Letter to Gideon 1

Dated 30th of Daga, Year 121 era of the Tree
Addressed to Gideon de La Roost, Drybank
 
Dearest Gideon,
 
Hope you are faring well, last we heard you are off adventuring in Drybank. If you can, leave some glory for the rest of us.
 
As you might know, today the newly minted adults set off from Tarn to seek adventure in Keralon. At this year's Lightwatch Festival, our group consists of: your favorite siblings, Ileas, Luke and Hayley Thomas, Gael and Dadroz. I hope to introduce you to them when we're in Keralon and you get the chance to swing by. Though you of course already know Ileas, still a ward in our family's care. We are also traveling with Lord Colline's children: Elsa and Edward, but they wouldn't be participating in the festival's traditions. Clearly some noble families don't enjoy mingling with the peasants, or at least the current Lord thinks so. It's a shame for Elsa and Edward, they are denied something fun and rewarding like this.
 
The day started off as usual: with Lil, Ileas and myself getting up before dawn. Guess these years living on the family farm and helping here have made us extremely early, as we arrived on the town square first, we would be meeting the Sheriff there to start off the yearly traditions. Luckily the hospitable innkeeper Patt was also an early riser and gave us some tea and hot coco to bridge the time.
 
Once the Sheriff, a young woman called Edna Fare, arrived we got told what was expected of us, as a thank you to the village for raising us we go around today and help the villagers with various tasks. And as a thank you we'll get a party in our honour in the evening. Didn't need the extra motivation to help but who can say no to a good feast. We then set out to help as many as we could: for the sheriff, we got rid of some traps near the watermill (and freed a rabbit for Patt we moved tables and chairs for the feast, enough for four hundred to sit and feast; For Father Brightspin we helped get him a felled tree for a new display of Irminsul, hope we can ever see the finished product;... We also got rewards after finishing a task, Patt gave us a strange urn and Father Brightspin gave us some potions.
 
Next up we entered the Markethouse, the farmers there greeted us with an applause. Some of them worked our farms so I had a sense of foreboding as I saw them snickering. They asked us to clear out some rotten vegetables and fruit. A daunting task that left us smelling something horrible (Ileas had to step out a few times), luckily Luke's magic cleared the worst of it. The reward the farmers prepared was something else though: a cart and horse to pull it. We named the horse Thorin, after a great hero of the past, though it's a shame he never used a sword. Seeing as some of our servants were part of this crowd the emotions got to me and I gave them a good hug (thanks again to Luke for cleaning me up), and as I'm writing this it makes me pity Elsa and Edward, left out of this warmth the villagers showed us.
 
We did some small tasks for villagers: moving sofas and babysitting as we moved up to the Tarnfolk Windmill, we met Var there loading a cart. It's a tradition that the soon-to-be-travelers take time to search for the hidden tunnel that supposedly connects the windmill and the Inn. Shamefully we couldn't find it, even with Luke burning grass and casting magic. Var expected as much though and gave us some rations for the road as a gift.
 
Next up was Terrin, the grumpy Hobgoblin who we will see later tonight to learn the big secret everyone else seems to know. Anyway, he wanted us to find some herbs for him in the woods, it's a good thing Hayley is well travelled in the woods and knew where to find every herb. So we made quick work of this and Terrin gave a reward to Hayley and Luke, a dagger and staff respectively.
 
At the Honeyfarm we helped Ashlyne out with her bees. I was eager to put on a suit but the years have left me too big for the suit, that's one way to learn all that training paid off.
 
Last but not least we went to Jeb's farm, he asked us to keep him for last as he was running errands. Some of us heard some unusual noises and we ran into a bunch of foxes attacking Jeb's chickens. We managed to take care of them before they got too many chickens and Hayley deduced the foxes were ill somehow. Lil then used her magic to heal that illness and at least one fox was returned to the wild. Couldn't help but feel impressed by everyone's abilities and I vowed to better myself to keep up with them all. We found Jeb knocked out in his barn and learned his Pseudodragon partner, Corkscrew, was kidnapped by some Reynards. We immediately set out to save Corkscrew and thanks to Gael's tracking we found their camp and engaged them in combat. The fight was looking tough but we are lucky to be in great company, as spells and arrows flew and the blades struck we managed to defeat the Reynard gang. Ileas went down but Lil managed to use one of our potions to get him back up. At the end only Gael was left badly wounded.
 
Having saved Corkscrew we took him back to Jeb, who was overjoyed to see his friend returned. He gave us quite a large sum of gold for the effort, which was too much but he wouldn't see it any other way. We also got an earful from Sheriff Edna for going into the forest like that. But she seemed to not mind too much as we did well. By now the sun had set and the party was going to begin, as Gael went to the church to receive some healing I cleaned up the Reynard blood at the river and changed into some better clothing.
 
The villagers were overjoyed to see us safe and rewarded us with a grand applause and a good meal. How can you not get a thirst for more adventure after that?
 
The party then got off to a good start, you'll be happy to know the Fey-Roost 5 made a small appearance. Lil lent me her violin and with Ileas we gave a rendition of Bows 'n Lilies "Take me down to Keralon City", not our best performance but people enjoyed it well enough. Guess our band is missing your cello and Uncle Jayce's bagpipes.
 
Lil started egging me on to go talk to Elsa, the lord's daughter. The Lord and his family were sitting at a seperate table. Inspired by today's work, I worked up some courage and marched over, hoping to at least involve Elsa in this part of the town's tradition before we set off. Though dancing with her would be its own reward of course. But it seems Luke had the same idea as me and he intercepted me, honestly thought he was going to tackle me. He suggested we team up and talk to them together. The Lord thanked us for our bravery and as the conversation was dying, I took a quick look at Luke to see if he would seize the moment. As he didn't I blurted out that I'd like to ask Elsa for a dance. For a second I felt every sense of mine shut of and after what seemed like an eternity, the lord gave his approval. With that I felt like the luckiest man alive and danced with Elsa Colline.
 
I do hope I didn't step on Luke's toes. While I saw him dance with Lady Colline later on I owe him one. I'll pay him back by being his wingman like he was mine tonight, though maybe unwilling on his part.
 
But now, as I'm penning this letter, we are waiting for midnight, for Terrin to appear and take us into the woods. And then to set off to Hillfield, swing by our parents, and then off to Keralon.
 
Hope to see you in Keralon soon, it would be nice if you can swing by before Lil leaves on her trip to the Fey. Wonder if she's nervous about it, if she is she's not showing it.
 
With love,
Your favorite brother,
Alistan
 
P.S.: Liliana also sends her love.
P.P.S.: Your training regiment with practicing sword forms on a tree really paid off, striking weak points on branches translated really well to hitting them on Reynards. Though I learned the hard way my sword was blunted as I hit a branch and it bended instead of breaking, bouncing back to hit me in my face. What's worse is that I think Luke and Gael saw it happen.