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Brulane, Elorebaen, Beleric, Aryndel and Aphra

I recently had a long discussion with a Halfling soldier stationed in Freeport and the church here. It was decided that I would be allowed to settle out of my deal with the church for a while in order to help these clansmen. Now I'm sure your wondering why there was a Halfling there, he was invited by your church. Now it took a lot of convincing on my part, but it seems a little soldier by the name of Beleric is to take my place traveling with you. Now I was quite skeptical at first that such a small person could help you at all on your journeys. I thought him to be a hindrance more than anything. But the Church partially convinced me so I agreed with reservations. The church even mentioned something about making him your squire one day. But I'm sure I'd have to see that to believe it. The Halfling soldier told me that Beleric had, weeks ago, received his orders to accompany the Adventuring Fellowship that you have seemed to have created, so if he is already with you then I hope he lives up to his expectations.

While I am sorry I cant see the lands that you are seeing, probably far off lands I have never dreamed of. But I have duties here I must attend to.

~Sinadan

Shaman of New Halas

Noble Sinadan,

It has been many days since you have received a correspondence from me. For this I apologize. I n recent days I have been out of reach of most forms of communication. I am now in the vast city of Qeynos amd the Paladin Guild here is organized and well established. This has been my first opportunity to write you and for that matter, the guild here is the first place I have been in recent weeks that could facilitate the transportation of a letter to you. This letter will serve to catch you up, at least in part, to my recent activities.

As my last letter indicated, I traveled from the friendly confines of Freeport to accompany the nimble halfling Beleric back to his homeland of Rivervale. While Rivervale has a fine militia, it has no paladin guild. It appears that this quaint halfling hamlet is too remote for even a network as diverse as the paladin guild. It is actually the first place I have traveled that doesn't harbor a temple to the almighty Mithanniel Marr. As I suggested, the halflings are a simple race and their lifestyle is far too frivilous and funloving to have any use for the truth filled word of The Lightbringer.

While the halflings are funloving, their community is not without problems. Within days of my arrival I had a revealing meeting with the town's sheriff and mayor. They confided in me a horrible story about a clan of goblins that were encroaching upon the halfling homeland. Beleric was kind enough to take me on a tour of Misty Thicket which lies just outside the lofty outer walls of Rivervale. Even from a guard tower on the protective walls of the city, I witnessed all manner of vile goblins scurrying about on the ground below. They wandered within spitting distance of the guards, thumbing their noses in defiance.

We proceeded into the Misty Thicket and soon came upon a large cave in the side of the surrounding mountains. After a brief battle with two goblin guards that flanked the cavernous enterance, we made our way into the goblin lair known as Runnyeye.

Accompanyed by the druid Elorebaen, we made our way into the lair. Wave after wave of stench ridden goblins came at us and with flash of blade and sting of magic we sent them reeling back. From every goblin corpse we took warbeads. The sherrif requested these beads as a bounty, not only to keep track of the damage we were doing to his opponent, but also as morale raising proof to the citizens of Rivervale that something was being done about the goblin epidemic.

As we made our way further into the goblin citadel we eventually came to a small underground resevoir. I knelt down to the water for a moment to moisten a rag to clean the goblin blood from my face and my weapon. What I heard next I will not soon forget. From the adjoining tunnel came a deep repetative throbbing sound. Almost like a heart beating, the sound reverborated off the rocky walls of the cave and echoed all around us. As I looked up from my position at the edge of the pond I witnessed a massive, bulbous sphere come floating into the room. In the middle of the sphere was a huge, bloodshot eye. Before I could react, a red light came spewing from the orb and the light burned my skin as if hot coals had been dropped into my armor. Reeling from the orb's fire magic, Beleric motioned for us to follow him down a seperate tunnel that led away from the room. I felt as though I was on fire and the only thing I knew was that I needed to get away from that sphere. Following after Beleric, the wiley halfling led us through a complex system of tunnels. As we ran I could hear the throbbing sound becoming more distant. Soon the sound was gone and we came to rest in a small room. A ghastly sight met us there. Skewered on poles around the room were the heads of several unfortunate halflings who had met their deaths at the hands of the trecherous Runnyeye goblins. Scrawled on the wall in blood were the words "No Trespassing."

We would soon learn the true meaning of these words. I had just slumped down against a wall to rest my body and tend to the burns I had received from the orb, when from connecting tunnels, I heard the sounds of magical incantations and the thumping of goblin feet. Out of the tunnels poured four goblin warriors and behind them was some kind of evil goblin shaman. I stood and braced myself against the wall to absorb the charge of the goblin warriors. I bashed them away with my shield and mounted a counter-attack. I would soon learn that these were not the ordinary goblins that we had encountered earlier. This was an elite force of goblin guards which had clearly been sent with their shaman colleague to purge us from the inner sanctum of Runnyeye. And purge us they did. We made a valiant defense of our position, but were soon sent realing backwards. Luckily, Beleric was familiar with the area and led us out through a back exit that spilled out into a sprawling gorge. For some reason, the goblins didn't follow us into the gorge. Right as they got to the exit of Runnyeye they cut off their pursuit and ran back into their cave. It was almost as if they feared something in the gorge. We would soon learn what it was they feared.

Friend, I must end this letter here as I have a training session scheduled with the guild master here in Qeynos. My next letter will detail the gorge, the rest of my stay in Rivervale and my eventual journey here to Qeynos. Everyday I travel closer to Halas. Perhaps soon we will be able to sit down in person and share a warm mead. Until then be safe and stay warm.

Regards,

Brulane Arongrith
Paladin and Scribe of Freeport