If by some chance you were to get into the bag of a certain winged elf musician, you might find this book. The cover is a lavender color, with a feather etched in blue on the front. When you open the cover, the first page has only a few sentences.
I prepared Explosive Runes this morning.
And in finer words below that:
Or I would if I knew the spell. You better not read any farther, because if I catch you....
Flipping past that page, you find it's a diary she started not too long ago, and it seems from the first few entries that there are a couple more that she had written before this one. The handwriting is neat, almost delicate. Skimming past several entires which describe a journey, but seem rather mundane, this entry catches your eye, and you start reading in more detail...
What a day, what a day. I finally reached Yulash today, and what happened afterwards is not something I bet even Rosa could have predicted.
It started decently enough, with a visit to the local shrine to Finder to say a quick prayer for the safe journey, then I went into town. They have a plaza there that might make a nice stage, but it was rather empty around it, apart from guards. I must have arrived during supper, I figure.
After that, I ran into a couple orcs, but it seemed like they didn't understand Common, so I passed them by. I had to defend myself against some bugbears after that, but luckily my defensive song mostly kept them at a distance where I could pick them off with crossbow. While they didn't seem to understand the words, it still had an effect on them, which is something to remember, I suppose.
After that I had a quick talk with a local band of the Roma while I traded for some potions from them, and found there were some kobolds in the sewers which had some things they didn't need anymore, and what's a good Roma-raised girl gonna do when she hears there's someone that doesn't need something anymore?
I hate sewers though... the grime is always a pain to get out of my feathers, not to mention what it does to my hair. The first few batches of kobolds were easy enough, though I had a raccoon that wasn't a raccoon following me.
A short ways in, after I caught it spitting arrows I discovered it was shapechanged... and its natural form was a male Avariel! Of all the places to finally meet another Avariel... His name was Ronin, and he seemed to be some sort of noble. He wasn't too bad looking either, apart from his face... it looked like someone had tried to beat it with the ugly stick and stopped only halfway. I wonder though what could have caused those scars.... or what other places he might have a few interesting ones.
He aided me as we traveled down, and it was certainly a good thing. The leader of them all was guarded by some bugs who were not affected in the least by my "go away" song, and I would certainly have died without help.
After we returned to the surface I divested myself of what I couldn't use in exchange for a new pair of boots, then he led me to an entire hideout of my kind! It was pretty well hidden too.
The baths there are nice... water just the right temperature, and good for cleaning. Everything would have been fine except for later that night. Someone had turned themselves invisible and kept trying to get me to jump into bed with Ronin! Now I don't mind other people watching if I'm in the mood... Finder knows it happened enough times back in La Familia. But I have standards, and I am not going to jump anyone just because some person wants to watch and get off on it.
At least that person finally left so I could get back into Reverie and Dreaming. If that bastard Wakes me again though, I am going to find and kick their arse all the way to the Dragonspine Mountains!
Well, today was certainly interesting. I went to Yulash to do some shopping, and find Ronin pulling pranks on the guards. And of course, right after that, the sewer grate decides to explode and pour red gunk out all over the streets too.
Against my better judgement I followed him down to see what was up, and discovered some undead. We barely pulled through, then reported it to the Dawnbringers. Of course those holier-than-thou types then sent us to go look into it, despite there being plenty of paladins and clerics much better suited to this sort of thing... at least it paid well.
I got caught up in Ronin's entheusiasm, and we almost got killed twice fighting them off. Finally after a short rest I just made the two of us invisible, and we found some sort of ritual room, and coffins of guardians of Baelnorn. It seemmed as if the flow of the gunk was ending by itself, so we headed back to Maiden's.
There we heard a tale from the priest about the family those coffins had belonged to, a group of Baelnorns destroyed by humans. Typical... don't even bother to find out what they're meddling in by doing that. It turns out one who was still working towards it escaped, and because of more stupid actions by the druids, now she's been corrupted and is on a path of vengence.
I would say go to it, except that for creatures that powerful it tends to splash onto those not involved, without fail... and from the sounds of things it already has begun to. If she truly has become a creature of anger, even after she has destroyed those druids responsable she may not stop, and as much as those druids brought her actions upon themselves, the others who may get caught in this have not.
The Dawnbringer priest mentioned something before about a female lich causing problems for Maiden's. If this is that Elizabeth, then she may already be involving others, in which case I wish them all the luck they need to put a stop to it. Wanting justice is one thing, and if those druids did massacre an entire family to get one person, then they deserve whatever they get. Blindly striking out, however, is not right, no matter the cause.
I'll drop by the Rom encampment tomorrow and let the boys know, so they can be ready to move out temporarily if things get too serious. Seems I certainly picked an interesting time to visit the area.
It's been a few days, but things have been busy.
First, I met a cute aspiring bard named Fayte who the eastern Yulash gate seemed to have a grudge against. I met several other interesting people there, including a couple talking swords, who bickered as if they were married, or at least that was the consensus of the rest of us there. One of the wielders of the two talking swords, Dierna, seemed just barely bigger than the sword itself!
We did have some strange little man watching us too.. perhaps a halfling? I never got a look at him... though the little bastard stole a wingfeather. I like invisibility for my own use, but damn if sometimes I don't wish the spell never got created.
I also met a powerful elven archmage. She seems a bit eccentric, but fun, too. She even has a pet dragon named Bob that she can summon, though I didn't find out about that until yesterday.
I was down in the Underdark trying to follow up a rumor I had heard of a city down there called Doubatch, while keeping an eye out for the trolls wandering the area that the same rumor mentioned, an invisibility spell ready. Instead I found golems made of what looked like gemstone! I took out some, though they seemed hurt more by my rapier's humming than the blade itself, and retrieved some pieces that still looked worth keeping, when I ran into that archmage again... I think she mentioned her name was Vesula at our first meeting.... that is, before she dragged some other woman with a faked accent aside to discuss some secret or other she picked up from her.
Regardless, she made short work of the couple that I hadn't dealt with yet, and invited me to wander with her. While I didn't see the city itself during our wandering down there, I did see minecar tracks that I'm sure lead to it, and I also gathered a lot more of those golem pieces. They sold for a rather good price too.
Afterwards, a spell mishap turned me into a penguin. Kinda funny, a elf that can fly turning into a bird that can't. I followed her for a bit, and found that though I couldn't speak or cast spells I could still sing. We got separated in Yulash though, and after giving some guards the runaround(must have been what it was like for Ronin the other day!) I escaped into the sewer and curled up for a rest. When I woke up, I was myself again, and I would have written it off as a dream if it wasn't for all the gems from the golems in my pack, and that I heard a guard later that day complaining about a penguin pecking him.
Oh, almost forgot to write about Bob! We'd ran into some really tough orcs down there who took exception to us passing through, so she called him out. to deal with them. He was rather silent, but friendly. I'd really hate to see what would happen to someone who made her angry, with all her spells and that dragon.
Well, I finally found Doubatch!
I didn't stay very long, but it was an interesting experiance. I don't know how one could live from day to day down there, with all that rock above their heads that could come crashing down at any time. The buildings' designs were a bit eerie, but pretty in their own way. Also it looks like they're the source of those golems I had to fight through, judging from the golems they use as guards. Gnome things going crazy, go fig, right?
On my way back I ran into a troll, though this one looked.. red. Not only that, but it could see through my invisibility spell! It chased me for a ways, almost overtaking me before I used a song to quicken my step and outrun it. From what the man who told me about Doubatch said, there are several trolls down there, and if that one was representive of the bunch, I don't want to meet more.
Afterwards I took a break by Yulash's main plaza. There were a few others there, including one who claimed he had the powers of an imp... I believe someone called him Goshan. We had a lyrics contest of sorts, too. I even pulled out my guitar for it, though it needed tuning after not having been used in so long. I'll have to do that again sometime.