Reply To: Portales Penmanship; Excerpts from an Illegible Epic

[Portales]

Shopping in Stonemark

XI
Safely arriving in Stonemark I was blessed as I entered the city,
There were ornate temples and large fruit trees, oh so pretty.
I have taken upon this arduous journey on my own behalf,
For I have completed most of my trip, well more-like almost half.

Well groomed pets wander the street, I saw a dog and a kitty,
And I found a magic shop, I entered the Abbey humming a ditty.
Asked the shop keep for bardic instruments, all he did was laugh,
“I only carry the latest in bard items, may I present the bardic staff.”

XII
Bought myself that staff, I thought I deserved a nice treat,
But I still had much of the city to see, many townsfolk to meet.
Found a wonderful magic scroll shop just past all the cats,
And I also found a dress shop that had some fancy hats.

After a long day and no more gold, my shopping was complete,
But then it seemed I took a wrong turn down a darkened street.
In this part of town there were no shops or any welcome mats,
The buildings were falling down and all the pets were dire rats.

*All script is hastily scrawled in an illegible (and incredibly lazy) handwriting (if you can call it that).