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Not really a diary entry, but it fits here better than anywhere else.
Shortly before Nemain rescued Ruthven and Linfarn, Mal went off to be on his own for a bit, and do a few things which had been on his mind. These included learning a few more animal forms and finding an item which he'd wanted.
He rode off through shadow to a very fast time shadow in which live, among other things, by large insect-like creatures and various plant-animal hybrid creatures. The shadow was also inhabited by a humanoid race which was close enough to human that he could pass for one with little effort. They have a level of technology equivalent to about the 1850's and a nomadic society. He posed as a travelling explorer and hunter/animal illustrator to give him a cover for his activities and learnt a number of new forms, practising his general shapeshifting abilities at the same time. After each animal was memorised he went to an adjacent human-inhabited shadow and relaxed for a day or two before returning.
The forms he learnt are :
This took him about a month and provided a good deal of Shapechanging practise.
Following this he went off to find an always-full hip flask which he had wanted for some time. The trail lead, after a day or two, to a rather unpleasant shadow - a world similar to shadow Earth but with no birds (bats instead) and a large orange sun. In this world magic was discovered at about the same time as the Renaissance so magic and technology grew up side by side and each came to incorporate elements of the other. Although the powers were somewhat limited, consisting of magics for sensing and item empowerment, they enabled a ruling class of mage-lords to take power. They rule a hugely polluted world with an iron fist. The mage-lords inhabit huge gothic skyscrapers in all the cities, and live at a luxurious 1990's level of technology. Although there is a small middle class, who live reasonably well the mass of people live in terrible squalor at a level of technology equivalent to about the 1860's, in hovels with the towers of the mage-lords looming over them.
As soon as he arrived Mal knew he didn't want to spend much time there. It was easy for him to disguise himself as a local and move among them as he sought his goal. He eventually found what he wanted in a tiny junk shop in one of the worst areas of a major city. Paying well over the odds for the hip flask, and also buying a few other items the proprietor said were magical (though he later found out they only worked in that shadow) he left. After a small brawl in which a group of locals tried to rob him (they'd seen the money he flashed around) and which he easily escaped he left that shadow with his prize. This is a tarnished silver hip flask, intricately engraved, which is always full with one of three liquids, which can be chosen by the drinker - whisky, brandy or water [essentially a 1-point item].
Having done this, he takes a day or so to rest and clean up before returning to Amber.