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.

Suddenly two small flying green creatures appear around Falcor, striking at him and stinging him with a barbed tail.

Falcor defends himself with his mind, and one turns invisible as he tried to punch it, connecting with something.

Other one wraps onto Falcor and bites him. I grab it and rip it off him, holding it in my hand by its wing.

Arad stabs it, but only just misses my arm as it writhes around. Then punches it.

I thrust it into the ground and let go, hopefully killing it. Arad administered ointment to one of Falcor's wounds.

Falcor says a prayer to Milada asking it not to be his last day...

I call on Karmana to slow any poison in Falcor's system.

Thing launches out of soil, trying to attack me but just misses. Arad attacked it and struck with one hit. Falcor struck too, landing a good blow.

Falcor punched it to death!

Worried about poison, but no way of drawing it out. I had slowed it. Keep moving anyway - getting warmer (although still cold) but no snow on ground... after another 3 hrs, start to smell the sea, and also getting dark.

Keep going in the dark for another hour until we reach a wide, free flowing river and move along it to the coast, which wasn't far, about a mile and a bit.

Worried about Falcor, so decide to head to temple. Rope up and Arad reduces weight of him and I to nothing, then Falcor flies to island as we flap along behind in the breeze.

Much warmer on island, and reach it unopposed, walking the last few miles as our weight returned.

Arrival causes quite a commotion, and Gilrad rushes out to greet Arad, but then sees Falcor and face becomes ashen and encourages him to hurry over then prays to Creator to draw out the poison, and Falcor feels burning as it cleanses him.

Invites us to stay, but Falcor is keen to return as soon as we can. Thankfully Gilrad is able to ask the Creator to reduce our weight again, and we returned to the mainland. Keep moving into the middle of the night for about half an hour until we came across a recently constructed road.

Arad heals my scratches before resting. I sleep they use some weird means of not doing so.

After a couple of hours a dark elf appears and attacks Arad while I was still asleep. Falcor rushed to his defence, landing a good blow. Arad hammered him as well.

Two more arrive through tears in reality. Falcor finishes the first one off with rod.

New arrivals stabbed Falcor and me. Falcor whips round and cuts deeply into new foe. I stab my attacker, but doesn't seem to slow him down. Falcor follows up with another blow.

I stab attacker again, but another one arrives behind Arad as he finished off my attacker.

Falcor has apparently been poisoned again! Falcor did at least kill his attacker with another smack with his rod.

Arad struck from behind and then again when he turns. I call on Karmana to slow poison in Falcor again. He quickly engages last dark elf, striking with two strong blows but somehow still standing.

Arad finished him off, but was also concerned about being poisoned.

Arad reads minds of the recently died - apparently they vehemently hate Falcor and Arad (not me).

Have to return to temple (water walk and flying on Falcor). Cure, rest, wait for curatives... decide to visit Custor.