A Letter of Omen

Captain,

Found on the corpse of Dobs:

###

October 12th,

Still moving. The blasted caravan is too hard to track now. Her signature is all but gone. Seeking refuge in East. Postmen know my face. Pray I survive.

October 15th,

Storm. It's loud. The fog is thick as bricks and reeks of innards. At least another month of on-foot travel to safety. Found a boar. Tasted like old socks.

October 16th,

They found me. I've been hid out under this blasted rock for over three hours and I can hear them.

Was wrong, massive bloody caravan. Had to have been a league of mourners. One took a piss ten feet from my head. I'll find him and rip his skull off.

October 19th,

It's followed me. The fucking deer. For six days I been seeing deer. Just one, pretty brown fella. Antlers broken. Felt bad. But it's still here. I've been through three different woods and swaths of farmland. It's just watching me. I'm two days away from some dinky little town, praying for a bed to sleep in and a warm meal.

October 21st,

Reached Oldwood.

My clothes are torn and bloodied, found a nice old lady running an inn. The Droopy Spoon, everyone calls it. Lady gave me soup and a quill to write with. Bless her damned soul.

Giving me a free stay so longs as I run an errand for her tomorrow. Spirits refreshed.

No deer in sight.

October 22nd,

Boy in the inn went missing this morning. Two at the earliest, five the latest. Everyone is frenzy, damned hag kicked me out. Thinks I got something to do with it. Sending some cappys my way, she says. Turning tail the second my shoes come out of the cobblers.

Barefoot. Cappys came. Hid in sewage. Ruined most of journal.

October 24th,

It's there again. The deer,

October 25th,

No clue where I am. Feet sore. Toe looks infected. Need to run. Deer.

October 26th,

I didn't sleep last night. Crawled through biggest prickle bush ever seen. Heard twigs snapping all night. It's following me.

October 29th,

See town. Tall man came. Gave help. Toe is healed, bleeding. No more deer. God give passage.

###

Found his body strung up in a tree outside of Shanodack, just below a cliff. Journal was soiled, water damaged, stained with blood and plenty more I don't wanna know.

I know Dobs was a kook, but don't this sound like what Shimmies was spewing that one night? Said you still could find him if you needed to. Maybe compare the stories. Just try and see what's what. Dobs was a kook. But he sure as hell wasn't stupid enough to jump off a cliff.

-Toron.