Journal - The Crown of Wisdom

The Journey South

We spent another day resting, and thankfully allowing Arad to tend my wounds, as Aergarnion was able to control the flow of time so that we were not delaying our quest. Aergarnion was also able to take me to see Queen Arla once more to give her the gift of an acorn from Cherl... I really hoped that he was able to help the forest regrow and undo some of the damage. We were grateful to Aergarnion for his assistance once more - he would take us to the edge of where the Elvrabor ventured to save us some time before we continued farther south.

Falcor went first, arriving in an area where the forest was fairly sparse but not showing signs of destruction. It was leafless, though, due to the harsh winter and snow was on the ground. The mountains rose to his left as expected; we intended to strike straight south to meet the river and use the coast and river as a waypoint to find our bearings. Falcor had not changed of course, having barely thought time had passed as I was out on my two adventures, but he did have another gem in his armour I noticed.

He was immediately wary as he noticed Saloroc Wolf Clan riders transiting from his right to left ahead of him, so he ducked behind a tree to await our arrival. He heard a shouted order from one of them, but didn't understand it. I arrived at a bad time... the Saloroc were advancing towards us when I appeared in the open. Aergarnion disappeared instantly, leaving me to drop to the floor in full view! I at least kept my feet, but the Saloroc charged forward and closed quickly, the riders dismounting from their massive wolves as they got close. One wolf scratched a claw across me, more trying to bear me down than rake me, but I just managed to keep my feet.

I had been drawing my bow, so I put one arrow into my attacker, but as I was surrounded I dropped the bow to engage in melee. Thankfully Falcor revealed himself, moving to my right and using the power of his mind against the foe; two wolves collapsed immediately and one of the Saloroc stopped still, looking dazed. Then Falcor cut into the side of a Saloroc with his sword before they could react to his appearance. At that moment Arad was also dropped off by Aergarnion, although he at least was pre-warned, and he ran in to engage the wolf attacking me. His sword struck true, but his hammer swing just missed as the wolf whelped and twisted away.

Falcor followed up his attack with his rod, landing a solid blow on the wounded Saloroc and leaving him barely standing. The other Saloroc struck me, but the sword scraped my side and only barely drew blood. The injured wolf leapt away and fled, leaving us in combat with the two Saloroc. Falcor finished off his opponent quickly and then the three of us all overwhelmed the last of them. I might have offered mercy, as he was clearly beaten, but Falcor landed a killing blow before I had the chance. He was in a hurry it seemed, spurred on I guessed by the words of Queen Arla, and immediately set off at pace once we had recovered our weapons and taken arrows from the dead.

We jogged and walked south, covering the distance as quickly as we could. After about an hour Falcor heard a snatch of something spoken in the wind and raised his hand. We stopped at once, listening and searching the trunks of the forest for any threat. We couldn't see anything, but suspected more of the false queen's agents from the way they spoke. Trying to avoid a fight that would reveal our presence we carefully made our way around, giving them a wide berth, and moved on. We continued for a couple of hours more before we encountered anything else. It was not quite as icy as we moved south, although still cold with snow on the ground. We had kept avoiding any contact using sounds of voices or steel clinking to minimise any risk of detection as we traveled.

We were not avoiding anything at the time, but suddenly two small flying green creatures appeared around Falcor, striking at him and stinging him with a barbed tail. Falcor defended himself with his mental powers, and one turned invisible as he tried to punch it, although he still manged to connect with something. The other one wrapped itself onto Falcor and bit him, so I grabbed it and ripped it off him, holding it in my hand by its wing at arm's length. I'm glad I held it that far out because Arad stabbed it, only just missing my arm! It was writhing around and Arad punched it once, then I thrust it into the soil and let go, hoping that it would die whilst buried there. Arad administered ointment to one of Falcor's wounds, worried about the poison, and Falcor was worried too - he prayed to Milada that it wasn't his last day. I had learned from the Elvrabor a way of using Karmana's energy to slow poison's effects and called on it now to help Falcor, giving us several hours to find a way to treat him.

As we were doing all this, though, the green thing launched itself out of the soil, trying to attack me specifically. I was just able to dodge backwards and avoid its sting, then the others set about it, each landing solid blows until Falcor finished it with another punch. Although the fight seemed to be over (the one that had turned invisible never showed up again, and was probably quite badly hurt), we still had to do something about the poison in Falcor. We had no way of drawing it out ourselves despite Karmana's power slowing it's effects. We kept moving anyway, as there was nothing we could do within this forest, and it was another three hours before we caught the smell of the sea ahead. It had been getting warmer, although it was still clearly winter, and we were glad to see that there was no snow on the ground in this area. It was rapidly getting dark, though, but we pressed on until we reached a wide, free flowing river and followed it for about a mile to reach the coast.

We didn't really want to stop and rest, because we knew time could be short for Falcor, so we decided that we had no choice other than to head to the temple on the island nearby. We tied a rope between us and Arad reduced our weight so that Falcor could pull us through the air behind him as he flew (using dweomer). It wasn't exactly fun flapping along in the cold winter air behind him, but at least we landed and walked the last bit of the journey! It was much warmer on the island, it seemed, so we had warmed up nicely by the time we reached the temple and village. We were unopposed, which was reassuring, and our arrival caused quite a commotion (I remembered that it had been months to these people since they had seen us). Gilrad rushed out to greet Arad, but then saw Falcor and his face became ashen; he encouraged him to hurry over then prayed to the Creator to draw out the poison from him. Falcor felt a burning inside as the Creator's power cleansed him, and we all thanked him for his aid.

Gilrad of course invited us to stay, but Falcor was still very keen to return and continue our journey as soon as we could so we politely declined. Thankfully Gilrad was able to call on the Creator to reduce our weight again, so we were able to return to the mainland in a similar manner to our arrival. We kept walking into the night, and about half an hour later we came across a recently constructed road. It seemed that the imperial troops were spreading their influence out from Freeport into the surrounding area. We crossed and put some distance between us and the road before finally stopping for the night.

Arad healed my wounds, despite their superficial nature, before resting. They both seemed to have some weird means to avoid sleeping, but I was exhausted so I made a bivouac and quickly fell into a deep sleep. Unfortunately we would not be undisturbed; after a couple of hours one of the dark former Elvrabor, servant of the false queen, appeared through a tear in reality and attacked Arad! Falcor rushed to his defence, landing a good blow, and Arad responded by willing his hammer into his hand, surprising the foe with a quick swing that landed well. Two more of them arrived in the same manner, though, just as Falcor finished the first one off with his rod.

The new arrivals stabbed Falcor and I, which certainly woke me up with a start! Falcor whipped around and cut deeply into his new foe's flank, then landed a second blow shortly afterwards. I stabbed my attacker, rolling away to get to my feet and quickly stabbing him again. Arad came to my aid, finishing off my attacker and allowing me to gather my weapons and join my friends. Falcor killed his attacked with another strong blow, catching him across the temple with his rod, but another foe had appeared behind Arad, striking him from behind and again when he turned to engage him. After his initial assault, though, he was isolated and quickly cut down by Falcor and Arad working together. I didn't join in because both Falcor and Arad were calling out that they thought they had been poisoned - the blades of our attackers has a viscous substance on them that looked nasty; so I called on Karmana's power once more to slow the poison for both of them as we had no idea what it might do if left unhindered.

Arad used an ability I hadn't seen before, or at least not used in this way, and somehow reached into the minds of the recently killed to get a sense of why they were here. Apparently they vehemently hated both Falcor and Arad (but not me it seemed, which was nice) but that was about as much as he could tell. Falcor was concerned that the ring Custor had given him to protect him from being scryed was actually some kind of beacon to track him, so he threw it away! No matter why we were accosted, we would once more have to return to the temple in order to treat this new poisoning. This time Falcor had to change into his Elvradrak form to get us there, but I first called on Karmana to allow us to walk over the water so we at least could be out to sea when he was revealed in this way, and the darkness would help as well.

Once safely back again we were at last able to rest properly, and in any case Arad sensibly suggested we should wait for Gilrad to brew some curatives to counter any future poison incidents. Falcor was quite keen to visit Custor in the meantime to see why he was being so dishonest with us... or if not actually confront him at least recover the tapestry that Falcor had left in his care. After resting at the village we spent a little time re-equipping and Arad gratefully received a pot of ointment that would cure poisons. I left a donation for my druid friend, and Falcor was able to tell me a little more about the sap of Cernurros after some time studying it.

Finally we were ready to journey once more, and joined one of the regular Saloroc ships to Custor's island. There were clearly more fortifications on the island than before, but everyone seemed settled. We landed in a bay on the eastern side and climbed towards the tower once more. Falcor, taking advice from the Saloroc on how to wear his trophies, had his wolf skin head daubed red in honour of the Red Skulls, displaying the war trophy proudly and to good reception. Unfortunately it seemed like it might be a wasted trip; when we arrived at the tower the guards informed us that Custor was "travelling" so nobody could see him. Presumably his body was vulnerable as he undertook whatever ritual he was engaged in.

On the way back down we sat to eat and Falcor communed with Malada using a glass vial. As he did so, the power of this artifact once revealed almost overpowered me and knocked Arad clean out! Falcor eventually apologised and resolved to be more careful with it in future. His conversation with Milada was revealing but somewhat unhelpful; Custor served "his master" Askentis in all things (He Who Sees All, one of the "eternal ones"). If Askentis willed it then Custor would help us, but otherwise he would probably not. This Askentis and his followers were apparently "neither for nor against any on Karmana". Milada said that Custor had traded power for knowledge in the forest, which suggested a willful exchange. She cautioned that Custor could only be seen through the eyes of others as his master shielded him well. After this communion we waited a few hours to see whether Custor would emerge, but to no avail, so we returned to the village and consulted the Saloroc about reaching land to the south.

We learned that there was a Red Skull fortification to the southwest that they did not wish to reveal to outsiders, but they were willing to take us there. We gladly sailed with them, as this would mean avoiding Freeport and the lands around it, and therefore the imperial legionnaires. As we made the crossing, in near darkness by this time, the Captain spotted another long boat and ordered the oars to be shipped. The hope was that we could pass behind them quietly, and Arad used a prayer to silence the water around the bow to reduce the noise further.

This was all undone when there was a sudden scream from the stern and one of the Saloroc jumped into the water... some of the Dark Elvrabor had appeared on the boat! Falcor conjured a hypnotic pattern, captivating one, I struck one and just managed to slip between his blades, and a third charged at Falcor and stabbed him just after his armour disappeared. Arad struck the distracted one with two arrows, which quickly brought his attention back to the fight. I was hit, but only scratched, and now had two attacking me. Falcor was saved from another blow as his armour reappeared just in time to deflect it. I stabbed one again and Arad charged up beside me, knocking down and finishing the other attacker. Falcor fought back, landing a good hit, and I was able to finish off my original opponent, just leaving the one engaged with Falcor.

We had another problem, though, as the other ship had reacted to the commotion and was closing on us fast. Falcor cut a massive gouge in last dark Elvrabor and his foe collapsed, dying quickly. I ran to the side and called on Karmana to warp the wood of the approaching ship, ripping a line of planks away on one side and causing it to swing sideways away from its original ramming course. It still hit our ship with a blow that shook us all, but the angle meant that there was no real damage to the ships. It was rather strange to see the Saloroc nearest the impact falling and screaming, and indeed the collision itself, all happen in silence as Arad's prayer had endured thus far.

Then Falcor launched a fireball, and a huge explosion engulfed what seemed like the entire enemy vessel. The crew on the deck were devastated and the boat was left burning in many places. Just after that, Falcor collapsed! I noticed first, but was engaged in melee by then, so I sent a mental message to Arad hoping that he could help. I quickly dropped two of my attackers, which almost seemed cruel as they had suffered so much from the explosion, but while they insisted on fighting I had to defend myself. Arad went to Falcor's side and used the poison ointment on his wounds, then prayed to the Creator to heal his wounds. Thankfully he awoke at this prayer and seemed well again.

The fight was effectively over, with the crew able to handle any last attackers and most of the foe having jumped in the water to ease their burns and escape the fires. Our own sailor seemed reluctant to return, apparently ashamed of letting his fear overcome him earlier, but Arad forced him to with his mental powers. I still disagreed with this approach, but it at least got him out of the water and onboard. We then had a discussion with the Captain about saving the enemy sailors - we all wanted to help them, but the Captain would not take them to their outpost and instead would have to turn back.

Falcor insisted that they had to be saved, and I was glad of that. Thankfully we were now close enough that I could call on Karmana to aid us and allow us to walk the rest of the way across the water, so we thanked the crew for bringing us this far and bid them a safe journey back. We reached the beach south of us without incident and turned left to follow the coast before breaking away to the southeast as it started to curve north. We continued through the day and then stopped to rest for lunch. Falcor's snares managed to catch a couple of hares so we were able to eat a decent meal with the supplies we had brought, and Arad's prayers gave us a decent rest in just a few hours.

We journeyed on into the east heading towards the distant mountains, but as the light started to fade Falcor warned of imminent attack and we drew our weapons. Dark Elvrabor started to appear in front of us, although this time they didn't seem to be expecting us. Arad immediately loosed arrows, hitting with one and starting the fight.

Falcor rushed forward, using his mind to attack but being assaulted back. They ran to engage Falcor, but he struck both of them - anticipating their attack. As Arad and I moved forward another foe appeared in front of Arad's path and sprinted forward to tackle him. Fortunately Arad was too agile and the attacker ended up face first in the snow in front of him instead! I was once again grateful for Queen Arla's gift as Darillion's bow leapt into my hand with an arrow notched, and I quickly put two arrows into the foe that had not yet engaged, leaving him staggered and bleeding.

Falcor was stabbed, although his armour turned another blow away, and he retaliated with a powerful sword blow. Arad thudded an arrow into the foe at his feet, not wanting to waste the draw, and then drew sword and hammer. I was charged by my target and stabbed and slashed nastily before I too switched weapons. Arad struck several solid blows as his opponent regained his feet but wasn't quite able to keep him down. Falcor was slashed badly from the side as he finished one of his opponents; he turned and riposted well, but the blow didn't penetrate the former Elvrabor's armour. His follow-up swing, though, slashed his foe's hamstring and he crumpled to the floor bleeding heavily. I was hit again, but just a scratch, and slashed my attacker's neck; he slowly sank to the ground with a gurgle and died. Arad also finished off his opponent, who was struggling to keep his feet after multiple wounds.

As the last one dropped a shadow raced across us overhead, and we felt a downdraft as if massive wings were beating before it quickly passed. We could see some kind of shape in the clouds above, but not enough to see what it was. Falcor had heard something in his mind but it didn't make sense so he was wary of whatever it was. We quickly checked the bodies, finding more paper and charcoal - probably a scouting party like I had encountered before. Arad also found a smooth ball in a pouch on his opponent, though, which he carefully carried to Falcor to investigate. Falcor had used his powers to stop the last of the Dark Elvrabor from bleeding out, knitting some of his hamstring wound and pinning him down by kneeling on his chest.

He swapped with Arad in order to study the strange ball, but as he did so he collapsed into the snow and an ominous green-tinged light glowed from the pouch.

I tried a prayer to Karmana, healing some of Falcor's wounds but not reviving him.

Speak with prisoner but has taken the selfish path of service to Eversor.

Falcor dying of exposure, have to use wand to warm him and break connection. Recovers quickly. Dark Elvrabor released and walked off. Convinced of God's supremacy.

Rest, using Arad's prayers to sleep quickly. Falcor notices a snow white huge wolf thing and as we watched it snuffled in the snow, eventually being bathed in a green light.

Arad steps out and dominates its mind, which is very alien to him, and forces it to drop what it had carried and walk away.

Another one growled from the other side of us, and Falcor struck out with his mind at it. He asked me to retrieve the pouch, and I ran out to grab it then back. I felt a compulsion to open the pouch but managed to resist it.

Wolves start to walk around and away. As I ran back, though, I was pelted with hailstones with unnatural energy - very painful!

Falcor says a prayer to Milada and the damage disappeared. I thanked him and his patron - it was truely a blessing.

Falcor ran at one of the wolves, using his mind to disable it, so only one we knew of still out there, but it continues to walk off out of sight.

Falcor digs for rock as Arad finds glowing stone. I confirm that stone is solid enough to hammer against. Arad pushes pouch with hammer towards the stone, crackling with lightning around hammer and handle as he does so.

Tingles but doesn't hurt him. Swings at it, shattering it, and it explodes into a massive ball of fire, wrapping around the edges of the sphere and plants inside curls up and then uncurls aftwards.

Arad engulfed and definitely hurt afterwards. Falcor calls on Milada again and heals the significant damage.

The dark Elvrabor are now the children of Eversor (Chaos) and Kraldar (Death).

Trudge through a day of snow and get into foothills of mountain range. Then create another sphere of Cernurros. He is kind enough to grant us sustenance in the form of huge berries. I love it, but Falcor apparently doesn't like it.

Arad prays and allows us to nap, but about 10 mins later hears a cacophany of senseless noise in his mind. Rises and falls in intensity.

Then heat source (humanoid) flashes past. Arad stands near us and keeps scanning. Two more moving some minutes later.

Loose flaming arrows and spot large white hairy horned creatures. Suddenly plunged into darkness! I sink into earth and move, popping up to see if I can see again... but now in Cernurros!

Arad prays and cancels the darkness. Plants almost grab at them, but stop before anyone is grasped. Arad tries to communicate that we mean them no harm. I am stuck in a rainforest somewhere (Cernurros' realm)!

Apparently we can do "Him" no harm and are welcome in "His" realm - approves of selfless act, though... possibly not the things we had seen though.

Falcor shouts in common that we meant no harm, urging them to converse with us. Deep booming voice responds: "Leave, abandon this path." Heading East would insult them. This is a holy place and we are not welcome.

After praying to Karmana we continue - I give us the ability to move freely on the snow and for about a half hour it is easy going...

But then big hairy creatures burst from the snow in a semi-circle around us.