I've been thinking...am I greedy, or just a collector of gems that happen to be worth a fortune? I have zero problem raiding for stolen treasure, or getting treasure off the dead, but I would like to prove that I can be kind hearted too. I just don't see an opportunity off-hand. I remember my extreme temptation to try and hide the gold and gems I was getting from the tree, only fearing that Morgan may have seen me. Would have I split it with the others regardless, or kept the jewels to myself? Very disturbing thoughts. I would like to do something to memorialise Yaval's passing as a true warrior, but I don't really see anything that would have a long term effect. Perhaps a special or significant grave marking? I don't know enough about the Sebeccai to know their rites of passing. Perhaps I'll speak to the others.

I've heard of the old belief that you never realise how special a friend or companion is to you until their dead, but I never expected to understand it. Yes, Yaval was quite smelly and needed to invest in some kind of scent potion, but he was a good warrior. I had just started getting more attached to him for pulling me out of the boiling water, to only witness his death mere hours later. After many annoying and frustrating tests of both intelligence and endurance that included traps, falling gates, extreme heat, and boiling water, we all made it to this fascinating chamber. There was a round spring of boiling water, with five stone bridges leading to the middle where I detected magic, and we could all see the black glint of stone. It had to be the ring.

I guess we were all to focused on that because out of nowhere a minatour beast appears and rushed Yaval, damaging him badly. We all got to hurt him before he struck Yaval again, but it wasn't enough. When I saw him fall, I put everything I had into a mind stab, finally bringing the beast down. Cathar gleefully finished him. I was too depressed to really do anything else. The others were focused on the ring, but I never really got involved in the group for the ring, but more for the adventure. I think that's why I had such difficulty with a fallen comrade. I did come to my senses enough to get his gold and possessions that I could carry. We all feel a memorial is appropriate, so Ro-Terrus, after some major effort of getting the ring with some serious magical support from Morgan, carried Yaval so we could bury him properly. We couldn't get out the way we came, so we continued through the narrow passage before us to only end up on the other side of the mountain. We'll be a couple days or more getting back to the horses if Morgan's geography is right. It's going to be a depressing trip back.

Another clue we have to identify the ring's whereabouts is that there will be a bubbling spring. Well, it was there, on the other side of the vines. I flew across it, only to have a tremendous wind push me into the boiling hot water. I was very unhappy and hurting for awhile. I discovered Smelly Dog's good side when he pulled me out. My poor wings were wilted badly. After the Ro-Terrus tried to cross the beam and failed many times, I took the rope and walked across. Since I am only a foot and three inches, the beam did not seem that thin to me! I tied to the end of the beam to help the others balance, but it didn't seem to do much. We finally all got over except Yaval. Everybody has suffered second degree burns. I'm watching Yaval struggle to get over the bank. I would love to help, but I don't think 13 pounds is going to do much, so I decided to just be sad for him and have a healing ready for him. I don't think Morgan's quite prepared to heal since he is currently holding on to dear life from a pit that nearly swallowed him up. I wish I could do something, but none of my magic spells could help. I feel quite useless being small :(

Although the danger is obvious, the gorge seems to be the marker to the ring, so we were off to the gorge first thing in the morning. Once we entered the gorge, a empty kind of shell-person appeared...kind of like a ghost...apppeared to us. It had three voices - high, low and litoran. He/She/It basically warned us of trust when we find the ring. We decided the R-Terrus will carry it, but Morgan was worried about him getting it because of the tests. We'll stick together until we find out how we get it. We made a pact to not touch it except for Ro-Terrus. We moved on.

The feelows got past an arrow trap (my flying must not have triggered it earlier) and the wall of thorns re-appeared. I'm a little nervous of that elemental, but I was hoping flying over it would help me see a better way to go. Nope. I tried to fly over it and that horrible thing vortexed me me up 100 feet! I went up and tried to go back the way we came through the front of the gorge. Cathar sent an arrow into it, but apparently that only annoyed him as it just hit me harder, causing some pain. I mind stabed him, and then crazy Ro-Terrus nearly hit me with an arrow! I'm going to buy him archery lessons in the next town we get to...that's the second time he's nearly pierced me. I finally flew low and walked through back to the fellows who were spending a few hours hacking through the thorny vines...

We left the horses to trek up the mountain, and bumped (not literally) into a giant dressed rather simply. He introduced himself as Na-Volta. Ro-Terrus seemed rather pleased to find company of his like. Personally, I thought he was pretty boring. He had no information that could be found helpful, which I find suspicious. The mere presence of the ring would bring both good and evil, I would think. Surely he would see plenty of things out of the ordinary...but then he claimed to have never gone down into the gorge. He seems quite content studying nature. *yawn* I used to have the same sentiments, but the recent Rhodin and elemental encounter has apparently heightened my adventureous sense. I did notice that he was wearing an abjuration (protection) ring, but that's only sensible out in this wild. We eventually went back down to the horses and made camp.

I like to avoid danger, but the fellows seem to thrive on it. We came across a fork in the road; one going into a gorge and one going up towards the treeline. Those trees go up a mile, which coincides with our clues of the ring's whereabouts. The gorge looked quite dark and scary, so of course they voted to go down there first. We discovered a sign partway down that said we should seek other passage through the mountains and dragons exist in the caves. *yeesh*

I threw a Scent Bane spell that I had readied and turned invisible for further investigation. I discovered some very fast growing vines. Going through them did not seem possible so I flew up and over only to discover an elemental. It went straight for me, so it must have sensed me somehow, although I'm baffled as to how. I flew back and down, which seemed to deter it enough to not continue following me. I detected a conjurer spell in the vines, so I went back and told Morgan, who understands nature well. Upon consultation, it seems that cave is a likely spot where the ring may be held, but it was decided to inspect the treeline path before taking the obviously riskier path first.

Postscript I nearly forgot to mention the stone with writing that we discovered at the edge of the mountains. It had three distinct languages, but none of them were recognisable by any of us. It was quite strange considered all the language skills we have as a group. I didn't detect magic, so Ro-Terrus wrote it down for later reference. Maybe it will help us later.

Did I mention that we also got more jewels and gold? With my remaining gold and the gold that I received from the looting, I was able to buy most of the jewels. So far I have 2 opals worth 100 gp each, 1 gem worth about 1400 gp, and 1 quartz worth 75 gp. I still have 3 pp, which is probably good in case I need another scarf. Other than that, I don't think I need much gold because I have all the supplies and clothing I need for quite awhile.

I can't believe how lax I have been with my journal! The lesson I learned with ignored my journal for a few days is that I forget the important aspects that I wanted to remember. Isn't it amazing how our brains can't possibly remember interesting points of life without references? I remember our huge fight with the Rhodin that nearly took all of our lives. I was asleep and nearly got pierced! This adventuring is very dangerous. While that seems obvious, you don't really feel danger in the beautiful woods and mountains until you are suddenly looking at an arrow in front of you. Cathar was quite quick about alerting people, but the Rhodin were too fast for us.

After a disaster night of fighting, we found a safe place for the remainder of the sleeping time. The magic users (Morgan and myself) needed rest desperately. We mostly did healing on everybody and ourselves! We totally plopped for the rest of the day. We doubled up on the watch that night for precaution, but that night passed without incident.