#fae wind

Blastfire Bog is a unique and fascinating sort of place. The name really should have tipped me off, but I never expected it to be so hot. Plenty of new risks to navigate – but oh, so many interesting sights to see as well! I soo got the hang of the tiny boat and paddled myself deep into a dense tangle of squat trees trailing limbs like heavy curtains into the pungent soup of the bog itself. After exploring a while through their giant, twisting roots, I looked up and caught sight of what looked like ropes all wrapped up in some of the branches. I tethered my coracle so I could leave for a closer look – the trees were a little slimy but not too difficult to climb due to their size, and of course Shadow had no problems. High in the canopy of an old willow, I was absolutely flabbergasted to discover an enormous, nearly intact airship, nestled in a bent and broken slew of branches that it had apparently crashed into a long time ago.

I managed to pry open an outdoor door and make my way inside, awed by the pristine preservation of the interior. Upon a closer look, I realized the reason for this was probably because everything – and I mean everything – was coated in Fairy Dust. It was the most abundant amount of loose Fairy Dust I had ever seen, and I had no idea what could have happened to so thoroughly coat the interior of an airship. I could have kicked myself for bringing only one collection vial with the proper preservative spells cast on it for transport. I was aching to do a thorough exploration, but I had other ingredients to look for and limited time. Instead I only marked the area on my makeshift map and reluctantly made my way back to my boat, coaxing Shadow along with me (he doesn’t like the coracle, but I can hardly let him stay up in the trees in an unfamiliar place). We left glittering footprints and pawprints all along the tree as we descended, but I’m sure they’ll wash away the next time it rains.

Before I pushed off very deeply into the water, an odd shape caught my eye among the roots of the willow. Thinking it might be an exotic creature, I approached cautiously, but upon closer examination I realized it was a carved stone head thickly covered in moss and algae, rising from the rest of wat I assume was a statue beneath the water. After wiping off as much I could from the face, I saw it was a woman, screaming – which was a little unsettling. Inside her mouth was a Princess Toad, though, and I felt very pleased as Shadow was able to snatch it without difficulty when it tried to hop away.

Now that I’ve collected my necessary ingredients, I chose to linger a little bit in search of more of the Amethyst Antlers that Maddi brought me – assuming the deer are more abundant in the Bog than in the Glimmerwood, for some reason. Alas, all I met with was failure and frustration. The first new direction I tried brought me into an horde of very angry goblins, who I suppose I startled. They chased me off with rocks and insults shouted in a surprisingly crisp human tongue, and it took a good while for me to shake them off. Shadow wanted to attack but I held him off; it was my fault for alarming them, and there’s no need to make enemies of the locals.

I found a clump of enormous mushrooms upon which to moor my coracle so I could give my arms a rest from paddling. I’d barely settled for even a moment before I belatedly realized there was an absolutely gargantuan toad sitting among the toadstools, neatly camouflaging with their darkly spotted caps. When I say it was big, I mean I think it could have swallowed me whole…but thankfully it wasn’t aggressive, and to my surprise it began speaking to me with perfectly understandable words. I’m not exactly sure what its name was, or if it was a male or female toad – the voice was as ambiguous as its anatomy – but it spoke only in measured, rhyming syllables, as if reciting to me. It said:

“For hundreds or thousands of years, or more, Reigning over this land was a Dragoness fair, Casting terrible fear into man's very core ’Til along came a Wizard whom she couldn’t scare. The boy was fast The spell was cast And the Dragoness trapped within her very lair.”

My interest was absolutely piqued, and I waited for the rest, but the toad fell silent. After waiting a while to see if it would speak again and trying to greet it and prompt it to go on, I caught the sound of a low, gurgling snore. I think it tired itself out, the poor thing. I did my best to leave quietly.

I eventually found my way back to where I started – I could tell because I bumped into another statue, different than the first I found but with the same strange screaming motif. I tried to find a new direction to explore, but I accidently went the wrong way and once again ran straight into those agitated goblins. The only good news is that as I fled from them a second time, Shadow snatched at something beneath the water and flung it into the boat. After we safely escaped, I looked to see what it was, and there was a fully intact Amethyst Antler! Covered in mud and Bog slime, but I’ll take it. I considered it a victory and made my way home, giving my excellent, ingenious, talented panther as many cuddles and scritches as he desired.

“Settling Swill”

Crush Princess Toad droppings until texture is consistent

Add water and mix by shaking, not stirring

Sprinkle raw fairy dust

End result should be almost smoothie-like

Paid: 30 silver Tybalt was a little uncertain about the sparkling smoothie, but after one sip immediately calmed his stomach he was eager for the rest. I told him as he left me that he needed to learn to stand up to his friends more often, or they’ll just keep on taking advantage.

After he left I prepared a hardy dose of Chillixir Mix (see previous entry) for Mr. Verdan and sent it off with one of the ravens, along with a note of inquiry to Nana Dorea whether anyone had decided to look for the cursed area causing such trouble. Paid: 60 silver

Additional Notes:

At the beginning of the week I took what I intended to be a quick trip to Hero’s Hollow to gather a few more servings of Skullcaps, just in case another wave of Bard Boils crops up. I found a prolific patch of them just on the inside of the hollow, to my delight, growing on what looked like a pile of discarded papers. I collected enough for two doses, then rifled through the papers and found two decently legible maps drawn out of places within the hollow I had never been before. One was marked “The Larder of Suffering,” which honestly should have put me off, but the way it was phrased gave me an inkling that perhaps I’d want to take a look.

When I got to the marked place (after deciphering several wrong turns and other outdated notes), it was indeed a larder, but it looked to have been cleaned out of whatever used to sit on its shelves. There were a few empty bottles and a lot of broken glass bits. I did, however, notice the shine of something underneath one of the shelves, and managed to pull out one fully intact vial of Innocent’s Suffering – stored and labeled exactly like the one I’d picked up from the Bacchae’s campground a while back. So this is where they must have gotten it! Even better, there was another patch of Skullcaps along one of the higher shelves that I was able to collect.

It was an unlucky choice to linger so long, however, as the rattling clank of footsteps sounded behind me and I turned to see Baron Jackass making his approach from the hall. He challenged me, again, and I told him we’ve already been through this, but he only shoved an old sword into my hands once more and pretended not to hear me. He ended up making quick work of it, thankfully withdrawing as soon as he saw the first blood he drew from me. I suppose I should be grateful he only ever wants to duel, and not actually kill me.

I asked him what his problem was, and he asked me what MY problem was, for the first time dropping his boisterous speech and actually sounded a little petulant. He complained that my predecessor always knew how to have a good time, and could actually hold his own in a fight. This gave me pause, so I asked - “Do you mean Kevyn?” To this the Baron gave a woeful sniff – ridiculous, since he has no nose or tears – and just repeated the name “Kevyn” in a mournful wail before turning on his heel and clanking away at a distressed jog.

When I finally shook myself out of my stupefied shock, I bound my wound and left to follow the second map I took. It claimed to lead to a vampire nest, but it too was out of date, so all I found was a dead end and a patch of fungus. A closer look revealed it to be Foot Fungus, specifically, which I promptly took, and that made it all worth it I suppose.

Alas, on my way out of the dungeon I ran nearly face-first into the Baron again. He was hiding in a corner and singing softly to himself. I actually felt a little sorry for him, despite everything, and asked what he was singing. All he replied was “Kevyn used to love this song,” before he seemed to snap out of it and clamber to attention again, calling out the familiar challenge for me to duel him. I said no and turned to walk away, but of course he attacked anyway. I did a slightly better job of defending myself this time – possibly due to his distraction, as I could still hear him sniffling and humming brokenly every time he drew near – but I didn’t manage to escape before he hit me again, drawing a stinging gash down my arm. I called him a motherfucker, and he turned away without acknowledgment, singing and sniffling as he wandered back down the hall.

I think I despise him.

While treating my arm, I found another small patch of Skullcaps and gathered them up, but then I left, feeling extremely fed up with dungeons. I spent nearly the rest of the week mixing raw Slime Shells and Vampire Venom in a large vat, for the sake of hopefully healing Bàs Bàta’s broken tooth. I poured the concoction into a string of hollowed out coconut shells I collected along the beach, corked them all up, and sealed them with some beeswax I found lying around. With any luck, I’ll be able to deliver the remedy soon.

The entire end of the week was spent teaching Dwayne the stone golem how to read and write. Now that he seems to have gotten used to living here, I see him often watching passerby from the village and trying to interact with pantomime. I think he’ll like being able to communicate properly, once he gets the hang of it.

OOC: Rep – 18 [Intermediate] Silver – 284 Tools – basics / coracle / sickle (+2 foraging points) Familiar skill – Hunter (-3 Animal reagent rarity) Golem Helper: learning to read & write