I looked into my bank account yesterday and realized just how much I'd saved up - almost 10 platinum! Those coppers and silvers really add up after a while. I decided to follow some of the better advice I'd heard recently, and get a shield. After wandering around in Kelethin for a while, stopping in and chatting with merchants, I finally stumbled across a shield merchant near the Warrior's guild. He was pleasant enough, though a bit condescending when he learned I was a Bard. He did have a fairly nice selection - everything from bucklers to tower shields! I couldn't imagine having to carry something bigger than me into battle, so I declined that one, instead selecting something in between - a small round shield. It's fairly well balanced, and it feels good to have a nice thick wall between me and the enemy.

Since I was spending money anyway, I decided to go ahead and purchase a nice leather tunic. My old padded tunic that Sylia gave me was just about worn through in places, and even the patches have patches. There's a nice leather merchant in Kelethin named Aluwenae, who was very kind and made sure that the suit fit me before selling it to me. I wish all merchants were as kind as she. I looked at the prices she had for other items, and they seemed reasonable enough. Perhaps I'll save up for leather pants and sleeves, too.

In the meantime, I decided to visit Steamfont once more to explore some. The trip there was uneventful enough, nothing decided to jump me while I traveled through the Lesser Faydark Forest. I made it out into the bright sunlight of Steamfont, and headed for the giant Windmills I had seen on my last trip.

I stopped at the first windmill, the makeshift Inn I'd slept at before, to check with Frebin, the owner, and make sure that it was still available. He was there, but a tad upset about something. Seems that more and more of the Gnomes' indispensable clockworks were going crazy and attacking people. Jogl had begun regular patrols, as had a few of the Watchmen - but it didn't seem to be enough. Frebin told me that as much trouble as these things were, there was even a bounty on them! I assured him that I would take precautions and he just shook his head. "Ye'd better do better than that, boy! Watch yerself, always, 'cause ye never know when the bloody things'll sneak up on ye!"

I thanked him for the advice, then headed out to see what kind of trouble I could get into. i didn't have to look far, either. Just outside the windmill, a young female Gnome was trying desperately to get away from some of the runaways we had just been talking about. She appeared to be a spellcaster, by the looks of her robes, but the marks where the clockwork beasts had struck her showed how much she really wasn't suited for a combat role. Without a thought, I drew my sword and slung my new shield onto my arm. Placing myself firmly between the Gnome and the creatures, I engaged them and hoped for the best.

There were 3 of them - one that looked like a giant spider, and two resembling small rodents. Ignoring the smaller two for the moment, I focused on the giant metal arachnid. Remembering what I'd learned from my battles in the Mines of Malfunction, I targetted sensitive parts: eyes, joints, hoses - anything that looked weak.

While attacking the spider, I also found myself having to kick away the clockwork rats, too, just to keep them from chewing on my legs. Distracting, but not really hurting me, so I concentrated on the monstrosity before me. The lesson of the black widow came back to me now - something with eight legs is four times as dangerous as something with only two. I found myself relying more and more on my shield, hiding behind it almost, timing my swings to follow under the mechanical arachnids. After shattering a few lenses, I noticed the beast wobbling slightly, and that gave me newfound strength, so I came out from behind my shield a little more and focused on the weak spots I had identified previously.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, but was truly only a few moments, the spider collapsed, making some strange whirring noise, which was repeated by the rodents at my feet. I was so tired of dealing with the rats, that I simply stabbed them each clean through with my sword, silencing them once and for all, as well. I decided that evidence was in order, so I pried off a small panel from the bottom of the spider, and lifted out the blackbox, rusted though it was, from the housing. I tried to do the same with the rats, but ended up with nothing but a gear and some broken metal pieces. They'd just have to take my word on it.

Beaten and worn, but triumphant, i returned to Ak'anon, and retired in my usual cubbyhole. I'll check with Manik in the morning about this blackbox...

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