All posts by Llew Silverhand

Brigand, part-time juggler, aspiring silversmith.
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Llew’s Journal 2.2

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(Achiel 34th, 8th year of King Jerwin the Rotund’s reign)
     Two months since the Festival of the Portly and my opportunity has finally arrived! King Jerwin the Rotund and Queen Wendolin are visiting the next kingdom to work out a trade deal, or some such. The important thing is, he’s taking his mage with him. Two weeks I’ll have the study in the mage’s tower to myself.
 
(Lacha 2nd, 9th year of King Jerwin the Rotund’s reign)
     Found the secret room behind the bookcase. No switch, no lever, just had to push the case forward. I don’t think this was supposed to be a secret room so much as someone put a bookcase in front of the doorway and forgot that there was a room there. Not much more than a closet, but there’s a lot of books and scrolls here. Time to do some digging!
     After hours of rummaging and reading, I stumbled across a few scrolls written in a different script. The writing is also more faded and the vellum more worn and cracked than the others. Don’t think they’re from this kingdom. In fact, I haven’t seen this script anywhere I’ve been in this kingdom or any other I’ve been to since coming here! The scrolls seem much older and the writing is a much different style than anything else here. It is familiar though…
    THE MYTH WOOD! That’s where I’ve seen it before! The book that I touched just before waking up here! The scroll that the mage here was reading had the same script! Now at least I know I’m on the right path! Now to learn how to navigate it!
 
(Lacha 10th)
     If I’m reading this right, and I’m not sure I am, this scroll describes the mechanics of ley line travel! It’s a matter of knowing where natural lines of power are and when they’re active. Not just the where and when are important, but where on the ley line you start from and the direction of travel as well as the speed make a difference as to where and when you travel to! Not just different places, but different times! This is going to take a lot more study to understand much less try this kind of travel! 
     This other scroll describes a means of seeing into another’s mind or through another’s mind…not sure, script is more faded, words and letters missing. This looks like the word for “switch.” Seems like a page or two may be missing in the middle. Have to find those. Have to make sure the mage doesn’t get his hands on these. That idiot could do some real damage and not even realize it! Going to gather all the old scrolls and take them somewhere safe. Need time to figure this out, and the King and his retinue will return the day after tomorrow. Much to do…
 
 
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Llew’s journal 2.1

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(Gadran 29th, 8th year of King Jerwin the Rotund’s reign)
     Well, that could have gone better. Forgot about the festival. The night of my planned visit to the mage’s study, everyone was up preparing for the king’s “Festival of the Portly” which was to take place in three days. Got caught in the study and was thrown in the dungeon with no food or water until after the festival. 
     That would have been terrible if the locks weren’t so old that they practically pick themselves. Or if the guards were any kind of competent. There’s one here whose  name is Jim who is particularly inept. Transfer from another kingdom, I guess. Or if the dungeon wasn’t on the ground floor of the castle. Seriously, I don’t get the architecture here at all! 
     So, out of the cell after the guard’s evening rounds, up to the study while everyone else is at the festival gorging themselves, bobbing for pumpkins, and playing un-pin the apron on the ale wench, and back to the cell before morning rounds. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.
     WRONG! Difficult difficult, lemon difficult! Before I even have the first lock open, a guard, who apparently started the drunken festivities a little early, tripped over his own spear, knocked over a platter of roast meat and potatoes all over the King, turned to help pick it up, and head-butted the Queen, chipping the royal tooth, and stumbled backwards into a line of ale wenches, knocking two of them into the pumpkin tank. As a result, Jim is now my cellmate awaiting his trial and inevitable execution for chipping the Royal Tooth, and I’m stuck here. On the upside, bobbing for wenches has become the most popular activity at the Festival of the Portly, and this festival has been called the best in recent memory! 
     I need a new plan…
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The continued adventures of Llew Silverhand

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From the journal of Llew Silverhand:
 
(Gadran 23rd, 8th year of King Jerwin the Rotund’s reign) 
Been six years since the accident that brought me here. Easy enough to blend in and make a comfortable living for myself. Too easy, really. But something’s been nagging at me. How did I get here? Why here? Where IS here? Can an entire people really be THAT inept? Is there a way back? It was clear that the only place to find any answers was the mage’s tower that I woke up in. Didn’t take long to figure out people’s schedules and movement patterns. Been able to spend some quality time with the court mage’s library. Took longer to figure out what he was working on. According to his notes, some kind of astral travel or teleportation. Fortunately, he’s as inept as everyone else seems to be around here. Although, no one here has heard of the Mythwood or King Balin or even King Dirk McCormick. I think he may have accidentally gotten something right. He hasn’t been able to replicate his results though, which is probably a good thing. His “magiks” are mostly limited to simple slight of hand and card tricks. Amateurish at best. Seems to impress the local King here, King Jerwin the Rotund and his, um, “lovely” bride, Queen Wendolin of the Pearly Tooth. Yup. Just the one. 
     Life has a funny way of working itself out. One day you’re making a living in a nice kingdom with plenty of room to do a little deal here, a little larceny there, some aggressive acquisitions around town. Then the next you’re in a strange land, with stranger people, who fortunately enough for this rascal, can’t see through even the most basic of cons! And given the fact that everyone takes me for a common servant, and not a particularly bright one at that, the opportunities are boundless.
     One thing I still haven’t worked out yet. If I’ve traveled to another land, possibly another world, why do I have another person’s body? Sometimes I remember things that I’m sure I’ve never done, and places I’ve never been. And if this is another person’s body, where is mine? I hope wherever it is, whoever is in it is taking good care of it. 
   Alright, got to focus. Got to get ready for a trip to the mage’s study tonight. I was cleaning in there yesterday and noticed some strange scrape marks on the floor in front of the large bookcase by the mantle. Hidden room perhaps? Odd that anyone here would think to make a hidden room. Most rooms even here in the castle are marked with some sort of sign so the inhabitants don’t get lost! It made finding the treasury so much easier! Sundown bell is ringing. Time to go…
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Hammer’s Hold Dungeon Log

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Skoto 71 17:35 PM

  • Guardsman 3rd Class Jim Yitch

Not much to report today. Prisoners were mostly well behaved…except for Prisoner #11071974. His constant demands of information about the whereabouts of a certain princess, coupled with threats of burning the place to the ground with his “dragon fire” really start to grate on my nerves. Why do I always get stuck guarding this wing of the dungeon with all the crazies? I need a new job.

Skoto 72 16:55 PM

  • Guardsman 3rd Class Jim Yitch

Here again. Once again, crazy man Phil, sorry, Prisoner #11071974 is back at it. Now, not only is he a “dragon,” he’s a “magic dragon.” Claims he can use magic to make things grow or shrink, and he’s going to make me the size of a mouse or some such nonsense. 

In other news, Doug Gayhol got promoted to Guardsman Second Class today. Should have been me. Doug is such a brown-noser. Just because he doesn’t “fall asleep on the job,” or “come to work smelling of ale,” or “lose his keys and all the prisoners in his wing get loose.” I hate Doug.

Skoto 73 17:45 PM

  • Guardsman Third Class Jim Yitch

Couldn’t find my keys this morning. Got to work and found Prisoner #11071974’s cell door open. Again. Jarl Faolin and Sir Gadaren were pretty pissed. Jarl Faolin had to send a couple of men to search for him. He was found at the local KFC. Makes sense. The food here is terrible, and King’s Rest Fried Creature has some of the best food in town! 

Good news is, Prisoner #11071974 is back in his cell. They even let him keep his value meal. I advised that they take the spork away from him, but they said I had no right to say anything after I had let a prisoner escape. Besides, they said, what could he possibly do with a spork? Jerks! Not my fault he got ahold of my keys! I left them right next to my ale bottle…

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Llew’s Journal vol 2

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(In a far-off realm, on a small, almost forgotten branch of the World Tree, Llew wakes up in unfamiliar surroundings.)
     What is this place? The last thing I remember is being part of a party escorting Marta through the Wood to accomplish something or other. We had gotten to the graveyard…she was speaking some strange tongue… I looked at the book she was reading from…a page strayed and was blocking my view, so I reached up to hold it down…bright flash…falling…darkness enveloped me…then, a small, far off voice, heavy accent, fading into the distance. Can’t make out the words.
     The next thing I remember is waking up on the floor of a small room filled with shelves, upon which were rows and rows of books and glass jars and vials of all shapes and sizes, their contents a menagerie of colored liquids and strange items. Suddenly, I was aware of a small man with a thin, grizzled beard, dressed in a shabby brown robe and a floppy, pointed hat asking me how I felt.  I slowly stood to my feet and replied, “I’m not sure. Ok, I guess.” “I’VE DONE IT!” he screamed. “I’ve given you the power to defeat the Gnarthak and rescue the princess! They said I was crazy, well I’ll show them who’s crazy!” “What are you talking about? What princess? What is a gnarthak? Where in blazes am I?” I said. But my questions fell on deaf ears. The old man was lost in his own revels, babbling on and descending into almost maniacal laughter. I decided I was going to find no answers here. I left to explore my surroundings, only to find that, whatever had happened, I had wound up in the shabbiest, dirtiest, most pitiful pile of rocks that had ever been mistaken for a castle. And everyone I met kept mistaking me for someone called Phil. 
     Something has gone terribly wrong, and I mean to find out what. 
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From the personal journal of Llew Silverhand…

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     Festivals, tournaments, feasts, whatever you call them, they’re all the same. The crowds gather to be entertained, food vendors sell their somewhat questionable wares, people try their hand at various games of skill or chance or luck. Luck. Never believed in such foolishness. Too often good luck is given credit when it rightfully belongs to training, or cunning, or a well played con. Bad luck is blamed, in turn, for lack thereof, on carelessness, or over playing your hand. 
     Just look at them all. Cheering their favorites, stuffing their faces. Placing wagers on who can knock who off a log with a bit of a stick. All the while not noticing a few coins missing here, a purse there. A ring slides off a finger after a firm handshake and a slap on the back. Such baubles and trinkets are not missed whilst there’s entertainment to be had, food to be eaten, wine and mead to be shared in the revelry. Prizes will be awarded, cheers and more mead and ale. But who are the real winners here? 
   “Your purse is gone?! Family crest signet missing too?! Your wife’s jewels?! Ahh, bad luck friend…”
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My Lady Tirza

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My Lady Tirza,
I pray this finds you well, and that negotiations with the Dark Cloud and Wei Tang Marauder clans have gone as planned. I advise caution when dealing with the Brethren of the Southern Isles. Their leader, Captain Gweir is a wily man, and will seize upon any opportunity he is given. Once a deal is struck, however, he is a loyal ally. My brother has ever been so, since we were small children. When his loyalty has been earned, he will be a strong voice for you in the Council of the Seas, which has governed pirates for longer than anyone can remember. Uniting them with the brigand clans and the Thieves Guild is no small task, but if anyone can do it, it is you.  Continue reading My Lady Tirza →