Day 81: Starday the 8th, Kuthona, 4707

I awoke to the sounds of reveille. Ugh. I thought that I left that behind years ago. They even got the cadence right somehow. I looked around at the room that I was in and it was absolutely spotless. What I would not have given for a single unseen servant back in the Navy. I got up and got dressed and equipped quickly. I went out to the mess hall and as always I was the last person in the group. Dame Rebekah is up before dawn to prepare for her worship, Faunra only needs four hours of reverie every night to be refreshed, and Jonathan only needs two! hours of sleep a night. Fortunately for me, the other Black Arrows didn't have the abilities or focuses that my companions did, so they were falling in right behind me.

We all had breakfast, which had been made by Jonathan, and the four of my group got together to plot out our plan. Since we were already on this side of the river, we would just follow the Skull River trail to the end of the Kreegswood and cut across the Willow River. Jonathan would ferry us one at a time, and Dame Rebekah would act as over-watch on Bucepherous while he got us across. Then we would head to the White willow area to try to find our way to wherever Lamatar would have headed to.

We all broke for an hour to get everything ready to go. I spent my time going over the notes that I had made about this area and what we might go over. I made some minor changes to my armor to help with the extra humid environment of the marsh. We all met up together at seven AM and mounted up. Jonathan stewed around for a minute and I told him to get on the bike. He hopped on and all four of us took off. We didn't feel right having no one from the group left with the Black Arrows while we rode off, and Shalelu still needed some time to reconnect with her step-father.

On our way down the trail, we met up with a couple of trappers in the woods. We waved to them and they waved back. Jonathan said that he recognized them from Turtleback Ferry, and that they had been there during the flood. I told him that I imagined that if they noticed that we had killed the terror of Storval Deep, they probably got a decent amount of respect for us.

We didn't have any other encounters on our way to the Willow River Crossing. When we got there, Dame Rebekah and Bucepherous took off into the skies, and Jonathan joined them. He floated the bikes and us across one at a time. He's gotten much better at this, and is able to move us much further and faster than he had months ago. Phenomenal progress in his abilities or maybe he just had them all along. The bikes didn't like the marsh very much, but I had based them around dirt bike frame design, so it wouldn't be absolutely worthless to have them.

As soon as all of us had touched down on the other side, we were confronted by a two-foot-tall version of a person, with wings, extremely large eyes, and long pointed ears. I don't remember where I had heard it before but I instantly knew in the very fiber of my being that this was a pixie. I also somehow knew that they could attack while invisible readily, they constantly knew the moral outlook of a person just by looking at them, were weak against cold iron (like most fae), and were resistance to spells. This slip of a thing told us that his mistress was deathly ill, and that he needed our help. He told us that the land sickens with her own sickness, and that death would have been a welcome kindness for her. He told us that he thought that we must be friends with her human lover (fantasy racism much?). He begged us to go with him to try and save her.

I stepped forward and told him that he can ride with us, because we will travel faster than him, but he needs to give us directions with enough time to follow them. He nodded that he would and I looked to Faunra. She shook her head and said that Jonathan had to ride with her. Dame Rebekah signaled to me to lead the way. We took off at a much slower pace, with Yap, as he was known as, sat on my shoulder and told me directions.

It took a while for Yap to figure out that we meant business that we would be travelling fast. Yap took us through an area of the marsh that seemed to have large robed creatures with skeletal claws coming out for us. Yap was frightened, but it turned out to only be trees. Horribly blackened and twisted trees. When we got around that, Yap took us on another route that took us by a path that led us by a pool of water that didn't have any life at all in it. Faunra screamed that we looked like ghouls in the water and we quickly got out of there.

Yap then veered us into the path of a ghostly procession of otherworldly fey. Their touch burned with a cold I had not felt before, and Faunra couldn't escape it either. When we got past that, Yap had us going even deeper into the swamp. A turn here, a turn there, and a back track there. It was getting a bit annoying. Then we came upon an oddly derelict seagoing vessel. Hundreds of miles from the coast of the continent. Jonathan volunteered to go in and search around a bit. Jonathan came back out with a chalice and a book, noting that he had seen a white dog with milky white eyes on the deck.

We left the derelict and headed on, following Yap further. We came across a mangled dryad in a clearing. I could swear I saw her eyes open and I heard her whisper, "She should not have fallen in love—her heart brought this upon us—why won't she let us go?" I knew then and there that we had to end this. We had to recover this land and its protector and right the wrongs. Jonathan looked over the body and pronounced that the wounds looked to have been made by massive clubs. Finally, Yap led us to a large clearing with a calm pool of still water, ringed by decayed, twisting trees. Willow if I am correct. He told us that he dared not go any closer, but that his lady is here.

We all dismounted and asked Yap to guard our bikes and Dame Rebekah quietly asked Bucepherous to guard Yap. The deathly silence should have been our first clue. Jonathan approached first, and I followed. Dame Rebekah followed me and Faunra followed her. A horrid wretch of an apparition rose out of the water. The lens of my helmet tinted dark instantly like Beeblebrox's Sunglasses. Behind me I heard the screams of Faunra and Dame Rebekah as the yelled about being blinded. I wished against everything that I could that this wasn't true.

Suddenly, they exclaimed that they could see again! I know that I had something to do with it, but I don't know what. The ghostly specter resembled a being of unearthly beauty who had been torn asunder, or at least that's what Jonathan claimed. My lens was still fogged over so much so that I couldn't see individual details, only the outlines of the entity. No matter what she looked like, she raged at us with pure vitriol that we had allowed this to happen, that we had failed to protect Lamatar, that we had failed to protect Fort Rannick, and allowed the Ogres to capture her beloved and whisk him away to their lair high on Hook Mountain.

I spoke up and told her that we were from far away from here, some four hundred miles away, and that we came as soon as we heard that there was any kind of indication of an issue, that we came to the swamp to investigate the location of the missing commander after we had slain the occupying ogres of fort Rannick, and that we would be more than happy to go forth and slay the marauding vermin that had done this to her and her beloved. Jonathan seemed like he wanted to say something but shut himself up right quick. I went on to ask her how best we can help, and she bemoaned how her love was dead, and that she would need a piece of him to reincarnate her beloved. I told her that we would rush right out and head directly over to Hook Mountain to solve this.

The ghost of the nymph sank back into the pool and we turned to leave. As we exited the clearing, Dame Rebekah and Faunra stopped me. They told me that they had indeed been rendered blind by seeing the nymph's ghost momentarily, but something had changed for them and they knew that it was because of something that I had done. I told them that I had no idea what had happened, but that I knew that I had indeed just wished that they wouldn't have been effected by the thing that had caused them to be blind. I added that I knew that I just felt different after yesterday, after the slaying of Black Magga.

Jonathan noted that he felt different too, that his ability to alter the aether had been enhanced greatly. Faunra acknowledged that she felt the same, and Dame Rebekah admitted to it as well. I asked if this was a common thing, and Faunra said that it was not. Dame Rebekah said that she had remembered long told stories about the strongest of people who could even surpass the abilities of regular heroes. She wondered if slaying one such as Black Magga might have passed on those abilities. I noted that we didn't know if this was a permanent thing or a temporary, so we should be cautious with these abilities and be thankful that we got to use them to prevent our two spellcasters from being blinded.

We made our way to the bikes and Yap was there, nursing a slight burn. Apparently he had reached his hand into the protected areas of my bike and touched the hot boiler section. He wasn't severely wounded, but if this was something that was common, we would need to leave him here so he could be safe. We mounted up and had Yap help us get out of the marsh. It was much more direct than last time, as the compasses of the group helped us know better where we needed to go. We still had to duck and weave around areas that Yap had not considered when we started our trek.

Once we made our way to Claybottom Lake, we remembered the small village up at the top of the lake. We made our way up there and asked Yap to safely wait for us by the Sanos trail, and to stay hidden until we come back. He said that he would but he wished that we would travel fast. I told him that we would travel as fast as we could, and we crossed the bridge to Bitter Hollow. It was an isolated village that didn't seem to really appreciate outsiders. That notwithstanding, we needed an update of our map.

I thought about resisting, but knowing that the rest of the group are a bunch of ill-tempered louts, I decided it would be best if I just went in. The Gator's Nest wasn't exactly the most hospitable, but I walked in and looked around. I saw a shopkeeper and a bunch of people who turned to look at me as I came in. I went right to the shopkeeper and asked if they had any maps of the area. They asked me why I needed one, and I told them that we needed to get to Hook mountain to kill a bunch of Ogres who lived up there or a nymph in the swamps would bring havoc to the area. Some of the locals started to snicker a bit and others were blank faced stares.

The Shopkeeper asked why we thought that we could go up against the Kreeg. Before I could answer, one of the trappers that we had seen earlier spoke up and told everyone that I was one of the group that had killed Black Magga. The whole shop looked at me and then back at him. The trapper told everyone that they knew he wasn't a liar, and that he knew what he saw. The shopkeeper pulled out a rolled up map and I dropped five platinum coins down on the counter. I thanked the shopkeeper and the trapper and wished everyone well.

I left the store and told the group that we should probably head out soon. Dame Rebekah agreed and we left heading north out of the town. We hugged the shoreline of Lake Coal. By the time we had gotten to the end of the lake it was about noon. Almost instantly, Dame Rebekah pointed out a hunting trail that seemed to be so roughly hewn it looked more like someone just rolled a huge log down the trail. Dame Rebekah noted that it would be a tough climb on the bikes, and I agreed. I noted that I would probably end up working on a set of tire chains to allow for this kind of thing, but she was absolutely right. She told her steed Bucepherous to guard the bikes and whatnot. I thanked her for her diligence and we started up the hunting trail.

It took three hours but we made it up there. We were almost there and everyone knew that this was going to be rough. The air was a bit thinner up here so we were all relying on Jonathan's ability to create air bubbles for us, and the way he did that was that every few minutes he would stop, refocus, and generate the ability. It must have helped that he moved at literally twice the speed that we all did. We were not too far away from the head of the cave, and doing okay for now, but even with Jonathan's support we knew we had to get this over in a hurry. Jonathan had scouted a bit and said that he had seen a pair of ogres like we had fought before, the well-equipped ones. I looked to Faunra and Dame Rebekah and they both nodded.

Dame Rebekah started off with a blessing for all of us, while Fauna hit Jonathan with the wand that enhanced his armor. I used my recently discovered night vision modification and Jonathan re-upped our air bubbles, making breathing substantially easier. Dame Rebekah then invoked her goddess to provide a protection from evil for all of us, Faunra used her mirror image spell to generate seven copies of her, I opened up my app on my phone to capture invisible things, and Jonathan enhanced the telekinetic field around him some.

The last bit of preparation we did was that Dame Rebekah called on her goddess to ignite her blade with holy fire, which happened, Jonathan set about going Super Saiyan, I invoked my own mirror image spell, which got six images and caused Faunra some confusion, and Faunra hit us with her haste spell. I don't know if this is just a side effect of what had happened with Black Magga, like my event did, but we were even faster than we were before. It was like the first time someone downs a six pack of red bull. We rushed up the last little bit and were confronted by two of the ogre fighters that we had been dealing with before.

Faunra took out one on her own! In six seconds, she had launched four arrows and a telekinetically thrusted arrow finished off the job. I popped off two shots in quick succession with my rifle on the other ogre and it looked like he was going to go run to get help, before Jonathan fired a rock into the back of its head and dropped it. Just like that. We were too hyped up to stop there and Dame Rebekah took off to get to the clearing. We all followed suit and rushed into the compound, not wanting to waste a second of the powerful enchantment that Faunra had delivered to us. I stowed my rifle and got ready to run. Quiet time was over.

We rushed into the cave entrance and rushed by a set of gigantic bones covered in scrimshaw. Faunra noted someone absentmindedly that they were from a blue dragon. We stopped just before a gargantuan statue of some kind of giant. It wasn't moving and didn't show any signs of life, so we decided to leave it to deal with our next issue, a pair of ogres and a hill giant. We didn't slow down or even think for a minute.

Faunra dropped a trio of arrows into the hill giant, while I dropped a trio of rounds into one of the ogre fighters next to him, dropping him. Jonathan rushed forward and the field of armor that had been gifted to him from Faunra deflected the ogre's hook before he rushed in and delivered a series of pummeling strikes with his empowered cestus, that ended in popping the ogre's head right off. Dame Rebekah charged at the hill giant and tanked a swing of a giant mace to her shield, with a grin. She rolled inside of the giant's reach and got two slashes in. One that went across the giant's stomach that caused it to bend over just enough that she took its head off with her second slash. Dame Rebekah landed with the grace of a martial artist ballerina as the blood that was on the blade boiled off.

We were faced with a slight dilemma, there were three paths ahead of us, and we didn't know which to pick. Jonathan solved that for us as he rushed right ahead and up the set of stairs without a second thought. We all rushed after him up the same stairs. At the top of the stairs was a trio of the most hideous women I have ever seen. Jonathan was already on top of one, whaling away at it with his cestus. I swear that he knows no better. He punched her warty, pustule-ridden, and cratered face twice with his cestus before jumping off of her with a back flip. I swear this extra boost is getting to all of us. I immediately fired at the one that was all skin and bones, ventilating her rib cage a little but not putting her down. I missed on my third shot, must have been getting jittery. Dame Rebekah charged in at the one with massively pendulous breasts with a couple of slashes that cut deep into the woman but didn't drop her. Faunra followed us up with a pair of arrows to the heads of both of the ones that had been still standing. I swear that the one I shot only needed the one, but we wanted to be sure.

For some reason, I knew exactly what these things were. Annis Hags, formerly cursed fey, likely nymphs like the ghost who had sent us on this mission of vengeance. I conveyed that to the rest of the group, and before I could say anything else, Jonathan was off running again. I swear if I ever get back to my old world, I'm going to make a series about a werewolf high on cocaine. I should have plenty of material for it. The rest of us shrugged and followed him back down the stairs. Then we saw that he had stopped short. We grouped up around him and saw that the area we had been in was filled with ogres with another ogre fighter goading them on.

Jonathan popped off a piton at the lead ogre and Dame Rebekah acted quickly. She hit four ogres in the back with her burst of radiance spell. Three of them were even blinded, the last was dazzled. Faunra followed it up with a web spell. As the web was spreading, I shot into the mass where there were ogres and hit three of them, and the web caught fire, starting to burn around them. Not many could get free in time for us to react again. Jonathan fired off another piton into an ogre that had managed to break free, Dame Rebekah summoned her ancestral guardians, and Faunra fired off arrows at the remaining ogres. One remained and the ogre fighter just got back into the room as soon as I noticed this, and I shot it twice with my pistol, before I dropped the other regular ogre with one shot. The ogre fighter came rushing across the field, and took a swipe at Faunra, but missed.

Jonathan fired off his electrical blast at the remaining ogre and it didn't drop. Dame Rebekah sent her Ancestral Guardians to attack the ogre fighter, and they dropped it. We left down the stairs and went to the left. There was another intersection, this time a "t" intersection. We knew that that wasn't much time left on Faunra's Haste effect, so we rushed as far as we could to the left, assuming that there would be more to deal with further into the mountain.

We made our way into the shrine and saw the remains of Lamatar, having been necromantically modified into a very evil icy frost wright. Lamatar saw us and got a face full of arrows from Faunra. Lamatar recovered from those arrows and was about to strike back with his own arrows when Jonathan hit him with a piton. The frost wright took a large chunk out of him with that hit and tried to right himself again when he got two rounds from my rifle. He dropped and Dame Rebekah rushed forward to get a piece of him to bring back to the ghost nymph. The was as far as we could go this way, so it would have to be back the other way if there was anything else to deal with.

We decided to stop for a few seconds to collect ourselves and get ready to check out the last area. I summoned an Unseen Servant and had it refill my spent magazine. I was really starting to go through bullets now. We knew that we only had a minute or so left on the protection from evil effect that Dame Rebekah had invoked for us, so we should get going. While I was summoning my unseen servant, Jonathan enhanced his telekinetic field again, Dame Rebekah beseeched her goddess to enhance her sword again, and Faunra cast her second haste. Again, we were filled with energy, allowing us to move much faster than we had previously.

We made the trek to the other side of the intersection in just six seconds after Faunra cast the spell. What we saw was astounding. It was a long causeway flanked by giant statues. At the end was a large stone throne upon which sat a grey rocky giant. The giant was an obvious spellcaster with waves of magical energy coming off of him. He noted the he was bored with us and that another should deal with us. Another stone giant stepped out from behind one of the statues and came at us.

I dropped three rounds from my air rifle in it and the stone giant dropped quicker than some of the ogres that we were having to deal with. Jonathan telekinetically lifted up the weapon that the stone giant had been wielding and chucked it full power at the stone giant on the throne. The stone giant wizard did not like, so he started to get up from his Thanos stool. Dame Rebekah readied herself to do something, but I wasn't sure what. Faunra took her cue and launched three arrows and a snowball spell. This did a real number on the necromancer, but he tried to cast a spell anyway.

I could smell the bat guano and saltpeter in the air and saw the crimson bead leave from his giant hands. Dame Rebekah just said "No" and I discovered that this was what she had been waiting for. She had been preparing to counter whatever spell the giant wizard was going to cast. The grin on the giant diminished and was replaced by an angry snarl. I let my rifle drop to its sling and willed my pistol into my hand. I shrugged and told him that I guess this made him lucky number seven. The giant was confused, and I shot him twice with my enchanted pistol after I moved up a bit closer. He dropped.

Faunra snickered and noted that I really did seem to have a thing against spellcasters. I told her that I didn't know what it was, but maybe they just reminded me of the people from back on my old world who would look down on other people who didn't have the chance to receive the same education that they did. She shrugged and we all got together to do a quick search to find any active threats while the spells were still active. We didn't find anything in the rest of the cave, but we did hear some clanging down in the mines below, so we decided that it would be better to do a tactical retreat, and started gathering up the Black Arrow's goods so we could return the goods to them. On our way out Jonathan had an idea and removed the medallion from the statue. The statue crumbled leaving the fine quality armor it was wearing. Jonathan telekinetically lifted it and we put everything we had gathered from the cave into it with us.

Jonathan floated us out of the cave and out over the side of the mountain. He arranged everything so it was all strapped together and supported by the massive set of armor. He moved us out from the side of the mountain for about five minutes. Five minutes, straight out. At about six hundred feet a minute. Then he signaled to Faunra, who nodded. Dame Rebekah took up a position where she would be holding up the armor, they handed me a rope, which they all grabbed on to and tied themselves off on. Then Jonathan dismissed the effect.

We were freefalling. Five hundred feet, one thousand feet. By now we were at terminal velocity. Another six seconds of free fall. Six more seconds of free fall with no worries from anyone else. Then I realized, Jonathan and Faunra could both fly, and Dame Rebekah has her steed. I'm the odd man out. Six more seconds of freefall. We are getting a LOT closer than I would want. Six More seconds of freefall. At this point I was running thoughts through my head of how I wasn't going to see Savah again, and how I was a fool to trust them all. Maybe the last wizard kill was the last straw?

Another six seconds, and we were within one thousand feet of the ground. I tried to think about all of the people who had supposedly survive high altitude falls back on my old world. Generally, they were on softer terrain than what we were dealing with here, but I thought that I remembered that they went limp mostly. After another three seconds Faunra started to do some spellcasting. She got it off when we were within five hundred feet of the ground, and we all slowed to a comfortable rate of descent. It almost another minute to reach the ground from there. I swear they took the concept of H.A.L.O. to a new extreme.

With Jonathan and Faunra being exceedingly happy with what they just did, Jonathan lifted up the material again and we all made our way back to our vehicles and steeds. Jonathan noted that he couldn't keep up with the vehicles if we were lifting the armor and everything else. I suggested that we just go slowly back to the swamp, as it will actually make it easier to steer through the path that Yap takes us. We all agreed and made our way back to the swamp. It took a couple of hours but we were looking like we would be there before nightfall so we pressed on.

We sure got some looks when we passed through Bitter Hollow. We stopped only briefly to tell them that we had slain the Stone Giant who was over the ogres and all of the ogres and hags that were up in the Kreeg's mountain home. We continued on our way and finally got to the Sanos Trail, where Yap had been hiding. He came out when he saw the asteroid of armor that was following in our wake.

Yap was very happy when he saw us. It seemed like he knew that we had recovered a piece of the remains already. He started to take up his position on my shoulder to direct us back to his mistress. There were a LOT less twists and turns this time, helped by the fact that we knew the general direction that we needed to take. When we got there, the ghost nymph rose from the depths, this time without the rage and frustration she had previously been afflicted with. She focused all of her spirit into bringing back her beloved.

As the magic wove and her ghostly form dissipated, several things happened simultaneously. Lamatar's new form came into existence. He became an elf, just having reached adulthood. While this happened, everyone in the group was fully healed of all wounds, and I felt a burst of inspiration that I knew was from the former nymph, Myriana. Lamatar awoke and remembered all that had occurred before he had died and what it took to bring him back. Lamatar was distraught that he failed his fort and his lover was gone forever. He felt shamed and I took it upon myself to talk to him.

I told him that it wasn't truly his fault entirely, as we had discovered a mole in the organization that had set things up so that the events happened when it was known that the Black Arrows would be at their weakest. Lamatar thanked us for this revelation, and told us to not tell his former Black Arrows that he was back, that he would make contact when we was ready, but that he needed some time to get acclimated to his new form and that the White Willows needed a new guardian. Dame Rebekah gave him the Boots of the Mire that he had previously had in his closet and the locket that was in there with him. He took them both form her and thanked us for this. Yap alighted on his should and assured us that he would be here to help his new master.

We bid them both good luck and hightailed it back to the Fort. The swamp looked to be in much better condition and appearance after the ghost of Myriana was exercised. There were some wild areas, but nothing like what we experienced before. Also, the fauna seemed to even bend out of the way of our travel. We got to the edge of Claybottom Lake in a very short timeframe. It was starting to get dark, so we were thankful for the headlights on the bikes. We made our way back fairly slowly, at a whopping six miles an hour. It was well after dark when we got back and briefed Shalelu and Jakardros of the news. We told Jakardros of what happened to Lamatar up to the point where he was turned into an undead creature by the Stone Giant Necromancer. Dame Rebekah presented the Black arrows with the treasure that was discovered from the Stone Giant's hoard when a large piece of paper fell out.

From what we could understand, Sandpoint is in danger, again. This time from at least a dragon, and I assume giants. The fact that he had not given the command would likely mean that the attack hasn't started yet. I asked everyone where Jorgenfist is, and we found it on a map from up in the repaired map closet. I took a picture of it and updated the maps that the party had. We all crunched numbers and noted that it would probably be at least three days for someone to get to Hook Mountain from Jorgenfist. Then I realized that if I wasn't expecting trouble, I'd send a message for them to meet me on the road, and that this would mean that the army was already on the march. We deduced that the message had not already arrived, as the clan was still in fabrication mode, but we could not say that it wasn't supposed to arrive today, so that put us on a time line.

We figured that "M" would send the message to "Barl" when he was heading out, so that they could meet at some agreed upon place. That meant that we roughly had at least ten days to get back to Sandpoint and start up defenses. We would be no use travelling tonight, so we opted to tell Shalelu that we would need to head back to Sandpoint to help defend the town in the morning. Shalelu noted that she would be heading back with us. Vale said that he would be heading to Magnimar. Jonathan spoke up and told us that he had gotten a report from Sir Jasper that he was in Magnimar and waiting to speak with the Lord-Mayor. I asked Jonathan to pass along the news in the morning however he thought it best, and that Sir Jasper should head back to Sandpoint to help defend it.

Jonathan noted that he would, and Dame Rebekah noted that we would need to travel faster for longer than her steed could accomplish. Faunra told her that she would work on something to help her with this in a one off basis. Dame Rebekah thanked her and we all got set up and ready for an early morning and an early trip.