Following what I would call a successful gathering in Therendry, I had heard that there was to be a gathering in Whitestaff. It had been a long time since I was last in Whitestaff, and seeing as how the Lord of the town, Lord Rastlin Dawnware, is a good friend of mine, I thought it might be a good time to take a trip. Apparently this gathering was to include a feast in honor of His Highness Prince Derek Blackstone, and so that was just an additional incentive to go to Whitestaff. Thus, towards the middle of last week, my squire, Rillien, and I saddled up our horses and headed towards Blackstone.
We arrived in Whitestaff late on Friday, and we set about finding a cabin. We
have been in Firelight Cove so much recently that I had almost forgotten that
there is a slightly different setup to the town of Whitestaff. In finding a
cabin, I also had to keep in mind that my friends Keno, Adrafae, and Angus had
told me that they would be in town and needed a place to stay. Taking all these
factors into consideration, I chose a fairly large cabin near the edge of town,
thinking it would be sufficient to meet our needs.
Once that was finished, I headed into town with Squire Rillien to see what was
going on. I walked through the door of the tavern, walked to the middle of the
room, and then heard a portal open behind me. I whirled around, and a purple
faced man was thrown out of the portal. I asked him who he was, and he responded
by asking me who I was. I told him I was Sir Seronia Merritt of Therendry. He
asked me what a Therendry was, and before I had a chance to answer him, chaos
tainted spiders jumped out of the portal and began to attack. I moved to engage,
and promptly got myself entangled by webbing thrown at me. I was being beaten
on, but thankfully my armor was taking most of the damage. I finally got cut
out of the web, and was able to rejoin the fight. The incident, though, made
it clear to me that it would be my best interests to get my squire a sword or
dagger to cut me out of webs with, and so later in the gathering I was able
to borrow one from Fenrir for such a purpose.
As the spider fight continued, I saw that Hooch was engaged in a fight with
one of the bigger spiders behind a table. I moved over to join him, and he stepped
aside and let me move in to engage. I was able to do some damage to the spider,
but then it retreated and went and got three of its friends. Rillien and Hooch
retreated back to our line, and I went to join them, but just before I got there,
the weight of the blows raining down on me became too much and I dropped to
the ground. Thankfully, I got healing, and I was able to rejoin the fight. Eventually,
we managed to clean out the spiders.
When I went outside, I ran into Lord Whitestaff, talking with Count Fellmist,
and the purple gentleman from earlier was with them. We learned that he was
the servant of a woman named Lady Alkaline, and he apparently came from another
plane where there was no such thing as celestial magic. They identified items
in earth circles.
The purple gentleman had apparently been assigned to steal back an item that
the chaos spiders had stolen from Lady Alkaline, and that is why the chaos spiders
were chasing him. He had gotten the item, and Roxi took him to the earth circle
to identify the item. Apparently, after she did this, she rifted out with both
the item and the purple man. I don’t really know any details on what happened
during this period of time, so I am going to skip ahead to the next thing I
remember.
In order to retrieve another piece, we were all marched out to a field where
we were supposed to fight yet more chaos spiders. While it was a tough fight,
I don’t recall ever getting into any serious trouble during the fight.
I was nervous, though, because while I acknowledged that chaos spiders having
these pieces was probably bad, it also seemed to me that giving them to people
we knew nothing about wasn’t necessarily good, either. Still, it wasn’t
my call, so I went along with the decision that was made.
With that out of the way, we all headed back to the tavern, and I ran into Kaelis
there. He told me that he and Fenrir were looking for a place to stay. I told
him that they could stay with us if they wanted to, provided that Rillien had
no objections. She just smiled, and so I invited the two of them to come and
stay with us. As it happened, it was best that way, because Keno and Adrafae
didn’t show up until the next day, and Kaelis was able to cast a ward for
Rillien, Angus, Fenrir, and I.
The next morning, as is my custom, I got up early to go look for stuff to do.
Rillien was up as well, so she came with me to look for things. The first thing
we found was a hole in the ground that was spewing out a terrible smelling gas.
Holding my nose, I dug up the hole, and discovered that there was a rock emanating
component quality swamp gas. Rillien carried the rock, and we went back to the
cabin to find a container for the swamp gas. Fenrir was not happy when we walked
in. His nose is very sensitive, and the swamp gas smelled really, really bad.
When we had bottled it, that helped, but there was still some residue left over.
As we left our cabin to look for more stuff to do, I noticed that there was
a man sitting down beside a building. As we wandered up to him, we realized
that he was not in fact sitting down, but was dead. A sword had been plunged
through his heart, and he also had a blow to his head. We checked to see if
we could find out anything else about him, but there was nothing on him to identify
him. All we could find was a bunch of papers rolled in his hand. Squire Rillien
held on to the papers, and then we headed to the tavern.
During this period of time, we found a couple other items of note. For one thing,
we managed to find a cantrip tome. We knew that Katherine von Sering was in
need of a cantrip tome, and so we brought the cantrip tome to her. In return,
Katherine was nice enough to forgive some debts that I owed her from the previous
gathering.
Also during this period of time, Rillien found a large feather, which turned
out to be the component quality feather of a condor. I complimented her on her
keen eye for components, and we again headed towards the tavern.
In the tavern, I had some strawberries for breakfast. I also got to play a game
of rummy with Caliphar, Boo, Hooch, and Rillien. Unfortunately, the game got
interrupted before it could finish, but I think it was finished later without
me.
During the period of time when the game was going on, Hooch was telling me about
what they had done the previous night. Apparently a small group had gone to
the plane of nightmare to try to retrieve a piece. There they encountered an
entity with six glowing eyes. They thought that it was Morbidus Bane, but my
suspicion is that it was the nightmare elemental who had spent so much time
impersonating Morbidus Bane on Tyrra. At any rate, it was clear they weren’t
going to beat him on his home plane, but he was willing to give them the piece
if they showed enough fear. Apparently they did show enough fear, and so the
entity with six glowing eyes gave them the piece.
Getting back to the main story, the being that interrupted the rummy game was
a dark fey that came in to attack. Just after the dark fey arrived, Rainbow
showed up. My first thought was for Katherine von Sering’s safety, and
so I grabbed Rillien and went running out the door to go find Katherine. It
took me a moment to realize that Katherine was not in fact in the direction
that I was running in.
By that point, we were engaged in combat with the dark fey anyway. Glenn Stormwolf
had an iron sword, so he killed it. I basically stood there and tried to look
intimidating so that the dark fey would think I could actually hurt it, which
I couldn’t. Actually, come to think of it, not being able to hurt things
was pretty much a theme of my weekend. More on that later, though.
With the dark fey gone, I turned to head back to the tavern. Before I went anywhere,
though, I met a man named the Candyman. He wanted to take us to the magical
Land of Candy to play a game.
I was game, and seven other players were also willing to join in. It was myself,
Squire Rillien, Squire Caliphar, Boo, Hooch, Guido, Glenn, and Mirage. We all
rifted out to the Land of Candy, which I presume was on the fey plane, to play
the game.
We had a board in front of us, and we moved pieces on the board by drawing cards.
Sometimes, a task would have to be completed. Eventually, if someone accumulated
ten pieces of candy, they could go to the gates of King Candy and meet him and
ask him for a favor.
The first combat that was to be engaged in was based off of a spot that Hooch
landed on. He was to fight Princess Lolly, and her minions. He asked Caliphar
and Rillien to help him, and while Princess Lolly gave Hooch a pretty good fight,
he managed to take her down in the end.
The second combat ended up being a fight that Boo got drawn into. She chose
Glenn and Caliphar to work with her. I believe that she was fighting against
Mr. Mint and his mint golems. Mr. Mint had quite a bit of alchemy, and so it
was his alchemy against Boo’s spells. Eventually Boo managed to spell him
down, although he dodged quite a few spells first.
The third fight was Caliphar against a bunch of gingerbread men. He had the
option of choosing people to help him, but he decided to go it alone. He took
down about half of them before he got taken out, but he considered it a worthwhile
experience because he had fun with it. Ultimately, I guess, that should really
be all that matters, especially in a game.
The fourth fight was my first chance at action. It was Boo against Queen Frostine,
and she chose Caliphar, Guido, and I to work with her. It was also Guido’s
first chance at action, and I am sure we were both glad to get something to
do. In truth, it was a fairly easy fight. The minions fell down to two swings
of my sword, and I think I got hit once during the fight. Boo got candy from
defeating the queen, and distributed some of it amongst those who helped her.
The fifth fight was a bit different. Everyone got to participate. A bunch of
goblins attacked, and whoever killed one got to take its candy. I was trying
to catch stray ones and beat them down, but some people took it much more seriously.
Glenn started unleashing death spells all over the place. I tried to work together
with Rillien as much as I could. She cast a spell at something, and then I beat
it down for her and let her have the killing blow. That fight was also the first
time I had ever seen Rillien death something. She only deathed one goblin, though.
We also found out that during the goblin fight, we could attack each other.
That led to Caliphar silencing Glenn, but I think that was about all that came
out of it.
After the goblin fight, the next fight was another standard fight. It was Glenn’s
fight, and he chose to take Rillien along with him. He was to fight Jolly, a
huge monster who could swing for a flame bolt worth of damage right through
your shield, and who had an amazing amount of spell and gas resistances. Glenn
dumped loads of treasure into trying to take down Jolly, but it was to no avail.
Glenn threw up a circle of power, leaving Rillien stranded, but thankfully Rillien
threw up a circle of her own. Eventually, they both dropped their circles, Glenn
unloaded a lot more into Jolly, and Jolly finally fell down. I assume Jolly
had a treasure trove of candy on him, and I imagine that the fight got Glenn
up to the ten pieces he needed.
The next fight was a free for all, involving Caliphar, Hooch, Guido, Rillien,
and I. Glenn, Boo, and Mirage all chose not to participate.
Hooch dropped Rillien fairly early in the fight, but he healed her back up,
figuring that she would be a useful ally. Caliphar was trying to fend off Hooch
and Rillien while I was trying to get into a sword fight with Guido without
getting spelled down from behind. Eventually, Hooch solved the problem for me
by taking out Guido, and then there were only four of us left. The next action
happened in a matter of moments. Hooch took out Caliphar with an imprison, and
then Rillien took out Hooch with a confine.
That left it down to my squire and I. Obviously, I like Rillien a lot, but we
both understood that this was going to be no holds barred at this point. She
threw a spell at me, and I am not sure what it was, but it sailed wide. I hit
her with a side-armed pin spell, and that blew her shield magic. She then hit
with me with a spell, which blew my shield magic, but I simultaneously hit her
with a paralyze spell, which ended the fight.
I was awarded enough candy for winning the fight to get me up to ten pieces.
Now being tied with Glenn at the requisite number, it was decided that we should
try to decide upon a method for a finals match to determine who received the
favor. I suggested a negotiation, but we could not come to an agreement. The
Candyman suggested a vote of our peers, so we both agreed to that. I do not
know who voted for who, but the Candyman told me that I had won the vote and
I was to receive the King’s Favor.
The Candyman then explained to me that winning the competition did not so much
grant me the King’s Favor, as make me the new King of the Land of Candy.
While I was honored by this, I told the Candy Man that I could not accept, as
I was already Knight of Therendry, and the two would conflict. The Candy Man
then assured me that the title was honorary only, and conferred no responsibility.
Thus re-assured, I accepted the honorary title happily.
The Candy Man then rifted us back to Tyrra. I had thoughts towards finishing
the rummy game that had been begun earlier, but alas, it was not to be. I was
immediately called in to be caught up on things that had been learned while
I was gone, and specifically to be updated on information that Lord Jonathan
Buttons was delivering. I distributed candy that I had leftover from the game
to everyone around the table, and then proceeded to get caught up on what was
going on by Keno and Adrafae.
One of the things I had apparently missed was the attack of angry treants. I
do not know what caused them to be angry, but it is my understanding that they
have even sealed off part of the Whitemane Forest against the Swiftarrow Elves.
Unfortunately, I know little else of the situation, and I am unaware if any
efforts have yet been made to correct the situation.
It so happened that as I was sitting there talking to Keno and Adrafae, I noticed
that Rillien was about to put away the papers we had found that morning into
a safe place. I called out to her and asked her not to put them away, because
I thought it best that they be translated as soon as possible. Rillien brought
the papers over to where we were sitting, and also provided us with a pen and
paper to aid in cracking the code. I knew it was going to be difficult to crack
a code without Beryl around, but I assumed that between Adrafae, Keno, Rillien,
and I, we could probably do it.
Before long, though, Sathen Gor came into the tavern and told us that there
was a farmer whose house was under attack by oozes, and these oozes were utterly
resistant to every attack except flame. I thought this would be a good chance
to test my squire’s leadership abilities, and so I assigned her to gather
together a group and go and investigate the situation, but not to engage unless
she thought that the group she had could handle it.
As it turned out, it was a moot point. Baron De’kiernan came in a few moments
later, and so he took over organizing the group instead. He asked for everyone
to come, but Adrafae and I stayed behind to get the message translated. It was
a long, hard, time-consuming process, but eventually we translated all five
pages of the message with some basic translation techniques.
After Adrafae and I finished, we decided we would join the group that was fighting
the oozes. We hastened outside, only to find them coming back from the fight,
looking beaten. I asked if they defeated the oozes, and they told me that they
had run out of fire, and as such were unable to defeat the oozes. Keno and Adrafae
came up with the idea of enchanting several weapons with temporary fire auras.
It was an expensive solution, but it would likely get the job done, and so they
began collecting donations. I believe that the majority of the components were
supplied by Keno and Adrafae themselves, while Baron De’kiernan supplied
a significant amount, my squire and I donated a few, and I am not sure if anyone
else donated any. I apologize if I missed your name.
When the fight with the oozes was over, but before the flame weapons were made,
some oozes came to attack town. Squire Caliphar and I held them off the best
we could, but there was no way we could finish them without a flame attack.
For some reason, they took a liking to attacking Rillien, and so she was forced
to run for her life quite a bit. I tried to step in between oozes and her, but
they usually went around me to keep chasing her. Eventually, she asked me if
she should drop a circle, and I considered it a good idea. As she took cover
in her circle, the ooze turned toward Guido and I. I looked at Guido, and said,
“Stand your ground as best you can.”
Thankfully, Sathen Gor soon arrived, and activated a cantrip to allow himself
to swing flame. The ooze beat him down several times, but we got him right back
up, and eventually he was able to defeat the ooze. In a way, it was almost funny,
that one ooze was able to terrorize the entire adventuring population of a town.
Also during this time, apparently Roxi, Katherine, Lord Dawnware, and Count
Fellmist were attending a spirit farewell for Tomas, the adventurer who permanently
died in the Great Dark Swamp. I am not entirely sure how, but somehow he appeared,
and rifted the entire group out, or so Tygil Stonebrook told me. Apparently
he must have had some type of transform that activated after his death, and
the spirit farewell called him back to Tyrra. A little later he rifted the entire
group back in, and Baron De’kiernan recruited him for his help with a task
that needed to be completed.
As we were going to go cast the formals to create the flame weapons to fight
the ooze, Baron De’kiernan pulled Rillien and I aside and told us that
he needed our help to go on a mission to weaken Meclaurius the Frost Liche.
Baron De’kiernan hand picked a group for this particular adventure. The
group consisted of Squire Caliphar, Boo, Baron De’kiernan, Squire Kaiya,
Lord Dawnware, Count Fellmist, Squire Pyroxia, Squire Rillien, and myself. Tomas
came along as our ride, at Baron De’kiernan’s request. We were grateful
to him for helping us.
When we got to Meclaurius’s lair, we were confronted by Meclaurius’s
minion, Shatterborn, along with minions. Shatterborn would swing for twenty
dagger blows, and so I quickly realized that it was best to fight him fairly
defensively. I rarely got into trouble for the first part of the fight, and
when I did, Rillien was always there to fix me.
Unfortunately, our healing corps was very vulnerable to being hit from behind
with Boo and Rillien being weaponless, and Roxi only having a sword to defend
herself. Several times the enemies took advantage of that and got behind us.
Thankfully, we always managed to get them back up again.
While we were doing very well at the beginning of the fight, eventually the
enemies began to wear us down. They backed us up to a circle of benches, which
was probably there to use for some type of foul rituals. I was fighting beside
Squire Kaiya, and Squire Rillien was behind me. Squire Kaiya got dropped, and
Squire Rillien leaned over to heal her, and got dropped as well. I was starting
to take a beating, so when Baron De’kiernan suggested moving back into
the circle of benches, I decided it would probably be a good idea.
With the benches providing protection, we were able to hold off Shatterborn
and his minions, but we weren’t having any luck getting to the two downed
squires. At one point, I was fighting two minions, and Boo asked me if I needed
healing. I was doing okay, so I told her I did not. A moment later, a third
minion joined the fight, and I started getting beaten up badly. Thankfully,
my new templar form can take a fair bit of damage, and so I was able to tell
Boo, “Now I need healing!” Thankfully, she provided a bunch, and I
was able to hold off the minions.
A shift in the dynamic of the fight turned things to our advantage. Caliphar
broke through the enemy line, which drew the undead off of our position. Baron
De’kiernan took advantage of the distraction to take over my spot in the
line. This freed me up to get behind the undead line to the two squires. I lifed
Squire Rillien and then Squire Kaiya, and I suspect it was a good thing I got
to them when I did, because Squire Kaiya looked like she might not have lasted
much longer.
We then all gathered back around Tomas, apparently having accomplished whatever
we needed to, and Tomas rifted us back to Tyrra.
When we got back, we entertained thoughts of trying to go take out the ooze,
but we were closing in on feast time, and the fates told us that the time would
not be right to deal with the ooze. Thus, I went back to my cabin with Squire
Rillien, Angus, and Kaelis, and we all changed into our feasting gear.
I have to admit that my clothing change was not very dramatic. I took off my
armor and put on a blue shirt under my tabard. Angus had a very nice striped
blue shirt that he wore to the feast. Kaelis, as one might expect from him,
was very well dressed. He wore blue and black, and had a very nice headband
which added to the costume nicely. Squire Rillien I was exceptionally proud
of. She wore a nice white shirt over black pants, but what made me exceptionally
proud is that she wore her Therendry Ducal tabard, and she wore it proudly.
For the feast, I was seated at the end of the noble table. To my left was Lord
Whitestaff, and next to him was Duke Blackstone. The next person in line was
Prince Blackstone, and then Viscount Mithrilmist. Baron De’kiernan was
next to him, and then there was a young man who I did not know at the other
end of the table. The only problem with my seat was that it was in the coldest
part of the tavern, and so my food went cold very quickly and I was quite uncomfortable
through much of the proceedings.
Seated at the table to my right was Squire Rillien, and then Angus, Adrafae,
Keno, and the dwarf Gunner in order. I eventually moved my seat over to that
table to escape the freezing cold seat, but that was not until dinner itself
was over. That table actually became fairly amusing when Angus and Keno both
got drunk and started yelling at each other. Gunner was drinking a lot, too,
but he held his alcohol fairly well. I think Adrafae eventually moved to get
out of the middle of the argument.
For my part, I did not drink much. I shared a bottle of fine Quentari wine that
had been bought in Evendarr City with Squire Rillien, and we also gave some
to Prince Blackstone and Duke Blackstone, and they seemed to enjoy it.
Special mention deserves to be given here to Javen, the tavern keeper, as well
as her serving wenches, who cooked an excellent meal and did an excellent job
of serving it quickly and efficiently.
During the feast, Prince Blackstone asked Baron De’kiernan and I if we
would be willing to have our squires tested to see how well they knew the Code
of Chivalry. Having complete confidence in my squire, I confidently asserted
that I was sure that she could pass any test of recitation of the Code of Chivalry.
Prince Blackstone called me on the challenge, and had her recite the Code to
the entire assembled audience. That had to be nerve-wracking for her, but she
was able to not just recite the Code, but even recite it in the correct order,
including tenets that are sometimes used and sometimes not used. It was a masterful
performance, and only increased the pride I have in her.
Later on, Squire Kaiya and Squire Caliphar worked together to recite the Code
of Chivalry at His Highness’s request. While they may have missed a word
here or there, as a whole they did a very good job with it, and definitely got
the core of it correct.
After the feast was completed, it was time for merriment and song. Prince Blackstone
asked me if I would be willing to start things off with one of the three songs
I had brought with me, and I told him that I would be happy to if I could have
a moment to prepare first.
I was very nervous. I had never sung in front of a large group before. However,
I understood that if I just threw myself into it, then I should be able to handle
it. Thus, I threw myself into the song I was singing, which was an amusing song
entitled, “Take It Easy,” and everyone seemed to really enjoy it.
I was extremely gratified by the response it got, although I was convinced that
the best songs I had were still to come.
The second song of the feast was performed by Squire Kaiya. She seemed a bit
nervous at first, but she had an amazing, beautiful voice. In fact, I don’t
think it would be a stretch to say that she had the best voice I have ever heard
on an adventurer. Dame Parthynia can also sing quite well, but I don’t
think even she would have been able to match up with Squire Kaiya. I did not
know the song Kaiya sang, but it sounded terrific.
Since no one else was willing to attempt to follow up Squire Kaiya, I was asked
to sing again. This time, I sang a song that I had written in honor of Anthony
Darkforge slaying Mordakai Pennance. The song was appropriately titled “Darkforge
vs. Mordakai Pennance,” and I had the audience sing along with me on the
chorus. In fact, the audience got so involved in the song that they even ended
up adding in an extra chorus! I just rolled with it, and had a good time. I
was still nervous, but not as nervous as I had been on the first song.
Sometime around this point, Tovolia Aberdeen showed up at the feast. I was surprised
to see him, since he has never been to Blackstone before as far as I recall.
He was asked to perform a song entitled, “All For Me Grog,” and he
simply shouted it out, which I believe hurt the ears of everyone present.
Eventually goodwoman Aaralyn, the coordinator of the entertainment, led the
assembled adventurers in a rendition of the song which sounded far more pleasant
to the ear, although I will admit that as a group we had a hard time staying
in time with each other, and so people were all singing different parts at the
same time. I would imagine that the plane of harmony would have been very displeased,
although I suppose I would have to ask Angus to know for sure.
Squire Pyroxia performed a song which I did not know, but it sounded good and
I would say that her overall performance appeared extremely heartfelt.
Angus performed a song about a man who was trying to move bricks in a bucket
down the side of a building that he was constructing, and used a pulley system
to do so, and managed to get hit with the bucket, then the bricks, and then
the bucket again, if I was hearing it correctly. The entire thing sounded quite
painful, but it was very well sung by Angus. It was also amusing that Angus
kept having to stop in the middle of the song to imbibe more alcohol, which
Keno happily provided.
My third song was a song which I had entitled, “We Didn’t Light the
Pyre.” It was kind of a random mix of adventuring terms, the names of adventurers,
and famous events. People really seemed to enjoy it, and they even started joining
in on the chorus. The Prince commented that I had saved my best song for last.
By that point, the favorable reaction to my earlier two songs had made me less
nervous, and so I thought I got through the song fairly easily.
More entertainment was then provided by Aaralyn, who sang a song with the other
servers. I don’t recall details about the song, but it seemed to be very
well received.
Finally, Baron De’kiernan was convinced to sing a song. It was a foot stomping
number about a man who wore nothing under his kilt. It was a little lewd, but
it was a fun song, and everyone had a good time with it. It had to admit that
I was surprised, as I had never heard Baron De’kiernan perform before.
I will admit up front that I may have the order of the above songs messed up
to some degree, and if I do, then I do apologize, and hope no one is offended
by my error.
After the feast was finished, there was a long period of time where there was
a lot of equipment changing that went on. As I was walking with Lord Dawnware
and Squire Rillien to Lord Dawnware’s cabin so that he could change his
outfit, we were suddenly jumped by a spider. It attempted to web me, but I was
able to reflect it back at him, and to my great surprise, the spider ended up
being stuck in its own webbing. It is the rare spider that is not immune to
binding, but apparently this spider was a rare spider. I killed it and moved
on.
Lord Dawnware’s equipment swap out was very quick. Mine, which involved
much heavy armor, took a lot longer. It probably took me fifteen minutes to
switch out all my equipment, and I felt bad because everyone was waiting on
me.
We were next supposed to go after the next piece of the puzzle that had been
begun the previous night. Apparently this piece was on the plane of fire. We
thought we would just end up fighting some fire elementals. Instead we found
ourselves facing our old nemesis Pyromorgis, with fire elemental minions. Interestingly
enough, for all the times that we have fought Temporal Morgis (now deceased)
and Pyromorgis, I don’t think we have ever fought Protomorgis, although
we are aware of his existence. I could be wrong on that information, though.
The fight was intense. I took a beating on a number of occasions, but my armor
softened the blows, and Rillien was right there to save me whenever I got into
trouble. Rillien herself got beat down a couple times, but she has become fairly
adept at dodging attacks coming at her while still staying in a position to
backpack me, so she didn’t get into trouble all that much. She has also
become very good at telling me what is going on around me, which helps a lot
in our battlefield tactics.
At one point, Rillien and I went straight after Pyromorgis himself. I noticed
that he was wasting time to rip out of confine spells, and so I hit him with
a confine and started beating on him like mad. When he was almost ripped out,
Rillien confined him and I beat on him like mad again. We did this a couple
more times, and as a whole, we probably did three or four hundred dagger blows
of damage to him in less than a minute. That is, in my opinion, a fairly efficient
use of resources.
I spent a lot of time during the fight working with Squire Kaiya. I was always
trying to turn foes so that either she had their back or I had their back. If
she had their back, she was hitting them much harder, but it was no picnic for
them if I had their back, either. Together, we made a fairly potent combination.
Actually, since I have mentioned a fair bit about Squire Kaiya in this journal
already, let me pause here to say a bit about her. She has grown up a lot as
an adventurer in the two years or so I have known her. She handles herself with
poise and dignity in most situations, and she is very effective with her weapons.
She has become a force that evil beings should rightly fear, and that the innocent
should rejoice at the sight of. I look forward to watching her continued growth
in the coming years – and I would imagine soon as a noble of Blackstone.
Eventually, we managed to drop Pyromorgis, although I am not sure who specifically
took him down. Baron De’kiernan then used some type of special power to
permanently remove Pyromorgis from the time stream. I am not sure exactly what
he did, but I am glad that Pyromorgis is dead. That means two Morgis’s
down, and one to go.
When we rifted back to Tyrra, there was one more item left to take care of.
The plane of harmony needed our assistance against the plane of discord. Angus
was in charge of this mission, but he needed a harmonic capable earth formalist
and a harmonic capable celestial formalist in order to cast some harmonic formal
magics. Since I am the only adventuring earth formal capable harmonicist, and
Count Fellmist is the only adventuring celestial formal capable harmonicist,
we were both natural picks for this mission. Also coming along were Squire Rillien,
Keno, Adrafae, and Gunner the dwarf, although I don’t know if any of them
had much to do. I actually think Keno might have fallen asleep. I certainly
don’t blame him if he did; we were all extremely tired.
I actually want to pause again here to say a bit about Angus. For a long time
Angus had no real direction in his adventuring career. He couldn’t seem
to decide what race or profession he wanted. Then, a few months ago, at the
first Blackstone gathering of the year, three things happened. Angus became
a human, Angus learned to use a polearm, and Angus became involved with harmony.
I think these three things together have made him a different person. He walks
with a sense of purpose these days, and he seems like he enjoys life more than
he used to. He seems confident, and happy. I like the new Angus a lot, and I
feel that he is not only a more effective adventurer than ever before, but also
a more complete person. He is an individual that has impressed me greatly of
late.
The harmonic formals involved all the normal formal casting rules, plus we had
to use music for five minutes to make the formal work. Count Fellmist musically
recited the formal scroll, while I sang some spellsongs that I had previously
written. The effect worked, and we were able to create the first ever extended
circle of harmony and greater extended hearth that I had ever seen. It was quite
an exciting moment, although I don’t think anyone celebrated because we
were all too tired to do so. Even I was getting tired, and that very rarely
happens, so I knew it was getting near time for bed.
When we got back to town, however, Squire Rillien and I decided that it would
be prudent to avoid riding in the direct heat of the day, and so we left the
gathering immediately, headed for Exeter. We decided that we could stop on the
way and sleep during the most hot and humid parts of the day, and thus save
strain on ourselves and our horses.
And so, that brings my tale of the gathering to a close. I hope everyone has
enjoyed it, and I look forward to seeing everyone next weekend in Therendry
for the long gathering in Exeter.