Editing Journal - Death on Karmana (section)

==A Forest Encounter==

After resting for the night we set off traveling south in the early morning. We started in darkness so that we would be nearer to the forest by sunrise, and we were not interrupted. As the sun rose, thankfully behind us as we were to the east of the road, we saw an army marching north several hundred strong at least. There was nothing we could do about it, though, so we continued (perhaps slightly faster than before) until we reached the cover of the trees. We kept going south until we crossed the beginnings of a river (several small streams at this point), and then tracked the waterway to the west. All was going well so far, but of course that couldn't last.

Falcor noticed first that the sounds of animals and birds had died down, and a little later we came into sight of the road from a couple of miles away. There were troops moving near the road, and not all of them were heading north at the junction nearby. A large number were moving south to line the road, in rough clumps of troops but definitely extending in a line along the road and moving towards the forest... and us! We looked at the options and it wasn't great; the distance would be too great to cover invisible, but if we stayed put we might be able to avoid detection, and I could change my form to match one of the snake clan so we might get away with it anyway.

As we were debating this, though, we noticed that they had stopped moving. They had broken into smaller groups again, but continued to stretch the line towards the south so that the road was now covered as far as we could see. They had moved off the road on our side to keep it clear, but were now setting up campfires and seemed to be settling down. There was a larger makeshift camp being erected near the junction as well, so it seemed they were waiting for something. We had expected them to continue, so this caught us off guard. Falcor suggested that if we rested he could ensure he had the right dweomer to allow us to break through, so he settled down as soon as he was able and I kept watch. It was quite a boring day, turning into a peaceful night, which was unusual lately!

Before it got completely dark, though, I just caught sight of a flash of light to the east and then the distinctive sound of a fireball detonating, as I stopped to focus in that direction I could hear sounds of combat in the distance. I quickly moved to wake Falcor, and he was concerned that we needed to avoid combat. Once he had gathered his things we moved to look west again, seeing campfires still lining the road as before, and the camp fairly bright but with more cover. There was a gap between the two, perhaps our best chance of getting through undetected, so we decided to head towards it.

There was another fireball explosion behind us, but then I saw a human woman moving ahead of some Saloroc that seemed to be being herded towards the trap along the road. We still weren't sure who we were dealing with here, though, so we moved back into cover to watch. Should we intervene? It was clear that she was a mage, whoever she was. As they drew closer it was also clear that her companions were Red Skulls, so now I felt compelled to help, and thankfully Falcor agreed. The foes were Black Hand, with Snake Clan mages and a couple of weird double-headed snake creatures writhing along with them. There seemed to be more movement in the forest beyond them as well.

I stood to move up and support the hunted party, and as I did so the woman turned and looked at me immediately. There was no communication that I knew of, but I was certain that just in her look she was pleading for help. I said out loud: &quot;it's a trap, come to me, I will help!&quot; She responded, rather worryingly with: &quot;Sister, thank you!&quot; Sister? Fuck! Now I wasn't so sure it was a good idea! It still seemed to be the right thing to do, though, so I hoped. Some of the undergrowth had erupted into life and was holding some of the Red Skulls for the approaching foe, but Falcor dispelled the effect and freed them. They all started moving towards me as I advanced.

I warned the woman as she drew closer enough to lower my voice that I had an invisible friend that could aid us. She was badly hurt, so I said not to fear his touch as it could heal her wounds. She suddenly looked very serious and said that she would only accept this gift if it was from Korman. I honestly wasn't sure, but said that he was Elvra of Karmana / Korman so it could be a gift from him, and she responded that she welcomed gifts from Korman's priests. She kept running past me in Falcor's direction. Falcor summoned a wall of fog that slowed down the pursuers, apart from the snakes anyway, but I could still see through it.

I shouted a warning about the trap along the road, saying that we needed to stay and fight, and the woman stopped suddenly. I also gave Falcor an image of her wounds, wondering whether he could help her? I moved to intercept the snake things, taking the staff we had retrieved from the swamp and trying it for the first time in action. It worked &quot;a charm&quot;, as the snakes were suddenly mesmerised in place and swayed from side to side staring at the staff. I slashed at one and opened a deep wound, but even that didn't stop it staring at the staff, so my second swing took a chunk out of the same one! Two of the Red Skulls came to join me while another hung back to watch the fog for more foes. Take another chunk out of snake thing. Falcor reaches woman and offers aid, but in Milada's name, wary but willing to put it in hands of Gods.

Falcor moved to the woman's side and spoke briefly to her so she knew he was there before touching her shoulder to heal her. She again insisted that any healing should come from Korman. Falcor complicated things by saying it was from Milada, but that he was of Karmana. In the end she said that the Gods would decide and accepted his aid on that basis. Falcor noticed at once that she was a powerful psionic, but also noticed that there was another mind trying to follow him in... some kind of purple shade? He managed to fend that mind off as he channeled healing energy into the woman, although it was an incredible mental effort that left him drained. The woman was shocked by the mental intrusion, recoiling, but did not strike out at Falcor.

Meanwhile I sliced one of the heads off a snake creature, and then had to dodge spurting black ichor as its body thrashed around before it finally died. I turned my attention to the other one, striking it well as one of the Red Skulls did the same. I knew the Black Hand were coming and wanted these things out of the way quickly. I asked Falcor how they were doing, but suddenly couldn't find his mind to connect with! He was invisible, so I could not see him of course, but looked back anyway in concern. The woman was still where I remembered, and still looked exhausted, but she was speaking to someone. She was actually thanking Falcor for his aid, and he in turn was asking here to bring her forces together and fight with me.

The woman angled her staff towards the enemy and started chanting, but by this time I had turned back and struck the snake again. It still wasn't dead, though, and the Black Hand emerged from the fog to engage in melee. A wall of ice appeared to separate Falcor and the woman from the frontline were we fought, although it wasn't clear who had summoned it. I managed to finish off the last snake, stepping backwards as more black ichor spurted out. It whipped around and covered the others, Black Hand and Red Skulls alike, and all four that it touched collapsed to the ground in an instant! Now I was alone against several Black Hand and I shouted back for Falcor, thankfully getting a verbal response even though we'd lost the mental connection. I threw the staff on the ground and commanded it to transform into a snake, and it slowly lengthened and thickened into a massive serpent that would attack one of the foe.

There was a sudden explosion of elemental ice around me, hurting us all - it was clear that they didn't care about harming their allies, but we all survived well enough that it didn't affect the melee immediately. Falcor suddenly shouted: &quot;I'm coming!&quot; I really hoped he meant he was on his way. The possibilities of men becoming invisible and what they might get up to will probably cause me nightmares for the rest of my life. A blinding light appeared behind my head briefly, and it was clear that the Snake Clan mages had flanked us. Lightning arced from the hands of the woman we were trying to save into one of the Black Hand, killing the Saloroc and leaving a slight odour of cooked flesh in the air. I slashed another and he fell too, presumably weakened by the dweomer being thrown around. There was only one left close to me, but there were many more coming, and the few Red Skulls that had been slowing them down were losing the battle.

Falcor launched into the air above the ice wall, having changed into dragon form. He announced his presence by loosing a fireball at one of the Snake Clan mages, incinerating them and illuminating the area so he was like a glowing demon in the sky for a moment. I heard him shouting that he was coming to get me, and the woman that had been with him had leapt onto his back - she was very nimble. I finished the last Black Hand off as Falcor veered and swept down towards me. He dropped an ice ball onto the other Snake Clan mage as I commanded the snake to return to staff form, warning Falcor that I would need to retrieve it from the ground.

Falcor beat his wings to pause before picking me up, buffeting me with the downdraft, but he sent a bolt of lightning into the mage while he waited, killing that one too and lighting the forest once again for a second. I had the staff, and his talons closed gently around me as I let him lift me up. He still had two feet empty, though, and encouraged the woman to tell the Red Skulls nearest to us that he was going to lift them. He was there in a few moments, grabbed two, and then climbed out of the trees and wheeled around to the west. A storm of ice rained down behind us as we departed, a final parting gift from the Guardian.

An arrow pinged off his scales before we put some distance between us, but it seemed his transformation had taken the foe off guard and there was no more interference. We flew west of the road at some height and then gently descended into the forest on the other side. I knew that Falcor could only sustain the form for a limited time at the moment, but he explained to our new allies before changing again and taking us farther. The woman at least had the chance to introduce herself; Ythlena was her name. After a couple more changes we decided that we were safe and stopped to rest.

The Red Skulls were wary of us, but quickly impressed by the letter that Grindak had given us; they were glad to hear that Zak Rechpvork was safe (for now at least). They explained that they had met Ythlena some months ago, and she had fought alongside them so was highly respected. For her part, Ythlena seemed to know altogether too much about our nature (although admittedly turning into a massive dragon does tend to give that one away). We shared our desire to visit the City of Shadows, although not our intent once we got there, and she said that she had made a friend there: &quot;Borarrba&quot;. She was a Saloroc that was part of the guard of the tower, just outside the city. She offered me a dagger that we could use as a symbol to show we knew her.

The Saloroc paced a guard pattern around us as Falcor and Ythlena rested. I took some time to study the dagger, though, and got a strong sense of residue... but across a boundary to another place. It was an utter void, a powerful nothing, that was leeching energy from the knife. Then I got a sense of its place in this world, and knew that it had taken many, many, many lives as a sacrifice. So many. Ythlena noticed that I had found something, and was suddenly interested in the knife again, having thought it had no power. She offered to take it off my hands, as I had sensed something of my father's realm in the metal it was made from.

I was still wary of her, and sought to protect Falcor from any drain on his energy if we were to sleep. I placed the dagger under my bedroll and went over to him; then I called on an energy that would counter any drain of essence of the kind my father's servants might use. As soon as I did so, though, Ythlena shot upright shouting &quot;Dalrisha&quot;! She was NOT happy that I had opened a portal to &quot;Dalrisha&quot; (she, I think, is the next Sarn - that of former beauty) that was full of energy. She was quite rude about it, in fact, although she at least asked if she could close the connection. When she did so, though, the reaction was just as if the protection had prevented the kind of drain that I had aimed to stop! The loud reaction of the dweomer to her touch woke Falcor, of course, who was slightly confused about what was going on. 

Thus ensued a massive debate about whether or not we should hand the dagger over, which was interrupted by the sound of one of those giant bats screeching. I half threw the dagger at Ythlena, not really wanting anything to do with it, and she smiled and ran off with the Saloroc. We pressed ourselves against trees, knowing that if we could be still and blend in we should be safe. Sure enough, despite the strength of the vibrations as it passed very close, it eventually swept to the north east and put some distance between us. We heard it turn south as it was fading from our hearing, and then we lost track of it. It had been about half an hour, though, and I was quite stiff when we finally got to loosen our limbs again.

We tried to rest again, properly this time, and I was able to get a good six hours of sleep. Falcor was supposed to rest next, but just before we were due to swap he noticed some noise to the north of us. He thought it might be troops moving, and heard snatches of words that could be Saloroc. Eventually they came into his view, seeing the heat sources moving south and drawing close to us. One was particularly close and shouted something, so Falcor blasted his mind. This made the Saloroc stop, then he started looking around as if confused before carrying on as if nothing had happened. Unfortunately this did not stop the other Saloroc, and Falcor put an arrow right into the chest of one as his target gave a shout of alarm. They were scrambling to get swords out, though, so he had time to loose another arrow that killed the injured foe before reaching for his own sword.

I started to shift in my sleep, disturbed, but didn't wake. Thankfully the foe were focused on Falcor rather than me, and he was quickly surrounded in a vicious melee. Falcor cut into one's side, blood running freely down its leg before he finished it off. He was hit in return, but struck back with sword and rod until another one fell. I finally awoke, jumping back and rising to my feet as the dead Saloroc fell where I had laid a moment ago. I swung wildly, just connecting with one that was moving to join the melee, but I wasn't really with it and shook my head trying to clear the fog of sleep.

Falcor struck another, in fact the one that he had attacked the mind of, and again the Saloroc looked confused and didn't even react to the blow. The one I had attacked turned on me, but somehow managed to get his weapon tangled in the tree as he tried to strike me, and I was able to stab into his side as he freed it. Falcor was free to act now, though, and quickly finished him from behind. We started to run, not knowing how many more might be close, but I realised that Falcor had dropped his bow and stopped to retrieve it first. That was just long enough for the confused Saloroc to recover his senses and give chase, but then his damaged mind gave out and he stopped, confused, again. We were able to escape without further hindrance.

(Sidenote - from discussions on our journey: where a soul goes when someone dies was linked to faith and the deity structure. Therefore Kraldar depends on a lack of faith in the other Gods for souls to find their way into his realm. The place of death was also important - the deity needed to have some influence in the place for the connection to be made.)