It is so good to be home! We are finally in Kingdom Respite, but it's not that we didn't find any trouble on the way. On our last day of traveling west we got jumped by three, count them... THREE, bandits! I wasn't really afraid of them as my super Gnome senses located them early on in the brush, but WOW did they mean business. Well, kinda... So I warn Skudd of the hooligans hiding, poorly might I add, in the bushes, and we ready our weapons. I stand my ground, not sure if they are friend or foe, but Skudd, being the genius he is, starts approaching the closest one. They appear! And all of a sudden one of them shoots an arrow straight at Skudd's ENORMOUS head! Not that it's a hard target, but this guy not only shot once,or twice, or three times(!) and misses the gigantic Dwarf! To think! How could you miss him?! He's HUGE!!!! He clearly needed to go back to archery school. I could shoot that thing better than him and his bow is just as tall as me! Well, Skudd wasn't going to have any of it and throws a dagger directly at his friend to show him how it's done. The dagger hits and the guy starts bleeding! Needless to say, they were not happy, but the poor guy with a dagger in his side can't handle his anger. He lunges towards Skudd with his spear and hits. Point. Blank. OMG! I cannot hold back my laughter! Skudd sees no humor in any of this though (Death of the party always!) and I have to start coming to his rescue as ALWAYS. Skudd retaliates with his warhammer only to be met again with the blow of the poor guy's spear. I strike with my gnome-hooked hammer and BAM! The first bandit is DOWN! Skudd is not amused, but I could tell by the look in his eyes he was thankful of my sacrifice. I am pretty awesome and he knows it.

TO prove his manliness though, Skudd, in his ball of beard-y, hair-y glory charges for the archer that instigated this whole mess and BAM! The archer falls to the ground, gasping for air, and slowly fading... All while another guy appears from the brush. I don't know quite what happens but as soon as we divert our attention to the third and final bandit he's already on the floor with an arrow coming out of his chest. The new guy introduces himself as Nestor Merona and immediately locks eyes with Skudd, offering to heal his foot. It's suspicious, but I notice he's Human of course! Silly guy, walking around here all by himself, looking for strange feet to touch! I tell you, if I had a silver piece for every silly human I see bumbling around where he or she shouldn't be! I'd be able to buy all the pretty stones I want! Like this AMAZING watch I saw one time. This Elf was visiting our town for Garl Glittergold knows what wearing reallllllly nice clothing. I think he was just there to gloat as he kept showing off his AMAZING watch left and rightin the middle of town. Every time the sun light hit it the watch would sparkle with the most AMAZING colors! It sparkled blue, green, red, purple, and every color in the world! I bet that thing was worth a fortune, but unfortunately he was to tall for me to reach it for closer inspection. Such a shame, I bet I could tell him how nice it was and take care of it. I'm digressing again!

So we decide to take Nester our wing and help him back to King Respite, where guess what? He's best friends with Durin! He must think he has nice feet too! I wouldn't know, us Gnomes are not into that kind of thing, but what did I say earlier? He's human. Fortunately he was able to get us into Glennaire house for the night as a good favor of Durin himself.

This is when things get weird though. So it turns out that the reason Durin called Skudd and myself into twon is because he's suspicious there are traders smuggling in other planer creatures, objects, and maybe even artifacts into town. This is BAD news! Those things are scary and CRAZY destructive. Our mission:

1.) Investigate the port for any suspicious activity. 2.) TELL NO ONE! Everyone is suspect, even the lower guards Durin himself hired! 3.) Find out who is involved. 4.) Find out what is exactly happening. 5.) Find out where all this smuggling is taking place.

This sounds kinda scary, but I'm confident I will be able to handle everything and look out for Skudd and Nester. Oh yea! Nester is joining us! I hope he has some cool magick tricks that will help. Off to buy some extra supplies and a new journal.

By tomorrow! Yours thoughtfully,

THE Great Filman Copperbloomers