November 3-5, 606 Exeter, Therendry
I arrived at the gather fairly early, having sped to nearby Koreket as a result of the last gather. I left all my traveling companions at the surface as I took the honored remains of Kakera below. I had a brief conversation with the High-Lord with a promise of further discussion. After that I went straight away to Exeter for the forthcoming gather there.
It was chilly and overcast when I arrived within the cities walls. Count Lyonesse and I are frequent traveling companions and he keeps excellent accommodations within the city for me. Having no immediate traveling companions however I offered the extra room within my quarters to Tygil Stonebrook and Pyroxia Fyrestorm. Happily they accepted and we unpacked and prepared our protectives for our quarters together.
I would like to pause a moment and say of Tygil Stonebrook that he is an excellent friend and valued companion. Never overly demanding on his companions and always ready to lend a hand. Recently he has taken to traveling with Roxi often. This I see as an excellent turn of events. She is one of the best battlefield healers I have had the pleasure to share a field with, and she will teach Tygil a lot there. If any of his demeanors rubs off on her, then I would expect Roxi to become in much higher demand at Court.
Shortly after the start of the gather some adventurers talked and we bartered for some of the items I had for sale. Not that I have a lot of items for sale mind, but I do occasionally come across more than I can use and when that happens, if no friends are in immediate need, then I like to turn a profit if possible and help ensure my eventual retirement from adventuring all together. When that will be I have no idea as I have previously retired 2 other times.
Viscount Mithrilmist sent word to me through Katherine that he wanted me to return the items I had rescued from the field in Blackstone. Apparently he was under the impression that those were the items I was selling in Therendry. This upset me very much and it took me awhile to become more jovial at seeing my friends once again. Viscount Mithrilmist and I have long been friends and gone through many adventures together. I admit I haven’t always been the most upstanding citizen of the Kingdom throughout my life, but to have such a close friend of mine send word through a third party like that seemed off to me. Usually I would expect Delwyn to send me a personal message if not coming to see me in person about any issue between us.
It was shaping up to be an excellent gather. Tynsil Treehawk had made the journey and I had not seen her in a very long time. Baron Cedric Warclaw and Captain Elenril Elentari had also stayed in the area after having had to spirit walk out of the battlefield at Stonereach the previous gather. Many friends were greeted and I heard more than once a companion saying to myself or another friend that it was good to see they had made it out of Stonereach alive.
Shortly after the greetings were exchanged undead elves began to appear within Exeter. These appeared to be the same ones we had seen beginning to emerge from The Lost River Forest. We feared greatly for any elves remaining within the wood and began to see what we could do to aid in removing this curse from the woods.
Fortunately answers were close at hand and we made an excursion into a cave to retrieve large quantities of some type of pure water. This would be one item needed to purify the forest and restore things to their right and proper place. We journeyed into the caves and began to encounter undead elves. The fighting was difficult with each push requiring tremendous effort on our part. Though once we had our goal in sight it seemed easier to reach it, though we could tell leaving with what we came for was to be another matter entirely.
Three barrels of water were retrieved and each carrier by 2 healers to make certain the contents remained pure. We formed up and pushed our way out of the cavern and back to the gate to Exeter. Once there the 3 barrels of water were moved into separate locations behind wards to ensure not all of them could be lost to a single attempt at stopping our plan.
Shortly after this happened most of the adventurers turned in for the evening.
The next morning I awoke fairly early. A few of us drifted by a local Inn for some food and then reequipped ourselves. That morning we were under attack by Drezil. Drezil are green skinned humanoids that used to be elves. They have a special disdain for elves and will attack them very aggressively. For the most part they leave other races alone unless they are in any way assisting an elf in combat against them. They appear to very much like fire and hate the cold. They also seem resistant to weapons blows in the extreme.
After a few hours fighting Drezil I noticed Sir Merritt was looking a bit uncomfortable talking to 2 young ladies. Count Lyonesse seemed to be at ease on the field and as I walked up on the group I became more aware of his predicament. The 2 young ladies were looking for a patron to help them set up a high-class service establishment within Exeter. Sir Merritt was not a fan of the services they seemed to be peddling and appeared very grateful when I stepped into the conversation. After a bit of conversation with the 2 young ladies I called over Count Lyonesse and Kes of the Ivy Hind. A few moments later and I had struck a bargain for a building for the ladies to open their new business in. “Guilty Pleasures” should open in a few weeks and have wonderful decor. With a little bit of luck I will have an excellent establishment in which to enjoy the best wine and food, play some cards, assist the City of Exeter with the taxes it will generate, help the ladies work towards their retirement, and turn a profit.
After this I spoke with a number of adventurers regarding joining The Court of Fellmyst. As I begin to reconstitute the County I thought it would be a refreshing idea to open the doors for any who wish to serve the people to come forward. Everyone deserves a chance and those unwilling or unable to meet the demands of service to the County will be quickly weeded out of the mix.
As the day progressed we met a young lady who was searching for her “spoooon.” Apparently she had a spoon of some sort stolen by goblins. Count Lyonesse, Tygil Stonebrook, another adventurer I hadn’t met before, and myself went out in search of the thieving goblins.
Finding them wasn’t hard at all. They had made no effort to cover their tracks and we found them in a clearing with the spoon on a high stump. They had it surrounded and were in total awe of their fortunate find. We decided to attempt negotiation first and walked up on them also making noises of admiration for the spoon of somebody the flea ridden.
As we got closer we observed 2 of the goblins were casters and this made us a bit more nervous about our situation. Count Lyonesse became inspired truly when he asked if he might touch the spoon. The goblins assented and we all feigned awe that he had touched the mighty artifact. I should note the spoon in question appeared to us at this time as a worn out old wooden kitchen spoon. One of the goblins got overly excited and fell to the ground and I moved around to help him up. This also put me directly behind the 2 casters.
As a point of note Goblins are something to be very careful with. For the most part they are harmless and even inept, but sometimes they can be terribly ferocious and capable of such power as to be awe inspiring themselves. Personally I believe this is because they are very distant kin to the Folke, but I have only had minimal evidence to point me in this direction.
At any rate I asked who was not awestruck by the great spoon. Everyone nodded in assent that they were indeed awestruck with the exception of Tygil. He commented that it looked like an ordinary spoon to him, and I took this opportunity to make him the object of a distraction. I yelled quickly that he was the one to disdain, and suggested we should all point at him in disdain. Now I don’t know if the goblins even understood the word, but they followed my actions and all pointed at Tygil. Obviously he did not expect me to single him out for possible aggression and I can hardly contain my laughter now writing this at remembrance of the surprised look upon his face. Once they were all pointing and parroting the word disdain I figured the odds of us getting hurt were minimal. I struck hard and fast with my sword from behind the casters and took them both out in almost no time. Count Lyonesse had reasoned out from my position what I was about and had the 2 goblins closest to him down in the same amount of time. This left us both walking in on the goblin holding the spoon out in front of it as it walked backwards to ward us off. Sadly so shocked by our sudden action it didn’t even think to raise its weapon.
We took the spoon and searched the goblins for anything else. Deciding that these little thieves had probably learned their lesson we decided to first aid them and leave them to recover on their own. We did find out the spoon was magical in nature and had once belonged to some flea guy by the inscription on the handle. It also required one to say “Spoooon” before using any of its effects. This proved for us it belonged to the lady we had met earlier and we set off back to town. I don’t know if the Count of Lyonesse has yet found its rightful owner, but I am satisfied if it remains in his hands until then. He did however comment that he thought I was bad luck as every time we were together he felt he had to beat up some poor creature, kick a puppy or drown a kitten. But the puppies and kittens are a story for another time.
After this I went to scout out a library I had heard tale of recently. It was an ancient library and I was having trouble finding more information about it, though I thought it would make an excellent addition to The Great Library at Goldhaven. I was able to learn little about what has kept it hidden for so long, but I do plan to attempt to gain access to its halls at the December gather. I feel I should bring a bit of help for this task when I attempt it.
Tygil and I went out for a ride at this time. I had brought 2 of the Blackstone Chargers I own to the gather and wanted to make certain they got exercise. Tygil was nice enough to accompany me and help me exercise the pair. He also proved to be an accomplished rider himself, and so we rode in the woods for the better part of 4 hours.
As we returned from the stables we ran into Duncan. Duncan is an exceptional adventurer in my opinion. It has just recently occurred to me how long he has been adventuring and that he is always there when something is happening.
He informed us that he had heard something off in the woods not far from where we were, and so we went with him to investigate. We walked a bit through thick foliage and then, when I was certain I was going to lose an eye in the gathering darkness to an errant tree limb, we saw them. Up ahead, standing as if just uncovered for moving in the night were 5 undead. At first we were very hesitant. 5 undead in these dense woods could cause us a major problem.
Tygil looked at me and asked if we should try it or go get help immediately. They seemed to be approaching us slowly at that point and we decided to risk some light contact with them to determine if we needed to break and run for help. As it turned out they were newly made skeletons and as such fell quickly before us. Emboldened by our victory over evil we returned to the tavern.
When we returned to the tavern a few hours later we learned that Count Lyonesse had taken the town through yet another gate and retrieved some type of molten rock in a special container. Apparently this was the second of 3 things we would need to rectify the situation within The Lost River Forest. I am all for helping Lyonesse solve some of its problems. As I attempt to rebuild Fellmyst to the shining star it once was for Therendry, I can only think that a more stable neighbor would be an invaluable resource in the task.
Tensions were a bit higher at this point as we had several tasks to accomplish this night. Many of the healers it turned out had had visions of similar instances in their sleep the night before. From listening to all of them we were able to piece together that a battle would take place within the heart of a forest. There we would face many undead and such and would have to stand by and assist at range as one of our number attempted to enter into a chaos like mist, and using the hot liquid magma, the pure water, and a star artifact, create a golden mist to dissolve the magical mist corrupting the forest.
A nightmare elemental showed up and for some strange reason aided us in our journey to the heart of The Lost River Forest. It was a very uncomfortable trip during which we must all imagine our most terrifying experience so that the elemental could have enough power to take all of the adventurers.
I am loath to discuss it, but will include here for accuracy, the only creature I despise more than a nightmare elemental is a hag. One winter in Elysia around 594 I was adventuring with a mercenary unit known as The Black Rose. Our unit was low on healers and casters in general at the time so I took a lot of extra equipment out with me that day. When we came upon a small farmhouse with a fire going we all stopped to rest and warm ourselves before pressing on. The warm fire on my boots was actually semi uncomfortable, but I was encouraged by the steam rising from the boots themselves, and the fact I was beginning to be able to move my toes. Draylin Blackhaven called for us to move on and I mentioned that I would catch up in a moment. I wanted to make certain I had thoroughly thawed my toes before allowing them to freeze again, and the place seemed safe enough with the 2 young ladies attending to chores within the farmhouse.
About 2 minutes after my companions had moved off the 2 young ladies transformed into terrible hags and began to claw at me. I jumped up onto the hearth of the fireplace and as they came around the chair I had been sitting in, I leapt over it and landed on the floor behind them. I went running immediately for the door, hoping to call back my friends and kill these 2 foul creatures. Sadly I was struck in the back by some magical energy for which none of my protective spells seemed able to counter. I was pulled to the ground writhing in extreme pain and beaten into unconsciousness within 5 feet of salvation. Later that day as they returned to town my companions were surprised to see me coming out of the healers guild having resurrected before they were able to make the journey back to town. Every time I see a nightmare elemental I am forced to relive this experience and thus they are my second least favorite creatures.
At any rate this creature deposited us fairly close to our goal and we began the busy work of fighting our way towards our true goal. The fight was made more difficult by the fact several of our healers were occupied not with casting but with protecting the items we would need to complete our task.
I had trouble making it into the front lines for a fight and so settled into a rear guard position. This turned out to be a good thing and a bad thing. Once we had pushed in very close to our goal the rear guard had much more work to do. I was struck with a death spell I was unable to avoid and when I awoke only a second could have passed. I was in terrible pain from my wounds and my armor was in ruins at this point, but I held my side of the line waiting for a healer to get to me with more healing. When the scavenger next to be became webbed and unable to move I saw the undead draw back and incant a death spell for him. I reached out with my shield and took the blow myself. I figured I was much closer to death than he was and this would most assuredly attract the attention of a healer and save them from having to life and heal him. The ploy worked as this time when I was administered a life spell and began to stand up, the healer remained long enough to heal me and I even got my armor refit from a master armor smith.
The fight went back and forth for several long minutes until our task had been completed. This was evidenced by the golden mist flowing out passed us and on throughout the forest. The undead seemed visibly weakened by its passing and as we destroyed them we found less and less stepping in to take their places against us.
That task done we returned to town and divided what treasure had been recovered. From there we went to secluded place to celebrate Qualinorim – The Remembrance of the Dead. I asked Sir Merritt if he was coming, as he would miss it for his journal if he didn’t. He replied that he was not coming and was giving up writing journals altogether. I do hope that isn’t true, as I have always enjoyed reading his accounts of events. Even when I was present at a gather, his accounts have explained events I was not privy to and given me a perspective I could not achieve on my own.
The ceremony was held by candlelight, and a fire was burning in the hearth of that building, but the cold seemed to bite terribly hard that night. Each person present shared a tale of some fallen adventurer or friend. For my own part I told the story of the final death of Poet, who died in the service of the Royal Army in Ravenholt in 594. I heard tales of Strider De’Kiernan, Kyth Wyld, and many others. The one most touching to me was when Baron Warclaw recounted the death of his brother Sir Rigellan Seth. I was present at his final battle so many years ago. Cedric and I have always regretted that we were unable to retrieve his body for proper burial. Rigellan was one of those adventurers that always had a smile on his face no matter what was happening. So stirred by his recounting of his fallen brother was Baron Warclaw that he vowed to never again take the life of another living being, and there in the circle of candlelight broke his sword in half.
After Qualinorim I went and retrieved Sir Merritt from the tavern so that he could attend the spirit farewell of Baron Kyth Wyld. Emotions were running high throughout the proceedings and at several points I thought they would be halted altogether before the magic was completed.
Once completed though Kyth rifted in over the circle. He spoke a few words then dropped down from the rafters onto the floor and hugged Kes. Amazing as it was to watch a Death elemental perform these actions and hear the words, this incident almost had me convinced that the people we know in life can be the same once passed from us into other things.
At any rate I spoke with Kyth for a time. Told him I missed him and would watch over those he had watched over in life. We shook hands and I left to give him more alone time with Kes. After speaking briefly with Strider on the way out, I went and turned in for the evening, and the next morning I left for Goldhaven.