Kira's Journals

Well, a funny thing happened when we got to Urupa. The very first thing we did when we arrived was ask for directions to the marketplace. We figured that was where we could dig up the most information on the man who gave us the fake map. Thrak says his name was Abel. I perched myself on a rooftop near the market place to see if I could get lucky enough to spot the him from above. Thrak, Gir, and Malourin worked the crowd posing questions to the local merchants to see if anyone recognized the name or his description.

However, we were in the marketplace for not even an hour when I heard a disturbance coming from the North end of the marketplace. It didn't take me long to spot a crowd of people fleeing from that area like ripples on a still pond, all of them looking quite panicked. The ones flowing toward myself and the majority of the marketplace crowd were followed closely by what looked like some sort of livestock creature. My first reaction was that this creature was what started the stampede, but the expression on the animal's face told me I was mistaken. This creature had the look of terror in its eyes, not anger or rage. It seemed just as terrified as the people that were running from it. Still, the animal would have trampled many people in its own attempt to flee, had Gir not stepped in to calm it and set it aside. That problem having been dealt with, I yelled to my group to follow me as I flew to the north end of the marketplace, where the panic began. Once I got there however, I decided I would rather have dealt with that single beast.

What we found at the center of the ripple, or more accurately, the tidal wave, were things that I can only describe as crazed puppies with enormous jaws that hadn't been fed in about two years. These... well, I'm not sure what to call them. Just looking at them reminded me of the horror in Kaer Akarem. I'm sure Gir mentioned what they were called, gen... something I think, but I wasn't paying attention. Critters is too light a word. Devils isn't quite right either. Pests make them sound like insects, but I've never seen or heard of an insect that could do what these things did. Monsters... monsters is a fitting word.

These monsters were tearing apart everything they could get their teeth on. And I mean everything. They were eating the stands in the marketplace, people, other animals, and even each other. We four threw ourselves into the fray without any regard for our own safety, and, to our delight, so did many guards and other adepts that happened to be in the area and hear the commotion. It's a lucky thing too, because there were literally dozens of the little monsters and they would have easily eaten all of us and probably the rest of the city if these people hadn't come to help. It was very bloody and very hectic in that corner of the marketplace for probably the next twenty minutes, but the monsters were eventually taken care of; either by us adepts, the guards, or one another.

Afterwards we were all pretty beat up, and tripping over debris and other parts of things that I didn't want to know what they were or who they used to belong to. I can only imagine that somewhere in the mess was the man who owned that livestock animal Gir saved earlier. We did get to meet someone new during the whole mess though. There was a T'skrang fighting the monsters along side us, and she seems like someone I could relate to quite well. She's a bit of a free spirit, kind of like me.

Moving the story along, we were just about to start the clean up, which did not sound very pleasing to me, when we were approached by an ork, who offered us a job. He claimed that his daughter, Delia, was missing, stolen the night before by another ork, who had been lusting after her for years. He promised 300 silver, 200 more if we got her back before nightfall that same day, and we even negotiated horses out of him as well. He seemed good on that part of the deal at least, because he was a horse trader in Urupa. Now, I must admit that at the time, the only thing on my mind was getting some rest and the stink of those monsters off me, but I'm glad now that we took the job, because we helped out a few good people, and learned a fun new game in the process, but more on that in a bit.

The ork who hired us, Nissard, told us that Korvud, the ork that he thought had kidnapped his daughter, was a no-good lay-about who had nothing better to do than to either sit at home and do nothing, or cause trouble and drink with his lay-about friends at a tavern called the Freebooter. So after catching our breath for a bit, we decided to investigate at the tavern first, and our new T'skrang friend decided to come along. The more the merrier I say!

Upon arriving at the tavern, I got the impression that this was a place where not a lot of questions were asked. I'm not saying that this was a questionable establishment, but that one could come here to conduct business or to just have a drink with friends, and no one would bother you or even think twice about you. When we entered, we saw first the bartender who acknowledged us with a nod, then a group of orks who barely looked up from whatever they were doing, and a pair of people in a corner who didn't look up at all.

We approached the bar, and informed the bartender that we were looking for Korvud and asked if he had seen him lately. He said something to the orks across the room, in what I can only assume was in orkish, and they said something back, after which the bartender told us that Korvud hadn't been around all day. We asked if he knew where Korvud was, but he was reluctant to tell us anything. We thought it would loosen the mood a bit if we bought something, so Malourin and Thrak ordered a couple of drinks. I was watching the orks across the room and not really paying attention to the bartender anymore so I just jabbed my thumb at Thrak and said "I'll have what he's having." My intent surveillance of the orks was interrupted by a thud on the counter and a very foul smell reaching my delicate nose. The odor was as repulsive as a trolls armpit and twice as sickening. As if the smell of the drink, if you can call it a drink, wasn't bad enough, just the look of it was enough to turn anyone's stomach. I'm still not sure what happened over the next few moments, I was still reeling from the smell, but the next thing I knew, the orks were giving a look of approval to Thrak, and a good amount of the liquid in Thrak's tankard was missing.

Seeing that the portion of Thrak's missing drink wasn't on the floor, I could only assume one thing. So, playing along, I was working myself up to take a gulp off my own drink when the awful smell hit me again. I knew at that point that I was faced with a dilemma. I didn't want to look like I was afraid, but I also wasn't looking forward to losing my breakfast all over the bar. Then with a bit of inspiration in my head, I instead flew my own tankard of stinking something-or-other over to the orks' table thinking that this was the perfect opportunity to break the ice with the orks and try to get some information about Korvud. I put the tankard down in front of the nearest ork, looked at him, hopefully without any queasiness in my face, and said "Your turn."

Honestly, I still don't know how he did it, but just gave a small laugh and drank the entire thing in one gulp. There was nothing I could do in the face of such a constitution besides clap and be glad I didn't have to drink it, though I did still have to pay for it.

Trying to move things along, but not too obviously, I made an attempt at conversation with the group, but Thrak did a fine job of ruining that. He simply said "We're looking for Korvud," and by the look in the orks' faces, I knew I had my work cut out for me to get any information out of them. Luckily, I didn't have to think of a new plan, because one of the orks provided a nice distraction from the awkward moment when he suggested a game of cards. Malourin, Gir, and our T'skrang friend, whose name I've forgotten weren't interested, but Thrak and I were certainly up for some fun after a long day of traveling, fighting, and thinking. After all, every one of the events that I have described in this entry all happened within the course of only half a day, and I'm not done telling the story yet.

Anyway, the card game was quite interesting. They explained the rules quickly before we started playing, but I wasn't really paying attention, so I just followed their lead. They all started drawing cards off the top of a deck and throwing money into a pile so I did the same. I wasn't sure how many cards they were each drawing so I just took as many as I thought I needed each time my turn came around. Nobody said anything to me about it, so I figured I must have been doing it right. We went around the circle five times, then they told me I had the most points, so I won all the money on the table. I really enjoyed the game, and I think Thrak and I will have to play while we travel so I can practice drawing more cards.

After the game, I felt that the mood had been lifted enough to bring up Korvud again. Thrak made up a story that Korvud hired us as part of a business venture of his, but it didn't work. They knew that Korvud didn't have any interest in business, and therefore, that couldn't be the reason we were looking for him. They determined that the only reason we would be looking for him was if he owed money to us or whoever hired us. Seeing that giving these fellows the run-around was pointless, and knowing that his friends were probably looking out for his best interests, I simply came out with the truth. I said that it would be best if they told us where Korvud was as soon as possible, because if Nissard found him first, he was as good as dead.

I revealed that we were hired my Nissard to find him because Delia was found missing this morning and Nissard suspected Korvud of kidnapping her. However, I didn't need to do much more persuading than that, because at the mention of Delia's disappearance, one of the orks, who had been relatively quiet up to that point, looked very confused and taken aback. I missed his name, so I'll call him Sam. I didn't want to rush the situation, but I was eager to find Korvud before Nissard did something rash or desperate. So, I waited a few moments while the negotiations for Korvud's whereabouts struggled on before I moved in. I addressed Sam directly, saying that he looked surprised. He seemed reluctant to talk, but after a few moments, decided it would be better to just come out with the truth.

Long story short, that one lad had been helping Delia and Korvud sneak out to see each other in secret. The other orks were utterly shocked by Sam's confession. They hadn't been told at all, because Korvud felt that the fewer people who knew about the secret meetings, the safer their secret was. We also found out that Nissard and Korvud's father, I don't remember his name, had hated each other for a number of years, ever since Korvud's father had returned to Urupa and become better at the horse trading business than Nissard. And so, after receiving directions to a place where Korvud liked to go to be alone, where we were told he might be, we left most of the orks in the tavern, but took Sam all along with us.

He led us to clearing just north of town, where we stumbled upon a scene that I don't think any of us expected. We found Korvud, and we found Delia, but we found them with a priest of some sort, probably from one of the temples in the city, in what looked an awful lot like a wedding ceremony. Apparently, not even Sam knew of their plans to get married, because he was just as surprised as we were. Now don't get me wrong, I'm was very happy for these two that they had truly found love with each other and wanted to spend the rest of their lives together. However, I was very concerned that they would make both of their fathers incredibly angry and make a rivalry that was already growing to a feud even worse. (Not to mention I was that close to missing out on my share of 500 silver and horses.) For the moment though, we backed off and let them at least finish the ceremony without any more interruptions.

Meanwhile, the rest of us tried to think of a way to help the lovers get away safely and together and still get out payment. Some of the ideas we came up with were decent, but not foolproof, and most of them included lying to someone along the way. Malourin wasn't crazy about lying to anyone, so to our dismay, we were at a stalemate on what to do. Fortunately, Delia and Korvud, however reluctantly, agreed to return to their fathers and tell them the truth. In return, we agreed that we would help them find a place to begin their lives together away from arguing fathers, possibly in Valyan's Legacy.

Unfortunately, we all came to this agreement a bit too late. Just as we were setting out for the city, a group of six or seven city guards found us in the clearing. They were here on orders from Nissard to arrest Korvud for the kidnapping of Delia, though she was obviously fine. There was no place or time for the lovers to hide, even if they had wanted to. But they were determined to face their fathers face-to-face and break the good news to them, so they allowed the guards to escort us all back the city.

When we reentered the city walls, we were led straight to Nissard's place of business in the market place, and, upon seeing Korvud and Delia together, he nearly exploded. Thankfully, Malourin stepped in at just the right time. He bought us some thinking time by asking for our payment right off the bat. This caught Nissard completely off guard. He looked like he was ready to take Korvud's head off, but Malourin insisted on settling the deal right away. Nissard tried to get out of the deal by saying that Delia wasn't supposed to be married when we brought her back, but he had no escape. A deal was a deal, and as an honest businessman, he couldn't deny that in the end.

He paid hastily, and was about to begin his rant, when a very large, almost regal looking ork showed up. By the disgusted look on Nissard's face, this could only be Korvud's father. The rest of what took place there was almost like an out-of-body experience, in as much as there was nothing any of us could do but watch. I don't even think there was anything the guards would have done. It began with a shouting match between Nissard and Korvud's father, whose name I wasn't paying attention to. It was all in orkish too, so there wasn't a word of it I could understand, but I don't think they were wishing each other a good day. They were both shouting at each other, not loudly, but with a lot of intensity. In fact, it was so intense that they just kept getting closer and closer, gesturing and pointing fingers, that at one point, it looked to me like they were yelling at each others noses.

Just when it looked like someone was about to throw a punch, Korvud broke in, first yelling at his own father, saying something that sounded quite profound, and I only think that because both fathers fell silent immediately. Korvud then rounded on Nissard and said something else that was most likely along the lines of "I love your daughter, and we are married, and there's nothing you can do about it, so there!" But don't quote me on that. It's just what I got out of it. Anyway, at that moment, Korvud took Delia by the hand, and they walked out of the marketplace hand-in-hand as newlyweds, and no longer under the rule of their fathers. The two men had nothing left to say to each other it seems, because Korvud's father simply gave a sort of grunt and a snort and left the market place before anyone could say another word. Nissard turned to us and said that whenever we were ready to leave Urupa, to just come to him and he would set us up with horses.

We had one loose end to tie up though. I caught up with Korvud and Delia as quickly as my wings would carry me. I told them that if they needed anything they could always turn to us. I also gave them what I won in the card game in the tavern. I wished them luck and happiness and told them to think of the money as a wedding present from their friends, though I forgot to mention which ones.

I must say, after looking back on this entry, it was quite a good day. We made a little unexpected money, gave it away in the same day to two young, deserving newlyweds, and even picked up a new friend along the way. The T'skrang that helped us with the monsters in the market place has decided to join us on our travels. For now though, I think we will spend a little more time here in Urupa. You know, see the sights, visit some people, maybe play some more cards.

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