Erhivor's Journal: Entry 1

Well, the events up until today have been very interesting, to say the least. I figure it is about time for me to start logging my activities, as these "interesting" events are getting difficult to track. The experiences are certainly stacking quickly. After meeting some humans, one of which a murderer who Nell, Brom and I are charged with delivering safely to The Wall, and becoming involved in some strange conspiracy with the living dead, Orgosh and jailers, I find it a little more difficult be surprised these days.

During our first day after leaving Ashden's Point -- the town where we met the jailer, a proprietor of what appears to be an Orgosh conspiracy of one sort or another, and where we had to fight off some undead beings -- we were assailed by some giant, venomous spiders where a very large tree had fallen across the road. I was poisoned by one of these spiders, but we all managed to destroy them and get away relatively unharmed, yet slightly weakened and quite tired.

Not all has been bad, though. With Brom -- as unavoidably odoriferous as he is -- and his knowledge of the wilderness, and Nell and her ability to fend off dangerous creatures with great ease, travel has been rather swift. And just the other night I suddenly discovered the meaning behind all of the Draconic characters that comprise the spellbook given to me by Magister Isalis. I can now cast a few spells. I even got the chance to kill a large mountain cat with a Lesser Orb Of Acid. One should note that the cat was attacking us and Nell had suffered a great deal of physical trauma from the large cat. I did not kill the cat in cold blood. This was while camping on the way to Wildsgate. Yet, something about that portion of the trip bothers me, and I am not exactly sure why, is that we might have been followed by a raven. A very large raven, at that. Gideon wanted to know why I was so suspicious of the raven, but I just could not explain to him exactly why I felt the way I did. I seem to recall reading about ravens and some tie between them and arcane magics. I should read up on that some more. Perhaps there was nothing at all to worry about. But after seeing the dead walk, I have become a little suspicious of many things that might appear normal to most.

After that, we continued to travel toward Wildsgate until we happened upon a hunting lodge with some rather scary-looking people residing there. I did not want to spend the night there, but the others in my party insisted and, truth to tell, the food and the warm place to sleep were indeed welcome. The odor and uncleanliness, however, was not entirely welcome.

After departing the lodge, we continued down the road that paralleled the Saedre River while I endured Gideon's constant and ongoing litany about his socks. I wonder if he murdered someone for their socks. Perhaps I should pretend as though I do not wear or own socks while I am traveling with him. Perhaps socks hold some kind of religious significance for humans from his land. I'll have to ask him, subtly, about this. Anyway, on the road we ran into a wagon and driver and his infant child who were being attacked by Orgosh that were riding on very large bats. The driver's name was Relthor and, after assisting him and his child in surviving the attack, he was amazingly kind and genial for a human. He even drew me a map of the local area. He also gave us some information on Wildsgate, which has been helpful to us, and gave us a ride into town. It is too bad that he did not have an extra pair of socks for Gideon. But what is strange about this run-in is that the Orgosh that were attacking the man and his child were attempting to spear them with tethered javelins and haul them off somewhere and we had heard rumors of this sort of activity while on the road. This means that it has probably been going on for a while. So I am curious why The Watch and local towns, like Wildsgate, have not been maintaining guard posts on the major roads.

Now we are in Wildsgate and I have finally gotten to take a bath and replenish some necessary travel supplies. In a couple of hours I will be getting some new arrows from the local Dwarven arms dealer. He's amazingly friendly for a Dwarf and he smells better than most Dwarves. Gideon is giving me that suspicious look again. I think he's going to say something strange that I do not understand, much like he usually does when he gives me that look. Perhaps socks are a token or offering of friendship, or something of the sort. Maybe that is why he was talking so much about it. These humans are not very sophisticated with their abilities to articulate thoughts and communicate with others. Perhaps he was trying to give me a hint that offering a pair of socks is customary for friendship between travelers. I think I'll go buy him a pair. Uh, oh. He's walking up to me.