As night
falls, families begin to arrive with their children, carrying bundles laden
with provisions and blankets. We don’t
know if all of the children of the surrounding farms are accounted for; there’s
no way to accomplish that, given our means, but we’re confident that most of
the families have answered our call.
Drachus and
Aibreann approach, and it sends Selben into a panic. The young man’s eyes roll back into his head,
and he falls to the ground, pounding it in a fury, seemingly
overcome—physically, mentally, or magically, we cannot determine—and
immediately we disarm him of the knife he used earlier to save Erathmar. Unsure how to proceed, I grab the bucket of
water we used to soak the leather straps, and I douse him with it. Fortunately, he becomes more lucid. Unfortunately, Selben is still panicked and attempts
to escape. Drachus and Aibreann
disappear into the town, and with Audric’s help, we tackle and subdue the young
man.
After several
minutes of pinning him, preventing Selben’s escape, and after more than a few
threats to bind him, it seems like Selben regains awareness. He admits to not remembering the events of
the past few minutes…as if he blacked out again immediately upon seeing
Aibreann.
Unwilling to
allow another encounter like that to occur, we take Selben back to Erathmar’s
camp, where we intend to spend the night.
Selben falls asleep nearly immediately, seemingly exhausted, and I find
a quick few hours of rest before I’m awakened for my watch.
During my
watch, Selben starts tossing and turning in his sleep. He starts to visibly sweat and utters a few
words. “I saw her. I see her.”
The fear that Selben may be under some kind of magical influence has
been constantly on my mind, and for the first time in over a year, I whisper a
prayer to Malar, calling upon my faith to sever any potential connection or
possession. Malar answers, but for
better or for worse, it does not seem as if there was any compulsion, or at
least, Malar’s blessing had no effect.
We are
awakened by rain, but other than that ill herald, we are not troubled by
anything else, and find that nothing ill befell those of Carrock while we
slept. The next morning, Audric and I
have a lengthy conversation regarding his current mental state after the
encounter in the woods, his thoughts on the pending threats to Carrock, and
plans for the short term. It is decided,
should the situation in Carrock remain unchanged for two more days, that we
will make ready and depart towards Mirabar, where Audric may find a temple to
Mystra.
We head into
the village to find Drachus. Immediately
upon making that decision, however, we hear the cries of a woman in the
southern part of the village. As we
circle down towards the calls, we see that there’s someone coming from the road
to the west. The rain is heavy, but her
calls pierce the veil. The woman,
limping, leads a pony which looks as if it has something—a body?—slumped over
the saddle. She is
short, lithe—almost childlike—perhaps the same age as Aibreann. Her hair is long, blonde, and tied into a
tail. She wears traveling leathers, a
bow slung over her shoulder and a sword at her hip. We are able to see that her cargo is indeed a
body. Audric and I approach, answering
her call.
“We were
attacked during the night by wolves, on our way to Carrock.” Her face is dirty, and she bears wounds that
match her story. She turns to the
person, telling us that he’s wounded, near death. Her burden—a bearded but small man, actually
a gnome—is indeed direly wounded.
Once again I call upon the Beastlord, this time to heal—and the gnome
coughs. Not dead, then, but still not
conscious. When asked, she reveals her
name is Bonie, and that she hails from Westtower (at least most recently)—but
also states “there’s not much left of it.”
She says that
the village was attacked and razed nearly two weeks ago, a tale that reeks of
what befell Shadfeld. Westtower was
better prepared for such an attack, having a small garrison of soldiers, but
many of its soldiers were killed and the town half-destroyed. Carcerus was among the attackers, bearing a
wicked hook-bladed axe, and Bonie reveals that the guards that confronted him
could do nothing to injure the beast, as if their weapons were useless.
Bonie and her
friend were passing the trade season at Westtower, and in the aftermath of the
attack, they volunteered to serve as envoy to Shadfeld. They found Shadfeld in ruins and decided to
continue on to Carrock…whereupon they were attacked by wolves in the
night. The gnome—Larimo—bought her the
time to fend off the beasts, but only at the cost of being severely wounded
himself.
We take the
pair to Erathmar’s camp and send for Drachus and Tussugar. I recruit Selben to help care for Larimo’s
wounds, and after sharing her tale again, we realize that the attack was just a
few miles outside of Carrock—close enough for us to scout. Drachus offers us horses from the village,
and together with Rould we depart to investigate.
We find the
site of the battle—they had camped south of the road, and the wolves attacked from somewhere to the north. Audric
questions her, discovering that they built a fire—and we all find it odd that
wolves attacked in the night despite the presence of their fire. Larimo is not
a warrior, but Bonie reveals that he has “the favor of one of the gods of his
race.” A priest, perhaps? She seems skilled in both bow and sword and
tells us she was employed previously as a guard in Westtower. She says that she killed most of the pack
that attacked them, perhaps four in total.
Because of the rain, our hopes of learning anything else here is slim, so we return to Carrock.
Audric goes
for a walk, searching for a private place to commune with Mystra and reflect on the
events of the last few days. He hears someone
approach but does not allow it to disturb his meditative rest. The figure comes within 30 feet or so, and Audric sees that it’s Maglarosh, the druid, carrying a walking stick. “You’re very troubled,” states Maglarosh. “Beyond words,” is Audric’s reply. Audric shares his difficulty communicating
with Mystra, but the druid’s response is vague and mysterious, revealing
something about Audric being protected.
“Protected how and from what?” he asks.
“By the forest itself,” is the reply of Maglarosh, but also admits that
he does not know what the nature of the threat might be. “Stay on your guard, Warrior of the Weave.”
Night
approaches once again, so we carry out preparation to protect the children. We show Bonie around town, explain
the defenses, as well as the potential threat of attack in Carrock, whether
from Carcerus, wolves, or this “Goddess of the Hunt.” Bonie seems unimpressed by our lack of a plan,
but we counter her argument, explaining that we’ve considered various options,
but most of them involve leaving the village unprotected, which seems too risky—something
she should hopefully understand, considering the proximity of the wolves that attacked
her and Larimo.
