As in all things in Cerlana’s life things never go quite as planned. All she wanted to do was save a life, but today the unthinkable happened…
Got light armor for Striker today! She has been so vulnerable in battle lately and I’ve been worried for her safety. She has taken a liking to the Big Orc, even to the point of obeying him. Even though I know he definitely would make a snack out of her. Makes me miss home. But on a happy note, we have a new member to our group! Her name is Banoffee; finally, another girl.
One thing we all have in common is combing through the merchant quarters in every dusty town our group passes through. The busy streets, the hustle and bustle of life in a big city, it can all be a welcome change from the same damn oaks every other mile. This group cannot go anywhere without constant gasps and looks of astonishment… I guess people aren’t used to catching a glimpse of our beautiful Aelf. We spend hours walking around looking at the wares they sell in this city. I’d like to say we all buy the stuff we get at the markets…but some have used other means. Not naming names…but one is green and the other is a tree. Sigh. As if we don’t have problems enough without creating more of our own. With Marauders on the outskirts of Brightspear killing free guild, and Mages disappearing in the city we have our hands full. Seems like every time we put out one fire, another starts. But the shopping is nice, at least the parts that don’t have Meglofin guts everywhere. Borgut doesn’t seem to mind, I swear he likes the smell. And I’m pretty sure I saw the Vampire gathering blood from those scattered remains…but to each his own. I’m certainly not one to judge…
We found grimoires from the tower where we rescued Sizzelust’s daughter, and definitely wanted to check those out. I found one made from fireslayer skin. I was hoping Vista, our go-to smith, who Borgut and Errrrr used a love potion on, could help me learn something about it. Can’t lie and say I wasn’t worried about how he would react. I feel sick even having it, but if it can help us save lives, then in a way we make their deaths have meaning.
I was right about him being upset. Not at me, but at the situation. In the end I could tell he was grateful to lay the book to rest in the proper fashion. Before he did, I watched in amazement as he took one of the active runes and added rend to my bow for free. It took a whole day but it was well worth it. Just as we finished our buying and selling, as if by design or providence, a messenger arrived from (Graywing?) asking us to meet her immediately.
All of us except for Borgut went to meet her. He decided to go to the tavern instead. Far be it from me to stop him, but I also figured he would arm wrestle again so I gave him twenty drops to bet on himself. I mean, how could he lose?
We met Gravewing at the foot of the spire. Her face was stern and full of determination, but I could see her shoulders were lower, as if carrying a heavy weight. Without Borgut’s huge frame lumbering with us she didn’t see us as soon as she usually did. I was actually close enough to see her react to our arrival. She was definitely glad to see me…and the others i guess. She requested for us to immediately go to the outskirts of Brightspear and deal with the marauders attacking a freeguild outpost. Personally, I was considerably more concerned about the mages disappearing or being left cut into bits and left all over the city…but that’s just me.
I won’t go into all the details, but after great deliberation we decided to check on the remaining Mage and take him with us. Not a single one of us trusted the ten stormborn put on guard duty. I could tell Greywing was not pleased that we didn’t just do what she asked of us, but did give us the location of the Mage. At this point Borgut had rejoined us… he lost his arm wrestling match…
As we set off for the safe house where the mage was being kept, we thought it would be a good idea to keep an eye out for Hawktorch and ask her to join us as well. Even as we approached the location, we began to hear panicked voices in the air. And it was clear why once we turned the final corner. The safe house was gone…completely. All that remained was a giant hole in the ground. Borgut let out a grunt of frustration, turned to me and said, “ARCANE BOLT!!” Before I could even think, like an old instinct, I had a bolt in my hand and threw it at the crater. It was like slow motion in my mind. The bolt was huge. I had managed to cast an especially powerful arcane bolt. As it flew through the air towards the ruble that I was just now noticing, for some reason I had only seen the hole as a smooth surface with nothing in it, I heard a yell. “I’m still alive!” My heart sank. A sick feeling welled up inside me. I saw the flash as the stormborn burst into light and disappeared…
I had killed an innocent…I stood shocked, frozen in place. I vaguely noticed Errrrr and Banoffee doing some kind of magic trace. Borgut ran in to help a second survivor. It’s all a blur. After what felt lik an eternity, I felt Borguts large hand on my shoulder. I turned up and looked at his huge face. Somehow it pulled me out of the trance. “It’s ok. Borgut Kill many tings. We go. They did magic stuff”. They repeated what they had learned from the remaining stormcast survivor.
I could hardly get my voice to work. “Need to find Hawktorch” I managed to get out. I quickly wrote a note with the safe house location and “Emergency. Please come.” was all that was written. I attached it to Striker. “Hawktorch” I said to her. She took off at lightning speed. I turned to my companions, “I will wait ten minutes, and follow you. Errrrr left his guide so that I could follow them in case Striker didn’t find her in time. Luckily, as informed by Graywing, this was the area she was patrolling today.
Once again divine intervention occurred, exactly at ten minutes Hawktorch and Striker came around the corner. I explained what had happened, but added that the arcane bolt had been cast by an unknown entity. I couldn’t bring myself to tell the truth of what had happened. Following Errrrr’s guide we quickly found ourselves caught up to the others. They had found a gate to what appeared to be made with magic.
We wasted no time entering the door and following the pathway towards the magic we could feel. Upon reaching a set of stairs Banoffee used illusion to appear like the enemy. She was gone all of fifty seconds before returning and letting us know the mage was there. He was surrounded by the enemy, who was busy casting a spell. We quickly made our way up. We tried a stealth approach but only a few of us managed to pull it off. Borgut just charged in for a distraction. We made quick work of the enemy. But before that the whole area changed a few times. Before it was over we were no longer in a stone underground tunnel. We were in a grassy and green environment.
Despite not knowing where we were I immediately ran to the mage and gave him some healing drops. He did not awake. Errrrr let us know that we were in the realm of life. That was all we could tell. Borgut immediately filled his containers full of the water, followed by punching himself in the foot! He clearly did some damage. He then drank his newly acquired water and stared at his foot. With a grunt of great disappointment he dumped all the water out onto the ground. We decided to make camp and rest, except I would transform into a Mawcrusher, fly as high as I could and look for any signs of a city or people. I returned less than an hour later,after finding nothing, to see most everyone sleeping. I was exhausted and joined them.
As if by magic we all awoke at the same time. Our resting times seem to fit into exactly eight hour increments, it’s amazing. We managed to finally wake the mage. He was no help at all in knowing where we were. After talking a while he decided to try opening the portal. With the help of the magic users in the group, everyone except Borgut, we were able to open the portal. Many locations appeared before us. Some I knew others I did not, but the way home was clear. A few suggested trying a different portal, but the exhausted mage begged to to just go home. And that’s what we did. After escorting him home. We returned to the Spire to find Greywing. She was very happy to find out we rescued the last mage. We also informed her we would be leaving for the Free guild outpost immediately. She didn’t show clear signs of it, but she was pleased, I could tell. We had saved a life.
