Post
by ChrisDDickey » Sun Jan 19, 2020 9:19 am
From the journal of Zil, windling elementalist of the first circle.
Hello! I am so excited to start this new journal! Last week I went out of Throal for the first time! I have always listened to the ancient stories most assiduously, and have prepared for my new life of adventuring very carefully. I have learned some very useful adventuring spells, and I bought a riding goat and learned to ride it.
I was hired to accompany Ernest, a guy who has studied to become a wildlife expert, but whom, like us, has never been outside. Also on our trek was Jael, the beastmaster, Alari the swordmaster, and Xeviouz the warrior. Alari and Jael had been outside before.
The client wanted new and unusual game for a feast he was giving. He was particularly keen on being able to serve lion, but other than that, he just wanted wild game from species that had not been inside the Kaer.
We journey a few days travel away from the gates, and are already in virgin territory that no name-giver has seen in hundreds of years.
Jael laid some snares for wild rabbits, under the theory that wild rabbit might taste different from the tame rabbits to be found in Throal. Also, we hoped the rabbit meat would serve as good bait for a lion. In the morning we check the snares, and find that one had indeed trapped a rabbit, but the rabbit had been eaten by some burrowing scavenger. We follow some sort of track or sign and are attacked by a half dozen or so snake-like moles that leap viciously at us from an underground ambush. Somebody refers to them as Earth Q’wril .
I get busy casting Air Armor on people, and at first things look like they are going well. One or two of the Q’wril are easily dispatched. I decide to switch to casting Earth Darts upon the creatures, under the theory that taking them down quickly is best. I miss my casting, and the Q’wriles do not. Both Xeviouz and Hedbut (Jael's pet riding goat - which he does not normally even ride) took very nasty, nasty wounds. Apparently creatures that can quickly burrow through solid earth have little difficulty burrowing though a persons limbs. Despite our troubles, we managed to kill the Q'wriles, except for the two whom escaped. My Heat Food spell was very popular in getting everybody healed, and I used my physicians kit on Xeviouz's wounds.
We spotted an eagles nest, but after we examined it we determined that the two eagles had young, and decided not to disturb them.
That night our camp was raided by 4 monkeys, who attempted to steal some of our food. In the legends, monkeys are always cuddly, comical creatures. These were not like that. They were viscous. Xeviouz and the goat Hedbut both took a 2nd wound, and Hedbut was unconscious, and Alari took a wound as well before we drove the two survivors off. I added some monkey teeth to my beading kit to make into beads. We skinned and boned the monkeys and added them to the game bag.
We took an entire day off to rest and heal, but Xeviouz still had one wound when we got up hour before dawn to sneak back to the watering hole and set an ambush. We saw several animals, but were fortunate to have a solo male lion approach our ambush zone and start drinking. We ganged up on it and attacked it. I took a nasty wound when it attempted to jump the river I was hovering above, and it failed to manage to jump past me, so settled for attacking me instead.
We got the meat back to Throal in time for the feast. I heard a rumor later that while the merchants guests were impressed with the idea of eating lion, the actual meat was so gamey as to be almost inedible, though apparently the Earth Q'wirl and Monkey was considered adequate.