes what they can and we manage to scrape together the money needed for the repairs.

In the meantime Pistol uses his connections to find out about the whereabouts of Montegue. A certain Kelby Loring told him that Montegue is being held at Anganehm Wald. In a hunter's cabin. The location of this hunter's cabin Pistol managed to find out from one Patar Ziskin. Well I hope this information can be trusted.

Without much further delay we get ourselves ready and leave on our rescue mission. However, no sooner do we leave Freiburg than we see a group of lancers riding towards us. Looks to be about 12 of them. Maybe, they'll just leave us alone and ride on by. Nah. Sure enough, up they come and begin to flex they're muscles. Their leader, I notice, is quite an attractive woman. I give her my most charming smile and it seems to work. Suddenly there is a shift in the air from aggressive interrogation to friendly banter. I guess sometimes it pays to be attractive. I think I may actually start practicing on my seduction skills. Much as it irks me, it can be useful.

Off we go again heading North till eventually we come to one of Eisen's famous forests. By now it's getting dark (and cold) so its time to set up camp and watches for the night. Of course something attacks us during the night. And, of course, they pick the weakest shift to attack. Pistol and Ambrose (who insisted on taking his turn at watch) were attacked by some fiendish, ape-like creatures, that came tearing out of the forest. If the noise of the attack hadn't woken me, the smell of these creatures surely would have. Poor Ambrose got taken down before the rest of us could defend the camp. But up we rose eventually and began to hack and weave through the creatures. During all this Don Carlos starts howling and ranting and raving at the forest. It's not even a full moon so I don't know what he's doing. Anyway my attention is soon diverted by a couple of the creatures attacking me, and I could no longer worry about Don Carlos. After killing a few more beasts they soon lost heart and disappeared into the forest as quickly as they had appeared. We tended the wounded and managed to get a bit more rest before heading off again.

We traveled around the outskirts of the forest heading towards the direction we were told the hunter's cabin was at. Eventually it began to snow and our progress became even slower. I have felt miserable many times in my life but not often more so than this. Night began to fall and we were thinking of setting up camp once again when we heard a strange humming coming from the forest. Soon a man emerged and bid us greeting. He claimed to be from a village just inside the forest, named Waldorf (he said they make great salads), and that he would be glad to take us to its relative safety. What can I say? It seemed like a good idea at the time.

After a while of following this chap (his name was Yeager), we began to get a little uneasy about how far into the forest this supposed haven was. Just as were about to question our guide, the ground gave way in front of us and Borstenn and Dandelion fell in, injuring themselves as they fell. Then tiny arrows began shooting at us from the trees. I climbed one of the trees nearby but was quickly grappled by some nasty little creatures, all sharp teeth and claws. The next few minutes were a mass of confusion for me. I struggled hard to escape but it wasn't until someone (Franz, I think) hacked some of these creatures away from me that I managed to break free. More confusion as the group tried to search through trees to chase off these creatures. Eventually the remainder of them ran off and we found ourselves alone, and breathless in the forest.