Granite 865We've pulled the wagon as far as she'll go. The wheels got stuck in the mud quite a distance from our intended site, so this spot will have to suffice.
I hate it here. I don't know what kind of elfherb that Ranger was smoking, but I wish I had brought some of it. The muck on the ground must be four inches thick, it's freezing for this time of year, and half the trees are rotten or rotting. Coniferous woods smell the greatest, he said. Lies. You've heard of pine needles? Imagine actual needles sticking out of the pine, sharper than glass and twice as hard. We don't have to imagine.
My six companions believe there are caverns of marble and gold underneath. I sure hope there are. The forest isn't the lush earthen paradise I had sold on them. If they start to suspect I've been mining by the seat of my pants I won't be the expedition's leader much longer.
They all think I'm an expert woodcutter with years of wilderness experience. Apparently people like that are trusted to know what they're doing. In truth, I've never taken an axe to a single tree and I certainly haven't tamed the wild boar of
Ugluk Ngozu. I don't expect it will matter in the long run. How hard can it be to chop down a tree?
Anyhow, it's getting dark and I should be getting to bed, yet for how dark it is, it's just too darn quiet. It's spooky.
Not a baying wolf nor a chirping bird nor even a bloody cricket. Spooky.
* * *
I took a walk around the campsite today to try and get to know the place we'll now be calling home. In the light of the new day, it isn't so bad. That is, it could be worse. It's a very queer place indeed, uncanny, one could say. The legends speak of such places, where the gods themselves did such battle long ago that the land and its creatures were forever scarred with aberrant powers.
As I considered whether we might have found such a place, I came across a colony of ants who had constructed a nest of pure ice, a feat I didn't know was possible. Then I started thinking it was only
I have returned to the campsite with dignified soils in my trousers. Hopefully the others don't notice. I've decided not to mention what I saw, there's no reason to alarm anyone, after all, they're just a couple of sick porcupines. That's all.
* * *
SlateThe miner confronted me when she discovered a monstrous spider in the undercavern. Strangely, it didn't bother her in the slightest. She just wanted to tell me, and thank me for all the gold. I am dumbstruck. At least no one else has discovered the skorcupines. I don't expect the secret to remain secret much longer.
Well, the skat's out of the bag. The swordsdwarf with us, Eclipsetail Agäs, sallied forth with the speed of an elk and smashed the creatures and my dwarven pride in two swings of his sword. Everybody cheered, but before long, more woodland critters came out to play.
Eclipsetail ran out to defend us all. Nobody assisted him.
Luckily, nobody needed to. First the fox, then the skunk, and finally the terrible cougar, all fell before Eclipse and his mighty steel. Bronze. The sword is bronze. It's been a long day and at the end of it, I hope this is the last sort of excitement we have for a while.