Nell's diary

Rise of the Runelords

This is a diary as written by Nell.
She started writing it as an exercise in learning to read and write.

The latest chapter is called Template:Rise of the Runelords chapter, in which Template:Rise of the Runelords chapter. It is chapter Template:Rise of the Runelords chapter of the Rise of the Runelords story.

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Segerns sötma

As we approached Sandpoint they had already heard that we were on our way, and people were gathering at the gate to see us. We were quite a sight to see. Nathaniel, tall in the middle, walking proud. Velicia just behind, closely followed by her floating disc, dominated by the big golden helmet that caught what I thought to be all the light of the sun in its shining surface. Dorothea walked just behind, strangely smiling at unknown pleasures. Honeypot and I were just ahead of Nathaniel on either side, smiling and jumping around of joy at the welcome.

The gathering crowd cheered as we entered the gates and more and more added to the crowd as we went through town. At first mostly children, but soon shopkeepers and bakers and so on joined in. We stopped in the middle of the square outside the temple and looked around at all the people, shaking their hands and telling them short tidbits from our adventure. Soon the Mayor Kendra Deverin approached and she stood up on a table hushing the crowd. As the talk died down all looks turned to her, and she held a speech greeting us as heroes who had saved Sandpoint from a cruel fate. Everybody cheered and started to offer to buy us beer and food at nearby taverns to hear our stories. It was hard to make sure that our treasure got taken care of first. Also we wanted to get the body of Nualia to the clergy in the temple as they probably would know what to do with it.

After all important things were taken care of we had fun all night, telling stories and being celebrated. I could get used to this hero stuff.

The day after our triumphant return to Sandpoint, when I was eating a late breakfast at the Rusty Dragon, Nathaniel showed up and told us who were there that we were invited to a dinner at the Deverin Manor tomorrow. At first I joked that he would make us dinner, but then I realized from Nathaniel that it wasn't his idea and that it was rather the Deverin Family who officially invited the heroes to a dinner.

That made a difference. I'm very content with my clothes, but I know that when fancy families have their fancy dinners they expect fancy clothes. Even though I have been somewhat careful with my clothes when adventuring, it's not possible to keep them completely out of harm's way. Just to make sure they wouldn't complain too much I went out to buy a new dress. As usual there was no finished dress I liked or that would even fit me, but there was one made of a very nice fabric I liked. They told me it could be altered to my request in time.

Magical moments

Velicia told us that she had learned how to make magic items herself and asked if we had any we wanted done. I knew of a few I had heard of in stories that I really wanted. Most of them she said was too hard for her yet, but there were a few she could do. It turned out I wasn't the only one either. Nathaniel asked her to make several items and spending whole days making potions. Even though it wasn't just for him, it was still quite a lot. And Dorothea had loads of stuff she wanted. Nathaniel and Dorothea offered Velicia to help get her food and stuff to make sure their own things were being done first. They really started bidding over each other to get their things done. Nathaniel even got Velicia a new dress for the upcoming dinner, but I'm not sure if that was to please her or his family.

When we were talking about food Nathaniel told me a story:
When he was a little boy, he and a friend broke into the garrison and stole trail rations. They were soon found out and then, as a punishment, they had to eat them.

I was so astonished that he had ever done anything like that. I could hardly believe my ears. I know I've stolen food several times, but he's from a rich family. Why would he steal food?

The Deverins

To get to the Deverin Mansion you almost leave town. You go over the southern bridge and then you cross another bridge and end up on the other side of the bay where the harbor is. Their house must be one of the biggest houses in town, not counting the cathedral. And the city hall. And the garrison. And the glassworks and the theater and the academy, but anyway the biggest house someone lives in.

We were well greeted by Nathaniels mother Vana. She presented all of the family that lives in Sandpoint and that was a lot. Most of the younger siblings just said hi and had to go.

The food was good, but I've had better in Sandpoint. I liked the combinations and that there were a lot of it. And there were many courses too. I will become fancy too someday and eat several courses at every meal.

A little later when we all had eaten Vana took me aside. She said she had something very important to talk about. She pointed out that we girls in the adventuring group had all a lesser upbringing than Nathaniel and that he would go on to become some person of great importance and then his future wife also had to be of good upbringing. She even asked if any of us had had any closer relations with him. I understood what she meant as some of us is so hard to resist when we are our charming selves, but I assured her that she had no such things to worry about from us, yet. I mentioned that on the other hand there were other girls in town, who did have a more direct approach. I didn't say anything about Velicia who I still think has a secret crush on Nathaniel.

Play

It was well into the evening and the playhouse had just emptied after the nights performance when I and Honeypot entered Cracktooth’s Tavern. We also brought Dorothea, but she was strangely absentminded. The play had been a very funny comedy by a traveling troupe from Magnimar and most of the audience had had the same idea as us. The mood was high and it was hard to get heard when I ordered a plate. As we had been quick we even had a table.

Someone tried to make an appearance on the stage but was hardly noticed. I noted how Honeypot still looked at the stage longingly.
"You want to play tonight?" I asked Honeypot.
"You have told me how much fun it would be."
"Yes, and it will. But I don't know if it's that easy to get their attention tonight."
Honeypot started to stand up when I said "Wait. You'll need an introduction."

I stood up and climbed up on the table and looked around. Hardly no one noticed me. I took two steps on the table and jumped up on the stage just barely avoiding a large man. Some of the crowd closest noticed and pointed to me as they continued to talk.

I cleared my throat and shouted as high as I could. "Have you had enough for the evening?" There were some "No"s from the crowd. "Do you want more?" There were some more "Yes"s and more people turned to the stage. "But can you take it?" Now nearly all close to the stage answered "Yes!" I swallowed and cleared my throat again. "Then prepare to be enchanted by a mysterious force of nature, a seductively sounding siren, the beautiful... Honeypot!"

There were shouts and cheers as Honeypot entered the stage. She bowed and put the flute to her lips. When the music started the room slowly quieted down. It was soft and dreamy, almost painting a scene of a misty forest at night. As the song continued the mood changed as if the first beams of the sun broke through the branches. Honeypot drilled with the flute in a way that you could see birds greeting the sun with your inner eye. The song got merrier as more animals joined in and soon there was a party going on. Honeypot danced around the stage and soon around the whole tavern. Several of the audience joined in and there were a lot of dancing that night.

Cyrdak approached us afterwards asking Honeypot to appear in his theater and she accepted. He asked me too, but I don't think I have the ability to remember the lines or speak in that theatrical way. I said I would think about it, and in the meantime I would have fun, leading him to the bar.

Return to Thistletop

There were some kind of group of stuffy old boring people meeting that had invited Velicia and Honeypot to talk about old buildings, statues and people from thousands of years ago, when those runelords supposed to live. I heard that it was Brodert Quink, Chask Haladan, Sabyl Sorn, Ilsoari Gandethus and lately also Lyrie Akenja that usually met and talked about the old stuff. Velicia and Honeypot was talked into to showing some of them to Thistletop and asked for us others to join them on another expedition there.

The other scholars didn't like Lyrie and when the trip to Thistletop was suggested they wanted to exclude her, even though she had been studying that place specifically. There were rumors of foul play when she applied for membership in the seeker, which is some kind of society for stuffy people. I said that if you don't give her a chance, she can never reform. She joined us and muttered that finally she could do something more than just cooking tea for the others.

Finally it was me, Velicia, Nathaniel, Honeypot, Dorothea, Orik, Lyrie and Brodert that went on the trip. It turned out that Nathaniel had hired Orik as some sort of servant or help.

We swam over to the ear of the cliff head where you could get straight into the treasure room in the old parts. That way we didn't have to bother dealing with the goblins. We even threw a deer into the water to make sure that the seamonster would be full before we swam, and then we swam in strange magically changed shapes of animals.

For several hours they looked at the pictures on the walls and things everywhere. When they were content somebody had to show the demon to the scholars. When the secret was out we discussed if it was safe to leave the demon there anymore. We decided to attack Malfeshnekor.

File:Malfeshnekor.png

Malfeshnekor.

We readied for battle and opened the doors. Malfeshnekor made an awful roar chilling me to the bones. The first to catch herself was Lyrie who ran into the room and cast a thundering spell not that different from the spell Velicia sometimes cast, but instead of blowing him into a corner the thunder seamed to daze him. I used that to throw my dagger into him while he was open for attack. Dorothea used her scary magic to create a terrible cloud that appeared in the corner covering half of the big demon. The awful demon and Nathaniel fought with sword and enormous crablike claws. There were another awful roar from the demon, which made me miss my throw. Nathaniel also seamed shaken and missed his attacks. Velicia used some new magic I hadn't seen before. A burning ball of flame that appeared next to Malfeshnekor and attacked it with flames. Honeypot danced up to the demon and confused it with her moves. I used that to throw my dagger deep into the demon. Dorothea turned black and terrible herself almost as the clout that tore at the very flesh of the demon. Honeypot continued to dance but it looked like she was seducing the demon. It was definitely distracted so I used that to throw my dagger one final time into the demon Malfeshnekor killing it.

It turned out that the demon wore an armband that turned out to be able to magically produce a shield with the sevenpointed star on.

Brodert Quink payed us 500 gp for the trouble of making the trip.

Guard duty

One evening Nathaniel sighed sitting down at our usual table at the Rusty Dragon. We were all there. I asked what was wrong and he said "Nothing!", but after some pushing mentioned that his aunt, the mayor had wished him to start working for the sheriff, and I think it's to get into politics or so. Anyway, he had been hanging around at the garrison a lot lately, and he told us about some people who were wanted by the guards. He said that if we saw any of them we should tell him about it.

There was a river pirate called Shadz "Rodshaw" Bilgar. They also wanted a rhenne called Graced Sevillia, but they only wanted him for questioning. Nathaniel said there were drawings of them back at the garrison. There were apparently some rewards too, to be claimed at Magnimar from a judge called Ironbriar. When he said the name I froze. All my bad memories came back. I coughed and excused me from the table and ran up to my room. I thought I had put that awful, evil elf who I met in Magnimar behind me, but I hadn't. I just hadn't thought of it for quite some time. Now all the hate and fear came back.