rosora

[rosora]

Downtime after Sokol

Dear Diary,

Now that I'm spiritually and physically recharged, I've been thinking about taking training to the next level.

So far, I've been training the humans at a remedial level. I treat them like young adults, but their training is more fit for children. In the local human culture they're children well after their 10th birthday, but some of my students are adults even by local custom.

It's well past time for a Hunt.

For the next couple weeks, while running my usual lessons, I'll be assessing my students to see who seems most ready to apply their skills. I have a couple in mind who I think are ready, but I'm hoping for about half a dozen.

I've never been a particularly adept hunter myself, but we will bring enough supplies that we won't have to rely on our survival skills. In between the classes, I'll begin scouting the nearby wilderness, and asking local hunters about the best hunting grounds.

XOXOXOXO,

Rosora

[rosora]

Sokol Keep

Dear Diary,

Today we got paid three times for one job.

We went to Sokol Keep, a stone fortress on an island, and did jobs for three different groups. A group of wizards asked us to identify why the lighthouse on the island had stopped shining. The family that controls the keep wanted to know who had murdered the head of their household. The Black Fist wanted to know what happened to their missing mercenaries, particularly one of their warleaders.

We found our way through secret tunnels, where I defeated two enchanted suits of armor. First I swung Flame Tongue at one that was holding a glowing sapphire, and with a perfect blow I smote it with steel and fire and radiance. Twitch actually had to finish it off, I because it was still standing, but I think Bella will leave that part out of the song. Then the second I felled with another perfect blow, and that one really did go down in a single smiting strike. I took as a trophy the barnacle covered gauntlet that had held the sapphire.

Then I swam through a murky sinkhole lined with spikes, bringing along a rope to help my companions reach the other side more easily. I made a truly embarrassing attempt to bust open the door beyond the sinkhole -- not only did I fail, but I fell into the water trying -- and was shown up by Twitch who managed to muscle it open then help me and Bella out of the water without falling in himself.

The door opened up to a hallway lined with prison cells, and I opened my senses to the divine to see if there were ghosts within them. Instead I found that something undead lurked behind us in the sinkhole, so we closed that door. At the end of the hallway, there was a brass door.

Through the brass door we found a ritual chamber littered with corpses, with a glowing jade statue of a demon above a pool of water that was brown with blood. My divine senses showed us that the corpses were in fact undead. We fought them. Bella rotted their minds with vicious mockery. Twitch stabbing them in the back and set up flanking for me, and I burned and butchered them.

With the undead defeated, we were able to investigate and find the answer to all three questions. First, we determined that the demon statue was magically activated, causing it to suck out the light from the lighthouse. Next, we found the mercenaries hiding in a cave like cowards. And their warleader was the one who had murdered the household head, in a misguided attempt to profit from the sale of the demon. We believe the wizards probably killed him to deactivate the demon statue, which seems quite fair.

Now I'm back in the dormitory, and looking forward to continuing my training routines. I'm exhausted physically and magically, but I will write more in the morning.

XOXOXOXOXO,

Rosora

[rosora]

Week 2

Dear diary,

It was easy to get used to the fact that everyone's skin is just different shades of orange, but the way they live is just so confusing. I get to sleep in a bunk room (the ceiling is WOOD! It turns out there are some perks to sedentary life), but some people here sleep alone in private boxes!

Some of the older people in my fighting class want to pay for my room, and it seems important to them, so I let them. I'm going to invite them to dinner in the inn, and pay for them if they let me, because I'm pretty sure that's how hospitality works with money?

The economy here is so confusing. Trading is for between tribes, not individuals; everyone knows that! Before I left for the Rite of Glory, my elders told me that the tribes here are tiny -- sometimes just one person! --  but, these people don't really treat each other like they're in different tribes. Is this town essentially a grand federation of lots of miniscule tribes?  I am so confused. I'm beginning to I understand what warriors mean when they come back from their Rite of Glory and say the battles were nothing compared to the culture shock. Maybe I should have listened to Auntie Spine-Eater when she told me go to the trolls instead of the humans. Several of the young adults in my class don't want me to hit them. Humans aren't much less sturdy than we are, so maybe everyone around here grows up slowly? (This place is so weird!) For now I put everyone too young for the Rite of Glory into the children group, and I only hit them hard enough to sting a little. When one of them protested to the gentler handling, I just told them the truth: "Your ways are strange to me, but the others call you 'child', so for now I'll believe them." I'm not used to this culture, so I'll err on the side of caution.

There's one old person who shows up to my class for every session. It's she and her friend who want to pay for my room. It seems like the extra years these humans' long lifespan provide them are just years of elderly frailty, so I haven't been hitting her too hard, because injuring someone while training them not to get injured is counterproductive. But she's the most normal of these people, so I'm not going easy on her, just being careful not to cause any breaks or sprains. She's gonna get really good at blocking hits to the tops of her legs, since that's the only part of her fleshy enough for me to be confident I can hit hard without breaking anything. There's also some soldiers in my class who were ordered to come to me. (They give orders during downtime, but when they're fleeing a raid they don't have leaders? Is everything upside down here?). One of them is clearly unhappy with a proper training regimen, but he doesn't want to admit his weakness, and since he's not exactly here of his free will, I only give him a bad bruise a couple times per session, and only when he makes the same mistake for a third time or so. I usually aim to put those bruises in very visible places so no one notices I'm coddling him. (I was always big and strong for my age, but I've seen what it's like when someone is perceived as weak). Other than that I only hit him a little harder than the children. I'm still holding out hope he'll ask me to stop going easy on him, so I can breathe a sigh of relief and go back to covering him in welts like a proper teacher.

I like these people fine, but their culture is bizarre. I'm starting to get why Twitch always calls them "humies". At least him I understand: he really does act like a tribe of one.

That's all for now. Hopefully my next entry will have some acts of glory to report.

XOXOXO,

Rosora