User blog:PeteGoz/The Chronicles of Tymennoreth Ortholeu'Alinyr: Chapter 3 - Entry 3

Where to begin with this entry I wonder? Well, I suppose I should tell you about Thean, another of our companions. You must forgive me for introducing them sporadically, I will confess that I do enjoy the addition of new characters into stories, so I tend to spread them out for dramatic effect. Some may call me an unreliable narrator for doing so but I feel that a touch of dramatic really elevates a story. Anyway, Thean is an interesting fellow. Half Elf by the looks of it and whilst many of my people would look down on someone like him, I have always found the combination of an elven perspective and the innate energy and zest for life of a human to be wonderfully engaging. He is a deft hand with a blade and also seems to be able to twist his body to move fluidly through a press of bodies like quicksilver. You will find out more about his abilities later as this entry is destined to end with a tragic confrontation.

Stop it Tymennoreth, you must start at the beginning not the end, there is a craft to these things! Sorry dear reader, you see I am occasionally guilty of focusing on something exciting and forgetting other details. I will endeavour to rid myself of the habit. So, there we were in a snow hole, Dinobryon suffering from some sort of fungal infection and the oppressive cold really starting to dampen my spirits. I spoke up to offer Dinobryon some aid with his infection for what it is worth. He refused and started to perform some sort of divine ritual to his God (I will remind myself again to talk with him about who he worships now, hopefully this time it will stick!). After finishing he pulled out some herbalism supplies and started to create a poultice, the smell of herbs was a welcome one and for a moment I was transported back to the rainbow woods of my youth but alas it came as soon as it went. He applied to poultice and seemed confident that it would help. We discussed the topic shortly and it was agreed that seeking more information from Tiquanna, our guide who had treated his injuries after the last battle, would be useful. Afterall she had used some fungus or herbs to treat him, possibly this is a side effect?

I will once again have to beg for your forgiveness at this point for although Tiquanna was to have some surprised in store for us, she is not the most talkative or charismatic of people and my interaction with her was short. She told me that the fungus she had used to help Dinobryon was from the very Gardens that we were heading to and then proceeded to invite me to her snow hole that evening to discuss it more. I must say that I was a little shocked, we hardly know each other after all! I resolved to do my best to avoid this interaction if possible, I was ill at ease with her company. This was an instinct that proved to be accurate.

We bed down for another night in the snow hole and feigning exhaustion, I made my excuses to not visit Tiquanna that night. As we prepared to leave in the morning Dinobryon stepped out for a second after casting the same ritual from the previous morning. He re-entered our snow hole a few minutes later with some grim news. He had determined that everyone else in the group was now infected with the same disease as he was. It got our suspicions up and I recalled how surprising it was that Tiquanna had paid the Captain of our voyage for the guiding rather than the other way around. Speculation started to fly back and forth throughout the group about what to do, Boppit was suspiciously quiet throughout but then I suppose for someone like him from a small tribe underground, this whole experience must be quite overwhelming. We resolve to keep an eye on Tiquanna, and I thank Corellon for not visiting with our guide the previous night.

As we continued to trudge forward through the snow, I try to raise some spirits by playing my flute again, but it seemed to have little or no affect. I can only conclude that the disease they have contracted is tampering with their hearing as my playing was sublime as ever.

That evening we discussed which courses of action were open to us. Should we continue with the group, leave them to their journey or confront Tiquanna? This was a new dilemma for me so after some consideration I said that as the expert in our current terrain that Edius had my trust and that I would follow his guidance. We decide to continue for the moment and the next three days of travel were increasingly difficult. I will tell you my dear reader that the physical act of trekking through mile after mile of ice and snow is draining and that the freezing winds constantly battering your body similarly makes every step feel like a marathon, but this is not the worst of it. The monotony of it, mile after mile of just white. Nothing interesting to break up the vista or nobody with the breath in them to converse at any length means that the real test of this journey, at least for me, is one of the spirit. I can feel myself slipping into winter and I do not want to give in to that kind of melancholy or regret. I know it will also surprise my companions as I have not told them of my nature and how my body and mind can change like the seasons.

The mountains started to come closer over the next few days however and that was indeed a help. After another two days of travel the inevitable happened. We began to dig our snow holes and as we were finishing up we noticed that everyone else in the group had stopped and were all looking at us. Tiquanna approached up and addressed us as such.

“You have proven to be most resourceful on our journey and before we move onwards you need to be changed. To continue you must accept these changes.”

It will hardly come as a surprise to you that none of us were in the least bit inclined to be changed whatever in the nine hells that mean. As such combat was joined and Thean leapt into action with an alacrity that any elf would be proud of. The battle was a long and drawn out one so I will spare you every gory detail but the long and short of it were thus.

Without any real agreement, the group split into two. Firstly, Dinobryon and Thean engaged and dealt with the poor travellers who although had previously been our companions, were now some sort of disease addled automatons. Dinobryon conjured some sort of twilight to his vicinity and blasted the poor wretches with wave after wave of energy calling on his divine patron to aid him. I must say it was incredibly effective and by joining him in this area I felt refreshed and envigored. Then was a blur of motion, moving from enemy to enemy his blade and bow constantly in use. He reminded me of a Quickling, so busy and fast!

That left Edius and me to deal with Tiquanna and a handful of the travellers who had been next to her. I will admit that initially I tried to escape the encroaching circle of foes by tapping into my connection with the Feywild and attempting to flank Tiquanna. Whilst it worked to a certain extent it did lead to a direct melee battle with one of our erstwhile travelling companions and giving him the eternal rest he had earned was distasteful to say the least. However, over the course of minute or so, Edius pulled the large maul from his back and proceeded to swing away at anything threatening and I did my best to shout encouragement and advice from the side as I also chipped in by undermining Tiquanna using my magical abilities. At one point she did shock us all as she reached up and pulled away the skin of her face, a disgusting and shocking revelation. Underneath was a writing mass of plant and fungal matter that is most disconcerting. I know that many of the battles that you read of in the great stories are peerless contests of arms and fantastical displays of the mind, body, and soul and whilst this was indeed a true test, I must confess that it did not possess the balletic dance of many of those stories. You see people kept falling over, if you have never swung a weapon or taken a blow on icy ground, I can assure you keeping one’s footing is a real challenge. Overall thought this did work to our favour as it seemed our opponents were far more susceptible to it that us.

The battle ended with two events, firstly Dinobryon used his magics to put the remaining couple of assailants to sleep. Unfortunately, it also affected Thean, and he fell to the ground, the snow at his feet acting a pillow for him. Secondly, Edius clearly spurred on by my encouragement landed a killing blow onto Tiquanna and I felt a shot of joy flood through me at the sight. We woke Thean from the brief slumber and resolved to decide what our next steps should be. I know that I wish to keep going even after this horrid experience. The Gardens are proving to be most surprising and unexpected, and we have not even got there yet!