A request came from the Lords' Alliance, letting us know she needs our assistance in escorting a supply caravan to Neverwinter. The cargo is needed to supply and foritfy the city's defenses. Several attacks along the High Road has caused issues and a scouting troop that has gone missing. We are set to gather intel about things but the priority is the caravan.

We met with Captain Ilyra Venn and she gave us the run down. There have been large footprints of what seems like trolls that have been around the road. I know some things of trolls but more than likely these won't be trolls I know of. If they are though, that's much more lucky. (Bri apparently has a thing against Neverwinter). She arranged our transport to the caravan and we set off.

Arriving at the caravan found us meeting Sargeant and being informed a bit more of what we're escorting. After...strange conversation where Surx revealed he has no idea how babies are made and Shev seems to have been possessed by something that insists on calling himself a human.

I've no idea how we even managed this job.

On the road, we came across a cabin to the side of the road, a pristine outpost without anything seeming out of place. We entered the outpost to investigate and the scouting troup out here was sent to investigate this section of the road. We found a journal entry that indicated they went north to inspect in that direction. I read over the entry multiple times and the last bit of message was darker than the rest. The marked pathings also seemed to not go where they needed to, in a strange way. I made note of it before we headed back out.

It began to storm a bit and one of the cargo wagons nearly fell off a cliffside and we had to work together to pull it back right. It was a bit of a process but we managed to bring it back to where it needed to be and we continued forward on the road.

Eventually, we came to a stop as a wagon...of sorts...was dismantled in the middle of the road. Bri took a look at it but something reached out and tripped her and when she was on the ground, trolls appeared. Some were normal trolls that I learned of while others are trolls I'm unfamiliar. One had rotting skin and seemed to spew necrotic pus when standing too close to it. Another had poisonous postules that burst with each hit to its body and we had to catch them all on fire in order to stop their regenerative abilities. Another troll, unlike any other, appeared as well, just a spirit though. Rather than fire or acid, it seemed force or psychic was needed to stop its own regeneration. We were able to take them out after a struggle as Nathan (Surx) became stunned still by its bite.

When they were all defeated, we searched the area and found a corpse wearing a Lords' Alliance scouting uniform. It seems this is where the scouting troupe headed out this way and were ambushed by the trolls. They had acted strangely, preferring to focus on the wagon rather than attacking. We took a look over the scout and found his badge that was stretched out without having it be broken. The stamped insignia no longer aligned.

We arrived to Neverwinter, delivering the caravan there and speaking with the contact there. We told her about what we found and there was a Field Report that was missing and the badge seemed to be needed as well.

Learned Creatures that Applied: Troll

11 Eleasis 1502 D.R.

It has been some tendays since my last official job with the Glassfang Syndicate. Perhaps the same can be said for my compatriots, for it seems most of them had forgotten how to comport themselves in a professional manner.

We were summoned to protect a Lords' Alliance caravan passing through dangerous moors around the city-state of Neverwinter. Captain Ilyra Venn greeted us courteously and informed us of our task, warning us that the High Road had become dangerous and that previous caravans -- and guards -- had gone missing. If quicksand and insect swarms weren't enough, trolls were said to be in the area. I detest trolls.

While Salviron and I listened and did our best to establish a proper working relationship with our clients, Surx pouted, wailed, and bemoaned her spurning by Na'ima, who was not present but who seems to have finally convinced Surx that they are not in fact in a romantic relationship together. Shev has become fully possessed by his blubbering pint-sized megalomaniac of a patron and spent most of the mission screaming impotent demands for servitude and cookies while failing hilariously to convince anyone that it was just Shev and not a many-eyed planar aberration bent on world domination as soon as it figures out how legs work. Bri struggled to come to grips with this, and was consequently a mess. Venn rightly rebuked us all, but still sent us on our way.

For a time, the journey was uneventful. We traveled. We found a station along the way from which the missing guards had set out, but little information there beyond hints at vague dangers. We pressed on. One of the carriages nearly went off the road into the swamp, but we remembered at last how to work together and managed to succeed in saving it. Our clients, who had become more and more skeptical, began to take us more seriously.

Then came the ambush.

A wrecked cart lay across the road. When Bri went to clear it, a hidden chain popped up to begin ripping apart one of our carriages, and then the trolls attacked from all sides.

I shall spare the details for the most part. It was a grim fight, and Surx especially took a beating; some of these trolls were very different from the simple brutes that had attacked my home, spiritual entities that struck at the very soul. But we preserved and destroyed them one and all. What does bear mentioning is that, given the opportunity, these trolls ignored or distracted us and went directly after our most valuable cargo. This strikes me, though I am no expert, as very un-trolllike behavior; they have always seemed to me most fixated on their next (preferably sentient) meal. These focused on *things* for which they should have had little use, and they knew exactly what they were looking for and where to find it, and attempted to flee once they had it.

I suspect, then, that they were directed. These attacks cannot be random.

We uncovered also the body of what seemed to be a Lords' Alliance officer. On the corpse we found a filthy, tarnished badge, which we returned to our client upon our return trip. They were glad to have it, and in fact seemed excited in a grim and dangerous sort of way; it must have indicated something to them that eluded us. They asked about a duty log, which was not present with the body -- meaning someone must have taken it.

All interesting stuff, and surely important for any followup we might be called to do. But ultimately none of our business. It was a job well done, and we were paid, and that is all that matters to me.

-- Yashir adh Rumahr