From the journal of Lythande Syldorei
13th Rova, 4711
It sorrows me to write the dates of the human calendar for this month, as they've chosen to name this month for the Dawnflower's greatest enemy.
We still struggle with how we should respond to the evidence of worship of the Angry Hag. I think that Chahana might gladly ban such worship and banish the worshippers, though we've not sent such a message to those we've invited to settle in Neotellus. Though it was I who pointed the stones out to Chahana, after I meditating on the teachings of the Dawnflower I realize that she would wish me to lead the Hag's followers into her light, not punish them for their choice of worship. I will encourage Chahana toward that view.
We visited the keeper of the shrine to see if he would be able to help the merchant who was attacked by Kundal, and to ask him what he knows of the person who left the stones for the Hag. I do not feel that went the way I would have liked, as the words that Chahana and Maria said to him made it seem that we wish the Hag's followers ill. Those words didn't seem to suit the shrine-minder well either. He came here for freedom to worship as he chose, though he seems to follow less distasteful gods such as Erastil. There are signs of many different gods being venerated in this small shrine: Erastil, Iomedae, Gorum, Caiden Cailean, Desna, Calistria, and the local god Hanspur. The shrine keeper did tell Chahana what the woman looked like who had left the stones, and that she had a babe with her and looked to have fallen on hard times. I hope we can find her and help her, and show her that the Hag's ways of spite and vengeance will bring her only more pain. Zander has set himself the task of locating this woman.
After meeting the shrine keeper, we returned to Castle Lorewynd to speak to Kundal. He had been drinking heavily the night before and was not in the best of condition. He was still sleeping when we arrived. One of the guards kicked him awake. I am not best pleased with them kicking a prisoner, but they were no doubt angry with him for slaying Saki, and perhaps fearful of his ability to transform into a werewolf.
Chahana described to him what we'd found in his room at the Knife & Toad, which he professed to nothing about. She then asked him when he became a werewolf. He didn't deny that he was one, nor did he know when this curse or disease befell him. He mentioned having been troubled by a pack of wolves and being attacked by something that he said resembled a bear. But he was unclear on how long ago these events took place. He described having unpleasant dreams, but didn't appear to associate them with either the creatures that attacked him or with what had happened the night before. He seemed resigned and disinterested, though that could be because he was suffering the effects of his drinking and we hadn't used our magics to heal all of his wounds.
After we left him we went to another room to discuss what we should do with him. We wondered if he should be blamed for what he did under the effects of something outside his control. Reislin told us that lycanthropy can be a curse, or a disease inflicted by a bite from one already afflicted, or it can be inherited from one's ancestors. In any case it is not easy to cure. It seems that only the divine magic granted to a priest of great knowledge and experience can do anything to treat this curse, and we know of no such priests even in Restov. There are tales of herbs or other methods used to treat lycanthropy, but these sound just as likely to harm the sufferer as to cure him. Maria then became upset and told us a tale of her own life. It seems as a child she was taken from her family and tortured and forced to do things she knew were wrong because she thought she had no choice but to obey those who commanded her to kill. Reislin, Chahana and I felt great sympathy for her and assured her that her deeds since she joined our company showed that she has redeemed herself. But her own experiences made her feel much sympathy for Kundal's plight and she was troubled that we might punish him when he hadn't chosen to become a werewolf. Yet at the same time she thought he should have known his dreams were a sign of trouble and kept himself apart from other people, and that he seemed to have no remorse for the deaths of Bevan and Saki.
We were interrupted by the arrival of Bevan's parents, who demanded to know why the culprit hadn't yet been executed for his crime. Bevan's father would not be placated, although when Zander arrived he was able to persuade them to leave. In the end we decided that we had no choice but to execute Kundal, as we couldn't cure him and we couldn't keep him prisoner, and we were unwilling to banish him and allow him to possibly slay other innocents when the curse took him. We sent men out to make the announcement to the citizens that he would be hung in the morning, and had a messenger sent to Leveton to give them the news.
I don't want to dwell on the execution of Kundal. As with our choice to execute the bandits we found at the Thorn River camp, it is not a decision that I take lightly.
16th Rova
We've decided that we need time away from Lorewynd to explore some of the territory to our west. We've heard rumors of a dragon slaying settlers and we feel we need to attend to this matter. We've set out once again with Zander's wagon to see what awaits us.
We had only just reached the rocky rolling plains known as the Kamelands when we met our first trouble. Chahana was the first to see several creatures moving in the long grass. These began to move in our direction and soon revealed themselves to be a pack of four wolves, led by what Reislin recognized as a worg. This worg climbed upon on a large boulder and shouted at us in a tongue we could all understand, proclaiming itself 'Howl of the North Wind' and declaring that this territory belonged to it. To this Chahana replied that the word was mistaken and the land belongs to us, and she followed this by putting an arrow in the worg's hide.
Maria and Zander went forward to face the worg and two of the wolves attacked them, while the other two rushed at the wagon where Reislin and Chahana and I stood. It was not a difficult fight. Though the worg had sufficient intelligence to speak, it was not protected by any magical defenses or special abilities, and its companions were ordinary wolves easily slain with arrows and blades. When all but one wolf had fallen the last fled, but Chahana didn't allow it to escape. Afterward Zander took all the pelts and we went on our way.
The maps provided by Jubilost Narthropple showed us the location of an ancient barrow not far from where we dispatched the worg, and we decided to journey there and see what if anything it held. The mound had split open, forming a cave-like entrance. Zander went in and Chahana looked through the crack, observing that the walls were covered in a mosaic of simple village life and the floor was layered deep with guano and live insects. Innumerable bats hung from the ceiling where they rested. Zander decided to investigate further into the barrow and made his way past the bats to where he found a circular chamber with four passages radiating off it. At each intersection of the passages with the central space was a human face carved into the stone. One of these seemed to inhale as if taking a breath and then breathed out a cloud of black smoke that engulfed Zander. He instantly felt as if he had run for days while carrying a heavy load and eating nothing. He staggered back outside and was scarcely able to tell us what had happened to him so exhausted he was. His stumbling steps disturbed the bats and they came swarming out, though they paid us no mind.
Chahan then rashly decided to enter the barrow and see what Zander had seen, as his weariness prevented him from describing it in detail. The rest of us decided to follow her, letting Zander rest outside.
Beyond the first chamber we came within sight of the circular room. A skeleton lay upon the floor, whatever gear the person had carried in life now almost rotted away. We saw the four faces carved into the walls, and the four passages leading away. Reislin realized that the faces represented wind spirits of the four cardinal directions, and she wondered if they had any relation to the worg's name for itself, Howl of the North Wind. Maria noticed that the skeleton wore a ring that radiated a magical aura, and she used her net to catch hold of it and pull it toward her. Then Chahana and Reislin heard sounds coming from the passage to the north and relayed this information to Maria and myself, as we had heard nothing.
The sounds proved to be the movements of two animated skeletons that entered the central chamber. Chahana stepped inside that chamber so that the rest of use could move closer to the end of the passage in which we stood, and the carved faces did nothing. One skeleton moved toward Maria, and then another. Then the central chamber rapidly filled as ten more skeletons appeared! All of them wielded curved swords and wore chain shirts, though their equipment appeared not to have withstood the passage of time well.
I had drawn my scimitar, but on seeing the skeletons I exchanged it for my mace that I knew would be more effective against these undead creatures that have no flesh. I warned my friends to use weapons other than swords or spears if they could, and that magical cold would have no effect on these things. Maria and Chahana lacked any weapons without blades or points and began to bash the skeletons with their shields. Reislin had taken flight when we entered to avoid stepping in the bat excrement, but the ceiling of the barrow was too low to keep her out of reach of the skeletons. She used the last charge on a wand she carried to blast out a gout of flame that transformed two of the skeletons into heaps of ash, but this drew the attention of the others to her and they began to slash at her with their broken swords or their bone claws.
I stepped forward and with the Dawnflower's might on my side I left one skeleton in an inanimate heap of bones. Reislin had granted us magical haste, and with it Maria used her shield to destroy two more. A third fell to me with my next step. Reislin used a scroll to heal the wounds the skeletons had inflicted on her, and upon hearing through her messenger spell that we had met foes, Zander entered the passage behind us and used his magic to grant Reislin yet more healing. Chahana's shield brought down another skeleton and now we had halved the number of our foes.
Chahana and Maria brought their shields down on two more skeletons and felled them just as Reislin's magic wore off. I crushed a third, and Zander attempted unsuccessfully to use his healing magic to harm another, which was then destroyed by Chahana. We all breathed a sigh of relief that the skeletons had fallen. What they left behind was in such poor condition that it scarce seemed worth the effort of gathering it up.
We made our way cautiously around the center chamber to check the north and south passages, find that both led into small chambers occupied by biers. The signs there indicated that the skeletons had long stood in these chambers unmoving, awaiting some unlucky explorer like the unfortunate person who had died in the central space. But no more skeletons assailed us and the carved faces did not afflict us with the cloud that had hurt Zander.
The last passage that ran to the east led into a larger chamber that held a single bier with a skeletal warrior clutching a sword lying atop it. Decayed banners adorned the walls, and there were various arms and armor stored in the chamber. Reislin recognized the banners as being of designs used by the Kelid barbarians to the north. She was most interested in the historical aspects of the place. Then as we moved nearer to the warrior's bier, something rose up from behind it. We saw another skeletal figure clutching a broken sword, but this one seemed somehow sturdier than those we had destroyed in the room behind us. I at once called on the Dawnflower to grant me her power and channeled her healing at the skeletal warrior, knowing that healing magic harms many undead creatures. But he did not seem much affected by Sarenrae's power. He moved surprisingly quickly to Maria's side and swung his broken blade at her, but his strike slid off her armor.
Zander had recovered from the effect of the black cloud and now slid deftly past the warrior to attack, though his blade could not pierce the skeleton's armor. The skeletal warrior slashed him in response. Chahana dropped the lantern she carried to draw her blade and attack with no more success than Zander. Reislin warned us that this was a cairn wight, capable of draining life energy from us with his blade or his touch. I sent another wave of Sarenrae's healing light at him. The wight then moved toward Reislin, unheeding of our presence, and though we all attempted to strike him none of our weapons connected with his fleshless body. Then Zander gripped his sword with both hands and brought it down in a powerful slice that left a gash in the wight's armor and cut into his bones. Maria and Chahana were both also able to deal damage with their blades, and I followed with a blow of my mace that dropped the wight and left it only a heap of long-dead bones and ancient armor.
When we had assured ourselves that there were no other undead waiting to attack us and no hidden passages or secret troves within the barrow, Reislin looked more closely at the body on the bier. She recalled that long ago even by the reckoning of our people a barbarian king had come to these lands to claim them, but had almost immediately been overpowered by another barbarian. This king had gone away for some years and afterward returned to overthrow his foe, and for the next dozen years had been able to defeat any challenger due to his impressive skill with a sword. According to this tale, he had become the founder of the Aldori dueling school to which Zander belongs. The sword the man on the bier bore, as well as that of the wight, were after the Aldori fashion. Reislin theorized that the two men had been brothers in life. While I hold admiration for the brother keeping watch over his sibling's burial, it concerns me that he became an undead wight. What caused this, and what created the other skeletons who also stood guard? Were they left by the makers of this tomb or by some other force long after their deaths?
Once we were done with the contents of the barrow, Reislin looked at the copper ring Maria had taken from the skeleton in the central chamber. When she announced that it was a ring of sustenance, Maria began to laugh, saying that it had done him no good and looking to Chahana to see if she also found this humorous. The humor of humans is something I still struggle to understand.
Next: part 17, The Witch's Spell
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