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Message: <blockquote data-quote="sniffles" data-source="post: 2508886" data-attributes="member: 30035">Sorrows and CelebrationsIn the aftermath of Califax's disappearance we stood in silence for a moment, startled by how far the struggle had carried us from our companions. Liadan was much distressed in both spirit and body. Once she had called upon Lathander's mercy, we made our way back to our friends whose mounts had been delayed by Erim's spell. Phaele was quite cross with Pakkin for taking her horse without her leave. Liadan was also displeased with Rock's treatment of Shadowcast. I assisted my friend in helping the horse to her feet. Once we had all recovered a bit from those strange events, we discussed making camp at that spot, though it was only midday. We thought that perhaps Liadan would wish to rest following her upsetting encounter, but she desired that we continue our journey toward Camber as soon as possible. In the end, however, we chose to remain where we were. Erim sent a spell into the Winterwood in hope of contacting Gadron. While Nekaya went hunting with Pakkin, Nikos climbed a tree to scout the area. He found nothing of concern. Later he and I sparred for a time to hone our skills. Nekaya and Pakkin brought rabbits for our meal. Liadan chose to pray and fast, seeking guidance from Lathander regarding Califax's condition. Whether he is gone for good none can say. Nekaya suggested that perhaps his separation from Covenant has caused him to go mad; she has more knowledge of such divine bonds, being similarly bonded to her steed Pekuah. Liadan fears that the horse was possessed by some evil entity. Before dawn Liadan rose and prepared herself carefully for a full service to the Dawn Lord. Shortly afterward, as we were preparing to break camp, I caught sight of something moving through the forest, appearing to come toward us. Rock and Nikos also spotted movement among the trees. Rock moved closer to the tree line.  When the creature cleared the trees we saw that it was a large troll with a very bulbous nose, carrying a twin-bladed sword of fine make. It bore the weapon almost carelessly, and its eyes seemed vacant. Rock attempted to converse with it in the language of the giants but it did not respond. Nikos then shouted out to it in the common tongue to stop, also without result. Phaele then used her magical skill to toss a false ball of flame at the troll, but this did not deter it. Its eyes did seem to light up once it was attacked. Then I heard the sound of Rock's shield being thrown to the ground. I had forgotten that trolls are of the giant-kind he so loves to fight. Rock rushed forward to meet the troll. Nikos fired arrows at it but they scarcely penetrated its rough hide. Nekaya moved closer to aid Rock. Phaele flung lightning at the troll. Erim attempted to cast his spell of reduced speed upon it but the spell failed to take effect. Liadan was attempting to mount her horse. I chose to hold my position while all this took place, assuming that my friend Rock would hardly be troubled by a mere troll after having slain a giantess single-handed.  Erim now enspelled those who were near enough with enhanced speed. Liadan rode up and seared the troll with divine light, while Phaele sent a true ball of fire to explode just behind the creature. It fell to the ground, but Nekaya reported that its wound appeared to be healing themselves with preturnatural speed. Using my increased alacrity I ran forward and moved behind it so that should it rise again I would be able to strike at once.  Recognizing that her magical fires were not having as much effect as she desired, Phaele then burnt it with corrosive acid. This appeared to have somewhat more efficacy. Liadan also attacked it with her quicksilver mace. Abruptly the troll transformed into several snakelike forms of green smoke - an apparition all of us but Nikos recognized from our first meeting with the wizard Gadron. The snakes passed through our camp until they were near the remains of the fire, where they emitted an explosive sound and appeared to deposit something upon the ground. Then they returned to the Winterwood and vanished. Liadan retreived a sack of leather from the ground and removed a sealed scroll, which she opened. It contained a letter from Gadron.  The letter indicated that this was a difficult time for the wizard. He warned us not to remain in the area, for, as he said, "Do not tarry near this place; terrible events come borne on foul winds". He repeated this warning twice. He also spoke of his researches into the whereabouts of Covenant's party. He had been able to find no trace. He theorized that perhaps they had been utterly disintegrated, but seemed to doubt this explanation. He also spoke of other planes of existence that cannot be scryed upon or divined, planes that can be created by folk of great magical might. This portion of his letter made sense only to the wizards in our party.  The letter said nothing of our encounter with Califax, which caused Liadan to angrily curse at Gadron. Erim then sent another spell message to the wizard urgently seeking further information and informing him that we would continue to Camber. We gathered up our possessions and continued our journey toward the town. The farms we passed as we neared appeared to be empty, but not abandoned. We guessed that perhaps the residents had gone to town for the celebrations. Our remaining journey there continued uneventfully, and a day and a half after the message from Gadron arrived, we reached Camber. There were far more folk within the walls than we had ever seen before, even during the seige when many of the outlying residents came within the walls for safety. We were greeted with pleasure by the guards, who were surprised to see us again so soon. Peculiarly, several of us noted a large quantity of crows in the vicinity, though they were not storm crows, and I observed that there was a white crow among them standing out starkly against the black plumage of its fellows. As the orc shamaness we had seen with Micah had taken the form of a crow when she fled the town, we were concerned by this, but could not determine if the white crow was an omen of danger or merely an oddity of nature. When we arrived at the First Gate Inn we found it fully occupied. We encountered Captain Puffleweis of the town militia, and were surprised to find her clad all in black during such a festive occasion. We did not speak to her, but were told by others that during our absence her husband had been slain by orc raiders.  We were surprised to learn that the priestess Esther whom Nekaya had brought to town was now marrying a local man - perhaps this explains why she did not wish to accompany us when we left for Arrabar. We also found a number of visitors who had no relation to any of the townsfolk, which seemed odd since Camber is not on any major trade route. An elder from Phaele's native land of Halruua was there with several companions and a number of servants, as well as a Chessentan fellow, a traveler from the Dragon Coast, and a pair of brothers from Athkatla in Amn, the city from which our former companions Garrett and Fallon had hailed. We have no cause to be suspicious of any of these folk, but it does seem curious that they have come so far out of their way at a time when we have been warned that danger nears. Now we ponder whether to advise the good folk of Camber of Gadron's warning. [Edit: I just discovered during this session that I've been spelling the name of Nekaya's horse wrong all this time!] Note: During the night before Gadron's message arrived, Nikos took Pakkin the goblin off for a little stern 'talking to' about taking other peoples' horses, evidently thinking that scoldings from Nekaya and Phaele weren't enough. Nekaya woke up and had a little talking-to of her own with Nikos.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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