10th of Highsummer, 1977 FG - Continued

Serena used the same magic she had used to transport us to the mausoleum to transport us back to the edge of the null magic zone around Fehr Keep.  When we arrived I went inside to visit with Allison while Griswold and Schmendrick examined Migos.  After an hour or so, Crespin came in to tell me that Sujo had taken Migos to Dagonhold and Serena was furious.  Apparently we were going to Dagonhold to confront him.

With the aid of Serena’s spell, we beat Sujo back to Dagonhold and were waiting with Lord Dagon when he arrived.  After some harsh words it was agreed that Migos would be interrogated.  Griswold and I were allowed to participate while the others were restricted to just observing.  I’m not familiar with interrogations so I tried to stand back and let Griswold do the talking, although I have to admit I did get a bit aggressive when Migos tried to stonewall us. 

We discovered that Migos had been recruited by a couple of Fallen to stir up a war between Celen and Phoenix.  Presumably this had been to prevent Phoenix from going to war with Silothreni, but later Migos discovered that it was really part of some larger master plan of the fallen to weaken all the armies of our land for an invasion from somewhere else.  Migos had also become a necromancer, and vampire while in their employ and had some extensive personal issues to work out.   He also told us that there was a large underground complex under the mausoleum and that additional evidence of his story could be found there.

It’s nice to see we are finally finding some answers in this investigation.  It’s been almost three months since we found the wraith that was once Analyn Fehr and I’m looking forward to finally figuring this all out and returning home.

We had an odd encounter on our way to Migos’s mausoleum today.  Vance was out scouting the road ahead when he came running back saying there was a squirrel trying to talk to him.  At first I thought he had gone mad, but then I noticed a squirrel running along behind him chattering anxiously.  Humoring Vance, I asked the squirrel if it wanted us to follow it.  To my astonishment, it nodded its head and beckoned me with its front paw.  It then hopped away a few steps and looked back at me expectantly.

Being curious, we followed the strange creature as it led us to a small forest fire.  In the midst of the fire were three bodies, two men and a woman.  All but one man had expired from severe wounds.  I picked up the man and we carried him to safety.  After Schmendrick healed him he introduced himself as Darby.  He was a wizard of sorts and the squirrel was his pet.

He said that he and his companions were the guardians of a tree, which somehow imprisoned a demon.  He told us a man had come through the area and slain his companions and burned the tree to release the demon.  From the description he gave we concluded that the man responsible was probably our Fallen.  This was bad news but we didn’t really have time to hunt a demon at the moment so we continued on.  Darby decided to stay with us.  Although whether out of a sense of obligation or out of fear of the demon, I don’t know.

Last night proved to be very tense, as we all knew there was a pretty nasty demon out there somewhere, hunting Darby, who now traveled with us.  When we made camp, Darby created a magical fog around the campsite that he said would confuse anything trying to enter into it.  From the inside it looked more like a shimmering in the air, and not very confusing.  I guess it must have worked though because although we heard some pretty inhuman howls and some heavy scratching near the camp that night; nothing came in and attacked us.

We finally arrived at the crypt about noon today.  The entrance to the underground level of the place turned out to be a stairway inside a sarcophagus in one of the side rooms.  We all headed down while Schmendrick, in a clever burst of caution scratched a pentagram at the entrance of the stairs to prevent Darby’s demon from sneaking up behind us.

The room below was full of the bones of the dead, arranged in niches stacked several high along all the corridors.  As we began to move in and explore the area I kicked at one of the skeletons in a lower niche, a habit I picked up after my first encounter with the undead as a test to make sure a skeleton wasn’t animated.  To my surprise the skeleton dodged it.

I yelled out to my companions that they were alive and Grumby began yelling for us all to fall back to the stairs.  We all reacted, even Crespin, forming a defensive line around the spell casters at the foot of the stairs.  Crespin, Vance and I manned the front line while Grumby shouted orders and Schmendrick and Darby prepared spells.

The battle that followed was the stuff of legends.  Our small band stood toe-to-toe with a horde of hundreds of undead.  Crespin fought with a recklessness and skill that I have never seen him display before.  His right blade, enchanted to slay undead left destruction wherever it landed.

Kess started the fight with his bow, dropping single targets with quick shots between those of us who manned the line, however after a few shots and a quick look at the size of his quiver compared to the overwhelming horde of skeletons before us, he dropped it and joined us on the line.  He displayed a level of skill with his broadsword that I hadn’t realized he possessed.

Vance, who, like Kess, seemed to prefer a bow, stood by my side, sword in hand and showed what is was to be a Celestine soldier.  He gave far better than he got and his past experience fighting undead in the army was apparent.

As for myself I felled skeletons in great swaths with my axe, but it was still barely enough.  As the bones piled up on the floor in front of us, some of the beasts managed to leap over us and into our companions behind who were busy hurling destructive magic into the press of creatures before us.

When it was all over Schmendrick and Griswold lay unconscious and near death.  While Darby healed the pair with his magic, I noticed the sounds of scratching and eerie growling from up the stairs near Schmendrick’s pentagram.  The same sounds we had heard in our camp the night before.  Darby’s demon had clearly found us.  I looked around at my companions.  Drained and tired, I had to accept the fact that we were trapped for the moment.

So rather than turn to face the beast we moved farther back into the crypt to get out of the incessant bone dust that still clouded the air after our battle.  We would rest up and deal with Darby’s demon on our own terms, when we were ready.

27th of Highsummer

After the incident with the "ghost ship", the rest of the voyage to Seaport went quickly.  While my companions and I explored the strange cargo we had salvaged from the doomed ship, Captain Ahab and his crew caught the last throes of the storm to set a hard course for the Celestine coast.  After a day and a night of brisk sailing, we slipped into Seaport harbor the following morning, just as the mists were clearing.

The salvaged cargo turned out to be fairly uninteresting.  Most of it had marked destinations in Seaport and we all decided it would be best to just deliver it along with our ship's cargo.  However, there were several unmarked crates full of a bitter seed that I'm told the Suul brew into a black beverage called "Kaffe".  There is little demand for it among the Celestines so it probably won't sell for much, but Captain Ahab told us we were welcome to a percentage of whatever he could get.  The offer was tempting, but we all decided that the information we carried was too vital to allow us to wait around in Seaport for the cargo to be sold.  Still, we hated to leave the money behind, so Crespin volunteered to wait in Seaport and collect our cut while the rest of us pushed on to Tristan immediately. 

Although we only saw it in passing, Seaport looks to be a fascinating place.  It bares little resemblance to Dagonport, with its hanging gardens and carved stone facades climbing high into the cliffs above the ocean.  Instead it's spread wide across the breadth of the harbor, a flat sea of timber and slate sectioned by walls and overlooked by a large stone keep.  The Whete River flows through the middle of this man-made expanse and we crossed it on a high stone bridge on our way out of town.  Below us, in the water, we could see the small flat-bottomed sailboats that ply their trade, carrying goods too and from inland ports.

Once we got out of the city we pushed hard to reach Tristan.  Nobody talked much.  The prospect of the journey's end forced us all to weigh the experiences of the last few months and I suspect I'm not the only one who wondered what kind of reception we could expect in Tristan.

We arrived in Tristan this evening just as the sun began to set.  The city walls have grown considerably in our absence and as we got closer we saw that Imperial soldiers manned them instead of the old familiar city watch.  We headed straight to Otto's office up near the citadel.  Despite the late hour, Otto was still there, reading through a stack of parchment.  He was a bit surprised to see us.  I suspect he had long since written us off as dead.  I gave him my written report of our findings and a brief verbal summary.  He seemed interested and after a few questions, paid us for our service and asked us to return the next day.

I decided to get a room at The Merchant's Last for the night.  It's a long walk out to the Aldeburke and I didn't really feel like facing my father's scorn just yet.  Roger, the owner, was happy to see me and quickly set me up with a room, a hot meal, and a cold drink.  After eating I decided to head over to see Crespin's family and let them know he was well and would be home in a day or two.  To my surprise Stitch had the same thought and was already there.  After watching him interact with Crespin's family, I'm beginning to suspect that Stitch fancies Crespin's mom.  She's an attractive woman, and I wish him luck, but I won't be betting any money on his success.

I rose early this morning and headed to the Aldeburke to face my dad.  The fields along the walk looked better than I can remember them being in a long time.  Clearly the weather had been good while I was away.  When I finally arrived home, Dad was out front tending to some imperfection of the old stone gatehouse arch, the last remaining section of the entrance to the old burke.

The arch, along with the tower and the main house is all that's really left of the old fortress that once stood in place of our farm.  Over the past few years dad has sold off what was left of the ruined fortifications, mostly to Tristan, for use in the new walls.  He could have easily sold the arch as well, but instead he seems to dote on it.  I think he likes the idea of a grand entrance to his home.  He's even flanked the road from the arch to the main house with tall, thin cypress trees.  He says they're just a "windbreak" to keep the dust down during planting season, but he's not really fooling anyone.

Dad was far more civil than I can remember him ever being.  He seems to have come to accept the fact that I'm a Sentinel.  I don't think he approves, but he seems resigned to it now.  After seeing how much I have grown over the past months he can’t deny that the job is treating me well.  We talked for some time about the farm and recent events in Tristan.  We decided that the farm was doing well enough to invest in a proper stable and I left him some money for its construction.

I headed back into town around midmorning so that my companions and I could meet with Otto again.  When we got there he told us he wanted to hire us to track down the two wraith armies that have been raiding the local area, courtesy of Migos.  We were all interested in the job but I was beginning to become concerned about where our work with Otto and Tristan was leading us. 

With all these jobs working for Tristan, I was worried that it might not be long before they just decided to conscript us.  I have no ill will toward the watch or the army, but that doesn't mean I want to join them.  Soldiers loose too much control over the direction of their lives.  I told my companions about my concerns and after some consideration we decided to formally organize ourselves as a mercenary unit under the name "Griswold's Irregulars".  I'm told that doing so should give us some protection against conscription.  With my concerns satisfied we then accepted Otto's offer as our first official contract.

We started on our new job this morning.  We have been attached as scout-specialists to the 1st Company of the 3rd Regiment of the Imperial Army’s Wolf Brigade.  The company, led by a lean graying captain named Edric Winter, was deployed from the capitol about a month ago to help against the undead raids that have been happening over the past few months.  Captain Winter attached one of his squads to our group and ordered us to track down the leaders of the undead invaders in the area.

We took down one of Migos's wraiths today.  We hadn't really planned on doing it by ourselves, but the opportunity was too good to pass up.  While scouting, Vance came across a large group of undead moving along a game trail in the predawn hours.  They were armed and armored, not at all like the horde of fragile weaponless skeletons we had faced in Migos' crypt.  There looked to be nearly a hundred of them, certainly more than we could handle in a head-on fight, but the terrain was such that, if we moved quickly, Griswold would be able to collapse a hillside on the largest part of the force.  So, without waiting for reinforcements from the Army, we attacked.

We didn't know the wraith was with them until after Griswold had buried the larger part of the group and we moved in to clean up what was left.  A ring of heavily armored skeletons wearing Celestine colors, probably the remains of fallen soldiers, surrounded the creature.  Once we spotted the wraith, we focused wholly on it while the squad of regulars that had been sent with us charged in lock step through the remainder of the undead soldiers.  The creature died quickly, as did his army.

After the fight I picked up a large shield carried by one of the wraith's guards.  I am becoming more confident at wielding my axe in one hand and I had neglected to purchase a shield before we left on this mission.  It's heavy, and I'll need to practice with it, but I think it will work nicely.

The 1st Company regulars that Captain Winter sent with us have turned out to be an interesting bunch.  They are proud and arrogant and it has taken a lot of effort for my companions and I to win these "veterans" over.  After sparring with them one-on-one in camp we have all been less than impressed with their fighting skills.  However, watching them fight in formation today, I have to admit that they work extremely well together.  I guess the skills that make you a good formation soldier don't translate well to single combat. 

I had the strangest encounter last night.  We had just finished another long hot day of travel and had set up camp near a cool forest stream.  The last few weeks of hiking and fighting in the Wanetide heat while carrying a mountain of armor and supplies has slowly been taking its toll, and although Kess has always been willing to use that magic stick of his to take the edge off my stink, I really wanted to soak in the cool stream for a bit.  My companions were uninterested, being either too tired or too distracted by the smell of the succulent venison roasting over the fire, so I grabbed some soap and headed upstream alone.

The water was every bit as refreshing as I had imagined.  I cleaned off the stink of my labors and had just settled in to soak when I caught a brief scent of decay on the wind.  After four months of fighting undead I had no doubt about the source of the smell.  Looking quickly around I saw three undead standing near the water, a few feet from my gear.

As I leapt to my feet, one of them entered the water, sword in hand, while his companion reached for my axe, which was lying with my gear, far out of my reach.  I was naked, unarmed, and had moved some distance upstream to find a pool suitable for bathing, so I doubted my companions would hear a cry for help.  Realizing I was on my own, I charged the first one. 

The beast was slow and I managed to slay it quickly, pulling its arm from its socket and cleaving its skull with its own blade.  I had barely finished the first one when the second was on me, wielding my own axe against me.  My sword skills have grown weak since I found the axe in the old Fallen fortress near Redcliffe, but I parried madly and got in a lucky shot, finishing the creature with only a few small cuts and bruises.

With the second down, I retrieved my axe from its grasp and quickly turned to the third and final creature.  This one had a blade in its hand, but had not yet acted in the fight.  Leaping from the water, I swung my axe in a heavy overhead swing, intending to cleave the beast in two.  As I did so, it looked up at me with a vaguely familiar face and said in a terrified feminine voice "No Mort!"

Reacting at the last minute, I turned my axe aside and knocked the beast to the ground instead.  In my mind I was desperately trying to place the face and voice when the creature said "It's Ebba... Ebba Cooper."  I looked carefully at the creature on the ground before me.  The face was right, this could indeed be Old Man Cooper's daughter.  I hadn't heard that she had died.

I stepped back and told her as much.  Before I could stop her she started talking all in a rush.  She told me how she had been attacked while out walking and how she had "woken up dead" as she called it.  She told me about the wraith we were hunting, and his armies.  She told me that most of his army were just dumb beasts, but a few, like her, came back as clever as they had been in life.  She said the wraith uses her as a scout because she can take initiative and report her discoveries better, but he always sends her with an escort so she doesn't get killed and can't run away.

She also told me that one of the wraith's most trusted "clever" ones had been a hunter and trapper in life and had a lifetime of experience with the local area.  That would seem to explain why this second group had been so hard to find.  She said the wraith was heading to the old battlefield at Driskoll's Plain to loot the graves and raise more soldiers.  She finished with some comment about me being naked and that it should probably embarrass her, but that she didn't really "feel" things so much anymore.

When she was finally done, I paused for a minute and told her I could end her suffering.  It would only take one quick swing and she probably wouldn't even feel it.  But she wailed and said she was afraid to die... again.  I couldn't help but feel pity for her.  After listening to her frightened monologue I had no doubt that the corpse in front of me was indeed Ebba Cooper.  I took a moment to consider my action.  I knew I could get in a great deal of trouble for what I was about to do next.

I told her that she would be feared and hunted almost anywhere she went and that there was only one place she could go to have anything close to a "normal life"... Phoenix.  I agreed to let her go, but only if she would carry a message to someone there for me.  I had been looking for a way to get word of our discoveries in Silothreni to Bulfeif since we returned, but I hadn't found any way to send a message to Phoenix without risking the suspicion of the authorities.  This seemed like a perfect opportunity.

Ebba eagerly accepted my offer.  I told her everything that my companions and I had learned about the Fallen and their plot to enter our world and to weaken our nations with war.  I made her repeat it all back to me before I sent her on her way.  It has been a long time since I've prayed to any gods, but afterwards, I prayed to whatever gods would listen, even Crespin's dead god "Omni", that I had made the right choice.  Later, as I walked back to camp I thought about how to maneuver our party toward Driskoll's Plain without revealing the source of my information.

We arrived back in Tristan today after finally finishing our contract.  We tracked the last wraith and his army to Driskoll's Plain two days north of Tristan.  Captain Winter's company wasn’t far behind by the time we located them and wasted no time in forming up on the plain.  The wraith army numbered almost three full companies, dwarfing our own force almost three-to-one.  It was the most diverse group of undead we had encountered, and included cavalry, armored foot soldiers and those damned exploding skeletons.

This wraith clearly had a solid grasp of strategy and tactics and used all his forces to good effect.  His cavalry harassed our flanks while his exploding skeletons, carrying bags of nails and broken glass, punched holes in our front lines that his infantry quickly advanced in to.  Ultimately it was the Celestine mages that evened the odds in the battle, hurling concussion bolts and fiery hot death into the midst of the enemy formations.

Our own squad, along with the squad of regulars that had accompanied us for the past month fought as skirmishers out front.  While the bulk of our army clashed with the wraith's formations, we carved a hole in their right flank deep enough to take a shot at the wraith leader at his command post.  I'm not sure whose attack took the creature out first, Kess's arrow or Griswold's explosion that followed shortly after, obliterating most of the command post.  Either way, with their leader dead, the rest of the undead army soon fell into disarray and was easily mopped up.

Although casualties among Captain Winter's company were heavy, our little team only lost one man, a soldier named Gervaise who decide to charge, Crespin-like, into the midst of the enemy.  Just like Crespin, those vile exploding skeletons mobbed him.  Unfortunately he didn't fare as well.  When the battle was over we gathered up the biggest chunks of him and gave them a quick burial.

2nd of Suntide

We arrived back in Tristan this morning none the worse for wear.  My companions spent a good deal of the return trip trying to track down Jack and his allies, but fortunately for him they were unsuccessful.  I had half expected another ambush on the way back, but I guess the rebels decided to find an easier target.  I can't help but wonder what Leonold Stotch knows of the rebellion and what is it they want from him so badly that they are willing to threaten his daughter's life to get it.  Clearly he knew enough to hire us to guard her life.  Perhaps his "clerk" position wields more power in the government than I thought.   

Despite the fact that Jack escaped and avoided the consequence of his actions, my only regret in this whole trip was my childish choice to chase that bird around the cemetery with the mote of light I summoned just before the fight two days ago.  During the fight when I briefly switched to mage vision I discovered the bird I had pestered was actually a magical spy for our attackers.  Whoever this "rebellion" really is, they know I can use magic now.  I had hoped to keep that bit of knowledge private. 

After we returned Leena safely to her family and collected 30 silver coins each from Leonold, Kess, Vance and I headed over to the stables in the market district to see about buying some horses.  We'd had our fill of walking everywhere over the past six months and had saved up enough money to purchase mounts.  Kess bought a fresh young black stallion and I bought an older, but well trained blue roan cavalry horse named Ash for 220 silver coins.  Vance opted to save his money.

When we had finished, we rode over to The Merchant's Last to meet our companions and get a hot meal.  When we arrived, Roger, the proprietor, told us that a shady looking guy in a cloak and his strangely armored companion had been in a few days before asking about Crespin and his family.  That sounded pretty worrisome to me and I told Crespin about it as soon as he arrived.  He told us that his friend Tim had told him a similar story.  We all decided to split up and check with the other businesses in the area to see if we could track down the shady guy asking all the questions.

It didn't take us long to find out where he had been staying.  We discovered that he had left out the east gate only an hour before.  Kess and I grabbed our horses and rode double with Vance and Crespin to track him down.  We saw a few travelers on the road, but it wasn't until we reached my neighbor, Ned Coal's farm that we found anything interesting.  Ned's farm had been attacked by a group of about thirty soldiers who had beaten him, burned his house and scattered and killed his livestock.

Ned confirmed that the guy we were looking for had been among those who had attacked his farm and he further claimed that the soldiers who were with him had been Suul.  It seems unlikely to me that Suul would have invaded all the way to Tristan without being noticed.  It may have been some sort of magic or illusion, but it must have been a good one to fool Ned.  As a younger man he had served in the Imperial Army and fought against the Suul.

Seeing what happened to Ned I was pretty concerned for my dad just down the road at the Aldeburke.  Everywhere the shady character had gone he had been looking for Crespin.  The only reason I could think of for him to come this way would be to inquire at the Aldeburke.  Making apologies to Ned, we quickly mounted up and rode as fast as we could to my home.  The fields were still smoldering at the Aldeburke when we arrived, but there were no soldiers to be seen.

Aside from the fields, there isn't much that can burn at the Aldeburke besides the new stable.  It looked like they had made an attempt to burn that as well, but the thatch was still a bit green and the fire didn't take.  It took a while to find my dad.  He had concealed himself in a secret compartment he had discovered in the basement of the tower.  Apparently he found the trap door to the basement while moving the contents of the old tower stable into the new stable.

I was relieved to find that he was unhurt.  He told us that there had been about 30 soldiers along with the shady character and his armored companion.  He said they had ransacked the place and when they didn't find what they were after they walked out behind the main house and just vanished.  I took a moment to check the fields after talking with my dad.  It wasn’t late enough in the season for them to burn well, but I estimate that we have still lost about half our crop.  I wonder if there is anything Darby can do to fix it.

Having reached a dead end, we all headed back to Tristan to see if anyone else had found anything.  We stopped by Ned Coal's place on the way to help him get into town.  After dropping him off at the Orkist abbey we all met up at Crespin's house.  Vance had gone off to find Darby and nobody seemed to know where Stitch had gone, so with no other leads, we all settled in to wait for any word from them. 

Crespin's sisters, Rosa and Flora, passed much of the time teasing him by flirting with me.  It's an old game and one that never fails to drive him crazy.  They never bother to flirt when he isn't around to squirm, but when he is, they do so relentlessly.  At one point the flirting all became a bit too much and I excused myself to get a bit of fresh air.

Flora, concerned that something was wrong, followed me.  I tried to lighten the moment and ease her concern by explaining that all the flirting had left me in something of an "awkward state".  Instead of laughing, as I had expected, she looked a little surprised.  After a moment of silence she carefully sat down next to me, resting her hand on mine.   Suddenly seemed very interested in me in a very female way.

I briefly played with the idea of kissing her when I was struck by just how wrong that would be.  Crespin had been right all along.  Someone like me had no business being involved with his sister.  I had chosen a life that would be full of travel, hardship, and the frequent threat of death.  Flora and Rosa deserved better.  They deserved to be with someone who could be there for them.  As a Sentinel, I didn't even remotely qualify.

Even realizing all this it was still hard to turn away from her.  I wondered if we might just have a fling, but no, I didn't want that hanging over our heads every time we met for the rest of our lives.  So, for the first time I can remember, I did the "right thing" when confronted with a woman's heart.  I made a joke, lightened the mood and allowed my moment of opportunity pass quietly into the night.

Sometime after that Stitch's strange glowing companion Willey showed up.  Apparently Stitch had infiltrated the hideout of the shady man and his soldiers.  He told us to hang tight and Stitch would use him to tell us what to do and when to do it as soon as he was ready.  So it looks like Stitch is calling the shots on this one.  I hope he doesn't manage to add the nation of Suul to the ever-growing list of enemies that want him dead.