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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Oghma" data-source="post: 6822" data-attributes="member: 71">Dear Diary (Starday, Planting 15)We’re heading down from the hills around Farvale now, and you can see the entire valley of the Yeomanry laid out below us. There are trees and hills still in the way most of the time, but every once and a while we’ll come around a bend and suddenly there will be a beautiful scenic view.Ord and Gimil spend their time up front speaking in Dwarvish. Ord tells Gimil all these tales of famous dwarf warriors and craftsmen, then Gimil will tell his version, and they’ll compare them. I guess Gimil’s clan was killed, and he’s trying to learn all the things that he should have known from his elders. I can’t imagine having Treedimple wiped out, that would be horrible. I was extra nice to Gimil today.When Rattlin comes back from his turn up front, I’m going to ask him about his family.Dear Diary,Well, Rattlin says he didn’t know his father very well, because he was always away. Rattlin is from Verbobonc, and how he got here is quite a story, especially for someone as young as he is.It appears that Rattlin grew up mostly with his mother and the small community of halflings in Verbobonc. His father was an adventurer, and they were fairly well off. They had a nice little house and he grew up just like all the other neighborhood kids, just with infrequent visits from his dad.While he was growing up, he’d roam the city market watching people, buying sweets, and the like, until one day he spotted a dwarf working a gaming table at a town fair. The dwarf was doing a three-card monte table, which I guess is some sort of card game. (I wasn’t about to let Ratt know I had NO IDEA what he was talking about.) The dwarf was steadily taking money from people, losing a little, winning a lot.Ratt started watching carefully and saw the dwarf palming a card, so that the mark (I guess that’s the guy playing) would pick the wrong card every single time. Ratt saw this dwarf do it one handed, left-handed, right-handed, you name it. Finally, Ratt decided to go talk to him.“Hey mister, can you teach me how to do that?” Ratt asked.“Go away, kid doesn’t your momma know where you are?” said the dwarf.“Nope.” Ratt looked at the dwarf a second. “It’s inside your left sleeve.”“Get lost!”“I can say it louder if you’d like.” Rattlin grinned. “I can tell you where you hid the red card each time for each of the last players. The scruffy human you cheated – that one you hid the card in your right sleeve. The one before that went into the drawer in your table.”The dwarf looked like the blood from his head would explode and cover the market in red.Ratt looked nonchalant. “It would be easier for you to have someone standing here anyway, making people think they could win, wouldn’t it?”“I could use a shill, and yer a likely one.” The dwarf looked craftily at Rattlin. “Yer not getting a cut, nor will you set up somewheres else?”“Nope, but you’ll teach me everything. No cut, no competition, I just want to know.”This explained something about Rattlin that always had me wondering. For a halfling of his talents, he doesn’t have a real larcenous streak. He grew up with enough money, so he does it for the fun of it, I guess.That old dwarf taught him a lot of stuff. Rattlin showed me some of the tricks he could do, and I could do em myself, but he didn’t have to use magic! He was pretty good at it.Rattlin does this for a couple of years and then he goofs up. I mean, here is this rather streetwise kid - knows his way around, knows people, has a good head on his shoulders…So he gets drunk and wakes up on a ship heading out to the Azure Sea! He wound up in Longspear, and that’s pretty much how he made it to the Yeomanry.My asking him these questions has him pretty excited, so he’s telling everyone all this stuff now. We’ve camped for the night and are listening to Ratt’s stories and laughing. I’m going to bed soon, so I’m going to put you away for the night, Dear Diary.Dear Diary (Sunday, Planting 16)Bole and Ferdal say that we will reach Loftwick in about five days.  By my calculations, that will be about the time the ale runs out.  Ord, Gimil, and Ratlin have been sampling the ale while we walk, eat, and when we are asleep.  We stop more often for visits to the bushes than an army of lentil-bladdered halflings!We continue down the hills out of Farvale.  We should reach the valley and skirt the mountains to the north until we reach Loftwick.  It’s the capital of the Yeomanry, Ratt says.Dear Diary (Moonday, Planting 17)A bit of a spooky day.  It started out with a light drizzle, but that tapered off and it wound up being a gray sort of day, overcast with a sort of heavy feeling in the air.  The drizzle started up on and off later.  We’ve been sort of hugging the highlands because Loftwick isn’t in the valley, it’s more along the mountains and we didn’t want to wind up having to climb up again. The occasionally gray exposed rocks of the mountains added to the over-all feeling of gray.  Even hills in the distance, though I knew from the day before they were covered in green grasses, seemed that same, dull color.I wore my purple robe with the pink trim because I wanted to brighten things up.  I put a bright scarf on Ember too, and so we were like lamps in a dungeon!Not that it mattered, really.  The dwarves were grumpy and Rattlin kept complaining about how wet his feet were.  This went on for most of the day, until we entered this small rocky pass.There were gray rock faces to either side, about 60 feet apart and assorted gray rocks tumbled onto the road.  We were picking our way past them, with Rattlin and Gimil about 30 feet ahead, when suddenly two of the rocks stood up and attacked Gimil and Ratt!Ord, the quick thinker and tactician, shouted “Gargoyles!  We need magic weapons!”  I didn’t know that, but it didn’t matter.  My magic does just fine.Gimil and Ratt retreated while Ord made his axe magical and the priests blessed our group.  I ran around from the back of the wagon and popped Ratt’s foe with a couple of missiles (I love that I shoot two now! ZIPZIP!!)The gargoyles followed Ratt and Gimil and tore them up a bit.  Gimil needed my mage armor!Bole and Ferdal enchanted Rattlin and Gimil’s weapons while Ord charged down to help Ratt.The gargoyles were ripping into Gimil pretty hard. I stepped up and armored him up to help.  Gimil shouted his thanks and began swinging his new sword around with vigor, whacking the gargoyle a hard blow that shattered its skin!Rattlin tried to flank one of the gargoyles, but it appeared that his blows weren’t having the effect he sought. Either way, they were whacking off chips of stone from them.The priests waited near the warriors ready to heal any if they got too injured.  I popped off more missiles into Gimil’s.Glittergold was with us, because our blows were telling.  Rattlin and Ord’s was the first to try to fly away, but a few well-placed missiles sent him tumbling to the ground.  Gimil’s looked about to take off when he struck it an immense blow, severing it’s arm.  It, too went down.Gimil, Rattlin, and Ord had various gouges and claw marks.  Ord and the priest tended to the wounded while I looked at the gargoyles.“Hey!” I said.  “These gargoyles skins aren’t very wet.”Gimil frowned thoughtfully. He peered into the hills searching for something.  He grunted and pointed up to a flat area I could barely see.“Look there!  An old keep!”We all strained to look, and eventually we spotted it.  We checked around with Ratt’s falcon, and there was an old road leading up to it that intersected with ours.  After a little discussion, we decided to see if there was a dry place up there to rest for the night, since it looked no more than a couple of hours away.The road wasn’t in bad shape, really, despite being a little overgrown.  There were a few places that Ord and Gimil had to help push the cart up over a few bumps, but all in all, I generally could sit in the back and look down at the road and relax.The keep was nothing more than a few walls, really.  There was a part of a roof still attached to a corner of the keep, so we parked the wagon nearby and went to search the keep for any signs of habitation.And a good thing, too!  We first found a kind of “nest” of crumbled rock where the gargoyles stashed some stuff (a magic sword (!) and a purse with 200 gold), and then at the other end of the compound, we found a hole descending into darkness.  Rattlin was all for exploring it, but when both the dwarves and I shook our heads he said we should at least post a guard.  While we were walking away from it, though, three ghouls came charging out to attack!  I screamed, and everyone spun around.In an eyeblink the three clerics had used their power to corner them against a corner wall where the dwarves used axes and swords to finish them off.  Yuck!After that we did go and explore that hole, but found nothing much except some scattered remains of ghoul meals – i.e. human parts.  It was foul, and saddened us.I don’t remember hearing about rotted body parts in any adventure that Todo the Storyteller told.I’m starting to wonder why I’m adventuring at all.  I’ll talk to you more about it later, Dear Diary, because I’m tired and a little damp and cold.  Since the keep has good shelter, we’re going to make a big warm fire and have a feast.  Well, I’ll have a feast and everyone else will have a drinking contest.  Bole will play his lute and we’ll sing songs.  Treedimple seems very far away.</blockquote>

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