Dragan's Diary

This is a journal of the first few years of Dragan, half-elf ranger from Kelethin.

My dear reader,

although it is untypical for elves to keep a diary, I am doing so - a habit I learned is commonly used among the humans. It may be my humans fathers heritage. So you see I am what is called a bastard, a half-elf, half wood-elf, known to all that is nature, and half human, questionable among the parts of the world I travelled in for the first years. My traveller name under which I am known to the people I meet is Dragan, the name my father wanted me originally to wear, but my mother insisted on an elvish birth name. I grew up among the wood-elves in the tree-city of Kelethin. It was here where I made my first steps (and falls). When my mother died in an accident not long ago I decided to try my luck and venture to the world of my fathers origin, possibly being a able to meet him for the first time in my life. Little do I know of him, but that he was ranger. But before I could even think about travelling to the human townships I had to build up my strength and skills to even attempt the journey.

At home in Kelethin

I spent a considerable time roaming the nearer vincinity of my home town, honing my skills, for you see, I am a ranger just like my father was. I value nature and it's inhabitants. I often scoffed at those savages who were slaying my wolvish brothers, yet still they call themselves wood-elves. I have more pride in my bastardish heritage than they have for their 'pure' bloodline! I also spent some time exploring the skills of fletching, trying to learn a trade. I was not unpleased with the results, though I learned that bow and arrow are not sought after among the common people and I feel that I may have to venture far away to make my skill profitable.

First steps into the Lesser Faydark (Lvl 4)

When I made the fourth level in our guild I asked my Guildmaster, Maesyn Trueshot, about a quest I could undertake to bring honor to my guild, for you see I am blessed they considered taking a halfbreed into their ranks. He sent me on a quest for a trueshot longbow, in honor of our fathers. The first parts could be found in the city of Kaladim, not knowing the way I journeyed into the Lesser Faydark where, after some walking, I happend to stumble about the home of a halfling who seemingly had created a technical masterpiece, a goblin made of metal who worked for him! After wandering around a bit more, little did I know about the savage world that opened up to me! I happened to stumble into a Pixie camp near an old abandoned tower. With the help of some more experienced travellers I managed to retrieve my wordly possessions, after I lost them to a group of brownie sentinels. On my way back some wise-guy stirred up some drakes which brought suffering over me, but yet again I thank you my friends and I vow to return when I have the necessary skills to survive in that part of the world. I may have postponed the quest, but I certainly will not find true rest until I completed it!

The helpful bard

After returning from the Lesser Faydark barely alive I started roaming the Greater Faydark at a greater length, exploring it's boundaries and travelling to the high-elf city of Felwithe for the first time. After losing my possessions to an orc centurion in the north end of the Greater Faydark I had to ask a Bard for his services to reclaim my belongings, since I did not know where it had happened. A bard named Toru offered his help and together we hunted my stuff down in the darkness of the deepest night. Luckily my elven heritage allowed me to see something (See the Race/Vision compare picture). Once I had equipped my sword, but before I could equip my other stuff I was attacked by a brownie scout which made me flee only to turn back and fight him to the death. I then returned to Toru and offered him the weapon I retrieved from the brownie as a gift for his help which he gladly accepted.

My first group

Upon returning to the city's elevators I met a paladin of purest blood, a high-elf from Felwithe of the name Drast, who had just reclaimed his belongings from a similar experience as me. Being of the same level of experience we decided to group and try our luck together. First we travelled to Felwithe to let a level 4 Wizard, the beautiful high-elf Weylin, join our group before we started venturing into the darkness of the Greater Faydark. I led the group, tracking down those who are not welcomed, namely those pitiful orc pawns and all things undead. After having succesfully slain a great lot of them we returned to Felswithe, selling the bounty. It was then when I realized that the high-elf merchants would only reluctantly trade with me, the bastard, so I decided to call it a day and to return to Kelethin, where I am tolerated at least.

The Orcs must die!

Although I have sworn the oath to protect life and nature I started cleaning the Greater Faydark off the Orcs that are roaming around freely, disturbing the peace of nature and being a general threat to every traveller that happens to pass their way. So I made my way up to the entrance to the Crushbone Camp, in an effort to contain teh Orcs up there, killing any Orc that dared to enter the Faydark. This proved to quite a difficult task and most of the Orcs were more than I could chew on and so I was pressed to retrieve my possessions quite often, with the help of maz fellow travellers like the wizardress Fdaria, the Bard Temamian and countless others.

Progresses in Bowyery

While my fletching skill improved over time I wanted to hone my bowmaking skill as well and started making Rough Hickory Recurve Bows, starting with a Hemp string one, but then making four more with Linen string which proved to be better. Sadly one of the bows crumbled right in my hands as I made a clumsy mistake. After some advertising I was able to sell one of the bows to a wanderer, Areswind, for 5gp, a small price since I included 5 arrows I made myself and the 5gp barely covered my costs including the ruined bows and arrows. i will persue this skill though and will try to make a trade with it. i am usually around the main elevator in Kelethin or near the bank.

Teaming up

In my effort to cleanse the Faydark from the Orcs I teamed up with a woodelf ranger named Idien, of the same level as me. Together we slew a great many Orcs Centurions, Pawns, Oracles and Shamans. We also had a lot of out-of-body experiences together, retrieving our stuff after the Orcs overwhelmed us from time to time (and he bought one of my handcrafted bows).
Still it is hard to find customers for my fine bows. I begin to think that every ranger in Faydwer is a fletcher as well. So I may have to take my trade elsewhere to gain a small but honestly earned living from it. This coincidences with my plans to visit the cities of the humans anyway - so there is just one more incentive to go there.

The long and winding road

I spent the next days slaying orcs after orcs and teaming up with various people, forming small groups of two or three people. By then I was finally level 7 and could start slaying orcs on my own without having to fear my demise. about 90% of the orcs in the Faydark now seemed to be my level or below so I started to carry two backpacks and heading out for a few days until the backbacks were filled with loot. Whenever I came back to Kelethin to sell the bounty I also advertised my bows and managed to sell two more of them (Thank you, Tursi and Draugdin) totalling my sales to four Rough Hickory Recurve Bows (Linen string).

The threadmill continues

Although there were probably only 5% of the orcs near the Crushbone Entrance left that were better or meaner than me I still managed to lose my possessions quite often to a gang-up of 3 to 5 orc centurions. With the two backpacks I always come home carrying at least one platinum, so I can afford more bowyering. I sold a fifth bow (Hickory with Silk string to Root) and got two offers for my newest bow, an Elm Recurve with hemp string. I went solo for a long time, helping others in need, but now I think it is time to group again, since my skills are almost at the peak of my abilities.

Hope and despair

Around this time I realized that I had forgotten to put one training point into my taunt skill. So now, at the brink to level 8, I started out with a taunt skill of 1! Ah well, a few battles later the skill was up to 40 without much ado. I managed to go to level 8 three times since I got flattened on three occasions just after I levelled. One of those occasions was my first trip to the crushbone orcs. I made some good loot there, but then a train of 8+ Orc Legionnaires someone dragged towards my position hit me. I conceded the day and headed back to Kelethin to hone my fletching skills further.
I have to tell you about a nice thing I saw though: A fellow named Sitran managed to climb onto the wooden heading above my default trader in kelethin, Merchant Kwein, and invoked spell after spell. The spells produced red-ish bubbles that were diffusing through the wood downwards, creating the effect of a shower. I myself finally reached the 9th level and gained the ability to cast spells myself.
To raise my archery skill I travelled to Felwithe to get one of those Tiny Daggers that are said to help you raise that skill. And sure enough I found one and must say that I am pleased with the results. While being in Felwithe I stumbled across a jewellers shop and decided to give jewelcraft a whirl as a trade, but later decided that I could not afford the money for the diferet gems.

Exploring the Lesser Faydark - Part 1

After slaying some bandits in a camp south of Kelethin I travelled into the Lesser Faydark again, now hopefully skilled enough to survive there. The first thing that caught my eye was that the beasts there were huge. For example I encountered a Giant Spider that was way larger than me. After that I visited some Orc Camps or better: avoided them, since the Orcs in these parts are bigger than the ones at home as well. Me and three friends found shelter from Orc mass-attacks in the nearby Wood-Elf Camp. Other interesting marks in the Lesser Faydark are the Mummy Camp (you must not go there below level 13-15) and the Monument in the sout-heast corner.

Steamfont and the Minotaur curse

Coming back into the Greater Fazdark I met a Paladin, Kassimar, and a Cleric, Rudy, and agreed on accompanying them to the Steamfont Mountains. Most remarkably landsight there are the three windmills. We killed a lot skeletons (even really tiny ones from gnomes). It was there that we met a friend of Kassimar, Zinjudu, who joined our group. After that we headed into the Minotaur Cave to slay some Minotaur Slavers to get into the possession of the rare and sought after Minotaur Axes. Sadly we only we able to locate one of them (but I had to retrieve my possessions twice with utmost care - at one time I had to be invisible. Many thanks again to the one casting it on me - I owe you big time). The Minotaurs used cruel charms on us - sometimes turning us against our friends.
After we parted our ways I traveled back to Ak'Anon once more. On my first visit I was killed on sight by some rabid merchants at the entrance. They should have learne dthe error of their ways by now. However, on my second visit there was no such problem and I took a quick look around the city. I then travelled Steamfont a bit more, exploring the rims and niches of the zone. I stumbled across a huge Drake Skeleton and then decided to hunt Pumas for medium sized pelts (a rarity in Greater Fay), but only got myself into problems. I noticed that someone was slashing me from behind and when I turned around I saw this picture, I then had to travel from Kelethin to retrieve my stuff again.

Exploring the Lesser Faydark - Part 2

After Steamfont Mountains I decided to explore and roam the Lesser Faydark again. I visited the Pixie Camp again, slaying a great many Tricksters and Pranksters (and carefully avoiding the dreaded Brownie Camp). While travelling south I stmbled across the lovely Faerie Camp. To my surprise the mechanical gnome, Gearheart, was visiting them! The I visited the Camp of the Nybright Sisters. As usual a great many people were hanging out, waiting for them. To my surprise I was invited to join in! They were all about 6 tp 7 levels above me, yet let me partake in the slaying, killing my own opponents and only supported via buff and healing spells. Awesome experience of non-selfishness! Thank you Aalena, Sirtan, Cergelos and Sedoran! As a sidenote, one of them even gave me a Fire Beetle Eye (I needed one for the Flame Lick spell and didn't have one so far). This was a great day!

Trading revisited

I sold my 13th bow. I know that I will not be able to make a living with them though. Few people are willing to buy highclass bows for 20-30pp. So I decided to try tailoring. As a first result the Black Wolves around Kelethin are now an almost extinct species. I have some success with the Patchwork Armor I make, selling everything quite quick and raising my skill nicely in the process. Maybe later I will be able to make a living with Studded Armor.
Since I, as a half-elf, am too big for small patchwork stuff I could not make boots for myself from wolf pelts. But I was I dire need of a new pair since the old cloth sandals were falling apart. So I travelled to Steamfont once again, slaying Pumas for cat pelts, finally being able to make myself a decent pair of boots.

The wonders of Ak'Anon

Although Ak'Anon can be dangerous to the followers of Tunare as there are often rabid mechanical merchants at the gate who will force you out of the city I visited this marvellous city again for an extensive tour. I gaped in awe at the structures built inside the city caves for a long time, sneaking a view into a forge and a library of some sort. Yet the biggest surprise for me was the bank in the city. You see, inside the bank the gnomes had created a zoo with animals from near and far: A tiger, a brown bear and a lesser minotaur.
Back in Kelethin I pursued tailoring for some time making a decent profit in an already declining market. I was also happy to meet a truly nice and magician, Xling,who provided me with pelts and some nice summoned stuff.

Off to explore the unknown...

By now I was into my 11th season and my heart longed for the wide spaces of Antonica, to see my father's land and visit all those places travellers from afar were talking about. So I set off to the Butcherblock Mountain Piers and took the next boat to the City of Freeport (where I was bound by Shira, thank you, thank you). What can I say about the wonders I saw, what to tell off the things I encountered? I crossed the Commonlands and Kithikor Forest, visited Rivervale (the city of the halflings), ran past orcs and gnolls in the border town of HighPass, crossed through the endless space of the Karanas into the Qeynos Hills, visited the Qeynos city itself, ran through the Home of the BlackBurrow gnolls into the frozen wastes of Everfrost until I finally rested in Halas, the city of the barbarians.

...and back home.

Sure enough, just after a few days I still felt so empowered and fulfilled by what I had seen that I decided to go back to Kelethin to tell my fellow man about the journey I made. So I crossed back thorugh the Karanas, this time running through the dangerous Gorge of King Xorbb (also known as the Maze of the Beholder), snuck myself past numerous goblins in the dungeon of Clan RunnyEye, through the greens of Misty Thicket back into Rivervale. From there onwards through the Commonlands into Freeport and on the boat I went, back to Kelethin. I sure had a great deal to tell my friends at home for I had seen a lot in just this, my 11th season...

... and here the journal of Dragan ends. Little is known of what has become of this young ranger, though many scholars believe that he is, in fact, the very same Dragan who later returned to Halas to join the Clan MacLear, a clan of barbarian warriors from the north. He may also be the father of Aandrea Dragansdottir, a renown druid in the service of Tunare, and the high-elven twins Calvyn Dragansson, a young cleric, and Bertyqwert Calvynslethaon, a magician, supposedly from Felwithe. But this is not confirmed and names such as Dragan, Dragon, Dragar and similar are known to have been present during those ages.

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