With times quiet in Avendale, I once again thought it a reasonable time to do some traveling. My friends Kabaka and Kimper had not yet been to the southern part of Evendarr, so we decided to take a trip down to Therendry. I planned for a short trip down, using gates to get to Evendarr City, and figuring it would be an easy trip from there. However, wagon traffic on the road made travel more difficult than I expected. To make matters even worse, the gathering was held in Ducal lands in the southern part of Therendry, making the trip that much longer. However, I finally did arrive, finding that Kabaka and Kimper had arrived slightly before I did.
We put our equipment into a cabin, and Kabaka stayed behind to cast the ward. Kimper and I, meanwhile, proceeded up to the tavern, where we found that it was not yet open. I ran into Squire Liam, leader of House Wave, and just had time to re-make my acquiantance with him before we were attacked.
We were assaulted by very large chaos elementals. They were capable of throwing elemental chaos that could damage a person for up to thirty dagger blows, and they could cast spells and swing their claws for ten dagger blows of damage or so. It didn't take long for them to overwhelm us. I was saved only because Kimper dragged me into a circle of power after I fell. She healed me, and then the chaos elementals walked away. I told her to drop the circle, and then I ran out and healed up Squire Liam. Unfortunately, the chaos elementals came back again.
Squire Liam again got taken down, and I was taking a beating when Kimper pulled me into another circle of power. Fortunately, this time I was still up, and I was able to heal myself up. When the chaos elementals left again, I was able to again get to Squire Liam to get him up. Fortunately, this time they didn't come back, and we got some time to recover.
Around the same time, a rift opened, and a being called Dosai came through it, along with his master, a Lord General whose name I forget. They were emissaries from the Nemesai people, and they were looking to come to terms of war with the people of Therendry. They sought a noble who could speak for the people of Therendry, but unfortunately no nobles could be found. Disappointed, they went off to look for nobles themselves.
Afterwards, Kimper and I met a relatively new adventurer named Berrel. She was a sarr alchemist, and was quite friendly and interesting to talk to, so she wandered with us a while. From talking to her we learned that she was a friend of House Therenstar and a messenger with one of the Guilds in Therendry, although I unfortunately do not recall which.
While the three of us were walking together, we were attacked by two monkeys. They seemed to be chaos tainted, and very aggressive. I was about to fight them off, and was relatively confident that I could have taken them, but Kimper pulled Berrel and I into yet another circle of power. I explained to her afterwards that circles of power should not be used except in dire situations, and the chaos tainted monkeys weren't dangerous enough to justify it.
After the monkeys wandered on, we ran into another old friend of mine, Sheriff Glenn Stormwolf. After greetings were exchanged, we were attacked by the same two chaos monkeys. This time we were easily able to dispatch them, with Glenn taking out one and myself taking out the other.
Glenn went back to his cabin after that, and Berrel, Kimper, and I wandered down to our cabin to find Kabaka. He was there, just finishing getting his equipment on, and we were able to move out quickly. We wandered back up to the area known as C camp, where we found most of the rest of the town.
Bosai, and his Lord General, were waiting there when we arrived. They were negotiating terms of the war with Count Davy, the Count of Lochwood. Unfortunately, while that was going on, the chaos elementals from earlier were attacking the town. Of course, with more support, we were able to take them out fairly easily. They were big and nasty, yes, but I've seen worse before.
After the chaos elementals were defeated, the quiet time gave me a chance to re-make more old acquaintances. I found my friend Oskar the dwarf, who remains one of my favorite people to fight alongside. I also found Liriel, who remains one of the best information gatherers I know. I spent a great deal of time with Oskar at the gathering, but unfortunately did not see Liriel after the first night. Despite this, I was glad to see her at least then.
Once the terms were set, the nobles called a meeting at the tavern, which had finally been opened, to announce them. The nemesai would allow certain adventurers to declare themselves non-combatants. All the rest would fight the nemesai for gold. If the nemesai won, they would heal up the townspeople and
take a gold piece as their reward. If the town won, they would not kill the nemesai, and would get their gold as a reward. With the terms thus set, Kabaka, Kimper, Berrel, Oskar, Liriel, myself, and one of Oskar's friends whose name escapes me all went down to our cabins to pick up some gold so that we would have it to give should we lose to the nemesai.
After we got back to town, we found that Baron Valoric Treehawk was leading a force against some type of slaver. Wanting to eliminate slavery wherever we found it, Kabaka, Kimper, and I joined him. It turned out that the slaver used mostly undead as his force to defend himself. Kabaka slayed a greater undead
skeleton warrior into the ground, and I took out many undead with both sword and spell. My healing pools also proved most useful, since there were many younger adventurers who were being often dropped by the undead. I don't know what went on with confronting the slaver, because I never actually got inside the building. I am confident, though, that the nobles handled it appropriately, especially since Lord Zug, one of the fairest nobles I know, was there.
Following that, Friday night got pretty quiet, so Kimper, Kabaka, and I went to bed. We allowed Oskar and his companions to stay in our cabin, since our cabin had a ward and their's did not.
We were awoken the next morning by a couple of heralds telling us that there was about to be a Ducal tournament. I actually had no intention of participating in the tourney, but when Glenn Stormwolf recruited me to his team, I figured I would help him out if I could.
That morning, I also met a man dressed in green and gold, and wandered up to him to make casual conversation. "Hello," I said to him, and he replied in kind. I then introduced myself, and he introduced himself as Ellis Pinetree. It was only then that I realized that I was talking to the Duke of Therendry,
and I assure you that you have never seen anyone take a knee as fast as I did there. It turned out, though, that the Duke was a nice man who was not offended by my blunder, and for that I was glad.
As we stood there waiting for the tournament to start, I felt the earth suddenly cry out, as if it was being wounded. To heal itself, it took some strength from all the adventurers there, which caused each adventurer five points of damage that went right through their armor and immediately affected their body. This dropped some of the adventurers to the ground, but myself and other healers went around and made certain that everyone was okay. I assume that the damage to the earth was caused by all the chaos in the area, or possibly by a chaos rift, but I am not certain.
In the tourney, my friends and I did not fare well. Kabaka was easily beaten in the single fighting competition. The team Kabaka and Kimper were on for team fighting did not make it past the first round (falling to House Therenstar), while my team was beaten by the second of two Lochwood teams in the second round.
After the tournament, my companions and I went to have lunch. When we got back, there was a blue biata in town, and she tried to rift out Kimper. Kabaka grabbed on, and they were both rifted out. This, as you might guess, did not make me happy. You don't abduct my friends without facing my wrath.
A few minutes later, Kabaka and Kimper came back, and they were not themselves. Their memories had been altered so that they now blamed dark elves and yellow biata for all their troubles, and they wanted to attack those same races. I was something less than pleased with this development, but I had no
mind-attering powers that could help get them back to normal.
They went after one of the dark elves in town, and a treant, under orders from Squire Draelin, paralyzed them so that they could not further attack the town. We put them in the tavern and sent a runner to fetch a stone elf to help fix their problem. Unfortunately, before the stone elf could arrive, a fae named V did arrive, and took them, along with a sarr who was similarly affected, herself. Now I was doubly unhappy. The only solace I could take was that we managed to find and kill the blue biata, but at this point that probably didn't matter anyway.
When V brought Kabaka and Kimper (and the sarr who was with them) back into town, they thought that everyone was a toy. Fortunately, I had their weapons, or they might have hurt someone. Fortunately, Count Davy of Lochwood cut down V with an iron weapon, and that dealt with the problem. After V was gone, all three afflicted people reverted to their normal selves.
Around the same time that situation was going on, a giant beanstalk appeared in the middle of town, shooting up into the sky. Young adventurers could climb it, but older adventurers did not seem to be able to. When I tried to climb, it violently threw me off. I don't know what went on at the top of the
beanstalk, but I do know that the beanstalk seemed to be tained with corruption, and a little later in the day the adventurers all plummeted back down from the sky. A couple almost fell on me, but I managed to sidestep them and then heal everyone. They had eggs with them, but I don't know what the significance of the eggs was.
Also, throughout the day two kinds of plants kept appearing. One type appeared to be chaos corrupted, and the others were trying to seek out and destroy chaos. I am not clear on which was which, but I know that many of them dropped leaves which appeared to be some type of earth magic. I sensed that they could be used as keys for something, but I didn't know what.
After all the excitement of the daytime, it was finally time for dinner. I spent some time at the feast talking to people, and made sure to pay my respects to the Duke, as is proper. The Duke almost seemed surprised by my doing this, and that leads me to believe that perhaps Therendry is less formal than some other places that I adventure.
At any rate, after dinner I spent some time hanging out with Squire Draelin, Berrel, and some other friends, and then headed back to the tavern with Berrel. When we got there, we found out that there was to be a rift to the nemesai, so a great war could be fought with them. At this point, I knew that the nemesai were extremely skilled fighters, and the notion of going to fight them did not appeal to me. However, I am a man of duty, and was willing to go as long as it was needed.
Unfortunately, though, I missed my chance. Just before they were about to rift out, a lady from Greyhorn named Neneve ran out of the tavern, with Berrel right behind her. I wasn't sure what was going on, but I followed, along with Squire Draelin and many of the travelers from Greyhorn that were present at
the gathering. When we found Neneve, she was in a circle of power, with Berrel right there. I soon learned what was going on. Berrel had been bottled by the Incarnation of Evil, and he wanted Neneve. Unluckily for him, V got her first, rifting her right through a circle of power.
With most of the town gone fighting the nemesai, and with no way to follow Neneve, the rest of us left decided to try to see if we could help free Berrel from the Incarnation of Evil. We went to the place where we thought her bottle might be, and there we found what might best be described as a sidetrack -
The Hand of Darkness. He was an elf from Quentari who had been transformed into an undead, and we destroyed the formal magic on him in order to free him from his transformation.
After that was over, V and the Incarnation of Evil both showed up in the tavern, along with the rest of the town. It seemed that V and Evil were working together, but I am not sure. I tried to help Berrel free herself from Evil, but I also had to try to find Neneve, since V had taken her. V was invisible, but could still speak, and so I talked to her. I asked to be able to speak to Neneve, and V said I could do so only without weapons. I left my weapons with Kabaka and Kimper and accepted her rift. Was it smart? No. was it the right thing to do? Yes.
When I got to the place Neneve was being held, I was immediately overwhelmed by some form of taint. It turned out that Neneve was being held by a being known as the Slaver, or the Collector, or the Toymaker, or some other names. He held V in his power, and she couldn't do anything against him. She seemed
distraught to have brought me to him.
He wasn't there when I arrived, though, and I got a brief moment to talk to Neneve. She didn't know me, of course, so introductions had to be done first, but the taint made it difficult for me even to speak. Neneve kept telling me I shouldn't have come, but I knew I could never leave a townsperson alone when they were in trouble.
When the Slaver arrived, he was surprised to see me, since he didn't expect me to come, and wasted no time paralyzing me. I saw some visions while paralyzed, but they were private, and will not be discussed here. I did find out, though, that the Slaver believes he is helping people avoid a life of pain, and he does this by trapping them in statues where they live in their own imagination, where nothing ever has to be bad. Neneve told him, wisely, that such a life is meaningless, because pain is a part of life, and makes us stronger. I cannot recall her entire speech, but suffice to say it was one of the most eloquent I have ever heard. Considering that I am a librarian, that is quite a statement to be able to make.
Wanting to "help" us, the Slaver put a mark on both of our wrists, a black mark that creating some type of spirit chain between us, binding us together. He also unparalyzed me at last, which was nice, although since I was still tainted I couldn't enjoy it much.
The Slaver next gave Neneve a choice of two doors to go through. She made her choice, and ended up in an open field with a holly tree. There was a bird in the tree that looked very much like the Slaver. She started to climb towards the bird, but the tree became corrupted by chaos and started to crumble beneath her. She started to fall, but as she did, I realized that I was in the tree as well, and the chain was still binding us together. I used the chain to pull her up, and she used the chain to heal me. Now relatively near full strength, I joined Neneve in pumping healing through the chain in order to both purify the tree and each other, and harm the bird, since the chain was conveniently wrapped around the bird's neck.
However, soon we found that the tree was simply too corrupt, and we weren't having enough effect. We grabbed each other with our non-chained hands, and jumped from the tree, pulling the bird down with us, and ultimately defeating the bird, and freeing ourselves from the Slaver. We also found that the mark where the chain was had been replaced with new marks. I had the mark of a holly tree, which is Neneve's personal symbol, and she had the mark of an owl, my personal symbol. I later had to have the mark removed because it came from the Slaver, but I am still not sure whether the mark was good or evil.
After escaping the slaver, Neneve and I found ourselves right in between two armies about to collide with each other: the chaos minions of the Slaver and the assembled forces of the town. Neneve and I quickly fled behind the town lines, rather than get trapped in the middle without weapons and equipment. I couldn't find Kimper and Kabaka, but I found Oskar, and he was about to let me borrow a spellbook so that I could have some effect on the battle.
Fortunately, though, that proved unnecessary since Kabaka and Kimper soon showed up. Kimper had my equipment, and I quickly strapped it on and readied for battle. Neneve and I especially wanted to kill the Slaver, but he unfortunately got away.
I was surprised when the town's back lines were assaulted by Count Davy and Lochwood, who I believe were under the Slaver's control. They were fortunately dispatched, and eventually freed of the Slaver's power. After that, the battle wasn't too bad. There was some sort of death construct, who could spellstrike for death, but it was eventually taken down.
When the battle was over and we got back to town, I had a hard time explaining to people exactly what happened with the Slaver, so I hope this clears it up to some degree. The town was assaulted by several random monsters that night, including many goblins, who were relatively easy to kill, and a couple of
quicklings, who were not easy to kill. They were very fast and could heal themselves and spoke in very high, squeaky voices.
I thought the quicklings strange, but not as strange as something calling itself the Emissary of the Jameson, which came after. The Emissary was a floating bunch of grapes that could talk and cast spells. It confused me a lot. The Slaver kept at this work that night, capturing townspeople, and turning them into undead, or into visions of himself, or things like that. We always managed to save them, but it was very annoying. Then the Slaver himself made an appearance, and Squire Draelin, myself, and some others cut him down.
Unfortunately, he managed to get up again, and ran off. We chased him, but to no avail.
At that point, it was finally time for bed, and for the end of the gathering. I would like to thank the people of Therendry for again showing me great hospitality. I am disappointed that I still have not found my friend Jester in Therendry, and I missed seeing my friend Lady Tenshi this time. I also regret not having more time to speak to Baron Valoric and Lord Zug. Overall, though, my regrets are few, and I cannot wait for my next chance to again adventure in the lands of Therendry.
Scribed by Seronia on the 13th day of May in the year 603.