Max's Journal continued

So where was I? Urm...well, anyway, we were chasing some Bad Guys through this cave when alluva sudden the cave wasn't really a cave very much anymore and on the other side of it a portal to (yet) another dimension was waiting for us. It was terrible. It was all glowy and tingly and made the most horrific whooshing noise.

The place we ended up is really, really weird. All sorts of animals I've never seen are wandering around, getting ridden by halflings and goblins. They're sort of like...really big lizards mated with cows. Or something. Weird. I've encluded some sketches in the back, just in case I ever forget what they looked like or in case no one believes me when we get back home.

So, yeah, the halflings - they were riding what they called 'claw-foots'. Not the most original of names. It's like calling a bull 'horn-head'. I mean, these things are so much more than the clawed feet. I got to ride one so I know! All the halfling sort of live in this nomadic tribe. They call themselves the Plainsfolk. They don't even have original first names - for example, this really nice girl that's helping us out named Cora.

Cora. Yeah. She's, oh man, she's something else. I mean, I like her a lot, and she's really charming, but she seems to have taken some kind of fancy to me. And I just don't have the heart to tell her I'm already married. Plus, she's so young and all. Even if we were to come to some kind of...agreement, I could never ask her to leave everything she's ever known to come and live on my world (assuming we figure out how to get back). And there ain't no way in any of the nine hells that I'm staying here. Nuh-uh. I like my taverns and libraries and market places, thankyouverymuch.

There are other people here, too. I've mentioned the goblins. They ride on winged lizard hybrids. They don't pose much of a problem, or anything, but we've gotta slog our way through them to see if they have this key. I guess I haven't mentioned the keys. They're not really keys, that would go in a lock, they're like pieces to a puzzle box. One of 'em is a gear, we got that from the Cave of the Great Taurano near the gnomes. (the gnomes seem to have some kind of 'advanced' culture - they at least had working labs and a tavern of sorts. And they call themselves gnomes, so, you know, three steps ahead of the halflings.) I kind of felt bad killing the Great Taurano because we had to kill him and his wife and his baby. Which is really sad. But after he tried swallowing Jackle whole, I didn't mind so much. I think Rath got swallowed for a minute, too, but I don't really remember. I was really worried about getting Jackle back alive.

Now we think that the goblins (or 'Flyers' as Cora calls them) have another key, which has us up to two out of three. So I guess we're making progress.

I hate it here.