21 Mirtul 1479

I learned several things today.

First, little boys are trouble on 2 feet - and they're faster and slipperier than you might think.

Second, it's damned hard to pry off a stirge once it's on you and they stink like nobody's business.

Third, when the description of a spell - such as Sleep - says it affects an entire area, it means the entire area and everyone in it - INCLUDING YOUR ALLIES. Something the wizard might wish to consider in future.

And lastly, being a caravan guard is dead boring.

We trudged along all day and sure, the scenery is nice, but it's nice at home, too. And sure Gwyneth is pretty and friendly enough and her boys are cute..mostly, but there are pretty girls lotsa other places. None of which involve hiking along under the sun with road dirt kicked up into your face and a need to watch where you step, unless you're out in front of all the horses. The only excitement came at the end of the day when we stopped to make camp. Being at the bottom of the pecking order - not to mention pretty much the only employees - we were sent off to fill the water buckets at the nearby stream. For no apparent reasons one of the merchants, a youngish fellow named Cedric, decided to accompany us. Also, at the insistent pleading of her boys - Nathan and Jacob - Gwyneth brought them along, too. The stream was easy to find. Sadly the stirges nesting nearby found us as easily. Wouldn't have been much of a problem to defeat them, except one of the boys darted forward to see - managing to elude a number of outreached hands - and promptly got attached. In prying it off HIM, I managed to get it on to me. Not, perhaps, the best of plans, but Allyson was there, so no worries. On the other hand, that left Max dealing with the others on his own, not good. We loped over to help him and Gnf throws up his nifty Sleep spell, next thing I know, I'm face down in the stream, having had an ill-timed nap. All's well that ends well, though. We got the boys away, got the water back and no one was more hurt than I can deal with.

We had some good stories around the campfire too. What is it about campfires anyway? I know plenty of folks as won't talk around a fire in the fireplace or the pit, but put it outside surrounded by bedrolls and they're off and running. Anyway, Kargil tells some good stories, plenty funny and I naturally do quite well. Merrill - our dark and mysterious, or alright our solitary male who's not actually dark and is only terse and not necessarily mysterious - told a rather creepy story about demons and making bad choices. Cedric told - surprisingly well, he didn't seem that smooth a talker - a story about a supposedly nearby temple of Orcus and it's destruction - or near destruction. Merrill kind of went all still at that - clearly worried about it somehow - but whether he's just nerved out by the mention of Orcus or his story of bad choices with demons is more...personal than it sounded I can't tell. Doesn't much matter, really. It's not like we're heading there. Although Gnf did apparently remember something about there being some black skull embedded in an obsidian altar or some such. Tomorrow's gonna be another boring day just walking on the road. I may want to discuss with Allyson her ideas on grand adventure, they're a little lacking in either grand or adventure.