#85 - Shape the Flowing River

Translated from the Pelgah do Sahlessh [The Journal of Sahlessh]

When I first emerged from the darkness, I was groggy. There were others around me, but I seemed unable to take things in. My mind was fuzzy, like gazing through the flurries of the first snow of winter. As clarity returned, I took stock of those around me.

They did not immediately attack me; perhaps they are friends.

A huge humanoid with purple skin and ivory horns loomed over the group. Eyes as bright as a field of snow pierced out from the pools of black surrounding them. Strapped to his back was the same weapon that plunged me into the darkness over a year ago. Next to the fiend stood a Bringer of Fire! A giant man with bits of dragon scale and flame-like tattoos covering his body. Surely, the giant who abducted me must be colluding with the Seren traitor.

Perhaps they were not friends after all.

Next to the Seren were six from the Land of Demons—and a beast unlike any I have seen before. Two of the demons were men, one clad in thin sheets of metal and carrying a hammer and a shield, the other wearing a long cape and a bow slung over his back. There were two women as well: One wearing an armor that reminded me of leaves and trees, and carrying a staff. The other was surely the frailest person I have ever encountered, likely elf-kind. I did not know it was possible to stand with legs so thin.

I can only assume that the last two were korshimi di aryte [machines of war]. Our people have heard of these constructs with their bodies of wood, stone, and metal that have been used to wage war. One of the pair had pipes and tubes along its back and cast a shadow that any Seren would be proud to call his own. The other was hard to discern given how many things were strapped to its body. Next to this one was a dog of the same nature as the korshimi.

The Seren, who calls himself Magnus, spoke to me. He had many questions, but I was reluctant to answer them. Was this all an elaborate ruse to find out what the Frostblades know of the Bringers of Fire and of Katashka? If it is a ruse, then why did Magnus offer me a weapon? Perhaps he knew I had no need of it.

I was wary of all of them, but after a brief discussion with the purple-skinned fiend, I was made to realize that if they had meant me harm, it would have arrived already. This group is my best chance of exiting this place and reviving the Winter Coalition. The giant, which the others called an oni, then parted ways with us to tend to his own affairs. All of us were allegedly in the dungeons below a very old fortress known as Glyphstone Keep. The oni knew these people and was, as near as I can guess, an ally if not a friend.

We left the room and began to explore the area. An enormous glowing chalice rested upon a raised area surrounded by water. The chalice cast a dim light throughout the chamber. Three of the group, one of the korshimi, the human in metal armor, and the frail one lingered there to examine the pool and the chalice.

The others crossed the expanse and came to a wall with a row of doors. We approached the first one and found it locked. The other korshimi played at the door with some tools and opened it.
I could see immediately that the room did not hold Saralith or my belongings, nor did it provide an exit from this place, so there was no use in remaining there. I left the group and began to examine the other doors to see if any of them were useful. I proceeded to try the doors one by one to see if any of the others were unlocked. When I reached the penultimate door, the final door opened and two figures emerged.

One was clearly a filg [ghoul]. I have encountered their kind before. The other seemed to be human, but I could not be certain in the dim amber light. He pointed at me and the filg rushed towards me. I called out to my new… companions? “Clax voenllyl!” [Take heed]

As the filg neared, an idea came to mind. It was like the sun as it climbs the mountain peaks. At first it is the hint of something, but as it crests, suddenly the world is bathed in light. I knew my course of action. I had to learn the true nature of the Bringer of Fire and those from the Land of Demons. What better way to learn their intentions than to see how they defend the weak and the helpless: me!

I could tell from their battle cries that the group would soon join in the combat; I just didn’t know which side they would join. Just in case they were going to join the filg, I moved to the far side to ensure that I would not be flanked.

As I moved within range of the filg, I immediately realized that this one was different. Its smell was not that of a normal filg. Usually filgi do not have an odor, except from the carrion they devour. Their flesh, despite their state of undeath, is like the flesh of an animal frozen in the ice, it does not rot. Yet this one had the stench of a Seren warrior after his rite of passage. The aroma was pungent, putrid and was sweet, much like the smell of the very old before they die. I was so surprised that I did not even think to temper my breath and I inhaled deeply. It felt as though death had crawled into my lungs. The itch from inside was so distracting I nearly let the filg hit me; fortunately, my body remembered the training that my mind forgot and I shifted my weight as the thing’s claws reached for my face, narrowly avoiding the blow.

I punched towards the wretched thing’s head. I would surely have hit it, had I not been pulling my blows. Instead, I allowed my attack to veer off the centerline and glance the filg’s temple harmlessly.
The group approached. From the fountain, the large korshimi with the pipes trundled towards me, glowing all the while. He was followed by the frail one. Why would she run towards a fight? I saw no sign of the man wrapped in metal. Magnus charged out from the room at full speed carrying a torch and a white club that looks to be made of bone. The cloaked man also exited the room, but he did not close much distance, instead he loosed a pair of arrows. I was lucky they did not hit me.

The filg again tried to sink its razor sharp claws into me. Filgi can be fast, but this one was not. It is easy to avoid a blow when it approaches in a straight line. It is also easy to make it seem as though the blow was closer than it was. I kicked out at the filg’s knee, hoping to off balance it somewhat. As my foot contacted its flesh the filg shifted towards the right. I withdrew my foot and launched out my hand to the creature’s throat, aiming just to the left so that I would miss by a narrow margin.
It takes skill to fight without weapons. It takes great skill to make a fight look genuine. I believe today, I had great skill.

Before the creature could swing for me a third time two arrows sank themselves into its back. Not many could make a shot at this distance in dim light: the cloaked man has great skill as well. The arrows hurt the filg; its next attack did not have the same zeal that the first two had. I side-stepped its swipe and launched my foot at its ribs. There is a spot just under the twelfth where you can burst the spleen of a man with a hard kick. Filgi are not men any longer and have no need of their spleen.

The fight was going well. I was unharmed and could see that this group was clearly on my side. Soon I would be able to see their full nature. Many things can be hidden, but one cannot hide how they fight. When you have trained in the martial arts, you can read a man’s mind by watching him in combat. When Magnus joined the fray, he dropped his torch and took his great maul in two hands. Without breaking stride swept the creature's lower half away with the marvelous weapon, which seemed to channel the cold of the mountains in its path. He bears a strange weapon for one of his tribe.

This fight was over.

“Mobi re throdenilt crodr wer cuaili.” [There are more inside the room], I said.

I scooped up the torch and ran into the room to find the armored human who had first exited with the filg, but to my great surprise, the room was uninhabited. There was a desk and some furniture scattered throughout the room, but no occupants. In the mountains, when you want to find prey, you follow their tracks in the snow. I began to look for areas in which the dust of the room had been disturbed. No sooner had I begun my search than the frail one alerted us that the human wrapped in metal—did she call him Kard?—was in trouble. It was time for me to prove my intentions to them.

From my distance, I could see that Kard had wrested the chalice from its position and was being engaged by what looked like a serpentine column of water.

We raced towards his location. Kard was fumbling at his belt trying to douse the animate column of water with vials of his own. Considering the religious iconography of his armor, I had to assume it was holy water he employed. But water is water—what could he hope to achieve by this? Is it not like brushing the snow from your sleeve in the midst of a blizzard? Even as I struggled to grasp the utility of this action, the creature morphed with blinding speed The creature evaded the liquid from the vial as easily as I evaded the filg’s attacks. Kard was clearly out matched.

The cloaked archer turned his lethal bow towards the water creature and began to shout slurs about its father—does water have paternal origins? I question the sanity of this cloaked man. The frail elf gestured at the water demon and flame shot from her hands! I have never seen magic like this. We revere the power of frost and ice, not fire. Is she in liege with the same forces that govern Magnus? The water of the demon steamed a bit, but it did not seem greatly disturbed by the fire. Even I know that water defeats fire, for it is everlasting.

As I neared the melee, I decided to demonstrate that the power of ice was superior. I called upon the magics that the Sacred Whites taught my kinsmen and I: I transformed some of the water of the pool into a staircase of ice, linking Kard, who stood upon the plinth at its center, to the fountain's rim. In one swift move, I had created an escape route for the reckless human and a path for us to engage the water demon. Hopefully my new allies—if allies they are—will take note of the true elemental hierarchy.

Kard broke free from the grasp of the water demon and as swiftly down the ice as he dared, still carrying the oversized chalice. Magnus heaved his club once again, and the archer pierced the creature with two more arrows and the demon’s form lost its cohesion. It splashed back into the pool, dead or dispersed, we could not tell which. Kard still had the chalice hoisted upon his shoulder, now emitting an amber hue. Aleae—I am now beginning to retain their names—determined that needed to bring it to the korshimi, Cypher to inspect.

Finally, we were not running any longer. We returned to the room where Cypher and the woman Dar had been left behind, and we found the door closed and our entrance barred. Aleae listened and reported hearing voices in Draconic—one of which did not belong to Cypher or Dar. I heard her attempt to speak to me in my native tongue earlier and I’m not convinced that she would be capable of understanding what was being said, door or no door. She appeared to know several languages but her mastery of Draconic was limited. I listened as well, but the door was too thick to make out the voices clearly. Growing impatient with inaction, Magnus decided to kick down the door. He’s very strong, but perhaps not as wise. The door won this battle.

As the echoes of his effort began to die down, our common enemies returned. The door at the far end of the same wall, where the filg had first emerged, opened again and armored figures loosed crossbow bolts ineffectually at us. After some return fire from our archer, eight new figures emerged. There were three filgi, three olqeini [skeletons] and two kaegro [undead] that I did not recognize. I quickly positioned myself between the monsters and the group and waited to see what would happen next.

The kaegro ran towards us with alarming speed, followed closely by the filgi and the olqeini. At the same time, several crossbow bolts skittered about the floor near us. They had missed, but not by much. As the evil group neared, Aleae once again began to speak her mystic words and a storm to rival the weather of the dragons appeared locally over the evil things. Ice began to fall from the air in huge chunks, battering the olqeini into dust. This elf learns quickly Indeed, she has already noted the power of ice. The filgi and kaegro were injured, but continued to come towards us. I thought that Aleae’s magic was complete, but to my great surprise, seven bolts of magical energy emerged from her fingers—surprising her?—and slammed into the two kaegro, injuring them gravely

The cloaked one, Simel, set to work with his bow once again, landing arrow after arrow into the torsos of the kaegro. The large korshimi, Clarion, and I raced towards the kaegro to engage them, while Magnus lingered, determined to prove his strength was greater than the door’s.

As I came within range, I struck out with my fist towards the first kaegro’s chin. The feeling of knuckle meeting flesh is quite satisfying, particularly because it gauges the perfect range to follow with the elbow. My elbow snapped its head around to an even more unnatural angle and it crumpled to the ground. I continued onwards towards the second kaegro. The glowing korshimi with the pipes, Clarion, reached it first and swiftly dispatched it from this realm. Magnus seemed to make some headway with the door. It was now shattered in pieces, but the pieces were suspended in the air, still effectively barring the way. How long will he persist? It is like waiting for the bear to wake at the end of winter, will he not join the fight?”

We had only a moment before the filgi set upon us. One came towards me and had luck on its side as it slashed its claws across my chest. I could feel the chill of death in those foul nails and the toxins of its evil drained into me. My body lost its normal alacrity. I was no longer in control of my limbs and I slumped to the floor, paralyzed. Finally, a true test of character! Would this group save me, or leave me to the lifeless beasts that beset us. My lingering doubts were washed away instantly.

Simel loosed another set of arrows—the man has an endless supply!—into the chest of the beast, attempting to draw its attention away from the feast my body presented to it. Clarion engaged the other two filgi. Kard appeared to realize that the evil beasts were a larger threat than the door that would not open. He raised his hand and his book and began to speak words of faith with great conviction. The unliving things were clearly disturbed by the display of light and power. They shrieked and began to flee.

The prospect of being paralyzed.
(Particularly by a ghoul.)

I am not sure how this will turn out, but I now believe that I can trust this group. If I survive, I will have to tell them of my mission and hope that they will aid me in this most crucial endeavor.