6 Artalak:
After a night spent in quiet solitude, Legor came over to me, asking me to check on the greatsword he took from the defeated orc. Alas for him I could not find any trace of magical enhancements on the blade. It's just a well-crafted and formidable but mundane blade. After breakfast we gathered our stuff and left for the garrison (at last).
The trek through the forest was really nice. Even though I'm not a ranger, my father's love for nature and the wild forest has influenced me greatly and I love to be outside. Our trip was rather uneventful, apart from a pack of timber wolves that crossed our path, without paying us much attention. But the bear was something different. It was big! It was huge! It was a giant of a dire bear. And it was in a grumpy mood. I sure am glad we saw it in time and were able to get out of its way. No telling what would have happened if it had decided to have us as a snack. Nothing much positive I guess though. The rest of the day we marched on, some of us chatting softly and me enjoying the scenery. Until we came upon a marker for a secret tree platform, used by elven patrols to rest in safety during the night. Since the day was nearly over, we decided to rest there. Once I got up there, I lowered the rope ladder, allowing the others to climb up as well.
After a meal of dry rations and some fresh water, I moved to the side of the platform, telling the others that they could sleep while I would take first watch. This gave me the opportunity to think further about my future and what I plan to do once we get to the garrison.
All in all it was a relatively quiet and uneventful day, which is quite a welcome change from the past couple of days. Mind you, I am not complaining, but adventures alternated with time to reflect makes for better learning from the experience.
7 Artalak:
Breakfast was a hurried affair this morning. As if everybody, myself included, was so eager to continue the trek towards the garrison, that there was hardly time to enjoy the food. Not that it was so enjoyable anyways; dry biscuits, dried fruit and some water hardly seem to constitute a nice breakfast in my opinion. So as soon as we finished our meal we descended from the tree and continued our journey. After following the path for a while, we heard some rustling overhead and looking up, saw a giant birds nest in the trees, more or less straight above the path. On the edge of the nest were a couple of owls. But they were not your regular type of owl. Oh no. Quite the contrary. These were giant owls. And gigantic they were. Almost as big as a horse, and with a temper like they had a swarm of fire-ants under their feathers. As soon as we approached the tree the nest was in, they started screeching and flapping those big wings, clearly very agitated at the prospect of us coming too close. While most of us left the path, DiMagio decided that the owls were attacking him and he started to cast a spell. Silly human. All he had to do was follow us and move around the nest at a fair distance and he would have been okay. As it was, he came away with only a few scratches, but that serves him right.
Back on the trail Leiah suddenly came to a stop and gestured towards the vegetation to the left side of the path, indicating that she'd heard something. No sooner did we stop to listen as well, when all of a sudden a huge wild boar burst forth from the foliage, running straight towards us. Diving aside in every direction we were able to avoid being trampled by the beast, which strangely enough seemed not interested in us at all. The reason for this soon became clear as more sounds came from the direction that the boar had come from. Barely back on our feet, we were nearly run down by a centaur hunting party. They seemed to be pretty surprised as well, but they managed to jump aside at the last moment before hitting any of us. Without so much as a word they continued after the boar, bows and arrows at the ready. A shame they left before I had a chance to talk to them, because they are magnificent creatures. Wild, independent and strong but yet so graceful. I would have loved to have had the chance to talk to them, but alas.
Just as we were about to continue our journey a little centaur colt came trudging across the path, on the trail of the big ones that had just left. We had barely walked for a few hundred yards when we heard a tiny shout from nearby and as we went in to investigate we came upon a pit trap, the little centaur colt at the bottom; whimpering in pain from an apparently hurt leg. Since I am the only one able to channel healing energy, it was decided that I was going to go into the pit and help the little fellow. But it turned out that climbing in armor is not a good idea as I found out. A stone I was using for support broke loose and with my armor on I fell down, twisting my ankle as I hit the ground. Fortunately that was all, so I guess I came away pretty lucky. Talking to the little centaur, whose named turned out to be Nymbus, I learned that he had snuck away from the centaur camp to follow the grown-ups and observe the hunt from close-up. After checking his leg, which was indeed broken, I used a spell to heal the wound and soon he was okay again. With my friends hoisting and me pushing and shoving we were able to get the centaur out of the pit and back on its way to his tribe's encampment.
Finally we were on our way to the garrison and without any further incidents we reached our destination. Introducing ourselves to the guards we got an audience with Captain Thamior Galanodel. We were introduced to Armyl Arvalon, the Head Priest of the Garrison and Arevin Thessur, the resident Battle Mage.
The captain explained that lately the orcs are on the move, coming down from the mountains in increasing numbers, without any apparent reason for it. He's asked us to find the 'Old Man' who seems to be a hermit, living in the mountains. This person knows the answers to all questions, according to the captain and we have two weeks to report back. To help us in this task the smith, a Dwarf no less, gets instructions to provide us with any equipment, within reason of course, that we might need. Relen gets a new masterfully crafted shield and the smith is also able to provide her with a new breastplate of superior quality. Gloobali got Arevin to give him two new spells 'Invisibility and Spider Climb' on a scroll and DiMagio got a book 'Basic Spell Grammar'.
I found the captain willing to teach me more about the use of my new longsword as well as my armor, although he hinted at more knowledge than he showed me. After the evening meal I went to dance with the captain. When I came to the top of the stairs the commander was waiting for me.
Thamior was dressed in his own armor, instead of the comfortable clothing he wore earlier. He drew his sword as I stepped in to the small antechamber in front of his office and the war room.
“Ke’lana, good evening. First I will tell you something about your armor. Normally warriors defend themselves with their weapons and shields. If an enemy breaks or slips through that defence, normal warriors just trust to luck that their armor will save them. Good warriors do not. Also, when they break through an enemy’s defence, armor won’t stop them.
This armor is of an old design, meant to be used as an active part in a warriors defence instead of a static last resort.”
Thamior then touched the pieces of thin curved armor plating that lay over the shirt and skirt of fine mithral chain links with his long sword. “That is why these plates are curved and shaped to deflect rather than absorb. This armor is not for absorbing blows. Let an Ogre smack you with a tree stump and you will not survive. As a normal suit of plate would absorb that damage, this armor instead gives you a chance to dodge that same swing as it does not obstruct your movement.”
Then Thamior started swinging while talking and teaching how to use the deflecting plates of the suit to deflect the blows of his blade that I could not parry, and his title of swordmaster being disserved I parried very few of his blade swings with my own sword. That sword though went trough the air almost singing, as light as a feather.
“Now try the offensive” Thamior said, even as he wove a wall of steel with his own blade. He was going on the defensive with the expertise of an experienced fighter. Even while parrying every single one of my strokes effortlessly, he suggested sleight alterations in my sword swings and techniques. He showed me more techniques of handling a sword than I could grasp at that moment. It would take a long time of contemplation and practise before I would master them all. As I was using his own tricks and tactics on him he revealed even more. More accurately, he used counter parry’s to those same moves he had shown me only moments a go.
Then suddenly it ended; looking at rocky ceiling overhead while lying on my back on the stone. It took me a moment to realise where I was and how I had gotten there. He had swiped my legs from under me with his own. He helped me back on my feet like a real gentleman. “Always have other weapons and never assume that the weapon you see is the most dangerous or the only one.” His sword was sheathed while mine lay several feet away. While looking at it, I noticed a poking feeling in my calf. Looking down I saw he had snuck a dagger in between the plates of my armor, without me noticing or being wounded. I looked at him with an incredulous look on my face. Thamior simply winked and smiled, joy and mischief dancing in his eyes.
He picked up my blade and ran his eyes and fingers over the blade, almost fascinated.
“This is a very special blade, ancient yet strong and powerful, balanced to perfection even and not the slightest scratch even after an hour of parrying” he said astonished. “The emeralds and moon crescent inlay are beautiful but the identical runes on the blade are not for show. They are elder elven runes meant to give strength and al manner of magical abilities to the steel, or so it is said. It is a sword worthy of a king. Or a queen for that matter. Better take very good care of it. For now I bid you good night. Rest well and think about what I taught you today.”
And so the training ended, with me soaked in sweet and bruised all over walking down the spiral staircase carved in the stone and the commander turning to his own quarters not even tired.
After freshening up I went to bed, exhausted and eager to get some rest.
