[RP] Gag's Diary

[Cha0s]

[Ganthran Tolaran]

Ganthran looked hopefully into Kada-El\'s. It was raining, but he didn\'t want to walk into a bar fight. He smiled; all was peaceful. He hurried inside and quickly ordered an ale. It was warm, and dry. Ganthran sighed contentedly, and examined the crowd. There about forty people of assorted genders and races, all crowded inside to get away from the storm. Few were talking, and only in small whispers.

Ganthran took out The Hydlaa Courier, and flipped to the column on titled, \"Gag\'s Diary\" He began to read, murmuring to himself. A moment later, he noticed two people reading over his shoulder. A few others were clustered around, seemingly interested. Ganthran shrugged and began to read quietly aloud. After another paragraph, he noticed that most of the tavern was listening. He raised his voice and continued. When he finished, there was silence for a moment; then the whole tavern burst into applause. He was immediately assaulted by queries, \"What paper is that in?\" \"Where can I get it?\" \"Is that true?\" and on and on. Finally, he held up his hand for silence and they quieted. \"This is the \"Gag\'s Diary,\" a column in the The Hydlaa Courier. As far as I know, it is all true; it really happened. If you don\'t believe me, find Gag and ask him yourself.\" With this, Ganthran folded his paper and purchased room, before heading upstairs for a good night\'s sleep.

[LigH]

Dear diary,

today I met a quite strange salesman. He said he wanted to obtain rare weapons for anonymous customers... those are not the most trustworthy people, probably - but the description of the weapon and the announced reward (a Platinum Galkard, 5000 tria) sounded more like a collector\'s item, less like a warrior\'s weapon. His name was Pacor.

Trasok Starhammer did not have one, and he obviously was not a weapon smith primarily. But he suggested me to ask around for it at the other merchants, at least he was interested in such an artwork.

Brintec was a bit busy and did not know anything useful - but Toda Ombretis knew it, and would have sold it for 6000 tria; well - I\'m not a poor guy, but a loss of 1000 tria wasn\'t worth it. Toda mentioned, though, that a smith could probably forge one, with the right base materials and knowledge. Hey, I was always curious about weapon smithing!

While I tried to ask Trasok for more information, Waurelie Rerogo already headed towards Hydlaa to ask Harnquist. At Jirosh Mikana, I met Satayne, who was also interested in helping. Jirosh could only tell us that the Galkard he keeps is in a magically sealed chest, and Toda has the key. So I prefered to run to Hydlaa instead.

There, quite a bunch of people surrounded Harnquist already. He told us that he would need several gobbets of platinum and iron ore. But hey, imagine - going down deep into the dungeons to dig for an hour; running to Ojaveda to have Trasok smelt it; running back to Hydlaa to forge the weapon... No, sorry. My day was long enough already!

[LigH]

Dear diary.

I never expected that day to become so exciting when it started.

When I woke up, and inspected the arena for possible preparations of the upcoming Blazing Daggers tournament, I found that Janner\'s Way got a new member again, a good sign, so I decided to have some training, and because the required trainer was in Akkaio, I headed there.

A long jog makes thirsty, so I went to the tavern first. There in the Broken Door, I met a nice elf, named Niavard Inasiav. We had a drink together, and talked about our life intentions, about guilds, helping people in different ways, science and magic ways.

Suddenly, Jirosh Mikana appeared, and ordered several beers, which he drank faster than recommended... Despite his assurances that he is fine, I kept an eye on him - someone who drinks so fast usually wants to forget problems. Soon, Jirosh was really drunk and had to get some fresh air. There, he said, he witnessed Trasok Starhammer being kidnapped by black-clothed strangers!

Brado didn\'t believe him, expecting him halucinating under the impact of too much alcohol - but we could not find Trasok anywhere, and it is not usual for him to leave the forge, not at all. For my part, I had enough time to look around and investigate. And luckily, my guildmate Halvord Magnusson, Setill Karunore  and Narita Salene  appeared as well and helped.

Because we could not find any hints in Trasok\'s forge, I went to Jirosh, who finally went to his shop again. He was very strange - he constantly said he could not talk, but gave me a slip of paper with an order to wait outside in an empty store house. There we met again, and he said that he got threatened. Halvord found an \"emissary scroll\", signed by a \"Prince of the Rogues\", in the back of Jirosh\'s storage room, between several lines of footprints.

While trying to cheer Jirosh up a bit, a rude Menki named Sefron (?...?)  appeared. He was not at all careful, kicked Jirosh to get any information - we suspected him finally to be one of the fellows of the Rogue Prince. We could not let Jirosh be alone anymore, therefore Narita went to the gate of Ojaveda and got the guard, Tyrnal Relhorn. He protected Jirosh from that time on - and appeared just in time when a rogue came along and fought us.

The last piece of information we could get from Jirosh was: He saw that the kidnappers guided Trasok through the usually closed gate opposite to Akkaio-East, and they must have used some powerful magic to open the door just for a minute; it is still closed tightly again. We must find a way to get through as well - Trasok is in danger on one hand, and one of the most important merchants on the other - we can\'t miss him for long!

[LigH]

Today was simply a sad day. I could not call it differently.

The message about Janner\'s death struck us all like a lightning - I (and probably others too) could not think straight anymore, tears broke loose in our eyes.

Janners intentions had been most unselfish. He offered the most a man could offer for the good purpose - his own life. It was the only way for him to finally defend the evil soul of Embers Wildflame; whatever ruined her soul, it infected his as well, and made him split in two: Semper, a kind of diabolic character, concentrated all the hate inside.

Not even Janners family knew about his plan to defend Semper (and Embers inside) when he left his home early that day. I was more than surprised that he promoted me to the new Master Dreamer of Janner\'s Way; I am torn between two feelings - happyness about the promotion to such a honorable post, and some kind of awe of the burden to have to fulfill his legacy now.

[LigH]

Still under the impressions of Janner\'s death, it was not at all easy to manage the preparation of a wedding.

I am still a little surprised how Illori and Acissej Forado found together so ... well, suddenly, yes. Acissej is not often in town, so he was obviously taken away by some kind of \"love at first sight\".

It took me quite a while to find a priest - or registrar - for the event in time. Not to mention the hole in the ground which allowed some gobbles to creep out a week before the event - fortunately, it got closed right before.

The wedding ceremony itself was a rather small event. Several good friends witnessed the event, when Cerejha Ylen wedded them at the hidden fountain near Jayose\'s library.

To our great surprise, we even met Jorden there, who appeared to be Janner\'s brother. He never told much about his family ever. So I\'m glad that we have already a few good events after the previous desaster. So I\'m able to look forward with some confidence.

[LigH]

Finally, the day had come. The investigations of the guards of Ojaveda showed some success. They discovered that Trasok was found in the hills and valleys of the road to Ojaveda, and probably guarded well by rogues.

Therefore, guard Vikao gathered lots of warriors and started a hunt in the hills. We must have been almost 20 people in the meantime, for example: Setill, Satayne, Zog, Gholmyrr, Kolesa, Bradd, Arron, Kinomn, Setral, Streik, Gyfu, Cyrus, Zapharus, Nalain ... hard to remember all of them, please forgive me if I forgot one.

Before we descended into the valleys, we first met at Grok Idon, who must have made the trade of his life - he might have run out of potions... Then we searched the path towards the crater at first, when our guard unfortunately got a little confused by the signs. So we chose the opposite direction first, and looked around in the surroundings of the mossy ruins. There, unfortunately, we already lost a few of the more careless fellows to some Ulbernauts...

But we could not find any sign of life from Trasok, or any rogues, there - so again, we took a closer look at the crater, where we finally found him, near some forge, with some freshly forged weapons. But a strong force field prevented us from rescuing him. And even several sentinels raised from the grounds, a scary sight...

Trasok could at least manage to tell us that his force shield was controlled by five mages all around the crater. But they were no real resistance to our trained fighters. Soon the force shield vanished without any more control from the outside. And with the help of a powerful glyph, lost there by one of the sentinels, we were able to get back to Trasok\'s forge in a breeze, where we got rewarded by his last creation, a fine musical instrument.

But there was still one warning from Trasok before we left: He was caught for the reason to smith weapons for a whole army of rogues; he spoke about hundreds. I am quite afraid that his tales are true. So, everyone near Ojaveda: Be careful, watch your back - and tell the guards of Ojaveda if you see or hear something suspicious. Your information might be their advantage one day, before that army of rogues may find the time to start their invasion!

[LigH]

A cold breeze runs through the streets of Hydlaa, from north of the city gates. With it along, it brings a taste of things to come.

Returning from the forest, with no success in finding the reason for my strange feeling, I reached the plaza where suddenly a smith asked people for help. He introduced himself as Zarwach Loc, and told us that he got commissioned to create an amulet, which he already prepared basically. All he needed was its enchantment, and delivery to the mages in Ojaveda afterwards.

Because I knew Levrus quite well, and they might have had some use for a guide along the road, I joined the group of Serdin, Goland, Domonico and Deek; on our way there, also Jeruha joined us.

After giving Levrus the amulet planchet, the enchantment order, and his fee, he took us down into his basement laboratory, where he examined it closely. He already found it suspicious that it was so light, as if it was hollow. The smith must have used a quite special material for it. Furthermore, it seemed to be soaked with magic already before - Levrus warned us to keep it away from several things, like trees or copper. And when he was about to start, I just had a kind of vision of that Klyros mage we should meet afterwards; or was it his spirit watching us already?...

Still, Levrus finally started to charm the amulett. We took it and walked outside; Serdin once again expressed his mistrust. Just when we were about to walk into the forest, a cold breeze blew from there, icing the meadow on the glade in front of the Magic Shop. But just for a minute. Hey, did we need any more bad signs?!

Still, we had to find out what it would bring, maybe at least who was involved. So we plucked our courage and headed towards the road to Ojaveda. There, a dense fog lay on the hills, we could hardly see anything beyond the next corner.

Near the broken rock bridge, we already found Ymairu, the Klyros mage we should deliver the amulet to. But he was quite weak, almost ill, so he searched for a \"more safe place\" to rest - between some trees. Didn\'t Levrus warn us about being close to trees? But what could we do - we needed to know the direction it would take us...

Due to his weakness, he needed guards to take him towards Akkaio, where he promised to pay us the second half of some reward to guide him. And he was right, the road to Ojaveda was full of several monsters. We fought trepors, bandit, rogue, clacker, even Ulbernauts! I was almost surprised how easy one could be defended, though. As if they were placed there as supernumeraries in some bad performance.

Just in front of the great Jade Gate of Korogan, Ymairu asked to get the amulet. A bit too early, we decided. He wanted to be guided to Akkaio, so we had to do it until the negotiated target was reached. He seemed almost nervous - why? Didn\'t he want to get too close with any witnesses around?

When we arrived, he asked us to wait outside, and he brought up a guard comrade, Rinticet. But he said he did not know about the amulet; how could this be? Suddenly, the guard yelled in pain, and broke down to the floor. Then he started to talk nonsense, and ran around mindlessly. Ymairu said he was drunk, but it was not the behaviour of a drunkard, instead rather one whos mind got confused by magic.

Serdin gave Ymairu some Ivy leaves to boil up as a drink, while I held Rinticet. It should have cleared his mind - but to our surprise, he would out of my grip and escaped into the bamboo. So there was not much left to do, and we finally gave the amulat to Ymairu, who asked us to line up for the rest of the payment.

While we waited for this, suddenly a dense purple fog clouded Ojaveda, Ymairu laughed at us, and disappeared. He was the traitor - and we all had been tricked badly. Oh, I feel so ashamed, and weak; I will need a good drink now. And probably I will miss the revenge on the Prince of the Rogues tomorrow, sleeping soundly in my hangover...

[LigH]

Was this really necessary?

I never thought that Janner could have so draining enemies. Janner, in general friend of everyone - if someone makes him so angry that he acts unpredictably, he must really have some lack of tolerance and decency.

So for whichever reason - too bad Janner never told us in detail, probably to avoid us being accused in the same way as he got - he disbanded his guild \"Janner\'s Way\" during my vacation.

Janner had his reasons, of course. Too bad he was too afraid to talk about them; a community is always stronger than an individual - I\'m certain that we had found a way to avoid it...

Well, the deed was done. And to avoid further departing, we needed to form a new guild. At least to stay together until Janner will find a way to solve his problems, or at least to get strong enough to be a reliable leader of his guild again.

But for the meantime, created during the ruby rain, his fellows are re-united as the Ruby Reign. We are a guild of hunters, with similar intentions and rules as Janner\'s Way before, and similar degrees of freedom to the members. And \"hunter\" is a vague term, we hunt different game - knowledge, monsters, public enemies, abuse of authority... Always within the framework of the Octarchs law, of course.

[LigH]

Dear diary,

to my shame, I must confess: The life as a reporter is not at all easy.

When I heard about the kidnapping of Kandrek, I immediately started to investigate. I asked several people, especially from Felines Lair. The most important help was Jorelle. But she didn\'t know everything. And she did not even tell everything right away - only late I heard from a letter where Kandrek warned Felines Lair about coming problems.

As far as we could find out, Kandrek got poisoned by Sefron - yes, the same Sefron who seemed to be involved in Jirosh\'s threatening when Trasok was kidnapped - but no cogent evidence that he was paid by the kidnappers.

Zorbels, Maelgwyn and Satayne were near Kandrek when he ... disappeared. This may be the best word to describe it. They did not see him being kidnapped, only heard his cries.

Still not known to me is the reason behind that kidnapping. One theory I heard was that another competitor wanted to remove Kandrek to be able to court Jjairr without being disturbed - rumours said that Kandrek wanted to betroth Jjairr. But in contrary, others saw him being absent minded after he spoke to her shortly before the kidnapping. Did his proposal go wrong, did Jjairr snub him for it, or did he not even propose it to her?

Furthermore, one rumour said that the trail of blood from the forest to the trees at the hills around Ojaveda Road should be related. Enkidukai seem to believe that there are creatures in the trees. And people with robes used Tefusang blood to empower themselves. Strange mysterious rumours, oh, I love them...

And then, there is Cadoras... When Kandrek returned, he did not know where he was, what exactly happened, not even how long it lasted. It seemed that he lost severe part of his memory. But he could remember one ... maybe not fact, only a feeling: \"Don\'t trust Cadoras.\" At least Javeroal, the Plaza Times Editor, told me that he was afraid of him.

So, what do I have to make of it? I am no Enkidukai. I don\'t know as much about terms like family [pride/glory] and disgrace as it seems to mean to the people involved here.

One of my greatest problems is that Jjairr does not talk to me anymore. I\'m not sure what kind of mistake I once made. I can only remember a case where I eveluated Krysalka being a confused mind, telling us to fear him and to rule us, but being rather weak. I know that he often disturbed people around him. Maybe I judged him wrong - of course I am able to fail.

But is this a reason not to tell me any way to correct my mistake? Shall I suffer from one mistake for the rest of my life? I am disappointed about this reaction. I can\'t help people who don\'t want to be helped. But if this is her final decision, I may have to accept that one day...

Back to topic; the case of Kandrek is not yet closed. The kidnapper is not yet known to me, neither are the reasons for kidnapping him. Felines Lair has split over it (several previous members are now in another guild, \"The Warriors\"), and still, the content of the letters which Jorelle received remains in my mind: \"The clues lie within the blood on the floor near hydlaa\", and \"The Lair must be unified for the coming battle\". And the rumours about Jjairr\'s latest connections to Krysalka and Talamir do not quite help the renown of Felines Lair.

Where is Ayshe?

[LigH]

While Countess Lolitra is still threatened by Hagarath, also her friends have to cope with their own fates.

Shauri, a young Enkidukai girl, introduced to Lolitra by Nilrem, and bloodbound to Lolitra, had met Cadoras not long ago before in her life. He was obviously able to hide his intentions well - Shauri fell in love with him, and her relation bore some fruit...

Shauri got so desperate that she was willing to try anything to get rid of that tiny creature inside her, she even started to apply a dagger on her stomach in front of Sangwa, Satayne, Zorbels and me, and could be saved just in the last moment before she would have ripped herself apart...

Because it was not too long ago, there is still a very good chance to have the same result with less dramatical actions. She needs help from a great herbalist ; my own knowledge is sound but limited in this specific area - mother didn\'t teach me everything. So I hope Hitancrias can help her.

Fortunately, there are good news as well: The great Mitaki is back again. I already met him several days ago, when he returned to the plaza. But he seemed to miss a good part of his memories. All I could suggest him was to look for his friends, because they would not have forgotten him.

Yesterday I met him again in the tavern, where he only walked by for a moment. But he looked awfully - and told me that he was attacked by a Klyros on the hills to Ojaveda. It seems that a shadow of his past found him. His friends shall keep an eye on his path.

[LigH]

I rather stumbled into this story, so excuse if I missed several details, there were too many to remember them all...

I looked for an empty room in the tavern, when I saw Einnol, Geloy, and Xillix - who I already knew as a winner of the Tag Team Tournament. But this time, they looked not as powerful - instead, the guys were concerned about Xillix, who was found in the ruins before, unconcious. She did not respond to several ideas of waking her up, and trying to heal her - with potions or spells - did no good, made her state even worse.

After a closer examination, they found some kind of map on her backhead, clearly showing the stone face, Ojaveda, and a town in between - at the place where the ruins now are. There was a marked spot, and an engraved date - which led to one of the following days. And in her absence of mind, she spoke words which were hard to understand, regarding the meaning.

Later, also Anfa, Ahriman, and Kabel joined our investigations. And we met Sarrow here and there, though not knowing his part in this case. He was obviously watching us for some reason...

The next day, Tretrol, Miadon, Djeroon and Proglin visited the place and tried to help. Xillix was not better, but instead, the situation almost escalated, when Denoill spread false rumours, and a group of Kran appeared - according to their words, sent by the Kran King, against Xillix. But her \"bodyguards\" did not allow any harm to her.

In the meantime, we started investigations. Verrliit tried to let her magic work on the map on Xillix\' haed, but it defeated her, she had to escape. Xillix seemed under some kind of reversal spell, we had to avoid any healing. Other friends looked near the stone face and the mossy ruins. But we could not find valuable hints at first. Even several offers and sacrifices to the Dark Crystal revealed only small hints.

It required the combined actions of Anfa and Einnol to reveal the secret of the stone face: They entered the mouth together - and disappeared! So Alleri had to wait for Einnol to return, she just received the engagement before he left.

After several days, we gathered lots of people near the stone face. I can\'t tell you all the names, no way. There were at least three dozens, no matter if religious or not - friends asked friends who asked friends, to come to the place where Xillix was brought and watched.

They all gathered and prayed with all their power for Einnol and Anfa to return. And they did, finally. During their absence in some different realm, they found the answers: A secret was hidden in the ruins of a former town, including a ring and a special spell. Now everything worked well: The ring was found quickly by Dighaten, the spell was spoken, and Xillix awoke out of her curse.

Then the secret was revealed: Xillix was the successor of a previous Octarch who was recently assassinated, and she was hidden by a spell from assassins (apparently sent by the Kran King), so not even she was aware of her destiny. Hard to understand for me ... but we will see what the future will bring.

At least, this was an exceptional example of the power collected from lots of friends...

[LigH]

I am still impressed, even several days later.

Chancellor Raouldir Paxar did not waste much time to finally ask me. After some severe decimation by Hagarath, the House of Purrty has to grow again. Therefore, because he knew me for quite some time already, often being a helping hand and a trustworthy friend, he asked me recently for a great favour to him, and a great honour to me.

He offered me to become a Knight in the House of Purrty.

It took me a bit more time to think about this offer. Right at first, this would mean to leave my guild Ruby Reign because there would not be enough time to handle both duties at the same power. Not to mention the sadness it would cause to my mates to lose another important member - Kelden left the guild not too long ago, and even our founding reason, Janners disappearing, is still in our mind. And finally, I may be a man of renown and trust, but I was never too familiar with court protocols and etiquette, my education is not as noble as the one of Duchess Lolitra Purrty...

Well, the last argument may not count too much. I know a bit about the hard time Shauri Sut'lar had in her history, and still, she advanced to a Countess. Her love to the guardor major Zinnius Zann, and the duty of raising her children Althelean and Galenar, gave her a new strong character and a goal in her life. She will soon receive her title officially, and after the courting time, their wedding will be a fantastic event, for sure.

Still ... I am sorry, but I have to decline this offer. Mainly my guild, but also other tasks, consume too much time and importance. But I am looking forward to meeting another person who will be more suitable for such a honorable task. The Dark Lady Verrliit Razorclaw may be another candidate, even though Raouldir is concerned about her dark magic abilities.

And the tale of renewing such a noble house will spread fast in our land, it may attract more candidates soon.