3. Niamh's Very Secret Diary

Niamh's Very Secret Diary


  • A leatherbound book that smells quite new early on in life. The text is written in a large, rounded hand interspersed with drawings of interesting herbs and flowers

    Golly. Where to start, eh? I said I’d write everything down so that I can tell mum about it when I’ve been travelling. Maybe even find some useful things out for myself and bring back some rare plants. I went to the library and read about the creatures and plants of the foothills and they sound quite interesting. A nice Defender told me that things were a bit dangerous so I took Swift with me and bought some darts from the marketplace. Mum asked me to bring back some shield ferns if I saw them, too.

    It’s FULL of kobolds! Hundreds of them!!! Not as quiet as the east plains, that’s for certain. I met a nice elf called Syclya and we walked a while together, while she fought kobolds and I threw my new darts almost everywhere but actually –into- a kobold. And when we did eventually kill one – it’s wearing rags and clutching a small lump of coal, like it was valuable. It’s quite sad really. There’s so many of them, and there’s almost nothing left above ground. There’s supposed to be some goats or sheep grazing the hills. Maybe wolves, too.

    Nothing. Just kobolds. I’ve no idea what they eat. I think there’s too many of them. And they keep trying to kill me when I’m cutting herbs. I’m not sure what place they have in the great balance, but I’m sure that letting them kill me and strip the hillside bare is NOT it! Maybe if I kill enough of them, we can get goats or sheep or some hardy deer up there. That seems better. Swift is getting too old for this hunting. Couple of times a kobold near hit him solidly and I had to call blessings onto him. I am –so- glad Mum paid for those defence lessons at the Academy. I’m sure they’ve saved me … fifty times already! Maybe I need to count them first, try to guess what a sustainable population of kobolds would be. Very hard to do a catch and release estimate when they keep trying to stab my knees, though.

    Today I saw something fantastic! Like a giant eyeball with tentacles and a mouth. A mage called Mastian summoned it and said it was in his service. It’s really gross, and very unnatural. I didn’t like it, but he said I shouldn’t tell anyone about it. I can see why. It’d frighten people if they weren’t brave, like me! I am –such- a hardened adventurer now. I used to laugh at them in the market, yet here I was, half-dead and trying to dicker Perin up on the price he’d pay for half a dozen rusty knives! One day I’ll be richer and I’ll have a shield that doesn’t look like an Orc’s chewed holes in it (he had).

    Another nice elf came by. She’s called Lia and she wanted to offer me sex! Maybe it’s a hospitality custom. Must mean that I look suitably adventurer-y or something. Another elf asked if I was looking for a partner too. They’re so friendly! It must be because they live such a long time that they want to be friends with everyone. It’s probably ceremonial. I hope my polite refusal was right, the library said nothing about this! Lia’s a druid of Lurue and she never stops skipping about. She did introduce me to some other druids who seemed very welcoming and showed me their Secret Glade of Trees. Very nice it was too. And they have a lizard! And a tame kobold! I knew they were useful for something. I better not tell him how many I’ve been beating on up North in case I’ve offended his little kobold clan.

    I still can't throw darts. Must try harder!

    Things To Do:

    1. Kill more kobolds! Little scaly tinkers that they are! Population is large enough that surplus hjust spills from the caves.
    2. Count the Spiders in the pass near the Gypsies again, they keep skittering about distractingly.
    3. Help more people to work together. Some of them seem very quiet and miserable in the South. It’s probably because they don’t come from Peltarch.

  • Ooh! How -stupid- can I be? Pretty darn stupid, that's what. After all that work and effort, I'm dumb enough to go for a walk by myself. Not just that but out for a walk where I know there's likely to be trouble. Stupid stupid stupid. I know why I did it, I just felt so full of myself, so close, just on the edge of something marvellous and like nothing bad could happen.

    Well, I sure got proved wrong there. At least Fang had the good sense to run away when he smelled the ambush, not like stupid human-nose here. Still, life is nothing if we can't learn from our mistakes and so I'm back.

    It's really weird, almost like a dream, to be brought back by this giant tree! I mean, it's not often you meet many halforc druids and this guy was pretty big, even for a halforc. He spent most of his money getting Vroka to raise me. That woman's still so incredibly tight with her blessings, even though there's this war on. I thanked her anyway though, because - well, she did bring me back. Hopefully she's using the money to help the other wounded, so it's a good cause.

    It's so odd being back again. I think I need to be a lot more careful. Oh yeah, a -lot- more careful. I'm not going out again without an army.

    Nuts! I went out with an army and that didn't work either, those bugbears just north of Norwick must have taken a dislike to me. Felt like I was the target on tourney day out there. Do they pick off the valuable people in robes? No. Obviously the bemused woman in leathers is the -ideal- high-value target of opportunity. Hmph. That or they just wanted to see how fast I can run with an arrow in my butt. Nasty furry sods.

    Things to do:
    1. Sleep on my front for a while.
    2. Try and keep the glen safe.


  • The Legion is sick. They seem like nice people, and they’re very eager to help out, but they’re not as tight an army as they make out. I think they promote people too quickly when senior officers die, and a load of the senior officers seem to think that charging into a fight is the same as leading people in a fight. Sure, charging and going offense is great, but… like anything in life, it has a place. We were lucky to survive that Giant we met out by Ormpur and General Thorn was at the front.

    He was so brave. I bet his mum would be proud to see him fight against something he was only knee-high too. We all lived as well, so no harm done, but I don’t even know if he noticed how close Rilia came to getting killed by the Wolves, or me by the trolls while he was running about with his little flaming sword. I’m sure General Lavindo would have handled it better. I know now that fighting and parading aren’t the same thing, not by a ways, but having folks trained and drilled do they do move like a unit, and they do obey orders, and they do have someone in command who’s far back enough not to be blinded by the blood. Well, I think they could do better.

    I need to find a way to help them. An elven Legion Major seemed very hurt when one of the Chessentans said that they lacked discipline. He just didn’t seem to understand that being a great warrior, and killing things with your big sword isn’t enough, sometimes. An army is a team, a community. It protects its own weaknesses, plays to its strengths. It lives. The Chessentan wasn’t helping either, I think they’re a bit too full of themselves. I bet that if they’ve just grown and been trained to do formation fighting there’s stuff they’re missing too.

    Maybe I can find their captain, Andreas, and General Lyte and see if they can get together. Maybe have a parade – show each other techniques they’ve learned. Show why they do things a certain way. I’m sure they can work together. Genzir seems very clever. He’s only a captain, but if the generals keep charging things and dying, he’ll be in charge soon. He was definitely very together when we went out to break up a meeting between orcs and bugbears. Held us back, things happened in good order. We killed the ones that were left with no losses. So much better than the rough skirmish that Alba took us on with Winter and, oh, what's her name, Redhead elf lady, quite fastidious Calia is scribbled into the margin, added later.

    Jiyyd’s biggest problem is that the Orcs are clever enough to seek allies and unite against something. I hope we can be tolerant and look beyond our own pride to do the same. At least the defences are near complete.

    Things to do
    1. Talk to druids about Dwin's offer.
    2. Find that Chessentan captain!


  • Golly, those bears are tough! I went up to the Icelace beach with Alba to check on an Active Demon Portal! We didn’t see any demons though. To be honest, she never said it was a portal to a demon plane, either. But it probably is. Frin the Hin said it needs a key or something to activate it or open it and we came back.

    The penguins were especially snarky. It’s mating season, I think, so the males were being very territorial and vicious. I managed to coax one away from attacking us with a bit of meat, but it was still very angry. Last I saw it, it was diving into another pair to try and break them up. It’s not like birds to be so vicious, but maybe they’re that way from living on the ground.

    Oh, but the bears are magnificent, though! I tried to fend one off with my new club but it slapped me down with its paw and nearly ate me. I’d have been dead if it hadn’t been for that invisibility blinking me away again.

    Have left word to speak with General Lyte about fortifications for Jiyyd. She’s very busy. Still no sign of orcs, so maybe they’re having a break. Perhaps it’s an orcish festival of relaxation and cultural celebration! It doesn’t seem likely, somehow. The orcs'd be all, like: ‘Me Oggrug - This my soul-painting. It speak of pain in heart from harsh whelp pit’. No. Maybe I should see if I can put a team together to go and check those woods to the SouthEast. William and Seth would be good for that, we did well together fighting off wolves and Worgs in a cave just north of the Mintas forest.

    Aha. I went down to Norwick and coaxed the bear out of his cave with some meat. He wasn’t happy about it, but I hid in a bush and watched him killing the goblins nearby. Then lumphed about in bearform myself, practicing that paw-slap and follow-up bite. It’s a lot rougher than that sleek panther, but boy they know when you hit them!

    Things to do:

    1. More bear practice. Maybe try to get the shoulder-charge to work better.
    2. Get Sylvain a small herbal. He seemed interested in the ones in the swamp and he’s a dab hand with a bandage.
    3. uhm… drat. More Fenweed for the fever tinctures. It sounds like some vile gutrot’s going through the docks. Don’t drink the water!

  • Nearly killed by hobgoblins today. I was going South and there were so many at the pass. Luckily a nice passer-by was able to beat the last few off me and bind my wounds. They would have just killed me. I don’t think they’d have cared, either. It’s just what they do. That’s the only trouble with fighting in an animal form, I think. Can’t cast to heal. Can only run. Oh well. I should practice more. That was too close.

    I met an idiot of a legionnaire in Jiyyd. A huge half-orc chomping on a cigar and calling me a tree because I still had a bark blessing up. He just sat there saying that Jiyyd would be safe, that they’d protect us. How the druids would make it all better for them. It’s terrible. He had no idea. He just kept coming back to the gates being reinforced, the walls made taller. They don’t have the people to man a wall of that length. The gates are no use if someone sneaks up the well and opens them from the inside.

    Is this what it’s like? Trying to help them despite themselves? They won’t run. Won’t clear houses to make a better killing ground inside the walls. That well doesn’t even have a sentry on it despite that drow woman just popping out and turning that poor old fat guy to stone. I hope he’s okay.

    Maybe that’s what the dream was about. I’m becoming too soft. People are born, they live, they grow and they die. I nearly died. The old guy was petrified. Mastian was slain in the pass. We should rejoice in the time we have, not fear returning to the land at the end of our span. It’s symbolic, letting go. Letting a part of myself go. That’s why I had to send Lithe home. It was really sad, but I know he’ll be fine. He’s back with the other cats… doing cat things. I hope some adventurers don’t just breeze in there and try to kill them, but that’s the way of things.

    Time to toughen up, Niamh. Looks like a war’s coming, if that general was right. And it looks like the Legion are expecting us, the druids, to do something about it. So I prayed. I prayed for guidance and strength and courage and all the things that should make us great. To bring us together to fight well. But with compassion, not like the nasty hobgoblins who’d kill us, because they can. I prayed for strength and Nobanion sent it to me.

    It was terrible. The screaming of the hobgoblins in the pass that weren’t lucky enough to be dropped by one of Sinu’s arrows. We’d seen a group of them waiting by the bridge. Waiting for another luckless person to wander by. So we retreated unseen and planned with Sylvain, who’s not half as silly as he makes out, once he’s called to fight. Me and Sylvain and Sinu. And Fang. That’s what he sent me. Not a noble great cat, but a hulking wolf, tall as my shoulder. I’ve seen smaller ponies! So I call down the blessings. Not to protect, but to fight, because sometimes you protect best by offering a swift end to your foes.

    They screamed as the ground beneath them erupted into lashing thorns. They screamed as Me and Fang charged into the midst of them, herding the few that escaped back into the killer plants. It was the lucky ones that got a swift death from an arrow or a bite. And when it was over, there was maybe forty of them, trapped in the lashing vines and branches. Four of us killed forty… In a few minutes. I know I’m not the most fearsome of the Circle either. I’m still learning.

    I know these orcs are supposed to be strong, but… maybe we have a chance.

    Things to do:

    1. Talk to the Craft Union and the Jiyyd Council about these gates.
    2. Make a few maps of where we need to raise earth and make vinetraps
    3. Remember the screaming. We shouldn’t come to love this.

  • It’s all going to horribly wrong! I’m going to end up on the wrong end of some orc’s spear down in nasty, muddy little Jiyyd! I’m going to die, a long way from home trying to save some people that’re too stupid to run and no-one’s even going to know or care.

    Whew! That’s better. Mum always said that by writing out the worst that could happen you could forget about it and start to plan for the good things instead. It looks like the Legion army are going to persuade the Druids to help defend Jiyyd. This very important elf General came along to ask the circle at a meeting that Lia just happened to drag me along to. I tried to stay quiet most of the time but they said some really silly things a couple of times and I had to butt in.

    But, if we all work together, anything is possible. Even defeating a vastly superior force both in numbers and strength. If we had a defensible position, anyways. On a plain, they have to just make like a herd animal and run, leaving the weaker and sicker behind. They never think like that though. Got to stay behind to try to save some idiots who think their house is worth dying in, rather than running off to build again. Then I thought about it again, and thought about Mum and Branwyn and what we’d do if an Orc army rolled down Hake Street and looked like they were going to kill us all. I hope we’d run, but I can see how it’s hard if you’ve, like, lived there always.

    So we talked a bit and it looks like we need to make the plains less plainsy. Maybe we should try and find the new orc army and see where they get food and water from. Then Lia got cross because the elf General seems to have thought about everything and just wants help in a fight. I’m sure there’s more we could do though. If the new orcs can get help from Bugbears and Goblins, I’m sure we can get some help. Maybe the Jiyyd trolls, if we can persuade people to stop wandering the swamps and killing them. Or those funny barbarians I heard of to the southwest. If they’re having trouble, they might help. You never know until you try.

    Golly! Two –days- in a library with books about fortification and sieges. It’s so complicated, all the things people think of! Stand on a hill, it’s better. If you don’t have a hill, make one out of wood and stand on that. Then have all sorts of plans to make your hill not catch fire. And it’s totally different from the Fornication section which is unhelpfully close to Fortification. There was a really creepy gnome that kept asking me to fetch books from the high shelves. I think I did help him best by fetching a ladder, though.

    Back to fortification though. I think we can do something. Raising earthworks to make some channels to stop the Orcs surrounding the few defenders we’d have in Jiyyd. We can probably encourage some wild growth to help make other bits impassable. Maybe some flooding too to keep them slow and vulnerable. It sounds like there’ll be so many orcs if they do attack that we don’t need good archers, just –lots- of archers. If we can get a few gates out of the Craft Union like that nice Private William said they’d paid for we might even be able to make something that would hold, for a while, anyway.

    I feel sick, thinking about it. I wonder if Dad died trying to take a hill, or a wall, or a gate. I look back at the book of land unit formation and how it talks about committing strength and reserves at the right places to break lines, or attack flanks. It’s like life. They make units out of people and the units all work together as parts of something bigger. Just like all the men and women are part of their unit. But I guess that’s why they do it. You’d go mad, trying to run a battle if every time you gave an order, you thought about all the people that were about to get hurt and stabbed and broken and killed.

    So I don’t. I copied this from the description of the earthworks outside the fort at Karag B’tala.

    inset diagram of gates set into high banks allowing archers to cover the approaches

    I think we could build something like this, if we have the gates. Even if the orcs can climb up and take a bank, there’d still be another gate and the other bank for archers to cover from. I think at the South gate we could just raise more brambles and stuff to get in the way. Maybe use that hill overlooking the south gate, and hope they don’t come in the cave. Like they have done before, they tell me.

    Karl va’Clauswits has a book in here. It talks a bit about how many people you need to defend a certain length of wall. I don’t think we’ll have that many. And we can’t make the town smaller, because of the buildings and the people. Maybe we can raise trees or thornvines or flood or something to keep them away from the walls, let us cover the hills in the archers. Maybe I better not show people this book, it might upset them.

    Things to do

    1. Find some allies for Jiyyd!
    2. Practice with darts. I killed a troll! I killed a troll with a dart. I was –so- proud. Until I remembered we might want to ally with them. Oops.
    3. Take Lithe out for a run. I’d hate him to get fat while I read books in here.

  • Swift is too old to take out hunting any more. It’s so sad since he’s been with me like forever. Anyways I went out to count the Spiders again, and I prayed like I always do for the nobility and strength to help these people better themselves and then I heard something! This dark shape slinking through the trees, towards me. I wasn’t scared, not really. Well. Maybe a bit, anyway. This huge cat strides up to me and sits, watching, tail curled around it’s feet. Its paws are as big as my head! But he hasn’t eaten me yet, and he followed me home. I think I’ll call him Lithe, because he is.

    A southern village called Jiyyd has quite interesting underlying rock structures resulting in cave networks, odd rock outcroppings and a very marshy, freshwater area. They say trolls live in the deeper swamp and I haven’t been there yet. A Mage called Seth helped me go hunting for Fenweed though in the near swamp. inset sketch of leaf-detail of Fenweed in autumn There’s some evil little bugs there, nasty biting things that infect easily in the damp air. He was very helpful though and cast lots of spells on me to protect me while I took some cuttings and sketched.

    The swamplights there are odd. He said they were some sort of outsider, and they’re very strange. They look like a glowing light, but they can dim themselves and be nearly invisible! And they zap you with some sort of shock. Next time I go I’ll remember the blessing to counter that. Oh and I saw some bulrushes, but they weren’t very good specimens, so no pictures. Next time I’ll look harder and see if I can find some Improved Bull Rushes.

    Lithe got stolen by Horrible Hobgoblins! I’d hardly had him a week and a nasty red goblin priest just POOF-ed him away with a spell. Nothing left, no body, nothing.
    I was walking south to go to the swamps again with a nice Tormtar called Del when we met some hobgoblins on the road. I called some blessings onto me and Lithe and the nice knight attacked them. And then there was this spell and Lithe just disappeared. It didn’t feel right at all.

    We went on to Jiyyd and there was bunches of people there all just waiting, so I told them what had happened and most of them agreed to come help look for Lithe! It all falls together like it’s meant to, in harmony. Even though they’re nasty red cat-thieves, its giving me the chance to help these people work together and do some good. And I couldn’t leave Lithe to be eaten by goblins, it wouldn’t be right.

    It was so exciting! We crept through their caves and Seth anda quiet woman called Sara killed loads of hobgoblins and Del used Torm’s blessings to get rid of the traps. I think we even showed a miserable old man called Jeremy that there was sense in cooperation. He certainly started smiling more once he started looting the hobgoblins the others had killed for their weapons.
    Eventually we found the door to the maze that they keep cats in! All locked up in the dark, fed only by whatever unfortunate adventurers fall through the traps in the upper temple, is what the adventurers told me. It’s not right to keep cats that way. They need space. But we crept about and I called and called until I was hoarse and then I found him hiding in a little dead-end with a couple of cougars. Getting out after that was pretty simple, but it was very exciting and I nearly died when I saw the size of the bigger hobgoblins. They all died too quick for me to learn much from the other adventurers, though.

    Yes! I’m an adventurer! Yay me! I still look like an orc’s chewed my shield, though.

    Things To Do:

    1. Practice throwing darts. Lots! I was no use at all in those fights.
    2. Ask nice Lady Rilia to take me out into the Spider Pass again. I think that adding some of the silk-gland secretions to Mum’s fever remedy would help a bit, it’s too runny and people aren’t buying it.
    3. Death to kobolds! I need to ask that Nice Mr Black if he knows any Senators still. I’m sure if the City could be persuaded, we could have wolves in the hills again. Wolves would love eating kobolds, I’m sure.