Vernon decided to stay in the cavern alone. Can't fault his courage, I must say, but I thought clerics were supposed to be wise? Ah yes, but I forgot, Vernon isn't a cleric. Either way, I was visualizing the menu in the cavern that night - "Mesdames et Messieurs, tonight we have a special on fresh-caught Vernon. The main course is a flank of Vernon, with a delicate mint sauce; for dessert, we have Vernon feet, lightly pickled in brine and wild raspberries." Amazingly, he made it through the night. AND he shared with us the gold pieces and the sword he found overnight. Can't fault his honesty either.

We went deeper into the cavern, and encountered these things. Error, sorry, Errol (must work on getting those "l"s right) dug deep into his bardic knowledge base and pronounced them "goo monsters". I'd have been much more impressed if he said this BEFORE Kestrel was gooed up like a molasses sundae. To me they looked like little flying trolls with, you guessed it, goo. Pretty scary, whatever they were. I REALLY didn't like being gooed, so I got out of it and worked my way up to the attack (I managed to do this "flanking" thing Vaugner keeps telling me about; basically what he means is that you stick the sword in the back side of the monster rather than the front, because the front is occupied with laughing at Error waving his rapier; seems like a really good tactic). But what do you know: even without holding up the lantern, I still kept missing. I almost felt like with every punch I was going to spin round in a big circle, hit a glancing blow off the nearest inanimate object, and collapse in a messy heap. I MUST go get some more training!

In the cavern, we found this dilapidated (but the word "decapitated" seemed to hang in the air somehow; were we just nervous at going in?) old house. Someone (Malif?) had the great idea of clearing out this cavern and making it a home away from home. The previous occupants seemed to have made an arrangement with the local fauna - you leave us alone, we'll leave you alone. I REALLY like the idea of having someplace to run away to. I have an uneasy feeling about the City. Lots of funny things happening. Lots of those funny things happening to us, too. Hmm.

Somewhere along the line, we'd found the courier's pouch. We took it back to the city. Everyone agrees that it proves Alana isn't guilty, but they still won't let her go. Of course, I understand that they must follow the rules, but it does seem to be a very strange set of rules. Another blow to my regard for the system.

The little magical pet rocks are threatening to take over the outer city (see, I knew those things were trouble!). I imagine the Action Squad (that would be us) will be called in to find the source of the infestation. Note to self: make sure they pay us well. I've been talking to people, and they tell me that if I had some "bracers of armor" the monsters we fight wouldn't hit me as often. I'd really like that.