Journal 1: Egypt -- Keef's Abduction

Tomb of Martek:

After destroying the Pasha of the Afriti, Martek returned us to his tomb. He reluctantly allowed us to take some treasure from him; we took a bunch of cool-looking stuff. He didn't give us much chance to make selections; he kept giving us this look of "Why don't you bunch of losers hurry up, so that I can get back to important things like building annoying pocket universes to toy with people in?" What an incredible plonker. After all, if it weren't for us, he'd still be a pile of bones. You'd think he'd show some gratitude.

Back at the Oasis:

He teleported us back to the white palm Oasis, where we got our loot (or, as Erose says, "booty") identified and appraised by a wrinked old geezer named Agba. He worked pretty cheap. some of the stuff is cool, some of it is not. This whole process took a few days, during which Keef and I drank a lot of whiskey from Happy Hogan's. It wasn't the greatest, but it was a damn sight better than that fucking tequila of Keef's. After that, we played a gig at Hogan's, and I picked up a bottle of whiskey for the road. We decided to wait for the caravan leaving for Greece in a couple of days, so that we could have safety in numbers. Since we had an evening to spare, I looked up Francesca, the Franconian girl I rescued from the Sandfarer's Guild, and took her out for dinner at Hogan's (not the most romantic place, but entertainment options are quite limited in the middle of the bloody desert). She was amenable to further entertainment back at my hotel, so the evening turned out quite nicely all around. Before leaving with the caravan the next day, I gave her the silver Kepta bracelet I got in Mexico, and told her to look me up if she ever was in Steinhall the City. To travel, I got an extremely overpriced nag. The trader I bought her from didn't have a name for her, and since I don't plan on keeping her for long, I probably won't be giving her one, either. I agreed to take a letter to Hogan's family in Steinhall the City from him.

Oh, right, we also divided some of the loot; Erose, Hal, and I diced for Telecaster, and of course, Erose won. I think I'll look to buy a magic sword once I get to Steinhall; we certainly have enough money. Billy Ray too the weird Book of Infinite Spells, and Sanjay took the Book of Smartness. Schnellmaken kept the scimitar he's been practising with, and Udo took the morningstar (that's a spikey ball on a chain on a stick).

On the Road:

We travelled with the caravan, and after about a week, we met up with another caravan which joined in with ours. Travelling with them was Linwere, a lovely elf from Eldamar (Alfheim), who has been travelling in the desert for some time. She's a mage, who's been travelling around seeking out knowledge of the magic variety.

Greece:

We found our way back to the rebel encampment. Flyn and the others were very impressed with the Amp. They had a plug for it, so Keef plugged it in, turned it up to 11, and started playing; the stage collapsed, keef and the amp fell through, it was a mess. We tried it again, starting from 1 and turning it up slowly. Anyway, the bards fixed us up with guitars, a bass (although we're going to have to find a new bassist; Erose isn't really into the music scene), and some devices that we can plug into the Amp to bring my voice and Charlie^H^H^H^H^H^H^H Udo's drums up to the same volume as the guitars. I know that I was indeed destined to find the amp, because the hole where I plug my voice-loudening-thing in has my name on it. (Of course, it wasn't spelled right, but even Fender couldn't know everything.)

We agreed to play a huge gig in the middle of the DMZ. Thousands of people showed up, it was great; but about an hour into the show, some of those Black-dressed fuckers showed up and tried to opress us. I used the Amp, at 11, on them (Keef was playing the whole time). The Amp's powers helped us to defeat them, after which the audience came back and had a grand time stomping on the Men in Black's bodies. (The nondead ones were tied up, maybe the bards can use them in some prisoner exchange.)

Udo "Charlie" Watts

Oh, and it is now early winter.

More Travelling:

We sorted out our finances enough for Me & Keef to buy our equipment. I also convinced everybody that we ought to give the Sword of Soul-sucking to the church of Odin (or Thor, or some other good god); it's likely that they'd be able to store it away somewhere safe, where it won't be able to get out and work mischeif. They may even be able to destroy it, or at least release any souls stuck in it.

I tried the heal-water from Martek on Billy Ray, who got pretty messed up in the fight with the MIBs. It did seem to work, so I'm glad I got some.

We figured out a route back to Steinhall which would pretty much keep us clear of the MIB territory it follows the foothills of the northern mountains. We should come into Steinhall around Keef's hometown. We travelled for a few days with some peasants from the concert. They shared some liquor called "ouzo" with us. I'm not sure exactly what's in it; it has an anise flavor to it. That was some strong shit. The weather's been awful, pretty much constant rain. Cold and snow would be preferable, because I could use my bow. Damn the weather spirits.

We've been seeing signs of orcs travelling south from the mountains; that's bad news for the folks living down in the dead zone between Steinhall and Greece. Oh, and I've discovered another disturbing thing about Vrba's clan; apparently they eat orc. That is one of the most incredibly vile things I've heard in a while. He also made some bizarre comments about how he believes that all elves used to follow his strange religion, and we "fell away from the true path." I didn't disabuse him of the notion, because religious zealots can get a bit unbalanced when you dispute their dogmas, but he is an odd bloke.

Swords and More Travelling

I woke up this morning, and found Erose's sword stuck into the ground a foot from my head. 'twas quite disturbing; I was worried that she'd nearly avoided slaying me in my sleep, but Hal explained that she was actually _giving_ me the sword, since she got _Telecaster_. I didn't even think she liked me. I'll have to try to have a more charitable attitude towards her in the future. I think she is a very disturbed young woman who needs to find a path in life. Anyway, I accepted the sword, at least for the time being; if I acquire one of my own, or if we part ways, I will give it back to her.

We captured an orc; and tried to interrogate him about what's going on with the orc movement. He wasn't very forthcoming, or very smart. It seems as if they're coming south to do the usual rape and pillage business which orcs are so fond of. Keef killed him when we were done; there was no sense in letting him loose to rejoin his group. ---- We've seen more orcs; these ones were very dead--sliced into bits by a single person, apparently. Billy Ray summoned the spirit of one of the dead orcs, and asked who killed him. He didn't get much of an answer, something about a "wimpy redhead buttmunch" with a sword. Somebody killing orcs who are out to rape and pillage can only be a good thing, and it doesn't really concern us, although I'm curious about who did that.

In Which I Lose All That I've Gained

This is so terrible, I can hardly bear to write about it. I must get my thoughts in order, and make as fresh a record of what happenned as I can; there's nothing else I can do for Keef right now. Elspeth and I were on first watch, everyone else was asleep. The weather was terrible, a bloody thunderstorm in fucking winter. It was pouring down; I could hardly see a thing. We'd been watching for some time, and I went to take a piss. While I was at it, everything suddenly fell silent, even the storm. I drew Svengal, and I ran back to Elspeth; I saw that she'd fallen asleep. I couldn't wake her at all; I tried to rouse the next closest person, who was Hal. He wouldn't wake up either. There was obviously magic afoot, and I though that maybe there was a sleep spell on the camp. Since elves are naturally resistant to sleep magic, I tried waking the other elves. Sanjay woke easily, but Vrba was dead to the world. I was about to go over to Linwere and try to get her up, when I saw, in a flash of lightening, some bloke dragging Keef off into the woods. I knew in that instant that I had to stop them from taking him; I grabbed Sanjay and bolted in the direction I'd seen the guy moving. A horse ran past.

Before we could make it very far, we were grabbed from behind by two men. We turned to fight them off; I got a good whack in on the guy attacking me; he also tried to hit me, but he was very consciously using the flat of his sword, like he was trying to knock me out, not kill me. Sanjay's guy did not show him the same consideration, he just tried to skewer the little runt. Sanjay tried to cast a spell, but nothing happenned. (The silence was thus due to a "silence" spell, not due to a deafness spell.) I tried to beat Sanjay's opponent off; I distracted him enough for Sanjay to get away. Sanjay ran back towards camp, with the asshole in pursuit. I then broke free of my guy, and ran as hard as I could after Keef. While I was running, the goon took a swing at me and hit, fortunately I could still run.

Lightening flashed, and ahead of me I saw what I can only describe as a black rectangular hole in the air. The guy with Keef had slung him over his shoulder, and he also was carrying a box--the Amp. He ran into the hole and was followed by a person who had been waiting beside the hole, or portal, or whatever it was. I tried as hard as I could to reach the portal before it closed, but it was too far. I fell to the ground and cried.

I was later told that when Sanjay ran back to the camp, he fell on Hal, and woke him up. Hal dispatched the guy chasing Sanjay. They saw me running, and they saw the guy chasing me fall. Then the spells ended, and they heard me screaming, which woke up the rest of the group. Under normal circumstances, I'd be embarassed over such a tawdry display of emotion, but I'm still upset over these events.

Linwere is gone. Obviously the bitch was planning this all along. Women. Somebody ran our horses off, hopefully we'll be able to recover most of them. The guy who'd been chasing me had been killed by an arrow. We have nothing to discover who was behind this, where they were from, or where they went. I'm extremely upset over this; I haven't slept tonight, not because I think they'll come back, but because I just cannot rest. I've been writing and thinking and drinking. Everything was going so well; I _know_ that Keef is the one the seer meant when she told me to seek the twin of my soul. I felt a connection between us the moment he agreed to play with me in that bar in Tijuana. In the past six months, I've only become more certain. Keef's like my brother, born by accident(?) to human parents. I feel like I've known him all my life, even though he's not even been alive for most of my life so far. I must find him. After I get him back, we'll get the Amp back from the fuckers who kidnapped him and stole it. (Then we'll find some better security for the thing.)

...

How could this happen?

...

Finished the whiskey a while ago; the sun's coming up. Here's what I need to figure out, and what I need to do:

Why take Keef? He isn't rich, his parents aren't anybody important. If they were just after one of the party, why go for the biggest, most troublesome one? I can understand why anybody would want the Amp, but why Keef? Maybe they wanted him to show them how to use it? But why Keef, and not me?
_Did_ they want me, too? The goons were definitely not trying to kill me, and that wasn't due to any moral sentiment on their parts; they tried to disembowl Sanjay. Why did they not want me dead? Will they be coming back for me?
Assuming she'd been planning this since before she met us, how did Linwere (if that's her real name) fix upon us? How did she know who we were? How did she find us? How did she know so much about me? Her cover story, in retrospect, seems to have been specifically designed to attract me to her.
Where did they go?

I have so little to go on. They could be anywhere.

Other points:

The two goons were clearly not part of the main plan; they were killed out of hand. Still, maybe they can tell us something. I should ask Billy Ray to try to summon their ghosts and question them.
Linwere Lorchild. Is that her real name? Is it anybody's real name? I need to find out if Lorchild is a real clan, and if it's from the Highlands, as she said, and if she's really from that clan. She had red hair, which is not very common among elves. (PK: what areas are known for redheads?) Maybe she has some human blood. Did she leave anything behind?
Crystal ball. Get Sanjay or Vrba to scry for Keef, the Amp, Linwere, to see if we can discover where any of the above are. If I can find one, it will most likely give clues to where I can find the others.
Throntax. I dread seeing that woman again, but she's the nearest mage of any serious power who I know at all. If Vrba and Sanjay can't help, maybe she can.
Liquidation of assets. Sell what we can, as fast as we can; I feel I'll need all the money I can get. Who in the River's end area likely to have enough money to take the books off our hands? Throntax, maybe, Baron Draco, Lord Lara, Baron von Lubeck.
Beg the rest of my travelling companions to help me find & rescue Keef. I'll do it alone if I must, but I will have a better chance of succeeding if I have people to help me.

They're waking up now; I guess we'd better take stock of what we've got and where we're at. I'm almost out of reds, but I need some if I'm going to travel today.