Valyan's Heirs

Kira's Journals

Journal,

Good news! We finally got out of that awful forest after the fog lifted. Without even stopping to rest, we headed straight for the Blood Wood. When we were almost there, we were ambushed by some things that Gir called Thorn Men. We beat them without even breaking a sweat. But, almost before we could put our weapons away, we were accosted by some Blood Elves. Once they realized who we were, they led us to the Blood Wood kingdom. The first person we met there was Kalourin, who didn’t look very pleased to see us at all. Then the nice elf who gave us the job met us and sent Kalourin away. He didn’t seem happy about that either.

I can’t remember his name right now, but the nice elf led us to a room where we could tell him what happened at Kaer Akarem in private. We told him about the slave trader’s caravan and about the spectral dancer and the horror that we defeated. It was at the mention of the horror that Rezak, who joined us just before we fought the horror (I’m pretty sure he didn’t know what he was getting into), remembered that there was a symbol on the wall of the horror’s lair that was the same as the one we just saw Kalourin wearing around his neck. The elf left us in a flapping of robes and was gone long enough for us to wonder if he was going to come back with guards to arrest us. He did come back, but not with guards. He thanked us for the information abour Kalourin and said we were going to receive a gift that most people would never even dream of getting. He led us out of the room as my mind began racing to imagine the mound of gold, treasure, and artifacts we would be walking out of the Blood Wood with. He led us to a hedge maze and began to lead us through. He obviously knew exactly where he was going. I knew then that whatever treasure was at the end of the maze must be great indeed to be so well hidden and guarded. When we finally emerged at the end of the maze, my heart dropped to see absolutely nothing. In fact the only thing there was was the side of a building and a balcony. But I soon realized that the treasure here was greater than any magical artifact or any mountain of gold.

At first it seemed as if the sun itself was emerging from the balcony, but in reality, what was there was not the sun, but just a sight beautiful and terrible to behold. Once my eyes cleared I almost fell to my knees at the sight of the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. Her name is Alachia, Queen of all Elves, and I know I will never forget the sight of her incredible face. The sound of Her voice was like a blessing from the Passions themselves as she told us how grateful She was that we put ourselves in great peril to save Her kin and how glad She was to see that most of us returned alive and well. The rest of what She said is somewhat of a blur because a was so enveloped in Her beauty, but once She was finished, She tossed a single rose from Her balcony. I would have caught it but I was distracted by Her unearthly quality. Thrak caught the rose and She said that it would hold it’s bloom for a year and a day and during that time the rose would provide us safe passage into the Blood Wood. She left us then sitting in what seemed to be utter darkness in comparison to Her beauty and life. Queen Alachia’s image will be burned in my memory for the rest of my life. I still see Her when I close my eyes and in my dreams for weeks after laying eyes upon Her for the first time. After She left us, we were led back through the hedge maze and that other elf sent us on our way with the blessings of himself, his brethren, and his beautiful queen, and with a warning. Kalourin had apparently left the forest and no one knew where he went. We were warned to watch our backs because Kalourin was not someone to be trifled with and certainly not someone we wanted as our enemy.

And so we set out back towards Haven and since it was a two week trip, we finally got a chance to rest and recover our wounds from the fight with the horror. When we did eventually reach Haven, the first thing we did was seek out Hierman, the old man who sent us to the Blood Wood in the first place. But as we were walking through the streets, I couldn’t shake this feeling that we were being followed. And I was about to find out just how right my feeling was. When we reached Hierman’s place, we were led to his room by a woman, who’s name I also forget right now, and found him at his work table. He seemed distracted, and before he could get two whole words out of his mouth, he collapsed to the ground, revealing the cause of his distraction and of my bad feeling.

Kalourin, the traitor, was standing in the room with us, and he wasn’t alone. There were two henchmen with him, one quite large and the other with a very sharp-looking sword. Even though he got the jump on us, Kalourin was defeated without hardly breaking a sweat, but he turned out to be the least of our worries. Almost before Kalourin’s body hit the floor, an all too familiar mist rose from his corpse, and our real challenge showed itself. I guess the horror from the kaer had some deal with Kalourin because he was still alive, if you can call it that, and just as angry with us as ever. I get the feeling now that there was something Banstar never told us, because the horror seemed like he wanted revenge against Banstar for something. The horror was so angry with him that it held nothing back, and not even Hierman’s last chance potion could bring Banstar back after the beating he took. But we did beat the horror. Gir gave it the final crushing blow and sent it back to whatever dimension it came from, and Thrak and Rezak beat Kalourin’s henchmen to a pulp so badly that they resorted crashing from the second story window to save themselves.

We buried Banstar in Haven and now face returning to Valyan’s Legacy to tell his master the bad news. But we do have something else to do when we get there. Hierman told us that the map we found in the clay tablet about a month ago is actually a fake. But a map, even a fake one, still leads to something, right? So after we get back to Valyan’s Legacy, I plan on investigating that map and where it might lead. It’s too bad that Kelric and Banstar won’t be there to join us though. Only three of the first five of us are still around, but hey, you have to look on the bright side. I inherited Valor, the short sword from Kelric, and we made a penny selling the staff that Banstar was going to use to Hierman. Make that 3,000 pretty silver pennies. All we can do now is move on and hope that nothing else like that stupid horror thing happens again.

Kira