As the evening approached tonight i chose to walk rather than waystone the relatively short distance to valbrough · Two errands required my attention ⸴ and i needed to retrieve the result of the first before i felt comfortable proceeding with the second · Sure enough ⸴ i found rock at his forge ⸴ and he had just recently finished crafting my silvered longsword · The shape of course did not match that of my caravan blades ⸴ but i found it had an expert edge as well as a fine shaped point on the end ⸴ should i choose to stab rather than swing · Most importantly ⸴ as i had requested ⸴ rock had copied my deorsa inscription onto both sides of the blade · This weapon was now rupratyi ⸴ the most fitting name i could think of ·
With rupratyi added to my arsenal ⸴ and my taming bag and my sleeping sack packed with clothes ⸴ i proceeded to the valbrough waystone where many of my friends were already waiting in response to lycergis' request · Dusk had fallen when i arrived ⸴ and i heard velnaeus instructing us to pair off for protection · Seeing blue near me and unpaired ⸴ i offered to be her battle partner since she is a healer and i am a guardian ⸴ and she was pleased to accept · I cautioned her that she would have to be my seeing eye as darkness continued to cover the sky ⸴ but she had no problem with that · «So if there's an enemy ፧» she asked ⸴ and i replied ⸴ «turn me to face it ⸴ and push me forward» ·
We queued up to rift through the waystone to steepfall ⸴ about two-thirds of the way through the line of adventurers · By the time we reached the stone and initiated our own passage through the waymaker network ⸴ combat was already in progress as we had expected · Steepfall was said to be haunted and plagued with both spectral and reanimated undead; i can wholeheartedly verify that is accurate ·
Some of the undead had ice in their claws ⸴ and some of the more solid looking ones ignored most of the adventurers ⸴ seemingly only attacking random specific people · This strange behaviour set my mind racing as i tried to recall something ⸴ but i had little time to act on it as blue was both leading me onward and directing my attention to those undead that were about to attack me/us · As we progressed from the waystone to the old town propre ⸴ velnaeus kept us in a mostly tight formation and led us to the largest building he could find in the dark ⸴ which the sign out front indicated was an old general store before steepfall was abandoned ·
We made it inside ⸴ and assured of at least temporary safety ⸴ i immediately went digging through my taming bag for the documents about the undead which i had copied from the library in onothera · My racing mind had been correct -- one of the pages described steel-breaker revenants ⸴ which i relayed to mathis · These spooks retained a lot of their individuality as dead beings ⸴ and sought out those who they perceived as the greatest challenge unless sufficiently provoked from another source · I was able to also relay their weakness to magic ⸴ and also quickly (though stutteringly) provide some other info on what might have been bone-armor revenants · Mathis already knew the information on the liches and lesser spectres but thanked me all the same ·
Meanwhile trellis built a wall of force which kept the revenants out ⸴ but not the spectres when they were incorporeal · At first i was considerably hesitant and belatedly realised my arms were shaking from having not eaten recently ⸴ so i was staying back from everything · But ardos pulled me aside and encouraged me ⸴ reminding me that i was a guardian of the earth guild and that destroying these undead was exactly what i was tasked to do · My resolve strengthened by my cousin's inspiration ⸴ i stayed much more forward ⸴ keeping a close eye on any spectres that passed into our space and ready to strike them down if and when they began phasing into corporeality ·
Between trellis's significant store of walls of force (which had to be renewed at least twice a ghurry) and the number of fighters and spellswords keeping an eye on the spectres ⸴ we could have maintained our position there until close to the dawn ⸴ had nothing changed · But it did ·
A different type of creature suddenly burst into the store on all fours ⸴ seemingly unfazed by trellis' protective lines ⸴ and began ferociously attacking one of our number · My attacks were ineffective ⸴ as were many others ⸴ but randomly other adventurers could successfully do damage to the spectral feline-looking thing · Those of us who could not deal damage ⸴ the creature would occasionally swipe at us with a high-pitched ethereal energy that would cause us to uncontrollably back away and have difficulty approaching again · The senior adventurers among our party began shouting the names of races at the creatures (as more than one made it into the building) ⸴ much to my confusion ·
Finally someone explained to me (and to a gaggle of brand-new adventurers who had answered lycergis' call to reclaim steepfall) that the creatures were called «pantherghasts» ⸴ or «pg's» for short and for superstitious reasons · They were not undead ⸴ but rather summoned celestial beasts that each only sought out members of one race to attack · Likewise members of the targeted race were the only ones that could do actual damage to them · This information came in excellent time since the next pantherghast that ran into the store came after a familia member i had not yet met ⸴ and ardos and i flew forward as others called out «selunari» so the two of us could strike the beast down · The young selunari shakily got to his feet after blue had healed him ⸴ and thanked us ⸴ introducing himself as lun of the silver clan ·
With the rest of us in the storefront now better aware of the pantherghasts ⸴ mathis asked taios ⸴ trellis ⸴ and ardos to go scout the rest of the area · At first i was alarmed until i realised that with the spectres and pantherghasts unfazed by trellis' walls of force ⸴ there was no point in maintaining them · Those of us that remained maintained our temporary bastion for a seemingly interminable amount of time ⸴ protecting those of our number less suited to combat · Finally the scouting trio returned and reported to mathis · I confess that fatigue was already beginning to fall over me and i was devoting more of my energy to helping maintain our security than to listening to the conversation ⸴ but i did catch something about a tower one and a half míla away · After some lengthy discussion mathis decided we were going to march on the tower ⸴ and everyone agreed to go with him since nobody wanted to stay behind alone in the besieged storefront or the haunted town ·
Emerging from the storefront we made note of some tall dark stones ⸴ somewhat resembling grave markers ⸴ which we had not noticed on our arrival (being understandably distracted by the undead offensive) ⸴ and made a note to investigate them in the morning · Thus aside from continuing to fend off undead and pg's on our way ⸴ our whole group trekked along through the dark woods in much the same manner as we had emerged from the waystone ⸴ with blue assisting me by pointing me in the right direction for either walking or fighting ·
Eventually our group reached the tower in question ⸴ a dilapidated monstrosity which certainly was taller at one time but now only had about two and a half stories ⸴ most of it fallen apart and looking far too unsafe to climb up · But naomi noticed a cellar door leading down into a basement ⸴ and that is where they all went · I say «they» because i still was unsure what was the purpose of our being here to begin with ⸴ and mathis had requested that some persons stay outside to ensure nothing snuck up on us (like pantherghasts) ⸴ so i was one of five adventurers that remained topside · Fortunately ⸴ as far as investigations go ⸴ this one seemed to be smooth and successful; nothing came at us from above ⸴ and the goo beings that trellis reported seeing and fighting were not too difficult for our combined forces that descended into the darkness ·
By this point my fatigue had reached a point where i could barely function ⸴ so as we all returned to steepfall proper ⸴ i inquired about the other abandoned buildings in the town and trellis told me the undead were mostly leaving them alone · Blue had already stashed her small bundle of travel belongings in one such building ⸴ so it made sense for me to retrieve my taming bag and sleeping items from the storefront and also take refuge within that building ·
On our way back to steepfall for me to accomplish this ⸴ i also had occasion to talk with cressida and lilith · They mentioned to me that ardos had recently killed a bear ⸴ possibly the same one that maimed my eye and arm ⸴ which made me feel avenged in some strange way · Since lilith was also delving into the mastery of potion-making ⸴ we also talked at length about the possibility of devising a potion that ⸴ unlike everything i had tried so far ⸴ might finally restore my eyesight fully · It is a prospect i would like to detail more with her at a later time ·
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