#thomasthebard

[maiken1617]

Thomas diary entry no. 25

So this city is amazing, but also a bit awful. It’s built in the air between two mountains in four layers where the upper ones are very rich and off limits for poor people. That last thing is the slightly awful part. They have so many fruit trees that they don’t have to farm at all so instead they spend their time watching gladiator fights. I guess that’s kind of neat.

We made a sort of game where we tried to get into the top layers, and we got into the third layer where I’m positive we’re not supposed to be (but Erin sweet-talked the guards). Here we found an amazing magic-shop. I bought a healing potion and a Wand of Wonder, and Perel gve me a ring of protection. I can’t wait to try the wand out - I’ not entirely sure what it does but I know it’s amazing and silly.

While we were shopping Argos showed up and invited us to a gladiator fight - apparently he owns the fighting pits. We’re going there now. I’ll tell you all about it next time I write!

See ya!

[maiken1617]

Thomas’ diary entry no. 10

I have two main problems by now. The first and most urgent one is a huge group of orcs attacking the village I am currently staying in. The second is the black guys, and their awfully awful sidekicks the shadows of sucking all the life out of you. It seems the latter is the biggest thread.

Why I say this?

Exposition:

As explained before the orcs around here are becoming more and more of a thread to village Zandor. They take people and mutilate them. Now we’re not here for the orc problem, we’re here for information on the black dust. However, every time we follow a lead on it, the shadows show up and try to kill us. And I don’t like that cause they’re really good at their jobs. Especially when it comes to me.

The latest instance of this was us following a religious ball to the church and it turned out to be a trap-like-thing and we were ambushed by the shadows. Yay Hurray...

Hey! A little update! Turns out my two main problems have joined together to form one great big one. Here’s the thing: We found signs of trolls in the forest, the trolls are led by orcs, the orcs seem to be led by hobgoblins, and this whole menagerie is orchestrated by the black shadow club. Turns out the black men are fueled by necromancy of some sort. We don’t fully understand it all yet, but I’ll tell you what I know:

Someone powerful seems to have made a pact or deal with the all-around bad kind of god Vechna. He - Vechna - used to be a litch, now he’s a god of secrets and bad stuff. We found a big book in the crypt of the Lliira temple and it seemed proper evil. I think I got that vibe mostly from the half dozen evil shadows of scariness that didn’t like us visiting the crypt. And taking the book - they didn’t like that either.

Okay, so we spoke to Karl and that’s how we learned about this guy Vechna. He also told us - and this is where the pact / deal comes in - that to become like Vechna, and gain his power, it requires a huge sacrifice. A huge human sacrifice. This is why the orcs are raiding Zandor. It’s a sacrifice to Vechna. They’re taking people and turning them into black shadows - okay that we actually don’t know for sure, but it’s a solid theory.

Let’s see what other news... The mayor is just as incapable as I expected, but it’s because of a dead wife, not religion (read alcohol). His son, however, seems like a pretty capable fellow. He runs the town guard, and basically everything except the mines in his fathers absence.

I’m running out of space, so I’ll stop here Au revoir!

[maiken1617]

Thomas’ diary entry no. 7

I’d say we’ve had a pretty productive day today, Deary. The owlbear trip went pretty well, I mean that thing’s a beast. We found an orc camp, and ambushed it. As I’ve written before i don’t like going around killing stuff just for the fun of it, but this time I have little regret. They’d imprisoned four humans in cages and cut off their tongues, fingers and ears. Oh, and their eyes too. That’s the kind of thing that makes me really angry. The others didn’t seem to care too much, I think it’s because it’s not their own race that’s been attacked. At least I think that’s the reason in the elves case. They seem kind of supremacist. Erinaes actually suggested that we just leave them in the forest. Luckily that didn’t happen.

What did happen was an amazingly well-executed plan to take down the orc camp. Except Anaid blew her attempt at persuading the orc chief not to kill us (as in her spell failed but mine didn’t)

Now we’ve taken the four humans back to town, and left them in the care (or lack thereof) of Karl... Yeah, we’ll try to find a better solution. Actually, we’ve already tried. We went to the town hall to tell the mayor about the prisoners so he could determine what to do with them, but the guards wouldn’t let us in. Said he was resting or something.

Anyways, so instead we went to the local mine to find someone who knows where to find someone whose best friend is the guy we’re looking for - Markus the black dust priest. We kind of found what we were looking for, except the woman we went to see told us the best friend guy was trapped down in the mine with a bunch of monsters. So now if we want black dust knowledge we have to fight monsters in a dark scary cave. Oh well it could be worse, at least it’s not a dragon. I wouldn’t want to meet one of those - unless of course it was a nice dragon who’d let me ride them. Okay, now I’m going off topic. You’ll hear from me soon, unless I die in a mine.

[maiken1617]

Thomas’ family tree. His full name is actually Thomas Ditlef Trall. Eliza Ndizi Storm is an elven woman who was Thomas’ fiancée before he went out adventuring. Yeah, there’s a bit of history there...

Ps. Ndizi means banana in Swahili :D

[maiken1617]

Thomas’ diary entry no. 5

I killed An OWLBEAR Deary!

An actual Owlbear, you know, one of those bears that are also owls. Okay so maybe I didn’t “kill” the owlbear but i helped! I’m 90% sure those guys would have died horrible deaths if I hadn’t stepped in and saved the day with my magical musical powers.

By them I mean half of the group of unfriendly people. The less unfriendly half of them though. I spend two-three days catching up with them, having to ride through forest. You know what? I’ve decidet that I DON’T like pine forests. They are just too scary for me. And I know what you’re thinking “the guy’s a pansy, can’t even handle a bit of forest” but I ain’t no  hero, I’m an artist, I’m soft, not made for this kind of adventure.

It seems, however, like I’ll have to learn that hero think, seeing as we are in the middle of a mountain chain, in a valley with inhabitants such as angry owlbears. There’s also the fact that the even less friendly people with the big weapons and arm, decided to split from the rest of the party, and head up the mountain side instead of into the ravine between. The rest of us had no choice, Mordai is a proper weakling - he can not climb a mountain.

So we wen’t through the ravine, and found ourselves in a valley. In the valley we met an owlbear, and now there’s ownlbear steak for dinner. Yes, thank you!

Ps. Someone tried to steal Tom! But i chased them off. I’m intimidating like that!

[maiken1617]

The Tale of Tom the Horse

Thomas wrote this epic hero poem about the horse he woke up on after being knocked out in battle. He named the horse Tom after himself. Later he found out the horse was a actually female, but he didn’t see the need to change the name.

There once was a horse Of a race I don’t recall But his fur was soft and fine And his running skills divine

He ran under the sun He ran under the moon And everywhere he went He came with light and gloom

One day as Horse Tom, our hero of courage Helped a helpless caravan, get through the forest the party was met, by a sad end of business as a band of black men, arose out of darkness

Now Tom saw through, the smoke and horror And saw a bard, who would not cower He thought, “This man is worth my saving” With bard on back, he rode to safety

The bard was Thomas, of house of Trall A man of charm, most handsome of all Together they rode on, into city and town And went on to become, horse and man of renown

So if ever in need, of help and assistance Heed my word, over any distance Horse Tom and bard Thomas, will hear your call And come save the lives, of any and all

[maiken1617]

Thomas diary entry no. 24

We came to a new place. And we drank a lot of alcohol while waiting to get there. I hoped it would drown out my fears, ‘cause that’s what I’ve heard people do. But it didn’t work I just got a hangover. Oh and I got into a fight with Erin - so nothing new there.

So this new place is warm and sandy and exotic and I’ve never been somewhere quite like it. Or been this far away from home. It’s a bit scary and a bit exciting.

Oh and there was one other thing which was - and still is - very alarming. Perel has a very evil sword. I don’t know what it does, but I’m completely sure it’s NOT GOOD. But he wont give it up. Urgh, I’m very much not happy about it...

That’s about it. I can’t wait to tell you about the city, when I see it properly!

[maiken1617]

Thomas' diary entey no. 23

I feel like writing this diary is good for me, you know. It's just nice to tell someone about your experiences and problems who just listens and never tells anyone because they're a book. And I have a LOT of experiences at the moment. Like when we board a huge magic shopping boat and get ambushed in the middle of errands (do you know how long it's been since I've had time to run errands?!). Then after the attack (shadows *again* of course, I’ll have nightmares for a month...) we get mind-ambushed by something... unknown.

Okay so Anaid, Perel and I kept our cool but the others went crazy then passed out. I spent an hour looking for diamond dust for a restoration ritual only to find out they’re awake again when I came back. I maybe got a bit unreasonable but I as just trying to help, and keep it together, and Erin is just always SO condescending, so why should I keep being nice to her? I save her life and all she does is treat me like an unknowing child! So I sort of just got really unpleasant, especially considering they’d just been through a very rough time (something with a skull with nine eyes trying to kill them in a dark dungeon because they kept ruining his plans).

I don’t know how we’ll deal with this but I hope we’ll pull through. Somehow we’ve managed to survive this far. And even though I’m putting my life on the line it feels good to be the one who saves others for a change. I mean if this Vecna guy isn’t stopped he might even reach Duffington. That’s a very unpleasant thought...

Well... I’m emotionally and physically drained so I’ll stop for now. Thanks for listening.

[maiken1617]

Thomas’ diary entry no. 18/19

Okay so I’m gonna go ahead and say that we’re pretty fucked. I feel like thats the appropriate reaction to being knocked out by an evil wizard and waking up later in an unknown room that smells like sewers (turns out that’s because it is the sewers). Ad to that one petrified wood-elf and one additional wood-elf turning into a zombie (or a ghoul? a mummy?) and i start running out of bad words with which to explain the situation. In the light of this miserable situation I have proceeded to do the only reasonable thing - I’ve written a song about how much I HATE the shadows of scariness. I think it turned out rather well.

You see this is what happened:

We went out shopping, then we went to Sage’s place to spend the night, in the hope that it would be more safe. But I saw the shadows follow us there! And I told them all, but no one believed me! Am I that unreliable? I couldn’t sleep knowing they were there so I stayed up waiting for them to attack. And they did. And then a ton of elves turned up and started shooting at us. And one of these elves was this crazy powerful wizard who just annihilated us all. I actually don’t remember a lot of this battle - I was stabbed in the back by an elf pretty early on. But i find myself growing used to being mortally wounded every other day.

So we were knocked out and then we woke up here in this sewer-room. I had to de-stone Erin. I’ve never done anything like it before. (And to tell you a secret I was so scared it would go horribly wrong! That I’d have her life on my conscience. That’s a bad way of putting it but I hope you get what I mean)

Latest update! Turns out we’re not prisoners, we were actually saved. But everything is still awefull. And now we can ad complicated to the list. I’ll try to make it quick:

Half the elves on the city council are working with Zaren (yeah, that guy) to help the elves take over the city. To make matters worse they’ve managed to ally themselves with Vecna - so now we’re up against a god AGAIN! Oh and they are planning to kill all non-elves in the city.

I guess my life was never meant to be easy...

I’ll leave it there for now... I’ll write again soon. Or maybe not. We’ll see!

[maiken1617]

Thomas’ diary entry no. 17

It’s like we’ve spent 3 week saving, like, a ton of innocent people, and all we get for it is nothing and an elven rebellion. But hey, Sage actually smiled today so something good happened. Oh! And I’m getting a set of armor made of hydra skin.

Okay, now the part where I recap the days events: We came back to Castow and went to see Bron. Turns out Bron was fired and put in prison for treason. So we had to get a little creative to get into the guard head-quarters... Long story short we annoyed the new leader quite a bit and were sent away with an ask to quell an elven rebellion in the slums. All in all it pans out quite nicely for me as all the people who wanted to arrest me are now either gone, imprisoned or otherwise occupied. Now I’d say our main problem is the fact that Parrel might end up joining the rebellion if we’re not careful.

Well, that’s about it for today. I’ll write again soon!

[maiken1617]

Thomas diary entry no. 16

Erin has a soul in decay. She has stolen and lied and the gods only know what else. And she doesn’t think it’s wrong at all. I can’t even comprehend that. How? But then again, she did have a quite thraumatic experience in her youth, and that sort of thing can leave all sorts of scars so I’ll kind of forgive her for now (This descision also has a bit to do with the fact that she knows that I know about her past and I’m not entirely confident she won’t kill me to shut me up).

Well anyways. Let me tell you about my day. It’s been quite exciting (and also life threatening of course). Well we’ve wandered into this mountain and I think we’ve ventured quite deep into the earth. It has sort of an eerie sense to it. I’m not sure if I’ve already told you but we found a cave full of glowing crystals - I kept one the size of my fist, it’s very nice.

Then we found a door that had been forced open. Tirned out to be the entrance to Mystra’s burrial chamber. Oh you don’t know her? Well she’s the late goddes of magic. Apparently her spirit lives on in some way and it loves to play deadly tricks on people.

And so we had to go thorugh all sorts of trials. First we had to defeat foru enchanted amours. I won’t bore you with the details but I turned one of them into a hamster - I called him Thor, because he survived my lightningbolt. Sadly Mordai mannaged to kill him… Then there was a test of our magical knowledge. That one we almost didn’t survive.

Next we ate some enchated food which made us realize stuff about eachother. Did you know Aage used to be a tree? And of course Erin, Mordai and Parrel have either lied, stolen og bent the truth a tad to much… That’s when I learned about Erins past and misdeeds. Anaid told them all what happened with Eliza but thankfully they all seemed to busy with eachother ot pay her much attention. Thank any and all goda who helped that!

After that we went through an extremely confusing illusory puzzle. Basically some of us saw one thing and some saw something else. I think it might have been to test our strength of character.

The last trial was to defeat an iron golem - and a huge one at that. I turned that one into a cat. Called him Catsper. But he didn’t like being a cat very much. Turned back into himself rather quickly - he even hurt himself in the process. That’s what you get for being impatient... He was a bit tough to put down because he kept drawing power from some magical runes on the door to the tomb chamber. Magic runes were actually quite a theme in this tomb. Once more I’ll spare you the details - I dealt the final strike, cut his head right of with my chain of dark words. Then the door to the tomb chamber opened. In there the goddess left us all rewards for surviving. I got the most amazing harp! I haven’t had one of those in years. And it does magic too! It might need a name...

Well Mystra also gave Anaid the ability to travel anywhere at will, so now we’re taking a proper shortcut to Castow. We can’t bring all the horses but I’m trying not to think too much about it.

I think I’m generally thinking less about everything lately. I’m trying to just go along with the flow so to speak. Maybe it’ll make it easier to cope with the constant threat of death.

Now I’m gonna go and play on my new harp! I'll write again soon!

[maiken1617]

Thomas’ diary entry no. 11

Hey Deary

I don’t feel so sparky today (is that a word? Sparky?). It’s like, everywhere we go at the moment, stuff tries to kill us. This time the price goes to a tornado-monster-thing (although those three orcs gave it a run for its money). Yeah so that was an eventful trip back from the forest. Oh, but a good thing that happened: We met a goliath! And a weird one at that. He’s taken an interest to humans, and as I am a prestine example of my kind he seemed pretty kee to study me. It was equally flattering and terrifying. He agreed to take us to the local goliath camp. I’m kinda excited about that prospect. They’re taking us up there with bags over our heads so we can’t find it ourselves later - It’s super mysterious and awesome!

That’s about it for now, except Karl told us about a sword one of the hobgoblin leaders had which sucks out your soul if you’re particularly unlucky...

Okay bye! 

[maiken1617]

Teammates!

Bowman! Please come crawling back down

I said Bowman! Get out of the tree crown

I said Bowman! Cause your team’s on the ground,

and they need your sword and lance

Oh Deman! Quit crying ‘bout that mouse

I said Deman! Cause it’s safe in the clouds

I said Deman! But your team’s on the ground,

and they need you eldritch blasting

And we will kill a lot of orcs and shadow men,

and save a town of helpless people again

We can take down the monsters, in an awesome attack,

to the tune of this great soundtrack

Treeman! Stop flirting with that orc

I said Treeman! That’s not what we came for

I said Treeman! We’ve got problems to sort,

so come here and bring your owlbear

Magician! Get your nose out that book

Oh Magician! And start learning to cook

Oh Magician! Or just something of worth,

to your joint effort for survival

So we can kill a lot of orcs and shadow men,

and save a town of helpless people again

Although it’s not what we wanted, and it’s not what we asked,

and it’s turned out to be an extremely deadly and dangerous task!

Thiefman! Leave that shop keep alone

I said Thiefman! No, that knife is his own

I said Thiefman! But I guess it’s okay,

if you use it to save our lives

Panman! You can do nothing wrong

Oh Panman! You’re the boss, you’re the bomb

Oh Panman! But your team’s pretty dumb,

so you need to come and help them

So they can kill a lot of orcs and shadow men,

and save a town of helpless people again

Did I mention the spiders, did I mention the orcs,

and all the other things that are constantly trying to kill us!

Teammates! Can we all just unite?

Ooh teammates! Cause I don’t want to die

Ooh teammates! And our chance of survival,

is way, way better together

And so we’ll kill a lot of orcs and shadow men,

and save a town of helpless people again

Some of you could just probably survive on your own,

but then I would be dead and alone

DM! Please just don’t kill our guys

I beg DM! We don’t want them to die

I beg DM! It would so make us cry,

bitter tears over fictional characters

[maiken1617]

Thomas’ diary entry no. 9

You know what I could use right now Deary? A nice long nap.

In a bed that’s faaar away from orcs and shadows and scariness and black men made of dust and event further away from any giant spiders. Just as you think “Okay we’re done with fighting stuff for a while, let’s go have a nice peaceful chat with the mayor about how badly he runs his town” a band of orcs decided to join in the fun and steal half the people i this helpless little village. I’ve said it before, but I’m not the heroing type. Imagine me running in and trying to hit an orc. Go ahead it wont take long, I’d be dead in less than 10 seconds. Still I help out where I can and inspire whoever seems capable enough to kill those monsters. Somehow it works.

I actually had Parrel come up to me today in the mines and ask me how I fared so well against the fear-shadows, I just told him he should consider learning to play the pan-flute. He didn’t se how that’d help him in combat. I don’t mind, though. I’m contend with being the one who makes sure the others strike true with my beautiful rendition of “My Favorite Things”. I also enjoyed covering a couple of orcs in Pink glittering lights.

I feel like we lack a plan of action - no actually I just feel like our plan of action lacks sleep. I just want to not help anyone for a while, but I think those days are over. It’s like, once you’ve seen someone get killed without a reason there’s no turning back - especially if you’re next on the list.

I guess that’s all I have to say for now. Except my bucket list now includes finding someone who knows what the hell is going on here!

See ya!

Ps. we might have discovered that the guy we were looking for got himself killed down in the mines. Yay...

[maiken1617]

Thomas’ diary entry no. 8

Have I ever told you how much I hate spiders? They have these long hairy legs - and you’d think that 4 was more than enough to keep them moving but nooo. I especially don’t like spiders when they’re one and a half meters tall and I’m standing in their nest. A nest I’m only standing in because I decided it was a good idea to go cave-exploring to find a guy whose name I’m not even sure of.

Okay, maybe I’m sounding a bit unfair but I REALLY REALLY hate spiders. It seems now though that there are bigger things at stake than my arachnophobia. The black guys are on the move, apparently. Yeah. They showed up in the mines we were going through to find that guy who knows stuff about the priest we’re looking for. It’s just all screaming plot to take over the world to me. You’d think this would be a good time to pack up and leave, and stay alive that way. I just think that in the end it’ll just catch up to me - and everyone else around these parts - if nothing is done. I mean that makes kind of sense, right? Now if you excuse me I’ll go back to dying in a dark horrible cave. Tata!

[maiken1617]

Please Don’t Die, by Thomas the Bard

Let’s get down to dying, ‘cause we won’t survive. Passing out in battle, that’s our way of life. It might seem we’re doing pretty good, but you can bet, before we’re through. Someone’s prone, I’m alone, and we’re screwed.

Take for instance orc-guys, when you hide in tents. You think you are safe now, but they just walk in. You might think you’re doing pretty well, and have made a plan that’s cool. It won’t work, if your god’s super cruel.

The ranger’s hit by owlbears, the psycic is confused by psyking, the tiefling is doing stuff we cannot see.

I am terified of arachnids, the warrior hides in high trees, and we’ve got a cleptomaniac as well

Please don’t die! How do you handle a ragning owlbear? Please don’t die! How to survive 10 big orc-dudes? Please don’t die! How to escape through a coursing river, without loosing a person from your crew?

Death is racing toward us, and our stealth is shite So instead of hiding, we stand tall and fight It might seem we're doing not so well, and that might seem kind of true but we'll strive, to survive, and brave through!

Please don’t die...