555/1/31. We
headed South East, towards a coastal city that I had heard about. I
kept my eye on Krelga, for we still weren't sure what had happened to
her. She insisted that she now had a link to a higher power, maybe one
of the Lost Gods even. Somehow I doubted it, but there was the dream
that I had nagging me in the back of my mind. I still didn't know the
significance of the greenish- orange mist. Curse my ignorance! If only
I had listened more to my Ma and Da when they told me the stories of
our people's past.
Our trail crossed the recent spur of an abominable snowman. Fearsome
creatures of almost mythic stature, they are said to be fiendishly
clever and stunningly handsome to boot. Seeing an opportunity for
silver, a craving which struck most of the party a couple of days ago
as we realized we had no money, we tracked the beast to his lair.
Unfortunately, he seemed to reasonable to fight with. There's just
something about intelligent conversation that puts the damper on
bashing somebody's head in. In the end, the abominable snowman bought a
week's of rations from us for 10 silver. A handsome profit on our part.
555/1/32. Another dream. This time I was in a dark place, perhaps a
room. Since I can see in the dark it didn't bother me much, though dark
vision is not as good as having a light source. Krelga was by my side,
all greenish- orange. Out of the darkness came four vikuls. No, not
vikuls, vulkats! They glowed with an eerie purplish-yellow glow, their
tentacles waving in the air like worms, or snakes.
The vulkats sat in a circle and began digging a hole with their hands.
Puzzling, but an ideal opportunity to attack. Krelga and I pounced on
the nearest one, and as we hit it, it exploded in a bright brilliance.
I had a brief glimpse of Krelga being torn apart by the blast as I lost
consciousness.
But then I was standing again, once again with Krelga. Again the
vulkats appeared out of the darkness, and again they started digging a
hole. Krelga again moved in to strike, but I stopped her, remembering
what had happened before. Instead we went around them and continued our
journey.
What does this mean?
555/1/33. Sometimes I just don't understand these "people". Sometimes I
forget that I'm with a group of lower life forms. Sure, they talk and
act like real people sometimes, but other times they're just a bunch of
dunderheads. Take today for example, we met a quartet of vulkats and
didn't kill them. Not only that, we were all chatty and friendly with
them! Good grief! It doesn't take any brainpower to recognize chaos and
kill it.
And the day started out so interesting. We finally reached the
outskirts of some ruins. Huge metal structures jutted out of the sand
at odd angles. Big depressions dotted the landscape. An earth elemental
attacked us, but it only seemed to want us to follow it. Well, that's
not something you see every day so follow it we did. It led us to a
rocky outcropping, a cave entrance leading inside where the earth
elemental could not go.
Once inside the cave we saw Vulkats! Four of the vermin. Yet no one
else but Krelga and I moved to attack them. Sensing something wrong,
Krelga and I would have attacked anyway, but that Nakaro and Timroth
stopped us. Tev and Tok parlayed with them. Parlay! The very thought of
a dialogue with the monsters sickens me! For some reason though we left
them alone.
This was part of an ancient mining complex. Five tunnels led further
into the earth. The Vulkats went down the fourth tunnel unmolested.
Arguing that we should attack the vile beasts, Krelga and I were
outvoted by the other four. Sigh, and they themselves intelligent! It's
a good thing us snowpeople took over, or otherwise I shudder to think
how civilization would look like today with the likes of these people
in charge. Darn, I'm still mad!
In any case, we explored the other tunnels. In the first one we quickly
encountered a cloud of acrid smoke that prevented us from moving
forward, we were all hacking and coughing so hard. The second one led
to a hole, some sort of pit leading downwards to other levels of the
mine complex. In the third tunnel I found a copper vein. A somewhat
useful metal but too much trouble to mine ourselves. The fifth tunnel
ended in a cave in. We tried to clear away some of the rubble but
didn't have the proper tools.-
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So why don't
we go kill the Vulkats for their tools, I asked. But no,
they couldn't be convinced to turn on their new "friends". Instead why
don't we trade the information about the copper vein for a couple of
tools? Gaaah! It's like trying to make a Zorrel roll over! Seeing that
my misguided companions would not be dissuaded, I stopped arguing and
went over to a corner to write up this journal entry.
Now they've been working at the rubble for a good hour, making little
headway. I feel a bit calmer, perhaps this little expedition won't turn
out into a bust after all. After all, who knows what's on the other
side of the rubble? And at least I get to write and collect my thoughts
and-
555/1/34. I woke up in pain, the dog licking me in a place he
shouldn't. It took me a few minutes to remember the explosion that
knocked me out. Had it already been a day since the accident? Strange,
this is the first time I've been really hurt in my entire life. It's
not pleasant, I can tell you that. Krelga was also quite hurt. Timroth
told me that Krelga punch a hole through the rubble, which resulted in
the explosion that wounded most of us.
There seems to have been some kind of gas on the other side of the
rubble. The guys have been trying to burn it off or find a solution to
get past it, without success, since the accident. Geez, I'm so stiff! I
hate being forced to lie still. It reminds me too much of my first
boyfriend. Oh well, I guess I'll reread my journal and see if I've made
any mistakes...
I reread my last two entries. It dawned on me that the vulkats in my
dream presaged the real vulkats we met yesterday. I don't know how I
could have forgotten the dream so quickly -- it's a good thing I wrote
it down. I still don't understand what the dream meant. Was it a
warning not to attack the Vulkats? Is that why only Krelga and I were
in my dream, we were the only two willing to fight the chaos-things?
Why wasn't I warned about the real explosion? Too many questions.
555/1/35. The Vulkats approached us with an offer: if we were willing
to stay a day and leave this place at the same time as they did
tomorrow, they would give us half of whatever they mine today. The
Vulkats are afraid of the earth elementals that wander these parts. I
hope a big elemental eats them tomorrow. Still, we do need the money so
I don't begrudge the rest for agreeing to wait.
With nothing to do, Nakaro, Timroth and I decided to climb down the
shaft we found two days ago. Roped up, it wasn't a tough climb as there
were lots of girders and ledges. But once we neared the bottom, we say
some sort of rock- creature rolling around. Nakaro, being on the
bottom, poked it with his pike and the creature prompty ate the top
half of his pike.
Seeing as it looked quite dangerous we didn't know what to do. Finally,
out of sheer boredom, I started Disrupting it. Surprisingly I did
manage to hurt it, but not enough to kill it before I ran out of magic.
But it still wasn't dead so we climbed back up. At that point Nakaro
wanted to go hunting. I wasn't interested but Tev was so the lizard and
dog went out to get dinner.
The dog came running back an hour later. Seems like a small flying
gecko had gunned down Nakaro. We rushed out to the scene of the crime
and found a small gecko sunning himself on top of Nakaro. Tev kept
saying that it was impossible to hit and emitted heat beams from its
eyes. Yeah, like that could happen. Just in case though I shot the
little sassenach with my bow, then we made sure that Nakaro wasn't dead
and dragged him back to camp. On the up side, Timroth did a fine job
butchering our kill.
555/1/36. Early that morning we collected our blood money and left.
About 100 encumbrance worth of copper is quite significant, which
doesn't help me with this feeling of guilt that's like an oppressive
blanket. After a couple of hours of brisk walking I was able to put it
out of my mind, though the weight of the copper just wouldn't let me
totally forget it.
An Amaz caught up to us. A scout from a Cold Army platoon chasing us.
For some reason the Amaz warned us, perhaps he's part of the secret
rebel alliance that I had heard rumors about when I was in the Army. I
don't particularly like dealing with the rebels, a more wretched scum
of villany would be hard to find. Still, now that I'm an outlaw some of
my lesser ideals must, by necessity, be abandoned, at least for the
time being. It helps that I'm on a righteous cause. I'm privileged and
honored to have been assigned this quest, I just hope I can live up to
the challenge.
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