Today was another fine day in my new life on the run. I managed to rest for a few days since our last tango with the goblin, and today I feel particularly lively—so I decided to have a few drinks at the Barnacle Inn and perhaps meet some friends or gather more info on the current situation. It's always better to be ahead than to be a head.

I saw the usual bunch at the inn: Valkorian, H01211X, and Nephr. Oh, and I also saw Sho—haven't seen him in a while, not since the durian fight. He hasn't used his Durian Knuckle yet, though. But then I wonder: will his hand stink after using it? A curious point to note down for future reference.

So all of us gathered around, shared some introductions and laughter, and then in came a cute little froggy wearing a tall wizard hat. Everyone was calling him King Shoom. He is just the cutest and roundest. I wonder—doesn't he bounce like a ball? (Note to self: need to verify the data. Need to bounce him in a future encounter.)

Soon a large crowd had gathered around King Shoom. Looked like everyone was trying to get a piece of him—particularly a lady called Seryn. She was especially insistent, trying to approach King Shoom, and from the look of it, he wasn't liking it one bit. There was a bit of cat-and-mouse going on; I'll skip that part. Oh, and then there's this tortoise-looking guy wearing shades who came together with Seryn. His name is Koolra-Kura, and he is totally intoxicated and aloof.

Eventually, King Shoom managed to get away and get to the main point. He informed us that he is looking for some people to bring three little froglets and himself to a temple somewhere. Hmm, can't they just roll over? I wonder.

So in the end, me, Valkorian, Nephr, H01211X, Sho, Seryn, and Koolra-Kura signed up for this quest, and off we went.

I carried King Shoom on my shoulder as he led the way to the Froglets Grove, and I can verify that he is very squishy and a bit bouncy when you hit him with the correct momentum. I had verified it a few times throughout our brisk walk to the Froglets Grove.

Once we arrived at the Grove, we were greeted by lush, picturesque scenery and many baby Froglets. Awww, they are soooooooo cuteeeee. I wanna kick them all. They look like balls.

Anyway, we were introduced to three baby Froglets named Gobbles, Garbit, and Hamlet. Very poetic. So we need to bring these little ones to the temples. Off we go.

It was uneventful along the way, but we did meet Mary Jane, onto whom Sho conveniently dumped his responsibility. We reached the temple grounds shortly after that and saw this humongous toad just chilling beside the bridge. Its eyes were unblinking, like it was staring back into our souls. Sho was the first brave soul to walk across the bridge. Luckily nothing happened. Then everyone crossed one by one—until Seryn, who seemingly elicited a response from the giant toad. She was scared and chose the other route.

Long story short, we all made it across and reached the temple. Then all the Froglets stripped down and jumped into the water for a swim. Hmm, unfortunately, that would be the last thing Garbit would do before being swallowed alive by the Giant Toad from earlier. Imagine the trauma. Pity. Then a few more giant toads showed up—three of them.

We fought, we charmed, and we scared all the giant toads away and managed to save Garbit. After that, everyone was not in the mood to swim anymore and quickly left the area.

Halfway through, the baby Froglets started panicking as they realised they forgot to wear their clothes. How come no one noticed this until now? Perhaps the way had taken too much out of us. King Shoom looked at us with beady eyes and requested that we retrieve the clothing.

So no choice—we doubled back to the temple grounds. By the time we reached there, the sun had set and skeletons had populated the area. Everyone inched forward slowly, trying not to touch the water or the skeletons, until we reached a fork in the road. Sho, using his acrobatic skill, managed to cross over while the rest of us waited on the other side.

I also teleported over to accompany Sho on his quest. We found the clothing still where they had left it. But beside it stood a lich, looking so fierce and mighty. I was scared and asked Sho to go ahead while I waited slightly farther away. Sho slowly approached the lich and grabbed the clothing beside it. Just as he was about to turn away, he suddenly stopped. He was staring right at the temple. Not moving. I got worried and moved closer toward Sho.

Sho alerted me to stop moving—I had attracted the attention of the lich. I asked Sho why he was taking so long. He said he saw something shiny inside the temple and wanted to grab it. Me, with my experience on the run, thought that was a bad idea. I said my piece to Sho and wished him luck. Then I ran all the way back to the others.

But luckily, Sho didn't let his curiosity control him. He also managed to safely make his way back to us, and we all left the temple grounds together.

Once we were back at the Froglets Grove, the kids went to bed and King Shoom rewarded us 150 gold each for today's effort. Yea, more money!

Dawnport

I didn't imagine today would turn out as eventful as yesterday. I still haven't gotten rid of the durian smell on me, and here I am, dragged into another fight. At least I'm faring better than yesterday — managed to hit and eliminate some enemies. Perhaps I'm finally getting used to this environment.

So, back to the story. Here's how it goes:

It was a sunny day. I was walking along the streets of Dawnport on my way to the Barnacle Inn to get myself a drink and calm my nerves after yesterday's fight, when I caught myself looking at a mysterious green being — somewhat metallic, yet still moving. Probably a mechanical life form. I wanted so badly to learn more about it; my inventor personality demands it. But then again, I can't just walk up to him and say, "Hey, I want to study you — can I?" Hmm. Dilemma. Ah, forget about it. I moved toward the inn.

Oh, I met Hacker along the way. At the inn, we met another artificer — hmm, I think her name was, erm, Ember. Right, yes, that's it. She says she's not from this plane. Go figure. So anyway, as we were happily chatting away, in comes the metallic machine again. Ta-da! What a surprise. We meet again, my green friend.

Apparently, I'm not the only one attracted to this wonderful living being — my new friends are as well.

We discussed and inferred the origin of this creature and how it operates. Such fascinating creatures, oh my — my eyes are shining. While this was going on, a beat-down guy suddenly rushed into the inn, seemingly out of breath. He latched onto the metallic guy, who was standing in the center of the room. He said something about gems and stuff, but I wasn't particularly listening — still marveling at the mechanical being. I must study it. Perhaps a probe at it. It looks like my friends have similar thoughts, so we approached those two guys curiously. But we got called out — something about hiring us as guards or something as well. Never mind, that doesn't matter, as long as we can study the mechanical being up close. So I readily agreed.

Then all of us — erm, I think six in total, including the mechanical being named H01211X (cool name, by the way), some paper-wrapped guy called Nephr-Ka-Ra, and a bard named Valkorian — went on our merry way in a wagon with Hudson, the one who hired us.

Then shit happens, bla bla bla — met some goblins, bla bla, killed three, bla bla. I'll spare the boring details; that's not important. What's important is we learned that the source of H01211X's power is solar power. Wow. Amazing.

(Note to self: Better not let others know I can speak Goblin, or I'll get blamed like poor H01211X.)

Anyway, we reached our destination, and Hudson started talking to this old hag — for some reason I can't recall her name — and we received some gold. 120 gold, to be exact. Nice. I can stop eating the durian jerky now.

Yeah, that's all. Thanks for listening.