09/06/14 Boars!

With the burgermeister's approval, and guards helping us, we moved the statue of Jerimond to look under it for the notes Leopold had told us about. We found a sarcophagus that when Leoreo and Booyow opened it, a damaging ward of protection was set off with a loud boom!  With their pride and bodies damaged, Abe healed them both. Inside we found Jerimond's body, but it was missing a head and hand. Booyow also found a scroll case, but nothing else.  With Abe presiding over the ceremony, we then reburied the body with the townsfolk watching.  Booyow later opened the scroll case to find 3 1st, 2 2nd and 1 3rd level Wizard spell. 

The night before, Booyow met an elf at the inn that told him he was part of a party of six that planned to follow a map they had. He showed the map and it was the same one we found in the keep's laboratory.  When asked, he said their party needed no help.  Booyow acted like he'd never seen the map, so as to not alert them that we too knew about it.  Booyow tried to introduce Leoreo to the elf, but he left before he could.  They then looked for him and ran into Joseph, the smithy's son.  He described the party to us, which included the elf, a bigger burly man, one clad in leather armor and three wearing robes.  

Joseph was eager to join us. We told him that if he had his Father's approval, we could use his help to tend to the horses only.  The next morning he met us at the inn and had the horses combed, teeth brushed and was anxious to begin. Abe found out from Leopold, while staying at the church and cleaning up gargoyle dung, that a gang of assassins had been staying around the bone yard area.  This is the same area that he believes the gargoyles that are destroying the church are coming from.

We saw the same party of men in the crowd that watched the reburial.  Leoreo put on a disguise that morning out of concern for the rival gang that had been asking about him.  He spoke to the men and the one in leather recognized that he was in a disguise.  He still told him that their elven companion had been killed in his sleep the night before and they'd found a dagger with a wavy blade and 3 blood drops on it. Also a note was left that said "Two now vanquished, one remains." He also said they planned to be in town for the two or three days taking care of their friend.

Leoreo shared this with Abe and Booyow and we discussed our options.  Not knowing this new party and not being able to trust them, we didn't feel it would be safe to set out with them.  Not wanting them to follow the same map we had and get to the "gold beyond measure" before us, we decided to head there first and take advantage of the fact they might be delayed. The keep and the dungeons below would have to wait for now.

We had Joseph take the horses out of town to the west. Then we met him there and left to the west, northwest just in case we were watched. We then circled to the northeast and starting following a tributary river toward the main river shown on the map.  We encountered some snakes along the way that we avoided.  That night while resting, we were attacked by a pack of wild boars.  They stormed the camp, we believe, because they were being chased by a green dragon.  At least that is what Booyow believed it to be when it swooped down and picked two of them up.  There were several injuries and dead boars in the process, but everyone survived and all the horses.  Joseph also made his first kill, which he kept talking about all of the next day.  After crossing through a swamp filled with dead corpses, we made it to the site of the battle that Cruhorn and Abe remembered and that is where we set camp for the next night.