The road from Fengate to Blackstone is long and boring, but the experienced traveler can never allow the boredom to overtake them. One has to always find a way to keep their senses alert, because trouble could be waiting around any corner of the road. For me, the way I keep my senses engaged has always been by writing and reading, and so I have decided to write an event journal for the past Fengate gathering I attended. Hopefully it should prove informative to all.
I arrived in Fengate around midday Friday, with my sole intention being to retrieve a create stake of woe scroll to deal with the ongoing problems in Haven. I figured that I would also stay around for the gathering, but I had little idea who else would be coming. I knew John Little would be coming, as he was traveling with me from Haven, but I wasn’t sure about others.
As the gathering began to get going, I ran into my friend Keno, who I was happy to see. He is normally a fighter, but for some reason the current magical fluxes have left him as an earth scholar, and he is adjusting very well to his current role. He is fond, though, of pointing out that he is able to cast more spells than me, since I can only cast eight spells in the first and second spheres and he can cast nine. It has become something of a running joke between us.
Keno and I walked into the tavern, and he introduced me to some of his friends from Lorinorea. I remembered Douglas Bluewater from the entire Zemos affair, and it was nice to meet the other friends of his he introduced me too as well. Unfortunately, though, I am bad with names and cannot now remember what everyone’s names were.
I also met a new friend not long afterwards. His name was Kaz, and he has traveled from the tribe of my friend Lady Kestral Lightfeather De’Kiernan, seeking to find her. Unfortunately, though, somehow he had lost the trail and wound up in Fengate. He was a fairly skilled fighter in terms of weapon use, and was training to strengthen his arm so that he might deal more damage with each strike of his weapon. I told him that he could journey around with me if he wanted to, since the Lady Kes is a good friend of mine.
Also arriving in town were some of my other friends, such as Mirage, Kajah, Squire Verbal, and Caliphar. Caliphar was still very broken up about the death of his tribemate Ramsus Belmont, as are we all. Mirage, Kajah, and Caliphar spent a lot of time comforting each other, and so John Little, Kaz, and I gave them their space. John and I had both had our time to cry over the death of Ramsus, and at this point John and I were both interested in stopping the vampires so that what happened to Ramsus didn’t have to happen to anyone else.
Eventually, lizardmen (saurions, I am told) began coming into town and attacking people. They tended to be fairly easy to beat, but they threw a lot of poisons. Thus, I dropped my shield and switched up to two weapon style so that less area would be exposed for me to be hit with poisons. I ran through quite a few purify blood spells and poison shields, but eventually we seemed to stem the flow of lizardmen.
It was about this time that I got a chance to meet some of the younger adventurers in town. There was a man wearing strange clothes and a moustache of a type I have not seen before, and he explained to me that his name was Wang, and he was a practicer of the art of cave magic. Apparently he had lived in a cave for many years, and so had developed a style of magic based around what he learned in the cave. It was all way beyond my simplistic magical understandings, but Squire Verbal took an interest in it. Perhaps someday he will even learn to cast it.
Wang had with him a group of first time adventurers. First, there was Raisse Berin, a human with lots of armor wielding a very large axe. I did not get to know him very well, but he seems a competent fighter who will only get better with time. Personally, for me it is good to see people having an interest in using two handed weapons again. The two handed weapon has become a dead art and I would like to see it revived, so that the town has a variety of fighting styles to use depending on the situation. Such is the reason I became a stylemaster, after all.
Second, there was Iolani, an elven templar using a sword and shield. He seemed like a very nice guy, and I believe that given time, he will develop into a very good adventurer. Plus, it is always nice to see more elves adventuring. I never got a chance to ask him about his elven heritage, but I will try to do so the next time I see him.
The third member of Wang’s group was Vahnya, an elven rogue. She fought with one long sword and seemed to do quite well at sneaking up behind things and hitting them on the back of the head. Caliphar and I also spent some time teaching her about how to fight with one long sword, and she caught on very quickly. She has a lot of potential and I look forward to seeing her again.
Finally, the last (but not least) member of Wang’s group was Amri, and after my own heart, she was an elven earth scholar. She was able to cast up to a web spell, which I was very impressed with, since when I started adventuring I could only cast up to a magic armor spell. She did a good job during fights of getting to down people and healing them, though eventually she ran into the problem that all newer earth casters face – running out of spells. Still, she seemed to conserve well enough to always stay effective. Like all the rest of Wang’s group, I look forward to seeing her again as well.
I also met Aisling, a young Amani elf rogue who was not of Wang’s group. I believe that she had been hired by one of the local adventurers to help him out with things, but I am not sure about that. I spent some time teaching her a little bit about Amani heritage, but not nearly as long as I would have liked to be able to before I got called away on business. I hope to see her again at the next gathering as well.
The business I was called away on was two-fold. First of all, Baron Kivuli was meeting with a fey, who warned us that a fey war was going on and we should be prepared for the fact that it could potentially spill over into our world. I think it may have had some connection to the rip that we closed back in February, but if it did, I am not aware of it.
Secondly, Squire Verbal, myself, and a group of other people were called in to have a discussion with Count Pyre. Basically, he informed us that his intention was to take back the swamp from the lizardmen and saurions, a goal which we all agreed was a noble goal to work towards.
When I got back to the tavern after the meeting, I sat down to have a discussion with the wolven pack consisting of Canis, Okami, and Liadan. It was a productive conversation, and I am convinced that they are going to do a great job of working with Count Pyre and helping to defend the lands of Fengate.
It’s funny, up until recently I knew precious little about wolven. I still don’t know too much about wolven culture, but I am trying to learn. You see, I have always been friends with Fenrir, but recently I have met a lot of new wolven friends. First there was Kajah, and then I met Ander, Livelin, Taylon, and now all of the Fengate wolven. Kajah has been helping me learn some about wolven culture, but I am doing my best to learn more. Maybe someday I will even consider myself well-versed in wolven culture, but that time is still a long ways off. Heck, at this point, I don’t even consider myself an expert on elven culture, and I have had over 100 years of practice at that.
After I got done talking to Canis, Okami, and Liadan, I decided that it was time to go to sleep. I didn’t sleep long, though, because it was really, really cold. So cold, in fact, that I shivered all night, and finally decided that I had to do something to warm up. So, I threw on some of the warmest gear that I had available and decided to go for a walk. I spent about an hour and a half walking back and forth across the town, until thankfully Squire Rastlin eventually came into town so that I had someone to talk to as I walked back and forth. Anno the healer also showed up, and so we chatted a bit with him as well.
Finally, after a few more people had gotten up, Duke Blackstone came into town with Sir Norfolk and another kingdom knight whom I have not previously met to meet with Count Pyre. I do not know how the meeting went or what they were meeting about, but I do know that a little while later, Sir Norfolk informed the town that was gathered that Fengate had been inducted as part of Southwatch, and Count Pyre, acting as Seneschal to Duke Fengate, accepted the invitation to join Southwatch.
I thought it was a great moment for Fengate, but I was a little confused about it, because I thought Fengate was already part of Southwatch. I guess the ceremony was just a formality, or such would be my assumption.
After that, Keno and I went out looking for adventure. A lot of the town followed us, though, and we wound up splitting up. I ended up having Leviathan (who had recently arrived in town), Spice, Okami, Canis, Liadan, Wang, Raisse, Iolani, Vahnya, and Amri with me.
We were attacked by a group of trolls. I thought about trying to talk to them, but they didn’t seem interested, so the battle raged. Everyone fought valiantly, but there were a lot of trolls. Spice in particular was amazingly valuable in the fight. She lit up the trolls with a storm of celestial rage. In fact, I am beginning to have a theory about Spice. I think that she is so nice all the time that she bottles up any rage and anger inside her, and then she unleashes it all in these storms of celestial rage.
Despite the efforts of Spice and all the other noble adventurers, we got into trouble. I saw Leviathan go down, and Spice right after him. I looked around and saw that everyone else was down on the ground. I decided it was time to bring in the heaviest firepower I could, and so I unleashed death and paralyze spells at all the trolls around me. With them taken care of, I brought Leviathan back up, and he and I brought everyone back up.
Wang’s group and the wolven pack took care of the rest of the trolls that came out, and we were able to go back to town victorious in the end.
When I got back to town, Squire Verbal requested a meeting with me. The account of what happened that follows is not necessarily what I witnessed firsthand, but what I witnessed firsthand and learned from talking to people later.
You see, Squire Verbal was not actually Squire Verbal. He was a doppelganger pretending to be Squire Verbal. And after he got me alone behind a ward, he told me that he was angry that I blew up his tower and he dropped me with dragon’s breath spells. I had a contingency life spell leftover that I had put up for the previous fight, and after it went off I got a scream off for help before he got me with more spells.
Apparently, the scream for help attracted the town. Caliphar challenged the doppelganger, and Nadja the gypsy and Squire Rastlin both offered to trade their lives for mine. However, when it became apparent that the creature was not interested in lives, Squire Rastlin traded his entire treasury for my life.
Apparently, my death count must have gone on for about fourteen minutes or so thanks to tarry spells, and when I finally got lifed it was because the creature had created me as undead and rifted out of the ward with me. The creature got away with some stuff that I had in my pockets, and Squire Rastlin’s treasury.
Now, I have a few comments I would like to make here. Primarily, I want to say that I don’t know how I got so lucky. I do not consider myself a lucky man, but to have friends like I have, friends who were willing to trade everything, their lives or their hard-earned fortunes, to save my life, I don’t know how I can ever repay that. Squire Rastlin showed me the true meaning of nobility like no one ever has before, and I don’t know how I can ever thank him for it. To have a friend like him, I know I am one of the luckiest people on Tyrra. If I were to fill the rest of this journal entry with nothing but thank you’s, it still would not be as much thanks as Squire Rastlin deserves.
Also, I would like to thank everyone else who tried to help out as well. The fact that I did not know Nadja all that well and she was willing to risk her life for me speaks volumes about her. I also understand that Sir Kyth and Caliphar were very active in trying to save my life, and I am extremely grateful to both of them. I don’t know who else was active in the effort, but to anyone who was there trying to save my life, I say thank you. I don’t know if I deserve all your friendship or not, but I consider myself lucky to have it.
Of course, a doppelganger in town created all sorts of problems that had to be sorted out. Sir Kyth and I ended up in a misunderstanding where we accused each other of being doppelgangers, but that got sorted out. Later, Caliphar was acting strangely, so we had to identify him and make sure he was not a doppelganger. Still, all in all, we didn’t run into any more doppelgangers, so that was at least a success.
Unfortunately, in the entire situation, the real Squire Verbal ended up resurrecting. I guess the doppelganger must have killed him so that he could impersonate him. Leviathan resurrected him, as far as I know, and the resurrection thankfully went well. When I saw him, it was an awkward moment. It was hard for me to differentiate between the real person and the doppelganger. It must have been awkward for him, too, because there was an awkward moment of silence between us before we both apologized to each other for what had happened.
The night brought few new challenges, but that was good, because there was a splendid feast thrown by Count Pyre and cooked up by the splendid chef Halcyon (with help from Keno, Nadja, Aisling, and many others). The potatoes were the best part of the meal, and I enjoyed the broccoli as well. Then, for dessert, there were cakes of all types. My personal favorite was the cherry pie, but I am sure that others had their own opinions.
As the night progressed, Nadja and another gypsy named Karahna threw a gypsy dance party, where they got most of the females in town to dance. I enjoyed watching, and Nadja even managed to pull me up to dance for a bit. With all the depression we have been dealing lately with friends dying, and with the general pressures of everyday adventuring, it is nice to be reminded every now and then that there is a happy side to the adventuring life, and I thank Nadja for doing that for us.
The party was interrupted, though, when undead and chaos elementals attacked. Now, Baron Kivuli and I had already worked out a strategy for the fight, and so I set up a hearth in the tavern and constantly handed out shield magic and magic armor spells while people fought outside. Then, after I ran out of those spells, I ran outside to help. I saw that six people or so were down on the left side of the tavern porch, and Leviathan couldn’t get to them. I jumped down to try to heal them, but I got jumped by two monsters. I managed to fend off the monsters, though, which gave Leviathan enough time to jump down and heal people. Then John Little came over and helped me beat down the monsters that I was fighting.
In the next wave, a death creature came through the tavern and hit us from behind. It killed all the people in the tavern, including arcane obliterating one of them, and then managed to kill Seneschal Uzuri out on the porch behind me. A bunch of us jumped in the tavern to go after it, and I administered life spells to the fallen while others attacked the creature and forced it to flee. Then, I managed to get back out on the porch and life the Seneschal.
Eventually, a bunch of us jumped the death creature and got it to rift out after pouring at least 50 lightning bolts worth of damage into it. I don’t know what it is, but it is certainly tough.
After the fight, many people went to bed. I personally stayed up killing the few remaining lizardmen that came out and then chatting a bit with Iolani and Amri. I hope to see them at future gatherings, and maybe even as soon as next month, when I imagine I will probably be in Fengate again.
Well, I am now nearing Haven, and that means it is time for my tale to end and the next chapter of my story to begin. Once again I will say that it was nice to see everyone this weekend, and I look forward to seeing everyone again in the future.