Keys lock up things. They keep things apart, and in most cases that isn’t such a dangerous thing. But some keys keep away things like families.

The path to Shoreline was fun. A chest came to life and we had to beat it into submission! Not too many mimics carried around on ships – one snap of a sailor would send those boxes to sea far before they’d have the chance to strike. I knocked over the wagon by accident and it caused things to topple over everywhere. My party’s spry – surprisingly so. Impressive.

Bird Girl has a flair for the heroic that I find worrying. She’s been nipped at and put on the verge a few times – this episode with the mimic the most recent. She’ll be getting herself killed – I owe it to myself to not make that happen. Hope she’s okay with that.

Squatter that the wagon driver mentioned turned out to be a magic user. Glowed like a firefly when we injured her. Almost burst my eardrum too – like when the wizards by the coast shoot off too many spells at summer festivals. Took some nasty gashes that fight, but everyone turned out alright. Manor’s ours now, but there’s a lot of work to be done still.

Did my part and helped out with a few activities above and below the house. Turned out there was a cave fisher beneath the foundation. Didn’t know they lived up in these parts! Good eating, as long as you can bring them down. Dorian needed my help with it – even gave me the fat by the lungs. Delicious!

With the new abode funding’s tight, so people are looking for work. I thought about heading out to the timber yards to take some labour but we found something a bit more interesting – finding a broken golem. I threw my fair share of stones at the iron golems working for magisters, but haven’t seen one in a while. Coin seemed right for the task, but it seems to me like the wizards around Malkara are even less trustworthy than those by Volos, which is hard to believe.

We made our way to the destination, some old thing that used to be a tower that didn’t stoke much interest in me. But it seemed to have been used lately. Shackles, chains, and other things. A slave camp. I have to admit my blood boiled a bit at the thought – so I paced around to collect my thoughts. But then I tripped over something. It was a big, iron key. Just like the one Krӧl wore. Last time I saw him, a thirty foot beast was cleaving men and women with a single swipe. One of them got away too, and that key was a portal from our world to that wretched spot where those beasts came from. It’s an evil thing.

I guess I blanked out – Dorian was asking me some questions about the key or something. I didn’t want to think about it anymore and wanted to leave. Why do we find ourselves dealing with these things we don’t understand? I tried to explain this to him, but he pranced down anyway to get swallowed up by that beast – a dragon, I think is what they are called. I think Ildan picked up the key after I wouldn’t.

The tower was bigger below – they tend to be that way. Lots of old magic around – one of those mines that we had picked up burst when we were rigging parts of the golem. Narcell’us was blown across the room. I knew those damned trinkets were dangerous – destroyed it before it could hurt anyone else. I’m going to have to look in our stash now for those others and see about destroying them too.

Something strange happened as we were poking around – I heard a voice. An evil thing, saying something true. That the red star is burning and that betrayal is nigh. The same star that burnt on that horrible night. It has followed me through all these miles and across the landscapes, ever-changing as they were. I suppose I’ve yet to travel enough. I can’t let down the party, though. Not again.

J broke the box that seemed to contain this voice. And it looked like everyone heard the voice too. She was told to do it by Vani – Dorian questioned her but she averted attention. There’s more to this than what she leads on, and I can’t say I’m very comfortable with it.