A picture

I found this drawing of a "Tarrasque" in one of my books a few days ago. I guess this is fully grown. Look at the size of the humans compared to that beast! I'm glad we killed it when we did. The books say they can get to this size within a few hours of "birth".

Tasha's Poem?

Succeeding times a silver age behold,
Excelling brass, but more excell'd by gold.
Then summer, autumn, winter, did appear,
And spring was but a season of the year;
The sun his annual course obliquely made,
Good days contracted, and enlarg'd the bad.
The air with sultry heats began to glow,
The wings of winds were clogg'd with ice and snow;
And shivering mortals into houses driv'n,
Sought shelter from th' inclemency of Heav'n.
Those houses, then, were caves or homely sheds,
With twining oziers fenc'd, and moss their beds.
Then ploughs, for seed, the fuitful furrows broke,
And oxen labour'd first beneath the yoke.

Day 1.5 - The Chest

We all jumped as a box near the door fell off its shelf and crashed on the floor. It is the strangest creature any of us have ever seen. It was covered in hard spikes, even over its eyes. It was only about a foot long and seemed to make slight groaning or whimpering noises. It seemed very young. All 3 of us gathered around the creature trying to figure out what it was. Gaius refered to it as an "imp" and felt it was hungry, so Raine went upstairs and shot a Robin in a nearby tree. Gaius tossed it to the creature, which gobbled it up hungrily. Then the strangest thing I have seen since strangers landed upon our beach.... the creature started to grow. Gaius was startled by such a growth spurt so he threw an empty crate on top of it. Talia insisted it was evil, but I didn't think we should harm it without knowing more about it. While Talia, Raine, and I argued over the fate of the creature, Gaius started searching through the rest of the chest. This caught Talia's eye, but he slammed the lid closed before she could reach him. Gaius looked incredibly sick.

About this time, I noticed a parchment on the floor. I have no idea where it came from. I'll copy here later

Anyway, Talia opened the chest again, but it was Chupa that looked into it and pulled out a red cloth. Then strangest of all, he started talking to the chest. I would find out soon enough. A creature, uglier and smellier than the first crawled slowly out of the chest. After talking to it for a while, Gaius and Chupa learned that it was called "Mildred Snoot". It seemed to recognize Talia and Gaius, although both of them swear they have never seen Mildred before. It talked about being asleep for a few days and it seemed to know Tasha and Astral (the latter was an ancestor of Gaius). The rumblings from the crate I was sitting on (with the imp) caught Mildred's attention and he started to panick. He started screaming "Tarrekus! Kill the Tarrekus!" Gaius responded immediately by pushing me off the crate (I was taken by surprise!) and throwing balls of light at the imp. I tried to stab it with my knife, but I don't think I did much damage. (I guess it was Mildred's insistance that made me change my mind.) Even Raine started shooting it with her bow. The imp stopped moving, so Gaius grabbed it and threw it back in the chest. The lid slammed shut and the chest jumped around for several minutes. Mildred finally crawled back out of the chest looking fat and sickly. I guess he ate it???

We finally decided that we needed to leave as quickly as possible. Gaius and I went back to the temple to retreive the crate of books Chupa and I had packed. Ophala, Temple Elder stopped me and was visibly angry that I was leaving. She said that Gaius and Raine should leave immediately and I should stay. Otherwise horrible changes would come to the islands and it would all be our fault. She seemed to know of the books grandpa and I studied and guarded. I don't know how she knew, but she indicated that she wasn't a fool and knew everything that happened in the temple. I tried to be respectful, but I can't be a slave to a made-up goddess and to lies about the true nature of the world. It is an insult to my family and the guild. We gathered my belongings and headed back to Gaius' hut. In the meantime, Chupa, Talia and Raine dragged Tasha's chest to the hut. I guess Chupa said goodbye to his girlfriend, and she said some hateful things toward Talia. They didn't say much more than that.

We finally loaded everything on the ship (undisturbed by any villages, yet again) and departed the islands for good... I think.

Day 1.4 - Festival

The three of us finally found Mylon in the village temple. Mylon frequently prays there, which has always confounded me. Never lifting his head from prayer, Grandpa greeted each of us. I told him about Gaius and Rain arriving from Sembia in search of Talia. He sighed heavily. He told us that it was time for the three of us to leave the isles. He ordered me to pack the Guild books and be gone from the isles before sunrise. He refused to explain any further. Chupa was only looking a little green this time. I think he's starting to accept that everything the elders have taught us have been lies. Or else he just isn't listening to us any more.

Talia left to talk to Kaima while Chupa found some crates to help me pack the library. After keeping the Guild's library secret from even my closest friends for the last 10 years, it was very strange to see someone other than Grandpa in the hidden stone room under the Temple of Hope. We were nearly finished when the festival started. I grabbed my lute and played for the village for an hour or so while Chupa ate and flirted with some of the older girls in the village. I saw Talia dancing on the far side of the square. Talia finally made her way over to us and told us that she had discovered something that she wanted us to see. Lennin and Carte took over the musical festivities. We snuck away without anyone noticing.

Talia took us into the store room beneath her family hut. We had played down here for years, but that night I realized how odd it is to have perfectly carved stone room beneath a hut built upon sand. Such a room should never be found underground so close to the beach. Back in a dark corner stood a chest that had never been there before. Inscribed upon the lid were the words "Lady Tasha".

Talia told us that her mom had begged her not to open the chest; that she didn't want us to leave. She said that Kaima had opened the chest briefly, but a cold wind rushed out and she slammed the lid shut. Talia said she knew that she must open it, especially after our conversation with Gaius just a few hours earlier. We all agreed that she should open the chest. She freed the latch. The lid shot open. A horrible smell greeted us all.

Day 1.3 - Gaius' Story

Inside, he opened a trunk and pulled out a painting of Talia. All of us were completely taken aback. Gaius said that the painting was of someone named Tasha Romanov. He said the painting was 500 years old and he believes that Talia is some great descendant of Tasha, a Queen of Sembia. Sembia is a place that appears in several of the maps in a book Grandpa Mylon calls "The Forgotten Realms of Faerûn". Next, he proceeded to pull out a HUGE map of Faerûn and pointed out his original homeland, Sembia, and the route he traveled to reach us in the isles. Chupa looked like he was going to pass out again. Gaius kept talking about Tasha, Talia, Sembia, and how he has been looking all over the world for her. While Chupa angrily paced around the room, Gaius presented Talia with a strange weapon with two stones connected by a length of leather. He called it a bola.

Talia started asking Gaius about a strange odor in the air; it smelled of rotten eggs. I looked outside and realized that no villagers were walking around our hut. I could see a few milling about over near the village center, but I found this very odd since so many people had gathered around when they first landed the boat on the beach. I pointed this out to everyone and we wandered outside to see where everyone was. About 20 or 30 feet from the hut, all of the villagers seemed to notice us for the first time. They rushed over to introduce themselves and asked if they were going to the festival tonight. Gaius and Rain were courteous enough to everyone, but the villagers followed us back Minow's hut. I decided to find Grandpa Mylon with Talia and Chupa while Gaius and Rain prepared to meet with the elders.