An Even Wholer Bunch of Combat

So, delivering goods to the logging camp did not end up being the relaxing, straightforward monster killing adventure I had hoped. I mean there was some monster killing, but a million giant burrowing praying mantises was not what I had in mind. And I had hoped that it would be a chance to help some people and remind us all that we are doing some good here. This was… not that.
 
When that thing had Flicker underground… there was nothing I could do. I’ve never felt so… useless. Not in combat at least, that’s supposed to be the one thing I'm good at. I’m supposed to be the one protecting the others and there wasn’t anything… If Wolf and that badger hadn’t been there… I need to be smarter. I mean, we knew those things could burrow and were talking about how there were probably more of them, why didn’t I anticipate one of us being pulled under. Flicker was yelling about how Tibor should have done a better job protecting his men, but how am I any different? Flicker looks to me as a leader and if she had died today… that would have been my fault. I need to be better.
 
I promised her no more underground missions. It seems like that will be… difficult to stick to. The Black Spider lives in a mine and I’d guess Ebondeath probably won’t just be hanging out in the woods somewhere. But like… she was about to start crying. I had to at least try to make her feel better after completely failing her today. I’ll… try my best.
 
It seems like she and Eethyl are going completely out of their way to argue with each other now. First Flicker is vindictive and angry while Eethyl is totally complacent and then like ten minutes later they’ve flipped and Eethyl is proposing vigilante justice while Flicker is completely calm. Then they were both talking over each other and arguing about what to do next when it seemed like they were in agreement about going to Dragon Barrow first and then to Thundertree. If they could just both be a little less stubborn and actually listen to one another then like 90% of their arguments would be resolved. I… don’t know how to help here. Maybe Sef will be really good at conflict de-escalation and can fix everything?
 
Also, it turns out Flicker’s been hunting a completely separate dragon this whole time, which is pretty crazy. It’s really made me realize that we actually know very little about each other. Like, Eethyl is with us because he… wants adventure? And Wolf… was an orphan? Eethyl and Sef don’t even know anything about Mom or the lightning pig, unless the others have told them. I should probably try and change that. In the Watch we would sometimes do these icebreaker team building exercises, would that help? Something to think about.
 
Oh, also we’re hunting an evil ecoterrorist druid now, probably this Reidoth guy. Add it to the list.