An abridged story of the life of Dorota

A long time ago, there was a little Gnome. Little is relative. If you were to compare her to a human child of the same age, the child would have been almost the size of a grown-up Gnome. The young Gnome grew up in a most unusual family, especially for Gnomes.

You see, Gnomes are tinkerers at heart. The family she grew up in, tinkered with the heart. They did so through music, story, and magic.

Her Ojciec was a great orator. Her Matka had an amazing voice. With her violin, her Babcia, the most beloved of her family, could make even the toughest Czar weep. Of her Dziadek, little is known. It is said he could not abide by his wife's decision to travel the world and perform and he wanted little to do with his son.

Long before the young Gnome laid eyes on the weathered skin, happy with wrinkles, our story begins. Long before she had earned the name Babcia (Grandmother for those who only speak Common), she was called Dorota.

Dorota grew up during the time when Gnomes were persecuted. They were forced to live in villages of their own, with little contact with the humans in the Steppes. She learned all the things girls were supposed to learn from their Matka. She learned to sew, clean and cook. She could read a little, but barely more than the Good Book on which she was raised. Her Ojciec taught her one thing that was not required of a future house-wife. He taught her to play the violin. He showed her the many ways to elicit emotions from the strings.

By the appropriate age, her Matka had chosen a groom for her. He was from a good family and was to be a Cleric of their faith. It was not long after they wed, that they soon welcomed their only son, Jacek.

For nearly three years, they lived in peace. Then a revolution began. The old Czar had made a few advances towards ending the persectution of Gnomes. His Heir, felt that his father had been lead by lunacy in his late years and started reversing the policies his father had set forth. He soon learned just what Gnomes were capable of if you made them mad. And he had thousands of angry Gnomes to deal with. Some of the more entertaining stories pertain to the booby-trapped carriage that flipped on him... but that is a tale for another time.

For the first time in centuries, Gnomes were free to travel the country. The still young Dorota wanted to travel and play her violin across the nation. The Cleric would have none of that and did not even like her practicing.

So in the dead of night, she took her violin, the clothes on her back, and her young son and went out into the world. They spent most of the first fortnight just sight seeing. They were in awe of the human cities. She would play her violin on street corners to earn bread to feed them.

It wasn't long before a noblewoman heard the violin singing to the city as she passed in her carriage. She offered Dorota and her young son a place to stay and food, if she in return played for her. It was in the service of Lady Katarzyna that Dorota met the traveling Gypsies. They were brought in to assist in the entertainment for a very large fete. The Gypsies had already acquired a few Gnomish players, but were keen to have a few more Gnomish musicians. So with Lady Katarzyna's blessing, Dorota set out with the Gypsies after the fete.

Her son learned to act and speak from the Gypsies and became as great an orator as the best of the humans. Dorota assisted a young mother with the birth of her child, a girl. It was decided then that the girl was meant for Jacek. And thus the family tree grew to include not only Gnomes, but a varied band of Gypsies and eventually the young Gnome, who wide-eyed and eagerly learned to make Czars weep just by drawing horse hair across the strings of her Babcia's violin.

Sztuczka's Journal

Azam and Nogori disappeared. I've been trying to get Tupper to let me do the talking. We don't know if they wandered off on their own or if our "hosts" took them and Tupper totally shoulda put his foot in his mouth and let me talk and Hrogar was letting me talk and

(blank)

Soooooo Nogori is back and apparently if you try and wake her up she turns you into a squirrel and it was fun being a squirrel but I don't like nuts so it's probably a good thing they got me changed back and I am not sure but I think the monk managed to piss her off even more and finally we got it out of her that she had found an obsidian portal and she and azam went through it and when they came back she went to bed and Azam was talking to the Seneschal and Mystera returned and now we need to decide what to do. Getting this group to do anything is a pain in my patootie!

Magical Girl Nigori: Lost at Sea

Dear Ms. Diary,

I have good news and bad news.

The good news is that, just by thinking about home really hard, I can make myself teleport! So that's neat.

The bad news is that, um, I maybe haven't quite completely mastered the teensy weensy issue of teleporting to where I want to go.

I mean, I can't complain too much. Sashie taught me all this magic stuff, so maybe this is something he's doing. Sending me to wherever I need to be or something, or maybe he's just really nice and thought I could use a break from Tupper's endless yammering, or the giant mean fish somehow figured out how to mess up my spell casting, so I should have gone to the right place, but they totally made me go someplace else.

Oh, no! That would be terrible! What if they're figuring out how to block my spells?!?!?! The world will be doomed in no time!

I've got to figure out how to break through this. I know I can do it. I just have to think about home really, really hard.

Are you ready, diary?

Here I go!

Oh, look! Whales!

Be back in a jiff, Ms. Diary!

Journal of Lt. Tupper, Day 253

Day 253
I hate being a frog.

The nutcase decided to sell me off to the Seneschal today; when I refused, she pulled the same stunt she did the last time she didn't get her way. Fortunately, the Seneschal seems to have as much sense as she has arcane power and restored me to normal. She was also willing to expound her organization. They battle a group known as the Isphit, as noted; a faction of aboleths that loathe all sentient life as we know it, led by a very old 'prime' aboleth. The last time they rose up, Ehlonna herself vanquished them with the staff. The quartz crystal necklaces we have encountered are part of an extensive communication and control network: the bearers are subjected to a mind control spell, then given orders remotely through them. The Seneschal and her allies also use the necklaces to communicate, though interception of enemy messages is nigh-impossible.

As for Nogori, she has apparently run off to sulk about her failure at the slave trade. Azan and Mistera are also gone, though Mistera had to leave early in the day on vision-based business and Azan presumably left to find something to punch. That or our hosts are slowly picking us off, which is too ridiculous to consider at this stage.

Which means it is entirely probable.

Journal of Fflam - Final Entry

Well, that's that, I suppose. One moment, we're fighting a lich, then an explosion of fire... and darkness.

Not that explosions of fire followed by darkness are all that uncommon for me, but the darkness usually goes away after a while and I find myself missing a fair bit more hair. This time upon waking, I discover not burned patches and pain, but rather that ALL my hair has returned! My beard is thick as it ever was, and perfectly groomed and braided. Then I realize where I am, and what must have brought me here.

The Halls of Moradin are far grander than any tale or song could have suggested. If you were to take all the greatest dwarven cities in the world and brought them all together in a single great cavern, they wouldn't hold a candle to this. I couldn't even begin to describe...

So I won't.

I can look down on my death, and the rest of the group as they clear out the remaining shades. For a moment I think if they'd just given me my axe, maybe I could have been more effective against it. But of course I suppose I've done more harm than good with that recently, thanks to that blasted aboleth. (I'm sorry for that, Sztuczka.) Of course, having no weapon on me made me realize I could turn the shades with the fury of Moradin, keeping them off the rest of the party. And once Hrogar handed me that small axe, it came alive with the power of the Soul Forger and I was able to use it to great effect on the lich.

Ah, I realize now it was a good death. A death fit for a dwarf and a warrior, against the forces of the dark.

It's been made clear to me that I can remain here in the halls of Moradin for a time and follow the progress of the rest of the group. Eventually though I will have to make my way up to the Soul Forge, so my soul can be sent back to start life anew. Until then, I will watch with interest this ragtag party of... odds and ends. If this is the group that is to save the world, you wouldn't know it by looking at them.

At least they seem to have found themselves another dwarf to keep them in line, although the idiot can't even afford a decent set of armor...

Things aren’t always what they seem.

Nigori did some investigating and found a portal. Not knowing if this was a portal like the enemies I thought it was important to investigate. After getting pass several locked doors and protective creatures we came across the portal. I decided we should go through the portal and see what was on the other side. On the other side we came across a sailing/warrior clan. They were the clan that attacked Stonekeep. I talked with their leader, a shaman to try and find out more information about the group that hired them to attack the keep. They claim that they are in this area to fight the creatures that hired them in the first place. They were told something evil would come through the portal.

After staying in their camp over night we went back through the portal only to meet up with the Seneschal and two Iron golems. She escorted me to a cell, obviously wanted to know how and what I was doing. After some time sitting in the cell the Seneschal showed up. After talking to her for a while we came to an agreement that I would still help her with the requests she had asked from our party. Later that day I was able to find the group wandering around. I told them what had transpired. A few days later Mistera showed up and we went through the portal to try and track down some sea weed.

Magical Girl Nigori: Chilling Outside the Temple

Dear Ms. Diary,

So I guess I picked up some kind of evil item, and now Heracles won't let me go adventuring with anybody else. Which might mean I did something bad, but it might just mean that he really likes me and this is his excuse not to let me go into the dungeon because there's something really bad in there. One of the two.

Oh, and I found the best shark ever. So Azam and I went through this portal that I, you know, had just kind of found, and wanted to see where it went to make sure it wasn't evil and stuff, and we found this guy who could see me even though I was totally invisible (which was too bad, really, since I was wearing, like, the cutest little parka, and if he hadn't been able to see me, then too bad for him, you know?), and he took us to his village, and Azam gave me some money for some fish (like I need money, but it would have been rude to say no), and they had some shark, and all the guys there (they were all guys, since they were a war party and all, so their wives and stuff were at home. Poor guys.) were like "Here, you should eat this shark," so I did, and it was really tasty. But then it got me, like, really, really drunk, like way not princess drunk, but the sailors were all really nice to me, and they helped me lie down, and then they found out I could do magic and got kind of scared, but I told them it was totally okay, and made the parka disappear, and then they wanted me to show them that spell some more, so I totally did, like, a fashion, and then...

Well, Ms. Diary, I'm sure you're too much of a lady to want to know the details. Especially since they gave me some more shark, and I don't really remember much of the details, except that when I woke up, I couldn't find my clothes, and I'd lost some money. OH!, but one of the viking guys liked me so much he gave me a really nice pearl. It's all gray and stuff. And then everybody was, like, super nice to me on the walk back to the portal. I guess Azam spent the night, like, talking to some old guy or something, so he missed out on the fun, but that's alright.

Oh, and then the mean lady was there when we came back. I would have talked to her, but I needed to go to bed. But I'll bet she made the aboleth that's down there take over the brains of the fishies. I mean, there's no other possible explanation for why they kept trying to wake me up. A girl needs her beauty rest, you know? And besides, it's not nice to break into someone's house! Especially not a Magical Girl. You're likely to end up a squirrel or something.

Also Shtu liked being a squirrel. I wonder if she'd like to be a kitten. Or a monkey.

Oooh! Monkeys. I could make her a sea monkey!

I wonder how my brother's sea monkeys are doing. I miss him.

And Sashie.

Oooh, Sashie. I hope he won't be mad about the whole viking thing.

I wonder if I could figure out how to magic myself home. I mean, just for a little. I should be able to find my way back, right?

Maybe I'll go try that.

Talk to you again real soon, Ms. Diary!