I've never kept a diary before, but as I don't think any of us will arrive in Dryden alive, I thought I had better leave a record in case anyone ever finds our bodies.
My name Thera and I should have known better than to join this lot. For a start, I should have realized something was up when they accepted me. They advertised for a dwarf fighter and a blood thief - well, I'm an elf and a carpenter by trade.
I told them I was a priest and I carried it off pretty well until that incident with the Dark Oak. I called on Phyloqure for help in the middle of the battle. We had to retreat; the fighters couldn't stop laughing.
It wasn't my fault, though - I was brought up in a family of athiests. My mother used to say, "The gods are myths made-up by priests so that they don't have to work for a living." Or at least that's what she used to say until a Molwanh priest heard her and blighted our crops and she starved to death. That's when I decided to become a carpenter. I toyed with the idea of becoming a blacksmith, but there doesn't seem to be many horses around.
Unfortunately, I then discovered that I am allergic to wood - I really liked carpentry as well. Anyway, I saw this lot advertising for adventurers. I didn't know what an adventurer was, but they offered 100 gps and I had some debts to pay; an unfortunate accident with some resin and the city official's coach.
Anyway, on the same day they accepted me, we were offered 150 gps to take a message to Dryden. What no one mentioned was that area around Dryden was, to put it mildly, a bit of a battle-zone. So some bright spark (shortly to be extinguished) suggested we approach by a hardly-used route. Namely through this bloody swamp.
It was bad enough when we entered the marsh, then things got a lot worse and I saw the sign, "You are in Afolur Swamp" and below it was the inevitable graffitti "And I wish I wasn't."
Sleeches, lizard men, giant crabs; giant everything. Various life- forms, but they all had one thing in common, they were deadly and intent on killing me. OK, killing us, but it seems like killing me.
Take that sleech for example. 40ft long, blood sucking slug which wouldn't retreat even if you had the town guard of Dencar with you with cannons! It may be that it can't retreat because turning round would take several days, but the point is, its a mean little bastard. And I'd say that even if it hadn't aimed a couple of suckers straight towards me. A flook you say? I hiding behind the mages!
Even the orcs turn nasty around here. Now I know orcs have a nasty reputation, but if you approach them with the right attitude (friendly, but not taking any nonsense and an eye on your purse), they can be quite helpful. Especially if mention that a nearby town has a bounty for orc hides. I remember when we were in that dungeon some orcs helped us get some coffins open. Oh, I also remember when we discovered there wasn't any treasure in them, they ate the corpses.
Dear diary, I'll have to go. Qara (our blood thief - what a mouth; says she always wears trousers because her legs are agraphobic) has just spotted 3 Giant Crabs and Taunus is insisting I learn how to use this heavy crossbow I've been given. If the Giant Crabs don't kill me, Helca is going to teach me how to use this long sword. If I'm still alive later, I'll keep you updated. Bye. Thera.