Essan acktmar; research notes and thoughts

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{from the diary }

ok today was not the easiest day ever, but that happens. NOTE to self - i'll need to find some cured leather urgently - until i can sort out some sort of protection thats all i can use. maybe skin something and get it from that?

anyway I'm really grateful for maras contiuous help - hes saved my life five times today. I know people keep saying hes yet another fire hazard but his talents more than make up for it.

note to self 2: maybe a map would be handy? I managed to get lost today and i walked into the sewers of all places. not pretty. rats down there are enourmous. left some blood behind in there.

anyway after extricating myself from the sewers i found the inn, nice place really - seemed a bit quite but it was early. the bard there complained to me about loosing a necklace. Ill go have a poke around. there nothing better planned.

spekaing of poking there is a graveyard near here - maybe i should check on the local history. that can wait till i know where i am though. some people really should be more carefull.

Note to self 3: burned rat tasted awful, next time use a lower flame to kill them

[comW]

{from the diary}

OK i noticed something wied whist in the sewers, headed back to check it out and yes there is a small tunnle down there that heads into the inn, the door locks when closed from the inn however so its one way. might be worth remebering, but i'll have to deal with those rats.

no luck on my search for leather, i dont seem able to find any shops nearby.

[comW]

{diary}

Met up with a few people today, Odi - still not sure what he was there for, but he left early,  Roy a ranger type - i liked roy hes kinda bearable, and an elf looking sorcerer. with a kitty cat.

Mera seemed to think hed be tastey - i'll call him E - i dunno how to spell his name (and its better than snack type). Quite a succesful day all told - i was chased out of the sewers shortly aftre i discovered there is a deper layer, which looks realyl intresting. so I recruited the help of E just outside and we both had to fall back. Roy and Odi joined us and together we managed to finally collect the tax docments. (note to self: check over the research notes) Those are some intresting looking constructs down there. managed to get the paperwork back though.

after a bit of discussion getting the papers handed over, we were directed to the local shops and i collected a few useful items. finally. Still need to collect some leather s...s.

after soe discussion we (myself and roy) headed to the crypts and fought our way toi the botom, on the way down i finally piced up some armour for when I can't cast any more spells. managed to fight our way through lots of skeletons and collections of zombies,

actually learned an intresting trick there - we had mara occupy the zombies up close with roy shooting arrows at them and i toasted the area the zombies were in from the other side. brought down a lot of zombies far faster. when we actually found the lesser darksoul we had been sent after it was tough euogh to take both of us down, and roy had to finally kill the beast after i was pulled to my bind point. the crypt were not particularly intresting no major wars or intresting relics in the locality.

[comW]

{research notes}

1) under the city of hlint there is an extensive system of tunnels which look more like a mgical focus than a set of sewers. there are several intricate floor lays - mosaics? - and in a cntral room there are a number of monoliths that look like they have proturuded form the floor at some point. they are marked with indisciperable runes, "E" confirmed that they were not elven.

i have included a drawing of one of these monoliths here.

There was also what looked like a sunken bridge - a wood and stone construction marked with similar rune to the monoliths (picture below) I think some library work is called for to discover exactly what type of force would have made these monoliths and why place them there?

2) Grave yard investigation drew a blank. nothing of significant intrest. undecided as wether i should give essance to the necromancer but no real reason not to.

[comW]

{from the diary}

OK Busy couple of days, but the short version is I died Twice.

I've been trying to complete a job for the local guard, to cull certain local goblin tribes but the baggers managed to outnumber me and kill me twice. Resurection spells are expensive. however A few things of note have happened,

I met a being known as Lin who assisted me in retriving my corpse the first time I died, and who told me of the local "tower" a mages guild whos eem to be of a certain amount of intrest to me. we discussed it in great detail, and she told me she would mail me a copy of the towers ontract and proffesional intrests. I think perhaps i should look into this guild again soon.

Te second time I died im met with engassa treebringer again (in earlier notes he is refered to as E) who assisted me in retriving the body and completeing the job. he departed soon after to rest up aftere a apparently fairly gruelling time. engassa has a new familiar, pretty looking dragon fairy. There you are then.

After completing the extermination job, i was asked to assist in clearing the sewers again and I went to see if i could learn any more from the structures under the city. Very little further information wascollected but i have a few more images, including now all of the runes on 2 sides of each monolith.

[comW]

{folded into the jacket of the diary are a pait of letters}
{around them is a string which is acting as a bookmark a few pages into the diary}

Humm, lin was as good as her word when the information i requested. I am certainly intr#ested in the scientist training i am offered, and the rtules do not seem to arduos. but 10 years? Ill be pushing 40 by the time im free again.

Ill contact her and see how io go about becoming a member - it may be that this is a sutible group for me to procede from.

[comW]

I can truley say i have learned the value of co-operation. Whilst in town i noticed a triaining lesson for a mage who could not grasp the "magic Missile" - one of my very few weaves. after a few examplesfrom an adaquet teacher and a point and click example from myself she quickly learmed.

When they left me to practice i heard Stormbringer enjoying the show. He was a nice enough guy; if as little cocky. He did assist me in collecting the boar skins the tanner needed though -- althoug his directions need some work. he called together a few of his friendsso we could safely travel through the sielwood. I have tried to travel that area on my own and there are a number of minor difficulties - includign a cmercenary camp who agressively defend their territory, and several groups of unusual creatures - no one person could easilytravel through this space. however this group, including a cleric and 3 swordsmen of various types had no difficulty in clearing a path through the area.

My offensive abilities were of some use - Especially after we found the cave where that bard had left her necklace - small creatures with the ability to stun my colleagues but were not very strong, soon fell to burning hands. Once again i accidentally singed one of my comrades - i really need a more  selective assult spell.

oh well - we colected the necklace after some small difficulty - the  goblin holding it had hidden on our first sweep though the caves and we had to make a second to reclaim the amulet.

[comW]

{DIARY}

In town today i chanced against another person using my favorite colours, whist I was admiring the outfit, I also met roy again. since roy was in town i asked for his assitance in gathering some deerskin and he agreeded, so long as i assisted him and his friend with their tasks in the haven mines. We headed to haven nd along the way we met up with a woodworker trader and a fairly skilled sowrdsman. the swordsman came with us. the traxder obviosly was usy but handed on some information regarding the pople currently trading in heavier metal objects. roy calleed a deer which i jumped before i realised it was his. Also tought me the  technique for making tinder fires with a flint and steel. must apologise somehow for killing his deer.

In the mines as always io spent a lot of time following on and collecting reources whilst the rest of the party killed things, although i managed to do enough damage to keep the party covered when nessasary. sicne ui am here in have now ill have a nosse around on my own.

*note to self* can i modify my fade spell to give some kind of total invisibility. I KNOW  some people can.

my OX died, and i lost all of my crafting equipment. thats inconvinient

[comW]

Hmm im beginging to get the hang of the carving thing! I've carved a few gems out. now i want to set them intosome rings. now then - i could make a mold the same way as the arrow heads mold. The ring could be cast out like that as well, but setting a gem will take a bit of work.

still amused bu the properties of stirge wings poison remaining from the feathers reallyt upsets golins.

[comW]

Hmm, Pay more attention to spelling. anyway I was working on making up some more arrow shafts and arrowhead molds today when I saw Roy again. And he aggreed to help me collect some copper. as we were on our way to the mines however we met up with Lin whatshername - from the guild and she let me knpw my application to the guild haad been succesful. the paperwork and details took longer than i liked, but in the end it was worth it.

The trip to the mine was unlucky for me though - i was caught by a goblins wizard lightning bolt - and it comnpletely took me down. i needed rescuing fairly badly after that.

I died again. hopefully i can retrieve my body