Letters to Kara (A Look Into the Mind of Talyna Felf)
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Dear Kara,
I heard some rumors that you're still up in Peltarch, so I thought I'd try writing to you. It's been a long time since we have seen each other, but I still think you are my number one friend. Life has been great for me and I hope it's been good for you, too.
It may surprise you that I'm back in Narfell. Ginger was surprised to see me back. I had gone back home to Waterdeep to tend to Ma, she was getting ill and Pa couldn't tend to her and keep the smithing shop open. But Ma finally passed away. She had a good life though and told me she was proud of me. I stayed with Pa for a little while after that. I thought maybe I should really, REALLY start getting into smithing so I could take over the business from Pa. Every time I started hammering away though, I just didn't feel it in my heart. I felt restless, you know? Pa knew best though. "Taly," he said, "get yourself back out there. You ain't done adventuring and your heart knows it." Months of traveling later, and I'm back at the Silver Valley!
On second thought, I bet you aren't surprised.
I'm so glad I listened to Pa. As I said, he knows best. There's lots of new people I've met. And even some adventure. I fought hobgoblins, oozes, harpies, and a cockatrice! I didn't do well against that last one. Ginger warned me that there were cockatrice tracks, and moments later she shoots some arrows past me to my left. I start to turn around and bring my crossbow to bear and… the next thing I know I'm staring at Ginger, and that advisor Aramuil is behind me. The darn bird had turned me into a statue! Obviously the advisor fixed me.
Other interesting people I met? Well, there's an elf called Thorn. He's not thorny at all though, he's a really likeable fellow. There was a militia fellow called Kabul. A very burly and odd barbarian called Uljas. A bard called... Hmm, Elidur was it? He's VERY VERY VERY odd, but a surprisingly good shot with the bow.
Oh! And then there's Benji!
He was one of the first people I ran into when I got back to Narfell. He comes across a bit gnomish, which makes sense cuz I later found out he was raised by gnomes. He saw my old bow and asked if I'd be interested in a crossbow. Honestly, that old bow of mine is wearing out, so of course I was interested. He showed me a crossbow that happened to be made by Ginger herself! What fun, eh? I ended up having that crossbow for a LOT longer than we both meant. While I was target practicing with Benji, this other hin ran up to us and asked if we could help her get some lost items back from the goblins. Being the Little Warrior I am, of course I went to help. Benji too. So off we went. And well... you know how forgetful I can be when I'm distracted. I completely forgot to give Benji his crossbow back!
Would you believe I did kept forgetting? And it was his good crossbow too! We had a few other adventures together, like fighting kuo-toa in the caverns near Oscura. Actually, we both ended up spending a lot of time together.
Okay, I think even I saw the obvious signs. He'd fumble a bit whenever I was near and he'd make a point to be with me. I stole his heart, I could tell.
Lucky for him that I really like him too!
That Uljas fellow got me upset after Fight Night; he picked on Benji and I started to yell at him. Suddenly the barbarian looks like he had the brightest idea ever and tells Benji and me to wait and runs off. He ran back and forth several times, each time telling us to wait. Finally, he brings us up the hill and there sitting in a garden was a candle-lit picnic for Benji and me. And it was a VERY NICE picnic.
Uljas is forgiven, obviously.
So, yeah! I've got a boyfriend! I bet you're thinking it was about time, huh? It has been a while since Nyblas and I split up. I wonder how he's doing. I hope he found his kidnapped folks.
Oh! I'm running out of paper here. Write back to me soon, Kara!
Love,
Taly((OOC: I didn't want to do a diary or journal for Talyna, as she's really be too forgetful to write in it daily. However, I thought it'd be very in character for her to write to her childhood friend. This won't be updated as often as Tindra's diary, but I thought you all might like this.))
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Dear Kara,
Married life has been good. Benji and I had a good trip to Elmbrook. We had another celebration there for our marraige. And while Pa still teases Benji a bit, I can tell the two get along well. It probably helps that Benji has a few good tales of adventure to tell that match Pa's stories.
Guess who we ran into out there. Miss Rith, the priestess who performed our wedding ceremony! She was traveling to her church in Waterdeep for a mission of some sort. It must have gone well, it seemed she returned to Narfell before Benji and I. I probably have said this before, but I think there is something about Miss Rith that reminds me of you.
Oh! Here's some gossip I know you would like. I saw Ol' Tyger with a lady elf during his usual visits to town to sell furs. I tried asking about her, but he wouldn't admit to anything. But his cheeks were so red that Benji would still have noticed them without his goggles, I bet.
Tyger got back at me for the embarassment. He got Pa to constantly ask us when we plan to have kids. I took it in stride, but you should have seen Benji's reaction!
I hop to catch up with you soon. I know that things are crazy in Narfell right now. I hear there are nasty shade people, and the Hoarans are upset, and -
Oops, it's time for my patrol now!
Love,
Taly
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Dear Kara,
Oh wow! You should see this dress that Benji gave me! It's one of the most beautiful wedding dresses I have ever seen. I'll have to ask Ginger to help me try it on and see if it needs to be tailored any. Benji said he got it from a dragon's hoard.
A dragon's hoard. There's a story there that needs to be told, I think.
Wedding plans are starting to fall into place. I'd like to have it at the Temple of Hope in the Silver Valley. Maybe if the weather is nice we can have it outside even? A Lathanderite called Rith offered to perform the ceremony. Benji seems to know her well so I don't mind if she does.
I was thinking of asking you, but I've got a better idea. Do you think you could help out with the music? I'm also thinking of asking Val from the Crafters' Union to help with that. I'd love it sooooooo much to hear you sing. I miss hearing your mother's lovely voice, and you sound so much like her.
I'm off to go talk to Ginger now. Besides trying on this dress, I want to have her help out with more plans like food! She'd make a good Matron of Honor too, right? I gotta figure out wedding favors too. And decide on a date. And make invitations. And figure out who to invite. Wow. Weddings are a lot of work.
Talk to you later!
Love,
Taly
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Dear Kara,
Too bad you missed the fun harvest festival we had in the Silver Valley. It was a lot of fun! Benji was in charge of the archery games. He gave away a ton of prizes. Lots of gnomish pranks, toy swords, and these wonderful dolls. I got one of Master Z. You squeeze it and it waves and says, "Yes, hello to you." Just like the real Master Z! I also have one of this Tindra woman. I have no idea who she is, but I hear she's a werecat. Wonder if she knows that Aelthas fellow.
I manned the food both at the festival. We had macaroons, donuts, pastries, candy, honey mashed grains, toffee apples… and my Scrumptious Strawberry Pie! I spend all morning and the day before baking them. They sold very well! As you can see, I saved one for you, I hope you enjoy!
And guess who I ran into? SCUTUM! She was hanging around Norwick. I told her that you are still about, hopefully she'll visit you.
Talk to you later!
Love,
Taly
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Dear Kara,
Guess who got a new sword? Yep, ME!
It's a very nice big sword that has markings on it that show it was blessed by priests of Arvoreen. This is a sword that warriors of Arvoreen would use as they go about defending our people. Isn't that so perfect for me? I love it!
I got the sword while on this job for some Oscuran noblehouse. They wanted us to explore some tomb out in the desert. I went because it sounded like a great adventure, but also the pay sounded good. Inside the tomb we found lots and lots of undead. I'm so glad Benji gave me that new mace, it's blessed to fight undead. Mostly zombies and skeletons, but there were also mummies! Those were really nasty. And there was one chamber that had this giant sphinx statue that kept blasting us if we entered the room. I thought and thought and remembered your Ma telling us stories about similar statues. That they were mechanical in nature and meant to keep people out. We noticed some levers, but how to get them and what to do with them?
The how to get there was easily solved. One of us, Soliel I think her name was, changed her shape into a big cat. I guess these people liked cats. I can't blame them, they are pretty animals. So she was able to get to the levers. Three levers… What order to pull them in? That got answered as we looked through some of the books we found. The one I had was missing a page. The 231st page. 2-3-1. We tried that combination with the levers and the sphinx shut down!
After that, we found more mummies, and one of them looked like he was a king! By Yondalla, was he a nightmare to fight. I used up almost all the potions that Benji gave. We finally did beat down the mummies and found more books and other stuff. The Oscurans took the books, of course, and of the other stuff, I kept this sword and a magic broach for myself.
Have you had any exciting adventures? Or are you still just trying to keep quite? Don't be too much of a recluse.
Talk to you later.
Love,
Taly
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Dear Kara,
You wouldn't believe the adventure I just had. This has to have been the craziest, suicidal, deadliest, and frighteningest adventure I have done to date. It'll be one to tell the kids for sure, whenever I have some.
Benji had managed to get himself captured by a demon and taken to the Abyss. Now I know you know how bad that news is. I was shocked when I heard. A large group of us decided to rescue him. Thorn has this sword that can cut a portal open, and Aramuil helped guide him close to the right location in the Abyss to where Benji was.
We had to answer some riddles to get in. That was probably the easiest part of this whole trip. All the rest was the nastiest and most brutal gauntlet of battles that I have ever witnessed. The air was oppressively hot and scalding. Suc- Oh, how is it spelled? Suckubie? Suckubie attacked us with web and confusion spells at almost every corner. By Yondalla, those were annoying. We weren't even half-way through before I felt completely sick of the place. Oh, and we fought things called vrocks that made us sick. And there were these BIG spiders, babyliths. And nasty spellcasters, hezzrow. And also this little archer fellow who kept peppering us with arrows and we never could catch him.
I almost died down there. We charged two hezzrow, and they shouted these loud words that shook the cavern with power. In an instant, I felt stunned, blind, and deaf at the same time! And then a terrible gas filled my lungs, making it even harder to know what was going on. I felt the demons punch me around until I collapsed. Miraculously, somebody reached out to me and healed me. I've been saying more than a few prayers of thanks that I did not die down there. That would be nasty, right?
All of that trouble, and we finally made our way to the big demon, with that damn archer too. To say the demon was bizzare is an understatement. It was a he… I think. Dressed in leather straps and such, with lipstick and makeup. "Bambi" was his name. Maybe it was a she? He... she... It apparently liked interior decorating, that's why it turned Benji into a statue and took him. It was using Benji as a rack for it's 'toys.' I do not want to know at all, what those toys were used for. They looked disturbing.
We tried reasoning with the demon, but... I think the conversation was just as disturbing as those 'toys.' In the end, we fought and after a long fight, we defeated the demon and rescued Benji!
I think I've had more than enough excitement in that trip to last me a while. Thank Yondalla we got Benji back. I guess if anybody questions me about what I would do for him, I can say, "Well, I've been through the Abyss for him."
Though I hope I NEVER have to do that again.
Love,
Taly
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Dear Kara,
Benji's back from his trip. He started telling me about his trip, it sounds like he had quite an adventure. Trolls, and midnight thieves and such! He didn't get to tell me all of it though, because we were interrupted by an attack on the southern gate of Norwick.
By Yondalla, it was a brutal assault of undead! I bet it rivaled the assault on Elmbrook back when we were little kids. There were nasty ghouls, fierce death knights, foul undead priests, really big skeletons, and even bigger zombies that looked like they were made from various parts of giants! I survived, but I'm all out of healing potions and I don't have enough money to restock them. I even used the few that Benji gave me. The worst part about all this is that they were popping out of portals. And it wasn't just outside the gate, but in the town itself! Aramuil had a hunch about something and had us dig where portals appeared and we found pieces of onyx buried in the dirt. Aramuil says that's what allowed the portals, and it also meant that there are traitors in Norwick!
I wonder if I should try to rejoin the militia. They might need another warrior to help fend off such attacks. What do you think?
Love,
Taly
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Dear Kara,
Here you go! One "Felf Family's Scrumptious Strawberry Pie." I hope this batch turned out well.
Benji went off on a trip for the Legion. I gave him a couple of pies to snack on while he's traveling. I'm not worried too much about him, he's a clever fellow and I'm sure he's being as safe as possible. It was a little hard to see him off, but I know he's got his own things to do.
Oh, I got a letter from Pa today! It sounds like those two new apprentices have been some good help. Except one of them tends to get a little lazy and Pa has to skold the fellow to get back to work. Business has been good and busy, which is nice. Now that Ma's passed away and your parents have passed away, all Pa has is the blacksmithing. And Ol' Tyger. I wonder how that elf is doing.
Talk to you later!
Love,
Taly
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Dear Kara,
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I was nearly jumping up and down with joy when I read that you asked a merchant to have some strawberries in stock for me. Now I need to gather some flour, sugar, milk, eggs… I do have plenty of the secret ingredient at least. Oh, and I need an oven to bake the pies in, maybe I can ask the innkeeper? Remember that one time that Ma's oven fell apart and she really needed to bake a pie and used Pa's forge to bake her pies? And how some some of the armor ended up smelling slightly of strawberries and fenberries? At least the armor did sell. The local nobles thought the sweet smelling armor was the best thing in the world!
Yeah, I doubt Z or Ginger would appreciate it if I did the same...
Oh! Speaking of armor. I just got the MOST WONDERFUL gift ever! I can't believe Benji went through the trouble to get this for me. It's just amazing! You know how I've had this old suit of armor from Bram for years and years and years. It's meant a lot to me, as he gave it to me in thanks for being a loyal friend and talking to Torm himself about how important Bram was to us. Well, the old suit is getting worn. Some straps aren't as tight as they should be, and some plates need get have dents worked out of them.
So Benji, being the sweetheart he is, decided to get me a new suit of armor, and had Master Z make it. By Yondalla, it's amazing! It's got some nice engravings on it of strawberry blossoms and vines along the neckguard and inside the cuirass. And with the inside engraving, the blossoms and vines have a heart with our initials in Gnomish letters. When I put on the armor, that heart is right over my own.
I know it's often customary that a ring is given to show how much a man loves a woman, but this armor is just... WOW!
And he even had one strap made to be just out of reach like my old armor! I couldn't help but giggle at it. I'll be cherishing this armor as much, if not more, than Bram's.
As for the old armor, I'm still going to hold onto it. I think it'll make a nice heirloom someday, or even just stand it up as a conversation piece whenever I get a house.
We gave the new armor a good workout too. Master Z headed off to do some mining with people and we tried to catch up. We ended up in the crypts. Now they are in a real sorry state. Undead all over the place. You would have a fit, I'm sure. we found a door locked that usually isn't, so Benji unlocked it and we found ourselves facing at least a dozen undead! We fought smart though, only let a few through the door at a time so we could safely cut them down. All said and done, that was a fun little adventure. And then at town we were attacked by archery targets that were alive and shot back at us! They were made by some crazy gnome wizard who wasn't easy to take down but we managed to defeat him along with the help of two other hin and a big burly man.
I'm SOOOOO glad I came back to Narfell. I'm having a grand time!
Love,
Taly
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Dear Kara,
I'm so glad to hear that you are doing well! Don't worry that you can't tell me everything. I do understand there are some things you are involved with that shouldn't be discussed. No interesting men in your life though? Whatever happened to Braeth?
I ran into Atel last night! It was Fight Night time again. I'm so glad to see another familiar face. She looks like she's been doing very well, I'll have to meet up with her soon and catch up on things. Fight Night was fun, though I missed the archery competition. I boxed a woman named Sabre. She was pretty good, but I think I gave her a decent fight. I could see her wince when I numbed her elbow with a good jab. Just hit that funny bone right and your opponent will find it their arm can't swing as nicely.
Oh, I met a werewolf too! Surprisingly, he was fairly nice. I thought werewolves were supposed to be mean savage beasts, but he was a knight! And he's a friend of Benji's too. Aelthas was his name. He and his wife have nicknamed me "Sugar-Dumpling." Picking a bit on Benji, I think. Sabre and her friend Luke and Benji and I got to talking about nicknames. They decided on "Bennykins" for Benji and we figured "dumpling" didn't suit me so it sounds like I'm "Sugar-Pie." Well, I suppose that is more fitting, seeing as I know how to bake pies.
That reminds me, do you know if any merchants up in Peltarch have strawberries for sale? Or if any can get some imported for me? I really, really, really want to bake some strawberry pies. One for Benji at least. Do you want one too? I wonder who else would want a pie. Oh, but I know a lot of people don't I? I'll have to write up a list and work my way down it, right?
Oh, somebody's knocking at the door. I'll write again soon. Hope to hear from you soon!
Love,
Taly
