We were sitting in our little boat, sailing to the gods only know where, when the gentle motion of the waves sent us all to sleep and straight into a nightmare; my mind has blocked much of it out, fortunately, but still, there were lots of evil figures and flashing colors and whatnot, and someone or something was reaching for us, just as we woke up. Only, we weren't in our boat when we awoke! Instead, we were in some forest; a dark, foreboding, almost evil forest, yes, but a forest nevertheless. Even though I am not exactly a forest person the way that Leighla was, or Samar seems to be, it still almost made me happy to be there! I just wish Leighla was here with us!

The first order of business seemed to be to take stock of everything; we were all in tiptop shape, strangely enough, and in a small clearing in these primeval woods. Sam went out scouting while the rest of us looked around, and he hadn't gone very far when he saw smoke off in the distance! He came back to tell us, and we quickly decided (not, of course, without more than our fair share of bickering) that Samar and I, along with Alamon, would go scout the area and see what was causing the smoke. Some of us wanted to rush straight in, not knowing what awaited us, but fortunately, more cautious heads prevailed.

So off the three of us went; we hadn't gone too far when we came across a lake, and with it, signs of intelligent life, which pretty much ruled out things like orcs or goblins or other unfriendly forest dwellers as the source of the smoke. Thus relieved, we went to get the others and head towards what we were now pretty sure was a village, peopled (as it turns out) mostly by humans.

Away we went; even from a distance, we could tell that the village wasn't very prosperous. The farmland alone would have told us that much, since there was nothing growing right on it. Oh sure, there were crops, of a sort, but they were puny and scant. The people wandered around in rags, they smelled, looked like they hadn't bathed in months... NOT my type of place, I fear. But here we were, and it seemed the best place to start in figuring out where we were and so forth.

To this end, Prihelm, his paladinly heart moved by the sight of these villagers, went to simultaneously brighten their day and gain information for us. Of course, he started out by offering one of the villagers a great big hug and thrusting some silver at the man; I can only imagine what the poor guy thought! Fortunately, Prihelm is a pure and innocent type, and didn't realize the implications of his actions, but those of us who are more worldly (like me) found it very amusing. The villager didn't seem to think so, of course, but eventually, we were able to learn that we were in a town called Chimera, and that if we really wanted to know anything, we should go talk to Zeger, in the village's pub (or what passed for it, at any rate).

Heading into the village proper, the appalling poverty was even more apparent than it was from the fields; the homes were more properly known as hovels, the streets were nothing but tracks of mud, and so forth. Strangely, there were plenty of uniformed guards around, suggesting to me that someone has money, probably squeezed from these poor villagers, who were quite obviously being oppressed by these same guards. In fact, we saw one of them beat on some poor helpless peasant woman and steal the apple of her eye (quite literally; it didn't look too good of an apple to me, but the guard apparently decided he wanted it).

Naturally, as great heroes, we couldn't let him get away with this! We each reacted in our own way; I like to think I was the wisest of us, but others might disagree. Prihelm tried to lecture the brutes on manners (a doomed cause, it was quickly obvious), while Liss settled for taunting them, accompanied by that Sirius person. Personally, I thought the best thing would be to make the guard pay for the apple, so I took a small donation from him (not that he'd noticed) and gave it to the peasant woman. Such is true justice, although I would like to have a chance to beat on the guard some as well.

The guards, of course, as bullies, tried to bully us back. One thing led to another, and next thing I knew, Sirius was insulting the guard and calling for a duel. So much for discretion, I fear. I shall have to remember to explain to the deluded man that no matter how big and tough he thinks he is, it is never wise to antagonize the locals until one knows more about the situation. Auntie drilled this into me early and often, and I've found the advice to be most useful.

Some of us (Haley and her new boyfriend, for example, along with me) rapidly concluded that we had business elsewhere, so headed on into the pub to get lunch, while Sirius played with the guard, eventually defeating (though not killing) the bully while Liss, Samar, and Prihelm looked on. The food, for the record, was cheap, but utterly abysmal. I couldn't bring myself to even attempt to try the cabbage stew, and neither could Haley. Strangely, the others at first agreed with my opinion of the nasty stuff, then later decided otherwise. I wonder what that means... Maybe cabbage stew is a rapidly acquired acquired taste?

Such musings, however interesting they may be, however, aren't really important right now. Haley, you see, all of a sudden fell down and started shining really pretty colors! While this was fun to watch, it also worried us, especially when old Zeger (who didn't seem to fond of us to begin with, since Sirius' actions threatened to bring the wrath of Lord Skol (whoever in the hells he is) down upon us) told us to leave now before we all got infected!

Seems dear old Haley had managed to pick up some crazy virus. Literally, a crazy virus. It has the lovely property of driving all the infected people mad; they attack their friends and loved ones, it seems, but without knowing they're doing it. Apparently, it is most commonly picked up near the Border (some rock wall or something which surrounds the lands near the town, from what I could gather), and most of the people are kept in some insane asylum known as the Gatehouse, up near the Border. The place is run by a barmy named Bleaker, who, while certifiable, also doesn't have the virus and somehow seems immune. We'll have to make it a point to visit old Bleaky at some point; maybe he can tell us something useful? Of course, visiting him means we're more likely to get the virus, but there is a solution, fortunately.

You see, some greedy bloodsucking leech of an apothecary claims to have found some way of keeping people from getting the virus, and maybe even curing it. We stopped by to see yhis gentleman (and I DO use the term loosely), one Paton by name, on the way out of town. He claims that you need only take one dose of his potion per month to be immune to the virus, and that multiple doses may be effective in curing someone afflicted with it. Originally, he was charging two pieces of gold per dose; he randomly changed it to three on us part way through our negotiations, however. As a former gypsy, I of course have some ability to see the future; in his case, it's very clear. I have the funny feeling that our dear Paton will suffer from a burglary in the near future. I get these clairvoyant flashes sometimes, you see...

I hope this cure works, because it's very obvious that Haley needs it. First, she kissed Dogboy (something I wouldn't do if you paid me... well, maybe if you paid me enough...), which is understandable, since no matter how she tries to deny it, she is in love with him, after all. Of course, she promptly denied kissing the man. Also, as soon as she released him from her little liplock, she slapped him. She denies this, also. Of course, she doesn't think anything is wrong, refuses to admit she's sick, and so forth. Still, as it is, this virus would be merely amusing, except for one little fact: she kicked me! I can't believe she did that! Obviously, this woman is very ill and needs immediate treatment, but so far, we've only managed to get one dose of the cure down her throat; I have plans to forcefeed her another dose as she sleeps sometime tonight, and maybe we'll mix in a third and final dose with her breakfast or something.

So there we were, anyway, on our way out of town, when the problem that Sirius so kindly created for us reared it's ugly head, in the form of several guardsmen and their Captain, obviously intent on sending us off to jail or else killing us; our choice, it seems. Naturally, I tried to talk my way out of it, but the Captain wasn't buying any of it, said some rude unpleasant things which upset Prihelm ("thou shalt not treat a lady like that!"), and of course, as is so often the case around us, violence ensued.

The battle was marked mostly by lots of people trying to kill me. I don't even know what I did to deserve this, but the guards definitely had firm intentions of seeing me slit from gullet to gizzard. Fortunately, Sirius proved to be almost as good at helping get us out of trouble as he is at getting us IN to trouble, and were able to beat off the guards with only minimal wounds. Soon enough, only the Captain was left; he'd retreated against a wall, waiting his death and trying to put out the fire Liss had created in his pants. We were willing to accept his surrender (along with his sword and cloak, which I wanted; it was a really neat looking cloak!), and he was willing to give it, but for some reason, Liss picked this time to burn the man to ash! While very impressive, neither Prihelm nor I, at least, find it in good taste!

Prihelm in particular was somewhat upset, but I forgave Liss, since he was huddled on the ground, looking like a man three weeks dead (which, of course, he is) and mumbling something like "No! That wasn't supposed to happen!" Still, his lack of control is deplorable, and I won't have him burning people alive again. Of course, I'm not sure how I'm going to stop him, but... I sense difficulties in saving Liss' soul lie ahead of us.

At any rate, we were able to salvage the sword and the cloak, which I shared with the party, even though Alamon was graceless enough to suggest that it was unusual for me to do so, and now here we are on our way out of town. Hopefully, answers to our questions will be discovered soon!