05 - The Journals of Gaylord Humpwarden

Day 397

One thing led to another and now I'm up a tree watching the others fight some strange people from a tree. Definately not bandits this time. They seemed angry... could be because we accidently found their secret base/village in the forest.

Ah Jack's with me. He just strolled back into the woods and climbed up next to me. After he, Alex, Joe (the mech), Kleos (my hired gun) and Asil walked into their compound to say hi, that is. Can't see Sigel and Render though. They must've did the smart thing and hide in a tree like me.


How I got on the tree here is a long story...
They walked back to the camp last night and told me that there was a Rift Fiend in the woods. They came back to resupply, apparently they've lost their provisions. That's what you get for being careless.

Rift Fiends. Haven't heard of them for a long time. Though most of those chaos creatures died after the great war, some still survive in the wild as nothing more than animals. Big, dangerous animals that's built for killing everything else.

So, I decided to get back to the truck and bring more help right away. I brought Kleos and Joe the next morning. Although the drive to Blackwood is only about half an hour, why it took me the whole night to bring them back to camp? Well... it's... it's complicated...

Anyway I brought them back to camp and then I decided that I should lead the team this time. Yup, that's me, brave, self sacrificing... and that Alex was holding my arm as he walked in front of me is because... he's scared and need reassurance... really.

We went back to their camp and retraced their steps. We found some tracks that lead to a pile of icky monster skin. The creature is apparently molting. The bad thing is, it's gotten more dangerous in its new form. The good thing is, it should be weak after the molt for a few hours. If we can kill it then, everything should be ok. Hey, you don't spend half your life with adventurers without knowing a thing or two about them.

Well, how we found this village is another strange thing. Render dropped his mother's lucky charm and he didn't know what it was. I've seen enough of Fayne using it so, I tought him how to use that Spyglass of True Seeing. Which is when we found out that the gorge in front of us is not a gorge at all, actually it's another part of the woods.

We saw these people here and they have to march straight in the village to say hi, presumably. Without a word, they attacked the party. Luckily I had the smarts to climb up the tree to... observe.



Did some tree fell in the woods? Felt a large thud just now. The battle's almost won. I saw a few of the attackers seemed to take their own lives than be taken ali... there it is again. What IS that... uh oh... oh no... oh no... big big... ha(@fsla!@#joalj The tree is cut! I'm FALLIIIIIIINNNG!~~~~~~~Q@#!