Letter to Gideon 8

Gideon,
 
It's hard to imagine a stranger and more stressful day as this one has been. The day started off well enough: Luke and Hayley were miraclously better, even being imbued with some new magic: Hayley made branches wither and bloom when brushing them, and Luke made every flame he was near burn even brighter. Were they cured of their affliction or is this a new shape of it? I did notice Hayley and Luke huddled around the dagger Hayley got from Terrin, the runes carved on it glowing softly. We also talked with our new amnesiac friend, but he didn't really remember much except that he possibly had a wife. Our thoughts drifted to the caravan that was ransacked and a female casualty with the same age as our friend, though everyone seemed to decide against bringing that up.
 
The travel to Logvale went okay enough until Noon, where we got ambushed with Dianios: small green goat like, goblinoid creatures (if you can imagine such a cursed creature), that jumped out and started attacking, starting with the horses. When an arrow struck Torrin and brought him down it sent me into a fury which could only be sated by the defeat of these Dianios. Three other horses went down as well. What really drew attention was Luke's magic being driven up to eleven when he shot a giant ball of fire at a group of Dianios, scorching them to bits.
 
When the battle was over we had captured about three of them and Torrin was stabilized. Liliana's more... forceful acts of persuasion did wonders to make them talk, though not much of it was coherent (even taking into account that I don't speak Sylvan): they claimed that we're in their territory, that they have no idea they're not on the Feywild. What little we could get out of them reduced to none when a loud howl pierced the air and brought the Dianios into a right panic. Its source revealed itself before long, a Yeth Hound: A fey hunting hound whose master would reveal itself soon. Some of us recognized this creatures and mentioned nonmagical and non-silvered weapons are useless against this creature.
 
Regardless, me and Lil formed a protective wall around Gael when the creature started moving towards him. And despite Gael's best efforts the hound unleashed another powerful wail to call its master and striked. The howl struck fear into poor Robert Talespinner who ran back up the road we came from in fright. And poor Torrin also panicked and broke itself free of the cart and ran into the forest. But there was no time to go after him as the Houng pounced and we were fighting it back and trying to create openings for those with magical abilities to damage it. It was Onvyr who tried to create an opening by circling around it as a figure emerged from the forest, red hair and one red eye, a grey skin and a devious smile on his face. He declared to have finally found interesting prey as he launched an arrow into Onvyr, who turned into stone. Hoping to close the gap to this new enemy and undo the petrification I tried to charge at him, but the hound struck a fast and mighty blow, even with Liliana's help it still knocked me out could. Not soon after Liliana was also struck down and the battle devolved into chaos. When I came to thanks to Gael's goodberry, Gael was struck down by an arrow from the hunter, who was almost completely focused on Gael, and Liliana managed to prevent the hound from ending Hayley's life as she blocked the worst of a fatal blow, still leaving her unconcious. Even with Luke's newfound magic strength, a power so big it shattered his own staff and burning him, and a horse charge set upon the hunter by Dorr we managed to only give him a few wounds, showing he was defeatable but we were still a long way from finishing the job. E.J. was claiming we should start running but at this time it was hard to see how. Its hound was faster than us and would keep hunting us, we had to find some way to shake them or eliminate them. It was then that Sylvesse appeared, though badly wounded himself, he charged down the Yeth hound and turned to the hunter, who he called Curno, and said we should run while he holds him off. We might've rallied and helped Sylvesse but we all looked in a bad shape and ran for the forest, taking Sylvesse's advice. I managed to take one of the horses that charged down Curno and ride him back to the rest. In the confusion the Dianios we captured managed to flee, except for one that was trampled by the cavalry charge unleashed by Dorr.
 
It took a while before we reunited, took a breather and made our way back to assess the damage. Sylvesse and Curno were nowhere to be seen, as were Torrin or any of the horses, nor Robert. Robert's trail went cold but Dadroz and I did manage to find Torrin's tracks and after a small trek we managed to find and calm him down (with some help of Lil). Seeing our gift from the people from Tarn so badly hurt and scared did sting, but he will be with us for some time yet. So with our horses reduced to two we had to make some hard choices, we ended up loading our stuff into and on top the Colline's carriage, choosing to leave some supplies for Robert together with his carriage and our cart to find if he makes his way back. We also couldn't do anything about poor Onvyr's petrification, but since we won't abandon our beloved guide anytime soon we managed to strap the statue on top of the carriage, hopefully finding someone who can undo the petrification along the way. Being wary of a return of the hunter we set off for the few hours of light still given to us.
 
As I'm finishing this letter up, we managed to find some ruins of an old lumbercamp next to a pond to settle up in. I can finish up whetting my blade and cleaning my armor before getting to bed (get them ready for 3rd watch) and hope tomorrow is a better day, hoping for good news from Sylvesse who hasn't been seen since fighting Curno, and what is Curno's umbrage with Gael? The ruins do make me optimistic that Logvale is getting near and its walls can provide us some pause.
 
Until next time,
Ali
 
Post Script dated 12th of Lug,
 
Brother mine, it is now morning and for how bad the day before was: its evening as it went from Eveday to Sowday was worse still. It was past midnight as Dadroz and Gael were holding guard that an ambush of Dianios came upon us, reaping on Sowday what we planted on Eveday (guess this fatigue is turning me into a poet) as I suspect the escapees from yesterday's battle might be behind this attack. I didn't get time to put on my armor so I charged to protect the west flank with just a sword and shield as Lil did the same on the east. Clearly the lack of armor was messing up my swordsmanship as I missed quite a few hits and one Dianos caught me off guard, hitting a weak spot I usually covered with armor and knocked me to the floor, unconcious. But the second of Gael's goodberries got me back into the fight. Though as I did, Curno appeared once more hunting for Gael and setting the Dianios on the run. E.J. and Elsa already started running to safety, claiming once more that we can't take him. But Hayley and Liliana had the right idea that Cornu will keep harassing us and we need to make a stand somewhere.
 
Here Gael took a big gamble, as he didn't see this battle ending well, and taunted Curno to follow him into the forest. His plan seeming to rely on outrunning and hiding from Curno until we got to safety. Dorr, whose heart and body grew two sizes that fight, started putting the horses to pull the cart and I thought to help him as Luke decided he was going after Gael. And after seeing his torch go into the woods and then get extinguished I could not let him go alone and went in myself, hoping to help him at least. Which lead to me being attacked again by Cornu, when I came to Ileas, Hayley and Lil had run after us and found both me and Luke wounded by Cornu. Convinced we would only slow Gael down and having to trust him we dragged ourselves out of the forest and joined the caravan, without Gael. We had to push through the night and as I write this we have settled down for a quick rest before moving on. We can only hope Gael evaded his hunter and will find us soon. It also pains me to say the last fight and my bout with Cornu, as well as the lack of sleep are taking its toll. A fog is setting in my head and my legs feeling like they are filled with adamantine, which wouldn't be as much of an issue if they were also as strong as adamantine.
 
But what else is left but putting one foot in front of the other in the direction of Logvale. We must be strong and ready, for Onvyr, Robert, Sylvesse, Gael.