The Horse Saves the Day

After the assassination attempt I was a bit leery to leave Lord Setvori alone. Yes he had Elana and her stone but she was not trained in it. As per usual though something came up. An odd report about a Mjorn raiding party coming up totally missing and a scout saying the cats were acting funny. Not too long ago I would have been mystified but now it seems these oddities are just everyday occurrences. I decided to stay but the rest could go if they want to check it out.
 
I attempted to spend some downtime with Mora, maybe even take her to the small Lake we had been shown. Of course that was interrupted too. Something going on at the new mining community to the North. He said there is new spirit activity and that he is concerned it is a bad omen that could spread. Since I had roused a bunch of refugees that would be working there I felt it my duty to go check this out for Lord Setvori with a few soldiers just in case.
 
So I traveled up to the community and the mining had indeed been halted. I didn’t really sense anything ominous or any bad feelings about the place so we went in to check it out. The spirits pretty much scattered as we entered and weren’t menacing and didn’t seem dangerous at all. There was a sort of odd opening that was only available to crawl through. I got a feeling, some kind of pulling towards that area. I had a couple guards stay put and myself and one other went through in case something happened and he needed to go for help.
 
We crawled through and moved slowly down the passageway. As we moved down the tunnel I could feel energy building, it was almost as if the air was humming with it. Even my companion began to feel it. I assured him it was fine and not dangerous. Not sure he believed me though. I was not prepared for what we found inside that cavern.
 
In a crater of its own making it seems was a huge sphere that was like one of our mist stones. This one was a perfect sphere though and as I stared at it I was able to pick every color out of the endless swirling colors that flitted around inside. Anuundari seemed to almost be welcomed home by it, like it knew it somehow. Kaen was kinda unsure as it contained both fire and water? I was able to link to it similar to how I linked to Anuundari and could feel the massive potential energy from this.
 
Given the amount of power here I decided to try a spell. I was tempted with fire but decided against that which was greeted with a frown from Kaen. I created a basic illusion and it was very effective, did not drain me or my stone and was cast faster then normal. Through various testings I found that it also infuses the minerals around it though they cannot be covered up in any way. It also has the ability to give a normal person the power to cast spells as a mist stone. I don’t know for exactly how long but the stone did seem to make clear these were temporary.
 
I spent a night there and then headed back to Buryn excited to tell the others about this new discovery. I didn’t have to wait long for them to come back the next night with a most unusual package. They recounted their story which I will save for another time. Nonetheless it was another crazy ride because of spirits. I told them of the stone and that we need to travel up there to take a look.
 
Of course we didn’t get to do that right away because Mjorn were attacking a town near the pass looking for something, something outside of normal slaves and mayhem they were causing. Well if they were looking for something we should probably find it first. He did say they were smacking down House Grigor raids pretty handily which was good. I guess Setvori does have some of the finest rangers around.
 
We made our way down there to a group of very distrusting villagers shadowing us as we were coming upon their village. Luckily for us they recognized I was marked by the Wolf and didn’t just kill us! They brought us into town and after some discussion showed us what the Mjorn were after, For lack of a better term it was a….root egg? To a species that the Mjorn had stolen it from. They knew a little in the village that the creatures would be coming for it eventually. We could either help guard the egg from Mjorn or take it into the forest. They also said some of the Mjorn attacking had mist stone powers. Well that was it.
 
We came up with a plan to try and ambush these jerks, stop the raids and hopefully gain a stone or two in the process. Some of the villagers showed us the best spots to get a good ambush on them and we set up. Archers and Toblikai on the ridge, Hrena in the cart acting as the “cargo” under a blanket and the rest of acting as guards. Making it look like we were serious but not too well defended, hence leaving the giant man hidden until the trap sprung.
 
Plan was for Hrena to shake the cart and move around, we would stop and act like our attention was diverted to hopefully draw them in. We got so close to the ambush point when the chaos started. An explosion(?) of air blew up around us, stunning a good portion of the party and taking them out of the fight. It also scared the ever loving heck out of the horse who ran forward as fast as possible. Ultimately this helped us but in that instant I feared we were all dead. Where did the explosion come from? The same man who had been at our battle with the Grigor conscripts. I’m just going to call him “Jerkface” from now on.
 
I told Kano and Amaris to go after Jerkface and Toblikai sent his pet after him as well, hopefully keeping him distracted, Dogan seemed to be OK so I told him to keep after the others and I moved forward to meet the Mjorn on the pass in front of us. Their archers released causing minor damage, our archers released causing minor damage but the horse, the lovely horse won the battle for us. It plowed into the Mjorn line causing havoc and knocking most of them out of the battle. I lit up Jerkface with Guiding Mark hoping we would be able to find him later. The villagers told us he disappeared in the wind and left no footprints. Great.
 
The battle was over quickly with few injuries but once cornered Jerkface used his power and disappeared. We gathered everyone quickly and tended to the wounded and our party quickly left in pursuit. We found an empty camp and Jerkface continued to go east. He got away again. We need to find a way to contain him and make him pay for his crimes. We found a good number of prisoners. Hrin were treated OK but Myoki were actually being tortured. Come to find out that the Mjorn are making some kind of fire cloud for use in battle? Yet another thing to worry about.
 
We got back to the town and the parents (?) had come for their egg. They were large but peaceful creatures to the point of total pacifism. The Mjorn had indeed stolen the egg and they were looking to get it back. They also were looking for a place to live since they had been driven from their home. They were good at quite a few things so I felt it a good idea to bring them back to Lord Setvori. So Here I come again bringing more people to protect and feed. I’m sure he’ll love that but I do think they will be powerful allies and we can both help each other out.
 
So we made our way back to Buryn with a full entourage. Of course Lord Setvori was taken aback by what we brought back but at this point what do you do? We all went to visit the large stone up in the new mining town. Kano made some wine that was so good it rivalled what our forest friend gave us in the thimbles. It was too good and he ended up actually giving it to Rhao.
 
We came back from the mine and Lord Setvori was most upset and disturbed, we needed to ride for the pass immediately. What we saw there was a wasteland. Utter devastation for miles. So this is what Rhao had told us? All life totally destroyed for Wolf knows how far? What could have caused this devastation? Apparently Amaris was working on a shrine to Rhao to help summon him more easily. Good, he had plenty to answer for.
 
In retrospect what I did was wrong but damnit the devastation wrought by what happened. The Mjorn were stealing life essence and pushing it into a stone to charge it. But Rhao couldn’t “tell us the full story”. Oh but he could spend some time making his own new circle of friends to help him do fuck whatever. I’m not happy with how I handled it but he knew full well what he did. The Wolf was tricked into her own demise, Rhao did what he did knowing the consequences. He has given us help so far but i just cannot comprehend his path was the best path. He asked if I could do better and honestly probably not I suppose. It’s not the most rational but I just don’t trust him and yes he’s helping us but he’s holding back too. I don’t know why Amaris is so beholden to him. I did apologize to her, it’s not her fault and I was kind of a jerk. I look back on our choices and the swathe of problems we have caused and maybe i didn’t make the right choices either. So maybe we’re not that much different but dammit I don’t have to like him!