Its been about two tendays since I esscaped the slave camps we were placed in while we worked for the drow on this odd structure they had us building. We were taken from the city out into what they call the wilds to help in building some sort of odd structure, like a weird tower of some sort. I have no idea what its purpose is, really. I just knew I had to get away.

It was only by sheer luck that I managed to get away from the camp to begin with. I know that several of the others probably died trying to protect me and keep me from being caughty. I pray that Sune watches over them as the drow are cruel keepers.

In a way, it seems like it was only yesterday that I was back home in Silverymoon, complaining to my mother about having to go meet the boy from Everlund that she and father had arranged for me to marry when I turned seventeen. I was fourteen and they were sending me to meet him, and to try to get to know his family a little better. Our match, my parents said, would bring lots of wealth and power to Silverymoon, making it stronger, and would make the alliance between our city and Everlund that much stronger.

I didn't mind traveling, I just didn't want to go to Everlund. I didn't want to marry him, I didn't care who his parents were or how important they were on the Everlund Council. I didn't want to marry him at all, but I was made to go visit him anyway. I was dismal at that time, and would much rather have continued my training with the sword that the old Battlemaster, who was retired, was teaching me.

At great protest, I boarded the carriage and off we went towards Everlund. I had instructed the driver to take the long way to Everlund. My parents just expected me to get there. They didn't say which route we should take. To that end, I instructed the driver to take the longest possible route, which incidentally would take us marginally through part of the High Forest.

The forest was beautiful at that time of year, full of blooms and promise of great beauty still to come. Before we knew what was happening, the caravan was set upon by Gnolls. The horrible creatures attacked us en masse and most of the caravan was killed. Only myself and a small handful of others were left alive, and we were taken as slaves. The Gnolls are nasty creatures and treated us cruelly while they had us, but before too long, they took us even deeper into the caves.

Little did I know it then, but I was destined to end up here, in the Underdark. The Gnolls had taken us down here and had sold us to the drow. They'd apparently been collecting, because they already had a small procession of bound slaves. They locked us into manacles alongside them all, and we ventured deeper and deeper into this gods forsaken place. We ended up at their immense city, and I worked there until I escaped. I was treated cruelly most of the time, with only the rarest hints of anything remotely resembling kindness. I don't delude myself into believing that any of my captors were kind, not in the least. Sometimes they just weren't quite as cruel as other times.

But anyway, now, four years later, I'm free and in this place called Sanctuary. They tell me it used to be a Sverneblin city at one point. I missed my wedding last year. That's the only good thing about being down here. I miss my famly and friends, and I'm sure I was declared dead years ago. I'm hoping to find a way out of this wretched place and make my way back to Silverymoon. I want so very badly to see my family and friends again.

In the meantime, though, there are things I need to do here. I've met several kind people since I've been here. Durdain, Iedrik, Zoe, Syclya, the dwarven merchant, and a couple of others. There are people down here seeking the same thing I am, namely a way out of this horrible place. But that will take supplies, and it'll take forces. I know we're miles below the surface. We have to be. I haven't seen genuine daylight in four years.

So, I'll do what I can to help these people as much as I can. I want us all to make a mass exodus out of the city and the Underdark, but I know there's going to be a lot that won't want to go. They've come to accept life down here, and its good enough for them, I guess. Anyway, I'll try and do what I can. I want to help as many of them as I can. I can't just leave them here.

I should probably get some rest now. Thinking on all this is only making me more tired than I was. Perhaps I'll write some more tomorrow.