[[Day 1|Day 1 >>]] ## 19 Nightal 1492 Today has been a pretty good day, even with the whole "getting sucked into a portal and transported to a town that's two weeks away from Valentia" thing. I only hope the others aren't too worried about us. I'm mostly concerned about Ezmerelda – knowing her patterns, she probably thinks we got displaced into another domain of dread. Which isn't a terrible guess, considering my luck. But still. Ezmerelda and I arrived in Valentia in the early afternoon, and Nia arrived with Selise shortly afterward. Rictavio hadn't showed by the time Skoll, Nia, and I got whisked away, but hopefully he's there by the time we get back. It was good to see everyone. I missed them all a lot. Ezmerelda was also glad to see everyone, especially Skoll. That said, she's been acting a bit weird – and I'm definitely not used to seeing her so stilted and awkward. I'm not sure what has her so nervous, but I'm hoping she'll be fine after she gets to hang out with everyone for a bit. Everyone liked the wood carvings I made for them: a wolf for Skoll, a cat for Nia, a raven for Ireena, a knife for Selise, and a little clown for Pidlwick. Skoll has a new little friend – a small mushroom man named Jord – who I gave one of the shittier wolf carvings. If I had known he'd be there, I would've made him his own – but he seemed to be content enough with the one I gave him. A couple of Skoll's centaur friends were also there. We all had dinner together – it was nice. At one point, Ezmerelda started talking in Sylvan with the centaurs. I didn't even know she could speak it. It was a little rough talking about Borca; it took a bit of convincing when we explained Ivana's situation. Ireena especially didn't seem to be a fan of the idea of us making friends with a dark lord, which is understandable. But everyone eventually came around, I think. Ireena and Skoll both were excited about the idea about a vacation, so that's good. Ireena definitely needs to spend some time in a city – I can tell she's going a little stir-crazy about being stuck in a funeral home in the middle of nowhere. After dinner, everyone except me, Skoll, and Nia left to go help the centaurs with firewood. Skoll grilled me about Ezmerelda — which is something that I was definitely expecting, but that doesn't mean that I had anything close to an answer for him. I really don't mind, though. Not knowing makes things a little more complicated, sure, but I'm happy to wait. But I'm getting off track. There's still the whole fey gate thing to talk about — which is what appeared in Skoll's garden shed and transported us to some wizard's house in Murghôm. The wizard — Madryck — claimed he was attempting to contact an old friend that used to live in the area. Weirdly enough, Nia was familiar the guy that Madryck was trying to get ahold of; she knew him growing up in Earth's End. The coincidences didn't end there. Madryck knows Hati, and he also knows my old boss, postmaster Birroo. I'm not sure if I believe it, honestly. He looks old as hell and has probably gotten around, sure, but it all seemed a little too convenient. Whatever the case, he asked for our help. The short of it is that he can't get in touch with his patron, a fey named Zybilna. His waning power meant that he couldn't make another fey gate to send us to Valentia — so we were looking at a multiple week-long trip back unless we could help him out. Madryck assured us that finding Zybilna would take less time than walking back to Valentia, so it didn't make much sense to turn him down. It certainly seemed like Nia wanted to, though. Not that I blame her — I wasn't really primed to go on some random quest either. I mostly just wanted to spend the holiday relaxing with my friends. In any case, Madryck let us know where to start looking: the Witchlight Carnival, the owner of which is Zybilna. The operators — Mr. Witch and Mr. Light — would be able to point us in the right direction. Madryck also described Zybilna; she's a large woman with white hair and a tattoo that's shaped like a chicken's foot under one of her eyes. The description sounded familiar. When I was young, I caught a particularly bad illness. It was looking pretty dire until a traveler matching Zybilna's description came through town and healed me. I didn't get sick for a long time after that. The memory is weirdly vivid; I was too thrown off to mention it to Skoll or Nia. I'll have to remember to bring it up later. I had Madryck send a letter to the others back at the funeral home for me — he sent it off with one of his fairy dragon things. With any luck, we'll be back before the letter is even delivered. We headed for the carnival as the sun was setting. The carnival itself was kind of uncomfortable, at first — there was a whole lot of magic going on, which isn't exactly my forte. Not to mention that they made me wear these stupid fake wings over my actual wings. But beyond that, it's actually been mostly fun. We're having to wait out the whole night in order to speak to Mr. Witch and Mr. Light, but there's been plenty to occupy us in the meantime. I won a giant snail race, almost beat Nia at hide & seek, and got to perform a little "magic" trick with Skoll and Nia for a good audience. I say "mostly" fun because it hasn't been all great. For one, there was a building full of magical mirrors that so helpfully reminded me that I'm going to die much sooner than my friends. There was also that kenku who tried to get a dwarf killed (I saved him), and that asshole who made me speak in rhyme. It's been a net positive experience, though. I've been trying to ignore the bad parts for Skoll's sake — he seems to be having a lot of fun. Even Nia seems to be enjoying herself to an extent, despite how hard she's been trying to hide it. Nia seems happier and more talkative and less on-edge in general, honestly. She's still as broody as ever, don't get me wrong — but having Selise back seems to have helped her a lot. Anyway, all that's left to do is wait for Mr. Witch and Mr. Light to talk to us again. They were impressed by our little performance earlier, and also by the fact that we seem to be generally raising the mood of the carnival. But they said that they won't have time to point us in Zybilna's direction until the end of the carnival, which is in another couple hours here. I'm going to play some games in the meantime. Maybe I can win something to bring back for Ezmerelda. --- ## Page Tags/Properties **Tags:** #Journal **Category:** [[Journals and Writings.base|Journals and Writings]] **Character:** [[Krue d'Avenir|Krue]] **Campaign:** [[Wild Beyond the Witchlight]] **Date ([[Calendar of Harptos|Harptos]]):** 12/19/1492