The journal of a dwarfen fighter (Dwenten Azak)

[mumbles]

As i found myself in a new and wonderful place looking forward to the grand adventures that lay in front of me , but also not knowing anybody or what exactly laid infront of me .
As i shortly worked out i was brought in to a small town called hlilt . It is a nice little town with freindly enough people which i began to talk with .
I spoke to this small little lad , a halfing i think there called ,  who was kind enough to show a confused dwarfe where the shops were so i could buy my very own axe and shield .
At this point i was the most joyful dwarfe around , i had my tools and it was time to put them to use in the way that my farther had shown me for the best parts of my life .
I started off doing a few small tasks for the locals about town which they were willing to pay me for , this pleased me so much as i was begining to wondering where i would be able to get some money for a few ales and some food .

[mumbles]

The journal of a dwarfen fighter continued :

I haven't written in here for some time now , I seem to spending more and more time training and focusing my skills that my father taught me as a child so that vorax will favour me as a grand fighter. When I first came to this place I thought that my skills would protect me and that no harm would come to me . I realised I was far from the truth when I wandered in to the caves just out side hlilt . It seem to be going fine to start with , a few gobblins surged at me as I started to swing my axe at them , they started to fall to the ground dead one by one . As I went deeper in to the cave in quite a joyful state of mind after bieng able to slay the goblins that I had come across , I really didnt expect what was going to happen next .
Suddenly I was ambushed by a huge group of these sneaky little goblins , I seemed to take a few of the fighters down around me , but the archers seemed to be so acurate that they hit me with each shoot they took .
It didnt take long before I returned to hlilt via a trip to the bindstone , when I woke up I just didnt feel my usual self , it was like I wasn't even there .
At this point I knew it was not wise to travel far from the town alone .

Over the next few days with my confidence a little low I carried on doing some more small tasks for the locals again and they kept paying for each task I completed  . I decided at this point to only travel in the company of others that were in the same situation . From my own experiences I had worked out that alone I was weak but with a few others working as a group we were capably of just about surving .

[mumbles]

The journal continues :

As I sat having an ale on the benches in Hlilt , I came across some kinsmen walking by. As I introduced myself to them they also told me there names , one was a monk as far as I could work out by the name of Garnet Stonesmithy . At first I thought it was rather strange that he fought with his hands and feet , but then I realised that this style of fighting worked quite well for the lad . Another one in the party went by the name of Wallen Kilntongue , as I soon worked out this lad could hold his own in battle quite well.
We ended up taking a trip into the Seilwood cave so that Wallen could help the lass in the Inn retrieve a trinket. The trip went rather well and it was fairly good to actually fight with a few kinsmen as I havent seen many of them about Hlilt.

The rest of my time seem to be spent either training hard to build my strength and stamina up or mining . I remember going mining with my father , well watching him mine and I couldn't see why he did it at the time . Since I started to mine myself I'v come to realise it's really quite enjoyable. As I swing my pick at the copper and hum a little mining tune , the time seems to fly by .
After I have mined as much as I can carry i've been heading in to Hlilt to smelt the ore and try and make some sheilds . This hasn't been going to well I'm affraid as my skills are not that good yet but it will come with time and a lot of practice I feel .

[mumbles]

The journal continues :

I've been training rather hard over the past few weeks to try and become a better fighter .
So when I found myself talking to Wallen again we decided to try and go and find some Ale money . As we left Hlint we headed for the swamps that lie just east . As we walked in to the first part of the swamps we came across some lizard men that coughed up some coins that could go towards our Ale. We decided between ourself to press on as the first , few lizard men hadn't really been a match for our strentgh . As we went deeper in to these swamps we came across some slashers and I really wasn't expecting the outcome.  We charged in unprepared not knowing what lied infront of us and started to engage the enemey. This is when I realised that we had bitten off more than we could chew . We both put up a good fight , but this was not going to be good enough this time as Wallen fell to the ground . I managed to get in my pack in time to grab a small potion out and poor it in his mouth just in time . As Wallen staggered to his feet and started to drink more potions , an arrow came straight for me and knocked me to the ground . I work out later that the arrow had just knocked me unconscience . As I woke up I found myself lying in the swampy water, as I looked to left of me I could see a grave stone which  was surrounded by three lizardmen . I turned my back to them and made a break for the nearest safest place I could heal myself , eventualy I found myself in a clearing. I decided to take a moment to catch my breath and started to bandage my wounds enough to get me to safty.
My worst fears had came true . Whilst I was lying out cold in that marsh land , Wallen had fallen too and it was his grave that them lizardmen were surrounding . I remember thinking to myself that they would pay for this. So we started to head back into the swamps to try and find were Wallen had fell , but this time we would go in prepared . As we got deeper and deeper into the swamp I could see Wallens grave stone . I charged in once roaring at the top of my voice , as I swang my battle axe from left to right I watched one slasher fall to the ground . But again it had also caused some serious wounds to myself and Wallen . In the end it just wasn't going to be our day although we had put up a grand fight we both were going to lie dead on the ground . This turned out to be so true , as I found myself visting the bindstone in Hlint . As we meet up once again both not feeling like our usual selves we decided not return to our graves , so we headed towards the centre of Hlilt . As we stood outside the Inn I decided to go and have a drink and rest for a while.

[mumbles]

The journal continued :

I found myself in Fort valask , again with some Kinsmens I know and ones that I'm starting to trust . As we started to wander not far from the fort to find some sort of action , or some sort of action to find us . We came across a mercanary group mainly consisting of these little folk , even smaller than us Dwarves . They were definately no match for our strength as one after another they feel with ease .
From here we came across a little cave so we decided to take a look in side . As Thrain , Wallen and I entered a little cautious of course , as none of us had been in here before . We came across a rather nasty group of ogres . As we pushed forward a little in to a little bottle kneck with two rock faces either side of Thrain decided , for some reason , to throw something at them . Before I knew what was happening the three of us were surrounded , these big nasty ogres were all around us , you couldn't turn anyway and not see an ogre . There must of been at least ten of them there all trying to take a chunk of flesh out of us . We fought a hard and long battle , but I remember thinking about what my father had taught me in the past . As the great battle came to a close all you could see was a pile of rotting ogre corpses on the ground , we had won the battle . Vorax must be shining down on us , we had came in to there so called home and fought really well as unit . As we pushed on  we came across a few veins of these little rocks called topaz . As I started to humm a little mining tune and chisel away at this small vein   , I got rather lucky a few small rocks I had had managed to get before the vein was gone . We decided to head for the exit , as we walk the clear passageways where the ogres used to be , I remember thinking to myself we had done really well . We were leaving with some Ale money , none of us had fallen in battle and I had learned loads about my own skills .

I wish when I was younger and still in the mines with my clan I had watched more and even practised more . All them chances I had to practise with my father , all them skills I could of learned , but I didn't . I will one day become a great weapon master like my father , it might be a long and hard path but one day , just one day I hope to get there .

[mumbles]

The journal continued:

The past few weeks I have very busy not just with my training , but I made a deal with the freelance to dig some sand for them . I was walking down the road in Hlint when I ran into two gentlemen , one was quite smartly dressed and the other was all in a dark robe with a hood .
When one of them turn around to me and siad " you look like a strong dwarfe " , I turned to them and nodded and said something along the lines of "aye that I am" . As I introuduced myself to them they returned the curtousy and found they were two of the founding members of the freelancers . One went by the name of Xiao Lin and the other was Ahndar Sussail, as we carried on talking I realised that they were in need of some bags of sand . As I took a few minutes to think it over I decided to help them out . This would give the perfect amount of time to think where my life was leading to and what I could do to steer it in the right direction.
I decided to take this time to think how I could become more like my father , I still had to train to become a weapon master like him and I was still mining ore like we had had such a long time ago.
So the big question I had to ask myself was "Where to go next?". I was brought here by a dragon and in my haste to become a great fighter I had forgotten my promise to that dragon.
But then again in becoming a grand fighter would I be better prepared in the long run , these are all question I would need to find the answer to .