Riloth 19th the 22nd

Dear Spellbook,

I failed less today. So that's a plus. Let's jump right in. I remember it all today, so there will be no love sick surprises.

Let's start at Levar’s where I took my first departure from the 20th. After making my purchase and taking my daily pick-me-ups I asked him. “I’ve heard that these potion ingredients can have some pretty nasty side effects. Do you have anything here that could temporarily remove a person’s sense of sound?”

Levar looked thoughtful at the question, musing “Hmm, yes they do. In fact, if you drank two more of those clarity potions your legs would stop working. Why do you ask, specifically?”

I had a lie prepared, but decided to go for the truth—or at least part of it “There is a harpy running free in these regions. I plan to hunt it, and I fear wax ear plugs would not suffice to protect me if it came to a battle.”

Levar just nodded at that, as if he heard things like this every day, “Ah yes, harpies are some of the most vile creatures. They are useful for a whole host of potions, but all of them are evil creations that warp the mind. I’ll tell you, I have been petitioning the Alchemist Guilds to ban the sale of so called ‘Love potions’ for years now. Love potions? More like rape potions if you ask me. I’ll have none of that, but my pleas to the guild fall on deaf ears. Haha, but that's what you are here for isn't it? Deaf ears?“ He laughed to himself, and I’ll admit I grinned. That was a pretty good one, Levar is currently my contender for funniest denizen of crossroads but so far his only competition is the baker.

He continued, “I have just the thing, and I’ll give it to you for free if you promise me to burn the monster when you kill her so no one will use the body for any immoral acts that would give us Alchemists a bad name.”

I agreed and, after much deliberation and muddling about his shop, he gave me three small kidney beans and a jar of yellow sap.

“Those there are kobold kidneys and a vial of bee venom. The kidneys will give you a terrible allergy to bees, and the venom, if you rub it in your ears, will cause them to swell up mighty fierce. I had to get creative. I could have just given you some dire wolf tallow and medusa hair, but those would react poorly with the clarity potions. Take the beans, and in an hour you should be suitably reactive to the venom. It will last a few days, the allergy at least, the swelling may linger.”

I thanked him and left, fighting the temptation to ask about where the medusa hair came from. Astride Ian, I made it to the camp around the same time as before. At the camp I stopped to eat some oranges, my choice of lunch for the day. Another exotic fruit from the mats, but one I have had once before. They are close contenders for the best travel snack— behind apples. The skin offers better protection, but also makes it harder to eat them on horseback while keeping an eye out for ambushes.

While eating my oranges, I swallowed the kobold beans whole and laid back reading Halfings, Full Hearts, waiting for it to take effect. So far in the book, the lead, an itinerant bard who lost his parents at a young age, was courting the daughter of the merchant guild leader. They met when he saved her from a gang of crazed sorcerers who had hunted her through the forest outside of town.

Sorcerers are pretty much the go-to villain in these bit novels. I like to read them to see what the modern perception of sorcerers are, as incorrect as they may be, so I can avoid emulating those things. It's purely research, I don’t like these books. I swear. So to add to my list, I need to avoid foaming at the mouth, walking around barefoot, and chasing down wealthy halfling heiresses in the woods. I think I can manage.

After an hour I applied the bee venom to my ears using my pinky. Almost immediately my ears began to swell up and the world around me grew quiet. My pinky also began to swell painfully. Once more I didn't think to ask if this could be dangerous, but in hindsight that was a mistake. I think I was relieved Levar wasn’t giving me another potion to potentially paralyze me or induce illness, but I just gave myself a very serious allergy. I knew a boy growing up who got stung by a bee and stopped breathing, he was only saved by chance. There had been a Blessed in town for the day who was able to heal him.

Eventually all I could hear was the pounding of my heart in my ears. It felt as if my heart was located in each ear, and each pulse was painful. As I walked through the woods I could feel a rash spreading from my ears and the tip of my finger. I hoped the harpy would not notice my giant red swollen ears for what they were. The plan was to, hopefully, take the harpy by surprise when she approached me. If I took her out, I figured the knight and I had a fair chance at taking out the ogre—if it still chose to fight.

I approached the tower the same as before, and this time intentionally made noise at its base to attract her attention. She banked down as before and approached cautiously. This time her eyes caught on the knight’s sword I had grabbed on the way, intending to give it to the knight if I successfully awoke him. Noticing her attention, I dropped the sword and painted the rapt awe on my face I was becoming achingly familiar with.

When she was only a dozen paces from me, I fired a Lightning Bolt at her, aiming for her wing in an attempt to ground her temporarily. The bolt’s aim arced slightly to her chest, causing her to stagger and drop to all fours. Capitalizing on the moment I unleashed two Firebolts in as many seconds. In my haste they were less powerful than usual, but they both made contact, one square in the back and the other a glancing blow on her leg. The impacts left charred flesh in an area the size of my head.

At this point, I snuck a glance towards the gate to see the love struck servants once more charging me with clubs. In the brief moment I looked away, the harpy recovered and leapt back into the air before my eyes. Reacting quickly I cast an Updraft forcing her to the ground.

I need to rename that. Updraft, Downdraft... Sidedraft? Tal’s Howling Wind? Gust? That is close enough. It's sudden, but I can maintain it. Gust it is.

I cast Gust forcing her to the ground and scrambled to pick up the knight's sword from where I'd dropped it. The harpy was pinned to the ground, her wings—once an aid to movement—now a hindrance under the intense wind. Sword in hand I approached to finish her off, but it was too late. The slaves were almost upon me. Without my Gust into the wall, they covered the gap much faster than before. I abandoned the sword and sprinted to the tree line. After gaining some speed I risked a glance behind to see the ogre was gaining on me while the men tried to rescue their mistress from the winds.

There are few things I have experienced more terrifying than an ogre bearing down on you. I don't know if it was intentional or instinctual—even now with your recollection—but when the ogre was two paces behind me, I Blinked the remaining distance to the treeline. The distance was almost a hundred feet and exhausted my remaining will.

My heart was pounding from the mix of fear, panic, and exhaustion combat brings. As I labored to breathe each beat of my heart made my ears feel as if they were going to explode. Through my gasps for air, I managed to drink another clarity potion—this time hardly noticing the rancid taste.

It took the ogre a moment to locate me in the trees but once he did, he set off after me with renewed vigor and rage visible on his face.

I ran carefully through the trees. After taking a branch to the face that drew blood, I activated Arcane Armor and sprinted head long through the woods. I'd never used this spell in this manner before, but the branches and leaves of the forest parted before me, using very little of my Will in the process.

With my smaller size and Arcane Armor, I quickly outpaced the ogre’s larger strides in the forest. After running for what felt like a half hour, I found a place to hide and regain my breath. The pounding in my ears was unbearable. I spent a couple of minutes recovering my breath while hiding in a standing dead tree that had become hollow with rot.

Poking my head out of my hiding spot, I couldn’t see any signs of the ogre, but through the branches I could catch glimpses of the harpy flying in wide circles above. I had resigned myself to hiding in this tree until the reset when I felt a significant drain on my Will. Looking around dumbly I saw an arrow sticking out of the trunk inches from my head.

Gerald was hunting me.

Leaving Arcane Armor active, I ran around the tree I was hiding in and tried to lose Gerald in the woods. My only chance of evading him was the hope that the spell he was under reduced his ability to track. I contemplated attacking him, but felt that would be wrong. He was not hunting me of his own will. A last resort if it came to it. I know he will be here after the reset, but I don’t know what will happen to me if I were to die. I am a curious person, but that is one thing I am not interested in researching.

Running blindly into the forest, I felt the occasional sapping of my Will when I ran too close to a branch, and the more significant drains that meant Gerald was not only still able to track me, but was able to shoot me while doing so. After two more deflected shots from Gerald’s bow left my Will dangerously low, I started searching through my bag for another clarity potion. Uncorking it and putting it to my lips as I ran, I tried to take sips between my desperate gasps for breath, but I took another hit from Gerald exhausting the last of my Will. The arrow hit my back lightly—most of its momentum absorbed by my magic—but the shock of the hit caused me to fall down, spilling my turd flavored salvation. Luckily, I had spares. Taking this potion was a risk, but letting my shield drop would be much more dangerous. I now had thirty minutes to escape before the effects set in.

If Levar was right.

Scrambling to my feet, I fished out my last potion and chugged it before I began my run. There was no way I could out run Gerald, that much was clear. Panting for breath, casting Arcane Armor was a struggle despite the mental focus I had just regained. Before the spell was complete an arrow streaked by me to embed itself in a tree. The shock broke my focus and the spell was lost, but I now could see where Gerald was. He stood atop a fallen tree one hundred paces away, drawing another arrow. I was saved by the distance and his heavy breathing I could see even that far away.

At this range he had every advantage with his bow, so I took a page out of Bearskin’s book and charged straight at him. Sort of. Right before he released his arrow I Blinked ahead as far as I could manage to appear twenty paces away with a massive oak between us. I stood there trying to stifle my panting, but unable to hear if I was successful. After a few moments, Gerald walked into my view, looking around frantically in all directions. Not giving him the chance to see me I cast a Lightning Bolt, which hit him square in the chest causing him to drop to the floor in a twitching mass.

I closed the distance between us as fast as I could, but he was starting to recover before I got there, forcing me to cast another Lightning Bolt. This time he fell long enough for me to reach him and when I did I grabbed his bow and continued on into the woods. With the fear of being shot removed, it was only a slightly less terrifying experience. Every couple of minutes I would stop to see if I could see any pursuit, but after ten minutes with no signs I started to look for a place to hunker down till night.

Eventually I found a hiding spot in a bend in a dried stream bed, I have been held up here for a few hours now. My hearing has recovered enough to have me worried I might be entranced again, but it's getting dark. If they haven’t given up the search they will soon. I can’t risk a light, but I don’t really have much to add.

I am exhausted, I could sleep anywhere—which is good I guess because I am about to sleep in a hole in the ground in the forest—and my legs don’t work, so I can’t move. Checking to see if I had Will poisoning from that third potion, I tried casting Message to Simon, but it didn’t work. It didn’t hurt like when I suffered Will poisoning, it was as if I had cast the spell with no target in mind. Trying again with Levar, this time it worked, and I sent him the impression of Gratitude. Casting left me with a slight headache, but nothing like before. Thankfully I didn't push myself too hard.

Let's try to do better tomorrow.