November 607
11-02-07(Friday)
Elidore has been asking me for months to visit him, but I gotta admit, I wasn't so keen on going to Mandrake's Landing. You can't go by everything you hear, of course, but sometimes it's real hard not to. I've found my instincts to be very good.
So anyway, Elidore met up with me a ways outside of town and we walked in together (which really helped calm the butterflies in my tummy). He had his sister, Chyla, with him (she's ok I guess) and Lincoln, who I finally got to meet. I thought he'd be taller, personally... I was hoping to see Bramus' brother, Sorenal too, but he was probably playing out in the woods with some dryad from how Bramus describes him. To each his own, yes?
As scared as I was at first, my fears were soon calmed when I found Walker and we all got settled in. Good smells were coming out of the tavern and no one was trying to kill me, so all seemed well. Then it got even better! OMG, Dagger got me a birthday present! I didn't even know he knew my birthday was coming up. He said Abram had told him about it...which is weird to me considering, but oh well. It was sweet, yes?!? He made a cool box with a big spider on it and filled it with all sorts of bugs. Was so great. We both just sat and ate them while we waited for dinner. I even tried to get Walker to eat one, but he's a bit squeamish I think. I'll eventually get him to eat one, you watch.
A few creatures came in that night and attacked. This was expected as it tends to happen when one adventures to distant lands...or even your own lands. They were people infected with some weird plant thing, if I remember correctly. Anyway, they were pretty easy to spot because they were really, really, really, really pale and had blood coming from their eyes. The blood part was pretty gross. I bet that hurt.
There weren’t too many of those infected guys, so after a while, Lincoln and I had a seat in the tavern to talk with some of the other adventurers. We didn't have much time to chat though before this really frikin huge elf guy walked in. He was so thin I was debating in my head whether I could pick him up and break him over my knee like a twig. Probably, but that would have been a bad idea, especially since Lincoln got up and called him by name. Behold it was Sorenal. I don't see the family resemblance...
Lincoln introduced me to Sorenal which for some reason only brought a raised eyebrow and a nasty look to Sorenal's face. Ok...? Admittedly, I was kinda upset by the reaction. Lincoln said he didn't seem to be himself and to not worry. Riiight. I decided maybe it was just best to leave him be, so I went back down to the room to get a few things. Chyla was sleeping and sounded annoyed she had t let me in the ward, but she did. I grabbed my stuff and was about to head out when Sorenal appeared at the door.
Ok this was actually kinda creepy. Imagine the whole 'backlit doorframe with thunder and lightning going on in the background. And the dark figure just standing there ominously.' Yeah that was the scene with Sorenal, only he had BLOODY EYES! WTF!? To make it even more ummm dangerous-like...he just walks in. Oh yeah he's invested in the wards and circles. So back up to the part where these infected guys have been attacking us all evening already and you see the paranoia in my head. Especially since he can just walk in and kill me in my sleep. So then I remember that Sorenal doesn't really like Chyla. Ok not to kill me, but maybe to kill her. This seems substantiated by the fact that he walked past me and toward Chyla. Yeah I can't let him kill her, nor did I want to hurt him, so I hit him really hard on his head hoping to knock him unconscious. All it did though, was make him really, really mad. He yelled at me then and told me to get out. Which I did and ran to find Elidore and tell him. Cuz by now I was sure Chyla was a puddle of goo on the floor.
Thank goodness he was where I left him, in the tavern, so it made my trip much shorter which was good for Chyla's chances of survival. Anyway, Elidore calmed me down and I was explaining what happened when I suddenly see Sorenal storm in. Yes storm in. Not walk. Storm. He was not happy and his hands were glowing. Thank goodness for some magics because before I could react, he had already hit me with a death. I know because I felt like I would die if it had penetrated my protectives. So maybe it wasn't truly a death spell, but it probably would have been in the end. My shield magic stopped that one, thank goodness, but then he threw something at me that was so scary I had no choice but to run away screaming. Scary stuff. I really want to know what that was, cuz I'm not scared of too much. I remember seeing Elidore jump up to stop Sorenal, but I was already leaving the room so I don’t know what happened. Once I was outside though, I calmed down pretty quick and went back inside to find out what was going on. There stood Elidore and Lincoln heavily discussing what I believe to be me, with Sorenal and he wasn't liking it. Lots of shaking the head told me that. In the end though, he decided to play nice...which I was happy with and we grabbed some dinner.
At some point during this time, Walker got scared of this vampire that was running around. His name was Tom. Admittedly he was nice enough if you didn't attack him, but I think that was only because he didn't want you to attack him. Too bad it didn't work. But anyway, Walker gets scared and runs and runs and runs. I'm trying to stop him so I can help him and Mira and Victor are helping. Turns out though that Walker is part Monkey Scavenger or something because he ran off into the tree line, down a huge hill that would normally break my limb just thinking about, and into the boo scary woods...at night. Only a monkey could do that. I know because I tried. And so did Mira. And so did Victor. It took us like 20 minutes to climb down that hill without injury. Then when I get to the bottom and think I have a chance to help Walker, he bolts into the wood line. I thought I was going to cry, I really did. Just the sheer frustration of it all was getting me. How am I supposed to protect him when he's running off into dark places I can't go? I tried though. In fact, I was slowly making my way through the trees in the direction I thought he went when Gilliante yells down to me that Walker was back in town. Of course he was...because now I'm down here. All I know is that it was a long climb back out. I found Walker, who was ok by now, and went to get food.
Once our tummies were full, I went with Walker and Lincoln to go deal with some water elemental. I really don't know why we were out there to be honest. I just know the townsfolk asked me to help, so I did. So we wander around this pond for a while and come upon a scarecrow looking thing floating in the water. It was all ablaze too, crackling and smoking. The other adventurers tried t pull it in by throwing a rope at it and trying to hook it and pull it in. It wasn't working. Even when they did manage to catch it, they were quick to realize it was tied or weighted down. Ok well they weren't real quick to figure it out...but I'm willing to give them some credit for eventually getting it.
Walker and I were kinda bored though and he had spotted a light off in the distance. He clearly wanted to go have a look, and well...so did I. I couldn't find Lincoln who was most likely skulking about in the dark, but then that's the point of him I guess. Not to see him. So we jumped this rope fence and headed off to find out what the light was. We actually got pretty close before we noticed this black figure sitting in front of it. Was it dangerous? Who knew, but I didn't want to be so far away from everyone else just in case we got jumped so I started back to the pond. My instincts were right. By the time we had gotten pretty close to the fence, we were almost surrounded by several dark, cloaked figures. Now...we hadn't seen Dervite yet, so I could have assumed one of them was him, since he likes wearing dark cloaks (I think it's the cool factor), but how would that account for the others? I guess they could be golems, he has this thing for golems, but honestly it wasn't likely to be him so I asked for a name from the closest one. His response? "None of your business." Classic, yes? Actually this proved that Dervite was not one of them. He would never use such a lame line. So I asked "None of your business" (or Nunya Bizness for short) why they were out there, what was in the tent, blah blah blah. He was just a jerk though and would tell me nothing. His loss. I really like being extra nice to people who work with me, but he didn't, so he gets no prize.
It was easier to ignore the let's call them 'bandits' just out of simplicity) bandits...and move on to the tent. Ok so Walker wasn't with me now, it was Lincoln. I don't know when or how they switched places, but they did. No biggie as long as my squire doesn't die. Cuz that would make me soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo mad. I told Walker when I squired him that if people mess with him, I would bring fury down upon them. Even better, not just any fury, but RIGHTEOUS fury...and I meant it.
So Lincoln went with me to the tent, which was all glowy inside by the way, and as we walked around it, we found an air elemental by the entrance. Odd. It didn't attack us, so we tried to talk to it. It did make some comments, but nothing we could really call useful. More like ramblings. Something about getting his lightning. We did ask him...her..it...whatever...if it needed our help, and we thought it was going to answer us because it got up, but all it did was repel Lincoln. It didn't hurt him, so we didn't do anything, but it was obvious we weren't wanted there. It was pretty easy to make the decision to leave at that point and we went back to the water, the scarecrow, and the raft. By now all the other adventurers had figured out there was something on the other side of the fence and were heading toward the tent. Did I mention that the elemental let me look in his tent, and there was lightning going nuts in there. Anyway, we just did a bunch of watching after that. The adventurers did some talking and eventually we got bored and left to go back to our room at the tavern.
Ok I can't remember if this happened before we went to do the stuff with the elemental or after. I think it was after, but I may be wrong. I've slept a few days since this. Ok, I'm in the tavern and it starts filling with noxious gas. Makes me glad to be my kind at times like that. Everyone was coughing and getting sick and even I had to eventually leave. It was that bad. Not only that, but some weird creatures appeared in the mist that now filled the tavern. I say suddenly appeared because I didn't see them walk inside and yet they were there.
That air elemental we found? Well he came to help us clear out the gas in the tavern. I only know this through hearsay and rumor. I was asleep, or trying to sleep anyway. The IAA was staying under the tavern and I only know something was going on because you could hear the running and fighting above us. It was loud enough to force me out of my blankets and into my clothes so that I could go swing my sword at bad guys and help. My fur was all messed up by now though, so believe me when I say it didn't make me happy.
11-03-07(Saturday)
Friday was a long day and I had intended on sleeping through most of Saturday. Alas this was not the case and my body fought me to wake up. And so I did. I was so thankful that this town had warm water to shower in. Not all places do. Not all places I adventure have places to shower. I don't adventure to those places anymore.
Walker, Lincoln and I were out wandering about looking for things to do when we spied Sorenal off in the distance walking by himself. Not that Sorenal by himself was suspicious at all apparently, but because of the things he had been doing lately, we wanted to find out what he was up to and so we followed him. It was nothing exciting. He was just going back toward the pond and the scarecrow effigy thing on the raft. Spade and Kyla were there too. He was hanging off the raft in the freezing water trying to get something off it and fighting nasty fishes at the same time. It's only funny now because it turned out to be a magic item that only gave him one light spell ever. I had to snicker when I heard that. He was going to die out there for that.
Ok so that not being interesting enough to hold our attention for long, we wandered back toward the tavern.
Walker had told me we were going on a picnic and this seemed the perfect time, so we gathered up all our goodies and headed out to the gypsy camp to eat. They have tables there. We didn't get far when Gilliante stopped us. He had asked a time elemental to help him get rid of the void taint he had and he thought he might need our help. I really, really wanted to go on this picnic, but Gilliante needed us, so we put our things down and waited. When it finally arrived, the elemental mentioned that Gilliante had attacked him before and wanted a written apology before he would help. All I could think of was how crappy that was considering he can't read or write. One of the local guys offered to write it up though and then all Gilliante had to do was sign it. Trust me...that was hard enough for him. I thought he was going to rip a hole in the paper with the amount of force he used to write his name. At least he knew how to spell that, yes? Good thing.
Once the elemental had looked it over, he told Gilliante that he would help him if he destroyed a void creature that could be found nearby. We obviously agreed to help and so we (Me, Dagger, Lincoln, Elidore, Sorenal, Walker, Spade, and Kyla) all went in search of it. Now the elemental had said it was close by, but I think we must have walked for about an hour before we found anything and all I could think about was my picnic I was missing. Walker had some good stuff to eat too and I was hungry. I hoped that this would be quick.
Eventually we came to some ruin where the void creature must obviously be. Inside Gilliante turned into his Void self. I was worried at first, but he seemed to have it under control, so it was doubtful any of us would end up as Coaroo did. There were tables in the first room and on them were bottles filled with liquid in a myriad of colors. Curious as always, I thought about drinking the white bottle. White is a pretty color after all, but Elidore suggested I drink the black one if I wanted to taste one. Elidore is pretty smart when it comes to stuff like that so I did...and then I vaguely remember hitting my head on the ground as everything went black. That's all I remember until I felt this HORRIFIC pain in my side. When I opened my eyes, Elidore was standing over me. He said I had died and he lifed me...and wondered why I was all black. Ahhhh, that's why it hurt. I had turned into the Maiden. I told him not to do that again...ever...when I am like that.
I looked around with my new abilities and I could sense what was happening here. The void was essentially draining the life out of all the elements and storing them for use later. Including death as weird as that may seem. I felt this incredible compulsion to destroy anything void related...and oh look...there was Gilliante. He was the least of my problems as there were more void creatures around, so I found Walker and turned his abilities on for help. I started to stalk toward my first threat, Gilliante, when suddenly I get attacked from behind...by Sorenal! OMG Not again! Elidore jumped in front again, so I didn't feel the need to pound his face in. What is his frick'n problem?!? Elidore then explained to me how Sorenal hates other planar creatures. Ok so maybe they should have told me this beforehand, yes? Grrrrrr. Well Sorenal was about as calm as he was gonna get with his bloody eyes and evil glares. I ignored him, since he was no real threat, and went after the void...
I surprised more than a few people when I attacked Gilliante. Not that I really could stop. He was the void and I wanted them all dead. And Walker was right there with me. He's so good. He dropped, but no matter what I did he would just regenerate. Eventually we just stopped, panting, and glared at each other knowing it was pointless to continue.
There was a door to another room, but it had already been checked and was locked. Gilliante rifted out and disappeared. I guessed he ran away, but then the handle shook as if someone was trying to open it from the other side. Maybe it was him. I tried to pick the lock, but I was clearly out of practice and broke the pick before it even came close to the lock itself. I suck. And I only had one pick. Elidore on the other hand, somehow managed to use his pointy sword to pick it. Showoff...
We all started to walk through when Elidore mentioned that a ritual was being done. Of course. At least he warned me about it in advance this time, and so I stayed in the main room with Walker and Sorenal. It was all I could do not to think about how nummy my picnic would be right then. And how the food must be getting cold, or warm, depending on what it shouldn't be. It was heart wrenching for sure. So I was lost in my picnic daydream when I heard this blood curdling sound. My first thought was that the ritual had done something really, really bad. They always do, and I was right. It was only a few seconds before several void creatures came pouring through these grates in the ceiling. Sorenal was farther away then Walker, but he was holding his own in the fight when I first looked, so I went to help my squire. Walker was defending himself as best he could. The sheer number of them wouldn't allow him to take the offensive, so I fell in behind them and stabbed and stabbed and stabbed. My arm was numb by the time they fell and I scanned to find everyone. Walker was ok...tired but ok. Elidore was fighting with Lincoln and those caught in between them didn't last long. Then I caught Sorenal out of the corner of my eye. He was being pressed by several of the creatures, and though he was good, they would overwhelm him soon enough. I pointed him out to Walker. We didn't need to say anything, he just nodded and we ran to help him. He took on one in the back, while I tried to distract him. I could see that Sorenal was already bleeding profusely. If we didn't get them off him soon he would...and then he was gone. No dead body, just gone, like he dissipated. OMG, he was infected. That was probably a curse of his infection. OK now I was mad. Yeah we were having our issues, but he was Bramus' brother and Elidore and Lincoln's friend.
I don't really remember much of the fight after that. I just know that it was quick and I could smell death all around me. It was intoxicating to say the least. Maybe I just took it in and used it to my advantage. I dunno. But Sorenal had died. I found Lincoln and Elidore and apologized. I had tried to save him, but I wasn't able too. They didn't say much really. Lincoln just left to find him. Surely he would resurrect somewhere if he was able. I hoped so. I walked out with Walker and took on my normal coloring again. It was refreshing after the bloodlust we had just encountered. It was good to breathe again and I took in the clean air around me to clear my head. What would I tell Bramus? I tried, yes? With all that was going on between Sorenal and I, I didn't want to be anywhere near him when he resurrected, so I went back to the gypsy camp with Walker to try and finish that picnic.
I think the fun of our picnic was shot by then. The food and the company was good, but it took a lot to get anyone to smile or laugh. We didn't even have the will to get up and help the town when we heard the tavern was being attacked down the hill from us. I think it was ghosts or banshees or something. I don't remember now, just that they were undead. Anyway, Lincoln eventually showed up Sorenal, and it seems the infection was gone. Well at least something good came from it. Not that I would have wanted it to happen that way. He still eyed me funny, but at least he wasn't outright rude or aggressive towards me anymore. I have had THE WORST FIRST IMPRESSION EVER with him, and I don't think he's planning to let it go that easy. This will take some time I think. My thanks to Walker by the way on the picnic. Next time we just have to time it better.
Again we headed back to the tavern after we were done. The town was congregating for a final fight. Apparently they were going to stop these bloody eyed creatures once and for all. Those scarecrow things we'd been finding all weekend were successfully resurrecting them all with no chance of them perming. That was bad since they were chaos tainted and probably bad for the environment. Sir Garn was going to lead this attack with Xan by his side. Odd that. I had rarely seen Xan all weekend except for a minute here or there. Maybe he's avoiding me... Anyway, Garn got everyone together and herded them all toward the area where he had heard these things would be gathering. As we rounded the corner I saw this big eye floating in the air, just staring at us. Creepy. Adaros had mentioned earlier though that he had seen one in a vision he had, but I thought he was making it up to be silly. Clearly I was wrong. Why I doubted is beyond me. He is an oracle afterall.?
What happened next is sort of a blur. I mean, there were bad guys and we were fighting them, but the rest is fuzzy. It might be because all I did was fight...and fight...and get hacked to pieces...and fight some more. That whole fighting thing went on for the better part of an hour. At least. And then seemingly out of nowhere, it was over. ::shrugs:: Just like that. And most of the towns members pounced on the treasure. Well they tried to anyway. I dunno who actually got to it, but someone did. It's pretty obvious that someone was looting and that they were terrible at it. Come on...if you loot, don't loot EVERYTHING. Don't you think we will notice? I mean, seriously, no creature of evil walks around with empty pockets. That's common knowledge even for them and they wouldn't be caught dead with no treasure on them somewhere. Thus my point here... STOP LOOTING TREASURE! Especially if your an INCOMPETANT looter!
But I digress. In other news, Dervite was sentenced to obliteration by Sir Garn and Reynaldo was sentenced to one death. They were both in golem bodies and so from what I hear, Garn ordered him to return for his last 2 deaths and then ran him through with his sword. Not cool. Not cool at all. What a horrible way to go. Some were saying they thought he would run. That didn't matter though as he that ended up being his final death. Sad. Reynaldo was given his one death and resurrected successfully. That was good. It probably would have been a rough night with Walker if he hadn't.
I will make sure to keep watch over Dervite's spirit.
11-06-07(Tuesday)
I was walking around the district today, trying to think about things and clear my mind, when I heard this strange sound on the wind. It was music, but not like any I had heard before. It was odd enough to take my mind off the matters I had been thinking about and that was before the singing started. Weird lyrics if you ask me. Something about a rude, fat midget. Yeah... Well I didn't write it.
Well I followed the sound to a little tent and fire on the edge of the district. Some MWE chick was playing and singing...and Sir Bramus was there? Why was Sir Bramus there? I was kinda in shock. So much so that I ran right into Sir Verix (not that that was so bad), but I did trip. No worries though, I caught myself gracefully, as usual, so no one seemed to notice, which was good.
So this MWE girl is a bard of some sort. And a tailor apparently. That might be good for Lochling. I don't think we have any musical talent left in the area. At least not from anyone willing to share anyway, and I could use some new clothes. Arainyn's seamstress has been getting lax lately.
She can tell stories too. I hope they’re good ones. I miss Gregor telling me stories at night. He was the best. Anyway, she was going to tell stories, but Walker happened to find us out there and I remembered we had a journey to prepare for. So I couldn't stay. I really hope she comes back so I can hear one.
11-10-07(Saturday)
Much was going on and I needed to return to Drakemyre to handle my duties there. Arainyn never did like it when I was gone for long. I thought it was high time Walker saw the lands he was bound to protect as well, so we packed up a few things and left tonight. It shouldn't take long to get all this handled.
11-22-07(Thursday)
I came in and ordered the roast lamb like usual,but they brought out turkey instead. When I asked what the deal was, the serving wench just shrugged and mumbled something about how a local hunter was showing his thanks and they didn't want it to go to waste. Apparently it was a big turkey because they had enough to not worry about cooking anything else for the day. Oh well...
11-24-07(Saturday)
I know Walker has hidden secret stashes of pillows somewhere, but I've looked all over this room and can't find them. I mean I have lots of pillows...they're everywhere, but I cannot find 'his' pillows. Wait... You don't think that's his ploy do you? Hiding them right under my nose with all the other normal pillows. Oh...he's good. Too good.
11-26-07(Monday)
Ok that was NO turkey. I swear it was a friggin' Roc! There is no other explanation for the fact that we are still eating turkey. It was ok the first day and the second, and even the third, but come on... Where's my roast lamb?