For once, I just don’t know what to say. I end every gathering with a journal entry summing up the gathering from my point of view, but this time I just don’t think that doing that would come close to saying everything I need to say. My perspective on a lot of things changed this gathering, and I learned a lot of lessons. I hope everyone will bear with me if I try to share some of what I learned in this journal.
As the gathering began, I was busy helping Dame Parthynia with business in Theren City. Because of this, I was late in getting to Calais, and I didn’t arrive in town until about 4 AM or so Saturday morning. Now, in this part of Calais, the cabins we stay in at gatherings have ten beds. They are split so that there are four beds on each side, and a room in the middle with two more beds. In the cabin I was staying in, Anthony Darkforge and Her Excellency Viscountess Kiera Zobrist were in the middle. On the right side, there was Sir Gunnar of Therendry, Sir Jokarius of Avendale, Lord Siranot DeGauss of Exeter, and Arkyn of Myanthea. On the left side, there was my friend Brin and I. I had hoped that Anyanka Shadowrunner would be staying with us, but I assume she got held up by business in Theren City, given that she is the legal scribe for Therendry now.
Well, when I got into town, I pretty much just went straight to bed, so I missed basically the entirety of Friday night. However, I was told by Sir Gunnar about what happened. Apparently some death elementals attacked a Children of the Earth (CotE) formal magic and stole away Loralai, His Grace’s wife. Given that all of the death elementals were able to cause death with their death energies, and not even protectives would save you, the fight was fierce but short.
Later on, lizardmen began attacking, and it is believed that they were incited to violence by death elementals invading their lands. More on that later, though.
Finally, a barbarian who represented the spirit plane as a shaman came to the Viscountess, and asked her to select a team of people who would go to the spirit plane and adopt spirit guides in order to fight back the death elementals on that plane. The team she chose was herself, Anthony Darkforge, Sir Gunnar, Arkyn, Squire Ashe of Ashbury, Lord Exeter, Dame Parthynia, and I. Most of the team took their spirit tests on Friday night, but since Squire Ashe, Dame Parthynia, and I weren’t around, we took ours on Saturday morning.
Also, Sir Gunnar informed me that the death elementals intended to cast a formal on Loralai that would harm the land of Therendry, and we needed to find three things to stop it: coreander root, a certain flower with a pink center, and water that had never flowed or seen the light of day.
At any rate, I believe that was most of what happened on Friday night at least according to the accounts I got.
Early Saturday morning I awoke, and found that I was one of the few people awake in town. Sir Gunnar awoke not long after me, and as I walked towards the tavern I heard Beryl yelling my name. I went over to her, and she explained that a goblin had come into town talking about a battlefield where dryads had been beaten by death elementals the night before. Along with some newer adventurers (Pell Melrun and his crew) and Lady Kes, I set off with Beryl and Sir Gunnar to investigate.
When we got there, we found an old hag in front of a large, withering tree. We questioned her about what she was doing there, and she told us that she had made a deal with the leader of the death elementals to kill the dryads. She also gave us a description of the death elementals, which was something I had not previously known. Apparently, they are black-skinned with horns. Of course, they’re still mostly identified by the copious amounts of death magic they throw.
At any rate, the hag called up her minions, monsters made of mud that seemed to rise up straight from the ground itself. Sir Gunnar and Lady Kes concentrated on taking out the hag herself, while I worked mostly on defending the back line, along with Pell and his group. Eventually, we managed to kill the hag, and we tried to help the dryads, but unfortunately they were all permanently dead, which is a tragic disaster.
We headed back to the tavern, and it was around then that Dame Parthynia arrived in town. She carried a letter with her that would change quite a few things about the Duchy of Therendry. Due to His Grace’s illness, he temporarily appointed a council of his non-landed nobles to govern the Duchy. This council was composed of Dame Parthynia, Viscountess Zobrist, and Viscount Silvercord, with Viscount Silvercord acting as the mouthpiece for the decisions of the group.
There were other changes as well. Dame Parthynia became Seneschal of Theren City, Viscountess Zobrist became Seneschal of Norland County, and Viscount Silvercord became Seneschal of Fellmist County. Also, due to His Grace’s illness, my squireship was transferred from His Grace to Dame Parthynia for the time being.
Other than that, things were pretty much left the same. All the other Counts were left in place as is, and so were the Lords of the various towns and all other landed nobles. Squire Finna was raised to be the Guildmistress of the Calais Healer’s Guild, so huzzah for her! It is a richly deserved honor.
Thankfully, the transition seemed to run pretty smoothly. The triad of leaders seems to be able to make agreeable, unanimous decisions, and that’s a good sign for the Duchy.
A little while later, a farmer came into town and complained that his crops were being set on fire by lizardmen. To her credit, Lady Pyroxia of Calais immediately gathered a group together and we got there in what was nearly record time. It was by no means an easy fight, and I got beaten down several times, despite the best efforts of Dame Parthynia and Lady Pyroxia to keep me alive.
The most disturbing thing was what the lizardmen were doing to the ground. After they got finished burning the crops, they would salt the ground so that nothing could grow there again. I am not sure why, but for some reason the lizardmen seemed intent on hurting the earth of Therendry. That could mean that the lizardmen are involved with what’s going on deeper than we think. It could mean that they are trying to hurt the land to hurt either His Grace or the CotE, but I am not sure if that’s true. For the moment, it is mere speculation.
Not long after, Dame Parthynia, Viscount Silvercord, and I were taken for our first spirit test. It involved answering a lot of questions and dealing with a lot of situations. I don’t remember them all, but I will try to recall some of them here.
The first part involved three questions. First I was asked what the most important thing in the world to me was, second I was asked what the second most important thing in the world to me was, and third I was asked what the least important thing in the world to me was.
Another test required me to choose a box. Inside the three boxes were wisdom, courage, and potential, and we were assured we would choose the correct one naturally. A similar test showed us three faces and asked us which one we feared the most. One face represented old age, another face represented loss of identity, and a final face represented monsters.
In another test, I stood before a man lying on the ground and a pile of treasure. I believe we were supposed to choose whether to help the man or grab the treasure. In a similar test, there was a treasure box teetering on a cliff, and we had to decide whether to go after it.
The final test was perhaps the most difficult. We were asked who our greatest enemy was. After we answered, we saw our greatest enemy, tied up in chains before us, and had to decide what to do with them. It was a difficult choice.
After dealing with all the parts of the test, I was rifted back into town, and not long afterwards I was standing around outside the tavern when an alligator hunter came into town looking for a person of authority to speak to. Someone pointed him towards me, and I attempted to point him towards Lady Pyroxia. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find her, and so I brought him to Count Valoric Treehawke of Stormcross County instead, and Count Treehawke referred him to Lord Balduranthus Moonshadow of Slateron to deal with his problem.
As a side note, I am happy to say that Lord Slateron, Squire Finna Silverrod, and Fenrir Silverrod all race changed to wolven this gathering, and seemed to be taking to the change quite well. I know Fenrir and Squire Finna were born as wolven, so I assume the transition was fairly easy for them. As for Lord Slateron, race changing like that took a lot of guts on his part, and I thought very highly of him for it.
At any rate, the alligator hunter explained that he could no longer hunt alligators to feed his family because the swamp had become infested with lizardmen. We told him that we would go deal with the problem, and he led us to the swamp. We suspected that death elementals might also be involved, so we took pretty much the entire town with us.
The lizardmen, as it turned out, held a captive, an innocent civilian. They had him in a circle, and were going to kill him if we did not withdraw as per their demands. Apparently, the situation was this. The death elementals had taken over their coreander grove, so the lizardmen took over the swamp, and in the process captured the civilian and killed the alligators. All the lizardmen wanted was to get their grove back, and then they would release their captive and be on their way.
Unfortunately, this is where I made big mistake of the gathering number one. I started talking to the lizardmen, even though I had no authority to negotiate with them. Others, indeed, did the same thing. Because of this, Lady Pyroxia, who actually had authority to negotiate with the lizardmen, became unheard in the din.
Stepping in to fix the situation, Viscount Silvercord began to negotiate with the lizardmen. But the lizardmen did not want to negotiate with His Excellency the Viscount, they wanted to negotiate with Lady Pyroxia. It went on like this for something like twenty minutes before we finally got the information we needed. I blame myself for this, because if I and others like me had been wise and just remained silent, the negotiations could have been done quickly and we wouldn’t have wasted valuable time.
When the lizardmen pointed us towards their grove, we headed off in that direction, and ended up fighting a swarm of death elementals. Most of them weren’t too bad, though I did get dropped a few times, but fortunately I always got timely healing. Sir Yngvar of Ashbury was especially good during this fight, and I spent some time backpacking Lord Exeter, who was a whirlwind in the battle.
When we had cleared out most of the death elementals, I noticed that there was a larger death elemental than the rest, who was hiding in a circle and pulling up roots. He was apparently also looking for the coreander root, and he must have gotten it, because he dropped his circle and took off.
A group of people chased after him, and caught up with him at the beginning of the trail that led out of the grove. A quick battle ensued, and I saw Dame Parthynia fall to the ground. I sprinted over to her, but thankfully, Squire Finna was even faster than I was, and got to Dame Parthynia and administered her a life spell.
When the death elemental was dropped, Dame Parthynia took possession of the coreander root, and went with Squire Finna to the Healer’s Guild to destroy the root so that it could not be used in the formal against Loralai.
When we got back to the tavern, I ordered some food from the kitchen and then sat down to wait for it. I knew that people were being rifted out for the second spirit test, but I did not expect it to happen at that exact moment. This became my second big mistake of the gathering.
Something came to rift me out, and like an idiot, I refused the rift. I am not sure why I did it. Maybe I did it because I was hungry and waiting for my food. Maybe I did it because I was surprised by the rift and forgot about the spirit tests. Maybe it was because I really had a subconscious desire to not take the spirit tests. Anyway, for whatever reason, I screwed up and refused the rift, and I think in doing so I made the spirit plane upset with me.
More so than the fact that the spirit plane was angry at me, though, I was worried that I had put the other seven people going in more danger by losing them one of their resources. It is always going to be harder to fight a battle with seven people than eight. I will elaborate more on my misadventures with the spirit plane later, though.
The next task that came up was a chance to find the second one of the components, the flower with the pink center. A man who was studying to be a Protector of the CotE (whom I think was named Alexander, but I am uncertain of this) led us to the grove where the flowers grow. Lady Pyroxia, Squire Kabaka, and I approached the flowers cautiously, intending to harvest the flower carefully. However, just as we were doing this, Alexander began screaming that the Sanctuary of the CotE was under attack.
I grabbed Squire Kabaka, and asked him to track Alexander so that we could find where he was running to and help him defend the CotE. To their credit, both Squire Kyth of Richland and Adrafae joined Squire Kabaka and I as we ran off into the woods after Alexander. All of this set up my third big mistake of the gathering.
By the time we got about a minute into the woods, we heard the sound of combat from behind us. Apparently, the town had gotten hit from behind after we ran off into the woods. I heard Lady Kes and Dame Parthynia screaming for us, and I looked at everyone else. “What do you want to do?” I asked.
Squire Kyth replied, “It’s Kes. I have to go back.” With that, Squire Kyth ran off. I looked backwards and I said, “I think the town can handle themselves. I am not sure if the Children of the Earth can. I think we should press on.” In doing so, I consciously ignored a call from my liege to come to her. For those who remember the Greymist waylay incident, in that case Dame Parthynia asked me to come to her and I just didn’t hear her. In this case, I heard her and consciously ignored it.
Now, one can argue that it was a judgment call that had to be made. I knew that protecting the grove was important, but I also knew that protecting the Sanctuary was important. I made the judgment call that the people behind us could take care of themselves, but the people in front of us couldn’t necessarily do the same. Was it the right call? I don’t know. I just don’t know.
At any rate, to continue with the story, Squire Kabaka, Adrafae, and I continued on without Squire Kyth, but it was slow going. The woods got thicker, and the trail was harder to follow. Finally, though, we came out into a clearing where we could see death elementals swarming, and we saw Alexander lying on the ground in front of them.
Right about then, Squire Kyth caught up to us. Apparently he had sprinted back through the woods, following the trail we had created, and had gotten there just in time to aid us against the death elementals.
We approach the elementals cautiously. We knew how powerful they were, but we also knew that we needed to get through them to save the CotE that were trapped inside the Sanctuary. I held down the left flank for the battle, with Squire Kabaka in the middle and Squire Kyth on the right. Adrafae stood behind us, doing an impressive job of backpacking with protectives and hurting the elementals with damage.
We probably fought about twenty death elementals in total, and managed to dispatch them all. I healed Alexander up, and we found an imprisoned elf. Alexander explained to us that the elf was his leader, the guardian of the Sanctuary, and so I dispelled the imprison spell.
When the CotE leader was free, he explained to us that there were many CotE who were wounded or dead inside the Sanctuary. Just as he was about to lead me to them, we saw Lady Kes and Rastlin arrive with a bunch of adventurers that had come to help us out. And also at the same time, some more death elementals popped up. I told Squire Kyth that I had to go help the CotE inside in case they were dying, and I asked him if he could hold off the death elementals long enough to let me do that.
Together with Adrafae and Squire Kabaka, Squire Kyth valiantly fought the death elementals, and fortunately Lady Kes and Rastlin managed to come up behind and help them out. Meanwhile, I ran into the Sanctuary, ripped a component, and used an entire healing pool to heal the CotE who were down inside.
At that point, all the others joined me inside, and we got a chance to talk to the leader of the CotE for a while. He thanked us for our help, and allowed us to ask him some questions. Meanwhile, I got chewed out by Rastlin for running off and nearly getting myself killed. Of course, it was a friendly chewing out, if there can be such a thing.
Let me pause a moment here to talk about my three companions. Squire Kyth, as everyone knows, is one of the most honorable people in Therendry. He always puts his life on the line for the good of the Duchy, and he rarely receives much recognition for it. He’s an extremely skilled fighter, and an exceptionally brave and loyal person as well.
Squire Kabaka is a long-time friend of mine. I met him when we first started adventuring together in Avendale. He was human then, and he’s a half-ogre now, but that hasn’t changed his personality very much. Multiple times he has gotten himself killed by trying to save people even when he knew it was going to cost him his own life. There is very little that’s more noble than laying yourself on the line for others, and few do it as bravely as Squire Kabaka does.
Adrafae is someone I met much more recently, just a few weeks ago in Blackstone. She has thus far proven herself very bright and extremely competent. She reminds me of Rastlin in a way, because she knows exactly when to use her spells and what spells to use. She also picks up information extremely well, and oftentimes during this gathering I relied on her to let me know what was going on in town. And, obviously, she is extremely brave, as not just anyone would go rushing off the woods to fight twenty death elementals with just three companions.
Essentially, I guess the point I am driving at here is that I could not have asked for a better group to accompany me on such a dangerous mission. All three of them win my highest marks both for compassion and for valor. I would be honored to fight alongside any of them at any time.
Well, eventually we arrived back in town, and I had to go seek out Dame Parthynia. I apologized to her for my actions, and informed her that I would accept any punishment she deemed necessary. To her credit, she did not seek to enforce any punishment. She told me that she trusted my judgment, and in the situation, it seemed as though my judgment had worked out well, since it had saved the CotE. I thanked her for her understanding, and told her that I would try to avoid running off like that in the future.
At this point, something rather odd happened. A representative of the spirit plane came to me and told me that if I wanted to take the second spirit test, I would have to best him in a game of rock, paper, scissors. I went with paper and he went with scissors. Even though I lost, he took mercy on me and let me take the test anyway.
This test required talking about myself. I don’t remember exactly what I said, but I went on for several minutes about my conception of morality. If you are interested in reading more about my views on morality, I have written a treatise on it that is available in most Evendarrian libraries. However, I won’t bore you with the details of my view here.
Around this time, two people that I respect and admire very much both showed up in town. One of them was Squire John Little of Havencrest, and the other was Baron Delwyn Mythrilmist of Whitemane in Blackstone. I helped Squire Little do some escort duty, and I realized something. It doesn’t matter how small the task is, Squire Little will do it if it will help someone. He’s kind of similar to my friend Caliphar Belmont in that respect.
As for Baron Mythrilmist, I was extremely grateful to him because he gave me really good advice a couple times on problems I was trying to work through. He has been adventuring a long time, and his kind of experience is always something an adventurer like myself can learn from.
Well, the big event of Saturday night was to be the wedding of Lord Balduranthas Moonshadow of Slateron to Squire Finna Silverrod. Presiding over the wedding was His Excellency, Count Valoric Treehawke. In attendance were the Ducal Courts of Therendry and Ashbury, the Viscountess Zobrist and her team, Lady Pyroxia, Baron Mythrilmist, and a few people from House Therenstar, House Silvercord, and the town at large. His Excellency gave a nice service. I am glad for my friends Lord Slateron and Squire Finna, and I wish them all the best in their life together. Huzzah!
Well, after the wedding, I went back to my cabin with Viscountess Zobrist. It was a short trip, so that we could rest for a few minutes and switch out equipment, and then we left and begin back up the trail. Unfortunately, we got jumped by two spiders.
Now, up until a little while ago, the Viscountess would have been a sitting duck in such a battle, because she had no weapons. Now, though, she carries around a shield, and is really quite good with it. I fought the spider on the left while she blocked the one on the right, and then after I killed the one on the left, I moved over to fight the one she had previously blocked.
Right then, however, she noticed five or so more spiders approaching. She told me to take care of the spider I was fighting quickly, which I did, and then we retreated backwards. We were thinking of dropping a circle, but we got to our ward first, and so we ran inside it. The odds for two scholars against five spiders are not good. At any rate, if nothing else, the entire incident gave me a chance to explain to the Viscountess about the situation with the CotE and the mistake I had made.
Well, eventually the Ducal Court of Ashbury showed up and took care of the spiders, and then some gnolls showed up, and we fought with them for a while. I have to say, whenever I fall down, Her Excellency the Viscountess excels at noticing me and getting me back up again, and I really appreciate it.
At any rate, we had a long conversation with Sir Jokarius, Anthony, Lord Exeter, Dame Parthynia, Squire Ashe, Brin, and my old friend Canaan and his nephew Damitri. It was good to see Canaan again, and hear him greet me with a booming, “HEY, SERONIA! HOW ARE JOO?” His nephew was also quite a nice boy, and quite a competent fighter. They both impressed me.
We also got a great demonstration of Lord Exeter’s storytelling skills, which far surpass my own. His use of language is excellent, and perfectly placed. He told the story of the “Cheese Incident,” which was a story involving myself and Sir Telaris in Avendale several months back, which Brin had been dying to hear.
Of course, peace, tranquility, and good conversations never last. We got attacked, and Squire Ashe and I chased the creature back to the tavern, where the assembled townsfolk soundly defeated it.
I decided to go to the tavern to get some food, and after I got done eating I got rifted out to the spirit plane again, along with all the other seven people.
Once there, we were all told that we would be having our spirit guides take us to fight a death elemental on the spirit plane, which was apparently a giant death elemental. But first, we had to find out our spirit guides.
And here was my biggest mistake of the entire gathering. We each got told what our spirit animals were. I am not sure if I remember them all, but from what I recollect, Anthony and Viscountess Kiera were both the eagle, Dame Parthynia was the heron, Lord Exeter was the possum, Arkyn was the lion, Viscount Silvercord was the rabbit, and I don’t remember what Sir Gunnar was.
For my part, I was chosen as the badger. Now, this made me absolutely furious, for a few reasons. First, to me, the badger has no identity. I know nothing about it, and if it’s really supposed to be a spirit guide, then I should be able to identify with it. Second, for what I do know, it’s a rather small animal, not exactly impressive, and with no outstanding qualities. Third, as soon as it was announced, everyone laughed at me, which like anyone else, I don’t necessarily appreciate. I don’t think it was malicious, but it was still painful.
Well, I reacted in the only way I could think of. I refused the spirit guide. I didn’t know exactly what the consequences of doing so would be, but I had a pretty good idea they wouldn’t be good. My ultimate hope, I guess, would be that I would be appointed a new spirit guide, but I didn’t really think it would happen, and it didn’t.
The wolf that was speaking to us informed me that my decision would mean my unavailability for the upcoming battle, and that would reduce the numbers from eight to seven. We were rifted back to the tavern, and I apologized to the group for hurting their numbers. Viscountess Zobrist asked me why I refused the spirit guide, and I don’t remember how I answered, but I do remember that I got very angry and stormed out of the tavern.
I went right the tavern porch and walked off alone into the darkness. Stupid? Maybe. But at that point I didn’t care. Fenrir told me to be careful because there were death elementals around, but at that point I would have welcomed a fight against five death elementals. I just didn’t care.
To her credit, Lady Pyroxia ran after me, and asked what was wrong. We went to my cabin and we sat and talked for a while. Then, Dame Parthynia came in with Baron Mythrilmist, and wanted to speak to me, and so we spoke while the good Baron spoke with Lady Pyroxia. Then, after Dame Parthynia left, I spent more time speaking to the good Baron and the Lady of Calais.
All three conversations had some common threads. Ultimately, I guess I just don’t think I am well suited for spirit enterprises. I’m not a spiritual person. I’m more of a practical, day-to-day living type of person. Someone like Squire Ashe Blackfist is in touch with his spiritual side. I’m not.
I guess one has to know their strengths and weaknesses. I wouldn’t say that I am a good fighter or a good caster, but at least in those situations I know what to do. When dealing with Tyrran creatures, I generally know what to do. But when dealing with spirits, I feel like I am out of my league.
Also, I guess the situation upset me because I object to the idea of a spirit guide anyway. The idea that there is a spirit guiding my actions in repulsive to me. That’s about the equivalent of telling me that none of the choices I have ever made have been my own because I have been enslaved my whole life. I believe that I am the master of my own fate, and that my choices guide my life. Malaclypse, an adventurer I met in Neridia, has written some very good material on free will, and I recommended reading it.
However, that raises some real questions. First of all, if I object to spirits and spirit guides in the first place, why did I agree to go to the spirit plane and have a spirit guide? I guess the answer is that I felt obligated to. When Sir Gunnar told me that Dame Parthynia and I were supposed to go, I didn’t really question it. But as Lady Pyroxia pointed out to me, maybe I should have. Maybe I should have said, “I’m not really good at that kind of thing, maybe you’d be better off taking someone who is.” I don’t know why I didn’t. Maybe I was afraid. Maybe I thought that if I refused, I would be failing Therendry.
It does seem, though, that there is something to Lady Pyroxia’s point. We each have our own niche we’re supposed to fill. Me trying to be something I’m not doesn’t (and obviously didn’t) help anybody. It’s like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, to use the proverbial example.
And, as Dame Parthynia pointed out to me, maybe things were supposed to go a certain way. Maybe I was supposed to remain behind so that I could help defend the town. Certainly, when I stayed behind in Blackstone in April, it turned out to be a blessing, as water elementals attacked and I was able to help defeat them. Perhaps this was a similar situation.
But, there is a second question raised by the whole incident. Why did I overreact the way I did? Why did I let my emotions get the better of me? Why didn’t I just swallow my pride and accept the badger for the good of Therendry. I think all of the answers to all of these questions imply a certain moral weakness in me as a person. I’m not perfect. To my knowledge, nobody is. Sometimes I do things I regret. And I’m sorry for that.
And so, to anybody that had to witness me fly off the handle, to anyone that I hurt, and to the teammates that I abandoned, I want to issue a public apology here. Is it enough? Probably not. But it’s what I have to give, and I hope that everyone will accept the apology of a simple Amani.
Anyway, getting back to the story, when I got back to town after an hour of speaking to people, I was still rather upset, but I was very happy that everybody offered me re-assurances. Arkyn, in particular, told me that even though I refused the spirit guide, he would still rather have had me there than anyone else, and that comment meant a lot to me coming from someone I respect as much as Arkyn.
Well, after a while we were sent off on an adventure to go storm the death elemental fortress, which was a castle not far from town. It wasn’t that big a fortress, though, and while some people stormed in, I stayed behind with Viscount Silvercord, Guildmistress Laraza, Sir Strider, Rastlin, Brin, Adrafae, Logenn, Legion, and maybe a few other people to guard the back. For a long while, not much happened, but then suddenly we started getting hit hard in back.
Everyone fought extremely bravely. Logenn and Legion each ate several arcane death spells in defense of our position, and Brin and I did our best to life them and keep everyone alive. Adrafae blew up several death elementals, and I did my best to hit as many of them as I could. I know from previous experience that life spells can kill death elementals, but they seemed like a waste at the time.
Squire Kabaka joined the fray, and he banished several of the elementals from items. Still, for all the progress we were making, Brin and I were running out of life spells. I called for more, but I was told that Dame Parthynia and Viscountess Kiera were both busy inside, and so I decided that our best move would be to withdraw back to the tavern before we lost our entire force.
We did that, although the death elementals kept coming. Still, we managed to fight them off for the most part, and then Baron Mythrilmist pointed out to me that we didn’t know where Lady Pyroxia was, and she would be able to help the life spell situation. So, we went off searching for her and found her at the Healer’s Guild, having strategic discussions with His Excellency Stormcross, Lord Slateron, and Guildmistress Finna.
And it was at this point that I realized that Dame Parthynia had been correct. Because of the fact that I had originally been booked to go to the spirit plane, I knew a lot about what was going on, and I could fill in the holes in the information we had. When we all combined our knowledge, we came up with several plans.
The problem was that the gate to the plane of death was still open, and death elementals were still coming through. We had to get rid of the gate. Option one would be to hope that the group that was on the spirit plane could defeat the death elemental boss and close the gate that way. Option two would be to DFM the gate. The problem is that we lacked a scroll and components. His Excellency Stormcross began to venture back towards Slateron to get the materials needed, and in the meantime I was to attempt the DFM by copying a scroll out of the guild and begging the town for components if things became too heinous while he was gone.
Suddenly, though, the flow of death elementals seemed to slow. It was theorized by Count Stormcross that the death elementals were being called back to defend against the attack from the people on the spirit plane.
Meanwhile, all I could do was sit and wait. When the group finally got back from the spirit plane, I discovered that they had succeeded in closing the gate, and thus the death elemental attacks were finally stopped. Dame Parthynia left for Theren City, and I promised to meet her there the next day.
Meanwhile, though, there was still more to be done. A man came running into the tavern, yelling that his barn was haunted. I went with Sir Yngvar, Thena, Sir Jokarius, Squire Ashe, Squire Kabaka, and MacGregor to investigate. The barn turned out to be filled with ghosts, who could wither your limb with just a touch. It was a hard fight, and many people got many limbs withered. Fortunately, though, I had my protection aura and blesses to protect me, and several people were wearing armor, so it wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been.
When we finally cleaned out the barn, Squire Kabaka, being a shepherd, went off to find the man’s missing sheep. We found them back in the tavern, apparently unharmed.
However, that didn’t last long. Undead sheep, and an undead sheep vampire, rifted into the tavern and attacked us. We beat them pretty easily, though, and after that I decided that it was time for bed.
I look forward to seeing everyone in Blackstone in about a month. And even though I have admitted all my mistakes in a public forum, I hope everyone won’t think too much less of me for them. In the end, I can only be what I am – a man who tries his best.
Scribed by Seronia on the 18th day of July in the year 604.