Riael's Musing
This book is property of Riael.
It is dedicated to Master Levin, and the other children of Mother Kyanna who have made me who I am today.
May I honor the Aina and Ohana I have been given and their sacrifices with sacrifices of my own for the good of our Ohana and Aina.
Do Druid's Dream of Summoned Sheep?
This damn dream has been attacking my brain for months...well since I got that meraaaaww mew mew...sigh...I cant even write about....it...I dont know what to do...I dream of the sky tearing appar into nothing and going to that dark place of nothingness. It is like losing everything...worse being separated and tore away from Ohana and Aina. Worse than those dark places when I lost myself to the wilds of nature. Worse than the times before Master Levin. This place is nothingness. No soul, no land, no place just nothing. It makes me shiver and I KNOW its that damn purrrrrraw. I was hoping my old friends the Crownhammer Brothers might have some insight. As much as I dislike their family ties, they do have good connections, so I answered their letter to help them deal with this weird key thing they need to find the other half of.
We are racing against some other dwarf who likes to glitter or something? I dont really understand it but I trust them. I do have the feeling that this is a lot more than entering some tomb and getting half a key. I just have a feeling is all some sort of trick or trap. Even the weird group of people who showed up to help. I mean Ive worked with Viral before, though dont remember him much other than his feats in battle. The little....gnome, I think? He is good hearted but very odd and childlike...almost creepily so but he did make me smile when we met. He used illusions to give me flowers which was cute. Especially since he didnt kill some of Mother Kyanna's children. Then we got Asana. This high elvish creature who no one really knows but has an...air about him. There just seems something off about him and he quickly had no qualms about playing pranks on the other team almost seemed like he would have done....more....
So anyway I asked for help with my little...problem...with no luck. We had to use an infernal train to get to the tomb we are seeking out. On the way there we found one of the guards on the train is actually a military guy. He locked me and Daergrim in the animal car and then separated us from the rest of the train! I flew back to the main train and he attacked the other members of our little group. The little gnome hypnotized or something the guard and we all jumped off. It wasnt the most graceful...like usual...Master Levin use to say I have the body of a cat and the coordination of a bull...fortunately one of the other members used a spell so let us fall without getting hurt. Almost got run over the other train but we made it out without a scratch.
Villagers being oppressed!
So we keep heading toward this crypt and we hear screams. We find these hobgoblin twisted against their true nature. It seemed like they have bones or weapons apart of their mangled bodies. On top of the hill we found a half-orc/hobgoblin with two great swords, a female gnoll with two hyena companions, and finally a human doing kind of magic with this metal cubey thing. Going strictly on instinct, I disabled the magic cube thing. My intention was not to engage or hurt them but to stop him from using his magic to aid the attack. Unfortunately I think Viral decided we needed to engage them as well directly and started blasting them with spells. Ultimately we fought them back and saved the day, but the gnoll escaped and the cubey thing started freaking out and most of us escaped the blast radius but Asama got caught in the blast. I think we knew enough about the cube to know it probably sent him off to the dark infinity...I think that might be the last of him which might be just as well. He did not settle well with me anyway...that being said he probably did not deserve that either. I hope he can find a peaceful place to rest or reside there. I have heard terrible things about that place.
Spirit Village
Daergrim decided he needed to take the box back to his people for examination. In honor of Daergrim I took on the role of protecting the bag of holding. We found 20g KBS bars, 10p KBS bars which is a nice haul. I was surprised the box didnt take them to the other realm when it exploded. Maybe it only affects living beings...though the grass was left too. Anywho, we also found an Iron Pot with slight divination magic around it. As we headed to the crypt again we found a burning village full of spirits. Human spirits reliving an attack by hobgoblins. I called on a Great Elk and a Boar to figure out what these spirits were and they ignored them but Viral rushed in like usual. I forget how impulsive he is...I mean he is suppose to be an expert sharp shooter, why would you run in like that?!? As could have been guessed, the spirits attacked him and we ended up having to fight our way across the village center to get to the tomb. Amid all the chaos, a dwarf appears out of nowhere, runs to the side trying to hide and then turns into Asama. It was very very suspicious but she insists it was just a disguise spell. She seems to be telling the truth but I still dont trust her. Nor do I trust the little Gnome. He seems so innocent and child like but he has a Druid staff he says he got from his master a druid. While I respect his use of it so far, the Gnome is not of the druid orders and shouldn't even be able to use a staff of such power! His intentions seem good at least. I wish I could get Levin's advice. He always could read people so much better than I and had a way to get the truth to reveal itself. The closest thing I have to ohana is Storick; the only one I truly can trust. I hope Daergrim gets back soon. He knows these people so much better.
Once we finally got to the tomb it was clearly not right. The well was completely frozen over but not sure it was actually cold enough for that. The place just felt....wrong...we headed through the stone door and were met with spider webs everywhere. Without thinking much I blasted it with a quick little flame to see if we could burn through it a little and a shit ton of medium, large, and tiny spiders start rushing us!!!
Tomb tomb tomb. Toombie toombie tomb. Toombie toombie tomb. Tomb tomb tomb. Oooo. Whats that?!? Oh…a secret chamber…
My master would beat my furry ass if he knew how long it has been since I have written in my journal. Some days I wish he were here. We had to do so many recon things…did I mention I hate doing recon work. Well future self, here is a reminder. You hate it….sooooo much….but I am getting ahead of myself. Lets see. We just got past the village of the damned. Right. So we take out the spiders. Did I mention I hate spiders? There were swarms of them but the suckers got stopped pretty well. I found this secret door while in giant constrictor form. Actually really proud of that considering how blind Constrictors are and…lets face it, I am so fucking huge I can barely feel a brick in the wall much less figure out some complex dwarven door…
Anywho, we were attacked by statues but got past the them and the spirit guy guarding it and then got our artifact. Honestly not one of the harder adventures I have been on. Hell I didn’t even get cursed by a stupid mrrrraraawwwwwooo. Fucking mew.
So anyway we get out and see this party with a cannon coming our way. I get into bear form and we talk to them. I think they are looking for the thing we got or to destroy it so they pass. I think they are working for a Mr. Bush? Anywho, then we talk to the group we were trying to beat here…they are taking this really seriously and tried to make some shitty bargains with us. I’m glad Daergrim is taking care of this kind of stuff…I have no patience for it, though I bet my master would say that is why I need to do it more. Weird thing though…I think one of the guys…this Elf saw through my bear form. I’m not sure but I think he winked at me. I hate that. What is that even suppose to mean. Like “Hey I know who you are!” or “I like bears!” or “Im into feral fun times you sexy beast!” Now I feel all dirty…though that might be because someone saw through my form. That’s just wrong.
Oh, and I think their proxy is Mr. Trunk. Now we just need to meet Mr. Branch and Mr. Leaf and we have a forest!
So yea, we headed back to the city. Reported back to Meridith who sent us to Cassius. I got some intel that the Priest of Thaltam (or however you spell it) might be able to help with my little ppeeeeerrrrrawwwwww. *scratch marks* Ok, I sure do hope I can get this worked out soon because I am so sick and tired of this stupid thing.