Kvothe’s Journal

On the Merits of a Well-Fortified Keep, and the Strategic Importance of Giant Spiders

You’d think that after clearing out Broken Spire Keep twice, we wouldn’t have to do it again. And yet, life is full of surprises. Some of those surprises involve goblins in the middle of the night. Some involve bugbears who don’t understand when they’re beaten. And some involve a 20-foot-tall talking spider with a taste for humanoid flesh.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start with the usual: someone tried to kill us.

The Battle at the Keep & Vargath the Stubborn Bugbear

While Leander was deep in his 24-hour Hallow ritual (which, for the record, is very inconvenient timing for an attack), one of our guards gurgled his last words before falling over dead.

It turns out, goblins and a bugbear named Vargath thought we were due for an ambush. They were wrong. We killed the goblins, captured two of them, and subdued Vargath, though not before Horace died. That left us with only two guards—Clem and Eric. Rest in peace, Horace. You were a good guard.

Belthorne got himself a fancy new bow during the fight, so at least someone had a good night.

Once we had Vargath in a cell, we tried to interrogate him. And by "tried," I mean I shot him twice when he refused to cooperate. Still, he was determined to make things difficult. Kvothe’s note in the margin: "I don’t negotiate with bugbears."

The goblins, however, were much more talkative. They told us Vargath’s name and offered to take us to their village, Goblintown. (Creative name, I know.)

Then Vargath tried to fake being paralyzed by Hold Person and attacked me. He learned the hard way that I don’t fall for the same trick twice.

After that, we dragged him off to meet the spiders.

Araniax, the Very Large, Very Hungry Spider Queen

Turns out, the goblins and bugbears had some kind of protection deal with Araniax, a 20-foot-tall talking spider.

The goblins had been feeding her humans.

Now, I’m no moral philosopher, but that seemed like something we should discourage. So, we offered a new deal: she could eat goblins instead.

Araniax thought that was a fine arrangement.

Jocelin, for the record, looked deeply unsettled by the whole conversation. I can’t imagine why.

With that taken care of, we returned to the Keep, Leander finished the Hallow spell, and Jocelin and Rindle left for Harken to get supplies.

Meanwhile, Rindle, Belthorne, and I headed to Fallcrest.

Goblintown & Our Upcoming Diplomatic Negotiations

Before we left, we released the captured goblins and told them to let their chief, The Red Hand, know that we were "friends."

That message apparently needed clarification, because a few days later, a goblin delegation showed up waving a "white" flag (it was more brown than white).

Their leader, Hand Solo (not his real name, but it’s sticking), said he spoke for the Goblin King. He wanted to know why we returned the goblins.

We set up a meeting in five days (on the 58th of Summer) at the Keep. The Goblin King is coming with bodyguards and a shaman. Should be fun.

The Iron Circle & Fallcrest’s Newest "Guests"

On the way to Fallcrest, we saw an Iron Circle caravan.

Jasper Fenwick, a bard from Bard’s Gate, stopped to chat with us. Rindle, in raven form, followed the caravan for a bit but didn’t see anything suspicious.

However, once we reached Fallcrest, we discovered that the Iron Circle’s camp outside the city was looking more permanent. Not great.

While in town:

• I asked Thistle if he had anything to put people to sleep. He referred me to his delightful sibling, Assassin, who agreed to make me five sleeping arrows in exchange for three vials of spider venom. (I bet Araniax could help with that.)
• We scheduled a meeting with the Lord Warden on the 61st of Summer to discuss the Iron Circle problem.
• We met with Kane Forge, the best smith in town. His brother, Kettle Forge, is a mason. They have family who could work on the Keep, though we’d still need to hire laborers.

A Funeral, A Clever Trap, & Freya’s Surprise

Back at the Keep, we buried Horace properly. He deserved that much.

Then we got to work on trapping some Iron Circle mercenaries.

Step 1: Hire some as guards.

Step 2: Drug them in their sleep.

Step 3: Stage an "ambush" to make it look like they were attacked. Step 4: Deliver them to Araniax as a peace offering.

It went... mostly according to plan. The drugging part turned into more of a "small fight" than we intended, but we still knocked them out, tied them up, and staged the scene convincingly.

The next morning, Freya revealed her own contribution:

She had captured two more Iron Circle mercenaries and stuffed them in her travel trunks.

Freya is both horrifying and wonderful.

So, we now had five Iron Circle prisoners to take to Araniax. Hopefully, this solidifies our arrangement.

Final Thoughts

• The Keep is secure (again).
• We have an upcoming meeting with goblins.
• The Iron Circle is becoming a bigger problem.
• Freya is disturbingly effective at kidnapping.
• Araniax, the giant spider, is now an ally of convenience.
• This is, without a doubt, not the life I expected when I became an adventurer.

—Kvothe