Lundar's Library

Day 347, Year 537 of the Ascendancy

When I first stepped out of the library, early in
the morning of the 77th day of Autumn, I thought that is would just
another ordinary day. How wrong I was. After a brief chat with Ankrus,
I found myself sitting in the town square, trying to fight back the
yawns that kept on climbing up my throat. Suddenly, a sunstone message
rang through my head, that woke me up like a splash of cold water. It
was a desparate cry from the dwarf Raldin; the Darshak had landed on
our western shores! I rushed to the pier, and found the poor dwarf
trapped by a band of Darshak pirates.

What really took hold of my attention, though, was
the gold and brown Darshak Warship that floated confidently in the
waters above me. I could not gaze long at it, however, for multitudes
of Darshak began to pour out from within the ship. I quickly fled, but
was felled by the cruel blades of the Darshak. Among the invaders, I
spotted many Darshak flaunting colors other than the greens, blues, and
blacks I was used to. Some wore forest green suits, while others
sported red, or even yellow. These I later learned were Darshak
Invaders, Marauders, and Defenders. As I lay and observed this, the
forces of Puddleby finally reached the pier, and clashed with the
Darshak. At first, it looked as if we were winning, but more and more
Darshak poured forth from the ship, and the Darshak Marauders and
Defenders felled even the most powerful of exiles. Our army was forced
to retreat, and fight the Darshak by the western gates. Finally, the
invasion force was repulsed, and we all came to the pier to admire the
Darshak Warship.

At first the exiles wanted the ship burnt to the
ground(or water), but popular opinion slowly geared towards capturing
the ship, and keeping it as our own. Some even began naming the ship.
However, the Darshak Warship was far from empty. Led by the evil
Necromancers and their apprentices, another wave of Darshak landed upon
the pier, and the battle was upon us once more.

Again, the exiles were forced back to the west
gate, and again the Darshak were repulsed. The Necromancers were
enraged, and with a few summoning rites, they summoned forth multitudes
of undine. They then fled back into their ship, and left the isle,
leaving us to deal with hordes of skeletals, hooded corpses, and
detached spirits. We gradually erradicated the undine, and the
remaining Darshak pirates, and we sat about the west gate, healing our
wounds. Then suddenly, a shrill voice cried out “Kill me and pay 50
coins, and you’ll never have to pay the balance penalty again!”
Everybody searched around them for the source of this voice, and found
that it came from the mouth a fat halfling, dressed in a red suit. The
halfling repeated his shrill message, and the chase was on.

For a short and fat halfling, the guy sure could
run. He lead us all around Puddleby, never letting himself get caught,
never letting himself get cornered. The chase was confusing, and many
times we lost sight of the halfling. Pure chaos reigned Puddleby, and
it seemed as if there were two halflings running around Puddleby.
Finally, the halfling was felled just north of town center, and it
seemed as if there were two halflings after all; for as the halfling
fell north of town, so did another within the rat tower. Now we had two
dead halflings on our hands. The halfling, who’s name turned out to be
Swindlos, demanded that we raise him, and put the two halves of him
together. Then he would do our bidding. So, after much fuss, the two
halflings were assembled together in north Puddleby.

The two Swindlos’ met, and then merged into one
being. However, he did not seem to want to do our bidding, so he was
felled again. The exiles poked and prodded him, but it was to no avail.
Some even paid him 50 coins in hopes of restoring their balance, but no
luck. Suddenly, without warning, Swindlos exploded in a ball of fire,
taking with him any hopes of eliminating the balance tax, or gaining
back the 50 coins that were paid him, for the matter. It just goes to
show, you can’t trust halflings with names like “Swindlos”.(Check out
the Vision Stones of the chase and capture of Swindlows.)