Well, let's start with where we left off.

Ashes awoke, and then she and we had a fun conversation. Turns out, she chose to be possessed by that horrid circlet so that she may repay the Szir Tmyo for her failure and return to status. So, we traded information, then left her off at the next town over. Sayd Alsamak. Hopefully, she won't cause too much trouble. She's likely back at the pyramid of Alhras by now. She's no closer to goodness now than she was before, I'd wager.

We made it to Al Mipedem. It's been a week and a day now, since my last writing. We've been here for perhaps two or three days. I'd wager two. I'm too tired to figure it out. Al Mipedem is one of my favourite places since we got here, alongside Zhao Aurou and Ank'harel. Well, it's more the people of Ank'harel who I've come to admire, and I doubt it was immediate. Al Mipedem is lush and green, and that I can immediately appreciate. It's populated by loxodons! Massive elephant people! They're certainly no dragons, but they also don't want to kill me, so I'll take what I can get. They've been very friendly and nice.

So Vimak is here, and he's a bodyguard for the general Ramashradan. I'm concerned. Vimak seems to be doing well as an upstanding, responsible bodyguard. A model hero, I'd almost say. But he seems empty somehow. He had Bloodbriar in one fight against yugoloths, oh dear, we've got yugoloths now, but he doesn't have Bloodbriar on him at all times. Ramashradan says that Vimak told him all about his story with Bloodbriar, although I don't know how much he's been told. Vimak told Ramashradan that he's broken free of Bloodbriar's grasp, but I doubt it. Vimak has been a great help during these troubling events, and it'd only cause more trouble to interfere with him now, and in any case, I'd leave the situation and how it's dealt to Lo-dak. Vimak is his brother, not mine.

Speaking of Lo-dak, he's had a mechanical magic thing replace his heart! Or modify it. Something like that. In any case, Lo-dak's heart troubles are at an end. He's now healthy as a cared-for carrot.

Soon after getting Lo-dak's heart fixed up and doing a bit of shopping — I got a wonderful flail called a devotee's censer! — we went to rest at the Spotless Peacock and instead found a yugoloth invasion. They took Szhezeyil. If the bastards hurt him, I will raise Hell. I can't express on this paper how I feel.

[The paper is crumpled on the edge of this page. A little torn.]

We fought off the wave, with the help of Vimak and a new face: Thia, a drow. She's been tagging along with us since. She's a helpful soul. Later, we met Ramashradan. We were also invited to a ball for nobles by a lady we saved. Well, I say "we," but that was all Lo-dak's doing. We were busy around the Spotless Peacock when he ran off after Vimak, having seen him here for the first time. Did I mention that an election is being held here very soon? Everything's aligning for this to be a very interesting election, and we arrived at just the right time. By "interesting," I mean bloody. We're here to find the Lost City, but keeping things from getting bloody takes priority on basis of me sleeping with my own decisions. I went too far at Sayd Alsamak, letting Ashes go free there. I felt that we didn't have the effort to spare on her at the time. That may be shameful on my part.

We had beautiful custom dresses made for us, each with a magic pocket in them to hold about two items. Mine has a cape, it's wonderful. We expected something terrible to go down at this ball, so we brought some equipment with us for the occassion. I brought my staff of the woodlands and my devotee's censer. I also had my ring of jumping on me, as well as my emblem of Ehlonna, for spellcasting, and the closeness to the Grovetender was nice to have too. There's a slot for me to put the emblem on my neck, so it's fashionable too!

At the ball, sure as rain and shine, some yugoloths tried to kill Niyati, the noble that Lo-dak saved and who invited us to the ball. No one was hurt, thankfully, save for the yugoloths. One died and another two ran away, one deeper into the pyramid and another outdoors. I should mention that this ball is being held in the throne room of the future mayor? I forget what the ruler of Al Mipedem is called. But this capital building is none other than the pyramid of Darini. All of the other pyramids we've been to have been gathering dust or been under mining. This one is inhabited. Supposedly, Darini himself was not buried within this tome, of his own choice, so we may not have to fight any undead former heroes this time. However, a yugoloth who escaped seemed to be heading down to the resting chamber of an important family within the pyramid, and I'm told that it could kill me to invoke the divine wrath of the gods by going down there, and I don't want to anger the people here anyway. For now, we're resting at the Spotless Peacock, and poor Tashilda, the innkeeper, has had to deal with our asses bringing a knocked-out nycaloth into a back room to interrogate it, our centaur Torina arriving covered in sewer stuff, and generally exhausted mayhem. She's been taking it well.

For now, we get a moment of rest, a room for each of us, in this inn. I hope to sleep well.

1st of Quersaar, 942 PED