The Story Sections:
The Decision (September 22, 2017)
The Decision: Part II (September 26, 2017)
A Shared Concern (February 26, 2018)
The Molnea (January 11, 2018)
The Wolf Pup (October 8, 2017)
If At First (July 11, 2018)
If At First – Part 2 (January 5, 2019)
Where Darkness Dwells (June 1, 2019)
The Plan (August 11, 2019)
The Journey – Thronefast_P1 (This)
The Journey – Thronefast_P2 (todo)
The Journey – Faerthale (todo)
The Dark Lord's Gift (February 15, 2018)
The Journey – Oldassan Citadel (todo)
The Bargain (todo)
The Deception (todo)
"A life of adventure is not to be wished for lightly. It might just be granted."
- Gran (Saida Oakfaren of the Kiri)
As I approached the Silver Rose Inn, the sounds of music and laughter mixed with the gentle night breeze wafting through Wild's End. The thoughts of doubts started trickling into the back of my brain. It was not that long ago that I had first met Mylah's friends here and now I was going to ask them to leave home and family, to leave Wild's End, and journey across half of Terminus. Then Gran's council rose up and scattered those doubts into the formless mists from which they came from. "Just ask them", she had said, "They will make their own decisions." So, with a firmer resolve, I motioned to Sornir to stay outside and entered the Inn.
Mylah spotted me as soon as I passed the threshold and waved at me to come over. All of the others were there, seated around the table; Mylah, Sor'gal, Darsyth, Jin'tyn, and Wosel. Their conversation stopped as I approached the table and all eyes turned towards me.
"What did your Gran have to say?" Mylah asked as she slid over to make room for me to sit.
"Well, after telling her about the obelisk and everything, she agreed that notifying the other races about the ruins would be a good idea and provided me a map that I could follow."
"That you could follow?" Mylah said with a frown.
"And that's what I'd like to ask. That we could follow." I added.
Mylah gave a smirk. "Only if you ask nicely." she smiled.
"Mylah would you ..." before I could finish, she exclaimed "Done. When do we leave?" With a start, she looked around the table at the others.
Darsyth was staring at his drink. "Gelfzyn, we've been though quite a lot lately and, I for one, think that a rest would be mightily welcome now." Then, taking a long swig from his mug he slammed it down. "But then I can do that when I'm dead! Adventure awaits. I'm in!"
Wosel gave a slight nod of his head.
Jin'tyn raised her mug saying "Well, someone has to protect Wosel from the dangers of the outside world."
Sor'gal smiled and offered "I do need to get my notes back to Faerthale and would be honored to accompany you that far. As for beyond that, I cannot say."
"You all do me a great honor and better friends would be hard to find." I then unrolled the map and we talked about the route we would take to visit the Humans, Elves, and Dwarves.
On the map, the way seems fairly straightforward. Journey past the Wellpond then north through The Grovegrass. Continue north towards the Vale of Azers and cross the land bridge that is southwest of it to enter the Steppes of Ru'lun in Kingsreach. Then north through Avendyr's Pass and on to Thronefast. We agreed to meet in the morning of the day after tomorrow on the north road.
It was a cool misty morning as the group set off along the north road out of Sorhiryth. There was the slight hum of the honey bees in the background as the swarms started their daily foraging to gather nectar. A light breeze brushing past our faces. I moved over near Sor'gal, trying to match his long stride as he walked along. "Have you ever been to Thronefast?" I asked.
He shook he head slightly. "No. None of my notes had shown Thronefast to be of major importance. It would be interesting to visit there though, especially now that we have an indication that one of the staff's pieces was given to the Humans. Thronefast would be the most likely place to keep it."
"I hope they put it somewhere safe." I ventured.
"Aye." he added and then seems to look off into the distance, lost in thought.
I walked ahead to leave him to his musing and wandered over to Mylah. "This grass is so tall that it's hard to see ten paces." I offered.
"That's what worries me. I've heard faint rustling a good distance away, but Sornir has only seemed mildly interested in the sounds." stroking his fur as he padded beside her.
In the next instance, Sornir's ears folded back against his head and he turn to look behind him, followed by a low growl from his throat. A yell came from the back of the party. He took off with a bolt.
"SNAKE" Jin'tyn was shouting.
As Mylah and I rushed to the rear of the party, I could see a Largga Grass Snake lifting one of our fighters, Jin'tyn, into the air having clamped it's massive jaws around the round metal shield that was strapped to her back. With a flick of it's head, Jin'tyn was sent flying ten to fifteen paces off into the high grass.
Sornir leaped onto the snake's body, but was thrown off as it rolled to the side.
Our Shaman was staring in wide-eyed amazement at the monster just ten paces in front of him. "Wosel", I shouted. "Go tend to Jin'tyn!" and pushed him off in the direction where the fighter had been thrown.
As the snake tracked Wosel's movement, Darsyth took advantage of its distraction and charged in from the side striking with his sword. He blocked the beast's response with his shield, but was knocked back into the high grass and out of sight.
Before the snake could rear back, I lunged forward with my scimitar and sliced it at the base of the head. As it turned to face me, its head still low to the ground, Mylah leaped out of nowhere onto the snake and drove her daggers into either side of the area just behind the head, adding to my damage. As the Largga Grass Snake reared up into its final death throes, generating a rain of blood in the immediate area, Mylah leaped nimbly to the ground, as it came crashing down with a heavy thud.
"Well, that was fun." she remarked while rising from her crouch.
"Yeah, but it packed a mean punch." Darsyth added as he emerged from the high grass. Wosel, with Jin'tyn leaning on him for assistance appeared from the other side of the clearing at the same time.
"I will check all combatants for injuries." Sor'gal offered and moved over to aid Jin'tyn.
"I'm just glad that no one was seriously hurt." as I surveyed the area. “Darsyth, maybe you should take rear guard for the rest of travel though the Grovegrass.” He nodded in agreement.
With the battle over, I harvested some meat from the beast and we rested for a bit. After checking our gear, we resumed out trek northwards to the westward pass into the Steppes of Ru'lun. The next day, near high sun, we met up with an Esqap trade caravan returning from Thronefast heading back to Wild's End. They informed us that the way through to Kingsreach had been fairly quite after leaving Avendyr's Pass. We thanked them for the information, traded the fresh raw snake meat for more sustainable rations, and continued northwest through the Steppes of Ru'lun.
