To start with things left unanswered in my last entry…

Hermy and Aria managed to raise the coin for Alissa’s raising, last fall, I think it was. But the results were unsuccessful. Alissa’s spirit was allowed by the Mother to appear at the ceremony to tell Hermy and Aria that she would not be returning to life, she had a new task she was now performing for Ordemet. Hermy was crushed. Aria stormed out in a fury, speaking of trying the priests in Reise, since those here were “incompetent.” We could only let her go. I don’t know what’s going to be done for her now, or if anything can. I hope she comes back to us soon, healed by time. May it be soon.

The expedition to the Western Desert in search of a mummy, for the cure for Lady Ch’radryn, departed and returned. Myself, NaShae, Kywyn, Hermy, Minto, their friend Brodda (“loveliest dwarf bard in the city,” I think she describes herself), and Lieutenant Gerug secured a cart and went on the long road west, to look for another tomb such as Bakarr found. There in the scrubland, near one such butte, we met a female sphinx named Arielle. She was territorial and initially quite hostile to us, but our two bards managed to charm her with song and rhyme into being a little more welcoming. We talked her into showing us one such tomb she knew of in her territory. Things were going good finally, but NaShae, apparently not trusting her suddenly, turned abusive and condescending to her, almost breaking the sphinx’s temper. We managed to salvage the situation and Arielle showed us the steep climb up to where this tomb was undisturbed, and we entered.

The place was richly-built, much marble on the floors and such, several rooms, dwarven stoneworking. And there were traps. It seems like I managed to spring many of them myself, but there were others that Gerug and NaShae managed to disarm. There were no piles of coin, unfortunately, only things like glass plates, urns, a few pieces of jade, an ornate warhammer and armor buried with the corpse, and a most curious but useful bag. It seems to be literally larger on the inside than out. It’s with the Guild as a resource. One of the rugs and an urn we gave to Arielle, a lot of it we left behind, thinking that it wasn’t truly valuable. In hindsight, perhaps it was, but it’s a bit late to go back there. Or perhaps not; I may find myself in a position to say hello to Arielle again.

Gerug stayed behind with Arielle to talk with her and offer his services to her in some capacity. I’m not sure I remember why, now; he was rushing a bit of the mummy ahead to us and bargained for Arielle to carry him in flight. We managed to get through the desert okay on our own, despite a nasty storm that came up that saw us being struck by lightning (I myself was hit twice. It’s a very painful experience) and our water supply destroyed by the strikes except for a barrel we’d buried on the way in. We started for that, only to find it’d been dug up and carried south. We followed the trail to find a group of bandits had taken our water. It came down to a fight, of which NaShae made the first move. We defeated them, killing all but the leader and one member who surrendered. Minto’s magic sent the minion running away, looking for a new start, leaving us with the leader, Janis. She told us--arrogantly and angrily--that she was here gathering coin and strength so she could take on a group of monsters in the mountains further north that had killed her friends years ago. She’d been there for such a long time, all for revenge, gathering a comparative pittance. While gathering up the weapons of the group, I got nicked by several of the blades and poisoned by them, very badly. NaShae threatened Janis into telling her where an antidote was, with the bandit getting my promise to come back in a year or less to help kill those creatures she’s holding the grudge against. I gave her back some of her weapons on the condition that instead of banditry she do something like bounty hunting, to earn the money, before I would come back and help her. She agreed, and that’s a promise I still need to go back and fulfill at some time. We left, and I got into another fight with NaShae. I suppose our moral differences are just too great for us to work together, and she just doesn’t care. “It doesn’t matter,” in her words. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t. I don’t know if I’ll make up with her, or if I even care to. I suppose I have enough to worry about without trying to reconcile with that elf. Kywyn, at least, I can still talk to, it seems, and ought to shortly. More on that later.

We returned to the city and got the coin for the things we found, and I reunited with Miri. She’d been working hard on the cure for NaShae’s mother in the meantime, and actually gathered one of the needed ingredients--scales from a red dragon. She told me that the Mother’s temple had asked Natala to gather a team to rescue a fellow cleric from one of the dragons that came with the Eternal Flame to Hents Manavelins. Natala, Miri, Ran, and Sir Juste, the knight who defeated me for the tournament championship, traveled there with help from a spell cast by Father Camrun. They found not only the cleric there, but the body of Ashina. The dragon was left in bad shape, but alive. Miri got the scales she needed, and soon the elixir was completed. I gave it to NaShae while I talked with Kywyn about something. At the moment I can’t recall what. Oh, wait, that was it.

Da’Vane showed up on my doorstep not long after I got back from the desert, having completed reeducation and penance at the Church, offering to continue serving as my squire now. He wanted to talk to Kywyn about what was seen in the Pass regarding the Eternal Flame, giving me an opportunity to give NaShae the cure. That’s something I should ask him about next time I see him.

For quite a while lately, what’s been occupying me is training new Jackal recruits--yes, it seems I did neglect some background on the Pass with the orcs. The Eternal Flame has taken up residence there, and it was most likely due to their influence that we lost on our march up there. So I’ve been working on training new Jackals to bolster Malifaeyr’s ranks. Da’Vane’s been helping me with that. My latest group was inducted in, while I led an expedition to the Maw of Hardaja--the pit that we rescued Redrik from back then--in search of information.

I should elaborate. Long ago, before the Hightower of the city stood here, Hardaja, south of here several hours’ ride, was a town and a temple of Demmion. It contained a doorway to Demmion’s realms, a planar portal. But apparently this gate was underused, because a figure known as the Pale Prophet took a priestess of the Mother with him to Hardaja and smote the place with Kak’s wrath in punishment for their neglect. He wanted her there, it seems, to guarantee that the Mother would be watching this act, at least on some level, and to ensure a record. Hardaja sank into the ground, raising a mound over top of it. The curse has lingered there since. It stinks with evil, and the dead to not rest easily among the ruins of the old community underground. But there still lives there a living caretaker, an old man by the name of Mome. He clued us in somewhat on our first visit, looking for Redrik, but our latest return there was in search of more detailed information on the Eternal Flame.

While I was in the Western Desert, Darkar was leading a group to the old “undeath keep” that I’ve never visited but many of the Guild have, for much the same reason I went to the Desert--raising money for Alissa’s return to life. The group got a bit more than they bargained for, but some valuable information, when they found a party of the Eternal Flame already there. The combat was ferocious and came down to Darkar’s advisor from his hometown, Silmarwen (who went with us to Hardaja; her help is quite valuable) coming through. They captured three Flames and a letter addressed to someone named Mordred, from Gaya Hoon, who is leader of the group of Flames up in the pass. Perhaps I should see about securing a copy of it to include in here. The letter alluded to the Maw, and subsequent interrogation told us that those captured had spent three nights at Hardaja. I gathered a group--Miri, Da’Vane, Silmarwen, and Aric--to see Mome and ask him about them, the Flame, and Hoon.

Finding Mome was none-too-difficult, and he named the price for his information to be a magical helm somewhere below, in Hardaja’s old temple. We accepted, and braved our way through the Maw, the temple with its undead perils, and through a doorway that may have transported us to one of Demmion’s very realms, judging from the strangeness of the place and the overgrown, fiendish scorpions we fought there. We found the helm, but were dismayed to recognize it as Dame Shalla’s, the Jackal who used this helmet to transport us to Khan’s camp for that battle. But, agreement made, we took it up to Mome and made our inquiries. Gaya Hoon is a woman, it turns out, looking for some truth regarding the elves and what they know about themselves. Quite cryptic, but perhaps it made sense to Silmarwen. The Flame’s goal, Mome told us, is to win Ordemet’s favor for Demmion and demonstrate His worthiness to inherit Her creation. The Flames visited Hardaja to unlock the old door to the Dark’s realms, which, he said, they succeeded at. He wasn’t sure of their business in Hents Manavelins, but thought they were looking for another such door there in the mountains. Which doesn’t make a great deal of sense, as Lord Malifaeyr pointed out. In this whole area, he said, the barriers are thinner between Demmion’s world and this, probably due to the disaster of Hardaja. I don’t know how prudent it would be to put down this secret of the Hightower, but Malifaeyr shared it with me, but indeed, the reason the Tower was built here was to cover and guard one such door. So looking for one in the mountains there could furnish results, but why would they open and then abandon the door there in Hardaja? We have no clues to determine that, unfortunately.

The forces up there have increased slightly, Malifaeyr said, but haven’t moved. And he’s not yet prepared to move on them. Given the time we have now and the suggestion that we get away for a short while, Miri and I may soon go up to Lilac Ford for a visit. I’m looking forward to that; I’ll be making a point of arranging for it.

Some happy news, too: I've asked Miri to marry me, and she accepted gladly. Her engagement ring is an elegant thing she picked for herself, not knowing that I'd present it to her: gold, set with a pink-tinted pearl that caught her eye. We haven't set a date yet, or told many people. She's taking her time about telling her parents, too, which is fine with me. She belives her mother will want to start planning immediately, which wouldn't be so bad, but finding time to arrange the wedding, with all we have going on, could be problematic still. But we'll be engaged when I take her to meet the family in the village.

There is one thing I should check out before going, though--this is finally that thing regarding Kywyn. There was a note from him pushed under the door saying that he’d encountered Kai. He described him as a “troubled elf” and said to seek him out if he wanted to talk more about him. I believe I do.