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.