The Journal of Boggrun, Studious Goblin

In Week 4, the vikings busted in on the study of a goblin warcaster. After he was knocked into a pit and missiled to death, the crew ransacked his study and found his journal. After Week 6, we finally took a rest, and Bartix (with his Comprehend Languages still in effect) finally got a chance to sit down and read it. The following are the most relevant excerpts:

36:
We just returned from the raid, and there are now more of the Pus Hogs than there are of us. Another misstep by Grimmur, who thankfully will never decode this! And where's our loot? We ended up carrying so much of our wounded that we had no food, no metal, no slaves... and the Hogs will want revenge. Some of the few we did kill was their chief's two sons.

I'll be gone in two days... either with my tribe or without it.

41:
We have been in the Underwilds for four days now. Grimmur has made the first good decision in a wyrm's age to flea instead of staying. But where are we going to go now? Grimmur says he has a map for me to decode, something he stole long ago and was saving as a last-ditch effort. He says it shows some forgotten passage leading to a Norse island long abandoned. I think I am through the cryptics, but this map must be hundreds of years old, and the caverns change every year. And what happens when the Norse island is full of Norsemen?

53:
We made it! We are half starved from lean tunnel-hunting, but the map led us to a doorway in the upper tunnels. Grimmur chanted something to open the door, then stood back and let Burcha and Fastur go out first, Orcus save them. I peered around his waist to watch, and saw the ground glittering with treasure! There were six, possibly seven skeletons, too big to be goblins, and clad in shining armor! The two fools leapt at the treasure, trying to work the armor free. I struggled to join them, but Grimmur held us all back at the doorway. Then ghostly forms descended from somewhere, leaping on them, tearing them apart! Grimmur broke through the doorway, yelling at us to run for our lives! The warband made it up and out of the pit while the specters were distracted, but that treasure was left untouched.

I have to admit, Grimmur was right about this island. The place is deserted, including a very livable cave, and has been for decades. The boys found some very edible meat above ground and some Under-quality blooms below. We might make it here.

54:
The room near the cave mouth is off-limits. I hear Malker wandered in this morning and the door shut immediately after him. I hurried across the island to see and made it just in time to see the door open again. Malker was nowhere to be seen, although the floor was smeared with blood. I threw in a torch and caught the glitter of polished steel, so perhaps Grimmur will organize an assault on the room. Could this be related to the specters at the pit floor? Regardless, we can make our way around the room by taking back passages.

57:
I woke last night as Grimmur shook me violently, telling me to do nothing until the curse was lifted. I plead with him that I would do nothing else, and he dropped me to the cave ground and stalked off, his leg dragging behind.

Grimmur never came out of his crypt today. That's for the best: ever since he read the stone, his speech has been impossible to understand. He cannot intimidate, he cannot lead, if he talks like he has an axe in his skull. We both agree that he has been cursed.

We found the stone he read wrenched from the ground today, with tracks leading to his crypt. Now none of us will fall under the curse. I wonder what Grimmur needs the stone for. I think I can work without it.

Life is good here on the island. I eat fish from the caves and deer from the woods. Most of the caves are safe, and we all have more room than the Underdark ever offered.

72:
I went to see Grimmur to get a rubbing of his stone for study. The stench from his crypt was overpowering, he hadn't moved in days. He sat staring at the stone, intoning the human syllables over and over again. He growled at me as I entered, and I think the curse saved me from being attacked. I backed out and returned to my quarters. I think I have this Balder stone decrypted. I set Tolfa to bring the Ygdrassil stone back to me, and I think this will bring it all together.

73:
Where the hell is my stone? I would rather die of freezing Odin breath or whatever those idiots think is happening with the stone than by being eaten by Grimmur.

I have some ideas of getting through that pit and past the ghosts, but I would need the help of at least ten goblins. And that would not get us through the door. I believe it is still sealed without the chant Grimmur has. We are all doomed to die on this island.