This is a emu parchment quire bound in emu leather and decorated with kangaroo bone. On the item is an image of a kobold in wombat bone. On the item is written "Journal of Avafi Specialmosses, Kobold orphan" in Elven script.
My name is Avafi Specialmosses. I am a kobold, but I was found and raised by the elves of Dreamzephyr, my home. They taught me how to read and write and their sign language, but I cannot speak, as all kobolds. My elven family died several years ago when night creatures, howling freaks, attacked us and dragged them away. I have been alone ever since. My mother was named Aweme Arrowpure and my father Le Faintpears. I had an older brother named Olaca Secretrivers and a younger sister named Ula Beastwatcher. All were devoured by the beasts, my siblings ripped out of the burrow beneath a tree in which we hid, but the creature never came for me, at the back of the burrow, though sometimes I wish it did. I lived in the silent retreat, quietly, eating the fruits, hunting small game with my wooden spear and drinking from the brook, until last week, when I stumbled upon an whip buried in the sand. I cleaned the rust from it with a sharpened stone and it was a chain whip made of hard metal which my stone could not scratch further. My parents didnt teach us the ways of the destroying races like the humans, goblins and elves, so I know little about this weapon, but I chose to practice with it. I gave up worship of the river spirit years ago, I live as an animal, and I have even hunted and killed rabbits and weasels with my bare hands and wood spear. But now I have a weapon better than my claws, or my sharpened rocks and sticks.
I practiced with my whip for the last six days and have killed ravens, turkey and now an emu. I made this paper from its skin and carved its bones. Its not rotting so I think it worked. I killed a kangaroo and a wombat too, and used their bones and skin to add to the quire. The best way to kill is to break their ankles with the whip and then their neck, and wait for them to suffocate.
A beast came back last night, I heard its howling and wandering through the brush, but I dared not go out to look. Its tracks ended outside my burrow and turned around. It is gone now, but I must leave, before it comes back and tries to dig me out. It probably smelled my kills and followed my tracks. I must be very careful as I leave to hide my journey, so I will go by river.
The beast has been following me despite my attempts to hide. It attacked me as I was hunting a kangaroo herd, spooking them. I ran and hid along the brookside, and eventually it wandered off while looking for me elsewhere.
Ive made a terrible mistake today. As I fled the beast, I entered an abandoned human hamlet. There at their lord hall I thought I might find tools useful to me, but when I opened the door I found one of the howling freaks. It drew its dagger and rushed towards me. I ran around the back of the building and out into the trees. It may be following me, a strange smell like so many dead bugs has lingered in the air all day. Ive smelled it before, but never this strong, and I used to pass it off as nothing. Ive turned south now. In the neighboring hamlet I found no monsters, but a cloth backpack I can carry provisions in instead of hunting something new for every meal. Im sleeping now in a wooded area by a creek.
Ive continued south, and have had no more sign of monsters. I even came upon a human-inhabited hamlet, and tried to communicate with the people there, but they do not know elven script or signs, or maybe im just so out of practice that my sign has become unintelligible. I think their hamlet is called "Singedbear." They pointed me though to a castle outside their village, and there I met a goblin "chancellor," Bengel Ikicango who can read my elven script. He even had a book written in elven, and again in human, which he let me take, and a quiver and spear. He told me of a "museum" in the far south that might have more resources for kobolds, where other wanderers go to learn and teach. I dont have anywhere else to go, and I must admit I am enjoying finally having people to talk to again, even if I must write.
Night has begun to fall. I have reached the banks of a river to the south of the castle, just outside a village. I can once again smell the dead-bug scent of the monsters, coming from the east. The rain masks my presence somewhat, but I fear the beasts are still tracking me. Perhaps I can lose them in the river.
I encountered some unicorns on the plains and slew two. Their hides make fine clothes. Ive gone further south and found a walled city named "lipbraided." It seems almost abandoned.
This journal was found on the body of a kobold and brought to the museum by a goblin who found it by the door to the keep of lipbraided, before promptly turning around.
That was a short and terror-filled adventure. I got an hour and a half of adventuring in and got strangled to death by one of those damn blighted thralls. Its hard being smol