Property of Tazmered Wanderkin, 23 Brandybend Road, by the Leaping Lady Bar and Billie Goat's Inn, just north of Cranky Creek (good fishing spot).

Rules I'm s'posed to follow: 1) Don't go into Farmer Dotson's farm 2) Don't get into trouble or Mom will get mad... again 3) Don't talk strangers 4) Keep maps and write down adventures so Billey and Thom can hear about my tales when I get back home 5) Pray to Tymora and Brandobaris lots... cause Mom say's I'll need it 6) Don't forget to brush my hair and my teeth every day 7) Pay attention to where you step, cause sometimes that first steps a doosey, like the time I was in the tree hiding from Farmer Dotson cause I'd borrowed some of his turnips and fell asleep in the tree and when I woke up, I'd forgotten that I was in the tree and fell out of it... which hurt a lot. 8 ) Don't go into the Big Nasty Cave. *scribbled in lightly* Well not to often, or make sure Mom doesn't know.

Hey, so uhm, It's Taz and *ink drops from him getting distracted watching some birds as the ink ran off his quill onto the paper* ... oh yeah right, sorry journal... so uhm, I decided that it was time to find some adventure since I'd gotten old enough to do it, since my older brothers and sisters had already gotten to by this age. Mom wasn't real excited about it since I'm the youngest of the Wanderkins but I promised her I'd be real real good. So, I'm off to see where the winds take me and I might just stop by the Leaping Lady to say goodbye to Leana before I go... I wonder if I should tell her I want to see her when I get back? Hmm... nah, I'll just bring her a big neat flower and some pretty maps so I can show her everywhere I've been. *closes the quill in the book and sets it in his bag strolling down the road and spending far more time in the Leaping Lady than intended*

Well, Leana told me that she'd want to come if she didn't have to work and tend the place for her folks... that woulda been fun, but oh well... Oh and this human fella was in there getting lots of drinks, I went to tell him that he'd dropped his dagger. He didn't take to kindly to me handing it back to him... which is odd cause he'd almost lost it, I clearly saw the handletop sticking out of the bag. Oh well, at least he got it back, but then again I forgot to tell him that two coins fell out of his bag too, but he was so mad and stinky from the drinks that I figured it was better to run off before he got mad again for no reason.

*map below stuffed into his journal*

So here's my first map, I would have drawn more like maybe some goats or the turnips on Farmer Dotson's farm, but when I went to see it before I left, he didn't want me to stay, cause one of his dogs smelled me before I could draw it all. Oh well, and I forgot that I had a turnip before I'd run off from the dogs. Hopefully I can find some neat turnip seeds and will give them to him when I get back so he'll stop being so sore at me all the time.

Well, my first day adventuring and already so much has happened... though I haven't gotten nearly as far as I thought I would. Maybe I can just go back home and start tomorrow. Or I could go sleep in the Big Climbing Tree once more before I go first thing in the morning.

*signed* Taz

*Taz closes his book and runs to fish a little until dusk and then eats some of the fish he caught and then eventually climbing up into the tree and sleeping late into the morning*

Day 2 of my glorious adventure and travels. I've not made it as far as I'd anticipated, but then again, saying hello to Leana and fishing during sunset sure were worth it. Although, I'd rather not have slept in the tree cause I kept waking up hearing noises coming from the cave. Mom said not to go there so I'm not going to... well at least not now. Maybe I should head south to Amn today and see the city again on my own. Sounds like an exciting adventure for sure! Maybe I'll catch the next caravan headed that way, besides company and someone to talk to would be a lot more fun that just walking all that way by myself.

Taz's Today To-Do-List: 1- Find the next wagon ride through town 2- Get a ride and go explore Amn

*written a little later in the day* Well, I found a wagon ride down to Amn and they seemed nice at first. Only problem was that I had to ride in the back with all the barrels and chests that they were taking to sell there. I'm not sure why the man got so mad that I was looking inside them. It's seems rather silly that he'd want to take them to a market to sell and yet not want people to look at them. Oh well, I tried to tell him that's what containers are for to hold things so that people would know where to look for neat things but he didn't agree with me. One time when he wasn't looking I just had to sneak another peek in case I found something I'd wanted to buy once we got to the market so I'd know if it was good stuff. Well... I kinda leaned to far into the barrel when all of the sudden there was this wild and loud noises around the wagon. All of the sudden the wagon stopped and seemed to hit a bump, making me fall into the barrel upside down (which is rather uncomfortable position to be in if you ask me). Then I heard some sort of arguing, yelling and screaming too. Maybe the man saw someone else looking at his barrels and was being silly again. Seeing as I was stuck, I figured that the best thing to do would be to wait until we stopped and even though I'm sure he'd be sore at me for looking at the barrel's contents, I'm sure he'd understand. After some rather loud yelling and screaming again, we started off again on the wagon taking a few turns and I guess the man had hurt his voice yelling cause he sure sounded different than before. Oh well, if I hadn't been upside down I'd have been sure to give him some of the handy syrup my mom sent with me for when you get a tickle in your throat. Lucky for me the barrel had some nice candies and bottled drinks in it or being stuck like this might have been boring. Oh well, I must admit it's sure different adventuring that I'd thought. Might as well get some sleep in here since he doesn't seem to want to stop until we get all the way to Amn and I'm sure I'll have a busy day tomorrow.

Well, when I woke up this morning, we'd apparently stopped and I'm not sure how, but I was no longer upsidedown in the barrel, I was rightside up. Must have fipped me over or something, after knocking on the barrel and asking to get out and hearing no replies, I figured that I'd better see if the top was any easier to open than the bottom, when I was doing that, I accidentally bumped out a knot in the sides and said I was sorry in case he was gonna get mad at me for it and was just sleepin. I must have slept several hours more than I'd meant to cause it was rather dark... and kinda stinky to. Looking around from the new hole in the side of the barrel, I saw lots more barrels than I'd remembered on his wagon which made me want to get out even more, so I finally worked on the top enough and it opened for me and I was able to get out. One small problem, this definitely isn't Amn, it's some big old cave. So, figuring this was a lucky streak and Tymora was temptin me to explore some, I figured I'd better see what this cave had to offer.

In a crevace across the cave opening, I found these great skippin rocks, gathering a few up, I figured I'd like to take some of them back home and try them out on the fishing pond and see if I couldn't skip them clear across it. I heard a few weird dripping and chittering noises, and of course I had to go see what that was. As I rounded the corner, I saw a tiny little stream that lead into a huge hole in the ground making a pretty little waterfall for what looked like a really really long drop. Someone must have wanted to watch the waterfall from below cause there was this weird platform mechanism that looked like it could be lowered into the hole. Oh well, I need to find out where I am before I go explorin any wet deep holes. I did find the source of the stream, which was a weird pond. And I figured Tymora sure musta lead me to it cause why else would I have found a skippin rock AND a pond so close together. My first try wasn't so good, it made more of a kerplunk than anything. But woo my second one was great! I think I even made the fish excited cause they went jumping after it... must thought it was some kinda food I guess. Seeing there were fish, I figured I was sposed to fish here to since I was getting kinda hungry. Caught me one right off to, except it was the ugliest fish I'd ever seen. It was mostly eyeballs... well and teeth... so I threw it back, after loosing my appetite. I heard more of that chittering and went to see what that was since Tymora was being so nice to me so far, I figured I'd better go see what else was in here. As the chittering got louder so did the stink. I saw these big ole cobwebs and peeked around the corner and saw these two big old huge spiders apparently disagreeing on some food that was wrapped up in a cocoon between them. Dunno what it was, but I'm sure glad it wasn't me. I saw a few more tunnels, some big and wide and some tiny, but I'd realized that I'd lost my pocketknife and wanted to cut up a little apple for a snack and figured I must have lost it in the barrel.

As I headed back, I accidentally bumped a barrel since I was examining my nice skippin rocks. And I couldn't believe it, it cried and whimpered! I'd never heard of barrels that did that. Feeling bad that I'd made the barrel sad, I told it that I was sorry and I'd be more careful next time. Next thing I knew, it spoke back! Now that's a special barrel if you ask me. I guess it wasn't used to being talked to cause it said "Hello?" Having never talked to a barrel before I was kinda at a loss of what to say. So I figured I'd better introduce myself in case I was being terribly rude in barrel culture. "Tazmered Wanderkin of Brandybend Road at your service, so sorry to have bumped you Mis... er Sir... uhm Barrel." I'd never heard a barrel curse like that before either... I must have offended it greatly not knowing barrel rules of conduct and all. I figured that I'd better find my stuff before I made any more of the barrels made since there were a lot of em in this part of the cave. I hopped back into my barrel and felt around, finally finding my pocketknife. I tried talking to my barrel in case this one was mad for me bumping the other one but it didn't say anything back. As I was eating my apple, I heard this load of stomping and talking and noises, only trouble was I had no idea what they were saying.

I figured I'd better see what the hubbub was and peeked out the knothole... and I musta worn out my welcome with Tymora cause there was this huge ugly beast that was picking up some barrels and putting them on a wagon. And would you believe it? Almost all of them could talk too! The wagon got wheeled around the bend and I heard a loud creaking noise... I figured it had to be that big ole wench above the big pit. Trying to watch a little longer, I pulled the top onto the barrel so I could see better. Next thing I knew the big ugly was coming for my section of barrels! I figured the only thing to do was to stay real quiet as all the barrels were loaded onto the wagon and wheeled around to the platform that had been brought back up from the hole. I guess I'm gonna get to see the waterfall from below after all. The big thing wasn't a very good placer of the barrels cause be let one fall down the hole and it was over a minute until I heard a huge booming crash from below, and maybe some yelling. My barrel was in the middle, so I couldn't see the waterfall to well, which was frustrating cause at least if I was going to have to ride this thing down I figured I should have at least gotten a good show. Anyway, it took a while to get down and it finally stopped, and whatever was down here was still pretty mad about the barrel falling from above cause whatever they said, wasn't good. After getting unloaded and set to the side it seemed that one group of barrels was all awake and really chatting up a storm, but the dark skinned angry people down here weren't very happy about the barrels talking and would kick them every so often, which I thought was kinda mean, since maybe these barrels hadn't seen each other in a while and were just saying hello. Anyway, it looked like I wasn't gonna be able to get out of the barrel for a while, and it'd been a long day, so I decided to take a nap in case tomorrow was gonna be even more of an adventure that today.

*a map drawn and stuffed into the journal with a note - cave with barrels and skipping rocks*