The Road to Daggermark

This journal follows the journey of three Mendevian warriors - Arthur Baudwin, Gomek Broadheart, and John Parinder - as they discover and then investigate a vampiric threat to Mendev that is emerging from the River Kingdoms.

The Festering Barrow

With the Mendevian Crusade over, and the Worldwound finally closed, the government of Mendev has been both blessed and cursed with a large standing army; ex-crusaders, mercenaries, and warpriests alike have joined the new civillian government's force, leaving Mendev with a large and experienced army, but a costly one for upkeep. To best make use of these forces, Chancellor Irahai decided to send a relief package to the northern towns and cities of Mendev, those hit most hard over the many years of the great crusade. This package will consist of a large convoy, and must necessarily travel through some patches of the central mountain ranges of the county. In order to ensure that the equipment did not go astray, the army deployed squads of soldiers to many near-uncharted corners of the routes to search for anything that may threaten the convoy.

One of these squads was that of Arthur Baudwin, John Parinder, and Gomek Broadheart. They had been deployed only 50 miles east of Kenabres, to check one of the narrow mountain passes the convoy would have to travel through. In the mountains, they found little of concern, aside from an old bricked-up entrance to a set of catacombs. Unfortunately, this was no minor obstacle, as Gomek's keen religious knowledge told the group that many of these ancient Mendevian tomb complexes had been disturbed by grave robbers, or corrupted by demons. These fell cases must have happened to this catacomb, as when Arthur and John knocked down the wall and the trio descended into the barrow, they found the dead walking, animated by dark energies.

Festering undead and rusty traps did not daunt the soldiers' stalwart hearts however, and they pushed through the shambling threats until they finally found the source of the corruption - a Dhampir necromancer slowly constructing a skeletal abomination. After a hard fight in which Arthur sustained some grave wounds, the necromancer was slain, and the soldiers searched his posessions. Aside from travelling gear and dark texts, the soldiers found an obsidian statuette of a well-dressed vampire, with a V carved into the bottom.

With their survey of the pass complete, the soldiers returned to Kenabres to receive new orders, and to ask their superiors about the statuette.

Confluence of Plunder

After reaching Outsea in Sarenith 4722AR, the crusaders left the Sellen river in order to cross west to the Dagger river, where they would continue south to Daggermark. After two days of travel, they arrived at a village next to the conflux of the Dagger and Wyvernkill rivers. The small settlement caught the noble party's eye as it had a distinct air of gloom about it. When they pressed on only a little further into the village, they came across a bandit look-out post - the ruffians attacked them on sight, but were swiftly dispatched.

The crusaders fought their way to the ruined keep where the bandits had made their base, and after fending off volleys of arrows, made it inside the keep and to the cellars below.

In the depths of the keep, the party easily found their way to the "office" of Chief Ragnar, a man far too keen on proclaiming the Blackblood's fury and brutality in combat. The Mendevians slew the chief and his two lackeys, though not without Arthur sustaining some serious injuries during the fight. In Ragnar's trunk there were two intruiging items of correspondence: the first, a letter from Lord Rathkin, presumably Ragnar's boss, instructing the chief of the Blackblood bandits to report movements of personnel in the surrounding area; the second letter was a crumpled note from a Baron Vilitrimeth, offering Ragnar twice the wages offered by Rathkin if the chief reported the movements of any "crusaders or religous types" seen in the area solely to the baron.