Velon showed up at Woaden’s tavern in the morning. The friendly half-giant was in a state of shock. It turned out that some demon-shade creatures attacked his church several days back. His church elders told him to run and he had been traveling without destination or purpose since. I told him that he would get his revenge, but that it didn’t have to be today. I introduced him to Olrok and Phelenia and he agreed to come with us for lack of better options. Zephyr insisted that we pursue the bounty related to a quickling that had stolen some sort of expensive dagger. Even though the robbery site was near the town of Alda Zocha several days away, the reward was good enough that it would be worth it if successful. I suspect Zephyr is more interested in the quickling than the dagger though.

We immediately ran into trouble. Not half a day’s travel down the road, we came across an elf with his cart blocked by several boulders. He bid us to help him get it dislodged, but something was off about the rocks and the elf's cart. I was highly suspicious, but Velon and Phelenia were naïve and went up to help him. Olrok was also weary and noticed some movement in the bushes and trees lining the road. The half-orc wheeled around and threw a spear into the woods at the source of the noise. Olrok’s spear missed, but between Phelenia throwing fire and my arrows we managed to kill the elf waiting in ambush. Unfortunately, he was far from the only one. Nearly a dozen bandits in the trees started raining arrows down at us.

I took cover behind one of the trees lining the road only to find an elf almost directly above me shooting down from it. Zephyr ran up a tree and pushed one of the elves out. Velon and Olrok were able to kill him, but those two had no way to reach the other elven bandits still in the trees. Phelenia and I took out another of the cowardly bastards, but the barrage of arrows was too much and Phelenia was downed. Velon healed her and tried to drag her out of harms way, but he pulled the two of them into a trap. A rockslide was triggered and Phelenia and Velon were crushed by the boulders. Olrok went directly after the elf who had served as bait, but he was waiting for it and stabbed Olrok in the chest.

As Olrok collapsed to the ground, I threw down my weapons and ran over to my downed allies, yelling to the bandits that we surrender. Zephyr fled into the woods but then reappeared to help me give first aid to our three new friends. Velon was in bad shape, and I had to push some of the rocks off of his large body before he could breathe. The bandits gave us time to make sure they were stable and then took all of our money. They seemed to fancy themselves honorable bandits and let us keep our items and clothes. It probably helped that none of us had much of value aside from our coins.

The thieves headed out and Zephyr and I made a safe place just off the road for our companions to recover. Zephyr ran back into the woods and recovered his money, having dropped all his gold in a hidden spot as soon as he heard me surrendering. I previously assumed Zephyr was lying when he said he had worked for the Thieves Guild before, but maybe I was wrong. He seems to understand how they think. Once Phelenia woke up, she healed Velon and Olrok and we were able to finally put some distance between us and the ambush site.

We set up an actual camp a couple miles down the road and vented over what just happened. We discussed backtracking and following the bandits to their hideout to recover our stuff, but that seemed ill advised since they had us massively outnumbered. Zephyr was the only one with money and he said we could use his funds if we continued our trek to the quickling with the stolen dagger. Velon vowed vengeance on the bandit leader who tricked him, and we will be heading off come morning.

Sandyburrow was about the halfway point to Alda Zocha. Past that town the trip will take us across a bridge and through dense woods for another four days. We had little money and stayed out of town, but a married merchant couple named Bobbin and Ulga sought us out and tried to sell us their wares. We didn’t have any money, but they also said they had goods heading up to Keatinstown. If we wanted to earn some coin, we could protect their caravan on the way up. Velon showed some knack for negotiating and got them to up their payment. We said we would seek them out on the way back.

Heavy rain slowed us today. Olrok and I were fine traveling in it, but Zephyr and Phelenia insisted on getting shelter. Zephyr is only two and half feet tall, so small amounts of mud nearly go up to his waist. Phelenia on the other hand is used to being pampered and found the rain uncomfortable. I hope she knows that the life of an adventurer is the opposite of what she is used to.

The rain eventually let up and we reached the bridge to the southern woods of the Freedlands region. The scene on the bridge was gruesome. Several bodies had been cut apart and sleeping on the bridge was a white troll in bloodstained armor. While most of us were hesitant about what to do, Velon confidently strode up the sleeping troll. The troll woke up and turned out to be polite and well spoken. He claimed to be a knight named Schom Soulbreaker and that the dead men had tried to rob him on the road. I am not sure if he just fell alseep after the fight or passed out from exhaustion at the end. Either way, he asked us to help him bury the dead and do funeral rites. Velon and Olrok helped. I didn’t yet trust the troll and kept guard, both against Schom and against other bandits. Schom’s story was that he was a normal troll, but when he ate a unicorn, he gained some of its celestial grace and wisdom. He has been spending his life since then trying to atone for that horrific act.

Schom also mentioned knowing Phelenia’s father, who apparently is some sort of ascended being. Phelenia didn’t want to get into it and Schom wasn’t going to say anything once Phelenia declined. Schom also had met Phelenia’s sister, or maybe half-sister, which Phelenia had not even known about. Schom was heading north to some sort of tournament, which unfortunately was the opposite way we were going. Would be nice to have someone as strong as him travelling with us in case we come across yet more bandits. When he departed, he did so by summoning a unicorn as a mount and riding off on it. We sat there for several minutes in stunned silence before continuing our way south.

I am upset that I missed several shots at those bandits. Maybe if I had been better, we would have gotten out of there with our money. Also need to make a point to talk with Velon and Phelenia about how they heal people and see if it something I can learn. The druids had said I had some sort of potential, but they never got around to teaching me.