20 Mirtul 1479

Busy but productive day today. Came in this morning (Allyson naturally insisting on camping, despite a late rainstorm and chill wind. I almost wish she'd give over this "keep Alfred away from the girls" campaign, except that it's so much FUN to tease her this way.) and were directed to a big open area where the caravans stop and so on. We headed for the tent with a flag out front that Sgt. Rogeth had described - red background, 2 crossed silver swords. (The fact that it also had Turlough written across it was another clue.) We announced ourselves as interested enlistees to the grizzled fellow behind a big worktable, all heaped with ledgers, paperwork and so forth. He looked a right veteran - old, scarred and ... I don't know how exactly to describe it, but I'm guessing that that's maybe what jaded looks like? - and I might almost have been intimidated but for the fact that a) after Allyson, what could be worse? and b) he was jawing with a younger fellow sitting nearby and they sounded near as bad as we do. He took our names, asked what we did and despite giving me the once-over when I airily suggested I did all sorts of things (in retrospect, I could have handled that better) said we could "try-out". He gestured us over to wait by a large oak until there were enough other...um, trier-outers? Enough others anyway.

First fellow in after us was a tall skinny Calishite - or at least he had the skin for a Calishite, but I don't think I've ever seen one with bright red hair before, made mine look positively lackluster - with a scimitar and a definite lack of words. I figured him for another like Allyson, all serious and no humor, but it seems he just doesn't talk much. He appeared another fighter, but just in leather and with a scimitar, so not the brute force approach at least. Moves well.

Next fellow - and the last one for the "first team" - was a little gnome (ok redundant, yes) who looked distinctly arcane - turned out to be wizard, but you can't always tell by looking.

Kargil (the vet) directed us to a ...well, a course they'd laid out. Looked like a big pigpen, but there were a bunch of chutes opening into the center. Deal with whatever happens and Kresh (the other fellow) is standing by as a healer - "just in case", yeah right - though obviously if we need rescuing, we're not good enough. No worries.

The first three chutes opened on a linked mechanism and spewed out 2 giant rats each - easy enough to deal with, but they opened the next chute before we'd completely mopped up to keep us hopping and that one had 2 dire rats, which are a bit tougher and then a huge swarm off the last chute before we'd finished the earlier. Before we'd finished the swarm, the first chutes had sent forth another lot of the giant rats and things began to look dicey. I got up on one of the chutes to keep it from opening, but it seemed that the main 3 chutes were the only ones that were going to open a second time - but at least it got me out of bite range. Used up all the healing I had and both Allyson and Calishite - who goes by Max - got pretty chewed up. No rescue, though, so we're in. We'll leave tomorrow on a caravan to Waterdeep - though we only go as far as Daggerford, they can pick up plenty more and better on that road. That all settled, there was only one thing left to do - head for the tavern!

Seemed bigger than I remembered from the one time I snuck up, but I'm bigger now, after all. We met the others for the caravan - a few merchants with 5 wagonsfull of cornmeal, a dark and mysterious (ok, just solitary, but it makes a better story this way) man of maybe Mom's age and a young(ish) woman traveling with her 2 small boys - I'd guess she was maybe 5 or 10 years younger than Mom, hard to say - who was traveling to go and live with her sister in Waterdeep. Gnf (the gnome) started up a chat with a pretty (at least I assume so, I'm no judge of gnomish standards) young girl who was heading into the Southwood for a walkabout, whatever that is - some kind of special wandering, I guess - and she shared some nice gossip before they wandered off. Rumors of a robbery at an arcane library in the south of the forest, run by eladrin (not sure what she meant, I mean, there's the weird tower with the old arcanist type - but he's no eladrin, they never look old) and that what was stolen was some highly guarded forbidden necromantic lore kind of stuff. She also passed on the usual rumors of kobolds ambushing caravans and bandits, stirges and fire beetles (ok, I admit, the fire beetles are unusual, but by that point alone almost certainly made up - the interesting stuff is never true, more's the pity) and we gave her some tips on dealing with the gobbies and orcs in the wood. She looked a proper druid, so I expect she'll be fine, but Mom always like the company, so....

I did manage to find myself a pretty and willing tavern wench - sweet girl and a good kisser, if I may be so ungentlemanly in my own journal, named Mairi. Allyson was a bit slower off the mark than I expected, which could have been awkward, Mairi being VERY willing, but she found us before things went too far astray. And she looked delightfully furious. I know Mom says I shouldn't rag her this way, but dammit, it's her own fault for being so overbearing.

Hm, I wonder now if our...ways are going to be a problem for the others - Kargil is going along, but given how he and Kresh act, he's not going to mind, but the others? Gnf looked a bit...at a loss when we were ah..chatting earlier in the evening, and my getting caught with Mairi didn't help and it's impossible to say with Max, he plays things close to his chest - wouldn't want to gamble against him that's for damned sure.

Anyway, it's late and we're up and off at daybreak, so that's it for tonight.