Very Important Lookout Log

== A Very Important Lookout Log ==
This is a collection of the entries written into Patch's journal over the course of his adventures.
== Entry 1 ==
Dear Diary Journal Important Crow’s Nest Lookout Log I am going to write stuff down here so that when everyone wants to hear the amazing tales of Patch and his crewmates friends, I can give them this book! A copy, of course. This is my book so it stays in my hoard. Maybe I should write down what happens in the sky! Wait, no, that goes away after a while and then I would need to write it again. *Note to self: find a way to copy books fast. I think I am going to call Syl, Mallacith, Lass, Navassa and Ubba Friends now. That weird Helrus guy is just a Crewmate at best though. Oh and I have decided Friends are part of my hoard now, because I like them and don’t want to lose them, just like my hoard. So I will protect them just like I protect my eagle feather AND the stone with a hole in it that looks very cool. Anyway, the past six months have been really fun. We completely destroyed those empire people (I don’t know who they all were but at least one of them was the guy who caught me that one time. Ha! serves them right for trying to chain me down), including that weird long-armed guy that obviously couldn’t fly as well as me. He tried to fight a dragon for some reason, so I taught him to respect his superiors. Then we destroyed the mansion using that ball Mallacith had that summoned the Kraken (I totally could have beaten the kraken but i want to be allies friends with it, as a powerful being I respect it as an equal). We sailed away quickly because Syl can play the flute very well and apparently that makes us go faster? I understand it of course, but a dragon must have some mysteries kept, so i won’t write how it works. For some reason the empire started hunting pirates merchants with enhanced buying tactics like us stick to the story Patch merchants we are merchants a lot more, not that anyone could catch us. With the Scaleskull and Lass and Mallacith sailing, we can avoid anyone who chases us!
It seems not everyone is as clever and as good at escaping as Lass and Mallacith though. New Belenovense Benevolence got destroyed completely by the empire people being sore losers. Meanies. I’ll have to fly over and burn down what’s left of them once I grow big enough. Although then I wouldn’t be able to fit curled up in the crow’s nest or the figurehead’s mouth… Oh well. We will have to make our ship bigger. Although Heather’s Vineyard got hit as well, so I don’t know where we can do that. Maybe I’ll ask Mallacith later. Oh, and I haven’t just been relaxing protecting my hoard keeping watch in my wingy form either! In fact, I have been learning how to checking that my crewmates friends know how to do everything that I do. I asked Ubba to teach me cook with me but I don’t understand don’t want to share his secret recipes here though. He makes very delicious food. I especially likes the time he made me “dragon food”, but I don’t know what was in it. It smelled like gunpowder and friendship. Syl tried to teach me how to play the flute but it seems to be a bit hard with claws. I will have to search for instruments fit for dragons later. Navassa wanted to show me how to shoot with her gun-sword thing, but I find that running very fast at people and hitting them in the legs with sharp objects or magic works just as well as a bullet. Speaking of magic, I have been practicing and now I can shoot Fireball out my mouth! I must have grown enough to breathe fire. I also -~ Navassa just found me writing and asked me to come up because we need to all talk about our next territory. I don’t know how she found me, I thought the figurehead’s mouth was my secret lair actually I can’t let anyone know where my secret lair is, that’s why it’s a secret. Anyway, Rakkimar sounds interesting, I bet it has lots of stuff to add to my hoard.
== Entry 2 ==
Dear Diary Log I’m back to write more while we sail to Rakkimar! That talk we had was about learning the local languages before we went but I left early because I can use magic to understand people and talk to them if I try really hard. I tried flying up to talk to some birds but they just looked at me weirdly and went away. I found some scales that fell off when I landed, and I thought maybe I was ill. Lass, being a woman of medicine, told me that maybe it just meant I was growing more and had spares. But I don’t want to just throw away my scales because they’re mine. So instead of learni because I don’t need to worry about learning languages due to my magical prowess, I taught myself how to make clothes! Then, using my scales, weaving and lots of that mending spell I use to keep stuff together, I made a really nice cloak. It is a good the best cloak and will probably be an artifact of legend if I ever gifted it to someone. Not that I would, this is too valuable and I can’t just give away my hoard. I might let my Friends borrow touch it if they asked nicely though. It is deep green at the top and fades to black at the bottom, and I managed to put a skull on the back in black with green eyes using that illusion writing spell. Of course, since it is made from real dragon scales and is held together by my powerful awe-inspiringly powerful magic then it is really protective. No-one will backstab me while I wear this!
Another thing I did while the others practiced speaking languages (I would have helped them but I am too good at it so they probably wouldn’t understand) was make some new spells. I wanted to make a copy of myself to do my chor to double my mighty presence in the world, but when I tried, he just looks at me and grins while he copies everything I do. And he’s an illusion. At least these pale imitations of myself might confuse people in a battle. They definitely confused Ubba when four of me jumped down from the rigging to ask for food. I also tried to learn decided I didn’t want to use my claws as lockpicks, and I developed a very difficult technique for opening things. I usually poke my fingers into the lock and then explode it, but sometimes I bite the lock first and then breath fire on it if it is really big. It works! Of course. Oh! And there was a cool thing that Mallacith found and -~ Navassa wants me to come and help with something? How did she find me again? I was sure no-one would look under the bed… And doesn’t she understand that dragons need to sleep on their hoard a lot? I can’t do that if i’m helping her… Well I’m sure whatever it is I can do it really quickly, and also it might give me a chance to see if the birds want to talk this time!
== Entry 3 ==
Dear Log 
Today I decided to go traveling! Being on the Scaleskull for so long has made me miss exploring on land a bit. I want to find a stone with a hole in it so that my one isn’t lonely I can add more riches to my hoard. Mallacith didn’t want me to go because he said I wouldn’t be able to catch up to the ship if I went to find an island, but I proved I could fly faster than the ship and passed my star-reading tests so he let me go in the end. I followed the birds (they still didn’t want to talk but they seemed to like me after I ate the bigger bird that was chasing them) and I reached this small island a few hours later. It has a lake but I already checked all the stones at the bottom and none of them have holes in them. There’s also the forest the birds headed for, but its so small that I can see the other side from here, so it wouldn’t be much fun to explore. I’ll go and find a bigger island after I finish writing this. I found a cool place! This island is a bit bigger, I could see the whole thing from where I flew in and it has a weird red glow from behind the rocks in the middle. I ate Ubba’s packed lunch, it was so tasty acceptable. There aren’t any birds on this island, maybe the red glow is a powerful magical stone with a hole in it that glows and scares them away? Later I’m going to go and investigate, but first I have to search the coast I am resting exploring.
I didn’t find anything on the shore, but I found so many things later! The red glow is actually not from a stone, but from a weird gloopy liquid that feels really hot so I didn’t touch it. It might be that thing called lava I’ve heard about before, or it might be a really hot soup made for giants. I haven’t seen any giant foot prints though, so it’s probably lava. Anyway, there is a lake of it in the middle of the island, so this whole island is like a big rock with a hole in it. It must be special. When I was peaking around the rocks, I saw another smaller island in the middle of that lake. There was a red dragon on it! I jumped awa I knew it was there all along, of course, but I retreated behind my rock to watch it and make sure it was a dragon and not some impostor. It seemed to be sleeping, and underneath it, using my spyglass, I spotted lots of shiny stones like diamonds and rubies. The important thing is that one of the green ones seemed to have a hole in it. It is obviously meant to be in my hoard and not hers. I’m going to see if I can ask the dragon demand my tribute as a fellow dragon now. Well, apparently she doesn’t like me. It’s probably because of her jealousy of my amazing cloak. I called out to her over the lake, but she seemed really angry about something and started looking around hissing about intruders and stuff, so I found a crack between two rocks and curled up under my cloak between them because it was so scary because I didn’t want to get in the way and I was sleepy anyway. I heard her stomping around outside but she is around 4 times as big as me so she can’t see in here. Eventually she stopped and went away after growling about being sure she smelled another dragon. The sun is setting so I will have to stop writing now. I am going to wait for it to be night and for her to go back to sleep and then leave this cozy den and take my shiny stone before I head back. 
It turns out the red dragon isn’t a very heavy sleeper. She woke up as soon as I pulled the gem out from under her. I flew away as fast as I could but she was just as fast, and started chasing me, roaring about thieves and territory. Well if she didn’t want it taken then she shouldn’t have had it when it is obviously meant to be mine. I think i’m still the winner because I’m only a quarter of her size and I can fly as fast as her. I remembered that speed spell, but I can’t say the words (ai vis zoomies) while I’m in wingy form, so I dove underwater as soon as we reached the sea. I could see a red blur circling overhead, and every so often a burst of fire hit the water, making it nice and warm. I cast the water breathing spell this morning though, so I didn’t need to go up again. I cast my speed spell and went wingy again so that I could swim faster, since it seemed she didn’t want to come underwater and I didn’t want to fight her. I could have definitely beaten her all on my own but I didn’t want to hurt a weaker dragon just because she was chasing me jealous of my cloak. I swam even faster than her flying, it was really fun. *Note to self don’t open mouth when swimming super fast. I swam all the way back to this island with the birds from before but they are all sleeping now. The dragon doesn’t seem to be anywhere in sight, and now that the stars are out I know which way I need to go to find my Friends. I finally got to admire my green gem. It does have a hole in it! It will be perfect for my hoard. I’m going to fly back now, I hope Ubba saved some dinner for me. 
I found the Scaleskull in not too long. I landed on Ubba because he is the tallest. Everyone seemed to be having a fun night on the deck playing that game I think it’s called Grog? Ubba gave me some food but Syl scolded me for being back so late. Apparently Mallacith was worried, but he denies it. After that everyone went to bed and I flew up to the crows’ nest to add my gem to my hoard. It does look perfect. I’m going to sleep up here tonight. Maybe next time I explore I can find another big feather to go with the eagle one.
== Entry 4 ==
Dear Log My treasure has been stolen! My precious looking thingy spyglass! I know I had it when I added the gem-with-hole-in-it to my hoard yesterday… But I woke up this morning and I can’t see it anywhere. It’s not here in the figurehead either. I’ll search for it later anyway because Syl seems to be shouting up on deck and I think I heard my name. Last time I hid to not clean the deck she told Lass to tell Ubba to not make me any tasty food if I asked… Syl wanted to ask me if I was absolutely sure that the dragon from yesterday couldn’t track us, so I told her I washed just that morning. Apparently that wasn’t “good enough” and now I have to do “something magicky” to make sure we aren’t followed. I’m going to write “they went that way” in the clouds with an arrow pointing the other way and that should solve it. I also asked everyone if they had seen my looking thingy spyglass but everyone said they hadn’t.
Then Syl told me it is called a spyglass, and that she took it for a while because I was late back last night. And now I have to mop the whole deck for trying to hold on to Syl’s leg until she gave it back, because no one would listen when I say that when I’m wingy I can hold stuff tighter with my mouth and apparently its “dangerous venom in large quantities”. Not as if I was going to poison her anyway, I’m not stupid. Oh well, I’ll write more when I’m don- Some other pirates thought they could take our stuff. Ha. I don’t know how they mistook us for easy targets, given the armored ship and amazing figurehead and me standing on the deck waving, but they started coming closer and demanded for us to hand over our cargo. Everyone came up on deck, and they seemed to stop making demands when Ubba came out. Lass and Mallacith did the talking while I started sharpening my cutlass, just in case. Eventually we all agreed to just act as if we hadn’t seen each other and go away. I would have liked the shiny necklace the captain of the other ship had, but I also just finished cleaning the deck. I asked Syl for my spyglass again, but she said I need to “learn my lesson”. I tried to convince her I’m a very fast learner but she laughed but she is hard to sway.
I got an idea! I was hiding examining my hoard to see if anything else was missing, but apart from the hole where the spyglass goes it seems to be fine. I remembered that time when Syl told Lass to tell Ubba to not give me snacks, and that Ubba eventually gave me some when I asked him every twenty seconds for thirty minutes. I think for Syl I will ask every fifteen ten seconds because I really really want it back. It feels wrong having something missing from my hoard… maybe that dragon from the other day really would follow us if she felt like this… nah I bet she didn’t even notice that one of the gems had a hole in it. Really I was doing a favor by giving it a better home. Anyway I’m off to go and ask Syl very nicely and very persistently.
I got my spyglass back : )
== Entry 5 ==
Patch Notes 5
 
Dear log:
 
We’ve been sailing away from that fun day mess with Mallacith’s kraken friend and the party. Apparently it wasn’t a fun day like I thought because all the less cool pirates don’t seem to be enjoying the hunting the empire is doing because of it. So now it is a Mess and we shouldn’t do it again. I don’t really see why its so bad, if the other pirates persuasive merchants can’t beat some empire goons at sailing then they aren’t very good at their job.
Anyway lots of pirates ships are sailing away from the straits because of all that stuff, and word has gone around that some of them want to do some “friendly” competition tomorrow. I thought they meant they wanted to have a relay swimming match but Mallacith explained that it means they want to do a fight and whoever wins gets gold! I wanted to enter because I am good at hitting things and not getting hit, and I want more gold because piles of coins are comfotable. Also I’ve been practicing some new magics I want to try on people, and Syl won’t let me test on Friends ever since the Ubba Hurt Feelings incident. It took hours to calm him down. The others agreed to sail to where the fighting is supposed to happen, as long as I payed any money they lose on bets if I lose out of my Hoard. I’m pretty sure 100% sure I can win, so I agreed as long as I can keep half the winnings for my own hoard instead of the ship’s hoard. I’m secretly planning to threaten everyone who bet against me if I lose to call off their bets so I don’t lose any gold though. I’ll write more tomorrow after I get back because I have to go and check on my hoard to make sure Helrus hasn’t touched it since we let him out his room.
 
We won! I did it! And they gave gold!! Twice!!!
The first time we arrived on the deck of a ship and there were three other people who wanted to fight. There was a lot more people watching though, so I was a bit nervous happy there would be lots of betting money. There were even people hanging onto the rigging to watch,but without tails to balance, which I don’t really understand how they do that. It is probably some magic stuff I haven’t seen before. Anyway the three losers fighters were sort of average looking, two swordy men and a lady without armour, so I assumed she was a magic person like me. The rest of the Scaleskull bet that I would win, which didn’t seem to be the popular decision because everyone is stupid I am smaller and not wearing armour either. The organising guy told us the rules and started asking for our names and stuff. I gave my name as Patch but when they asked “from the scaleskull?” I remembered Mallacith said we were going “in cong neat-o” which means I have to lie so I said “no, it’s a common name” and apparently they believed me. 
Basically we had to be the last person standing, and that’s all the rules really. The other fighters were called Dagger, Mad Mike, and Eleanora. We started fighting on the deck and they just ran in different directions so I summoned my shadow magic on my sword and chased one of the guys. I stabbed him a little bit and then turned to chase Eleanora around and was apparently surprised to see me run towards her terrified of my speed and awesomeness, and she screamed then told me to attack the other guy. She was really convincing, so I parried his attacks and stabbed him a little too until he fell over. I think he was just tired from running though. Then Eleanora started running and made these weird tentacles that looked like they belonged to Mallacith’s friend grab me. I managed to break free after a while after I gave her a head-start and ran after her, and then I remembered I wanted to try that new spell I did by accident when I wanted to keep Helrus away when he was walking towards my secret hiding place one of my lairs. I kept trying to do it again and eventually it worked and Eleanora disappeared. I didn’t want to kill her so I was panicking a bit concerned she might have exploded. It turns out she just reappeared underwater, and I won because swimming doesn’t count as standing. We got lots of gold from the bets :D.
Then we went to the next fight inside the ship, but there wasn’t as many people betting against me because some of them were watching the fight upstairs could see from my amazing hat that I must be great. Oh well. This time the opponents were Madder Mike (the guy from upstairs’ brother who wanted revenge) and King Julian. I didn’t ask where he was king of. They were about as good as the other guys, so I beat them too with ease. Mike kept on going invisible and stuff so I let his Majesty alone for a bit while I started sniffing him out. At one point my cloak separated into dragony wings and I started flying around for some reason because I wanted to, so I gave up hunting for Mike and went after the King. I hope the rest of his kingdom has better fighters because otherwise they will get invaded very easily. After that I hunted for Mike some more and was really wishing he would just fall unconscious so I could win before anyone recognised us. Suddenly he reappered on the floor asleep with his nose bleeding, I think he might have tripped and fallen on his face or something. We collected our winnings and Syl said we should get back to our ship before anyone stopped us, but I wanted to watch another fight. She said fine after I grabbed her ankles and got dragged on the floor persuaded her.
I regretted it. It turned out that the Mikes had another brother, the maddest of Mikes. He was fighting a guy called Maurice, and from the start it looked like Maurice had better stuff since he had all this shiny armour and Mike 3 just had a crazy looking smackable face. It was It Watching the fight was hard. I don’t wanna think about it all but it ended with Mike sobbing on the floor, with snot and blood running out his nose, while Maurice stood over him. Mike punched Maurice, then exploded, then turned into a potted planet, then got smashed. It was really weird.
 
Anyway the point is I won and we got back to the Scaleskull and I have more gold! 100 coins just for me (I can make a pile now :) ) and 100 for the Friends to share (not for Helrus he is not a Friend). Ubba made me more dragon food as a prize, and we had a feast on the deck. It was fun.
 
I haven’t been able to make my cloak do the flying thing again though.