It's actually a lot funner not knowing all of my teammates' powers. Gives the game a "holy smoke look at all this nifty STUFF we can all do" feel.
Day 1, early morning:
*the first page has a map drawn on it. The city of Villageton is on the north side of the lake; from there, a road goes northwest through a forest, passes through the city of Empire, and continues north-northeast to Fort Citadel. Rivers crisscross the map all over. There are a few jot notes on the bottom few inches of the page.*
-forest has a semi-hostile druid, and somewhat inactive bandits
-giant, GIANT spider northeast of forest
Money is running short. I've got plenty left for food and lodging; I can live comfortably for probably another month or two. But it costs so much to scribe spells into my prayer book, since normal ink just does not suffice. So, I've taken a job as a guard for a merchant caravan. It pays well enough, and with my martial training and diverse spellcasting, I can probably do a good enough job. I won't be alone, anyway; Syelyi is coming with me, of course, and there will be other guards as well. So, I bought this empty wizard's spellbook to serve as a journal, a pen, and some ink, so that I can record everything I see. The Black Table told me to come back with knowledge of magic; but I know that even the hunters, scouts, and the foreign affairs politicians from the Cabal don't see everything on their journeys to other lands, so I intend to come back with knowledge of other things as well.
Frankly, I should have started this journal the day I left. Oh well. The laconic version is, I went from town to town, asking druids and rangers and paladins if they could share their knowledge of magic with me if I paid them. I've collected quite a few spells.
Day 1, evening:
I am journeying with a lot of interesting people!
The expedition leader is a dwarf. I'm not sure if Lord is his given name or his title (he doesn't seem very lordly to me, but maybe dwarves are just different), but either way we address him as Lord Urist. I think of him as Lord Furriest, though. You can hardly see him through his beard. He seems like a decent enough leader; he had a route planned out ahead of time (and I agreed with his choices on it), he had spare space in the wagons for us guards to store our things (unnecessary; everyone came prepared to carry their life in a backpack with them, like me), and food and shelter are being provided for us. He also brought four dwarves along with him; they're eerily silent. I'd heard that dwarves are gruff, but these ones hardly even mutter to each other, let alone to me. Lord Urist himself, however, is amiable enough; answered my questions about the route, gave us one warning not to try and steal the stuff. I guess you can't generalize entire races like that.
There is another dwarf in our group too, but he's markedly different. He obviously doesn't much time digging underground; he's much too tan (although, I suppose we are quite a ways from any major Dwarven settlements). His name is Thoten. He wears desert garb (including a highly conspicuous turban), and carries a peculiar instrument; a bit like a guitar or maybe a lute, but with a longer neck. He plays it all the time while we're travelling, too. He's not bad at it, but I wish he would play more soothing music.
There is also a small Grey Elf girl, named Olive. She's... I don't know, morose. Reclusive. Spends almost all of her time drawing in her sketchbook. I get the idea that she doesn't like to talk to people in general. She also refused to draw my picture, and just drew the scenery, saying I wasn't one of her 'friends'. I suppose I shouldn't take personal offence. She did show me one of her friends from her sketchbook, though, some kind of bird made of goo and crystal. I'd never seen such a thing. She also carries a crystal named Alfred, who can talk directly into everyone's minds. She kinda triggers my guardian's reflex, like I should protect her just like one of the Cabal's children.
The silly thing is, from what I've heard of elves' longevity, she's probably three or four times my age.
There's another Grey Elf named Kevkul. He's also rather quiet, but he's much older than Olive (by maybe twice as much), and strikes me as less "emotionally scarred" than "just quiet". He showed up a little late to the meeting, so as of yet I don't know much about him.
There's also two humans in our group; one goes only by Mr. Black (he's in his mid-30's, at a guess), and the other is named Adler (more my age). Both of them are somewhat opinionated, but they seem okay.
Day 6:
*there is a sketch of a two-headed creature lying on the ground, bruised and bleeding*
Nothing of note has happened until today. The road was more or less flat, for days on end. I considered using my magic to make the horses move faster, but decided against it. It's always good to have *some* healing power ready. Bandages can only do so much.
Anyway, today Adler (who was scouting ahead, as per his ritual) found a cave with some bones outside of it. Apparently the corpse was fresh. We were trying to come to a decision as to what to do about it, when the caravan encountered a terrible stink. I asked what could possibly cause such a smell, and received no answer. I noticed that there was a hill nearby, and suspected an ambush by a monster of some kind. I allowed my Power Sigils to shine again (I keep them hidden for most of the day, to make myself look like a human), and put my hood up to cover them. I told the others to stay with the cart, but be ready for combat, while I slunk along the base of the hill. I caught a glimpse of the monster before it noticed me, and I snuck back around the hill to signal to my teammates that there was an enemy on the far side of the hill. I went to try and get a closer look at the enemy, to gauge its weak points and abilities before combat started, but it saw me and brought the fight to me. I was startled, and missed with my first attack, even though I utilized the power of shadows to turn myself invisible for the instant of those strikes. It hit me solidly with a morningstar. I called for help, stabbed it back, and ducked away from the creature.
Then my teammates showed up. I had thought that they were generally interesting people before, but wow! Olive summoned some kind of construct from her sketchbook, Thoten can shoot beams of fear from his hands, Kevkul can shock people with his mind, Mr. Black can turn invisible (and for longer than I can), and Adler and Mr. Black are both good melee combatants, from what I saw. Kevkul was able to heal me after the fight as well, which means I'm not the only healer in the group. Good to know. If that Ettin was the worst that we'll face on our journey, we'll be just fine, I think.
The Ettin also had some goodies with it. Besides its workaday morningstars, it also had some gemstones, and one hundred pieces of eight (which are basically equivalent to gold pieces, if I understand it correctly). I claimed two pieces of quartz. By Lord Urist's estimation, they should be worth about 70 gp each. Almost the price to buy and scribe another spell for my book. Not bad, when put on top of my actual pay for the job.
Since I need to sleep for eight solid hours to reconfigure my magic, I advised the group that we lengthen our sleep schedule, and have two-hour watch shifts (since there's six of us). I'll enchant the horses to move faster tomorrow. It will use up most of my magic for the day, leaving me with only a single healing spell... but between my friends' powers and my use of the Sublime Way, we should be fine.
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Topic: D&D 3.5: Alternative Energy: Dead but Dreaming (Read 41455 times)