of elves and talking weapons

[cellio]

December 12 (Thursday) (addendum)

I have been reading Dorl Tavyani's journal. What a self-absorbed, pompous twit! Apparently he decided he wanted to be a god and saw that as equivalent to being a god. And his spectral state was self-inflicted, though he blames the mage Elys' for some of his troubles. I wonder what she did to him.

Weeping Wounds is not just a legend. Apparently Dorl Tavyani once owned it, and this might be the dagger Garrett (Renard's companion) owned. We took the remnants of Dorl Tavyani's sword; if it and the dagger were mates, as it appears from the journal, then having these pieces could be relevant if we ever encounter the dagger.

It turns out that Firella, the elf we rescued, knows us. She was in Edwest Burrows when we were, though she was disguised at the time. She is heading home to Beliaberith, and we are going to acompany her. She is too young to remember the Cataclysm, but the elders of her people would remember, and she will introduce us.

We are perhaps jumping to conclusions about the current happenings and the Cataclysm, but there are too many similarities to ingore. And I have not yet met anyone who knows what ended the Cataclysm -- or, for that matter, how it started. It just was -- but it wasn't always that way, so something must have happened. Did that same thing happen again? What can we do to stop it, or at least make it stop getting worse? I'm even more worried about Shepford after hearing Firella's stories of her travels. (We talked for a while and I told her some of the things we had seen, and she told me things she has seen.)

And when did I start caring about saving the world, anyway? Six months ago I mostly cared about saving myself -- like from Martin and his gang of bully friends. And it's not like we really owe Lord Marius anything even though we're investigating on his behalf -- but I think, after what we've seen, I would feel obligated to investigate this anyway, with or without Lord Marius. So I'm happy to have his guidance and his resources. But a small part of me also wants to return to Shepford and defend it from whatever is happening there. However, I know that if I do that it would be like applying a tiny bandage to a gaping wound -- it wouldn't solve the real problem, or even address the acute problem for more than a few minutes. (I wonder if Lord Marius owes us enough that I could ask him to send suitable protectors to Shepford.)

But I probably shouldn't write stuff like this until I'm sure Kyle has stopped raading this diary. It's a pity we had to leave Covanion before that special box was ready.

December 13 (Friday)

How very Prolix. We talked to the club, Skullcreepr, today (yes, it talks), and the first thing Prolix asked was "can you teach me Dimension Door?". I think I'm glad that Prolix is too short to actually be able to swing Skullcreeper.

Initially I didn't want anything to do with Skullcreeper because of its grudge against humans, but apparently that's not quite what's going on. It has special powers against its enemies -- which were initially other humans, but this club was actually made by humans, a long time ago (or so it says). We were on the receiving end when the ogre had the club. Now we have it, and it's not clear who its enemies are. I am not so naive as to think that our enemies are its enemies while we possess it. But I would like to know more about the club and see if it would cooperate with us. Meanwhile, I am glad that Turok has ended up with custody of Skullcreeper. I trust him to keep the thing under control.

The club claims to know stuff about the Cataclysm, including the locations of repositories of ancient knowledge. It described the one we've already been to, the place where we found the letter and stuff from Therion, and then it told us about another that is near this temple. Tomorrow we are going to go there. (Today Kyle is still feeling unwell from yesterday's fight.)

Turok is spending today getting ready for a religious holiday the day after tomorrow, when he is supposed to float little boats containing money down streams to his ancestors. Yes, that's what he said. I guess that's not really any stranger than some of our holidays -- and speaking of which, Pelor's birthday is coming up in a couple weeks, and I sure hope I'm not spending the day in a cave! Beliaberith might be a fine place to spend the holiday; elves like the sun, right? Oakhame would also be fine; I'm more confident that we can reach it in time.

I think we've made Hrolf stir-crazy. Tonight he told me he was going hunting and left during Turok's arts-and-crafts project. He came back an hour later with a huge rabbit, and one of the feathers was gone from his harness. He refused to tell me what happened. We need to spend more quality time together, obviously.