Surehold
A.,
These unforgiving reaches will be the death of me, I swear. I’ve spent the night stumbling around in the dark, chased by I don’t know what. It’s a miracle I got to the keep in one piece.
I was looking for that elf, Elarin, whom I was told might know something about the runes I keep seeing in the wild. He wasn’t there, but I was directed to two women who might know something.
Them I found. Them… they’re a lot more than just sources of information. I found them in a tavern, and one of them, Leaf, was drinking her way to the ground. I paid her a beer, hoping to at least reimburse them for their help. She seems… lost; she told me that she’d been walking for a very long time, and was from nowhere. Seemed to be a story there, but not the kind you ask in the first half-hour of an acquaintance.
I’m stalling. Sorry. You know how I am: weak and cloud-headed. I can hear you saying it.
Leaf could only say the runes were old, and her friend, Lorelei, that they were fey. She had a strong reaction to them though; the moment I showed her she ran off. Highly suspicious, but what was I going to do? Grab her? She came back after a bit. While she didn’t know much about the runes, she suggested heading to Alderham via Surehold (would that I had a map to know what either of those names mean, but if I don’t know where I’m heading, hopefully no one else will either).
Unfortunately I feel like I should learn my way around, if only because Lorelei… is not good at directions. She got lost in the keep. It’s not a big keep. She also said something strange about dying a couple weeks ago… But she’s here, and she’s alive. Or she looks alive. Very sad, though. The saddest girl in the world.
Before heading to Surehold though, Lorelei insisted on a detour to meet up with a strange automaton. He didn’t come with us, and that seemed to make Lorelei even sadder. She tripped on air. You would have bullied this girl to tears in an hour, I think. And it’s awful to feel glad you’re not here to do it. Because you’re not here at all.
We started after Elarin right after that. It’s stupid to focus so much on those, I know, why do these symbols matter after all? But it gives me something to do. And if it can help this young lady, well, at least I’ll have done something alright before I’m inevitably caught and dragged back for execution.
Turns out we were right to hurry this much, because we found Elarin barely a few hours after we started. He was being mugged. Lorelei has no survival instinct, I swear: she saw him being held at swordpoint and ran up in the middle of the group of six bandits! She’s lucky she didn’t try that alone. I… I felt the rage again. I don’t have many memories, except that I attacked one of the bandits. Then two fell asleep right there. The rest surrendered. Also met… Bob? A cannibal? I’m not sure Lorelei was serious, but that’s how she described him.
He alerted us to a seventh bandit, but it wasn’t a bandit at all, just a…. very tiny person. She’s the one who made the two bandits fall asleep. Apparently BOTH she (her name is Discordia) and Lorelei have died before. That sounds insane. I need to look into this. Maybe you’re not gone forever. Maybe I can fix this.
Elarin, though, if we keep to Elarin, he said he knew a bit about the runes. They’re Arwydth, and in Alderam his people will be able to tell us more about it. He’s going to travel with us. Now there’s five of us if there’s more bandits on the road.
It took three days, but we arrived in Surehold. For a Westreaches town, it seems rather bustling with industry, and even a university. It seems centered around trades, but they had a library, and after asking around we found that they had a primer on fey weaving. That book is 15 cm thick! I wanted to spend my entire day studying and copying it. There’s other runes in it!
Sorry, this makes no sense. Let me start again. The book is called Dirwyn Arwydhion, and it talks about a fey language with magical properties. Those who write them down, or weave them into patterns, or etch them into metal… can use them to power magical abilities. Like the time I defended myself from those wolves, I think.
From our first perusal, we identified three runes I didn’t know. I kind of want to try and weave them too, test out their powers.
Here’s the runes:
• Derw (an ancient oak, enduring poison and injury that would fell lesser creatures)
• Baedh (ferocity and the raw strength of the boar)
• Lhoer (moon, providing light in the night, revealing that which is obscured by shadows, and symbolizing dreams.)
I didn’t think we would be allowed to borrow the book, but they apparently have magical means of retrieving it, so I can spend more time studying it. I’ll start right after this.
I used 10 gold to buy 20 rations. Discordia also said she could enchant mistletoe to serve as rations. Lorelei bought something like four sprigs of 15 berries each. She also bought a lot of fresh vegetables to make a communal meal (she seems to have a lot of funds… I hate to rely on a stranger’s kindness, but my own reserves are dwindling.)
Lorelei doesn’t eat meat, or fish. She seemed a little sensitive about it, but I think she’s just sensitive in general at the moment. She taught me some cooking during that time too; you’d laugh, seeing me fumble with a knife and a pot. I didn’t dislike it, though, doing things with my own hands… Laugh at me all you want.
We did get to the city guard to make use of their teleporter, but the commander Lorelei knows wasn’t there. He seems to be far away, and his second would not let us make use of it without him. He hinted that we could bribe him, but neither Lorelei nor I knew with what. And it’s two days, so it made sense to wait…
Except that seemed to be really difficult for Lorelei to hear.
I drew her and Discordia into a tavern to sit down and talk it out, because she seemed incredibly emotional about the extra two days. I… spoke a lot more than I should have, I think. I had no intentions to say so much, but Lorelei started explaining that one of her friends is convinced he killed her, and that her other friend was put in prison and disappeared right when they were about to be executed, and that everyone leaves her, and...
Well, I told them about you. A little bit.
Gods, you’d hate that.
Apparently Discordia’s family put her in a box for a long while and she’s only now wandering back into civilization. When you hear that, what could you say? What can you do? People can be so cruel.
I guess I have a group of people now. These three need someone to watch over them. To defend them, really, because otherwise they’re going to die.