A book stuffed in a secret pocket in Elvine's backpack. The cover of this thin book is a flurry of various bright colours, obviously Elvine's failed attempt to dye it by himself. Deep black letters stand out from the mess, and it reads:
Elvine's Book of Wondrous Tales and Adventuring Tips
Hello! My name is Elvine, and I come from Waterdeep. The city, you know, not from any underwater dwelling. Thought such must exist, where else would the fishie-elves live? I have always wanted to see one. An underwater city, I mean. I've already seen fishie-elves. Have I told that one yet? Oh, I can't have since I just started writing this book. I wanted to write up my story and some tips for new adventurers - I've seen a lot of world and thought it would be most kind to share my experiences. That way less newcomers die in the hands of nasty beasties and stuff.
So where was I? Waterdeep or the fishie-elves? Oh well. I was wandering around the Sword Coast once, going down to south. Sword Coast is quite long so it naturally took me a long time to get where I was headed. Now that I think of it, I wasn't really headed anywhere. I was just wandering. I'm so sorry I have to live down here in the Underdark! When I was up in the surface some five years ago, I was longing to see the Underdark and the drow and all the exciting stuff the tall-folk tell tales about. Now I'd give anything to see the surface and the endless sea again. I mean, there was no land in the horizon. Just sea. And sea-gulls dropping some nasty stuff on me.
So there I was, sitting on the cliffs near that Candlekeep. You know, the fortress full of boring old monks. Didn't let me in for some reason. The gatekeeper said they 'value their belongings'. I'm sure they do - I value my belongings too, but I don't know what it had to do with letting me in. Eventually he said I need to give them a book to enter so I gave them a book I found in my backpack. I think it was a gnomish one, something about turnips. Anyway, he didn't accept it and after trying to persuade him a bit, he said he'd kill me if I didn't leave! Now that was certainly rude, so I decided Candlekeep wasn't such a nice place to visit after all.
I was kicking some rocks down to the sea. They splashed in the water, and I kinda liked the sound it made. One time the sound was different, something along the lines "OUCH" and "GOD DAMNIT". So I took an old rope from my backpack and descended down to see if the sea was alright. I was a bit ashamed for kicking rocks in the sea like that, not even stopping to wonder it might hurt a bit!
However, when I got down there, I noticed a body there. It was an elf! Her head was bleeding, so I decided to carry her to the shore and see if I could tend to it. This servant of what-was-it... A hand of some colour. Can't recall. Anyway, he taught me how to use herbs. So I pressed the wound so it didn't bleed and all that stuff. She woke up later and after filling her up in the recent happenings, she woved that she would kill the guy who threw a stone at her. I said that she need only whistle and I'd be there to help her. I so hate people throwing stones at innocent people!
She gave me a necklace of some sort. It had a fish carved out of some strange stone I didn't recognize. I asked folk about it back in the Waterdeep but no one knew. I decided to keep it, the elf was kinda pretty. Her feet and hands were like a frog's and she was kinda good at swimming.
I know I could've got a lot of money for that necklace, but I kept it anyway as a memory. The drow took it from me, of course. I hope to find the elf when I get back to the surface so she can give me a new one. Or maybe we don't have to depart. Then I don't have to keep a memory of her with me all the time.
The moral of this story is, kids, that always help those in need! It always pays back, in form of stuff, shinies or a good deed. Hey, that rhymes. I think I'll make a poem out of it. I'm not such a good singer but I met this bard lately and I'm sure she could compose it.
My hand's pretty tired after all this writing so I'll have to tell my story later. Well, that was a story too. But I mean, the way I came down here in the Sanctuary and what I was before. Maybe tomorrow.