I had a dream that gaffeldin the great ⸴ a human scholar that had accompanied us to steepfall ⸴ had been murdered by a pantherghast swiftly ⸴ and there had been no other humans in the cabin at the time · When i awoke at sun's first light my first feeling was relief ⸴ especially upon seeing gaffeldin's obviously sleeping form in the makeshift bunk above me · This was swiftly replaced by horror ⸴ however ⸴ as i noted the remains of an actual fight not two feet from where my head had been laying · It would come out later in the day that after the pantherghast attack which actually did occur ⸴ gaffeldin's spirit had been required to travel to fort aegis almost thirty-one verstas away ⸴ and sir simon had escorted him all the way back (via waystone ⸴ but still) in the night ·
This sorrow aside ⸴ the morning brought a degree of peace ⸴ as at first we saw no undead nor celestial summons · A slight chill was not enough to keep me from my morning meditations though i did cut the first round of my whispering practise short to get warm again in the former general store ⸴ which we adventurers had already slated as being the tavern and central meeting place for the new adventuring post · A few slow shambling undead did occasionally wander into our midst but they were far easier to deal with than the previous night when we were practically overrun ·
Even the late morning was slow and somewhat relaxed as we all took advantage of the sunlight that deterred most undead ⸴ taking time to finish patching up wounds from the previous evening and to carefully scout more of our immediate surroundings · During a particularly quiet lull ⸴ fayedra and i went outside to have a practise duel and keep our limbs and blades ready for any surprises · The duel was to five strikes with the flat ⸴ and i warned her that i was still growing accustomed to my longsword but it was all to the good against her single blade · We actually went evenly matched and even hit each other the fifth strike at the exact same moment ⸴ and we were still chuckling about it as we went back inside to join the rest of our troupe ·
Thinking that perhaps a literal bird's-eye-view might provide some more information about this forsaken place ⸴ i mentioned to lun (who i was breakfasting with) that i wanted to untertake a whispering - my first real in-depth one since the incident with the bear late last summer · Lun was of course unfamiliar with the unusual skill i was learning ⸴ but after i explained it he excitedly told me of a perfect spot he had found for it · We ventured to a semi-clearing behind the «cabins» we had all slept in ⸴ and found a very large stump apparently logged recently by a braver forester than most · I agreed it was perfect and ⸴ beaming with pride ⸴ lun offered to stand guard over me while i went into the mild trance i used to communicate across the all-fauna connexion ·
In fact the whispering was almost a failure · Not because i could not perform it ⸴ but because there were so few animals of any kind ⸴ including birds ⸴ that were close enough for me to reach out to · When I finally did manage to catch the attention of a crow ⸴ the nervous creature had very little it could tell me in answer to my questions · It told me that birds generally stayed away from this place because they could feel something other and supernatural ⸴ as well as wanting to stay away from people such as myself (the sense i got was that it meant «adventurers» not «selunari») · Still ⸴ it was better than nothing ⸴ and i thanked the crow and emerged from my trance to see lun sinking a final arrow into one rogue undead ·
My kinsman and i returned to the tavern yet again but i did not remain long ⸴ since blue had mentioned her interest in taking sketches of the strange gravemarker-like stones we had noted the previous night ⸴ and which were much more obvious now during the day · The flat black monuments each had some bluish glowing runes of an unfamiliar glyph system carved into them ⸴ but also each monument was either eroded or someone had purposely removed chunks from their faces ·
While blue used her high artistry to reproduce the glyphs and missing pieces ⸴ we guarded her - red ⸴ dustie ⸴ naomi ⸴ a human named val ⸴ and myself · And it was well that we did ⸴ because something about even our mild disturbance of the graves attracted more pantherghasts · Between us all we kept each other safe ⸴ for they mostly targeted the kin and the elves ⸴ and just when one targeted me ⸴ lun made a re-appearance and helped me destroy it · Still ⸴ when blue announced that she was finally finished ⸴ none of us dawdled in leaving the immediate area of the grave markers ·
I had also promised pebbles prior to our group's arrival in steepfall that i would help her investigate an incursion of mineral elementals · Likely one of her contacts had asked her to look into it after hearing that the adventurers would be in this region · In fact several of us had offered to accompany her so she led her well-armed group to the site of the rift · She quickly deduced after spotting an obelisk that the trinket her contact had given her would drain the obelisk's power ⸴ eliminating the passage by which the elementals had been rifting onto the prime plane ·
As she also later explained ⸴ it was fortunate that it was mineral elementals we were dealing with · I'm still not familiar with all the many elemental planes ⸴ besides the four primary elements and life and death · But mineral elementals are like the «children» of life and stone ⸴ which means they preserve life and keep balance · This is why I woke up prisoned and being dragged out of the way by my friends after I got knocked out halfway through the skirmish ፥ the elementals had magically healed us to ensure we did not bleed out ⸴ and then cast a celestial prison on our bodies to prevent us from interfering further · Our aim was still accomplished however ⸴ and cressida and i (the only ones still prisoned) had been pulled well out of the way before the obelisk gave a minor explosion and disintegrated ·
By the time we returned once more the steepfall storefront ⸴ sir simon had been and gone with contracts hastily requested by the sparse occupants of the region · Blue and i headed up the pursuit of one such contract ⸴ from a man who hadn't heard from his brother in a while and was concerned about forest fires in the area · We discovered quite sadly that we were too late ፥ the house in question was already cinders and there were fire elementals all over the place ·
Though it was too late for the contract holder's brother and the heat was oppressive ⸴ we decided almost unanimously to at least eliminate the elementals and put out the fire · Cressida had accompanied us on this as well due her connexion to fire and its plane ⸴ and consumed the essence of most of the elementals we destroyed · Velnaeus ⸴ zorian ⸴ lun ⸴ and val also came with us ⸴ and zorian enhanced val's axe with ice while i enhanced çerhêni the same way ⸴ making our job infinitely easier · We steadfastly persisted until all of the elementals were eliminated and the remaining cinders burnt completely out ⸴ before returning to steepfall · The sad news would have to be relayed to sir simon when he returned that evening ⸴ and it would be that honest knight who had the unfortunate task of delivering it to the contract holder himself ·
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