17th of Icetide
We finally hit the Caravan last night after following it for nearly a week.  It’s a good thing we did too since we discovered afterward that they would be meeting up with a group of soldiers a few more days down the road.  The fight was brief and bloody but we managed to recover the rod with no casualties of our own.

Although we took their horses, we left the survivors with their wagons.  They’re only a day or two away from the nearest village so they should be ok.  We did take one of the survivors with us, an Irillian who, according to Nim, was one of the leaders in the plot to take the Rod of Rumair to the Suul.

We interrogated the captured leader, but it didn’t take long to determine that he didn’t know anything useful.  With that realization I steeled myself and quickly severed his head with Maegrist.  Although most of the Trevenici looked on approvingly some of my companions seemed aghast at my swift action.  

I remember a time when I would have (and did) agonized over a decision like that.  Iquod the goblin comes to mind back in my first months with the company.  However, time and circumstance have left me little room for the luxury of self-doubt.  We couldn’t take the man with us since his employers could certainly track him magically in the same way Edward tracked the Rod of Rumair, and we couldn’t let him go since by now he had realized we weren’t just “Trevenici bandits”.

The only option was to end him.  So I did so swiftly, with a clean axe stroke.  I did it because it had to be done and I couldn’t, in good conscience, ask anyone else to do it.  The result, if I remember correctly, was a far cry better than the sloppy work I made of Iquod’s execution.  It took me two swings to take his head off.

2nd of Highspring
We arrived back in Aerith this afternoon and reported in to General Derek.  For once he was delighted with our work and it looks like Edward is going to be promoted Column Captain.

Since I’m on the subject I’ll go ahead and explain the military organization of this time.  It’s quite a bit different and less rigid that the organization that evolved after the destruction of Aerith as the armies of Celen expanded to conquer the eastward kingdoms and forged the Celestine Empire and its Legions.

The basic unit of the army is the Company.  It’s led by a captain and usually has between 50 and 500 soldiers.  When several companies are joined together to face a bigger threat, one captain is put in charge all of them and called the “Captain General”.  However, when a whole bunch of companies come together the captain general will break them into “columns” usually containing between 500 and 2000 soldiers each.  Those columns are led by “Column Captains”.

Since our “Company” contains nearly 600 soldiers now we can probably qualify as a column in our own right.  Interestingly, the Old Celen word for column bears a strong resemblance to the modern Imperial rank of “Colonel”.

5th of Highspring
It turns out that Edward wasn’t the only one being promoted today.  Erant, the very same man wizard we chased through a mountain of snow and ice was also there to be promoted to the same rank, Column Captain.  I didn’t see any evidence of his column, column in attendance, but he was promoted just the same.  Edward and Erant are now the Captains of the 4th and 5th Columns respectively.

12th of Highspring
It seems the Suul have found their way to Pangoria and are attacking the city.  General Derek has ordered us to lift the siege there.  If memory serves me correctly, history records that the city was sacked.  I can’t help but wonder if that will happen before or after we get there.

17^th of Highspring

The beasts in the darkness decided to brave Griswold’s sunstones after only an hour or so of waiting last night, forcing us into a quick desperate fight and a hard ride as we fled the raving hordes that had gathered outside the barn.  We rode on for many hours before we encountered the first sign of civilization we had found since entering the darkness, the sound of a church bell.

Following the sound led us to a gap in the darkness populated by a small village full of people.  It seems that the bell in the church is enchanted or divine, and keeps back the darkness so long as it is rung.  The have the townspeople ringing it in shifts.

Despite the incessant ringing, we all managed to get some much needed rest in the town before a few of us braved the darkness again to salvage food and other supplies from the village we had been driven from the night before.  The town with the bell had attracted many refugees and they were quickly running out of food, so it only seemed right to help them out.

On the way back from the salvage trip I suddenly remembered the bell Pete had given me and dug it out of my pack.  It turned out to have the same effect as the church bell when rung, destroying the darkness in a small area around me.  I decided to hang it from my belt where it would be rung by the motion of my walk and leave it there.  It wasn’t strictly necessary with Griswold’s sunstones lighting our way, but it was nice to have anyway.

18^th of Highspring

We left the town with the bell around midday to continue our journey toward the mana well.  It seems that the darkness is also spawning the growth of some strange plants and saplings from the ground beneath it.  The growth seems to be getting thicker the closer we get to the mana well and is starting to impede our progress.  This trip may take longer than we planned.

20^th of Highspring

We found and slew several demons today.  We came upon them in a clearing within the ever-thickening jungle.  They appeared to be performing some kind of vile ritual with the bones of the dead; unfortunate victims who didn’t get out of the darkness in time and were taken by the demons.

Although there were a few of the small, clawed, toothy demons we had encountered earlier, the real opponents were tall horned demons half again the height of a man.   The fighting was fierce, but we triumphed in the end.  However, at one point in the battle, Shadows was cut off from the group and nearly slain.  I was only able to save her by resorting to an all-out berserker-like attack, taking great personal risk.  I’m beginning to wonder if bringing her along on this trip was a good idea.

22^nd of Highspring

We arrived at the mana well today to find about fifty men, varu and demons there performing a ritual of some sort around the well.  Seeing no other option, we attacked.  The fight that follows was long and ferocious.  However, we managed to slay about half of the ritualists and drive the other half into the jungle.  When the fight was over we destroyed their ritual implements and Griswold sealed the well.