Aaryan's Diary - The Party Grows

What am I doing?

I’m continuing to take my raw notes and feed them into ChatGPT in order to create a diary entry written by my character. Basically being a total geek.

Aaryan’s Diary - Entry 15

🎵 Aaryan Greensleeves’ Diary
When It Rains in Leilon, It Pours Barbarians (and also Paladins)

You’d think after slaying a tentacled dragon and cheating death at least twice, someone—anyone—would give us a few days to nap and sip tea in peace.

Nope.

We were barely patched up from our last harrowing endeavor when Gizzelda Copperwright, Leilon’s resident drill sergeant trapped in a dwarf’s body, marched up and barked something about two missing children and “doing our jobs.” She is, without question, the only person who could make Ezekiel look like a pacifist.

With our last healing potion gulped and our spell slots lower than a bard’s neckline on festival day, we limped toward town. That’s when we saw the storm.

Not your average Faerûn thunderclouds either—this sky crackled with unnatural blue energy, all spiraling above the waterfront like it had somewhere to be. We followed it, obviously, because we’re reckless or brave depending on who’s telling the story. (Usually me. So: brave.)

There, on a splintered pontoon, was a tiefling sorceress mid-ritual, bathed in the light of Talos and bad decisions. Around her stood eight barbarians, also rocking the Talos fashion trend. And what did we do in our fragile state?

We attacked.

Ezekiel kicked it off by magically suggesting one of the muscleheads take a swim. He did. The water was three feet deep. The moment fell a bit flat. I let off a Shatter, tossed Dwayne some Bardic Inspiration (which he caught like a champ), and he hurled the Javelin of Lightning with enough force to make the gods wince.

The tiefling didn’t flinch. She just kept chanting.

Vronyo blasted two more into the bay. Four ran straight at Dwayne like it was a rugby match. He went down. Ezekiel healed him. He went down again. I pulled him up with my last spell like a magician yanking a rabbit from a bloody hat, and finally Dwayne stood long enough to stay standing and start hitting back.

Then Ezekiel dropped. Then we killed the last of the barbarians. Then we turned toward the tiefling.

And that’s when he arrived.

Inquisitor Lykurgis—rowed in like a divine tax audit. Tall, armored, eyes full of judgment. He stepped onto Idol Island, found the two missing children, calmed them with a whisper, and then—waded into the bay like a storybook hero, holy symbol glowing, cloak swirling, commanding the tiefling to walk toward him.

She obeyed.

They met like duelists in the water, and in moments, she was down. He barely broke a sweat. We started to breathe. I opened my mouth to offer a clever quip…

…and then the water boiled.

A Water Elemental rose, flanked by two Water Weirds, because apparently Talos doesn’t know when to quit. We were bleeding, exhausted, out of spells, and back in the fray. Dwayne got dragged under but fought free with Vronyo’s help. One of the Weirds slithered off to Idol Island and started attacking villagers.

Lykurgis, I’ll give him credit, fought like a tempest. He and Dwayne handled the Elemental while we scrambled across the shallows. Vronyo climbed on my shoulders—an unusual but oddly efficient tactic—and together we waded through the bay to finish off the last of them.

Finally, finally, it was over.

Ezekiel vouched for the new guy. Lykurgis has that stern, silent strength and holy edge that screams "Paladin with a troubled past." He’s efficient, intense, and about as cuddly as a bag of javelins. I’m… not entirely sure how he and Vronyo are going to get along. Our favorite little warlock has a way of drawing suspicion, and our new friend seems like the suspicious type.

But for now? We rest. We heal. We breathe.

And me? I write. Because if I don’t get this down now, I’ll forget how absurd and glorious it all was.

– Aaryan Greensleeves
Still alive. Still singing. Still carrying gnomes through waist-deep water.