Diary of Maeve Palierus
Posted: Sat May 08, 2010 9:19 am
((Hi, below you will find something i tried to write when alfa 1 was still going, it is terrible written with bad english and overally of "poor quality" but Maeve was part of ALFA World, and this belongs to ALFA, so after some years i decided to post it here, perhaps someone will find it entertaining to bring back some memories. Have a good read.))
This is a Diary of Maeve of the house Palierus.
I Am a wizard, a weaver, caster, mage, one of the People. I was Born, on our island, Evermeet. I have came a long way to reach this place, to reach the level of knowledge i posses right now. And now, things changed, i see a change in me clearer than before. When i left my family i was excited to see the land of humans, to learn from them. It was not long ago, barely few years, but much happend during that time. Much happend to me. I was able to board one of those rare ships that went from our island to one of the cities of western coast, Neverwinter. I traveled through Waterdeep, Daggerford, Loudwater, i have seen human war, killing and destruction. As this time, the logical way of presentation of my short though eventfull life would be chronological, but with the amount of events i may be unable to maintain correct chronological order.
My beginings.
As i wrote previously i was born on the Island of Evermeet near one of small Villages of our people, My father of the name Acris was a man of the forest and my mother, Kas'ir had inborn magical talent with i wished to posses, though i didnt have it, not in the way she had. Therefore, as the ways of my father were alien to me (partially becouse my inborn physical features) I choosed the path of a Wizard, at the very begining i was learned by the wizard of our village, Ulin Kawi'el, though from the distance of time and experience i must admit he was hardly a wizard. With his help and dedication though i was able to learn the very basics of arcane, and the basics of learning the arcane. This was the main occupation with took most of my time in the village, together with limited aid to my family, as my extended studies or "studies" were extremely time consuming as i wished to learn quickly, as i had a dream of leaving the village as i was fully aware of limitations it put to me. As soon as i decided that i was able i left my village and my family. They didn't undestand, but they didn't try to stop me, i will thank them forever for letting me go my own way. As i think of it, my willingless to go on my own, and do on my own is partially after my father, who often dissapeared from home for several days, sometimes weeks. He said that he needs space and air from time to time, that he needs solitude.
In many aspects i feel this way as well from time to time, even today.
During this travel i met and bound to me Merel, a raven with whom i travel since then, my closest companion and great aid.
After a voyage i have reached the city of Loutithspar, as i previously didnt see Our Great City, i was amazed how City has been build, or grown. Most of the buildings are magically transmuted materials, and as i see now, no human city can eqate to our great capital both in terms of beauty (with is beyond any question) nor in terms of safety or durability. Natural shaped stones, streets pawed with gems, glittering in the sun. A place where the true Power of our people is clearly seen.
There i have spend some time in the city, admiring its greatness, and looking for a way to realize my dream - and finally i was able to board one of our ship that was going to the mainland. The city of Neverwinter.
Continent
When i reached it, as i remember now, it was hard to belive what i have seen, roads made of small stones, or of dirt, the harbour was dirty and full of unwashed individuals of various spacies, unbelivable crowd and ever-reaching stench. I have talked with some of the people who were living there, and realized how different it was to live in such place. All were in constant hurry they acted loudly and without grace.
There all this started, as I can say now, my life of adventurer started there, in neverwinter.
I didnt stay in Neverwinter for too long, and as soon as i was able i boarded random ship with took me toward the city of daggerford.
This "city" has shown to be in equaly dire state as Neverwinter, therefore i will skip the descriptive part. The city itself was surrounded by walls, and beyond them great dangers were to be found, dangers unknown to me. Small episode worth mentioning is that i took the test to join their "militia", I am very glad i didn't pass the test.
In the city i encountered Tel, like i learned later a half drow, she was going north, to other city, waterdeep, i went with her.
She saved my life on the way.
The city of waterdeep was "a gem" of human cities. Rock perhaps would be better word, almost greenless enromous walled city, where stink and dirt was biggest from all cities i ever seen. the amount of, excuse the word but there is no better, shit lying on the ... well, lying everywhere was unbelivable. It was not possible to not stink in this place, even for me. I decided to stay in the city, to learn about it, as it was so vastly differenet then our land, and the mixture of cultures and races was unmatched. I have took a task of putting down magical fires within the city, therefore i secured my survival.
Long travels along narrow alleys of the city shown me few interesting places, one of them was a tavern where strange beasts were... customers.
One of those beasts was a beholder, a creature of great evil... sipping its drink in arm-lenght from me was unbelivable experience. To this day i regret that i was unable to drag him into longer conversation.
Within the city i have met various people and non-people. One of them was Isaniel, an elven mage who was, at that time, working for waterdeep militia.
At this point i learned about the elven city far to the south with i decided, being sick of the.. atmosphere of waterdeep, to visit. I went a ship south, to the city of Baldur's gate (another walled latrine, though clear - for a latrine) ,from where i took the road south to find the village.
I reached the city of Beregost, and there noone knew about the elven city. I stayed there for a short while, experiencing death and ressurection of one of the beregost militia. I must admit that the felled militiaman was killed near me, as we were walking together on the road, i wasn't able to help him, but i was able to inform locals about his state. This was enough.
I returned north, once again to the city of Waterdeep, where i spend another weeks putting down fires and learning of others, and using the "watchfull order" resources to learn myself.
Another one of those met who somehow changed my existance was Kit Gyrfalcon, later Sir. A holy warrior of Red Knight, later a knight. He and some of his companions decided to go to the city of loudwater with was deep inland. I decided to join them, as i had, once again, enough of The Greatest Latrine of west coast. The journey was relatively safe, though when we reached the city of Loudwater it became clear that there is war coming to the city, and soon siege was laid on the city, trapping him inside. Without skills or will to fight for the city actively, I found another way of spending time, in the temple dedicated to oghma, where i promised to aid the local priest, Celia, with protecting the old tomes. With that i was able to learn from them during all that time i had free. Fortunatelly soon i got to know about a secret passage the soldiers were using to get those unable to fight out of the city.
In the same time i have meet another individual who impacted my life, An Elven holy knight of selune, Aurenthil. He made his home near Loudwater, south of it, within the protection of elven settlement. The elves there were strictly prohibiting outsiders to enter, I had the honour of being let it. The settlement was small and rather crude, but with limits of solitude it was understandable. As with aurenthil, history of this elf is both tragic and comforting. He slowly revealed it to me, and to be honest i tried to reveal it to myself by gathering informations from others that knew him.
Starting from the begining, it is prudent to say that he was a toy in epic struggle betweem seluna and shar, as shar. The details of those events are mystery to me, but i know that he asked and was granted a wipe of memory of some events he was part of in his life, that left him lost and without guidance, he became a follower of shar, though as far as i gathered, he was far from being zealeous. He became a member of beforementioned Wayfarers, he was serving with them loyaly, mostly fighting evil in the area, but the organisation, with too liberal policy of aquiring new members, soon started to be corrupted from inside. As i could gather, the turning point of it was death of their second captain, from that point some of the Wayfarers left, including Kit Gyrfalcon, and Aurenthil, back then known as Arim, became captain of the Wayfarers. From that point Wayfarers came involved with some evil deeds with put a stain on reputation of this organisation. Arim, dishartened left that place. He wandered toward Loudwater, and there he found redemption, and was fully turned to what he was from the very begining, a holy knight of Selune who sacreficed himself in the fight with Shar. From that place he was, once again, dedicated to fighting evil and protect his people, with he did. We became close friends in very short time, and we occassionaly fought along eachother sides.
It is worth of saying that he saved my life on more then one occassion. He found his Second half in loudwater, and there is his Home.
Though he traveled often, and we met in many places, fought many enemies, of one of them i will mention later, as it was later.
Meantime I was dragged into some kind of expedition to recover an ancient artifact that was supposed to aid the city, I managed to evade it though. For my aid to the temple I received a gift from celia, a ring that could enchant my mind, I have it to today, though i enchanged it even more.
When celia joined those who were defending the City on front line, i decided i am unable to defend the temple's collection on my own if the frontline breaks. I left the city. I went west, toward the coast again. Along the road, in one of the villages I was staying i was witness of ghost appearance, a ghosts of fallen mercanaries - Wayfarers, who were asking for aid. I decided to stay there for a while and watch. I discovered a tomb near one of the villages, from where, with aid of Merel, i recovered a sword. I have it to this day, it served me well. After some time, the villages here began preparation for defending agaist invaders from the east. I decided to go east and see what is really happening in Loudwater.
Enough to say is that defenders didn't held and that Loudwater was in hands of Cyric-zhents invaders. I Returned to area near westbridge. I took active role in an attempt to retake Stonebridge - an old dwarven made bridge of great importance to dwarves, from bugbears that rided and took the place. The attempt failed miserably due to poor leadership of self-appointed commander Agrim. He was an ill type of human, who was suspected of dealing with devils. He left the area after his failure. Later on i, together with hin priest soppi, who later proved my first impression of her as selfish, arrogant and without any trace of common sense, went to investigate strange lights that appeared near one of the caves in the area. In the cave, after fighting with scorpions of enromous size, we have found an old tome with i took. The book itself got to be known as purely evil. The book tried to control my mind, was sending an illusions to me, and was able to communicate with me by showing occassionaly some strange sentences with i couldn't discern untill the book went quiet for good. But the threat remained, and, oddly, when i left the book somewhere, somehow i could find it later again in my backpack. It was bound to me. The history of the book ended many months later, after few months of complete inactivity from it's side, i was able to convince high priest of the city of Goldenfields to take it from it, and he took "care" of it.
During more or less that time, I have met Calumil, one of our people, and a priest of Corellon. From his appearance something changed, as many more of our People started to appear in the area, among them was Vanavar, a ranger with whom i always enjoyed conversation, Athanumata, who later became vanavar's second part, Beolas, a shady person who some started to call veil, and Vonnes, an follower of shevarash who turned to madness later. This small band of our People came here to seek a place that they could call theirs, and we found it. An old grove, that some of us tried to bring alive, and nearby, an ancient tree-house of our elven ancestors. They were long gone, and their history is both tragic and heroic.
From the small pieces we Could gather it seemed clear that centuries ago they were living in the tree, and at one point, an duergar invasion to the surface. They fought well, defending their home, but finally they were defeated, and at last resort they decided to unleash great ancient magic to prevent destruction of their tree-house. The duergars were repulsed, but the price was great - all elves died as well, some of them became guardian spirits of the tree.
I made this place my home for long time.
Soon ghosts of wayfarers became more active, and, after some researches, it became clear to me that their souls are held here by a deamon-child. A child of Narimer and Merrisa, both wayfarers. The child escaped the temple of mielikki where it was held and it changed more and more into a deamon. We have found a stone that was a key to finding the child, it power was forged into a staff, and is producing to this day sickly looking aura. I have this staff today, i hope one day i will be able to change it into something more then walking stick with its own history. A quite impressive number of people gathered to fight this evil, some were connected to history of Wayfarers, like Soppi, others went for various reasons, i do not know or care why. We descended deep into one of the caves, leaded by the staff we have finally found the deamon. It had a form of enromous flaming creature, a fight accured, and we were able to desteroy it, but it returned, in different, smaller form. Another battle followed with we were once again victorious, and then something happend that brought confusion to most, the deamon appeared as a child, in this child soppi (rozpoznała) the child of narimer and merrisa. I had to quickly make a decision to end the threath of senseless discussions about the nature of the child. I walked to it, and, looking it its childish eyes, i set him on fire. The scream was short, and others were too supriced to act on time.
The threat ended, and later I was reassured that i was right in doing so. Soppi for a long time didnt understood my action, and, after hearing her arguments, and later events i will write about later on, i am sure about her lack of common sense. Even if the deamon in child was desteroyed in the first two forms, the (ślad) on child would be left, and noone knows when it would be active again. Besides it was a human child, hundreds of them are born every day.
Another event is worth mentioning, as it changed my way of looking toward others.
We joined a group of humans in a raid agaist orcs who became very active near human village of Westbridge.
They holed inside their cave, and we couldn't enter it.
One of the humans, Kail, man of dubious reputation, had, and executed, idea of creating huge fire in front of the cave, to force ogres to leave it. During that, we were attacked from behind, and the main injured were those of our People, including me, bited to ground by worgs.
I will never forget that, and some say it was preplanned attack on us by those associated with kail, Personally I do not belive this, but back then, with the knowledge i possesed, it seemed reasonable assumption.
Shortly after this event, a dire situation have come to our new tree house - a pit has opened near it, and from it, later, duergar invasion began. They quickly forced us to abandon the grove, but we were able to hold the treehouse. After few fierce attacks on the tree, during with some of us were badly injured, they resigned from direct strike. The status quo remained for months.
I had duergars as neighbours.
During all those months of constant threat of another attack some of our people came and left for various reasons, and some, unfortunatelly, died.
Vanavar was slain during one of our expeditions to sword mountais, a giant earth-eating greature supriced him from back and killed almost instantly together with another of our people, amelor. We didnt have a chance to save them.
I miss his presence and company, as he was one of most reasonable individual i met there, always willing to listen and aiding when asked. Mother of his child left the tree and joined rangers of kryptgarden, i hope she and her child are well.
One of people who came to aid us was Isaniel. She was a mage who now made her home north, in the cold and dangerous lands surrounding lonelywood. Her aid both intelectual and in battle was unmatched as she was skilled and fierce mage.
An event with i cannot omit, even that it is a hard task to write about it is, that she asked me to give her a child. A child that would help, in the future, to defend the land she loves, lonelywood.
I didn't refuse.
About birth of it, i got to know, much later, by accident. A dwarvem mage, who talked too much, asked me about my child, in presence of isaniel. This forced isaniel to tell me that we were succesfull, and that the child was born. She told me as well that she gave him to a silver dragon, to rise him and take care of him. The name of my son is Arelin. To today i didnt see him, and for now, i do not want to bring danger to him by taking him with me.
What kind of danger?
To begin with, earlier then i even know about my child, an vampire started to appear near the villages of humans, turning nearby ogres into its spawns. This began to threat our people as well, therefore we decided to get rid of this threat. The mayor role in this took on him Aurenthil, as a holy knight of Selune, he swore to fight her. A party of us went toward a place where, deep, was supposed to be an artifact of great power, that would aid us, we found an amulet of selune, this amulet was taken by aurenthil as he was the one that was most suitable to wear and use it agaist our enemy. This place was to be found in one of the ruined towers in sword mountains, we found the artifact, but when we were walking outside, from the sky a great dracolich flew toward us. unable to escape we stood there. On dracolich we saw another crature of great evil - a Lich. Instead of taking our lives he obviously needed our services, and to our great suprice, he knew why we are here, and he commanded us to slay the vampire. He told us some history of his struggle with the vampiress, and that he cannot directly attack her for some reason.
Without many options we agreed to fight her. I hope it is not necessary to add that we would anyway.
The first close skirmish with her happend in the caves near westbridge. We attacked in small band, fightint her spawns.
Finally we met her, and after short skirmish she changed into gas and flown away from us leaving two dwarves who were missing from dwarven city of guswin.
After brief examination i saw two vampire-bites on their necks, they were trying to hide them.
The conclusion was simple, they became their spawns, or servants.
Unfortunatelly noone else didnt notice this, and they decided to take them to guswin.
That would endanger whole population of this dwarven settlement, so once again I had to do what was difficult, but had to be done.
When others went out in front, I stayed behind two dwarves, when time was right, i attacked them and, fortunatelly, quickly, ended their life.
Dwarves who came in rescue operation had more common sense then Soppi, they understood.
It was not an easy decision, as I respect Dwarfs and their culture.
During more or less that time, duergars began to attack other places, leaving our tree-house.
They already took the stonebridge, where they installed an artifact that could create an area without magic. Isaniel and I were trying to find a way to disable it, we never succeeded.
After one of skirmishes, small group including me, chased duergars near the village of westbridge, after an incident within the city, only two or three of us continued the chase, and after another fight with some, others retreated, i was alone, and it was clear that the remaining duergars retreated to hiden cave, i followed.
To my great suprice the "cave" was an ancient dwarven structure, an underground town. I found it, and gave this knowledge to the dwarves that were cooperating with us. I hope they live there to this day.
Another fight with the Vampiress took us below the ground into labirynth of crypts, facing strange and evil beasts we fought our way toward the vampiress.
When we finally fought her, she was using her magic to pull out hit and run strategy, bringing confusion and chaos among us. Finally, with the use of aurenthil's amulet of selune, we were able to defeat her shell, and she turned to mist. we were unable to follow her as she descended deep into the crypts.
Finally we were able to pinpoint the location of the vampiress, and in large group we went to her lair. It was in sword mountains, surrounded by many beings both powerfull and fearsome. The final fight took place in a grand hall, where, using combined power of Soppi's divine powers and amulet of selune the vampiress was defeated and send to another plane. As we learned later, she is bound to other plane until she regains her strenght. It is supposed to take centuries.
Aurenthil took the amulet to the temple of Selune near his home.
More or less during the same time, an elf who wished to be called Nawen appeared in the area.
From what i could gather before the event i am going to present, she was rather secretive, and sought advice of Aurenthil.
One day though, a gossip became known to me, tha she was wanted by Waterdavian authorities for a number of crimes, and that she was, in fact, a magically changed drow.
And one day, within the tree, i was spending rather unpleasant time with Vonnes, when we found a small note on table, and, sudenly, Nawen came out from our storage. It seems she spend there some time.
The note was addressed to aurenthil and was short: "Help Me".
How unlucky she was that she went out from there just when we came there, unfortunatelly Vonnes knew the story about changed drow from Waterdeep, and quickly threatened Nawen to disarm herself. After short ... conversation, she obeyed. It became clear to me that she was in mortal danger from Vonnes, as it was clear to me that the only thing she wishes was to kill her no matter what. Still, i tried to buy some time, and perhaps, if Nawen was convincing enough, safe her life. I must admit i was curious about her life and deeds myself. The only way i could at least diminish possibilty of her lying to us was to put her under a spell of domination. I was fully aware of limiations of this spell, but perhaps she wasn't. She agreed to be put under it's influence. I tried once, her mind was strong enough to resist it, so i had to prepare another one, during that time i left her with Vonnes, as not much more I could done without giving away my true intentions. After i came back to them, i was disgusted about how Vonnes treated her. She was lied on bed naked, and tied like wild animal. Vonnes with her mad expression of obvious pleasure standing nearby watching her. This confirmed me in my conviction that i should at least try to help her, and that Vonnes had only one goal no matter what.
I said i am ready, and gave her some clothes. Dignity is something everyone deserves, especially in such circumstances, she was facing her death.
Second time i succeeded with the spell, i was never so close to another of our people as i was to her back then, i could feel what she is experiencing in her mind, with that, and ordinary observation i could at least pretend that i am able to tell when she tell lies. I do not know did it work on Nawen, but Vonnes belived in this, and that was all i needed. She told us her story, who she was in the past, a drow, a priest of shar and quite high in their ranks too, she confessed about the crimes she commited, but told us that not all of them were made by herself, it seemed to me that Waterdavian authorities at least found a scapegoat to pin all crimes of their church they knew about, and perhaps even those that were not related to them at all. Among things she told us, location of a secret temple of shar, main temple in waterdeep, the main figure who was a priest of great age and even greater power, who gained immportality from his goddes as he became a lich. She told us about shar operatives in the area, both of them we knew well. Kail and Malcer, all of those were very important informations to us, and if those were lies, they were of prime sort. Though i must admit some of the were surely true as later events proved.
She told us as well, that she sought aurenthil to ask him for his aid and guidance, she wished to leave the church, and she knew that he succeeded in doing so in the past. Once again, perhaps she lied, perhaps she was ordered to bring him back to the church of shar, perhaps...
But one thing convinced me back then to do what i have done later, among many emotions i felt from her, emotions i succesfully killed in myself during my long studies and self-restriction, among fear and terror she felt to us, sadness about her fate, hatred to some about who she was talking, i felt another thing, thing i probably wouldn't feel form a priest of shar - hope. Her hope convinced me that i was right in doing what i was doing. Perhaps i was naive and used by her, if so, i may only bow to her cunning skills, but perhaps i was right, she deserved the chance. I was trying to convince vonnes that i need more time, to be certain, and we need more time to question her about other things, to gather as much informations as we can. We were siting near table in the main room of the tree when we spoke about it, and, sudenly Vonnes hatred, or madness, took her over, and she drew her sword, yelling that she will kill her now, when she started to go toward nawen, who was already standing terrified, i did only thing that i could, as i was, unfortunatelly, unpreapread for fighting after preparations to dominate nawen mind. I summoned dire spider between Vonnes and Nawen, then i turned invisible, and when i did so, vonnes tried to hit me with her sword, in her bloodlusted madness she dared to attack me, i so wish i was better prepared that day. A short chase occured around the room, and then i ordered Nawen to run, she escaped the tree, Vonnes went after her, in the same time Eliana, the tree-ghost guardian appearead and attacked my spider, i went out the tree as well, but i lost vonnes and Nawen for a moment, moment long enough for them to gain distance from me, they went toward westbridge, and i followed. I could feel her fear when she was running, unarmed, lightly dressed. I do not know how was it possible, but Vonnes was able to close with her, fully armoured and equiped, and she was able to knock her down... And with that life of Nawen ended, very close to westbridge, very close to a place where at least guards would question her, and the situation... When i came to the place, vonnes... cut out her head, turned invisible and escaped with the body. I tried to follow, but i lost her soon unfortunatelly.
That is how ends life of Nawen, I promised myself, that when i meet Vonnes next time, i will kill her. How funny pathes fate draws in front of us. I never met her again, and i knew she was still lurking around the area, perhaps she was affraid, perhaps it was just bad luck, or divine intervention. Who knows. Much later, i got to know that she fell in a fight with a drow leader of duergar invasion, and that she became a guardian spirit of the tree, of my home.
I left it as i couln't call that place my home anymore, and my duergar neighbours disappeared, i was free again.
Before that though, another of the people appeared in the area, she was called Laurelin, and she was like a fresh puff of wind, almost always smiling, keen to jest. I had many problems back then, much on my head, and one thing i felt during that time i struggled with, a hatred to Vonnes with never found a fulfilment in her quick demise from my hand. She aided me, shown me some joy form life again. She even made a painting of me. I started to feel something to her back then, with rose and rose with time, to a point that when i was leaving the tree, and was free again, i knew where to go, i went toward daggerdale, where she had her home.
I went through places i was in the past, waterdeep, baldursgate and then through places i didnt know at all, cormyr, city of shadowdale, where at that moment war was starting, in one of those places i bought a horse, ideally black poorly trained horse, i came to daggerfalls, asking for her, and soon i found her. She grew in confidence, she had many weapons with her, she was beautiful as before, charming and joyful. One thing changed though, she had many more problems on her mind then before, and it was running her down visibly. I must admit that back then i enjoyed every minute of her presence, and i decided to give her something with had big value to me, a rapier that in the past belonged to Nawen. It was my plan to struck final blow on vonnes with it, i never had a chance, and now it was impossible to do. She was the best person i could give the rapier to. She was grateful, though i do not think she knew how much it meant to me. She couldn't know.
I hope it will serve her well.
I have spend my time in daggerfalls and surroundings mosly getting to know the area, communities that surrounds it and spending my gold. Without need for wizards i emptied my pouch quickly, and had to rely on nature to give me basic provisions. Interesting change.
I got to know many new faces, humans mostly.
One of them, Lyon cross was interesting individual, a fallen paladin of Tyr as i got to know, he had mental problems obviously of unknown orgin, and it became clear to me, after Laurelin told me that he wanted to violate her after one of his visits to daggerfalls cementary, that he was dangerous for our people.
He was proven guilty of murdering a paladin of a human god nobanion, and this gave me an opportunity to kill him when i will see him again, unfortunatelly, to this day he is hiding like simple coward and is nowhere to be seen to my knowledge, and unfortunatelly, as i didnt found spells that would aid me in locating such persons quickly i cannot find him on my own. This brings me to Fatima, a woman from desert who claim that she is akbar sister, and that she came from the desert to find family heridom - sword named azir, that belonged to akbar at he moment of his demise. When i met her for the first time she was veiled figure in desert clothings, seemingly affraid of those around her. Seemingly, as her true mind and nature was veiled as well. At first, except of her obvious foreignity, she was ordinary, but with time i got to know her story about azir, and after few conversations it was clear to me that she is saying only things that are prudent to say at the very moment.
But she was, different, in another way. She wished to learn arcane, to know more of it. I decided to help her out, and i must admit I enjoyed her presence. Sometimes, very rarely, but still, from behind her veil, both covering her body and hearth, there were glimmers of pure joy of things, i found it ... refreshing and relaxing for myself.
A shame, true shame is that her life ended so soon, before i could shape her mind by training and example.
This is a Diary of Maeve of the house Palierus.
I Am a wizard, a weaver, caster, mage, one of the People. I was Born, on our island, Evermeet. I have came a long way to reach this place, to reach the level of knowledge i posses right now. And now, things changed, i see a change in me clearer than before. When i left my family i was excited to see the land of humans, to learn from them. It was not long ago, barely few years, but much happend during that time. Much happend to me. I was able to board one of those rare ships that went from our island to one of the cities of western coast, Neverwinter. I traveled through Waterdeep, Daggerford, Loudwater, i have seen human war, killing and destruction. As this time, the logical way of presentation of my short though eventfull life would be chronological, but with the amount of events i may be unable to maintain correct chronological order.
My beginings.
As i wrote previously i was born on the Island of Evermeet near one of small Villages of our people, My father of the name Acris was a man of the forest and my mother, Kas'ir had inborn magical talent with i wished to posses, though i didnt have it, not in the way she had. Therefore, as the ways of my father were alien to me (partially becouse my inborn physical features) I choosed the path of a Wizard, at the very begining i was learned by the wizard of our village, Ulin Kawi'el, though from the distance of time and experience i must admit he was hardly a wizard. With his help and dedication though i was able to learn the very basics of arcane, and the basics of learning the arcane. This was the main occupation with took most of my time in the village, together with limited aid to my family, as my extended studies or "studies" were extremely time consuming as i wished to learn quickly, as i had a dream of leaving the village as i was fully aware of limitations it put to me. As soon as i decided that i was able i left my village and my family. They didn't undestand, but they didn't try to stop me, i will thank them forever for letting me go my own way. As i think of it, my willingless to go on my own, and do on my own is partially after my father, who often dissapeared from home for several days, sometimes weeks. He said that he needs space and air from time to time, that he needs solitude.
In many aspects i feel this way as well from time to time, even today.
During this travel i met and bound to me Merel, a raven with whom i travel since then, my closest companion and great aid.
After a voyage i have reached the city of Loutithspar, as i previously didnt see Our Great City, i was amazed how City has been build, or grown. Most of the buildings are magically transmuted materials, and as i see now, no human city can eqate to our great capital both in terms of beauty (with is beyond any question) nor in terms of safety or durability. Natural shaped stones, streets pawed with gems, glittering in the sun. A place where the true Power of our people is clearly seen.
There i have spend some time in the city, admiring its greatness, and looking for a way to realize my dream - and finally i was able to board one of our ship that was going to the mainland. The city of Neverwinter.
Continent
When i reached it, as i remember now, it was hard to belive what i have seen, roads made of small stones, or of dirt, the harbour was dirty and full of unwashed individuals of various spacies, unbelivable crowd and ever-reaching stench. I have talked with some of the people who were living there, and realized how different it was to live in such place. All were in constant hurry they acted loudly and without grace.
There all this started, as I can say now, my life of adventurer started there, in neverwinter.
I didnt stay in Neverwinter for too long, and as soon as i was able i boarded random ship with took me toward the city of daggerford.
This "city" has shown to be in equaly dire state as Neverwinter, therefore i will skip the descriptive part. The city itself was surrounded by walls, and beyond them great dangers were to be found, dangers unknown to me. Small episode worth mentioning is that i took the test to join their "militia", I am very glad i didn't pass the test.
In the city i encountered Tel, like i learned later a half drow, she was going north, to other city, waterdeep, i went with her.
She saved my life on the way.
The city of waterdeep was "a gem" of human cities. Rock perhaps would be better word, almost greenless enromous walled city, where stink and dirt was biggest from all cities i ever seen. the amount of, excuse the word but there is no better, shit lying on the ... well, lying everywhere was unbelivable. It was not possible to not stink in this place, even for me. I decided to stay in the city, to learn about it, as it was so vastly differenet then our land, and the mixture of cultures and races was unmatched. I have took a task of putting down magical fires within the city, therefore i secured my survival.
Long travels along narrow alleys of the city shown me few interesting places, one of them was a tavern where strange beasts were... customers.
One of those beasts was a beholder, a creature of great evil... sipping its drink in arm-lenght from me was unbelivable experience. To this day i regret that i was unable to drag him into longer conversation.
Within the city i have met various people and non-people. One of them was Isaniel, an elven mage who was, at that time, working for waterdeep militia.
At this point i learned about the elven city far to the south with i decided, being sick of the.. atmosphere of waterdeep, to visit. I went a ship south, to the city of Baldur's gate (another walled latrine, though clear - for a latrine) ,from where i took the road south to find the village.
I reached the city of Beregost, and there noone knew about the elven city. I stayed there for a short while, experiencing death and ressurection of one of the beregost militia. I must admit that the felled militiaman was killed near me, as we were walking together on the road, i wasn't able to help him, but i was able to inform locals about his state. This was enough.
I returned north, once again to the city of Waterdeep, where i spend another weeks putting down fires and learning of others, and using the "watchfull order" resources to learn myself.
Another one of those met who somehow changed my existance was Kit Gyrfalcon, later Sir. A holy warrior of Red Knight, later a knight. He and some of his companions decided to go to the city of loudwater with was deep inland. I decided to join them, as i had, once again, enough of The Greatest Latrine of west coast. The journey was relatively safe, though when we reached the city of Loudwater it became clear that there is war coming to the city, and soon siege was laid on the city, trapping him inside. Without skills or will to fight for the city actively, I found another way of spending time, in the temple dedicated to oghma, where i promised to aid the local priest, Celia, with protecting the old tomes. With that i was able to learn from them during all that time i had free. Fortunatelly soon i got to know about a secret passage the soldiers were using to get those unable to fight out of the city.
In the same time i have meet another individual who impacted my life, An Elven holy knight of selune, Aurenthil. He made his home near Loudwater, south of it, within the protection of elven settlement. The elves there were strictly prohibiting outsiders to enter, I had the honour of being let it. The settlement was small and rather crude, but with limits of solitude it was understandable. As with aurenthil, history of this elf is both tragic and comforting. He slowly revealed it to me, and to be honest i tried to reveal it to myself by gathering informations from others that knew him.
Starting from the begining, it is prudent to say that he was a toy in epic struggle betweem seluna and shar, as shar. The details of those events are mystery to me, but i know that he asked and was granted a wipe of memory of some events he was part of in his life, that left him lost and without guidance, he became a follower of shar, though as far as i gathered, he was far from being zealeous. He became a member of beforementioned Wayfarers, he was serving with them loyaly, mostly fighting evil in the area, but the organisation, with too liberal policy of aquiring new members, soon started to be corrupted from inside. As i could gather, the turning point of it was death of their second captain, from that point some of the Wayfarers left, including Kit Gyrfalcon, and Aurenthil, back then known as Arim, became captain of the Wayfarers. From that point Wayfarers came involved with some evil deeds with put a stain on reputation of this organisation. Arim, dishartened left that place. He wandered toward Loudwater, and there he found redemption, and was fully turned to what he was from the very begining, a holy knight of Selune who sacreficed himself in the fight with Shar. From that place he was, once again, dedicated to fighting evil and protect his people, with he did. We became close friends in very short time, and we occassionaly fought along eachother sides.
It is worth of saying that he saved my life on more then one occassion. He found his Second half in loudwater, and there is his Home.
Though he traveled often, and we met in many places, fought many enemies, of one of them i will mention later, as it was later.
Meantime I was dragged into some kind of expedition to recover an ancient artifact that was supposed to aid the city, I managed to evade it though. For my aid to the temple I received a gift from celia, a ring that could enchant my mind, I have it to today, though i enchanged it even more.
When celia joined those who were defending the City on front line, i decided i am unable to defend the temple's collection on my own if the frontline breaks. I left the city. I went west, toward the coast again. Along the road, in one of the villages I was staying i was witness of ghost appearance, a ghosts of fallen mercanaries - Wayfarers, who were asking for aid. I decided to stay there for a while and watch. I discovered a tomb near one of the villages, from where, with aid of Merel, i recovered a sword. I have it to this day, it served me well. After some time, the villages here began preparation for defending agaist invaders from the east. I decided to go east and see what is really happening in Loudwater.
Enough to say is that defenders didn't held and that Loudwater was in hands of Cyric-zhents invaders. I Returned to area near westbridge. I took active role in an attempt to retake Stonebridge - an old dwarven made bridge of great importance to dwarves, from bugbears that rided and took the place. The attempt failed miserably due to poor leadership of self-appointed commander Agrim. He was an ill type of human, who was suspected of dealing with devils. He left the area after his failure. Later on i, together with hin priest soppi, who later proved my first impression of her as selfish, arrogant and without any trace of common sense, went to investigate strange lights that appeared near one of the caves in the area. In the cave, after fighting with scorpions of enromous size, we have found an old tome with i took. The book itself got to be known as purely evil. The book tried to control my mind, was sending an illusions to me, and was able to communicate with me by showing occassionaly some strange sentences with i couldn't discern untill the book went quiet for good. But the threat remained, and, oddly, when i left the book somewhere, somehow i could find it later again in my backpack. It was bound to me. The history of the book ended many months later, after few months of complete inactivity from it's side, i was able to convince high priest of the city of Goldenfields to take it from it, and he took "care" of it.
During more or less that time, I have met Calumil, one of our people, and a priest of Corellon. From his appearance something changed, as many more of our People started to appear in the area, among them was Vanavar, a ranger with whom i always enjoyed conversation, Athanumata, who later became vanavar's second part, Beolas, a shady person who some started to call veil, and Vonnes, an follower of shevarash who turned to madness later. This small band of our People came here to seek a place that they could call theirs, and we found it. An old grove, that some of us tried to bring alive, and nearby, an ancient tree-house of our elven ancestors. They were long gone, and their history is both tragic and heroic.
From the small pieces we Could gather it seemed clear that centuries ago they were living in the tree, and at one point, an duergar invasion to the surface. They fought well, defending their home, but finally they were defeated, and at last resort they decided to unleash great ancient magic to prevent destruction of their tree-house. The duergars were repulsed, but the price was great - all elves died as well, some of them became guardian spirits of the tree.
I made this place my home for long time.
Soon ghosts of wayfarers became more active, and, after some researches, it became clear to me that their souls are held here by a deamon-child. A child of Narimer and Merrisa, both wayfarers. The child escaped the temple of mielikki where it was held and it changed more and more into a deamon. We have found a stone that was a key to finding the child, it power was forged into a staff, and is producing to this day sickly looking aura. I have this staff today, i hope one day i will be able to change it into something more then walking stick with its own history. A quite impressive number of people gathered to fight this evil, some were connected to history of Wayfarers, like Soppi, others went for various reasons, i do not know or care why. We descended deep into one of the caves, leaded by the staff we have finally found the deamon. It had a form of enromous flaming creature, a fight accured, and we were able to desteroy it, but it returned, in different, smaller form. Another battle followed with we were once again victorious, and then something happend that brought confusion to most, the deamon appeared as a child, in this child soppi (rozpoznała) the child of narimer and merrisa. I had to quickly make a decision to end the threath of senseless discussions about the nature of the child. I walked to it, and, looking it its childish eyes, i set him on fire. The scream was short, and others were too supriced to act on time.
The threat ended, and later I was reassured that i was right in doing so. Soppi for a long time didnt understood my action, and, after hearing her arguments, and later events i will write about later on, i am sure about her lack of common sense. Even if the deamon in child was desteroyed in the first two forms, the (ślad) on child would be left, and noone knows when it would be active again. Besides it was a human child, hundreds of them are born every day.
Another event is worth mentioning, as it changed my way of looking toward others.
We joined a group of humans in a raid agaist orcs who became very active near human village of Westbridge.
They holed inside their cave, and we couldn't enter it.
One of the humans, Kail, man of dubious reputation, had, and executed, idea of creating huge fire in front of the cave, to force ogres to leave it. During that, we were attacked from behind, and the main injured were those of our People, including me, bited to ground by worgs.
I will never forget that, and some say it was preplanned attack on us by those associated with kail, Personally I do not belive this, but back then, with the knowledge i possesed, it seemed reasonable assumption.
Shortly after this event, a dire situation have come to our new tree house - a pit has opened near it, and from it, later, duergar invasion began. They quickly forced us to abandon the grove, but we were able to hold the treehouse. After few fierce attacks on the tree, during with some of us were badly injured, they resigned from direct strike. The status quo remained for months.
I had duergars as neighbours.
During all those months of constant threat of another attack some of our people came and left for various reasons, and some, unfortunatelly, died.
Vanavar was slain during one of our expeditions to sword mountais, a giant earth-eating greature supriced him from back and killed almost instantly together with another of our people, amelor. We didnt have a chance to save them.
I miss his presence and company, as he was one of most reasonable individual i met there, always willing to listen and aiding when asked. Mother of his child left the tree and joined rangers of kryptgarden, i hope she and her child are well.
One of people who came to aid us was Isaniel. She was a mage who now made her home north, in the cold and dangerous lands surrounding lonelywood. Her aid both intelectual and in battle was unmatched as she was skilled and fierce mage.
An event with i cannot omit, even that it is a hard task to write about it is, that she asked me to give her a child. A child that would help, in the future, to defend the land she loves, lonelywood.
I didn't refuse.
About birth of it, i got to know, much later, by accident. A dwarvem mage, who talked too much, asked me about my child, in presence of isaniel. This forced isaniel to tell me that we were succesfull, and that the child was born. She told me as well that she gave him to a silver dragon, to rise him and take care of him. The name of my son is Arelin. To today i didnt see him, and for now, i do not want to bring danger to him by taking him with me.
What kind of danger?
To begin with, earlier then i even know about my child, an vampire started to appear near the villages of humans, turning nearby ogres into its spawns. This began to threat our people as well, therefore we decided to get rid of this threat. The mayor role in this took on him Aurenthil, as a holy knight of Selune, he swore to fight her. A party of us went toward a place where, deep, was supposed to be an artifact of great power, that would aid us, we found an amulet of selune, this amulet was taken by aurenthil as he was the one that was most suitable to wear and use it agaist our enemy. This place was to be found in one of the ruined towers in sword mountains, we found the artifact, but when we were walking outside, from the sky a great dracolich flew toward us. unable to escape we stood there. On dracolich we saw another crature of great evil - a Lich. Instead of taking our lives he obviously needed our services, and to our great suprice, he knew why we are here, and he commanded us to slay the vampire. He told us some history of his struggle with the vampiress, and that he cannot directly attack her for some reason.
Without many options we agreed to fight her. I hope it is not necessary to add that we would anyway.
The first close skirmish with her happend in the caves near westbridge. We attacked in small band, fightint her spawns.
Finally we met her, and after short skirmish she changed into gas and flown away from us leaving two dwarves who were missing from dwarven city of guswin.
After brief examination i saw two vampire-bites on their necks, they were trying to hide them.
The conclusion was simple, they became their spawns, or servants.
Unfortunatelly noone else didnt notice this, and they decided to take them to guswin.
That would endanger whole population of this dwarven settlement, so once again I had to do what was difficult, but had to be done.
When others went out in front, I stayed behind two dwarves, when time was right, i attacked them and, fortunatelly, quickly, ended their life.
Dwarves who came in rescue operation had more common sense then Soppi, they understood.
It was not an easy decision, as I respect Dwarfs and their culture.
During more or less that time, duergars began to attack other places, leaving our tree-house.
They already took the stonebridge, where they installed an artifact that could create an area without magic. Isaniel and I were trying to find a way to disable it, we never succeeded.
After one of skirmishes, small group including me, chased duergars near the village of westbridge, after an incident within the city, only two or three of us continued the chase, and after another fight with some, others retreated, i was alone, and it was clear that the remaining duergars retreated to hiden cave, i followed.
To my great suprice the "cave" was an ancient dwarven structure, an underground town. I found it, and gave this knowledge to the dwarves that were cooperating with us. I hope they live there to this day.
Another fight with the Vampiress took us below the ground into labirynth of crypts, facing strange and evil beasts we fought our way toward the vampiress.
When we finally fought her, she was using her magic to pull out hit and run strategy, bringing confusion and chaos among us. Finally, with the use of aurenthil's amulet of selune, we were able to defeat her shell, and she turned to mist. we were unable to follow her as she descended deep into the crypts.
Finally we were able to pinpoint the location of the vampiress, and in large group we went to her lair. It was in sword mountains, surrounded by many beings both powerfull and fearsome. The final fight took place in a grand hall, where, using combined power of Soppi's divine powers and amulet of selune the vampiress was defeated and send to another plane. As we learned later, she is bound to other plane until she regains her strenght. It is supposed to take centuries.
Aurenthil took the amulet to the temple of Selune near his home.
More or less during the same time, an elf who wished to be called Nawen appeared in the area.
From what i could gather before the event i am going to present, she was rather secretive, and sought advice of Aurenthil.
One day though, a gossip became known to me, tha she was wanted by Waterdavian authorities for a number of crimes, and that she was, in fact, a magically changed drow.
And one day, within the tree, i was spending rather unpleasant time with Vonnes, when we found a small note on table, and, sudenly, Nawen came out from our storage. It seems she spend there some time.
The note was addressed to aurenthil and was short: "Help Me".
How unlucky she was that she went out from there just when we came there, unfortunatelly Vonnes knew the story about changed drow from Waterdeep, and quickly threatened Nawen to disarm herself. After short ... conversation, she obeyed. It became clear to me that she was in mortal danger from Vonnes, as it was clear to me that the only thing she wishes was to kill her no matter what. Still, i tried to buy some time, and perhaps, if Nawen was convincing enough, safe her life. I must admit i was curious about her life and deeds myself. The only way i could at least diminish possibilty of her lying to us was to put her under a spell of domination. I was fully aware of limiations of this spell, but perhaps she wasn't. She agreed to be put under it's influence. I tried once, her mind was strong enough to resist it, so i had to prepare another one, during that time i left her with Vonnes, as not much more I could done without giving away my true intentions. After i came back to them, i was disgusted about how Vonnes treated her. She was lied on bed naked, and tied like wild animal. Vonnes with her mad expression of obvious pleasure standing nearby watching her. This confirmed me in my conviction that i should at least try to help her, and that Vonnes had only one goal no matter what.
I said i am ready, and gave her some clothes. Dignity is something everyone deserves, especially in such circumstances, she was facing her death.
Second time i succeeded with the spell, i was never so close to another of our people as i was to her back then, i could feel what she is experiencing in her mind, with that, and ordinary observation i could at least pretend that i am able to tell when she tell lies. I do not know did it work on Nawen, but Vonnes belived in this, and that was all i needed. She told us her story, who she was in the past, a drow, a priest of shar and quite high in their ranks too, she confessed about the crimes she commited, but told us that not all of them were made by herself, it seemed to me that Waterdavian authorities at least found a scapegoat to pin all crimes of their church they knew about, and perhaps even those that were not related to them at all. Among things she told us, location of a secret temple of shar, main temple in waterdeep, the main figure who was a priest of great age and even greater power, who gained immportality from his goddes as he became a lich. She told us about shar operatives in the area, both of them we knew well. Kail and Malcer, all of those were very important informations to us, and if those were lies, they were of prime sort. Though i must admit some of the were surely true as later events proved.
She told us as well, that she sought aurenthil to ask him for his aid and guidance, she wished to leave the church, and she knew that he succeeded in doing so in the past. Once again, perhaps she lied, perhaps she was ordered to bring him back to the church of shar, perhaps...
But one thing convinced me back then to do what i have done later, among many emotions i felt from her, emotions i succesfully killed in myself during my long studies and self-restriction, among fear and terror she felt to us, sadness about her fate, hatred to some about who she was talking, i felt another thing, thing i probably wouldn't feel form a priest of shar - hope. Her hope convinced me that i was right in doing what i was doing. Perhaps i was naive and used by her, if so, i may only bow to her cunning skills, but perhaps i was right, she deserved the chance. I was trying to convince vonnes that i need more time, to be certain, and we need more time to question her about other things, to gather as much informations as we can. We were siting near table in the main room of the tree when we spoke about it, and, sudenly Vonnes hatred, or madness, took her over, and she drew her sword, yelling that she will kill her now, when she started to go toward nawen, who was already standing terrified, i did only thing that i could, as i was, unfortunatelly, unpreapread for fighting after preparations to dominate nawen mind. I summoned dire spider between Vonnes and Nawen, then i turned invisible, and when i did so, vonnes tried to hit me with her sword, in her bloodlusted madness she dared to attack me, i so wish i was better prepared that day. A short chase occured around the room, and then i ordered Nawen to run, she escaped the tree, Vonnes went after her, in the same time Eliana, the tree-ghost guardian appearead and attacked my spider, i went out the tree as well, but i lost vonnes and Nawen for a moment, moment long enough for them to gain distance from me, they went toward westbridge, and i followed. I could feel her fear when she was running, unarmed, lightly dressed. I do not know how was it possible, but Vonnes was able to close with her, fully armoured and equiped, and she was able to knock her down... And with that life of Nawen ended, very close to westbridge, very close to a place where at least guards would question her, and the situation... When i came to the place, vonnes... cut out her head, turned invisible and escaped with the body. I tried to follow, but i lost her soon unfortunatelly.
That is how ends life of Nawen, I promised myself, that when i meet Vonnes next time, i will kill her. How funny pathes fate draws in front of us. I never met her again, and i knew she was still lurking around the area, perhaps she was affraid, perhaps it was just bad luck, or divine intervention. Who knows. Much later, i got to know that she fell in a fight with a drow leader of duergar invasion, and that she became a guardian spirit of the tree, of my home.
I left it as i couln't call that place my home anymore, and my duergar neighbours disappeared, i was free again.
Before that though, another of the people appeared in the area, she was called Laurelin, and she was like a fresh puff of wind, almost always smiling, keen to jest. I had many problems back then, much on my head, and one thing i felt during that time i struggled with, a hatred to Vonnes with never found a fulfilment in her quick demise from my hand. She aided me, shown me some joy form life again. She even made a painting of me. I started to feel something to her back then, with rose and rose with time, to a point that when i was leaving the tree, and was free again, i knew where to go, i went toward daggerdale, where she had her home.
I went through places i was in the past, waterdeep, baldursgate and then through places i didnt know at all, cormyr, city of shadowdale, where at that moment war was starting, in one of those places i bought a horse, ideally black poorly trained horse, i came to daggerfalls, asking for her, and soon i found her. She grew in confidence, she had many weapons with her, she was beautiful as before, charming and joyful. One thing changed though, she had many more problems on her mind then before, and it was running her down visibly. I must admit that back then i enjoyed every minute of her presence, and i decided to give her something with had big value to me, a rapier that in the past belonged to Nawen. It was my plan to struck final blow on vonnes with it, i never had a chance, and now it was impossible to do. She was the best person i could give the rapier to. She was grateful, though i do not think she knew how much it meant to me. She couldn't know.
I hope it will serve her well.
I have spend my time in daggerfalls and surroundings mosly getting to know the area, communities that surrounds it and spending my gold. Without need for wizards i emptied my pouch quickly, and had to rely on nature to give me basic provisions. Interesting change.
I got to know many new faces, humans mostly.
One of them, Lyon cross was interesting individual, a fallen paladin of Tyr as i got to know, he had mental problems obviously of unknown orgin, and it became clear to me, after Laurelin told me that he wanted to violate her after one of his visits to daggerfalls cementary, that he was dangerous for our people.
He was proven guilty of murdering a paladin of a human god nobanion, and this gave me an opportunity to kill him when i will see him again, unfortunatelly, to this day he is hiding like simple coward and is nowhere to be seen to my knowledge, and unfortunatelly, as i didnt found spells that would aid me in locating such persons quickly i cannot find him on my own. This brings me to Fatima, a woman from desert who claim that she is akbar sister, and that she came from the desert to find family heridom - sword named azir, that belonged to akbar at he moment of his demise. When i met her for the first time she was veiled figure in desert clothings, seemingly affraid of those around her. Seemingly, as her true mind and nature was veiled as well. At first, except of her obvious foreignity, she was ordinary, but with time i got to know her story about azir, and after few conversations it was clear to me that she is saying only things that are prudent to say at the very moment.
But she was, different, in another way. She wished to learn arcane, to know more of it. I decided to help her out, and i must admit I enjoyed her presence. Sometimes, very rarely, but still, from behind her veil, both covering her body and hearth, there were glimmers of pure joy of things, i found it ... refreshing and relaxing for myself.
A shame, true shame is that her life ended so soon, before i could shape her mind by training and example.
So many stories untold, events unknown, mysteries left unrevealed. But perhaps this was one of the driving powers behind good alfa.