🌲Journal Entry 4 - A Walk In The Park

After a sleepless night, I rose at the first sunrise and made my leave. I had spent the prior evening packing up my most valuable belongings: my vital research, journals, hand drawn maps, and food for a week’s travel. It was clear that my home here with the Piesons had been exposed. The truth is, in my line of work, this is just a hazard of doing business. It’s not the first time I’ve had to make myself disappear quickly. Although, I’m usually running from an upset farmer or an enraged bounty hunter. It’s rare that I have to run from an entire Slice. Regardless, I follow the same plan - evacuate immediately. As I left my home in the Piesons fields, I took a second to appreciate the peacefulness and tranquility of it all. I had an uneasy feeling that it would be a while until the next wave of calm in my life. The Pieous’s bounty scroll was gripped firmly in my tentacle—the request they’d asked of me felt heavy. The animal they wanted me to capture… Well, I was in for a wild adventure, no doubt about it. An adventure that would take me on the hunt in search for a rare creature hidden in the dry, deserted depths of The Volcanic Pits. An animal I had never seen myself, let alone attempted to capture. An animal thought by many to have been extinct for generations… A Dinosaur. Even just thinking that the legends are true—that there are Dinosaurs wandering the Volcanic Pits—was exhilarating. How I was to go about finding and then capturing one, well, that was still unclear. However before I could plan out my moves, it was time for me to head to my home in the Forest. If you believe the fools in the tavern or the stories we read to the young Octopies, you’d call it the Haunted Forest. But there’s nothing scary about it, especially once you have an in with The Baked. And that I do. We've got history. We’ve shared many pints of mead and traded for all sorts of treasures. I won’t lie—their desire for me to take a vow of secrecy and not share their existence with outsiders has done a wonderful job at letting me maintain a monopoly on trading with them. I wasn’t sure I’d have time to visit them this trip, but one never knows what to expect in the Forest.

My trip there was easy enough, I hurried my way through Pieson territory, making sure to avoid any main routes and kept my head down whenever passing another Octopie. I did my best to shake any would be followers, but who knows what tricks the Pieous are capable of. Within just a couple of days' travel I had arrived at the edge of the Forest. As I approached, I felt a sense of relief. I've wandered through this forest countless times, either to supply The Baked with worldly treasures or to harvest rare flora for myself. I know its secrets, I know how it ebbs and flows, and I know how to ebb and flow with it. As soon as I cross the treeline, I would be rid of any stalkers within minutes. All of this makes it the perfect spot to stash away my most prized research and treasures.

I eagerly stepped into the Forest and made my way straight to my shelter. As I arrived, I spotted some track marks from a local Truffalo. These Truffalos are some of the largest, scariest-looking beings in all of Pieland. But so long as you leave them alone and don’t mess with their food, they generally leave you alone too. And leave them alone I do, as they serve nicely as natural guard dogs for my forest home, scaring away any wandering Octopie brave enough to make it this far into the Forest. Once I arrived at my Outpost, I set down my belongings and locked away my research. I would rest here, but only briefly, before I set out again. I was too excited to wait around. If I had a chance to capture a Dinosaur, to prove they exist, to carve a real legacy, there was no point in sitting around to catch my breath. It was time to head straight for The Volcanic Pits. With the right equipment and preparation, of course.

Because The Volcanic Pits is a place where life struggles to survive. It’s similar to the barren Dust Bowl, except with much more danger—venomous insects, poisonous flora, scavenger animals, actual pits of lava. The list goes on. I had visited the pits before, but never stayed for long or ventured beyond the initial perimeter. It had always seemed so empty and unforgiving. For a brief moment, I questioned if this was really worth the coin. I could pick up some small, local jobs and over time make the same money without the risk of certain death. But, that word came into my head again: dinosaur. What a story that would be. Coin be damned—nothing can come close to the glory of capturing a beast that the world thought extinct.

So, I made my move to the Volcanic Pits, moving out of the Forest almost as quickly as I had entered it. I opted not to visit The Baked, knowing it would slow my trip down considerably. I charted a course out of my Outpost, heading eastwards through the Forest. After a few hours of walking through the thick bush, I reached the treeline, looking out over a large clearing. In the distance I could see the dry land of the Volcanic Pits, with the infamous volcanic mountain top jutting out in the background. But right in front of me was a swampy bog, which I would need to navigate through. However, the sun would soon be setting. After an adrenaline-filled few days, I decided to set-up camp and get an early rest. Tomorrow, I will make my way across the bog and enter this rarely visited part of Pieland…