Letter to Ileas 2

(Penned at the back of the other letter)
Hello Ileas,
 
Guess I'm now a knight, and so are Hayley and Dadroz. Celebrations are in order but maybe it's best to start up where I left off. We were going to engage in ritual combat with Drann, but first Rachnar introduced us to his adopted son Norgar Laar and told us he would be coming with us if we overcame the champion Drann, who came into the clearing of the camp. He was a giant dragonborn, sprouting wings and holding a greatsword in a single hand.
 
There was some banter between him and Liliana, though it did require some translation as she didn't speak draconic and he didn't speak the common tongue. The fight itself went rather quick, though I took two nasty hits that knocked me out, Liliana and Gael managed to quickly wound him into unconsciousness. It did get incredibly dangerous as Drann took on a fiery shape and knocked Hayley out and also badly damaged Rachnar and Norgar, supposedly his allies. But after all that we did earn the right to be part of Norgar's delegation to the city and after congratulating Drann on the good fight we took a moment to catch our breath.
 
Now initially we were here to more covertly get information. But now that we'll go back to the city with Norgar it was the right time to re-evaluate how we'd go back. Smuggling him in by boat wasn't really a good option for a diplomatic delegation. So Hayley had her raven deliver a message to Vern Skald for more instructions. In the meanwhile Liliana and I whipped out the violins we were hoping to play at Feyris' bar and started playing some tunes to kill time. And to our delight some of the draconians joined in, though they favored drums. We also noticed Hayley wandered off to another camp, we would learn later that she heard that the Draconians were in the middle of a crisis. Their eggs and even their children were being stolen, and the reason for getting a tighter bond with Keralon is get some help from the knights here to help solve this. We also made some conversation and learned that they have access to powerful magic to sustain a gate for their armies to get close to Keralon without marching in sight of our scouts.
 
After a few hours we finally heard back from Vern Skald, we could just approach the gate and they would know we're bringing a delegation from the army camp. So with that we set out.
 
But of course, on the way were attacked. Dadroz spotted figures flying towards us and suddenly they were upon us. It was a big dragon-like being and two smaller skeletal dragons. The battle was rather difficult as the larger being could not be hurt by non-magical weapons. But some righteous smiting from Lil did the job in the end. Immediately we noticed these creatures were constructs and animated, especially in retrospect with the information about the eggs and children being stolen, there are some worrying implications.
 
But from there we arrived at the Foregate of Keralon, the gates opened before us and a delegation of hedge knights and guards led us to horses (Norgar sat behind me as never rode a horse) and we rode through the districts up to the Palace Hill, where we were told another group would be there to guide us to the palace proper. But as we arrive there was no one to greet us except a poor guard at the gate, who was as surprised as we were. But he led us to the canteen and told us to wait as he went to get some superiors.
 
We were stuck waiting, since we were given access to the pantry I made some sandwiches since we hadn't had a meal in quite a while. But half an hour later we heard a door slam, first sign of life in a while. Now, stupidly, I decided to go check it out and walked into what was in hindsight, an obvious trap. And I took many stab wounds as a prize and went down for a brief moment. For, behind the door there were guards, but dressed up with red robes. Their leader casted spells and commanded the guards that came after to 'kill the emissary'. So a big fight broke out and luckily Norgar was able to hide and we managed to knock out most of them. Luke's magic also protected Norgar and myself from some serious harm. Gael also casted a charm spell on one of the guards, so after the fight was over this magically coerced person told us he was sent to get us but as his superior officer, the sergeant who was the one casting spells, ordered them to kill Norgar, he mostly just complied. So it seems this group aiming to take out Norgar has some high placed members in the city guard.
 
We also had a look at the guards who intially ambushed us and noticed a strange tattoo, of a demonic dragonhead covered in shadow and flame. Not sure how else to describe it. But we couldn't help but connect this to the attack by the draconic constructs from earlier.
 
Now luckily the knight who came shortly after, Ser Donovan, was content with Gael's explanation on what happened and asked us and Norgar to come with them. We were lead through the beautiful silver palace to a central room where a bunch of distinguished nobles and knights waited for Norgar, apparently the King was not available (wonder where he went to). Norgar made his claim, that the Draconians are here to make a more lasting peace, to decide on proper borders that will be respected by Velora. And after some speeches by nobles the general idea seemed to be that Norgar will stay at the keep and they'll discuss the terms, in short we were no longer needed as we had fulfilled our purpose. So with that we were escorted out of the Palace Hills, I did try to find Elsa, as I expected her to be there but no luck (not for the reasons you think Ileas, I think with my own set of romantic and non-romantic troubles she'll be better suited for one of her many courtier friends or Luke).
 
After all that we did go back to Vern Skald in the Dull blade as he was the one who set us on this mission. Strangely enough he was quite well informed, like he'd seen everything we did. But crucially it seemed like he didn't hear anything that was spoken. Probably some magic but there were some things we could still tell him, like how they got here through powerful magic casted by Velora. And Hayley informed us all here about the trouble with the eggs and young. Vern was impressed and handed a large silver coin to Dadroz, Hayley and myself: a mettle with which we can gain knighthood.
 
For Hayley and myself it would be as easy as to show our coin to the guard at the door to the basement to start our initiation. But Dadroz was apparently expected at the Mausoleum of Dead Gods.
 
Easy to guess but Hayley and I immediately went to show our mettle to get knighthood.
 
I'll not bore you with the details of the initiation. Just know we celebrated it quite intensely.
 
Hope you're doing well,
Kind wishes,
 
Ali
 
P.S.: I hate that Liliana and Gael will probably call me 'ser' now just to mess with me. If it weren't such a petty thing I'd challenge them to a duel over it. But to be fair I'd probably lose to Liliana, and Gael too to be perfectly honest. Guess I'll just suffer it.