#67 - Lost and Found Companions

From the Leaves of Memory, the written musings of Loh, druid of the King's Forest

Soon after I escape from gelatinous cube, we all heard the dwarf Dafrena shout from her upstairs post that the house was on fire. As Magnus encouraged us to move out as quickly as possible, Szen and some of the others begin frantically searching through the herbs on one of the tables. I, on the other hand, started to ascend immediately with Aleae by my side. As we hurried upstairs, I asked if I could see the amulet she took from the chest. As I thought, it looks just like the one Lorsanna ir’Valish used to wear. Emerging from the basement, we saw that the top floor was engulfed in flames and so we ran back towards the hedge maze, where several figures still stood in their crystal prisons.



In the tumult of the past few hours, I hadn't had time to consider who else might be in the maze, but I knew I couldn't leave without looking for my brother. In distress, I asked everyone to help me search. The more I thought about him trapped forever in this place, the more panicked I became. The others asked me to describe what he looked like, but I felt lost for words. The heat of the fire, the height of the hedges, the dawning realization that I might be completely alone—I was tongue-tied with the fear that I would leave him behind. I was asked again what he looked like, and this time asked if I could show them what he looked like. So I set my jaw firm and shifted into Sah.

Now everyone knows I am not only a druid, but a changeling as well.

I fear I have revealed too much too soon, but there was time for nothing but searching. I would never forgive myself if I didn’t do what I could to ensure Sah wasn’t in the maze.

The pseudo-dog Rungo ran through the maze looking for a fallen prisoner—as I last recall Sah had fallen to the ground when the crystal began to form around him—but found him not. Neither did the rest of us. As the heat spread to the first floor of the mansion, I saw the flames dancing in the irises of Magnus’s eyes, who stood transfixed by it all. I had done all that I could. We fled towards the road.

Heading away from the estate, my new companions express their intention of finding a family they met earlier in the day, before I was free. I care little where we go or who we find; I am so dazed, groggy like a bear who missed the start of spring.

As we traveled, I gleaned from conversation that the war had ended—an almost unthinkable development—and Cyre was destroyed. They referred to what had once been that nation as the Mournland. Questions run through my muddled mind: Did the Children of Winter succeed? Did we fail?

We paused briefly only to inspect the items taken from the chest in the ir’Valish basement: a helmet, a set of leather gauntlets, a sheaf of papers. Cypher detected a magical essence in the helmet and gauntlet. This fact was not surprising. The papers, however, shocked me, and I tried to hold onto my composure, which was rapidly becoming threadbare. The papers contained five pictures. Two are of unfamiliar people—an outlander human ("Tharari") and a halfling ("Ulmo"). The last three make my heart stop.

Sah.
Iris.
Me.

Aleae and Cypher asked me if I knew the figures in the drawings—they didn't recognize my changeling form. I didn't want to answer and wanted only to stall for time. I didn't want to face whatever reality those images held. But the questions I have are too big, too heavy to answer alone, and I need this group’s help.

I pointed to myself. I point to the impish smile of my little brother. I spoke of Iris’s fierceness and wisdom. What happened to them? What are these pictures? None of us knew. Szen pointed out that perhaps I will find some answers as we continue to help him with the mission that sent him to the ir’Valish estate in the first place. I hope that is true, but dominant in my mind is the thought that I have no one, so I may as well just continue on with these new people.

When we found the man, woman, and child my companions had met earlier in the day, they were surprised to see us alive. They seemed wary of me when I mention the time I “spent” at the ir’Valish mansion, but they consented to tell me of the ir’Valish family’s downfall. I learned that one of their eldest sons, a military commander, turned his entire battalion over to Cyre during the war, and gave them over to the slaughter. In the past, I would have been surprised by the news that this upstanding family committed treason, but now I am starting to become numb to surprises. This short day has held too many.

Finally, we slept.

When I awoke, the sun warmed my skin and I tentatively started to feel more like my old self. I savored my first sunshine in over fifteen years. Aleae gave me food and we continued traveling toward Wroat. On the second night, just before seeking our own camp, we came upon a strange circle of light cut into the darkening sky. I called upon the earth to assume the form of a rat, then inspected the perimeter of the circle with vastly heightened senses. Inside the circle of decidedly magical, day-bright light was a solitary well-worn traveler's pack. I smell someone—perhaps human?—and a whiff of alcohol on the breeze. I reverted to my own form and reported that someone’s had been drinking away his or her sorrows in this vicinity.

One by one we entered the circle of light—following Magnus's lead, who had become fond of being on horseback—but I was not sure yet that it was safe. Then, we heard a voice that some of my companions seemed to recognize. With a vague slur, a man’s voice intoned, “Don’t touch that bag, warforged!”

The speaker came out into the light. Human, indeed, somewhat disheveled but remarkably clear-headed. Robed and armored at the same time. He bore the Octagram, symbol of the Soveign Host, on his breastplate, and also a smaller holy symbol around his neck. Whatever the truth of the gods—I know little of them myself—there is no disputing that this man believes in them and it gives him power.

And so I was then introduced to Kard, a former member of this very group. To say they were surprised to find him camped in a patch of holy light off the side of a dark road on the open plains would be understating it. He spoke strange words. Kard himself was not surprised to have found them.

Kard’s presence didn't alleviate our sense that something is amiss in this area, and I wasn't the only one to spot something in the gloom. In the form of a wolf now I moved into the darkness to scout again. This time, I spied a winged creature crouching on nearby boulders. The creature itself almost looks like stone and stood as still as a mountain. It was crouched, but the wings folder arched and folded, like a statue.

It seems we are in for more surprises.

#66 - False Floors and Moving Cubes

As told by Magnus of the Island of Seren.

I’ll bleed to death before I let that half-man cure me of anything.

He sat and thumbed through books while the party was fighting and bleeding and getting beat up in the witch's house. During the battle, he saw that I was a blood-soaked mess and he healed me, which is something clerics do.

At the end of the battle, he asked me to pay for his spell. I was still bleeding and coming out of my rage when I threw a coin on the floor and called him a merchant. His goading me to fight his armored dwarf set me up for another rage and likely an attack on his person while he mumbled about his mighty house. BAH!

Cypher and the rest of the party sent me outside to cool off. Good thing. Clarion came outside to walk and talk for a while while we recovered our horses and found the two war ponies the halfling and dwarf must have ridden here on. We put them in the partially collapsed stables attached to the house. After cooling off and some words from Clarion, I was ready to head back into the house… the party was, of course, fiddling around with treasure…mostly books. Ugh.

The main floor of the house was mostly empty, but set of stairs went down into unexplored darkness. I told Clarion that we should clear the lower level before we could feel safe here. This house has been under evil’s sway for a ling time and I thought the library and a family portrait were not the worst of it. Clarion went for help upstairs.

Eventually, the rest of the party came down and that damned halfling introduced himself to me as if nothing has happened. Then I saw it, he was beginning to walk the ways of the old ones. His senses were leaving this world and he was preparing to depart.  He was not clear on what passed here. I will stand away from him.

The whole gang went down the stairs, finding an old smashed up wine cellar. I kicked around through the bottles and broken trash looking for anything interesting, maybe a trapdoor? Cypher searched the walls for a secret door. It wasn't too long before a worn path through the dust led to a secret door and Cypher found that we could open it by pushing. In the meantime, he was again reading something.

The door led to a passage and the passage to some kind of workroom. The old halfling went right over to some glass- and jar-filled tables while Clarion and Alea went over to a strange metal table. Cypher walked straight across to to investigate a large chest. No apparent monsters meant I would stand guard.

But as I watched, Cypher and Rungo both drop through the floor, leaving no trace. A split second later I heard Cypher hit a ground I could not see. Warforged and their dogs make very loud noises when they fall. I headed over, using my mace to scrape the ground and find the edge of a pit, concealed with magic (not the leaves and branches we would use on Seren, but still a pit trap). Clarion also approached, scattering chalk dust to guide his steps around the pit.

I threw down a rope, and soon Clarion threws his rope as well. The new druid (Dar, I think I heard her say her name was?) suddenly transformed—like worked clay but faster—into a giant and hairy spider (I can’t do that!) and skittered down into the floor, heading down into the pit I still couldn't see. Aleae surprised me by slipping down Clarion's rope with little hesitation. I could hear sort of scuffle ensue down near the bottom of the pit.

Cypher called out that there was a gelatinous cube down there with him! I remember that it was one of those that held the Governor and his skeleton and his armor when we first encountered him. (He is still a problem for us, though we don't know where he is now.)

Soon enough, I see Clarion strain as his rope goes taught, I whip my rope out of the pit and lend a hand with his load—the bottom of my rope appeared to have been dissolved by the cube.  Next, Aleae, Rungo and Cypher scrambled up, just as Clarion's rope breaks under the straight of three (two heavyweights, one lightweight). Right behind them came the giant spider—curious to see such a creature on our side.

In the meantime, the metal table had heated itself up and was white hot... More magic.

Without missing a beat, the spider turns back into Dar. This newcomer doesn't seem to know what she (he?) is. She spoke the words of a spell—doesn't like a wizard or a priest—and a shaft of moonlight shone out of nowhere and down into the illusionary floor. I suppose it could burn the cube....do cubes climb? This one never did.

With falling and fighting over, the party resumes its search and I resume my guard station… we should close or seal that hole before we try to rest here…

But then other matters present themselves as the dwarf female—who had been standing guard at the top of the stairs—calls out that the house was no in fire. That is less strange than our new companions.