A/N: Hey everyone, ShoujoOnmyouji here with the next chapter! I'm trying to get these out in a pretty timely manner, as I really don't want to subject y'all to another two month wait. I think one every couple few days or so is pretty good. Anyways, enjoy!
Day 86, Hour 21
We're going nowhere fast, Mr. Journal. Rasaad's injuries were so bad we've had to stay camped here the entire day. Yeslick still hasn't managed to get him completely healed up, and it's getting real dark, so we're going to have to wait another night, to boot. At least Rasaad's doing well enough to walk around again, and the rest of us have completely recovered.
I don't know about the others, but I slept some real odd hours today. Last night, once I could feel my legs again, I went over to look after Rasaad while Yeslick got himself some more healing spells. He was unconscious during most of it and I was real scared and worried, Mr. Journal. I didn't know if he'd be okay. Luckily, he didn't take any turns for the worse while I was on watch. Gods, it had to have been only a couple hours before sunrise by the time Yeslick came back with his spells ready. Said he'd already healed Xan as he was going to need to spend most of his time tending to Rasaad and didn't want to leave the rest of us in terrible condition for most of the day while he did. Then he cast a healing spell on me and told me to go get some rest, and that he'd handle things from here.
Well, Mr. Journal, I may have been right worried about Rasaad, but Yeslick didn't need to tell me twice. I was exhausted. Could barely keep my eyes open! Once I got into my bedroll, it were all I could do just to keep from falling asleep before my head even hit the ground! At least I was able to stay awake until then, Mr. Journal, and I didn't fall asleep in the middle of the night like I did the last time I was supposed to stay up and look after someone.
By the time I woke up, it were already early afternoon, Rasaad was awake, and Yeslick had gone off to pray to Clangeddin for more spells. Immy saw me walking around and gave me some of our rations, along with some berries what Kivan had gone off and foraged that morning. Apparently, I'd just missed lunch. I asked Immy where Kivan had gotten off to, as I didn't see him anywhere, and she said he'd stalked off around an hour ago to patrol the area and make sure nothing snuck up on us.
After that, I went over to go check on Rasaad. He was doing a lot better, which was a relief, but he was still pretty badly hurt. It was kind of painful even to look at, Mr. Journal. He seemed to be happy for my company, though. We mostly just sat in silence for a while, which was nice.
It didn't last too long – pretty soon, Immy came over to join us and wanted to talk. She said that she was bored, and she couldn't go bother Xan as he had his face stuck in his spellbook. The three of us ended up swapping childhood tales. Immy and I told Rasaad about all the hijinks we got up to in Candlekeep when we were wee. Well, the less embarrassing ones, at least. Gods, but I'm glad Immy didn't bring up the Blackstaff incident. I don't think I would have been able to live it down if Rasaad knew about that. Rasaad told us about some things that happened when he and his brother were growing up as pickpockets on the streets of Calimport. Gods, but he's had a rough time of it. It's a wonder he can look back on that time full of bad memories and still treasure the few good ones he's got of it. I can't help but wonder if it'll be the same way for me and Immy when we're looking back on this mess years later.
We stayed there reminiscing about the past for an hour or so before Yeslick showed up and shooed Immy and me off so he could continue with Rasaad's treatment. The two of us went to make dinner after that. Immy offered to do it on her own, but I insisted on joining her, because the last thing everyone needs after recovering from that battle against the wyverns is another battle against food poisoning.
Things are winding down around now. Kivan's returned from his patrol and is keeping watch on the edge of camp, and the rest of us are getting ready to turn in for the night. Xan's been getting his things all together and organized, as that sodding red potion finally wore off and he can carry his own gear again. Also, wear shoes. It's about time, too. He doesn't have the best record for, you know, not stepping on sharp things. Yeslick's already asleep, has been for a while. I don't think he slept at all last night, so I imagine he must be exhausted. Rasaad's mostly better now, so I imagine the rest of the healing can wait until the morning. I'm really not sleepy at all as I haven't been awake all that long, but I'm going to try to get some rest anyway, as I'd rather not risk ending up dead tired in the middle of our trek through the woods tomorrow.
Day 87, Hour 5
I can't even see the sun yet and I'm already wide awake, Mr. Journal. Have been for at least a couple hours, at that. I had another one of those sodding nightmares, and it woke me up in a cold sweat during the wee hours. This time, I dreamt of blood. Blood everywhere, a torrent rushing across the Realms and cutting a swath of red through everything in its path. Blood pouring through the entire damn world until everything was just a sea of blood. And traveling over it all was me. Me, at the helm of a ship called Persistence, forging a path under sails made of pure sodding resolve. But no matter how hard I tried to out-sail it, the storm still came. The last thing I remember before waking up is a wave of blood crashing onto the deck and washing me overboard.
When I woke up, I saw Yeslick standing over me, looking all worried. Apparently he'd heard me screaming in my sleep while he was preparing his spells and stopped to investigate. I really didn't mean for everything to just come pouring out of me like a damn river made of words but that's what happened. I told him everything about the dream I'd just had, and how it wasn't the first time this had happened. I was still real freaked out, Mr. Journal, and I needed someone to talk to about it, and, well, Yeslick was right there.
He says he doesn't know if the dreams mean anything, as he's not that great at interpretation and all, but that considering all the crap I've been put through, it's totally normal to have nightmares. Says he has them a lot too, though his are mostly about the flood what left him homeless so many years ago. I can't imagine how many emotions flooding those mines a few days back must have dragged up for him. Anyway, he told me he'd be right surprised if there were a single person in this group what hadn't had any nightmares since this started, though he had to admit that maybe there were a bit more to mine as I always seemed to wake up with more weird magic powers after them. Unfortunately, he's just as clueless as Branwen and Xan were as to what could be causing that.
Yeslick's gone back to preparing his spells since then, and I've been lying here in my bedroll trying to get back to sleep. It hasn't worked though, and I've just about given up. It's starting to get light enough to write out here, so I may just stay up and try to get the creative juices flowing. Might do a touch to get my mind off things.
Day 87, Hour 7
The time had come to end the Throne's involvement in this place
Where by their hand, the scarred land grew restless in its space
The Cloakwood Mines, so long lain empty, opened once again
Ancestral home of dwarves defiled by the hands of false friends
Beside the plug the heroes stood, the wizard's key in hand
Ready to let the waters wash this evil from the land
A click, a thump, a wailing keen all echoed through the hall
As the thundering torrent descended upon them all
The heroes ran with all they had, the waters at their backs
The daring dash more taxing than the earlier attacks
And as they reached that final bend, their apprehension grew
Despite their fear, they reached the stairs and exit – all but two.
….Hm. I'm not sure about this, Mr. Journal. I don't think this is good enough to make it into the grand epic I'm going to write when this is all over. It doesn't capture the suspense, the urgency of the moment. The part where we escape from the mine as it floods needs to be big. Too big for me to convey right.
Aw, sod it all.
Day 87, Hour 8
Hey there, Mr. Journal. I'm just writing to let you know that the sun is up, everyone's awake now, and Yeslick has totally healed Rasaad up. We're going to be headed out real soon. After some discussion, we've decided to keep following the river. Even if we ended up on the opposite side of it, it'll still lead us in the right direction, unless it splits somewhere and we don't know about it. I sure don't remember seeing any splits though, so we'll probably be fine. I'll let you know how it goes.
Day 87, Hour 21
Evening, Mr. Journal. I am happy to tell you that there is nothing much to report. Sure we're still tromping through these woods, and sure, it's starting to get right tiring, but at least we haven't run into anything real dangerous today. For now, at least, the spidery, spidery woods have decided to play nice for a bit. I am starting to get a bit antsy, though. I don't remember it taking this long to get to the mines. What if we accidentally ended up walking past the Shadow Druid enclave or something and now we're completely lost? I just don't know, Mr. Journal.
I sure hope Branwen's okay.
We're setting up camp right now. Kivan just got back from his foraging trip, and he and Rasaad are working together to make dinner. I've been over talking with Xan and figuring out some plans for the next morning. He wants to prepare some identify spells so we can properly examine some of the stuff we found in the mines, but he also wants to make sure he's got enough leeway to prepare some other spells so if we're attacked in the middle of the night we won't all die horrible, painful deaths.
His words, not mine, Mr. Journal.
Anyways, I've agreed to help him out a bit. He's given me an extra Identify scroll from the party scroll case to scribe to my spellbook, and he's been teaching me how to cast it. It's a bit different from the combat spells I've learned, Mr. Journal. The hand movements are a lot more subtle, and it's hard to get them right. It's a good thing I've got Xan to show me how. He's off bothering Kivan and Rasaad right now though, something about making sure Kivan doesn't put anything he's allergic to in the food by accident. I swear, the man gets one little rash after lunch one time and now he has to supervise every other sodding meal.
Still, I'm making pretty good progress with this spell, and once Xan gets back, I think we'll be able to get this thing to work out. Between this and my bardic knowledge, I'll be able to make myself real useful tomorrow morning.
Day 88, Hour 6
Gods, but I'm glad Xan decided to split identification duty between the two of us! We were attacked by spiders in the middle of the night not once, but twice! The spidery, spidery woods strikes again! If Xan had prepared more Identify spells instead of Sleep spells, it could have been a whole sodding lot nastier than it was. As it were, we managed all right, though it was right annoying to have our sleep broken up into three tiny sleep chunks. I prefer my sleep one big chunk at a time, thanks. Please give me the chunkiest sleep.
Thankfully, ever since we've been up for good, the morning has been entirely spiderless. If only this whole sodding forest were entirely spiderless. Wouldn't that be amazing, Mr. Journal? The spiderless, spiderless woods. Xan and I have managed to figure out what most of this loot is, though we've still got a few mystery scrolls.
Davaeorn's robe had a ton of real useful enchantments on it, but it was completely useless to us, because it turns out only evil people can wear it. Sodding evil wizards, making sure us heroes don't get any use out of their cool stuff. At least we found some neat bracers what gave a lot of magical defense, a protection scroll, and a lot of magic arrows. Xan's taken the bracers as he's got the lowest defenses of all of us.
Oh! Also! The two robes what we found down on the third level were magic, too! Xan called them "traveler's robes" or something, says they're popular among mages what have to be on the road a lot because of the defensive enchantments woven into the fabric or something, and that he used to own a set himself a while back. They weren't near as good as the magic robes me and Xan were already wearing, but from what he's told me they're like to net us a good bit of gold back in town.
Kivan's out foraging for fruit and whatnot again, and soon as he gets back we'll have some breakfast. After that it's yet another day of following this river through the Cloakwood. Hopefully we'll get back to the Shadow Druid enclave soon.
Hold on, Branwen. We're coming.
A/N: And thus ends yet more tromping through the woods. Also, delicious, delicious character interaction. I am quite proud of some of this character interaction. I am especially trying to work at slowly starting to flesh out Yeslick a little more, as I've actually grown really fond of him during this playthrough and there might be a chance of my keeping him in the party for quite a while, though that's not exactly set in stone yet. This is the first time I've had him on my party for more than a really short time, though. Tune in next time as our heroes finally reach the sodding Shadow Druid enclave. If you've got questions, comments, or concerns, please leave a review. I greatly appreciate any and all feedback. Anyways, see you next time!