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Previously I'd written about my Reign of Winter campaign as the GM. I've surrendered the reins to one of my players and am now running my GMPC, Ciri, as a character (the first time I've not been a GM in well over a decade). I've since been writing a character journal from Ciri's perspective (and am also writing fanfiction of it) and thought I'd share it with you all. So... here we go! ^^
Sarenith 21, 4713
Well, this was a wasted trip. Alak and I were headed toward Zimar, but after overhearing some rowdies make a few nasty comments, Alak's paranoia went into overdrive and we ended up hiding in the woods for a couple of days. It was just idle chatter. People don't go tracking down folk just on a whim. There's got to be some murder involved or the like before they make a lynch mob. That's how all the stories go.
So... Zimar is out. Heldren is in. It's some two-bit town on the way to Zimar, and Alak was about ready to have us just bypass it entirely but I insisted. I wanted a festival and I was going to get one! And sure, small towns might be fairly boring with their festivities (I mean, the most interesting thing there was the three-card Monte stand, and my brother went to the pie-eating contest to just eat rather than stuff his face with pies... that's not how it's done!) and some elven lady selling brews to cure what ails you but really there wasn't much here to stand out. I almost think Alak was right and we should have just passed through, festivals be damned.
Okay, I mean there's a really nifty statue of some lady in the middle of town. She's just called the Lady and some folk claim she's the founder of Heldren while others claim she's a fey forest goddess. One person, a dwarven barber named Argus Goldtooth because dwarves are naturally into gold, well, Argus claimed she was an evil witch who was so wicked the Gods turned her to stone. Alak said he thinks the dwarf is interested in the elf but I didn't see anything to suggest that.
But we weren't the only outsiders in town. There were three other strangers in town as well, who came in on a caravan. Really odd ones too! I mean, there was a dwarf and a half-orc traveling together! I mean, orcs and dwarves hate each other usually, but this dwarf didn't seem to care about someone with orcish blood running in their veins. Heck, I don't think he mentioned "gold" once all night, and isn't that a thing dwarves always do? (Okay, I jest. I know dwarves talk about more than gold.) He was the most un-dwarfy dwarf I've met... sure, he had a beard and some maul almost bigger than he was, but there's something odd about him. He calls himself "Thelin, Roots of the Mountain" which I suppose is a fairly dwarfy name but really a mouthful.
The half-orc was more... well, how I kind of envision half-orcs. He walked around with a huge greataxe that he called "Kindness" and other odd names for his daggers and the like, wore crudely-stitched-together hides over his clothes, and basically had a feel like the Shoanti back in Varisia. He calls himself Araval. Odd name, that.
There was a third person with them, a Tian lady with white hair that went down her back and was parted in two, almost like tails! She seems really nice, though there's something about her that Alak is nervous about. I'm not sure what, she seems quite nice. Very quiet. Her name was Freya.
It seems they came to town because Araval was tracking down the blacksmith, Isker Euphram, because he wanted to wrestle him! It was quite amusing! Like that story of the white-haired warrior who went from town to town boxing people in-between hunting monsters for the bounties on them. Well, the White Wolf was a far better fighter than Araval. Though they didn't throw punches, they mostly just grabbed each other and tried to throw the other one down. Araval even managed to hold his own for a little bit until finally Isker tossed Araval to the ground.
Araval didn't care though. In fact he bought the guy a drink and they talked shop and Araval learned more about rassling and all that. Hey, if he's happy then that's good I suppose?
There wasn't an inn in Heldren but the lady who ran the Silver Stoat tavern, a woman named Kale Garimos, said she'd let us sleep before the hearth so long as we didn't lounge around all morning. We all had some drinks, and the tavern had a "signature brew" Kale called the Three Devil Ale because apparently they used Chelish hops rather than something neat like killing devils and draining their blood to use in brewing the ale. Though that probably would taste horrible. Then again, it's ale. Would anyone notice the difference?
Alak just whacked my shoulder and laughed in agreement. He saw what I'd written. Well, I'm not wrong am I? Sheesh, ale tastes horrid. They had some nice wines as well though so I had some of that and sang and danced a bit which was fun and everyone enjoyed it. So when things quieted in the tavern, we pulled out our blankets and fell to sleep before the fire in the hearth.
Sarenith 22, 4713
There's a storm brewing over the Border Wood.
Thelin seemed puzzled by it. It seemed the storm was just sitting and growing over the wood, not even a dozen miles away. It doesn't seem to be blowing this way. Still, the road to Zimar passes close to it so it might make for some wet travel should the winds from the Three Tine Mountains push it west.
If I were my brother I'd start going on about omens and the like. Because between the weather and Freya... well, she had a dream. I noticed she was acting a little off but before I could ask what was up, she went and told us. She dreamt about cold weather and everyone in Heldren having frozen solid and seeing an old woman in the rocking chair who told her to find her at which point Freya woke up.
Freya was concerned about the dream and sort of thought it was important, so she went to talk to Kale and ask her if there were any wisewomen in the area who dealt with dreams, and as she was respectful and polite she learned of Old Nana in the Briarwood. Unfortunately, before she could get good directions to find her, my idiot brother had to pop in and start interrogating Freya about dreams and oracles which annoyed Kale to no end, so she just turned away. Idiot.
Ah well. Gotta love him. He acts dumb at times but he's truly brilliant. He just... doesn't get it at times, how he can rub people wrong.
Araval was all for heading off into the woods and Thelin had no other plans, so I made sure to ask Freya if Alak and I could tag along. She had no problem with that so we headed off. Off into the woods to meet someone who lived a couple days away because there were no easy paths to reach her in a bloody forest called the Briarwood.
Though it seems Thelin is a druid. Alak asked the group what they can do and Thelin admitted to being a practitioner of the Green Path, though he much preferred mountainous regions. I mean, there are trees on mountains, right? I thought we'd be okay but he's not much good in regular woodlands.
Araval was pretty much like the Shoanti, though he went on at length about fighting as a gladiator and about his orcish father's death which hit him hard. I can understand that. I barely remember my first mom and dad, and they died when I was four, but I still miss them.
And Freya was an oracle, and worshiped Gorum, as did Araval for that matter. She talked about how she'd picked up some pretty glowing object and then finding herself on the other side of the world around people who she couldn't understand. I have to say that sounds like a truly awesome story. I need to learn more about her. We chatted a bit while we were traveling through the woods... and then I heard something in the woods.
It seems everyone else but Thelin were ignoring what was going on and instead were listening to Freya's tale (and I'm not saying I wasn't listening to her but you know, I still kept an ear out!) as a pair of boars came out of the brush. Everyone froze but Thelin and I - he started casting a spell which caused the woods and underbrush to start writhing and grab at the boars, while I started singing an inspirational song to help the group fight better.
Alak tried moving forward and casting a spell, but whatever he cast he stumbled on one of the words and mere sparks came out of his fingers. It definitely wasn't what he intended on doing from the cursing I heard. And the bigger boar broke free of the writhing vines and slashed both Thelin and myself which is quite annoying as I wasn't a threat! I wasn't bothering with my blade (I swear, I've stabbed things before and they laugh at me and say I didn't even break the skin! It's why I prefer the crossbow).
That said, only one of the boars was a threat and I only got hit the once. When Araval started acting... well, the boars didn't last that long, though I swear, they're far tougher than you'd think something that size should be. Thelin insisted on gutting and getting meat off the boars and then we moved on a little further and set up for the night with fresh boar meat for supper.
Sarenith 23, 4713
I hate the woods. Nothing attacked us (outside of squirrels) but we were trudging through the underbrush and past thick woods for far too long. It was starting to get dark by the time we reached the last of the landmarks and then came across Old Nana's home... which is actually a fairly sturdy building. Quite defensible. I mean, the windows had thick shutters across them and were small enough that even a goblin would have troubles squeezing through it (especially if they broke the glass to get in) and the glass was fairly thick as well - primarily to let light in rather than anything else.
The doors were one of those half-door affairs that you could leave the bottom half closed and just let the breeze through, and there were a couple doors so while Nana couldn't really open the windows to let a breeze in, she could still open the doors. Though with the sheltering trees above, it's not too hot out. It's more... stifling because of all the trees around... but every so often a breeze would come through and you'd catch some really nice scents of wildflowers and the like.
As for "Old Nana" I have no idea why people call her that. I mean, I was expecting an old crone. This woman looked to be Ma and Da's age. Then again, I could clearly see she either had a parent or a grandparent who was elvish, so she very well might have been in her 70s or older even though she looked far younger.
She didn't much like having people intrude on her privacy, but when Freya politely asked her to interpret her dream (and I elbowed Alak to ensure he remain quiet - he glared at me because I just know he was about to open his mouth, but remained quiet as Freya started to talk at that point) and soon Freya was telling the lady all about her dream and the foreboding she'd felt after waking from it.
Okay, so maybe my brother's not the only paranoid one. Seriously, we marched through the woods for two days because someone had a scary dream. And it wasn't even that scary, at least from the way Freya described it.
Still, "Old Nana" listened intently and then told us she'd have an answer in the morning. Meantime we're allowed to camp out in her front yard because sleeping outdoors is so much fun. Ah well, I've been doing a lot of that (thanks to Alak and his paranoia) since we left Ma and Da's caravan so... we'll see.
Sarenith 24, 4713
We woke up at dawn, though it's overcast. Clouds are pushing in from the south. I guess that the weather that was building over the Border Wood decided to chase us north. Joy, there's nothing more fun than sleeping outdoors in the woods in the rain. At least it's not cold out.
Nana came out herself soon after we'd eaten some more boar for breakfast, and gave us a Quest! Yes, we had to collect flowers so we could "enter the dream" or somesuch. Okay, I'm being snarky here because you'd think she'd have these things on hand, seeing she's an oracle that works with dreams and all that, but I guess it has to be hand-selected by us to increase its potency.
Actually, that makes sense. I've heard about that sort of thing before. It's just that I'm not fond of being in the wilderness. I like being around lots of people. Maybe it's my upbringing, but Ma and Da loved having me perform in villages and small cities to draw a crowd. Okay, they were often finding marks and picking pockets while I distracted the gullible with my dancing and singing, but I still enjoyed it and they were enjoying my performances. It's just we... ensured payment. And it's not like Ma and Da would target those who were really needy. Besides, we needed to eat too.
They actually taught Alak some of the trade, even though he has long been more into the arcane arts. I remember when Fawkes showed up for the first time, a couple years after mom and dad died. It's kind of crazy because foxes don't live for decades, but Fawkes has been here for nearly two... and yet has never gotten any older. She's still as crazy and whimsical as always. It's like she is the fun aspect of Alak, while he got the brains and the nervousness inherent in foxes.
Anyway, we went looking for plants: mugwort, roots from a flowering plant that has eight thin white petals, and mushrooms that have orange-red caps that are dotted white and pure white bases. You'd think it wouldn't be hard to find these things because we have a druid with us but nope! Thelin didn't know of those plants. I mean, he knew about them, but it was like how I know about the plants and their relationship with dreams and visions... it's more on an intellectual level rather than having worked with them regularly and being able to easily find them. Ah well, at least he knew how to properly gut and debone a boar. And he's a decent cook, which I didn't expect a dwarf to be good at. I mean, I've had dwarven rations before, and they're fairly heavy and bland. Filling, but bland.
So needless to say it took a couple hours. I think it was nearing the end of morning before we found the white petaled plants and got its roots... the mugwort and mushrooms were surprisingly easier to find. I mean, okay, mugwort isn't that uncommon, even I can find it in the wild, but we kind of lucked out with the mushrooms as there were some not far from Old Nana's house. Then again, I'd not be surprised if all of these things grew in her garden. I half-expected Alak to suggest raiding her garden but he deferred to Freya who insisted going off to look for them in the "wilds" around Old Nana's home.
He's up to something. I'm going to have to keep my eye on him. I mean, it might just be he's curious about the ritual but... we'll see. Anyway, we brought the mugwort, roots, and mushrooms back to Nana and she's brewing some tea while we wait.
Ugh, that's a disgusting looking brew. I mean, it's chunky and she's pouring each of us a cup. Though Araval took one look at it and noped out of this. He said something about "standing guard" or the like but the big bad barbarian just didn't want to taste this witch's brew. Hmm, now I'm going to have to drink this thing just to one-up him.
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Okay. That was... insane. And unnerving. We all drank the brew (except for Araval), lumps and all, and then lay down. Things started to swim around and I was getting dizzy so I just closed my eyes to try and let things cam down when I found myself feeling better but... I wasn't in Old Nana's house anymore.
No. I was in the middle of the woods. But I'd never been there before... and the trees! They were all white, leafless trunks reaching up into the air into a black sky above. Really, the only thing of color around us was each other! And apparently Old Nana snuck up on Araval and cold-cocked him or something because Araval was here as well and looking quite pissed about it. He was talking about tracking down "the old bat" and repaying her, but we all had our stuff and... well, this wasn't Taldor anymore. Or at least it wasn't a part of Taldor I'd ever been in.
Okay, so I've only been traveling through Taldor for a month or so but really, I don't recall ever hearing about a white forest before under a black sky. This was more like some of those stories of the First World.
All five of us were there, in a black clearing surrounded by those white trees. There was a black trail leading away, but Alak immediately started heading off in the opposite direction rather than the one that was obviously there for us, and I swear, we didn't get 10 feet from the path before we started seeing something white creeping up beyond there... a frost of sorts that was coating more and more of the ground. We also heard the cawing of crows and they sounded angrier and angrier the further from the clearing we got until finally Alak suggested we head back.
The moment we did? Those crows shut up. Yeah, that's not at all suspicious.
So we traveled down the black path, frost still forming on the ground behind us, herding us along, and finally the path turned and what do we see but... a wooden stool. As in a colored wooden stool, it wasn't just black or white. Seriously, I was starting to truly get depressed in this dream-world. Black and white is boring after a short bit. All we needed was giant chess pieces or the like.
So yeah, there was a stool and on it was a girl's doll. It was a good-sized doll at that with a wizened wooden face, and it was missing one eye. The other one was a vivid sapphire blue. And the bloody thing went and spoke to us. It said "You must turn back! Doom waits ahead. I will not let you pass."
Freya then just walks right up to the doll, grabs it under its armpits, and carries it. I kid you not, she started carrying the doll! And when it started struggling and cursing, she just smiled down at the doll and said "I'm not passing you, you're still in front of me!" I mean, it's sound logic and that poor little doll brain couldn't cope because finally she gave up and just hung there limply looking all unhappy. Though Freya's arms started getting tired after a little bit and she got the bright idea of swaddling the doll to her chest so that she would not be in front of the doll at any point.
It's a rather brazen thing to do with an enchanted doll, I have to say that. I'd have lit it on fire. Hell, I've alchemist's fire for when I need to quickly light things on fire. Alak jokes that I was going to use it on the audience one of these days. Not that I've been tempted! Not at all! Much....
A little bit later we came across a small house. Well, it was more a hut than a house, I think Nana's home is bigger. Araval suggested we leave someone on each corner of the house but Alak insisted on climbing the roof and trying to look down the chimney. The chimney which was pouring smoke out of. Well, smoke or steam. Not sure which. It was white. The hut wasn't, that was more... hut-colored. But the smoke wasn't.
Anyway, Alak's attempts to climb... well, he might have learned how to pick locks from Da, but he never did catch onto things like climbing walls. Or even trees. Okay, I can't gripe. I'm no better about that either. I probably should start applying myself more about those things. It's just... why would I need to climb a wall? I'm not wooing any young maidens. (I let them woo me! You know, being a singer and dancer does have its perks, and it's not like I do more than kiss them. Usually.) Anyway, Alak fell off the wall. So did Freya. Fortunately she'd swaddled the doll so she never did pass the doll. Trying to go around the hut didn't even reveal the door. Instead, each side was the same. That should have warned us early on.
Finally we listened to Araval and you know something? He was right. We put one person on each side of the house and finally when Freya went to the last side, she had found a door. This is niggling in the back of my head. I've heard a story about this, I think. But I don't remember what. Anyway, we opened the door and there was a foyer with three other doors, but none of them would open until we all entered and closed the front door. Each side room led to what seemed to be a storage room and huge crows started pecking at the windows. We retreated to the foyer and closed the doors behind us as the windows started to crack under their attacks and finally tried the center door.
Inside there was a fire burning in a hearth on the other side of the room. It was oddly larger than the hut's exterior. The door behind us vanished as the last of us entered. In the center of the room was a beautiful oaken table, and a snowglobe showing a wintry scene... a glowing orb inside, with snow blowing out from within and large icicles pointing away from it. It was a gorgeous object and obviously priceless.
Now you know how in the stories some idiot immediately tries to touch the obviously magical object and causes trouble? It seems none of us were that idiot. Okay, I will admit that a small part of me was tempted but I knew this was a trap so I didn't even try. And everyone else in the group were of a like mind. Unfortunately we brought the instrument of our doom in with us when the doll suddenly struggled loose of its swaddling and leaped at the orb. Its hand barely brushed it and the snowglobe cracked, a blast of wind bursting up to hit the ceiling and coat it with frost.
Araval grabbed the doll and threw it at the fireplace. The moment it touched the flames the doll vanished and I realized the fire was not a fire but rather how we escape from the dream. Frost was forming on the ceiling and then slowly crawling down the walls. Freya touched the fire and vanished, and then the others each went to the fire and each touched it. I was the last one out. The last thing I heard before the flames claimed me was a harsh rasping voice that said "Return to Heldren."
We woke before Nana's fireplace in her hut.
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Nana didn't have much to say in interpreting the dream. I'm not sure what sort of payment she got from Freya - I didn't see any coin pass hands or the like and I don't think Freya's into other girls (she does seem a bit friendly around Araval... amusingly enough he shies away at times from her and apparently the term "Orcish handshake" is enough to get him to grow pale and mutter something about "no kilts" or somesuch) but Nana was concerned with the dream and felt it was a warning of some sort. That said, our time in the dream took the rest of the afternoon so we've chosen to camp out in Nana's front yard and head off in the morning. Whatever else the dream meant, those last words... words that everyone in the group heard... suggests we need to return to Heldren to learn more of what is going on.
Sarenith 26, 4713
After spending the night at Nana's, we started out in the morning. The weather was getting worse, though it was mostly misty and cooling off (unseasonably according to Thelin - Alak was in his glory though, he rather hates the heat and enjoys cooler weather). We didn't come across any other bores, boars, or other hostile wildlife, and after two days travel we approached Heldren as the sun was starting to get low on the horizon. Yay hard wood floors to sleep on before a hearth instead of on damp earth.
Still, the place was all achatter. It seems that some noblewoman had been traveling through the area a couple weeks before we arrived... something about some marriage or the like. She left in a huff because that's what noblewomen do and then bandits promptly attacked her carriages just a couple hours outside of town. Some poor guard came staggering in all bloodied and blackened by his fight, and a couple people had vanished as well. Weirdest of all? There was talk about snow in the Border Wood! Snow! It's Sarenith, not the height of Calistril!
I was asked to learn any rumors of what's going on at which point I told them I'm a bard, not the town gossip. Freya also went out chatting and she learned a lot more than I did. Seriously, I entertain. I'm not interested in who slept with who or who stole which animal from which farm. I mean, I do keep an ear to the ground for some good stories, but I can find most decent tales from books or other bards rather than trying to craft something amusing out of local events.
Freya told us about one of the caravan guards, Yuln Oerstag. He was one of the bodyguards for Lady Argentea Malassene. The local priest, Elder Safander, is treating him and apparently he's suffered some serious frostbite which is surprising because apparently he's Ulfen. Most of the Ulfen I've known know how to avoid frostbite... and seriously, how does someone suffer frostbite a handful of days after Midsummer's Eve?
She also told us other rumors. Some farmer, 'Old Man Dansby' because of course people have to call people by their age, I mean we had 'Old Nana' and now 'Old Man Dansby' and no doubt that elven alchemist is probably called 'pointy-eared explody girl' or the like... um, where was I? Oh yeah. He's been complaining that folk have been stealing from his fields... and that he lost half his crop to a frost.
And some poor kid apparently is also sick after having fallen through ice over the Wishbone Creek. I'm not sure which is crazier, that ice has formed on water in the middle of summer, or that this idiot kid went out on it chasing some talking stag or the like. What does he think this is, some fairy tale? Hell, if the fae start talking to you through animals, you politely let them know you need to finish an errand and immediately leave the area.
Also, some hunter named Dryden Kepp apparently went off on some wild goose-chase when he was told his latest story was full of it. Apparently there was a giant weasel on the High Ridge. I'm surprised people made fun of him. I've seen plenty of white-furred critters, and some giant ones as well. Why people think an over-sized weasel is just a figment of too much drinking is beyond me. Okay, a pink or purple critter, maybe. But white? Nah.
You know, this sort of thing is why I detest local gossip. Who cares that Argus Goldtooth is pining after Tessaraea Willowbark? If he wants to help her with her gardening, good for him! But this back-alley gossip is just idiocy, which I suppose sums up Taldorians to a T. Like Alak says, they're stuck in past glories and bloodlines rather than considering the truly important things.
Thelin splurged (showing his undwarfiness, I'm onto him, he's a gnome in disguise!) and bought all of us drinks. Seeing ale is absolutely wretched, I went with wine and I might have overindulged just a tad. Alak was a bit annoyed with me at least, and my head will likely feel beastly in the morning, but hey, free drinks!
Sarenith 27, 4713
Surprisingly enough, my head wasn't being attacked by dwarven miners this morning! It just goes to show you, if you want to avoid a pounding headache, you just get the local dwarves more drunk than you! Okay, I should stop teasing Thelin like that. He's a good sort even if I've not met or really heard of a dwarven druid before.
Anyway, Freya, Thelin and myself went to chat with Councilor Ionnia Teppen about Lady Argentea's abduction and the guard who escaped, while Alak went off with Araval to interrogate Araval about things while Araval looked into buying more weapons as apparently he wants to build a suit of armor made out of nothing but axes and blades. Seriously, how many weapons does anyone need?
Ionnia was more than willing to let us chat with Yuln (Argentea's bodyguard), and Freya and Thelin took charge talking to him. To be honest, he did most of the talking with only a little prodding on their part. He told us that they were attacked initially by bandits that roam in the Border Wood, but those bandits were only a distraction. When they were fully engaged with the bandits, a group of winter-touched fey swarmed them. While he'd killed several foes including a couple of the winter fey, soon the wintry weather was too much and he had to retreat. He'd never expected to face winter-touched fey this far south, they're the sort of thing you encounter in the realms north of Varisia. They're creatures that swore allegiance to the Witches of Irrisen.
Irrisen. Well, Alak isn't going to be happy to hear that. I am halfway tempted to convince my brother to leave this to these adventurers and we could head off to Zimar and then head further south. We don't much talk about what happened back when we were kids... but Ma and Da warned me about the Witches. If they're operating in Taldor... and have caused these snows in the middle of summer? If I were Alak I'd be looking over my shoulder and worrying they were after us... but we've not heard anything of the Winter Witches since my childhood. They stay in Irrisen. Mostly.
No. They're not after us. This is just an odd coincidence. And I suppose if we investigate this winter weather and help rescue this noblewoman, there might be a reward! And come to think of it... it's likely the Winter Witches are after Lady Argentea for one of their plots. Why come to Taldor, I've no idea but... this has nothing to do with Alak and myself. I hope.
Thelin and Freya quickly realized we were... underdressed for the weather. I mean, it's summer out! It's a shame to cover up my outfit, it looks quite striking especially when I dance, but I don't want to lose my fingers to frostbite. Unfortunately, I don't have much in the way of money, and Thelin kind of overspent as well what with buying everyone drinks. Fortunately, Alak had my back as usual and he bought me some winter clothing from the owner of the general store, Vivialla Steranus. There'd been a rather harsh winter several years earlier and she still had a few outfits in storage that never got sold.
They smell musty, of cedar shavings and age, and look completely boring to me. Ah well, thus is the life of an adventurer, I suppose. You always hear about the glorious bits such as treasure and glorious battles. You don't hear about squatting behind trees to go to the bathroom or what leaves to avoid when you have to wipe, or of keeping your armor dry and cleaning your weapons lest the blood of your foes etch the blades and weaken them.
Thelin suggested setting up camp outside the region of winter weather and then heading out from there, but we actually reached the massacre site shortly before noon even without horses or mules. The closer we got, the colder the air was and it was drizzling with a slushy cold rain. In fact, it was so cold that when we came across the massacre scene... well, it wasn't swarming with flies and there was a crust of snow on the ground!
One of the two carriages was overturned while the second was upright but with a dead horse still tethered to it. A half dozen corpses were scattered about, including one of some poor girl who couldn't have been more than 15 or so, along with two horses. They'd all been stripped, except for one poor guy who was frozen in a block of ice. I was only barely able to keep my breakfast down, while Alak looked paler than normal. Araval seemed unfazed though and he soon noticed there was something about the intact carriage... noises were coming from inside of it. Araval called out but there was no response.
So we gathered around the door for the carriage and Thelin knocked the spear which was holding the door shut... and a couple people tumbled out. But before we could do anything they stood and... they were dead too. I think Alak was as surprised as I was by this.
Araval swung first, and I swear... Freya called out to Gorum to guide his hand. She didn't cast a spell... but I know Araval was about to miss with his swing when Freya called out... and his swing shifted mid-stroke to successfully strike the zombie. He missed a couple of other times, however, while Freya invoked some magic to engulf Thelin's maul with flames... which likely would have been better suited on Araval's blade but she couldn't easily reach Araval. She used some healing magic to hurt one of the shambling corpses as her club bounced ineffectually off of its hide at which point I remembered some of the stories of these... zombies. Their flesh just absorbs punishment, but slashing blades like swords or axes are able to cut through enchanted muscle and flesh.
We took a beating. I swear, the fight seemed to last for an hour, though it likely was over in less than a minute, and at the end Araval was bleeding fairly badly and the rest of us were not in much better shape. Also, somehow my idiot brother managed to cut his tunic open with his sickle when trying to attack a zombie. Seriously, I love my brother but he can be such a klutz at times!
I was able to sing flesh together (a handy little trick I learned years ago) while Thelin and Freya also used their divine magics to help restore everyone to health... but we were essentially out of magic. I mean, I could use some simple cantrips and still inspire those listening me to fight with greater effort... but there was no way I could heal anyone else at least until I'd gotten a good night's sleep in.
There was a man frozen in the blocks of ice. I'm not sure what magics could be used to do such a thing, but his arms and legs had been chopped off, I think before they were frozen. There was a really nice-quality sword frozen to the man's right hand, and he was wearing a breastplate... so Araval took out a couple of torches, planted them in the ground, and lit them to melt the ice enough for us to break the armor out. He cleaned them off and then put the armor on and claimed the blade. He didn't even bother removing the Taldorian crest from the armor. I just hope we don't come across any Taldorian patrols, they might have some questions for Araval.
To be honest, I kind of lost my breakfast at that point. I mean, those damn witches had animated the dead. Alak seemed fascinated at the concept and wondered why the witches hadn't animated the rest of the corpses and brought them with them deeper into the woods. I wasn't even aware witches could animate the dead, but I'd put nothing past the Winter Witches... not to mention they could have allies.
We changed into our cold weather clothing and then followed the obvious trail leading deeper into the woods. While the snow was fresh, there were enough signs that a sizable force had traveled that way while dragging stuff that Araval and Thelin were both certain the bandits had traveled this way. We just hoped Lady Argentea would be with them.
There was a light wind blowing the snow around, though it wasn't heavy enough to be blinding. It would be difficult using a bow at range and was deep enough to shift underfoot and slow us all down. Araval's new armor slowed him a bit, but not much more than how fast Thelin's stubby legs could move... it was mostly the snow that reduced us to a slow trudge.
After about 10 minutes we came across signs in the snow that a dozen or so people came this way. We also started seeing bits of debris that was dropped by the bandits - articles of clothing looted from the dead and the like. Thelin seemed to think there were a couple of horses as well which suggests the bandits looted one of the horses from the carriages (which explains the dead horse that hadn't been in the harness). And soon after we came across clear evidence - the bandits abandoned a chest in the middle of the path.
Naturally, Alak suspected a trap. So he warned the others to pause and then started carefully digging his way through the snow until he uncovered a barely-covered trip line. When I looked up, I could barely make out a snow-covered spiked log held up by ropes. No doubt the bandits expected us to blindly wander to the chest and then trigger the trap and get struck by the log as it swung down to strike anyone in the path. Given the complexity of the trap, I suspect it was something they already had in place a bit ago. No doubt they had raided caravans in the past and could set up this trap to catch guards chasing after them.
The chest was empty. Alak chose not to disarm the trap as we knew it was there and he didn't want to risk triggering it. Freya almost stumbled on the rope while studying the chest, but she caught herself at the last moment as she mouthed a quick prayer to Gorum, which goes to show the God of War watches over folk to ensure they die in battle, not tripping over traps.
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Something is definitely wrong with the Border Wood. I mean, the winter weather could have been the work of some crazed druid or the like... but we were attacked by a wintry dragonkin! And the critter deliberately targeted my brother! Is it too late to just turn around and flee, run to Qadira, or maybe Osirion? I mean, I doubt they are getting winter weather... no, Ciri. That's your brother's paranoia talking.
Okay. The critter was a tatzylwyrm. But it was white! And its feet were webbed, allowing it to easily run or burrow through the snow! It sprung from a snowbank ahead of us and scampered past just about everyone before we could act. Freya did manage to smack it with her club as it passed her, but Avaral missed with the Lucerne hammer I'd seen him with but he was so attached to his axe that I figured it was just for decorative purposes.
The bloody thing snagged Alak and started trying to carry him off. I managed a glancing blow with my blade but I just didn't have the strength to push the blade further in. Fortunately, Alak and I wrestled a lot as kids, and he managed to wiggle free before it knew what had happened. Freya managed to strike it a second time, and Thelin finished invoking some prayer in a language I've not heard before, and a giant rat appeared in the snow by the beast and got a bite in. Finally Araval closed the distance and crushed the wyrm's spine with his hammer.
I bandaged Alak's wound as best I could, seeing I've no more healing magic left to me, and we're about to continue down the path.
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We've met the winter fae.
You ever hear the old faerie tales of sprites and pixies and the like, and how they're mischievous but essentially decent sorts? These weren't that type of sprite. No, these were cruel, malicious fae and our first hint of them was what we thought at first were fetishes or the like. We got close enough to see they were actually crows that had been shot full of pin-sized arrows and then tortured before they froze solid.
That's when the arrows started hitting us. Or more specifically, my brother. I guess they were able to sense he didn't have armor on under his winter jacket or something and he didn't have any magics up to deflect their arrows. I used my music to help strengthen the resolve of the others and Araval and Thelin tried to close with the sprites, at which point one of them invoked fae magics to try and blind them with a rainbow spray of light. Fortunately, both were able to shield their eyes in time.
One of the sprites managed to hide in the bushes to avoid Araval's strike with his Lucerne hammer (the blow looked like it was about to strike true when at the last moment a thick branch deflected the hammer to strike just next to the fae) but soon two of them fell... one was fluttering weakly along the ground when Fawkes pounced on it and promptly shook it hard to break its neck. The second was mostly-squished by Araval's hammer but Thelin was able to use some minor magics to help stabilize it, while the third invoked some other odd magic to make it seem like four more sprites had appeared and move off, and it hid and escaped.
Alak wanted to talk to the sprite to learn why they had attacked, but seeing it was barely alive we bound her up and put her in my coin pouch. My brother speculated that we might have intruded in their domain, but Thelin was dismissive of the view and I have to agree. These were winter fae. I don't recall hearing any tales of winter fae in the Border Wood, so they must have appeared along with the wintry weather.
So we went forth. I think we trudged through the snow for another hour before we came across a set of tracks. Thelin seemed to think they were elk, which reminded me of the stories of that kid who fell through the ice chasing after a talking white elk. Freya brought it up and we paused to consider it... when we looked up to see the elk had appeared, barely 15 feet away from us. And then it asked us what we were doing here.
Yes. The bloody thing talked. Though I don't think the elk was doing the talking, but at the time no one thought to look close at it as it asked us what our task was and how we were going to help the Taldoran noblewoman. Yes, somehow the thing knew about Lady Argentea and I just watched, baffled, as my ordinarily-paranoid brother just blithely started telling it who we were and what our abilities were!
It took Freya to knock some sense into the others when she said "we don't know what we are doing!" The others looked at her and then some glimmer of sense just suddenly swept through the rest of them and they all admitted to having no clue as to what they could do and started asking the elk more questions.
Eventually it mentioned bandits and the gig was up.
Naturally Alak's been reading over my shoulder as I write this journal. He claims he was trying to learn something from the elk and that he never intended on letting it escape alive. I'm not sure if he's trying to save face or what. I mean, I could see him doing something like this and it scares me that he'd just arbitrarily decide to kill a sentient being before we know it's a threat. Heh. And now he's telling me that's not what he meant and he just stalked off muttering how I always misinterpret him.
He's brilliant. Don't get me wrong. That's part of his problem. He comes to a conclusion and is puzzled other people don't see things the same way. The only way I can keep up is by constantly reading every book I can find when we get into a new town. I've even found some places have collections of books that people can pay a small fee to read. Alak and I've idled entire weeks away reading up, but he focuses on a couple esoteric topics usually, like magical theory or religion and history. I'll talk to the others in these libraries and learn added tidbits that often get left out of the tomes. I might not be as smart as my brother... but I'd say I've a wider breadth of knowledge than him.
Anyway, back to the elk. Eventually it mentioned bandits and the gig was up. We never mentioned bandits leading up until this point - in fact, the others took special care to avoid mentioning the bandits, and I was just keeping quiet watching everything go down (yes, I know, it's rather odd of me... it was probably the cold getting to me).
That's when it chose to attack... and we learned we were not dealing with one enemy, but three. Because riding the elk was another tiny-sized fae (Alak says it was an atomie which would explain some of its tricks) and a sprite... possibly the very sprite that had escaped from us just an hour earlier. And that little pest decided it was going to target my brother exclusively. What's with that, anyway? Did he accidentally pee on one when he went behind a tree? These blighters seem to have it out for my brother, though the elk concentrated on Thelin and the atomie went after Araval.
Araval was swinging that greataxe of his, the one he calls "Kindness," and the damn thing dodged the blow and then grabbed the axe while runes appeared around it. The axe then shrank to the size of my inkpen! Araval laughed and said he should put it on a cord and hang it around his neck, and then pulled out the sword he'd scavenged from that frozen Taldoran captain and then proceeded to cut down the elk in revenge.
Alak... well, he wasn't taking being a pincushion very well. Freya rushed to his side and somehow she was able to enact another prayer to heal some of my brother's wounds, but he... he demanded that I take out our prisoner and if the fae didn't back off, kill her. Damn it... he insists now that he didn't mean it, that he was trying to fake them out, but I know he meant it. This damn place is doing something to him. It's twisting him. I don't know what to do! How do I save him?
You know, I've long wanted to go on an adventure of my own but I never envisioned it would be like this. It's not like in most of the stories. I've read a couple journals from those Pathfinder Society folk that were darker stories and this is closer to them. I would rather never have had an adventure at all, not if my brother... no. I'll have to wake him up somehow. Shock him into doing the right thing. I'll think of something.
So yeah. I dropped the faerie and shouted something as I pulled out my crossbow and aimed it... and I swear. I should have missed. I think I heard Freya shout out Gorum's name again but I'm not sure... but at the last moment there was a gust of wind and the bolt skewered the fae. It dropped to the ground dead. The atomie died soon after with my brother doing something while glaring at the faerie and Araval and Thelin were able to resist its magics while they chopped it to pieces.
Thelin then insisted on dressing and deboning the elk, while Freya took the head pelt and started making it into a hat of some sort. These people are crazy. I wish I could just drag my brother out of here and go somewhere safe. But he won't listen to me. And I already failed him once. If I tell him we should leave, he'll lose all faith in me.
No. I have to continue on. I'll save him. Somehow.
Anyway, after preparing the meat, Thelin and Alak got into a... spirited discussion on camping for the night. Alak insisted that we move half an hour into the middle of the woods and make a cold camp while sleeping in the snow. Thelin insisted on camping close to the path with a fire to cook meat so we could stay warm at night. Thelin's argument won out. I mean, my brother doesn't exactly feel the cold. He gets cold, mind you, but he's walked around barefoot in the middle of winter without getting frostbite or the like. It always drove Ma nuts when he'd do that. So I'm not sure he quite gets that us mere mortals actually feel the cold. But when everyone else basically insisted on a fire, he acquiesced.
Sarenith 28, 4713
Alak's been trying to tell me that he didn't mean it on killing the sprite. He's lying. No, he's just telling me what he thinks I want to hear. But I know he's angry with me. I didn't do what he wanted. He's right. I should have killed that sprite. It doesn't matter it was a prisoner. But it just feels wrong to just kill a prisoner. How could he ask me to do that?
I hate this.
For most of my life I've relied on my brother. Hell, I've protected him when he needed protecting, as people seem either drawn to his unusual features or fear him because of them. It's not his fault his hair's silvery and his eyes yellow. He was likely born that way. It could have been something the Winter Witches did to him, before Ma and Da got us out of Irrisen... all I know is that they were going to sacrifice us. They were scared of him, and desired some power they sensed in my own blood, though to be honest I'm nothing special. Heck, I'm a little bit dim compared to my peers and had trouble learning things when I was younger.
To be honest, he's not much better. I've noticed when someone threatens me, Alak gets all defensive and scared. I don't know. Am I just overthinking things? I can't help but think if I'd just done what Alak told me to, I'd stop second-guessing myself.
I've noticed that Araval is... well, he gets quite angry if someone dares to challenge him in some way. I'll have to be careful with him. The moment he lets his temper get the better of him he just tosses diplomacy out the window, though I've noticed he doesn't think things through. I suppose it's one way to sneak a lie past him... get him angry, lie to his face, and then apologize before he's had a chance to think about it.
It's kind of funny, he has a lot in common with Thelin. The two are like peas in a pod, despite one being a half-orc and the other a dwarf. Thelin doesn't get quite as angry as Araval, but he does get rather sharp when you dare challenge his point of view. It's just that the views that get him up in arms differs from Araval's.
Freya's also a bit odd. Maybe it has something to do with her Tian heritage? She does have an eye for treasure and was really into my storytelling and dancing. I think she's been flirting with Araval which is a real shame as she's truly beautiful and yet she's going after the tall muscle-bound warrior instead of someone with charm and grace, like myself. Alas, I'll have to limit myself to the serving ladies at the next tavern.
Well, looks like we're about to break camp and get moving. We seared some more of the elk over the embers though it wasn't that good. We really needed some spices for the meat, or maybe let it age a little bit.
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Freya's not looking too good. She kept lagging behind as we followed the... path, I suppose. I was starting to wonder if the bandits even went this way as we didn't even see footprints anymore, but the path continued this way and Thelin and Araval didn't see any signs that the bandits had jumped the path. Something is trying to keep us from going down this path though, so we're probably going the right way.
We came across a snowman holding a sign saying "turn back" or something to that effect. Given what we went through yesterday, no one was interested in getting close to this thing, and Thelin was able to detect magic in it - from what he told me, it sounded like there were abjuration and illusion magics involved, though they were quite faint. It was probably some sort of alarm or the like. Freya focused on the snowman for so long that she went cross-eyed and was claiming the snowman was just an illusion and wasn't there... unless she was trying to have fun with us or the like. The group finally decided to push through the woods and avoid the snowman if at all possible... well, excepting for Freya who used Mage Hand to reposition the snowman's carrot nose.
I truly wonder about these people I'm traveling with.
The trees in this area grow rather closely together, and we soon found out why when we pushed onto the frozen shore of what is likely Wishbone Creek. If I remember the local maps, we're probably headed toward Lake Taermain, though given this cold weather has only been here for a week or so, I doubt it's frozen over, unlike the creek. Thelin and Araval were still worried about the creek and rather than risk everyone breaking through the ice, Araval took a rope and headed across to the other side.
Before he reached it, something emerged from the ice to attack Araval. Alak thinks they were Elementals, but rather than ones made of water or earth, these were made from the ice of the creek itself. And they were not happy to have us crossing their new playground. Fortunately, Araval seems to have this sixth sense that alerted him to the elementals' presence and he avoided their blows, moving to the far shore with the rope.
Thelin invoked... what does he pray to? I've not heard him call upon any specific god or goddess... though given the language he casts spells in, he could be doing so and I just don't realize it. Anyway, he called a small ball of fire into his hand and then threw it at the Elemental closest to Araval. Sadly, given he was at least 30 feet away from the creature, the flames missed and went into the snow on the far bank where it sputtered out.
Alak... I don't know if he was trying to one-up Thelin or what, but he cast a spell of his own and a sheet of flames swept from his spread fingers and struck both Elementals. Just as the flames were about to hit they did something, throwing up a mist of frost before them, and it absorbed some of the flames and didn't hurt them that badly. One of the beasts moved up and while Alak was able to dodge the first blow, the second hit him in the head and sent him sprawling. Thelin was able to reach him and invoked a prayer to help heal him of some of the blow, and Alak then scrambled out of harm's way before Freya reached him to bless him with her own divine healing magics.
Between Thelin's ball of fire (which returned to his hand) and Araval's lucern hammer, we were able to destroy the Elementals with the creatures ground to ice shards. We crossed, and then found another poor soul who'd fallen prey to these things. He looks to be an older man and a farmer. Alak thinks he's Dansby, the farmer whose crops had been stolen. We claimed his composite longbow and a masterwork handaxe, but plan on returning his money to his family when we return to town.
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We're definitely on the right path.
After finding some relatively-fresh tracks (including tracks from a horse), the others asked if I could scout out ahead. Sadly, "scout out" meant being maybe 20 or 30 feet ahead of the others. And they are not quiet. Seriously, how did they manage to keep stepping on dead branches in the snow? Our only saving grace is that it's been getting colder out and the bandits are definitely not dressed for the weather.
They were all huddled around a small fire they'd built in the snow and were ignoring the trail. I don't really blame them. They'd likely been there for several hours and didn't expect anyone to be following them. I motioned to the others that there were three and I swear, Araval nearly gave everything away with his clanking. How those bandits failed to hear us is beyond me.
One of the bandits managed to get his bow out and grazed Araval with an arrow (which he laughed off), but then Alak did something to make the fire flare up and go out. All three bandits were blinded, as was Freya even though she was 20 feet back. The bandits tried to flee but it's not easy running when you're blind. One was shot down with a crossbow while another... I have no idea how, but Araval managed to throw his handaxe at the bandit and smacked the bandit in the forehead with the handle. A third bandit made it to the path before he tripped. By the time he started to get up, Araval was there with his hammer and he was soon dead.
We tied the bandit who'd been knocked out so he was facing a tree and Freya used some magic to patch up his wounds a bit so we could interrogate him. I decided to have some fun and begged Alak to let me chop off several of the bandit's fingers. Maybe I did too good of a job with that bluff because my brother paled at that comment. But it was Araval's idle threats that broke the bandit's resolve and we soon learned everything from the thug.
He was part of a bandit group called Rokhar's Raiders. Rokhar was apparently a necromancer, and it was he who'd animated those poor guards as zombies back at the carriage. Not counting Rokhar or the bandits watching this path, there's nine bandits left, along with some half-orc named Two-Penny who isn't an official part of the gang but is helping care for some sick bandits. And yes, the bandits had Lady Argentea as their prisoner. They'd holed up at a place called the High Sentinel Lodge which used to be the base of operations for some rangers who watched the border with Qadira and hunted bandits in their spare time. The ice fae helped the bandits wipe those men out.
It took us two hours to reach the Lodge. I could hear water rushing nearby, and we paused while Alak convinced Fawkes to reconnoiter. There were no bandits in sight, at least not outdoors. We could see a couple plumes of smoke coming up from the lodge, and after 15 or so minutes Fawkes came back. Alak seemed to think there were four sets of doors for the lodge, and soon came up with this crazy plan to have one person go to each door and then have me climb up onto the roof to toss a wet blanket over each chimney to smoke the bandits out.
Knowing my brother's luck, they'd all show up in his face and try to murder him before he could act. I soon dissuaded them of that plan. I mean, Alak is a better climber than I am, and he couldn't climb the side of a hut! This lodge looks better constructed, and the bandits would probably notice me. I did offer to sneak up and throw my alchemist fire onto the porch of the lodge and burn them out, but the others were worried we might end up killing Lady Argentea if we did that.
Alak groused that we didn't think of stripping the two dead bandit guards of their gear as that could be used for a disguise when Freya spoke up and said one of her abilities was being able to use an enchantment to disguise herself. She offered to go as one of the bandits. And she did a very good job of it, after she was done with the spell I wouldn't have guessed she was a girl, let alone not one of the bandits.
I used a couple of my songs to ensure that Alak and Araval would be able to travel through the snow without it slowing them. I should have done that with Thelin as well, as he ended up lagging behind. I also provided her with Guidance and a Message spell so we could talk to her at a distance, and she scampered out to run toward the lodge and warn that "Taldorian soldiers led by a fierce orc were coming."
That's when we found out that the bandit we captured? He forgot to mention the crossbow tripwire. She was struck soundly in the chest and fell in the snow. Fortunately, her armor absorbed a bit of the blow and she promptly got up and started to stagger toward the lodge while the rest of us tried to sneak down the path to take advantage of her distraction.
The operative word being try. I seriously need to have words with Araval. He does not know how to be stealthy. Maybe I should describe it along the lines of hunting. But stealth was definitely a lost cause when Thelin promptly fell on his face in the snow alongside the treeline while trying to sneak up on the lodge! I swear, am I the only person in the group who can be sneaky? I mean, I'm a singer for crying out loud. We're not known for being the quiet ones! (Unless it's sneaking out of a bedroom to avoid an angry husband or boyfriend, of course....)
Freya ran around the building crying woe and the bandits came out to meet her. They bought her story hook, line, and sinker and not once doubted her. But they also ignored her warning and decided to stand up to Araval. Maybe they thought the snow would slow him down or something. I don't know. But I started to sing an inspirational song and Araval fired one arrow, hitting a foe, before he waded into combat using a sword and shield. Each strike left a man bleeding to death. It was truly horrific and mesmerizing to watch.
Alak also assisted with his own magics, as four bandits further back were firing bows at Araval. Three lost consciousness as Alak's enchantments swept over them, and the last spent precious seconds waking his compatriots. But it was too little, too late. Araval was finished with the first group of bandits and descended on this band as well. Only one bandit escaped with his life, fleeing into the harsh wintery weather rather than face certain death at Araval's hands.
So I was basically useless. My music may have inspired Araval to become a killing machine, but outside of that I didn't help with the fight. I'm not sure how i feel about that. I mean... these are people. Bandits, but still people. I've never killed anyone before. Yet Araval was risking his life and all I could do was sing. Yeah, some mighty hero I am.
I followed Alak into the lodge. Freya was inside, having uncovered a trap door under a bearskin rug. Lady Argentea was being kept down there, though she was quite put out by Alak calling her "Argentea" without prefacing it with her noble title. My brother can be quite tactless at times. That said, she did indulge in the bossy overbearing noblewoman routine the moment he opened his mouth so I'm not feeling too much sympathy for her.
Argentea... Lady Argentea commented on the bandits' leader, a necromancer named Rokhar, who was still on the loose. Freya said that she'd heard chanting upstairs, but I think Alak misheard as he promptly went to one of the northern rooms and promptly found someone busy stuffing stuff from a chest to her backpack. He gave out a shout and then cast a spell, at which point I rushed in while starting to sing to inspire everyone nearby. I must have had a burst of adrenaline from this as I somehow tossed the woman onto her bed, which sounds far more interesting written down than it really was.
I turned as Thelin gave out a warning and saw a pair of glowing skeletons descending the stairs from an upper level we hadn't bothered to check out yet. Araval smashed one that was threatening Freya with his hammer and it exploded in a burst of frost, further hurting Freya. She then moved up to the next one and I swear I saw her wilt under the punishing aura of these monsters but was able to bring her club down on the skeleton and hit it hard enough that it also exploded in a burst of frost and fell to pieces.
Thelin grumbled about not having gotten to fight anything and went up the stairs to the open doorway, and then shouted out a warning about an invisible spellcaster - when I asked him later he said Rokhar had tripped over a chair and knocked it over, warning Thelin of his presence.
The half-orc lady chose that moment to try and escape. I failed to grab ahold of her and Alak failed to grab her as she jumped out of the window. To be honest? Some thief fleeing from us wasn't a threat. I ran back into the room and went up the stairs to help Thelin, but Alak stayed behind. Eventually he managed to recast the sleeping enchantment he'd used just minutes earlier, though I thought he'd used up those spells. I guess he was keeping one spell in reserve, just in case it was needed. Though I'd have saved it for the necromancer myself.
Everyone else entered the room and we started a game of blind man's buffe. Freya looked in a closet and inside found another sprite who'd been captured by Rokhar, but after it started threatening us when we didn't promptly fall for its lies, I tossed a blanket over the cage and told Freya to keep looking for Rokhar. Thelin tried looking out the window but didn't see Rokhar, so he instead chose to invoke a prayer which sent the bushes and grasses writhing and pulling out of the snow to ensnare anything within it. Thelin eventually ran outside to see if he'd walked out the front door, while I tried spraying the contents of my waterskin around the room to find him.
Finally Alak returned (having knocked and tied up the half-orc) and asked what we were doing. When he found out we were looking for the invisible necromancer he was dismissive at first saying Rokhar had probably run off and was waiting until we left to return and retrieve the bodies of his companions. That's when he paused and his eyes brightened. He shouted "he's after the bodies!" and we rushed out there, Freya moving with her club ready where Araval had once stood while cutting down five bandits around him.
Rokhar called out, maybe ten feet away, and offered to parlay. He was not surrendering. He could easily escape. But he thought it was in his best interests to work with us and deal with the true threat to the Border Wood - the evil fae that were invading from some glowing portal responsible for the unseasonable snows.
While he admitted to being a bandit (and on attacking Lady Argentea's carriages), he said he'd only worked with the Winter Fae to keep his men alive. They'd fought us because they thought we were the Taldor authorities rather than someone reasonable who would talk to them. Naturally my brother bought it, hook, line, and sinker, or at the very least gave the impression he did. He can be quite odd at times in offering someone enough rope to hang themselves with rather than just refuse them outright.
But what's worse? Rokhar wants to bring back his men as zombies! And Alak and the others agreed to this, excepting for Thelin and myself! This man looks at others as objects to be used and Alak doesn't have a problem with this. He either doesn't realize Rokhar plans on backstabbing him and turning him into a zombie next, or wants to try and do the same to him right when Rokhar thinks we are at his mercy! Araval joked that the zombies could carry our supplies, while Freya said it would be a "waste" to just leave the bodies behind.
I tried convincing Alak that he was wrong and that the spell could hurt the soul of the person being animated... I mean, there's enchantments that can bring someone back from the dead if they've not been dead for too long but these prayers don't work if the person's body was animated as a zombie. Alak's arguments against me was just "it just makes sense" and "why waste their bodies?" He refused to acknowledge my arguments. If I didn't know better, I'd suspect Rokhar of having beguiled Alak.
Never have I wanted to kill anyone as much as I want to drive my blade through Rokhar's back. He's twisting my brother, making him consider things we shouldn't do. Am I a bad person for wanting Rokhar dead? He's not a good man. I don't think he cares for anyone outside of himself. So why would killing him be wrong?
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Freya went to talk to the half-orc. It seems she's the "Ten-Penny" that we'd been told about. She was on the run from the law after some heist went bad, and Rokhar had been busy trying to convince her to join his band. She hadn't joined in on the ambush of Lady Argentea's caravan, and Lady Argentea confirmed that bit when I asked her. She's not interested in going to this glowing wintery portal either, but would return to Heldren with us to escort Lady Argentea home safely. There's safety in numbers.
Rokhar's been busy animating his dead companions. It seems Araval and Thelin had crushed a couple of them so they couldn't easily be used, but he was still able to animate the remaining six corpses. Of the bandit that had fled the fight, we saw no sign. It's likely he will freeze to death out in the snow, unless Araval and Thelin find him while they head back down the path to retrieve the bandit we left tied to a tree.
Fortunately, Alak's found something more interesting than zombies to catch his attention. It seems one of the rangers that operated out of this lodge had acquired a musket from distant Alkenstar, along with a small supply of powder and bullets that had been wrapped in paper cartridges for ease of reloading. Alak had read about the guns of Alkenstar in the past, and to actually find one... he was truly ecstatic. And I must admit, it's a fascinating weapon, though a tad too heavy for my tastes.
Thelin and Araval have just returned with their prisoner, whom Araval has named "Joe" for some unknowable reason. Petrio (as Rokhar had called him before Araval "corrected" him) just meekly accepts Araval's name, and refuses to even look at me. He's been hiding his hands from me for some reason.
We talked with Lady Argentea and Rokhar over what was happening. She was... less than pleased that we'd allied ourselves with Rokhar but had to admit that dealing with the winter fae was far more important than a band of bandits that were now mostly dead. We also learned of the leaders of the fae, a huge winter fae that towered over Rokhar and his men named Teb Knotten, and a winged blue demoness named Izoze. While Lady Argentea insisted we continue down the path and confront these... monsters, Alak insisted that we needed to get her to safety first. The others agreed.
So we're staying here for the night. Ten-Penny was making horse soup, and we added some of Thelin's elk to make it more palatable along with some spices we had on hand. I insisted that Rokhar keep his zombies outdoors and we kept watch through the night lest Izoze or other winter fae sneak up on us... or Rokhar choose to attack us while we slept.
Sarenith 29, 4713
We had leftover soup for breakfast and then saddled up the remaining horses to head back to Heldren. Lady Argentea, Freya, and myself were put on the horses. We didn't make very good time though. It seems that dead people shambling along don't walk very fast, especially when you have some of them walking ahead and the others behind us. Araval and Alak insisted on this so the zombies could provide a "guard" of sorts but given they can only be given simple commands and Rokhar is the only one who can command them, I wasn't sure of the wisdom of that plan.
Seriously. They are relying on the whims of a necromancer who has us surrounded to not try and slaughter us all. If we didn't just kill him out of hand, and I'm not ruling that out, then we should have wished him well and gone our own separate way. But no one was listening to me, outside of Thelin who understood my concerns but at this point... well, he said sometimes it's wise to keep your enemies close so they can't ambush you when they're out of sight. But I had this feeling that Thelin would have been quite happy crushing Rokhar's head under his maul. I'd be happy with that as well, and I don't know how to feel about that. Am I a horrible person for wishing a necromancer dead?
There was one advantage to our larger group - nothing tried to mess with us. We did stumble across some tracks that Thelin claimed were from a dragon and he was really earnest about that but Alak thought it was a bipedal creature of some sort. I'm inclined to believe my brother. Besides, Thelin has an odd sense of humor. He may have been trying to prank me. I'm not that gullible.
Several hours later we finally reached the trapped chest we came across what seemed like months ago at this point. Rokhar was amused to learn we'd not found the loot which was buried under the chest and then proceeded to screw up on disarming the trap. Sadly, the bandits didn't construct their log trap very well. It hit Rokhar, but he was able to dodge mostly out of the way and unfortunately his brains were not splattered across the path. Alas.
Needless to say, I didn't offer him any of my healing talents, and in fact I stated outright we shouldn't heal him. Freya chose not to as well. Rokhar was dismissive of our talents (probably hoping we'd "show him" by healing him or somesuch) and started having his zombies gather up the armor and weapons until Alak pointed out the chest could carry it all. Seeing this included some of Lady Argentea's dresses, she was less than pleased.
That's when Freya popped up at her side and handed her a case of jewelry she'd found in the carriage back when we'd started on our quest to rescue Lady Argentea. I swear, a tear almost appeared in her eye. I think we were redeemed, just a little, at that moment. A quick word to my brother had him suggest to Rokhar that he keep his zombies out of sight of the village, and we returned to town.
Lady Argentea was touched to learn that one of her guards had survived the ambush and in fact had sent us on the path to find her (well, okay, it was actually the town mayor who'd asked us to but indirectly he was responsible I suppose). She spoke to the mayor and had a letter of credit written up to give us 500 gold to thank us for rescuing her.
So now it's time to go shopping and see what we'll be doing next. I know Araval and Freya were looking at some masterwork backpacks while Thelin was seeking to sell off most of the frozen elk he still had. Araval also picked up some shield that could quickly be slung on his back and let him switch from blade to hammer in a moment's notice.
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I picked up a set of lockpicks. For the longest time I've avoided the family trade - thievery. But we've been coming across more and more traps, and while my brother tries, his greatest asset is his mind, not his fingers. I'm far more nimble than he is and I think I remember enough tricks of the trade that I can start opening locks and disabling traps. Admittedly, I'm not the best at finding traps, but we'll see how things go.
Lady Argentea also asked if we could investigate the source of the winter weather and stop it, if at all possible. She's going to remain in town and the next time a Taldor patrol comes through, alert them to the threat of the winter fae. She seems to think this could be the precursor to an invasion. Personally, I don't think that too likely. No doubt some fae in the First World are behind this. I know that the winter-touched Fae are often found in Irrisen, but it makes no sense for the Witches to strike this far from their home.
Alak asked the others about their backgrounds and what they could do. That's when I learned that Araval is a bit of a skald on the side, though he prefers telling stories to song and dance, as he started down on an epic tale of seeking the man who murdered his Orcish father and being framed for some crime and set to fight off his fines in the gladatorial pits in Tymon. Eventually (after paying off his fines) he grew tired of the endless battles and heard rumor that his father's killer was seen in the south, so he headed out and met Freya and Thelin on the road. I'm giving him short shrift here. He spoke more at length, but I wanted to write down what I could before the dying light of the hearth. In the future I'll have to get more of his tale out of him and give it justice on my pages and in song.
Thelin didn't have much to say, really. He commented on his connection to nature and to the mountains and how few dwarven druids existed. Thelin also seemed to feel out-of-place among his people, even as they continued to accept him. In fact, the maul he wielded, Earthbreaker, was I think a family weapon? He was trained by a mentor or family member, I'm not entirely sure as he used dwarven terms and sadly my grasp of dwarven is... limited to dwarven ales and a few bawdy terms - I'l have to ask Alak what he was saying later on, I know Alak is versed in dwarvish. Eventually he chose to wander the world and contemplate his connection to nature and to mountains. How he ended up in the woodlands of Taldor is a mystery. (Okay, not really, he ended up joining Araval and Freya in their travels. But it sounds more dramatic that way!)
Freya's tale was one of being on the other side of the world, Tian Xia, and snagging onto the wrong thing at the wrong time. It was all shimmery and glowing and she'd snuck past the guards and the like, but the moment she touched it, there was a flash of light and the object had lost its glowiness and she was stuck in a strange land. Fortunately, she knew enough Taldorian to get by as her parents had traveled a lot and had spoken to Taldorian traders in the past who'd made their way over the Crown of the World to trade in Tian Xia. She's an odd one, but I rather like her. She's got odd luck at times though - I've seen her put down objects and they go flying off in another direction. And I've heard an odd giggle just afterward but it didn't seem to come from her. She seems just frustrated by it. Maybe she caught the attention of some fae being? I'm not sure.
Alak then opened up about his own abilities and past, including his oddly-colored eyes, white hair, and his odd abilities. He also commented that our Da and Ma had rescued the two of us and then adopted us. As for myself, I'm self-explanatory! Dancer, drummer, singer, actress, and songsmith. I'm an open book. I doubt they needed to hear about my talents, they're already quite obvious.
We then started to talk about Rokhar (who wasn't present for this little discussion, he was busy ferrying in goods from his chest of ill-gotten wares to sell while ensuring his band of undead bandits didn't scare the populace though to be honest if we just set the whole lot of them on fire then they'd not scare anyone and might help ward off the cold for a bit!). I'd been practicing my arguments and I went on at length about how it harms the soul even beyond death and that the priesthood of Pharasma, Goddess of Death, reviled the undead and sought to end the suffering of all the undead. And then he said something that left me second-guessing my entire argument. I have no idea how he did that but... I didn't do what he wanted with that ice fae. I shouldn't be second-guessing my brother. I shouldn't. I should trust him.
The topic then turned to our captive winter sprite and what questions we should ask her. I'd like to think that this justifies my decision to rebel against my brother but the Gods chose to prove me wrong. When we pulled her out of my pouch, she was dead! She'd bled all over my coins. I must have crushed her by accident. I've failed Alak again.
The others are asleep now. I'm keeping an eye out and will wake Araval in a couple hours. While we might be "safe" in the Silver Stoat tavern... you never know, not in this day and age.
Sarenith 30, 4713
Thelin woke us. He said something odd had happened with Freya near the end of his watch - despite the fact we were sleeping before a banked hearth with a roof over our heads, a dusting of snow had covered her blankets all at once. She was shivering before the fire, which Thelin had rebuilt, and after we were all awake and coherent, she told us what had happened.
She dreamt of a black-clad rider on a black steed racing across a snowy plain. He was being chased by huge silver-white wolves and other riders clad in blues and silver. One used magic to try and strike him, but her enchantments faltered before striking him, but it allowed the wolves to reach him and one breathed frost on him while the second worried his arm. He just... slaughtered everyone, wolves and soldiers alike, but the silver-clad woman cast a second enchantment which left a shard of ice which pierced him. Freya woke as the man threw his blade at the woman, and she found herself covered with snow.
We (well, Alak and the others, I mostly listened to them) talked about the dream and what it might mean. Thelin seemed to think the wolves were likely Winter Wolves. The woman may have been one of Irrisen's witches? But the others weren't sure. But it does make it more likely that Irrisen is involved in some way.
After we were finished with breakfast, Lady Argentea and the Heldren village council saw us off, as did Ten-Penny. I don't recall seeing Petrio this morning. I wonder if he snuck off when Araval's back was turned? I don't blame him one bit. Anyway, we headed out to meet up with Rokhar, when we found out his fae had also died during the night, having bled from the mouth, ears, and other parts.
I have to admit, I feel a little bit better hearing that. Maybe they can't stand the warmer weather, and that's what killed them? Though Rokhar had kept his sprite in a cage for a couple of days. Something killed them though, and it likely used magic to do so. We're lucky it didn't turn that magic against us, though it might be that they somehow killed themselves on the same day to avoid our interrogating them? I don't know.
But I'm not to blame at least. Odd, but I feel better knowing that.
We headed back to the Lodge and then tried to get the zombies across the ravine leading deeper into the Border Wood. Let me tell you, crossing an icy bridge in windy weather is difficult enough for living folk. The first attempt to send a zombie across saw it fall off the bridge and only get caught by the rope Rokhar had tied to it. Better if it had just fallen in the water to be lost, if you ask me.
Alak then thought to send Fawkes across with a rope which he twined around some bushes. I crept across next and secured the rope, and now I'm watching the group slowly bring zombies across. Seriously, we'd have been better off without them and without Rokhar. Well, that's the last of them, time to pack up my journal and start forth again.
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The snow is blowing a lot harder now and falling faster. It's a couple feet deep, and Araval has to go first to push a path through the snow, followed by Thelin. I think we'd been traveling for 15 minutes when we found some fresh tracks crossing the path. So Alak hid in the bushes and urged Rokhar to send one of his zombies ahead... and nearly a half dozen blue-glowing skeletons came out of the trees to attack the zombie. In fact, all they had to do is get close to the zombie and it started to frost over.
Seeing I'm useless in a fight, I started an inspirational song (though it was likely lost on the zombies) while Freya cast some enchantment on Araval's Lucerne hammer to set it ablaze while Thelin moved up next to another of the zombies and prepare to face them. The sacrificial zombie was soon frozen solid and fell to pieces while the remaining skeletons moved forward to attack Thelin and the second zombie. And we proceeded to fight the skeletons.
Well, to be more precise, Araval and Thelin destroyed the skeletons, with poor Thelin getting frosted quite a bit by exploding skeletons. Freya actually threw a vial of Alchemist Fire that she'd apparently acquired without telling the rest of us and succeeded in killing one of the skeletons. And the skeletons allowed three of the former bandits to return to their final rest. May they rest in pieces. Frozen pieces.
Looks like Freya's finished patching up Thelin, so time to pack up the journal.
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We pushed through the snow for another two hours before we came across fresh signs - specifically, blood. We also heard a scream, but Thelin quickly realized it was from a deer that a triad of wolves had just taken down, and he managed to calm the wolves down enough for us to sneak away and investigate the blood trail, which apparently wasn't from the deer. No, it was the corpse of a hunter, Dryden Kepp, and Thelin found his pack. Thelin and Alak are going through his journal now. It seems Kepp had found a strange hut further along the path, with a creepy doll sitting in it.
Yeah. It seems Araval hasn't forgotten or forgiven the doll from Freya's little dream-quest. Hell, none of the others had. I was quite surprised, to be honest. I'd forgotten about the doll in that quest. In fact, I'd not thought of Old Nana and the events that had drawn us into this whole mess at all. As for Kepp, he was going after that giant white weasel... and found it. Unfortunately, his attempt to use bear traps on it didn't work so well. He was going to try and make his way to safety. Obviously, the weasel beat him to it.
Thelin and Araval confirmed that the tracks were of a weasel, though obviously one far larger than normal and even larger than dire weasels. I think Araval was looking forward to tracking down and killing this thing, but as it isn't headed toward the Somir Valley where Teb Knotten is located, we chose to continue down the path instead.
We continued on for maybe half an hour or so (while the sun occasionally can be seen through the clouds above, I'm mostly relying on my own intuition and occasionally checking in with my brother who has an uncanny ability to know what time it is) when we came across an area where the snow had been scraped away from the ground, and the ground itself dug up a bit. We proceeded cautiously but had no way of anticipating angry trees would start attacking us.
I mean, I've heard of treants before. I'm not sure these were treants, or if they were, they were the rebellious angry children of treants who were lashing out at everything because it was far too cold out for the time of year. But until they moved, I had no idea they weren't trees. Thelin had no idea they weren't trees! Okay, sure, he's more at home in the mountains than in wooded areas, but we've been on a ridgeline so he's a bit more at ease right now.
Another of the zombies were returned to the earth. And we managed to destroy all three of these sticky misbegotten children of a drunken treant, though we had a druid with us so we obviously didn't do anything wrong. No, we were just setting nature right once more. And they attacked us. We were just passing through and there were no signs or warnings. I don't know. Maybe they hate the undead? I don't blame them.
We continued on and after only a little bit started descending into a valley. Bloodied pawprints from the weasel warned us of something afoot, and soon Alak had uncovered a bear trap. Thelin recalled Kepp's journal which mentioned setting several bear traps, so I've been writing in the journal as Alak uncovers each beartrap using a stout branch before he disarms them. Looks like Alak's found the last trap, so I'll wrap up for now and be attentive. Hey, I might be useless in a fight, but there's other ways I can pull my own weight.
We've found the odd hut and creepy doll. And for some bizarre reason, we've not used it as target practice for our alchemist fire.
Okay, there's more to the tale than that, and it's an odd tale. Seeing we're camped for the night, I'm taking time to write it all up before I start forgetting details. You see, there were some odd ice pillars between us and the hill where the hut was located. What's more, the hut was on top of four tree trunks... which had been carved into the semblance of bird legs. And I just know this should mean something to me but I honestly can't think of what this reminds me of. You know, when it comes to me I'm going to be kicking myself.
Okay, I could just ask Alak but I honestly don't need to see his smug expression as once again I need to rely on him. Besides, if it was truly important, he'd have said something by now.
Needless to say, the entire situation screamed "trap." Even Araval took his time instead of just brashly moving ahead. Even so, I think we all jumped as the shivering girl came out from behind one of the ice boulders begging us to forgive her and that she was sorry for calling us names. Freya stepped forward and asked what she was doing here and the girl responded that she had to watch the path, and then moved off toward the south, only to vanish behind another boulder.
Yeah. Not at all suspicious. We headed north. And even though I was keeping an eye out, she once more popped out from behind another boulder and begged us not to keep her here as it was cold and she missed her mother. Freya asked what her name was and she said she was Thora Petska and again moved south before she vanished.
No one followed. Okay, I was perhaps the tiniest bit tempted. I mean, sometimes you know it's a trap and even so you want to see just what the other person is going to do. And how did they get a young girl to help them out? Hell, why didn't they give her some decent clothing? She was dressed oddly, in thick woolen clothing even if she didn't have a decent coat on.
As we headed past the field of ice boulders, we heard her one last time urging us to go back. Alak had spent a few seconds to cast a spell though to detect magics in the area and was able to determine it was an illusion, most likely Ventriloquism. He also detected an enchantment spell being used on Araval, though apparently it didn't affect him. So we made our way to the hut and Freya insisted on climbing up to see the doll. Alak went with her and he made some snide comment on how we should dig the gem out of the doll's eye socket but Freya refused to let him.
That probably saved his life. You don't go messing with magical creepy dolls and you most especially don't go pulling out their eyes. Though it's odd. One of the doll's eyes is reflective. I think someone stuck a mirror in the socket. The other does look like a blue gem of some sort, probably a sapphire.
Freya insisted we bring the doll along. She thinks it's Thora, though Alak thinks "Thora" is using the doll to cast spells out of. So we continued down the path, and past a warning written in the snow that somehow hadn't been covered up by the falling snow and was warning us to go back.
It was a trap, and a magical one at that. Okay, I don't feel bad about not finding that trap. Ma and Da always told me that the magical traps are hardest to find and can't be disarmed easily. Probably the best bet would have been to cut our way through the woods to avoid the area by the writing. Instead, Araval and one of the zombies passed through and next thing you know, the area is being hit with a blast of magical frost which froze solid one of the zombies, though Araval dodged out of the way of the worse of the effect.
Okay. I didn't get hurt by this, but I have to say... if I had been hit by this trap? It would have been worth it just for the upset look on Rokhar's face. He was down to one zombie. He grumbled about how he should have animated the dead farmer and the dead hunter. I have to say I was surprised he didn't try to do that, but I guess he realized we were less likely to care about him animated some bandits he fought with rather than decent townsfolk from a village we're trying to protect.
Just as it was starting to become late, Araval noticed a clearing to one side and asked if Rokhar would send his zombie in ahead of the group. I almost think he was going to say no, but it is why he has these zombies... so they get hurt rather than one of us. He was soon regretting that largess as the giant white weasel whose tracks we'd been seeing off and on? It was holed up in that clearing and it came bounding out and bit off the zombie's head.
I'm not sure if the song I started to sing to inspire my companions to fight harder, or to tell Rokhar where he could stick his zombies. It may have been a little of both. I know he's been grumbling as he looks at me as we prepare to camp for the night. But the weasel didn't manage to hurt anyone and we defeated it as a group. Heck, I even helped out by putting an enchantment on Araval so he could easily travel through the snow. It's a handy enchantment... it's a shame it only lasts for around half an hour and I can only cast it a couple times a day.
Araval was the star of the snow, though. With two strikes he turned that huge weasel into a crushed pulp. We dragged the weasel a little ways off and set up camp while Thelin and Araval skinned the beast in remembrance of Dryden Kepp, who died trying to prove he wasn't mad. They commented on having cooked weasel for dinner but I stuck to the travel rations (seeing Thelin had sold off the elk meat while in town). Sorry, but weasel just doesn't sound like something I want to dine on.
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My brother was right. We should have burned that damn doll and its hut when we first saw it. And the crazy thing is? We tried to take precautions! Alak wanted to shove the doll in a sack, but Freya insisted on being polite to her, so instead we blindfolded the doll so that Thora Petska couldn't scry through the doll to see us. What we didn't realize is that the doll itself was Thora, thanks to the damn Witches of Irrisen.
The damn thing was lying in wait this whole time. Finally we went to sleep around a fire, taking care to set watches. Freya was on the first watch, and we'd been asleep for a couple of hours when we were attacked. I woke to the camp in darkness and a howling wind blowing everything around us. As I stood, this cold disgusting bile was vomited all over me and most of the camp. Moments later, light burst forth in four torch-like manifestations... illuminating a two-tailed fox woman dressed in Freya's clothing, along with a blue-skinned winged woman flying just outside of camp, and a whirlwind with twin eyes that glowed in the magical light glaring at us from where our fire had once been.
Thelin shouted that the fox-girl was Freya and then started casting a spell, while the whirlwind transformed into an angry-looking cloud with glowing eyes which I think was an air elemental. It fled the camp but made sure to smack Alak on the way out of camp. Alak then started chanting some enchantment and that damn doll stood up and stabbed him with a blade we'd not noticed on her before! Fortunately Alak was able to finish his enchantment and the winged woman collapsed to the ground. Araval used his longsword against the doll but it didn't do a lot of damage, so I started singing an inspirational song to help my companions.
Alak then shouted to Araval to finish off the winged woman and Araval grabbed his Lucerne hammer and did just that, smashing her skull in. At that point the doll went crazy and started attacking Araval. At one point Rokhar turned invisible, and Thora used some cold enchantment that must have hit him much harder than the rest of us as we eventually found him unconscious next to the firepit once the fight was over.
We finally killed off the air elemental and used alchemist fire on the doll, at which point it stopped fighting us and collapsed. It was still... animated though. She apologized to Freya for attacking, claiming she was forced to do so. Freya asked where her body was... and Thora said she was dead. The doll was her body now, and her soul was trapped in its gemstone eye. She begged us to break the gemstone and free her soul, and asked if we could tell her mom that she loved her. She lives in a town named Waldsby in Irrisen.
After the doll stopped moving, Freya pulled the stone free and broke it under a rock. She also shattered the mirror eye, just in case. We burned the bodies, and then got into a... debate over what to do with Rokhar. I was all for killing him. I don't feel guilty about that. The man is a necromancer. If it were one of us, he'd be all for turning us into zombies to serve him. Thelin argued that necromancy was unnatural, while Alak felt we needed to keep Rokhar alive as he knew the passwords we'd need to get close to this "winter portal" he had gone on about. Araval gave an impassioned speech stating Rokhar had done nothing against us since he'd allied with us. We shouldn't kill allies.
So I said we should loot him in payment. I also refused to provide healing for Rokhar, and Thelin agreed with me, while Freya said she didn't have any magics left with which she could heal him tonight. Alak didn't want to loot Rokhar until I pointed out he might have a healing potion on him. Sadly for Rokhar, he didn't have any healing magics on him, but did have several scrolls we couldn't read and three oils that would provide a temporary enchantment to weapons. His cloak was magical as well, but Alak didn't bother trying to identify it.
It seems Freya is a kitsune, one of the fox folk of legend. Well, I say "legend" but mostly because they're not commonly known on this side of the world. Over at Tian Xia they're... well, still not that common, but Tian Xia is fairly large and really, you could go your entire life here without ever meeting a sylph or aasimar.
But that doesn't really matter. She's Freya. Pretty much everyone agrees with that. It doesn't matter if she has two tails or none, fur or flesh. She is still the young woman we've traveled with for over a week now, who's fought by our side and healed our wounds. I like to think she's our friend, even though I've not known here for all that long. And even Alak supports her. I trust my brother in things like this. He's far better at reading people than I.
We're getting ready to break camp. I suggested going back to the lodge. Frey and Araval agreed with that idea, while Alak once more called for a cold camp maybe a mile from where we'd been ambushed. I pointed out we'd probably die of the cold if we did that, so we're going for a proper camp and hope for the best.
My brother can be entirely too convincing at times. I mean, everyone else in the group was all set to head back to the lodge and Alak insisted we stay out here. Hell, he almost convinced the others to a cold camp. I basically pointed out we'd freeze to death in our sleep before the others agreed that going without a fire was a bit too crazy.
I'm probably worrying for nothing. What's the chances of anyone stumbling across our camp twice in one night?
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Araval is an idiot.
I woke up to find dead goblins all around us, one nearly lying on me. It seems Araval only bothered to wake Thelin and they lay in wait to try and scare the goblins off. You know, the whole point of having a watch is you wake people up when something bad is happening. Goblins coming across the camp? That's bad.
It seems Alak saved my life. He got to play with his newly-found musket and then somehow found the willpower to recast the sleep spell he used on that winged lady earlier tonight and put the rest of the goblins to sleep. Well, all but their warchanter who fled.
Unfortunately my brother's paranoia got the best of him. He was sure the goblins had been sent as a second ambush. So my companions started interrogating the goblins and when one gave an answer they didn't like? Araval slaughtered him. I barely kept from tossing my dinner.
It was an idiotic idea. It seems goblins hate each other and love seeing their rivals die. They started telling wild tales even I could tell were made up, just to get us to kill their rivals. The last one, who seemed to be the leader of the group, told us that they'd been scared away from the valley by some scary ice critters.
Now we're arguing again over whether to go back to the Lodge, which is warm and safe, or stay out in the cold. Alak is once again arguing for a cold camp, claiming that the fire drew these goblins to our campsite. The others have pretty much decided warm beds and a lack of snow falling on us is a better idea... huh. You know, I didn't realize it, but it's not snowing anymore. It's gotten bitterly cold out though. I think I even saw my brother shiver.
Hmm. He just changed his mind. We're heading to the lodge once we break camp.
Erastus 2, 4713
Rokhar is dead. He passed away after his wounds opened up during the trip to the lodge. Alak is looking a little bit guilty but I think it's not because he did anything to Rokhar (and honestly, given that I was all for cutting his throat myself I cannot say a single thing against that if he did) but because he found the man was carrying a symbol of Norborger, God of murder and thievery.
But the reason I don't think Alak killed him is that he was carrying Rokhar over the bridge... and slipped. Rokhar almost plunged into the water below, but Alak caught him at the last moment and he and Thelin pulled him up. Thelin then carried Rokhar into the lodge and we put him in Ten-Penny's room (hey, she's not here now, she doesn't need it). And then we went through his stuff.
He had a couple nice things on him. For one thing? He had a mastercraft set of thieves tools. I exchanged the tools I just bought for his, and also took his sword (which is also of the finest quality). He also had a magical fur-lined cloak that not only magically protects from all but the coldest of weather, but also makes you scarier when you pull the hood up. Freya's got that one. He also had a couple divine scrolls that can enchant weapons for a short while, and oil that does the same, so we divided that up between us.
It seems our adventures have rubbed off. I realize I've got a song now that will preserve ammunition for a short while... given that Alak is in love with that musket he found but we only have a handful of shot for it, I'll likely use the song so he can keep playing with his toy for a bit longer. Alak also learned a couple enchantments including one to craft webs across an area, and a second that he seemed quite tickled over but didn't tell me more except that it would come in handy. And Thelin also learned some new miracles from whatever it is he prays to.
Also, Freya had another dream. She said Thora talked to her - girl Thora, that is, not the doll. She thanked Freya for freeing her and had a warning for my brother, and that he was going to be tempted by something but that we're his family now and to keep him safe.
I'm not sure what to think about that. I mean, he's my family. He's been my family for most of my life. And if need be, I'll die to keep him safe. Our companions... I don't really think of them as family. We've known each other for what, a little over a week? I'll have to talk to him later and see what he thinks. Sure, Freya sees her dreams as something special but sometimes a dream is just a dream. We'll see.
Well, it's time to bank the fire and head toward this "portal" we were told about. I've the map Rokhar had up on the wall, and a location in the Somir Valley appears to be circled... it's approximately where Rokhar was leading us to. So it's time to save Heldren!
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Always interesting seeing someone take on this campaign.
My group fell completely for the talking stag, and so all of Rokhar's bandits were forewarned and lying in wait for them at the lodge. They got shot into unconsciousness. I had Ten-Penny go to break them out after all the other bandits fell sick, but the party failed their stealth checks and woke up Rokhar. The resulting fight left Lady Argentea and one PC as the sole survivors, marking the first time I'd ever killed a character. Channel Negative Energy and frozen skeleton full attacks are nasty.
Rokhar should only have used Channel Negative Energy to heal the skeletons. Though having the skeletons last that much longer STILL makes it a tough fight...
I really need to post more of these. And continue writing them....
There's so much to write and I don't really know where to start. Though I'm kicking myself. I've heard the stories. I know her association with Irrisen. We even saw a chicken-legged hut that the Thora doll was in. Yes, I'm talking about Baba Yaga herself, the Queen of Witches. And it seems we have to go save her.
Okay. I'm getting ahead of myself here. We didn't run into anything untoward in our trip toward this "portal" thing. In fact, for part of the trip it wasn't even snowing. But once we got into the main valley itself... well, it started blowing and snowing and it finally was so bad we could barely see more than a dozen feet ahead of us. Well, that's not completely true. There was some ominous blue glow. I thought it was just a figment of my imagination at first until Thelin pointed it out. The closer we got the more we could see it until finally it was down the path from us.
Then Araval waved us to pause. He had heard voices ahead. We continued and soon could see something big maybe twenty feet ahead of us. It was a moss troll... Teb Knotten. He praised us for getting this far and then demanded that the others turn over Alak and myself. Teb called me a "sacrifice" - I guess they still remember even though it's been what, twenty years? Teb even offered to pay. But the others said no (well, after Alak joked about getting the award money if he turned himself in) and a big fight broke out.
I still don't know how we won. I mean, Teb ignored Araval's first blow... I swear, Araval hit hard enough that his blade was ringing, but all he left was a small cut that closed as Teb sneered at us. Several ice sprites came out from an igloo while another fae hidden in the snow was chanting spells at us, and then a black-furred catfolk jumped out of nowhere and started fighting by our side! Finally Araval called out to Gorum and struck a truly impressive blow, followed by Freya taunting Teb and my brother used some enchantment on Teb that caused blood to flow from his eyes, nose and mouth.
Sometimes my brother scares me. I've never seen him use a spell like that before and he won't tell me how he learned it. I can only guess it was after we returned to the Lodge and Freya had her dream. Did Thora give it to him? Did he learn it when Rokhar died? (Did he kill Rokhar to gain that dark spell?) Should I even question this? The spell is part of how and why we were able to defeat the troll, after all.
I threw an alchemist fire on Teb to prevent his wounds from closing, breathing a prayer to Desna to keep my aim true, and Teb dropped to the ground trying desperately to put out the flames. Thelin took advantage of the troll's distraction and immobilized him by liquefying the ground under his feet, but the faeries were still threatening us when there was an intense blast of wind from the portal and then everything went still.
There was no wind. No snow. Just a shadow as something came out of the glowing portal. Black Midnight, one of Baba Yaga's three riders who spread the word of Baba Yaga's return in Irrisen every hundred years. He threw his spear and skewered the blue-skinned fae that seemed in charge of the others. The remaining sprites shrieked and fled into the forest.
That's when I noticed the glowing shard of blood-stained ice that was protruding from the Black Rider's chest. Somehow he was still moving. He stiffly climbed down from his horse's back and the beast vanished into shadows and mists. The catfolk came up to him and took his arm, but I don't think he needed it. He just said "follow me" and stalked down a path worn in the snow from huge feet, and we found shelter in a cave filled with furs, frozen supplies, and a chest. He sat on the chest and as the winter weather started to blow outside once more he spoke.