Willow Haven - Journal

[Willow Haven]

~ Tunar, Oclar 10, 1445 ~

What a day it has been! Only this morning I arrived at this new town, Port Hempstead, after a long journey. And now I already visited some strange places and made a few friends.

I am going to keep some notes in this journal. Now, I wanted to call it my diary first, but then I remembered a discussion with Kelli, the obnoxious girl from Stonebridge when I was six or so. She insisted that you need to write daily in a diary, else - and I can still hear her shrill voice - you call it a journal. She, of course, kept a diary. I am sure that there will be many days that go by without me writing in my journal - I nearly wrote diary again, imagine that! - so that is what it will be.

I was waiting at the tailor to finish my brigandine, when I was being stared at by a man. He turned out to be kind of nice, but he kept making these remarks that made me want to pull out my hairs. I was such a nice girl, pretty and he would not want to try anything without my approval. Ha! As if I wanted to kiss an old man! Eslar he called himself. He did confuse me quite a bit. At first he said he was some mage, showing off like a schoolboy at the tailors hall, then he tried to convince the elf he was a ranger. He probably was neither, but he could do a bit of everything.

The elf, now that was a sight! He showed up when Eslar and I were helping out to solve a problem in the sewers. He said his name was Khalith, and he was quite good with his swords. He was rather slow though, because I managed to smash all those rats - and later the skeletons in the crypt in Vehl - before he got to them. When I told him I thought he was slow, he did the strangest thing. He did a little dance and some acrobatics, apparently to show he was quick and athlethic. I'm sure it must be an elf thing.

So yes, we also went into a crypt! Full of walking skeletons, and later walking dead, the zombies. I loved the feeling of my sword cutting through the rotten flesh of those zombies - if only that didn't make such an icky sound.

All in all I managed to gather quite some true from the sewers and the crypt. It turned out that it was even enough to buy myself a proper suit of armor. I now look like a real knight, or knightess, if that is a word. I still have it at the armor smith though, because there was some adjustments to be made - I am thinner than most buyers of these suits apparently - and I didn't like the coloring. I asked if that could be helped, and the smith grunted something that he would rub it with this or that. I must learn how to make these suits myself, than I don't need to rely on those grumpy smith types.

Oh, and if all that wasn't enough, I got to stay in the most wonderful inn room I have ever - and I do mean ever - seen. A bed big enough for three at least, and a big chair to sit in and write this journal. I wonder if I ever see such a room again. And that thanks to the old man Eslar who insisted on getting a room of his own. But it had to be the room next to me of course. I did look at the wall this morning but it appears he didn't make any peepholes in it.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring for me.

[Willow Haven]

~ Mulnari, Novlar 16, 1445 ~

I spent some days in Port Hempstead now. I was a bit bored, so I started a journey that turned out to become rather long. I ended up near the town of Hlint, and wandered around the nearby Silkwood forest. I found a small cave which I entered, but immediately I got scrosched by some lightning thing something. I think I saw a kobold or two in a corner of the cave, but I didn't stay to talk to them, I ran. Gosh, how I hate doing that. So I promised myself not to do that again the next time I am being attacked.

I walked into town and learned from some boy that there's a house which has a portal that you can use. I never saw one before! So I tried it. Flash! I was in Wayfare, before I could say "please". I walked back to Port Hempstead from there.

Just when I was getting bored again with the city - it does that to me I find - I met this nice girl. Finally someone who I could talk to and who was not some old man. Her name was Huntemara. Actually, her name used to be something else, but she changed it after she stayed at the elves, who called her Irylanam which apparently means hunter. Her father was half-elf, she told me, but her mother a normal human. Yet she didn't exactly look like an elf to me, although there was something different about her. She advised me to try to go to the kobold camp just outside town. I did, but I fared terrible. I slayed a few of the kobolds when one with a sling hit me squarely on the back of my head, and I fell. I have no idea what happened then, but when I opened my eyes again I was somehow back in Port Hempstead. I looked horrible, and felt even worse. I even felt as though a part of my soul has left me.

I walked around for a bit, only just able to drag myself along, and sat down near the kobold cave again. Then some man with a strange hat who introduced himself as Ash said he went into the camp to slay these kobolds. I could walk behind him and go back to the last place I remembered, to see what had happened. Then another elf joined us who went by the name of Mith. They seemed to know each other. This Ash fought the kobolds with his hands and feet, not even using a proper weapon! Why he would do that, I have no idea. I would choose my sword over my bare hands any time. I survived the kobolds this time, and then these two said they went to hunt some satyrs. Those turned out to live some bit further and were too strong even for them. Many fell by the hands of Mith who had turned himself into a troll, but in the end he urged us to "regroup". That was the funniest way of saying "run for your live" I have ever heard. But at least we all lived, even though Ash looked pretty bad. Then we all went back to town to get some sleep.

I had promised myself not to run from a fight and I didn't either. Well, mostly not. I followed Ash and Mith back to town. I do hope that next time things will go differently, because these past days have not been very promising to me.

[Willow Haven]

~ Tunar, Decilar 17, 1445 ~

Time flies by and I am having good times. I went back to the sewers in Port Hempstead, mostly to punish myself for doing so badly on my trips to the kobolds and later the satyrs. Only when I came down there, I found this girl standing there, looking like she was lost. In the sewers. Imagine that. I was convinced she took a wrong turn somewhere, she even wore a nice dress. Only she insisted it was leather and she swore it would protect her. Then I saw her thin rapier at her side. So she was not what she appeared at first glance. Yet somehow she reminded me of myself. Strange, two girls down at these sewers. Yet, I got to show off my skills at her. At last I was the experienced one. At last I was there to kill the beasties and help her clean that ladies pipes, as she put it. Oh, she also had the strangest name. Jinx. At least she didn't live up to that part, not for me anyway, because I waded through the vermin without more than a few scratches. It felt real good, that trip.

So then I felt like going back to that crypt in Vehl and try my skills on the skeletons, without any help. I met this elf girl on the actual graveyard. I have no clue what she was doing there, but at least she helped me with the mystery of those bones. Eslar and Khalith had been wrong. The witch who was paying true for the bones wasn't in the Silkwood forest, but in the Black Dog Moors east of Hlint. I went into the crypts and destroyed all of the skeletons. I did not want to push my luck, so I did not go further down for the real treat, the zombies. I will try that later perhaps, maybe with some help. Jinx had given me good advice about the weapons to use on these walking dead. I bought a pretty mace and used that on them, and it hit them harder than my sword which did not seem to hit them right. I had to buy two boxes to carry all the bones I collected from these things.

Later I went to Hlint, to find someone who would, as the elf in Vehl suggested, "escort" me to the witch. It was a strange coincidence, but I found a group like that in Wayfare, and they looked eager to travel there. That girl Huntemara was there as well. I told her about what happened when I followed her advice on the kobolds, but she did not seem very guilty. Perhaps I will think up some good advice for her later. The witch did live in the moors, and that place was crawling with lizard men and strange lights that attacked us. Luckily we were with many and we had some good time with our weapons on them. The witch was very pleased with my little bone collection. She did not want to take all, so I am stuck with a whole box of them. Someone suggested I sell them. I have seen these notices of people selling stuff, perhaps I will try that as well. If it brings in true, I can even get some more.

Then yesterday I got even with two parties. First, I went into the cave in the Silkwood and took out a party of kobolds. The one who had been hurling the lightning at me won't be doing that again. Then, I went back to the camp near Port Hempstead and slayed the kobolds that hold the entrance to their camp. They also got to feel my revenge, and they yapped as they did.

I am going to talk to the inntaker here in the inn. I am practically always renting this room, I should be able to get some better price for it. I do not want to spend all that true on his rooms.