《A Second Chance at Martyrdom》


 Prologue, Tayvras Last Week

    450 NR Year of Deep Water Drifting


    13 Tarsahk


    Momma told me to practice my writing as a way to distract myself, so I asked her to buy me a journal. She kept teasing me that it was a diary, but I wasn''t sure of the difference. I think it''s a journal but I don''t know why. I need to distract myself though, even as I write. The road outside the window is noisy, people are outside driving wagons and enjoying how the snow is gone. I can''t enjoy it very much though, because of the noises.


    I don''t know why, but when I close my eyes, I feel like I can hear the shadows flitting past my eyelids. I don''t see them, I hear them. I feel the taste of food as I try to sleep. I feel weightless, yet heavy at the same time as I sleep. These are my feelings and not my feelings, and not even feelings at all. It started at the end of Waukeentide, but other than eating lots of good food I don''t know what I did to cause it. Mother just seemed confused when I asked her about it. She wondered if I was sick. I don''t feel warm or cold to her, I don''t cough, she doesn''t know.


    She said she''d make time to take me to the Spires of Morning in a few days, she said the priests could help me. I like it when we visit there, but momma and dad are both so busy it''s hard to trek across the city to visit.


    14 Tarsahk


    Momma took me, Sister, and Pelsot, we learned nothing of my feelings.


    We waited in line for awhile, Momma managed to get one of the awakened to find me a cleric, a Dawnbringer she had called it. Momma took sister and Pelsot off to some service while I had a private check in with the<s>doctor</s>Dawnbringer. Dawnbringer Selatha took me to a side room and casted some magic, I had little idea what she was doing, but as time went on she seemed frustrated. She confirmed I wasn''t lying, that I stillfeltthose weird feelings, and that they hadn''t changed when entering the temple.


    When we met momma again, Dawnbringer Selatha told her she couldn''t really be sure what was going on. She had ideas of what it wasn''t, but that didn''t help us figure out what it was. Momma seemed concerned as well, but she hid it well when sister asked about it. I don''t know if Pelsot was convinced, but he asked no further questions.


    What is wrong with me, that I feel such strange feelings? They aren''t the same, though they are¡­ similarly strange. The same wrong feelings that feel different things. I hear the lights, I feel the tastes, the weight is always a mix of right and wrong, yet my feet are steady. The dreams too, I''ve been dreaming strange fragments the last half tenday. Blurs of people with faces I don''t know. Buildings I''ve never seen the likes of. A different ocean? Strange monsters? A god? I don''t know these memories, they aren''t mine, and yet I have them. Dad told me that most dreams are a way to think and a way to remember, but what does it mean when they are neither?


    15 Tarsahk


    I had another dream last night. I saw massive dogs like momma tells of in the deep woods, bigger than a horse and covered in spikes. I saw a dragon, or something like it. Wizards casting spells, doing things I don''t understand but were certainly dangerous. Lots of shouting, but I couldn''t make it out, it was like dipping my head in a bath.


    I heard one word with clarity though, Skitter. It was said many times by many people, I eventually was able to make it out. They said it like a name though, or a title? Who''d be named Skitter though?


    I don''t know what to think of that dream, so I''m writing it down. Dawnbringer Selatha said that if I wrote down the dreams I might remember them better. Even now though, it''s hard to remember everything. It helped a little maybe, but I guess the idea is you can go back and read it later? I''ll read this again before I go to sleep, but Pelsot is calling for me.


    <hr>


    I''m not sure why I''m crying.


    I was out playing with Pelsot and his friends, we were tossing around a ball one of their parents had bought for their birthday, I don''t even remember who. Yeena had been on my team, and had come up behind me and startled me. She had started laughing when I jumped, her face framed by her curly autumn coloured hair.


    Something about that snapped something inside, the sounds in my ears. My head. My heart.


    I ran, the feelings overwhelming in a way I hadn''t felt before, I stumbled at one point and vomited next to a barrel. Pelsot found me halfway home when he realized I hadn''t returned, and helped me walk home. Mom won''t be home for awhile yet since she''s working. Dad won''t be around either even if he''s home earlier. I''m writing here, trying to center myself, because I don''t know what''s wrong.


    Am I broken? Selatha couldn''t help me, momma couldn''t help me, Pelsot doesn''t know what happened and I''m not sure how to explain it to him. Could he even help if I did? Probably not, but he''d try and it would hurt him, but would not telling him hurt more?


    I don''t know.


    <hr>


    I must have fallen asleep after writing, I regret it.


    The dreams were worse this time, more scary. I saw some of the same people, the dire wolves, the people wearing masks, they seemed to be friends, though some were suspicious. The people without masks were the bad ones though, they had constructs that killed people, and people raised as zombies, and worse monsters fighting for them too. There was a weight too, a responsibility, something needing to be done.


    I don''t know who I am in the dream, it isn''t me, I''m too tall. My hair is too long too, but it''s similar to mom''s hair? It can''t be mom in the dreams though, so who''s dreams are they? Are they even dreams at all?


    Something about that seems right, and that makes me worried.


    Mom held me tight though, that was nice, but I wasn''t really upset anymore. I don''t even know if I was upset before either, it didn''t feel like when sister took my toys without asking.


    16 Tarsakh


    I got more names in the dreams, they were clearer this time. Lisa, Rachel, Brian, Alec. They were friends in the dream, allies. I realized all the shadows in the dreams weren''t shadows, they were bugs. Piles of them, and they were mine.


    I don''t know any of the names, they don''t even sound familiar. Waterdeep might have been fairly multicultural, but only a few were similar to ones I had heard of. Still though, maybe it could be a clue? I''d have to ask one of the teachers at the Font of Knowledge the next time I had lessons.


    Then again, I don''t have money to pay them to actually investigate it, but Momma said it was better to ask and be rejected than never ask at all. That''s how Dad met her.


    The pain in my head is worse, but the feelings have a little more clarity? I''m not quite sure, but it felt like some sort of vision, I thought I recognized some silhouettes of some buildings in the neighborhood.


    17 Tarsakh


    I HATE THIS I HATE THIS I HATE THIS THE DREAMS ARE BAD


    <hr>


    Pelsot caught me fuming and managed to calm me down. He took me with him to play with the others at the park across the Snail Trail. Yeena was there, and the silence was¡­ well, we fixed things. She tried to apologize first, but I had to cut her off and explain my headaches to her and the others.


    Things were better after that though, distracting. I didn''t get many of those feelings while we played, but I could tell some of the others were being a bit careful around me. I''m still not sure what happened with Yeena, but I didn''t get panicked the entire time even if she was trying to avoid being behind me.


    We were out for a few hours, but eventually we had to disperse when we saw a group of lizardmen skulking out of Book Street. There was a bunch of them, and they looked hungry. Jaythal reminded us of the stories of them eating people in the swamps up north, and Pelsot seemed to believe them. So off we went, most of the group rushing across the Snail Trail and back to our homes.


    A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    I''m not sure what I wrote earlier, I don''t actually recognize it at all. It''s some weird lettering. Maybe it''s Elvish? It''s certainly flowy enough from what I remember from the script we learned a little about. It''s probably from my dreams, I''ll have to ask when I go for my lessons tomorrow.


    18 Tarsakh


    Another terrible sleep, another miserable morning.


    It''s getting difficult to fall asleep now, or to know when I''m even asleep. Are the feelings I keep getting from the dream, or some weird vision of now? It''s hard to distinguish at times. The dream was stranger still, there were different monsters that I''d never seen before. Some sort of humanoid dragon, a hound made of swords, a glowing figure shooting magic and destroying the city. More things to try and find out about I suppose.


    After breakfast Momma is taking me out with Pelsot and Jespa to our lessons, so I''ll have to see what I can find out. I''ll need to duplicate what I wrote earlier, I don''t want to share my journal.


    I can smell the bacon downstairs.


    <hr>


    A lot happened today, new questions, and a few answers.


    Lessons at the Font were thankfully brief, I''m mostly just going to improve at this point rather than learning the basics like Jespa. That gave me plenty of time to ask around for some help on what few leads I have, and thankfully I found someone curious enough to provide assistance without charging me ten times my entire allowance for the year.


    He was a strange looking man admittedly, a dwarf with the fluffiest beard I''d seen in my life and not a hair atop his head. Orsik Ironfist he said his name was, apparently from a clan up near Neverwinter in the north. He seemed like he was only feigning mild interest when I talked about my dreams, but he started to believe me when I showed him what I had put down in my journal. He figured it was a real language anyway.


    We spent the rest of the morning looking over big books about different languages. I realize I''m not as good at reading as I thought.


    We couldn''t find anything, but Orsik said that was in some ways a positive. He still believed it wasn''t just scribbles, which meant that whatever it was had to be something quite foreign. Apparently he''d like to get back to me sometime in Mirtul. He couldn''t actually focus much on the case, but it would be a "fun side project" for him to take breaks on.


    Apparently he''s some sort of wizard sent on a mission to look into something with Dagult Neverember. I guess it makes sense he would be interested in the open lord. Why he would be in a library for that is a little weird, but he seems smart enough to know what he was doing.


    I had to leave with Pelsor and Jespa, mostly the latter when her lessons were over.


    It was what happened after we left for lunch that was the oddest part of the day. We decided to head over to the market to pick up some pies to eat as we walked home. I felt an urge, no, a pull eastward. My siblings indulged me and my feeling, likely guilty about how I felt recently.


    So we went, and followed Andamaar''s Way for a time until we heard a noontime bell from a large temple. I hadn''t been there before, the Hospice of Saint Lauspenn. Pelsot said it was a temple of Ilmater, was that why I was drawn here, because of my suffering?


    We were turned away at reception though, apparently there was a pox around and they were minimizing contact with the non sick. We ended up eating our pies outside on a bench instead, which was likely for the best.


    Our meal was joined by one of the priests from inside. He was old, really old, I don''t think I''ve ever talked to someone as old as him. He has the thinnest grey hair atop his head, and he ate his lunch slouched forward. He was kind though, he gave us all a smile as we told him of our morning at the Font. He seemed more perturbed though what I talked about how I was trying to find things from my dreams, and the weird sensations I told him about. He gave us a blessing as we left to go home for the day though.


    Maybe I should visit again sometime? At least to have lunch again with Vhaspar.


    19 Tarsakh


    I think I remember everything now, or¡­ I saw everything? I know about what<s>I was doing</s>Taylor had to struggle through back on Bet. The gangs, the Endbringers, Jack Slash, Scion.


    Wait, not Scion, I didn''t see how that went, but if I''m still alive that meant he was dead right? Someone must have been the silver bullet, the ace in the hole, to end his rampage. If that''s the case though, why<s>am I here</s>do I remember Taylor as if I was there?


    At least the headaches are mostly gone. I can feel a few of the bugs, sense a few of them. Not close to what Taylor could do, with maelstroms able to devour those caught in them. Maybe the clarity of the memories helped me understand the bugs, different as they might be to what she knew, the fundamentals are mostly the same.


    I haven''t smiled like this since it started, but now I feel light on my feet, not weightless, but as if my stress has left me. I am assured now, I think, yet there''s still so many questions, so much doubt. Can I answer these questions? Could Taylor? Could Lisa?


    My heart aches with melancholy, for friends I<s>fought alongside</s>never met. What would Rachel think? What about Grue? It doesn''t matter now. Breakfast will be prepared soon, the day will start. Perhaps I will simply go out and spend it as I want, not tagging along with Pelsot, not going to lessons.


    <hr>


    I don''t understand what''s happened today. It started with me wandering around, feeling the city around me in a brand new way. Whimsical. I enjoyed a lunch from the market, visiting the Hospice once more, though Vhaspar wasn''t there to join me this time. I felt a sense of solace though, clarity beyond what I felt before even. I people watched, as they went about their lives, just like all the hundreds of bugs I could feel buzzing about on the street. Wriggling underground, burrowing into people''s walls. Well, I did put a stop to that last one, a small commandment in my mind sent them scurrying away to hopefully not do more damage.


    It felt like what Taylor would have wanted to do, had she had a more relaxed start to being a cape, if she had been a hero from the beginning.


    I kept just immersing myself in what I could feel with the bugs until someone from inside checked to see if I was ok or waiting for someone. It startled me, but I suppose I sort of left myself behind with all my new perspectives.


    When I got home, I felt¡­ heavier? Fuller? My mind is adrift in a fog, but not like before where it hurt, rather it felt like I was in so much more, thatIwas so much more. Taylor felt like that too in my memories, her body just another light amongst the stars, the most important perhaps, but she disassociated sometimes. Maybe it was because of her lack of pain? I didn''t feel that detached, I still felt soreness and being tired from my walking for the day.


    Yet it still felt familiar, to the experiences that were Taylor''s, that weren''t Tayvra''s.


    If each night I feel closer to her, the dreams becoming clearer, the feelings from the bugs hurting less, then what would happen when I woke up in the morning?


    I cannot resist sleeping, I''m already tired and I was never good at staying up late.


    Taylor says that this is a point of no return, I believe her. How can I not when I have her entirety in my dreams?


    What else can I do, but let the die be cast?


    Author''s Note


    So then, that''s the first chapter from the perspective of Tayvra, the poor victim in all of this. Can you make a joke about Taylor victimizing young children?


    Yes, probably, but it''s in bad taste still.


    Anyway I know journal entries like this is a weird niche for a worm fic, but it''s kind of common on the D&D side of things. I have probably enough for a chapter 2 already written, so I''ll try and remember to post that sometime soon.


    The story is starting with Taylor as a small child for now, but I have plotted out the story to go through various events in her childhood until she becomes old enough to be a proper adventurer. After that, I''ll be going through all sorts of D&D adventures both official content, assorted third party, and naturally a lot of my own making.

 Taylor kills another child

    20 Tarsakh


    I awoke in a bed, in a world not my own. A body not my own, not broken from years of conflict.


    Why?


    The question keeps bouncing around in my head, mixing with memories not my own. Of a little girl with a loving family, did I take her away from them? Another sin on the pile, but what did I do to earn it this time?


    And why do I feel compelled to write in this journal?


    <hr>


    I can¡¯t help but feel bad, Tayvra¡¯s family seemed so happy to see me well at breakfast. A simple affair that was hearty, some sort of beans mixed with bacon. I don¡¯t know if we¡¯re poor, I haven¡¯t left our house, but looking outside it seems the world I¡¯m in is far more primitive compared to Bet, horse-drawn carts going down the streets hint to it being at least a century or more in difference.


    I managed to excuse myself without much question from my mother, but Pelsot asked me to not be long so as to go out to play with me. Do I want to? I have feelings like I should, but are those mine or Tayvra¡¯s? Should I deny her after what I¡¯ve seemingly done to her?


    <hr>


    Tayvra¡¯s memories didn¡¯t prepare me for what I saw out in the streets. Creatures that aren¡¯t human, but not case 53s. Too many, too coherent. Apparently there really are dwarves and elves and intelligent lizards.


    Does that mean that wizards aren¡¯t capes? I¡¯ll have to figure that out if I meet one, but maybe¡­


    Could I learn magic?


    22 Tarsakh


    I¡¯m writing again. Jespa asked me about why I hadn¡¯t been writing in it the last day, and it aroused suspicion from my parents.


    What would happen if they knew I wasn¡¯t their daughter? I can¡¯t afford the risk, I don¡¯t want to take my chances on the street as a five-year-old urchin. It¡¯ll be hard enough to figure out what happened to me as is.


    Are there capes in this world? Does Cauldron know about it?


    What would it mean if they didn¡¯t? I still feel my bugs to some extent so my passenger must still be around. The connection is faint though, worse than when I still went to Winslow even.


    Answers will require research, Tayvra was looking into things before but couldn¡¯t get far without money, so I¡¯ll have to find some way to make it. I¡¯ll also need to figure out how to hide my way of making it. A five-year-old having money in this world is still strange, despite the magic.


    For now though¡­


    I think I¡¯ll just enjoy having a family again.


    24 Tarsakh


    I may have underestimated how hard this would be. My body is tiny and tired. Does everyone else just have a better pain tolerance than me, or is it just how familiar I used to be with being in shape? I know I¡¯m a small child now (maybe five or six? It¡¯s hard to tell and it isn¡¯t like I can just ask), but it seems like Tayvra wasn¡¯t all that in shape before I showed up anyway.


    Another thing to try and improve on I suppose, though it¡¯s hardly like I can go for runs on my own like this.


    Waterdeep is safer than Brockton Bay was in a lot of ways, but a random five-year-old running around for the sake of it sounds like a good way to get snatched up.


    At least assuming everyone isn¡¯t blowing the lizardfolk thing out of proportion. Pelsot keeps talking about it and our parents don¡¯t correct him, but if they were so dangerous they wouldn¡¯t be allowed into the city by the guards, would they? They aren¡¯t that incompetent, even if I think I might have seen a bribe or two already while we were out playing the last few days.


    I also learned the names of my new parents. It hadn¡¯t come up organically since we mostly only see them at home and we haven¡¯t had company over. Apparently, Tayvra¡¯s mother is named Virla, and her father is Tulgor. I don¡¯t know how to feel about them honestly, they seem like fine folk, even if Father is busy with his job as a fisherman much of the day. Is it right for me to call them my parents though? I don¡¯t know if I can yet, even if I have no idea if my dad is still alive. Just another regret from before I suppose, I was too cowardly to ask.


    25 Tarsakh


    I¡¯m not sure why, but my powers are woefully weaker than before. I¡¯m not sure the exact cause why, but it¡¯s just one more mystery added to the pile. I can still sense them, somewhat, but it¡¯s weaker than when I went to Winslow. I can¡¯t command them as well either, one command at a time. No more multitasking, or at least nearly as much. I can still sort of form a swarm though, the command is still broadcasted, but the difference is palpable.


    Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    The spiders around here are also different, no Black Widows, or anything else I really recognize. If I want to attempt weaving silk cloth again I¡¯ll have to do some durability testing.


    I¡¯m not sure how much I want to invest in it either, at least for personal use at the moment. I¡¯m still stuck as a small child with a lot of growing up to do for many years, so if I were to make something it¡¯d have to be flowy with a lot of room to fill in. Maybe I could sell them to others? That¡¯ll be hard to actually do without blowing up any anonymity I could have, and who would take me that seriously either?


    28 Tarsakh


    Apparently Waterdeep outsources the schooling of its population to the local temples, primarily one belonging to a ¡°god of knowledge¡±. I¡¯m not sure what to think about them, it¡¯s obvious that they exist in some form, their clerics are certainly real enough with their magic. They aren¡¯t parahumans either, and there¡¯s too many of them to be power-granting Trumps or something.


    So then¡­ The gods are real? It¡¯s not like we were religious when I was growing up, Mom was staunchly atheist. What would she think of this world?


    Well in this case there¡¯s very physical evidence of their existence. There¡¯s also a lot of them from what I learned in the lesson. Tayvra didn¡¯t actually have a good grasp on more than maybe a dozen, but there might be over a hundred to study.


    At least I can still read, though I have to be careful about it. The script is different from English but weirdly most of the words translate pretty similarly. That can¡¯t be a coincidence. Cauldron couldn¡¯t have been here, Contessa would have pulled resources from here for Gold Morning if that was the case. They¡¯re clearly too useful not to.


    Can people from here access other worlds then?


    6 Mirtul


    Today was the beginning of ¡°The Plowing and the Running¡±. It¡¯s some sort of festival meant to celebrate the start of spring, mostly featuring people competing in various races against each other, and is some sort of competition between the wards of the city. The winner of the ward bracket goes on to compete with the champions of the other wards.


    Pelsot seemed really excited when Tulgor took us to watch the Dock Ward¡¯s races. He was chatting about how he wanted to train to represent us once he grew up. Honestly, it wasn¡¯t that great of a time beyond the novelty of watching real horse and chariot races, mostly due to the location. The Docks Ward is pretty cramped already, so rather than a proper racing area it ended up taking place outside the city gate, and ran along the outer wall of the city.


    So naturally, you got to see the racers for only a single portion of the distance. I¡¯d complain more about the incompetency of whoever was planning this route, but I have to assume that it was easier to just do this instead of trying to figure out how to clock off the winding streets of the docks.


    The vendor food was good at least, they had these small meat pies that had some fruit mixed in. It reminded me of a pineapple ham, but in a convenient handheld shape. Jespa took turns trying out a bite from all our different pies but seemed to dislike mine. I guess she doesn¡¯t have a sweet tooth.


    17 Mirtul


    I met Orsik again, or should I say that I met him for the first time? Either way, his findings were inconclusive but possibly promising. Apparently he found some random texts that featured a few of the characters quite accurately, the problem being that it was only a few of them mixed in with other scripts. It didn¡¯t exactly provide a lot of hope for a shared connection, but he thinks that it has importance.


    I neglected to comment on my own recent developments, how could I possibly explain what happened to Tayvra? What would happen to me? I was conflicted, but I hardly had another option, not even my her family knew.


    He did give me a look though, but I wasn¡¯t sure how much to read into it.


    On a more interesting note though, Orsik is the first dwarf I¡¯ve had a chance to really interact with. Sure, I¡¯d seen a few around here and there on the streets, but from what I could tell it seemed most of them congregated in the northern half of the city rather than down here.


    It seemed like there was a bit of economic racial segregation to the city, the Docks were mostly halflings, tieflings, orcs, and humans. Races like elves and dwarves seemed to be more wealthy if they were permanent residents of the city, so they mostly stuck to places like the Trades Ward, North Ward, or the Castle Ward.


    I took the opportunity while we were studying at the Font of Knowledge to ask him a variety of questions, mostly about theology. I think he found it enjoyable for a child to take an interest in the topic, given how enthusiastic he was about lecturing on it. A lot of it flew over my head though, mostly because he knew more about the dwarven divine pantheon, and made a lot of references to various names and places that were hard to keep straight.


    24 Mirtul


    The last week has been fascinating, though I think Pelsot has gotten annoyed with me. I spent most of it studying at the Font, rather than out playing with him and the local kids in the nearby streets and lots.


    I¡¯ll have to try and make more time for him, if only because of how suspicious Virla and Turgor were. Apparently Tayvra wasn¡¯t typically all that studious.


    It was productive though, thanks to a combination of Orsik and the local priests actually acting like decent teachers. I¡¯ve learned a lot more about the local gods and which are important for what reasons. How real all the legends are though is hard to say, the topics can date back tens of thousands of years allegedly, and most of them come from the priesthood of said divines. That isn¡¯t helped by some contradictory information too, or at least it seemed one-sided.


    The world was made by Selune and Shar, but then the personification of it, named Chauntea, asked for light and life to be given to the world. Shar and Selune warred over it, with the battle also creating the first goddess of magic, Mystryl.


    Apparently gods die, mostly to other gods, though mortals would also often be causes for it.


    That¡¯s what happened to Mystryl, when one of the most powerful wizards in history attempted to absorb her to ascend to godhood and control all magic. He was overwhelmed though, and the goddess was reborn as Mystra. The event also caused the destruction of the ancient Netherese Empire, which was advanced enough to mostly live in floating cities that crashed during the event.


    It seemed like parts of it were certainly true from what I could research. Sharran and Selunite priests are constantly at a subtle war with each other, with the Sharrans typically being banned from most civilized lands for their typically violent nihilistic philosophy. Over a century ago, there was a massive holy war that broke out in Waterdeep leading to them being ousted from the cityiir ouster.


    Some other elements however seemed a bit more suspect. Was Karsus a real person, or was he meant to be a story to dissuade mortals of the risks of hubris and questioning the authority of the gods?


    That, and also how much was left out of what was basically the mainstream public school education system? It wouldn¡¯t be hard to selectively edit and hide away any stories of misdeeds of the ¡°good¡± gods.


    I wish Lisa was here, she¡¯d probably be able to make better guesses about this stuff than I can with a few weeks of asking simple questions and listening to a few sermons.

 Taylor has a history lesson

    25 Mirtul


    Hell is real.


    I¡¯m not sure what to make of that, though from what little I remember it¡¯s not really all that related to Christianity from Bet. The fact that Hell is a physical place though that one can visit is¡­ concerning. Devils and Demons also exist, but are apparently separate types of creatures opposed to each other, constantly battling in something called the Blood War.


    What would they act like if one didn¡¯t exist? Devils supposedly take the souls of mortals to act as cannon fodder for the war, would they do it if they didn¡¯t need recruits, or would they find a new way to justify it?


    Not only that, but apparently angels can become devils. That¡¯s what happened to Zariel, who ended up as the lord of the first layer of Hell, Avernus.


    What led her to make that decision? Was it worth it to her? Is she loyal to the hells, or to the gods?


    Hopefully, I don¡¯t have to learn the answers.


    27 Mirtul


    Something I¡¯ve only really started to realize recently is how different the variety of bugs are in the city. There isn¡¯t indoor plumbing in all but a few buildings, and while the Dungsweeper¡¯s Guild does its best to transport trash and waste out of the city to the Rat Hills in the south, there are lots of bits that get left behind. It¡¯s not like Brockton Bay after Leviathan¡¯s attack, but there are a lot of beetles, ants, and other scavengers. Not a lot of venomous stuff though.


    I¡¯ve decided to try and help the Docks Ward though with my power. Every day when I¡¯m out with the other kids playing, I send out commands to remove the more harmful insects. Things like fleas, lice, mosquitos, termites, and anything else unlikely to impact the ecology.


    It¡¯s the least I can do while I live here.


    29 Mirtul


    I''ve been spending more time with Pelsot recently, to his apparent relief. I think he felt some sort of guilt over what happened to Tayvra, even if he didn¡¯t know the truth of what happened. Is that what it¡¯s like to have an older sibling?


    He and Jespa seemedseem excited for the start of Kythorn, from what was explained to me it seemed like some strange version of Halloween. It¡¯s justified by some old war the city had with trolls, but kids do the whole trick-or-treating thing, but dressing up like trolls instead of assorted monsters.


    I wonder if there was some sort of cultural exchange at some point between the two for athe similar holiday? Probably not, the commonality is just kids dressing up and asking for candy. Hardly the sort of thing that is very culturally distinct.


    1 Kythorn


    I realized that I haven¡¯t gone trick or treating since Emma. It feels like a lifetime ago.


    Emma¡¯s doppelganger was a lot nicer though, Yeena still seems to be a little careful around me I noticed. She tries to keep in my field of view or announce her presence, trying not to startle me.


    It¡¯s a kind gesture.


    Our group of kids also collected quite a haul of sweets. Lord Neverember had supplied the guards with plenty to hand out while they were doing their patrols. The others also managed to avoid stirring up too much trouble. The Docks aren¡¯t exactly safe everywhere, but nothing went wrong.


    7 Kythorn


    I had Orsik help teach me more about the city and its alliances today. Specifically, the ones that aren¡¯t related to the various dwarven holds he tends to drift off towards in conversation.


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    Waterdeep is one of the major lead members of the Lord¡¯s Alliance, a mix of mutual trading pacts and defence agreements. Ten members in all, though realistically only half of them are of true importance in their own right. A mix of smaller protectorates that are technically independent but vital to the economy of the region, as well as larger metropolitan cities like Waterdeep.


    Waterdeep is roughly in the middle geographically within the alliance, at least along the Sword Coast.


    Neverwinter to the north was once far more influential than it has been in the last half-century after it suffered from a massive volcanic eruption and other various natural disasters in quick succession. It¡¯s rebuilding though thanks to funds from the rest of the Lord¡¯s Alliance, especially from Waterdeep.


    Baldur¡¯s Gate to the south, having in years past been a favoured playground for the now-dead god of murder, Bhaal. Good riddance. They mostly get by thanks to being well positioned at the mouth of the Chionthar River, a major artery further inland.


    Silverymoon lay further inland, and is considered to be one of the most safe locations in the region. The untamed wilds are supposedly filled with hordes of orcs and other monsters but it survived partially due to its strong emphasis on arcane spellcasters, as well as having been governed personally by a demigod for many years. More recent events had left it somewhat in disarray though, with its other major alliance network faltering due to poor loyalty of its membership and various attacks from orc tribes. There¡¯s also some level of conflict with its membership, where its currently elected leader isn¡¯t always the one involved in politics with the Lord¡¯s Alliance.


    Kythorn 14


    Today is Guildhall Day, meaning almost everything is closed today. It¡¯s some sort of holiday mixed with advertising campaigns from most of the city¡¯s guilds. They close most of the businesses in the city to give everyone a day off, so they go around the city looking at all sorts of advertisements and exhibits, as well as street performances.


    Virla is going to be taking me, Pelsot, and Jespa out around the town to the various wards. Tulgor will join us sometime in the afternoon. He¡¯s busy all morning going out with the rest of his crew fishing in the sea. He has to go out for the fresh catch since street food is one of the few business types not shut down for the day.


    Wait, that¡¯s something I neglected in my last life. Sealife, I wonder if I could use my powers somehow to be useful, like with getting rid of the pests.


    <hr>


    Today was fun, Virla took us to see a few different street plays around the city. I never got to do anything like that before really. Mom would sometimes take me to the plays at the university, but Brockton Bay wasn¡¯t really friendly to street performers outside a handful of areas.


    Tulgor joined us about halfway through the afternoon, he and Virla must have set upsetup a meeting spot ahead of time. It was¡­ nice, to do stuff as a big family. Noisier than with Mom and Dad, being an only child, but it was a feeling I hadn¡¯t had in a long time.


    16 Kythorn


    Well testing was a partial success. The limitations on my power now have limited my large-scalelarge scale control regarding complex tasks. On the other hand, I can still precisely control individuals as I focus on them, and I can get some feedback from groups of them at range.


    I was able to find a handful of coins from the water using some crabs. A slow process to be certain, but I believe the bigger hurdle was how slim the pickings were along the docks. The city held an official policy for those diving into the water to recover lost goods, so no easy luck on overturned crates of gold. A task made easier with the variety of magic available in the world.


    Even so, spare coins do get lost. I was able to set the crustaceans to searching for anything metal, and my power would alert me should they find anything of note for me to take more dedicated attention to investigating. After that, it was a simple matter of slowly having them crawl along the bed of the harbour to a beach at the south end of the city where I could collect them.


    The earnings weren¡¯t as much as I was hoping for. Most of the coins were just nibs and shards. The lowest coin denominations are equivalent to pennies and dimes. I managed to find a few dragons and tails though, the equivalent of one and two-dollar coins. The buying power is greater than back on Bet though, it¡¯s a lot more money than that conversion sounds like. A typical meal only costs a few nibs or shards.


    Still, it¡¯s not enough money to buy anything significant at the market though, so I¡¯ll just have to keep doing this and hope to get lucky or find somewhere more lucrative somehow to use my bugs to scavenge.


    20 Kythorn


    Another break from my studies, today is the summer solstice. In Waterdeep, they call it ¡°Dragondown¡±, and use the day to celebrate the defeat of a few powerful dragons that once threatened the city.


    They do a lot of celebrations in the city, a lot more than I¡¯m used to. I guess there must be quite the civil budget dedicated to it.


    Or maybe it¡¯s a tourism trick to invite more trade. My understanding is that Baldur¡¯s Gate has far fewer festivities by comparison and that Neverwinter has had to put what little budget it has towards recovery efforts.


    <hr>


    I saw Orsik out at the festival, at the side of a parade. They were carrying massive effigies of dragons to be burnt at one of the city squares. Apparently, besides being a scholar he is also a trained wizard and was assisting in some of the festivities by setting up illusions.


    Naturally, it ended up with a history lesson. Apparently the city has a magical barrier that prevents dragons from entering the city. Not a single dragon has been in the city in years since the staff that was used to give permission for dragons to enter was lost.


    It¡¯s impressive how they might lose such a clearly important magical artifactartefact. More confusing is how they can¡¯t use magic to find it, you¡¯d think it would be considered a priority to retrieve it.

 Taylor gets a cat

    27 Kythorn


    We were out playing with the other kids, and Jespa found a cat.


    She has decided to adopt said cat, and named it Neeshka. A suggestion from Felros, one of the older kids and best friend of Pelsot. He was also giggling afterwardafterwards when Jespa was showing it around to everyone else, so I have to wonder what the name could mean. I¡¯ll have to ask Orsik next time I see him.


    Virla and Turgor seemed fine with it. They had a cat right after Pelsot was born, but it disappeared before I was born.


    Neeshka doesn¡¯t seem to like me much though. Some gratitude for removing all the fleas.


    1 Flamerule


    Today was Founders Day, a celebration aboutfor  the origins of the City of Waterdeep. State sponsored plays, illusions, bardic concerts, and more. All meant to tell the tale of how the city rose from humble beginnings, and eventually ascended to one of the most influential city states in the region.


    I tried to not be too negative about what was pretty clearly propaganda.


    To their credit, it wasn¡¯t entirely positive. They talked about how the city was once just a humble port traders and pirates would dock at for repairs. The tale of how the first Open Lord of the city, Ahghairon, slew the would-be despot over four hundred years ago whothat was at the time the leader of the town, and instituted the current system of Masked Lords.


    The head of state had to be a public persona, but twenty or so anonymous ¡°Masked Lords¡± would also rule the city alongside them. Their identities kept a mystery to reduce the likelihood of coercion, bribery, and other such corruption while the others would keep them in line.


    The only true interruption occurred two centuries ago, after the death of Ahghairon who had been maintaining the system as the Open Lord until then (Note to self, learn more about how a human managed to live over three centuries). The guild masters had some sort of rebellion and managed to uncover the identities offor most of the masked lords of the time and assassinated them. The power vacuum led to a very messy war between them until most of them died and the masked lord system was reinstated. How much of the story was manipulated was hard to say, but there was certainly cause for bias considering how it was the current system in charge.


    It¡¯s a very different system to Bet, at least the mundane government. Elected officials didn¡¯t typically maintain their position for very long, and there were checks and balances to get them out of their positions if they did poorly to the population. This was more like Cauldron and the PRT. A handful of competent people who believed they were the best for the job and didn¡¯t need accountability, and played with the lives of others. It¡¯s lucky this system mostly had more competent people at the reins, or at least ones that were more moralistic.


    Beyond that though, the day also held a number of martial tourneys. It was a bit distressing truth be told, the fighters were very literally out for blood. I didn¡¯t see anyone die though, but there did tend to be a good bit of blood out on the fields before some wizard would come out and poof it away.


    Magical healing being so common has certainly been a culture shock since coming here, but I think this is the first time I¡¯ve really seen how it affected the culture. It¡¯s a lot more than just an equivalent to visiting a hospital.


    3 Flamerule


    From one festival to the next, this one is called Sornyn. Some sort of religious holiday sponsored by the clergy of Lathander and Waukeen. The god of new dawns, and the goddess of luck and wealth.


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    Naturally, the holiday is all about making business deals and making money. That, and copious drinking. It seemed most of the taverns were full of people mostly drinking wine, with a few other types from what little I could tell with my bugs. My senses aren¡¯t as sharp as they used to be, and it''s not like I had much experience with alcohol before either.


    I did overhear some interesting tidbits about the greater world though from idle gossip. I already have a lot on my plate though, and I only have so much time I can put towards all of it.


    5 Flamerule


    I think I might have stopped an ecological disaster this afternoon. Our group of kids were hanging out down by the docks proper, making games of guessing the number of things we could see on the various ships and the people coming off of them. I tried not to cheat too hard at it.


    Anyway, I noticed some interesting bugs in one of the shipments of food. Seemed to be some sort of invasive species of caterpillar. I haven¡¯t noticed it around the time I¡¯ve been in the city, meaning it likely isn¡¯t found in any of the nearby farmers'' fields. I didn¡¯t think it was intentional at first, but I asked the others about the origin of the ship. Felros went on to tell me about the city of Luskan, a place far to the north even beyond Neverwinter.


    A city led by a council of pirates and evil wizards, constantly warring with nearby countries. From random island states out in the ocean, to some members of the Lords Alliance. They weren¡¯t fighting much more recently though. The city was devastated to a similar extent to Neverwinter, with none of the allies to assist in its recovery.


    I¡¯m not sure I¡¯d give them the benefit of the doubt on this, but it hardly matters after I made sure to kill off any of the bugs that I found.


    7 Flamerule


    Tonight is Lliira¡¯s Night, something of a religious festival inspired by the night¡¯s namesake, a minor goddess of festivities and dance according to Tulgor.


    The night historically features people drinking bright pink drinks, mostly alcoholic though there are safe ones for children as well. We have been told to go to bed early in the day to rest up so we can stay up all night, including Jespa.


    8 Flamerule


    The night held a lot more to it than mere drinks and revelry.


    I was initially confused by the familiar noises, dissimilar to anything I had heard of since I arrived.


    Fireworks.


    That likely meant there was some sort of black powder in the world, if not gunpowder or something else similar. Yet I hadn¡¯t seen any sort of firearms, did they exist but far away from Waterdeep? Was the concept somehow deemed ineffective or inefficient in this world?


    I¡¯ll have to ask Orsik the next time I see him. I''m exhausted after last night¡¯s festivities.


    12 Flamerule


    Orsik was able to answer at least part of my curiosity on the subject of ¡°Smokepowder¡±, but surprisingly the more useful answer came from Tulgor.


    According to Orsik, the substance had a storied history. The earlier mentions of the substance originated from some faraway country across the sea called Shou, from what little Orsik knew of the country it seemed more Japanese than the pseudo european Waterdeep¡¯s culture appeared to be. Later it would be spread to the gnomish country Lantan, whichwhat was once a successful island nation that mostly worshipped Gond, the god of technology and innovation. The island was wiped out over a century ago, allegedly from a combination of being magically disjointed from this physical plane and being hit by massive tsunamis that triggered a variety of volatile materials.


    While there were great efforts to reproduce the formula of its creation, what few successes have been kept private, leading to the substance generally being considered quite the hot commodity among black markets along the coastline. More legitimate usage of it is heavily regulated by most governments, Orsik cited fear of potential uprising from nefarious groups as the typical justification for the bans.


    Tulgor had a lot more immediate information on the topic, gleaned from traders he would gossip with at or around the docks after fishing. Waterdeep¡¯s guardsman would have it shipped up from an alchemist down in Baldur¡¯s Gate, to be used for fireworks displays during a handful of festivals. The concept of firearms did exist from what I could tell, but from the barebones description he relayed to me, it appeared to be closer to muskets and other primitive firearms.


    23 Flamerule


    I woke up this morning with Neeska lounging next to me in my bed. This is unusual but not noteworthy. What was noteworthy was when I blindly went to pet her and accidentally grabbed a partially disembowelled mouse staining my blanket.


    The day wasn¡¯t an entire wash though. My crabs were particularly successful in their mission of finding valuables, I managed to get a few relatively nice looking pieces of lost jewellery buried in the sand. A few rings and necklaces I pawned off at the market for a tidy amount of dragons. I hid away a few though for future presents, I don¡¯t actually know when people¡¯s birthdays are or what the local customs include, but best to be prepared.

 Taylor picks some flowers

    Midsummer


    A day outside of a month feels like quite the oddity compared to the Gregorian calendar. In Faerun, the standard calendar is a simplified 12 month system where every month has exactly 30 days. Then an additional 5 days get slotted in between most of the months, for a total of 365 days a year. There¡¯s even a leap year every four years with a 6th day added in.


    So is this earth? It¡¯s a strangely precise coincidence if it isn¡¯t, but then every other aspect makes that dubious.


    With magic, other dimensions that are decidedly non-earth like, the gods, and even more makes it somehow difficult to believe that this is some version of earth.


    Unlike other cities and cultures, Waterdeep actually didn¡¯t do much celebration for the day, likely because tomorrow is Ahghairon¡¯s Day. Meant to celebrate the archwizard who really helped turn the small town into a proper city state.


    1 Eleasis


    It¡¯s Ahghairon¡¯s day, and Virla took us out around the town. Tradition dictates that most people go to his old wizard tower in the city to lay flowers around it, typically violets.


    Things went poorly just trying to get flowers. We went to the Sea Ward up in the northern part of the city, to a park mixed with a temple ran by faithful of the various nature deities. Primarily Meilikki and Silvanus, patron gods of druids, rangers, and the more wild sides of nature. It was a fairly nice place, with two small buildings at the center of the park. The park had been covered in flowers for the celebration and was otherwise dotted with various trees of different species


    The druids were immediately suspicious of me.


    I could feel their gaze upon me as we walked along the pathway to find some flowers to take. Various birds and squirrels kept an eye on me, only to attempt to hide it if I turned in their direction. Most of them weren¡¯t very subtle.


    Thankfully though, they didn¡¯t seem to start anything. The lesser acolytes didn¡¯t seem to realize I was the focus of the animals, but they did notice something going on with them.


    Was it because I was in a temple, or do those attuned with nature sense my power¡¯s passive effects? They didn¡¯t become hostile for it, but maybe that was confusion from me being a child, or it was noticeable but not in a way that required an immediate response. I doubt I¡¯ll easily get an answer about it, and I¡¯m not sure I would want to try and get one anyway.


    The rest of the day was festive, and the only real highlight was seeing the Open Lord of the city giving a speech. Dagult Neverember was in a precarious political position, being the head of state for both Waterdeep and Neverwinter. Many locals looked at him dubiously for his conflicts of interest, as well as his myriad of questionable business dealings. He had been funnelling quite a few resources from Waterdeep towards Neverwinter¡¯s restoration, and while some might justify it as simply being something members of the Lords¡¯ Alliance ought to do anyway it was unfortunately suspect.


    16 Eleasis


    Harbour scavenging has been going well for me, I¡¯ve earned over 70 dragons worth of coins by selling off what I¡¯ve collected, or just collecting the coins themselves. Each item rarely is worth much, but two months of thorough searching along the docks really paid off. The rate is going down though, I¡¯d already found most of what was valuable and immediately accessible in the area.


    That¡¯s a lot of money for someone my age to have, heck it¡¯s a lot for most commoners to have on hand. I¡¯ve decided to spend it.


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    I reserved a consultation with the Watchful Order of Magists and Protectors, which wasn¡¯t that easy to do at my age. Something between a guild and academy for wizards and other arcane spellcasters. I wanted to commission a magic item. Something subtle enough my family wouldn¡¯t question it very much, or raise suspicion from the other kids.


    18 Eleasis


    I apparently underestimated the sum I would require, I wasn¡¯t too short, but my current strategy has dried up somewhat.


    The meeting went well enough though, whisked away to a private meeting room with what seemed to be one of their younger wizards. He introduced himself as Malverk and disclosed that he was still something of an apprentice, but one of the teachers had suggested he take the meeting with me as something of a learning opportunity. He did seem initially put off by my appearance and age, probably suspecting it as a childish prank until I dropped the pouch of coins on the table.


    My commission was for him to craft a more secure version of this journal. It¡¯s not that unusual for wizards to enchant their notes against tampering and being read by unauthorized people. I wanted one that wouldn¡¯t be easily opened by anyone other than me, something like a magical lock keyed to me or something.


    Malverk then explained a personal creation of his that would likely be better, a modification of a quick scribing enchantment, meant to easily transfer thought to paper. He had altered his such that it required a password, or it would alter the text on the pages into gibberish or some false text. It was more secure than most methods for keeping the information secret, as the words on the page were all enchantment. A spellcaster dispelling the protections would also as a result remove the contents entirely.


    Perhaps a bit paranoid, but it did indeed satisfy my needs. He also offered to add a few extra enchantments to it, a returning enchantment and a scrying enchantment to assist in recovering it should it ever be lost. A fast writing enchantment to improve the speed at which the pages would receive text from me. A durability enchantment to help make it waterproof and difficult to be easily damaged.


    Unfortunately, when it came to payment, I was actually lacking. He asked for 160 dragons initially, but I managed to negotiate it down to 130. I still didn¡¯t have that money, but he said I could come back in around a month if I wanted to commission him then once I scrounged it together.


    How could I make that much in just a month though¡­


    27 Eleasis


    Well, my first plan didn¡¯t work, but the second one did.


    The first plan was just asking dad to take me out to sea fishing with him. Deeper waters that aren¡¯t nearly as scavenged as others would help out a lot. Unfortunately, he deemed a large commercial fishing vessel to be an inappropriate place to bring a small child.


    Thankfully, I found a better location more likely to be filled with possibly valuable trash. The Rat Hills. A fairly toxic dumping site a bit south of the city along the coastline. Stories did not prepare me for it.


    The stench was awful, and it was clearly polluting the local waters. I could see how portions were slowly falling into the sea, and could tell from the bugs there how bad it was. The site itself was fascinating though, for what I could find there.


    Beyond just years of trash from a decently large city being haphazardly thrown there, there was a thriving ecosystem of its own. Scavengers and predators abound. What ones I could control were also new to me, with a myriad of concerningly large insects. A few approaching Atlas¡¯s size, some more horse and dog sized. There was also a concerning amount of large non insects, that were certainly not humanoid, that dissuaded any intentions of going beyond the border of the massive hills more than the smell.


    Even with a short visit though, I did find a decent amount of valuable junk. I spent the afternoon carting around my loot along the main streets to avoid being mugged, selling off bits to various shops. Intact glass vials for potion makers, some decent quality tools to variety shops, discarded bits of armour to metalworkers to be melted down for scrap, and so on.


    11 Eleint


    The days are getting cooler, and winter is coming. I¡¯ve been bundling up in a heavier jacket on my days out, but the humidity of the city makes it hard to stave off the chill. It makes the walk south to the Rat Hills more miserable, and it wasn¡¯t that pleasant before to begin with.


    I¡¯ve also discovered new dangers in the Rat Hills. Lizardfolk.


    I¡¯ve seen them around a few times in the city, and few people seem to like them much. The other kids tend to stop our activities early if they are in the area. Are they scavenging the area, or something else? How desperate must they be to actually try to scavenge here among the refuse?


    I¡¯ll have to keep an eye on them and avoid them in the area. They tend to be further into the hills and not on the edge like me, so it isn¡¯t hard to stay away personally. It¡¯s the bugs I have to be more careful of, to keep them from being noticed.


    Or killed, that happened a few times while they were carrying treasure to me. An unforeseen hurdle to overcome.

 Taylor digs a hole

    21 Eleint


    I¡¯m cutting it close on actually having enough by the deadline, and today doesn¡¯t look to be productive.


    It¡¯s Brightswords today, which means yet another bout of martial tourneys across the city.


    This one seems to be more oriented towards the city¡¯s military and police forces. A showy display to make it appear more preferable to join what would otherwise be a dangerous profession. What¡¯s a random guard to do if some angry wizard has a bad day and casts a lethal spell in a marketplace?


    I¡¯ll have to see if I can get out of the various social gatherings with the other kids to just focus on scavenging over the next few days.


    <hr>


    Something that hadn¡¯t yet been impressed on me in my time in Waterdeep, is the specialist police force. The city employs a few squads of highly trained soldiers that ride griffons through the skies, specialized in taking out aerial threats from wizards to manticores.


    The festival was their chance to more publicly show off their skills in front of the crowds. From acrobatic stunts to facing off against illusory creatures high above the rooftops. Apparently it wasn¡¯t enough to simply ride the gryphons either, part of their standard operating procedure also included leaping off of their mounts through the air to plunge down upon targets only to be caught before they fell to the earth.


    I guess this is the equivalent to an airshow in Bet? I never went to one, but the idea of planes flying by as a recruitment advertisement carried over. I think this was more impressive though, given the more human acrobatic feats they were performing. Half airshow and half circus performance perhaps.


    Pelsot seemed to have quite a bit of fun though, he was old enough this year to join in a handful of junior mock battles and drills with the City Guard. Exhausted afterwards of course, but high spirited. He was gushing about how he wanted to become an adventurer when he grew up as we went home. I could see the tension in Virla and Tulgor listening to him, a personal issue with the idea or a simple dislike of their son picking a dangerous profession?


    29 Eleint


    Talk about cutting it close, there¡¯s only a day left before the end of the month. Still, the coin was more than good enough for Malverk, he had even worked on some additional features to advertise to me.


    Beyond what was discussed before for security measures, he offered a possible future improvement to let it scan other pages to be saved, mostly as a way to more easily transfer my current contents. Naturally it would also be helpful should I need to take a copy of pages of other books, but he cautioned against it somewhat when it came up. The enchantment itself wasn¡¯t difficult or rare, but logistically most people would consider it to be of little practical use.


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    There were better ways to copy books, either by being scribed and copied by a professional, or via some obscure spell. It sounded handy though in a pinch, so I¡¯ll probably try and invest in it if nothing else catches my eye and I have enough excess funds.


    3 Marpenoth


    The Day of Wonders is dedicated to the faithful of Gond revealing to the public a variety of their works and inventions. From assorted automata and golems, to new tools and construction techniques.


    Interesting how they dedicate an entire day to such an endeavour. You¡¯d think they would want to risk a dozen runaway experiments going awry near each other, but Virla said that she¡¯s never heard of such a catastrophic event in all its years.


    That doesn¡¯t speak to being that long though, Virla and Tulgor are only in their mid twenties. Virla was my old age when she had Pelsot. Would Brian have tried to have any with Cozen? They did retire after the last battle, so I suppose it¡¯s possible.


    <hr>


    Today was certainly impressive in a lot of ways, but also¡­ Certain inventions seemed relatively mundane to me, comparative devices already existing. A projector to display images via light, some sort of self drawn carriage, a self lighting pipe.


    The things that did impress me though, were truly something. Automata shaped like life sized elephants, cats, even people. Some were much more clockwork in design, exposed internal gears turning, and some were certainly more magical in nature.


    Surprisingly among all the various new inventions, there was only one major failure of note for the day. An inventor named Marchell had created some sort of levitating chair, freely moving through the air. He apparently forgot a downward option and had to be rescued by the Griffon Cavalry, the chair floating off in the sky like a helium balloon.


    7 Marpenoth


    I am very sore, today I was allowed few breaks. Today was a celebration called Stoneshar, a day in which everyone insists on being ¡°productive¡±. Most adults were doing actual construction work, new houses, digging out basements, painting a new coat on the walls, things that actually make sense.


    What did the kids all do? Dig holes and make mud forts, mostly.


    A dozen shovels, a bunch of buckets, and thirty kids resulted in a good bit of productivity. We worked just a little outside of the guard barracks near the southern gate to the city, just off the Waterdeep Harbour. The children divided up into groups, some to dig up the soil and make the holes, some to go back and forth fetching water from nearby wells, and the rest to try and shape the piles of dirt with the water into walls. The groups weren¡¯t actually all that set for who did what, people switching between them on a whim.


    Lunchtime came around and an older city guard came out of the barracks, introducing himself as Sergeant Saeth Crowley. He offered to pay to order us all lunch from a nearby smokehouse, if we were to redirect ourselves to something productive to the guard. Naturally with all the work the kids were quite hungry, so as a group we took him up on the offer.


    He had us digging trenches and forming obstacles for some sort of training course. Some of us taking up nails and hammers to build some basic structures under his direction. By the end of things though, a surprising amount had been done. Enough that I would have found it satisfying before as a ward to run drills through anyway.


    By the end of the day, he let some of us run drills on it as well to test it for him. Few took him up on the offer due to exhaustion, mostly the older kids. Pelsot tried it too, but ended up having to stop part way after twisting his ankle, much to his chagrin.


    I¡¯m still a little annoyed at him because I wasn¡¯t able to slip off to scavenge the Rat Hills again today like I would have wanted, but I can¡¯t help but feel bad for him getting hurt.

 Taylor hates winter

    10 Marpenoth


    These holidays are ridiculous, and some of them have truly forced me to question the sanity of the assorted leaders of the city. This ¡°Reign of Misrule¡± is barely controlled anarchy, that is even state endorsed!


    The other children who went to their lessons essentially took over the various learning rooms at the temple, tying up the poor priest assigned to us that day in a chair as they wrote nonsense on the blackboard, playing some variation of hangman or other wastes of time.


    And by the late afternoon, when classes would be over, many of the others took to the streets to spread further mischief. I know Pelsot joined a small gang going about and pelting various buildings with baskets of days old eggs, spoiled tomatoes, and balls of mud. I even saw them competing to strike bird nests in the nooks of buildings, though thankfully Pelsot seemed reluctant about the topic and avoided joining in.


    I just went home with Jespa instead. We spent some time on knitting a few stuffed toys for the other kids, since a few had birthdays coming up and gift giving is customary here. The activity has been somewhat novel to me whenever I do it with Jespa or Virla, because I¡¯m more used to the weaving of clothes. I haven¡¯t really managed to put together enough of a collection of spiders to do much yet on that front. It would be hard to explain to the rest of the family, and the prospect of weaving clothes for myself that I¡¯m likely to outgrow soon anyway doesn¡¯t sound very productive.


    15 Marpenoth


    I think I hate temples now, at least most of them. I¡¯ve only found two I¡¯ve felt at ease in.


    The Font of Knowledge is mostly just a combination of a large library and school. While the latter doesn¡¯t significantly appeal to me, the availability of a quiet corner to read in is appealing, and my sporadic encounters with Orsik are pleasantly enlightening on topics I might otherwise have difficulty learning about.


    Today, I found a second place.


    ¡°Gods¡¯ Day¡± is a celebration for some massive event a century ago in which a number of deities died. What details I could get are messy, but it¡¯s one of the biggest shake ups for the various pantheons in recent history. The Time of Troubles as a title is probably a bit of an understatement, with the fact that the various gods were forced onto the Material Plane in physical and vulnerable form. Perhaps the greatest deaths were for the so called ¡°Dead Three¡±, former adventurers raised to godhood after meeting with the ¡°original¡± god of death, Jergal.


    The three were far more actively malicious and evil than Jergal. Bane, god of strife, tyranny, and fear. Patron to dictators and abusers. Bhaal, god of murder and assassination. His death was somewhat overstated, having spread his essence as a precautionary measure resulting in a number of high profile serial killers popping up across the realm. Myrkul, god of the dead, necromancy, and decay. He apparently was only left mostly dead, some small spark of his essence having escaped being usurped by Cyric, the one to be behind the slaying of the Dead Three.


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    That isn¡¯t too relevant now though. Virla took us on a loop around the city to visit a number of the various temples. I wish I was able to enjoy the architecture of them more, because many were truly breathtaking. Were they constructed with magic? Some fascinating building techniques? I didn¡¯t exactly spend much time sightseeing on Bet, but I feel like I never really saw much that was on the same level, and there were at least a dozen of them here.


    Yet somehow, I couldn¡¯t help but sense a feeling of wrongness in them. Not quite like before with the druids, but perhaps worse in some ways. The feeling of eyes on me seemed almost supernatural, like the temples themselves were watching me rather than just the people within. The priests were fairly friendly at each temple, or as enthused to see my family as any other. Various advertising speeches talking about what each of them would contribute, and the sorts of blessings they provided. It reminded me of those TV church broadcasts.


    All except for the Hospice of Saint Lauspenn.


    I¡¯m not sure why that was. It reminded me of a hospital. Not in a design sense, there weren''t those muted neutral colours everywhere, and it seemed more open in design than any temple I was in before, but at the same time it felt far more interested in the health of those within than the other temples. A place for recovery.


    A place of mercy, as Ilmater intended.


    Considered one of the kindest gods, happy to take up the burdens of others, the burdens of everyone, were it possible.


    Did the other temples somehow sense what I was, and were wary of me? Was Ilmater accepting me as opposed to judging me like the others? The more objective possibility was that it simply lacked the same sort of warding against magic that the others would, to accept more people into it. Wards that somehow interfered with my powers to make me feel uneasy.


    26 Marpenoth


    The first snowfall of the year happened today, and apparently this is fairly typical for when it starts.


    Why is it snowing in October?


    Thankfully, there wasn¡¯t a lot of shovelling to be done for us, because it wasn¡¯t exactly a heavy snowfall, only a couple inches. The city was quite organized in the clearing for it, thanks to the combined efforts of the Dungsweepers¡¯ Guild and the Fellowship of Carters and Coachmen. While areas directly in front of houses were typically the resident¡¯s responsibilities, members of the two guilds would go around to collect and move the larger piles for disposal. Either clerics would make large hills disappear, wizards melt it with fire, or it would just be dumped into the harbour (which was mostly what happened for us given our proximity).


    The snowfall also meant that future visits to the Rat Hills weren¡¯t likely to be a possibility for the near future. The road south tended to rarely be cleared, meaning that during the winter it would be large amounts of snow making trudging the distance impossible for my small body, then it would be full of mud and puddles to render it similarly impassable.


    The other kids revelled in the fresh snowfall, however. The creation of snow men was an early activity, and a small competition for who could make the tallest among the kids. Afterwards was some variant of tag, using the snow as natural markers for acceptable pathways. A rough ten minute period of kids all dragging their feet through the snowfall to make a maze of pathways, then using them to limit the space those who were not tagged to move, while the ones tagged would be able to move between them.


    We played well into the afternoon, until a nearby appearance of lizardfolk spoiled the fun for most of us. The others seemed mildly panicked by their presence, but to me they just seemed pitiful. Bundled up in patchworks of ill-fitting jackets that seemed more a mockery of the idea of winter jackets than truly insulating, with their feet and tails exposed to the snow, dragging through them. They just seemed like they were freezing and wanted a warm building to stay in more than anything.


    Still, many of the kids were cautioned by their parents to avoid them on sight, and so many decided to go home afterwards. Pelsot was one of them, dragging me and Jespa along. We warmed ourselves by the fireplace while we waited for our parents to come home.


    Today was¡­ fun, despite the setbacks.

 Taylor gives a Gift

    5 Uktar


    With winter settling in properly, Virla has decided to have my siblings and me assist in a variety of food preservation activities from pickling to brining to smoking. Admittedly that last one wasn¡¯t really much work at all, simply hanging things above our fireplace that we cook on.


    It was an enjoyable experience that I¡¯d have never had back on Bet. Making homemade sausages by manually cutting up and mashing the meat, then pushing it into the casings.


    I¡¯m surprised how much knife work was actually allowed to me and Pelsot, I don¡¯t think I was allowed to do anything like this until I was twelve. Most of what I did was slicing up bits of herbs or vegetables or mushrooms grown in the basement.


    Our house doesn¡¯t actually have much of a garden, except for a few planter boxes up on a balcony with a handful of herbs growing in them. There are shops in the city that sell mushroom kits though, basically just wooden logs or cloth sacks filled with some sort of dirt with some starters already planted in them.


    It sometimes calls up some ugly emotions in me when I see them. Reminders to a neglected home, a garden covered in weeds instead of tomatoes.


    We¡¯ve been doing this already for a few days, and we¡¯ll be continuing as long as what produce we are able to snatch up lasts.


    17 Uktar


    Last Sheaf is in a few days, and I need to prepare. A laid back mixture of Thanksgiving and Christmas. Gifts are exchanged, good food is had. It¡¯s a harvest festival sort of thing rather than being related to any particular divinity.


    I¡¯ll probably gift some of the random bits of jewellery that I¡¯ve been collecting and hiding away, nothing too expensive looking since I sold off most of that.


    I can feel the chill affecting the harbour though, the shellfish are more lethargic. If I¡¯m not controlling them, they tend to just burrow into the silt. It¡¯s meant that even my desire to scavenge the harbour has been slower going.


    20 Uktar


    So, apparently I misunderstood how Last Sheaf worked and raised a lot of questions from my family. Gift giving is more on the level of snacks or small toys.


    My explanation for where I found the jewellery wasn¡¯t exactly great, I said I had found them on the beach. It¡¯s technically true, but now I think my parents think I stole them from a shop stall or something. At least they don¡¯t look expensive, nice perhaps but not as though they would cost a lot of money.


    The food was wonderful though, mostly toasted bread with various spreads, jams, and cured meats and fish. We invited some of our neighbours over to share in our little feast, everyone bringing a handful of things.


    Something I didn¡¯t actually realize until now is that Yeena lives maybe a dozen houses away from us. I knew most of the kids were sort of in the area and there was a complex social web of everyone¡¯s parents knowing each other somehow.


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    Feast of the Full Moon


    Today is the full moon between the months of Uktar and Nightal, and holds a special importance to the local temple to Selune, goddess of the moon. Plenty of moon themed street food is sold to those wandering the streets on the otherwise chilly day.


    I meanwhile, have decided on a mission for myself that is more than merely scavenging baubles or removing fleas. I am investigating what I originally thought was just a basement. What drew my attention was the creatures masquerading as large spiders that I wasn¡¯t able to control.


    I¡¯m normally not one to spy much into private dwellings, nothing that requires direct control as my power now requires. I had some sort of weird feedback that drew my attention though, a feeling of wrongness.


    So I did what came naturally, and went around the area collecting what venomous insects I could find in the early winter weather. There wasn¡¯t a lot, the Sea Ward was fairly good about keeping wasps out of the area. I had a momentary thought of trying the Shrines of Nature before banishing the idea, they were suspicious of me just being present, who knew what would happen if I actually moved anything out of there en masse.


    I returned maybe twenty minutes later with my jacket ladened with mostly spiders with some filler insects to pad out the swarm. I sent them in to test and attack the two not spiders present.


    They transformed after a minute of being enveloped and stung. Some sort of tiny humanoid creatures with bat wings and scorpion tails. They didn¡¯t stand much of a chance as they writhed beneath the swarms assigned to them, helplessly flailing as my spiders struggled to properly bite into their durable skin. At one point I think they turned invisible for a moment, but it did nothing to actually help them. They did disappear though, I¡¯m not sure how but they left piles of ash and sulfur behind.


    Whatever they were, they weren¡¯t there anymore. It reminded me slightly of Oni Lee¡¯s clones. I¡¯ll have to inquire with Orsik about what those were.


    4 Nightal


    It took me a few days to actually have my schedule line up with Orsik, since he tends to have a preference towards a more nocturnal study time when there are fewer people about. He¡¯s been enjoying picking up some shifts as an instructor for the kids though as a way to help fund his stay in the city.


    Based on my rough description of the creatures (I had to lie about seeing some adventurers in an alleyway fighting off a few), he identified them as imps. The lowest rung of the infernal hierarchy from the hells.


    Funny enough, just like my Imp they could turn invisible. They also could transform into small animals, such as the spider form they were in when I noticed them. They have some resistance to magic and the various elements as most devils do, which also explained the difficulty I had in actually hurting them with my swarm.


    Concerning that there was a diabolist just doing evil magic in a basement, but I suppose it was secured and hidden away from random people walking on the street. I guess I should find a way to report it? I¡¯m not sure exactly what procedure that would entail, maybe if I just did something with a swarm delivering a letter that would convince them it was something serious?


    That was my first brush with danger since coming here, wasn¡¯t it? I mean, I wasn¡¯t in any actual danger, but the first time I felt a need to attack anything. It¡¯s been a whole seven months without having to use my swarm to hurt people. I feel¡­ not hollow, but as if there was a hole in me that has been replaced?


    I¡¯m not sure if I know what I¡¯m feeling. There¡¯s a weird familiarity to it though.

 Taylor goes Stargazing

    8 Nightal


    I¡¯ve been more indecisive than I used to be, with this whole imp thing.


    It was just two imps, hardly a threat. But I only found two imps, that were minding their own business, hidden away. Could their summoner summon a far greater number of them? Could they summon far more dangerous devils?


    I was stupid before, ignorant. I didn¡¯t worry about the unknown enough, and it could have easily gone as bad as that night with Lung, with me even less prepared than before.


    I can¡¯t do that again, just out of some misplaced need to act. Not when I wasn¡¯t in a position to properly deal with it. I need to study more about the threats of this world, as much as I can. Orsik can help a lot with that, and self-study can help cover some of it too even if it isn¡¯t perfect. The more religious aspects can come later, there¡¯s so many hostile and downright evil gods in the world, and all with their little sects and orders hidden away plotting the downfall of the world.


    I¡¯ll have to find a teacher for them, at some point. The difficulty is in being taken seriously, because being five again sucks.


    I wasn¡¯t going just to leave the imp thing alone though. I couldn''t, now that I knew about it.


    I¡¯ll drop off a letter tomorrow at the Watchful Order of Magists and Protectors, one of their offices anyway. I¡¯ll do it with a swarm to be taken seriously,, some strange phenomenon like that is bound to raise attention, hopefully.


    And even if it isn¡¯t investigated immediately, Howldown is on the eleventh, the Watch will be looking for any excuse to get some business done from the sounds of it.


    11 Nightal


    I may have underestimated the activities expected for Howldown, and how annoying Pelsot would be about it.


    Howldown is some religious holiday associated with the evil beast god Malar, repurposed into a day for hunting. Much of the effort is put on the surrounding lands of the city with the city guard trying to hunt down all sorts of dangers, from brigands to ogres. They would also comb the city for known criminals or dangerous individuals, so everyone would lay low around this time to try and evade trouble or capture.


    So this seemed to be the best day for the Watch to raid that house with the imps. I didn¡¯t know what to look for myself but figured that I might learn something from watching how they handled it.


    Of course, my brother Pelsot ruined that plan.


    Instead of what I intended to do, which was to wait nearby in a warm building to observe what happened during the raid with my insects, Pelsot kept dragging me around to various ¡°adventures¡± managed by the adults. Because of course, there is a tradition for the children to mimic the guards by tracking down and slaying ¡°monsters¡±.


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    And so up and down we went on the thankfully recently cleared city streets, moving from station to station to follow along some plotline of uncovering an evil scheme of giants attempting to subvert the city. A few pretend fights with fairly burly adults, or ¡°missions¡± like running messages for the Lords¡¯ Alliance to and from different shops in the city, and stuff like that.


    I can¡¯t deny that it was an enjoyable experience, if not for the fact that all I wanted to do was watch the raid on the house instead of playing pretend. Pelsot insisted though, and wouldn¡¯t let me out of his sight the entire day.


    Was he¡­ suspicious of me? I¡¯ve noticed him following me around when I¡¯ve been out, or at least trying to. He¡¯s more focused on not being noticed most of the time, which is hard to do with a beetle nestled in your collar.


    17 Nightal


    Pelsot is definitely following me, I¡¯m certain now. I zig zagged through some streets when I knew he was following me and he clearly did his best to keep up.


    That complicates matters, but it¡¯s not like I can actually do much during the winter anyway. All the bugs and crustaceans are either hiding in the ground or dead from the cold. I¡¯d have to just hope that he, and likely my parents, eventually forget their suspicions about my activities.


    What are they thinking¡­ that I joined some pickpocket gang or something? I know some of the other kids in the area are doing it, and even saw it by placing my bugs inside coin purses during the warmer months and tracking their movements.


    It never happened to me though, so I guess they figured I looked too poor to have anything on me at my age.


    21 Nightal


    Last night was Simril, a sort of star watching celebration mixed with fortune telling. It¡¯s an opportunity for people to look up at the stars to find their ¡°special¡± star, typically determined somehow from one¡¯s date and place of birth. Tayvra must have been too young in previous years to participate since it involved staying up for most of the night to partake in the city''s festivities.


    Various bonfires in the middle of the streets, and businesses with roof access having parties indoors to keep people warm during the chilly nighttime.


    I wasn¡¯t all that interested in most of it though, because as interesting as it was to look up at the night sky without modern light pollution, by this point it was sort of rather mundane as nice as the view was.


    I finally did learn when Tayvra¡¯s birthday was though. Since I was old enough to stay up and star watch with the others, Tulgor took me out during the day to some fortune teller booth to get my star determined. I¡¯d need to remember that my new birthday is 19 Alturiak, or February 19th.


    Good to know ahead of time. Apparently Pelsot¡¯s birthday is on 28 Nightal, and Virla¡¯s is on 5 Hammer, and Tulgor¡¯s is on 25 Alturiak. No idea about Jespa though, because nobody told me and it wasn¡¯t exactly a situation I could easily ask about it without drawing some suspicion.


    A second birthday¡­ I hadn¡¯t thought much about my original birthday before. It would have been back in Kythorn. I should celebrate it next time. I¡¯ll be sure to remember it.


    28 Nightal


    Pelsot¡¯s birthday was a subdued affair in all honesty. The kids did go out to play today though, and built him a small snow throne to sit in, surrounded by a small snow fort. It was in Snail Park, basically just across the street from where we lived.  During winter, it was something of a snow dumping ground for the area, meaning there were large mounds of snow for us kids to play in.


    Afterward, there was a sort of competition between the children. A dozen of us were given the duty of defending the fort, while the rest mounted an assault on the fortification. I enjoyed joining the attackers, and pelting my brother with snow.

 Taylor makes some friends

    451 NR Year of the Grinning Halfling


    1 Hammer


    The start of the new year has started off pleasantly enough. Tulgor has technically been off work for the season for the last few tenday now, since the harbour is now blocked by ice flows from the north.


    It''s been quite fun with him at home playing and teaching the three of us, or trudging through the snowy streets up to the North Ward helping clear recent snowfall for us. The lessons themselves are likely more interesting to Pelsot and Jespa than to me, since it''s mostly tales about him being on the seas fishing in open waters.


    Today in particular though was Wintershield, a more generally recognized day off for the majority of citizens. My family has one of the larger houses among the various kids that are in our play group, not that it was actually large but it''s relative, meaning that we played host to a dozen of them coming over in the afternoon.


    Tulgor brought out a few rough maps of the Sword Coast for us to look over and discuss. Apparently a feature of the holiday included discussions about politics and geography. That and soup. Virla spent much of the day boiling a pot full of bones and herbs that was intermittently served up for our gathering. I don''t think I''ve ever had a better soup broth in either life, though I might have enjoyed some sort of noodles in it if they had been available.


    Tulgor spent time teaching the other kids about the other major settlements along the coastline, he had actually been employed on a merchantile vessel before settling down with Virla and so was fairly knowledgeable about the various port cities along the Sword Coast.


    After dark but before everyone headed home, all the kids broke up into pairs and competed in a sort of competitive quiz going over various things we had talked about, as well as various details about Waterdeep.


    I got paired with Yeena, who had a tendency to simply give joke answers to cover for her not actually knowing them. It''s a good thing she got paired up with me, since I actually knew all the answers thanks to all my studying.


    16 Hammer


    This month was thankfully uneventful up until today. The days had blended together in a mix of spending time at home playing with my siblings and Tulgor, going out on slightly warmer days to play in the snow with the local groups of kids, occasionally going or inviting others to play in each other''s houses, or making the trek across the city to go to the library.


    Today was an opportunity though, thanks to Pelsot having a cold. Tulgor elected to stay at home taking care of him, as did Jespa.


    It was also thankfully one of the warmer days of winter, small mercies. If I can make time this summer I''ll be sowing in some silk layers into my winter clothes to stay warm.


    It took me half an hour in the morning to scour the Docks Ward to find what I was looking for. I hadn''t had much of a chance to do the legwork earlier given how busy and close Pelsot kept me.


    The group of Lizardfolk I knew would come and go trading for food. I''d figured it out by the somewhat scheduled frequency we would see them around the area, every tenday or so since winter started. Finding them was actually the most annoying part of the whole endeavour. I waited for them to finish their business near the Butcher''s Guildhall before actually approaching.


    They all stood a bit above 6 feet tall, though it was hard to really tell given my diminutive size. Covered in swampy green scales mixed with some patterns of a rusty red colour. I could feel the weapons they had concealed in their jackets with a few bugs, uncommon in the city. Their jackets and boots though were in poor condition, worn with holes and many sized a bit small for their large imposing frames.


    They seemed initially confused, which makes sense since I was a random bundled up 5 year old walking up to a dozen scary lizardfolk. They were used to people leaving them alone or staring with disdain, so this was a novel event for them. I was able to convince them to follow me into a warmer alley on their way out of the city, burdened mostly with slabs of meat they purchased.


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    Turns out they had a lot of fear and respect for magi. I showed off a little bit of my insect control, and suddenly they were all for listening to whatever I had to say. It was a gamble because they were the first people I had actually decided to show my abilities to in this life.


    I wanted an alliance with them.


    I''ve grown a bit stir crazy truthfully, because for as much as my family keeps me active during the days, the cold winter greatly limits my options with my insects. I couldn''t build up any sort of decent number of spiders for weaving. Scouting around outside was near impossible with how the cold quickly killed any exposed insects. Who would have thought the true weakness of my powers was seasonal cold?


    So I negotiated with them, tentatively. They weren''t actually in a position of authority in their tribe, and I didn''t exactly have much to offer for the moment, so we stuck mostly to the theoretical.


    I asked them to act as proxies for me, since it was difficult to make people respect me at my current age. Initially, this was to try and get them to pay for a building close enough to my home to be in range for most of my day. In exchange, I could use the space to help weave them warmer clothes for next winter.


    The other option discussed was a deal for food for them. I revealed I could control things larger than spiders, so they asked me to go to the Rat Hills at some point to help them harvest some of the creatures there. In exchange, they might help me more efficiently harvest goods from the area to be sold. They were known to be scavengers and so would elicit less suspicion than I had for my various pawning off of goods.


    I wouldn''t go to the hills today though. Tulgor thought I was just going out to a library to study for a couple hours. That, and the winter solstice was in mid Nightal, so the days were quite short now. A round trip to the hills took ages with all the snow on the ground, even if the lizardfolk seemed to have a sled they would pull to transport goods.


    18 Hammer


    I managed to catch a cold, and I blame staying outside in that alley with the lizardfolk for so long a few days ago. On the bright side, I got to have some more of that very tasty soup from back during Wintershield.


    Pelsot and Jespa went to check out some books for me at the library to keep me busy when I was actually awake. I had been meaning to return and get new ones sometime this week. What they thought my tastes were though left something to be desired, but it was the thought that counted.


    25 Hammer


    Orsik has been a godsend today in helping with the research of niche topics. I think a lot of the reason he spends time with me is because of how much he actually enjoys how I ask questions that he doesn''t actually know the immediate answer to.


    He''ll go scurrying off to search through the book indexes of the library to find a half dozen volumes for us to pour over in a reading corner of the library. He''s a much faster reader than me though, but it''s still good practice for me. I still need him to help explain and translate unfamiliar words though.


    Today''s weird topic I asked about was the use of silks in the realm, and that was a far greater rabbit hole than I had initially expected.


    The greatest amount of lore available was of the Drow. A sort of cursed branch of elf that lived underground. Apparently the world also had a massive cave network basically everywhere called the Underdark, inhabited by all sorts of strange creatures affected by the strange magics suffusing the place.


    Waterdeep itself had a few entrances connected down to it, though the surface races generally avoided them.


    The Drow worshipped a demonic queen of spiders as a goddess, named Lolth. Spiders were considered sacred in their culture, and there were many of them that would use spidersilk as textiles. Makes sense given the lack of sunlight for typical crops like cotton, or for the raising of livestock like sheep.


    There were a handful of other faraway places that also used it, though the only one vaguely relevant and known about was in the jungles of Chult. A faraway jungle peninsula far to the south. Apparently dinosaurs existed there.


    Dinosaurs existed.


    It''s probably strange that somehow I have more difficulty believing in dinosaurs than demons and gods existing.

 Taylor turns six

    14 Alturiak


    My feet ache from dancing so much, and my hands are numb from the cold.


    Today was ¡°The Grand Revel¡±, a festival sponsored by the churches for the various gods related to festivities and the arts and other such things. Traditions for the day include large-scale dancing in the streets, and eating a variety of various candies and other sweets. There¡¯s also some sort of Valentine¡¯s Day type of romantic¡­ something. I¡¯m not entirely sure on the specifics of the last part. I didn¡¯t ask, and nobody was really talking to a bunch of little kids about it.


    I decided today to not pay much attention to what bugs were in my range that could be found on beds.


    The more general festivities had Tulgor acting as a chaperone for a lot of the neighbourhood kids we typically spend time with. Business was slow though for a lot of professions in the city thanks to how trade functionally stops from the ice and snow, so you had a lot of the parents who had those sorts of jobs spending more time with their kids. So Tulgor had some coworkers or people he was familiar with around as well, I guess it was some sort of dad union.


    Most of the activities consisted of joining in large dance circles surrounded by bonfire to try and stave off the cold. The day was a bit warmer than the month had been so far, but spending much of the day out in the cold trying to keep warm via dancing loses its appeal somewhat quickly. Unfortunately Pelsot was feeling quite festive today, so we spent much of it outside.


    I can¡¯t wait to actually make my own better insulated winter clothing. I''m wearing a hand me down pair of gloves that were once Pelsot¡¯s and they let my fingertips get pretty cold.


    The treats were good though, either sold at stalls or in nice warm indoor taverns. I have realized I have far more of a sweet tooth than the rest of my family, who seem to enjoy more spiced dishes.


    19 Alturiak


    Today was my sixth birthday, Tayvra¡¯s sixth birthday.


    I am glad I had an idea of the expectations from Pelsot¡¯s and Virla¡¯s, no chance of repeating the same mistake as Last Sheaf, not that I was actually the one giving the gifts today.


    Thankfully I think suspicions over that day have mostly settled. Pelsot has been less¡­ burdensome to deal with. Not like I¡¯ve actually decided to do much since meeting the lizardfolk, not much cause to go anywhere that isn¡¯t the library to learn with Orsik.


    The whole event was nice, good food (more of that bone broth!), going out to play with the others, and some minor trinkets were given. Tulgor¡¯s was my favourite, a small carving knife with a pretty good handle. I¡¯m apparently allowed to carry it with me, though Virla waved her finger around telling me how I needed to be careful with the responsibility and so on.


    Unfortunately Neeshka seemed more annoyed today than most. I made the mistake of trying to pick her up while she was curled in front of the fireplace. Now I¡¯m stuck with sensitive scratches on the palm of my left hand.


    I will never understand what Jespa sees in the furball, nor why Neeshka seems so forgiving towards her compared to me.


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    25 Alturiak


    Tulgor¡¯s birthday has come and gone. As is tradition, we ate his favourite food. His was some smoked fish resembling salmon, on toasted bread with goat cheese on it.


    It called back some old memories from the early days back with the undersiders. Lisa or Brian would come back to the loft after stopping at the boardwalk, buying coffee and expensive bagels. Lisa would get those overpriced cream cheese and smoked salmon sandwiches.


    I avoided crying while we ate. Barely.


    I don¡¯t think the others really noticed. I don¡¯t think I could have come up with an answer if they asked.


    1 Ches


    Today was¡­


    It was Rhystertide, one of the largest holy days for the faithful of Lathander. As the story goes, it is the anniversary of the day his first prophet was healed of his blindness and began preaching the faith of the Morning Lord.


    The priests bundled up in richly coloured robes meant to evoke the colours of sunrise, from oranges to pinks. They wear eyepatches for the day, I guess to represent the blindness of the prophet.


    Naturally though, because it¡¯s still winter time, they mostly stuck to the northern area of the Castle Ward or the Sea Ward. So Tulgor brought us northward for the event. Once again, I felt like I didn¡¯t belong there. I feel like I perhaps should avoid temples at this point, nothing has happened but the unease is unpleasant to deal with.


    Once we left though, I felt drawn eastward. I¡¯m not sure where, exactly. Maybe the City of the Dead? I didn¡¯t have an excuse to actually lead us there, and the winter has made me feel lethargic. I¡¯ll investigate it the next time I¡¯m near there, I¡¯m sure there will be some festival or another that would justify the visit.


    Otherwise, I¡¯ll just wait for the end of winter. Whenever that is.


    19 Ches


    Today is the Spring Equinox, or more importantly, close to the end of winter. I might finally start to be able to actually get things done again.


    Hopefully, it was still chilly today and there¡¯s still some snow on the ground even with a lot of it melting. Black ice is also something of a problem in certain spots, I saw what I think was a foreigner slip and land poorly on their tailbone.


    It being the Equinox though, meant that Orsik gave me a special lesson on the topic. Namely, going into some detail on the Fey and the Feywild.


    The Feywild is some mirror plane closely connected to the Material Plane, Faerun. Tied closely to the elves, druids, and primal nature, the Feywild in a chaotic magical place where time and distance are fairly arbitrary. There¡¯s a wide variety of fey, many somewhat reminiscent of the older fairy tales my old mother would have read to me before bed.


    I resolved to avoid it as much as possible, since my mom had elected to read to me a lot of the older classical versions rather than the modern sanitized ones.


    The Spring Equinox was a special time, said to be the day where the barriers between them were thinnest. In the most untouched parts of the world, one could easily cross from one side to the other. People would stay indoors for their own safety. It wasn¡¯t foolproof, but I assumed it helped if it was a widespread belief.


    Waterdeep was quite urban though. A sort of antithesis to the Feywild, and so had little worry for such things. The fey preferred the unexplored wilderness to bustling city streets and farms in the surrounding area.


    Instead, the city had people dressing up in mock fey inspired costumes. Dancing and pranks and other frivolities filled the day. I ditched Pelsot to go to the library, and studied with Orsik.


    There were a handful of other minor religious holidays occuring today as well, given how it was a midpoint for seasons in a lot of places. The church of Lathander had some sort of special song going on that I elected to disregard given how their church made my skin crawl. The faithful of Mielikki also had a special feast at the Shrines of Nature, I gave it a wide berth as well.


    I somehow imagine that they would specifically object to my presence on a holy day, given how they seemed to notice the last time I was nearby.

 Taylor sees a mermaid

    21 Ches


    The cold has begun to abate at last. The harbour is free of ice flows, just in time for an entire tenday of festivities.


    From today to the end of Ches is Fleetswake, a religious holiday dedicated to the goddess Umberlee. I felt a pang in my chest hearing the stories about her, mostly just due to her major title being ¡°The Bitch Queen¡±.


    She¡¯s one of the more wrathful and active of the gods, with domains over such wonderful things as storms, shipwrecks, and drowning. Waterdeep, like most coastal settlements reliant on nautical trade, take special care to appease Umberlee and her faithful to prevent her wrath from befalling them.


    It¡¯s basically a divine protection racket.


    Most of the week features a bunch of celebratory boat races for the public to watch and enjoy. A display meant to impress Umberlee or some such. Personally, I didn¡¯t actually find it that interesting to watch, the excitement mostly just coming from the audience rather than watching two boats rowing a distance at a decent clip.


    I¡¯m probably just spoiled by how cars go significantly faster, but it does somewhat dampen the experience.


    22 Ches


    So something I didn¡¯t know about the boat race. Winners don¡¯t actually keep the event earnings for winning the races. Instead, they will give them over as tribute to the priestesses of Umberlee. There¡¯s also a collection drive where people are supposed to hand over money.


    The priests then sink the chests into the ocean in tribute to Umberlee.


    Tempting as it might be to try and find a way to scavenge for those in the future, there¡¯s a number of tales about how poor an idea such a thing tends to be. The treasure is warded, it¡¯s guarded, trying to mess with it invites divine wrath down on those involved, and so on.


    26 Ches


    Tulgor got an invite to the Shipwrighter¡¯s Guild¡¯s ball. He isn¡¯t a proper member, but is friendly enough with many of the members that they extended an invite. I didn¡¯t get a lot of details about it, but apparently he had gone above and beyond what was expected in assisting them in years past. He gets invited to some of their other social events, but this is one in which family is also included.


    Virla spent much of the day making sure we were well prepared for the ball. That I and Jespa had our hair nicely braided, that our dresses were clean and not wrinkled. We ran through some minor etiquette for the evening, which really just boiled down to ¡°Stay either at my side or in my sight during the ball¡±.


    The event was quite impressive for what basically a work party. Everyone dressed their best, and I recognized a few of the local kids there with their parents. Yeena was also there so I had someone to talk to. Apparently, her father works as a shipwright, which I didn¡¯t know.


    The music was nice, and the various snack foods were wonderful. They didn¡¯t spare any expense on the catering for the event, though I was hardly able to sample everything.


    The chefs put a lot of work into the presentation of the dishes. If only the tables weren¡¯t so tall, I wouldn¡¯t have to rely on Tulgor letting me sit on his shoulders to see them.


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    29 Ches


    Today and tomorrow are the Fair Seas Festival, a sort of final hurrah to send off Fleetswake.


    It mostly consisted of feasting on fresh catch of seafood. Some of the foods were more familiar to me, smoked fish skewers, something similar to crab cakes. Others less so, like the various fish curries and fish soups.


    The texture of the fish in the soup I tried was¡­ unpleasant, with tiny bits and strands that fell apart in the mouth from how soft they were, and with little flavour.


    I had fun at the tavern we ate at for dinner though. They had some tanks with lobsters and crabs in them, so I got to enjoy making them dance while I suffered through my disappointing soup.


    30 Ches


    I finally laid eyes on the Merfolk in the harbour.


    I had known they existed of course, but they didn¡¯t stray close enough to the shore for me to ever really get a good look at them with my shellfish. I¡¯d catch the occasional glimpse of them, but the eyes of my shellfish were¡­ well, they are hard to really see with in the way I am used to. The mechanics different from how the rest of my insects¡¯ eyes work, let alone my own.


    But with enough of them, thankfully becoming more active as the water starts to warm up again, I finally did it.


    Tulgor had permission from his captain to take us out on the water on their vessel to watch the final casting off of the chests ladened with coinage collected over the last few days along with the race winnings. I could see them underneath us, waiting to collect and carry it off into the depths.


    They were similar to mermaids. The lower half was fish-like, and their upper torso humanoid. I wouldn¡¯t really compare them to humans though. They had fins along their forearms, with webbed hands, and some sorts of fins instead of hair. Their skin on the upper half is fairly smooth, with colours ranging from blues to lighter greens. They wore sashes and bits of clothing, though truthfully it was difficult to really perceive the finer details of them.


    They were also well armed, and seemed somewhat wary. Whether that was because they felt my influence, or simply just a security measure, I couldn¡¯t say.


    1 Tarsahk


    The first week of the month of Tarsahk is another tenday period of festivities. In this case though, it formed more independently, combining a series of less related holidays that all took place near each other into a combined sort of celebration.


    The first is Caravance. A bit of a combination between Christmas and an Easter egg hunt. It even has a Santa figure, some merchant named Old Carvas said to come with a wagon full of toys for children. I wonder if he actually existed, or is merely an identity made up for the story.


    Virla had a few small gifts hidden around the house, meant for us to find. Toys for us to play with, mostly. Jespa found a few stuffed dolls, with the most interesting being some sort of cross between an owl and a bear. Pelsot got a pair of seemingly good quality practice swords, mostly wood but with the blades padded with some sort of leather.


    I, meanwhile, got what was basically a yoyo.


    I have to wonder if my parents just didn¡¯t know what toy I would enjoy and just bought something random.


    5 Tarsahk


    Tonight is Goldenight, and I didn¡¯t get much of an explanation on the origins for it from anyone when I asked, even Orsik. I don¡¯t think it¡¯s religious, none of the temples claim it as one. I guess it¡¯s closer to something like Black Friday.


    The entire premise is essentially just that stores are open overnight and have a number of deals on. People are also fashioning various coinages into jewelry to wear for the evening.


    It¡¯s also Jespa¡¯s birthday, meaning there was another nice meal to enjoy. We ended up having the same food as on Tulgor¡¯s birthday. It makes sense I suppose, she¡¯s only four years old now. We did have an interesting custard mixed with strawberry jam for dessert, which was a bit tart for my tastes but enjoyable nonetheless.


    Thinking about anniversaries, the one for when I arrived will be soon. I¡¯ll have to do something nice for myself.

 Taylor discovers capitalism

    7 Tarsakh


    Today was Guildsmeet, a day for each of the myriad guilds in the city to have their big meetings. Announcing new policies, discussion of future plans, that sort of thing. Reminds me of when Dad had his big union meetings in a way.


    Not that that part was really relevant to us. Tulgor technically wasn¡¯t actually in any guilds. There wasn¡¯t a formal one for fishermen. It sort of surprised me when I learned about that months ago, considering how many other related guilds there already were. There was the Fishmonger¡¯s Fellowship, the Guild of Watermen, the Master Mariners¡¯ Guild, and the Order of Master Shipwrights.


    Turns out that if you actually worked on the boats and weren¡¯t a captain, you just didn¡¯t get one. Maybe that was for the best though, the guilds weren¡¯t unions. They were monopolies. You couldn¡¯t operate in the city for long without either joining up with one or paying them for their services.


    I have no idea what I¡¯ll actually do to handle them, maybe use the lizardfolk as a proxy? I know there are some guilds related to the weaving of fabric, as well as the making of clothes. Then there¡¯s probably a guild for apothecaries or poisoners in regard to any venom I could try harvesting. Who knows if there would be a guild to go through for things like harvesting the chitin of any of the larger species I might control?


    Who would have thought the most evil thing I¡¯d encountered so far in a world of wizards and dragons would be trading monopolies?


    10 Tarsahk


    Today is finally the end of Waukeentide, going out with what is less a holiday and more¡­ a tax day? Leiruin, named after some event in which the goddess Leira was buried under a mountain of molten gold, is a day in which guilds charge their membership for their annual fees.


    How those two things got associated is a bit dubious honestly, and I cannot fathom how it came about.


    There¡¯s also some amount of politicking in the background, higher-ups in the guilds meeting with various nobles or the government.


    I ended up spending the day studying with Orsik as a way to keep myself busy. Jespa is starting to sort of go to a preschool nearby, while Pelsot and I have renewed our more regular lessons. I ended up just asking for some of the assignments and left to study with Orsik, with him vouching as a trusted tutor for me.


    Which is interesting, since my understanding is that it is more reserved for the more wealthy children with more dedicated tutelage. The children of more wealthy shop owners or skilled tradesmen. Orsik is an oddity in that sense, as a trusted scholar in the local circles but not taking on students. I suppose that makes me something closer to an apprentice?


    I¡¯ve been learning more about guildlaw with Orsik though, a mutually novel topic for the two of us. He knew some information on the two he had interacted with the most. The Scriveners'', Scribes'', and Clerks'' Guild as well as the Surveyors'', Map-makers'', and Chart-makers'' Guild.


    I, meanwhile, knew far more of them, but mostly only the ones associated with my father¡¯s work on a boat.


    As it turned out though, those tended to be some of the more¡­ ¡°moderate¡± guilds. Some of the others had a lot of internal conflicts pop up in the various books we could find, from fairly obvious sabotage to assassinations. They tended to react poorly to not at least brokering through them for the sale of material.


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    It¡¯s likely that once I actually got any sort of weaving done on scale or venom harvesting done on scale, I¡¯d have to actually gain membership at least by proxy. Less of a headache that way, even if it annoys me to basically pay into a protection racket.


    13 Tarsakh


    Today I finally got a chance to slip off to the Rat Hills to fulfil my promise to the lizardfolk. The weather had been fine the last few days, with barely any rainfall. I had made the attempt before, but an aborted attempt at trudging through the mud-filled road south dissuaded that idea after around ten minutes.


    Having small legs sucks.


    Today though was a success, in a variety of ways. I made contact with the lizardfolk at the hills quickly, the ones I had met in the city must have told the others about my capabilities. Some sort of giant trash-eating land crab waving at them got their attention after the second try.


    After introductions, we got underway. I used what was around in the area to burrow and find anything that seemed like it could be of value, and then I had the lizardfolk help dig it up. It wasn¡¯t a great success rate all things considered. I didn¡¯t entirely know what to really look for as far as containers that might actually still have anything valuable, or had value themselves.


    Now that I had the lizardfolk to help carry things, I wasn¡¯t limited merely to lightweight trinkets. Valuable furniture likely thrown away by the nobility, worn-out tools that the lizardfolk could make use of, and so on. They figured they would take them into the city the next time they went to sell the pelts and bits from whatever they managed to hunt. That¡¯s how they got money to trade with in the city.


    There was even some level of danger to the day. Some sort of giant quadrupedal pale-skinned creature was disturbed by the digging at one point. It was massive, nearly as tall as the horses in the city, and thrice as wide. Its head was a massive japping mouth, and three spiked tentacles sprouted out of its back. Thankfully, the Rat Hills are full of all manner of insects, including venomous ones. The hide of the creature was thick, but covering it in a swarm of insects meant that my lizardfolk escort could put it down with their weapons.


    They identified it as an Otyugh, some sort of common garbage eater. Certainly dangerous though, and really showed how correct I was last year about avoiding actually going into the hills proper like this.


    I came home damp, after taking a quick dip into the ocean on the way back to try and purge the smell of the place. I¡¯d have to remember to take some soap next time, as well as some extra clothes.


    20 Tarsakh


    Happy birthday to me. At least since I first came here. I guess I sort of have three now, don¡¯t I?


    I have a lot to think about. The day started so well too, I spent the noontime in the main market of the city. The variety of stalls was full of all sorts of goods, though today I was mostly interested in the street food. The flavours of this world were more hearty than I was used to, a less developed sugar production and spice farming industry likely the cause.


    I drifted eastward after enjoying my fill, stopping a moment to listen to some sort of bardic street play. I thought I might cross the High Road to head towards the City of the Dead, with the weather as nice as it was, it made for a nice quiet place with comfortable benches to read. It was a massive idyllic park, the city putting effort to make the resting place for most of their dead a pleasant place to visit.


    That trip was waylaid though, when I had that feeling again, the pull.


    It was a familiar place. The Hospice of Saint Laupsenn. This must have been where that feeling before was trying to lead me when I ignored it. It was a dull presence in my mind, a tickle, like a bug flitting in and out of my old range. Noticed, but not attention grabbing.


    So I went and relaxed there instead. They had some park bench memorials in a little fenced off courtyard area. I¡­ went with the flow? I didn¡¯t have a feeling of a demand while there, simply a wish for my presence. I read there for a few hours. An account of a party of adventurers that operated a little more than a century ago up near Neverwinter. Whether the contents were truthful was difficult to parse with the flowery language.


    And then I left, feeling refreshed. The feeling abated.


    Why?

 Taylor has a business meeting

    4 Mirtul


    I may have overestimated how valuable the items in the Rat Hills would be.


    Early successes probably clouded the reality that it is quite literally a dump. Of course, there wouldn¡¯t be a ton of valuables left discarded with the Dungsweeper¡¯s Guild having first pickings. Anything we found was probably missed or looked over by people who likely make a living off of skimming anything valuable before it went to get dumped.


    All the more readily accessible loot already picked over from my last few visits working with the lizardfolk. I can¡¯t exactly search very well for things properly buried in the massive mounds of garbage.Not that there¡¯s nothing there of value, but I might be better off cutting back on my visits.


    So the next step is to figure out how to establish a place locally accessible where I can store my insects to work with so I can start on my silk production and venom harvesting. I¡¯ll have to see if I can get my way into the clan¡¯s lair and negotiate with their chieftain, and figure out if they can scrounge the raw coinage to invest in a place to work out of.


    I¡¯ll be busy the next few days though, assuming it goes the same as last year. Pelsot insists on Virla taking us kids out to watch many of the races during the Plowing and Running, and I can hardly come up with a convenient excuse to get out of it.


    17 Mirtul


    I met with Chief Balthsvk today, after gaining permission to enter the clan¡¯s den. It is a cave system built into a rocky hill, maybe a third of a mile from the southeastern border of the Rat Hills. They said it was originally owned by a clan of ¡°Kobolds¡±, a diminutive lizard-like humanoid species. The lizardfolk ¡°moved in¡± after finding the kobold clan weakened after skirmishing with some other group.


    Originally much of the area was cramped, given that Kobolds stood at a little less than my current height. They spent the early years expanding much of it.  I can see the effort and organization put into it.


    There are what seem to be underground pools dug out, fed by either groundwater or rainwater. I could feel a number of small shellfish within a few of them, some sort of shrimps or prawns I am unfamiliar with. There were also some fish that I could notice in other pools, so they must be farming them as a food source. The clan seemed fairly well fed now that the warmer part of the year had started. With all the snow melted, their hunters are able to travel again.


    I also learned the name of the clan, Persvek Casein, which apparently directly translates to ¡°In a forest¡±. My past interactions have taught me how literal they tend to be for naming things, but it¡¯s also somewhat strange to find them in such a place. I asked Orsik a few seasons back about what he knew of the lizardfolk, and he told me how they typically settle more in marshland or coastal areas. As close as they were to the ocean, this was still surprisingly inland for what he explained to me.


    The meeting with Balthsvk was swift though, intimidating as it was. I trusted their interest in me as an ally, enough at least to see that attacking me wouldn¡¯t be beneficial to them. Killing the golden goose, which is apparently a metaphor they did not actually understand even if the sentiment made sense. I had to explain it to my escorts on my way out when I voiced it because apparently, they don¡¯t really do metaphors.


    The meeting room was a fairly sizable cave. Maybe a dozen members held some sort of council when I arrived. The chieftain stood perhaps a foot taller than the others, making him stand out from the group. I couldn¡¯t really begin to guess at the roles of most others since they only spoke in a strange guttural hissing language I couldn¡¯t hope to identify. One of my escorts was recognizable as one of the traders who would go into the city, I think named Munthrarechi, their word for the commonly spoken language, acted as translator for me.


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    Thankfully, it seemed the chieftain was of a sensible bent who recognized the possible value and payoff for my proposal. The clan would help finance and act as a proxy of a proxy for the purchase of some small property in the city close enough to where I lived, along with what meagre funds I still had saved. In exchange, I would spend time weaving them silken clothes. I had managed to secretly weave a small square of it at home with some of the spiders in the local area gorged on the freshly hatching insects of spring. One of the lizards tested it by attempting to cut it with a blade and showed that while somewhat inferior to black widow silk, it was still reasonably cut-proof.


    They also wanted a cut of any profits I could make in the short term with venom harvesting, as that would be far easier to set up and have them handle as proxies. They could claim to have done it themselves out in the wilderness so as to sell them to registered apothecaries. Ideally, in the future we might be able to be more established, but with the lack of proper workshops, it would be difficult to truly do at the scale required. Seventy-five percent of any earnings until I paid off their initial investment, then a sixty-forty split in my favour.


    Fairly generous all things considered, I wasn¡¯t exactly in a position where I needed the funds in the short term. The agreement wouldn¡¯t be started until I did research on my end of things for a property that could be suitable, then they would need to find a broker to help out.


    2 Kythorn


    I¡¯m exhausted after spending the afternoon with Pelsot and Jespa trick or treating, or ¡°troll scratching¡± as they call it here for Trolltide. Jespa is old enough this year to participate more actively than before, much to her delight.


    Virla had been working with her on sewing up some sort of troll mask, a green bumpy thing with a large outstretched nose and big tusks made of painted wood. It was fairly good all things considered, better than a lot of the other kids bothered with. It was also a hit once our trio met up with the local group of kids.


    Many treats were obtained, though most decided to devour them as they got them. I managed to persuade my siblings to store them in bags to be eaten over the course of the next few days instead, like proper trick or treating.


    20 Kythorn


    Today was supposed to be Dragondown, that celebration about driving dragons away from the city. Instead, the city was sent into a panic around noontime, priests running up and down the streets alerting everyone of the news.


    The Lord of Murder has returned.


    Nobody was entirely sure of what happened until the evening, but evidently, the clergy must have felt or been informed of what had happened. Bhaal, the once slain god, had somehow resurrected. What that means for the city, or the realm as a whole, was unclear.


    When word arrived, we learned of a very public tragedy down in Baldur¡¯s Gate. The head of the Flaming Fist, the local military group, Abdel Adrian was challenged by some sort of assassin mid-public speech. One killed the other, and the survivor transformed into some sort of unholy demonic creature that went on to slaughter a portion of the crowd that had gathered.


    People seem fearful and confused. Baldur¡¯s Gate might be well south of us, but the return of one of the more evil gods known has left a number of questions. Some have started to be doomsayers, suggesting it is a sign of a return to a more violent time. Others reason that it won¡¯t impact the city for a long time, if ever. It would take years for him to build up any sort of significant following, especially one that would directly threaten Waterdeep.


    Nice as that sentiment is, I doubt it¡¯s comforting for those in more remote and vulnerable settlements, or those living in Baldur¡¯s Gate.


    From what little I¡¯ve gleaned from what stories people have shared about the Cult of Bhaal, they seem like the sort to get along swimmingly with the Slaughterhouse Nine.

 Taylor learns about magic

    30 Kythorn


    The past tenday has truly been frustrating, if for understandable reasons. Bhaal¡¯s resurrection has everyone on edge, and while most adults are returning to their daily lives, us kids are being constantly watched over.


    One or more of the parents would be in the park if we were playing games there, and if we were running in the streets then there would be more watchful eyes than typical from the crowds. Where before there would be some suspicion cast on us for the possibility of being pickpockets or vandals, now they are filled with paranoia for dangers lurking that might prey upon us.


    Admittedly, there¡¯s a few of us who I could very much see following the suspicious man offering free candy into the white van.


    It¡¯s made my¡­ activities with the lizardfolk impossible to handle personally, and so I¡¯ve dedicated my time instead to scanning the local area for anywhere that could function as a workshop. Thus far, results have been disappointing.


    In slightly more happy news, Yeena announced to the group today that she would be becoming an older sister soon, with her mother pregnant.


    I¡¯d like to think I acted convincingly in response, it was hard for me to miss what her parents were doing in their room when I made the mistake of scanning the area.


    12 Flamerule


    I had no idea it would be so difficult to find a cheap and available hole in the wall to set up in. I figured I¡¯d have the place picked out a tenday ago.


    These sorts of acquisitions tend to go the best during Sornyn, all sorts of businesses making new deals and agreements means that the market should be primed for that sort of thing.


    Instead, I struggle to find something just right. I have no need for warehouses or larger building lots, let alone being able to afford them. I don¡¯t want to try moving into some house either, and most of what¡¯s around here is for rent, rather than purchase.


    Today, I nearly fell for the temptation of just trying to make one available. There was a little hole in the wall two room business, I think some sort of importer for dried meats. It even had some termites infesting the building it was attached to. It would have been so easy to just give the command, make it unlivable to force them to sell it off.


    Instead, I just forced the termites out of the place. There was already some damage, nothing I could do about that, but at least there wouldn¡¯t be further damage to it.


    I¡¯d been doing that a lot for the docks, sacrificing the more destructive bugs to try and fatten up the other species in the area. Either the handful of wasp hives I¡¯ve had burrowing underground or in less harmful places, or the colonies of ants I¡¯ve located.


    It¡¯s not a great deal of them, the Dock Ward doesn¡¯t actually have a ton of free green space, but if I were ever in danger it would help to be able to quickly build up a swarm of actually harmful bugs.


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    26 Flamerule


    For as limiting as the increased supervision of us has been, it has incentivized me to spend more of my time with Orsik researching and learning more about Faerun. I don¡¯t know how much the others actually noticed the change to how much we¡¯re being watched over, maybe it¡¯s because of my experience.


    Anyway, as of late I¡¯ve asked him to go over all the different sorts of magic with me. As exciting as the concept of magic actually is, I realized that I didn¡¯t actually know a lot of the specifics about it. Sure, I knew there were illusions, and ways to slow down a fall, and a few other things, but on the day to day I actually wasn¡¯t really interacting with it all that much.


    So he¡¯s been going through what he knew about it, which was quite a bit given he was a wizard himself. Magic often gets divided in two ways, the source in which the spell is derived, and a general ¡°category¡± in which it fits into. There¡¯s some other stuff going along with that, various cultural groups and linguistic scripts used can have different methodologies but arrive at similar enough end results for example.


    The sources of magic are quite interesting though, broadly speaking there¡¯s two branches to it. Arcane magic and divine magic. Arcane magic is the purview of wizards, people who dedicate their lives to unravelling and manipulating something called the ¡°Weave¡±, which was some sort of underlying energy field to reality. At least, that¡¯s what I could actually interpret from his description, since he used a lot of flowery language that seemed more metaphorical than anything.


    Arcane magic is most commonly practiced by wizards, but there were a number of other means by which it could be learned. Some were born with an innate connection to it, often tied to some sort of magical bloodline, and were known as sorcerers. More brute force, less finesse and variety on average. Then there were warlocks, those who tie themselves to some sort of powerful otherworldly being to be taught or gifted their magic. Like that probably devil summoner I reported for example, though apparently there were many other sources as well and the stereotype of all warlocks being evil was an oversimplification.


    For divine magic, it¡¯s practiced by clerics and druids. What differentiates this from arcane magic is the level of understanding required to perform it, since divine magic is granted to the user rather than the user themselves manipulating the weave. It breaks down into a sort of secondary category in ¡°Primal¡± magic, used by druids. The difference there is that a cleric is channelling their faith and prayers to their patron deity to cast their spells, while druids are tapping into their understanding and connection to nature.


    Then for the spell schools, they somewhat remind me a little of the PRT classifications. There¡¯s eight of them. Abjuration, Conjuration, Divination, Enchantment, Evocation, Illusion, Necromancy, and Transmutation. Not actually as helpful as the old classifications, but they generally describe a broad category that all sorts of things fall into and there¡¯s often outliers.


    Abjuration tended to deal with magical protections and wards, or the disabling of other magical effects. Conjuration was about either the summoning or teleporting of things. Divination was about discovering information. Enchantment was mostly mind altering spells. Evocation had to do with direct energy or very offensive magic. Illusions were exactly what the namesake implied, though also included spoofing or displaying information. Necromancy was, rather than just being about raising undead, the manipulation of negative energies of the universe to also do things like spread diseases, as well as directly affecting the soul. Transmutation was transformative, lead into gold, a mouse into a dragon, and so on.


    Orsik seemed entertained by my struggles to understand a lot of what he was saying. He loved to use a lot of metaphors and a lot of them flew over my head. Apparently that¡¯s just how wizards were, and understanding the minutia was one of the largest hurdles to becoming a decent wizard.


    I¡¯m somewhat tempted to try and actually learn magic myself. Orsik has stated he doesn¡¯t intend to teach me, partially due to inclination and partially due to how busy he actually is when not pursuing his research projects. That leaves either a private tutor or one of a handful academies. The former is far too expensive, and would raise far too many questions that wouldn¡¯t be answerable. The latter could be justified though, but I don¡¯t meet the typical minimum age they accept. Sometime in the coming years perhaps.

 Taylor struggles against bureaucracy

    1 Eleasis


    I was once again forced to visit the Shrines of Nature for Ahghairon¡¯s Day, but I survived.


    I debated feigning illness, Virla likely would have believed it and let me stay home, I¡¯ve seen Pelsot do it a few times as well. Instead, I saw it as an opportunity. I wanted to try applying some of what Orsik had taught me, figuring out the differences between the druids and priests that were there.


    Last time I was sort of panicked over the risk of discovery, but it really did seem like they only were able to notice the effects of my power, rather than determine the source. The last time I was here I had thought they had actually figured out that it was me, but paying more attention on this visit I think they were just paranoid of everyone in the area.


    There were still subtle looks at me, but I noticed they were doing the same for a number of others as well. Mostly from what I now knew to be wild-shaped druids. A common spell for their discipline, just turning into squirrels or birds or cats.


    The fact that any random animal on the streets could be a trained spellcaster would surely do wonders for my paranoia.


    The priesthood didn¡¯t really show nearly as many signs of alertness though. Whether that can be attributed to being the ones mostly handling the public collecting flowers or a general lack of awareness on their part, is difficult to say. At least I don¡¯t think I need to worry about them banging down my door in some sort of police raid in the short term.


    24 Eleasis


    I finally located a suitable building for purchase. A cheap one-floor plus basement combo over on Nelnuk¡¯s Walk just a bit north of where I live. Originally owned by a recently deceased old man who used it as some candle making workshop, his family intended to sell it off since they had upgraded to other larger workshops in the area.


    So this little humble two open room building wasn¡¯t really needed anymore, and the Chandler¡¯s Guild decided to sell it off. I had been watching the neighbourhood for signs of members from the Surveyor¡¯s Guild moving about, as they would typically be called in to look over any properties going up for sale for accurate measurements of floor plans.


    I¡¯ve relayed the location to the lizardfolk trading party, who have been making more regular trips into town, about once every two to three days. They assured me they had earlier found their own proxy they would work through. Their kind, while allowed into the city proper, would have had issues actually navigating through the bureaucratic process or hiring local solicitors to help do so for them.


    Just another step needing to be taken just to buy a small property.


    I miss having Lisa to help manage that sort of thing for me.


    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    28 Eleasis


    Well, the lizardfolk¡¯s proxy found a solicitor. That means work can actually begin on the purchase of the property. I¡¯ve been told it will take at least a tenday or two, mostly for the process to simply have all the requisite checking of the property for recordkeeping along.


    After that, then there will be the managing of any guilds needing to be hired for renovations on the property, and navigating the various guild laws for interacting with them on a regular basis. For the moment, the intention is simply to be selling to the other guild members rather than a proper public storefront.


    In more personal news, Jespa has been spending some time in the library with Orsik and I. She hasn¡¯t exactly been helpful per se, but Orsik tolerates her basically doing her homework and asking me for help on occasion. Seems she¡¯s becoming something of a bookworm.


    Pelsot seemed a bit jealous when he found out, but he needs nearly as much as she does with reading some of his words. A burgeoning scholar he is not.


    9 Eleint


    Of course, there¡¯s an issue with the property! Fucking rotten beams from water damage apparently, the previous owners had neglected maintenance on the damp basement, a detail my cursory look had managed to miss.


    My insects don¡¯t have the same tactile feedback as they used to. Not worthless, but the general lack of fine control without significant attention paid to them means it¡¯s easy to miss the little things like that. I hadn¡¯t actually had to do anything like that since my arrival, so finding out like this is both fortunate and unfortunate. At least it wasn¡¯t for something more dangerous or less fixable.


    At least I did find that squirrel next in the attic and chased them off. Maybe I¡¯ll try nesting a new hive in the hole they made.


    16 Eleint


    Well, the property has finally been purchased in full, so that¡¯s maybe a third of the work done. Took forever for all the parties to go back and forth in one giant game of telephone.


    First, there was the lizardfolk, who actually had the purse strings for the purchase. I wasn¡¯t actually really involved beyond picking out the building, but they were trying to keep me in the loop whenever I actually checked in with them when I was able to break away from the supervision of others.


    Then there was their proxy that they had to hire to handle things for them. Some leatherworker who they would occasionally do business with that specialized in reptilian hides. The areas they hunted in would sometimes have crocodiles or dinosaurs! that they would hunt. The meat they would preserve with salts they bought from the city, but lizardfolk don¡¯t really wear clothes in the same way most humanoids do thanks to their protective scales.


    So then the proxy had to go hire out a solicitor, because like hell some leatherworker knew how to navigate the bureaucratic quagmire that was property transfer in the city. They needed records and estimates for all sorts of aspects of the building, to cover for any arguments or issues that could possibly come up in the future.


    Then our solicitor was working with whoever was representing the other party, who would then have to relay information to the family and guild they were representing. So it was just one big game of telephone. That was thankfully sort of over.


    There were still a half dozen guilds that we still needed to go through for renovations and business negotiations, but that at least could be mostly handled via written instructions rather than in-person meetings.


    So much to get done, and so much money to burn.

 Taylor hates the guilds

    21 Eleint


    Pelsot managed to break his arm today participating in the youth tourney. He¡¯d been excited all morning for it.


    Obviously most of the tournaments for Brightswords are meant for adults. One-on-ones, team bouts, and so on. The ones for kids work in rough age or size brackets, and this year Pelsot qualified for the lowest rung of the youth divisions. So, headstrong and inspired as he is, he signed up for it.


    He made it to his second match before the girl he was facing took him down in two swings. One took out his knee, and the second was an overhead swing while he was on the ground, breaking his arm. She actually got disqualified for it; unsporting behaviour and egregious injury.


    The injury itself wasn¡¯t that bad and was mostly healed by the on-hand cleric. Still, a small fracture remains, and Pelsot has to carry his arm around in a sling for at least a week before he can take it out. It was the best the healer could do since they were just a novice. Apparently, the hosts of the tournament didn¡¯t expect kids to go around breaking bones.


    3 Marpenoth


    For a day of invention, I didn¡¯t actually get to see a lot of useful inventions.


    Oh sure, there were certainly a lot of fantastical or fascinating things, but frankly, I already got a lot of that out of last year¡¯s Day of Wonders. Automata like that are certainly interesting when you consider that the society around me still uses animal-drawn farming equipment, but compared to Dragon¡¯s mechs they didn¡¯t really impress on their capabilities. I¡¯m sure she would have found them quite interesting though, since they weren¡¯t tinkertech but rather complex clockwork.


    My family was certainly wowed by a lot of the flashy stuff though. Light projectors (A fairly simple moving and rotating cover over a light enchantment), a large mechanical centipede crawling around (it had wheels in the bottom, the legs just wriggled for show), an automated stove (which had a half dozen arms to move food around as it cooked, but still needed to be manually operated, defeating the point of it). Something that did catch my eye though was a loom, which seemed to be some level of automatic.


    More advanced than what I¡¯d managed to glimpse in the city thus far, but still behind what existed on Bet. I was just glad that I could use my insects to weave individually and not have to figure out how to use a manual loom.


    7 Marpenoth


    At least the building is purchased and the renovations finished¡­ after nearly a month.


    There wasn¡¯t actually a ton of work that needed to be done on it, mostly just for the paperwork. Other than the rotten beams and some general cleaning up though, there wasn¡¯t a lot that needed to get done. Apparently, the carpenters guild was backed up on requests in the area, so they waited nearly an entire month to actually send someone after we had already put in the request when the city¡¯s solicitor discovered it.


    They also charged us a lot of money for the work. Nearly thirty Dragons over a mere two days. They had to get people to come in and do their own assessment (which we were charged for) even though we had city paperwork on what had to be done. Then you had the daily wages for the three people who came in to actually do the work of replacing the beams. We had to pay for the beams of course. Then we also had to cover the crew¡¯s extra expenses for food and drink for the two days.


    Part of me wonders if they just delayed it till Stoneshar so they had something to do with the day to be active. Meanwhile, I got stuck making mudforts with the other kids again.


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    My hair is filthy, and I spent a decent while just soaking in the tub when we got home.


    14 Marpenoth


    Fuck the glassblowers trying to upcharge us.


    Three Dragons for two vials?! That¡¯s nearly what you get for just buying them from a random store. A little bit less perhaps, but I know the upsale on them is pretty high.


    It must be because we¡¯re a new buyer, but those prices should be criminal. I¡¯d be tempted to actually file an objection to their guild if I wasn¡¯t pressed for time. Getting stuff like that adjudicated takes time, time we don¡¯t have with it already being fall and nearly winter.


    If they maintain that price on future bulk purchases, I might be tempted to see about hiring someone to handle it for us. As is though, that takes both time and money that I would rather spend on other expenses. I was able to hang around and listen in on our proxy trying to deal with the glassblower though.


    Some gnome named something like Nizzlepittle Polymoix Felgred Chelran Obstilat Proki Gelbottom. And that was an abbreviated list of them! He seemed decent at the craft though. I walked into his store yesterday with the excuse of looking to buy my mother a present. He had lots of interesting glass figures.


    I bought a sort of rainbowy hummingbird, meant to be hung near a window to catch and reflect the light. I¡¯ll have to save it for whatever next big gift-giving event comes up.


    27 Marpenoth


    I enjoyed something of a leisure day today, taking a break from working to set up the workshop. We¡¯re getting a bunch of little enclosures made for me to store my spiders safely in once I manage to collect the right ones. For the last few days, I¡¯ve been walking around the city and its outskirts trying to collect a bunch of different species of spider to test for various properties.


    Some I¡¯ll be keeping for harvesting the venom. I took out a book on the local species as well as one on poisons and treatment for them. I figure I¡¯ll keep a few of the nastier species for breeding and milking. Researching though is a bit time-consuming, and involves a lot of guessing. The illustrations of the species aren''t exactly the best in a lot of cases, so it ends up being me picking out whichever looks closest by process of elimination, rather than direct identification.


    The other set of spiders I¡¯m testing is for the tensile strength and other properties of their silk. Tensile strength is obviously important, but so is their ability to actually produce the material in quantity. So far, progress is slow because making test pieces with small groups is tedious due to a lack of scale. Trying to weave a decent test square of fabric is difficult when you only have a dozen or two of the same species.


    Anyway, my ¡°vacation¡± was really just hanging out with Orsik since the weather has been wet enough that my siblings and I have been spending most of our time inside our house, so this was sort of a nice break. There are only so many games we can play indoors, and at this point, I was getting a little bored of it all.


    Today, I feel like I learned a lot though. I was asking him about the various types of wizards, which ended up spiralling into multiple lectures on a variety of different sects, political organizations, and outstanding individual archmages.


    Perhaps the most interesting to me were the Red Wizards of Thay. A council of wizards, or liches in the last century or so, that ruled over the country of Thay far to the east. It was taken over after a civil war by Szass Tam, a powerful lich even by lich standards, after ravaging half the country with an army of undead and deposing the ruling council.


    The country had quite a storied history, and Orsik talked about it for over two hours. From powerful and advanced wizard academies each dedicated to the different schools of magic to discussions about their historical animosity for their neighbours Algarond and Rashemen.


    They are also of more local relevance, thanks to having some sort of embassy in Waterdeep. Orsik seemed to look at it with suspicion and animosity though with how he talked about it. Apparently, the Thayans had quite a negative local history on the Sword Coast, having done various evil wizard plotting in years past. Cities on the Sword Coast tended to accept their embassies though under various beneficial limitations.


    They acted as workshops and stores that would sell various quality enchantments and magical goods at a cheap price into the local markets. They would also volunteer their local members into local military efforts. There are plenty of benefits to local leaders for accepting their presence, which was likely needed to overcome their fairly negative reputation among the local populations.

 Taylor learns a little about poisons

    6 Uktar


    For some reason, I thought that a lot of the expenses for the workshop would be actually buying the workshop itself. I didn¡¯t think about how much it would cost just to get the required furniture to outfit the place.


    This isn¡¯t like Bet, where there are convenient terrarium setups or easy materials I could use. No, instead it would require specially ordered shelves, lots of them, and all of them would obviously need to be handcrafted. Simple small wooden boxes, but they would be needed in mass. Thinking back on it, I¡¯m not actually sure how expensive all those drawers I was using were.


    I had the lizardfolk get their proxy to help place the order with exact specifications. A six-foot tall, three-foot wide shelf, that has as many drawers as possible sized to being three inches wide and tall, going about a foot deep. I¡¯ll be able to put more partitions on the inside to divide the space between spiders. Rough math has that coming out to around six hundred slots I can put the spiders into. They charged ten Dragons for the order, I want to default to thinking they are price gouging me on it, but I¡¯m not actually sure what the more reasonable price would have been for the order.


    I¡¯ll need more, but at least it¡¯s something to start with, and the design can maybe get refined as I inevitably need to order more. A lot more probably, enough to cover most of the walls. I¡¯ll need to figure some stuff out with winter coming, it¡¯s already late fall, and the first snowfall is already overdue.


    12 Uktar


    The Carpenter¡¯s Guild finally finished the first shelf order. We had them drop it off in front of the workshop so the Lizardfolk could help move it indoors. They actually did the smart thing and left all the drawers separated from the shelf in two crates, which we might be able to use for some other purposes.


    It took what felt like ages to actually insert all the drawers though, given there were over a hundred. It was probably not actually that bad, but there were three of us slotting them in. I took the lower shelves, while one of the taller lizardfolk handled the taller half, the third handing them out of the crates to us.


    Now that winter has really started, these two are my temporary assistants. The larger one, Durah, was one of the regulars that I¡¯d see around with their trade group as one that typically came with them. The smaller one (though still nearly six feet tall), Laraek, is apparently meant to act as muscle and security for the workshop. I imagine he¡¯ll be quite bored a lot of the time, but there¡¯s enough spare room on the main floor that he can use it as a practice space or something.


    The real reason that Laraek is here is to learn more about the ¡°smoothskins¡± and how to speak common. Not that I would actually say that Durah¡¯s is all that great, but Laraek is basically impossible to understand barring a few phrases. Something about their throat structure probably makes it hard to make the right noises. When I get a chance to actually show up in person on my off days I¡¯ll likely be spending time trying to teach the two of them while working on my weaving or milking.


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    While I¡¯m not here though, they get two jobs. The first is to go out into the city to find spoiled food and the like so I can feed and breed a bunch of feeder insects like flies and worms. The second, and perhaps more important, is to maintain the temperature in the building. Waterdeep can get cold, so cold most of my insects would probably die if left without a source of heat for too long. We kept the old furnace thing they had down in the basement for melting vats of candle wax, so we can use it to heat the building.


    20 Uktar


    Thankfully I didn¡¯t screw up as badly when giving my gifts this year. I did perhaps raise an eyebrow or two in a way that was quickly defused.


    I decided to give Virla that glass bird I bought two months ago at the glassblowers. It wasn¡¯t exactly a great time of year to show it off, but it reflected sunlight in a lot of pretty colours and would be nice to hang in a window when we could open them again next spring.


    I didn¡¯t say how much it cost, and thankfully nobody asked. I would have lied about it if they did, but I don¡¯t actually think any of them had any idea what something like that would cost anyway.


    In other news, Yeena¡¯s mother went into labour when we went over to visit for dinner. No word back yet on how that¡¯s gone, but while my family was leaving Tulgor rushed off to go find the midwife or healer or someone who I assume was practiced in assisting with childbirth.


    7 Nightal


    I may have underestimated the value of poison in the city. The last few tenday we¡¯ve been doing our best to collect up as many insects as we could before they all died during the winter. This consisted mostly of me and my lizardfolk going around town removing a lot of the pest insects that had been trying to hide in people¡¯s homes for the winter. They helped carry the crates that I would stream the insects into, hopefully fast enough that they didn¡¯t all die in the cold.


    We basically just put them in some sealed barrels afterward at the workshop, and it was a lot of walking back and forth. With the food supply somewhat set up, I had moved on to silk production and venom harvesting, initially focusing more on the former. I only had collected enough for a few vials by today, but we figured it was enough for the lizardfolk to take to an apothecary for bartering. A cover story of their clan harvesting some and figuring it might be worth more gold to simply sell it.


    We made over two hundred dragons today.


    Two hundred!


    I really underestimated how much poison would be worth, but thinking about how difficult it would actually be to do so on scale makes it make some sense. It¡¯s still only really worth gold to us compared to the value of silk woven fabrics for protection, but that¡¯s a lot of money we can be making. Enough to help supply Persvek Casein with proper winter attire, given how they had complained in the past to me of how many issues they had wintering in the area.


    It would also mean that my debts to them would probably be paid off faster than any of us were actually expecting. I figured the poison-milking thing would be a minor side hustle to make use of the larger spiders in the collection that didn¡¯t have great web composition. Now I¡¯m reevaluating what sort of mix between the two we should keep.

 Taylor discovers racism

    11 Nightal


    Something I don''t think I really internalized is how negative the general population of Waterdeep''s opinion was on Lizardfolk. For me, Howldown was a weird mix of people dressing up like it was Halloween, and children running around doing mock quests to be adventurers. It was probably Pelsot''s favourite day of the year.


    For Durah and Laraek, they had to hide in the workshop all day. If they were inclined to do it during the winter I doubt the lizardfolk trading party would have made the journey around now either. It was something I hadn''t really understood, that to most people Lizardfolk were these mysterious murderous creatures that would ambush and murder people trying to travel in swampier areas.


    Meanwhile, I had gone out on a limb reaching out to them, something most would likely consider me crazy for, and it had paid off well both metaphorically and literally. They were willing to work with me as a relative equal to them, perhaps slightly apprehensive of my age but far less than most. That was an advantage to working with them I suppose, that they tended to value things quite literally and frankly.


    The realization was a bit of a downer for me, with as much fun as I had last year. How many other species were painted with so broad a brush when they were hardly monolithic? Something to talk to Orsik about perhaps. A study on the civilizations of those that aren''t of the more typical civilized category.


    Otherwise though, the day was relatively enjoyable. I left Pelsot to take Jespa to go on their various "adventures" around the city, citing sore ankles making walking very far unpleasant. I spent some of the day instead at the workshop, putting effort into the weaving with what spiders I had collected with decent quality silk.


    My power¡­ I''ve started to realize just how the changes have impacted my capabilities. I can''t set the bugs to weaving in the same way I did before, not automatically. I basically have to be there, mentally or physically, concentrating a lot more on the handful I can have working at a time. The pace is slower, and I can''t really do other things while focusing on them.


    23 Nightal


    The days of winter tend to be pretty dull, in all honesty. It''s either spending much of the day in our home with Tulgor watching over us, making the trek across the city to spend time studying with Orsik, or on more pleasant days going out to the park for the scant daylight hours to play in the snowy parks and open areas with the other kids.


    Well, that''s what my family thinks. I''ve actually been spending a lot of time at the workshop with Durah and Laraek. A large portion of that has been spent mostly on being actually productive in the silk weaving and feeding of the various spiders.


    The spare time though where I don''t need to put much focus on my bugs is dedicated to language lessons. Typically lizardfolk speak their own variant of Draconic and don''t really bother with anything else. They tend to be insular within their tribes and don''t interact enough with outsiders for there to be much need for other languages. Persvek Casein is special in that regard, and is part of why they were comfortable settling so near Waterdeep. They had a handful of members who had learned common¡­ somehow. I can''t exactly place the accent so it isn''t Waterdavian, so maybe from a trader from one of the other city-states?


    We''ve been going back and forth on it over the last tendays. I help them work on pronunciation and understanding words they are likely to deal with during bartering, and they''ve been helping me learn a bit about the structure of the Draconic language and some of the words. The language seems to have symbols that generally correspond to similar languages in common, which was interesting to learn.


    I probably won''t be very confident in my ability to speak it well. I never learned a second language back on Bet. The written portion though is likely to be more useful, from what scraps I was able to understand from Orsik. A lot of wizard magic tends to link back to Draconic lettering and symbols. Not universally, but it''s often enough that a lot of wizards put in the work to learn it.


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    14 Hammer


    According to Orsik, my Draconic was "barely better than an orc speaking Elvish". Considering how much orcs tend to abhor anything elvish, that''s quite the judgement. Admittedly, also unsurprising given how I haven''t exactly been learning it for very long and from a group that probably had a strange accent. I have to wonder if it''s the equivalent to speaking in heavy Scottish or something.


    Other than that disappointing revelation, studying has certainly been productive, and enlightening in an even more disappointing way. Orsik was¡­ is very frank on a lot of topics and the pitfalls to watch out for during research, and the entire topic on the more barbaric and monstrous races developing civilizations is full of them.


    Inconsistent date-keeping, obviously biassed scholars certainly muddying the facts, contradictory stories from various groups, and second or even third-hand sources. The list goes on and on. Naturally more "cultured" learned people tend to not want to risk their lives and livelihood on interacting with what would be considered dangerous creatures, and it isn''t helped that oftentimes what does develop tends to not last all that long. You get a good leader or two but when they die it tends to all fall apart.


    They tend to come in two categories. A few individuals bucking the standards and doing their best to revolutionize and beat sense into their fellows, or those who create structured societies that seem closer to a warped mockery of more sane civilizations. The latter, or the structures the former are bucking, tend to be created and reinforced via divine influence.


    Take the Drow, for example, an underground cave-dwelling variant of the Elves. Accepted lore is that they were originally the followers of the once-elven goddess Lolth, who was cast out of the Elven pantheon after a failed rebellion against their progenitor. She built up a civilized empire underground that can generously be described as "Lawful Evil". Ruled over by a noble Matriarchy, where men have basically no rights at all, nor do most of the women barring them having significant personal or political power. The noble houses are constantly backstabbing the others and themselves, full of assassination attempts and power struggles.


    It''s also basically powered via slave labour from what reports come out of it. Being captured and brought into the depths of the earth, forced to work to death under motivation to avoid torture or simple execution. Escape rendered implausible for most due to the significant danger of the denizens of the Underdark beyond the drow parties that would be sent out to hunt them down. Such a scenario is hard to believe that it would actually exist for generations, let alone centuries. Lolth is a controlling goddess, causing strife among her people while guiding them just enough to continue in their twisted ways.


    Generations ago there were other Drow gods and goddesses that lived, but Lolth managed a plot that allowed for the death of the vast majority of them. Where once there were possibilities for rivals and escape from her grasp, she was thorough in her dissuading of such rebellion.


    There are also examples in the opposite direction, of the races that are otherwise under the cruel thumb of whatever gods created and manipulated them that managed to break their chains and build something better. They run into many problems with their population constantly struggling to go back to the old bad habits, the leadership needing a firm hand to maintain a semblance of order and discipline.


    Such fledgling attempts and civilization are also rarely actually supported by their neighbours, whether they are barbaric raiders or long-developed city-states. Few are truly pleased to see powerful rivals attempting to rise in the vicinity.

 Taylor becomes a matchmaker

    452 NR Year of the Tasked Weasel


    14 Alturiak


    Once again it is ¡°not Valentine¡¯s Day¡± The Grand Revel, full of dancing and merriment and at least for me, the time for decidedly avoiding looking into any of the nearby houses. I made that mistake checking on Yeena last year, and now Luint is around. She¡¯s a cute baby I guess, but I¡¯m in the camp that babies generally all look the same. Came out healthy though and Yeena¡¯s mother was back to good health after a few weeks.


    The actual festivities were enjoyable though. Big public dances, good food and dance, and some excellent bardic performances filled the day for me. I never really cared much for music back on Bet, but here it plays a pretty important social function. A lot of stories and news travel with bards and merchants, and bards are the ones to spread it in the taverns.


    It¡¯s an interesting medium for learning things, not as detailed as the actual scholarly texts I tend to read with Orsik, but the delivery ends up a lot less dull. Rather than some notes about a local warlord getting defeated by a band of adventurers it¡¯s a tale talking about all the different important people and some character traits. Certainly exaggerated, and it¡¯s unclear what level of artistic licence is applied to have it rhyme, but I assume that a lot of it is probably true to some level.


    Strange how it seems a lot of the world''s problems get solved by smaller skilled groups rather than larger squads or armies. You get city-states going to war with tribal bands and other armies, but I guess it takes quality to defeat quality at times. Sort of like capes in that sense, in that a random person with a spear isn¡¯t really going to do anything other than get toasted by a dragon flying through the sky.


    One thing to keep an eye out though is one of the older kids named Mary. She¡¯s a Tiefling of some sort. Long tail, with little curly horns sticking out her bangs, and skin a little too orange to be a tan. Orsik talked to me awhile back about how they work, people born with some sort of connection to the ¡°Lower¡± planes and the fiends that live there. She¡¯s a sweet girl though, with a positive attitude even if I see a lot of people being a bit dubious about her for her heritage, kids in our group included sometimes.


    I¡¯m also fairly certain she has some level of crush on my brother. She¡¯s always curling her tail around her left leg when she¡¯s interacting with him, something I noticed she doesn¡¯t do with the others. I think Pelsot is one of the nicer kids to her, whether that¡¯s his natural inclination or because I was spending a bit of time with her after my arrival I can¡¯t say. It¡¯s a crush from a ten-year-old though, so it''s not something I¡¯d take too seriously. Still, better try and make sure Pelsot doesn¡¯t accidentally make an ass of himself.


    19 Alturiak


    Today was my, Tayvra¡¯s, seventh birthday.


    It¡¯s been nearly two years now, huh.


    Anyway, today was nice. I spent a lot of the day at home having good food, some minor presents given. Tulgor gave me a set of wood chisels, I guess to go along with the knife from last year. I have been working on my woodcarving over the winter at home since there isn¡¯t much else to do, and so I am literally whittling away the hours. Pelsot has requested I make him some toy wooden swords to duel with the other kids, which is¡­ It¡¯s nice that he thinks I¡¯m actually good enough to make something decent for him.


    I¡¯m at least able to avoid cutting myself though when doing it, which is probably better than a lot of people. Good eye-hand coordination. Given how the hands of the other kids who clearly tried to carve their own tend to have a lot of bandages and noticeable nicks on their hands sort of makes it obvious why he¡¯s handing the task onto me.


    Not like I have a lot better to be doing though, better than playing the same games with Jespa and Pelsot for hours. Three-player games tend to be a bit more messy than two-person. Only so much housework we can really help with, and a lot of days so far have been in climate this season so it¡¯s hard to trek across the city to the library or justify going out to the workshop.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    I¡¯m almost old enough to apply for tutelage with the Watchful Order of Magisters, as they set the bar for application to their school system as being at least eight years old. Their typical school year for beginners starts in Eleasis, so about a year and a half from now.


    Learning magic would be¡­ It¡¯s something I¡¯ve been interested in for a while. Orsik isn¡¯t really interested in the art of teaching others magic in general, and (probably correctly) doesn¡¯t trust young children with the ability to set things on fire. He has given some amount of positive feedback on the idea of applying to one of the academies in the city to learn though. That actually matters a bit, since having a member vouch for your learning makes your application more likely to be taken more seriously.


    12 Ches


    Winter is hopefully going to be finishing up soon, meaning that I can more properly expand the workshop with a larger variety of arachnids. The winter has meant I wasn¡¯t really able to collect the larger arachnids I would have been interested in, especially with the knowledge of how valuable venom can be to sell.


    Silk weaving is still more important long-term to me and Persvek Casein. Reinforced and insulated clothing is desirable to both parties, even if the monetary value is likely less. It¡¯s something that can¡¯t be easily bought with gold from what research I¡¯ve been able to do.


    The lack of larger spiders and tarantulas sucks though. Raw money is more useful in the short term for buying supplies, and that¡¯s the type that I¡¯m actually lacking in. Not that silk weaving hasn¡¯t begun on some level, but I honestly lack the numbers to really scale up production to be very significant. I¡¯ve managed most of a jacket sized for Chief Balthsvk as a sort of¡­ gift? I¡¯m being paid for it, but honestly, it¡¯s not really worth weaving anything for myself given how I¡¯m likely to grow out of it soon anyway. Not exactly worth spending months on something I¡¯ll outgrow in a similar period of time until I can justify it with surplus available material.


    The venom sales have been fairly good though, if a bit sparse. Part of that is because the lizardfolk aren¡¯t making the journey often through all the snow that¡¯s piled up on the road, and the other is to make it seem more like they are just randomly harvesting it from killing spiders near their clan instead of a farmed source. Plenty of money that gets reinvested in more equipment for the workshop. Really just extra shelves to get filled when the warmer months arrive and I can actually start collecting more to fill them. There are two different sizes now for the drawers, the larger venom milking ones were pretty cramped if they fit at all in the old ones.


    I can¡¯t exactly do a lot for breeding the species that I want. They take too long to mature for reproduction or to large enough sizes for milking significant amounts. Much more practical to just go out and collect them than wait years to build up from the initial population. When it¡¯s actually warm out anyway.


    So far this winter, we¡¯ve done well to keep what I had collected alive and well-fed. Laraek and Durah have been doing their job of keeping the building warm with our fireplace and going out to collect scraps of leftover food or spoilage from food vendors and grocers. Most people are probably assuming they are eating it themselves thanks to an impressively durable digestive system, but the majority is actually brought here and stuffed into a few barrels.


    I basically have colonies of scavengers living out of them, mostly types of flies and worms. It¡¯s pretty easy to bulk out their population and use them as a convenient food source for the spiders. I¡¯m unsure if I¡¯ll be keeping it up into the spring though. I might if only to avoid increasing suspicion on the lack of them in the docks. The lack of fleas was noticed a little while ago, but nobody really had any idea on the cause for it so nothing came from it.


    19 Ches


    I am now even more certain of Mary¡¯s crush after how she acted today. Fey Day has a handful of public performances in the parks and markets, and I noticed how closely she was staying with our family. Not sure what was the deal with her, but she got invited along to go with us. Tulgor had no issue with it anyway, and she wasn¡¯t the only one from our friend group to tag along.


    The way she tagged along with Pelsot though was a bit more noteworthy. She barely left his side today, and seemed a bit sad when it came to a close. Maryl must be head over heels for him, I guess. He¡¯s a nice enough guy, good outlook on life, and confident. It¡¯s weird for me to think about though, given he¡¯s my older brother. Good for him I guess.


    I¡¯ve suggested to him to maybe invite her over for dinner at our place sometime soon, so I guess time will tell how that pans out.

 Taylor turns two

    20 Tarsakh


    Today marks two years since I arrived.


    Two years since getting a new family¡­


    The day was enjoyable though, I took a lot of it to myself. Played a bit outside with the other kids, though it¡¯d been damp and cold much of the last few tenday. Muddy and dreary parks meant that most of us weren¡¯t actually all that invested in being out but it was better than being cooped up for a lot of the others.


    I did some time at the workshop as well. The weather wasn¡¯t really warm enough for the bugs to actually be coming out to be collected, something I¡¯d hopefully be able to do once it was Mirtul, but there were preparations to complete ahead of time. Ordering and installing a dozen new shelving units, getting some extra crates, and finding a new glassblower to supply us with vials to put the poison into.


    Nizzlepittle is just gifted with the ability to piss me off and now I need to stop thinking about that annoying gnome shorter than I am.


    Anyway, I had a nice day of relaxation, even if the weather was chilly. Last year it was warm enough to just sort of meander the streets in the northern half of the city, but there wasn¡¯t much reason to do that when it was hard to stay outside more than maybe half an hour at a time. Instead, I decided to just sort of go shop to shop in the nicer parts of town, mostly window shopping. I did make a few purchases for myself though as a treat. Nicer hiking boots that shouldn¡¯t give me blisters on the hours-long walk to the Rat Hills the next time I go to visit Chief Balthsvk was probably the big one.


    I guess I could also ask the lizardfolk traders to carry me at least part of the way because being a small child sucks and I can¡¯t wait to actually be able to get fit. This world didn¡¯t allow an inactive lifestyle for most residents, barring scholars, wizards, and nobles.


    Beyond the footwear purchase though, there weren''t many items that I felt like buying that wouldn¡¯t also raise suspicions from my family for where I got them. I did spend a few hours watching a play at a place called Lightsinger Theatre, one in a series about some adventuring band up north over near Neverwinter. It was sort of like jumping into a series multiple seasons in, they assumed you knew a lot of the primary cast of protagonists, though honestly, it didn¡¯t take long to get the gist of things. Interesting story though about fighting some feral tribal elves in some forests up there, then a dragon, then some sort of hostile tree spirit druid thing.


    The theatre had a few decent illusionists on hand, so the effects were quite neat. Animated dragons actually ¡°fighting¡± with the heroes on stage, interesting sound effects of the wind picking up and having a bunch of branches rattling against each other, and even some mock starlight for an intimate scene with the cleric praying to Selune. The prevalence of illusions like that though for daily life would probably send my paranoia sky high if not for being able to use my bugs to distinguish them by touch. Orsik has claimed there are ¡°physical¡± illusion spells as well, but they are likely quite rare and only used by masters of the field, which helps somewhat with my state of mind.


    Beyond that though, I made a visit to the Hospice of St. Laupsenn again. Didn¡¯t stay long though, not much to do inside and poor weather made it unpleasant to spend much time outside. A few of the priests there seemed more interested in me than many of the visitors, but that could have just been because I was a small child alone who was hanging about.


    12 Mirtul


    The weather has finally been nice for the last tenday or so, meaning that spring life is finally properly popping out of whatever holes it used to hide from the winter cold. Finally, I could start collecting more species again. Of course, for the moment, those other species tended to not have actually reached maturity, not for a good while yet. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Still, today was the first day I had been able to go collecting in any real amount. The weather had only turned for the better a little before the Plowing and Running got going, and I was busy for most of that watching events and spending time with family. The last few days were spent attending a few lessons and researching with Orsik. What time I had had spare was put towards preparations for today and the upcoming week.


    Things like getting baskets and boxes for temporary storage, ensuring we had the twenty or so new shelves installed with all their various shaped drawers, and ensuring the expansion of places to store the ¡°feed¡± insects that were more practical to grow en masse in house. Pulling from the local area might have been possible, but doing that long term would be likely to raise suspicion of the neighbourhood even more than it had been by the local druids. I¡¯ve seen some seemingly suspiciously behaving animals moving about, whether that¡¯s actually the druids or something else though is an assumption for the moment and one that I¡¯m not in a good position to test the accuracy of. Ideally, they just leave after getting bored finding nothing.


    The shelves should pay for themselves pretty soon though. I¡¯ve been operating with two over the winter being maybe two-thirds filled, and we¡¯ve taken what profits we had from poison sales to just reinvest in the new ones. So still technically barely any profit, but hopefully that early reinvestment will pay off far faster than if we slowly built it up.


    Today was the best day for going out collecting since I had more¡­ lizardpower? available to me. Not that  Durah and Laraek wouldn¡¯t have been helpful on their own, but the lizard trading bands were starting to visit the city again every once in a while. There wasn¡¯t yet much to trade with in this early season so it wasn¡¯t quite regular, but they had spent the winter making various crafts to trade to merchants like sewing needles and flutes made of bone. With the trading band visiting the city for today, I was able to borrow a half dozen of them for the task of just wandering up and down streets carrying baskets to occasionally stream insects into while I stayed a good bit behind them.


    I¡¯m sure to passersby I seemed to be stalking them, but given the general sentiment of suspicion towards the lizardfolks¡¯ activities that actually seemed less suspicious an action for a curious child to take.


    The bounty of today was quite great though, I¡¯ll be spending the next few days getting this batch set up until the next round of trading and I can get them to help with it again. There are a lot of shelves and just two lizardfolk doesn¡¯t allow for a lot to be carried at a time to fill them.


    24 Mirtul


    Apparently one of Pelsot¡¯s friend¡¯s parents knows someone in an adventuring group, which has presented a unique opportunity for our merry group of children. The band had done some work in the city recently, I think fighting the Zhentarim or something similar, resulting in them liberating some sort of dungeon built into the sewer system below a decent-sized house. The city apparently has some plans for dealing with that long term, but for the moment nobody was using it.


    So the adventuring band decided to transform it into some demented mixture of haunted house, escape room, and those themed summer camps for children. The adventuring group (I think called Penelope¡¯s Nose, no idea who picked that one out) was going to run a ¡°mock¡± adventure that kids could sign up for, run by them and a few hired assistants. With Trolltide coming up, the adventure was to defeat some Trolls that had somehow set up in the city.


    As explained to me, it would start with some sort of scavenger hunt in the neighbourhood to find designated stations to pick up ¡°Anti-Troll tools¡±, followed by actually exploring the dungeon and fighting against the ¡°trolls¡±. Groups would comprise six kids, paced so you could have two groups at a time performing in it, one in each phase.


    Pelsot¡¯s friend, Jesler, had been asked to invite some of his friends to help test the program a few days in advance. Were the riddles too hard, the puzzles too complex, or the trolls too scary? It would also help the staff get some proper first-hand practice in dealing with actual kids involved in things rather than mock runs of the stuff. Jesler is basically best friends with Pelsot, meaning that he was a quick invite. My name came up as a suggestion from Pelsot despite my age being basically at the minimum age that was set for the program. The justification being, and I quote, ¡°Tayvra¡¯s probably the smartest of us with all the books she reads all the time. She probably knows more books than people.¡± I am thoroughly tempted to put some bugs in his bed while he sleeps, but I doubt I actually would go through with it.


    So on the 28th, there will be six of us in a group, and a different group as well, running through the program. I know Mary also expressed interest in joining up with us, so that¡¯s four already. The last two I¡¯ve yet to be told who they¡¯d be.

 Interlude 1 Yeena/Pelsot

    Yeena


    ¡°...and that¡¯s it for the safety brief.¡± The colourful little wizard had finally finished his long diatribe, ¡°If anyone has any follow-up questions feel free to ask,¡± blissfully, none of the others made the mistake of giving him an excuse to continue, ¡°in that case, your jobs can begin. Congratulations on becoming adventurers, we¡¯ll need your help with defeating the upcoming troll invasion. Here are a few hints for where you need to go next.¡±


    He handed out two sheets of paper, one to Pelsot and one to Jesler. ¡°How you want to approach this is up to your group to decide. Splitting up to cover more distance and solve more riddles, sticking together to have a better chance at solving them without getting stuck, or a more complex system of meeting up and splitting up. That¡¯s just one of the sorts of conundrums adventurers often face, splitting up for gains or sticking together for protection. You have until the second bell from now, to meet back up at the troll¡¯s lair, assuming you can find the location of it.¡±


    The wizard took a few paces back, intent on watching how we handled this early question of how to proceed. After a few seconds, the others got the hint and huddled together to try and figure it out, with Jesler speaking up first.


    He was the tallest of the group, with messy sand-coloured hair, ¡°There¡¯s no way we split up the party right? That¡¯s what happens in all the tales where they end up getting defeated.¡±


    Pelsot was the first to speak up against his worry, ¡°Yeah sure, but that¡¯s not really accurate to the scenario for the moment. We¡¯re solving riddles, not rushing into battle. Better to split up and solve what we can and cover more ground.¡±


    Mary, the older tiefling girl who was pretty obviously smitten with Pelsot, just nodded along. Did they really not see the issue with splitting up for riddles? I decided to speak up even if I was the second youngest one here, ¡°Sure we cover more ground, but what happens when one group gets stuck with a riddle they can¡¯t solve? They just sit around twiddling their thumbs until time runs out? If we want to split up we have to figure out how to deal with that sort of thing, and how we¡¯d split the groups up too I guess.¡±


    I could see the cogs turning in the heads of the three boys. Tayvra was just sort of staring at me. Was she surprised I was the one to speak up? Had she noticed the same issues I had but was too shy to speak up? I knew that she wasn¡¯t very talkative with most of the others.  It made sense, I guess, that she might have trouble speaking her mind. She tended to be more interested in burying her nose in her books than playing with a lot of our group, after all.


    It was maybe half a minute before Felpirn, the oldest of the three boys, raised his hand like he was in class asking a question, ¡°What if we set a meeting point then to meet up maybe twice during our time limit? That way you balance the time it takes for a team to be productive to backtrack to the meeting place with the risk of losing time getting stuck. We can¡¯t really afford to spend that much time going back and forth if we want to get as much as we can. We can break up into two groups to start, one for each of the starting riddles, three to each?¡±


    Pelsot spoke up then, ¡°How do we pick teams, captains?¡± A general agreement was shared between everyone, it was how we¡¯d often break up for whatever team games we played, so it was familiar to the group, ¡°I¡¯ll take one, Jesler the other. First pick is Felpirn!¡±


    Jesler wiped his face in annoyance, it¡¯s pretty clear both would have had Felpirn for their first pick. He turned his head to us three girls, sizing us up to figure out his pick. ¡°Tayvra, you¡¯re good at books and riddles and stuff, you¡¯ll be able to solve the riddles pretty good right?¡±


    The way she met his gaze was a bit unsettling, a little too smooth? I guess she just sort of assumed she was the second pick, ¡°That was along the justification of Pelsot inviting me, yes.¡±


    I don¡¯t think that was quite the answer Jesler was looking for, but he nodded after a pause. He gestured back to Pelsot, just one pick to go, and from the looks of it, I¡¯d be last pick.


    ¡°I guess¡­ Mary? I know her a lot better than Yeena, she¡¯s more Tayvra¡¯s friend than mine.¡± That stung a little somehow, that I was just the hanger-on, but I schooled my features and just walked over. Pelsot and Jesler had their teams, and their riddles, so we broke off into our own little huddles to read the one we had claimed.


    Jesler shook the paper a few times, flattening it out before finally reading the contents aloud, ¡°The sleepy gate that invites the hopeful and the hopeless, for a hole that leads deep inside of dreams and the dark, many have failed and tried for riches within bright and stark.¡± That was¡­ not a very obvious riddle.


    The three of us adopted what were likely quite entertaining pondering poses to onlookers. Tayvra was playing with her fingers and staring down at the cobbled street we were on, but she was the first to speak up on it, ¡°So it¡¯s obviously a place, but not one of the city gates. It mentions a hole that goes down somewhere dark and probably dangerous.¡±


    Jesler nodded but still looked to be thinking quite hard, ¡°That¡¯s basically where I was on it, but it can¡¯t be actually that dangerous for us to go to or they wouldn¡¯t send us there. It¡¯s also probably within a reasonable walking distance since I doubt they want to babysit people going across the city.¡± Those were¡­ good points, shame I really had nothing to bring to the table on that, it didn¡¯t ring any bells in my head for a location that fit those descriptors.


    Thank the gods Tayvra spoke up because I¡¯m pretty sure me and Jesler were stumped, ¡°What about the Yawning Portal? It¡¯s a ¡®sleepy gate¡¯ in the name, and it has one of the major public entrances to the Undermountain. It fits, doesn''t it?¡±


    Jesler and I just nodded. Tayvra¡¯s random knowledge was the reason she got invited, after all, I was just the tag along.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go there, then,¡± Jesler announced, getting Pelsot¡¯s attention with a wave, and signaling him that we had a lead on where to go. ¡°Do we know where that is?¡±


    ¡°I do,¡± Tayvra replied, leading us northward. I couldn¡¯t help but wonder why Tayvra knew the address to a tavern and dungeon entrance, but we fell into line behind her.


    <hr>


    As it turned out, finding the Yawning Portal was only a little difficult, Tayvra had to ask for directions once when we were pretty close to where it was. Apparently, it was actually something of a famous landmark, an entrance to a dangerous but lucrative dungeon right in the middle of the city.


    Entering the building itself, it also seemed quite the fine establishment, if catering more to the dangerous and middle class rather than being some sort of noble establishment. There was a massive hole dominating the first floor, a bit more than 10 meters eyeballing it, but the railing was nearly eye height for me, so the angle made it hard to accurately guess. There was a pretty varied amount of patrons even in the early afternoon, both in profession and race. Half-orcs, dragonborn, halflings, even some tiefling lounging about. Were all the mixed groups adventurers?


    Regardless, there wasn¡¯t anyone there clearly marked as part of their quest. The safety brief that she struggled to pay attention to had mentioned something about the people stationed wearing some sort of green-coloured bands or clothes. Unfortunately, at least the ground floor had a number of people wearing green but were also in groups that weren¡¯t.


    So Jesler did the sane thing and walked towards the person most likely to actually be able to help direct them, the barkeep. Tayvra was distracted staring towards the hole, a bit out of character given she typically had her head on a swivel in crowds, but the yawning hole deep into the earth was certainly a unique distraction. I ended up having to lead her along by the hand so our group didn¡¯t get separated.


    Jesler barely peaked over the bar, which was better than I or Tayvra could easily pull off, ¡°Excuse me, we¡¯re supposed to be on a troll hunting quest and we''re looking for the next step? We think we solved our first riddle coming here.¡±


    The tall man leaned over to look down at him, gesturing for Jesler to hand him over the riddle. He read it over and grumbled something that I probably shouldn¡¯t repeat in front of my parents before giving a proper answer, ¡°Ay, that¡¯d be this place. Sleepy gate kind of gives it away if you know the name. Guess I better live up to my side of things and help you out.¡±


    Jesler seemed confused by the answer, and Tayvra had finally looked away from the giant death hole. I was getting a little worried she was going to try going down there, so I decided to be the one to try and figure out more about what was happening. ¡°Are you supposed to be the person to give us the next clue, or loot?¡±


    The tall man gave a deep laugh for a few seconds at the question, I was worried I was mistaken or offended until he answered, ¡°Ha, you sound like needy adventurers already. Straight to the point, I¡¯m to grant you three things for finding the place. Your next riddle, a tool for fighting trolls, and the greatest gift of all, actual first hand advice for dealing with ¡®em.¡±


    It was at that moment that Jesler seemed a bit star struck. I don¡¯t think any of us had really expected a random barkeep to be a retired adventurer, but it made some sense given the danger of an open hole to the undermountain and dealing with all the adventurers coming and going. ¡°You fought trolls, sir? Then what are you doing working the bar instead of living it up?¡±


    The man furrowed his eyebrows, taking a moment to look over all three of us, ¡°Who¡¯s to say what I¡¯m doing isn¡¯t what I want to do with my retirement kid? Going from an active life of adventure to being some lazy noble isn¡¯t something a lot of them actually succeed at even if they try it. Ol¡¯ Durnan is plenty satisfied running his own bar how I like it, and someone has to manage all the adventurers still trying to make their fortune.¡±


    Tayvra spoke up for the first time since we arrived, with a seeming epiphany, ¡°Durnan? You¡¯re one of the adventurers who went the deepest into the Undermountain aren¡¯t you? Went down and came out rich, only to go back down and disappear for nearly a century?¡± A century? How did that work, he looked like a pure human to me, no pointy ears hidden beneath his scraggly hair to signify elven blood, and he didn¡¯t look more than maybe fifty.


    If this went on though, we¡¯d end up wasting all our time, and it wasn¡¯t a quick walk getting here, ¡°Interesting as his life story is, I¡¯m a bit more concerned about the quest we¡¯re on. We have a timetable after all.¡± Tayvra just gave me a bit of a look at my interjection. I know how much you love history but it¡¯s not really the time to interview a living legend.


    ¡°The girl¡¯s right, I¡¯d best pass these along,¡± Durnam reached below the counter to pass along what seemed to be two waterskins and a folded piece of paper, ¡°The key to dealing with most trolls is to neutralize their regeneration. You can beat them all you like but among most things, you can find they are especially good at getting back up. Best way to deal with that most of the time is fire or acid, though there are exceptions. I¡¯ve once fought a troll that was vulnerable to the cold rather than fire for example, but the majority of cases that rule holds true. This here is ¡®acid¡¯.¡± I could almost hear the quotation marks as he said it, no way they¡¯d actually hand a bunch of kids that much of something dangerous, ¡°Sprinkle enough on the trolls and they won¡¯t be able to get back up.¡±


    Jesler reached up to pick up the waterskins and the new riddle, he looked ready to leave without actually saying goodbye, so naturally I had to step in, ¡°Thanks Durnan, for the advice and the gear. I hope you don¡¯t have to deal with any more trouble today!¡± With that, our merry trio left the Yawning Portal, Tayvra still distracted by the hole and Jesler nearly skipping with how merry he was at our progress. Turns out Tayvra was a good pick for a team member.


    Of course, Jesler decided to uncork one of the waterskins after we got out onto the street out of curiosity, nearly spilling it all over himself as he retched from the foul smell. Not acid, but they certainly found something foul to give us as a substitute.


    <hr>


    Pelsot


    Somehow, even after rushing to the dungeon when the second afternoon bell rang, Jesler beat them to it. Did they head back early or were they just lucky to be closer when time was up? No way he actually just outpaced them with Tayvra and Yeena, their legs were too small to actually beat his group in a race.


    Getting closer, it wasn¡¯t just that they were there first, probably. Jesler and Yeena both had sacks that looked full of things they likely found during the riddle hunt. Felpirn and Mary were hardly bad at them, but maybe I should have actually picked Tayvra? It would have been an opportunity to spend more time with her, an increasingly uncommon occurrence as of late. Had I somehow insulted or hurt her and just didn¡¯t know?


    Thoughts for later, game time now.


    I led Felprin and Mary over to the ¡°dungeon¡± where the other three were waiting. We might not have collected quite as much as they had, but it wasn¡¯t as if we hadn¡¯t also succeeded at finding tools. ¡°Damn, looks like you beat us, if your bags actually have much in them.¡±


    Jesler just chuckled at the challenge, it seems I was right in the assumption, ¡°Of course, I don¡¯t actually think they expected us to solve as many riddles as we did. We actually got a few riddles leading to places you already cleared. Want to go over what we actually found and divvy it up before heading in?¡±


    Felpirn was the designated pack mule for our group heading back, so he was the one to open our sack for the others to peer into, ¡°I guess we¡¯ll go first, we got some clay flasks of ¡®acid¡¯, a sword that can be set on fire,¡± He pulled out a wooden sword that had the blade painted orange, ¡°there¡¯s an acid mace too for a weapon,¡± this time, basically just a thick stick with the end painted green, ¡°a few normal weapons, and a rough map of the dungeon.¡± It was the last one I figured would be the most useful for us. Plenty of stories told about how important it was to know what you were going into. It¡¯s why wizards who could use their magic to scout ahead were considered invaluable.


    Confidence, I¡¯m supposed to represent my team after all even with a clear loss, ¡°Plenty of tools to try and fight off the trolls and whatever else is in there. Even if fire and acid are needed to actually put them down, it still takes some hits to get them there. Did you guys get much for that?¡±


    Naturally, some of that confidence was immediately chipped away when Yeena couldn¡¯t help but giggle, along with Tayvra and Jesler clearly trying to school their faces. Yeena was the first to open her bag, with Tayvra taking the lead on explaining their loot pulling out two pretty large shields, ¡°We got two shields, good defense is important to avoid being bashed before you can hit them. We should probably designate some of us to try and handle the frontline and hold them back using these.¡±


    Felpirn was the first to raise his hand in response, ¡°I should probably take one of them since I¡¯m the biggest.¡±


    The second was a bit of a surprise when Mary stepped forward, ¡°I¡¯ll take the other, I¡¯m not exactly confident about swinging a weapon or not accidentally splashing one of us using the acid.¡± It was¡­ sound logic I suppose, though being willing to volunteer to be attacked wasn¡¯t something I¡¯d have expected out of Mary. Normally she was happy hanging in the back.


    Tayvra nodded and handed them over before continuing, ¡°There¡¯s also two waterskins of acid, they¡¯ll be harder to use than your flasks but they also just have a greater capacity. We also got a few flasks though. Interestingly we only found one ¡®magic¡¯ weapon, Jesler?¡±


    That was his cue to reveal their best find as he reached into the bag to pull out a¡­ pickaxe? I wasn¡¯t the only one confused by the reveal. Thankfully Jesler explained, ¡°According to the one who gave it to us, it¡¯s supposed to be a weapon of Giant¡¯s Bane. Especially effective on all sorts of giants, which happens to include trolls.¡±


    Tayvra cleared her throat, ¡°In case that isn¡¯t clear, weapons of bane are especially effective on whatever they are specialized against, and can range quite a bit on how specific or generic they might be. In this case, while it might not be the finishing blow, it should be more effective towards bringing them to the tipping point than anything else we have available.¡±


    Of course they got such a find, Tayvra had always seemed to always have good luck when it came to finding things. I could tell they weren¡¯t done though with how Jesler¡¯s bag sagged still, ¡°Any other interesting trinkets to share?¡±


    Jesler puffed up his chest a little at the question, he¡¯d be insufferable after this was done I bet. ¡°After that, it might not seem quite as fancy. We got some ¡®potions of healing¡¯ for if we get hit. They did say during the setup that if we got hit three times we¡¯d have to back out like we were injured or killed by the trolls. These are our ways of avoiding that. Full reset. Especially important when they said they¡¯d be keeping track while we¡¯re down there.¡±


    Well, while he was right about that not quite being as good as the pick it was certainly important. Plenty of unfortunate tales of warning talked about how adventurers might have come back with the rest of the party if only they were better prepared. Not every group could have a healer in it, so potions would be the next best thing.


    With the loot described, we ended up assigning gear to everyone. I claimed the fire sword and a potion. Jesler claimed the acid mace along with two of the potions. Mary and Felpirn both ended up with the shields they volunteered for earlier, along with some wooden swords and some flasks of acid.


    Tayvra surprised me when she took the pickaxe and one of the waterskins full of acid. I imagine she probably talked with Jesler earlier about it before we met up. He¡¯d normally be the type to claim the lead, but maybe it was just because he wanted to finish the trolls off with the mace.


    Yeena ended up with her own wooden sword, and basically all the spare potions and containers of acid. Taking the spares was an interesting choice, but she did have some of the best aim in the group whenever we challenged ourselves to games of throwing.


    Preparations made, I took the lead in opening the door to the building. The room was a mess, with overturned tables, broken crates, and what was certainly the biggest surprise so far. There was a weasel laying in the middle of the room, covered in blood and pooled around it. I was somewhat stunned walking in and seeing it, we all were. Felpirn was the first to shake off the surprise the rest of us were in as he approached and picked it up off the ground.


    Then the new biggest surprise hit when the weasel started talking in a gruff voice and a foreign accent, ¡°Ah good, another group of heroes. We were sent ahead to scout, walked into a bloodbath when they sprung their ambush on us down there. I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯m the only survivor, some quick thinking and quick magic let me change into this to get away, though not unharmed. I fear switching back will do more harm than good, so forgive me for remaining in this shape.¡±Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    Felpirn held it gently, trying to slip it into his shirt¡¯s breast pocket, ¡°If you¡¯ve been down there, can you at least give us some advice on what to expect?¡±


    Felpirn had turned towards us so we could all see the weasel and listen to its explanation, ¡°Naturally, it¡¯s the least I can do. Hopefully, my compatriots were taken alive, I¡¯m sorry to admit my cowardice in not confirming before my escape. As far as what to expect¡­. When we were ambushed, there were three of the beasts waiting off to the side in a corner we couldn¡¯t see from the door. Whether or not they attempt the same tactic I can¡¯t be sure, but trolls are hardly famed for their intelligence or being clever.¡±


    Well, that was¡­ perhaps at least somewhat helpful. A chance to turn the ambush on the ambushers, and a chance to get a taste of what our group can do. I was reasonably confident in myself, Felpirn, and Jesler. We had all tried out at the various martial tourneys, even if it was to mixed results. Mary, Tayvra, and Yeena though, were mysteries.


    Mary wasn¡¯t exactly helpless, as she¡¯d shown on occasion when they played games that involved physical contact, but she had also been the first to volunteer for a defensive position. Perhaps not quite cowardice, but an inclination towards less aggressive tactics. The off-defender most likely.


    Tayvra and Yeena were basically mysteries though. Tayvra didn¡¯t really play all that much, a good throw for her size, but she probably spent more time reading books than playing with their friend group at this point. Clearly helpful on the riddle part, but likely not as useful in an actual fight, especially being a few years younger than the rest of them and her size showing that.


    Yeena was also sort of in a similar camp to Tayvra for what he knew. She tended to play more with the kids a bit younger than he interacted with, people in Tayvra¡¯s age group, so beyond knowing about her skill at throwing things he really didn¡¯t know what to expect. Perhaps it was better that she had taken the acid to throw and splash on the trolls, than something more active.


    I stared down at our way forward, an open trapdoor revealing a stairway that pretty clearly led to some part of the sewer system based on the smell. The path was dark, but there was thankfully a nearby lantern easily lit. I went to grab for it before the others, checking to see if it actually had oil to be lit. With that confirmed, I opened it and held it back towards the group, ¡°Hey Mary, mind lighting it? I¡¯ll take the third position to be safe with it.¡± There was little disagreement from the rest of the group, and Mary did her weird tiefling magic thing to light one of her fingers like a candle to ignite the lamp.


    And so we began what was honestly not that long of a descent into the dark. Jesler taking the lead with Felpirn just to his side, me a few steps back doing my best to illuminate the path for everyone, Mary nervously marching right behind me, occasionally grasping at the hem of my shirt to steady herself with the large shield, and Yeena and Tayvra hanging at the back doing gods know what.


    The actual sewer area wasn¡¯t all that bad, the air might have been stale, but there was only an empty channel in the middle of the hallway. Someone at some point probably blocked it off, likely around the time people started building secret areas down here to help deal with the smell. The docks smelt bad enough a lot of the time, the idea of being stuck down here with the channel flowing in the warmer months seemed like a nightmare.


    It wasn¡¯t long for us to reach what seemed a pretty average wooden door just sort of stuck into the wall. Jesler tried for some fancy hand signal to get us all to slow on our approach. The thought was cool, but we could all see the door and none of us were exactly hyperactive about going over to it. He spoke in a hushed whisper when the group got a few feet away from it, ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll open the door, Felpirn takes point with his shield just in case. Pelsot, you and I will be right behind him to strike out at whatever trolls are in there. Mary, Tayvra, Yeena, you three hang back a bit and watch for openings or cover any we have ok?¡±


    We all nodded, trying not to make too much noise out here even if opening the door was likely to reveal us.


    And like a divination, Jesler opening the door did quite a bit to reveal our location. The hinges creaking louder than any other door I think I¡¯d had the displeasure to hear, echoing down the hallways and likely quite clearly within the room as well. I think we all sucked in a breath as he paused from the blunder, before deciding to just shove the door open with all his might. Felpirn charging in with me not far behind.


    I gently placed down the lantern to the side of the door as we entered, it wouldn¡¯t do to risk accidentally breaking it in all the confusion, as we all started scanning the room. Full of old crates, shelves, and cabinets, I could see what was meant about trolls hiding out of sight from the door.


    We all shuffled in, caution raised as we made our rough formation. Certainly unpracticed, but the core of it was sound at least. Tayvra was the one to actually call out first to the group, pointing off to our right side, ¡°Over there, pretty sure I just saw something green moving.¡± It was perhaps taken as a signal that their cover was blown as all of us turned to stare in that direction, with the three ¡°Trolls¡± decided to make their appearance.


    They at least put some effort into their costumes, their skin and hair painted in an ugly yellowish-green colour, rough torn-up clothes, and what seemed to be fake long clawed hands. The three all stood at least six feet tall, dwarfing us likely to a similar extent that a real troll would tower over adult human adventurers.


    Felpirn was the first to react, I think to the surprise of the three trolls, rushing forward to shove one tumbling back over the crate it was crawling over with a shield charge. The other two, having decided to walk around some cabinets they had been hiding behind rather than taking unstable footing, approached us.


    Jesler and I moved into action at that time, covering Felpirn who himself had ended up partially tangled on the crate the troll had knocked over in the chaotic fall. Two trolls, two of us. I lunged with the sword, the troll I had chosen as my target feigning some level of panic as he batted it away with those claws of his. I pulled back, analyzing things. He likely had a bit more reach than me, even with my weapon, but he was acting cautiously and not advancing quickly. Emulating how real trolls feared fire most likely.


    Jesler hadn¡¯t faired any better with his exchange, practically flailing his mace around to little avail with his opponent. It was at that moment I heard a feminine yell from behind me, Mary charging like a little creature from hell with her shield raised. Trying to emulate Felpirn most likely as she tried to slam against the troll I had failed to land a hit on.


    Her attempted charge didn¡¯t have nearly the same effect though. The lack of surprise, weight, and not catching the troll flat-footed meant that he was able to grasp the shield mid-charge to cancel her momentum. A moment of surprise was all that was afforded to her as the troll used his grip on the shield to spin and toss her bodily across the room. It was an opening though, one that I took advantage of by running up and slashing across his back. He bellowed out as he spun around, swiping his claws just above my head as I ducked. That was at least a few hits, I wasn¡¯t sure how many they were supposed to take before they ¡®died¡¯ but it was the first progress we had really made so far.


    At that moment though, while the troll was engaging me, I saw a black blur zipping down to my left. Tayvra rushing in with her pick held in her two small hands surprising both me and the troll. The troll likely moreso as he whiffed a swipe towards her and she managed to hook the pick around his ankle. I stood there somewhat agape as she then basically stomped sideways into the back of his knee, causing him to topple when she yanked his ankle out from under him. When in the hells did she learn to do that?


    Still, I wasn¡¯t one to let such a chance go past me so I decided to join in and slash a few times at him. After a few moments with me and my sister just whacking him, he laid with his face to the floor and just raised both of his hands in surrender. Good, now for the others, which weren¡¯t going quite as well. Jesler was still struggling with his troll, seemingly disarmed at some point and just struggling with one of the basic training weapons.


    The troll did clearly have some of the acid dripping off of him though, likely courtesy of Yeena still standing near the door. Mary had started to pick herself up off the floor by now, stumbling a bit from the fall, seemingly getting ready to shield charge again at the back this time. Tayvra decided to flank that one as well, either just by her instincts or having grasped that situation faster than I had.


    That just left the one that Felpirn had toppled earlier. It had shifted a bit into a stalemate at this point, with the troll trying to climb over the small wall of boxes while Felpirn did his best to either bat at him with the shield or his padded club. I thought about leaping into action but decided to follow Tayvra¡¯s example instead. Flanking around the boxes and cabinets took me only slightly longer, but the yelp of surprise as I thwacked Felpirn¡¯s troll in the side was plenty of reward for me. The follow-ups were nearly as good as well until he just shoved the crate at Felpirn and turned to face me properly.


    It was at that moment that I sort of realized what it meant to have a lot less reach when he simply caught my swing in hand. It took a half second longer to realize that I had really focused too much on those claws when I went airborne momentarily as I was kicked in the stomach. The air was knocked out of me, I just sort of laid on the ground wheezing and trying to remember what it was like to be alive again.


    It was during that time that I saw Tayvra leaping over me, and at a glance saw the others all ganging up on Felpirn¡¯s troll. They must have dispatched Jesler¡¯s while I was learning how gravity worked. By the time I had managed to roll onto my hands and knees trying to get up, the noise had mostly stopped. I looked up to see Jesler offering me a hand up, ¡°Ah man I think that¡¯s going to bruise.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s likely to do more than that dude, I saw you go flying from one side of a cabinet to the other. You doing ok?¡± I was still wheezing as I got picked up and looked around. Seems the other two trolls were ¡®dead¡¯ with how they were laying on the ground, and I had managed to miss both of them.


    Tayvra just walked over to hand me a ¡®healing potion¡¯, which was some sort of fruity-tasting juice as I chugged it down. She had turned to Felpirn, though moreso to his Weasel, ¡°So then, you said your group got wiped out in this room right? Do you know about any of the others, or how many trolls there are?¡±


    The weasel poked his head out of Felpirn¡¯s pocket to respond, ¡°That¡¯s correct. Trolls tend to not actually accumulate in large groups in normal circumstances. More like wandering family units anywhere from three to a dozen. You probably took out close to half though, from what our investigation found. Not the boss though, she¡¯s likely still prowling about.¡±


    Mary was the one to ask the question on a lot of our minds with that explanation, ¡°Wait a second, she? Why do you think the leader is a woman?¡±


    ¡°Trolls tend to actually follow around a matriarch socially. It¡¯s not exactly universal and there are situations where it is simply the strongest and meanest of them, but on average it¡¯s a good bet.¡±


    ¡°Well that¡¯s a fun fact I suppose,¡± Tayvra said as she clasped her hands for attention, ¡°But we should probably discuss a plan for how we want to approach the rest of whatever is down here. This encounter was pretty messy,¡± of course at that moment she was looking at me. I¡¯d be a bit more ashamed if my diaphragm wasn¡¯t pondering what dark god to worship to alleviate the pain, ¡°So maybe rather than rushing in like that again and splitting the formation, we could draw them to us.¡±


    Jesler just raised his hand as he sat on one of the crates, ¡°That sounds like a great idea and all, but I have no idea how you would actually pull that off or how we really set things up in our favour.¡±


    It was then that Tayvra made an expression I don¡¯t think I¡¯d ever seen on her face before, an almost vicious grin across her face as though she had some evil plots to get back at all who wronged her, ¡°I¡¯ve gotten a few ideas looking around the room, let¡¯s figure out a plan¡­¡±


    <hr>


    I decided I *really* hated this plan as I could hear a half dozen trolls trailing behind me as I ran down the corridor. Jesler and Felpirn right beside me were running out of breath. I probably had it the worst since I had to make sure the lantern wasn¡¯t flying everywhere as we ran.


    Still, the sounds of war cries from the trolls echoed behind and around me, along with muted conversation as they tried to figure out what we were doing. Tayvra had instructed the three of us to run along and start opening as many doors as we could along the way to draw the trolls back to that first room.


    Well, mission accomplished. We hadn¡¯t even taken much time with the three rooms we had opened, shoving open the doors and yelling an insult or two before taking off. Being the lantern bearer, I wasn¡¯t actually the one going into the rooms, I¡¯d just sort of waited out in the corridor ready to run as soon as the others started bolting, so I was pretty ignorant about what was following us.


    Still, all our job was at this point was ¡®run back¡¯, and so that¡¯s what we did. Felpirn slammed into the door rather than actually slowing down before flinging it open towards us so we could carefully get inside. The three girls had been busy while we were gone, only some of the preparations had actually been done when we had left


    Felpirn was the last one at the door, and the sounds of trolls approaching was audible to all of us at this point. He slammed the door shut behind him as we all took the positions Tayvra had come up with.


    I have to say, the initial payoff was pretty glorious. The sound of the trolls struggling with the door handle with their unwieldy claws, only to rush in as a mob through the door. Their initial charge was thwarted as the first two were tripped by a taut rope pulled across at ankle length by Felpirn and Jesler. Then the next two ended up tripping over the first two, ending up in one giant jumbled mess on the ground.


    They all failed to get up as they scrambled against each other, almost like a bucket of crabs. Their attempts were made even more futile by the puddle strategically placed roughly where we had expected them to fall. Then came the real kicker for Tayvra¡¯s plan, Yeena pulled on a rope to squeeze a suspended waterskin hanging above the chaotic pile to dump all of its contents.


    Suffice to say, I actually kind of pitied the four on the ground even as I walked up to whack them for it to ¡®count¡¯. I wasn¡¯t the only one of course, we were still in a bit of a hurry, so I was being assisted by Tayvra, Jesler, and even Felpirn once we had confirmed that the plan worked.


    It was a good thing too, because it didn¡¯t take long for the actual troll to walk in. Where in the hells had they gotten an actual troll for this whole thing? The first sign of its arrival was it actually yanking the door off its hinges to casually toss it back out into the corridor, only to peer around the doorframe into the room, at the pile just in front of the door, then each of us in turn.


    We were stunned by it, female as the weasel had predicted, covered in a patchwork armour of different hides and furred pelts. It dragged behind it a shiny black axe made of a material I¡¯d never really seen before but reflected the lights of the room as it dragged along the floor before getting raised up into a two-handed grip. The troll was hunched over, but still easily stood eight or nine feet tall, enough that it ended up headbutting its way through the top of the doorframe to enter.


    None of us were expecting something like it, a silence falling over the room if you ignored the moaning pile. The troll chief exhaled from its nose, steam somehow visible, ¡°So you¡¯re the miserable brats making a mess out of things, and here I thought capturing those adventurers would have kept our presence secret. It should be fine though, we just have to eat you too and then nobody will be around to tell of us until we¡¯ve had our fill.¡± The chieftain took a heavy step forward, I swear I could feel the impact through the floor. Then it took a single step going completely over the pile we were so proud of defeating, and a third had it already in the middle of our group.


    Our bewilderment was broken when Tayvra nailed it right in the head with one of the clay containers of acid. It seemed somewhat surprised by the action alone, expecting intimidation to keep us frozen in place. The rest of us exploded into action at that moment, Mary and Felpirn attempting to position themselves to catch a strike from it. Felpirn standing before the obvious target Tayvra just made herself into, with Mary more to the side with me and Jesler near the center of the room. Yeena was hanging back, a glance showing she had fallen to her knees at some point, hopefully, she¡¯d get it together before it was too late.


    Their formation was short-lived when Felpirn managed to take a full-force swing from the axe likely meant for Tayvra. His shield shattered and he was sent spinning off to land roughly a ways away. What the hell happened to this being a practice scenario?!


    Still, Jesler and I exploded into motion the moment the axe wasn¡¯t in the way, silently agreeing to both go for the ankles to try and knock it over as best we could. Swinging nearly at the same time, it felt like hitting a thick tree trunk. The troll just turned around and looked down at us, smiling. I ended up lunging between her legs to get away, spinning around to swipe at the back of her knee to little effect. This wasn¡¯t working, these toy weapons were hardly going to actually hurt a real troll, even actual weapons struggled to do much to them!


    So I backed away, trying to evaluate the situation. Yeena still seemed to be panicked, but Tayvra had run over to have some sort of conversation with her. Hopefully, she had another crazy plan up her sleeve because at this point everything was falling apart. Mary had ran over to where Felpirn had fallen, doing her best to help him up. I imagine he felt how I did after being kicked, probably not a lot to expect from him for at least a little while.


    That only left me and Jesler at that point, which was a far more dire situation. The chieftain seemed to have barely noticed me and was approaching Jesler taking wide axe swings that he was lucky to be narrowly avoiding. It was pushing him back rapidly though, and the mess of containers in the room meant he was about to be stuck in a corner with nowhere to go.


    So I did what was likely a somewhat stupid and reckless thing to do, taking a running leap onto the troll¡¯s back. I didn¡¯t actually get that high up onto it, but thankfully there were enough  handholds in the armour to yank myself blindly further and further until I reached the collar.


    It was at that point that the flaws of my plan were made apparent as she tried to buck me off, turning the event into a rodeo. Me, hanging on for dear life, and her spinning around wildling and struggling to reach back to get a good grip to throw me off.


    It did its job though. Jesler was able to aim a decently high swing to catch it across the face as he ran past it, narrowly avoiding being hit by the flailing axe. I decided to follow his lead, waiting for when she spun in the right direction to let go and land in a somewhat controlled manner a ways away from the momentum.


    I took advantage of the brief moment of confusion from the troll to look around the room again. Jesler was by my side, helping me get upright. Felpirn and Mary had disappeared off somewhere, gods know where when the troll was right in front of us. I wouldn¡¯t expect either of them to just bolt like that. Yeena seemed to have recovered but was just sort of waiting off to the side unsure of what to do. When I locked eyes with Tayvra though, it was as she was mid-throw, nailing the troll once more with that stinking acid.


    I hoped she had some kind of plan for the next five seconds because that was probably all she was about to have. The chieftain paused to wipe her face off, then roared out in challenge at my little sister. Worse, she was also behind me, meaning I was in the path when the troll barreled straight at her, simply shoving me and Jesler aside instead of using its weapon with how little it paid us attention.


    I had a great view as I was picking myself up off the troll winding up a giant overhead swing straight down on Tayvra. If I flinched away at that moment I probably wouldn¡¯t have gotten to see as she somehow deftly sidestepped past the swing, into the troll¡¯s guard only to give as big of an upward swing as her body could manage with the pick straight into the giant¡¯s chin.


    Where in the hells had she learned to do something like that?


    It only got more impressive as she took advantage of how the troll was stunned by half spinning off to the side and landing two more decent hits to the troll¡¯s side, just under the ribcage. It was almost like she was kiting a bull around, dancing side to side as the troll flailed around trying to get to her. A combination of being disoriented from that first hit and Tayvra¡¯s newfound dexterity let my sister remain unharmed as she ducked and dodged her way through the fight.


    It came to something of an end though when Tayvra was forced to block instead of dodge, a wild swing with that strange greataxe luckily caught on her little pickaxe sending her flying back and creating space. The troll stomping on the ground looking angrier and angrier at how it struggled to crush the tiny opponent in front of it. The charge was predictable and wild, the troll using its claws rather than the axe as it attempted a flying tackle with wide outstretched arms.


    At that point, Jesler and I were on our feet, but we both were hesitating to jump it, to interrupt whatever was going on here. Tayvra clearly somehow knew what she was doing, to try and join that rhythm might have thrown everything off. Our hesitance was rewarded as Tayvra managed to dive under the troll as it crashed into a pile of crates and cabinets. Wait, when had there been such a big pile in the room?


    Tayvra was the one to answer that as she spoke the first actual words I had heard in a while, ¡°Now push!¡± A signal to Felpirn and Mary? That question was answered as the pile tumbled over onto the troll as it was picking itself up, the weight of everything burying it in an avalanche of wood and whatever various contents happened to have been in them.


    It was only then that I saw Yeena running into the action, clutching our last waterskin of acid close to her chest. She turned to look at Jesler and I as she ran, calling out, ¡°Come on, we need to expose her head!¡± We didn¡¯t take long to rush to help, sheathing our weapons and running over to the pile, Tayvra joining in as well. Naturally, it must have been her plan she communicated while Jesler and I were distracting the chieftain earlier. Did she set this whole thing up in that short timeframe?


    It was a bit tricky to actually get to the Troll though in the way we wanted. We didn¡¯t want to just pull the weight off of it such that it could escape, just enough to expose the head. Made all the harder by it struggling beneath the crates shifting them about. In the end, it was Mary who managed to uncover it and yell out to the rest of us, ¡°Got it, Yeena! It¡¯s your turn!¡± I scrambled over to see what was going on. We got a good look at the Chieftain¡¯s face, still with some of the acid marking its cheeks. Yeena spent little time shoving the waterskin into its face but was using both hands to try and get it into the resisting mouth.


    It wasn¡¯t working, I had to help. I lunged in there to grab at the Troll''s face, pulling its mouth open like I used to with Jespa when she was a baby, refusing to eat her food sometimes. The opening was enough for Yeena to shove the Waterskin¡¯s opening into, and Mary moved to squeeze it causing the ¡®acid¡¯ to spew its way into the troll¡¯s mouth. It thrashed and struggled, I got knocked away at some point, but after maybe ten seconds of struggle it went limp beneath us.


    We all collapsed to our knees then, realizing the ordeal was over.

 Interlude 2 Bree

    Bree


    Gods, life was miserable. I chugged down more orange juice as dad refilled my goblet. It helped little in actually cleansing the taste of that vile concoction clogging my mouth and throat even an hour after those damn kids had force-fed it to me.


    Had I been perhaps a little too ruthless and rough with the kids? In retrospect perhaps, but the kids were clearly a lot more competent than we had originally expected. That whole bait and run leading into using that found rope as a tripwire was inspiring, a technique we might have to use ourselves in the future. Then it seemed like some actually had a modicum of training, they at least kept up somewhat early on with my swings too.


    So I let loose a little more, normally not an issue with our normal faire of foes, but I did swing a bit too seriously with sending the sprogs flying, and they took offense to that. Still, who thinks to try and forcibly drown a troll by force-feeding it acid?


    And so I sat upon my thankfully comfy throne that was sadly unseen during the actual adventure, my entire character introduction and lines skipped over out of efficiency. I think Aelar was the most put out by it though, with how the poor dwarf sulked off to the side playing idly with his ¡°weasel¡±. At least he got that part of the act out of the event.


    It was just us three, me, Aelar, and my dad fretting over me like he did when I got sick all those years ago. Of course, now I was a good bit bigger than I was back then. I think he may have been putting off having to use magic to fix up some of the stuff that I bro- that got damaged during the events of the adventure. Knowing how to magically mend damaged clothes and other knick knacks was convenient, but once you revealed you could do it suddenly everyone was begging you to use all that knowledge and training for their convenience instead.


    Thinking about my difficulty in actually following in his footsteps on climbing the ¡°staircase of knowledge¡± reminded me that it was one of the larger disappointments I had probably left him with, much as I tried. What little I had gleaned was of a practical nature, tricks to help me in fights or on the rare occasions dad wasn¡¯t around to cast his wide array of spells.


    My introspection and suffering were interrupted by our final two companions finally joining us. It¡¯d somehow been nearly half the hour before they had finished with their tasks before finally joining us for the big after-event meeting.


    Miri led the way opening the door, shuffling along exhausted from her job of dealing with healing all the bruises both the kids and our trolls likely suffered. Neither group had been entirely gentle in their treatment, which was why I was glad we had the priest along to help smooth over any issues to be raised because of it. Much of a weirdo as she was to be a city girl worshipping the big daddy of the wilds, she¡¯d patched me and the others up enough I had stopped questioning her over it.


    Ekemon walked behind her, distractedly writing in that notebook of his with his long red tiefling tail swishing behind him. He was attractive to some, but too bookish and slim for her liking. The horns and such didn¡¯t bother her as much as many, and despite the common tales of devil-blooded individuals had dealt alongside them fairly and reliably. He was probably writing down notes he wanted to touch on for the meeting, the boring details that he felt would need addressing. She¡¯d leave those to be talked about by her dad, with how much it sucked to talk for the moment.


    Their arrival signalled to Aelar that it was meeting time though, so he slunk further into the room dragging a chair along. Ekemon and Miri found their own as well, but dad stood by my throne ready to help refill my drink or feed me grapes. If I wasn¡¯t so miserable I would have perhaps taken more joy in how the seating arrangement felt like they were my subordinates rather than my party.


    ¡°So we can all safely agree that the kids went well off script, yes?¡± And somehow my mood became worse with Ekemon¡¯s opening statement, a bit of tact would have been well appreciated.


    I tried to speak up, but all it resulted in was a groan and coughing fit from me. I could only hope it got my displeasure across, whatever concoction Ekemon had procured as a stand in for that ¡®acid¡¯ was absolutely vile, I doubt actual consumption had ever actually been a consideration beyond ¡®how do we make sure stupid kids don¡¯t try to drink it¡¯, but I¡¯d have to get him back somehow later on.


    ¡°At least my acting with my familiar went over well,¡± Aelar spoke up, the creature in question jumping and wriggling between his hands, ¡°even if all that practice and planning for the illusory effects upon their entrance went to waste. They seemed quite convinced by your combined work though. You taught her well enough, Merric.¡±


    ¡°The orange might be a little different from the apple tree, but she still enjoys its shade.¡± And there¡¯s dad embarrassing me again with a chuckle from the peanut gallery. We were quite the eclectic pair to most. Merric stood at a mighty two and a half feet tall, his braided grey beard nearly reaching a third of that in length and dressed up in all sorts of colourful and embroidered clothing. He looked the model wizard if you didn¡¯t mind his height too much. I, on the other hand, stood at a bit over six feet tall normally. Hair pulled back into a braided ponytail and I wore practical leathers much of the time with a big ol axe strapped to my back.


    Of course, that appearance was quite prone to changing thanks to my grasp on illusion magic. Certainly not to the degree Aelar had focused on, and even without much focus on it dad had me beat. Even so, it was plenty enough for my half of the ¡°troll¡±. Perhaps a bit too convincing, given the kids¡¯ reaction to what they probably thought was a genuine article.


    Ever the busybody though, Ekemon moved on to the actual points to be made. ¡°Well, much as there¡¯s likely plenty of discussion to be had about how off the rails it went, I think it best we start from the beginning of things. Merric, we ought perhaps to make an addition to the safety speech telling the kids that any strange liquids acquired are not meant for consumption unless explicitly stated. For safety''s sake.¡± Oh fuck right off with that, right as you are you bastard.


    Dad just stroked his beard in that ¡®old mysterious wizard¡¯ way he loved to do with others. It was hard to take it as seriously after he confessed to me how much he loved the aesthetic of it. Not that I could blame him though, I¡¯d likely do the same in his shoes. ¡°Hmmm yes, that is likely for the best, even if today was likely more of an exception than anything. They¡¯ll likely presume the other kids did such a thing as well, so hardly suspect.¡±


    Ekemon nodded along and jotted down another small note before moving on, ¡°Excellent, next on the docket would be the riddles then. The kids splitting up was expected, but thankfully both groups proved decent at actually solving them.¡±This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    ¡°I¡¯m a bit surprised they did, I¡¯m fairly certain a number of us would have struggled to solve and find a few of those.¡± Miri making what was likely intended as a slight dig at me would have normally warranted a response, but honestly? I was actually one of the better in the group at solving them. Most were derived from local landmarks that were actually somewhat familiar. ¡°Do we want to try and dumb any of them down or assume this group wasn¡¯t an outlier?¡±


    ¡°They knew much, but not so much more than many locals are likely to. I can have my familiar and maybe Ekemon trail behind any groups to watch for struggle.¡± Aelar cut it, with a fairly reasonable suggestion. Mostly because it made Ekemon actually work during the event rather than just be organizing.


    ¡°A reasonable suggestion, if there are no objections.¡± Ekemon said with a sigh, ¡°Merric, I assume you¡¯ll be repairing some of the ¡®loot¡¯ that was damaged? I¡¯m fairly certain Bree managed to crack or break a few of them.¡±


    ¡°Aye Ekemon, I¡¯ll be doing that a bit later once Bree¡¯s back on her feet. Got to fix up that door frame too. Hope you don¡¯t mind skipping those crates though, pain in the ass to deal with all the bits.¡±


    ¡°That should be fine, we have an off day before we actually start running it proper after all.¡± Ekemon responded with that winning smile of his.


    ¡°Actually I have a question, how in the hells did you manage to get Durnan personally to help out as one of the stations? Old man is normally so taciturn and private about things.¡± Miri asked. I hadn¡¯t actually thought much of it, I¡¯d only been to the Yawning portal a few times, and it was normally the waitresses I¡¯d deal with rather than the legendary bartender and adventurer.


    ¡°Oh, that?¡± Ekemon answered bashfully, ¡°I managed to win in a bet with him. Originally I doubt he was expecting ¡®a small favour that doesn¡¯t require you to leave the bar¡¯ to be helping us out like that, but he warmed up to the idea after a bit of buttering him up. Helping teach the youth and give them a memorable experience and that sort of thing.¡±


    Miri was nodding at the explanation, finding it satisfactory. ¡°Well in that case let''s get to the troll in the room,¡± Hardy har har you bitch, ¡°Aelar, good job on the weasel druid act. I was talking to the kids afterwards and they totally bought it, told them we just used some pig¡¯s blood and he¡¯d be all healed up.¡±


    ¡°An unnecessary deception at that juncture, though it warms my heart they held such investment for the injured.¡± Aelar stroked his beard as the weasel in question scurried into his collar. It was always weird when he did that weird moralizing thing, did it more than the cleric even. He claimed it was due to some connection to the celestial or something, I wasn¡¯t actually sure of the details even if I could probably ask dad to explain it to me.


    ¡°I guess we¡¯re just lucky none of them know how druid wildshaping actually works so they had the initial buy in. Normally they aren¡¯t actually able to talk.¡± Miri cut back, jealous of him stepping on her mystic shtick?


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t expect most in the age group we¡¯re actually working with to know that sort of thing,¡± Ekemon countered, ¡°since it¡¯s mostly all urban kids with working class parents, none of them to my knowledge has connections to related clergy or the parks. Miri, what¡¯s the state of the kids and actors, nothing that won¡¯t be healed by tomorrow, yes?¡±


    ¡°Everyone other than Bree was fine afterwards, just some bruises. A few prayers to heal those around me cleared all that up. She¡¯ll have to flush out that mixture herself though. Maybe try flushing it out with salt water?¡± Well damn, Miri actually gave a half-decent suggestion if that works out. I¡¯d have to ask dad to help mix together some after the meeting. Pretty sure there was some bags of salt somewhere down here¡­


    ¡°That makes for an easy segway,¡± Ekemon clapped, ¡°to the actual bulk of the discussion needed, the actual battles with the trolls. I think we can all agree the first encounter went as intended?¡±


    ¡°Aye, though knowing that this test group might be a bit more capable than most, perhaps we ought to reduce the opening number to two.¡± Aelar would have had the best idea of how that went, being the only one there to see thanks to that familiar. Miri was able to ask about it afterwards with Ekemon, but that¡¯s not quite a true substitute for seeing the difficulty with your own eyes, even if they weren¡¯t actually his. ¡°They solved nearly every riddle we had prepared so were well equipped, and they had a plan. Reducing the number so it¡¯s a three to one ratio for the kids is probably better to ease them into things.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s probably a good call for balancing things,¡± dad spoke up after tossing another grape into my mouth, I was getting good at catching them, ¡°though you bring up quite a good point in that the group was quite capable. That younger girl with the black hair, whatever her name was, was the one to come up with that plan to lead the other trolls into the room, yes?¡±


    ¡°Know her name is Tayvra, younger sibling to Pelsot. He was the one with the Flametongue. The logic she presented for the gamble of leading them all into a trap was quite sound, and clearly paid off.¡± Aelar informed us.


    I took a swig of the orange juice before finally struggling to speak up, ¡°What¡¯s her deal anyway, I thought the group was mostly the kids of the local dockworkers and fishermen. She solved most of her group¡¯s puzzles and strategized better than we do half the time.¡±


    ¡°I actually asked them a bit about her afterwards,¡± said Miri, ¡°Same background as the others, but apparently spends a lot of her time over in the Font of Knowledge and associated public libraries reading books and studying. Beyond her relationship with her brother, she got invited along for, and I quote them here, ¡®being the biggest book reader and so she¡¯s good for riddles¡¯. I don¡¯t think any of them were expecting the strategic side too when they actually reached the dungeon and expected her to be closer to dead weight.¡±


    There was a moment of silence at that. Dead weight? Really? I¡¯d have to make sure to remember her name for the future. The kid was likely to be a menace when she grew up.


    Aelar was the first to break it though, using his more normal voice when he wasn¡¯t being weirdly mysterious, ¡°She was the one to plan out the door ambush and using the rope to trip over the trolls, as well as the one to bait out Bree at the end to get buried under the boxes to restrain her. With how she baited you I¡¯m surprised you didn¡¯t swat her for it.¡±


    If my face wasn¡¯t already pale and a bit sickly looking I probably would have blushed, ¡°I tried to, she was slippery.¡±


    Ekemon raised his hands as if to ask for a pause, the others also looked a bit surprised by the admission. ¡°Wait a second, like you tried to casually or like, tried tried to hit her?¡±


    I sighed, then regretted it as it made my throat hurt even more when I coughed and I had to take a moment to take a few breaths to ease it. ¡°Tried tried. Kid was slippery, ducking a lot of my swings. I doubt the rest of you would have had much better luck. I know Aelar didn¡¯t have a great view since the kid he was with was prepping the pile. Pretty sure she also saw through the illusion, that or she just wasn¡¯t afraid to possibly be fighting a real troll.¡±


    Ekemon whistled, which ended up being a bit too loud for the headache I had with how it echoed in the room. If I wasn¡¯t paying attention I could have believed he used magic to enhance it or something. ¡°That¡¯s¡­ quite the achievement for a seven year old, on both of those statements. You don¡¯t think she was using magic right? Kid must have a screw loose, but then why would the other kids have thought her just a bookworm if she could pull something like that off?¡±


    Miri jumped a little in her seat, looking like she had some sort of epiphany. ¡°That¡¯s it! I knew she seemed a little familiar. When I was at the Shrines of Nature trading some gossip with some of the other priests there, one of them mentioned there being something weird going on in the area when a young black-haired girl showed up to collect flowers during one of the festivals. They also said¡­¡±

 Taylor gets a child

    Mirtul 28


    Well, the adventure went off without much issue for our merry band of a half dozen kids. It ended up being a bit of an interesting experience to have more interaction with some of Pelsot¡¯s social circles, I of course knew Felpirn and Jesler just from seeing them often enough. It was a chance to interact with them as closer to equals though, and more directly interject myself into their typical dynamic.


    As much fun as we all had I¡¯m quite sure we all ended up exhausted after today, too much running around the Docks District followed by the fighting with the trolls. Much as I did enjoy the riddle-solving section, in some ways, our success at it meant we were somewhat tired out by the time we reached the actual ¡®troll¡¯ hunt.


    Props to them though, covering that many grown men in green body paint and getting that many costume props ready took some actual planning, and for the most part were of decent enough quality even if they ended up looking a bit silly in retrospect. Truly though, the thing to sell that whole experience was the illusioned ¡®troll¡¯. The surprise was a bit spoiled for me before her arrival thanks to the bugs feeling around the illusory work, but the in-person act did quite well at selling the savage monster trying to maybe capture or kill us for real.


    Maybe a bit too rough though on both sides. I got a bit too mean about defeating her, almost a bit too much Skitter in the strategy of a small child. I doubt the adventurers had really put much thought into what would happen when a person was force-fed the alchemic mixture they had handed us. I pitied the actor afterwards, just from what I could sense through my bugs of how much she seemed to be miserable afterwards.


    The adventure was a hit though, Pelsot came home with a giant smile plastered on his face. It was all he wanted to talk about when we came home around dinner time, though Virla had seemed a bit concerned from hearing some of the details of the actual troll hunt. Jespa hung onto his every word, and to his credit, Pelsot had done a half-decent job in his dramatic retelling.


    Tulgor though surprised me a bit with his response, he initially seemed far more interested in the riddles we were given to solve. He would ask for us to recite which ones we could recall and seemed to take joy in his trying to solve them himself. He also took a bit of time to ask for some descriptors for the ¡®trolls¡¯. I think he was looking to see if he could figure out who was who, since he probably actually knew some of the guys that got hired.


    I¡¯m looking forward to going to sleep once I¡¯m done writing this, I think I pulled a few muscles from the exertion. Even after my bath I still feel sweaty and a bit gross.


    10 Kythorn


    Ah, spring has finally started properly. The leaves are turning the trees green, and grass is growing in the parks and sides of the streets. No late frost killing what bugs had come out too early. That meant that today had finally been a good day to go out with the lizardfolk to collect new bugs for the workshop.


    That had initially been a lot of the spiders since most other species that might have been venomous had died off. Collecting them during winter had been tempting, but would have been difficult since the sudden cold would have been poor for their long-term health.


    Now though, it was a simple job of being careful ordering most of them out of the nearby buildings when people weren¡¯t looking to be collected by Laraek and Durah in their barrels. Just this single day of collecting them would triple our current numbers, though they¡¯d need to be fed more to get them the nutrients they¡¯d need for what were pretty arduous amounts of harvesting.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    It wasn¡¯t just spiders though that we were working on, there were also a number of wintering wasp colonies I had picked up on during winter. While I¡¯d certainly keep plenty of the nests around in the more hidden areas in the district for my safety, I also directed a number of them towards the workshop. The lizardfolk seemed to have thick enough hides that they didn¡¯t have to worry about being stung for the most part, only their vulnerable facial parts like eyes and nose were vulnerable. That meant that given some time to build up a couple proper hives they could double as a new venom source as well as a security measure for the building.


    The real gem of a find though, actually came from using my power to search the sewers. My power has proven itself to be slightly unreliable for some of the more exotic species in this world, and I can¡¯t really determine the exact causes for it. It¡¯s more limited in general for control and range, so maybe there¡¯s more selective criteria for targets as well. The troll adventure reminded me of how extensive the sewer system was for the city. So after a bit of searching, I had found nearly half a dozen healthy specimens of a large species of centipede. When I say large, I don¡¯t mean by typical centipede standards.


    I¡¯m pretty sure these things hunt cats and dogs, or probably people given the opportunity. They thankfully had scaled up the venom production to their scale, evolution hadn¡¯t selectively removed it for simply physically overpowering prey like I knew some snakes had. That meant they had a lot of venom to harvest. Actually keeping them though would be the hard part, I wasn¡¯t sure how many we could actually keep in the workshop, and honestly, I feel like I¡¯d rather get stuff like spiders that can also have silk harvested along with their venom.


    The five that I collected though showed quite promising results for milking, nearly a vial each. Time will tell how long it takes to replenish their venom glands, but that¡¯s still quite the significant payoff for how much I think they need to eat.


    23 Kythorn


    Chief Balthsvk has sent me a third assistant that arrived today, or perhaps more accurately he sent me a student. Slaan, as he introduced himself, looks much like Laraek and Durah in miniature with swampy green scales and somewhat unique patterns of brownish-red scales. Slaan in this case seemed to have the reddish ones around his wrists, shoulders, and some around his face and neck. He was still a bit bigger than me though, much as I was growing still.


    I stand at around 4 feet tall, maybe an inch or two more. Slaan though I estimate to be just shy of 5 ft. I ended up asking Laraek a bit about how the lizardfolk growth cycle worked. Apparently, they reach rough maturity at around five or six years old, though obviously there¡¯s still a degree of mental development and teaching afterwards. Slaan was only two years old.


    Two.


    Still though, he was capable enough of speaking in draconic and understood at least a tiny bit of common. I ended up spending much of my allotted workshop time of the day having Laraek help translate between the two of us, since my spoken draconic was abysmal, and Slaan¡¯s common wasn¡¯t much better. Durah got to go stretch his legs outside collecting some of the bugs I could scavenge from the nearby area while still inside, or going out to collect food scraps to feed the bugs.


    So as explained thanks to Laraek, Slaan was a bit of a weirdo in the clan¡¯s group of youngsters. He¡¯d had some fascination with me since I had visited the clan, or at least with my powers, as well as the various bits they would sometimes bring back from trading in the city. So he had sort of volunteered to be one of the clan members to learn to speak common and become something of a trader. I was being voluntold to help tutor him on the subject, as well as all the various bits of cultural knowledge that might be helpful. In exchange, I got a third lizard to help with the workshop, which would likely be useful given our suddenly increased population that would need handling.


    Honestly considering how he pretty much literally spent most of his life in a cave, he seems fairly smart. He at least was able to follow Laraek¡¯s example for taking out and caring for the bugs, and didn¡¯t do something silly like try and eat them (I¡¯m not forgetting Durah¡¯s attempt at a snack anytime soon). I¡¯ll also have to actually work on teaching him though, maybe I¡¯ll try writing a few worksheets for him to study or something.

 Taylor learns of an apocalypse

    29 Kythorn


    Word has arrived from the north, or perhaps more accurately the powers that be decided to disseminate the news to the city only now. There are signs of war about to be declared, or perhaps more accurately that there will be an attack on Silverymoon in the north.


    Someone managed to blanket the entire fucking sky of the region.


    Details aren¡¯t entirely clear, and it¡¯s not exactly like I have great information circles or anything about it, but someone managed to blanket the sky such that the sunlight can no longer reach the region. Theories abound in the city on the purpose and perpetrators.


    The most common theory is that it¡¯s meant to help protect some cave dwelling or savage species that have eyesight specialized towards low light conditions, night time, and caves typically. That could range from orcs to drow to goblins and more exotic species I have little awareness of. It makes sense that such a spell would be quite demanding, and such groups are known to prowl around the northern region near Silverymoon.


    Another theory, that I think holds far less water, is that it could be the work of the ice giants. Perhaps as a means of cooling down the area and killing off the crops and vegetation to weaken inhabitants. From what little I¡¯ve learned of them from Orsik on the topic, which isn¡¯t really much, is that they would be far more inclined to spells of a more cold and wintery nature. Simple darkness isn¡¯t really within their typical inclination, though that hardly means there aren''t exceptions among them.


    Regardless of the perpetrators, Silverymoon and its region are important members of the Lord¡¯s Alliance. That means Waterdeep is likely to start marshalling a force to march north to assist them. The first wave is likely to be whatever adventurers take interest in the job since they needn¡¯t worry about their logistics train.


    Larger forces are largely dependent on logistics, most don¡¯t travel with a great deal of food and water and need either regular deliveries or to collect it while on the move. A lot of planning is needed for those forces, and depleting your standing army on a whim is a great way to invite increased chaos in your own lands. At least Waterdeep doesn¡¯t draft its citizens into such efforts, purely voluntary with fairly good compensation.


    17 Flamerule


    Orsik has notified me of his intent to journey northward to Neverwinter. Apparently his secret personal project looking to find whatever dwarven thing it is has born a lead.


    Admittedly I have been spending less actual time with him in the Font than I did in previous years, mostly because with the workshop actually built up and running it¡¯s hard to justify the time. The Font is on the other side of the city, so I check out books and read them in the workshop instead. I still see him once or twice a week though.


    It makes me realize that I don¡¯t actually know that much about Orsik, beyond the love of knowledge, skill in magic, and goal in researching whatever he came to the city for. Whatever it was, he was willing to stop here to research it. Typically, at least from what I¡¯ve heard of the priests and scholars that attend to the Font¡¯s library, if you really need to research something obscure it¡¯s best for you to journey even further south from here to somewhere called Candlekeep; Some massive library city-state that acts as both a great repository of knowledge and magical artifacts, as well as security and fortifications to protect it.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    So that raises the question of why Orsik decided to stay in Waterdeep. Whatever it is he doesn¡¯t want to tell me about, has to have led him specifically to the city. I doubt it¡¯s some evil artifact or some such, he¡¯s a bit too carefree and jovial to be a secret cultist. Unless that¡¯s supposed to be his cover, but I feel like that would be hard to maintain constantly while I¡¯m around. What little I¡¯ve gleaned from book covers I saw when I interrupted his personal research seemed more locally inclined as well, mostly books on the various noble families of the city.


    The mystery goes unsolved for now though, with his imminent departure in the next few days. He said he might be back in a month, perhaps less, but it depends on how well the lead goes. Should he not intend to return for longer he promised to at least send a letter or message.


    8 Eleasis


    The workshop has been making what is a frankly absurd amount of money. Most of my insects that I grabbed at the start of the season have reached maturity, and have been harvested daily for a month now.


    Silk production is still a bit lackluster compared to on Bet, but I don¡¯t quite have the same size of facilities or equipment available to me to make that fair. The more annoying part though is the lower quality of silk. I don¡¯t think I really appreciated Black Widows as much as I do now with their absence. The silk is still durable of course, but not nearly to the same degree. It¡¯s still at least reasonably durable against being cut, but honestly, I think the greater benefit to both the lizards and I will be as an insulation layer. It gets really cold during the winters, and from what I could tell the lizardfolk seem pretty vulnerable to it.


    The real money maker though has been in all the harvested venoms. Bees, wasps, spiders, those giant centipedes especially, all of them have been working hard to produce vials and vials of the stuff. Our alchemist contact has been a bit suspicious frankly. Apparently coming into the shop somewhat regularly with thousands of gold worth of poison from a variety of species is far from flying under the radar.


    We need to start finding new buyers to split up the sales. Our first contact was a shady halfling tattooed all over what skin was visible who worked a few streets away from the workshop. He has politely told us that he doesn¡¯t actually have that much money floating around to just keep buying good quality venom off of us, the sales aren¡¯t actually that quick for it even if it¡¯s shelf stable for a while. He kindly provided us a list of addresses for fellow guild members he thought would be interested in the product.


    Not all of them want to deal with venoms, and while there is some usage for them in making beneficial potions, most tend to be for killing and harming. The civilian uses are more for things like pest extermination, or apparently for paralytics for bouncers to use on more belligerent customers. Naturally, though I¡¯m fairly certain most is finding its way into the black market. Apparently, a lot of the actually good thugs don¡¯t just mug you with a knife, but a poison-coated knife. Not sure how cost-effective that actually is, but if that¡¯s the culture I suppose I¡¯ll be supplying it.


    The price of poison has actually also gone up recently, there¡¯s a lot of activity and movement in the criminal underground. Lots of big events happening beneath the surface and abroad, which is probably where the venoms are actually being shipped to as a high-value smuggled good. Turns out that the city cares when you transport large quantities of lethal substances in and out of its borders.


    Slaan has been doing well, he¡¯s been going along with Durah and Laraek for the negotiations on selling the venom, and his common has improved a lot after the month and a half since I met him. He benefits a lot from having other people talking in it, and I think he understands the heavily ¡°accented¡± version that the other lizardfolk are forced to use. Still, you have to start somewhere, and he¡¯s getting better at understanding me as well I think. His writing is actually getting fairly decent, though he¡¯s unused to using a quill. There are still some issues with connecting all the letters with his cursive though.


    Gods I miss not writing in cursive.

 Taylor visits the forest

    22 Eleasis


    Well, Orsik finally made it back, around half a month later than estimated. Still, it¡¯s good to have him back, it was nice to see him at the Font again. I didn¡¯t actually realize how much of a fixture he had become for me until his absence. Self-study didn¡¯t evoke the same level of enthusiasm without him around to engage and ask questions, whether he was able to give actual answers or simply direct me towards sources that could provide them.


    He seemed a bit cagey about the exact details of the journey, but it¡¯s clear that something happened. He seemed a bit tender moving around collecting books for our study session, which is strange when healing magic exists from clerics. I don¡¯t know enough about that field to really speak on it, but for him to still be at least slightly injured after the journey back¡­


    Well, he did reveal a bit about what he was there for at least. Nothing too specific though. He¡¯s been researching to try and find the trail of some important magical artifact, something he said was powerful but relatively harmless unless it was in the wrong hands. That¡¯s why he had come to Waterdeep, he¡¯d been looking through records and investigating some of the noble families he thought could be connected.


    Whatever the item was, it had been passed around from family to family, supposedly, but he wasn¡¯t able to get any answers out of the ones left in Neverwinter. I had to wonder if that was because there wasn¡¯t any, or if he had been forced away from the city and made to return.


    I¡¯d wish him the best of luck penetrating the Waterdavian nobility though, the ones I imagine he was likely to have to deal with for a known to be powerful magical artifact were hardly the types to part with it easily. It would likely be difficult to even penetrate their social circles to discover who¡¯d have it. I doubt his magic was likely to be of great use in that endeavor either, what with what little he¡¯s told me of various spoofing magics designed to counteract various divinations.


    If he asked for my help though, whatever it was, he¡¯d probably get it. It¡¯s the least I could do for a friend who¡¯s taught me so much. He probably doesn¡¯t actually consider my offer very seriously though, I haven¡¯t revealed my power yet to him, and I don¡¯t think he suspects it. To him, I¡¯m just the strange girl who¡¯s far too curious about a great range of topics that he enjoys humoring.


    14 Eleint


    Holy shit I wish I did this sooner. I might be sore, but I did a field trip with the lizardfolk soldiers. There were a good number of non-soldiers or non-hunters? Honestly, the exact roles of individuals in the clan seem pretty mercurial. There aren''t really serious physical differences between their genders, though from what I can tell most of the females tend towards the more domestic tasks than the males.


    Anyway, I left early in the morning to meet up with a band of them. Thankfully they were understanding that forcing me to march through wilderness on my small legs would have just slowed everything down, so I got piggybacked for most of the journey. It was quite the experience since thus far I had kept myself to the well-travelled road to the south, I hadn¡¯t previously ventured into the untamed areas nearby. Even patrolled as the area was, I knew there were still dangerous creatures out there, from packs of wolves to more fantastical options.


    All those dangers kept away from a hunting band of lizardfolk though, and we didn¡¯t try to bother them. We had a goal in mind, and only so many hours before I would need to have returned home to prevent worry with my family. So after travelling for a couple of hours on foot (I miss cars and helicopters), we finally arrived at a treasure trove. A lair of giant spiders.


    When I say giant, I really mean it. These were easily large enough to eat a person, or a lizardfolk, probably even a horse if they were willing to share. Massive yellow and black striped things, they reminded me somewhat of wasps, though their patterns were less well-defined. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    We got to work quickly, splitting off into two general groups. One to assist me in forcibly harvesting the venom from my newly controlled horde, the other to help cut down the spider silk around their massive nest. We also tried having some of the spiders spin some threads of silk onto poles for collection purposes.


    There was also some scavenging done from the leftovers from their feeding. Much of it was wild animals, but a few seemed to be people of varying sizes that had gotten caught. Hunters or merchants most likely, with the latter typically having some gold on them or at least some of their belongings were found nearby after a search. We¡¯d bring them back to the city to at least report them, with what we could find that might help with personal identification. It¡¯s better than what would typically be expected.


    I also agreed to help walk back a few most of the way to the city, the lizardfolk aren¡¯t picky about what they eat, so sacrificing a few of the older or injured ones for an easy meal for much of their tribe was one of the things they requested as a reward for this endeavor. It was certainly an easier give than the other request for most of the proceeds from the sales of the venom and silk we got today.


    I¡¯d have to actually figure out what means we can use to treat the silk and spin it properly. Too much of it was still sticky, so we¡¯d be testing various means to remove that and then try running it through a loom. At least that¡¯s easy for me to handle at the workshop while the others do much of the physical labour required. A visit to the Font probably, or investigating with the Order of Weavers and Dyers. Perhaps it would be the League of Skinners and Tanners? This is the reason why you hire people to help navigate the guilds for you until you familiarize yourself with the relevant benefits of each. Hopefully, they wouldn¡¯t demand membership for answers.


    Though with all this new venom, I doubt paying will be much of an issue. It¡¯s a good thing we¡¯ve been making connections with other apothecaries recently otherwise we¡¯d never move all this stock. It felt a bit more legitimate too from what I knew. Giant spider venom like this was typically used nonlethally, a means to induce a temporary coma or sickness in proper dosages. Naturally, more of it could do more harm, but at that point, the stab wounds are probably less lethal as far as blood loss from the clotting that occurs. We¡¯ll have to space out the sales so as to not draw too much attention just dumping so much into the local economy, legitimate uses or not that much would attract too much attention from anyone with fingers in the pie.


    21 Eleint


    The Brightswords festival this year seemed a bit less bright. Everything was just a bit smaller than previous years. It makes sense, with the military aid being sent north to Silverymoon. The bulk of the adventurers inclined to such long-distance travel and adventure had already left for it, and the standing army had also marched out with a variety of supplies to reinforce them.


    Naturally, a siege and blocking out of the sun makes it a bit hard to harvest the crops. Carts ladened with foodstuffs both for the long march as well as to help alleviate the food demands of the local population. They linked up with a similar, though smaller, contingent from Neverwinter also fulfilling treaty obligations.


    With the loss of manpower, you also saw a reduction or overworking of the patrols for the nearby settlements and roads. It¡¯s hard for me to tell which was the case, but it meant that their section of the parade and show of force was lacking. There was a clear recruitment effort though, so while the parades around the city were reduced the actual martial events and show matches had the actual focus from them.


    I think the most noticeable part though to previous years was the griffon rider display in the Field of Triumph. The Griffon Riders themselves were fine of course. They were a domestic force that handled law enforcement and defence of the city proper. The thing that was lacking was actually the support crew for it, typically a few dozen illusionists who would be summoning all sorts of creatures up in the air for battle. From weird flying elk monsters, to dragons, to a giant scorpion with bat wings at one point. I had to wonder, were all of those different creatures actually real, or were some simply invented from the imaginations of the wizards to give a bit more variety to the show?


    There were some familiar faces I saw throughout the day though. Orsik was working the big Griffon rider event, along with that dwarf from Penelope¡¯s Nose. There was also the barbarian from back then that had turned into a troll, who won a martial tourney. I guess their group decided to stay local rather than pursue the big payday as mercenaries up in Silverymoon.