Alistan De la Roost

3rd child of the De la Roost family. Dreams of becoming a great Knight and breaking the deal with King Ulther Younger brother to Gideon, 'Younger' twin brother to Liliana Birthday: 20th of Belan

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Alignment

Lawful Good

Age

Children

Gender

Male

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Letter to Ileas 8
3rd of Aran, Y126 E.O.T.

Dear Ileas, It's with sorrow that I have to write that Torrin, our brave companion, passed away yesterday. So did Gael and Dadroz, but we've already revived them at the temple earlier today. But I'll get to how that happened soon. Yesterday started off with a mysterious note, Liliana Hayley and myself all woke up with a headache and since this has not been the first time this happened we decided something must be wrong and we should investigate. After Luke spotted a illusion aura fading off us and theorized a Dream spell could be involved, we just decided to ask Pim, as he might've been the only one awake during the night. He mentioned an old lady moving through the keep, going from room to room, though skipping Gael's for some reason. Our minds all went to Auntie Patty but as Pim didn't recognize a picture of Patty it was anyone's guess who it might actually be. Since this would mean we could only act in the night we went about our day the usual way: Dadroz, Lil and I went and helped the Ravensfielders set up a few buildings while the others went to visit Tommel Dresner who was finally well enough to speak. They finally managed to put together the cause of his curse: Patty visited him on a day and claimed his daugther Naira would die within the coming weeks, she would stop it but in exchange wanted the unborn child that him and his wife was unknowingly expecting. And when forced with the impossible decision Tommel had to make the impossible choice of giving up his unborn child in hopes of saving his daughter, making a deal with the hag. It's hard not to pity him, being taken advantage of by a hag and pushed into an impossible decision. Regardless, when we got back together we had to decide on what to do. Deals with Fey had to be honored at great risk, but loopholes and possibilities could open up depending on the specifics of the deal. So we should speak with Tommel again and get as many details as possible. It looked grim, as Hags tend to make for vindictive and meticulous hagglers. But we were the Lords and Ladies of Wolf's Rest, charged with the protection and prosperity of its citizens, and this unborn child was ours to protect. If there's a way to save the babe from being put in a cooking pot or worse, we would find it or forge that way ourselves if need be. They also asked after the feud between Tommel and Darrion about their favorite fishing spot and learned that while Tommel doesn't really remember what started it, Darrion claims it was a fight over whose wife's packed lunch was better which escalated into a row where things were said they probably didn't mean. Let's hope Hayley's words gets them talking again, otherwise we might have to resort to do what parents do to kids that are fighting over a toy: take it away. But for now Tommel, at least, has a lot on his mind. Before evening fell, I also took some time to visit the massive graveyard at the abandoned church. Quinn wouldn't show up for a few days yet but such a massive graveyard for a small town fascinated me, maybe I hoped to see names of old Keralonian heroes or signs of known families but the stones all weathered the tides of time poorly, and its history washed away. We then set up for the evening, some of us trying to actually sleep while most of us waited awake in our beds for whatever would skulk about the keep. And indeed, by midnight the sound of a struggle came from downstairs. Cursing my choice of accommodations at the top floor I rushed down and waded through a magical darkness to close off the only way out, hoping to catch whatever was trying to escape. And when Liliana landed a blow it cut through the darkness to reveal Auntie Patty throwing up her hands in surrender. I would later learn that she actually got to Liliana who was awake but a sleep spell knocked her back out, it was Dadroz who raised the ruckus. When asking what Patty was doing here, she apparently was eating our dreams, skipping Gael's only they're closer to Fey dreams which are 'more boring', whatever that means. When we pressed her about Naira she was quite tight lipped, saying she hasn't done anything and nothing happened yet, but it is going to happen. But she suddenly dropped her 'old lady' act to glare at Hayley, who had apparently just cast a mind reading spell on her to learn what would actually happen. And clearly she didn't like it when it was her mind being probed. She sneered at us that we made a mistake and she'd have to teach us a lesson. With that she stormed off as I stepped aside to let her through. Though not before Liliana healed her for whatever damage she was just dealt by my sister's swing. After she left Hayley told us what she saw: Niara was to be eaten by a giant toad inside our keep. Thousands of questions about how this could come to be came up and what to do, but we decided that for now we should head to bed. Although not before deciding on a watch, I offered to join Gael but he insisted he could handle it alone. It only felt like a few minutes when I was shocked awake and it felt like the floor was shaking from all the fighting going on beneath. Cursing once again my choice of sleeping on the top floor as well as sleeping through what seemed like most of the fighting, though Lore also seemed unperturbed by the noise. We had to hold the line on the second floor as I managed to intercept a few of the Redcaps that were going after Luke, as Hayley on the other side had a summoned spirit hold the line. Slowly and with difficulty we fought our way downstairs where Hayley brought back an unconscious Liliana and together we slayed the last of the Redcaps. But the damage was already done, Gael laid broken and trampled on the foot of the stairs, Dadroz laid inhumanely still and twisted in the corner of the planned Armory. And in the stables, Torrin was murdered, as were the warhorses of Dadroz and Gael gifted to them by the King himself. Not since our brother's death did I feel such fury and sorrow as at that moment. The next day we resolved to bring back Gael and Dadroz, going to the Temple in Keralon to perform the ceremony to revive them. But despite relief at our friends returning something still dominates our mind: how to handle Auntie Patty. All my instincts shouted to ride over to her cottage, lay waste to her geese and burn her house down, for starters. But is such petty vengeance worth risking any plans to save Leen and Tommel's baby? Should we focus on that and take solace that preventing Patty from taking that baby is enough vengeance? Hopefully I write you back with a happier tale next time, Alistan P.S.: For Gael we already had a song to sing at the ceremony, but for Dadroz I wrote a small refrain as well. In honor of his ressurection. I've named it "The Benevolent Shadow": The Benevolent Shadow, stalking the night Protecting the lands, with all his might A trader of whispers, in alleyways and halls, Gathering truths, where the moonlight falls. In Tarn, he was born, a shadow to the light A rogue who danced where secrets hide To Keralon he came, the city of heroes In the Moonblossom Circle, exposing foes

Letter to Ileas 7
1st of Aran, Y126 E.O.T.

Ileas, It seems like this small village of Dogville, soon to be Wolf's Rest, holds more surprises and secrets than we could have discerned at first glance. But maybe for something more cheery: Dorr showed up, wanting to help us build the keep back up with a band of dwarf friends. While I know this is naive: this could the change Dorr needs to have a life of legitimate business, and less a life of eternal trouble with guards. We gave him some initial ideas and left him to inspect the building and make us a price, hoping our gold reserves would suffice as we moved into the part that will never make any stories or songs: discussions on taxation. Nordick left some papers about the number of people living there and what taxation we are owed to the King, about 4000 silver pieces. This is taking the initial population in mind of course, and whenever the King's tax collector looks over the Lorerun river he'll quickly notice there's a lot more people living here. We set out on calculating what we could collect and what we should invest in well into the afternoon. At which time Liliana, Dadroz and myself went into town to help out people. But by the time we came back we learned some strange creature might be haunting this keep and switching items around. Luke and Hayley already theorized it would be comething called a Boggle, a fey that could phase through walls and floors, making it hard to catch. Dadroz suggested he could take up watch in the night and take a shot at capturing it. Which of course meant that our peaceful sleep was interrupted by Dadroz wiggling a strange fey creature in our noses. After tying it up so it couldn't get away those who spoke Sylvan started interrogating him, he was called Pim and has been living here for years and just can't help but move things around. In the end we struck a deal with him, he leaves all the items in a dedicated chest so we can reclaim them and we leave some sweets in said chest for him. We'll just have to tell all the people working in the keep to look for their stuff there if it's missing. Luke also asked Hayley for a scroll with which he could bind Pim as a familiar, like Hayley has Fiachna. Going to bed was harder than expected as I woke up the next morning with a massive headache. But I barely sat down to grab a piece of toast as Pim appeared over the table and announced something in Sylvan, someone was at the door. It was the new miller, Tharven Miller, who had spotted some strange cave under the hill his mill was placed. And indeed, when we looked the cave had a magic circle with a few menhirs at its edge. We deduced that it had something to do with Neverhold since the runes corresponded with those at our home in Hillfield and that there had to be some ritual tributes being delivered here, as we saw baskets of fruit and sweets and plenty of tracks. Seemed like Dogville was in some strange deal with the fey. But neither Darrion Farrick nor Thomas Teller would give us any information, despite clearly knowing what we're talking about. They only mysteriously said we shouldn't interfere with the magic circle, seeing as we dropped a hint that we would brick up the wall as we would need to play it safe on something we don't understand. A few hours later, Darrion and Thomas came to our keep with Leen Dresner. They brought a big cake a begged us to eat from it so we can talk freely about what's going on. Immediately struck with paranoia on what we would be roped in we tried to pry more before suddenly the cake withered away, Hayley had used her magic to push into Thomas' mind and learned the details: generations ago when settling these lands the farmers of Dogville made a deal with a Fey for bountiful harvests, they claimed these lands used to be hard to farm. And in return they left some food in the cave. And not discussing the deal with outsiders was part of it. They had hoped us eating the cake would let us into the deal. I was struck with guilt and pity as I saw them shuffle out, looking defeated. But I hoped that with the new influx of citizens, and our help, we could rely on each other for improving this land, not a mysterious deal coated in silence. Regardless, at the time what was done, was done and we set out to check on the magic circle again for signs of change, but it looked the same as always. So we decided to set camp here tonight to see if any emissary would show up. So while Gael and Luke went to Keralon to buy supplies I, perhaps out of that feeling of guilt, bought a puppy from Thomas. A cute little brown and black one I named Lore, after the Lorerun river that runs past our little district. Wonder if I could teach him to fight with a sword in his jaw? Thomas, though, was quite disinterested in any conversation besides what is necessary and was clearly still upset about the deal being blown up, which wasn't hard to empathize with. But Lore's first night would be in the open as we made camp near the cave and around midnight, the circle lighted up and a Shiny Eladrin, flanked by two redcaps, came out. He introduced himself as Galaron and was here to find out why his deal was broken and forge a new one. After being informed about Hayley's mind reading he expanded a bit on the purpose of the deal: the food left in the cave was for feeding the fey in the area who passed by, a mutually beneficial deal at first glance. It's when he said he would be negotiating the deal with the farmers in private that we had to resist. Some farmers that are scared for their harvests could be easily persuaded into the safety of the previous arrangement and would be forced into silence again. In the end Galaron would allow Gael and Liliana to come along if they joined in on the deal that was made. While my instincts were screaming at me not to trust a deal, would we really prefer it if Galaron snuck back later on and made a deal anyway? We just had to put faith in Liliana and Gael that they could negotiate a good deal, and hopefully could talk about it after. Though an hour later we would learn they could not divulge anything, and were adamant that it would be good for the people here. Maybe it's the paranoia of our family's history with Fey deals (especially with fey from the Neverhold), but I could not help but be a bit worried. Especially the emphasis on silence again, if the deal is good for both sides, why withhold it? Is food for wayward fey really all they get from this? Or is the threat of withdrawing it and the power that gives? Galaron did want to show he held no ill will to us and told us that the fey that ruled here, Quin, would show up at the ruined church on a full moon. And if I'm not mistaken the next full moon is in two days. Time will tell what type of Fey we would find at that church, and I'll let you know when we met with him. Stay safe, Alistan

Letter to Ileas 6
29th of Nuan, Y126 EOT

Hello Ileas, It's crazy to think barely a month passed since Liliana came back from the Feywild. From then we reunited with most of our friends, those who wanted to became knights, we protected the Draconic diplomatic mission and dealt massive blows to a mysterious cult which included fending off an army, and now the likes of Luke, Dadroz and Gael have become nobles as well and we are now tasked with stewarding the town of Dogville as well as integrating the refugees of Ravensfield into it. It's hard not to get a bit superstitious about our group attracting adventure and attention like dragons to a pile of treasure. So around noon the day after receiving our new duty to Dogsville, we all met up at the abandoned keep to meet with Norvick, the administrator of the King's fiefdoms. He was going to give us a tour and introduce us to the locals. We spotted about seven or eight buldings as we approached, one of them being the abandoned keep where we rode up on our newly acquired warhorses. After some consideration I decided to name mine Faerin, after a saint of Irminsul. What do do with Torrin was a distant thought (perhaps gift him to one of my retainers) as we approached a giant carriage with Norvick stepping out with some difficulty in his old age. We greeted each other and immediately Norvick took us around the keep, that was to be our new home. When dividing up the rooms I realized my retainers: Carnwen, Petra and Krysander, might not be able to move into this keep with us. Though some could take a job in the new guards we're going to be building up, they've been trained with a sword and some good sergeants are always needed. After a quick tour of the keep Norvick wished to take us into the village itself, the poor man could barely walk so we offered a hand as we approached the first building, the farm of the Farrick family ran by Darion Farrick, a large man, who kindly invited us in as they had all been informed of our arrival. There was a bit of awkwardness, as Darion hasn't addressed a ruling family in years and none of us have any real experience with being lords and ladies, since despite our status of birth, Lil and I never really ruled anywhere. He introduced his wife Salla and over drinks we heard kids playing outside. They seemed like the idyllic farming family. After some prodding from Lil, Darion started spilling the gossip: he was having a dispute with his neighboring farmer, Tommel Dresner, about a fishing spot they both frequent. He also lamented that the windmill is in disrepair after the family that held it died out, and seemed excited at the incoming refugees possibly having a miller in their midst. Nordick also brough up taxes, but as Darion's gaze darkened we made it clear we still need to decide on the exact amount and don't intend to be greedy. Usually you pay one tenth to your lords and ladies, them a tenth to us, we a tenth to the King, but these things needed to be discussed in private among the group. After that Nordick brought us to the next bulding, a kennel ran by a half-elf named Thomas Teller. He told us that he dogs used to be sold directly to the King, but after the Leper revolt this stopped, the dogs looked impressive and well bred enough and their litter of puppies was a sight to warm anyone's heart. I'm not the King of Keralon, but hopefully he'll sell one to me. Our house in Keralon was too small but in a keep and the surrounding lands a dog would be nice to take on walks. But enough about that, Nordick took us to the next building: The Rusty Crab. It looked like an oversized food cart like you would see on the markets in Hillfield or Keralon, but it was the size of a shed containing only the kitchen and the area around it was fully settled with chairs and tables for guests where the owner, the Half-Orc Eiza, was serving the local delicacy of crabs. Eiza looked extremely busy so we decided to come back later, there was no need to draw her from a busy day. So instead we walked into the Inn next door: The Grubby Griffon, owned by a halfling named Gideon Mudfoot. Though he could not be anymore different from our brother who shares the same name. Over some wine he wished for us to investigate the Rusty Crab, he felt like she was undercutting his prizes with the cheap crab while everyone left the more traditional kitchen of The Grubby Griffon alone. We were almost worried that he was going out of business as he dragged up a big bag of gold, a gift he called it. Now when it looks like a bribe, smells like a bribe and sounds like one, it's best to leave it at the side. So we politely declined and moved the conversation to possibly hosting a festival to celebrate the new beginnings of Dogville. Our next stop, would you believe, was a lot less pleasant. At the local dock we were reunited with Tevon, the bugbear who helped us trespass the curfew. It brought back memories I'd rather forget about, especially once Tevon was proudly talking about the little smuggling business he had running and how he was willing to bribe us to turn a blind eye. When we left I was already adamant on stopping his little scheme but the others pointed out that smuggling will always happen and it's better to control it. While I disagree I do agree that doing something now would be unwise, it's best to see what we're allowing and investigate before making a move against it. Our last stop before turning back was the Dresner farm, but on the way there a little boy named Kalas jumped out of the bushes brandishing a wooden sword, claiming he was a knight stopping the brigands. Eager to play along, grabbing a nearby branch and with some encouraging words from Hayley I happily announced I was the bandit he was looking for and I would not go down without a fight. After some playful fighting I decided to gracefully let myself be felled by the boy, or well, as gracefully as one can be defeated by a boy smacking you with a wooden sword. As he wanted a reward I gave him some money to go buy some crab snacks from Eiza when his mother, Leen Dresner, came rushing to us yelling at Kalas to stop and apologize. We immediately made it clear he wasn't being a bother, and returned the money he dropped (I saw Hayley even add a few copper to the ones I gave). Walking to the farm I couldn't help but be reminded of Tarn, how my sister and I played similar tricks on Gideon when he came to visit. A simpler time, dreaming of becoming a knight. A dream that had become a strange reality in the last few weeks. Maybe it will become so for Kalas as well. When we approached the farm it immediately became apparent it had seen better days, her husband Tommel Dresner was terribly sick and their daughter Niara was looking over him. Liliana and Hayley immediately went upstairs to look over him as we continued talking to Leen, who immediately started talking about the travelers coming through and how they were making her daughter feel unsafe. She made it clear these people were frequenting Tevon's little side business. She also gave a new insight into the dispute between Darion and Tommel, apparently they were good friends, even fishing there together, but had a falling out over something. And now they want the spot for themselves. Gael then mentioned a painting he saw in the corner, a blanket partially obfuscating a silver stag, and as the blanket was removed a painting of what had to be Sylvesse appeared, next to what we were told was a younger Tommel. Apparently when he was younger he was a scout in the army and was a friend to Sylvesse. At this time Hayley and Liliana came back down, Tommel had apparently been cursed. A curse that one of Hayley's brews had managed to break but he still needed time to recover. Thinking of what could be the cause of the curse Leen pulled a basket of fresh looking apples from the cupboard, talking about an old lady that wanted to sell them but her husband yelled at her to go away, but she left the apples anyway. This was two weeks ago and the apples looked like they were plucked yesterday. And though they hadn't eaten from them it seemed worthy of investigating, and Luke took the apples to keep them safe. Before leaving, she promises to send her daughter Niara to our keep in the morning to help clean, but we also asked her about the previous nobles who stayed there. She told us about the Crestfall family, who like their name, fell from grace about twenty years ago as they were arrested for treason to the King, the father was excecuted and the others were in prison. Leen mentioned they were an unkind bunch as far as she remembered. Maybe we could find out more about this Crestfall family but at the time we were thinking it was time to go back to the keep to start cleaning up. On the way back we caught Eiza clearing up her terrace and we finally got a moment to talk. She offered us all some crab on the house, which was delicious. She also complained about the unsavory types that frequented Tevon's ferry, but also assured us she could handle them with a trusty bat behind the counter. Though that kind of thing should not be necessary of course. She also mentions and old church near our keep that is being used by travelers to sleep and meet. And she hoped something could be done with it. So after bringing Nordick back to his carriage and bidding him farewell we set out to explore this church. Luke claimed it was a church for the old God Belenus (not be confused with his son, Belenus). Maybe we could get some priests from the capital to settle here, bring this church back to life. Trying to keep my mind from wandering to any particular priest we saw definite signs of people staying here but despite Liliana's disappointment at the lack of hidden doors or walls we did find some tracks of a massive animal, resembling the tracks of a goose. Sensing at least an interesting encounter we followed the tracks to a misty clearing, where besides a little hut were a chevron of giant geese. With one of them sprouting multiple heads like a hydra. They started hissing as we approached and an old lady shuffled out looking at the commotion. She introduced herself as Auntie Patty, and she immediately made me feel uneasy. She sounded confused when we brought up the farmer, like she couldn't remember he bringing apples to his farm, even as Luke all but confirmed the apples came from here. In the end we introduced ourselves as the new Lords and Ladies of Dogville and left the lady to tend to her geese. On the way back Gael brought up that this is almost definitely one of the hags that the King made a deal with, they must not be harmed and in return they hold some ancient evil at bay. Feeling a bit uneasy at the thought of letting this hag do as she wishes I like the thought of unleashing something worse even less. When we make it back to our keep we were met with another carriage, Dann was there waiting and besides wanting to show us where the refugees would be setting up, he also wanted to ask permission for setting up his organization of merchants. Remember, the one that sounded a lot like a guild? While Hayley and Liliana were agreeable to this, Luke and I were at first a bit more hesitant, at least enough to want to discuss it among ourselves before deciding. Dann did a lot of good for the refugees and I don't think he'll fall into the same trappings as the guilds of the Leper Revolt, but I can see the Silver Keep from here. Is the inevitable scrutiny and following fury of the King and the trouble it'll cause for all people of Dogville worth a few extra gold? Something to at least weigh out. We also visited the refugees that are slowly settling in, marking out buildings to be raised. Here Hayley managed to get the former miller of Ravensfield and we happily gave him leave to restore the old abandoned mill and settle there with his family. And that's where we decided to settle in for ourselves, start some cleaning and make sure we have a bed to sleep in and a small desk to write letters on. The next few days would give us quite a bit to do: build up the keep, settle the disputes, figure out taxes and what to allow or forbid and how to come to a mutual peace with Auntie Patty. But we'll figure it out, or rather: we will have to figure it out. But I have faith that we will. Ali P.S.: We are thinking of renaming Dogville to Wolf's Rest. It's hard to put that anywhere but maybe by the time these letters get to you the change has been made official. If not, suggestions are always welcome. P.P.S.: It's only been a day, I don't have any new songs.

Letter to Ileas 5
28th of Nuan, Y126, Era of the Tree

Dear Ileas, Hope you are doing well and sorry for not writing sooner. Quite a lot has happened since the last time we spoke. As you know, Robert Talespinner was in league with a cult obsessed with finding the secrets of turning humanoids into dragons, and this cult was terrorizing Keralon and especially the ambassador Rachnar and his son Norgar. Now, during a feast by this ambassador at their newly opened embassy this all came to a head. While he tried to kidnap Norgar, we fought off Robert in his new hideous form, something resembling a dragon but much weaker, and it saddens me to say that we killed him that day. I know you were friends with him but believe me, he was far from the Robert you knew: so obsessed with draconic power that he forgot the strength of the likes of humans, elves and satyrs. This endeavour earned Luke and Gael their knighthood, joining the Rose Garden and Briar Ring respectively. All of this did mean we were now to be honored by the King and Queen themselves at the Royal Palace. We had a week to prepare and most of us spent that time with their respective circle. Luke and I spent it relaxing a bit with our new brethren of the circles, it mostly ended up with us getting the newcomer's hazing and poor Luke getting pickpocketed over and over. We tried to get Gael to join us for some drinking but he seems allergic to fun and wanted to make connections in his new circle. He didn't really talk much of it but I didn't see him with anyone of the Rose Garden either, so it's hard to guess how it went. Hayley spent her time working with the long table and Liliana spent her time at court. She didn't want to join a circle, so she asked Elsa to show her around court. Dadroz (holding a new crossbow) of course vanished to the shadows of the moonblossom circle. Like Gael it's hard to know how it went but he did look a tinge green when we met up on the 28th of Nuan to go in front of the King and Queen, of course he could have been a bit nervous. Gods know I was, even wearing full armor as requested by the crown my heart felt like it could beat a dent into it while we approached Ser Donovan, patiently waiting for us. He informed us on the day's proceedings, we would present ourselves to the King and Queen, have our moment in the spotlight at court and then we would be officially knighted at the Cathedral to end the day with a nice party with our friends and fellow knights. After spending some time arranging invites we were led by Ser Donovan to our first gifts, Warhorses from the King's own stables, one each for us. The horses were meticilously trained to be used in combat and require care in how you approach them. Guess the animal sensed my nerves (and maybe some whiff of Torrin) because it was difficult to approach and mount. Eventually we all got on our horses, though besides Gael and Hayley we all had our problems, and rode towards the King's keep, beyond the Octagon's keep and at the peak of Palace Hill. The Silver Keep was the actual living quarters of the King and Queen and also where their official throne room was. As we dismounted and entered through the front doors, trumpets bellowed to announce us and we walked through a long hallway with portraits of all the Kings of Keralon. A weird detail here: the last three Kings all look very similar, even sharing a similar scar on their face. As we approached the throne room, an old man with a staff appeared from an alcove in the hallway and stopped us. He used the staff (with a massive orb at the top) to check us for magic items and get our name and coat of arms to announce us inside. Luckily Liliana left her magic sword... wherever she leaves it these days. We then entred the throne room, lined on both sides with the most prominent nobles of the city as our names were called and banners fell down with our coat of arms. Luke's symbol a Tower basking in flames, Dadroz' a crossbow with a flower, Hayley a raven and a glass of wine and Gael's a stag with a rose between its antlers. And ahead of us, on the thrones, were King Carollus III and Queen Adelaide. The King is a rather... impressive man, towering over the hundred or so nobles in the room at 2 meters in height. But our attention also was drawn to the empty throne, the crown prince could not attend this event it seems. The King thanked us for our deeds but before giving us our rewards he wanted to hear the tale from our mouths. We decided to split it up with myself starting on the first part, helped by Hayley, going from us getting together and meeting the ambassador, ending with the entrance of Rachnar and Norgar into the city and retrieving the gem from the cult. Then Gael, helped by Luke, took over: weaving the tale of how we went to Ravensfield, found Reynis, and cleaned up the cult underneath Hollow Hill. Ending with how we evacuated Ravensfield, fought off an army of this cult and then guided the refugees to Keralon. And then Liliana, helped by Dadroz, finished up the story of the embassy and fighting Robert Talespinner. When we finished the King and the court broke into a small applause, he did follow up with asking each one of us about our lives before and in Keralon. He started with Liliana and myself, regretting the death of our brother from the curse of the Black Knight and chastising the briar ring for not having been able to solve the problem with the Knight Nemesis. As Liliana only came back a month ago he was also curious as to what she was doing, and she revealed that she spent her time with Vivienne who the King is apparently quite familiar with. He then moved on the Luke and Hayley, being facinated with their magic and expecting a demonstration as Hayley grew some thorny spikes from the floor and Luke caused a major firey explosion right outside the castle. The King also took care of Luke's apparent animosity with some of the nobles at court after his time at the academy, again chastising his court for petty infighting. Hayley mostly myseriously answered questions the King gave her. Dadroz was next, and while he seemed extremely sincere to the King he was asked to perform some fancy archery and asked Luke and to choose a 'volunteer' for the display. Apparently some test to see if Luke still held resentment to some of the nobles in court but there was no need as he chose Vern Skald, the herald of the outer city circles for Dadroz' display. And it became clear Vern chose well when he gave Dadroz his mettle for becoming a knight when he expertly launched a shot right next to his head, displaying his marksmanship. Last but not least, Gael was asked to step forward. The King was especially interested in his bow and also requested he showed a bit of his magic, prompting Gael to disappear into mist and reappear at the entrance of the hall. Again to astonishment and applause of the court and King. After all that the King moved to our reward, you might remember Nordick? The poor administrator that when we entered Keralon dragged that massive book around with all the nobility and their lands in it. Well, he was there to show that Gael, Luke, Dadroz and Hayley would be elevated into the nobility. Now, my sister and I are already of noble birth so he couldn't give us this but I couldn't help but admire the accomplishment. Being born into nobility is easy, earning it is a true reward and I reckon deserving of more respect than being born into it. My great-great-grandfather made a deal with King Ulther and signed generations of second borns into service for nobility (he did fight the Leper revolt with the power from that deal but that's another thing) but our friends earned it with nothing but hard work. Hayley immediately refused the elevation into nobility, claiming it would go in against her beliefs. The King was a bit confused as he also prepared to give us ownership over Dogville, a piece of land right across the Lorerun river. An ideal place to settle the now homeless Ravensfield villagers. But she was happy enough to let the rest of us have official ownership. But as said, we were now all lords an ladies of Dogville, a place the King said we could rename as it used to be named for the royal kennels which are now disbanded. But not before giving a decree that Liliana, despite not being a knight, should be allowed to carry her sword in the city. At this point, the King dismissed court but said that after our knighting ceremony he would be at the party. And so left us with the leaders of the circles who led us to the cathedral for our knighting ceremony. So all of us besides Lil were asked to pick a holy symbol outside as priests of the different faiths would be involved. Only Luke and I chose a specific God, Luke picking the Duke of Time Zebulor. I was a bit conflicted since I have grown to have faith in both The World Tree and The Keeper of Balance, but in the end I chose Aitlas as Justice is part of why I became a knight. We were given respective holy symbols and large gray coats to wear and were guided into the cathedral where we swore an oath, and then priests of different faith asked us to whisper our desired goal, the one thing we wish to do before we die, into their ears as a brother or sister of our respective circle approached us and put a hand on our shoulder. You might wonder what I whispered, but that's a secret for me (though I doubt it's hard to guess). What was more noteworthy was the scorching pain that hit us right after. Only before going to bed could I notice that I now had a scale, balanced on a thunderbolt, the symbol of the Keeper of Balance on my left shoulderblade. It was hard to tell when you're wearing plate armor. We were then received to thunderous applause, now true knights of Keralon, and dragged outside by the audience where more people gathered for the party that was to start in a few minutes. The party itself was really fun, though right as I finally thought I'd have a fun evening talking and drinking with Rachnar and Norgar I heard Liliana yell out in pain. Apparently Vivienne decided Liliana's loyalty in not becoming a knight deserved a reward and gave her a mark not unlike what we just received from the Gods. Liliana still treats her like a friend though so we couldn't make more of a scene of it. I just don't see what Lil sees in her... Anyhow, soon after the King himself arrived. Now without a crown and dressed more casually, at least, as casual as a king could be expected to dress. He approached us with a proposition and took us to the courtyard in the palace hill where some nobles had gathered, after the displays of everyone's skill and magic he wished to see us in a real combat scenario. So he had two golems come over: one emitting steam, the other a glass construct with a strange light burning. He said that since we now had lands he would bet on the outcome on the match: if we won he would give us some extra gold to get ourselves better established, but if we lost we would have to return the warhorses he gave us. We had to choose one of the golems and after Luke and Hayley looked them over we went with the glass one, they cited a lack of magical resistance as the reason we should go with him. Now I was itching to showing what I could do, everyone got a chance to display their skill at court except for my sister and myself. So imagine my disappointment as the golem went down before I got a good hit in. My sister got in a magnificent hit, empowered by fey and divine magic, and together with Gael and Dadroz filling the thing with arrows it was over before the fight got properly started. The thing didn't even get a good hit in, as it was fooled by Lil's fey mirage. The King and nobles in the courtyard were seriously impressed. It was also around this time Luke mentioned these nobles didn't really look familiar and we returned to our feast being unsure of what really happened. Though we would be a few thousand gold richer for it at least. So it seems our next few weeks will be spent getting to know our new lands in Dogville and the people who are now in our charge. And while it is a great opportunity to help more people than we ever could, I hope our careers as adventuring knights are not too burdened by it. We all hope you are doing well and hope we can go to Hillfield soon to see eacht other again. Alistan P.S.: I've missed making music with Liliana, Gideon and you, The Fey-roost Five. And while I've never matched your ability for composing I've been trying my hand at writing some verses again to play with Liliana. This one is titled "The Young Stag": In the heart of Tarn, where the Driftway flow, Lived a young elf ranger, destined to be a hero. Gael was his name, with eyes sharp and bright, Raised by a fey stag, in the moon’s gentle light. Sylvesse, the fey stag, with antlers of silver and light, Taught Gael the ways, to wield the forest's might. But an evil fey, named Cornu, did rise, And took Sylvesse’s life, under darkened skies. Oh, the young stag, swift and bold, A silent protector, his story untold. Now he wields the antlers, with magic so grand, To vanquish the darkness, and protect the land. With a heart full of sorrow, and vengeance in hand, Gael faced Cornu, in a final stand . Fey magic danced, in the night so dark, And Gael struck down Cornu, arrows finding their mark . Oh, the young stag, swift and bold, A silent protector, his story untold. Now he wields the antlers, with magic so grand, To vanquish the darkness, and protect the land. Now in Keralon, the Silver City so bright, In the Rose's Garden, he serves as a Knight With honor and courage, his heart never sways, Defending the realm, through nights and days. Oh, the young stag, swift and bold, A silent protector, his story untold. Now he wields the antlers, with magic so grand, To vanquish the darkness, and protect the land.

Letter to dad 1 part 2
23rd of Nuan, Y126 E.O.T.

Continued, As Hayley sends out Fiachna to scout the river for possible getaway boats, Luke immediately used his magic to track the gemstone of Norgar, hoping he is still in possession of it. Luke claimed that the gem was moving away North but quite a bit below us, so probably underneath the Palace Hill complex which lies North of the Embassy. We all left our partners for the evening behind and rushed to the basement and started searching through the rooms, but our haste got the better of us when Hayley opened a door triggering a fireball trap and revealing a strange ritual behind it. About eight cultists and a Flesh Golem chanting around some arcane circle. Now, we were heavily under-armed and under-armored, and even though I disarmed a cultist so Gael could use his dagger it were his magical vines pinning them down and a horrifyingly effective fireball from Luke, which almost burned off my eyebrows, that won us the fight. When I finished up hacking what was left of the Flesh Golem to bits I could not help but feel bad for these people brutally burning to death, some of their screams still echoing through the basement. Though that pity was quickly squashed when Luke informed us the incantation they were doing was to summon a demon with the name "Durzal". Guess they were planning on crashing the party to mask Norgar's disappearance. We quickly had to accept that there were no hidden paths here that would lead us the Norgar and they had moved out of the range of Luke's spell. So we had to go back up to the party to start heading North but first we informed some guards about the mess downstairs, I mentioned it in draconic to not risk too many people overhearing that there's a giant, bloody, smouldering mess down there. But some of us looked really rough from the fight, so we couldn't prevent some people staring. As guards were moving downstairs Elsa also came up to us, offering some healing and mentioning how there were other buildings in this complex with basements we could have a look in, since we were a bit lost for options. This started off a bit of a wild search, we had Dadroz check every door for traps and frantically look through every basement room. The lack of guards outside was a bit alarming, maybe they were now called to the basement but it seems odd that no one is guarding the outside grounds. It wasn't until we reached the large guard barracks (which was empty as everyone was on duty) that we found something: my nervousness about Norgar getting away from us got the better of me and I opened a door Dadroz checked to land headfirst into a small group of Half-Dragons, who took the opportunity to strike. Again, we were still unarmored and this time the fight was quite rough: Gael, Liliana and I all suffered quite some wounds, even going down a few times, barely keeping them occupied as Dadroz, Luke and Hayley flung spells and arrows, finally taking them down. The Half-dragons were in the armory's stockade so we helped ourselves to some weapons, armor and shields, even some healing potions and chugging some of them down as we anticipated even more fighting, making a mental note of giving this stuff back and paying Rachnar back for the potions. In the nearby room Dadroz found a hidden door and after receiving some magic help, courtesy of Gael, he managed to unlock it. Liliana halted us and requested that maybe we should take a breather, we were still a bit wounded and used a lot of our strength which could be important to replenish. But time was a major factor and we concluded we could not afford an hour so we ran onwards, into the dark. The tunnels eventually opened up into a cave, though it had markings of being an old basement. Since we would be below the Palace hill maybe it used to be part of the palace complex but closed off? Or maybe it's something even older? Regardless of its age, we did see some signs of recent mining activity there (in Hillfield we met a dwarf called Dorr, long story, but we should probably ask him about this) and a doorway. But when Dadroz tried opening the door a dagger flung into his side and a shadowy figure revealed himself together with two devilish imps. This shadowy figure was adept at using stealth to escape our grasp but eventually he had to reveal himself and be overwhelmed by our combined might (though not before also taking Gael and Dadroz down). Luke recast his spell and he claimed the gem, and hopefully Norgar with it, was close. We made our way into their base, trying many doors and even walking in on a demon sleeping, groggily wondering if we're cultists, Liliana's dceived him to think we were and that he should go back to sleep. We would have to deal with him later but had bigger things on our mind. When we reached ever closer to Norgar's location we found Robert Talespinner, waiting for us. He started talking about letting them do a ritual on Norgar and the gem, extracting some draconic essence for their further experiments. He claimed it would not kill him and we can have him back after, this was for the benefit of Keralon, aren't we all 'stealing power', blah blah blah. None of us bought this of course, especially when Hayley told us that in his mind he was just delaying us, triggering him lunging at us. The fight was short, as this was not Robert Talespinner but a shapeshifter, a Doppelganger, and we made short work of it. We tied him up, though after stabilizing him and punching him unconcious again. Leaving him for a second while we went further in the direction Luke's spell pointed at. We passed by some doors and a sort of prayer room, dragon parts set up as an altar, but we finally found a room with a bunch of drakes guarding an unconcious Norgar. The fight was hard on me, wielding a torch and sword to see something in this darkness cost me my conciousness. But soon enough the last one fell and we got to Norgar, lying asleep underneath a strange dragon statue holding his gem, it being active with some light swirling around. Hayley managed to identify the gem as some sort of soul container and together with Luke figured out the ritual was siphoning off his soul, you know: complicated magic stuff. Luke managed to perform a complex weave that disrupted the ritual and we could free Norgar from that ordeal. He was still asleep though but he was out of immediate danger, meaning we could take a breather ourselves though not before getting our doppelganger prisoner so we could bring both back. After taking a breather we set out to return but wanted to check out a few closed doors to get some more info. And despite being trapped and poor Dadroz taking the worse end of a few of them we mostly found long hallways leading further into the ruins. So we doubled down on actually returning but once we got to the crossroads where we first found the doppelganger Robert we heard the voice of the actual Robert Talespinner, although sounding fatigued, calling on us to leave, that we were still his friends and should leave Norgar and the gem and forget all about this. Of course, he knew we could not do thi, so after our refusal the shadows on the other side of the hallway started moving: two smaller figures started running our way and one slower giant shadow squeezed its way through the Hallway and followed suit. Luckily, as Hayley was quick to point out, the way out was open and we could make a run for it, get Norgar to safety. And so, leaving behind our doppelganger prisoner and my sister and I carrying Norgar, we hurried our way back through the tunnels and back to the embassy grounds. Clearly Hayley's raven had gotten our message across as a few guards awaited us downstairs, prompting us to go to the nearby temple to have Norgar and ourselves looked at. Since we were near the armory I dropped off the plate armor I had been borrowing: 'some guard has a better use for it than I', is what I thought. We settled in at the temple but then the Norgar's gem that Lil had been safekeeping started to glow and Dadroz noticed some tremors underneath. Hayley, thinking fast, summoned her raven and send it away with the gem, thinking that like us, Robert was using magic to find it. We all settled in for what we thought would be a siege of this temple as the ground cracked open and a giant abomination of a dragon crawled out, screaming in Robert's voice to hand over Norgar and the gem. The fight looked like it might be our last, we were all down on magic and resources, I even left my armor behind, and a few Half Dragons came in from the side to tilt the fight more in the cult's favor. But some good shooting from Gael, Liliana dragging Norgar to safety and me dumping every little ounce of strength I had into carving into Robert's accursed form at least took Robert out of the equation. My slashes felt stronger and faster, maybe this armor I wear weighs me down more than it protects me? But I quickly learned why you wear it when the Half Dragons unleashed their fire breaths and slashes and I got knocked down alongside Hayley who was next to me. Eventually the fight turned as the last half dragon tried to flee, my frustration with this cult reaching its boiling point as I threw my shield their way lacking a ranged option (daggers are just small swords right? I'll look into those), hoping to prevent one escape. But it was Hayleys magical words that echoed through the freshly carved pit as the Half Dragon slumped to the floor. Quite fast help arrived, guards and a cleric streamed in to patch us up and inform the guests that they should probably leave as the tremors and cracks were hard to deny now. As we rested up Norgar awoke, we filled him in on what we saved him from and he shared that the last thing he remembered was going outside to cool off a bit, and he got lured into an ambush. Regardless, when fiachna brought back the gem to Hayley and the guests cleared out we headed into the embassy to be greeted by Rachnar, the leaders of the knight circles, the knights of the Octagon and of course our companions for the evening: Elsa, Dann, Samuel Valeborn, mom, E.J. and of course Galiene. Seeing her made me realize how bad of a date I must've been: constant talking to Vivienne, the group, the Octagon and then I was gone basement and ruin dwelling for the rest of it. Rachnar invited us to tell the story of what happened tonight, we took turns telling it, to make sure not detail was left unexplored. While Luke and Hayley were explaining the intricacies of the ritual being performed on Norgar and the way Luke dispelled it I was taken aback by the group gathered here, everyone of importance outside the King and Queen were gathered here, it made the plan of the cult seem almost foolish, especially the last ditch effort crashing into the temple, yet it still required us to foil it. Throughout the tale everyone was paying close attention, Ser Donovan even taking notes. After we finished our tale, the first to speak was Rachnar. He elaborated on the gem, revealing he also had one. Apparently their culture's high ranking members are granted a gem that collects their soul when they die. In their society this is a way for them to live on with their ancestors, and that it could be used to siphon off part of a soul for draconic essence disturbed him. We speculated on what could be their ultimate goal, not getting much further than their stated goal of turning into dragons but we concluded that from all we did now and the intercepted letters back in Hollow Hill that their base in Keralon is temporarily broken. Although there still was this Beatrice person we haven't found. Ser Donovan and Rachnar were agreeing on coordinating some forces to liberate Ravensfield when a guard rushed in and whispered something in Rachnar's ear, my heart stood still for a bit, expecting some new attack from this cult, as Rachnar said that his guards went down to those ruins and learned there's a portal gate down there, probably being used by the cult to send reinforcements. It would need to be investigated, together with the rest of those ruins. Maybe a future job for us... Ser Donovan rose to his feet, speaking for most of the Octagon and the royal court in thanking us for dealing with this cult. How in the short time we've been active together, which was about four and half weeks, we've risen this far and done so much for Keralon and the Draconics. And that a proper reward should be in order, saying we should prepare ourselves for an audience with the King and Queen in the near future. Ildan Aspental, the herald for the high city circle knights, spoke next. That despite no official quest being given for dealing with this cult, he agreed with the leaders of the circles that Gael and Luke have earned their mettle for joining many times over by now (he also made a slight remark on how Rachnar should've contacted him to make this an official circle quest). Gael wanted to join the Rose Garden and Luke the Briar ring. Ildan also looked at Lil and asked her if she has decided on what circle to join, but she wanted time to think about it, claiming she has not 'earned' it. Something I don't really understand as she fought as hard as any of us, if not harder. Ildan also explained that those of us who already gained knighthood were still owed a proper knighting ceremony which is an occasion that got lost in the events unfolding over the last weeks. So we should also look forward to a proper, formal knighting ceremony. And with that Ildan and the rest of the knights left leaving us with Rachnar and Norgar. We spent some time talking about the events, that we should really have a visit without anything dramatic happening. Elsa also brought up how the embassy was a former guard outpost and the keys getting to Robert probably happened through some guards on the side of the cult. Not that strange seeing as we had many cultists be members of the guards. Rachnar seemed very keen on taking this up for investigation, as well as the tunnels that seem to lead in and out of the embassy. We left the embassy soon after, being exhausted from the day and needing a bed (or at least, I did). In the carriage ride over I apologized to Galiene, since I presumed she spent most of the evening alone at a party overrun with nobles. But she apparently met some interesting people, and remarked that our evenings together usually ended with some adventure distracting from a normal night out. Mom was also surprisingly positive, apparently talking to the octagon and earning an audience with the King satisfied her need for family status, I didn't have the energy to point out that it was due to the things she disliked (adventuring, hanging out with our 'lowborn' friends) that we even got this far. She did manage to pressure poor Liliana to consider courting Norgar, as he's ambassador Rachnar's son and next in line, and being an ambassador's wife is important and all that usual talk. While Liliana could do much worse than Norgar, like Samuel Valeborne for example, I'm not sure if being an ambassador's wife is her idea of a good life. And anyhow, my sister did her part for the family already, serving Vivienne, something the family should not have asked of her in my opinion. But that's a topic for another time. Anyhow, it's getting quite late. And since mom and E.J. are leaving soon we should at least spend some time together until then. And then we should probably get ready for the King's summons to court. Wonder what reward we will get? Hope to see you soon, my sister and I really want to visit but ever since she came back from her service to Vivienne it's been nonstop with this cult. Best wishes to everyone home, Ali

Letter to dad 1 pt 1
23rd of Nuan, 126 EOT

Hi father, Hope things are well in Hillfield. Mom was being a bit vague about what is going on but she said you were too busy to join. Hope it's nothing bad and we can visit soon, as you might know Edward Colline (Jr.) was also in Keralon to represent Tarn at the feast and he invited us to come visit so we'll definitely pass through Hillfield at that time. But maybe it's best to go back a bit, the day before the feast we were investigating a bard called Robert Talespinner, we suspected he was connected to this cult that's been attacking the ambassadors of the draconic kingdom of Velora Morenthene. This cult is actually the reason our group of friends were invited to the feast as we saved the ambassador and his son from this cult a few times and played emissary for them when they first showed up. Anyhow, in this bard's room we found a sending stone and a bunch of keys, all identical. Having, at the time, no clue where the keys would fit on and not desiring to use the sending stone we just picked those up and went about the rest of our day. We had a small meeting with the Briar ring to handle a dangerous dragon construct wreckage (long story) before Liliana mentioned she needs fashion advice for the feast and was thinking of asking Elsa Colline for some help. Here we learned that E.J. (Edward Jr.) was back in town for the feast and had just arrived, his horse was panting in the stable, but that Elsa was too busy, apparently she is a main force in organizing the feast and setting up the embassy itself, quite some important work. Though Elsa did swing by as her brother was getting ready to head out with us, to say hello to her brother and once she saw we were there gave Lil and Hayley access to her wardrobe and arranging Luke for being her escort for the evening, and then she already had to get back to work. The rest of the day was spent getting us some fancy clothes, finally getting a chance to get some clothes made with my personal coat of arms, one of the privileges of knighthood. I've included the design in this letter so let me know what you think! And after having a good meal with E.J., sharing some stories of our travels, we went to sleep. The next day of course, mom arrived in her cart, flashing her invitation to the feast. Bringing with her quite some scrutiny and petty judgement. I'll be honest, I got quite angry, watching her disapprove of the house we made our home in and our perceived lack in status, specifically me being a Hedge Knight. If I were in a calmer mood I could mention that my talents are ill-suited for dealing with Fey, which is the strength of the Rose Garden, nor do I possess any talents for magic, which is the territory of the Briar Ring, that I were to use whatever talents I have to rise to the Octagon I should use them where I'm strongest: helping the common folk, and that we've made quite a difference already. At least she seemed impressed Liliana and I got our own invitation. Now her next layer of torment was demanding we had escorts/partners for the feast and she said she would find people for us if we did not have anyone ourselves. To avoid having some poor noble girl's family force her to go with me on my mom's account I decided to dig into my acquaintences, a priestess of Irminsul, Galiene who I worked with a lot in the past few years. She helped me save a woman kidnapped by a cult not dissimilar to the ones at large in Keralon now (possibly even the same), Petra, who is now one of the few servants in our employ. And also she has patched me up more times than I can count. Liliana, on the other hand, seemed a lot more receptive to our mother's grievances and agreed that mom find her a partner for the feast. So after mom headed out I asked her to go tell the rest of our group about our change of plans while I went to ask Galiene, so they can brace themselves for the disapproval of our mom. It annoyed me how much Liliana played along with our mother's ways, but maybe she saw something I at the time did not have the patience to: a mother who lost her eldest son and now looks to us as the future of the family. I just hope that she can see through her ideas of how our family should be and what nobility should be like to accept how we are going to approach it. That in her disapproval of our 'lowborn' friends she misses how it is their help that even got us to Keralon, and their help that made me a knight, and their help that got us personal invitations to the feast at the embassy. Hell, I'm certain Luke and Gael will join the high city circles soon and Liliana has her pick of any of them if she puts her heart to it. Anyhow, the rest of the day until the feast was convincing Galiene to join us and going on a last minute shopping spree with her. Thank Irminsul that E.J. showed us some stores the day before and that they work so fast, even though my wallet is a bit lighter for it (though that's on me for asking someone the day of the feast). So when we arrived at the Colline's estate, they had arranged a carriage, she was dressed in a beautiful green dress and a golden holy symbol she borrowed from the temple. It almost makes mom's disapproval and sister's questioning worth it, almost. The others were gathered in their finest clothing, though Hayley had chosen to wear her typical black with a broche, making her stand out to her partner for the evening, Dann, who I imagine was going to lobby for aid to Ravensfield. Luke was fiddling with some flowers he got for Elsa and Gael was not bringing anyone, prefering to, in his own words, to "go stag". Some inappropriate jokes about Gael's history with stags aside, I did feel a bit bad for him. Over the years I've known him I don't think I've seen him relax. Luke mentioned to us that in their week of "relaxing", it ended up being more of a networking event with merchants. Though maybe I'm not one to talk, I've not been particularly relaxed in the last few days, and especially not sitting in a carriage with my sister bombing poor Galiene with question after question after question and mom (who was the partner of E.J. for the evening) barely concealing her disapproval. But when we arrived at the embassy, a nice plot of land next to the Lorerun river, I thought that maybe tonight might be a good one for relaxation. But that hope was quite quickly smashed by reality as mom introduced Liliana's partner for the evening, some boy named Samuel Valeborn, a mage from a noble family by the look of him, and it became clear that he and Luke shared some history as they shared a cold look and Samuel made some offhand remarks at Luke's expense. Luke did mention he was involved with nobles when he was attending the academy a few years back and it seems one of the grievances he picked up then was with this Samuel? Sadly Liliana would be stuck with this man at her arm for the evening. I thanked the World Tree for dodging whatever ghost of our group's past mom would have brought for me. The feast inside was a bit of a mixed bag, we found Robert Talespinner telling stories in a corner, but we couldn't really make a scene so we went to Rachnar and Norgar to say hello. When Rachnar saw us he immediately called for everyone to quiet down and introduced us as his guests of honor, for being the reason this embassy existed in the first place. Most of the audience there gave us a polite applause and then went back to their own business but Rachnar and Norgar were really happy to see us. While catching up, we mentioned to them how Robert Talespinner might be involved with the cult and just in case, that they should have some guards keep an eye on him. Around that time we noticed some snow falling from the ceiling and the guest's glasses of wine freezing as Vivienne made her way into the room. Apparently High King Ulther was invited but could not make it, so Vivienne was his proxy for the night. After talking to Ragnar she turned to our group and mostly spoke with Liliana. It was good to see they were at least friendly, though her "looking forward to the next one" did send a chill down my spine. At that time we all split up a bit, I was first planning on dancing some of my annoyance away but was immediately distracted by seeing knights of the Octagon sitting at a table. So while Gael went to speak to the heralds and heads of several circles, Hayley took Dann to speak to some nobles and the others took to the dance floor, I pulled Galiene over to the Octagon. Any thoughts of being a bad partner for the evening to Galiene evaporated when Donovan beckoned us over and asked about our adventures. Dad, it's hard to understate this, besides the King they were all there: Lady Gwennith Elkrider, Lady Catriss Dendaughter, Ser Harald Banner, Ser Tyron of the Veil, Ser Roy Shard, Lady Arwen Veld and of course Ser Donovan, I grew up on you, mom and Gideon telling stories of their great deeds. And they were all for some reason listening to our story of Ravensfield, attacking the cult's stronghold, learning about Talespinner's involvement, holding off the army and the dragon construct we took down. I can't help but think that despite it being one of the hardest fights in my life, all of this must seem like a calm Sowday to them. Ser Donovan's gaze did become more serious during my story and, after asking for some advice, went to send a message to the palace, thinking the King's safety might be in danger here. The rest of the Octagon was happy to keep me at their table in the meantime, and I really wanted to ask them about their deeds, if the legends were all true, but they seemed more interested in me for some reason. They asked me about home, family, why I became a knight, what I've done, would I do things differently,... It honestly felt like, back in Hillfield, when you asked me to sit in on an interview with someone you wished to hire in our houshold. It did feel like I was being sized up by them, though I doubt I'm a serious contender for a vacancy at the moment. It might've been the one time I wished I could read minds like Hayley. At this time I saw Samuel Valeborn storm by, leaving Liliana on the dancefloor. I'd later learn Samuel tried to outdance Luke and Elsa but came short. Guess mom couldn't find someone more mature... or at least with better moves on the dancefloor. But we were all immediately distracted by the arrival of Queen Adelaide, escorted by Ser Donovan. Gliding through the feast, apologizing for her husband's absence before coming to us. Ser Donovan introduced us and she thanked us for the warning for the King's safety. She asked us about knighthood and was happy to hear Gael and Luke wanted to join the High city circles, and even Liliana seemed to entertain the idea now. Though maybe she was just humoring the Queen. So in a short evening, we were hailed as guests of honor by the ambassador of the draconic nation, honored by the Queen and I even got the chance to talk to the knights of the Octagon. It was hard not to be at least a bit proud of our accomplishments. But it all took a sharp turn from there, as Rachnar asked for a small audience in private. He told us his son Norgar had vanished and no one can find them. And asked us to find him, and to do it discreetly. He handed us a key to move about the premises and, of course, the key perfectly matched those we found in Robert Talespinner's backpack the day before. We also thought back to the day the Norgar entered the city and the cult tried to steal a gemstone from him and how we could use that stone to track him using magic. That and talking to Robert Talespinner topped our list of next moves as we moved back down into the party, that while looking the same as we went back up had changed TO BE CONTINUED

Letter to Ileas 4
21st of Nuan, Y126 EOT

Dear Ileas, Sorry for not writing to you sooner but don't worry, I'll add the letters to Carnwen, Petra and Krys for full context. But in short: Ravensfield had a secret laboratory nearby where the dragon cult was experimenting on captives, turing them into dragons, after meeting one of their victims called Reynis we cleared the place out but in exchange angered their boss, Vezzir, who sent Rayl, a wyvern riding commander and his army to burn Ravensfield. We evacuated the village towards Keralon and fought a battle there, barely making it out alive as the flames of Ravensfield closed around us. Oh, and our friend Robert Talespinner? He is probably in league with them. So where I'll start this letter we are all catching our breath as Ravensfield burns. We saw the army (which despite losses was still numbering in the hundreds) waiting on the other side and reckoning they would have attacked us if they saw us we decided to catch up to the refugee train that was on its way to Keralon. But it quickly became clear that their headstart of almost a day would take a bit more to get to than the few hours of light we had left so we made camp. During the night something huge flew over at least three times, always north to south, likely scouting the road. Thanks to Gael getting a good second look he recognized a massive draconic figure... This did not spell good news. Fiachna also reported that the army at Ravensfield was making camp there, having no intention of moving after us. It's a relief that they're not after us, but it also makes one wonder what their next move really is. Regardless we require Keralon to send an army to handle it. The next day we caught up to the caravan and Safira and Zx'ex'xm told us they found marks that seem to be from our nighttime flyer. Seeing as we still had about three to four days until we reach Keralon and we were responsible for the safety of the Ravensfielders (actually, what is a citizen of Ravensfield called?) we decided to take it carefully. That night Gael and Dadroz would stake out a likely landing place and get a good view of this creature. They reported back that this creature was a massive metallic construct of a dragon. It would land and watch the camp for a while and then fly off. This is where a conundrum hit the party: should we confront this creature or let it be? It ended up being a discussion between two camps, on one side Luke, Lil and myself argued that we should confront it to see who sent it and if it came to blows we could at least choose our battleground. The other side of Hayley, Gael and Dadroz argued for caution, that talking to a construct is unproductive and fighting it could still endanger the refugee train we were supposed to protect. Many arguments were raised, speculations about the origin of this construct, if it belonged with the army or came from some 3rd source and many more yet none of them managed to persuade anyone. For now we had decided to wait another day to see if the dragon changed its behavior. When it decidedly didn't and our impasse didn't lift it became clear that the side closest to the status quo would get their way, since neither Luke, Lil or myself would want to drag others into a fight. In moments like these your voice is sorely missed, Ileas. Not because I expect your opinion to follow mine, but because having a tie broken by a majority is more satisfying than an impasse. The next day would see us wrestle with the consequences of this choice. As this was the day we'd arrive in Keralon and we were taking a small break all hell broke loose as many of us were put under some kind of magical trance that made them wildly attack each other. The refugees near me and Lil started attacking each other and myself, Luke started hitting Zx'ex'xm, Dadroz started stabbing Gael and the Mayor and Dan went for each others throat. In the chaos a few fell and even Torrin, taken by this magic, killed a villager. But then the cause of it all appeared, the giant dragon construct who then fired a beam of radiant energy through the caravan and killed both the mayor and all but one regugee that were in our vicinity. In the end we tried to take down the dragon but as it flew away, Luke unleashed a mighty fire-y explosion I've only seen him do a few years ago and Liliana blasted it with bolts of arcane power. With a loud smack it hit the forest floor a bit further up. As Hayley and Liliana looked at the villagers to see who could be saved I mounted Torrin and rode along the refugee train, ensuring people everything was okay and to see if nothing else popped up. We also went to look at the wreckage of this dragon construct and found that whatever effect was confounding everyone came from its metal, which Luke says comes from the Hells itself. As it was beyond our capability to suppress the best we could do was put up some warning signs for passerby's. This was also the time the villagers took time to bury the dead. With some serenity and somberness we decided to finish our last stretch towards the city. On the way there I was contemplating if we could've prevented these deaths, and while attacking the dragon pre-emptively probably would have done that I expect the charming magic might have been more destructive to our group if we could only attack each other, as currently we left the fight relatively unscathed. and it showed it was more than willing to fly away which would mean it might've gone after the villagers anyhow. Unless the Duke of Time himself would give us a chance of a do over on it it's all empty speculation. Night had already fallen by the time we reached the Foregate, which was closed. But luckily they opened up after seeing the refugee train and a quick explanation. We had to talk to a guard sergeant and fill out some forms to make sure the refugees were allowed in. There were two immediate things we had to set out for: handing over the prisoners to the briar ring to prevent them spellcasting which was taken up by all expect Hayley and myself, who set out for the Long Table's Headquarters. As you might remember we sent out messages about Reynis and needing help with a curse but we saw nothing on our way there. Quickly we were brought before Ser Callos, the leader of the circle of the long table, an obscenely huge man who despite the late hour was intently listening to our story. He confirmed he had received news about the curse but nothing about Ravensfield being attacked, which is not too surprising as that news came with the refugee train. Ser Callos went over his papers and mentioned three knights were sent out, two of the long table and one of the briar ring for their magical know how. But when we made it clear we found no sign of them along the road his eyes became worried. Maybe the construct caught them? Or some other accomplice of this cult? Anyhow he started writing letters to both the royal court about the army and to prepare a new party to look for signs of the group sent for us. With some thanks we left and met up with the others, they managed to deliver the prisoners to the Briar circle and under the responsibility of Dadroz, who held the key, they were now being held until further notice. As it was well past midnight we all decided to go home, where one more surprise awaited at least Lil and myself: and invitation to a party on the occasion of the new embassy that was being opened for the draconic state under Velora Morenthene. Peace talks were advancing at a good rate from the looks of it. Though worry starts gnawing at me (which is probably why I'm still up writing this letter instead of sleeping). Every time something is organized with the emissaries of Velora the cult takes their chance to strike. And we do have letters confirming Robert was sent here as the champion the cult 'needed'. So I am a bit worried. But this is also a chance to talk to Rachnar and Norgar, share what we know. Maybe we can find out more about this Beatrice mentioned in the letters between Vezzir and the professor. And don't worry, I'll also try to enjoy myself. The event is in two days anyhow, plenty of time to look for Robert, get help for this construct and prepare ourselves for the embassy's grand opening. Talk to you soon, Ali

Letter to Carnwen et. al 4
17th of Nuan, Y126 EOT

Dear Carnwen, Petra, Krysander Our brother Gideon used to tell my sister and myself stories of how our De La Roost ancestors (before they made deals with Fey) came from a place called Roost. It was said that Roost was the home of Dragon Riders, men and women who lived in kinship with Dragons and fought alongside them, and flew together into combat. These were the years when Irminsul did not exist yet and the Great Devourer Ourborros had not yet broken free, but sometime between then and now Roost was wiped off the map and so were its dragon riders. The reason this came to mind is that today we kind of fought against a Dragon Rider, he was the man in full plate mentioned in my last letter. Though he rode a Wyvern if I have my dracology right. But I'm once again getting ahead of myself, as you know this day was the day we'd fight an army and his wyvernsaddled commander. Hayley's raven was sent to scout and reported that an army of hundreds was approaching. We all set up around the newly raised barn, some of us, like Reynis, on the roof and others ready to engage steel to steel. I was seated on Torrin when Rayl, for that was the name of the commander on his wyvern, landed and told us he'd fight us first. Out of some, to me, indecipherable sense of honor he wanted to have a go at us first before the army came in 'to finish the job'. We exchanged some words before his charged in together with his wyvern. On my end the fight was a bit frustrating, as I struggled to pierce Rayl's armor and shield and the wyvern bit Torrin down forcing Liliana to spend time stabilizing him. But in the end, Rayl and his wyvern focusing on Liliana and myself played to our advantage as we could synchronize our defense and hold them back as the others brought them down with spells and arrows. In the end it was a flaming orb from Luke that finished Rayl, and we tried to keep him alive for questioning and bound him in some ropes for questioning later. I asked Torrin to get out of the village to keep him safe from any other stray arrow But here the dragonels above blew a horn and the 2nd wave was already set in, I barely had time to drink one of Hayley's brews and receive some healing touch from my sister as the first signs of fire rose into the sky, but it's where our preparations set in as well as combined with some well placed spells from Hayley the army was repelled as they realized the trap they were walking into. This was beside one group of drakes and a draconic devil that circled around the flames and charged at us from the South. Some of the drakes tunneled and reached those who usually fight from a safer distance as Liliana and myself were held down by the rest of the forces. The fight turned into a race for time as Reynis yelled that the flames were rapidly closing in on us and, smartly, ran to safety. One by one we managed to dispose of the enemies and Gael, Dadroz and Liliana could retreat. But the insistence of one enemy to hound Luke proved to be too much for our friend, and it took Hayley's magic to force the enemy to fly away and only with a last minute appearance of Torrin, who bravely ran though the fire to get to Hayley and me while Luke ran through the barn with whatever strength was left to him. Don't think we could've lasted another second before succumbing to the flames as Torrin used a cart to jump over the flames, carrying Hayley and myself. I should ask Gael if he can use his magic to speak to horses as well as sheep and thank Torrin for riding into battle with me, and saving me and others so many times. We took a moment to collect ourselves as we saw remnants of the army we just repelled on the other side of the village, looking at the flames, and we were forced to wait on their next move. Ali

Letter to Carnwen et. al 3
16th of Nuan, Y126 Era of the Tree

Dear Carnwen, Petra, Krysander, It must be strange to receive this letter, probably the day after the last one. But while those came by normal courier, I can imagine this one arriving with rumors of what happened in Ravensfield and in the hands of a refugee from a possibly lost village. My intention was to give it to Safira and Zx'ex'xm but they will be taking the prisoners so I've asked one of the departing villagers to hand it over, please help them out in any way you guys can and take some liberty with using family resources to do so. Of course, it could also be that I will be here myself, having rushed over and caught the caravan after tomorrow's battle. But maybe it's best to get you up to speed: We woke up on the morning of the 16th of Nuan thinking we'd be here for a while until reinforcements arrived, so Luke spent some time hunting for a scroll of Polymorph, asking Dan from the local merchant group if they had one, and while they had no such scroll Dan could tell Luke about a Hag in the forest that you could do dealings with, being able to contact them through an altar surrounded by runestones. That at least looked interesting to waste some time while waiting for extra knights from Keralong, though summoning the hag was out of the question we could always have a look at these ancient stones. But first Hayley wanted to use her magic to get more information out of our prisoners, and she learned something horrible: The champion of Arcarost, the person experimented on by the professor, it is Robert Talespinner. At least the description Hayley extracted from the prisoners exactly matched him. It explains his interest in Dragons, and of course the red colors. But we barely got to process this information and its consequences when panic broke out outside Hayley's house, villagers running past us away from the town square. Losing no time Liliana and myself jumped on Torrin and drove off to the centre, everyone else following suit. We found a group of undead Kobolds wreacking havoc together with humanoid monsters made from different dragon parts, we learned these monsters spat acid, which almost killed Torrin. But Torrin proved to be sturdy and even trampled a few of the enemies. The battle itself was hectic, as the enemies were spread out and one kobold especially refused to die, its undead nature refusing to relent, but eventually we cleared out what we would soon learn to be a first wave. The second wave would come from above, except for Gael and Luke everyone was caught by surprise when four dragonells and their riders swooped down and his us. They struck and flew in such a way that they left little openings. So Lil and I stood fast in the open, readying our strikes while the others used their ranged attacks to take out the riders. The battle turned quite sluggish as, once the riders were taken out, the beasts came down and swarmed us. They even struck down poor Torrin, though he managed to survive the battle he was out and dropped me to the ground. After only two beasts remained a loud whistle sounded and they flew up and levitated next to a big, dragon like being, a wyvern, and atop it was a man in full plate armor and a helmet that fully covered his face. He gave us a second to collect ourselves, here I became aware of how dire our situation was: Luke and Hayley were forced into a house for cover and were limping out from side windows, Gael was hunkered down in an alleyway to avoid the reach of the dragonells, though some arrows of their riders had pierced him, Dadroz even went down for a split second. And while Hayley's rejuvenating brew and Liliana's healing closed some wounds and refreshed me a bit, every one else looked to be low on magical resources. This fight could prove fatal if it proceeded. But no attack came, the armored man on the wyvern wanted to know if we were the ones who attacked Hollow Hill. And once we confirmed this he gave us an ultimatum, he was here to exact vengeance for our attack on Hollow Hill and would kill us and burn down the village, but he'd give the villagers 24 hours to evacuate and then he would come back with an army and we would fight this out. If we were to evacuate with the villagers he would run his army upon us all and kill everyone. With that he turned around and flew away giving us a precious few minutes to collect ourselves and start planning how we'd defeat this menace. But first the villagers slowly returned and Hayley talked to the mayor and Dan from the consortium to convince them to evacuate the village, and they agreed to start making way to Keralon. Zx'ex'xm and Safira would join them to deliver our two prisoners to Keralon, to extract extra information. Reynis on the other hand wished to help, he'd rather die in this fight with us then live his life in the forests. A true act of bravery that we couldn't turn away, so we decided to set on preparing the town and ourselves for the fight tomorrow. Of course fighting an army with the seven of us was close to impossible out in the open, but quickly a plan formed to use Ravensfield to our advantage. Dadroz and I would set up to close off alleyways and funnel the army through selected streets, the others would use the time to grab all the lamp oil and flammable objects that the consortium didn't take with them and set out to make sure the town would burn and make the army pay for every inch they would move into the town. We would make our stand near the barn at the other edge of town. Tomorrow might be our greatest challenge yet, an army and its wyvern saddled commander (making a note to ask his name at least). I'd be a fool if it didn't frighten me a little, but what is bravery if it isn't standing firm in the face of fear? One thing is for sure: Ravensfield will burn. But who will build on its ashes will be decided tomorrow. Hope to see you soon, Ali P.S.: The whole preparation of the battle has almost pushed Robert's identity from my mind. Make sure news of it reaches the knight circles. I assume Zx'ex'xm and Safira will be spreading it too but make sure of it.

Letter to Carnwen et. al 2
15th of Nuan, Y126, E.O.T.

Dear Carnwen, Petra and Krys, Almost immediately after sending the last letter things took an interesting turn for when we left Reynis, Liliana and Gael a Dryad showed up seemingly knowing Gael and his connection to Sylvesse. Through this Dryad we learned that Reynis came from a place called Hollow Hill a bit further into the forest. According to this Dryad many dark things happened there. Which really gives all the reason we need to go check that place out, although we'd have to take Reynis along. Which brings us to the first night where we’d have to take care of Reynis’ transformation. We blindfolded him beforehand but that didn’t stop his transformed self from blasting Liliana and myself, downing us in one fell blast, luckily he was still subdued and transformed back into his kinder self and luckily when regaining consciousness he wouldn't transform back. To think we might have to do this every night until help from Keralon arrives... So after a well earned rest we arrived at Hollow Hill after a few hours to find the abondoned ruins of elves long gone (we would later learn this is a tomb of elves loyal to Corellon, who is himself a dead God of the elves) and between the statues of these long gone elves we found a pit, but those who could see in the dark pointed out this was likely a spiralling staircase that broke off as they could see what remained of them a bit lower. When I get back home I should do my morning exercises with my armor on because climbing a rope with it seemed harder than I thought it'd be, almost falling to the floor in the process. We left Reynis up in the forest as he did not want to enter the tomb again. But we then found ourselves in the hideout of those who cursed Reynis, after some quick fingered lock-fiddling by Dadroz we then came to a darkly lit room. In the middle, standing before a blood drenched altar was a mage and a construct under his control, clearly in the middle of some dark ritual. The fight the ensued was quite intense, the mage dropped scorching blasts of fire on us: something I hoped I would not be on the receiving end of ever since I saw Luke perform that magic all those years ago when he was powered up by the fey magic of the Lorewood. Regardless, Liliana dismantled the construct with her glowing sword, the power Vivienne gives her on full display. And the combined effort of her, Luke and myself brought down the mage, as I knocked him out another door opened up bringing reinforcements: other cultists in red robes who were there to fight to the dead, which they did. Except for one, who joined the mage in becoming our prisoner. As things calmed down we tied up the mage and we studied the altar, the runes adorning the altar were in draconic but it took some magic from Luke to really figure out what it did: it was the altar used to transform people like Reynis. And lucky enough for Reynis there was a way to use this altar to revert the rituals, but less lucky for Reynis: the strength to cast that magic was beyond those with us, though the mage's spellbook (now Luke's spellbook) did provide all the spells required at least. We decided to explore further and got to the mage's study, which was magically trapped as Hayley triggered the statues to life. After dealing with them we poured over the mage's letters, he is in contact with someone called Vezir. There were two letters: the first one talks about a chosen of Arcarost that was sent to the mage and was suited for whatever transformative ritual they have planned, seems they are looking to transform others into dragons? The second letter claims the transformation was successful and this new champion be sent to Keralon. Hopefully with this we stopped more 'champions' being made but this one being there does worry me. And the second letter also referred to someone called Beatrice, that together with the name Vezzir might give us some clues as to how we can actually engage the cult's presence in the city of Keralon. Now, you might think a cult to Arcarost transforming people into dragon-like beings sounds familiar to the story of Galiene and myself saving Petra from a similar fate. And you would not be wrong, but some things are different: the cult we saved Petra from did not have these tatoos that these cultists have. So on the one hand we have that difference, but on the other: how many Arcarost cults that transform innocent captives into dragons can there be? In any case, maybe Petra should stay at the house for her safety or at least not go out alone, just in case this cult gets any ideas. Just until we can get this cult sorted out. After taking this all in we came to the horrible realization that the professor had somehow escaped and gone into a narrow tunnel that was hidden by the altar. Luke identified the creature that helped the professor escape as an imp, a small devil. Not wanting to give him too much of a headstart we rushed into the tunnel, though rushing is a bit of an overstatement as we were reduced to crawling. But after a while we ended up in a large cave, the darkness preventing many of us from seeing anything. Though Gael suddenly unleashed a shot and we heard a body thump to the ground. Apparently the professor was in the midst of performing a ritual on the skeletal corpse of a giant dragon. With the professor knocked out cold (again) the main worry was the imp who was hiding around and whatever was left in the tomb we hurried away from trying to capture the professor. So we decided to split up, with one group hanging around the skeleton of the dragon while Dadroz and Gael went up ahead to scout. After a while we got a sending to meet up at some crystal they found, they managed to prevent the imp from crushing it. And Luke divined with his magic that this crystal, infused with the roots, was creating a barrier that covered up the entrance. Seems the professor was planning on flying off on a revived dragon skeleton. If this person wasn’t also kidnapping and experimenting on people against their will I’d admire the plan. After thinking it over we decided to keep this cave closed, we were apparently close to Ravensfield so opening this up might create commotion we could better avoid for now. So we crawled back to the tomb to clear out the rest of it. We found the bulk of their treasure, a not insignificant amount of gold and a adamantine shirt now being worn by Gael. In another room a heap of bones in the dark transformed into skeletal monsters that at first were left to Liliana to fight as she could see in the dark thanks to Vivienne’s lended powers, striking mighty blow after mighty blow, her sword still lights up a bit when using her magic, so you can at least see that. But when Luke’s levitating ball of fire lighted the place up we all got to work and cleaned up after Liliana. With that we had to go back up, as we left poor Reynis alone for a few hours now and if we had two prisoners to take along. When we talked to him, Reynis seemed hopeful that there was a way to revert his curse, but the hope was a bit dampened as none of us had the magic required to actually revert it. We went back to Ravensfield, thinking to put our prisoners at Hayley’s house under the careful watch of Safira and Zx'ex'xm while we went into the forest to once again beat down Reynis’ cursed form. This time we tried to add some manacles and hit him before his transformation completed but his strength and vitality made it turn into a small fight regardless, though much easier than last time as the drake had no real chance to blast us again. Since we were now well into the night this meant our prisoners awoke. But if we expected an easy interrogation we’d be disappointed, The Professor was quiet at first until Hayley probed his mind and learned this whole things was to turn humanoids into dragons. Then he was interested in talking about how humanoids are weak and the cult’s objective was unlocking ways of ‘ascending’ into dragons which to him are greater beings. In his warped mind the kidnapping and murder of innocent humanoids, kidnapping and stealing from the draconics were necessary sacrifices. Quite sickening. We didn’t really get anything more out of him between the weird ravings about ‘stolen power’, this Beatrice person was known to him but he wouldn’t reveal any more information. And when Hayley stepped in to probe him again with magic to know about the Champion they sent to Keralon he bit his own tongue and spat it at us. I’d admire his loyalty and tenacity if it wasn’t in service of something this twisted and sick. His former cultist colleague saw all this and the professor’s display of tongue spewing was enough for him to offer information about the champion, but only if we let him go. Something we all agreed wasn’t an option. With that we decided to call it quits for the day. It seems like we’re going to be waiting a while for reinforcements from Keralon, and unless we get more information out of our prisoners or we find a scroll with the magic spell we need to save Reynis under a rock it’s going to be a quiet few days... besides having to beat the shadow drake out of Reynis every evening. Sorry for all the letters, but please send this one to Ileas as well to keep him up to date on the story. I remember he liked listening to Robert Talespinner’s stories about dragons, and this one misses some of the grandeur but I reckon it’s close enough to the subject. Kind wishes, Ali P.S.: Liliana of course sends her regards as well.

Letter to Carnwen et al
14th of Nuan, Y126 Era of the Tree

Dear Carnwen, Petra and Krys Hope things are good at the house and you are having a good time despite our absence (or because of it). We won't be back in a while as things in Ravensfield have turned out quite eventful. As you know we set out on the morning of the 11th to Ravensfield. The name does make me wonder: did the village rename itself after Hayley showed up with her raven? Or did she choose the village because its name containing raven in it? A bit of a drake and egg problem, or maybe a pure coincidence. For nostalgia's sake we hired a draft horse and took our old cart to make the travel easier. Anyhow, during the travel Hayley wanted to clear the air that her companions were former soldiers in Morenthene's army and it might not be the best idea to bring up that we fought in it. And like Gael, I wasn't really interested in holding a grudge or bring up the war when our peoples are looking for peace. After three days of travel we finally arrived at Ravensfield, a charming village a bit bigger than Tarn where we all spent so much of our childhood. Hayley started talking to the local baker called Bart and confirmed some of the news we heard, that there's been petty theft going on and attacks by some creature, and some we didn't: some new organization called the "Restoration Society" has been establishing itself here. They have a base in Keralon as well apparently, but their mission is to rebuild some of the Northern lands of Keralon after the conflict with Morenthene's forces. They are also looking to consolidate some of the merchants, which does sound a bit like a guild. But anyhow, the representative here was a man named Dan who was overseeing the building of a barn. After talking to Bart we went to Hayley's home in Ravenfield, where we met one of her companions here, A kobold named Zx'ex'xm, pronounced "Zem". He showed us where there were last tracks from the creature that was plaguing the village. Gael and Hayley bent over it and quickly saw the creature was like nothing we'd ever known: a print like a drake but not the right amount of toes. Our thoughts immediately went to the hybrids and constructs the cult was throwing at us. But for now we'd have to make due with following the tracks into the forest. This eventually led to a clearing where we found some claws and black scales of whatever was writhing and slashing around here. Yet no tracks left from here again that we could see, so either the creature took off or it magically transported (or transformed) Gael had an idea to get some more information from the sheep that were attacked using a spell that allowed him to speak fluent sheep. Though the only thing he learned was that the creature used shadow (though it might have referred to the black scales) and that it has a spiked tail, but no wings. So for the night we decided to set up on top of the barn they just raised after getting the approval from the Restoration Society representative here, some guy named Dan. With the clear night's sky we hoped to get a good view of the area to see where the creature would come from. After a while Zem and Hayley's other friend, Saphira, came up with some food and it became quite a lovely picnic with some talk about the distribution of magic swords among knights and when the sun set we established the usual watches. Around midnight, Gael and Liliana woke us up as they saw a shadowy figure enter the village from the forest. We started to get ready as Gael decided to sneak up on ahead, followed by Hayley's raven. But before long Hayley snapped out of her trance to warn us Gael was spotted and was engaging the creature: a shadowy drake. Sadly by the time I got there the fight was already over, Gael managed to shoot a few arrows in it before the drake disappeared into the shadows. He did learn that the drake could somehow teleport through shadows and had a mean tail swipe. After patching Gael up we started to follow the trail of the drake, helped by some blood now decorating the tracks. But once again we ended up at a clearing where the drake seemed to have been writhing around before vanishing. Though now we finally found some new tracks, from a human sized figure, walking away. This lead to some small camp in the forest right outside Ravensfield, with a small tent a dying fire. We decided to set up a trap here for when the occupant would return. Eventually we got him, after he tried to sneak away. We learned he was a guy called Reynis, a Half-Elf from Drybank cursed to become a mindless drake during the night. He was apparently kidnapped by the same cult that has been attacking Velora Morenthene's attempts at making peace with Keralon. We're sure since he mentioned the red robes and tattoos we've seen on them before. After little more than a month of torturing and performing some ritual on him, they deemed the transformation a failure and dumped him in the Lorewood near Ravensfield. He showed remorse about killing two shepherds near Ravensfield and the petty theft but we tried to convince him these things were out of his control. But that we can now help him. For that we did need help from Keralon, someone strong enough to break this curse. It was decided we send a message to them and wait for help while we dig around a bit more in Ravensfield and keep an eye on Reynis for when he transforms. So together with Luke and Hayley, I decided to go back to Ravensfield to write the letters: one for Ser Donovan, The Long Table and to you of course. Hayley's eccentric friend Zx'ex'xm promised to arrange the couriers to get them to you all. Anyhow, it's time to start heading back to the forest for the first of many night managing Reynis' affliction. And hopefully we can find out more about what is going on here. So as it stands you'll have free reign of the house for at least a few more days it seems. Hope we see you soon, Ali (and Lil) P.S.: I included a copy of this letter for Ileas, could you post it for me? Trying to keep him up to date on all events around this cult and Velora Morenthene. Robert Talespinner and him talked a lot about Dragon stories.

Letter to Ileas 3
10th Nuan, Y126 Era of the Tree

Dear Ileas, A week has passed since my last letter to you. We had quite an adventure at Caern Fussil, the tower Luke spend time training under Amarra. But that's not the story I write to you about today, though I recommend you ask Luke about it. No, I am writing a sequel to our last tale. About the dragon's emissaries, Rachnar and Norgar. They would make an official entrance into Keralon with their delegation on the 10th of Nuan. This would be accompanied by a grand feast. So in the week running up I (and Hayley as well) took the time to help out as knights at the Circle of the Long Table, they were overrun with requests to guide merchants, protect travelers and help set up the feast. Not all glamorous work, but work that needed to be done. The others spent time carousing, my sister with the commoners while Gael and Luke chose to hang out with the merchants and bards (though Luke confided he was trying to get Gael to a bar with single women, but Gael was more interested in the non-romantic form of networking). Also Robert Talespinner arrived in Keralon and stayed at Erna's Wish and also brought a letter for Hayley from a village she lives at a bit up North. Apparently some strange things are happening there and if I had to guess, we'll soon set out there to investigate. Maybe you'll hear about it in a next letter. But then the day came and we all agreed to meet up at the roof of Erna's Wish. But even early in the morning the streets were filled with people and celebrations. Food stands selling dragon themed food (though honestly it was just normal food with a dragon name attached) and kids running with scale shaped toys and candy. Feyris' bar was also teeming with life, already housing drunks before breakfast was done. Feyris asked us to not take anyone else to the roof, as he feared damage (not completely unfounded, as you'll hear later). The city square before the Foregate was empty besides a few knights that were waiting before an empty gate. And as we saw a delegation from the Velora Morenthene's army reach the gate, it opened and we saw Norgar and Rachnar wearing beautiful scale armor and riding drakes together with an honor guard of their own. We were far from the square so we couldn't hear but words were exchanged and then they started their march to the Palace Hill. Rachnar and Norgar were happy to wave at the citizens who seemed overjoyed at seeing the dragonborn go through their city. And thanks to Liliana's magic and some shouting of my own we drew their attention for a second. They decided to wave and make a small bow to us as thanks for all we did as we noticed Norgar bowed a bit deeper than expected and fell off his drake. Immediately people started panicking as Hayley and Liliana pointed at a group of three hooded figures holding bows, clearly the cause of Norgar's affliction so we charged at them. The hooded figures were Elven assassins that tried to flee but tangles from Gael and spikes from Hayley kept two busy as I lept from roof to roof to corner the other one. It was here that we saw an undead figure across the street (away from the parade) that struck quite a nasty blow with a magic blast. As Dadroz knocked out the one next to me and the others were dealing with the trapped assassins I made a run over a washing line... Yes, it sounds impossible but I will stress that I ran over the washing line balancing for my dear life to get a chance to strike at this undead warlock. And after I struck a nasty blow to it Luke burned it to death with a sphere of fire he conjured, and at the same time a Manticore landed on poor Feyrís' roof, shattering some tiles forcing Liliana to hold it off as I had no easy way back. But here it became clear that during our fight, the parade was also dissolving into shouts and clashes of steel so I made way to see what was going on there as the rest easily dealt with the Manticore. Over there Norgar and Rachnar's guard and Keralon's knights were fighting off cultists in the same red robes we saw at the guard's barrack over a week ago. The cultists clearly didn't stand a chance but when I saw one of them shun their cloak and sneak up on Norgar to take something from his coat. Yelling from the top of my lungs at the others who we should focus on I charged after him. Gael teleported magically besides me and Dadroz followed behind as Hayley used her raven to help us, Luke stayed to ward over his sister and Liliana would clean up the knocked out cultists. Thanks to Hayley's raven we managed to track the thief down to an empty square where he was reinforced by a few extra cultists. I left Gael to fight a cultist who ran up to him to make sure the thief did not get away. And together with Dadroz reinforcing and Hayley's raven cawing encouragingly when the thief, who revealed himself to be a brute with greataxe, shouted something in an unknown language to us. But when the raven spoke it showed Hayley was still following and could translate: "Release the beast" is what was said and a cultist slammed open a door to reveal a walking patchwork of skin lumbering forward. Luckily Dadroz managed to knock out the thief and I grabbed the item he stole from Norgar, a gem, as we all took position to fight this Fleshy Golem coming at us. But quickly it became clear our non magical weapons had no effect and we resorted to using a torch, but after Dadroz confirmed through the immerglade stones no help was coming soon we had to retreat, baiting the Golem from street to street until we came across some guards and knights. Luckily some of them had magical swords and told us to take some rest, we were looking quite injured by then, and slayed the monster. Here we reunited with the rest of our group and we were approached by Ser Donovan and a group of knights seated on horseback. Back at the parade, Liliana healed Norgar and apparently they informed Ser Donovan about our help and where we were headed. This is also the time Liliana stuffed her magical sword in my hand, as she didn't want to be caught wielding magic items while she wasn't a knight. Maybe I should take the time to set her on the path of becoming a knight, I'm convinced she'll be one in record time. I took five years, she'll need two weeks tops. We explained to Ser Donovan what happened, and he was thankful and curious that it's again the same cult attacking, and with quite the menagerie of creatures (though menagerie was Lil's description of it). He did decide some rewards were in order, and apparently was appalled by me not having a magic sword while being a knight. So he asked one of his companions to give me his, and reassured us he'll have a replacement as soon as they get back to their circle. I was taken aback by how flippantly a magic sword was handed to me, but I was impressed by a knight of the Octagon handing me a sword that I could only sheepishly accept it. He also offered some ring with gems to Gael as payment for us, and while Gael at first declined the others were happy to take the reward. And honestly, if a rich knight who hands out magic swords like candy wants to give you money, taking it isn't going to make him go hungry. I also completely forgot about the gem I took from the thief and luckily Dadroz reminded me as I quickly ran after Ser Donovan as he was departing to give him the item to give back to Norgar. They were setting out to the site where we fought the cultists to investigate further. Leaving us to go back to Erna's Wish to relate our story to Feyris and Robert, and tell them the roof needs some fixing. But luckily Hayley knows a spell that can fix most of the damage. So that's where the story currently ends. All the bards in the city do make me miss our time together: rehearsals as the Fey-roost Five with Lil and Gideon, helping the farmers in Tarn, traveling the Lorewood,... It's a shame you're not here to share in these stories unravelling but I can only hope you are happy in the Eastmarks with your clan. With love, Alistan P.S.: At her unrelenting nagging, Liliana also sends her love and wishes for me to ask if you're still keeping up with your sword training.

Letter to Galiene
4th of Nuan, Y126 Era of the Tree

Dear Galiene, I know you're very busy but you might like to hear that I've become a knight of the Long Table! How that happened is quite a tale actually: Catching up with old friends, being approached by Vern Skald, sneaking out of the city, getting to the army of Velora Fenhunter and winning the right to escort an emissary by fighting their champion, a giant dragonborn. Then we escorted the emissary through an attack by constructs possibly made from stolen dragon babies (don't ask) and into the city where we eventually got ambushed by guards in red robes hellbent on killing the emmisary. So, quite some action and like you might expect I took quite some hits. But luckily I've been reunited with my friends from Tarn and especially my sister Liliana. You should definitely come to meet her when you get the chance. I think after nagging your ears off with stories of my sister and friends you might actually want to see them. Oh and we met Ser Donovan, from the Octagon! I didn't realize it at the time but how cool is that. And when we told the story to Vern we got our mettle and the initiation into the circle, long story short they have a spectral dragon down there. Writing it like this, it is a bit weird that we struggled so hard to tell the story afterwards. After Hayley (you might remember Luke's sister from his wedding feast?) and I had our initiation we went to Feyris's bar, Erna's Wish. You might remember it from the few times we went there and how the owner is a good friend of ours. But we tried to tell this story about our quest but somehow Liliana and I couldn't bring our A-game, guess the day itself drained us more than we wanted to admit. Luckily the jist of it was communicated and we had a good time celebrating. But this brought us to yesterday, you definitely remember Luke from that wedding party I took you to? He knocked on our door telling us his master Amarra from the wizard's tower Caern Fussil was requesting urgent aid, she sent a message in the night through a tiny fire elemental. So we grabbed whatever horses we could and spent most of the day on the road, I took Torrin from his stable and you might've been laughing at me training him a few years ago, but that timid draft horse we got from the villagers of Tarn was now a well-trained and strong horse, easily carrying the weight of two armored warriors. When we arrived Luke said the lack of smoke coming from a fire wizard's tower was concerning, and Hayley managed to scout that the tower was under attack from beings called Umber Hulks, monstrosities with giant claws and mandibles and a gaze that could influence your mind. Not wasting any time we charged in. It was a rather hectic fight, as I tried to protect my sister, Torrin was hypnotized by one of the Hulk's and started running away, taking two nasty attacks that almost got him. It also lead to Liliana taking a lot of hits, I could not protect her from, and hitting the ground. But in the end, with Liliana and myself holding down the line and the rest peppering them with attacks, we downed the Hulks, with Luke landing a final Magic Missile that obliterated the last Hulk. So we set out to find Amarra in the wreckage, in the end Gael found that only Umber Hulk tracks led to the tower and Luke found a hidden door behind some illusion magic where Amarra was nursing some wounds. She told us the attack was from a rival wizard seeking her destruction, a former lover if I understood the subtext better, though a quite aggressive break up since he is chasing her and sending massive armies of creatures after her (Guess a side effect of studying fire magic is that fiery nature gets to your love life too). And since she thinks Caern Fussil is a lost cause she is considering to go into hiding and shake off this wizard, and despite my worries she reassured us that Luke wouldn't be a target since he's not that strong of a wizard yet. Though she had some parting gifts for him, a scroll to get him to the heart of the tower and a crystal there that would allow him to make a future tower of his connect to the elemental plane of fire like this one. Something we would do the next day as we settled in for a good night's rest, though we did put some rocks and beams in place on Luke's recommendation to keep an exit open if the tower collapsed, and we made sure Torrin and the other horses were safely tied up. During the night, Gael saw Amarra use magic to teleport out, apparently she was never much for goodbye's according to Luke. Hopefully she can keep herself safe. But meanwhile, we set out to the heart of Caern Fussil. We ended up in a hot place with a bunch of magma. It was quite the puzzle but it involved some books in a language we didn't know yet and fiery circles that locked the one standing in it in place when carrying a certain marble we obtained from a flaming brazier that was supposed to go into a statue blocking our way with magma, it gathered some energy from the circles. We had to leave one of us in each circle that summoned a few minor elementals to fight, so we always were down one fighter in the following fights. I volunteered to stand in one so I had to hear Liliana, Hayley and Gael fight the last group. Now here we probably should've caught our breath a bit but we were energized by powering up the marble, and Luke was ready to wade through fire to put the marble in the tongue of the statue, which then allowed us to jump over it into the next chamber, where a giant crystal hovered over a pool of lava: the heart of Caern Fussil. But the heart was protected by a fire elemental that did take quite a lot to beat. Not helped by us being a bit spent from the last battles. But after being burned a few times and Liliana almost succumbing to the fire completely, a final arrow from Gael managed to finish the job. The elemental itself shrank into a staff that was clearly meant for Luke, a second to last gift from Caern Fussil for its remaining wizard. He then braved the lava to get the last gift, the crystal, which triggered the final collapse of the tower. Luckily we managed to crawl out and then start to make our way back to Keralon. Also, did you know the guards just know if you're a knight? We didn't have to identify ourselves or show any signs. They just know. It also means I can finally get that sending stone I buried outside the city and take it with me, as well as use the shield my brother left me. As you said, it was wasted hanging on the wall. And it's been a relief to have my sister and our friends together again. You know how my family's deal with Ulther has been hanging over my life. With them on my side, maybe we can do something about it. If we can find the time of course, the last few days have been incredibly busy, and something tells me that won't let up anytime soon. Carnwen, Petra and Krys send their love. As do I. Hope your work at the temple goes well. Yours, Ali.

Letter to Ileas 2
2nd of Nuan, Year 126, Era of the Tree

(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.

A Tale of Three Chapter Three: Krysander and the Knight
Y125, Era of the Tree

Heavy panting filled the alleyway next to the De La Roost house as Carnwen unleashed a flurry of blows at his master. But Alistan blocked them and disarmed Carnwen with a simple blow “Good, but you overcommit which loosens your grip after the final blow, opening you for a counter. A skilled swordsman should never overcommit. Always leave some strength for defense.” “But your brother told you that a Master Swordsman knows when to put everything in one attack anyway to finish an opponent” “Well, since you didn’t hit me and I disarmed you,” Alistan produced a little smirk “I’d say that right now: you’re neither” He got ready for another round as he saw Petra approach. “Master Ali, it’s mr. Thistlereach. He’s here to see…” The gnome named Travyn Thistlereach shoved Petra aside as he passed her. “Alistan, don’t tell me I can’t just come talk to you. Petra here was gonna make me wait” Travyn was one of the first people he befriended in Keralon, a local smith who shared in Alistan’s fondness for swords and was probably the only person who could withstand and participate in his loving ramblings about them, besides Liliana of course. “It’s all right Petra” Alistan said as he saw Petra’s eyes ablaze, clearly ready to give Travyn a piece of her mind, “As you know he’s a friend, they don’t need to stand on ceremony” Petra’s eyes turned towards Alistan, for a second he was expecting some comment on how a noble should demand respect, even from his friends. And how waiting is a basic courtesy, but she seems to think the better of it “Very well, at least have your conversation in the house. I was gonna put out some tea” “Sure,” Alistan was happy with the compromise, “Let’s go Travyn, what do you wanna talk about?” “So you’re worried about Galvan?” Alistan asked as Travyn took a sip of his tea “It has been almost a week, he should be back by now. The sighting of the monster was only a day away” “Though Galvan thought it wasn’t a monster” Alistan prodded, “He seemed to think it was a curse?” Travyn shuffled a bit “Well yeah, he thought he heard of curses on people that turned them into a tree, subservient to the curse’s caster, their branches and roots striking out at unsuspecting travelers” The thought of having to fight a tree brought a shiver down Alistan’s spine. “Well, did he think there was a way to break the curse?” “That’s the thing,” Travyn said, “He thought a silver axe that struck at the roots would disable the curse, like striking at the metaphysical, but very real in this case, root of the problem. So he asked me to make him one” “A silver axe? Not even a sword? Still must’ve cost him a bit” “Well, a handaxe takes less silver. And not everyone shares your obsession with swords” “Whatever, you sure he just isn’t taking the scenic route in this? Galvan’s pretty capable, he might just be taking the extra time to be sure. The Heralds would have relaunched this pledge if they lost hope in Galvan solving it” “Alistan, the Long Table does good work, but you know as well as I do that more people die on these quests than complete them. Please go and see if he’s alright.” “Alright, “ Alistan said and he gulped down his cup of tea, “I better get going immediately then” “Master Alistan”, Carnwen said while clearing the table, “I’m sure if you ask Galiene she’ll come along, it does sound dangerous” A little jolt came through him at the thought of Galiene, her smile, her green eyes… no, he probably shouldn’t have her with him. After the affair with the cult they did talk but he just couldn’t push it further… Not until he dealt with Ulther, and if she would still want him after that. “it’s fine Carnwen, I’m taking Thorin anyhow, it will be faster” “Woah there Thorin,” Alistan beckoned his horse to stop. They were at the edge of the Lorewood and he noticed a horse tied to a tree, Galvan’s horse. As he tied Thorin to the tree next to Galvan’s horse, Alistan took a glance around to see if there were any signs: the grass around the horse looked short, reckon he’s been here a few days. That didn’t bode well. Also Galvan’s pack had fallen leaves and spilled grass on it, not a sign he’s been here recently. “I’m coming Galvan,” Alistan said as he marched into the forest. Most would call it luck, Alistan would maintain to the end of his days that he saw it coming as his shield barely blocked the incoming sword as something jumped from behind the trees at him. The calmness of the forest had lulled Alistan into lowering his guard, and he almost paid for it. “Galvan?” Alistan inquired with wide eyes The shape moved a bit, it was indeed Galvan but he moved strangely and his eyes were empty, like a puppet held by strings. Though in this case the strings were tree branches and roots sticking out from behind him and coming through his skin at multiple locations. Alistan assumed the worst as suddenly a voice, fell and alien emerged from what was once Galvan “Duel, now” “What?” Alistan answered. clearly the thought of a duel was least on his mind. “Knights fight duel, so duel!” “I’m not a knight yet, and neither are you, we’re not allowed to…” “DUEL!” “Okay,” Alistan relinquished, “But since I accept the duel I get to decide where we fight and what weapons. It’s how knights duel” “Declare, then” “I, Alistan De la Roost, accept your duel. I wish to fight it in front of your true body and we shall fight with swords. And we shall duel for steel” “For Blood” “... Okay then” Alistan reluctantly agreed, at least he agreed to the other terms. Suddenly the body of Galvan sprung back, though maybe it’s better to say it was like a rope being pulled up from the well and his body was the bucket that traveled along. Alistan followed, having to run to keep up. The thought of fighting Galvan did not fill him with joy, but one thing did give him hope: the silver handaxe was still gleaming at Galvan’s belt. If he can get his hands on it after the duel and strike down the tree this can be stopped. Galvan’s sacrifice will not have been in vain. They arrived at a clearing and Alistan’s jaw dropped at what he saw, a whirl of roots and branches encircled a Darkfey Drus, at least that’s what Alistan thought he was. It was hard to tell. So he must be the origin of the curse, and the roots under him must be struck with the axe. He looked young too, and it made him think about the duel “Either the boy wanted to be a knight and this duel is him acting this dream out, or the caster of this curse truly is cruel beyond my wildest imaginations” Alistan readied himself “Either way, we’ve got a duel to fight” “Done talking, just fight” the voice said, but Alistan noticed the mouth of the body inside the tree move, that solved that, Alistan thought as they charged at each other. The forest was dead quiet, except the clashing of steel. The two back off, leaving Alistan to nurse a fresh wound in his side, the price to pay to get the silver axe off of Galvan. He hated to admit it but he was running out of juice, ‘Galvan’ moved in unnatural ways, striking from many sides at once. And any wound given didn’t slow him down, except the few branches he managed to cut, and he always got a wound in return. Alistan dropped on one knee, this would be the last chance he got. And he thought back to his sparring with Carnwen: “A skilled swordsman should never overcommit. Always leave some strength for defense.” “But your brother told you that a Master Swordsman knows when to put everything in one attack to finish an opponent” Well, if there was any time to put everything into one attack, he thought as he dropped the sword and held the axe in both hands, it would be now. It happened quite fast, but the silence was broken by the breaking of branches and roots as Alistan had buried the axe deep into the base of the tree, and as the axe itself shattered the tree itself uncoiled and the Drus fell out and rustled from his sleep. Alistan dropped down against what was left of the tree “Hey, are you alright. I’m Alistan, what’s your name?” “Krys… Krysander. I was fighting someone named Alistan in my dream. Did you free me?” “We freed you” Alistan pointed to Galvran’s body “He sadly fell but I finished what he started” “Thank you but… Oh my god, is that a sword stuck in you?” “Yeah, he got a last attack in as I charged for the tree. I’ll be fine, just need to get to my horse and back to Keralon” Alistan got up but almost immediately collapsed Alistan stirred as he started to open his eyes. “You’re finally awake” A familiar voice sounded, Alistan rose up and saw Galiene sitting at the opposite side of the bed, sitting in a chair, her eyes peering from over a book. “What are you reading?” Alistan managed to get out, his voice was weak “Not really what should be on your mind" She closed the book and now focused her gaze on drilling straight into him "but I found this book from one of your esteemed predecessors, just wanted to see if every single one of the De la Roost are as stubborn and reckless as you.” Alistan let out a smile, “And?” “Jury’s still out, but you really are a piece of work. You’re lucky you made it back.” “And that I have you.” “... And that you have me.” Her gaze visibly softened as she said it. There was a knock on the door and Krysander came in, “I thought I heard voices, you’re awake.” “And you’re still safe.” Alistan responded “Just want to say thank you.” and Krys shuffled uncomfortably, “And I guess I should go?” “What do you mean?” Alistan sounded surprised, “You can stay here as long as you need. I think I can even offer you some work here if you want?” “Even for someone like me?” “Especially for someone like you”

A Tale of Three Chapter 2: Petra and the Priest
Y124, Era of the Tree

“Light of the World Tree, guide us”, Galiene prays as Alistan’s blade lights up, revealing the dark corridor below, the Half Elf brushing away her oaken brown hair. “Thanks, should make this place much easier to trod” Alistan said admiring the magic imbued upon his sword, the green light of her magic always had a soothing effect on him, though now the feeling was mixed with regret. “You don’t have to come with me, I took the job to go down here and you’ve already helped a lot…” “Oh can it, Ali” Galiene shot back, her green eyes piercing Alistan “We’ve had that conversation before, I want these kidnappings solved as much as you or The Long Table. You can hog all the glory from it if that’s what you want. You are looking to impress the heralds right?” They stepped further down, ending in a narrow hallway. The green light shining down revealed a room up ahead. “It’s not about the glory, it might get ugly down there. Just don’t want you to feel obligated out of any lingering ....” “For a man who can’t stop getting himself in danger for others,” She interrupted, “you just don’t get it when others want to do the same for you, do you?” Alistan was happy the green light hid his blush. Galiene really did him a favor as they would never have found this place if not for her shrine and magic. Luckily they knew of a hair pin the latest victim had, engraved with her name ‘Petra’. A bit of searching and some locate object spells brought them here. They entered the chamber, which looked to be an abrupt end except: “Here, look at this, what do you reckon this is?” Alistan said, tracing the emblem of a clawed hand grasping an orb with his sword. “The symbol of Arcarost, the Dragonlord” she said, her eyes falling on the emblem, was it giving off a red glow or was it a reflection of the light? “Must be a cult doing the kidnapping, what do you reckon they want with those people?” “Nothing good I bet, reckon there’s a hidden door here?” Alistan said, casting light around them with his sword. “One way to find out” Galiene said looking around the room, “Make it a race? Loser buys drinks after we’re done.” “Deal”, Alistan’s eyes glistened as they shook on the deal and started their search. Galiene suddenly spoke up “Are we going to talk about this by the way?” “About what?” “Us” Alistan paused his search for a moment “Galiene, I had to” “Oh to the Pit with that Alistan” she didn’t raise her voice but the light on Alistan’s sword became brighter as she said his name. “Your family made a deal with a Fey king and now that your brother died you can’t commit to a relationship?” “Me becoming heir changed everything, I barely understand the deal and what I know of it…” Alistan turned to look at her “I can’t pull you into that” “Yeah, you’ve said that. You really are a piece of work: ending things when we clearly still… ah fuck, where’s this switch! You think there even is one?” Alistan happily took the chance to change the subject “There should be one, this cult in Hillfield a few years back had one, real nasty one to find and ah” Alistan stopped as he pressed on a loose tile in the wall, opening the wall up into a corridor going deeper underground. “Lucky shot,” Galiene said upon seeing Alistan’s proud grin, “also why would a cult to Morrhim be the same as one to Arcarost?” “Whatever, you owe me a drink. I never said it was a cult to Morrhim, I’ve told you that story before?” “When we first went out, remember? I asked about the Monastery in Hillfield. And, at your friend’s party, Luke was it? It was his idea to use the incense to find it. Oh and this time …” “Alright alright, understood. I’ll stop telling stories from our journey to Keralon.” “Don’t, the look on your face when I explained cleric healing doesn’t work through kisses is a favorite memory of mine” “Really? I always thought it was the one where I… shit” Alistan yelled the last word as he was startled by an eruption of light, a dark red glow now permeating the hall, Alistan reflexively swung his sword at the carved dragon heads, from which the light emanated, that glow and statue repeating itself up ahead. Galiene had to hold back her laugh “No Alistan, pretty sure that’s not my favorite. But this is good, we are getting close to where we need to be” She came up to him and touched his hand holding the sword. “This won’t be necessary anymore” and the light spell on his sword faded, the red glow devouring the green light, then she added with a chuckle “and it’s safer if you keep sharp objects away for a bit”. She went on ahead and Alistan followed, mildly embarrassed. “What’s that chanting? Do you understand it?” Galiene whispered a bit later as they approached a chamber baked in red light. “Yeah, it’s draconic. Chanting to Arcarost and … shit, they’re going to sacrifice someone.. Let’s go” and he charged ahead as he drew his sword “Let’s” Galiene said, as she followed, unstrapping the mace from her belt. —-- The ritual chamber was lit in the same dark red glow that they encountered earlier. Which as the battle raged on the light did a lot to hide the blood on the altar and now on the floor and walls. Galiene hit a cultist with her mace as Alistan was fighting the now last remaining cultist and what could be described as a Half Dragon, if that meant a mutated elf with scales and malformed wings, the result of an interrupted ritual. She did have the hairpin, clearly they were trying to transform their victims. No time to waste, they had precious minutes left to reverse this curse. “The Dragonlord has blessed us with this creation, and now it will tear your soul asunder and feed it to our lord” The cultist shouted at them as Alistan barely blocked a claw from ‘Petra’ yet the force still threw him back a few meters to land next to Galiene. “I swear to God, why do I keep getting the ones that talk while fighting?” Alistan felt some blood trickle from his thigh, where a dagger found its mark scarcely a minute ago. “Here, let me close that wound.” Galiene started but Alistan grabbed her hand before it got to his leg “You’ve already used a lot of magic, you need to leave some to reverse her curse” he nodded at Petra, “Don’t worry about me, I still got something left. Just take out that loud cultist won’t you?” “The end is nigh” the cultist shouted as he unleashed an evil cackle. Galiene tightened the grip on Alistan’s hand as she looked him in the eyes, “I’ve got your back, let’s go” And that filled Alistan’s heart and body with more strength than any spell as he charged at their foes. And he knew they would win. —--- “Quick, can you save her?” Alistan shouted as he feverishly poured a healing potion down the mouth of the collapsed Petra. The scales were still covering more of her face as she laid there. “Hold her up,” Galiene said as she grabbed her holy symbol and prayed “Irminsul, World Tree, allow through me, your might to repair this body and keep this soul among us. If it is your will” “If it is your will” Alistan repeated as he saw a green glow emanating from the holy symbol. slowly overpowering the red glow of the chamber. Despite having no talent for it, Alistan always admired the beauty of magic. When Ileas, Luke or Hayley pulled on the small parts of the weave there was a beauty to the purposeful complexity created by their Arcane magic. When Gael uses Primal magic, it is as if nature itself rises up: from the fiercest wind to the most serene lake, to perform its wielder’s will. But Divine magic really was something else, Galiene’s faith and commitment were made manifest, the World Tree granting this person life after all this cult had done to her. Divine power being made beautiful by the person channeling it. Which made it all the more sad that Petra was the only survivor of the cult, the others were taken before her and were beyond the reach of Galiene’s magic. “Thanks Carnwen,” Galiene said as the Halfling put a pot of stew on the table, and started pouring some on Petra’s plate. The curse was lifted yet her face still had some scales on it, a permanent reminder of the injustice inflicted on her, he also reckoned her hair wasn’t always red. Alistan’s mind however, wasn’t on his food nor Petra. The battle was harder than he expected, Galiene almost succumbed to a cultist dagger if not for Alistan giving her the cover to heal. And vice versa Galiene’s magic pushed him beyond limits he never knew were possible. Them working together made him regret his decision to end their relationship, but with Gideon’s death any future he has with anyone is dominated by his family’s deal with King Ulther. “Ali” He can’t pull anyone into that. “Ali” But maybe if he… “ALI” “What?” he suddenly found her green eyes aimed straight at him, expectantly. “Petra here just said she has nowhere to go, where is your head at?” Like how thunder and lightning are separated by seconds, the conversation he had seen but not listened to slowly flooded in. Petra was taken by the cult right as she arrived in Keralon, her belongings lost and family were sacrificed. She really does need a place to stay. “Right, it might be best if you stay here for a while. At least until you get on your feet and find where you want to go. Or you can stay here and work for me? Carnwen and I would love the help” “I would” Carnwen added, “And an extra pair of hands would maybe make him sit still once in a while and relax” “Tell me about it” Galiene interjected, with a playful smile towards Alistan “Had to threaten him to make him sit still for a concert once” “And I maintain they call the row in the back the walkway so people like me can walk around while enjoying your music. But you just had to get me front row seats.” “Y-yeah” Petra croaked, her voice not quite back, watching Galiene and Carnwen laugh and take jabs at Alistan “stayin’ would be nice.”

A Tale of Three Chapter 1: Carnwen and the Captive
Y122, Era of the Tree

“Get this food to the prisoners, and if I catch you eating it yourself I’ll break your fingers boy!” The shouts followed Carnwen as he descended into the dungeon, and contrary to the bandit’s beliefs, he wasn’t a child, but the halfling wouldn’t let a chance to stay free of chains slip by. Carnwen and his husband, Horrin, were going to Keralon to build a new life, but now he’s in some ruined guard barracks in the middle of nowhere with no idea where Keralon even is. And his husband was taken from him by the bandits that now held him captive, the image of Horrin being slain will haunt him for the rest of his life. His thoughts did wander to escape from time to time, his best plan was to make his attempt when the bandits would go off selling their captives and their belongings. Vague plans and thoughts plagued Carnwen as he made it to the dungeon and passed the bandit who was supposed to guard the prisoners but was very much asleep, keys and sword dangling on his belt. It’d be so easy, Carnwen thought, passing by the first few people and handing them food, but the dozen or so fatigued frames made it clear as day: They wouldn’t even get to the top of the stairs. He was just grateful his fellow prisoners didn’t blow his cover. Eventually he made it to the last cell and caught a glimpse of the bandits’ latest victim, this one wasn’t part of the caravan Carnwen was on that they attacked, but was ambushed last night. “Bastard got Jim and Aldrin before we knocked him out” is what Cornelius, the gang leader, said, seems like the guy got unlucky. When he entered the cell, he finally got a good view of the new captive chained against the wall: this one could be scarcely 18 but looked tall for a human, his dark hair hiding his gaze as Carnwen approached with his platter. Suddenly the captive’s face jumped up and his gaze met Carnwen’s, as he found something he did not expect to see: friendly eyes filled almost with excitement, not the fear and desperation he saw in the others. “Finally some food”, the captive whispered, “care to feed me for a second? I’m kind of…”, and he shaked the shackles attached to the wall, “indisposed”. “So…”, the captive said between chewing as Carnwen gingerly put a piece of bread in his mouth, “are these the Cornelius Capers?”. Carnwen wasn’t sure if he should answer, what if the guard heard, but still whispered as softly as he could “I guess? The boss is called Cornelius” and the captive’s eyes glistened “Yes, The Long Table will love this, shame they got the jump on me though… Hey, you can get me out right?” Carnwen took a hurried step back at the words, dropping the bread he was feeding the captive, the sleeping guard stirred a bit but didn’t wake. “You could do it right? Clearly they underestimate you, leaving you free to move. And I can take it from there, if you unshackle me”. “T-take it from there? You think you can take them, after they got you?”, the captive chuckled, “Four of them got the jump on me and I still took out half of them, in a fair fight I’ll get them. There can’t be more than 6 of them, 5 with sleepyhead over there” “Five in total.” “So… You get the key, and I’ll take care of the rest. And we’ll be having a good dinner at my place in Keralon by sundown.” “You’re from Keralon?” “Well, I live there. You’re not from there?” “We were on our way there before the bandits…” Carnwen’s thoughts flash to Cornelius slashing down Horrin and for all his willpower one tear manages to escape. “... I see”, the captive says, his gaze filled with understanding, “Got too caught up in my own quest that I forgot you must’ve gone through a lot. What’s your name?” “Carnwen” “Carnwen… I’m Alistan. And I can’t give you back the people they took from you, but what do you say we beat the crap out of these bandits?” As Carnwen grabbed the key from the guard and was unlocking the chains, Alistan couldn’t help but think this would make for a great story for Lil when she came back, minus the getting ambushed and captured part. And how lucky he was that Carnwen was in a position to help. The thought of his sister, off in the feywild, did give him some pause, but also made him think of her last gift. “Do you know where they keep our stuff, I had a sword with me” he asked “Cornelius has a chest in his room, guess it’s over there. But shouldn’t we get the rest and sne… Oh fuck” “What’s… oh” Alistan’s question at what Carnwen saw was answered when he saw the silhouette of two bandits standing in the opening of the cell, guess someone came down and woke the sleeping guard. “You pushed your luck boy” one of the bandits grimaced, holding up a sword. And looking at Alistan he said “And you, guess we get to take revenge for Jim and Aldrin after …” Alistan saw his only opening and took it, closing the distance he struck at the arm loosely holding the sword, forcing him to drop it. Alistan caught it mid-air and immediately struck the bandit in the head with the pommel. The hall outside the cell was cramped and the limp body of his comrade between him and Alistan made the second bandit panic and resort to flinging his sword mindlessly towards Alistan, who blocked it and with a strike knocked him out as well. Alistan almost pitied their lack of training with a sword, almost, as he grabbed the second sword and handed it to Carnwen “Just in case” and he started taking off the armor and shield, it’s not as strong as his usual armor but there were still people to fight upstairs and he’ll take any protection. Of course he had a look at the sword he now held, the sword had seen better days, its former wielder clearly didn’t care much for sword maintenance, and the balance was off. But it’ll do. Maybe he can actually pull this off, Carnwen thought as he saw Alistan stand over the two unconscious bodies of the bandits. But now, as Alistan was on the backfoot against Cornelius, fear came back to his heart. The remaining henchmen fell quite easily as Alistan’s skill far outweighed theirs but Cornelius was different, and Alistan showed the wear of the night and battles before. “You’re gonna die for this lad” Cornelius roared when he unleashed a series of blows, Alistan blocked one but the second one struck him in the shoulder, forcing him to drop his shield. “I’m gonna peel the skin off your bones, boy!” “Can you stop shouting and just fight?” Alistan yelled back, getting back up and preparing for the next round. Cornelius cackled and jumped at Alistan, their swords crossing but Cornelius had the upper hand as Alistan’s knee gave out and his shoulder still stung from the earlier blow. Carnwen was never more aware of the sword in his hand as Alistan’s gaze met his, pleading for help. With a shout Carnwen charged and plunged his sword in Cornelius’s back, delivering whatever justice he could for the death of his husband as Cornelius’s body went limp and fell to the side. “Thanks,” Alistan said with a heavy breath falling back on the floor, “that looked really bad for a second.” He then paused for a second. “Do you have a place to go in Keralon?” Carnwen was startled out of the shock of what just transpired. “Uhm… no. Horrin and I were by ourselves” “You wanna stay at my house until you get back on your feet? I can use the help around the house. And I’ll teach you to use that sword,” Alistan seemed to consider the sword Carnwen held, drenched in blood, “Maybe a different sword, that one looks like it’s seen better days.” “Yeah, I’d like that” Alistan smiled, getting up with a swift boost. “Great, now let's free the others and find my sister’s sword. I’ll never hear the end of it if I don’t have it on me when she comes back”

Letter to Ileas 1
2nd of Nuan, Y126 Era of the Tree

Dear Ileas, Hope you are faring well with your family. The last few months have been quite busy so sorry for not writing as much. There are also not many stories I could relegate to you that happened in that time, and I do know you like stories and hope you enjoyed the stories I sent in the past of how I got to meet Carnwen, Petra and Krysander. Anyhow, a few days ago I finally saw Liliana again. I waited on her at the fey gate I had to leave her those years ago. You should have seen her, now adorned with silver white hair and blue eyes, marks of her stay at Vivienne's realm, besides that she didn't look too different, even younger since she told me only two years passed for her. Guess I'll be calling her little sister now. But the story of this letter really starts on the 1st of Nuan, don't know if you care for dates and all that, but as you probably know the old group was getting back together. Feyris sent the invites out, you remember him right? The amnesia ridden traveller we picked up? He inhereted a tavern from the nice owner he worked for, she had no remaining relatives and he got that inn. After all Feyris went through it's the least he deserves. So we agreed to meet at his tavern, Erna's will, at 11 am on the 1st of Nuan. Now we were not the first to arrive, as Luke already stayed at the tavern, his apprenticeship at Caern Fussil did put him half a day's journey. Feyris had closed the bar for the day and put a nice long table out for all of us to sit at, and he was working up a storm in the kitchen as Luke used a magic servant to serve up drinks. Last time I saw him he was married to this girl Lyra, I must have told you about her in a previous letter. But Luke seems to walk from tragedy to tragedy as he's both broken up with her, and gotten involved with another named Seraphine and had a terrible break up with her. The man has a horrid taste in women, which honestly speaks volumes about my sister that he isn't interested in her, besides some unneeded apologies about not being able to stop her from going into the Feywild. Next up was Dadroz, who explained he mostly kept busy with odd jobs to look to join the Moon Blossom Circle, he described it more as information brokering but I have a mild suspision there's more to that work. Following him was Gael, though he did not get much time to explain what he's been up to. Though I've heard he's been looking to join the Rose garden so he's been doing jobs for them I reckon. As the bells rang for the 11th hour Hayley came in, either having impeccable timing or having waited a few minutes to make a dramatic entrance. But what surprised me was how she was now dressed in all black, making me suspect she was mourning someone? Not much to be said about it however as Feyris came in with the first round of food and asked us to get seated. I was trying to pry some of the story of Luke's travels as the door opened and two guards marched in, wearing green capes and helmets. For half a second I was worried a scene would unfold as Elsa Colline walked in, dressed in gowns that must have cost more than what the rest of us were wearing combined. Almost like Luke talking about his past romances called her through the door. And it immediately became clear the last five years have transformed her into the perfect image of a noble lady. She moved with a grace and confidence that you'd think money can't buy, but she did go to a high class courtier school that definitely helped. She moved around and complimented us and sat down and started making conversation, leading it even. She now holds quite an influential position at court, petitioning for whatever party needed help. She insinuated Luke's name was used quite a bit at court over the years, but not in a good way. She complimented Liliana's new style and then asked me about the battle of the Northern Plains, you must have heard of the battle that took place against the forces of Fenhunter, or Velora Morenthene as she's properly called. And you probably know I was there as well, helping to stop the army before it could ransack and plunder the countryside too much, or God forbid loot the city. Now usually these battles are the catalyst for great deeds, but I mostly remember many clashing of steel, scales and bone, and much death. It wouldn't make for a good story as the battle itself was rather futile of course, ending in a stalemate. It mostly lead to a treaty with the dragon. Hayley said she was there too, after the battle mostly, to take care of wounded. It's a shame I didn't run into her then, but before she arrived I probably took whatever bodies and belongings I could on a cart to Keralon, so their families could bury them. Anyhow, around this time Dorr joined us as well, making his entry in a way only he could, by making a row with Elsa's guards outside. He was also at the battle as a mercenary, claimed he made a pretty penny that day. Elsa also showed off her skills in silent commanding as she could dismiss her guards with the simplest of waves now. We were settling in nicely, catching up on an eventful five years as we suddenly heard bells ringing over the city, more specifically the alarm bells. We saw soldiers move to the gate and we followed, making note of signs of massive movement outside the city and people from their windows pointing to something up North. But at the gate we were met by a sergeant asking us to go back home, we were neither guards or knights so we would just get in the way. So we decided to go back to the tavern and wait for news, but Feyris and Dorr had made their way to the roof to have a look at the disturbance from outside the city that was causing the alarms, an army of Velora Morenthene had somehow made it to just outside the city gates and was setting up camp. It felt a bit surreal to watch this threat to the city unfold as we ate some snacks out of a picnic basket Feyris had taken up on the roof. Elsa apparently was ushered away by her guards in her carriage. It did strike me as weird that such a host could just walk up to the city gates without anyone knowing. But there was no real way to know how they did this so after taking in the sight for an hour or so we went back inside to continue our feast, though now with one less guest. I did know Robert Talespinner was invited but he didn't show up, and I doubt he would show up now with the alarms in the city. But after a few hours there was a knock on the door though when Feyris opened up the door no one was there, yet immediately I heard rummaging in the kitchens to find Vern Skald there, one of the heralds of the Outer City. He was looking for us, specifically Dadroz, Hayley and myself. As we were all looking to join one of the outer city circles. He said he finally had a pledge for us that would convince him to recommend us to the circles, and it was an urgent one. The pledge would entail that we approach the host that was camped outside the city and see what they wanted, and also figure out how they got here without any guard towers spotting them. And if they're here for war, try to grab as much information on their siege plans as possible. Made a bit more difficult since he couldn't get us out of the gates or back in. So we'd have to find a way to get back out and in. But we accepted the pledge, and set to make plans on how to do this. Luckily Liliana, Luke and Gael who would not gain any mettle from this were happy to help, and to be fair, it helped out the city so why wouldn't they want to. Luckily Dadroz knew of some ways we could get out of the city that didn't involve gates. One involved the catacombs, for there were rumors of tunnels that went in and out of the city, another would be to convince someone to ferry us along the Lorerun River and make our way up North from there. I personally would love to search for secret tunnels, maybe fight some monsters that are plaguing the tunnels with our gang, for old times sake, but we landed on using the boats. But first I wanted to get my plate armor I inherited from Gideon, I was wearing a chain mail but for a quest like this you need to bring out your best armor. Though any magic items would stay. But sadly enough the Inner City was now closed off as well by the guards, and it didn't seem to worth the hassle to talk ourselves in to then talk ourselves back out. And I wasn't the only one disadvantaged by this, Gael was hoping to get one of his bows for the task. Anyhow, we set out to the Fishtown district to get more information on getting a boat. But quickly we saw that the district was in chaos, as the people didn't know what was going on and thought the inner city was leaving them to be overrun. While Dadroz went and got more information on a boat out we all spent some time bringing some peace and calm back and make sure things didn't escalate from chaos to a full blown panic. When Dadroz came back he let us know the boats were all in lockdown, except for a few in the repair dock, and that he knew of an inn called the Noxis' Tap where he could learn more. In the end Dadroz managed to learn from the Inn's owner, a tiefling called Noxis, that the owners of the ferry dock left themselves a few hours ago, leaving no one there. But he did arrange for a bugbear by the name of Teflon to help us sail down the river, if we could procure a boat. Now I'm not really proud of the next bit, since it involved a lot of attempted stealing of a boat by Dadroz, who got caught twice, and Luke and Hayley using magic to confund some guards, though not before one could shoot a bolt into her shoulder. But eventually we managed to get a boat from the dock onto the river and our boatman dropped us off a few kilometers down the river, and we made sure to pay him and make arrangements for picking us back up. And with that we decided to set camp for the night. The next day started off with us making some plans for what approach we should take. First there were plans about pretending to be mercenaries, or sneak in somehow, but Hayley managed to find out the army was entirely kobolds and dragonborn, so since we are quite fleshy by comparison we really stand out. She also saw they were not making any moves to lay siege, and the camp was divided up into a few smaller camps. So we decided on a mostly honest approach. Since people were adamant on not saying anything stupid I made sure to refrain from the conversation too much, I'm many things but subtle and careful in speech is not of them. It didn't take long as we approached the camp for a group of Kobolds and a dragonborn to ride out. We would later learn this dragonborn is called Rachnar Ergoll. They seemed to understand we were not looking for trouble but also extremely confused at our intent, they didn't think much of us since we're no delegation of Keralon. They seem to have a different view on proceedings and ranks than us, but seemed very interested once Gael and Hayley propped me up as a noble. Apparently they see Nobles as 'leaders of men' and thus see us as a worthy delegation. I wonder if I should've brought up my history in the battle of the northern plains, but the warnings of herald skald rang in my ear that we're not here to increase tensions. And we did somehow get a way in. Once inside Rachnar introduced himself and made the intention of the host clear, he was a representative of Queen Velora (the dragon) and brought a host of his most powerful warriors to start talks on forming closer ties to Keralon. And wished for us to take him into the city so he could speak to the King. Of course we couldn't really promise him that we could take him into the city but we could transfer a message. This confused him and he asked if he could discuss something with his underlings. While he was gone we made some note of some locked chests that might contain valuable information but decided to wait this out. Eventually Rachnar came back with a new proposal: we would be emissaries of their horde to go talk to the king, but for that we needed to be initiated into the horde. Which involved a ritual combat with their champion. This sounded like a duel so I asked if this was one-on-one which got quite a laugh from Rachnar, since Dran would be our opponent. Dran was one of the few names I heard in the aftermatch of the Battle of the Northern Plains who left an impact. A giant dragonborn who would wield a sword the size of Cornu's in one hand. He took down a few dozen knights before the battle was over. Luckily we would all stand in the arena together against him. And the combat would be non lethal. So this is where I'll leave you for now, Ileas, preparing for a fight against this walking storm of steel. But reunited with those we long lost sight of, those with whom we overcame impossible odds. So we'll do it again. Hope to send the rest soon, but for now I hear that the fight's about to begin. Sincerely yours, Alistan P.S.: How did you ever get convinced to call Liliana and I by our names? My staff has the tendency to call me 'sir' or 'master', though I suspect they might do it in jest, since they know it annoys me.

Letter to Mom and Dad
29th of Lug, Y121 Era of the Tree

Dear mom and dad, Sorry for not writing sooner, but with everything that happened I just couldn't bring myself to bring it to paper up to now. Gideon has passed away. The news surely reached you by now, and I can imagine like Liliana and myself, there are no words that can describe this loss. A knight passed at our house on the 20th of Lug to tell us the news: How he fought the Black Knight and how the nemeses curse grabbed him in the end. We were told he was convinced the curse would not harm him. Gideon was strong, stronger than anyone I met, when he wielded a blade I could only stare in awe at his skill. In chivalry and kindness, he is someone to aspire to. That's to say, in my mind he was invincible, so the idea of him falling at the curse was as absurd to me as it seemed to be to him. I'd like to think he had a plan, but somewhere I wonder if the recklessness that Lil and I are often accused of also extends to him, like some additional family curse, and it took its toll. However, it could also be called selflessness, so maybe it's truly a blessing. He did leave us a few things: his fullplate armor and his shield. The shield was specifically for me. Liliana declined the fullplate, some of that trademark Liliana selflessness coming through but I also suspect she lacks the strength to properly wear it. I think Gideon wished for us to keep these but I can arrange for the armor to be sent to you if you want it to honor his memory. Not the shield though, I will keep that, even if it will take until I'm a knight before I can use it. As for Liliana, two days ago we made the trip to the gate near Keralon, where she could start her service, which should have started yesterday. Maybe this would be a good time to mention that on the road to Keralon we met Liliana's new master, Vivienne, though owner might be a better term, seeing as how Vivienne treats her. Like someone meeting their new dog. Honestly, you should feel lucky Liliana wants to do this. It's that selfless, reckless spirit of hers I bet, and that spirit I will miss. Where others and I see an injustice done on her, she happily marches towards it all the same. As you know, people would call it brainwashing but I know my sister well enough to know she understands what she's getting into. And even if I don't want her to do it and think it's a bad idea, it's still up to me to support her, even if the thought of stopping her crossed my mind. So you should call yourself lucky with a daughter like her. Because what if she didn't want to go? I wonder what you would have done then? It's something I can't stop to think about now, seeing as how my position in the family... changed. Anyhow, maybe it's best if I update you on our stay in Keralon: We arrived on the 15th of Lug, sadly our family house has been given to a more... persistent family who thought the nice views from the mansion were better spent on them. Think they were called the Tarrins? But we still have a house, it's in the North of the Northwall district. To be fair after weeks on the road I'm happy to call it home. And Liliana, our friends and I had the chance to decorate it. As you can guess, most of our friends are staying over, though don't worry: their 'influence' as mom called it will be shortlived, as Gael has already left with a patrol into Lorewood. He is trying to find Robert Talespinner, mom might remember the bard that was with our caravan, he got lost in the forest during a fight with Dianios and no one found him since. And hopefully Onvyr, our caravan leader, can be de-petrified as well. Quite a lot happened on the road over when you read it like this, but I think that story should be for happier times. Ileas went with him, as news reached us about the Satyr revolts dying down and his family wishes for him to return. So I guess congratulations, I assume dad was involved in dealing with this self styled baron and the satyr clans. And I hope to learn more about it. It is a shame Ileas had to leave as soon as he got here, but I hope to see him again. And this time as equals, as he won't be working for us anymore. I hope you got to see him on his way back since I assume he passed by Hillfield. I also suspect the others will quickly find their own lodgings. As everyone wants to start their lives in Kerlon. And despite everything that happened, I am looking forward to start my life here. The city is full of marvel and I hope you can come visit at some point, after we've all had some time to process. Especially since there are many stories to tell and many things to talk about that ink on paper won't do justice. Say hi to all the people at our home. Especially old Desiderius, and give him my apologies about that whole affair with the broken door. And I hope you didn't fire that poor guard that was enchanted by Luke, he really did everything he could and I take the blame for that. Stay strong, Alistan

Last Letter to Gideon
15th of Lug, Y121 Era of the Tree

Dear Brother, Finally, I can write to you from our home in Keralon. Though not the home I think you'd expect. The day started off well, despite people being worried about me lacking sleep I was too eager to get to Keralon to stay in bed. During breakfast we did finally land on leaving our magic items with Brok at the inn for a week or two, until we find something better. And we can enter the city safely and without worries. When we approached from the south, there were two gates we could see, one to Southbank and one to Newtown. A quick inquiry taught us the Southbank was used to get to the inner city for inhabitants while the Newtown gate was more for merchants. Since it's the easier route to our house this worked out well, at the gate we asked about the Logvale situation, if a patrol was sent out, and the poor overworked guard forwarded us to the barracks in Northwall. But once inside we quickly lost our sister in the crowd as we were all disoriented by the overwhelming amounts of people. A sight you might be used to, brother, but to those of us who lived in Tarn (and even the few from Hillfield) this was overwhelming. Luckily while Luke was off talking to some people at the tower next to the gate, I lifted up Dadroz to quickly spot Lil and we got back together. Again, you've already seen these things but the city truly is marvelous in scale, the statues across the bridge left me with my jaw open as we walked across, the ships sailing underneath along the grand river. We also came across a girl who offered to be our guide, as Lil paid her and asked her to lead us to the barracks she took us alongside Truesilver, citing that she's too disheveled to be seen there, and into Canalside, built along a constructed channel, but it turned into a sprawling mess of roads that disoriented most of us, and Lil confronted her, claiming she was misleading us and not making us take the right way. She panicked when Lil insinuated she was leading us into a trap but Hayley put her to sleep, allowing us to ask more questions. But she was not having it, forcing Hayley to magically coerce her to bring us to the guard barracks, after which she immediately ran away. Bit of a strange encounter, was she really leading us into a trap? The barracks were across a large market that Hayley decided to explore while we talked to the guards. They pointed us to a hall where the guards accepted our messages, so after explaining the situation in Logvale they would send out a patrol to reinforce the location, and Gael immediately volunteered to go with them, something the leader of the patrol had to decide according to the guards. He also gave us a rundown of the rules, that we weren't allowed to wear Heraldry until we are a knight for example. Really need to make work of joining a circle, I remember really liking the Long Table, everyone else did great deeds and made strange connections to the Feywild but the knights of the Long Table were just there to help people. And what is being a knight about if it isn't about helping those in need. We also got directions to the temple, as our next step would be to help our amnesia-ridden caravan member get rid of said amnesia. As we exited the barracks, we said our goodbyes to Edward and Elsa, who wanted to go to their home, also in the Northwall district, and Dorr who would go to the outer ring to find a cheaper lodging and some work. I have no doubt we will see E.J. and Elsa soon, I do hope to see Dorr again. If not to see if he can keep himself on the right track, though I will admit that hope is very slim. The Cathedral to Belenus was impressive, as was the Mausoleum to the dead Gods. But what surprised me was how the clerics inside had no real hierarchy, as per the rules around circles and guilds, churches were also not allowable as organization. So it seems like clerics just run around the Cathedral helping people and could not defer to a high priest, but it seems our friend was beyond any magical help, or the issue itself wasn't caused by magical influence. So he, for now, is stuck with his lack of memory. Which for the first time did prompt him to ask for a name, and while I found the prospect of choosing your own name interesting he asked us to give him one. We landed on giving him the name Feyris, after one of the saints of Irminsul. It's a good name, at least I think so. The cleric there did offer Feyris a job with a client of his, to keep him afloat. Which meant we would also see him leave our group as he went with the Cleric to the job. Leaving us alone to make way to our family house. Hoping to finally finish this trip. But here is where things turned interesting, as we arrived at the address everyone but Lil and I noticed there was a light on. We were at first excited, maybe you were there, how we wished we could tell you these stories in person. Or maybe one of our uncles and aunts had moved in. Yet we were met with a big dog and a very angry woman, wielding a bread knife. After getting guards, calming everyone down and forcing this poor administrator, Nordick, to move a giant book over to a different room just so we could clear this out. Apparently this noble family, the Tarrins, petitioned the High King to give our former house to them since we weren't using it a lot, and they thought their family would make better use of it. But this is a recent change and the news hadn't reached our family yet. So somehow between when you lived here and we arrived they got this done. Honestly, I was just happy we still had a place to go. Although less spacious and prestigious, it would be ours to live in. Though very dusty and every bit of furniture was unpacked. Ah and before I forget: bring your key in to the administrator's office when you're next in Keralon. But with some magical and non-magical help, we got everything sorted out well enough to sleep there. Since we invited everyone over to stay as long as they needed for them to get a place of their own the place would be a bit packed for the time being. Gael was already looking to get with the patrol to Logvale, to see what happened to Robert. But with everyone else here it should make for good company, something I'll definitely need when Lil leaves in... 13 days? We already made plans to camp near the gate the night before, give her a bit of a send off before she leaves for 5 years. Luke also will join, though I think he wants to do more to save Lil from her fate. Something I'd consider if she didn't want to go, I couldn't bring myself to restrain her from not going. Also I'm not completely sure that even with Luke's help I could do such a thing. Our sister has grown into quite a formidable fighter. Hope you get to see her when she comes back and find that out yourself. Anyhow, please visit soon. The house will be ready to receive you, though I claim the master bedroom for the time being. With love and care, Ali

Letter to Gideon 10
14th of Lug, 121 Era of the Tree

Hey Brother, Sadly I'm not writing from the comfort of our home in Keralon, but I'm writing from the comforts of the Southroad inn, right outside Keralon. So last I wrote you we were in Logvale. Gael managed to talk Farah into not immediately going through the tunnel we found and explain we are leaving through there. It felt kind of bad, but at least we can comfort ourselves that they would run into trouble if they mess with the gate. E.J. and Elsa were kind of enough to pay Farah to look after Torrin and Faerin, and their carriage until we can recuperate them. And poor Onvyr would have to stand there until some patrol passes by that can cure his petrification. We did promise Farah that we would report the mist and the troubles in Logvale to the authorities in Keralon. So after gathering our stuff we went back to Vivienne, who was talking to Liliana and Luke. Seems like my previous hunch of Vivienne having a gift for Liliana was correct, as she was happily showing me this new sword she gained. It was a truly beautiful sword but one that also symbolized her forced servitude, which Vivienne said started in about 15 days. At which time she should be, alone, at the other side of this gate. Which does not ease my worries. She activated the gate, showed us our destination, some hills very close to Keralon, but clear of the Lorewood. Vivienne also made it clear it was a one-way trip and she wouldn't come with us and then we went through. After the shivering experience of stepping through a portal we did end up where she said we would. The Lorewood was behind us, and Keralon was ahead. There was no road so we just decided to go towards the city we could see in the distance. As the grassy hills finally led to a poorly trodden road I did ask around if anyone had plans to go back to Logvale after we settled in a bit, if nothing to distract from my legs that still ached from the last few days of trouble. Most seemed disinterested, leaving it up to the patrols but Gael did mention an interest in going back into the Lorewood, but didn't really make it sound like he'd appreciate a travel companion, which is fair, an experienced traveler like him is faster by himself. Another thing that was noticeable on this side of the Lorewood was that there was no mist to be seen, did it not cover the entire Lorewood or is it ebbing away? Regardless of that question we did see signs of smoke coming up as the evening approached. Of course we decided to go towards it, and we ended up at a tower where a fight was in full progress, a wizard who we later learned was Amarra, was fighting a brass construct and two pixies. In the fight that ensued the tiredness in my legs was really keeping me out of the fight, I resorted to helping Gael and Liliana land extra strikes. The pixies both tried their magic and while they did land, Gael and Luke struck them down which undid the magic. Gael knocked one pixie out while Luke's magical fury eviscerated the other Pixie. Leaving us to focus our might on the contstruct, with our wizard ally using the power of her tower to create a storm of fire that damaged it greatly. I would also be remiss if I didn't mention a collosal hit by Lil, unleashing all the fury from her holy powers but also some new power (possibly another gift from Vivienne?) onto the poor construct. As the fight ended Hayley immediately revived the fallen pixie to ask them what is going on. Now the conversation was in Sylvan but the gist of it was that they didn't remember the fight, they only remember being in the Feywild and running into the mist and then they blacked out until now. So it seems like the mist manipulated them? Or did someone else use the weakened barrier to enchant these pixies to do their bidding? The remaining pixie was also heartbroken at the loss of their sibling, who was killed by Luke (to be fair, they were attacking us) and so they decided to find their way back to the Feywild alone, regardless of Gael's proposal to help. The second ingredient in the fight, the construct was being investigated by Amarra, who also introduced herself as the master of this tower. She mentioned that this construct was strangely resistant to fire, which was the specialty of her and everyone who studies at this tower as it is a place of power for fire magic. Especially in combination with those pixies it seems like a targeted assault? Regardless we spent our evening there, since Amarra kindly offered lodging for the night, allowing us to raid the (self replenishing) pantries and Luke to devour her library of fire magic. Amarra explained she recently came back from a study trip in the cities down south, which have a high concentration of magic users. And that she's now returning as master of this tower, which has a strong connection to the elemental plane of fire. And as we were going to Keralon she gave us a rundown of the rules in Keralon, like how magic items aren't allowed in and that guilds are forbidden. And since everyone of us at least has one of these stones on us this could be an issue. Apparently knights are allowed to have these items but none of us are knights yet. She did say different gates are less guarded to spot these items but it does make me a bit uncomfortable to smuggle magic items in. Amarra also had a talk with Luke who came back to us, apparently he has a weird connection to the element of fire and the feywild and in specific the Summer Court there. I honestly don't really understand it, but apparently people have natural connections to certain elements, usually two. And Luke and Hayley are special in that they have a connection with just one, Luke fire and Hayley air (she would do the ritual to figure this out the day after, but I'm trying to be brief). It would explain the weird magic that happened around them a few days back. But how this connection came to be is a bit of a mystery, but at least some of their lineage must have a fey influence. Luke also expressed interest in doing the tower's apprenticeship test and since he's allowed help asked us which of course we would help him. But the test had to wait until the next day. The test would consist of two rooms and are themed around fire, Amarra did give Luke some advice: "Contemplate the nature of fire, fire is not subtle" and with that we were let in. The first room consisted of a bunch of trap doors and a series of levers, after some searching we figured out that the levers could be switched between 0 and 1 and there were letters over them, and read in a certain order read "Everything or Nothing". Since fire is explosive and consumes all, and not subtle, the idea to put all levers on 1 was quickly formed, which was the right answer. The second room was a bit more dangerous, pits of lava were slowly consuming the room and and an ice wall was blocking the exit. But four crystals that warded the lava were available, seemingly our first instinct was putting the crystals in a specific way as to ward us from lava while lava hit the wall. But this did nothing, in retrospect fire is not subtle should've been the hint that should've told us this wouldn't work. What obviously worked was Luke slinging a fire spell at the ice wall and that destroyed it. So after some further maneuvering of crystals we did make it out and finished the trials. Amarra was clearly impressed and offered Luke an apprenticeship at this tower, she extended the offer to all of us but out of all of us only Luke was really suited for it. She also gifted him some spell scrolls he could scribe into his book when he had the time and ink. With that though, we went back on our trip to Keralon, saying goodbye to Amarra. And it was the calmest day of travelling in a long time, the roads became more populated and we started to see farms and inns as the silver city came into view. Majestic walls, towers and castle almost blinded us as the sun reflected off their silver coatings: Our new home. We also saw species of people we only heard about: Orcs, Hobgoblins and even Half-giants. But as we approached the gate it was clear it was closing for the day as the sun was setting. As we also had our magic item dilemma to discuss we decided to settle at an inn for the night. Something E.J. and Elsa were happy with, as they didn't take well to walking so far on foot. Which is how ended up at the Southroad Inn, owned by the very friendly and likeable Brok. Hayley and Gael were kind enough to foot the bill for the food and rooms, allowing us to settle in at our tables. The rest of the tavern was filled with travelers like us so as the evening went on most went to bed early. But as Brok gave us a complementary cake (what great service) we noticed a few men entering and pouring over some papers and being very paranoid about anyone seeing. According to Hayley the papers are about something called the Freehold Guild, but as we know guilds are forbidden, so this was indeed a very strange group. To be Continued. The rest of the evening was uneventful. We mostly talked about what to do about our magic items. The innkeeper didn't have any ideas on if there's any services to keep the items, but he did propose to keep it for a fee until we figured something out. Though Gael and Lil were adamant on getting horses to go back to Amarra at Caen Fussil (the tower she lives in) for her to store the items. Anyhow hopefully we can come up with something so we can all go into Keralon together. See you soon brother, Ali P.S.: Quick thing, the night itself was quite strange. Liliana woke us up (Dadroz and myself) because there was noise in the room next to us. Lots of discussions in hushed tones about being careful, or declaring someone's a coward. Dadroz knocked at the door and we were greeted by the six guys we saw downstairs peering over the piece of paper about guilds. They were quite aggressive, though maybe I shouldn't have antagonized them by calling out that they could at least do their scheming in silence, or ideally not scheme at all. At least they are quiet now and we can go back to sleep. P.P.S.: Another thing happened a few hours later, the six left and left something burning in their room: a sigil proclaiming "Death to the Usurper King". Very strange since as far as I know, the kings of Keralon come from one single bloodline. Though maybe a bunch of angry schemers in an innroom in the dead of night don't have the most coherent thoughts. Or maybe my annoyance at being denied sleep is coming through. Regardless, I pity the innkeeper who now has a damaged wall.

Letter to Gideon 9
13th of Lug, Year 121 Era of the Tree

Dear Brother, Our journey to Keralon takes many twists and turns. When the morning sun rose on the 12th we still couldn't find Gael, afraid that sending him a message with our immerglade stones too soon might reveal him to Cornu. But by noon we felt like we had to know, I sent him a quick message to get an update and he sent back "Sylvesse found me, catch up later, keep going", so keep going we did. Now most people were fussing over me since I was "looking tired" and "one foot in the grave" (it was mostly Lil fussing as you can imagine) so I was forced to sit on top of the carriage and get pulled by our brave horses, the poor creatures looking like they can barely take more weight. And I'll be honest, I was feeling very sluggish and would be slowing them down, so while it hurts my pride I'm happy they allowed me to take a rest. Later in the day we saw how the roads were opening up a bit, showing signs of the lumberjacks of Logvale. The town could only have been a few days away. But then a strange path was revealed to us, branching of this main path, with small sylvan runes that spell out "safety" revealing the path. Since no obvious danger was showing we followed it. And strangely enough a path full of these runes that lighted up as we passed led us after a few hours to the main road again which was strange because the directions we were following should not have brought us closer to Logvale, which thanks to a sign up ahead was only 5 miles out, a good two hour march. Hayley theorized we were led through a path in the Feywild that turned into a shortcut. We would later learn who did this, but let's keep some suspense, right brother? Deciding we can muster a last march to sleep behind some walls we set on to arrive at Logvale around sunset. Logvale itself was a small hamlet surrounded a strong wooden walls and gates, the walls alight with arcane runes that deflected the mist that has been plaguing us for days now. Our hope at safety was quickly squashed by Cornu and his Death Dogs emerging to block us off. He wanted to find Gael but would settle on using us as bait, luckily the gates of Logvale opened to reveal their leader, who we were later introduced to as Farah, urged us to get inside as the Fey could not cross the magic of the walls and opened fire on Cornu. The fight was a show in how far we've been driven up to now, our magic users relied on simple spells and our swords were swinging with less force than we're used to. I was on top of the carriage at the start, encouraging Elsa to stay close as I can block off some attacks, but as Elsa and Luke were at risk of falling behind the carriage I jumped off and warded off a death dog for them so they could escape. Meanwhile Liliana and Edward were squaring off with Cornu, Edward getting the worse end of one of Cornu's strikes, which forced Elsa to run to him and use her last remaining magic to bring her brother back into the fold. Everyone else was busy either making it for the safety of the gate or holding off a death dog so our horses could go forward. We were relieved to see Gael and Sylvesse arrive mid-battle and start attacking Cornu and his servants. And despite Edward going down we could see that Cornu was looking more and more wounded as the battle raged on, we were hopeful this might be the time we struck him down. But here, Liliana and I were struck down by Cornu once more and when we came to, thanks to Farah, the battle was over and we were inside the walls of Logvale. Apparently at this point Edward and Elsa managed to stabilize Lil and me respectively (Once again Elsa saves me from death) and after some death dogs were slain the carriage could charge into the town and an enlarged Dorr carried Lil and me to the town. But tragically, Sylvesse was slain by Cornu and his death dogs. My heart went out to Gael as the pain was clear as day, but he wanted space so we gave him that as he slept outside that night. There was also some hassle about who sleeps in what bed, Lil forced me into a bed while sleeping on the floor herself, if I didn't fall asleep the second I hit the mattress I could've fought this harder. But after pulling some straws I was told everyone found a place to sleep. Gael sleeping outside turned out to be a problem as that night Gael woke us up with a scream that Cornu had somehow gotten in and was attacking him. Feeling a bit refreshed we all rushed to our friend's aid, who was already downed by an arrow from Cornu who himself was looking like he was burning away from the protective magic around the town. Luckily our magic was refreshed and Ileas brought Gael back as we started striking down on Cornu, and as if destiny itself wanted Gael to have revenge it was his arrow that struck the final blow, hitting his one functioning eye. Though a glow from a package he was carrying did seem to guide Gael's arrow. This package turned out to be Sylvesse's antlers, that Cornu cut from him. And as Gael was saying he would give his friend a proper burial once in Keralon the Antlers melted and formed a new bow for Gael, so that even in death Sylvesse could help protect Gael. It was quite the scene, dawn approaching as Gael held his new golden antler bow and Cornu's corpse was burning away. I also took the opportunity to take Cornu's greatsword, you can't help but respect a blade that has struck you down three times and spent the rest of the night/morning practicing with it, feeling the balance, sharpening it. The next day we mostly spent resting and gathering info. Farah was kind enough to sell us two spare healing potion though we only bought one, as to not take too much. It also became clear this very small settlement had a lot of people wounded and resting from fatigue. Farah explained the mist was crashing into the settlement and the dianios tribes were harassing any party venturing from Logvale, I spent most of the day taking notes about paths to Keralon as our guide Onvyr was still turned to stone, something the people of Logvale couldn't do anything about, though they did propose to leave Onvyr there for when the next patrol of Keralon knights comes with a cleric who can undo the petrification. Gael and Hayley spent time healing the citizens. Liliana tried to put me into something resembling a resting position, the last few encounters in the Lorewood have made her more protective than she normally is. But you know me, I can't sit still to save my life, so after half an hour I always get back up and start asking more about the road to Keralon to prepare ourselves and no pointing at a tired E.J. nodding off on a bench will change that Lil! Seemingly she gave up on it as she started doing a patrol around the hamlet and was called by a mysterious voice to a pond that was frozen over, now it was a temperate day so this seemed like some fey magic, basically confirmed by the same sylvan rune spelling out 'safety' that we saw the day before. Now Lil couldn't see more but when she got everyone else we found a hatch going into an underground tunnel, lighted by more of the same sylvan runes. As we informed Farah that we're going to have a look, Elsa and Edward were eager to come with. E.J. especially wanted to go when he saw I went, apparently not wanting to be outdone by me. Now most others tried to prevent me from going as well but damnit, I can make my own choices. And I wouldn't want them to go into danger without me to back them up. Lastly we were joined by Dorr, who was drawn by the allure of an underground tunnel, almost offended we didn't ask the only dwarf in a 20 mile radius (at least I think) for his expertise. Once we went in, Dorr immediately said it's not a tunnel made by dwarven hands, but it was definitely old. It went on for what felt like miles outside of Logvale as we arrived into a small depression around some hills. The clearing featured a gate and menhirs, forming a magic circle that activates the gate and kept the mist away. After a while a figure stept out, identifying herself as Vivienne, and who was to be Liliana's new boss as per our family's deal with her liege lord Ulther. She claimed to want to help us get to Keralon safely as a favor and to protect her 'investment', read: Liliana. The previous runes were her doing as well and she seemed to have some beef with Cornu too. She claimed the gate could become a portal to Keralon. I was mostly appalled by how she treats Liliana, closer to a pet than a person, petting her and complimenting obedience. I swear to the World Tree and back, Liliana can serve Vivienne and Ulther if she wants to, but our family's deal with Ulther ends after her. Power and Wealth might be its rewards but I don't believe in its price, what if your 2nd child does not want to go? Anyhow, the more pressing matter was if we should accept Vivienne's 'gift' to take the portal to Keralon. We asked for some time to convene and it eventually came to a split: Hayley, Gael and myself wanted to take time to at least find Robert Talespinner. It might take some time but we do owe him some effort to find him. The rest weren't so convinced, and voted to take the portal, after making sure it really was a favor and not something that has to be paid for. I was a bit surprised Lil turned down adventure and finding Robert for a portal from her future master. But as the majority wanted to take the gate we took to gathering our stuff. Vivienne asked Lil to stay as she wanted to talk to her a bit, get to know her. Luke stayed behind as well so the rest of us went back to get our stuff. It does sadden me that we'll leave behind Torrin and Faerin (the other horse, who definitely earned that saint's name in combat) but I'm sure I'll be back here sooner rather than later. At least to see what happened to Robert. It also strikes me that we'll have to talk to Farah and try not to tell her how there's a portal at the end of the tunnel. Especially since lying is not something I want to do to someone who helped us so much. Though my mind is mostly on what Vivienne and Lil are discussing, seeing as Vivienne treats her as a pet I imagine she'll give her a toy or something. Hopefully my next letter will come from the comfort of our family house in Keralon. See you soon, Ali

Letter to Gideon 8
11-12th of Lug, Year 121, Era of the Tree

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.

Letter to Gideon 7
8-10th of Lug, Year 121 Era of the Tree

Dear Gideon, The very forest, or something within it, seems to have turned against us. While the weather has calmed down a thick mist seems to have set in, and the aura of dread from the forest is back in full swing. Luke discerned that the mist is magical in nature, some enchantment magic or other. In the evening Robert Talespinner spends time reading and taking notes on an old book he got in Hillfield, full of fairy tales and legends and he was kind enough to let Lil read from it to the group for entertainment, something we desperately need in this oppressive environment. Hayley did take precautions and mended the old book, as it looked to be almost falling apart, though she did spend a lot of time reading a page that fell out, but we didn't really pry further and she didn't share so we moved on. What also has become a theme is Gael pushing a berry into most of our hands in case we need some "quick healing". He's also taking double the watches than either of us, courtesy of his Elven heritage. Though I hope he also takes double the relaxation when we're in the safety of a settlement, a violin's string that is wound too tight will snap ruining the sound of the entire instrument after all. The 9th of Lug started off on a very bad note as Luke and Hayley both woke up feeling sick, the symptons resembled something like the flu. We didn't think much of it at first as Lil used her divine magic to heal them (still gotta get used to my sister using magic, hope you get to see it soon brother because it looks awesome) but by noon the illness came back. Though before that we had quite the encounter with an Owlbear of all things, it came from the bushes behind our caravan, foaming at the mouth and full crazed. Hayley, thinking back at the foxes from a few weeks ago, thought to put the creature to sleep and have a look. But the only affliction it had was wounds from bolts and arrows, making it clear its raging madness came from pain rather than an illness. Taking the opportunity we just set off to let the Owlbear come to and move on with our travels, the Owlbear luckily thought the better of it and moved on. With that the rest of the day was uneventful, besides Luke and Hayley getting sick again. On watch I saw them turn around feverishly and growing paler by the hour, I was taking a watch with E.J. but couldn't help but feel worried for them. And the next morning (the 10th of Lug if you're keeping track, brother) they didn't feel any better, Hayley had some brews that alleviated some symptoms and Gael called upon his friend Sylvesse to help. But even he didn't have much to add, mostly saying the mist has consumed the entire forest and we should look for the edge of it to get out. He also mentioned the affliction on Luke and Hayley seems like a side effect rather than them being a main target, as it covers the entire forest. But why were they in particular afflicted? No one could really answer that. We tried to find ways to get out of the forest and maybe go around it, but Onvyr was not really a fan of it since the area around the forest is as, if not more, dangerous as the forest itself. So after asking Luke and Hayley what they think, since they were having the hardest end of it, we did decide to just go forward and brave the mist and wilds. A few hours into our march Dadroz noticed a silhouette of a wagon on the side of the road, and after no reaction came from us calling out we found quite a gruesome sight: the wagon was attacked and four corpses were there together with two dead horses. Dadroz and Ileas managed to discern that the tracks came from small creatures, but there were a lot of them here. The supplies they carried was mostly food, probably for Logvale, so we loaded some into our cart before setting off, hoping we could still deliver some to Logvale and have some food to spare for us if need be. As if the raided wagon wasn't weird enough, a bit later we encountered someone stranger. A man was walking around, almost naked, a bit ahead of us. Though, walking might be too generous, as he was barely moving one foot in front of the other. Being a bit worried I jogged ahead to talk to this stranger and offer him my coat at least but the poor guy was scared shitless seeing me and was reduced to curling up under my coat by the time everyone else got there. And after Hayley and Lil couldn't talk much sense into him Hayley put him to sleep with her signature magic. He did reveal he had no idea who he was and where he was, and I couldn't help but feel sorry for him there, all alone not knowing who he was or what he's even doing. So we dragged him into our cart and moved on, the stranger having fallen sound asleep and still sleeping as I'm sitting at the campfire, listening to Lil read out some more stories from the book, Luke and Hayley getting ready for a good night's rest in the carriages of the Collines and Talespinner after Lil treated some of their symptoms and E.J. and myself getting ready to take first watch. We can only hope Logvale is close. And maybe it's the lack of any light due to the mist, or the sense of imminent dread from the forest. But my mind wanders more to my sister and the duty that awaits her when we make for Keralon or rather, what it might do to her. Because if my spirits are high it's because of her enthusiasm and the thought of doing all this without her frightens me a bit. Though in a way, that's where bravery comes in. For how can you be brave if there is no fear to overcome? With best regards from the point of light surrounded by mist, Ali.

Letter to Gideon 6
7th and 8th of Lug, Y121, Era of the tree

Hey Brother, Either we look for trouble, or trouble finds us. The 7th of Lug was definitely the latter. It started out well enough, doing a morning spar with Edward (would it be weird to call him E.J.?). And once Elsa was up and we had breakfast we met up at the inn. Onvyr explained that the caravan has been greatly reduced: basically just us, the Collines and Robert Talespinner. Shame we'll miss the fun of a large group at night but it's replaced with a more cozy group. We decided the next day would be as good a time as any to leave, our next stop being Logvale 7 days down the western trail. So Onvyr took to getting supplies while we started our little tour of the city that we promised Elsa and Edward the previous day. The tour was going remarkably well (somehow I remember more than I thought from Desiderius' history lessons) when we all realized we were being followed. As Hayley just approached this person we all ended up in an alleyway with what we learned was a childhood friend of Ileas called Grizelda, who wished to speak to him in private. Afterwards we learned she wanted to check in on him as she saw us enter the city and wanted his help in preventing more bloodshed by asking him to bring a package to Sgt. Berris. Ileas showed us the package and some magical prodding by Luke taught us it's a bomb, holy shit right. Ileas was a bit torn between reporting his friend to the guards, citing his uncle as the reason these people have gone so far. But everyone made it clear she risked his life and was clearly trying to cause more bloodshed. They had to be stopped. So we went to Sgt Berris who took over the bomb and sent it away to be diffused. Here Hayley revealed they knew Grizelda was in the Sylvan Pastry, probably keeping this information until now to avoid us going after them ourselves which... we totally would've done. Ileas also mentioned Grizelda was waiting at some ruins west of Keralon and Sgt Berris agreed to send some guards there to check it out. Berris took some men and we saw some Satyrs and Bugbears be arrested next time we passed by the Sylvan pastry , so all's well that ends well. We finished the day with some shopping as Luke spent a few hours in the library. He also wanted a chance to identify our garden Menhir's magical ability. But mom, in her eternal wisdom, stationed a guard there specifically to ward us off. The evening went about the same though as Edward, Elsa, Ileas, Lil and I talked about Keralon I got curious and asked what Elsa's plans were once in Keralon. She told us her parents arranged some courtier training and that she'll stay in Keralon to find a husband. Which lead to Lil poking me and saying that maybe she already found someone. Let's just say Elsa was very happy when I changed the subject back to something less embarassing to both me and her. I also took the chance to talk to the new guard posted at the menhir but couldn't persuade him to take an edge off with a glass of wine. The next day Luke came in quite chipper and eager to try out some new magic as he found me sparring with E.J. His new magic managed to charm the guard into just standing aside as Luke magically identified the Menhir. Remind me not to piss of Luke, he can make you do things now. Luke learned that the menhir is a sort of direct line with what we assume is the Fey king Ulther but also a conduit to enter his domain if we have the magic to traverse planes. Lil also noticed that the Immerglade stones lighted up as you touch the Menhir. Maybe this stone from the Neverhold Kingdom recognizes magic from the kingdom it once destroyed? I also took the time to quickly write a note to mom and handed it to the guard for when he came to from Luke's magic, explaining he did all he could and mom shouldn't punish him for not being able to resist Luke's magic. And for a second I thought she saw us when she asked me and Lil for a quick word. Luckily it was just a quick farewell, though she did deride our choice in friends and said she pulled some strings so Lil and I could be magically transported to Keralon. Obviously we rejected her offer, I wouldn't leave our friends alone on that road and miss out on the eventful journey for the world. Mom took the refusal suprisingly well and gave us a warm farewell. And of course told Ileas to take care of us... It's going to take a lot of effort to get that attitude out of him again, it went well until mom dragged it back out of him. Oh yeah, we also got the keys to the family house in Keralon. Hope you didn't leave too much of a mess, brother. Now when we arrived at the inn to join the caravan Onvyr was in a shouting match with Edward. Apparently E.J. dismissed his family guards for the road, messing up a whole lot of planning Onvyr did but E.J. hated having these guards around telling him what to do, which I honestly get after the last few days in Hillfield with mom. It's just a shame we'll have to do more guard duties for it. So with that we set off: us in front, the Colline carriage in the middle and Robert Talespinner's carriage in the back. As we went out we found out Onvyr arranged for another passenger: Dorr, the duergar we fought just two days prior. Apparently he was kicked out of Hillfield after we confronted him and he's going to Keralon now. Everyone deserves a second chance and hopefully he takes this one to do more honest work. The journey started off quite dour, the weather soured and the forest became denser and the path narrower. Though what really caught our eye was when we arrived at a split in the road were some horses off the side with the heraldry of Hillfield on their saddle. Immediately thinking this might be the squad Sgt Berris sent out to investigate I asked Onvyr if these ruins are in the area which he confirmed. So after getting the wagons off the road our group checked the ruins where we found Grizelda waiting. She tried to convince Ileas to let her go free and join her, talking about how the plan was not to have him blow up when delivering the package but to take out the whole council... Our family in other words. Ileas was in doubts but I made it clear someone who treats our friends this badly and wanted to kill our family cannot go free. I can emphatize with the clan wanting to be free but they were going too far. So a fight broke out when she called in her Displacer Beast friend and while I tried to catch her she managed to escape, leaving us to deal with the Displacer Beast which didn't last long as Lil smited it with that righteous fury she musters. Afterwards we found the corpses of the guards and luckily Hayley could send a message with her raven, saving us a long trip back. I took some time to calm down the horses, give them a look over and put them somewhere the coming forces from Hillfield could easily find them. The wounds were superficial luckily but what drew my attention is that these were full trained warhorses, strong creatures that would serve their next masters as faithfully as they did their former. But they weren't ours to take, regardless of what people like Dorr think. So confident that Sgt Berris would send people we moved on. To Keralon. The city almost feels within reach, though we have quite a road to go still. With love, Ali

Letter to Gideon 5
6th of Lug, 121 EOT

Dear Brother, Going to Hillfield was going to be a fun family reunion before moving on to Keralon, I thought. But it seems life has different plans. The day started off well enough, we met up at the Inn across the street and went for some shopping. Luke tracked down a very shiny pearl, he claimed it was for a magic spell, haven't seem him use it yet but hope he didn't borrow money for the pearl to be some expensive gift for Elsa. Though that would be beneath Luke to be honest. During the shopping I did finally find a violin, I can finally stop using Lil's violin and we can finally play those duets we've been talking about. After shopping we were looking for something to do and I proposed we see what we could do about the attacks in the city. Seeing as we might be able to help and honestly, helping the city out seems a lot more fullfilling than finding some entertainment. Seeing as the guards were being prejudiced against Satyrs I though maybe they weren't allowed into the city and were smuggled in, but the rest brought up the good point that maybe we should check these things with the guards first. Luckily we met Sergeant Berris the day before and we helped him with the attack at the gate, so it should be easy to get a talk with him. So when we arrived and a guard at the door asked us who we were I thought to go over the entire group, as we all fought together at the gate. But Luke seemed to have little patience and said the De la Roost name would be enough. The reason why I don't like pulling on my family name became clear when the poor guard started bowing and stammering that he'll talk to the Sergeant. Gideon, how do you deal with it? Does it become less uncomfortable to see reactions to the family name? And maybe more importantly, should it? Then again, I think you've been going on enough adventures that you've surpassed our family's name to have men open doors for you. But still, the discomfort of people being uncomfortable around you because of a name or who they think you are must still be there right? Anyhow, when we got to the Sergeant we quickly got some clarity on the situation: the incidents are irregular, happening every few days, the largest attack happened on a guard post, and they might have a base around the Woodgate district. With this, Lil offered our help which the sergeant happily accepted and we got back on our way. Now as we went out the sergeant made some side remark about him not wanting to cross our family, making me ask him if he has had some problems with our parents (or perhaps even you, brother). But he didn't elaborate, just making sure we stayed on good terms. So as we were outside Gael and I proposed some next steps. Gael proposed to use Ileas as an infiltrant, something Ileas did not seem to think he was ready for and seeing as he's under our family's protection and the tension around satyrs in the city I wasn't going to let him out of my sight while not at home. But while I was trying to explain my plan, to use the grudge against our family to bait out an attack on us and use that to track them back to their base, we walked onto the square around the Monastery of the Five Saints and saw a small crowd angrily shouting at the small chapel dedicated to Belenus that was next to it. Naturally, we went to check it out and learned that the Abbot closed the chapel without explaining and the followers of Belenus were denied their morning prayer. To me this shows how high the tempers have gotten in Hillfield, that being denied a moment of peace with Belenus would drive them to such anger. Trying to help, some of us wormed our way to the temple guards trying to offer our help. Meanwhile Hayley used her raven friend to scan the square and found some suspicious dwarves lurking about, and had her familiar follow them, Dadroz mysteriously vanished in the shadows and Luke was chanting and drawing with chalk a bit away from the crowd to cast a spell. After some convincing the temple guards did go and talk to the Abbot to see if we could speak to him, leaving just one guard to stand between the crowd and the temple they so wanted to visit. So to help out I tried to calm some of them down and point out Belenus would probably be fine with them praying at home for once and while it didn't disperse the crowd it did almost half the crowd. After a bit the guard came back and told us the Abbot would see us. We managed to enter the chapel through the main monastary and were met by Father Abbot Eton standing in front of a statue of Belenus flanked by two other statues that were destroyed, he did seem to remember Lil and me as he asked us if we've been attending church the last few years. To avoid some embarassment (sorry brother, I know we owe the World Tree for saving the world but mass is just so boring) I immediately pointed to the statues and steered the conversation to what happened. Abbot Eton didn't seem as worried about the statues as he was about the statue that remained and was crying tears of blood, and the mystery of how the vandals got in. Like a well oiled machine, at hearing the information, everyone set out to find out more. Lil used her divine senses (feel like I haven't said this enough, our sister is getting cooler by the day) to determine the temple was now desecrated. And Hayley and Ileas found that the footsteps just kind of stop from the wall to the first row of benches. Leading us to think there's some secret passage but we couldn't really find anything. At this point Hayley checked in with her familiar and saw the dwarves entered the sewers through a hatch a bit North from the Monastary. So thinking we might find something there we immediately went there. The smell from the sewers as went down was something awful, almost made poor Hayley vomit from the smell. Through it all I could hear some faint sounds of pickaxes hitting stone in the distance, so after pointing this out Gael and Dadroz proposed to go on ahead to scout. They came back with news of four dwarves cutting out a room from the sewers, damaging public works. But also they saw a creature they described as an Ettercap, a spider-humanoid creature that was locked into a cage off to the side. Gael was adamant on sneaking up, which worked out well even as Hayley and myself just kept knocking into each other and bumping against loose stones. And Lil and I were looking to go in and talk to the dwarves as they spotted Dadroz sneaking up to some crates, he tried to talk his way out by claiming he was leading us along some smuggle route. As this didn't really help us figure out what they were doing Lil and I started asking what was going on. Now here the conversation heated up quite fast, our unquenshable thirst for answers colliding with famous dwarven stubborness. We were talking to their leader, a remarkably pale dwarf, who admitted they were doing something wrong. Now here we should've probably went and got some guards, probably we could miss one of our friends, but the way the dwarf was egging us on and hoping we would split up convinced us we should try to arrest them, especially when I realized we're right underneath the vandalized temple. With Lil declaring a citizen's arrest everyone started setting up and while I moved towards the leader one of his compatriots took a swing as I passed. And while he missed this did start the fight proper. Things got a bit risky as the Ettercap broke free and jumped on Luke, but Lil and I managed to get there to cover for him. During the fight we tried to knock out as many of them as we could but Dadroz accidentally made a lethal shot on one of the dwarven miners and put him beyond saving. Taking on what we've done we bound up the unconcious dwarves and Gael, Hayley and Luke went to get the guards. As the rest of us waited a group of monks came, lead by a blonde young man who asked us what was going on claiming to hear sound upstairs. Since we were close to under the temple I didn't think much of it but at least wanted his name, which he impolitely declined to give. Not really looking for another fight we let them go, barely noticing they went the other way we got here. We took this moment to wake up the leader dwarf to ask some questions, and between understandably snide remarks about his fallen friend he did reveal the person he worked for matched the monk's description and that his name was Marik, and he hired them to find some ancient artifact, a book, that was hidden underneath the temple. What trouble that could be saved if they just said this but let's not dwell too much on this. When the guards came they immediately took the dwarves into custody and asked us to come with them. And after a very quiet hour in the guard tower, where I noticed Hayley didn't join us after getting the guards, she must've really hated that smell, is when Sergeant Berris came in flanked by our mother. Feeling my stomach drop down to what must've been my ankles, they explained that the dwarf dying was seen as self defense and we were free to go. It was clear mom pulled some strings here and the unfairness of it all made me protest, saying there should be some justice here and I was willing to take responsibility. In response I got the scolding of a lifetime, the scolding only a mom that you barely saw while living in Tarn could give you, some very intense stuff. I wasn't planning on backing down but when she insinuated I would get off lightly anyway or Dadroz would have to go to jail is when I couldn't justify the protest anymore. I couldn't just throw my friend under the bus for something I myself caused. So while I cursed my powerlessness, mom was giving us a speech about maybe doing some 'normal stuff', like going horseriding or drinking in inns... boring stuff you know. Only giving a warm goodbye to Ileas, she then stormed off to continue her work. Writing it out again it really does make me wonder, am I bad at being from a noble family? Did living in Tarn make me 'go native'? (sounds like something mom would say) I always believed it's a noble's duty to serve those who serve them, to take responsibility for your actions and raise to a higher standard to help and inspire others. But talking to my mom it seems I'm wrong? It really makes me anxious to see you again brother, hoping to hear your side and I could definitely use your advice on how to handle mom. Now Lil clearly didn't let this ordeal weigh on her (or at least she didn't show it) as she immediately proposed to go talk to the Abbot, tell him about what we found. Once there Abbot Eton told us about Brother Marik, how he left the order after being caught reading off-limit books in their library to do with dangeous magicks and Belenus, oh how Luke almost started levitating at the sound of it but sadly for him it is still very much off limits. Looking around we resumed our search, as the question of how they got in was still unanswered. Here Luke came up with a, frankly genius, idea of using some incense to spot a draft. Thought I should help him out so we can cover more ground and we found a draft near a relief of Belenus in the wall. Which allowed Dadroz to set himself loose upon the contraption to try and open it. And when it opened we ended up immediately fighting cultists that were hidden behind in the darkness, and we quickly recognized them as those who accompanied Brother Marik in the sewers. I'm ashamed to say I fought poorly then, being unable to see the enemy in front of me and missing my axe throw, but luckily Liliana was there to block an otherwise nasty blow with her shield. The fight ended quite quickly once Hayley magicly forced them to go to sleep. Once we took a look Father Eton told us the altar and face carved in the wall were signs of worship to Morrhim, the Lich doomsayer of old who still rules much of the Gry Kingdom and fought against Keralon in days of old. Ileas and myself remembered how he was born in Hillfield, contemplating all this information combined with Brother Marik our eyes fell upon the open well in the room, going down, with sounds of footsteps reaching up. **To be continued** So going down we didn't see any signs of Marik. And I couldn't help but have a little laugh as we went down and realized we were right next to the hole in the sewers we were a few hours ago. Guess all the excitement made us not look further ahead. So we took the time to interrogate the cultists who were coming to. The two who were former friars were tight lipped but the other one was happy to share in exchange for a good word with the guards. He told us Marik wanted to find a spellbook of Morrhim underneath the monastary, hoping to find a path to immortality through becoming a lich. It still left a mystery of the blood crying statue, but we were stumped for what could've caused this. Father Eton wanted to give us a reward but we declined, seeing as we just were out for help. Though Luke did get access to their library, though not the books he probably wanted to read. The day ended quite simply. Lil, Ileas and I went back to our home as the others went to the inn. And I spent the evening tuning my violin and playing music to Elsa. We also offered them a tour of the city tomorrow. Mother retreating around midnight for reasons that have now become crystal clear. Hope you're doing well and can't wait to leave for Keralon. With love, Ali

Unsent letter to Gideon 4
6th of Lug, 121 Era of the Tree

Dear Brother, Today has been a... difficult day. I am writing this, sitting in my old room's windowsill, looking over our family's garden, contemplating on our esteemed family. I need to process this day a bit and writing to you always helps. And you deserve to know what is happening, or maybe you already do? It started out well enough, the road to Hillfield welcoming us back after being away in Tarn for a few years. There were groups of guards and hunters working on what we later learned were Menhirs, and they were removing them on orders of our mom. When we got to the gate and we were waiting on Onvyr, Lil and I proposed that everyone could stay over at our place, we got plenty of rooms. Most were enthousiastic but Gael and Hayley decided to stay at the inn, Onvyr arranged some rooms there for everyone who wanted. Couldn't help but feel a bit offended that they turned it down so fast, we could've had a great sleepover if other things didn't happen. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Onvyr mentioned we had a few days to sit back and enjoy Hillfield while he got some more wagons for the caravan, quite a few that travelled from Tarn weren't going on. They told us to already go on ahead and while we passed through well enough the guards had to leave their post to go control the Colline carriage. I didn't expect too much trouble but I stuck around, hoping I didn't have to use the De la Roost name to smooth things over if guards started acting up over nothing. But the guards leaving their post left the gate site open to an ambush by the Satyr and their blink dog. They started harassing people, killing animals and destroying property. We immediately jumped in and captured most of them before the guards came back. I tried to calm down some of the civilians and think my calls succeeded at that. The guards immediately wanted us to drop our weapons, me not wanting to damage the blade sheated it first before throwing it on the ground and moving next to Ileas. Our satyr friend might need protection after an attack done primarily by satyr. Luckily we quickly cleared things up with Officer Berris and even got some info on what was going on. The Satyr clans have been paid off by some merchant claiming to be a Baron and they have illegally laid claim to some land south east of Hillfield. They are also being joined by Reinards and Humans. After the rest of the caravan passed inspection we guided them to the Iron Shield Inn, waiting for Gael and Hayley to settle in before going to our house on the other side of the road. Our usual hospitality seemed to be replaced with a closed gate and guards, it was a bit awkward to have to explain that we were the children of the current head of the house but again, we were gone for a few years. It was already very late as we rang the door and mom came out in her evening robes, she immediately pulled us into a big hug, oh how I have missed mom's hugs. She welcomed us in and offered to make us some coffee and tea. Ileas managed to revert about 5 years and immediately went in to play servant. And mom then made him prepare the rooms for our friends, luckily Liliana went to help. Feeling a bit embarassed I asked her to treat Ileas with a bit more standing, which was of course met with the same old speech of duty and service belonging 'both sides' of nobles and peasants. Now, brother, I'm all for duty and serving those that serve me, but Ileas deserves more than being a run-of-the-mill servant. He has helped me and Lil more times than I can count, like all my companions I owe my life to him. How is it fair that he also changes my sheets? We asked mom about the Satyr situation and the Menhirs. She told us dad is out with a contingent of soldiers to strike back at the raids from this 'Baron' while Keralon sends reinforcements to deal with this in a more permanent way. I'd ride to him and help but he's apparently a few days out and I don't want to miss the caravan's departure. And dad's pretty badass, he can handle it. The satyr attacks also got all the way up to the house, probably trying to take vengeance for our family's role in taking out the Satyr clans in the past. So no wonder security is so tight now. About the menhirs, mom pointed to some old tomes and explained she figured they were part of some ritual curse that was used in an old war between the Immerglade and Neverhold Kingdoms, and while they were inert they should be removed before someone reactivates them. Hayley started studying some of the books while we talked but we learned mom was being dishonest. But more on that later After some time, Elsa and Edward joined us, they had to do some family business of their own and so could only join us later in the evening. And after the small talk died down mom went to bed, claiming she was tired. And Hayley and Gael went back to the inn. I took this moment to propose a walk in our garden to Elsa to wind the day down. Hoping for some private time with her. But clearly she misinterpreted my request as she asked others to join. Luke, being about as easy to separate from Elsa as a Dragon from their hoard, jumped at this request. And I just realized that, fuck it, let's just bring everyone along. While not the ideal walk I had envisioned, reminiscing about the times I fought Lil with sticks (and how much that ended with her hunting me down around the house) was still enjoyable. At least until Lil saw a Menhir in our garden, or at least she found tracks going off the path ( a big no-no as you very well know ). This Menhir was glowing, so while Lil tried knocking it over and Luke was preparing to cast magic to help identify the object I called Hayley with our immerglade stone, since I knew she was reading one of the books on them. When everyone joined up Hayley mentioned how the menhirs on the path to Hillfield were border stones that designated the old border of Immerglade, and now that that kingdom is gone the stones were inert. Which makes this Menhir that was glowing quite brightly all the more suspicious, especially since they have different runes on them. So I took the moment to get mom so we can get her input. At this point I arrived at her door and after knocking a few times and realizing it was locked I was slightly panicked when there was no response. The news of the Satyr attacks and the ominous Menhir made me break down her door to see if she was still safe. Here I was met with an empty bed, but the standing mirror was shifted revealing a passage. Realizing I couldn't use my stone to contact anyone anymore I yelled through the window everyone should come up since I was afraid mom was kidnapped. It was here that ol' Desiderius, bless his soul, came up and asked me what the ruckus was about. Since he had been sleeping this was the first time seeing him in years, and he immediately lapsed in fussing about how I'd grown and I shouldn't break down my parent's door. He also said we shouldn't bother with the passage since he knew mom used it more often and we should leave her be. But how could I? What could she possibly be hiding in there? And I was still worried. So I told ol' Desiderius to just leave it to me and Lil, who I might add just went in before me while I was saying this. Everyone else joined except for Edward and Elsa as they were worried about the danger. The passage led to a staircase that went down, down and down until we arrived at what I can only describe as 'what the fuck'. Mom was praying in the Sylvan language while wearing a creepy as hell mask, and was obviously surprised when we asked what the hell was going on. She just said she'd explain later and she wanted to finish what she was doing. Out of pure shock I obliged and asked everyone to go up, Hayley and Luke just rattling off questions they would hopefully see answered later. So a bit later in the tearoom mom joined us and, reluctantly, answered the questions. It was kind of her to reveal this to our friends, as I didn't want to go behind her back too much on this (they deserve to know). She revealed that our family made a deal with a fey king called Ulther of the Neverhold Kingdom. This deal made it possible for our ancestor to help defeat the Leper revolt and in exchange the family prayed to him after generations and did small favors for this king. Now you might know this, as the first child, but this was news to me. So removing the menhirs was at the behest of this Ulther, what could he possibly want with removing inactive mehirs of a kingdom that doesn't exist anymore? *scratched out* Could this have anything to do with what Terrin told us? *Scratched out* And the menhir in the garden is part of her ritual too, moved up after we all moved out. Guess it's lucky that mom forgot about us swinging by or we wouldn't have learned about this. Did you know about this? Guess being the heir to the family it's hard to think you wouldn't. Now this next part I did know, at the continued prodding of our friends Liliana revealed the other part of the deal we made. That the second born child of the head of the family must be sent to King Ulther to serve for a few years. Or to be more correct, I didn't know about this king Ulther. At this Hayley, Luke and Gael went into a shouting match with mom about how unfair this is to Lil. Mom held up that serving is part of our duty as nobles, and these actions have kept Keralon safe in the past. The others were quick to compare this to slavery and indoctrination. I was being quiet, mostly to keep myself from revealing my feelings on this matter to mom. Only when Luke called me out did I respond that he should not be so hasty to know what I am thinking. Please don't tell mom but I feel like I need to tell you: I hate what this deal does to our family. You might remember but 15 minutes separate my birth and Lil's, 15 minutes determined that Liliana must serve and I am free. 15 minutes determined Lil must suffer the same fate as uncle Jayce and Great-Aunt Arlin, will her hair turn white as theirs did? Did 15 minutes doom her soul for something she never consented to? How could I ever tell her I want to drag her away kicking and screaming from serving King Ulther. I can't act only because she wants to, but does she need to? Mom might fear what we might lose if we don't honor the deal, but what about what we lose now? Mom talks about serving but isn't our allegiance to the people of the Hillfield, Keralon and the material plane? And not some Fey king. I dream of being a great knight, protecting the innocent. But I can't even protect my family from this. Ever since we set out from Tarn I am worried this is the last time I'll travel with Liliana, my other half. I have made peace that while I can't prevent her from going I might be able to save others. Your children, Gideon, don't have to walk this road. And if I can end this deal, I will. We might lose some status and wealth, but these can be rebuilt. Luckily I don't stand alone: Gael, Hayley and Luke are aware of some of my feelings on the matter and that I can use their help. They proved to be the best companions I could wish for when they promised their help, starting with researching this King Ulther. I would be forever in their debt if they can help us out with this. Oof, I just realized what I have written. Maybe I'll keep this letter to myself for a while before posting it, maybe mull over some more clever ways to say what I want to say without someone reading such sensitive information. But I'm happy I wrote it. And perhaps I'll hand it to you when we meet and we can talk about it. I like to think we are of the same mind on this. Many things cloud my mind: the people and guards of Hillfield, even of our family seem adamant on hating satyrs, our family's ties to the Fey go even deeper than I suspected, and Elsa seems blind to my advances. But somehow, I can't help but think you could solve this. Sadly you're quite far away in Drybank. But by knowing you could it, it somehow inspires me to give it a go. And give it my all. So thanks brother, and may we meet soon. Alistan.

Letter to Gideon 3
2-5 Lug, Year 121, Era of the Tree

Dear brother, It's been quite a few days. We saved Robert Talespinner, who formally introduced himself as a bard who tells tales. He was going to Tarn but got held up and was too late, then he came across the Reinards that wanted a toll which he couldn't pay. So luckily Gael was there to prevent Robert from being killed. Robert spent the evening telling us plenty of tales. But after some time the public demanded music, which Robert couldn't provide. Lil and I jumped at the occassion to make some music, luckily Liliana's beautiful voice masked my mediocre performance on the violin. I really should get a violin of my own and stop using Lil's, might help with my performance dips. Anyhow we ended up going to sleep under that starry sky. The Colline carriage can apparently flip their couches into beds. Gael was offered a sleep in Robert's carriage but he prefers the outside. The next day Edward was joining us at the front, telling us Elsa would still be sleeping. This prompted some questions from me but apparently she's just a late sleeper. Hayley then proposed to stay with her, assume she saw that the day would give horrible weather and take the morning in a cozy carriage. In the afternoon Luke greedily volunteered to take seat in the carriage, I would like to join Elsa as well but the thought of sitting still in a carriage makes my legs itch just thinking about it. During the day some of us noticed a menacing presence emanating from the forest. Now the day was extremely cold and extremely damp, having to twist some clothes to get the water out. Though by the end of the day the temperature was going up as we approached Rosebloom. The extremely small town is apparently built on some fissures that heat up the valley to a very temperate temperature for the whole year, which means the trees are in constant bloom. The brand new shiny white castle on the hill overlooking it made the whole thing look like something out of a fairy tale. We waited on the rest of the caravan and Onvyr told us we should go into the village and contact Hector, the owner of a large shop who he made extra dealings with for food while the rest of the caravan set up outside the village. At Hector's store we were first met with his shy granddaughter, named Anna. Who went and got her grandfather, Hector. We brought the supplies he gathered to the caravan which was already turning into quite a party, as the villagers had gone to look at the caravan and everyone hit it off and it turned into a spontaneous party. Or as I like to call it, my kind of party. Spent most of the time drinking, dancing and playing games with the villagers. I was armwrestling a guard when a hunter named Anton and his group showed up to challenge me to an armwrestling match, wanting to see if I had what it takes to be a knight. He was a huge man, and even though I am barely 16 I am still a man in the eyes of the people of Tarn. So we locked our hands and went at it, and I think he underestimated me since I won quite fast. While Anton was congratulating me his friends accussed me of cheating. I felt the blood rushing to my head as my honesty was being questioned but I managed to barely hold myself back as Anton still seemed nice about it. The villagers told me their group were hunters that kept the village safe, but also had some fragile egos among them, the kind of ego that hates seeing one of their own lose to a "kid from Tarn" it seems. But the other villagers/caraveneers around me got me out of my state rather quick and we ended up partying until late into the night. Meanwhile Lil' was talking to Anna, she's apparently a bit shunned by the villagers for reading books. At least, that's what Lil told me that's what is going on. Her grandfather seemed quite popular at least since he was jovially talking to just about everyone at the party. Lil thought to cheer the little girl up and, according to her, wanted to find Hayley who she thought would know more about her experience. But as Hayley was gone she went for her brother Luke. Luke, as usual, was found hanging onto Elsa like a mosquito on your arms on a warm summer's day. Robert Talespinner apparently saw his chance and asked Elsa to dance. Luke and Liliana then spent the evening talking to Anna about what books she was reading, which were very arcane in nature. I might give him some shit sometimes, but Luke is a good guy and it's clear he cheered the girl up and made her feel less alone in her bookish ways. Apparently as she's only had her grandfather as her parents died years ago. Hayley, Dadroz and Gael apparently went out into the town and visited the Bloompool, a boiling body of water housing some elemental creatures. From there they visited the keep on the top of the hill and spent the evening talking to Lord Flinn, a young knight who gained this fiefdom and castle very recently. Apparently he gained it by doing some favors for the King and some brave questing. And he's a member of the Rose Garden. A real knight! And I missed out on meeting him. But then again, I would've missed out on the party. That night some of us had a weird dream, we were all gathered around the Bloompool while shades moved around and we heard a voice sing in the Sylvan language. The next day we learned we shared this dream and Gael was kind enough to tranlate "In shadows cast by Twilight's Mourn A town lies still, its fate forlorn Whispers haunt its one dead street Where sorrow and despair entreat Hollow Windows, Shattered panes, Reflect the echoes of past refrains. Once bustling with life's vibrant hum, Now silence reigns, a dirge begun" I'm not sure what to make of this, but it at least doesn't sound any good. Gael decided to write a letter to warn the Lord of this omen. So after discussing this dream over the morning we set out to leave the village, and from there we left the good temperatures as well though at least it wasn't so damp. The day wasn't quite so eventful and we were asked to take up guard duty that night. I sat out the first watch with Dadroz, but it was during the second watch that Gael and Lil saw a bright light moving through the trees. Gael called it out and it moved towards the camp, morphing into an elven lady beckoning us for help. Lil decided to wake us up and we had to discuss what to do. It seemed only Lil and myself were willing to go help this spectral lady, but everyone else was vehemently against it. They were worried it was dangerous and that we had a duty to guard the camp, the second one is easily fixed by waking someone up to take over and the first just seemed like the prerequisite of a good adventure. Though I was hesitant since I do think adventure is best shared by all, Lil's resoluteness steeled my own desire to go help this lady. Out of worry Gael went with us (somehow he thinks Lil and I can't speak Elvish) and Luke was also convinced to tag along. Luckily those two came with since when we arrived at some ruined shack near a pond an evil spirit decided to attack us while levitating over the lake, forcing some curse on Lil that would've made her drown. I admit I was useless in this fight, as I didn't have any way to reach her, I am ashamed to admit I wavered in my belief in swords as the ultimate weapon. But it seems clear I need a way to walk on water, evidently the fault was with me and not the sword. But Gael and Luke made easy work of the spectre as their magical weapons and spells found their purchase. From there we found out the spirit that led us there told us her husband's bones were buried here and she wished for her remains to be buried with them. During the digging Gael explained to us that the Sylvan singing we heard during the fight was about two women fighting for a man's love and one drowned the other in jealousy. I am not sure who of the two we buried but the spirit seemed pacified as we filled up the grave. And with that we found our way back to camp and relieved Hayley and Dadroz of their watch. I find it hard to put into words the gratitude I feel to Luke and Gael for helping us, Lil and I might've perished in a fight so unsuited to our abilities. Next day's travel somehow ended up colder than the last, but we were overjoyed when it started snowing. Prompting Lil, Edward and myself to have a impromptu snowball fight. My sister and I were quickly confronted with our inability to aim any snowball, but we had fun regardless. Later that day the menacing presence we felt from the forest became even stronger, prompting some of us to huddle up or putting hands on our weapons. This presence manifested itself into a White Wolf, a giant hound that set upon us. He blasted Gael, Dadroz and myself with a cold breath, the others managed to avoid the worst but I took a full on burst. I felt my strength leaving me but right there Elsa came up behind me and kissed me on my cheek, with this a fire was lit inside me and I was stronger than ever, striking a fearsome blow at the wolf. Feeling attacks coming at it from all sides the wolf ran off and hid in the blaze of snow. Luke managed to strike the final blow by firing off darts of arcane magic. As Gael and Liliana contemplated skinning or decapitating the beast to have a trophy I went to thank Elsa for her help, without her I might have perished and she managed to make me find strength I didn't know I had. Maybe I worded my gratitude too strongly as she blushed and quickly clarified it was magic she used, she apparently learned it in a summer retreat at a temple in Hillfield, but I find simple magic to be inadequate to explain the fire lit in my heart. And the internal struggle I felt before: standing aside for my friend Luke or follow my heart is raging ever stronger. I was mulling this over well into the next day as we went over the final hill and laid our eyes upon Hillfield for the first time in years. Tarn has been my home for all this time but damn if it's not fun to say: I can see our house from here. With Brotherly Love, Alistan

Letter to Gideon 2
1st of Lug, 121, Era of the Tree

Writing this on the back of the first latter, Hey Gideon... again. I realize you'll be getting all my letters at once since I haven't got the chance to post them yet. But writing things down after a long day clears my mind. So I left my last letter at around midnight. As planned Terrin joined us around midnight to start the traditional trials in the Bramble. He used some strange magic to ward off sound and blurred the festival still going on around us, I've seen it happen to others in the past but never realized how strange it felt being inside this ward. Terrin explained to us some ancient truths of these lands *This next section is heavily scratched out as Alistan realized it's a Tarn secret*, about how Tarn used to be the site of an ancient Fey kingdom called Immerglade, which fell in a war against the Fey Kingdom of Neverhold. How the Queen of Immerglade's fate is now unknown. How ruins of the Immerglade Kingdom were still to be found in The Bramble, which is now a cursed place. This place would have a puzzle for us that if solved would give us a reward. Terrin explained that the reason the villagers of Tarn do this is because some ancient Elven sorceress told Terrin that the next King/Queen of a restored Immerglade Kingdom might come from one of the victors of this puzzle/test. Which is also a reason to keep this secret safe as it would attract unwanted attention. He then gave us a tip for the puzzle, and warnings for the poisonous thorns. He then handed a healer's kit to Hayley to use on Gael and Ileas who were still wounded. And with that he left us to go on our new quest. Gael and Luke helped us maneuver the thorns and quickly we got to the ruins of the tower Terrin talked about. Here the thorns and vines formed into humanoid figures and started attacking us. *End of scratched out part* It was a difficult fight, Ileas went down and I had to throw myself between Lil and a Vinemonster to protect her, only to then end up in vines alongside her. Luckily Gael dealt a killing blow to the monster to free us, allowing us to clean up the other monsters. *Start of Scratched out part* We then handled the puzzle, it had to do with shining a light at a runestone symbolizing noon, Hayley managed to figure it out and Luke used magical light to creat the right shadows. From solving this puzzle a chest appeared with our reward. Some stones we later learned could be used to communicate between other holders of these stones. Pretty nifty stuff. We were also introduced to Sylvesse, Gael's mentor and a giant magical white stag, he was merely observing our trial (probably out of care for Gael) and told us he'll be watching our travels as far as Hillfield before using his antlers to create a path before leaving us. *End of Scratched out part* And me and Lil raced to the town, it was a tie. This ended our day as we decided to go to sleep to catch our caravan the next day. When we arrived at the town square in the morning and met up with everyone and our trusty new companion Thorin (the horse gifted to us by the farmers). We were also introduced to Onvyr, an old elf who was going to lead the caravan. The caravan would exist out of five carts, our cart, three merchant carts and a carriage for the noble children Edward and Elsa. Omvir needed some extra guards up front so we volunteered our group to scout ahead and be the vanguard. Should keep us busy and the first to enter the fray if the need rises. Right before we left Sheriff Edna came to say goodbye, she had a longbow for us as a reward for the task we did yesterday. Think Gael took the bow after that since he's our best shot. And then the time came to set off, we said our goodbyes to everyone and set off on our trek to Hillfield. The first halfday was rather boring, we were 10 minutes before the rest of the caravan scouting up ahead, me taking Thorin besides me to lead him down the road. At lunch we got talking to Edward Colline, son of the lord, he honestly seems like a great guy. Much looser than his father, wants to become knight and also likes swords, how could I hate this guy? He proposed he'd ride along with us for the second half of the day since his carriage was boring him. Elsa on the other hand, seemed to be fast asleep in the carriage. Hope the dancing didn't tire her out but Edward didn't seem surprised, it does make her seem very different from the girl I danced with. Luke jumped at the occasion to wake her up and eat with her in her carriage. Bit weird to isolate her from the rest of us but she didn't seem to mind. Can't deny I was a bit jealous but my heart is in conflict, to pursue a girl I barely know and strain my friendship with Luke or be a good friend to Luke and pay back the debt I owe him for allowing me to dance with her? If I had to guess I'll probably do something I don't expect to do after Ileas and Lil egg me on. Anyway, she also didn't want to stay in the carriage and came to our cart. I'm just happy the two kids can socialize with the the rest of us now without their dad holding them back. The rest of the day was rather uneventful, Edward tried to pry the details of the trial from us. But Gael gave some cryptic anwer on how he could do the trial too. Anyhow, towards the end of the day we saw a camping site up ahead. Lil and Dadroz went to get Onvyr and Gael went scouting ahead. For a while nothing was going on but then Hayley jumped up and said Gael was in danger from Reinards. I immediately grabbed my sword and stormed off towards the camp, together with Hayley, Ileas and Edward. Edward and Ileas ran like the wind and left me and Hayley in their dust. By the time we got there the situation looked quite dire. Gael was bleeding on the ground and a human, who we later learned was the bard Robert Talespinner, was also lying face down with a Reinard emptying his pockets. We later learned Gael jumped in to protect Robert and tried to hold them back as long as he could. The fight was quite good, Edward is skilled with his blade and got the final blow in. *start of scratched out section* Sylvesse also showed up to protect Gael as he was fighting the Reinards alone *End of scratched out section*. Right as we ended the fight the rest of the caravan showed up and we set out for camp, Robert seems to be joining our caravan and I spent some time sparring with Edward. Now as I write this letter the campfire is ablaze and I can't wait for us to get to Hillfield. I can't wait to get to Hillfield so I can post this letter and see our family there. Talk to you soon, Alistan P.S. You noticed I scratched out some stuff, Lil reminded me some of these are secrets of the village and we can't just share them with anyone. Just take our word that the trial went well and we had some good fun. P.P.S. I know talk to you soon means nothing since you're reading these letters at the same time. I've added a date so you can hopefully appreciate the time between them

Letter to Gideon 1
30th of Daga, 121 year of the tree

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.

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Alistan De la Roost