Hello all.
I've decided to have a shot at doing a diary for Grey. Let me know what you think... (ie, if you think I'm wasting my time or whatever, let me know - nothing worse than spending time doing something to find out that no-one is interested).
Oh, on another note, when I was walking in to uni about an hour ago, I saw a pile of bird feathers - presumably from a fight or something. Scary thing is, I was seriously thinking that I should take some, as they could be used in a fly spell. People, I think I'm losing it!
Anyway, diary is as follows. Although this should be obvious, I'll reiterate that the contents are from Grey's perspective, and other characters are unlikely to know that Grey thinks like this (blah blah). You know, what you learn is player knowledge, etc...
Miscellaneous entry (flying around Davinia somewhere)
We had Leo perform a few questions. Apparently, there are six groups of people who seek to harm us in some manner or other. From what I hear from the others, this is somewhat of an improvement, considering there used to be 10 hostile groups. As would be expected, Leo confirmed that there are several groups that are currently on our trail - which I take to mean that there are several groups who are currently looking for us. Fortunately, we have not been scryed upon for a while.
Either way, we really do need to get some device made that prevents others (of mortal power anyway) from scrying upon us, or performing divinations about us. Unfortunately, I get the impression that no-one else particularly cares whether we get such a device or not. I'm certain that one day we'll really regret not having such an item.
Leo also found out that a person separated from their soul has an increased chance of going insane. I was more interested in whether or not Tessarael would still be able to cast spells, but I suppose this is useful information nonetheless.
We were about to start flying south when we realised that we weren't sure whether the Emerondians are to the south or not. Thora decided that it would be worth while to perform a divination to find out. The response was "walk". I find this remarkably ambiguous. Walk south for 100 miles, or walk one day to the west? Well, better than no reponse I suppose.
We decided to head back into the colony and get the escort of Thyatian soldiers that was "offered" to us. Of course, they're there to spy on our activities, but that doesn't particularly bother me. They seem harmless enough. There are six soldiers, one Lieutenant Sarabis, a Sergeant Amon, Corporal Micks, and three privates. They were chosen as they have some knowledge of the locals.
We were also joined by a Priestess of the Almighty. A fairly presumptuous name, but I imagine that when one is a god, one can afford to be a little presumptuous. Apparently they worship this Almighty in a place called the Ylaruam, which is the desert country that held one of the Thyatian cities recently.
I'm not sure what to make of this priestess. Her name is Alamin. She wears strange clothing, consiting of what I believe is called a veil, and black robes. Maybe it's a religious thing, or part of the fashion in her home country. Well, compared to the rest of this party, she looks downright normal.
She joined us because her god told her to join us in our quest to kill the Sundered Man. Well, she didn't do much to try and convince us she didn't want to harm us. I'm not certain about her motivations, but she says she wants to destroy all undead, which, if she isn't lying, wouldn't be a bad start. I'm more concerned about what he god wants. Well, I'm sure Tesserael will find this interesting.
Alamin has been allowed to join us. At least this way we can keep an eye on her.
We leave today, walking south. The plan is to meet up with various of the local friendly headhunters, and ask if they can direct us to the Emerondians.
Xeris, who is doing basically all of the scouting for us (and she's pretty good too), is aware of someone who is hunting us. Whoever it is, they are better in the forest than Xeris, which makes her think that they couldn't be human. Apparently the creature is black. Lani spoke to a parrot and also found out that when standing on their hind legs they look like a human. We're not certain how many there are.
As we are not sure if they are hostile or not, the decision was made to keep travelling as per normal. That is, with Thora having cast clear path or something. Oh, and thank the Pantheon for whatever it is she casts on me to keep me feeling nice and comfortable. During the day, anyway. Nighttime is still awful to sleep through. It's just way too humid.
Shouldn't be hard for them to keep tracking us, that's for sure. I imagine they could track us without the aid of a pretty obvious path anyway.
Leo went off with Xeris earlier to see if he could see the creature, which he did manage to do - apparently he can see invisible. It is definitely a creature. Leo described it as being a completely black big cat, about half the height of Roland. Apparently it is very good at hiding in shadows. I wanted to hunt it, but we decided to just continue on, since we weren't sure how hard it would be to get. It sounds like an amazingly rare creature. Parts of it would be great as components to spells.
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Unbelievable. First, the creature attacks in the middle of the night, whilst one of the privates, Turia, and myself were on watch. It managed to quickly come into camp, take out the private, and start dragging him away, without either Turia or myself noticing. By chance only did I turn around and notice the privates boots as they were being dragged into the darkness. Apparently he would have died if I hadn't scared the creature away by tossing continual light stones into the area. We left out some meat for it.
And then, the next morning, I find that Lani has charmed the creature by casting Charm Monster on it. Talk about an unexpected change of events. Well, I guess I'm not going to end up getting spell components from it now. That's a big shame. The thing really looks bizarre, and it just could not be natural.
Leo found out that it is a magical creature with a fierce reputation. I can see why. It is known as an Ebon Tiger. They are very territorial, and very reclusive. They are naturally occuring (although clearly not natural). I expect a powerful mage must have created them in the past sometime. It does happen from time to time. I wouldn't mind finding out who did it though.
I think the Thyatian soldiers are beginning to feel a bit out of their league.
Having spoken to this Alamin person, she doesn't seem like such a bad person.
The creature had to be recharmed. It looked like it broke its enchantment. Rather than worry about how to deal with it (it really didn't look very friendly), Lani just recharmed it.
I'm now thinking that one of these Ebon Tigers would make a great familiar. A pity I just do not have a knack for the conjuration/summoning school of magic. A pity. It's not like I can have a fireball as a familiar. Fireballs lack certain prerequisites.
Xeris managed to catch a member of the raven clan. Apparently, we are in their territory. We found out about what other clans are in the area. There is a wolf clan, for which Thora is most interested. It is to the southeast, so we have decided to head in that direction.
Apprently the clans around here all have some specific animal. One of the Thyatians said something about primitive Totem worship. The clans do seem to have a strong affinity for particular animals. It seems that they basically get along with whatever their respective animal is - be that tigers, wolves, or whatever.
I can't help but wonder if their is some kind of deity involved, or whether it uses some other form of primitive magic. It would be very interesting to study at some point, just to find out. Admittedly, it would be hard to get past the headhunter bit. However, with a few polymorph self's, it may be possible to win their trust. Well, this is all for another day.
We let the native go.
I'm really beginning to get exrtemely sick of this jungle. If I see too many more trees, I'm going to fireball some of them!
Xeris was captured by a member of the wolf clan. Fortunately, Thora managed to (singlehandedly) get Xeris back. Thora really can be very useful at times.
Apparently, Xeris was going to be married to whoever caught her. I really wonder how they'd manage to keep her caught though.
Thora found out that the orcs are to the south.
Damned sick of this jungle.
Lani has started calling the "cat" midnight. Rather appropriate.
Things aren't going too bad with Phoranin at the moment. Ok, so Thora, Lani, and Safranna are basically ignoring her existence, and Guzerk is doing what he does best: being diplomatic.
I actually feel sorry for her. Well, a bit. She most likely was expecting this. Well, no doubt to her long lived self, this period will end up being but a tiny bit of her life. Elves. Admittedly, I haven't found the Shadow elves to be quite as arrogant as the Alfheim ones are (or were, anyway). Then again, I never spoke to many of them. I've spent more time in the City of Stars than I have in Alfheim. Go figure.
Too much green in this place. Far too much. It needs a touch of orange and red. The hot kind.
Lani and Thora agreed to dispel the charm on Midnight. Amazingly it's decided to follow us. I guess it must be taking a liking to us. I give up.
Xeris found a group of about 20 orcs who were going to ambush us. Thora cast plant growth, and trapped them all. They didn't even get single shot off. Stupid.
They informed us that they know of the whereabouts of Ysawis (Talib's kingdom). Apparently it is far to the west, although far to these primitive, and clearly stupid orcs, is probably not that far. They did say that another group of "humans" is between Ysawi and our current position. They are apparently very pale skinned, and move slowly. They are also reputed to be very dangerous. We think these may be the Emerondians. They use their hands as weapons. Well, we're heading west now.
Finally, we've found out something which just may be connected with what we've been looking for for the past five months.
Xeris managed to find a clear pool of water today. An absolute luxury in this jungle.
I actually thought that she had been charmed, because when she told us to come and have a look at something interesting, she refused to say what it was. Well, it doesn't hurt to be paranoid.
Had a whole bunch of monkey's throwing fruit at us today. I very nearly cast ice storm on them. I really would have loved to. This jungle is just so frustrating.
Why didn't we think of this before? With Thora casting various spells on Safranna, and Safranna with her horseshoes of speed, we managed to cover several days worth of travel in just a day and a bit. We are now able to see great distances without having various trees blocking our view. A wonderful sight.
With various spells on Lani and Roland, we sent them off to do scouting to see if they could see anything. They'd be able to get back to the Thyatian colony in just a few days flight with these spells. We've been wandering this jungle for months now. If only we thought of these things earlier.
Lani and Roland have returned. They have found a place, north and east of our current position. It looks like a deserted city. They did see some of these slow moving pale humanoids, but did not approach them, which is a good thing.
All it would take is a dispel magic, and those two could have been in trouble. But it's good that they got back safely.
We have arrived at this deserted city. The pale humanoids are actually some form of undead (they used to be human). The undead hunter has not heard of this type of undead. We encountered 20 of them, but they were destroyed without effort by the priests. Clearly, they are not a very powerful form of undead. Roland (rightly) complained that the priests should let some of them get through to us so we could have some fun.
The buildings in this city are made of stone. Guzerk says that they were made perhaps hundreds of years ago, and have been neglected for some time. I wonder how he knows? Well, he's a dwarf, so I guess that explains it. I haven't met many dwarves at all, and I wonder if they are all this fond of stone.
I am very curious as to where the stone was found for this city. I can't picture the people having found it in the jungle anywhere, and this place is right in the middle of a jungle. I guess that if the Emerondians are plant people, then it is unlikely that this city belonged to them. Then again, Talib could have been incorrect in thinking that they were plants.
We travelled further into the city, and went to a building where Lani saw some of the undead enter on her earlier scounting foray. It lead underground to a chamber full of empty Sarcophagi. According to Xeris, it looks like some of the undead congregate here, then leave again. I wonder to what purpose?
As far as I am aware, undead generally don't just appear out of nowhere. So presumably there is a necromancer hereabouts. If so, it could be interesting. I would guess that anyone living here would be a rather isolated person, and thus have many differing ideas about magic. It's likely that they'd have to be killed, but that's ok, since they'd surely have some spellbooks, and other tomes of knowledge that I could read. New insight is wonderful.
They may even have a number of unique spells.
Well, I can but hope.