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Goblin Diaries, Vol 26: A Distinct Turn of Events

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 From the December 26, 2025 newsletter: 16 th Day of Snow Moon, 1219 th Year, Human Age of Magic … It has been an eventful three days since my last journal entry. I have been so busy I’ve not had a chance to write, and I have much to record. I could not have been more wrong about the young woman who rescued me from the hyenas some five days past. She is not the demoness I thought her to be. Indeed, she is one of the most kind and caring humans I’ve run across, and I am grateful for my good fortune in being unable to escape my perceived captivity. In fact, I truly believe the Gods of Urgule answered my prayers when I found myself unable to run after managing to loosen the cords that bound my legs and torso. It turns out that the rack to which I was bound was no device of torture but a bed the girl had constructed, to which she had secured me so that I wouldn’t injure myself during the seizures I was apparently having in the first stages of recovery from my wounds. I found ...
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Goblin Diaries, Vol 25: A Prisoner Once More

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 From the 11/24/2025 newsletter: 13 th Day of Snow Moon, 1219 th Year, Human Age of Magic … I am healing, and I feel much stronger than I did yesterday. But I am definitely a prisoner again. The red-haired demoness who continues to feed me and minister to my wounds has yet to discover I have freed my hands and arms from their bonds, but she has my legs and torso bound to this rack in such a way that I cannot reach the knots to untie myself. When she comes to spoon gruel into my mouth thrice daily, I feign delirium, and so far she has not tried to initiate a conversation. But I don’t know how much longer I can fool her into thinking I’m not well enough for travel. I am certain now that she is an agent of Mazuom’s, for I recognized the stylized royal symbol of Zemburith on her horse’s saddle pad. Undoubtedly, she is planning to take me back to her master as soon as possible. That would surely be the end of me. I’m running out of time. I must come up with a plan to escape. ...
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Goblin Diaries, Vol 24: Demon Warrior

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 From the October 23, 2025 newsletter: The following is a corrected post from a month ago, taking into account a corrected translation from the High Elven in the original journal: 12 th Day of Snow Moon, 1219 th Year, Human Age of Magic … I’m alive. Whether or not that is fortunate, I cannot say. I should not have ignored my nose when I detected the scent of hyena before leaving the safety of my cave. Indeed, the beasts were concealed nearby. I’d gone no more than a dozen longspaces from the cave entrance when they came out of hiding and surrounded me. I managed to stun the alpha female with a throwing stone, and for a moment I thought I might escape. However, weakened from days without food or water, my legs gave way when I tried to run. I stumbled, and the beasts were on me in an instant. I tried to fight, but there were too many. I was about to be torn to shreds and eaten piece-by-piece when a fierce war cry rose from somewhere outside my field of vision. Suddenly, the...
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Goblin Diaries, Vol 24: Apology

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 From the 09/19/25 newsletter: I need to issue an apology to my readers for possible errors in our previous excerpt. To explain, let me give you a little background. The story of the adventurous love affair between Erin Callen and Theon Alanis, chronicled in the Song of Tsing trilogy, has been pieced together mainly from three different sources. Two of them were originally oral ballads transposed into the written word thousands of years later by historians. The Illisandra, an ancient Persian epic about an antediluvian prince, contains accounts of battles in which the protagonist fought against a mighty king with a singing sword. The Orcanis Heraldanus , a somewhat disjointed collection of folk tales from across Saharan and sub-Saharan Africa, has a number of versions of the affairs of both Erin/Theon and Shia/Mustava, plus related references to places like Azurith, Zemburith, and Arleanne. But the document that ties the stories together and links them with the activities of the...
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Goblin Diaries, Vol 24: Angel of Mercy

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 From the 08/22/2025 newsletter: 12 th Day of Snow Moon, 1219 th Year, Human Age of Magic … I cannot believe that I am alive. I should not have ignored my nose when I detected the scent of hyena before leaving the safety of my cave. Indeed, the beasts were concealed nearby. I’d gone no more than a dozen longspaces from the cave entrance when they came out of hiding and surrounded me. I managed to stun the alpha female with a throwing stone, and for a moment I thought I might escape. However, weakened from days without food or water, my legs gave way when I tried to run. I stumbled, and the beasts were on me in an instant. I tried to fight, but there were too many. I was about to be torn to shreds and eaten piece-by-piece when a savior arrived in the unlikely form of a human female warrior. She charged to my rescue astride a mighty steed, raining arrows of death upon the hyenas, killing half the pack outright and scattering the rest to parts unknown. The last thing I rem...
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Goblin Diaries, Vol 23: The Hyenas Are Gone!

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 From the 07/18/2025 Newsletter: 12 th Day of Snow Moon, 1219 th Year, Human Age of Magic … Finally! The female hellhound and her mongrel pack have moved on. I woke before dawn this morning after a delirious, nightmare-filled sleep and peered out of the cave entrance to see … nothing! I lay at the mouth of the cave, peering into the gathering light, desperately hoping the rising sun would reveal that it wasn’t a hallucination brought on by dehydration. I’ve not had a drop of water since draining my waterskin yesterday, and my eyes are so dry and scratchy that closing the lids gives no relief. Yet, as the sun rose and the shadows disappeared, there was not a hyena in sight. The scent of the pack lingers, but there were so many keeping vigil for so long, how could their smell ever be entirely gone? I’ve sniffed, watched, and listened for hours. It is now mid-morning, and if the pack was lurking nearby, surely they would have given themselves away by now. I’ve stuffed my empty water...
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Goblin Diaries, Vol 22: Fading Hope

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 From the June 20, 2025 Newsletter 11 th Day of Snow Moon, 1219 th Year, Human Age of Magic … I’m getting desperate. As I closed my eyes last night and tried to sleep, I prayed to the gods of Urgule that when I woke this morning the pack of hyenas keeping vigil at the mouth of the cave where I’m hiding would be gone, and I could be on my way. My prayers remain unanswered. I now count at least a dozen in my narrow field of vision at the mouth of the cave. The big female alpha lies patiently in the shade of a large boulder, one eye half open and focused on the cave entrance. Occasionally, she will raise herself on four paws, lock eyes with me, and growl. It sends a chill through my very being. It is hot, dry, and cramped here in the cave, and my water is completely gone, having just barely moistened my mouth with the last few drops from my waterskin moments ago. At this point, even if the bitch gives up and takes her pack to find other prey, I will be too weak and dehydrated ...
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