Across a bridge, the cloud of dust settled to revealed a squad of well armed knights from House Lynderly. Lord John stood at their lead and demanded if we were if House Jasper. As I had already been playing my fiddle to pass the time and miles, I introduced our party with a song. Lord John said we would not be allowed to cross the lands that had once belonged to us. Our Lord Ronnel had given his son a letter that might help in just such a situation. So he approached and offered the letter to Lord John. However, Lord  John refused to even read the letter. Calaila tried to persuade him to read it, but that simply resulted in the letter getting torn up and we were still denied passage. Instead, the Lynderly Lord demanded gold or some form of sport. Seeing as our house and our pockets were not considerably deep with gold, I thought to challenge the Lord to a throwing knife competition. He looked like a well trained soldier and I knew my aim would have to be true to win. I loaned him three of my knives to compete with and we began. Our first knives landed the exact same distance from the marked target. Unfortunately the Lord bested my next throws and won. Surprisingly, he agreed to let us to continue on our journey. He simply asked to keep one of my throwing knives as a trophy of his victory. This seemed a more than fair price and I quickly agreed. Perhaps he will tell a story of how he came to acquire it and my bard name and reputation will spread into the lands of another house. We exchanged pleasantries and our group continued on our journey.

After some uneventful days and miles of travel, a spring blizzard caught our group off guard. We struggled to find from the swirling snow and icy cold. Thaddeus suffered the worst from the storm and I feared he might not make it unless we got him shelter soon. Thankfully Teddy’s young, sharp eyes noticed a cave which we quickly ducked into. In the darkness, Calaila and I lit our lanterns. I gave a torch to the almost frozen Maester so that he might have some warmth and a light. We started exploring the caves together as a group. After finding several branching paths within the caves, I feared we might miss something if we didn’t go back and explore the earlier parts of the cave fully before moving on. So Calaila and Teddy went one way while Thaddeus and I went another. Maelys silently remained in the main part of the cave. Around a bend in the cave, the Maester and I saw a feint flickering light. No sooner had we noticed the light, then figures rushed towards us and attacked. I flung my lantern at the feet of the two dark figures and called out to the others for help. The oil from the lantern caught fire and spread to our attackers but unfortunately onto me as well. Thaddeus tried to make them surrender promising aid, but they paid him no mind. I dropped to the ground to put out the flames on myself in a maneuver taught to all Westerosian children called “stop, drop, and roll”. Before I could stand back up, the flaming bandits took advantage of my helplessness and wounded me greatly. The Maester attempted to help me up but in the chaos, ended up falling down himself. He was wounded as well by our attackers. Maelys arrived to our aid first, as he was closest. Then Calaila arrived, followed in the shadows by Teddy. With surprising skill, the handmaiden produced a weapon and dashed toward one foe. She stabbed him in the neck and he died. Angered by the death of his partner, the other bandit attacked Calaila and hurt her. Before the sworn sword could act. I threw a knife at the last bandit striking him down. Since the start of our adventure, all in our party had suffered at least slightly. But we are tough and will continue on to Gulltown. What we will find the bandits had been hoarding? What will the rest of the caverns contain? More attackers? More treasure? Despite the danger, I should like to explore as much as possible before continuing on. Perhaps though, in our weakened states, we should all stay together.