Moonday, 27th of Calistril, in the year 4711
Our visit to Bokken to deliver the fangberries was interesting, to say the least. The herbalist is an eccentric character. When Chahana reached out to rap on the door of his peculiar house, it flew open suddenly before she could touch it and Bokken appeared, as wild-looking as he was on our last visit, exclaiming, "Go away! I'm not Oleg!" He was calmed when Chahana told him we had brought him fangberries and this helped him to remember who we are, after which he invited us inside. It seems that his experiments in combining various herbs and tasting his concoctions has caused him to lose much of his senses of taste and smell, and as a result he can only recognize the scent and flavor of fangberries.
We had not entered his home on our last visit. It is a peculiar structure, an artificial hillock that he has created by heaping earth of a framework of oaken beams. The beams are bowed in the center of this construction, which makes it appear quite likely to collapse at some point. I suspect that Bokken doesn't notice this lack of structural soundness as he is more concerned with the bundles of herbs hanging from the rafters than with the rafters themselves. In addition to purchasing potions from him, Reislin also used our common funds to acquire three wands that can remove certain physical ailments.
While we were with him Bokken complained to us of strangers who keep arriving at his hut looking for Oleg's trading post and are annoying him by getting on the roof of his home. Yet when Chahana asked where we might set up camp for the night he told us to camp on the roof. It was telling that just after he said this the rafters creaked an a cloud of dirt fell from above. We did not spend the night on his roof.
The next day we made our way to Oleg's trading post. It has changed a good deal over the time we spent building up the community of Lorewynd. The longhouse Kesten and his men were building is finished and has become a makeshift inn for travelers passing through on the way south. Chahana discussed with Oleg and Svetlana the possibility of turning their trading post into the center of a town and making one of them its mayor. It seems likely that Svetlana will take on that role as Oleg isn't temperamentally suited to it. There have also been some small houses built there, so the trading post is already on its way to becoming more than a way station.
Moonday, 6th Pharast
When we had concluded our visit at the trading post, we decided to head to the southwest to hunt for the tatzlwyrms that had been reported there.
The Narlmarches are a much denser forest than the forest to the north where the Temple of Erastil lies, with thick undergrowth that is more difficult to pass through. We've seen signs of unusual things that we suspect can be attributed to a strong fey presence here.
As we were working our way toward the odorous Skunk River, we heard something that sounded like a dog yelping in pain.We decided to investigate and found a pit trap that had caught a creature resembling a lean dog with striped haunches. Maria recognized it as a thylacine. Such beasts are not particularly dangerous, but are valuable to trappers and traders in wild beasts. The thylacine had apparently been in the pit for several days. It wasn't wounded, only hungry and afraid. The pit wasn't the sort of trap that would mislead a person, unlike the metal traps that had snared Chahana when we first began to explore the forests near Oleg's. Though Reislin wanted to rescue the creature and set it free, the rest of us decided to give it some food and water and leave it in the pit. We didn't want it to suffer, but we also didn't want to deprive a trapper of his livelihood.
The day following our discovery of the thylacine, we reached the Skunk River. We had seen no sign of the trapper who had dug the pit, nor of any other person in that region.
As we came to the bank of the foul-smelling river, we caught sight of what appeared to be a dam across the channel between the bank on which we stood and a small islet in the center of the water. Some of the dam appeared to be debris, but portions of it looked to my companions like something that had been constructed deliberately, though not by any creature with knowledge of building.
On the ground along the bank we noticed tracks that resembled those of the hydra we had fought, but the creature that made them had claws unlike the hydra. Just as we observed these tracks, Chahana glimpsed a creature on the islet sunning itself. It was swiftly recognized as a tatzlwyrm. Reislin says that these wyrms are a kind of dragon, but they are neither as intelligent nor as well-armed as true dragons. I was surprised to find that they are no larger than I am, but Reislin warned us there could be a mated pair, or even a whole nest of twenty or more such creatures.
Maria and Zander began making noise to attract the wyrm and it immediately launched itself across the river to reach us. When it gave a cry we heard another such creature answer it. The first wyrm rushed up to Maria, hissing angrily. The second wyrm swiftly joined its mate in attacking us. Very quickly our arrows and blades dealt with both wyrms. When Zander examined one of them it proved to be a female laden with eggs it had not laid yet. Nonetheless we watched the islet cautiously to be certain the pair had no young. Reislin cast a spell to summon an invisible servitor to remove some of the debris it could lift from the dam. When we return to Lorewynd we will seek laborers to come here and clear the rest of the blockage. We also took the heads to give to Oleg, who desires one to hang over the fireplace in the trading post.
Among the debris in the dam we found the remains of a man, clad in scaled mail that proved to be enchanted and bearing a longsword forged of cold iron. In addition to these remains we found an assortment of gold and silver coins, a pewter drinking vessel, a silver ring, and a jade statue of a nude elven woman posed in an unarmed fighting stance. Chahana claimed the ring and the drinking cup. Then Reislin discovered a water-tight scroll tube containing a map of the surrounding area. It seems the poor soul who died there was an explorer.
Having dealt with the tatzlwyrms we determined next to find the statue of the 'horned man' the boggard had told us of, which we believe to be a statue dedicated to Erastil.
Oathday, 9th Pharast
The statue of Erastil was not difficult to locate. It is quite a large statue on a tall base, though now overgrown and covered in moss. Nearby are the burnt remnants of what may have been a hunting lodge, though it has not been occupied for many years, possibly not for the whole of my lifetime. Reislin made a map of its location. This area seems devoid of predators, perhaps as a result of the One-Eye's influence.
Fireday, 10th Pharast
We headed to the southwest after finding the statue. It became unnaturally still as we went on, the somewhat marshy forest empty of bird calls or insects buzzing.
We began to detect an odor of decay, but it did not smell like the usual stink of rotting vegetation or decaying flesh. When we came into a sunken clearing we found the source of the smell, the corpse of what at first appeared to be a horse. On closer inspection Reislin realized that it had cloven hooves, and a horn had been cut from its head. It was a unicorn, which made her sorrowful. Because there were no scavengers or insects consuming its remains, it was not decaying in the normal way. There was no sign that it had been slain by weapons or predators.
When I looked at it I saw that the horn had been removed after the unicorn's death. Its eyes were milky white, and that I knew had happened to it while it was still living. Reislin thought that it might have been slain by powerful magic, and the lack of any living animals or insects suggested to her that the slayer was a fey being. The other creatures were driven away by this power. Maria wanted to bury the unicorn's corpse, so Reislin's servant dug it a shallow grave and covered it with a cairn of stones.
As we left the unicorn behind and continued on to the south, we came to a point where we heard voices. I could not understand their speech, but my comrades who can speak the tongue of the fey folk were able to make out their words. A male voice and a female one conversed, the female anxious and weeping. But when they realized we were near they ceased speaking. They didn't respond when Reislin asked if we could approach. When we moved toward where we had heard the voices coming from we saw no one.
Suddenly a man with horns and legs like those of a goat appeared, demanding, "What are you doing here?" Maria replied, "We want to make this place safe for everyone." Then the unseen woman said, "For everyone?" in a hopeful tone, and a beautiful woman whose hair was full of leaves stepped out of the trunk of a tree.
This lovely woman said to us, "Our safety is in danger. Our friend is in trouble." The goat-man comforted her and explained that some nightmarish danger had come to threaten this part of the Narlmarches. Chahana then asked them rather bluntly if this had anything to do with the dead unicorn, which startled them. We explained to them what we had found and how we had buried the unicorn. The man, Falchos, who is a satyr, responded that the unicorn would have preferred her remains be given back to the earth, but Chahana told him that we had chosen to bury the remains because of the lack of natural decay.
The woman, Tyressia, is a dryad. She told us of the dark shadow on the land, a dangerous creature that sought to destroy her. She and Falchos spoke of their missing friend, Thistle, who had gone to fight this danger. Thistle, they explained, was a griffon, which made my heart lift as I recalled the sight of the griffon that had flown overhead when we first found the Temple of Erastil. The danger Thistle had gone to fight was what they referred to as a death tree or hangman tree, a dangerous plant that is capable of moving about like a beast. Falchos told us that although the tree moved slowly, it was capable of grabbing and restraining other creatures with its vines and was strong enough to tear a man in two. He referred to it as being near "the big road to the south," which we at first misunderstood as meaning a roadway we didn't know of, but we came to understand that he meant a thicket of unusually large rhododendrons.
When we had gathered everything that Falchos and Tyressia could tells us about both the hangman tree and the griffon, we set off at a rapid pace to find and deal with the tree before it could slay Thistle. The rhododendron wasn't difficult to recognize as it was larger than any we had ever seen. The tree was also easy to see, as it was large and at that moment engaged in a struggle with the griffon, which it had entangled in one of its vines. The noble beast was bloodied and showing signs of flagging. It screamed with a sound that resembled both the cry of an eagle and the roar of a lion.
Falchos had already warned us that only slashing and chopping weapons could cut through the tree's tough bark. We drew our swords and approached it. In my eagerness to help the griffon I ran out ahead of the others and was immediately ensnared by a vine. As soon as Zander came within its reach he was also snatched up.
Reislin sent some of her unerring tiny missiles into the tree, causing it to twitch. It lashed angrily at the griffon. Chahana moved closer to use her sword, and though the tree seemed to swing a branch at her it did not strike or grab her. Maria slashedthe tree and it cried out, seeming to speak in the same tongue that Falchos and Tyressia spoke. I stretched my hand out to the griffon and extended some of the healing light the Dawnflower grants me to the courageous creature. Reislin cast a spell upon the griffon and it broke free of the tree's grip. I healed myself of some of the harm it had done me, but its crushing grasp prevented me from seeing its evil aura.
Reislin sent more missiles into it while Zander broke free and he, Chahana and Maria assailed it with their swords while the griffon attacked with claws and beak. This caused the tree to lose its grip on me also. Because Reislin's missiles had done it so much injury, it moved to attack her and now she was caught by it. Zander grasped his sword with both hands and struck it a mighty blow. The tree now looked sorely wounded. Black tarry leaked from its bark. Maria's blade chopped into it once more and it bent almost double and ceased moving. When it was still its evil nature was unquestionable to me.
After we had healed our wounds, Thistle the griffon bowed to us. It came to me and pressed its head against me so that I could touch its wonderful feathers. Though it cannot speak, it can understand our words, and Chahana introduced us to it.
The hangman tree proved to have a small amount of objects it had presumably taken from its victims tangled among its roots. We recovered several pieces of amber, a silver ring, coins, and a dirty bundle that proved to be an enchanted robe.
Falchos and Tyressia met us as we were on the way back to tell them of our success. Tyressia was overjoyed that we had slain the hangman tree and rescued Thistle. As reward she gave us each a berry like those that grow from the sapling rod, a willow wand that can heal wounds, and six acorns that will transform into fully grown trees when thrown to the ground. Zander asked that he might keep two of these. They also told us that Thistle is only their nickname for the griffon, which it is willing to bear from them but seems displeased to have us use. As it can't speak we don't know what other name it may have. I find that I have a strong desire to discover its name.
Next: part 14, A Nation Grows
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