3. From The Private Journal of Carol Nightinggale

From The Private Journal of Carol Nightinggale


  • Entry Number 1:
    Uh, hi! Don't really know how to start this off… I've never really kept a journal. Haha... Why am I so weird even when there's no one else around. This has been crossed out with black ink Anyways, Kalem said I should try doing this to "build up confidence" and that I should write like I'm talking to a real person so that I "become comfortable talking with strangers". I'm not sure how this will help but I'm sure Kalem knows better than I do.

    A blotch of ink stains the page and there are many half written sentences that have been written and crossed out before the writing picks up again I suppose I should tell you about my day yesterday. Well... The day started when I woke up in one of the chairs at the inn. Apparently i dozed off last night while I was working on a song. Ended up with a crick in my back because of that. From there I decided to go to the commens area to see what people where up to. As usual it was raining so I rushed for the cover of the big tree on one side of the commons. It wasn't that much dryer but it was something.

    There were a surprising number of people out sitting in the rain just staring at each other, not talking. It was really awkward so I just kind of sat there with them. Eventually I just couldn't take it anymore and started paying this cheery little ditty that I learned when I went down to Norwick a few days ago. However no one really seemed to care and they all seemed very involved in their own thoughts. Though surprisingly Vick came over and gave me a tip for my performance. Maybe he isn't such a bad guy....
    a silly little drawing off a cross-eyed rouge adorns the edge of the page with the label Vick below it

    After a while I left with Leroy and Kalem who snuck into the city last night to go hunt some fish men. It took us awhile to get there mostly because there was a communication issue that led to Kalem and I getting separated from Leroy. Anyways we finally got there and we ended up killing a few fish men.

    Well... I say we but honestly Leroy and Kalem did most of the work while I just stood back and supported them from afar. I every prepared a really good joke about the fishmen that made Kalem laugh. But we ended up leaving early because because the cave was getting too dangerous for a small party of three to continue on alone, so we headed back.
    I decided to split with the group at old temple. I thought it'd be fun to explore for a bit, but then it got dark, guess I spent too much time waiting around in the commens.

    So here I am now sitting next to the old cracked alter of the temple, writing this journal by lantern light before I go to sleep tonight. To be honest I had fun talking to you, even if you aren't real and all I'm doing is writing in a book that no one will ever read. But I suppose that isn't really what's important here is it? Anyways, I'm getting a bit sleepy here so I think i'll leave off with that.

    Good Night....


  • Hey again, it's been a long time since we've talked! Sorry about that, I've just been distracted alot these days. Recently we've been having alot of trouble with dark dwarves so I went down to the hold to help out. Everyone seemed super on edge and when we were finally attacked it was wave upon wave of undead. Then they appeared, huge floating head with tons of eyes!!!!

    I'd never seen one before so I decided to call them Bobbleheads. Once everyone focused on the Bobblehead it fell quickly.

    All seemed fine until we heard a cry from upstairs. A few adventures charged upstairs to see what was happening but everything seemed fine so we left. Thinking back that might not have been the best idea based on what happened later..

    Anyways, we went back down fought more undead and Bobbleheads before the dark dwarves called a truce. This was only after one of their assassins got in and murdered the town healer.

    On guard most of the archers and magicers were sent to guard the gate while the heavy fighters took the fight to the dark dwarves the next day.

    So we waited anxiously the ground shaking beneath us as we waited to see what would happen. That's when the roof caved in and everything went crazy! Dark dwarves came down from the ceiling and one gravely injured Lady Kathea who retreated behind me to recover.

    When the dwarf ran to follow her I shouted out encouragements to boost moral. Unfortunately that also meant the dwarf turned to smack me. I personally think he just hated bards.... Anyways I ducked away cause he hit hard!!!

    That's when a Bobblehead came in through the roof. It fixed one eye on me and then nothing. All I remember is waking up on the floor of the Bard College with a sore back and a throbbing headache.

    So I sit in the commons penning this and nursing this nasty headache. I hope to talk to you later but for now I must bid you....

    Good Night!


  • This post is deleted!

  • Ergh.... I feel horrible... I started drinking last night and the rest is kinda a blur... I think I talked to Rarylador?

    Ek... just thinking makes my brain hurt...

    But from what I can recall we repelled an ogre invasion. The entire thing was pure chaos and I just ran around trying to keep others from bleeding too profusely.

    Urgh... trying to focus enough to write is making my head throb. I'm going back to sleep, so....

    Good Night.


  • This post is deleted!

  • It's been awhile since I talked to you, sorry about that.

    Not a lot has really happened though. I suppose i did get run out of town one day for trying to play a prank on Vick. Apparently the guards thought I was actually attacking him and so they started attacking me.

    I managed to make my way out of town without getting too injured and stayed at the old run down temple until everything blew over. However, other than that not much has happened. I've mostly been sticking to the alleys and working on some of the songs for the new band. Sometimes I pop back into the commons to just listen to people talk.

    ….... there is a large ink spot here as if the author hesitated with their pen on the page too long

    I did meet a strange fellow the other day. Very... twitchy. Nearly jumped out of his boots when I said hi to him. I talked to him for a bit before he had to leave I presume to see Vick as he seemed to be the only thing that he would really talk about. What a strange man... I hope Vick treats him well as he didn't seem to be a bad person.

    Today however I did find something of note. This shady man that I've seen hanging out at the docks came up to me and offered me a ticket to a place called "Obsura" for a small sum of gold. Curious I decided to take him up on his offer and traveled to "Obsura".

    I shopped around at the docks a bit until I found this one merchant who was selling instruments. They were fairly expensive but I had a fair amount of gold from my explorations with Kalem and bought two of them. They are both beautiful pieces and when I played the yerting the sound was soothing that I felt some of the aches and pains from my encounter with the guards melt away.
    All and all a good purchase and a fairly pleasant day. Perhaps tomorrow i'll go out adventuring. however for now...

    Good Night.


  • there are a few pages ripped out
    Entry Number ….: Several words have been crossed out and written over

    I woke up in my favorite alley today to the sound of rain gently pitter-pattering down a few inches from me. I sat there a bit listening to the comforting sound of rain until I eventually got up.

    By the time I had gotten to the commens it had already stopped raining and I was surprised to find the area entirely empty. I didn't have to wait long however before Leroy came by. Excited I hurried over to talk to him about our new song. He seemed to like it and a couple people wandered in while I was preforming seemed to approve. Hopefully we can meet up with Eric later on so we can discuss more about the band. I really want to put together a full performance with with everyone. (We will need to write a few more songs first "Just another crone in the stall" isn't going to be enough.) We also manged to rope Vick into helping out, ot sure he's the best singer but maybe he could be a back up dancer or help us make some flashy stuff.

    a couple different Armour logos are drawn on the page with one of them circled

    Anyways so after that we went all went hunting we came back and I met this girl Jenash. She was writing in her own journal but as soon as I came over she slammed the book shut. She seemed a bit down so I started talking to her but I'm not very good at talking to people so I ended up making everything awkward. So instead I thought I'd play her our new song to see if that cheered her up but it only seemed to make things even more uncomfortable between the two of us so I decided to just sit down next to her.

    We whispered to each other for a few minutes and I tried to convince her to join us in the Kobald caves but she refused and I eventually ended up leaving without her. I don't think she likes me very much.

    We made it through the caverns without incident and I made it back to my alley unscathed where i sit writing this entry. The sky is starting to go dark so I think I'll wrap it up for the night.

    So,
    Good Night...


  • Entry Number 2:
    Today was so crazy I was basically running around the whole day. It all started when I woke up in some strange place, apparently someone found me camped out at the temple and brought me back into town. So I made my way from there to the commens where Vick had apparently made friends with Death. I sat down and watched as he introduced him to everyone though I don't think Death ever actually talked. Now that i think of it maybe it was all a trick because I don't think I ever saw Death move. Maybe he was just a statue Vick dressed up? I wouldn't put it past him an image of a very enthusiastic rouge gestures enthusiastically at a statue of the grim reaper in the margin of the page

    there are a couple worry marks here After sitting there for awhile and listening to everyone chat I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I turned and found a ghost on the other side of the wall. Startled, I scrambled back and some of the more seasoned adventures stepped in and made short work of it. I wasn't much help since whenever I'd shot an arrow at it, the arrow would pass right through. Then a second one showed up and was taken down.

    After that we went to secure the gates which was honestly rather tense as we weren't sure how many ghosts there would be. Luckily we only ended up fighting a handful and we followed them back to their haunts and found they'd been transformed by these potions that we found in some crates.

    It was nice that we were able to wrap everything up so nicely but then people stated arguing about who was going to carry the potions and how they are going to destroy them. It honestly took them half an hour to finally come to an agreement. Half way through I contemplated taking the potions just to see if they would notice, but decided against it since I was pretty sure that the Paladin would be perfectly happy to slice me in half and take the potions if it was in the name of justice.

    We then headed back into town and I ended up in a group with two volatile people who kept shouting about fire and rust. We hunted some Gnolls and on the way back they discussed making this guy (I think name was Leonardo?) into a saint. They also kept calling me Moody? I'm not really sure why but I just kind of let it happen. Fire and Rust are written in bold capital letter beside the paragraph

    Hopefully i can go adventuring with them again though I may need to find ear protection. the entire time the man, (Lenardo?) wouldn't stop shouting and though he is good company it did leave me partially deaf in one ear. Hopefully it recovers before tomorrow.

    Until then,

    Good Night…