[You unbuckle the clasp and open the leatherbound book. The first couple pages appear to have been torn out, but what little writing remains on the scraps is flowing and elegant. Past the ripped pages, there are several pages of scrawled narrative, many of which are disturbingly detailed "interactions" between two characters named "Damian Hemlock" and "Rrhys, the Queen of Carnage". Quickly skipping past those chapters, you find yourself at the first entry of what appears to be some sort of diary.]
27 Sun's Height (July), 4e201
So, Aedrian told me I should start keeping a journal. Something about it helping me clear my head, I dunno. May as well, though. It's been like three months since the last time I wrote anything in this.
My name is Rrehn. I'm a gnoll. I was born on the 22nd of First Seed, 4e196. I left my home my old war camp about two weeks ago when I had a vision and realized that if I didn't stop with all the murder and shit, then things were going to go pretty bad later on. I met Aedrian the night I left, and he said he was an angel of Lathander and he wanted to help me. We've been working together for the last couple weeks to try and get me to clean up my act.
Seeing it all written out makes it sound stupid. This was a dumb idea.
3 Last Seed (August), 4e201
Went through Oxburrow Oxburough today. The guard shot a couple arrows at me as I came up the hill, but he stopped when I didn't start shooting back or charging or anything. everyone seemed pretty afraid when I walked in to town, but at least they didn't try to attack me like in Millstone. I explained that I wasn't going to eat anyone or whatever, and that I was looking for work. Still took them a few hours to calm down. .I saw a guy who was trying to put in some fense fenceposts when I showed up. The fuckin guy fainted when he saw me, so I had to do them all my own damn self. A couple hours later when I finished up, the guy's wife brought me some cheese wrapped up in cloth, said it was payment for helping with the fence.
Made camp about a mile outside of town. They seemed to have calmed down after a while, but theres no point risking my neck on the off chance that some asshole tries to be a "hero" and slit my throat in my sleep.
holy shit this cheese is good.
4 Last Seed (August), 4e201
Aedrian visited again today. We talked about Oxburough. He didn't want any cheese, so he might be insane. He says that the urn that was in my bag when I left camp apparently has the ashes of a dead person in it. I still don't get why these people burn their dead and just waste perfectly good meat, but whatever. He said her name was "Alyssa Sunwhistle" and she was some kind of hero from Westport. I was just going to pawn it off for spare cash, but I should probably bring it back to Westport at some point. If the story Aedrian told was true, then Alyssa was a badass.
[...]
14 Hearthfire, 4e201
I saw a half-elf girl on the road to Halfmont. She had a really pretty dress. I wish I'd asked where she got it.
[...]
19 Hearthfire (September), 4e201
I had the nightmare the dream the nightmare again. Finally told Aedrian about it, and he said it was a good thing, said it meant everything was working. I snapped at him over it, but i kinda feel bad about it now. He might've been right. I hate when he's right.
[...]
14 Sun's Dusk (November), 4e201
It's getting pretty fucking cold. I wish I'd taken a coat when I left the old camp.
Monday 16 Sun's Dusk (November), 4e201
Hell of a day today. Got to Raventide in the morning. Visited the temple. Aedrian wasn't lying when he said it was big. [There is a small doodle of a winking face in the margin next to this line.] When I stocked up on supplies, I met the goblin who ran the store. She calls herself "Fizz", and she didn't freak out when she saw me, so I guess that's a plus. I don't think she has a lot of friends, because she instantly latched on to me like a godsdamned leech. I didn't have anything better to do, so we went to go get lunch at The Indigo, an inn nearby. She seems like a troublemaker, because it seemed like one of the guard captains (a dark elf)knew her well. She didn't freak out when she saw me either, so maybe this place is a bit more accepting. Could be a nice change of pace.
When we got to The Indigo, the barkeeper (Will, according to Fizz) said there were a bunch of literal skeletons in the basement. Fizz, the guard, and I went down and kicked the shit out of them. But some fucking rando burst into the basement halfway through our fight and tried to "help", because apparently "helping" means the same thing as "trying to fucking punch the skeletons and missing pretty much every time". After I saved everyone, the guy (Leebay, apparently) said he thinks he knew the necromancer who made the skeletons. Some guy named "Osse" (Short male halfling, dark hair).
We ended up getting lunch at Bubble's, a seafood place by the docks (does it count as seafood if it's from a lake? lakefood?). Some assholes were laughing at my group, so I was going to go teach them how to be polite. Fizz said she heard them talking about some mine they were going to raid, so I we decided to check it out first and take everything before they could. She "borrowed" their map (I made sure she put it back. I think that means it doesn't count as stealing.) and we checked out a place called "The Dragon Mines" which is kind of a dumb name but whatever. I guess it's actually pretty fitting because there were literal dragons in it. There were a couple brass dragons, and a little one called "Bouncy". Again, dumb names. Apparently Fizz is afraid of dragons, so that might be fun later.
We were checking through the cave, and we found a whole-ass forest in the middle, probably caused by magic bullshit. Fizz got lost so we went all the way to the edge, where there was a huge wall of black shadow sludge stuff around the whole thing. The guard (Captain Thaig) got pulled through so I had to drag Leebay through so we could save her ass. We ended up coming out just outside the cave, but it was the next morning somehow (magic bullshit again?).
Does that mean I'm supposed to start a new entry?
Tuesday 17 Wednesday 18 Sun's Dusk, 4e201
We stopped by The Indigo again to give back the map (and apparently, the other things that Fizz stole. I need to keep a better eye on her.) to the assholes from earlier. Apparently, they're a little bit nicer than we thought. They said one of their friends had just died. Which sucks, but still not a great excuse to be assholes. I got a room and as soon as I finish this entry, I'm going straight to bed because fuck me, it's been a long day.
Tuesday 17 Wednesday 18 Sun's Dusk, 4e201 (entry 2)
Met up with Aedrian again today. He mentioned that he's having some issues at "work" and that I should be on the lookout for undead and weird magic. I told him about the thing with the mines, and he got really concerned. I've never seen him actually scared, and that scares me. I don't know if praying for angels works, but I'm in the temple right now so I figure I'll give it a s- [The penstroke of the "S" trails off, and the line remains unfinished]
Tuesday 17 Wednesday 18 Sun's Dusk, 4e201 (entry 3)
No rest for the wicked, I guess. While I was in the temple, a bunch of guards outside tried to arrest Fizz. Apparently they thought she tried to burn down someone's house last night, which is bullshit because she was with us the whole time. We checked out some leads from the guard office, but apparently they're too inept to they lost some of the paperwork, so we had to do a lot of the legwork ourselves.
We went down to the docks because the guard at the office (Captain Fey Drake)said the guy who knew about the case (Leo Fateseeker) was there. Apparently he beat the shit out of some thief kid (Leaf), because we found the kid in a smuggler's stash under the docks. I healed him as best I could, but I took him to the temple because gods know I've already got enough people to keep alive.
I met back up with Thaig, Fizz and Leebay to go find this Fateseeker guy. Apparently there's an abandoned building in downtown where all the guards go to get drunk and bang or whatever, so we figured he'd be there. Thaig talked to Leo at the bar, and I got bored so I started playing some poker. There was a hella-sketchy guy at the table who was staring at Fizz the whole time, so it didn't take a genius to figure out he was involved. Fizz matched up a hole in his coat with a scrap of fabric from the crime scene, so we got him arrested easily.
We took him to the guard office, but it must've been sacked while we were gone. We busted in and found Fey on the ground, after she'd apparently been poisoned and had the shit beat out of her. Then, as if we hadn't had enough of a bullshit day, a second, more evil Fizz just walked into the room. We ended up kicking her ass and the ass of the other guy when they both tried to attack us. We just dragged the unconcious dumbasses to the holding cells downstairs, so I'm writing this while Thaig goes to get the rest of the guard. I really fuckin hope I get some explanations soon.
Saturday 21 Sun's Dusk, 4e201
They finally figured out who those changeling pricks were. Some arsonist called "Fyre Startirré" (are you fucking kidding me?). The trial's tomorrow, which means we get paid tommorow. Thank fuck, I really need to get this armor refitted. Shocking how gear that's made of three separate suits of chainmail scrapped together sucks to wear, but that's "quality gnoll craftsmanship" I guess.
Sunday 22 Sun's Dusk, 4e201
Nevermind, apparently there's not a single fucking armorsmith in this entire goddamn town.
Wednesday 25 Sun's Dusk, 4e201
Nevermind again, apparently they're opening up an armorsmith's shop tomorrow. Also something about a "Magishack", whatever that is.
Saturday 28 Sun's Dusk, 4e201
Fizz got hurt. We were supposed to be checking out some smugglers at the docks. Fizz went off on her own to talk with someone I didn't know. There was some kind of argument, and it ended with him stabbing her. I tried to help, but she ran off and we lost her. We looked for her for hours, and eventually we found out she'd gone to Muse's shop. Muse bandaged her up, but we got into an argument. She's staying the night there, but I'm going to check in on her soon. I don't care what Muse says.
I've been racking my brain trying to figure out why she wouldn't let me heal her. I know it's not a touching thing, because she tries to hug me all the time. Will said something about it being the anniversary of when she left home. I keep thinking that if maybe I'd acted sooner, then she wouldn't've gotten hurt. But then she'd probably've been pissed at me for "interfering". Better than getting stabbed, at least.
Sunday 29 Sun's Dusk 4e201
Went to visit Fizz today. Brought her some of my classic roast beef. I was going to make her some venison, but she seemed weird about it the last time I mentioned eating deer so that probably wouldn't've been a good idea. Muse didn't seem super happy to see us but who gives a fuck. I kind of feel bad about the whole thing with Muse, actually. I was thinking about it, and I was kind of a dick about it. I know they didn't mean anything, and I guess I was just kind of pissed the whole day. If I told Aedrian about it, he'd probably tell me to go apologize or something. He'd probably be right. I hate when he's right.
[...]
Monday, 14 Evening Star, 4e201
Bad dream this morning. Aedrian talked to me in it. He never does that unless something's wrong. He sounded exhausted. He was fighting off the same darkness I'd seen in that cave from a month ago. Said he needed me to help him "fix this", whatever that means. I'll try to contact him at the temple. Maybe it actually was just a dream this time? Hope so, because if not we're fucked.
Monday, 14 Evening Star, 4e201 (entry 2)
I almost died today. Something happened in the temple, and it was attacked by these shadow monsters. We went in to save one of the priestesses (Anna?) but we got separated I charged in too far. There were too many of them, even for me. The next thing I knew, I woke up on the temple floor, with Caecil unconscious next to me and a horde of those shadows around us. Everything after that is a blur. Hell, I didn't even notice Fizz went missing until after we got Anna back to the Indigo. We found her in her store, unconscious after apparently trashing the place. She was having some kind of nightmare, so we brought her to the Indigo too. She's still out right now as I'm writing this. Will's asleep too, in the other chair next to her.
When I finally came to after everything at the temple, I felt... weird. I was scared. I've been scared before, but this was different, and it made me realize something. I realized just how close I was to losing all of this. I did something stupid, and not only did I almost get myself killed, but if it hadn't been for whatever luck or miracle saved me, my friends would've died too. Because of a stupid choice I made. I abandoned them, and people got hurt because of that. Fizz is still hurt, and I don't even know if or when she's going to wake up. But I do know one thing.
It won't happen again.