Editing Journal - A Beautiful Death (section)

==The Beast Hunt==

The night passed uneventfully, anyway, and we were well fed and rested. We retired early and rose early so that I would be invisible again, without incident. Then Falcor was led, with me following, down to a stable where he was presented with a magnificent deep-black warhorse in half barding which was silver and blue. Falcor was offered some apples in a silk bag by a stable hand, which apparently the horse liked, and he mounted and rode out easily with me jogging behind. We headed through the now familiar forest towards the mountains in the west. Things were not all simple, though, as it seemed we were being followed by someone or something. I hung back to see what it might be, and sure enough there were some short humanoids following Falcor. He stopped, making a show of feeding his horse and noticed movement in a particular bit of undergrowth. He used dweomer to make an explosion of glittering particles in the area, then saw a glittering shape moving forward towards him. Falcor grabbed the creature with his mind and moved it slowly towards him, but was lashed out at by the mind of his target.

I saw the movement as well, and just confirmed that they were not from Kraldar's realm. As I watched from nearby, I could make out at least four of them in total, all closing on Falcor now that they knew one had been seen. Falcor dropped the one he lifted, and they landed heavily on the ground. I closed with Falcor and raised a mental defence around us, and then Falcor was in melee. He struck one twice, but they were far more agile than we expected and it was difficult for him to make a good connection. Falcor frantically used his staff to parry multiple attacks, and in answer to my unspoken question told me not to attack. He was adjusting now, and decapitated one before turning his attention to another. It took a few hits, but that one fell too (in fact it was the one that had literally fallen when Falcor dropped him). Falcor was scraped again, although all his wounds seemed superficial, and cut another one down in return. There was just one left, which Falcor struck quickly. Seeing that he faced only death, the last one sank to his knees, dropping his daggers in submission.

He was an odd-looking fellow, and not like any race we had seen before. I noted that the Elvrabor had changed appearance when they changed allegiance under Ilianna, and wondered whether this was another Elvra race that had changed their divine patron as well. Falcor stepped back, sheathing his sword, and asked why he had attacked us. There was no response to Falcor's questions, though, and we weren't sure whether he even spoke Common. I tried mental communication, but also didn't get a response; there was definitely a strong mind present and it defended itself against my attempts to reach it. Falcor tried a different approach, taking out his Elvradhil axe and showing him the runes on it. The creature seemed repelled by them, scrabbling to back away as Falcor moved it closer. Falcor assessed his nature as being Chaotic Neutral, and so offered him a hand to help him stand. Although he didn't take it, he correctly interpreted this as a sign that he could stand and slowly rose to his feet, still looking down. He backed away slowly and then legged it as soon as he realised that he was being spared.

I tried to arrange the bodies together with some dignity whilst searching for anything they might carry that could give us some information. There were some clean trinkets carefully stored in pouches, bits of worked gold mainly, but they were otherwise completely filthy. Their clothes were soiled and abraded heavily, but seemed to have once been fine materials. As I was moving the last body I got a sense of a growing energy field and stepped backwards, wary, warning Falcor. He had mounted his horse ready to move on, but dismounted again and stepped towards me. Suddenly the bodies exploded with a burst of radiant energy! We managed to drop to the floor to escape the worst of it, but it was still painful... especially for me as it was that same radiance so opposed to my nature that I had sensed on the throne.

Once Falcor had calmed the horse down (thankfully it had escaped the blast), we quickly moved on. I was slightly nervous that I was now leeching energy to heal myself, and that it might be a beacon to those paying attention. Despite this we were undisturbed, and an hour later we reached the area where we had first met the King. From there it was a simple journey to reach the edge of the mountains, although Falcor spotted a cat-like creature slightly above where we were approaching that was watching us. It was dog-sized with eight legs - what was with all the legs around here? We adjusted our line of travel to veer off to the north a little, but it tracked with us whilst maintaining its height. As we kept pushing north to circle around, though, it seemed happy to leave us be. We kept our distance and started to climb the slope to the right of the peak it was guarding. As we reached a slight plateau and started to circle the north side of the peak, we noticed below us on the right there were three ugly hairless apes devouring something in between them, deer sized although we couldn't see clearly. We moved away from the edge so that Falcor wasn't seen, losing sight of them.

I started to climb up the slope to get a better view of the surroundings, as Falcor tracked across below me on horseback. As I got higher I could see that the ape things were moving west, so I warned Falcor that they would be coming into view. He turned back and started to climb towards me, but as he did so he noticed what might be a cave mouth in the slope above him, roughly at my level. He dismounted and started climbed towards it on foot as I walked around at my level, aiming to meet at the cave mouth to investigate. As we moved, though, Falcor saw a familiar head emerge and a long tongue stuck out, testing the air, then turned sharply towards me. The black dragon-like beast scurried out of the cave and quickly towards me, using its eight legs to make good progress over the rocky terrain, and coming straight for me! It started slashing at the air with it's front four clawed feet; I managed to dodge two of them, but one scraped my armour and so the last hit me squarely in the side. I quickly summoned some dweomer to protect me from its gaze, and Falcor put a lightning bolt into its rear.

It, predictably, spewed acid all over me, although I was able to turn and avoid the worst of it. My bow and quiver, and annoyingly also my boots, were destroyed. I had to kick the remains of my boots off as the beast turned and rushed at Falcor. He was ready for the charge, though, and blew a hole in the side of it's body with another lightning bolt, removing at least one limb in the process. I jogged after it, ignoring the pain from suddenly being barefooted on the rocks, and finished it off with a blow from behind. Served the fucker right for melting my boots! Unfortunately we were not safe yet, as we heard the cries of the apes from below and saw them loping towards us. I ran down towards the horse, which sensibly bolted, and challenged the apes with a shout whilst beating my chest with my sword hilts. Magic missiles streaked from behind me to strike the leader of the group, and I created a color spray that knocked the same one unconscious.

This still wasn't enough to deter the other two, though, and I was struck by a couple of powerful blows as I stood my ground. To make matters worse there was another cry, although different... more of a guttural shout, from the other side of the hill to our left. Three giant creatures came striding into view, headed towards Falcor with rocks in their hands at least the size of his head. Falcor sent another lightning bolt arcing into the nearest one, mentally asking if I could deal with the two apes. I could... well, if I could get one out of the fight quickly anyway - they hit hard! I threw the serpent staff down and it started its transformation into a snake, and sliced one ape with Aramat. Although the snake was struggling to entangle its target, it at least distracted it while I focused on the other one. I struck it again, but its powerful blow in return left me reeling slightly.

Falcor tried a mental attack as the first giant started to throw a rock at him; it seemed to be effective as the giant stopped instantly and dropped all his rocks onto the ground, remaining there and doing nothing. The snake finally managed to entwine the ape it was attacking, which left me free to focus on one attacker. I finished the ape off with multiple sword slashes and turned my attention to the giants. Falcor had backed off towards me, and he unleashed a fireball which surrounded the two advancing giants. They were still standing after the explosion, though, so I blinded one with a bright light in its eyes. Falcor summoned a wall of fire as well, but it appeared just behind them as they kept striding forwards. They threw rocks at Falcor, but they missed widely.

I healed a few of my wounds as Falcor cut a giant down with his sword. The last one was the one I had blinded, but he still moved towards the sounds of battle, swinging blindly as he advanced. He did catch Falcor with a heavy punch just by chance, but Falcor cut him down fairly effortlessly shortly afterwards. We took stock for a moment; Falcor, having expended a lot of dweomer, wanted time to study but before we could think about where to settle down he noticed a figure on the far side of little valley the apes had been in rise as if out of nowhere, throw something to the ground, and disappear into a rent in the air. Ilianna's folk were here? Now they knew that we were too! I had tied up the ape that I knocked unconscious earlier, but as he awoke he was able to rip his way out his bonds and take a swing at me! I had to cut him down with my swords, although it still took three strong blows. With him dead, I ordered the snake back to me and it released the last ape, looking very sorry for itself. I gestured at it to go with my sword and it loped off, not willing to challenge us any more.

We had a moment's peace, then, and I discovered that Falcor had some spare boots that I could use, which was helpful. They didn't fit of course, so I had to spend some time sewing them roughly to take in enough material to at least have a hope of moving around in them. Once that was done, and seeing that Falcor was still deep in study, I went to investigate the cave above us. The stink inside was incredibly bad; I held my breath and ran in to see if it improved around a bend up ahead, but that led to an acrid pool of liquid that stung my eyes. I headed back to fresh air and took some deep breaths, thinking about how I might tackle the situation.

I fished out a potion that we had found, one of vitality, that might help with some of the nausea. That did allow me to walk past a pile of detritus and bones in the outer cave, but the acrid smell of the pool in the narrow section was just as bad. I tried creating water above it, hoping to dilute it, and that did seem to work. The liquid washed around the cave up ahead and the stinging smell started to die down. Finally I was able to progress and found another wider section of the cave with half a dozen stony eggs on the far side. There was nothing else I could see, so I headed back to Falcor, who actually met me at the entrance, and explained what I'd found. I carried them out using sacks... and they were really heavy!

Falcor summoned a disc that he was able to load both the eggs and the head onto. It followed Falcor, although slowly, as we walked back to the forest. We even found the horse waiting, which was a bonus, so we led that back with us. We found a relatively sheltered place to rest within the forest, and I meditated to regain some power from my unknown patron. I didn't feel like sleep, though, as the potion I had taken meant I felt full of energy and would do so for days! That meant I'd be on watch for the night, of course. The potion I had used in the cave had made me feel so energised that I could not have contemplated sleep anyway, so I watched over Falcor into the night. After about three hours I heard something slightly west of us, and an hour later caught a glimpse of something human-sized moving just south of us. It seemed to pass without incident, though, or at least I didn't see anything else. Then there was another movement to the north - they all seemed to be moving from the mountains towards the city.

Just a few minutes later one came much closer, getting dangerously close to Falcor, and I could see now that they were the dark elves. This one looked particularly finely armed and armoured, and seemed to be able to pass through the undergrowth and trees at will. I stepped out to get his attention, uttering a quick incantation to protect me from evil. I heard the figure shouting mentally, not really recognising what he said but getting the impression that he was raising the alarm. He reached out to touch a tree and appeared right in front of me! There were more coming as well, although not as quickly. One of them saw Falcor and I heard mentally that he was passing that information on. Damn!

I tried to parry the first attacks, succeeding with one blow but getting cut by the other - he was really fast! To make it worse, two more engaged me with another close behind. A couple of daggers struck me, although my armour saved me from worse. I was hurt, but also striking back; every one of my blows found its mark, although their leader still wouldn't fall. I still thought I might hold my own, but then a mage that was standing some way off sent magic missiles thudding into my chest! I had no choice but to keep pressing my attacks, despite the pain I was in, but I started trying to wake Falcor with my mind. He was an infuriatingly heavy sleeper, though, and didn't stir.

I finally managed to cut down their leader, although it had taken much more effort than I had hoped. His body shimmered as it seemed to get absorbed into the undergrowth before reappearing at the mage's feet. Falcor finally woke up (I felt as if my mind should be hoarse with all the shouting it had done), and realised quickly that there was a threat, grabbing his sword and rod and moving to help. I was suffering from multiple cuts, at least one of which potentially had poisoned me, so I was glad he was awake. He struck one twice, his energy sword particularly effective against these foes, and I turned to slash another attacker, doing significant damage.

There was a bright light in the direction of the mage, but we were too busy fighting to see exactly what had happened. Falcor killed his first opponent and moved on to another, landing such powerful blows that he knocked them unconscious. I finished off the other, the last of the attackers. I turned to see that the mage had, predictably, gone with the body... but then collapsed unconscious myself! Falcor said that a shadowy form had seemed to stand over my body, one that I had seen before when I was near death. Falcor started spinning his energy blade and the shadowy form dissipated in the light, but it also caused me to start twitching in pain. Falcor quickly stopped, thankfully, and knelt to heal me and remove the poison. I gasped and jerked awake with a start, gripping his arm in thanks before laying back to take a few breaths.

I was surprisingly hale, thanks to the healing, and got up quickly; we would have to move. We searched the bodies, not expecting to find much, but at least I managed to find a better fitting pair of boots. We hid their weapons and then moved away to the south. We carried the head of the beast with us, and I used dweomer to increase my strength so that we could move easily. We found another place to rest, and this time (although I did hear sounds to the north) Falcor managed to sleep through the night. In the morning he sat down to study, which took three hours, and I meditated for about half an hour before we were ready to face the dangers of the day.

We talked about what had happened the night before and realised that Ilianna had probably warned the Queen who Falcor was and what his intentions were so there was not much point in us returning to the city. We abandoned the head, although we kept the eggs and Falcor insisted on cutting the eyes of the beast out before we left. There had been mention of a community of some kind to the west that was opposed to the city, so that was worth investigating. We needed information, and might find some allies if we were lucky. We headed back into the mountains, following a valley just south of a large mountain nearby.

We saw another eight-legged dog thing above us to the south, so we climbed north a little and skirted around, not wanted to start any unnecessary fights. We kept following the pass as it wound amongst the mountains, and then saw another dog creature to our left; they seemed to be common in the mountains. A few moments later we saw some large humanoids up ahead so we climbed the north side again, watching to see what they would do. They headed the other way, climbing up towards the dog and eventually starting a fight. There were three of them, and they were particularly ugly with hardly any neck above their shoulders, but the dog was fast and agile so they struggled to hit it. When they did land a hit there was a chiming sound as if they had hit metal; the noise put my teeth on edge, but Falcor seemed to find it calming. The dog emerged victorious, beating all three after an extended fight - not a foe to be underestimated!

We continued, passing the fight by, and turned west between two peaks before we saw the dog appear... this time clearly blinking into existence above us to the right. It had been the same one all along! Falcor reached out with his mind and got a response, a friendly one thankfully... well, friendly to Falcor anyway, not so much to me. It seemed surprised that I was sentient at all, just seeing me as a sucking force of death. It seemed glad that Falcor wished to fight Dalrissia, though, and told us that she was in a place of rocks and earth to the north of city, underground. She was at the gates of the realm the dog came from, which must be the radiant positivity that was so opposed to my essence. The image she gave us of Dalrissia was of death against a bright background, and she was apparently trapped having left this place but unable (at the moment at least) to enter his own realm. She warned that they could not resist her forever, and urged us to seek her deep within the largest rock pile, close to where all the people live. Dalrissia could not return, hence why she had to act through others. The dog gave her name as &quot;She Who Seeks Warriors&quot;, more of a purpose than a name... and seemed excited that her purpose might be complete now that she had found Falcor; he was a warrior filled with the power of her own home, and was wielding &quot;a weapon&quot; (me) filled with the power of his enemy.