The Musings of a Sharessan Bard (Rastellia's Diary)

[TheBlankStare]

Rastellia's diary is a red leather bound journal kept in an oiled waterproofed satchel. Written entirely in the language of the Celestials, the lettering is quite small but the script is lovely and very pleasing to the eye. Enough room has been left in the margins for illuminations and several preliminary sketches seem to have been penciled in them.

I've finally gotten around to buying a blank book to keep a record of my soggy exploits in the water logged land of Sundren. I'd thought that I'd have had enough of constant deluges of rain during our recent expedition to Chult but it seems that Anhur still has it in for me. To be truthful though, I don't mind the rain here as much as thought I would initially. While I'm fond of spending time in the sunshine I find that the chilly rain here often forces one indoors for lengthy periods of time and affords me the chance to spend hours in front of a fire with a glass of wine and often pleasant company.

Such an outpouring of water from the sky and a lack of any paying Engagements for the day has led me here to one of the finer establishments of the city of Sundren, The Sundren Comfort. Located in the Military Ward of the city is to both it's benefit and my own. The local Legion tends to keep order in the ward. The nobles and merchants like the safety provided by the close proximity of the Legion and seem to flock to the Comfort. This makes it easier to determine who can afford my services as a Companion and those who can't.

Because of the lack of any sort of proper Festhall in the region, I'd thought briefly about tacking a poster to the one various boards where adventurers seem to have developed the custom of bragging about their skills in search of work. I'll not stoop that low. Baruti would likely frown on an action that would have every member of the Legion and every desperate adventurer seeking out my Company. Business is picking up well enough though and I'll soon be able to make a comfortable enough life here. Perhaps given time I'll be able build and begin staffing a proper Festhall for the people of this valley.

In fact, the merchant Davidius approaches. I'll begin the chronicle of my experiences in Sundren by describing how I ended up in this land later.

[TheBlankStare]

So the expedition to Chult turned out to be a wild teeka chase. (That's what the native had called those huge lizards that walk around and cause all of the problems.) We only came because one of the Pendants of the Seven Sages was rumored to have been lost in the jungles a few years ago and Libel wanted to find it.

Chult wasn't nearly as bad as we were led to believe it was going to be. So the people don't wear much in the way of clothing down there. It's hot . . . like a jungle. But after weeks of fruitless searching for the Pendant we found nothing but a pile of pile of golden jewelry, some gemstones and an old worn map of an island that sort of looked like a couple of kittens playing with each other. We decided to charter a sailing ship and set out to find Kitten Island. (Yes, I got to name it.)

Libel found a ship that would suit our needs. She was painted a bright red and had blue trim all over her. She had two full masts and a crew of strong sailor types aboard. The Sea Mistress would sail in three days which would leave plenty of time for reveling in Port Nyranzaru. Unfortunately there isn't much reveling to be done in the walled frontier town as one would think. I made due with a room at Stumpy's Seaside Shanty with one of the porters from our venture. I'm afraid that I tired him out before I realized that our ship was about to leave.

I woke up on the morning of our third day in the port town and realized that we'd be sailing with the tide. This was interesting because the sun was already high in the sky and the tide should have left hours ago. I grabbed my things, ran to the docks, climbed aboard the Sea Mistress, found my bunk and fell promptly asleep. We were several hours from port when I awoke to find Captain Johann Perigrin and several seamen with spears pointed at my bunk asking me why I was stowed away on the Flying Flounder.

[TheBlankStare]

I don't think that Captain Johann Perigrin was as upset to see me in his bed as his first mate. In fact, I think that the fact that she wasn't the only woman on board the ship anymore bothered her more than anything else. The captain cleared the room and set about to grilling me about how I got on board what my intentions were with his ship and it's cargo then explained why he couldn't take me to Kitten Island to meet up with Libel and the others.

Several hours later we emerged from the cabin for dinner. I'd successfully negotiated passage to Sundren in exchange for keeping the sailors entertained and some special considerations for Captain Perigrin. He was quite dashing so I didn't mind in the least and the time aboard passed pleantly enough. It was quite some weeks before I realized that I'd booked passage to a nearly sunless valley.