The Journal of Ez

Perhaps it is best to never read poetry scrawled on a cave wall.

For one, it will most likely attract attention, such as the stinky men who dwelled inside of the cave. Another, it's generally very,very bad. I probably will not sleep tonight due to images that can no longer be unseen dancing amok.

I asked one of the stinky men before they attacked if one of them wrote it, in hopes they would exacerbate further on what they may even be talking about. I did not get a response. I kind of hope so, as to feel good about getting revenge against wasting our time like that.

Maybe I'll ask the halfling we captured when he wakes. I doubt it though. I'd rather not think about that filth again.

It is my belief that the lifeblood of this party seems to be nothing more than close calls with death. Those who do not understand the ebb and flow of our crew's dynamics fall victim so easily and even those who have been with us since the very beginning seem to meet with Death's hollow gaze more than once in such a short amount of time.

Myself included, of course. As I'm writing this, I have realized that I am subconsciously twirling the strands of white hair. I need to quit that.

We had a guy in the crew for a while; Said his name was Stick. Seemed like a reasonably brave enough fellow, though a tad on the eclectic side, even for us. Had a (dis?)fascination with bovine folk, but had no problem facing things like dragons and traps. Interesting, but interesting alone does not save a man from the likes of Ranchefus. I regret we could not give him a more proper sendoff.

We nearly lost Seped to a potent poison. Eek was nearly strangled by the crazed jailkeeper in the keep's lower levels (Whom last I checked, was screaming something about the sky raining carrots onto the desert and thus bringing about the growth of The Fourth Great Rabbit Empire. This is why I suggested we only let her use her mouth when we give her food.) I myself nearly got it by setting off two traps, one of which will cause me to double check any latrine before continuing further from now on. And whole lot of nearlys to go with the fatals. Not to mention we now have a ring which, while it's enhancements are minor, its attractors are not. Thoster's words were clear on this matter thoroughly.

There's some good in all of this though: Ranchefus has been defeated. We got that much in the way of good news to bring back to the keep. Maybe the jailkeeper we brought with us will come to our senses and admit something that may further our investigations, though I highly doubt it. Dadelus, a prisoner of the keep and our newest member, seems to able to hold up on his own, though we shall see if that holds true in the future. The boy who helped us in the keep may be okay, too. So it's not all death. Just perilous. Some would call it "Exciting", even. Heh.

I will end here. It is late and the old jailkeeper's has loosened the ties around her mouth enough so that she may welcome the new night with an ongoing song about "the wonderful times that are torture times". I do not wish to know what the second or third verses are, and I'd much rather make sure she doesn't finish the first.

I still feel cold at night.

The others, they kind of shrugged it off. The white creature, I mean. I'm sure they were horrified; they saw the white streak forming in my hair and assumed that bad things were afoot. But they don't actually know how bad it was. They didn't feel life pass on from one to I assume the next and for a while I don't think I could feel anything but the fear. I was lucky we managed to get it off so quickly, this I know.

It's been a while since that happened. But I still feel cold. Maybe that's why I went crazy against the remaining giant. The first real taste of battle since the incident, I didn't think. I needed it out of my system, what I should have done against the life-taking creature. I know this was the wrong action; Running into battle was what got me into this mess in the first place. But I did it anyway And a mighty cleave that was, to the point where Havoc expressed concern over my actions. I think he could sense I've been brooding since the incident too as he had tried to reassure me that things were alright. I wasn't listening very hard.

I don't remember much else of it. I remember the hit, and someone else finishing the job I started. Giants bleed a lot.

We've seen a lot of things in this short time. Amazing things. We've actually negotiated with a dragon, a green beast who revels in pleasures I know not the reason. Seped keeps damn agitating it. If that gets us eaten, he's cordially invited to be the first one to be consumed I'm sure.

We've met a fellow traveler who seemed to be not afraid of this dragon. Very respectable, but maybe it's that his fear cannot be physically manifested: He started blabbering on about cows and such, so maybe that was his way of coping with the suddenness of the encounter.

And now we're about to storm a keep. Well, quietly rain into a keep, maybe. A lot of ideas has been thrown out for The Plan, but I think we're taking the simple approach. This is good. Simple is effective. I'm used to simple. We'll see if it gets complicated, though.

But never again. Never again will I feel that cold. I refuse to let that happen. I won't.

I think I hear the pixie mumbling in his sleep again about some sort of new spell. Despite the success of his last idea, I still worry about all this sudden idea stuff. I'm just going to pretend it's an established thing he's talking about and not worry about whatever explosions that may result.

Ow ow ow ow ow. My face hurts.

My shin hurts too. A lot of other things hurt too that I don't want to talk about right now. If there was ever a more embarrassing battle for myself, that would be it.

I'm a bounty hunter. Well, originally. It's hard to do that in a group. But I'm used to doing all this pain stuff to the other guy in my search and getting them to "see my way". Through a fist. I don't think I did this big of a fumble since my initial training.

I must be getting soft in my time with this crew. I need to learn to shape up and remember what my teachers taught. Get to them before they can to you...

At the very least, that Voras guy is a decent enough healer. Remind me to buy us both a beer, assuming nothing bad will happen with my cheek if I try to drink it...