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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mahiro Satsu" data-source="post: 305023" data-attributes="member: 4970">Episode XII Promises to Keep part 2from the journal of Kaemris Tencoin17th of ChesWe set out on horseback this morning: Aoth, Lenet, Van and myself.My mother sobbed, and my father just wished me all the luck in Tymora’s Chalice and turned away. My sisters, accustomed only to the drudgery of running an inn, watched me go with joyful smiles and tears streaming down their cheeks. It was difficult to tell if they were more saddened or envious at my leaving.We’ve been riding a full day, but not yet reached Hullack. My companions were impressed with my fashionable Cloak’s ability to produce food and sugared tea, I must say, and even more impressed when the miraculous garment shook out into a one-person tent at dusk. Truly my most prized possession, it is. We set turns and begin a long, chilly spring night’s rest. I’m resting in the tent as I write, but I’ll have to turn down the lantern and sleep soon. Then the everburning torch will have to keep away the gloom for the rest of the night. Call it a fault, if you will, but I can’t stand the dark. It absolutely knocks the wits out of me; sets my skin to shivering. I sleep now with Tymora’s light in my dreams.18th of ChesAround midday we crossed the Immersea River at Selvereth’s Ford. Two stony banks crowded close, spanned by a stout wooden bridge, while a roil of blue water tumbled over the falls just downriver. We took a meal in a shady grove just east of the Immersea, and I listened to starlings quarreling loudly in the boughs of nearby elms.My companions and I have traveled all through the day, and now that it is twilight and once everyone has had enough of riding we find ourselves a high pasture in which to camp and keep watch over the road. We are camped among pines near the road, which has become little more than a cart track. I’ve gotten to know the others a little better, learning for instance that Aoth left Mulhorand to work as a caravan guard, and that Van was one of Selûne’s Champions, who had only last fall reopened the way to the lost dwarven city of Aerunedar. I’ve learned that we are agents the Lord Mage Ironcrest of Eveningstar; that he is the impetus behind Van and Aoth’s journey to Arabel, and our journey to Hullack. Tymora’s fortune shall ride beside us.19th of ChesAt dusk we reached the fringes of Hullack Forest, and made our way into the trees to make camp. Cloaked and crouching, Aoth crept away and fairly vanished into the shadows. We waited astride our horses in the thickening twilight, breathing in brisk white puffs.Aoth appeared at our side. “Spiders,” he said, “and webs.” He poked a thumb in the direction from which he had sneaked.We could have moved on, got out of there quick–but we all paused too long. We looked around at each other, questioning, while the moment of leaving crept away, and it seemed to me as if we had all arrived at the same conclusion without speaking a word: we weren’t going to let a few arachnids get between us and our mission.They came scuttling out of the pines: great hairy black and brown spiders with colorful markings. They struck me as more of a nuisance than a real threat, but our group tactics could use some work. Must remember to work on that with my companions.Van’s bow, Stonegroan, sent deadly arrows to the eight-legged mark. Lenet and Aoth moved to hack at the spiders with blades, while I summoned a spirit of the earth from a nearby hillside. At the price of a few painful stings, we crushed the spiders in short order.In the webs, we found a very large cocoon. Driven by morbid curiosity, I suppose, we sliced it free and caused it to burst open. Liquified flesh, bones and a few random coins spilled out the unfortunate creature. Quite repulsive, truthfully. I say creature, because I wasn't sure it was humanoid; the bones were elongated and almost birdlike–perhaps those of a wild elf. A clue…or an omen? Tymora is inscrutable in this. Perhaps tomorrow I will petition more forcefully to know what our fate might hold…</blockquote>

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