Some years ago, I began a tradition of writing event journals recapping the events of the past gathering. Over time, however, I lost interest in this pursuit for one reason or another. At that point, an adventurer far wiser and more well-spoken than myself came to the forefront and began writing them instead. However, I did not see Duncan at this past gathering except for a short while, and so for at least this once, I shall endeavor to write a journal recording the events that occurred.
The gathering was once again held in the lands of Exeter, which have been far more peaceful of late. Baron Exeter has done such a terrific job administering the town that all the problems these days come to us from other planes instead of Tyrra itself. I was disappointed to not find my new friends Malakai and Viviana at the gathering, but I was very glad to see many long time friends such as Sir Kyth Wild, Baron Exeter, Viscountess Zobrist, Sir Jokarius, Squire Ruendil, and Rillien, as well as many others.
Not long after the beginning of the gathering, I met the famous Poppy who I had been in communication with on the fey trees. I gave her the stack of alchemy that I had promised to her, and I learned that she could not speak because her vocal chords had been cut. I wish there were a magical way to cure such an ailment, but unfortunately I know of none. At any rate, Poppy turned out to be a cheerful and friendly hobling with a deep love of gold.
She was not the only new adventurer in town, either. There were also three pirates who were very loud and bowed to people a lot. Despite the fact that I was just a squire, they kept calling me titles like “Your Majesty” or “Your Highness,” and I kept trying to explain to them that just calling me by my name or calling me squire was fine. I believe Squire Ruendil may have been having the same difficulties as well. From their story, they were in search of a platinum arrow. Thus, if anyone finds one, they should probably contact those gentlemen with information.
Early in the gathering, the pirate gentlemen decided that they wished to seek out the golems which had been causing problems for Exeter for the past months. They were convinced that they could handle an entire golem army by themselves. First, however, they wanted a formal magic cast to gain information. As I was the acting Guildmaster of the earth guild and Canaan is the full Guildmaster of the celestial guild, Baron Exeter left it up to the two of us to decide whether to use Dreamvision or Create High Horoscope. Unfortunately, we did not have a focus appropriate for use in either of these formal magics, and so the plan was scrapped. It was probably a good thing, too, as I do not believe that a few individuals could have come close to defeating the golem army, and I hate to see unnecessary resurrections.
Throughout the first evening, we were attacked by reasonably large undead. Many of them could phase attacks three times and spellstrike a variety of harmful chaos spells, such as wither limb and cause mortal wounds. I ended up burning a lot of spell protectives against them, and even that sometimes was not enough. Sir Jokarius stood out especially well in the fight, and took excellent advantage of monsters’ turned backs when the monsters chose to come after me. At one point, Sir Jokarius and I were attacking a monster, and just as we finished taking it down, another monster caught me from behind, and I fell. Thankfully, not long afterwards, I felt a healing spell hit my back, and I looked over to see Rillien standing there, reliable as always.
After that point, we had some time to lounge in the tavern while nothing much was going on. I was looking for a person who would be willing to let me practice my hitting people on the back of the head skills. I have been working on it a lot lately, and I was fairly convinced that I was very close to getting it right, but the only way to be able to tell would be to actually test it. Well, I mentioned this to Canaan, and he called Squire Draelin over. You see, for many years Squire Draelin has been trying to learn to waylay, and so Canaan was convinced that Squire Draelin would be willing to help in my experiment, and once he heard what the experiment was for, he was happy to agree to take part. My first attempt was a little off, and my second attempt was even further, but on my third try I finally found it. There’s an elusive little spot on the shoulder blades, and if that spot is hit just right, it can cause the person to fall over unconscious. Of course, it doesn’t work unless the person is not expecting it. Unfortunately, Squire Draelin was expecting it. Thus, it actually had no effect. However, he told me that he felt a tingling sensation as if it had been a successful waylay, and so he was convinced, as was I, that I had found the correct spot.
Later in the evening, a woman came into town claiming that her sister had been stolen. Trying to retrieve her sister, we went off on an adventure to fight some monsters whom I don’t really know how to describe. They looked like trolls, but their abilities were nothing like troll abilities. They could cause fear arcanely and they were more spell heavy than trolls tend to be. I guessed that they might be arcane goblins, but someone else speculated that they might be creatures of nightmare. Given the recent activities of the Shepherd and the fact that fear is an effect strongly associated with nightmare, I believe that the nightmare guess may have been correct. While we defeated the monsters without too much trouble, we never did find the sister. Kes and I speculated that this could indicate that the sister never really was abducted, but that the Shepherd was playing off of the woman’s fears. At this point, I am fairly open to suggestions, because I don’t know if we actually accomplished anything or not.
Finally, with that task done, it was time to go to bed. I had a ward of my own that was kindly cast for me by Baron Exeter for the gathering, and although I am sometimes nervous about sleeping in wards by myself, I was thankfully undisturbed.
Saturday morning I was up earlier than anyone else in my cabin, as usual, and so I cleaned myself up and headed to the tavern to see who was awake. To my great surprise, the tavern was already open, and serving breakfast. I ordered some eggs, and sat down and spoke with Caradyn, Legion, and Durgen for a while. Speaking with Caradyn was very interesting, because he adventured a lot in Therendry a long time ago, and I adventured a lot in Therendry recently, and so it was fascinating to compare notes about what had changed and what had stayed the same. I got a chance to do the same thing with Sir Noah of Blackstone later in the gathering, and I think I learned a lot from both experiences.
Eventually, Her Excellency Viscountess Zobrist showed up in the tavern, followed by a Ducal messenger coming from the opposite direction. I was somewhat suspicious of this messenger, because he was supposedly sent by His Grace Pinetree, and yet had no interest in talking to myself, a Ducal squire, or Her Excellency Zobrist, a high noble of Therendry. He insisted that he was only to talk to Baron Exeter. To me, this made him sound like an assassin, and so I directed him towards Baron Exeter, but kept a close eye on him to make sure no trouble was caused. As it turned out, his only task was to announce that the noble meeting that had long been rumored was to occur at 11 o’clock that morning. Later in the morning, Sir Kyth received a messenger from the Genovias telling him the same thing.
Before I describe the noble meeting, I should discuss who was present. His Grace traveled into town with his young son Darren, Dame Parthynia, His Excellency Count Valoric Treehawke, and Sir Michael Justice. Also attending were Baron Exeter, Viscountess Zobrist, Sir Kyth Wild, Viscount Silvercord, Squire Ruendil, and myself. Rillien was acting in place of Anya as the legal scribe of Therendry and was taking notes on the proceedings.
The meeting began with my own trials of Knighthood. Dame Parthynia was asked to discuss situations which might indicate that I was unready for this task. All situations brought up were incidents that occurred between two years ago and a year and a half ago, and His Grace determined that I had learned from the mistakes I had made in the past. Both Sir Kyth and Count Treehawke spoke extremely eloquently for me, and I was very grateful to all the assembled nobles for their understanding and their kind words. Kes was brought in to speak several times, and I began to realize just how much I really have adventured with her over the years. I was also grateful to her for her words of support.
In the end, His Grace decided that I had proven myself worthy of knighthood, and so he asked me to kneel. I was asked to recite the code of chivalry, which I did, although not necessarily in the correct order. I followed His Grace in reciting the code of the knights of Therendry, which had previously been the code of the knights of Norland. I was then declared as a knight, and I arose with some pride to join the table of nobles.
The rest of the noble meeting contained much other important business. Count Lyonesse was honorably retired, and Baron Exeter became the new Count of Lyonesse in his place. Sir Gilliard and Sir Falcon were both stripped of title for dereliction of duty. Sir Kail Aspen lost title for lack of having a liege. Viscount Silvercord was raised to be the Count of Fellmist, and a new head of the celestial guilds of Therendry is now being sought. Count Treehawke raised Lord Baldur of Slateron to be the new Baron of Havencrest (Baron Zug having departed a month or two ago to take a position in Blackstone), and Lady Finna of Calais became Lady of Slateron and the new Seneschal of the County of Stormcross.
With the meeting concluded, I spent some time talking to Sir Kyth and the new Count Lyonesse about the business which had occurred. I also retired to a private spot for a while to reflect on the occurrences personally, and I think I was still in a bit of shock over everything. Still, some quiet time helped me to clear my head, and then I re-joined my compatriots in the tavern for lunch.
One ongoing problem that had been occurring was that the Wellspring of Life, a powerful pool of water tied to life, had been corrupted by death, perhaps as a result of the planar tears, or perhaps by an ambitious death elemental, or maybe even both. Either way, we knew we had to fix it, and I had gathered together a cantrip tome capable of removing corruption and components for that very purpose.
However, around this time, a fey came into the tavern, offering to let the adventurers look at the rips in the fey plane leading to the Dark Forest. Sir Jokarius, Pyroxia, and Tovolia all agreed to go, and they rifted out, although a few seconds later Sir Jokarius’s cold iron sword rifted right back in. A few minutes after that, the fey rifted Pyroxia back in, but Sir Jokarius and Tovolia were not with them. Apparently, they had met the Lord of Illusions, and tried to escape. As they were rifting out, Sir Jokarius had been hit with an arcane death spell. He dodged it, and in doing so dodged himself off of the rift. Tovolia left the rift to help Sir Jokarius, leaving only Pyroxia coming back to explain the situation to us.
When we all heard what happened, we quickly gathered a force together to go back to the fey plane. It took a few minutes to convince the fey to bring us back, and unfortunately as soon as we rifted in, the Lord of Illusions became enraged and unmade the fey who had brought us there. We realized that we were in a tight spot, but another fey showed up, and we decided that anything was better than the Lord of Illusions, so we jumped on this other fey, and he brought us to a desert. He then explained that he was the Lord of Summer, and he brought us back to Tyrra. However, it was uncomfortable for him there, and he could not stay long.
Before he left, though, he did give us four artifacts which could be used to clean the corruption in the Wellspring of Life. Thus, we immediately went back to town, gathered together a force, and drew up a plan for cleansing the well of taint. In order to do this, we needed to place the four artifacts in a circle around the wellspring, and then keep them undisturbed for thirty minutes. It sounds easy enough, but there were monsters constantly coming out of the woods. They had been tainted, and they were drawn to the well. There was also a tainted earth elemental that we would need to fight in order to protect the ritual, and we knew that it would be tough as well. Our plan involved assigning people to different roles. We chose four fighters to defend the four stones, and two more people to go after the earth elemental specifically. We also allowed our four fighters to choose their own healers. Baron Havencrest chose Lady Slateron as his healer, Algorian chose myself as his healer, Tovolia chose Viscountess Zobrist as his healer, and I unfortunately do not remember what the fourth pair was. I do remember that Count Lyonesse, being of a lightning nature, was chosen along with Sir Jokarius to battle the earth elemental.
The monsters attacking us out of the woods were orcs and bears that had been tainted. Sleep and paralysis spells worked, and so I would spell them down whenever Algorian got into trouble. I also pulled out my sword to fight a couple of them, and as a whole we never got into too much trouble. However, the fighting was tricky because the well itself was tossing out arcane deaths in every direction, and many fell from those. Thankfully, they always missed Algorian and I, and so we never had to worry about it. All in all, Algorian fought excellently, and was the primary reason why our side of the line did not falter at all.
After this task was accomplished, His Grace returned to town and we held a feast. Now, I do not mean to scare any young children who might read this account, but I should point out in this telling that Tovolia saw fit for the feast to borrow a dress from Her Excellency and come to the feast in what is known as drag clothing. I don’t know why he did it, but the sight certainly did shock many people.
His Grace made two important announcements at the feast. First, he created a new Order for Therendry, made up of those people who would risk everything to fulfill their duties. Squire Ruendil was chosen as the first member of this Order, and it is a very well deserved honor. Second, he promoted Viscountess Kiera Zobrist to arguably the second most important position in the Duchy, naming her as his new Seneschal, with full powers to speak in his name when he was not present. She received a standing ovation that must have lasted two full minutes, and there was universal acclaim for a choice well made. I believe that she will do an excellent job as the Seneschal, and I am proud to see her receive the honor.
Awards were handed out at the feast as well, but they were far too numerous to even attempt to list here, and so I will save that list for the next issue of the Therendry/Blackstone Herald.
There were three adventures left after the feast. The first one involved fire creatures from Sir Kyth’s past that were trying to kill him, and so we took a select force of I believe twelve people in to deal with them. Roc Solud performed exceptionally well in this particular battle, and all in all we didn’t wind up in serious trouble at any point. As she usually does, Rillien saved me a couple of times, and the new Seneschal of Therendry healed me and gave me shield magic spells more times than I could count. In fact, I do not think it is an exaggeration to say that Viscountess Zobrist has healed me more times in my adventuring career than any other single individual has. For some reason, she seems to have a sense for when I drop on the field, and always comes over to heal me up. It is a trait that I am very thankful for.
I believe that by battle’s end we were able to accomplish what Sir Kyth needed accomplished, and so we walked away from that battle feeling pretty good. The feeling, however, would not last.
The second to final battle of the gathering involved attempting to destroy the death elemental that had originally tainted the Wellspring of Life. To do this, we needed to retrieve a skull that apparently belonged to him, and for some reason weakened him significantly while it was in his presence. We got to the skull without too much trouble, but we were burning through resources, and life spells in particular, quite fast. Baron Havencrest retrieved the skull, and I retrieved a spoon that was likely a magic item, and then many stayed behind to collect treasure. During this period of time, we continued to be hit hard, and it was a difficult retreat. Sir Jokarius got dropped behind enemy lines, and when we finally managed to get him out, Lady Finna got dropped behind enemy lines. It took us a long time to get her out, and then the monsters chased us out of the cave. When all was said and done, I was very nearly tapped out on magical energy, and so was the Viscountess, and it is an extremely rare day when we both have practically nothing left.
After that battle, we assumed that we were done, as we did not know where the death elemental was, and so many people went to bed. I personally sat in the tavern with Juniper, Rillien, Kes, Kale Rend, and Sir Jokarius, singing various songs. It was a little silly, but it kept us entertained, and the pirates threw money at us to convince us to keep performing. Of course, Poppy scooped the money right up anyway, but that was fine with me, given that I do not perform for money.
Soon, though, the festivities were ended when the location of the death elemental’s lair became available, and so we had to attack despite our almost total lack of life spells. Both Squire Draelin and Squire Ruendil had their transforms go off, and in both cases it was extremely helpful to use. We split into three groups for the attack, and the group that I was a part of was assigned to come in through the right hand side. With Algorian leading the charge, we pushed in through the doorway. I had to rip through several healing pools to keep people up, and even so I felt like I was losing against the tide. Her Excellency Zobrist dropped a circle and held up the skull to weaken the creature, but he still was quite tough. Rillien, Juniper, and Tovolia burned through what life spells they had, and I believe that Tovolia saved Squire Draelin’s life at the last moment before he would have resurrected.
Eventually, we pushed back the death elemental into a corner, and Count Lyonesse and I lighted him up with disarm spells, which were some of the very few spells we had left. We had to burn through so many resists that he was eventually beaten down, but he was not dead. We suspected that killing him had something to do with the skull, and so Her Excellency brought the skull over. We were trying to figure out how to destroy him when suddenly he got up, grabbed the skull, and rifted out with Caradyn. Caradyn was eventually rifted back in, but we don’t know what happened to him, and apparently we failed to destroy the death elemental.
The end of the gathering featured a wedding between Poppy and Tovolia which was presided over by Count Lyonesse, and then everyone went to bed. To all my friends, I look forward to seeing you again in Exeter next month.
Scribed by Seronia on the 11th day of December in the year 605.