The Realms of Enlightenment: The Grey Companions

[Jon Potter]

Bad rolling, or too high of DC? or both?

Definitely poor rolling. The base DC was only 10 with all rolls modified by -2 for the dragonfear™. Even with a DC 10 I was amazed at how many PCs failed one or more of the rolls. Of course, some failed worse than others. :\

The odds were stacked a little more against Vade because of his low Strength and movement rate.

You know, when Vade tried flattery, Shreck immediately came to mind and the play in my head turned Vade from halfling to donkey.

Sorry, but no half-dragon halfling babies are in the game's future.

 

[Jon Potter]

[Realms #310] Ledare's Earth Walk

The second dolmen was no more than a dozen paces away, and Ledare headed for it eagerly. Before she stepped through, she spared a glance over her shoulder to see what the dragon was doing. It was regarding her from its position in the lava flow, its vast wings spread behind it. There seemed to be a look of satisfaction on its draconic features.

That was all she had time to see before she passed through the second dolmen and found herself abruptly back in the forest. Or a forest, anyway; the trees looked considerably different than the ones she'd seen in the Great Oak's woodland. There was a great many ferns and flowering shrubs growing low to the ground, but a path clearly threaded its way through the trees and Ledare could see a third dolmen some distance away along it.

She picked her way cautiously down the path, conscious of the fact that there would surely be some obstacle to overcome. Nothing came to assault her as she approached the third dolmen and she was beginning to think that perhaps she'd passed this part of the Purging without even realizing she was being tested.

That was when she triggered the Spike Stones trap, and sharp needles of rock pierced her feet and ankles. She jumped back reflexively from the trap, but it was too late, a sharp bit of stone had transfixed her left foot, hobbling her.

She dropped onto her backside and, gritting her teeth, yanked out the offending spine. She was examining the puncture wound in her foot when a deep, booming voice spoke above her.

“The next portal requires a password to activate," the voice said, and looking up, Ledare saw that it was a treant, like Great Root, although this specimen was far larger and more gnarled. Its trunk was half-covered with moss. "Everyone here knows what it is,” the treant finished and then turned and lumbered off into the trees.

Ledare looked around, wondering immediately who the "everyone here" was. As far as she could tell there wasn't anyone about apart from herself and the treant. And the treant wasn't really there anymore, either; it had disappeared into the surrounding woods and it didn't show any signs of returning.

Still sitting on the ground and nursing her injured foot, she called out, "Hello?"
Only the whisper of wind through the leaves and the buzzing of some nearby insect answered.

"I am Ledare Eelsof'faw," she called, hoping for some reply. When none was forthcoming, she grew slightly agitated and shouted, "Please show yourselves!"

The cry of a distant bird came drifting back to her in response.

She sighed and waited, very still, hoping to discover who it was whom the treant had said was around and knew the password. How long she sat there waiting, she didn't know. Minutes, probably but it seemed much longer alone in the unfamiliar forest. At last she got up, heavily favoring her good foot and - feeling a bit silly - she approached a few of the larger trees in the area to see if they would respond to her. She knocked tentatively on trunks and spoke politely to bark, all the while keeping an eye open for any signs of life.

None identified itself.

Now that she had triggered the Spike Stones, its area of effect was obvious, and the Janissary circumvented it with little difficulty. Only the injury to her foot hampered her efforts. As she limped toward the third dolmen she tried to think up a few likely passwords to activate the portal, hoping that this was not a timed trial.



"Open" was not the password. And neither were any of the other hundred words she tried, in common, elvish, and gobbledy. It wasn't getting dark although it seemed like it should have been. The quality of the light never changed. Finally, she slumped down in a heap beside the dolmen, growing tired, confused and frustrated.

"How am I supposed to figure this out?" she thought to herself. Del's voice responded, "Use your intuition - like survival training." Ledare scowled at that, thinking herself mad that she was even hearing him.

"Survival training was not like this," she said aloud, half-expecting Delaroux to step out of the trees and offer her help. But there was no Del to save her. In fact there was no one at all to save her.

"Am I meant to succeed at this?" she pondered, exasperated. "And to what end?"

Again an answer came unbidden to her mind, this time from its voice was her father. "Because success would mean one more soul pushing forward to carry on the battle against Aphyx," Janissary Syrraent told her in that tone of voice he always reserved for those times growing up when Ledare shirked her chores.

"But what can one single soul do?" she wondered, her own mental voice sounding almost like the child she'd been all those years ago. This answer to that question came swiftly and forcefully. The voice was Soriah's. "Well here's a well worn argument. Haven't you learned anything?" the Battleguard seemed to ask. "Each soul is precious, great and small - critical in its purpose to all things. It doesn't matter the size. You take that one soul away and you offset the balance of what was meant to be."

Ledare considered this. The first portal seemed to be both a test of courage and a physical test too. This one seemed different. She had missed the trap. It hadn't even occurred to her to be wary of a simple trap - what with a dragon the likes of which she had never seen guarding the first portal. This test was more subtle. Perhaps the answer was more subdued as well.

Remembering Soriah's words, Ledare made an effort to clear her mind and open herself up to whatever communication might be taking place around her. She tried to view things as her goddess might - recognizing the energy flow that connected all things, both living and not. If this was to be a test of intellect or intuition, then the answer would have to come from inside her, as well as all around her. She could hear the buzzing of the insect again, smell the delicate fragrance of wildflowers and wet earth, taste the sweet chill of the breeze. What she felt around her was harmony... but not answers.

She sagged back against the dolmen again. "How can I move forward, to serve my purpose, if I don't know how to find the password?" Ledare asked aloud. This time the response came in her own voice, and Ledare recognized at last that this argument was taking place not between her and those upon whom she'd always depended, but rather between the person she was and the one she was becoming. "You have found the password," her voice answered in her head. "You are a part of it, just as everything around you is a part of it. You will play your part, large or small, and then be done. That is the way of things. But your part is essential, just as every other part is essential. Without it, the tides will turn once more in favor of Aphyx."

Ledare grinned and got awkwardly off the ground. "The treant was right. Everyone here does know the password. Balance," she said and stepped through the portal and out onto a mountaintop.

In a blizzard.

 

[Hairy Minotaur]

When I got Frost & Fur, I couldn't wait to spring a cold "trap" on the PCs. Was the teleport into the blizzard a similar situation for you? My players hate the cold now, and wouldn't use a mountain pass even if the game depended on it.

 

[Jon Potter]

When I got Frost & Fur, I couldn't wait to spring a cold "trap" on the PCs. Was the teleport into the blizzard a similar situation for you?

Nope. I don't have F&F, so I was just using a modified version of the DMG rules. I didn't want to immediately kill all the PCs (despite what they might think) so I struck a lethality balance that I thught would be a challenge but not an outright death trap. As it was, it very nearly was anyway.

One of the players said something to the effect: I can almost hear the chorus chanting," TPK! TPK!"

But more on that front tomorrow, hopefully. The Grove of Renewal itself has been on my 'must use' list since I bought Magic of Faerun years ago. I really like the idea of challenges that were neither puzzles (to be figured out by the players rather than the characters) nor immediately solvable by brandishing swords.

 

[Jon Potter]

[Realms #310] Feln's Air Walk

Cold instantly slapped at Feln's exposed flesh and the half-ogre shivered violently as he limped away from the portal. His feet sank quickly into the snow, deadening the throbbing ache in his foot even as it sent prickles of pain into his toes. He hadn't taken more than a step or two when Ledare stepped out of the same portal that he had just passed through.

"Goddess," she hissed and clutched her shoulders against the bitter cold. She was dressed for the weather better than Feln was, but her clothing was woefully inadequate to these conditions. Despite the blowing snow, Feln could see that her foot was injured in much the same way as his, and that the right leg of her trousers had been severely burned. "How are you?" Ledare asked the half-ogre. "Are the others here?"

Before Feln could answer, Morier stepped through the portal, nearly knocking Ledare off her feet. He reached out quickly to steady her and then he looked up at Feln. "Where are the others?" he asked above the wind. Feln shrugged.

"I haven't seen anyone but you two," he told the albino.

"Vade was ahead of me," Ledare said.

"And Ixin went in before I did," Morier added and looked quickly around. It was difficult to see anything with all the snow, but there seemed to be another dolmen a dozen paces or so away. "Maybe they're in another part of-"

A huge black shape appeared in the air above them, startling the eldritch warrior into silence. It settled to the ground between them and the fourth portal, snow crunching beneath its bulk. It was a sphinx, Morier knew: a strange amalgam of lion and eagle and man. It furled its vast feathered pinions and regarded the trio with its human-like eyes.

"I am Exclamor," it said, its voice booming above the howling wind. "Only you three have survived the challenges of fire and of earth. You face now the test of air. It is a simple test. The portal leading to the test of water will not activate for one full day. Try to survive until then." And saying thus, it flexed its wings and vanished up into the dark sky.

"What did he mean: ONLY you three have survived?" Feln asked. "What about Vade?"

"And Ixin?" Morier added as the wind and snow continued to pound the mountaintop with no sign of letting up.

It took only a moment for the news of their companons' deaths to sink in. But there was no time to mourn their passing. The reality of their own precarious situation was all too evident as the snow continued to accumulate around them. Morier was the first to react.

"We need to build a shelter quickly!" he shouted into the wind. "We'll not last long exposed the elements like this."

Ledare looked around for some building material, but other than the two dolmens and the snow there was nothing. "Head for the dolmen!" she yelled, pointing with one hand at the stone megalith that would take them tot he next phase of the Purging.... if they lasted that long. With her other hand, she grabbed hold of Feln's enormous thumb. "Hold hands in case the snow gives way," she told the half-ogre when he looked down at her, confused. He nodded and they tramped off toward the fourth dolmen.

"We need to pack this snow up into some walls!" Morier observed as he dropped to his knees n the snow and began shoving it up into a pile. "We need shelter from the wind!"



Feln and Ledare aided him as best they could, but Morier was the only one with any real training at wilderness lore; his time spent under Malcolm's tutelage had seen to that. But Byr saw little snowfall of any real significance and so he possessed little practical experience with cold weather survival. Ledare had undergone wilderness survival training during her schooling at the Janissary Academy, but Elcaden was warmer than Byr and suffered more from ice than from snow. Feln had no formal training in nature lore, relying on instinct alone to help construct their shelter.

They were less than successful.

True, they got the snow pushed up into some semblance of a wall around them, and they huddled together for warmth as best they could. But there was no denying that Feln was wearing nothing save a loincloth and between the two of them, Morier and Ledare had but one pair of boots. They were ill-equipped to handle the severe weather and before the first hour had passed, both Ledare and Morier had felt the first numbing tingle of hypothermia setting in.



Ledare tried to bolster their spirits by talking of her days in the Academy, sharing even an embarrassing tale of drunken over-indulgence that she had not spoken of in many years to anyone but Del. Thinking of it again brought a bemused smile to the Janissary's wind-burned lips, but it couldn't hide the fact that she was freezing to death.



The second hour saw Feln's ogrish constitution succumbing to the inexorable grip of the blizzard. He felt cold creeping into the core of his being.

Ledare produced two sunrods and they passed them around their little huddled circle of three, hoping to get some meager warmth from the alchemical wonders. But they burned without heat, shedding a merry yellow glow that seemed insulting in their frigid hell. It illuminated the vacant faces of the three to one another, and they could see in each other's eyes the same chilling conclusion: there's no way we're all going to survive this.

The third hour passed as the first two had.

“There once was a soldier, Ledare
who found herself part of a pair.
Having drunk herself silly
‘neath the table with Willy!
And the next day…she was still there!”​

Ledare recited, chuckling as she recalled Orin Miller's poetic assessment of her revels on the night that marked the end of her days in the Academy and the start of her life as a Janissary to the King, the Presentation of Arms ceremony.

"You already told us that story," Morier said flatly, his eyes bright pinpoints of red in the light of the sunrods.

"After the creature gave us our challenge, I said 'balance' again at the other dolmen," Feln said desultorily. "It shimmered to life again when I did. There is a chance we could escape there and move all the way back through the challenges and escape. It may even be possible to move back, warm up, and start again."

They looked nervously at one another, wondering perhaps who would be the first to admit defeat.

 

[Jon Potter]

[Realms #310] The Air Walk, part 2

"This is not survivable..." Morier said after a moment, giving simple voice to their shared fear. Feln said nothing but looked away into the wind as if challenging the storm. Ledare put a cold and trembling hand on the albino's forearm.

"Do not despair, Morier," she began and the eldritch warrior silenced her with a look.

"No. I mean WE cannot survive this," he explained. "It seems possible that maybe one of us might... but we don't have the resources to get all three of us through."

"What?" the Janissary asked, her brows knitting in confusion.

"I have a plan of attack that might just get me through," he said, belatedly adding, "maybe. But you two need to go back through the portal." Ledare shook her head at that.

"There's no way I'm leaving you alone on this mountain," she told him. "I just can't do it."

"Look Ledare, that dolmen marks passage back to the test of earth, and perhaps back to the safety of the Great Oak from there," Morier said, indicating the far portal. "The journey back is not without risk, but you certainly stand a greater chance of survival against those known challenges than you do these hopeless circumstances."

"The Oak has told us that the key to our journey is freeing Dridana, and that the keepers of this place are alone in the knowledge of how to do that. Only one of us need complete the Purging to gain that information," he went on then shook his head in disbelief. "Let's be honest - all three of us are not going to survive these conditions, and even then none of us may survive the water test." Ledare's face remained hardened, but a low rumbling began to build in Feln's chest.

"I cannot believe we have gotten this far and this challange is so impossibly unbeatable!" he growled, his voice building in volume until he was bellowing at the top of his considerable lungs. "SPHYNX!!! COME AND GIVE ME A RIDDLE YOU FOUL BIRD! GIVE ME A CHALLENGE, NOT A DEATH SENTENCE!!!" Ledare looked sympathetically at the half-ogre.

"Feln has recently returned to this world," she said. "He deserves his second shot at life. I'll stay with you, Morier."

"No, Ledare.... I am no more a quitter than you," Feln said. "I had not thought of this challange as a gateway to the salvation of our world, Morier, but you have shed light on the puzzle again, and I agree with you; this may be the way to a great answer. We cannot allow ourselves to fail in this challenge."

"Someone needs to succeed," Morier said. "Not all of us."

"You are right about someone needing to survive this. But what good does it do to leave you alone here on this mountainside?" the Janissary asked. "Do you honestly think you're more likely to survive if you were alone?"

"Yes," the eldritch warrior said simply. "I do."

"Well, I think you'd be better off if we both, or at least one of us, stayed with you," Ledare scoffed. "That way if one of us dies, you can at least burn the body. Who knows, we may die trying to return through the first two portals anyway."

"But staying here is certain death for you," Morier countered. "We don't have the resources to keep all of us alive out here for long enough to last until the fourth portal opens. I don't have-"

"I won't be a burden and I don't expect you to waste your spells on me," Ledare interrupted. "I'm also not trying to be a martyr here. It just goes against every grain in my body to leave you alone... Morier, you especially know how many friends I have already lost."

Morier grimaced and thought of the first time he'd met Ledare, her just a girl surrounded by the corpses of her family and friends in the bowels of a chagmat lair. As an elf, the passage of ten years hadn't changed Morier much, but Ledare had grown into a great warrior... a leader of men in a great battle against a rising evil. He was grateful for a second chance to keep her alive.

"I can use spells to boost my constitution and my healing draughts to ward off frostbite, and maybe Garn-Zanuth will have a hand in my survival," he told her. "But I cannot keep two of us alive... or three. Staying on this mountaintop is a certain death for you, but I am expendable, a journeyman pawn seeking adventure. You... you are a key to fighting the evil that grips the Realms." Ledare shook her head.

"I'm no more important than anyone else, Morier," she said. "We each do our part."

"Then let me do mine!" the elf chided. "Go with Feln. Go back through the dolmen and wait for me. Find Karak and wait for me to step through the dolmen." He turned to Feln and looked into the half-ogre's eyes.

"Take her and go!" he commanded. "Remember the trap on the other side of the dolmen - Go!" But Feln just looked at him for a moment as if he were in some reverie. At last he blinked and shook his head.

"As a youngster, the elder monks would tell stories of great warriors and adventurers, one of which has been ringing in my brain in all the time we've sat on this cold earth," the martial artist explained. "Two warriors and their horses set across a great mountainscape. They had commited certain acts which had left them little options but travel over inhospitable ground for every road had men-at-arms and hired cut throats looking for them. After four days of climbing the warriors were exuberant to find that they were scaling down the other side, they had reached the half way point."

"That evening, as fate would have it a blizzard took them by surprise. They had no shelter and they had no time to prepare one," he went on, gesturing to their own circumstances as he continued. "In an act of desparation one warrior sliced open his horse and climbed inside, using his sizable robe to create a small air pocket and try to ride out the storm. The other warrior could not bring himself to do the same, and tried to build a shelter... As the story goes, the warrior in the horse climbed out in the morning and found his compatriot frozen solid. The man's horse was dead as well. I think you see the point of this story."

"No, I'm afraid I don't," Ledare said.

"We don't have any horses, Feln," Morier added and the half-ogre rolled his pale blue eyes.

"I know we have no horses, but I think Vade may have had me revived as part of some master plan. Why else would I have come back in this ridiculous form, completly out of tune with all that I have spent my life... or my first life anyway... studying," he said and rose to his feet, shaking off a thick blanket of snow as he rose and thumped his enormous hands against the vast expanse of his chest. "I volunteer, I request... in fact, I demand... that you use this shell - this ogrish form - to warm you and get through this test. Find answers and save this world."

"OH MY GOD!" Ledare gasped in horror and Morier's jaw clenched.

"I will tell Vade of your great defeat over this challenge," Feln said with a smile "He will love the story, if I can get a word in edgewise."

"I'm not going to kill you," the elf said.

"We are not going to take a life merely hoping to pass this or any other test," the Janissary agreed. "The others have all been designed around an element...fire, earth, air. Who is to say that 'water' won't do us in at the very next turn. It's too risky and your life is worth far more than that. We should go back." Feln looked at Ledare's face and saw no guile there, only genuine concern.

"I will not leave a friend behind here. End of story," he said flatly. "I leave with everyone, or I stay."

"Feln, you have to go and you have to go now. You must take Ledare and make sure that both of you make it back to the Great Oak," Morier explained, rising to his feet and reaching up to put a hand on the giant's broad shoulder. "I have a chance at survival, but staying here for you is a certain death. I'm not doing this out of some false sense of heroism - I am doing this and planning on surviving and learning how to free Dirdana. You do not stand that chance... now get out! Nobody will remember you as a hero for sitting in a snowbank waiting to die; they will think you a fool for not leaving when you had the chance. There is no point to either you or Ledare continuing this argument that you can't leave me behind."

"Karak was right, Morier - we don't need to waste our lives in pursuit of this. We can be effective against Aphyx in other ways" Ledare suggested. "Let's return together."

"Of the three of us, I alone stand the possibility - however slim - of surviving. You have no such luxury!!" the eldritch warrior argued. "Concentrate instead on the tasks that lie ahead of you in returning through the test of fire and the test of earth. Wait for me to return to you as soon as I finish these tasks... NOW GO !!!" Feln looked solemnly down at Morier and shook his great head.

"If I am meant to die on this mountain, so be it... If I die, then you won't be killing me when you climb inside my ogrish husk," he said as calmly as if he were talking about sharing a pair of gloves. "If I live then we will see this through to the end. We still have to deal with water, even if we make it through the test of air."

Morier's jaw clenched visibly and a blue vein throbbed in his temple as color tried rising without much success to his cheeks. But his voice was carefully controlled when he began speaking.

"Will the two of you PLEASE get out of here!?! " he pleaded. "Heaven knows I could be wrong, but I don't think surviving this test is about decisions, I think it's about just that... survival... and maybe none of us will, but for sure neither of you can. I can cast Quick Boost 6 or 7 times as well as use a scroll of that spell once. I have six healing potions right now, and my strength does not yet feel halfway depleted. That might be enough to get one person through this godforsaken test, but it isn't enough to get all of us through." He paused as emotions moved across his face. The light of the two sunrods struck lightning in his eyes.

"Don't make me watch you die and know that I could have prolonged your life with a healing draught or a spell at the expense of finding the answers we need," he said and his voice cracked with emotion. "DO NOT MAKE ME WATCH YOU DIE WHILE I DO THIS !!! NEITHER OF YOU STAND ANY CHANCE OF SURVIVING.!!! I DO!!! IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, WILL YOU PLEASE GET OUT AND GO BACK!!!" His voice rebounded like thunder in the night and for a moment the other two were silent. Then Feln spoke.

"Fine, I will go with Ledare... on one condition," the half-ogre conceded. "Ledare, you agree to stay for two days, no longer. I will not sit at a gate and dwell on the thought that Morier may not have made it. Agreed?"

"Agreed," Ledare said after a moment's consideration. She got to her feet.

"Morier, if it is worth giving up, then it is simply worth giving up," Feln said gravely. "The Dolmen is right there and you should consider walking out right behind us. If you stay, which it seems you are intent on doing, know that you are remembered and loved. May the gods shine on you this day." He clasped wrists with the elf, his huge hand swallowing Morier's completely.

"We are all pawns in this fight, Morier," Ledare said. "But on this day you have proven yourself a King." She leaned close and embraced the elf, pressing a potion bottle into his hand. "White Lady, Goddess of mercy, grant your healing touch to this brave soul. Give him your warmth and favor so that he might persevere in this dark hour," she said as she held him tightly and Morier felt the barest trickle of divine energy flow into him from Ledare.

The three looked at each other as if it were the last time they'd ever see one another. Then Ledare and Feln turned and the two shuffled reluctantly back to the third dolmen. Feln spoke the password and they stepped through and found themselves back where they started in the Great Oak's wood...



... leaving Morier alone in a private frozen hell.

 

[Jon Potter]

[Realms #311] Bittersweet

The centaurs arrived on the morning after the others went though the portal into the Grove of Renewal. There were six of them, three male and three female, each armed with massive greatbows and various other two-handed weapons they carried secured to their equine bodies. They had come at the behest of the Horselord, sent in response to the Great Oak's request but seemed unperturbed that the VQS wasn't yet ready to leave on their journey southwards. They busied themselves creating some kind of wagon that two of them could pull to better transport Feln's increased bulk.

Karak entertained himself by watching the goblins play at organized society as they rebuilt the wall in the service of the Great Oak. He tended his armor, tended his beard with flaxen oil, and just plain rested. He actually enjoyed the silence and solitude for the first three days. That was until the fairy arrived - or was it two fairies? It was difficult to say; the little thing flitted around so fast and it seemed able to hide itself behind a blade of grass. At any rate, the damnable thing seemed fixated on Karak, hiding in the treetops and tittering away wherever he happened to be at the time. He'd spy it flying about out of the corner of his eye and then it would vanish as soon as he turned. It was nearly as bad as the halfling.

Still, he did enjoy the relative quiet. No more babbling from Vade; or constant questions; or stories of long lost relatives from Thumble. Thinking of Thumble, Karak began to think Vade must miss him home by now. Miss his hearth and fire, friends and family.

Karak began to realize a lot of time had passed since his companions entered the grove. He hoped they were alright. He was tugging his beard and reminiscing with the sounds of the goblins building in the background. Karak thought of how he first met Ledare's group with his brother, Malak. Delivering a message from his king in dwarven lock tube, they'd been. The group was much different now than he remembered them at the time. There had been a portly cleric of Shaharizod with one of those sculpted humie beards, a ranger, an elven wizard, a half-elf who carried himself like a thief, and Ledare, Janissary to the King. Ledare had taken this group long and far, he knew, and the group had had many faces.

Karak, himself, joined after the loss of his brother. A wandering slayer he had become. Why not fight the foes of chaos that Ledare's companions were fighting? It seemed as good a fight as any. Besides Shaharizod wanted him to. Malak would have wanted him to, too. And that, ultimately, was enough.

But now, Karak seemed at loss. Where were they? Were they hurt? Too injured to return? Had they been transported to another place? Did they leave him behind, he wondered? Maybe they have found treasure, and magic beyond their wildest dreams. If that were the case, the dwarf wouldn't begrudge them. He looked at his backpack full of gold and was satisfied with the Great Oak's gift.

"Speakin' of the Great Oak," he thought, "it be time I paid him a visit." Hearing a goblin screaming directions at another goblin broke Karak out of his revere. He went to examine the vault they had uncovered. Maybe he could determine who built it. Then it was off to see the Great Oak.



Karak had spent nearly two full days helping the goblins catalog the contents of the treasure vault Vade had spied. There was quite a horde secreted there, much of it old even by dwarven standards. Most of it was coins, but there were gems and tapestries, scepters and wands, bowls of beaten gold and ingots of raw silver stamped with the acorn symbol of the Aronerai School. A vast horde indeed, but not one that should have taken the better part of two whole days to sort through.

It was that damnable fairy! Karak was fairly certain now that there was only the one, but she was fast and devilishly hard to spot if she was sneaking about - which seemed to be all the time. She'd deliberately move things that Karak had already counted forcing him to go over and over the same items. Again and again. And again. He hadn't discovered this until he'd wasted almost an entire day's labor. It was maddening!

And when she wasn't doing that, she was twittering in the dwarf's ear - he was convinced that she could turn invisible - or pulling his beard while he slept. He'd taken to sleeping with his waraxe in hand and not just under his pillow as he usually did. Not that it helped any...

He was overjoyed when the hoary old gobliness, Gorguul, approached him and croaked, "You friends come back from Grove."



Ledare let out a sigh of relief at the familiar sight of Great Oak's wood. She was grateful at not having to pass through the tests of earth and fire again. That relief lasted a moment before she realized that she clutched a healing potion in her hand - her last healing potion and one she'd kept in reserve for Feln and herself to use as they worked their way out of the Grove. She hadn't needed it and it might have spelled the difference between success and failure - life and death - for Morier. A wave of guilt washed over her and she fell against a nearby tree, sinking slowly to the cool green moss below it.

Feln paid her no mind and instead limped some distance away, into a patch of sunshine that filtered down through the canopy above. There he settled himself and began to meditate.



The dwarf burst into the grove where the dolmen stood and saw Feln sitting in the sun and Ledare slumped in the shadows looking sadly at something in her hand.

"Oi!" he bellowed. "Ye've returned! I'd begun to wonder if ye'd left me!"

"I need some time, friend," Feln said without opening his eyes. "Please leave me be for now." Karak harrumphed and turned his attention to Ledare.

She half looked at him and raised a staying hand. Shaking her head she echoed the half-ogre's sentiment. "Some time, please."

"Well, where be th'others?" Karak grunted in confusion and Feln opened his eyes and bared his fangs threateningly.

"Karak, I mean no disrespect... but I need time for reflection," he growled. "I will be with you shortly."

"We know nothing for certain - only that Vade and Ixin never met us at the third portal," Ledare said, her voice sounding small and distant. "Perhaps they came back this way?" She looked hopefully to Karak, but the shocked expression on the dwarf's face told her all that she needed to know.

 

[Jon Potter]

Yikes!!!

It's been three weeks since my last update?!

Where does the time go?

Ley's see what I've got lying around, story-wise...

 

[Jon Potter]

[Realms #312] A Moment of Silence

Earthday, the 26th - Freeday, the 27th of Reaping, 1269 AE​

Ledare refused the leave the clearing containing the portal to the Grove of Renewal. She stayed there day and night for the next several days, sending for supplies and her armor - wearing it despite the lack of threat in this protected place. Feln passed his time in quiet meditation and furious martial training that left him sweating and panting with its intensity. He intended to master his new body, no matter what the cost; if he had to deviate from the Shadow Warrior style, then so be it. But he had to test his new set of limitations to find out for sure what his next step toward mastery should be.

They managed to tell Karak a bit of what they'd endured in The Purging, and to explain their decision to leave Morier alone on the mountain. Karak took it all in with dwarven stoicism, calmly stroking his beard as their tale unfolded. "Aye," he agreed when they were done talking. "A winter storm be nae a thing to trifle with. One time, me chalak an' me were chin-deep in a mountain storm an' -"

Ledare suddenly stiffened and look above them, letting out a stifled shout of surprise. She could see a faint disturbance in the air above them - a wavering of the light like heat coming off sun-baked cobblestones - and sense the intelligence behind that disturbance. Someone was scrying them.

They sat in silence until the sensor disappeared, not daring to speak for fear of giving up some secret to the enemy. Once it vanished, Karak spat at his feet, grumbling in disgust, "Damnable wizards! We'll need to be on our guard."

"None of us has the ability to counter scrying on our own. We'll need to purchase some protection against this sort of thing," Ledare suggested. "How much gold did the Great Oak give you, Karak?"

"Now, hold on just a minute there, lass!" the dwarf growled. " I am glad that ye an' the orcblood survived that Grove debacle, but my gold be jus' that: my gold. While ye've all been off dreaming of a huge reward, I been left to work with gobbos sortin' a treasure vault! I'm a warrior and I been reduced to an administrative clerk!" He spat again on the ground for emphasis, finishing up with, "So hands off me gold. I be savin' that for a nice shiny magical waraxe to smite my enemies with!"

"Spoken like a true dwarf," Feln chuckled, prompting a withering look from Karak.

"I have had some dealings with dwarves and their gold before, so I should have seen that coming! " Ledare nodded at Feln. "However, I should also remind Karak that our purpose in pursuing the Grove's tests was to gain information to advance our fight against evil. It was not for personal gains, and it has cost us dearly."

She thought again of the lone healing potion she'd taken with her from The Purging and what it might have meant to Morier.

"At this point we need to make use of any assets available to us and outfit ourselves in such a way so as to protect against further losses," she went on. "I would expect Karak to see the value in being prepared and be willing to spend some of his newfound wealth to fund our efforts. It is not for our own comfort and personal wealth that I ask this."

"I ken ye, lass," Karak admitted. "But I think that a fine magical axe be of more use than most anythin' else ye'd care to suggest. If'n I can cut an enemy, I can kill it. But if'n it be immune to my steel, then what hope do we 'ave?" Ledare scowled disapprovingly.

"How do you plan to transport this treasure chest of yours?" she asked. "Perhaps a little deal might be struck to "loan you" a centaur to transport the stash." Karak harrumphed at that.

"Me an' Brynzin Bri've already reached an' understandin'," the dwarf told her. "An' I don't appreciate ye tryin' to threaten me on that subject. That there Grove might've done more harm to ye than just a few scrapes an' bruises." And saying thus, he turned and walked back toward the Great Oak and the school ruins.



The waiting was harder than Ledare had anticipated it would be. She couldn't allow herself to wander far from the portal for more than a few minutes at a time. Her remaining healing potion had become a sad symbol of the uncertainty surrounding Morier's fate, and she buried it at the bottom of her satchel trying her best to put it out of her mind. She busied herself with preparations for the journey south, and so it was only at night that her mind had time to process what was beginning to feel like cold reality... that Vade, and Ixin, and now Morier were not going to return.

Ironically (probably some grand defense mechanism, she surmised) her thoughts turned to Del. She had lost a score of companions since she had last seen Del at the Sword and Crown. It was quite possible that his life had also been spent in the pursuit of some assigned purpose unbeknownst to her. The idea was nothing new to Ledare; it had pretty much governed the last waking moments of each day for her over the last several months. Or had it been years? She couldn't remember. And, frighteningly, she was even having trouble picturing his face.

And so it was with a renewed sense of urgency that she wrote - words she couldn't even be sure would ever be received, to a man she didn't even know was alive or dead. She had thrown away the other letters, back in a time when her despair had been at its worst.Which was just as well. This one was new and it held nothing back. At least the Purging had done that much for her.

She finished, sealed the wax with her Janissary insignia, and slipped it into her bag. At the first opportunity, she would send it to the borderlands of Hule. Where she would will it to find Delaroux Haladar.

Starday, the 28th of Reaping, 1269 AE​

Ledare awoke early and spent several minutes staring at the dolmen, silently willing Morier to step through it. He never did, and after breakfast and her prayers to Flor, Ledare set about clearing a small area of undergrowth. She cleared away the brush and flattened with her boots a small circle in the dark, rich soil. There she slowly and deliberately constructed three small piles of stones - simple and without pretense. She prayed as she worked and was aware again of the scrying sensor watching her efforts for a time. She paid it no mind and by the time she was done with the tiny memorial cairns, it had winked out again.

She knelt before the cairns, praying for Flor's blessing upon the souls of her fallen friends, and for safe passage into whatever afterlife the Gods had in store for them. She heard Karak and Feln approach sometime later, but they said nothing until she got to her feet and turned to face them. Feln continued to look at the small memorials, but Karak found his tongue quickly.

"What now, lass?" he asked, his voice a good deal softer than it normally was.

"We head south beyond the mountains to Pellham," she answered, shouldering her pack and heading passed them down the path toward the Aronerai School.

"To Pellham you say?" Karak called after Ledare. He started down the trail after her at once. "I say as long as I can bring the fight to Chaos then it might as well be there as any other place."

"This is not some random assault. We go to Pellham because the Great Oak sensed some disturbance there," Ledare said over her shoulder as she trudged grimly onward. "We need to do more lead following and less flailing about blindly. That's the only way we'll be victorious."

Karak nodded his head in agreement. "We have mounts. We have provisions. Ye're all healed up. So I say let us be off!" he said, shaking his axe in the air for emphasis. He turned to grin at Feln and found that the half-ogre wasn't behind him as Karak had thought. "Oi! I do nae know where the orcblood be about!"

Ledare didn't even turn as she shouted her reply. "Find him and meet me at the wagon."

"Aye! I'll go find 'im so we can be off now!" the dwarf shouted back. "While I'm looking for Feln, I'll roundup Vade and Ixin too! That halfling is probably down in the treasue vault a-." His voice trailed off and Ledare stopped in her tracks, turning to stare at Karak. He had already realized his mistake, and hung his head sadly for a long moment, sighing into his newly-trimmed beard.

Then he straightened his back and set off to find Feln. On the way, he passed the cairn built for Morier. Karak stood there a moment and said: "Huy oi faust kan due and delve a Karak." May you rest well and deep in the mountain.

 

[Hairy Minotaur]

This was just lying around?

Shame on you.