Date of Contract	19.01.373
Place of Contract	The Stronghold of Carvahall
Current Time	Two hours after dawn
On hand	Cdr Greil, DC Bloodrock, Grimlock Skullfucker, Tarkus the Swift
Client	Sol-Ket Taern
Client occupation	Ruler of Carvahall
Mission Parameters	Objective: Retrieve the murderer, dead or alive
Up front	50ip each
On completion	150ip each if dead, 250ip each if alive

Mission Profile

The client summoned us to his hall the morning after the bar fight. Though disappointed that we did not manage to apprehend the fiend responsible, he understood why we could not. He then offered us a contract – to hunt down the escaped murderer and bring him back dead or alive. The pay was generous and I think we all relished the thought of bringing the killer to justice. I agreed to the offered terms without dispute.

Mission Details

Tracking the stranger proved simple enough. Starting from the Piss Hole, we only had to speak to four or five locals before we found one who could point us in the right direction. Tarkus helped get us through the side streets, then from the pastures onwards there was a trail of blood I could track. After that, Grimlock took it upon himself to assault an elderly labourer who had observed the murderer heading towards the marshes.

Passing through the marshes, we met two giants. One was badly injured and the other turned hostile despite my attempts (translated by Tarkus) to assure it we meant no harm. In the end we had no option but to kill them in self-defence.

Finally, the murderer’s trail took us into an old, infested, malachite mine. Its branching tunnels led us into the homes of aggressive kobolds and goblins, forcing us to waste time and energy exterminating them. Gravilla and Tarkus rescued an old goliath who had been captured by the goblins to feed their brutish queen.

Searching alone, they were then ambushed by the bearded goliath, whose strength had been greatly augmented by some sort of demonic possession. The noise from their battle attracted a Chull (i.e. a monster crustacean), which then ambushed the ambush. Tarkus was routed, abandoning Gravilla to fight both adversaries alone.

Fortunately, Gravilla was able to extricate herself – leaving the goliath (which was now aflame with demon fire) and the Chull to battle each other. She found Tarkus in the bearded goliath’s hideaway. This cavernous chamber was a dead end, so she hid amongst a pile of reeds that probably served as his bed. Tarkus laid waste to everything else in the room.

Our target fought off the Chull and found Tarkus in the midst of breaking all his stuff. His broadsword burst into flame, becoming a deadly firesword, and the two goliaths made for each other. I joined the battle at this point but we were hopelessly outmatched.

It was then that a ghastly-looking imp creature appeared. It immobilised the goliath with a powerful spell, allowing us to gain the upper hand. Its magic felt incredibly evil. The chilling tune it played on a wooden flute somehow extracted a demon’s soul from the bearded goliath and drew it into a clay jar it produced from its tunic. Once it had this soul, it disappeared in a maelstrom of arcana.

Mission Outcome

No longer enhanced by demon power, the bearded goliath was quickly defeated and taken into our custody. We bound him and walked him back to Carvahall, arriving there the next day. Our prisoner survived the journey, albeit with a broken foot inflicted by Tarkus to prevent escape attempts.