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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Oghma" data-source="post: 6827" data-attributes="member: 71">Dear Diary (Godsday, Planting 18)Well, today dawned a bit brighter and the drizzle has stopped, so my mood is a little better.  We packed up and went down the hill back to the main road.  I’m sitting on the back of the wagon, trying to write despite the bumps.Bole is showing me some fingerings on his lute.  It’s a little big for me, but I’m go to work at it a bit, because it’s fun! Last night I did illusions and tricks that helped his songs along, doing little scenes and images of characters and monsters in the story.  I’ve never seen a dragon, but Ord said mine was very realistic.  At least, after he was done wiping the beer off the front of his tunic and cursing.  There are some dwarf words I don’t really know yet, I wonder if Rattlin knows them?Ember looks at me strangely when I’m playing the lute. Her head cocks over to the side like she’s not really sure what do think of the sound.  It’s interrupting my practice, but I don’t mind; it makes me laugh.Made camp tonight in an open spot, so no big fire.  Gimil’s on first watch, as usual, so I’m going to bed.  Tonight is Luna’s new moon, so it won’t be very light out at all.  Mine is the third watch, when it starts to turn light.  G’night!Dear Diary (Waterday, Planting 19)The dwarves are into the second barrel of ale - things are getting desperate.  We have about 2 days to go until we reach Loft wick, I hope they can hold out.  I might fill the old barrel with water and make it taste like ale, hmm…Another day of travel, with nothing but scenery and dropping acorns on Ratt’s head to break up the day.  I think he suspects me, but they were about to fall anyway.  Really. Ember is starting to get into the spirit of it so she wound distract him and then, bop!  Some were going to be a little off target, but I made sure that pretty much every acorn that dropped within a 30 foot radius hit him.  Bop!I learned a lute tune, too!  I know all the notes to “Oghma’s Ballad”! I just haven’t been able to put them in the right order yet.  Bole says I’m doing well and just need more practice.Dear Diary (Earthday, Planting 20)*plink* *plink* *plink* Plinkin’ Posy.  My fingers are sore from practicing, so I’m taking a break.  Bole has been a bit severe with me, since I’ve been playing around and not practicing the way he taught me.  He says if I do as he says, I’ll learn to play the right way.  That means that if I learn to play like Bole, I’ll put a constipated expression on my face and act as if playing the lute is like moving my bowels.  Poo on that! (pun!)  I want to have fun! (rhyme!)I tried out the water/beer thing and it worked.  I’m not telling em that I served them water for lunch, but it may make a difference later on…Ember’s asleep, having a little doggy dream. *wurf* *snurfle* *wurf* I wonder if she’s chasing or being chased?We’re camping near a little lake at the end of a stream.  It’s a little marshy around here, even though we are still in the hills.Dear Diary, (Freeday, Planting 21)Ord woke everyone up in the middle of the night.  Ember was growling in the direction of the lake, and her hackles were up.  I woke everyone else, so we were fairly prepared when a horrible smell washed over us.  It smelled like all the bad experiments old Fizzletop Knotbash threw out from the back of his alchemy room.  The dwarves coughed a few times, but I don’t think they were too bothered by it.  The priests were gagging and coughing.  Rattlin’s eyes were watering a bit, like mine, but we were still able to see eight reptilian figures rush us and throw these big javelins at us!  Amazingly, they all missed!The figures were a sort of burly humanoid and had ridged crests on their heads.  They had huge mouths with pointed teeth.  Some had crude weapons, and some had no weapons and were charging with fang and claw.I had put armor on Gimil on his watch, and it was still working.  I was sort of hiding under the wagon because I didn’t have any armor on and didn’t want to get spotted.  I picked a likely group of the reptiles in the back and hit them with slumber.  Ord limbered up his axe and charged with Gimil right behind.  Bole blessed us while Rattlin shot an arrow.Two troglodytes (for that was what they were, I found out later) ran to Gimil and Ord surroundign them and flanking them both.  One trog ran towards Rattlin, who drew his short sword and engaged it.  I tired to put it to sleep, but Rattlin’s resisted, darn it.Rattlin stabbed his with the point, and I shot two missiles into it for good measure.  ZIP ZIP!I looked over to Gimil and Ord and saw that the trogs were ripping into them.  Flanked on both sides, fighting back to back, Gimil and Ord were fighting a desperate battle, and the trogs kept hitting them with claws and their crude, saw-toothed swords.They were all bunched together so I couldn’t separate them out for a good sleep spell.  Ord got a good shot in on one, but Gimil was have a hard time hitting either of the ones he was fighting.Then I remembered something Felster told me about the sleep spell: it affects the weakest foes first.  I knew Gimil and Ord were stronger, so I threw the sleep spell right into the center of the melee! Fwooooosh!I knocked out three.  The three dropped like they were at a meeting of the Grand Gnomish Engineers and Alchemists for the Renewal of Valuable Gnomish Resources.  Dreamland.  This turned the tide of the battle.  Rattlin was able to finish his, while Ord and Gimil took out the one that remained standing.  Meanwhile, I ran around and finished the ones that I’d put to sleep.  Yuck!  Better them than me, though.  I’ve become quite the little bloodthirsty gnome.Rattlin rifled through all their packs and I checked their belongings for magical auras, but there was nothing to find except some gold – 140 gold total.We finished our watches, apprehensive that more were going to be coming back.We left early and made it to Loftwick this afternoon.  I’m writing this after a nice hot bath while the dwarves and Rattlin clean themselves up.  We’re going to see if we can get a magic weapon in trade for that sword we found with the gargoyles, something that Rattlin Ord, or Gimil can use.  We need a magic weapon to fight those things that need magic to hit them!  I’ll fill you in on our success later tonight.Dear Diary,What a fun night!We decided to see if we could find some adventurer’s to trade our sword for something more useful.  Gimil and Ord thought the best way to do that would be to scour the inns and taverns (go figure) for adventuring groups, and talk to them to see fi they had something for trade.So that’s what we did!  We went to almost every tavern in Loftwick.  We’d look for a group that looked like us, and watch for a while to see which of the group was the leader.  Then I’d go up to them and start chatting about adventuring.Now, a lot of folks were a little surprised at first, because I look young, but after a bit we were getting along just fine.  Then I’d make my pitch.“As you adventure, you tend to find items that no one in the group can use, but that you don’t want to sell to some merchant. Some other adventurer will have to buy it from the merchant at the merchant’s price, and we all lose.  We have a sword we are looking to trade for another weapon or something equivalent.  Do you have anything?”Then we’d show and tell.  We had some folks try to fool us with non-magical stuff, so we walked out on them.  “It was just a joke!” didn’t cut it with me.  Phooey.We had some folks offer items which we didn’t need or weren’t a fair trade.  It was nice to have Ord and Gimil there, because if you think one dwarf glowering at you is bad, two is much worse.  Late in the evening, though, we met this group that was really fun and we just hung out with them.  We came into a tavern named the Laughing Griffon.  It was full of people, mostly caravan guard-types, who were in town between trips.  A lot of humans, but there was the occasional group of non-humans.  The only open booth was near a group with an elf, a gnome (yay!), a dwarf, and a half elf.We sat down next to them and ordered (what else?) two pitchers of ale.  One of these days I’m going to have to introduce the dwarves to some other liquids.  We were sitting there just sort of looking over everything and relaxing.  The gnome, who’s name was Fimble, came over and introduced himself to me.  We were chatting about this and that, like what it’s like to have dwarves as friends and where we were from, when the elf from the group came over and introduced himself to us, too.Eralild was a bard, and a fine one, too. He had a lute and I annoyed him into letting me play it.I realized how wonderful the lute was immediately after I touched it.  I almost gave it back to him, but I’d already put myself in an awkward position, so I told him I only knew one song, but I knew all the notes and I could get them in the right order and everything! I think he had a hard time not laughing, but he was kind and asked me to play it.Because I was in the booth I had to get a chair from another table, but the dwarf of that group had come over (Dworeth was his name) and he got one that had no occupant.  I checked the tuning, which was perfect, and started playing “Oghma’s ballad”.  I played it perfectly!  I was a little surprised when the elf started to sing, but he was encouraging so I just kept at it, getting every note in order and even in the right rhythm, until I finished it.  There was a little applause from the tables around us, and Eralild was complimentary.  He was very nice.  I gave him his lute right back because I didn’t want to drop it or anything.The half elf of the group, Taewyr, came over and he and Dworeth pulled a table up to the booth so we were all sitting around and chatting.  Eralild and Fimble did a show with illusions and singing and stories that was really fun!We had the best time!  Fimble kept trying to chat me up, but Rattlin, Ord and Gimil kept interrupting him (I think it was on purpose).  Eventually Fimble got too drunk to care anyway and giggled while I turned his drink different colors and flavors.  The dwarves were arguing with Eralild about whether dwarven drinking songs counted as “music” and Eralild was really funny about putting it down.  “I guess you can set bodily effluents to a melody, but why would you want to?” had me rolling.It’s funny, after all that work trying to find a magic item for trade, they wound up having a battleaxe that Ord could use, and we traded them our sword.  As simple as that!Well, it’s late, the dwarves are snoring and Rattlin is counting his change (he’s convinced that Fimble was more than just an illusionist), so I’m going to bed!  G’night, Diary!</blockquote>

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