c2393/Lavanda-12

Dear Diary… is that how these things go? I honestly don’t remember. I think girls are supposed to be interested in them. I do remember having one when I was a kid. The first time that is. I think Moondad got me some fancy journal. Haven’t thought about keeping a diary in ages, but things have been so strange lately, I’m kind of wondering if I won’t go crazy, or crazier, if I don’t get some of these thoughts out of my head. That Hollow person recognized me. Very strange. I need to figure out what the hell is going on with me, and what I’ve missed here.

c2393/Lavanda-18

Dear Diary… spirits that sounds dumb. But I can’t seem to stop myself from doing it. Force of habit I suppose. Quite a day in the market, another giant bug thing. More importantly though, Lekhsinkka found me again. I suppose it was inevitable. I knew I owed her. Now I have this… reubollo thing inside of me that I’m carrying for her. I can’t feel it physically, but it drips through my mind. It’s not overwhelming, but it’s… odd. A slippery, wet eel in my thoughts. Separate, not trying to influence me, but asking me questions almost. I’m not sure what those questions are, but if I figure it out, I’m not sure how I’ll answer.

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…and Riv finally came clean to the group about what he is as well. I have to admit that it’s a relief to finally have things out in the open. I’m still not totally sure that we can trust all of them, but trying to hide the strange circumstances for Riv and me was getting exhausting. So now everyone knows that Riv is a djinn, and that his true form isn’t what they’ve been seeing. He’s eager to help anyone he can, I hope that doesn’t come back to bite us.

Beeroy also opened up a bit about his past. Seems he’s just a country kid, from generations of beekeepers. But his clan was attacked by bugbears, and he barely made it out alive. Seems his uncle betrayed the clan, and when Beeroy found out, his uncle had him attacked to try and silence him. Kid made it out alive, and tried to get justice from the council. Not sure if it’s because he’s Unaf, or if they’re just not interested in justice, but he got nowhere. I can’t say I’m surprised. Things were mired in bureaucracy when Moondad was dragging me around, and in retrospect a lot of what seemed slow, or boring to me as a kid was probably garden variety corruption. I can imagine it’s only gotten worse.

c2393/Lavanda-25

Dear diary… they can’t understand how I could just kill a man. Well, Riv brought him back, so I guess no harm in the end. The Song. I haven’t really had to deal with the stupid thing since we’ve been back. Never had to worry about that with Beltrane. He didn’t teach me how to shoot nice-like. At any rate, today was a total shit show.

We met with the Regent, and I… convinced her… to meet with us again later. As we left we were ambushed by a group of idiots after Goat. I took down one of them, but we were outnumbered pretty badly. Archers were on the roof, and a couple of dwarves had Goat in a net to drag it away. One of them spoke fingertalk to me, making it clear I hadn’t made any friends by shooting his companions with crossbow bolts. Thankfully, Riv and Beeroy caught up with us and gave us a chance.

Just as they arrived, this elf caster brought lightning down on the street, and Brom got hit hard. I was able to absorb some of it, but gods it still hurt. Brom was fighting for his life, while the archers finally remembered how to shoot… unfortunately for me. I got stuck pretty good, but Bold gave that elf woman what for.

Somehow she managed to keep the storm going despite his hammer to her hip. When we heard her arm snap after his next swing I thought for sure the lightning would stop, but somehow, no. The dwarves were making off with Goat, so I tried to slow them down. Maybe it was the lightning, but my aim was off. I stepped through the mists to close the distance, but got in too close. Not my best move. Got to remember I’m not going to overpower anyone in this body. Well, physically at least. I’m sure I could overpower someone’s peace of mind with how I must have looked between the blood and the mists and Lekhsinkka’s gift. Didn’t stop the assholes from shooting me again, or stabbing me. I wasn’t in any better shape than Brom in short order.

Urne kept chipping away at one of the dwarves, but they were still making progress in dragging Goat away. Thankfully, Riv and Beeroy were able to get in the fight after dealing with more of the bitch’s lighting. Riv did his usual “let me help everyone not die” thing, and lobbed a sphere of water that turned into a unicorn spirit, and somehow just being near it helped us all a bit. The archers on the roof started getting clumsy, one fell down and ran at Brom, but he was able to dodge her blow. Bold took a hit from another. I don’t know for sure, but it seemed to fuel him. He was decently pissed. Once Brom was back from the brink, he summoned some vines to try and ensnare Goat and his would be abductors. He caught me up in them too, but I saw what he was trying to do. Smart move. Maybe he’d make it in the Whimsey.

Another asshole archer fell off a roof. It was frankly insulting to have been shot by idiots that can’t even keep their footing. They started to converge around their leader to stabilize the netting and again try and make off with Goat. The vines were working as intended though, and they didn’t make any progress. Beeroy stepped through the… bees? and got on the roof with an asshole archer. He missed with a thrown dagger, but he was in the fight and getting their attention off of the rest of us in the street. Bold finished off the caster with a savage swing at her knees, and the lighting was finally gone for good. I tried to stab the fingertalking bastard, but missed. He didn’t do much better on the riposte though. Goat snacked on vines. Unfortunately, Brom got another arrow, and the vines dropped.

Riv came running down the street, healing us some more and hexing the leader dwarf. Back in action, Brom was able to trip up an asshole running past him, causing her to eat pavement and she was down for good. Bold got another good hit in on an asshole, who then ran over towards Goat. Brom, bless his hairy heart, got me back in action with some solid healing, then surprised the guy with an axe by popping a shield out of his bracer. Neat trick. Meanwhile Beeroy was venting his frustration on an asshole archer, as in venting her neck with his dagger, and her face with his bees. Bold continued to make our attackers regret their life choices, as he dropped the other dwarf with a hammer blow to the chest.

Somehow we had turned the tide, and the idiots knew it. The fingertalking leader said something about how we were Disharmonists and they turned tail and ran. Firstly, that’s pretty rich coming from a bunch of assholes with arrows raining down on us, lightning coursing over the street, and axes swinging at our heads. Secondly, if you’re going to run directly away from me in a straight line, well, you’re much easier to hit. I gave the back of his knee something to remember me by, hopefully he won’t walk right again.

There were so many more onlookers than I first thought. Riv spared all the idiots the fate they’d brought on themselves, so I guess we aren’t as disharmonious as we were made out to be. Then he obscured us in a fog and we got the hell out of there. Shit, my hand hurts from writing all this. There’s just so much. I’m not even sure that was the most interesting part of the day.

We still had Goat, but not much else after the beating we took, so we headed back to the Prune. When we got there, the place was surrounded by guards. Fucking typical. This Keep Guard was not screwing around one bit, especially a massive Tabaxi by the name of Nev. Had us surrender all our weapons, and kindly escorted us into our own establishment. The Prune is coming along nicely by the way. In a few more weeks it should be ready to reopen, and all set to get trashed again. A rich old broad by the name of Fabiola was inside, though we were supposed to meet the Regent. Fabiola was there in her stead, and said she spoke on her behalf. Said she used to be the Regent herself. I have serious doubts as to who is really pulling the strings here. I, for one, would much rather have met with the current Regent. But maybe we met with the true power in Grasmere? Not sure. At any rate, she shared a beer with Brom (after having a lackey make sure it wasn’t poisoned, of fucking course, better him than you, right?) and heard our concerns about the tainted healing magic. I’ll give her one thing, she shared our distrust of the Tower’s assessment of the problem, and at one point she let drop that things were easier to manage when Grasmere was a pirate haven. Interesting. She mentioned that a hermit by the name of Theg Kegborn north of Mellow Stand was looking into it, and she thought he’d know more about the situation than anyone. She promised us a letter of introduction, which could be handy depending on just how antisocial this bastard is. She also took our description of our attackers, and if she knew anything about it she’s a great actor, because this seemed to genuinely surprise her. Then she let us know that she had some work for us, but we’d be rewarded for helping out in the market regardless of whether we took this new job or not. And here I thought massive grasshopper legs were prize enough.

Apparently a fleet of ships from Tsura-Tsura sunk (say that in six successive sentences) off the coast of Mellow Stand. No one died, but the Tsurans are demanding answers, and there is a strong suspicion in the air. Fabiola even hinted at the possibility of Tower involvement, which would be a godsdamned tasty morsel indeed. They already sent a councilwoman to investigate (Kharchu, I think was her name), but she hasn’t been heard from since. She presented us with a little chest packed with 250gp, and a promise of 5x that if we were able to resolve the situation with the Tsuran Empire. She also left us a bag of documents which should ease our travel, and suggestions that we could head to Nivertois Mill to look into Kharchu’s disappearance, or head to Mellow Stand directly to talk to the sailors and poke around. Turns out she is traveling herself, heading to Tsura-Tsura. Apparently from her time as regent they have a relationship built up she hopes to cash in on.

After all that, we headed down to the basement to pass out, which I should have done an hour ago. Seems like we’ve found more trouble brewing.