So long it’s been since I wrote last. It’s almost unbelievable how much has happened since then.

Well, the logical place to start would be to pick up where I left off.

Cousin Natala and I were successful in tracking down the source of the plague that was going around Garic’s, and the riddle of it is both simplified and even more complicated--it was spread by contaminated bread given out by a certain baker near the slums. He was completely unaware of this; Cousin Natala confirmed that his flour was tainted with poison. But then, to our horror, we learned that a huge shipment of this bread was to be given out at the Spring Festival to the poor, which would of course spread the plague far and wide. We were able to avert the problem, barely, and then resolved to go to the farming village the baker gets his flour from--one Clerihew.

Before we left, I was pointed to a young elf at the Last Lich--Kai Heishall--who had been searching for me, it seems. He carried a note from Master Shantus.

So I attempted to take Kai under my wing and direct his potential, as Master Shantus requested. It was short-lived, though.

Cousin Natala had enlisted the help of another friend for the venture--Ivan, as it happened, who proved to be an excellent ally. I brought along Kai, who turned out to--no, nevermind, I’ll speak of that when I come to it.

We were attacked by goblins as we crossed a ford on the way to Clerihew, and fought them off, dropping three. Cousin Natala earned Ivan’s disgruntlement by using her healing on the goblins who weren’t too far gone--due to her devotion to the Mother. Ivan was less than pleased, but we pushed on.

Our stay at Clerihew was one that still holds much puzzlement for me. The important thing we found was that the plague was not a deliberate poison; it had to do with an error made during its harvesting. We also disclosed that the miller, Jarge, and his wife, Marina, were worshippers of the Dark. It seems that Marina hung Jarge, making it seem like he’d taken his own life, and fled into the woods. Myself, Kai, Ivan, and some of the village’s militia tracked her, oblivious of what was really going on. She gave us the slip, and Ivan and I became distracted by some weird hybrid beast that resembled a cross between an owl and a bear. We slew it, then continued trying to track Marina, to no avail. At the same time, it seems that Marina had pulled Kai off the road and gotten him to bring her aid. We returned to Clerihew, where he didn’t deign to share this information with me.

Cousin Natala told me what she had found, then the village’s chief constable, Faith, shared with me a few of the plans they had for seeking Marina the next day. In the morn we set off--Kai had gotten a “head start,” it seems. Each of us set off with a contingent of the militia; I with a woman named Gladys, two men whose names I never caught, and a tracker, Red. Ivan went with a man called Dan and two others. Cousin Natala went with one of the village elders and a group to speak to various homesteads nearby, while my group picked up Marina’s trail in the woods, following it to a nearby marsh--where I was betrayed by Gladys and the others. Faith wanted me dead for some reason, but they failed to kill me. I slew Red, the two men fled when I wounded them badly enough, and I knocked Gladys’s lights out, then woke her up and demanded an explanation. She didn’t give me much of one, though. We started back for Clerihew, but Kai appeared out of the woods, having followed me, I suppose. Then, Faith herself appeared. I still don’t understand why she wanted Marina dead, and then me, except perhaps as a scapegoat. What I learned of her was that she had been known to resort to extreme measures with the goblins, and was apparently willing to do the same to humans. She and I then fought. My smite failed me, but I was able to bring her down--barely. She survived it, though, reviving back at the village when we got there. Kai and I then took her body and a trussed-up Gladys back to Clerihew, where Faith stood trial for what she did, demanding that it be made a trial by combat. Kai revealed his involvement with Marina, and while he was taking me around to places she might be, Ivan faced in the combat, defeating her. Meantime, Marina used a spell to spook the horse I was borrowing into bolting, then made off with Kai.

I went back to Clerihew and accompanied Cousin Natala and Ivan back to the city, moved my possessions out of the Last Lich and to the Silver Sword, wrote a note for Natala and Ard’Nas, and immediately went back out into the wilderness to seek Marina and Kai. He was my responsibility, and I had to find him.

A whole month I spent in the wilderness, following old trails that I could barely see and trying to outthink them and go ahead to communities they may have traveled to when I lost their trail. To pay my way in inns, I often had to chop firewood or labor, and the delay made my search no easier. I lost a lot of weight from living so spartan, and I never found Kai or Marina. It seems possible to me she may have slit his throat and left him in a ditch when he was no longer useful to her.

I could search for them no longer. All my leads where exhausted, and so was I, so I returned to the city and the Silver Sword in failure.

It seemed that no end of bad news was waiting for me on my return.

While I was away from the city, the Guild was drawn on to slay a red dragon that was torching further north. Ivan and Arnor did not return from the venture, falling to its breath and its jaws, but the dragon itself was slain. If only I’d been here, my aid might have saved their lives.

Also while I was gone, someone tried to bring about a repeat of the Night of the Shadows. Daron gave his life stopping it--but something strange happened to his soul. It was imprisoned in a hell plane, and calling to Cousin Natala.

She was the first person I sought on my return, after Volos informed me of what he could. It was then she told me that she was preparing for a jaunt into the hell in question, helped by a brother paladin, one Sir Allegion of the Jackals, whom I have also befriended.

Carrying Daron’s sword, Esteran, and using an item loaned to us by the Temple of the Mother, the three of us traveled into that hell. A barren, desert place it was, of wind, dust, and open wasteland. We slew a demon that we encountered on the way, following Daron’s voice inside Cousin Natala’s head, to a tower that held his tortured soul. Inside, we located his shade, drew it into his blade, and used the item to return. High Priest Thessle of the Mother’s clergy then took Esteran, containing Daron’s essence, and began a ritual to restore him to life.

For now, that is all that I will write. I still have much to cover, but all will come in due time.