Colm

This character is from 3rd Edition. Lore in related documents may not align with current lore.

An orphaned bard who strove to inspire his comrades.

Backstory

Tebetu 15

Today I have to say goodbye to my family. It's not safe for me at the farm; Marlov's men will be after me. I'm packing some supplies as we speak, mostly from the pantry and dad's closet. Dad's yelling for me to get going, so I don't have much time to write. In fact, this might be the last entry I write. If I'm fortunate, I'll be able to write my tale in more detail.

Tebetu 16

I managed to sneak away. I won't be able to return to my home for a very long time, not until I'm strong enough to free my parents from Marlov. I'm going to try going west through the forest. There are a few nearby towns and cities that I could go to and lay low, but since the only place I've been to away from the farm is the Saipore, I decided to head that way. If in the event that I am captured, I'm leaving this journal behind for someone to find. Please, help my family and me.

Tebetu 18

I had a close call today. One of Marlov's men nearly caught me, but I managed to sneak up into a tree. I had to drop the sack of food to climb the tree, and unfortunately it was taken. After he took my food sack, the man must have gone back to get backup; from what I could tell, he was alone. They know where I'm heading now, though, so I'll have to hurry.

Tebetu 20

After days of running and being fearful of everyone, I finally met a friendly face. Because my food was taken, I had to find a town or something to get some food, which meant that I had to venture away from the heart of the forest every once in a while. It was risky, but I needed food. I started this search since the 18, and today I found a town. I didn't know what is was called, and I thought it would be suspicious to ask. At any rate, I bought some more food, then headed back to the heart of the forest. As I went back, I found a monastery. I thought that I might be able to ask them for some spare provisions for a weary traveler, and after all, the worst they could do was refuse me, so I went in. I met a man named Aulis inside. He seemed a friendly enough person. As we were speaking, I saw a group of men out the window. On their clothes was the crest of Marlov. They must have seen me at town. I explained my plight to Aulis very quickly and begged him to protect me. He agreed to hide me, thank goodness. When Marlov's men were finally turned away, I had a discussion with him. He decided that he would join me. After that, we both set off for our destination.

Tebetu 23

I think it's finally safe. Aulis and I made it. I finally have time to write down my story. But if by some chance I am captured, I'll provide my personal information for anyone who finds this.

My name is Colm Lexing, adopted half-elven son of Parcen and Marcy Lexing. It was 20 years ago that they found me their landlord's field. My parents physically couldn't have children, so they decided to adopt me. My parents acted as tenant farmers for the halfling landlord, Marlov. We were allowed to live on a portion of Marlov's land in exchange for giving him half of all our crops and livestock. When I was young, I thought it was unfair, but that was the way things were. You see, a while ago some humans were warped onto his field from another dimension. Marlov's great ancestors offered those humans jobs on his land, and they've been tenant farmers ever since. Sometimes the people try to get away and start a new life, but it never goes as planned when they do. They can't get any help, because no one really cares about humans. And if they leave, they somehow end up returning. One month ago, a human named Harmek successfully escaped. He was in the clear, but he came back a week later. I asked my father why he would do such a foolish thing, but he wouldn't give me a straight answer.

It was not my choice to leave the farm. One week ago, Marlov had raised the amount of goods we had to pay him. My parents couldn't pay the new ludicrous rate, so they were taken and made slaves of the landlord's house. Before leaving, my father warned me to leave home. He told me to run far away so that they couldn't catch me and bring me back. It was then that I realized Marlov was forcing everyone to work on his land, and if they escaped, they were recaptured and brought back. As hard as it was, I took his advice, taking with me a few possessions and gear, my father's lute, and a heavy heart as I said goodbye. I promised myself that I would return one day and put a stop to Marlov.

I set out that day a fugitive of sorts. I had a general idea of where some towns are cities were nearby from some maps I saw in an old book we had. I decided Saipore was my best bet, because I had been there before a couple times to take crops and meat to the market. I took a path through the woods along the road, wading through thick trees to avoid detection. I was almost caught once, but as I fled I found a monastery. I went inside pinning all my hopes on whomever was inside. A man named Aulis took me in, and he found a place for me to hide. Marlov's men left frustrated when they could not recapture me. Aulis decided to join me after our meeting. We stopped at Saipore and got some supplies, and it is from this town that I write this entry. Below is a more detailed description of myself:

Name: Colm Lexing

Age: 22

Eyes: Green

Hair: A mix between blonde and white, I'm guessing my halfling parent had blonde hair while my elf parent had white.

Height: 5"5

Weight: 127 lbs.

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Journals

Tebetu 27

Festival of the Kergyma was today. I played a song at the Copper Lute and met some people. We went to the bonfire when a Priest was killed. He wanted us to go to the church and prevent people from "finding something", or something to that effect. I learned that Dravon keep recently deceased bodies on a pedestal for a few days. I also learned that Priests have a bedroom in the church. Anyway, there was a secret passage. Inside was a human and two Dravon, if I recall correctly. We found a door with a trick lock. Curiosity and determination to beat the stupid lock distracted us from the priest's final words. We opened the door and got rushed by these weird, freaky, flesh-eating monster things. We fought three before we closed the door and put the lock back on. On the way out, we met the guy who killed the priest. He didn't attack us, and after exchanging some words about the freaky abyss, he left. Exhausted and freaked out, we went back to the Copper Lute.

Tebetu 28

Although we were all very tired from yesterday, I found that we were all awake near 4 in the morning. I guess I shouldn't have had that last drink right before sleeping. When I returned, I listened to a bard playing. I was impressed that there were still bards playing at 4 am. I had a conversation with him about things in town, and apparently there have been more elves in town than usual. I figured I better go hit the hay, but I saw Aulis's door slightly open. I went in to find that he was also awake. We chatted for a bit; I was going to ask him more about the Festival of the Kergyma, after all, he is an aasimar. Come to think of it, the festival is a very important celebration for aasimar, and they are supposed to see the works of God and learn why rules are set up and such, but we were holed up in that underground passageway all night. I hope he wasn't too devastated. Anyway, I was going to ask him about all of this, but Doriel and Adlus knocked. After letting them in, Doriel asked me to give him my lute. He said I just had to trust him. I almost didn't give it to him; he had no idea how much my father’s lute means to me, and I had no idea what he was going to use (or sell) it for, or if we would take good care of it. But something inside me told me to let him take it. I had my eye on him, though.

Doriel placed a weird disc-shaped object on my lute, and the room started going... pink. Was this a dream? Was I just overly exhausted and seeing things? It was very possible, in an hour or two I would be getting up, and I had gotten almost no sleep. Back on the farm there would be no way for me to complete all my tasks for the day with this little sleep. Anyway, I found myself in a different place entirely. It was still pink, and there was music playing. The music's style was both happy and creepy at the same time. It was very eerie. Adlus was not happy in the least about being transported here, and he threatened to beat up Doriel if he didn't explain what was going on. I myself didn't really care; I was too overwhelmed with our new setting. It gave me the creeps, and I wanted to get out as fast as possible. Doriel refused to give up his information, so Adlus actually hit him... well, he attempted to, anyway. They got into a fight, which was extremely dumb, especially in this foreign place. We don't even know if there's anyone else here, or if they're friendly. At any rate, it would have been wise to save our strength and energy for our enemies, because an archon snuck up on us. I forget exactly what kind of archon Aulis said it was; I really should go ask him later. That is, assuming this wasn't all a big dream.

After we collected ourselves, the archon was no match for us. There were two more waiting for us in the next room as well. We kept pushing on, when we fell into a trap. The floor below us dropped from beneath our feet, and we fell into a pit. There was some kind of device in the center of the room, as well as a poem written in elvin on the wall. We gathered that the poem gave us clues to get out of the pit. After inputting a code, the trap door (now the ceiling) swung open. There was a cage and a number read 30. We tried many other codes, but we couldn't get the cage down or the pulley to lower or anything. When the timer (we did eventually figure out that it was a timer) ran out, the cage dropped. I thought for sure that we would be flooded instead, but thank goodness I was wrong. We fought the Satyr in the cage. It was a tough battle; we had to fight with about five feet of water in the room. I was just tall enough so that my head was the only part of me not submerged. Even though I couldn't really do anything (after all, I can't shoot or play underwater), we defeated the satyr. I found a pan pipe on his body, and I have been practicing with it since. It's really quite fun, and a lot easier to learn. I can already play simple songs on it. At any rate, we climbed up the rope that the cage had been tied to, and we saw some women sipping tea. It appears they did not notice us. Doriel went to do a surprise attack, but he saw some medallions around their necks, which probably meant they were Godyr, and it would have been suicidal to attack then. Another figure, Dravic if I recall correctly, apparated, he too wearing a medallion. The women disappeared upon his arrival. He appeared to know Doriel, and gave him a greatsword. It was a beautiful blade. Suddenly he appeared at Adlus's side. Crap, is he fast! I thought we were screwed, but instead the man cured Adlus of his bite mark from yesterday. Upon saying some very rude and insulting things to me which I do not wish to repeat, he left, suggesting that Doriel not be "such a pansy". I couldn't help but laugh in my head. I think Doriel might have killed me if I laughed out loud.

The man disappeared and left a portal behind. Upon stepping through, we were returned to the Copper Lute. Wait a second, though. I didn't find my father's lute anywhere! Doriel didn't have it, and I didn't have it. Thankfully when we returned, it was sitting on my bead. A note was attached, written by the man we just saw. The man even took the time to replace the strings with better quality strings. I'm surprised he did this, the man obviously hated half-elves. But I thought it better not to question things, after all, it was a miracle that we weren't dead. I decided to go to bed before anything else distracted me from sleep. Doriel's lucky; he'd be in huge trouble if I didn't get my father's lute back.

If I were home Parcen would have given me a good beating for sure. I hadn't awoken until 11 am today! It was completely devastating to me; how could I have let this happen? Would my entire set of morals be flipped around in the course of a single day? Would I become a lazy good-for-nothing scoundrel, after all, it was so easy for me to dishonor one of the practices my father had taught me in waking early. I was definitely overreacting, but that's all I could think about that morning. I arose to find that none of my companions were awake either. Well, I sure won't be able to count on them to keep me on my healthy sleep schedule.

At any rate, after waking from my prolonged sleep, we were treated to a banquet on the inn. It was quite possibly the best food I have ever tasted in my life. The bread was perfectly baked; the beef stew was made from the more choice meats of the cow, and the turnover was especially good! You could say it was almost orgasmic. Well, orgasmic may be the wrong word. Arg, I can't think of a better word, and I'm pretty sure Doriel keeps trying to sneak a peek at this from across the room. Bah, whatever. You know what I mean. After this delicious meal the innkeeper informed Aulis that the castle lord wanted all clerics in the city to meet at the castle. We decided that we would head to town for some supplies before going.

I was selling some unneeded things at the shop when I realized that I still had the candlesticks from the church one night ago! It was bad enough that I was turning into a lazy do-nothing, but now I was a thief! I decided that I had to return it. Luckily, there was no one at the church when I went, and I was able to discreetly put the candlesticks back where they belonged. No one was the wiser. ... Oh no, I'm turning into Doriel... Uh oh, Doriel's giving me a weird look from across the room. While on our way back from the church we ran into a beggar whom I had previously given a few coins to. She warned us not to go through the gate, and instead go through the well. At first I thought she was crazy, and we went on our way to the castle.

Upon arriving at the castle I had a strange feeling. I didn't know what it was at first, but then it hit me; there was a gate and a well at the castle. Something inside me told me that the beggar was right, and he shouldn't go through the gate, and instead climb down the well. Adlus started a conversation with one of the guards and made an excellent distraction for us to climb down the well undetected. I volunteered to go down first. I hung on to the rope and stood on the bucket as Doriel and Aulis lowered me down. I guess my weird sleep caught up with me, as this clearly wasn't the smartest thing to down. They lost control, and I slipped, and the result was I fell down the well. I can still feel the aches of that one.

I could see at the bottom of the well that there was a small passageway. Doriel and I eventually convinced the other two to follow us down the well. I guess the sleep got to everyone else, too, because Aulis nearly fell on top of me! Once we were all at the bottom of the well we went through the passageway to discover an underground cavern with houses. I thought it was probably a shelter. We started poking around and found some skeletons and some grimlocks. Nasty things those grimlocks are. Good thing they're blind or they'd die looking in their reflection! Eh, that wasn't as funny as it sounded in my head. What WAS funny was when Adlus called out to a tiefling to see if they needed help. The tiefling looked over in Adlus's direction and as his attention was not focused on the skeleton advancing his way that very skeleton stabbed him, resulting in his untimely and quite humorous demise. Adlus was crushed. I think I may have let out an uncontrollable chuckle. Don't get the wrong idea now, I wasn't laughing at the dead corpse, I was laughing at the fact the Adlus, by trying to save the guy, ended up killing him. Looking back on it now though it did seem very mean... Oh no, I really am becoming more like Doriel! I have to start hanging around with Aulis more often.

One of the next buildings we checked was a bar. There was a band playing, and many tieflings were there just having a good time. We were a little tired after fighting, so we decided to rest here for a bit and get our strength back up. Aulis and I made it past the guards, but those guards, along with everyone else in the bar, had a real problem with Doriel. It was a good thing that Doriel was teaching me a bit of Draconic while shopping today. I was able to very crudely ask for a plan (I think I may have insulted his sister my first try... I wonder if he has a sister). We decided to pretend ourselves to also hate Doriel and to beat him up and take him out of the bar. I got to be the one to beat him up. I got to punch him in the face as hard as I could... part of me was glad to get some anger out, especially after falling down that well, and part of me was upset that I had to punch Doriel. The part of me wanting to get out some anger ended up winning in the end, though. The guards and bar locals wouldn't let us leave with his body. We had to teach all of them a lesson. We tried interrogating the bartender, but he ran out the back exit, only to be engulfed in flames.

Crap. What is down here that makes flames that big? I didn't want to find out, but we didn't turn back. We looked around some more. Adlus walked in on a wizard taking a leak. It was pretty awkward... and then he attacked us. I was caught off guard. We found that Dravon at the church who killed the priest. Even though he was the one who could shoot flames, we still knocked him out. Our plan was to have Aulis make him conscious again so we could interrogate him. We didn't have any rope though, because I flung Doriel's rope above a pit. Oops. So we couldn't bind him, and, well, as soon as he came too, poof! Vanished. I have a feeling we'll see him again, though.

After this encounter we saw a body at the bottom of a lake. I thought we would have some clue on him, so we went to retrieve the corpse. We dove in and there were skeletons in the water! What were they doing there? Anyway, Aulis has a knack for taking care of undead, so we came out of the fray unscathed. There were no clues, though. Just what is going on in this city anyway?

Everywhere else we explored turned up nothing. There was statue that we could climb to get to a hole in the ceiling. I felt I needed to redeem myself after falling down the well, so I gave it a shot. Crap! That ladder goes a long way up. If I slip, I'm dead. Wow, I didn't even get to the ladder. I fell off the statue. No way was I going up after that. Adlus gave it a go. What was at the top? A trap door. He had to climb back down. I'm glad he climbed down and didn't fall down.

That's all we could find underground. So we went out the way we came in. Man, I fell climbing up, too. It was not my day. I guess that's what I get for sleeping in and such. Adlus and Aulis wanted to try going in the castle to see what the King wanted. I was suspicious, and so was Doriel, so we headed back to the Copper Lute. There was one problem, though. The Copper Lute was closed. When we arrived, there was a huge crowd. Someone had killed the innkeeper. I felt crushed. The Copper Lute was a place I had hoped to visit many times, but now I could not. We went to another place close by. Their rates were expensive (but what we found in the well more than covered it, so I really shouldn't complain), but their food was delicious. Doriel and I tried sneaking back into the Copper Lute to learn more about the murder, but there were too many guards. We gave up and went to sleep.

Shabatu 1

Much has happened in the past days. We awoke today from the inn to the sounds off ships and swords. We rushed outside to see what had happened. The Elves had invaded; war had broken out. We were met by who we would later discover (well, highly assumed) to be the Baron's son. He told me that his mom was in the castle and that she was in trouble. We complied with the Elven Navy, who appeared to be winning, and turned over the boy. Adlus and Doriel went with an office while Aulis and I investigated at the castle. Well, we would have, but there were guards everywhere. And even if there weren't guards, the castle was impenetrable at the moment. I waned to make sure the boy's mother was alright; I didn't want him to become an orphan like myself. We figured if the Elves ever broke in, we might be able to stakeout and see if they brought any prisoners out of the castle. While staking out, Doriel and Adlus returning with a mission given by the Elves. We were to find the Baron, who had escaped in a caravan. We had also guessed by the Elves' reactions and other subtleties that the boy was the Baron's son. It was in our benefit to find the Baron, we could see his side of the war and perhaps get him to cooperate.

We abandoned the stakeout and went following the Baron on horseback. We came to a fork in the road. There were three choices: one led to a mountainous region controlled by Shifters, on led to a prison town allied with Saipore, and one led to a middle ground between the two with hills and systems of caves. We figured the Baron would either go to the prison town to seek help of g to the caves to hide. We decided to go to the caves.

We rode about 2 hours after the fork when we came upon a cave with two caravan's parked outside. Surely these must be the Baron's. This was the cave he was hiding in. We ventured in the cave to discover captured Elves in cages of sorts. We set them free, and Adlus offered to escort them back to town in one of the caravans. Doriel, Aulis, and I go after the Baron. We went deeper into the caves, fighting a few Kantu along the way. We eventually came to a dead end, but a person at the end was shocking. It was a creature, one that looked similar to the weird creatures that came out of the church, Except he was white, not black. There was a Dravic symbol made with dust that appeared to bind him to the floor; he was alive but he could not move. Doriel jumped over to investigate, but he was also frozen by the symbol. Aulis threw some copper at the symbol to try to disturb it without hurting Doriel. Aulis is a good shot, it only took him three tries. Unfortunately, when Doriel was freed, so was the creature. The creature tumbled up and attacked Doriel. Doriel managed to jump over a chasm that separated the cave from the floor with the symbol. We had Doriel stand on the edge so if the creature jumped we could push him into the chasm. The creature appeared to have some intelligence, as it did not fall for our trap, instead tormented as it was trapped on the other side. Eventually it exploded into a mass of dark matter. We backtracked and took a different route through the caves.

We found an elf trapped in a cage guarded by two halflings. Finally we see some people. Enough birds. For some reason Aulis thought I could break a wooden cage with a dagger, wile Doriel has a giant greatsword. At any rate, we freed the elf, and he helped us win the fight with an impressive disintegration. He could also turn into dark matter, but instead of exploding, the matter imploded, allowing him to teleport. Also, the creature was apparently one of his subjects. I'm glad we didn't tell him what we did, or he would have slain us. up ahead a room was the Baron and an elven traitor.we dispatched of the elf and cornered the Baron.

We questioned the Baron. He had taken some island territories that he said no one cared about, and the elves were the ones who started the war. I wanted to keep him alive, but Doriel lunged at him. Aulis stopped his blade from reaching the Baron, but it spat poison at him, killing him. Poor kid, I had hoped we could keep the Baron alive. The Baron had a longbow of exceptional quality, so I took that as we left.

We took the other wagon back to Saipore to report to the elves what we had learned. We were able to see the head of the Navy (I forgot his title, which is very bad). While in his office, we saw a peculiar Rapier hanging on the wall. We asked about it, and he is supposed to give it to someone foretold by a prophecy. Apparently the prophecy involves Aasimar. It would be interesting if the prophecy somehow involved Aulis. At any rate, the best thing possible happened with this elven invasion. The elven Navy has secured all the towns around Saipore. I told the head guy that my parents were wrongfully taken as slaves. The elves are going to overthrow Marlov and free my parents, along with everyone else! My goal is complete.

Shabatu 2-6

We sailed from Saipore's port today. There was a huge tidal wave headed this way. We were told of this impending tidal wave by a dravic vessel. Wow, those ships are huge! Doriel tells me that the ship is full of spellcasters; they don't use ballistae or anything, just spells. I sure wouldn't want to mess with it. As we set sail, a thought occurred to me. How far inland would this tidal wave hit? Would it reach mom and pop? And what would become of the queen? Hopefully the magic barrier protects her from the tidal wave. It was too late to do anything about it, though, as we were well on our way. Our ship was headed toward Ayland, an island toward the south that was mostly shifter inhabited, but recently halflings began to occupy major parts. We were on a quest to find one of the Godyr's shrines and locate a powerful magical item. These things are supposed to be super magical; the readings I got from this bow were incredibly powerful, so I can’t imagine what a magic item belonging to a Godyr would be like.

We had smooth sailing to our destination. Doriel and I had been hired, so we technically didn't have any duties as of yet. Mom also said "Idle hands and the devil's tools", though, so I thought I'd do my part. Little did I know how much effort it took to keep a ship running. I messed up the second I started, letting a rope go and having things fly all over the place. I was more useful when I didn't work. In the evening however I did play the sailor's a few songs. The atmosphere of the sea, it was invigorating, inspiring! I played one of my best performances that night. The sailors loved it, and on top of that, cherries started popping all over the mast! It appears that the person we met in our dream had enchanted my lute more than I had thought. Or maybe it was my own ability. Whatever the cause, the guys loved it. Apparently it was a good sign; sailors are very superstitious. On the final day Aulis even accompanied me with a solid drumming. I'll have to teach Doriel some of the finer points; his flute was way off tune.

After five days of sailing we reached land. There were a few ships, mostly those of merchants. Lieutenant Adlus had us open fire on one of the halfling-manned vessels. It was quite a battle. We had ballistae and a catapult of sorts. Our ships soon became close enough for boarding, and at this point we simply overwhelmed them with our numbers. We soon secured the port. I was sent to do some reconnaissance, gather some information from the locals. We normally would have sent Doriel, but in a town full of shifters, that probably wouldn't be a good idea. Actually no matter what the population was made of, they probably wouldn’t like Doriel. At any rate, this wasn't the best idea. I went over to a group of halflings and they grabbed me! I might have been able to break free of their grasp but I was vastly outnumbered, so I thought it best not to resist. They threw me in prison! What did I do?! Aw nuts, they also took all my gear. I had a lot of time on my hands, but nothing to do. There were two others also here, an old man and a younger guy. He looked about my age. The old man would eventually wake up. He wasn't from here; he was looking for passage when he was thrown in here. What is everyone's deal here?

I thought about how far I had come. My parents would never believe that I had been all the way to Ayland. They'd also never believe that I made friends with a Dravon and an Aasimar. I'll have some interesting tales to tell them, assuming that tidal wave doesn't reach them. I'll have to ask Adlus when we sends his report if he can check that for me. Hmm? Someone opened the door. Hey! It's Aulis! They did find me... but it sure took them a while. Where was Doriel, though? Apparently he had been slain by a lion, but his body went missing. And now Aulis tells me he can hear hissing... I can't hear a thing. Something funny's going on. Oh good, my backpack is over there. They better not have taken anything. Well, the only things of importance where my lute and that bow, and those are still there. Adlus is marching back to the ship, isn't he concerned about Doriel's body? Ah, okay, Aulis told him we would look for it. Hey, that means we have to do reconnaissance again!

But before we did that, we escorted our friends to a merchant ship. Don't want them getting abducted again. We made it with no trouble. Alright, take care! Wait, I never got their names! Ah shoot, they're gone. Back to business, then. Dang, it's pretty late. There are not many folks out. Who would take a body? I figure it wouldn't be a commoner; they would have just taken the beastmaster's body. There were four buildings worth noting. One was guarded by just one halfling. He told us we needed a pass to get in. Drat. We checked another building, the Mayor's office. We learned some things from the guards this time (without getting thrown in jail). This town was just recently taken over by halflings, and they set up a keep near the mountains to the north next to a mine. The army moved on, though, and the keep now has some fishy stuff going down. There was also an ordeal involving the local healer, who was placed under house arrest for the supposed death of a halfling. They sure lie to arrest people around here. I myself was feeling rather defiant and wanted to bust this guy out. I attempted to forge a pass, and if that did not work, we had a backup plan; we would like to ask about the murder of our dravic friend.

We approached the halfling. I presented our forged pass... are you serious? My scribbled signature managed to be his... you have got to be kidding me. Luckily our backup plan worked... he would let us question the man, if we helped clear out some of the orcs at the keep. Alright, that’s better than throwing us in prison. We went in and questioned the healer. He was a human... I haven't seen any humans before. His name was Terek. He was also wrongly accused, he was trying to heal a halfling who had been poisoned beyond the point of healing, and they blamed him for the murder. He's been here ever since. That's horrible. I'm starting to think that the elves were right about the halflings... We knew there that we had to take him with us. It was a challenge to get him past the halfling, but I made a very convincing spontaneous argument that having a healer around would help greatly when combating the orcs. So we set off, Mikkal the halfling, Terek the human, and Aulis and myself, to go cleanse the keep.

We made our way to the keep. We were making good time when all of a sudden a demon gorilla attacked us! It took some effort to take him down, but I got to see Terek's abilities in action. His wind elemental is really cool. We slept in the jungle, and the following morning we continued. We eventually came to the foot of the mountain. We all climbed the mountain while hanging on to my hemp rope. At the base of the keep, some orc were ready to give us a warm welcome. There were quite a few, but they weren't nearly as strong as we are, except one... but one was no match for four. We stormed the keep soon after to find the plaza. There was a wolf tied up... I went over to try and free it, but it attacked us with its ice breath. He reminded me of that fox. One day I was collecting the eggs from the chicken coop when I found in one of the nests not a hen but a fox. He scampered off out the door with a chicken. Dad hated the crap outta him, but I grew to like him. He stole our chickens many a time, but for some reason I grew attached to it. When he would come to take a chicken I would watch him. Eventually my dad got him with an arrow as he ran away, and he never came back. The wolf was on a chain, so as long as we stayed back, he couldn't hurt us. We were contemplating where to go when a giant troll broke down the wall. He was a bugger to fight... trolls can regenerate, so it was a long fight. It was such a long fight that I ran out of arrows. In my frustration I readied my bow as if I had an arrow and fired, and to my amazement, a shining yellow arrow fired! Cool! Inside where some kenku (how do you spell that?) locked up in shackles, so we set them free. The kenku fond the weapon depository and brought feathered justice to some of the orcs. It was getting late, and we were tired from the troll fight, so we exited the keep and set up camp. We took turns on shift. On the last shift (which happened to be mine) a zombified kenku attacked. I felled it with one awesome blow from the longsword I took. With an electrified swing, the kenku was roasted.

We awoke the next day with renewed vigor. We went back to the keep to clear it out. Ol' wolfy was still there snarling at us. We went into another room full of kenkus. There was a troll who snuck up on Aulis. We had to fight this one as well. Bah! So annoying. I tried getting my bow to fire those golden arrows again, but couldn't. I'll have to tinker with it later. After dispatching of the troll, we set the kenku free, and they also killed them some orc. Stupid orc. Now that the keep was cleared out, we went into the mines. It was dark in the mines, but Mikkal rushed in. We followed him. Inside were an orc, some zombie kenku, and some skeletons. I think we found where the necromancer was. We stood ready to fight, when Mikkal rushed over to the orc. "Thanks for bringing them here" the orc said, as Mikkal turned to face us. That dirty traitor! To think Aulis healed him right before this encounter! It was looking grim for us. I looked back, and the mine door had just shut. Crap! We were stuck here, and the only way out was to fight our way. We were aided by an unexpected ally: Doriel! How the crap did he get here? He just appeared out of nowhere. It seems like he got a lot stronger, too. He was able to create a giant fireball. With Doriel's help, we managed to win. After everything was dead, Doriel took something from the Orc and disappeared... hey wait! I have so many unanswered questions... After taking everything in the mines, we went back to the ship.

Shabatu 8-12

We went from the coast inland toward Pardacius's shrine. Terek has been there a couple times, so he knew the way. We were making progress when a rather unimportant event drove us off course. A monkey threw a fig at Adlus. They rattled our cages a bit, but were harmless. Aulis told us to ignore them and head on, but as he took a few steps forward, he fell into a hole that had been hidden. Adlus looked to see what the matter was, and he fell in as well. I fell trying to get the fig... I was hungry, and wanted to see what it tasted like. Terek had no choice but to follow us. In the cavern were some snakes; we dispatched them quickly. There was a fork in the road: a three pronged fork. We ventured left. Of noticeable interest were some trees with a magical signal detectable from within. Terek shifted the tree so that the gnarled branches moved out of the way. Inside were some things, most importantly some books and a portrait. The portrait was most likely Doriel's family. Weird, why is this stuff down here? Among the books was Doriel's mother's diary. We also found what appeared to be a shifter that was killed in some form of ritual. She had a staff next to her, and Terek took it. It would end up saving us very soon.

We then came upon a dark lake. Adlus had been boasting of his swimming prowess, so he removed his armor in order to not be weighed down and dove into the lake. I jumped in as well, because I felt that something bad was in the lake, and I didn't want Adlus going into that alone. What came out of the lake? A Hydra. Yeah. We had to retreat. Adlus and Aulis were near one exit, and Terek and myself near another. The Hydra went after Aulis and Adlus. It was so big that it had to squeeze through one part, and as it did that, Terek used his staff to make the hydra larger. It seems counter-intuitive, but it would make it so the hydra couldn't follow us. Unfortunately, it simply broke the cave when it grew, but that dazed it enough for us to escape. I was with Terek, and we went into a room with two thorns. Terek was able to communicate with them, and we learned that the Hydra chased them as well, and that on the other side of the cave was a murderous woman who thirsted for blood. I should have known who it was when I heard "thirsted for blood", or at least guessed that it was a dravon, but I was too startled by our near-death experience to give it much thought.

We allied ourselves with the thorns, Sven and Hans, to take out the 2 threats. First we decided to take out the hydra so as to unite with Adlus and Aulis. Terek had a bag that made little creatures, and we used them as scouts to see where the Hydra was. Yup, he was just outside the entrance. We had Sven move in close while Hans shot at the Hydra from afar. Terek summoned sharks and bears, and had his elemental set up flanks. I shot at the hydra and healed Sven when necessary. It was a brilliant fight, it was a long fight, and after some time it was a victorious fight. I was inspired by our fight to create a song, a song that I could then use to inspire courage in my friends during battle.

We took the one path we had not explored to see if Adlus and Aulis had hi there. We found some wasps, but no friends. They had hidden in a small crevice in the room with the trees, books, and painting. We all felt tired, so we slept before confronting this murderous woman. When we awoke we entered to find a pool of water and a beautiful woman singing. How could she be murderous; unless her song had some ill effect on us. I played my own song to counter the ill effects of the woman's song. I told everyone that it was imperative that they hear my song. Belathor went out of my song's range, and became a servant of the woman. She had him create whirlpools. Aulis and Adlus were having a tough time swimming, and to make matters worse a thick fog had developed. I could not see my friends through the fog, so I just played, hoping they would follow the sound of my Lute. As long as I heard the woman's singing, I kept playing. Eventually my friends came out of the water back towards me. Hans had drowned, and Belathor was nowhere to be seen. Sven went to investigate a possible exit, but he was soon sent flying back into the pool room on fire. A dryad had come out, and it was attacking the woman. Eventually the woman fell, and then we focused on the dryad; it too fell. Both corpses disappeared. We went through our only hope of an exit to find that it did lead back to sunlight.

We were back on course for the shrine. There were no other distractions on the way, we had made it. The guards inside at first had only let Terek in, but when we mentioned that we were helping to drive out the halflings, the let us in. We were given no concrete information on a possible artifact, but we knew on had to be here, at least assuming we trusted Commodore Niall. This was the only shrine on the continent. We did find a large ax that appeared to be a replica of Pardacius's, and Adlus thought that it might hold some clue to the artifact. When he pulled the ax from its floating position, chaos broke out.

I was in the other room, but I had heard a great commotion. There were dravon, Doriel included, and some other humanoids the likes of which I had never seen before. They were arguing about something, and shouting very loudly. I managed to quickly scribble bits and pieces of what they said onto some parchment, and this is what I had written:

The Dravon had said

Nairo is trying to use the millenial equinox to restore Dara.

Urien hates/loves (couldn't remember... and that is probably really important) her; trying to stop it.

She was Ximena's best friend, and so the elves are trying to free her, but she's evil.

Nairo has been misleading the Dravon concerning the seal of Drieon breaking.

The Artifacts being moved will create a brief gap in the ether, and allow Dara to escape.

Her presence in the world will establish a land base for Drieon.

While the other humanoids were saying

Urien is a conflicted fool who is trying to keep a Godyr in hell for a past folly.

She is not evil, and has been trapped in hell for 3 millennia.

She just wants to be free, and will go emerge in Sunderland and populate the land of no magic.

This brought up many questions: Who is Dara? What's special about the millenial equinox and Dara? What is with the seal of Drieon? What of the artifacts, and where are they? Or what :are they? Who is this other Godyr? But the weird race and the Dravon weren't the only ones who appeared: a giant demon also emerged from a portal. At first the weird race (I was later :told they are dwarves) and the dravon were fighting, but we all teamed up to take out the demon. As the demon fell, I heard a voice, two actually, in my head. "You must choose a side" :I had to make a split-second decision; shoot Doriel, or the Dwarf. I chose the dwarf, but before I could fire an arrow, he exploded in a fiery burst! What the heck? Did I do that? I hope not... I don't want this bow to have a mind of its own. I wanted to talk to Doriel, but he vanished. During the fight I got a few words out of him... I asked if we were on the same side, and he replied that he follows Urien. If he knows anything about his mother's fate, then this is a good sign, as he did not kill us right there. If he does not know... then we are going to have some trouble.

During our adventure, I have become more familiar with this bow's power. It is truly remarkable what it can do. Currently it shoots magical arrows that I need only to pull on the string to summon, and these arrows do enormous damage now, like that of Adlus's sword. It can produce a shield for me, and I feel more dextrose and tougher when I wield it. It is simply a masterpiece, and one day, when I have much time, I may compose a song about it.

Shabatu 17

Today we embarked on another mission. At least it was Adlus’s mission. We were to go to Dara’s shrine and remove the artifact. Dara’s shrine was in the Sunderlands, a continent with no magic. We took a shortcut through different planes, one being Urien’s. We were teleported to the plane, Pandemonium. We were in a place with enormous winds. They blew us about silly, almost into nothingness. It boggles my mind how close we came to death there. But we managed to jump back into the water and found an exit at the bottom. There were weird creatures here. On had a spiky chin and was trying to stab at us. We just kept jumping down holes, though. We fought a sleek thing made of hard metal, and it was beating us badly, so we jumped down another hole, where a Dravon kept shooting lightning and fireballs at us. He had on him a magical deck of cards that granted us various things depending on which card we drew. This led to an ordeal where Adlus risked his life on a 50/50 chance between eternal banishment of wishes, and he picked the wishes. He wished for a legendary greatsword, and got Doriel’s. He gave it back eventually, and we moved on.

We went through a portal and found a dark room. There was a bridge that led across a pit with an assorted number of portals. A voice wanted us to answer some riddles. We got the first right, but the next two wrong. We were damaged somehow because of it. Then when we got the next right, he gave us one last riddle: I love to tear human flesh and am voraciously hungry. What am I? Ooooh, I had a bad feeling in the pit of my gut that the answer was him. It was. The voice showed itself, and it belonged to a huge black dragon!

There was no way out of fighting him; we had to beat him to go forward, which held the only exit. Aulis did an incredible amount of damage with his spells, while the rest of us did not do nearly as much. Aulis had gotten the dragon down to almost the point of death, the next spell would slay the beast, but Aulis was badly hurt, too. I knew that for the good of my friends, I had to make the ultimate sacrifice. I drew the dragon’s attention to me, and he squished me against the wall (according to Aulis, anyway). That opening gave Aulis enough time to cast one last spell that killed the dragon. Next thing I know, I’m back. I saw Aulis; he had revived me with a spell. Thank goodness Dragon’s love treasure, or the spell would not have worked.

We were ready to enter the final portal. Inside was a single weapon, floating like all the others. This weapon was a making of the dwarves, an Urgrosh I believe. Also in the room were many pictures of Urien and Dara, who were obviously lovers. There was one painting that had a child as well. Doriel had a scroll, and he said his employer told him to use it on the axe so that a demon would not spawn. I had a vague idea that Doriel didn’t want to accomplish the same goals that Adlus did regarding the artifact, but I really did not care, so I let him do his thing. I had no idea who Dara was, and if we should help her or not (I figured that Doriel wanted to do things that would not help her, and that Adlus did). Aulis should have caught on to what Doriel was doing, but because of a communication error with Adlus, the deed was done with no objection. Doriel had a scroll of Mordenkainen’s Disjunction, and he used it to destroy the axe, which I would soon learn would bind Dara to her plane.

With the axe destroyed, we set to leave. Doriel had a surprise visitor, his father. His dad was in on the mission, and was set to get Doriel out of this plane. Having no desire to be stuck on this plane, I offered to join them. I didn’t care much for their plans, but I did not want to be stuck here. Adlus and Aulis realized that they had been duped by Doriel, and now wanted to prevent him, and thus me, from escaping. They both engaged; I wanted nothing to do with fighting my friends, so I merely turned invisible and watched them fight. I guess whomever won I would leave with. Adlus and Aulis outmatched Doriel, whom they knocked unconscious.

Just then I heard a voice, the masculine voice that I had heard when I was told to choose a side between the Dwarf and Doriel, and just then I knew, that voice was Urien, and that the feminine voice was Dara. I was sure it was, but I didn’t know how. The voice of Urien told me to attack Adlus and Aulis. How could I betray Aulis, who had saved me in my time in need while escaping Marlov? And even if that had not happened, they were still my friends, and I would never attack them. I was angered by this request. “Screw you, Urien,” I said back to him. Just then Doriel’s father yelled, “Looks like someone’s disobeying daddy’s orders,” as he turned into a black dragon, similar to the one from before, except that he could cast spells. He had just told me what I had been searching for answers for, my father is Urien, so that means my mother is Dara. Their child in the painting was me. And Doriel has just sealed my mother away. I was outraged; I let it happen; I could have stopped it if only I had known. I wanted the Dravon to pay, so I turned to face Doriel’s father. I was going to kill him. I didn’t care if my friends helped (but luckily they did).

An idea occurred to me: sweet, sweet irony. Doriel helped effectively destroy my mother, so I planned to revive him and help us kill his father. Pretty dick thing to do, but I was pissed. I healed him, but he wanted to kill his dad, apparently. He is a douche. And he did attack all of us with meteors! Holy crap. Aulis opened up the bag that he had been given, and it blessed him with awesome abilities. Adlus had just received an amazing sword that he for the first time. I’m glad that I have such awesome friends. They completely destroyed Doriel’s dad, and after he was dead, the portals under the pits all went to the same place: blue waters. We all decided to jump in, and we were sent back to Mondevai.

---

Ending

This is my final entry in this journal. I feel that now that I am king, it is silly for me to continue with my Bardic ways. I don’t think my people would take kindly to me wandering and playing. Though I could not help but write a few more songs, one in particular being a kind of tribute to my past adventures. Touching the magic rune here will play it:

After we had escaped from the plane leading to Dara’s shrine, I went into hiding. I had ticked off Urien pretty good, and I thought he might send people after me, especially after what the incident with Doriel’s father. I had found a way into the Astral Plane, and I took refuge there. The Astral Plane is a very weird place… words do not do it justice. I had a lot on my mind at this point: how would I confront Urien and Doriel? Would I ever be able to speak with my Mother? How long would I have to stay in hiding? What would become of the world because of these events? I started to become very paranoid. I was afraid that Urien was going to catch me, or that that the world would fall into chaos because of the events that happened, or something completely ridiculous. I can't even remember some of the things anymore. But then I met Isabella Celvia. She was there for me, she listened to and comforted me. I honestly believe that without her I would have gone crazy. Eventually we would come out of hiding and make a new home in Sunderland, and soon I married Isabella. Shortly afterwards we established the Eladrin kingdom of Marcen. I honor my halfling parents in this name, Parcen and Marcy, who were killed in the first of many floods that struck the region around Saipore.

I spoke with Urien sometime after the events at Dara’s shrine. He gave me a brief detailing of why he had Dara imprisoned. He did not reveal the nature of the fight that took place, but a fight between them caused all this. I forgave him for this… what’s done is done, although I would have liked to prevent it. He also had no idea how I had became lost all those years ago. It seems there are still questions left unanswered. We also got on the topic of the Dwarves. He asked my feelings on them, and I felt that they were my brothers, and so that was my response. It was hard to judge how Urien felt about that, but he did not question me. I felt that something was troubling him… but I could not put my finger on it. Urien… my father, he is a strange one, yet I have respect for him.

I have not kept much contact with my two friends, Aulis and Adlus. Aulis is pretty busy these days, he is basically Nairo's bodyguard, after all. I've hardly spoken with him. I do hope he's doing alright. I've spoken with Adlus a few times. I do not agree with what he did in taking over the halflings. Quite the irony that the Elves waged war on the halflings for conquering other nations, and now they are doing the same thing. I do still want to maintain a good relationship with his nation.

I’ve also spoken with Doriel quite a few times. Seems we have a lot in common: we both just want the good of our people, although Doriel’s methods are at some times questionable. He told me that he was sorry for what happened to my mother, and had he known, it would not have been so. He was so awkward trying to apologize yet still try to maintain his usual coolness; I could tell it didn’t come easy to him. I forgave him as well, and we are still good friends. He's offered to do a few jobs offing people for me, but what need do I have of that? The only enemies I have are those Sons of Pardacius, who are convinced of driving my people from Sunderland, but I do not wish to harm them, only to have them accept us. At the end of one of our meetings he said, "I bet someday people will sing songs about me... I hope only the best composers write them." He'll soon be getting a letter with the a magic rune.

Speaking of the Sunderland, we have been able to use some magic here in Sunderland, the land thought to be completely barren of magic. I hope to continue expanding the strength and presence of magic in Sunderland. I also hope to establish peace between the nations… as there are still some unresolved conflicts. But I want more than anything now to hear Dara’s voice one more time. If I should fail, at least I have heard it once before.