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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mahiro Satsu" data-source="post: 305060" data-attributes="member: 4970">Episode XII Promises to Keep part 4from the journal of Kaemris Tencoin22nd of ChesThis morning I spoke to the dead halfling. He could tell me nothing of the horseman or the wild elves that we do not already know. And the acorns in his pocket were only meant to be food. That eliminates entire hierarchies of theories regarding the seeming curse that has fallen over Hullack, driving away wild game and shriveling Tarbee’s crops.We departed Tarbee’s house early, with the intact caravan carts in tow, headed for the village of Ossington. The weather is still wet and cold, an oppressive mist filling the valleys and groves of the forest.Along the way we discovered a ring of stones just off the road, which we later learned was called The Chapel. Each of the stones was devoted to a god, nine in all, including Silvanus, Kelemvor, Mielikki, Selûne, and Tymora herself: all the neutral gods of travelers and forests. A woman called Henwen, who has madness shining in her black eyes and wields some sort of necromantic staff, acts as caretaker. We could make little of her mad pronouncements, but I fear we will have to return there at some point.And now, although I am loathe to do it, I must recount the ambush we suffered at Ossington. The village itself is surrounded by standing stones (ninety-one in an outer circle, standing 30 feet high) and twenty-eight in the inner circle (each 20 feet tall). There are three "trilithons" in the center of the inner circle, each made of two 30-foot-tall uprights with a lintel-stone bridging the dozen or so feet between them. The stones have something carved into them, but we have not yet deciphered the script, to my knowledge.We were met by the starving and pitiful villagers of Ossington. They begged us for food, but we had little to offer. Elder Murdows identified the bodies and the carts we drew into town, and told us more about their misfortune, and their hunger. The villagers were unable to till the soil because of the continuing attacks by elves and the horseman. A local bard called the Cuckoo strummed a few mournful chords on his lute.About the mysterious horseman: Murdows said that when he first rode into Ossington, he seemed as real as I, and the villagers welcomed him. He was visiting the five ancient ruins of this area (The Chapel (tended by Mad Henwen), the Circles (which surround the village of Ossington), the Secret Keepers, the Old Barrow, and the Red Horse). But when the horseman reappeared, he simply silently and swiftly attacked the surprised townfolk.It happened so quickly, we hardly knew how to react.A single arrow buried itself in Elder Murdow’s heart. He collapsed with shocked eyes, and an enormous owl swept into the courtyard, along with other birds, to attack. Villagers and their children screamed and ran pell-mell about the courtyard. With arrows and crossbows we drove off the birds and dispelled the summoned owl, causing a villager held in its claws to fall to his death. A death which weighs heavily with me, since I was more or less the cause.The Cuckoo finished strumming his lute with a final haunting chord, having spent the entire time inspiring us to greater effort with his song.There was something very wrong with how we handled the situation; by killing and driving off forest creatures, we may have done irreparable harm to our chances a reaching a diplomatic solution for this clash between wild elves and humans. We will see what develops on that front.The peasants, who had before been standing in the open, were now cowering in their doorways, their eyes pleading with us from afar for food. We met Dyson and Tully then, a pair of semi-retired adventurers wounded from recent battles with the horseman. They claim that the horseman is allied with the wild elves, who mean to eliminate Ossington. Something tells me that were we to ask them, the wild elves would claim that Ossington is in league with the horseman, and together they have conspired to chase away all the creatures of the forest. The elves, no doubt, believe they are fighting for their very lives and ancestral home. In short, whatever curse has befallen this forest has caused a tragic misunderstanding between two peoples.The horseman holds the answer, along with those five places Elder Murdows spoke of. We continue our search tomorrow morning. For now, I must brighten the room with magical torchlight and sleep. We will discover answers to this riddle tomorrow, by Tymora’s grace.</blockquote>

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