[coronatiger]

Thoughts on November 4th

I had another dream last night. I was having fun with Olivia, doing exotic activities, among other things using a tail I had. The people around us were bored and I felt sorry for them. I told Olivia I thought this meant I should have more sex with more people. She gave me a flat stare, and I promised I wouldn’t neglect her. She was the love of my life. Olivia understood that I wanted to take my religion seriously, but she begged me not to put this plan into action before she had considered it carefully.

Leopold brought up the three thousand gold again at breakfast, asking if we should put the money in the bank, or if we should just trounce the bandits. I didn’t see much point in paying someone to keep our money inaccessible, but I whispered to Olivia to ask how much money the two of us actually possessed. She whispered back that we could cover a third of the money Leopold was talking about, and still have plenty left over. Wow! He wasn’t just bragging, then, about how rich we were. Still, I didn’t think it was a good idea to let criminals know we had that kind of money.

For some reason, Ilzo wanted to make his own private army, and when Olivia left for work, he headed over to the garrison to ask the lieutenant for permission. Va’lyndra, Leopold and I waited at the inn for him to come back rejected. When he did, we left for another scouting trek into the forest.

We hadn’t gone far before Va’lyndra said she had to go back to the inn to fetch something. She pointed at a tall, green tree beyond the elf wall and said that we had to go there. Realizing that we couldn’t pass the wall, at least not legally, she gave up on the entire thing, and we continued out of town.

We found a nice, little ridge with low cliffs on the north and south side and began laying out the battlefield. Ilzo returned to town to buy stuff for making traps. Va’lyndra and I moved bushes and shrubs so we could funnel the bandit attack and hopefully slow their charge. Leopold used his earth magic along the cliffs to make climbing even more difficult. Since Ilzo had the most to do, I helped him with his traps when he returned.

The agreed time for the battle was tomorrow evening. I worried about the dark, but Leopold assured me the bandits – at least the humans among them – would be carrying torches. In a pinch, I guess Ilzo can activate Surkalpi to flood the battlefield with daylight. He’ll be allowed to use an actual weapon tomorrow.