Skarp-Heiden's journal

[Harloff]

*A small book in skunk fur binding. The tail is used as a strap that can wrapped around the book and secured with a clasp on the front. The handwriting in the book is crude and sometimes almost illegible. In certain places the writing is illuminated as if the writer finds these bits of text particularly important.*
 
Cursed!
I had been sleeping outside Hlint this night and was awakened by a skunk searching through my bags. The damn animal was clearly looking for food and in the process it was destroying my journal. I got angry and shouted at the beast, which of course made everything worse or smellier at least. This made me even angrier and I grasped the skunk with my right hand and choked it. After coming to my senses I skinned the skunk and decided to bind my next journal with it, this seemed to be a proper punishment and it might help me remember not to put my journal and my food in the same bag. After completing my new journal I had a look at the old one and found that it smelled worse than a whorehouse and that there where no way that I could keep it. Thus I have decided to rewrite the parts that seems most important to my current situation in this new journal.

The first weeks:
After fleeing from Krashin, Geir and I ended up in Hlint, where we found different tasks to do in order to earn gold. We were able to kill all undead in the crypts below just the two of us. This was a though task and the cursed creatures made me feel so sick I had to rest afterwards to regain my strength. I had tried to clear out the crypts myself but found that despite all my strength I was unable to do it, but when we worked together the task seemed much easier. Even Geir’s old songs seems to help me in my efforts, however, I was hoping that he would learn new songs soon.

A man named Johan approached me and asked me to help him get some furs for some stupid reason. It seemed to me that he just couldn’t admit the fact he didn’t dare to go out and get the furs himself. I took the task because I felt sorry for the wimp and I could use the gold he offered. It turned out that I was right; he later gave the same excuse to Geir when he asked him to do exactly the same. Hah, he couldn’t even think of a new excuse.

*Skarp-Heiden smiles, while he wonders about the importance of this small task on later events.*

A few weeks later:
Geir is really happy here, more people seem to understand his poetry than back home, and it seems as if he makes a new poem each day. He has made two really good ones, one of them is about a paladin and Geir and the other one is an ode to axes. I believe that he was inspired by my grand example when he wrote the last one. I’m really happy for him, but all this reciting of poems has made me experiment with earplugs, the best result I had when I just stuffed some pieces of cotton into my ears. Besides that he seems too fascinated with practically all females he meet, even one who called herself “Witchblade”, doesn’t it say it all… Why does he always fall for girls with danger written all over them? Somehow it makes me sad that he has forgotten his girlfriend back home so quickly, it makes him seem so shallow. Ah well he is practically just a kid, maybe I’m being too hard on him it might be his way of dealing with all of this. I know Gro would give me a hard time if she heard me saying a thing like that.

A week later
Ah the funniest thing happened today; Geir came to Brant and myself, and claimed to have chased an ogre away. The story was that the ogre had chased him for some time and when Geir was fed up with all this running he turned to attack the ogre but it disappeared in this instant. I’m quit sure that he had been running for so long that the ogre got tired of following him or lost track of him, Brant seemed to be doubting the story as well. Geir is however of the impression that the ogre got so scared when he turned around that it fled. And now he has bought a two-handed sword, it certainly looks funny when he wields it or it wields him, depending on the viewer I guess. He has been calling himself a “warrior poet” after that incident, and it has been really hard to keep a straight face.

*Skarp-Heiden notices a piece a paper that has fallen out of the journal, it is torn and hard to read but after a while he lights up and starts writing again.*

Some of us had been out on a quest to behead the leader of the lizardmen. Everything went fine until we had to go down to the lower floors. A ranger named Path was scouting for us he had gone ahead and came back reporting a single lizardman in the room below the stairs, an easy task it seemed and so it was even though four lizardmen where there instead of the one he had reported. This should have warned us, but we believed him when he reported that one or two lizardmen were guarding the leader. We made a plan and tried to follow it but at least ten lizardmen where guarding him, our ranks naturally fell apart when they attacked and we lost the battle. Afterwards Path blamed the rest of us for the lost battle saying that we didn’t hold our ranks, somehow completely forgetting his part in our failure. I must remember not to put to much faith into his scouting abilities.

Two weeks later:
I had almost completed the task for Johan and I only needed to get some brown bear skins for him. Fortunately Geir knew where these bears could be found so we went there and started hunting them.  Then I had the strangest experience, I killed the first bear and just as it died I became so dizzy that I had to lean onto my axe. I thought that I had been eating something bad and that had made me feel woozy, thus I pulled myself together and quickly attacked the next bear in sight. This time when I killed the bear I had a complete blackout, and I have no idea whether it was I or Geir who skinned the two bears afterwards or how we got back. But when we got back to Hlint I had the two bear skins and gave them to Johan and got my reward.

The following days I had this strange feeling and I can’t really recall what I did in that time, until I spoke with a priest who called himself Father Logan. I asked him how many children he had since he called himself father. None, he said, but then he said something about everyone being his children. I had never heard anything that idiotic, but then again most priest to my experience have some strange ideas, talking about good, evil, right, wrong, etc. etc. to me it all boils down to the same someone be it a man or a god wants power and takes advantage of naïve people in order to get it. Even though his crazy speeches annoyed me I gave it a rest since I hoped he could help me. I told him about my experiences with the bears and asked him if he knew why I had felt like this. He said that he didn’t know too much about the subject but suggested that the bear could be some kind of totem animal to me. This triggered my memory and I quickly excused myself. Now I suddenly remembered why I had never killed a bear before, father had told me not to and I had never questioned his motives. There could be some link between not killing bears and the fact that bears was the totem animal for the famous bear warriors I had heard so much about as a child. I knew that my father wasn’t a bear warrior himself, he would have told me or at least used the power under the attack at the feast where he died. So why had he forbidden me to kill them.

A few nights ago:
This night I had the strangest dream, a completely grey bear came to me it was larger and more massive than any bear I had ever seen. Yet it seemed friendly and I felt that it wanted to communicate with me. As the bear approached me I saw that it had a large scar on the left side of its head down over the eye socket where the eye was missing. The right eye was completely blue and kept on looking at me as if the bear expected me to recognize it. I had seen this eye, the scar and this hairy face before but where, the bear seemed saddened by the fact that I didn’t recognize it. It turned and started walking away, I tried to follow but even though I was running and the bear was just walking slowly the distance to it grew. I started yelling after it. At this point I woke up due to my own yelling. Then I realized that the bear was my grandfather, if he had been a bear warrior that would explain why father had always forbidden me to hunt bears. I can hardly remember my grandfather he died when I was little but I know from all my fathers’ tales that he was a great warrior. This could be really important if I can become a bear warrior like my kinsmen I could really be a help in our efforts to revenge our family. I must remember to speak to Geir about all of this he might know what to do.

*Skarp-Hiden lights up as he throws the old journal on to the fire, he knows that he has only copied a small fraction of it but it must suffice. He looks at the burning book while he mumbles “I don’t think I have ever been writing so much on a single day before.” He gets up and decides to find a pond where he can was the smell of the skunk away.*

[Harloff]

Today I was in a small adventure party consisting of Rahzon, Melissa, Qantum and Damien. We where out collecting skins for Melissa, I don’t know if it is correct, but I bet Johan gave her the same foolish story he told me. As we ventured forth I noticed that Melissa had to make a pass at every man she met. She even tried charm me by saying that I was “beautiful”, I couldn’t help smiling at this, nobody had ever called me that before and did she really think I was that stupid. Melissa misunderstood this and thought she had charmed me, little could she know that I really hate when women are coming on too strong.

Nothing much happened until we met Geir, he was happy to see us especially Melissa, it was pretty obvious that he fancied her. For some strange reason Melissa suddenly stood less that 2 inches away from me rubbing her body against my armour. I tried to ignore her but she didn’t seem to notice it, and I felt it was necessary to tell her that it gave me the creeps. Geir stepped up and defended her; he even called her “a lady”. We had a long discussion in which I argued that no lady tried to charm every man in sight. In the end Melissa and Geir had to agree with me, they agreed on that “she was herself”. I had to agree with them on that but I was not sure that it was a good thing.

Immediately after this Geir said that he hoped to fulfil his highest dream soon. As he said that Melissa started beaming like a sun and it was obvious what she thought Geir was going to say, I feared exactly the same thing and started sweating heavily. Fortunately Geir continued and said his highest dream was to become a skald. The look on her face, she probably thought she had bagged him already.

*Skarp-Heiden starts grinning when he recalls the look on her face, “I’m willing to give my left arm to see such an expression again” he mumbles.*

I was relieved and I told Geir that it would have made father proud to see him become a skald, and that it would help us when we where going to revenge our family. Melissa was really crossed about all of this and acted really huffy about it, unfortunately for her Geir didn’t seem to understand why she was so crossed. This talk about revenge made Geir really excited, and I think he is willing to do what it takes to get it. In that respect he has changed since we left our home, he would have demanded that I spared the women and children back then, but he didn’t seem to have those considerations today. It is a huge relief that I don’t have to fight him on this matter when the time comes.

*Skarp-Heiden looks grim. But he suddenly starts smiling again as he recalls Melissa’s facial expression and wonders why Geir didn’t understand why she acted so strange, bards are know to understand the opposite sex and for the ability to charm it. He is sitting and smiling when he suddenly realizes that the others are waiting for him. He stashes the journal away, grabs his axe and walks away singing a song his farther taught him.

“If you want you child to grow,
Your child to grow,
Your child to grow,
And if you want your child to grow,
Give him a jar of porter…” *

[Harloff]

* Skarp-Heiden looks angry as he sits down at the table and takes his journal from one of his bags. As he is just about to start writing he jumps from the table, yells "that cursed wench", grabs his axe and storms out into the nearest forest and starts cutting down a large oak tree. By the time he has cut it into manageable pieces he seems to have regained his normal self and walks back to his journal and starts writing. *

Today Geir told me that Melissa had said I had told her a secret about Geir and bought her silence with a ring. I was quit choked about this because I did not know why on earth I should tell her a secret. At first I couldn't even remember having given her a ring, but then I remembered that I had given her a small shimmering but worthless ring. I got so crossed over her lies that I could have killed her right there on the spot, but then I realized that this might be an opportunity to show Geir what kind of person she was. So I admitted to Geir that I had given her the ring but assured him that I hadn’t told her any secrets.

A little later I saw Geir and Melissa talking to each other. I immediately went up to them, and confronted her with the lies she had told. She looked hurt and said that she had never said the things Geir referred, but she admitted that she had indicated it. She said that Geir was the one who had jumped to conclusions. I realized that she had played a trick on him and that I had underestimated her cunningness, but Geir seemed to blame himself for everything. Geir excused himself and sat down by the pond; I followed after him and tried to convince him that Melissa was the one to blame since she had played a trick on him. As on all other occasions when I had tried to discuss Melissa with Geir, he refused to see any of her flaws, and asked to be left alone for a while.

As I went back to Melissa she was standing and talking with Rolf, a Priest from Krashin. The tree of us had been talking for a while when Geir returned to us looking guilt-ridden. Geir said nothing for a while, but looked more and more tortured by his guilt by the minute. Suddenly Melissa started talking to Geir about how his words and behaviour had hurt her, but that she forgave him and then she kissed him and the cheek. Geir was so relieved that he and started babbling about how sorry he was, and Melissa talked about how hurtful words could be. I didn’t know what to do, my own brother falling for the oldest trick in the book, “why do you hurt me when I love you so much”, why is my brother so damned good-hearted that he can’t see trough things like that. As I was standing there wishing I had left him with a foster family until he was at least 25, Rolf who was looking uneasy as well asked me if we should go have a drink at the inn. Drinking a beer with him really helped my temper. But as we got out of the inn Geir looked more hopelessly in love then ever. Cursed woman she is able to wrap him around her little finger as she pleases now.

* Skarp-Heiden closes the journal and wonders what he can do to make Geir realize what kind of person Melissa is. *

[Harloff]

* Skarp-Heiden seems thoughtful as he sits on a bench sharpening his axe, after a while he lays the axe on the table and finds his journal in his bags. *

Geir seems to have ventured out on his quest to become a skald, he didn't say goodbye or anything however, his probably still mad at me due to my attitude towards Melissa. Luckily I haven't seen her either so everything seems to be back to normal.

I met Rahzon and a girl called Abigail, I didn't know her but she seemed to be good natured, so the three of us agreed on going out cutting oak for Rahzon’s bow making. He promised me I could have one if he succeeded in producing any. Before we ventured into the high forest I told them that if we met any bears they had to kill them themselves. I was a bit embarrassed about this, but I couldn't see that I had any other choice due to my former experiences with these majestic creatures. None of them scorned me for it however, Rahzon probably understand my link to the nature trough his own link to it. He always speaks of not killing more animals than you need and so on, I have always found this quit amusing but now I am beginning to understand why these druids and rangers hold the powers of nature in such a high regard. Path spoke of the balance of nature one day and claimed that some animals where "evil" and had to be killed in order to keep this balance, he even claimed that he could sense when an animal was "evil". He had just killed a lion if I remember correctly and claimed it was one of the "bad" ones.

* Skarp-Heiden smiles he finds it amusing that Path won't admit that he needed the skin for his crafting instead of concocting a story about "evil" animals. He says it out aloud imitating Path's voice. Skarp's thoughts drift, he wonders if the only true evil that exist comes from thinking beings, animals never do more than what is needed to survive. Whereas humans, elves, dwarfs and the other thinking races he knew, did things out of greed for power, gold or fame and some even did things out of pure maliciousness. Skarp-Heiden seems saddened by these thoughts, and returns to his journal in an attempt to shake them away. *

We went into the forest but two black bears blocked our path, Abigail and Rahzon quickly killed them without my help. To my relief I felt alright even though the bears where killed, apparently I am unaffected as long as I don't participate in the actual killing. As they fought the bears I realized that I would kill the bears myself if Abigail and Rahzon where in danger. Not out of an urge to do the right thing, but because I depend on them as they depend on me, and if they can't trust me in a fight can I trust them when I am in trouble.

* Skarp-Heiden seems to be in need of doing something else and quickly finishes his writings. *

We got the oak for Rahzon and went back to Hlint where we parted.

* Skarp-Heiden stashes the journal away and checks his pickaxe before he ventures of in the direction of the Sielwood mine. *

[Harloff]

I met Rolf today and he asked me to join him for a beer at the inn, since this is not the first time he has suggested such a venture I have gathered that he is in possession of a healthy thirst. Seeing that I had nothing else to do I said yes. I thought that I owed him as much for saving me from Melissa and Geir the other day. As we sat drinking he said he had a proposition for me, in all its simplicity he suggested that we should form a trade organization. Apparently he had discussed this with Geir before he went on his adventure. The idea was that, at first, we should make ourselves self-sufficient, and subsequently to sell the things we produced. It seemed as if it was very important to Rolf that we could sell our products and become rich, he couldn’t help talking about gold as he tried to convince me. Little could he know that gold is just something I use to get what I need, and gathering it just for its own sake seems ridiculous.

* Skarp-Heiden drums on his axe with his left hand while he tries to figure out why a priest of Mist like Rolf would be so interested in becoming rich. He has never heard that Mist should be a god of greed, he wonders about this for awhile but decides that such things must be an issue between the god and its servant. “The ways of the gods are past understanding” he mumbles “or maybe it is just the ways of the priests that are incomprehensible”. He grins as he starts writing again. *

Rolf told me that he might be able to enchant weapons in such a way that it would do more damage, and if we formed this partnership he would do it to my axe. This convinced me that this partnership could help me in my efforts to get revenge on the Egilson family, and I agreed on forming it. We drank a beer on the partnership, and Rolf told me he wanted to call it “the Raven trade company” or something similar, due to and old myth about a raven banner. I had never heard the story before but I said he could discuss the name with Geir, he would probably have something to say on the matter.

* Skarp-Heiden wonders why Rolf wanted to discuss the name with him, why on earth should he care about something as irrelevant as a name for their partnership. Skarp-Heiden seems to be annoyed about being bothered with such a silly issue. He closes the journal, stashes it away and walks of looking irritable. *

[Harloff]

* Skarp-Heiden looks worried as he sits down on the bench, once in while he gets up but sits back down again, as if he has problems deciding what to do. After a while he takes out his journal in the hope that writing his thoughts down will help him sort them out. *

Rolf, Abigail and I where strolling around and met Geir in the crafting house. I was a bit surprised to see him there, since I had heard nothing of his return and expected that he would seek me out when he got back. Apparently he had been successful in his travels and had met a tribe that could teach him to become a skald. At first I thought he was still mad at me, which might explain why he was so quiet. But to my surprise he seemed to have forgotten everything about our discrepancy, and was moody because he couldn’t find Melissa. I hadn’t seen her for a while but with Geir gone I had found it natural that we didn’t seek each others company. Apparently Geir had been seeking her all over, asking everyone if they had seen her, Hali Melissa’s old roommate had told him that she had left her key and disappeared without a word. This had struck Geir bad and he was speaking less than I have ever experienced before, as far as I remember he learned speaking before he was eight months of age, and he has spoken the hind leg of a donkey ever since. I tried to comfort him by saying that he was better off without her, if she could leave him just like that, but it had no effect at all he wasn’t even mad at me.

* Skarp-Heiden stops writing, thinking about all of this makes him worried for Geir, he seem to have taken this very hard. For the first time Skarp-Heiden fears that his brother would seek his own death in order to ease the pain of his loss. He sits for a while lost in his own thoughts, but then he remembers something else happening earlier, and starts writing again. *

Abigail seemed to be completely taken with Geir as soon as she laid eyes on him, even the loss of his earlobe “made him even more attractive”. Then she started saying that he seemed so old and experienced, I had to correct her and say that he was only eighteen, this was of course even better in her eyes. Geir was of course completely blind to this. As I sat there it suddenly struck me that this might be exactly what Geir needed, I couldn’t help him, but Abigail might do the trick. So as soon as I could find an excuse I left them alone in the craft hall. Unfortunately I was foolish enough to hint my reason for parting to Geir before leaving, this seemed to annoy him greatly. I must try to proceed with more caution in this matter in the future.

* Skarp-Heiden stops writing, and wonders if it is wrong to try to use Abigail like that. He wouldn’t like to see her get hurt if Geir just uses her as a rebound, but he decides that his brother’s mental health is more important than that of a friend. “A man without a family or honour is not a man, remember that Heiden” he could still hear his father say it, even though it had been told to him when he was still a little boy, before he got the nickname everybody knew him by. His father’s words seem to strengthen his resolution, and a hard smile appears on his face, as he stashes the journal away. He picks up his axe and heads for the Sielwood mine, confident that everything will turn out all right in the end. *

[Harloff]

* Skarp-Heiden seems to be in a good mood as he sits down and starts writing. *

I met Abigail, Geir, and Fenrir in Hlint today. Abigail showed a keen interest in Geir’s clothing, she found the cloth he had been given both boring and out of fashion. It seemed to me that she just tried to find an excuse for staring at him all the time. She wanted him to wear something else and asked what he had been wearing before he went out on his quest. We told her that Geir always whore a green armor and cape. She kept on rambling about his cloth and asked me what I thought about his old cloth. “Well it was kind of nice it made us able to see him before we heard him” I said. Abigail turned completly red and claimed that I was “rude”.

* Skarp-Heiden starts grinning, “that was rude” he imitates, she had looked so cute when she was upset. He wipes the tears of his face, “rude, how can it be rude being honest. If she didn’t want to hear my opinion, why did she ask?” He wonders. He shakes his head and continues writing.*

Abigail decided that she should make a new outfit for Geir, and that he should follow her home where she would sow it. Geir didn’t seem to understand what she tried to tell him, and talked about cloth, his travels, skalds and so on. I felt so ashamed that my brother didn’t understand such obvious display of affection. Why in all the gods’ names did I get such a naïve brother, but the girls seem to like it, I don’t think I have met a one down here who didn’t fancy him.

* Skarp-heiden smiles as he remembers one of his father’s old sayings. “The women flock around him like flies around the biggest pile of shit.” *

Under these discussions I noticed that Geir had regained his former self, and was speed talking as fast as ever. My plans seemed to be working, Abigail made him forget Melissa, and I am quite sure he will be a married man before winter if she gets to decide. Abigail seems to be very determined and I think she will have her way with him sooner or later.

* Skarp-Heidens thoughts drift, thinking about Abigail’s determination and furry, makes him remember his wife Gro. "Where is she now, is she even alive" he thinks. After a while lost in these dark thoughts he closes the journal, stashes it away and heads off in the direction of the Sielwood mine. *

[Harloff]

* Skarp-Heiden comes out from the smithy and goes down to the pond where he sits fore a while wondering about the events taking place this day. He seems to be glad and embarrassed at the same time. *

This has been a really strange day, I am happy about this new Bronze full plate I have just made for myself but with all the other things happening today have made me wish that I had stayed in bed this morning.

First things first, I met Geir in Hlint in the early morning, the dew was still on the grass and it seemed as if I was going to be a day like every other. But things would turn out differently and I should have known from the very minute I saw Hali. She was in a dress, which would be quite normal, her being a woman and all, but she said that it was a new iron full plate mail she had made for herself. I was quite surprised by this, why would anyone go through the effort of making an armor that looked like a dress, even for a priest it seemed strange. So I asked her why she had done it, and she told me some nonsense about enemies attacking her first thinking she was wearing a dress. I of course knew it was a bad excuse, she was just being vain and she didn’t want to admit it. I had noticed that these southerners are extremely vain before, painting their armors in flashy colours and wearing capes into battles, even Geir has taken this to custom. I have tried to convince him that he risks getting his weapon entangled in the cape, but as usual he won’t listen to his older brother, even though he knows that I have much more close combat experience.

 * Skarp-Heiden shakes his head, and mumbles something about a wish to knock some sense into his brother’s thick skull. But then he remembers that he tried this as a kid on a really annoying boy. His farther had given him a hard time for it and told him that it was impossible to knock sense into people’s heads. Skarp-Heiden had of course refused to give up and had decided to try to knock the boy’s stupidity out instead. After a while experimenting to achieve this goal, he had to admit that the boy seemed to get more stupid with every treatment, this had made him conclude that only stupidity could be knocked in and he had stopped the experiment. As far as Skarp-Heiden knew the boy had done all right as a man, from the moment he had gotten a wife to take decisions for him. *

But a dress, or a full plate dress to be more exact, must make it completely impossible to maneuver in battle. Even for a woman this seems to be the most extreme case of vanity I have ever seen, a southerner acting like that would be a laughingstock on Krashin. When I see something like that I really miss my countrymen, and they call us BARBARIANS AT LEAST WE DON’T GO TO BATTLE WEARING DRESSES OR CAPES, IF THAT ISN’T BARBARIC I DON’T KNOW …

* These last few words are almost carved into the page, but the sentence suddenly ends as the feather breaks. Skarp-Heiden jumps up and hammers his hand into the nearest wall. The pain seems to calm him down, and he finds another feather in his bags and sharpens it with his knife. He starts writing again still red in the face. *

Geir and I went to Port Hampshire where we met Rolf and Talan, apparently Hali had business down there as well. When Rolf saw her new armor dress he got all excited, and wanted to “examine” it, as he told the rest of us when she went into the crafting house. This was the first time I have heard him talking about doing something for other reasons than greed, but he seemed to be to shy to ask her himself. So when she got back out I told her about his desire, she didn’t seem that interested and left us quickly. After this experience Rolf didn’t seem pleased with me, how could I know she would refuse his wish? I thought that it might be a good idea both of them being priest, but apparently it is a big problem for priests if they don’t serve the same god.

After this we went to Rilare, where we had heard about sightings of flying manticores or foul beast at least. As we got there we met a group of people who where there for the same reasons, and we decided to join forces and go investigate. Hali suggested that we chose Geir as our leader because he was the “cutest”. I strongly protested to that he is only a kid I said, and therefore he lacked the experience for such a task. The true reason was of course that had to object, to a leader being chosen because he was cute instead of his abilities. Besides that I see no reason to take orders from my younger brother, I always listen to his advice but as the family elder I must take the responsibility and the decisions. We couldn’t agree on a party leader, and chose to venture out having a sort of joint leadership. Of we went Bil, Lucky, Syn, Rolf, Hali, Abigail, Geir, I and a few others.

After a while investigating the area we met an eleven ranger of some sort who told us that drows where attacking the elves in the area. And he asked us to defend the area until he could return with reinforcements. We battled the drows there for a long time but we saw no sight of the elven ranger again, instead another elven man turned up telling us he needed help in order to find survivors of clashes between elves and drows. Intoxicated with our success we agreed to help him and ventured of. After a while searching for the survivors we met a band of drows and charged them, a fierce battle followed where Abigail and I helped each other killing mages behind the enemy’s front line. As the last drow had fallen we turned and saw that 4 from our group had fallen to the enemies weapons, among them Geir apparently he had been into close combat with them. I was a bit annoyed with him why couldn’t he stay in the back or at least get a proper armor, but no Geir always knows better. Abigail was completely devastated by Geir’s death and fell on her knees besides him, I felt a bit odd I was his brother but she seemed to take his death harder than me. For some strange reason I fell on my knees besides her, it seemed as the proper thing to do. All of the sudden I was overwhelmed by grief, I was the only one left all my family had died, and I couldn’t keep the tears.

* Skarp-Heiden stops writing, this is the first time he has cried in public since he was a little boy. “Never show anyone how you feel, son, never show signs of weakness, they will just use it against you”. He could still hear his father’s words these many years later. He had done as his father asked, not until today had he ever failed. The loss of most of his family seems to overwhelm him again and tears can be seen in the corners of his eyes. He sits for a while unable to get a hold of himself, but he seems to force himself to continue writing. *

Right after the battle the two elves appeared again, almost as if they had been watching the battle. They thanked us for our help and raised our dead, and seemed to be very keen on getting away as soon as possible. None of us suspected any foul business at this point but a few hours later Geir, Abigail and I overheard two elves talking about elves being the ones starting the battle. Unfortunately they departed as soon as they saw us, we followed immediately after them but where unable to find them.

* Skarp-Heiden seems weary as he closes the book and stashes it away. For a moment he looks at his axe, but he decides to go and get some rest instead. *

[Harloff]

* As Skarp-Heiden looks through his chest in the search for his old armor he suddenly stumbles upon his journal. “By all the gods, why didn’t I think of searching for my journal in here before?” he mumbles to himself. He reads the journal and realizes that it has been many weeks since his last entry. Even though he is in a hurry he decides to write some quick notes about what has happened in the mean time.*

It has been a long time since I have seen Abigail, she seems to have vanished from Mistone entirely. Everything very looking fine I had been pushing Geir for a long time to tell her how he was feeling, but he didn’t seem to have the courage. Abigail on the other hand seemed to get more and more desperate, at a time she showed me an outfit she had made for herself to impress Geir. I told her there was more cloth in a normal handkerchief, but she told me that was the point. Apparently she had even tried to dress in the same green color as Geir.
* Skarp-Heiden starts laughing, he can picture the two of them walking around the streets with green cloth and a whole bunch of kids all dressed in green following right after them. Maybe they would even live in a green house. He wipes the tears from his eyes and starts writing again. *

Shortly after that meeting she disappeared without a trace. Geir seems totally devastated by her disappearance he even cried by my shoulder one day about all his loved ones going missing. I don’t think I have been that embarrassed in my whole life before. My own brother was standing there weeping like a woman about his love life, and we weren’t even alone Murin was standing right there next to us. I had to try to come up with an excuse to Murin after Geir had left.

* Skarp-Heiden shakes his head, why couldn’t Geir take it as a man at least until they had been alone. Besides why did he cry over one Girl when there where so many other nice girls out there. On the positive side none of them are so desperate that they walked around in the streets practically naked. Maybe Abigail had finally cracked under the strain of trying to impress Geir. Skarp-Heiden sits a while thinking on this subject, until he realizes that he promised to be back in Hlint as soon as possible. He puts the Journal in his backpack and rushes out the door. *

[Harloff]

*Skarp-Heiden comes into the house he looks tired, angry and guilty at the same time, he sits down on the chair. “Curse you Mas” he mumbles, he tightens his fists and loosens them “DAMN YOU GEIR” he suddenly shouts, and hammers his hand down on the table. The table breaks and which seems to cool him down “cursed carpenter” he mumbles as he walks out the door. He returns after a while with new planks for the table and starts repairing it. The work seems to calm him further down at the time he is finished he decides to write the resent occurrence in his journal.*  

I meet Geir in Hlint today he was standing outside the tavern talking to Mas, I stopped and started chatting with them. Geir started telling a long story about the greatest love of all, as I am used to his long and often pointless tales, I stood around listening to the story. He had been out travelling the countryside with a bunch of people and they had met this man searching for his wife, at least I think it was his wife I wasn’t listening to carefully. They had agreed to help the man since he was so in love with the woman, this is so typically Geir, he meets a guy he doesn’t know at all. The guy could have been a good actor that just dragged them around by the noses, but that idea never entered his head. So they ventured out and found her, killed by some beast of some sorts. Apparently the beasts had been hungry and had devoured most of her; think they found a bone or something. For some reason this was too little for Rolf to raise her, and for god knows which reasons they decided to go to a temple and ask them to raise her. Of all temples on Mistone they chose to go to the temple of Mist in Leilon.

* Skarp starts grinning at this point “A temple of Mist for crying out loud, that most have been Rolf’s idea.” he shakes his head, his irritated mood soon returns a he continues. *

The temple of course refused to raise her for free, and claimed they needed an emerald to do it, bloody greedy Mist temples. At this point Geir told me that it was sad that I was not there, we could have used my emerald for the task, I shook me head and told him that there was nothing in this world that could convince me to give an emerald away in order to save someone I didn’t know. He seemed choked by this and rambled on about doing it because of this great love between the couple. He even claimed that he would have stolen my emerald in order to save them, or the great love he didn’t make much sense at this point. At this point I got mad, as if it wasn’t enough that he would give away an emerald to save a woman he didn’t even know, he would even steal one from his own brother and give it away. So I told him that love wasn’t always something positive, which he refused still rambling about this perfect great love. Furious as I was I gave him to examples on loves that wasn’t so positive Abigail and Melissa, he claimed something idiotic, and I got so mad that pointed my finger at him and said in a raised voice “you can’t handle the truth”. This seemed to strike him hard and I thought I saw a tear in his eye, but he quickly excused himself and left us.

Standing there alone with Mas she stated that I was to hard on my brother, I knew she was right but defended myself by the fact that he had claimed to want to steal from me. This was no excuse she said and left me there on the street.

*Skarp-Heiden stops writing, “By all my forefathers, why did I get such a weakling as brother, he even gets women to fight his battles for him out of pity.” He exclaims. He sits there all alone for a while looking old and tired, he is interrupted by Rolf’s footsteps in the hallway. “Skarp are you in here?” Rolf shouts. “AYE” he answers, Rolfs open the door and steps in “good, good, I have a task for you” Rolf say while rubbing his hands. Skarpheiden nods, closes the journal and follows Rolf out.*

[Harloff]

*Skarp-Heiden seems to be in an unusual good mood as he sits down at the table and takes out the journal.*

The most incredible thing happened today, as I was standing in the midst of a battle I suddenly felt that my totem was communicating directly with me, offering me aid. I accepted it and could suddenly wield its enormous power killing all my opponents in the glimpse of an eye. I have never felt so great, the bear and I were one lending me the bear’s strength and the wisdom of my forefathers.

*Skarp-heiden jumps up and shadow boxes dodging incoming blows*

I was down in the desert at the time and as I was feeling so comfortable as a bear I quickly forgot that I wasn't a human. I headed for Hampshire having to meet Rolf and Geir there, as I entered the town people stared at me with fear in their eyes, At this point I thought that it was my fierce look and huge beard that scared the townspeople so I continued into town. To my excuse it must be stated that townspeople of Hampshire are not know for bravery, at least I have never met any yet. I figured that I would find Rolf in the crafting house, and that Geir would have headed there to find Rolf as well. The both were there and I headed straight for them, but as I got near them I noticed that both of them were starring in my direction looking as pale as never before. I looked behind me to see what was frightening them and realized that I was still a bear. I should of course have changed back but this was far to tempting, so I started to roar at them and showing my teeth. The look on their faces, I am sure that Geir was very close at wetting himself; at least he was standing shivering behind Rolf. This was so funny that I had to change into human form and talk to them. None of them found the situation particularly amusing, and they seemed quite upset.

*Skarp-Heiden starts laughing so bad that he falls of the chair. After a while he looks up and sees Geir standing in the door with a hurt expression on his face. Skarp-Heiden pulls himself together and gets up, but Geir just turns and walks away. Still with a wide smile on his face Skarp-Heiden stashes the journal away.*

[Harloff]

*Skarp-Heiden walks into the house with water still dripping from his beard; he has been working in the mines the whole day and just had a quick swim in Lake Alon to wash of the dirt. Rolf is standing in the house talking to a girl as Skarp-Heiden approaches he recognizes her, as the girl he saved a few days back just outside the Blood Desert where she had been jumped by goblins. Rolf introduces her as Ayla and says that he has rented some chest to her. Skarp-Heiden shakes Aylas hand welcoming her and excuses himself as being tired and stashes all the iron he has mined in his own storage room. As he walks out of the storage room he notices that Rolf is following Ayla around clearly checking her out, Skarp-Heiden looks closely at her for the first time and realizes that this young girl has very fine body. He scratches his beard and goes to his room with a wide grin on his face. He finds his journal and starts writing.*

Finally I know how to get Geir back on his feet; the solution is as it often turns out much simpler than what I had expected. She is called Ayla and seems to be same age as Geir, and if I remember correctly she is a follower of Arindin. Rolf has rented a few storage chests to her, and it is quite obvious to me why he has done that. Rolf should know better than trying to win a girls heart by letting her move into our house. Had it not been for Geir living here as well it might have been a good idea but Rolf won’t stand a chance in that competition. After watching girls around Geir for a while I know that they are impressed with him even if he doesn’t want them to be, and his weakness seems to awaken some mother instincts in them and they will always try to protect him, especially a follower Arindin.

* Skarp-Heiden scratches his beard, and sits the quietly for a while and then continues*

I have decided not to tell Rolf that his plan will fail miserably, for two reasons: first of all I need to get Geir back on his feet, secondly I am sick of hearing all Rolf preaching, he is constantly trying to get me to worship Mist, and the most irritating thing about it is that he cannot understand why I get irritated by it, have I ever tried to change his believes, that just bug me so much.

* Skarp-Heiden slams his journal together and mumbles “revenge is sweet” He extinguishes the torch near his bed with his hand and goes to bed still with a wide grin on his face.*