Ah, Therendry. This past weekend I made the long trip down to Therendry for the second time in the last six months. It is quite a trip from Avendale, I must say, but I have always found it to be worthwhile. This particular trip yielded several encounters of note.
First, on Friday night I was recruited to aid some younger adventurers help a man name Thaddius rescue an old man who had been wrongfully imprisoned in an insane asylum. Now, I have to say that this asylum could have used a little bit better upkeep. When we got there, all the staff and all the patients were dead. Worse than that, they were undead. We didn't even manage to get into the institution itself, for we were assaulted along the path on the way there by several of these undead.
The individuals of House Wave, the group I was journeying with, fought bravely, but it was not enough. Their lines began to break as soon as a couple of them fell down, and their healers couldn't get them up fast enough, and so the undead washed over them. I tried to get through to the front lines, but the undead advanced their line past my fallen comrades, and so I decided to whip out some spells and blow through their lines. I was, of course, dismayed to discover that these undead were so tough that they could resist three spells each. Not having the magic to deal with that, my companions and I retreated back to town.
Unfortunately, the undead followed us. On the plus side, though, back in town we found several other adventurers, and they helped us destroy the undead that had followed us. We then quickly organized together the town, and raided the asylum at full strength. The battle was bloody, but we managed to rescue the entire House Wave, as well as the old man we had originally come to help.
After that, things were relatively quiet on Friday night, and I retired not long after. I woke up early on Saturday morning, and went out into the woods to scavenge some breakfast and study my spellbooks. I have found that it is often as effective a method of training as paying the Duchy to train you.
When I was done with that, I came back into town not long before the magics were due to reset themselves. Having some spells left, I decided to heal up as much of the town as possible, as well as give out some protectives, and generally help out in whatever way I could. In the process, I met an old acquaintance. If you have read The Tale of Ambush Alley, which is in the Avendale section of this library, you will find that in that battle I fought alongside a half boy/half dog, and healed him during the battle. Well, I have not seen him since, but he was in Therendry this weekend. Unfortunately, his sad fate has not yet been reversed, although people are working to help him. I discovered that his name is Kody, and I enjoyed catching up with him, even though it was difficult since he doesn't speak.
Kody was only one friend that I made over the course of the weekend. I also met a dwarf named Oskar, who seemed an eminently reasonable fellow and who I got along with well. Through Oskar, I met a young elf named Liriel, who proved to be a good gatherer of information and a nice person. It always amazes me how many nice people you meet when you travel to foreign lands.
However, not only did I meet new nice people, I also got to again see some friends form my last visit to Therendry. I renewed my friendship with Zug, now Lord of Springshire, and one of the best fighters and nicest people in Therendry. I also got to again see Lady Tenshi, who helped me out a great deal in my first trip to Therendry. Both have said that they may be coming to Ravenholt soon, and if they do, I hope I see them there.
Getting back to my story, though, that afternoon I learned that Sir Sethos was looking to lead a group to attack a bee hive. I asked if I could come, and to my great satisfaction he said yes. I ended up backpacking Lord Zug through most of the fight, and we did okay. The bees were frightening, able to paralyze you with their blows, but Lord Zug is so good defensively that he almost never took a hit.
Not much happened after the bee hive was destroyed through the rest of the early evening. I did, however, finally get a chance to meet Eric Augustson, who has authored several of the maps you may find in this library. A right likeable man and skilled fighter, if I do say so myself.
Around dinnertime, a group calling themselves the Purists burst into the tavern. They were looking for a specific dark elf, who was not around at the time. They wore all white, and seemed to consider humans superior to all other forms of life. The dark elves naturally stood against them, as did the rest of the town. The leader of the purists ended up agreeing to a duel with one of the dark elves, called Mashiro. Unfortunately, the fight wasn't fair from the start, and to make matters worse, it was never clear whether it was to be a duel to the death or not. After the Purist leader defeated Mashiro, he quickly delivered a killing blow into him. The town was uncertain as to what to do, since no one knew if it had been a duel to the death or not.
Baron Simeon Silvercord, though, made a decisive decision, and said, "Someone life that man." From where I was standing a few feet away, I threw a life spell at Mashiro, and managed to bring him back from the dead state he was in. Then all hell broke loose. The purists, outraged, began attacking the town, and the town fought back. For some reason, there was a life knight working with the Purists, although I think he may have been a corrupted life knight. Either way, it made them much harder to kill. In the end, the life knight and one of the Purist leaders got away. From what I understand, they also grabbed two members of town, Dame Pai the stone elf and Blue the mystic wood elf, and race changed them human, an unforgiveable offense in anyone's book. It is my understanding that they are now to be arrested on sight within the Duchy of Therendry.
That night, things only got worse. There was a mission undertaken to recover a ring, although I didn't know too many details about it. The problem is that this mission was simultaneous with another mission, and so the town's resources were split. We fought some type of earth elemental creatures, able to use the very ground to their advantage. We managed to defeat them thanks to the valor of Baron Silvercord, Eric Augustson, and others. We acquired the ring we are looking for, but I am not certain if we gave it to the right person or not. We may have been tricked. Perhaps someone from Therendry could give me more information on this matter.
Finally, we came to the last encounter of the night. Some mind flayers had been messing with a red dragon, and we went in to stop them, or at least that was what a black dragon told us. To tell you the truth, I was pretty confused by the whole thing. Well, we managed to defeat the mind flayers, although it was a tough fight. Then we went after the dragon, apparently using some type of celestial ritual to try to destroy him.
Well, the red dragon was not too pleased with this. He came after us with his vicious attacks, along with his minions, which included a red hoardling. The red hoardling, similar to the blue hoardling I faced the last time I was in Therendry, was absurdly powerful. It was capable of swinging 30 dagger blows of taint blood. Before long, the entire town was on the ground, except me, and I was in a circle of power I had thrown up to escape the hoardling. Fortunately, it turned out that not everyone that was down was unconscious, and slowly but surely Caliphar and his companions started getting the town back up.
It was a slow process, but fortunately the dragon pretty much left them alone while they were doing it, deciding to go after the scroll meant to destroy him instead. Unfortunately, when the battle began again, the dragon was angry, and began throwing obliteration magics. I don't think he actually hit anyone, but it was a scary incident nonetheless. Eventually, though I am not entirely sure how, we did manage to defeat the dragon, and end what was probably the greatest threat Therendry has known in some time.
Before I close my missive, I would be remiss if I did not thank the people of Therendry for their generosity. Therendry is the only land I have visited where people actually appreciate healers, and pay for healing. I was delighted beyond words to see this. I promise that I will come back to Therendry sometime soon, although I unfortunately am not sure when. Unfortunately, it is a very long trip.
Scribed by Seronia on the 17th day of December in the year 602.