Brian Franklin's encounters - abridged

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Brian has had his first encounter with new races, magic, and generally life in the real world.  He met several people upon his first appearance in town, notably to him are Frelbo, a bard, and Rhynn, an arcane spellcaster.  He finds magic to be absolutely fascinating, wanting to know more about it.  He's been shown around town a little, and he has acquired a new bow, some arrows, and some provisions.  He is starting to accept that he has no choice but to become an adventurer, though he misses his family and is worried about them.  

He has seen and fought giant rats, the size of badgers, the "ratman" monster and goblins.  The adventurers he travelled with assured him that killing the goblins was alright.  That it was population control, just like with wolves on the farm.  He also died for the first time ever, a dreadful experience he will never forget.  Brian is as nervous as ever and full of self doubt, but wonders why the dragon summoned him if he wasn't needed for something.

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Brian met two new people tonight.  One was a bard named Ifion.  Upon meeting him, a drow came into the tavern.  Not knowing any better, Brian went outside yelling for help.  It was then that he ran into Frelbo and company and learned from him that not all drow are evil.  He also met with Rhynn again and they talked about magic.  Currently Brian doesn't believe he's confident enough or could have the dedication to learn magic, as Rhynn has described, and will focus on learning to use his bow better.  The two also discussed the good in all people, and they met a goblin named Gnusto.  He was a goblin who was learning how to fish, and did not want to be squished.  Brian and Rhynn agreed not to squish him and they talked for a short while before Brian had to get some sleep.

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After resting for a while, Brian decided it was time to get some practice with his bow.  He introduced himself to several people, including an orc, which he was aprehensive about.  One of the people named Dalinal offered to help him practice in the crypts.  So the two of them went into the crypts.  Brian was introduced to skeletons, Ghouls and zombies.  He also learned about divine magic and a few small differences between divine and arcane.  He still has a fascination with magic, but doesn't know if he wants to commit to the time required to learn the ways of the arcane.  While practicing in the crypts, he finally learned how to shoot better into melee situations and he learned ways of firing arrows more rapidly if need be.  The practice ended with killing a shadow being of some sort and making their way out of the crypt.

Brian took a break and decided to try fishing.  While he was attempting that, he met the goblin Gnusto again.  They spent some time fishing, and then decided to go look around town a little.  While travelling down the road, they were approached by a wizard who needed help learning how to light fires.  They helped him, and they sat talking for a short while.

Then an orc came to them named Rak.  He was a mighty warrior and sheep herder.  Rak showed them how to cook.  After a while of that, it was decided that they would go into the crypt and collect skeleton knuckles to give to a witch in the swamp.  The four adventurers went about their task, and picked up one or two more adventurers along the way.  Finally they went to the swamp, where Brian learned of Lizardmen and Will o wisps.  

As a result of his adventuring, Brian is starting to feel a little more comfortable about social interactions, and is beginning to feel more confident in himself.  He decided to take a couple days off to relax and recuperate.

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Lately Brian has been trying to gain confidence and hone his abilities more.  He's trying to get better at combatting foes, and has found himself dying a lot more as a result.  He's getting frustrated, and this may push him to start trying to form parties, where he knows there's some relative safety in numbers, rather than trying to go at it alone.  He met several new faces in his adventures over the last few days, including one named Annun.  She gave him the advice of diversifying to be a better adventurer, and to always play it smart.  So, Brian will probably go in search of a melee weapon and try to find somewhere to practice with it.

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Brian decided to help the postmaster deliver some mail.  Little did he know it would lead him on a great adventure.  He was asked to deliver a letter to a Johan who lived in a Fort Himlan on another continent.  He accepted, not knowing how difficult the trek would be.  He asked some people, and they told him about the trip.  Brian was very scared, and tried to return the letter, but the postmaster wouldn't have it, and even said it had to be done soon.  So the people he talked to offered to help him go there, and in return Brian had to be nice and helpful to the next person who needed his help.  He was fine with that, so the formed a party, and off they went.  Brian saw killer vines, more shadow creatures, lions and griffons.  He has also seen the ocean and been to another contient now.

Brian has been spending a bit of time learning how to use a longsword.  He hasn't had a teacher, but he's been going into the crypts, where he feels confident that he can handle the skeletons, and practicing hacking them to bits.  He still relies on the bow and only uses the sword in rare instances.  He met a few new people, and even took on the role of showing a newly summoned adventurer around the town a little bit and helping them kill goblins for the Quartermaster.  He led a few people into the goblin caves and they survived a battle similar to the one when Brian first died.  This has been a big morale boost for Brian and he's getting more confident.

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Brian has spent more time in the crypts working on longsword practice against the skeletons, and farther down, practicing further with his archery against ghouls and zombies.  He met up with M'rindrell again and helped him acquire the tax records for the Accountant again.  At that point, M'rindrell insisted that they go to the inn and have a "few drinks."  Brian wasn't exactly sure about it all, since he'd never had alcohol before.  He didn't like the stuff at first, however after forcing down an ale, the next several that followed didn't matter all that much.  

Being horribly drunk at that point, the two of them decided to go make camp in Brian's usual spot.  Unfortunately, instead of going right out of the tavern, they went left.  It was here that they ran into Rhynn.  Brian offered her a drink and she accepted it.  She then started telling them about voices coming from the lake and that Brian and M'rindrell should investigate them.  After discussing that for a brief moment, she berrated them for being drunk and Brian told her he was going to learn magic and ran off, falling on the ground in the process.  Rhynn shouted at him that he'd be a disgrace to magic.  Brian finally made it to east Hlint and set a camp up.  He passed out around the fire.  Sometime during the night M'rindrell showed up and fell asleep on the other side of the fire as well.

In the morning, Brian had a terrible hangover and couldn't remember anything about the night before.  M'rindrel and he met a young girl named Nara who had walked up to their campfire.  They slowly made their way to the Inn where Brian told Nara a few things about town.  It was decided that they needed rest, so Brian went to a room and passed out for a while.

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Brian got together with some folks and adventured down in the crypts.  They went all the way to the very end this time.  Brian felt very confident about that. After returning to the surface, they split off and Brian went to say hi to Rhynn.  She ignored him and wouldn't have anything to do with him.  He had no idea what was going on, so he went and sulked for a while, then went and killed more undead.  He's really getting the hang of it, and isn't scared to go down there any longer.  

After that, he met up with M'rindrell and they went to the Moor to kill lizardmen.  While there, a will 'o wisp attacked them and they had to run back to town for help since they couldn't harm it.  Everyone berrated Brian, and he felt really bad, then got mad at everyone for hating him, so he stomped off.  Freldo came and calmed him down and gave him a pep talk, so he's feeling a little better now.  He also told him if he needed a new bow to talk to Ash and get introduced to Glenn.  Brian also talked to Freldo about Rhynn being mad at him, and Freldo agreed to talk to her about it.

Brian and a small group of folks who wanted to go see Dalton in Fort Llast took a hike to go give him the wisp essence. That trip was uneventful and Brian decided to spend some time in Fort Llast for a while.