Gwendolynn Von Holden's Diary: Can't a girl get some sleep around here?

Hoch Hoch, Day 1, noon

Finally had hot bath. Rest of group sleeping in common room and still all dusty and smelly from travels. Be worth it to offer them money for bath so I don’t have to smell them, but think they are tired of receiving money from me. Going to dinner with Falon tonight!

Day 1, night time

Dinner with Falon lovely. His mother cooked a delicious meal. She seemed to like me v. much, possibly more than Falon seemed to. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have the same magic has myself. Still haven’t found anyone like me. Falon became more distant as the night grew on, but invited me back for dinner the next night. What did I do wrong? Wore purple dress to match eyes. Thought I looked pretty, but maybe I had ugly smear of mud on nose that I missed.

Day 1, after checking mirror

No smudge on nose. Maybe he finds my talking annoying like Jalik. Hmmm….sounds like Falon has same magic as Jalik. Will introduce them when back at Ft. Greerson. Jalik will fall for me because I will be so powerful and charming, and then Falon will be jealous and realize he had been traveling with beautiful, powerful magic woman.

Hoch Hoch, Day 2, morning

Had horrible dream last night. Dreamt I was walking in a forest and all these little snakes were slithering around my feet. I tried to run fast to avoid them, but they were, of course, faster than me. Suddenly, I fell down a trap in the ground and found myself in complete darkness. After feeling around on the ground, I picked up a large rock. It flashed a brilliant red and a ray of light shot out of my body into the rock. Woke up sweaty and disoriented.

Hoch Hoch, Day 7, evening

Still having dinner with Falon, but he is becoming more distant. Keep having dream about red rock. It’s looking more like a jewel now. Discovered new power today! Can’t wait to show it off to group. Leaving for Orlane tomorrow. Maybe show it to them in the forest.

Out of Hoch Hoch, Day 6

Humph! Falon has fallen to the wiles of Chani. Spends all night, every night, talking to her about her sword. If he liked her to begin with, why did he invite me to dinner? Too confused and upset about situation to be much good in battle. Haven’t even been able to use my new power right. Must get act together before arriving in Orlane tomorrow.

Orlane, Day 1, before dinner

Thoughts of Falon 25; Thoughts of Jalik 30; Thoughts of hitting Chani over the head with her lute 10.

Chani doesn’t even care that all men in the group are falling over themselves to argue with her. She just ignores them the rest of the time. Maybe secret to getting a man’s heart is ignoring him. Will try to ignore Falon now. Then he will see what a brilliant woman I am. Actually, Ternell could use a little brilliance. He almost got party escorted out of town before we had done anything.

We rode into Orlane late in the morning. Expecting to see the bustling of working in the farm fields, or horses trotting through town to this and that errand, we were greeted by dust skittering across the road as the wind played with it. Just as we were asking each other if the town had been deserted, the constable rode up with two deputies. Ternell strode forth before I could stop him and said, “We have been sent from Lord Greerson to see why you are late in paying your tribute.”

“Why should we pay a tribute to a Lord who has nothing to do with us?” growled the constable.

“Because I will smite kick you to the groin if you don’t,” said Ternell. Okay, his character didn’t say that. That’s just what the player always said, and I had to put it in somewhere 

“Because it’s the law,” said Ternell.

“We do no business with Lord Greerson and he does none with us. Turn around and go back.”

“We will stay. Who is in charge of this town?”

“I am,” said the constable.

“There’s not a mayor or something similar?”

“There’s the mayor, but it’ll do you no good to talk to him. Go back.”

“Please excuse our presence a little longer,” said Korliss, suddenly. “I have some business at the temple of Merrilee.”

“Hmm,” said the constable. “It’s that way. And then go home.”

As we rode away, I rode up to Ternell and asked, “What were you doing?”

“The job we were sent here for.”

“I was supposed to do the talking. It clearly states in the contract that I get to do the talking for the party. I let Chani talk to the gnomes because she was the only one who knew their language. But this should’ve been my job. Now you’ve gotten us kicked out of the town.”

“The constable is a man of law and I am a man of law.”

“I don’t think that constable’s much into the law part. At least Korliss got us permission to stay. How did you know there was a temple here?”

“A man approached me at the ball in Ft. Greerson and asked me to look up a friend of his while we were down here,” said Korliss. “He had lost communication with him and lost communication with the Temple of Merrilee.”

“What other things do I need to know? Why does this party keep secrets from each other, or do you only keep secrets from me?” Here the party looked uncomfortably at each other. “I see.”

I Sullenly approached the Temple of Merrilee. The door was answered by a tall, strong priestess. Party parted and seemed to be indicating that I should speak.

“Umm, we were wondering if there was any trouble here. Ft. Greerson has stopped receiving communication from your temple.”

“No one will take messages for us to Ft. Greerson,” replied the Priestess.

“Why is that?”

“No one goes to Ft. Greerson anymore.”

“We are from Ft. Greerson. Is there something you would like us to take there for you?”
“No, good day.”

Blew first chance at speaking for party. Decided to find a tavern to stay at. Meeting group to discuss what to do next. Have an idea, but don’t think party will listen to me.

Some of Aaron's Thoughts

Here are some of Aaron's thoughts throughout the journey so far. I hadn't seen the thread until now so I'll plan on dropping in a few posts here and there from now on. Few things, Aaron is my PC and has several monumental stories in the campaign. I feel it's necessary to at least weave a little of Aaron into this story to help bring them to life. Although I know Eeralai can do it better then I, it may come down to me having to defend Aaron on occasion. Assuming it will fit the story I'll post some of Aaron's background later on.


On the road to Orlane

"Well Isn't this just great. I feel the constant harrassment by this group about my lack of clerical powers is going to drive me insane sooner then later. Gwendolyn just HAD to bring it up. If only I could better explain it to them... but.. they wouldn't understand -I don't understand. My brother sent me to find the path, not with the path in mind! Things will change someday... hopefully. But why would Samantha succumb to the temple wards in Greerson where as I did not? What could it mean!?"

"I had a wierd dream again. It wasn't like the ones about my sister but instead more about me... I think. I stood in a field of grass perfectly seperated by black in white. I seemed to sway uncontrolably between the two as I moved forward. It was that short and simple yet I feel it means so much. This doesn't help me to understand! What is going on!?"

In Eastwood

"This is truly a good thing what Ternell and I have done here. Restoring Pter's shrine will bring his influence deeper into these lands. I know this. The dream I had last night was amazing. I could see the entire city as I soared above it. Directly below me the shrine came to life out of a grey bleakness. Like an explosion of color the shrine peeled back the shroud of grey surrounding the city revealing a sea of gold. Magnificant!"

Orlane

"Great. Ternell has managed to open his mouth once more and anger the figure head of this town. Maybe he should have let Gwen do the talking she seems far more proficient then he. We can at least thank Korliss for buying us some time here, but who knows how much."

later that day in Orlane...

"Well that didn't seem to go well either. Gwen didn't get much further then I would have expected Ternell to. But something is not right. That priestess was... abnormal to say the least. I can only hope we have enough time to figure out what's going on before the constable attempts to remove us from this town."

Hooray! Thanks for posting, Tormal. BSF and I were just emailing each other today that we hoped more of the group would start posting. So feel free to do so anytime.

Just as a note, however: you fixed up the shrine in Hoch Hoch. It's in my notes, and I just checked with BSF and he said that it was Hoch Hoch. I was just about to reference it in the next part of my story, so I am glad you brought it up.

Day 1, Orlane, after dinner

Number of plans accepted by party: 1, Huzzah! Number of Powers shown off to party: 0, boo!

After washing up, I met the rest of the party downstairs in the Tavern. There were only two other patrons, and they were sullen and kept to themselves. At first, our group tossed around ideas that none of us thought were very good, and then I got my gumption up, and made a suggestion.

“That man who’s taking care of our horses kept wondering if we were interested in buying land here. Perhaps one of you could pose with me as newlyweds looking to settle. The constable only knows Ternell’s story. We could say we were traveling with him for protection. It would give us a reason to be asking lots of questions about the town.” I looked at Falon shyly, hoping he would agree with my idea and want to pose as my husband. His reaction was not entirely what I had hoped for.

“That could work,” he said. “In fact, we could split up into groups. Gwen and her alleged husband could ask the more penetrating questions about the town while one group went to the Sleeping Dragon Inn and another group scouted the outskirts of Orlane. I think we should have a fighter type in each group.”

“Aaron could pose as the cleric marrying me and my husband.” Here, I looked meaningfully at Falon, but it was Korliss who said, “I’ll be your husband, Lady Gwen. These folks here are hard ones to crack, but I’ve lived with harder.”

“Great,” said Falon. “Ternell and I can check the outskirts of town, and Chani and Ardel can go to the Sleeping Dragon Inn.”

Everyone started tweeking the plan. Glad it was a hit, but sad Falon won’t be my husband. Then remembered I had wanted to show off new power. I was about to say something when Aaron said, “Funny you should suggest I play the cleric. When I was in Hochoch, Ternell and I fixed up a shrine of Pter that had fallen into disrepair. There, I finally received my blessing from Pter, and it is my pleasure to bless all of you.” After a few murmured words, I was filled with joy and resolve to do good things. Probably not best time to make everyone feel like they were about to die. Maybe tomorrow night.

Perhaps I, Korliss, should step in right now to help with the diary entries before they get out of hand. Lady Gwen, it most certainly was true that I tried to discourage you from joining our quest early on. I must confess to having a certain weakness shall we say, for the fair ladies of the world. A rather young and indeed beautiful maiden such as yourself certainly does not belong in harms way whether by voluntary or involuntary circumstances. It is tough enough to try to fight alongside ones comrades in battle but to have to jump away from what seems to be of utmost importance (saving ones hide) in order to come between a woman and the foul beasts of this world tends to put extra strain and distraction into ones head. I must admit that yourself and the Lady Chani did acquit yourselves in good manner while serving with the group however it was certainly distracting to my thoughts both while in combat and while traveling. It is refreshing to note that you admit to glancing my way on occasion as I also looked upon both you and Chani with interest as well. You seemed a little young and ignorant of the ways of the world, I attributed this to being raised as a spoiled child of rich folk so I tried my hand with Chani but she seemed distant and not very responsive despite my ongoing efforts. I must confess that as we traveled from town to town I did make acquintance with some of the tavern ladies but I always treated them respectful like and never promised anything that I couldn't make good on. I ain't really the marrying kind yet, there's too much of the world to see. If we weren't desperate for money at the beginning I probably would have voted against including you but as things are turning out now I am happy to have you in our company. The money has become a secondary issue and I think your occasional attempts to cheer up the group actually do make a difference even if you don't notice it outright.
I am happy that you didn't get your way and have me buried. No offense my lady but I really appreciate the efforts that others went through on my behalf. I wasn't much on religion up to then but after all that happened I kinda got to thinking more about it and feeling grateful to whatever gods there were that would look kindly upon us. The party can use all the help it can get.
I was delighted to play the part of your husband but wish we could have had some cuddle time. It's not that everyone loves Chani and is head over heels about her its just that she seems a little more attainable and in some ways a little better fit for adventuring. I'm sorry if it hurts your feelings as I'm not trying to, but you're a rich kid with her head in the clouds. You have visions of saving the world, which is a noble thing, but you have no idea of how nasty the world can be and how much blood, sweat, and time it will take just to save a tiny corner. Granted we are relatively new to this whole adventuring ordeal ourselves but we have some hardships and experiences to draw from that could serve us well. We need to work together a little better and we all seem to have a part of our past that we prefer to keep hidden away for now but I'm sure we'll come together as a unit and perform rather well. Contrary to what that gruff old broad (Crill) in Greerson thinks, we did not choose the name Greersons Glory as a means of sucking up to the local politicians, we chose it so that others in this land would know who we represented and be more accepting of our efforts. Personally I think Crill has some issues. She seems to hate everybody and snubs everyone else as not up to her standards. Hell I even gave her my most charming manner and she turned me down faster than a starving man downs a home cooked meal. She needs a sturdy type fella that can put her in her place and make her mind once in a while. Oh she'll still be the boss in her marriage ain't no doubt but an occasional comeuppance wouldn't hurt her none. I don't wish her ill or nothing but I'm glad its you thats with us and not her. She'd be rubbing our noses in every mistake we made no matter how little.
I'll leave off now. morning comes early and I got lots to do and lots to think about. Keep a sharp eye out and your wits about you. If anything big comes our way just get behind me and I'll do my best to protect you and Chani. Ladies and children need protecting out here in the wilderness and in towns from things just as dangerous. Not all folk are kind. Remember that O.K.