Ok, despite what I told Bralbaard, I found time to play today. So here's the frist four days of adventure.
Journal of Peklod Hollowwhirled the human merchant of... Something or other.
17th Malachite, 1075
Economy's been crap lately. The nobles are foreclosing on houses all over the valley. Since I've already lost mine, and every scrap of wealth that went with it, I am left with two options; die a beggar, or die an adventurer. I always loved to roam, selling wares between towns. If I can just get ahold of some money...
18th Malachite, 1075
Yesterday was crap. After my morning's journal entry, I set out to find someone in the village that can afford to spare some change, or work cooperatively with me. No such luck. I resorted to joining the militia as a scout, as the king's men are awarded a shield and weapon as part of their uniform. I'm not supposed to get the rest of it for a few weeks, but I took an old rusty copper shield and a spear with a silver point. Today, I set off to roam around town. First objective is to pay the local criminal gang a visit and see if I can't catch a couple of them off-guard to thin the herd.
19th Malachite, 1075
Yesterday was also crap. After sneaking through the woods out of town, headed west-north-west, I ran into a honey badger. She became very angry with me, and decided I needed to be taught a lesson. It was at that point I realized I have absolutely no combat experience, and I left before taking any real training courses. It took a few hours to actually KILL the damn thing, and then I ran off before I could chop her corpse up because something else was crashing through the bushes to get at me. For all the experience I have as a merchant and scholar, I'm still just a peasant in a world of heros.
I ran, and found myself at some dwarven settlement, where I found a tomb, a hole in the ground, and a dwarven woman with an axe packing her things in preparation to go to the capitol. She let me stay the night, and explained that the tomb belongs to some hero named Bralbaard or something, who perished a hundred miles from here, and was brought back specifically to be put to rest. I thought dwarven tombs were usually underground, but nothing has been "usual" lately. I wish I'd listened to gramps; he always said the world was taking a dive, that none of this was "normal" and it was only going to get worse. As far as I've seen, worse is normal, and better is only a dream.
She let me have all the goods she didn't intend to keep, including a large supply of food and drink. Today, I'm going to grab that stuff, a large statue they left in the workshop outside the tomb, and some gems I found deep in the mines, and load it up on her spare mule. Sell it off at Dinnerwandered, fter I escort my new friend there.
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I got a hell of a lot more for that crap than I'd expected! 1087 stars or something like that. The dwarf took her mule back afterwards, but didn't ask for a part of the money I got selling it. I'm on my own again, but I found a new personal objective: bring some sort of artifact to the keep of Dinnerwandered. They didn't like the statue I brought, though. "Too boring, not enough historical significance." Yet they had plenty of eggs of animal people, and dragons. That's not really "historically significant" if you ask me. Bah. Hysterical significance this statue has plenty of, though, being a statue of a dwarf being accosted by a swarm of roaches. I left it outside the door to the keep, since I couldn't sell it and I didn't want to drag it around forever.
Apparently the keep was attacked recently or something, as there were corpses all over inside and around the keep. Some of them had pouches of coins on them, which, obviously, I kept for myself. With inflation as high as it is, I may need something around 5000 stars to actually buy my own property, and I'm going to buy it outright rather than pay annually like my mother and grandfather did. Probably no such thing as "income" outside of killing and looting anymore, and I don't want to kill and loot forever.
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Third entry today; I stopped by the dwarven ruins outside the city tonight. Not the tomb again, some other ruin I'd never heard about until I stopped in Dinnerwandered. It's a bit more impressive than the tomb was, but infinitely more of a wreck. Corpses everywhere. And the yard is infested with animals of all kinds; hundreds of them! I tried to get some hunting in, but more badgers kept showing up, and then a falcon started buzzing my head. I'm sitting in the dark of the ruins, now, a few stories down.
20th Malachite, 1075
This morning I barely escaped the ruins with my life. Dingoes and badgers, and that damn falcon again! I fought off the dogs and angry rodents, and managed to corner the falcon after it flew indoors and bonked it's head on a wall. I think it was organizing the other animals. Elven witchcraft!
After butchering one of the dogs and a badger for the meat, I made a run for it. I'm actually pretty far along the road now, towards the bandits' camp site.
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Again, another entry. Along the road I got jumped by hideous beasts! Consulting my memory of the Bestiary of Cavern Wildlife, I believe they were both troglodytes. And, better yet, I believe I've heard of this pair of quasi-bandits. Their names were Lanirrithol, the male, and Ottansobir, the female. I believe those translate to Slynoble and Mindfulrelease, respectively. I managed to take them both down. Which is lucky, because Troglodytes are almost as intelligent as any of the races composing the actual civilizations, and these two were known killers. I still don't think I have much experience, so I need to be more careful as I continue to the camp. Their corpses are pretty small, so I guess I'll lug them along with me and turn them in when I get back to town.
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There's another falcon watching me from the trees. It's up to something, I just know it!
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There are way too many bandits, and I've heard this gang knows what they're doing. I don't think I'll be able to handle this...
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Hahaha! I did it! The leader was away from the group, when they spotted me at a distance. I led them into a pool nearby, where we fought. I honestly didn't think I could do it, but she tried to tackle me and we both fell over. I stood up, and managed to get a crippling blow in. It still took maybe an hour wrestling in the mud before I could smash her skull in, but I finally did it! This is sure to get me a promotion, if I make it back!
21st Malachite, 1075
I didn't make it back to town before nightfall, but I did manage to make it inside before anything wierd happened. Still not rich enough to buy my own property, unfortunately, but the villagers were pleased to hear the bandit gang had one less for leadership, and the rabid trog couple had been lovingly married in death. Hopefully the bandit gang dissolves after this.
The ruler at Dinnerwandered, whoever the hell that actually is, will let adventurers retire there if they bring back a significant historical artifact, so that is still my goal. I've gone well beyond my duties in dealing with the bandits, so today I'll be searching for something else to do locally, beyond my commander's orders.
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I've met a fellow peasant by the name of Tode. She's been homeless for a while as well, and jumped at the chance to regain her reputation after begging for the last few months. We're setting out to see to some of the other dwarven settlements nearby. There's a fortress named Legendfountains a day or two to the west that apparently hasn't been as popular a stop for adventurers as some others. I think we'll go there.
Three notable kills, including those two trogs, and seven random animals so far. No pictures, though. Sorry.