Durant's Personal Journal - Northern Chedonc, late summer of 3811

It feels like it has been an eternity since I had either the time or the spare paper to write one of these journals. I'm glad my life seems to have stabilized enough to pick this up again, for what that's worth. The small comforts are precious these times.
 
It has been several months since I left the Outsiders back in Hannuya Ridge; I'm not certain what the date is, to be honest. The days begin to blend together when you're alone, and I spent long enough alone to have thoroughly lost track of the date. No big loss, I won't lose any sleep without Cir's calendar in my life.
 
Fortunately, I'm very much no longer alone. Quite the opposite, I've got more companions than I'm quite sure what to do with; over one hundred by last count. The first was Char. I found the direwolf weak and sick on the road north into Chedonc, looking for Her temple; from what I found his pack was probably killed as some result of the Starfall. He took quite the liking to my jerky first, but he seems quite protective of me now. It is wonderful to receive that kind of genuine affection, and to be able to return it.
 
The second... well, it may have taken a cataclysm but I seem to finally be building that army. The last few miles from the temple, I got ambushed by a gang of gnolls; their petty warlord seemed quite keen on fighting me one-on-one. I think they were trying to prove something to their gang about how tough they were or some such. It went poorly for them, and the rest of the group simply let me leave. What I wasn't expecting was, when I made camp that night, the gang had followed me, and the late warlord's two de-facto lieutenants (Lycya and Adcro) came to thank me for doing them a favor. Apparently they'd been trying to shake off the leader for a while, and were keen to align with someone less petty, stupid, and cruel.
 
To be honest, I didn't trust them at first. Even with the Castellan's gifts, thirty gnoll marauders might be able to overwhelm me if they had got it in their heads to turn on me. Lycya and Adcro seem to have built up the trust and respect that their boss failed to engender, though, and Lycya and Adcro have been entirely trustworthy thus far. They've been invaluable in getting their own gang in my good graces, and in bringing two more marauder gangs into the fold since. I know that it's partially motivated out of fear and uncertainty in light of the Starfall, but... I feel quite relieved and vindicated that the people of Yeenoghu have turned out to be people, just like any other. I can't help but remember that time I ran into those goblins in the Amberwood with the Outsiders, how little faith the rest of the group had those goblins could be considered... people. I would be lying if I said that sort of rhetoric didn't put doubts in me that maybe I and people like myself were aberrant somehow. This has redoubled my faith that the people of Cireth and Alaria were wrong - that we are all people just as much as any humanoids are.
 
In a strange way, it feels like home here. I speak in my childhood tongue every day, old words coming flooding back to me. I share my old stories and hopes of a brighter future, and the others share theirs with me. It gives me hope that as much as the Starfall is a cataclysm, maybe we can make a better world for ourselves yet.
 
P.S. I managed to catch up to Grung's company eventually; I am uncertain what happened, though it seems they were attacked by someone or something else prior to our getting there. Those who survived must have fled in a hurry. Still no answers, but at least I got my armor and belongings back. I will hold on to Sadon's plate armor as well for when I see him again. I hope he is okay.