I have been really focusing on improving my skills, and concentrating especially on nature skills. I have slowly been moving towards being an Elemental Mage, and have finally acquired a few spells within the Elemental Mage's scope. The ones I have especially focused to learn is Stone Blast, which takes a mass of earth/stone within 20ft  to fly at a creature or target within 160 ft, and Earth Burst, which takes a 1-5lb rock and spray bits of it in a 20ft radius. I think my helpfulness in battle has just improved.

We were moving closer and closer to the Keep. I was worried, given the recent circumstances, but hopeful for an excellent shopping venture. Unfortunately, we encountered a huge Rhodin/Scourg fight with humans. The humans uniforms, so they apparantly were organised to some degree, but were taking the battle very badly. We also had a very bad time of it with my being nearly out of spells, Tal being disabled, and Morgan nearly killed. Unfortunately, my own healing spell is quite the drain for my daily spell ability, Transferring Wounds. I was too far to effectively heal Morgan within a reasonable amount of time, so I enabled Tal to get on his feet enough to take out one of the Scourgs. After it was all said and done, we were only able to help save four humans, and they agreed to join us on our way back to the Keep. That's when we heard that the Keep was again overrun with Rhodin. I knew my instincts were telling me something. Thankfully, Aberkin healed the survivors. I was able to heal Morgan to a level of talking, but Aberkin brought him very much back to life. What an exhausting and emotional day. We can't take the Keep by ourselves again, can we? You take a journey, and everything changes during your absence. Perhaps the ring will be of some use...

As we travelled, we came across some Rhodin that yelled in broken Common, "you'll never take it back!", just before Ro attacked. The fact that a Rhodin bothered to say anything worried me, as well as the implications of that phrase. What was he referring to? *worried* I was more than annoyed with Aberkin and his cohorts since they did absolutely nothing to assist in the fight. Do they know something that we don't? Did they understand the Rhodin's implications?

We camped shortly thereafter, to have a busy night watching multitudes of Rhodin marching right by us. Ro heard the noises, so I went invisible to investigate. Scourg and Rhodin seems to be very active tonight between what I saw and what Morgan saw also during his watch. Why such a busy night? I will be glad to get back to the Keep.

The next morning I flew out to scout for the remaining horses, hoping to not find similar conditions of Ro's horse. I finally saw three Litorans with at least Yaval and Morgan's horse, so I figured Cathar's horse was also there. My only issue was the dire Lions that were being ridden by the Litorans. My nature avoids large animals with teeth, so I flew back to report. Morgan seemed quite stressed about any more procrastination for the road to the Keep, but I was particularly anxious about the treasure and gold that was being carried. While Cathar explained to me that it's normal for Litorans to ride Lions (how wrong is that?) Tal was kind enough to share the word and flag of greeting so that I wouldn't be shot on sight.
 
I flew back with the flag waving high. They saw me and returned the flag favour. They didn't seem that impressed with my tale of the horses belonging to my party that wasn't there, but they seemed to understand how silly it would be for me to request the return of three horses when I couldn't even ride or easily lead one. They asked for proof, so I proceeded to list every item of worth. They seemed both bored and amazed at my ability to remember the treasure in such vivid detail, but it was enough proof for them to let me have the horses. They were worried about my handling the horses by myself, especially with Rhodin about, but I was so happy about getting the horses and treasure back that I was willing to risk getting them back myself.
 
I got back, with barely enough effort available to slow the horses when I reached the party. There was much rejoicing as Morgan and Cathar got their horses back. Tal was particularly pleased with the magical armour on Yaval's horse from the Chorrim. Since he was the only one that it fit, and he doesn't have a great deal of armour anyway, it made sense that he wore it. He tossed me a moss agate to appease my slightly grumpy reaction that we could have sold it for a good deal of gold. While a moss agate doesn't nearly cover the value, I figure that Yaval would have probably approved of his shieldmate getting the armour also.

Our horses, of course, were not there waiting for us, and some basic tracking told us that it had been awhile since their disappearance. We went above the gorge to see Na-Volta, but his focus was not on activity around him. I was very upset at the possible loss of the party's valuables and gold to the point that I didn't introduce the additional party to Na-Volta, even at his request. He was obviously surprised at my interest in horses, but I clarified matters when I explained that the important issue was what horses carried, specifically, valuables. Cathar and Morgan went back down to track the horses and found one. We knew something went wrong upon their return with Ro's gold and bride. Morgan also looked a little...scared. He later related that they were attacked by a giant worm living in Ro's horse, and that it paralyzed Morgan. Na-Volta provided healing for Morgan. Ro was immensely relieved to have his gold back. I really hope that Yaval's horse and valuables are safe...

You can always tell a person's stripes by his fighting, and Aberkin, the Mojh, surprised me. During the night we were attacked by a Shadow and Blade troll. The Mojh camp and our camp were somewhat separate, but when we started stirring around, they woke up as well. I readied a counter spell, but the Shadow troll sent a powerful Socerous Blast, which was beyond my magical abilities; therefore, we took multiple injuries. Aberkin kindly returned the favour after he created an acid pit next to the Blade troll. Clearly, Aberkin is a mage with which not to trifle. While our party gave the trolls damage here and there, it was mostly a huge magical fight between Aberkin and the Shadow troll, while everybody ganged up on the Blade troll. I couldn't help but notice that Aberkin never cast spells that put us in danger. I'm not if this is because he wants to gain our trust, thus delaying our reaction to an attack by him, or if this Mojh will work with us.

This Mojh had some serious magical ability. His staff was a huge clue as to his specialty in life being a Magister. Unfortunately, I cannot detect how experienced he is, but his whimsical look in my direction tells me that I'm in no mood to tangle. His five aura's of magic did include the staff, after all. He knew right away that Ro had the ring, and wanted to buy it. I wasn't too adverse to the 1000 gold pieces each, but after consulting with Morgan, I was informed that the ring had magical ability beyond understanding and was a cornerstone of the Keep's existence. Although 1000 gold pieces sound nice, it would seem unethical to go through all of this effort and have the Keep's trust to have this ring land in a collector's display case.

Several Sebeccai companions appeared around us, which did not help tension. Beyond the fact that we would probably not live to see the Keep with the Mojh's magical ability on their side, I was not looking forward to another fight killing what I consider intelligent races. I have no problems killing Rhodin, goblins, wolves, etc. Killing "civilized" races is much more difficult for me and I feel that a little part of me turns to stone every time it happens.

Tal was very upset with the whole situation, and it didn't help that he was quite clueless as to the whole "ring" situation. I don't think it would take much for him to attack the Mojh, although I tried to tell him how foolish that would be. The Mojh did agree to come back with us to the Keep to settle the issue there, but I have a feeling that something very big and very bloody will go down first...

A couple dire wolves that terrified me silly since they could have easily swallowed me whole attacked the group. Tal took some damage, but they were easier to take down than I expected. Ro was very concerned about the fact that they either roam alone or in packs. Since there were two, we scramed before the remaining pack found us.

Morgan and I were drained dry of magic. Exhausted beyond belief, the group was kind enough to pull up for a day's rest in some caves nearby. I dreamed of improving my magic. Morgan and I woke up to discover that a couple skirmishes occured. Ro was bitten by a rat and got filthfever, but it's fortunately not diseased. Poor Ro. :(

It's so odd really. You learn to respect a race through knowing one of their kind, then your world is shattered by others of the same race attacking you for no apparant reason. These attacking Sebeccai had some serious anger issues. Since they are obviously much tougher than goblins, I went invisible, which was stupid in retrospect because I lost it upon my first attack. Still, I managed to get very close and behind them before I attacked without incident, so it was helpful in that regard. Tal proved his combat worth by completely destroyed a couple without much effort, or so it seemed. My party started chasing the last two that started to run, but honestly, I just didn't have the heart to finish them. I think they were annoyed at me for just doing nothing towards the end, but I couldn't forget Yaval, and how odd and horrible I felt for killing his kind, regardless of their anger issues. I did have the heart to fly around detecting magic and to gather some 24 gold. One killed by Tal had 4pp and one subdued one by Ro had 7 gold. There was some minor excitement about upgrading to magical shields, but I was just overall depressed about everything to notice much.

As we approached some Litoran's later that day, Tal surprised me with his complete knowledge of appropriate Litoran greetings. I expected Cathar to do the greeting, but Tal seems to have immense experience with them. I'm not sure if the Litoran's mocking of Faen gods was supposed to annoy me or they are just not perceptive that Spryte's aren't Faen's *sarcasm*, but I personally think that Faen go overboard with gods anyway. I'm more interested in adventure and wealth. They were kind enough to warn that some goblins in the area were making their homes out of dire wolverines, and that they dug some up to dine dead sprytes! I initially felt some pity for the dire wolves that they were mutilated in such ways, but my horror to the treatment of Sprytes was overwhelming. It sounds like my invisibility will be handy.

All right, not quite all my watch, but I was excited to be on watch anyway. Cathar seems very nice, but is not all that into fashion unfortunately. His discussion topics seems limited to combat and the annilation of rhodin. This area is apparantly quite infested with goblins, as we were attacked yet again during the night. I made it my personal responsibility to wake the very sound sleeping Morgan with a blowgun needle :) I think I also surprised Tal with my mind blade as I went over him and attached the goblin right in front of him *pride*. We cleaned house after the failed goblin attack with gold, silver, gems and a even a flask of alchemist frost! I was going slightly insane with excitement over the gems and frost, but they were more focused on the faintly magical leathers and other large items.

I am tired of writing out Ro-Terrus and Tal-Cornis, so for my journal's sake, I'll refer to them as Ro and Tal respectively. I wonder if that's disrespectful. Oh well, I zap whoever reads my journal anyway!

As the party decided to move on, with Tal in tow, Morgan noticed something or someone behind us, so I fluttered back to see what's following us. I had to turn invisible to prevent being shot! He was a Sebeccai that obviously wanted to stay hidden. Ro and Morgan tried to speak, but he wasn't interested in conversation. I charmed him to share a meal with us. He had a transmutation ring and abjuration leather jacket, but that's not exactly helpful information as to his objectives. He liked me (duh, he's charmed), but eventually left, as he was extremely distrustful with everybody else. I have a funny feeling about him...perhaps we'll see him again...

We made camp.

Getting down the mountain wasn't too difficult, it's getting around it that will take a perceived eternity. We met a giant that gave us a sad reminder of Yaval's demise after two goblin encounters. I was very occupied with keeping an extra piece of silver and copper from the first goblin encounter's loot (somebody's got to take it, right?) before heading to bed. The second goblin encounter occurred during the night. I did not have to be a magical genius to see that they also had magical ability with the fog that they produced and the cold spell that came out of nowhere. Anyway, being goblins, they ran when they started seeing goblin bodies. Morgan cast something to knock the last one in sight over, but the interesting part is when a giant approached us with the runaway goblin, which was now quite dead! My magic nose detected 4 faint auras (shock, transmutation, negative energy, and touch of disruption). Desperately wishing that I had a Detect Money spell, I overheard his name being Tal-Cornis, and listened to him explain that he was a shield mate of Yaval. He didn't take the news of Yaval's death very well, but he decided to travel with us for the time being; I assume to learn more about Yaval's death. We told him about his money and belongings, but Tal decided to wait until we got to the horses to decide upon the proper caring of Yaval's possessions. I am glad he's here. Perhaps he can address some of my thoughts of memorialising Yaval. Regardless, he'll have the best knowledge of how to dispose of his "estate."