The Old Forest

Well, we’re in the forest.
 
And as a nice welcome, a group of bandits try to accost us and take our money. For my part, I did talk with them and see if they could be reasoned with, but I don’t think Tacitus is in the right frame of mind for such diplomacy. He attacked and killed several of the bandits, and our new friend Orianna killed another. I spoke with the remaining chap, and he said the only reason they attacked was because they were starving. They were also not fans of the purifiers, you see, and were now forced to run away to the forest and fend for themselves (which was evidently not going well). I let him go with a warning and hopefully he’ll choose his battles more carefully next time.
 
I’ll bet you we wouldn’t have killed them if Aretraya were here. She seemed to be the calm to Tacitus’s passion.
 
In any case, we continue on.
 
Now don’t laugh at what I’m about to tell you. Remember, we are desperate and very lost, so I did what was necessary. I sat down and spoke with a tree. Yes, a fucking tree. He was a bit of an abrassive chap, but he could be reasoned with. After negotiating a trade (with a tree... I can’t stress enough how insanely weird all this is to write, let alone actually do) we find out that the druid of this forest sees all, and only appears to those they deem worthy. How are we to be deemed worthy, you may ask. Well apparently we need to impress them with our good deeds or something. I don’t know... I’m still getting over the fact that I talked to a damn tree.
 
After we wander a bit farther, we decide to take a break by the river, and are found by a small pack of wolves. Fortunately Tacitus is able to speak with them (good lord how strange my life has become) and convince them that we’re not worth the trouble. I admit, I do feel a bit bad for them, they looked rather thin.
 
One problem at a time.
 
On our fourth night of camping in these woods, we run into a woman named Kalmny, who asks to share our fire for the night. I was a bit wary at first, but she seemed trustworthy enough, so we went along with it. To be honest, with the way she was dressed, I would have thought she was the druid we were searching for, but she made no such indications.
 
The next morning, at the tale end of my watch, I was dealing with some unfinished business with Hinckle (just a bit of booze in his rock water, nothing cruel) when I turn and suddenly... Kalmny is gone! There’s absolutely no way I was distracted enough to miss her standing up and leaving the area, and the magical horse Tacitus rides confirmed it by saying he saw no one leave my dome.
 
Perhaps she is the druid after all... but if that’s the case, why didn’t she help us when we told her our tale of woe?
 
We’re running out of time. I’m starting to think this was all a fools errand. Maybe we should have attacked the stronghold. Maybe we should have kidnapped Jura so she could use her magic and say that we forced her.
 
Maybe we shouldn’t have gone to the fucking spa in the first place.
 
Fuck. I’m so tired, Layla. And I’ve absolutely no idea where we go from here. I need an ale...
 
-Mel