Hello again my little guy.

It has turned out that I did not need to call upon your Uncle Sal, instead he came to us. So I guess I honored part of my promise to Virgil.

I have decided to talk to him about the bomb issue still, because it is the right thing to do. Something else I want you to learn; sometimes we have to sacrifice a bit of ourselves to do the right thing. The benefit of this might not be seen right away… but have faith that somewhere down the line it will be. At least that is what I am hoping for. :D

Uncle Sal came to us because he wants a piece of this glowing rock. Sadly we cannot just give him a piece off the wagon, he wants it fresh. He also wants to know where to locate the source. If we can find and deliver those things then he will forgive the debts of the others for his earlier services. My due will come in time… but I have no issue helping the others break even.

While he was there I did in fact make a deal with him to tamper with the bomb. I spoke to him of its volatile state and how none of us should die out here with it. I also spoke with him about the guilt I (and probably the rest of our group) feel about delivering it onto the Orc camp. I know that Virgil is feeling something though he will not speak of it to anyone. I also cannot see Caelus being okay with this… yet why am I the only one willing to sacrifice a piece of my soul for it?

At any rate it makes no difference. I also suppose I do not know who or what they all do on their private times. Maybe Caelus is trusting in his God to protect himself and these others. Perhaps that will work; perhaps not. I am not going to chance the Gods stepping in eventually when I can do something about it now.

I have requested that Uncle Sal make it so that when or if the bomb goes off and we are close to it that we will not be harmed. I have also requested that he enchant it so that when it goes off in the Orc camp that it ignores all the innocent members of the tribe there. As an added precaution I have requested that the blast from the bomb be contained to the walls of the encampment. This will prevent fire or blast spreading to the rest of the forest or who knows what else. I know this comes with a heavy price… but it is one I would gladly pay.

So aside from our visit from Uncle Sal we have also arrived at the Kobold camp. There was no issue with the bomb on the way; thankfully. Perhaps some of the praying is actually working. If religion is to be believed; “the Gods work in mysterious ways.” Your Grandfather would scoff at that… but I am with holding opinion until further evidence has presented itself.

The camp is maybe what you would expect from a cave dwelling lizard folk; I guess. I honestly do not know many of them so I cannot say with any certainty. They seem leery of our Gnome; but who does not?

Your Grandfather Inkwell would tell you: “…these races use their religion as a front for their hatred. If you are going to hate someone, hate them, do not hide behind the fairytales of your Gods; no own your hatred show your true colors. This way the world can pass judgement on your character based on fact rather than fiction.”

Although whatever the reason, religious or otherwise, Kobolds and Gnomes do not get along. Thankfully they merely tolerated his presence long enough to negotiate us getting to see the source of the glowing stone and to kindly get us a sample to make Uncle Sal happy.

We got to rest just a little before embarking upon another long trek, this time uphill. We climbed the mountainside keeping to the narrow- ish paths that they used to cart down metals, gems, and this glowing rock after mining.

I must say that I have never been one for great heights, but the view from up there was something; scary… but something. One could literally see forever from up there. The little farms swatches of produce looked like a patchwork quilt lain out over the world. The forests looked like green bushy clouds only on the ground. I suppose if we had been on the right side of the mountain we could have even seen Greenfield. I hope someday we can take you somewhere to see such amazing things.

Once we reached the top it was odd. The trees there looked newer… yet they were large! Mila had spoken to us about where she came from; albeit in broken details. It would seem her memory needs a bit of a jog. I am not certain myself on how to accomplish this.

In any case, what matters is how this “source” reacted to her presence. While she could not muster up the memories, it would seem that the rock had a memory of its own and had little trouble with recognition of her. Perhaps I am the only one who noticed, but when her gaze became locked upon the cube (very large cube) it somehow came to life. I cannot exactly explain it (nor could Uncle Sal later on) but the inside began to show runes! I closed in to get a better look at the runes since no one else could read them and to my surprise they were warnings of danger!

Of course I shared this with the rest of the group but we did not realize at that time the severity of the situation. At first we figured it was just going to explode or something… I guess it had done so before so a repeat performance was not out of the question.

However exploding is not what it did. No, instead the blasted cube started to change its shape growing and turning into a golem of sorts. Mila was transfixed and needed Caelus to hasten her off to safety. The ‘golem’ (for lack of a better title) seemed intent on getting to our comrade. It was with some quick thinking that we had our little magician make her invisible to try and conceal her while we came up with some sort of plan to get rid of it; at least get it to stop.

There was no communicating with it… at least I do not think so. Perhaps it was the intensity of the moment (I cannot say honestly at the moment) but I might have been a little hard on Mila. I accused her of awakening the beastly thing by making contact with it. I tried to convince her that perhaps she could shut it off with a force of will or a stern thought; since she had obviously turned it on. Finally after a little bit of argument (I would have preferred reasoning) she agreed to at least think really hard at it to stop.

Sadly there is no way to tell whether or not she tried as hard as she could have… but she said she did and that seems good enough for everyone else. Although it did not change its course; this of course was after Caelus and Virgil tossed giant boulders at it from further up the pass.

It quite honestly took us some time to get the blasted thing wore down. This was in part to the creature having the ability to regenerate and quite quickly. We also would come to find that certain magic almost made it come together even faster! We just could not find something that would make a dent; magically speaking. All of the Gnome’s magic seemed to have no effect, while Caelus’ magic seemed to be amplified back at the caster in double. I am certain that our priest may have a least caught a glimpse of his God that day.

So finally it came to pass that since we could not destroy it completely, Uncle Sal could not do anything with it (including leaving the plane with it) that the only thing we could do is throw it off the mountain and hope that the fall and explosion kills it. With that plan in action we used Mila as bait and shoved it over the cliff side.

We honestly have no idea whether or not that finished it off. We are all hopeful; but somehow I think we all carry in our hearts the feeling that it is not over. That thing is going to come back and probably when we least need it to show up.

Somehow that thing is tied to Mila. Perhaps it came for her? Perhaps she is dangerous? These are thoughts I do not want to have because I honestly do not mind the lady. She does not take up much space, does not eat much, and is helpful when she can be. Mila has been rather helpful as we battled zombies and spiders. But can the person she may have been, the possibly evil person she may have been, be outweighed by the person we now know? Can we just walk away from past events, breeches of ethics and morality… just because we cannot remember them?

On the other hand; I suppose the possibility is there that she was fleeing for her life, maybe an evil stepmother or dictator who wanted to sacrifice or usurp her power back home. If we can shine a storybook light on the situation one could surmise that claiming she is a danger would get her turned over willingly.

It is within most of us to do what is right, mainly because we do not want to face or we just fear the consequences of not complying with the laws of whatever higher power is handing them down. Then if you take into consideration this foreign ‘golem’ thing who would stand up against that? No one normal; I will tell you that.

I suppose that is something that will eventually worm itself out. I do not believe we can run from our baser selves. If the penchant for mischief or murder is there and one needs to cover it with helpfulness and salvation, that kind of veneer can only last so long. I am of the firm belief that the truth will out. I just hope that none of us get harmed in the process.

I will say that if it turns out she is on the up and up; then she will have found a firm fast friend in me. If she burns us… well, I just hope that is not the case.

These are the thoughts that wriggle through Mommy’s head late in the evening while on watches. I suppose I should spend less of my watches alone to avoid such deep ponderings. Although I would rather have my head spin with those thoughts than with… well, other things.

In any case it worked. Mila was great bait and the ‘golem’ went careening over the edge and exploded below… oh, I said that already; silly me.

After that it was just a matter of squaring things out with the Kobolds before we hastily took off for Greenfield once more. There was still a vampire on the loose. It would seem that it became Caelus and Virgil’s sacredly ordained mission to dispose of the murderous abomination lest it kill all of the townsfolk.

We walked at a brisk pace to return to town but that did not stop me from trying to forage along the way. It is important to take what you can from your surroundings, both in materials and in what you can see.

Alright my darling, this is where I must leave you for now. I will write more when I am able.

Love Mommy