What a hell of a day! Thinking back, I realize the problem – I neglected to have Brother Gunderson start our journey off with a prayer. I must finally be reaching senility, I never forget something that important! But I did this time and I’m now having serious forebodings about this pilgrimage. However, I do have some hope – we were spared a great slaughter, but the fact that we were ambushed still provides me some great amount of vexation.

The day started out alright – we met at The Gathering, where we joined the rest of the pilgrims and the guides that were to take us to the Gargoyle. There we received the itinerary for the day as well. We were to march until about mid-day, when we would halt for a bit of lunch. Around 11:30a the hand of Providence stretched out and placed a small rock in the boot of the Baron. He wanted us to halt for bit and take a little rest. None of us objected, but I will admit to some misgivings as I saw the last of the pilgrims we were with disappear over the horizon – we had been instructed to stay together, as it would be very easy for us to lose our way and become lost. However, the heat of the day was upon us and I could feel it bearing down on us, and I will admit that in my age, it was nice to stop for a bit. I decided to sit in the shade that was created by our cart (there wasn’t any shade anywhere else). When we finally got underway again, it wasn’t much longer and we spied great columns of thick black smoke and the smell of barbecue. At first we all thought it was barbecue, but the color of smoke did cause some confusion. I thought that the company may have encountered some creature similar to a Rock Dragon (from Galgor), but as we got closer, we realized that the columns were much to wide to be a simple barbecue. Olivia and Darik jogged ahead to get a better picture of what was happening, as the rest of us lumbered along with the burden of the cart.

As we finally caught up with Darik and Olivia it was immediately apparent that Olivia was somewhat distraught. As we surveyed the valley below us, we discovered that our company of pilgrims had been ambushed by 7 men. Six of them were wearing the robes of Inquisitorial servitude and one was an actual Inquisitor. Many of the company were down and there were several large swathes of flames engulfing some of the pilgrims. The six servants had slug throwers that were being used to shoot and corral the pilgrims into submission – it was apparent (even from the distance away that we were) that the guns were slug throwers, as we could hear the pop of the guns, and there were no bolts of light emitting from any of the guns. The Inquisitor, of course, was armed with the flame thrower. Olivia lost her mind, somewhat. She couldn’t stand the sight of these people being injured and immediately wanted to act rashly. I will admit, I wasn’t comfortable seeing what was happening, but I wasn’t comfortable confronting the church so openly either. I looked to the Baron and Brother Gunderson for some direction. While we were discussing what could be the cause of the attack, Olivia became increasingly desperate to do something, mistakenly thinking that this was an adventure. After watching the Inquisitor for a moment, it appeared that they were looking for someone – as he kept looking under hoods removing shrouds. I fear that the Barons visit to Pyre has not gone undetected. We aren’t certain yet, how this was found out, but I’m fairly certain that it was the Baron that the Inquisitor was looking for. With the Baron’s direction and Brother Gunderson not condemning our course of action, I was finally comfortable doing what we had to do.

The battle was over pretty quickly. I opened the battle by taking down the Inquisitor and one of the servants. Darik followed suit and was able to dispatch a servant that appeared to be taking aim from Olivia. I must take a moment to mention that it appears that the Baron has done a good job in picking the guard for Olivia – Darik appears to take his job seriously (much to Olivia’s chagrin and consternation) and the concern I had for her safety has lessened somewhat. The battle went smoothly from that point forward. Between Darik and myself we were able to dispatch the remaining servants, however, it turns out, that the Inquisitor wasn’t quite dispatched.

When Darik went down to make sure that the “enemy” were all taken care of, he took a gout of flame on his arm. The Inquisitor, it turns out was not dead yet. Darik had his hands full, trying to put himself out, and that Inquisitor just kept on trying to fry the poor sod. No sooner had we seen that, but Olivia and myself were charging down the slope to lend support to Darik. In a moment of carelessness, Olivia ran too close to the Inquisitor. My heart stopped for a moment as I realized that the Inquisitor was in a perfect position to unleash fire on her. Luckily, Darik noticed the danger she was in and immediately charged and was able to get her on the ground with himself protecting her as much as possible. While he was busy doing that, I did the only thing I could think of – I shot at the Inquisitor. My concern for Olivia’s safety caused me to just miss the Inquisitor, but fortunately, at that same time, we realized that the Inquisitor had run out of ammunition in his flame thrower. I ran up to the Inquisitor with my gun raised and commanded him to drop his weapon. I will never forget what I saw! The man just stared at me – my gun leveled at his face and he just continued reloading his flame thrower. The fire of fanaticism burning in his eyes turned my blood to ice. He was no longer a man – he was more of an automaton. Realizing he wasn’t going to stop, I squeezed my trigger…and nothing happened. My battery had been expended. I fear I would be a charred and burning body if it weren’t for Darik. While I had been running up to the Inquisitor, apparently Olivia had somehow slipped out from under Darik, and Darik in his duty bound way to save Olivia from harm did all he could think of doing – he attacked the Inquisitor. Not having his gun handy, he took out his String Blade and cleanly cut the Inquisitor down.

Someday I will need to ask Brother Gunderson what he did before he took upon him his Oaths and made his covenants as a man of the cloth. After the skirmish with the Inquisitors he was the one that began moving among the injured and began bounding up the wounds and helping organize the party. His manner and skill was very reminiscent of a Medic in the military. I must say that I’m grateful to have someone with his skills along. It may very well be the Friar that brings us all back alive.

I’m really starting to feel my age. I thank our Father in Heaven for the help that we have and only pray that Olivia realizes that adventures are oft-times more deadly than made out to be in the stories. I fear, however, that I have been one of the culprits that have inspired her to seek adventure. I will some day have to answer at the Judgment Seat for my part in this – and I will condemn myself to the ninth circle of Hell if anything happens to her because of my tales.

At last count – out of the 100 people with us, 22 are uninjured, 43 are seriously injured, 26 are injured, and 9 are dead (all three of our guides are among the dead).

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