Meeting our host

We finally made our way to Jartik, and he wasn’t very hospitable. He was expecting us, because his desk was some sort of scrying device that allowed him to observe the rest of the keep.

We tried to talk to him—honest—but after laughing at our attempts at diplomacy he just attacked us. Him and his big red wolf.

Jartik engaged our combat guys and seemed to get them on their back foot, especially since he was pretty big and was able to use his bulk to push them around. Even with the shield guardian helping it looked like it was going to be a long fight as Jartik dictated terms.

At the same time his wolf went for Livia and given the weirdness of the creatures we’d encountered here I feared it would go badly for her so I went to help out. While the wolf was fierce, it turned out to be nowhere near as fearsome as some of the other things we’ve found and we were able to take it down quickly.

Then a played a nasty little trick on Jartik. As he was deciding who to attack next I made some nasty comments about the “special bond” he’d shared with his wolf. I know the others thought I was mad but when Jartik charged me I was able to use his size against him and divert his charge straight into a position where the others could surround him.

He was clearly experienced at fighting against multiple opponents but the opportunity for everyone to get attacks on him before he could once more take command of the fight and engage people one at a time was enough for us to get the upper hand and we quickly took him down.

We did a fairly careful search of the area but we haven’t really found any answers to our questions. There are many books here, some of which are journals, but it seems unlikely there will be enough detail to be of use to us. I guess we’ll have to rely on Malakar to interrogate Jartik’s spirit.

Obegard’s condition continues to follow a predictable decline. As I expected, “the book” wants to go home to the wizard’s college. What? No! Really?

Almost as soon as we got there we were attacked by some spirit that concealed itself inside solid objects and cast spells at us. We were unable to reason with it and could only really attack it by causing massive damage to the objects it was hidden in.

Not surprisingly when there was something that a talking book familiar with the college could have helped with, it appears to have become upset with us and stopped talking. How very convenient.