Hey, what a day! I defeated great foes today and acquired two new items for my efforts. I'll write about the second first. I decided to venture deep into the granite crags to the far north of Fartown. I saw signs of a failed expedition throughout my journey in the flint colored canyons. After dealing with the local wildlife (goats, bos, and cougars), I finally ascended to a bit of a plateau where I was confronted by what I assume were the men from the failed expedition -- only they were different. Crazy, almost. The had the look of wild men and they were certainly not looking to be rescued by me. I made my way to what I can only assume was once their leader. He did not give me a chance to speak, but charged at me the moment his eye met mine. After a fierce battle, I defeated the crazy man and secured for myself a nice pith helmet to go with a safari outfit I had picked up along the way from one of his lieutenants. This adventure of mine would not have been successful, though, had it not been for the first item I gained earlier today.

I have spent quite a bit of time recently pondering whether or not it was proper for me to utilize the blood of a powerful demon to make my armor crystal stronger. I have pledged to forsake all demon weapons or equipment, and I was very wary of this process of upgrading my crystal because it utilized the blood of a demon. After MUCH consideration and discussion with people whom I admire and trust who were on opposing sides of this issue, I made the decision to go ahead and make the journey down to try and secure the blood that I needed to make my crystal stronger. While I cannot comment with full accuracy on the exact process that this blood and crystal go through to become stronger (only the artisan Margpot Grassrunner can comment on that), I cannot fathom how a process which makes the bearer able to better defend him or herself against attacks could be of evil origins. Much of the demon armor and equipment that I have seen seems to have some benefit to the bearer, but only at the expense of some other area where it makes them weaker. In any event, I am not smart enough to know how or where this crystal draws its power from in the first place, but I know that by utilizing some or all of this demon's blood, Margpot has made it stronger, and I will wear it. I traveled to N'Rolav Dundee and secured another crystal, untainted by demon blood, just in case I find out at a later date that the demonblood crystal is evil.

In any case, Anu was gracious enough to escort me down into the abyss and used his precious scepter to help me get by the Golden Age demons that tried to block our passage. For that I am ever grateful to him. I hope that I will find another scepter with power left in it so that I can repay him for what he sacrificed for me. Once we descended the passage was dark and crawling with demons, and the powerful demon from whom I was to extract blood was nasty and it gave me great satisfaction to dispatch of him and watch the last breath escape his wretched chest.

I can only hope that my decision will assist me in doing my part to defend these lands from whatever evil it is that Balthazar is up to. Any advantage that I can gain to do that is well worth it, in my opinion.