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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Oghma" data-source="post: 6814" data-attributes="member: 71">Dear Diary,This morning when we woke up, those priests had been talking to each other for a while already. They were all huddled up and sort of whispering back and forth while Rattlin was making breakfast. They’d look at us occasionally, then go back to whispering.Finally, I got a little tired of it and walked up to them. “Hey!” I said, “can I get in on the secret?”The oldest one drew himself up to speak, then realized that he should probably draw himself down to speak, so went over to a tree stump and sat down so he could be at eye level with me.“Posy,” he said seriously, “ your group (my group!) is a strong and good group. You dispatched those goblins with ease, and saved us. We were on our way to Farvale to see if we could find an adventuring group to help our little abbey with a problem. Having met you, we know we need to look no further to find an able party. Will you help us?”I looked him over a bit, and signaled for the rest of the party to come over. Soon Gimil, Ord, and Rattlin had gathered around.“Everyone,” I said, “these good priest of Heironeous would like to hire us, but I haven’t heard their proposition yet.”Ord looked at me with an unreadable expression. “They propositioned you?” he said with a grin. “They must be hard up.”Rattlin chimed in, “That’s stooping kind of low for a human, if you know what I mean.”Ha. Ha. I could have killed them both. Smart alecks. I’ll return the favor sometime.“Very funny,” I said. “Now, priest, tell us your needs.”“First, let me tell you a little about myself and our order. I am Jean Martin, priest of Heironeous. The Order of the Risen Star is a peaceful monastic commune whose members dwell within a small chapel upon the crest of the Hartsblood Hills. Our priests often descend into the surrounding valleys to tend to the villages there and perform last rites and burials as needed.A recent earthquake has opened a passage to a series of uncharted caverns beneath the Order's vaults. The brothers dispatched to explore their depths have not been seen nor heard from in a week's time, so the Order must seek aid from outside its walls. Our abbot, Martine Gerrard, sent us to Farvale to seek a band of adventurers willing to search.”He paused, looking at all of us. “I think we need look no further. Are you willing to help?”Rattlin piped up, “What’s it worth to ya?” I kicked him in the shins.“Hush!” I said to him, “we’ll get to that!”Jean smiled. “I understand your friend’s point. I was an adventurer once myself. Why should you risk peril if there is no reward. While I now seek other-worldly rewards, you seek perhaps more material benefits?”He was a smooth one, that priest.“I have some questions first,” I said. “How are you a peaceful community while worshiping the god of honor? I’ve heard of Heironeous’ paladins before, they are quite warlike.”“There are many facets to honor. There is honor in battle honor to oneself, honor to your community. We emphasize the more peaceful, internal aspects of honor because honor in battle can lead to glory-seeking, and that is counter to Heironeous’ will.”“How many brothers were sent down to investigate – the ones that did not come back?” I asked.“There were three. Brother Durham is the abbot’s second, and two acolytes. They took climbing and exploring equipment with them.”“How far are we from the monastery?”Jean frowned. “I’m not sure, but at least two days travel. We are now on the southern side of Farvale, and the monastery is to the north. We’d been harried by these goblins since yesterday. They’d cut us off from the route into town and we were trying to get around them to someplace safe.”“Can we go through Farvale, then? We need to sell some equipment and purchase some things before we embark on another adventure.”Ord interrupted, “And the reward for this is... ?”Jean smiled, “I am sure that the abbott will offer you a generous reward. I’m not sure what form that it will take, but it may include some magical items.”Magic! Woo! I love magical items. I wonder what the monastery will have?We set out for Farvale and were about two hours out of town when we were again attacked!Now, remember, Diary, that we set up our little expedition with Ord driving, myself in the back of the wagon keeping an eye behind us, and Ratlin and Gimil alternating as scouts forward.  The priests were walking behind uour cart about 40 feet.  We were going up a slight hill in a sort of forested area when suddenly a HUGE man charged out of the woods.  Farther down the road, we saw some orcs pop out and run towards Ratlin, who was scouting out front!The huge man was really an ogre!  I was sitting in the back when I heard Ord yell “By the brass balls of Clangeddin!”  I hopped off the back left end of the cart and the ogre was only about 30 feet away, charging hard!  He had this enormous club in both hands and he was heading right towards Gimil, who had hopped off the left front of the wagon.  I looked down the road and there was Ratlin, running for his life as two orcs chased him towards the cart.  Two more were taking aim at him with javelins as he ran.Right away I started a sleep spell, hoping that I could stop those orcs from getting to Ratlin.  Ord had hopped off the front right of the wagon and had started heading towards Ratlin to help.  My sleep spell went off, and I put one of the orcs with a javelin to sleep.  His partner was so surprised, he forgot to throw at Ratlin!Meanwhile, the ogre had taken a mighty swing at Gimil, and Gimil had barely gotten out of the way.  The ogre was about 20 feet from me now, and I have never seen anything so scary in my life!  It was three times my height, and had an ugly misshapen face with a gaping mouth that was roaring some gibberish about dwarf meat.  I don’t know how Gimil could just stand there in front of it, but he did, and took a mighty swing at it, and TOOK it’s HEAD right OFF!  One swing! SLICE! No more ogre!  Gimil is my HERO!Well, there was suddenly a lot of blood on our side of the cart, but I could see that the orc I had put to sleep had woken up his friend and was aiming again!  I fired off another sleep spell, and got them both! HA!Ratlin had made it to Ord, and they were fighting hand to hand with the orcs as Gimil charged up to help.  The priests were hotfooting it to help us, but Ord, Gimil, and Ratlin were able to take care of the two orcs without help.  Ratlin was able to get behind the one Ord was fighting with a cartwheel and tumble, and gave the orc a nasty shot in the vitals.  Gimil took a couple of swings at the other orcs and killed it.The priests helped heal Gimil, Ord and Ratlin.  I went to the back of the wagon and got sick.  I’m not sure if anyone saw me, but no one said anything to me about it at the time.  I was so scared from seeing that ogre, I had the shakes for a while. I hid it a bit by running up the road to take care of the sleeping orcs, and by the time Gimil had reached there, my hands weren’t shaking anymore.  I congratulated him on his attack on the ogre, and his face split into a wide grin.  On the way back to the cart, he told me how he had trained with the other young dwarves to fight large creatures, but that this was the first time he had to fight one for real.  He was describing what he had done, and I tried to look nonchalant, but I was still seeing that ogre head topple off the body and trying not to let my hands start shaking again.  I covered up again by saying to Ord, "Brass Balls of Clangeddin?  Is it the knocking them together that gave him his name?"  Ord laughed and everyone relaxed a bit.The priests had helped strip the dead bodies of items, and we found a big purple amethyst in a bag on the ogre’s belt.  We loaded up the cart with the equipment and continued in to Farvale.We reached Farvale about noon, and while I arranged for stabling and rooms for us, the dwarves and Ratlin went into the inn for lunch.  I grabbed a bite with them and left them to their own devices while I went to an armorer and weaponsmith the innkeeper told me about.  We had so much equipment from goblins and orcs and the Ogre that I was able to get almost a thousand gold pieces in trade!I went back to the Inn, and sure enough, Ord, Gimil and Ratlin were halfway to total inebriation, and the news of our haul had them roaring and cheering.  I felt sort of bad for the other inn patrons, but the dwarves were actually buying rounds, so I suppose it was ok.  Ratlin couldn’t believe his eyes, and kept sneaking drinks form the dwarves in case they stopped being so generous.I reminded them all that we only had a day in town, and that I had to re-supply the wagon.  I let them know we had rooms upstairs and left.I was in search of something very important.Ever since my master, Old Felster had shown me how to call a familiar, I had been saving up money to call one of my own.  Feltser had a cat named Arabella that looked at me with oddly intelligent eyes.  He would talk to it all the time, and I knew that the cat had some odd powers.  I would hear Felster arguing with Arabella sometimes, but you could tell that they both were really attached to each other.I was tired, I was scared, and a little lonely.  I trusted my companions, but we had only been together for less than two weeks (this was the ninth day since I left home).  I was getting a little tired of being the only girl in a wagon full of grunting, windy dwarves and a sharp-tongued little halfling.  I wanted a dog.  A girl dog.I asked around until I had found the market and went off in search of a young girl dog for sale.  I walked around for a few hours, checking each littler, talking to each seller, and not finding anything I liked.  First, most of the dogs were big war dogs that I could probably ride, which is what every seller first thought.  I didn’t want a mount, I wanted a companion!  Then, once they understood I wanted a pet, they all sent me to this seller that sold these tiny dogs that took more time with their hair than I did!  Those dogs didn’t bark, they made these annoying yippy noises that drove me up the wall.  I could just see Ord and Gimil with one of these little monsters.  They’d think I had lost my mind.I finally found a little tea shop about four o’clock, and sat down for a bit of a think.  I needed to get back to the inn before the others got concerned. (Little did I know that their biggest concern at the time was where the next drink was coming from.  They had spent the afternoon finding a pewterer who could make them mugs with their names on it, and the rest of the day filling the mugs.  Over and over again.  Dwarves!)While I was sipping my tea this little boy came and stood next to me with a lollipop in his hand and just stared at me.  He looked at me for a while, until he finally asked, in a small voice, “Are you a dwarf?”I started laughing; I couldn’t help myself.  A dwarf!  Golden haired, ringletted me?  Dresser in purple robes?  I couldn’t even pick up Gimil’s sword!  I almost didn’t notice the hurt look in the boy’s eyes, I was giggling too much.  He looked foolish and a little nervous, and I finally stopped laughing long enough to notice.“Hey, hey, I’m sorry,” I said comfortingly.  “I wasn’t laughing at you, I was just thinking of some dwarf friends of mine.  Here, have a cookie.”The cookie banished all doubts, as I thought it would.“What’s your name?  Mine’s Posy, and I’m a gnome.”“I’m Art.  What’s a gnome?” he asked, through a spray of cookie crumbs.That stumped me for a bit.  I had always been a gnome.  How could I describe being what I’ve been all my life?“Well, to start with, I’m about fifty eight years old.  That’s probably as old as your grandpa.”‘Grandpa! Oh no!” His eyes got wide.  “He’ll be looking for me!”  Art started looking around, and then looked up guiltily at a man who had been standing nearby quietly.He smiled at me and said “No, go on Miss Posy.  I think Art should hear about your race.”“We tend to live in hills away from big folks like yourself, and we keep our homes hidden.  We like magic and tricks like this!” With that I did my tricky spell and turned his lollipop blue, then green.  “What is your favorite flavor?” I asked.“Boysenberry!” he exclaimed.  Poof! I turned his lollipop into a nice deep purple and gave it boysenberry flavor.“That’s neat!” he said.“We are friends with dwarves, elves and humans, but we hate goblins and orcs.  Be careful around us, because we like to play tricks on people.  We don’t play mean tricks on nice people, but if you act to full of yourself, we’ll be sure to make fun of you.”Art took this piece of information seriously.  “I’ll be careful!  You might make my lollipop taste yucky!”I invited his grandpa to sit down and introduced myself.  He smiled at me and said, “My name is Enry. You must be from Treedimple.”Surprised, I nodded.  “How did you know?”“I used to herd sheep in a village near there when I was younger.  I met a gnome there on the hills and we used to chat a lot.  Friendly fellow, name of Roondar Scheppen.  I was saddened to learn he had died in a goblin raid.”“That’s my uncle!  He was a soldier in the Treedimple militia,” I gasped.  “You knew him?”“You are that Posy?  He used to speak of you fondly.  He said you were the best of his nieces, though you couldn’t’ tell from what your mother said.  I'm pleased to meet you!”  He smiled.Hearing about home and my uncle Roondar made me feel suddenly homesick.  I must have shown it, for he said, “You are a ways from home.  How is it that you find yourself in Farvale?”I told him all about meeting Gimil and Ord and Ratlin, and fighting goblins and the ogre while he listened and Art looked on wide-eyed.  I told him how I couldn’t find a nice dog in the market and that I had to find one soon before I had to leave, and he looked thoughtful.“Now, I might be able to help you there.  We are shepherds, not dog breeders, but I have a little dog that I’ve been trying to find a home for a while.  She’s a bit rambunctious, but a friendly and loyal dog.  She’s young, like yourself, but ready to travel.  Come with me and I’ll show you.”Five minutes later I met Ember.  I call her Ember, because she has a bright red mark on her chest that looks like a spark.I’m in the inn now with Ember, with a couple of sleeping dwarves and a chattering halfling.  I’m going to put you away for the night, Dear Diary, and play with my new friend.  Don’t worry, I’ll visit you again soon. </blockquote>

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