Not quite as long as Shoruke's character's journal, but whatever.
The Library has informed me that I’m to investigate an oddity in the east, an oddity that may very well kill us all if we’re not careful. To ensure the safety of everyone near the damned thing they’ve decided to send me there within a week. This kind of distance seems immense considering that I have a week. To help me cross this vast expanse another Library illusionist trained in the ways of shadow dropped me onto the plane of shadow. We travelled for hours before I reached my destination; Sandsedge. The mage who assisted me said his goodbyes and we parted ways. It was then I noticed that I was still a mile outside the city. Damn it. At least I have my pipe.
After a long walk I arrived in Sandsedge, but by now it was getting late. I’ll have to find the group I was suppose to meet in the morning. Until then I’ll go to a local bar to waste time. A few drinks in and they played our song. I danced with you again, but as always you faded in my arms. As you fell away I was reminded of that terrible night. I lit my pipe again to forget the past, at least for a while. Tired I went to the nearest hotel and rented a room.
In the morning after my fourth cup of coffee I headed out to the mage’s guild with a pipe in my mouth. When I walked in the receptionist, a water elemental, demanded that I put out my pipe. I suppose it would make sense to not smoke near a water elemental. I put out the pipe and asked of where the Library group that communed with Rivershire was. She thought for a moment and then told me the bad news. It turns out that they were in Sandsedge only hours after sending their message, and that they headed to Eriden in the south. Damn it. I paid for a ride to Eriden on an oversized cart with a large canvas sheet that catches wind. They called it a sandflier, but to me it’s just an oversized boat. We stopped a few hours outside Eriden at a massive body of water. I’ve never seen anything quite like it, but damn could that ever make a lot of coffee.
Waiting for the sandflier to set sail again I came across a fellow Librarian. It was Uskton Slek, the youngest of the dwarven members. He simply wouldn’t stop muttering under his breath about killing someone... and that is why gnomes don’t trust dwarves. He said he’d be heading back to the Library, but judging from what he was muttering earlier I’d guess that he’d rather be elsewhere. It was finally time to leave, which is good because I can’t make coffee with a cold hearth.
I arrived in Eriden, but with non-mercenary sandcraft being turned away I would have had one hell of a time getting in... if I hadn’t lied. Under the false pretence of being a mercenary we were led in and docked by a hologram. Quite a nice bit of illusion magic that caster used; I may have to see if I can swap spells with him later. Not wanting to miss this damn group again I headed to the mage guild as soon as I could get off the boat. I lit my pipe and walked into the guild hall... they hadn’t heard of the group. What the hell!? Did I beat them here!? I guess I’ll just have to look around.
I checked with the town guards to see if any Library group was in city. No one I approached had any idea where they’d be. I was about to walk out when a General Wallace stopped me. He told me of a mercenary band that helped collect a material component from the plane of fire. It’s a bit of a long shot, but then again I’m out of options. This orb had better be damn well mysterious and powerful. Unfortunately for me that group was suppose to be meeting another military commander underground. I lied and said that I was one of the mercenaries that was suppose to help clear the area. That is what mercenaries do right? Either way he bought it and I was let in, and by a great coincidence I found the group that I was suppose to meet days ago.
I handed in my letter of introduction, and explained why I was there, all they seemed concerned about was the fact that I was smoking. What do people have against pipes!? I put out the pipe, but I would have rather kept going. Regardless it seems that they ran across a great threat to Arcadia, maybe it has to do with the orb? Regardless I’m sure that they are here for a good reason, so I urged them on farther into the cave to clear monsters out.
Kino, my hawk had spotted something hanging from the ceiling just in front of a small tunnel; spiders, and lots of them. No one seemed to be taking any action to knock the spiders down, so I summoned a rather large illusion. The illusionary dragon that I summoned, crawled on the ceiling towards the spiders and roared at them. This didn’t even shake the spiders, who stood their ground on the ceiling, but the others simply were either astounded, terrified, or hostile at the sight of it. I suppose the library didn’t include a full explanation of who I was, so I had to explain it. Vaba got bored of this waiting and shot a spider making them scatter back into the tunnel.
Rather than send Kino with a grappling hook to latch it onto something Vherid climbed up with Ethan. The spiders attacked, and they were trapped up there. After a moment or two they called out that they’d have to come back out, but before that happened they threw out a rope for us to climb. Kenneth, the paladin, called them cowards for running out, but he hadn’t even made an effort to climb up. Maelrigar, a large blue water orc, was the first and last to climb that rope while the spiders were there. I turned Ethan invisible so that he could run away effectively, but Vherid chose to stay with Maelrigar to clear out the spiders. A burst of flame illuminated the tunnels, and Maelrigar returned a moment later with a new rope for us to climb with. The spiders were either dead or dying, but it seems like they ingested a fairly wealthy alchemist, because within a spider was a bag of holding of all things. Inside this bag of holding was alchemist fire... without a bottle... ouch. That had to hurt.
Wanting to get back into alchemy I volunteered to collect the alchemist fire to recycle it. As it turns out there’s another alchemist. This could turn out for the best, if I need help with the orb. For now we’re taking a short break to catch our breath, and finish looting spiders.
If no one noticed in this journal he has grieving issues. I'll need to add onto his backstory in case I want to further this aspect of his life. I haven't slept well in days, so just let me know if I have something wrong in my journal.
Dsarker, you may want to look into a different way to RP a paladin in battle, because not rushing into battle and luring them out is kind of a cheap tactic for a paladin. Normally you'd want to be at the front to take the brunt of the damage in order to protect people. Standing back and letting people get hurt is bad for the code. Also, monsters that are chaotic or evil in nature are enemies of a paladin and their code. So don't hold back on spiders.
EDIT: Sorry, not trying to be harsh Dsarker. Your RPing is good, but your RPing in battle is off for a paladin. Unless you can negotiate with it, something attacking you on sight can generally be considered either chaotic or evil. Negotiating isn't a terrible idea with most sentient monsters, but the storyline monsters are chaotic. Seriously though they summoned chaos maws in our first encounter with them. Fun stuff.
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Topic: D&D 3.5- Western Marches: dead and gone (RIP) (Read 305770 times)