Jungle Law Enforcerer Registered Member #1180
Joined: 7:46:29 am GMT 10/05/07
Posts: 1292
Der Hertz von den Menschen
Folgendes ist eine Zitate Eliths Tagesbuch.
Zwei Mal in kurzen Zeit haben Menschen mir enttäuscht, witzigerweise auf den gleichen Grund: Unverdiente Gnade.
Je mehr Zeit läuft, desto weniger Geduld ich dafür habe, um solches Benehmen zu tolerieren.
Erstes gibt es einen, der ist entschlossen und sogar bereit alles zu verzeihen. Zweitens ein anderer, der sich nicht bringen konnte, einen mächtigen Gegner meines Volks zu halten.
Können sie nicht verstehen, was los ist? Können sie nicht sehen, dass ihr Weg nur den Schmerz verschiebt?
Wie naive ist das Glauben, dass alle gerettet werden können? Insbesondere wenn manche nicht gerettet werden dürfen?
Einmal ein Feind, immer so.
An extract from Elith's Journal.
Twice in such a short time I have been disappointed by humans, funnily for the same reason: wrongly placed compassion.
The more time passes, the more I become intolerant of such behaviour.
The first decided, and was even ready, to forgive everything. The second couldn't bring himself to stop a great enemy of the People.
Can't they understand what is happenning around them? Can't they see, that their paths will only postpone the Pain?
How naive can it be to believe that everyone can be saved? Especially when some should not.
Jungle Law Enforcerer Registered Member #1180
Joined: 7:46:29 am GMT 10/05/07
Posts: 1292
[ image disabled ]
The fifth
A long carpet of clouds was unfolding in front of him, sun rays coming through from beneath it and piercing it, splashing the the trees hanging upside down over him.
Noises of the underbush and the branches filled the air, alongside a deep, sad and encompassing song.
He looked aorund, unsure.
Ahead of him, only few steps, a winged figure was talking, her words cryptic but also clear in their meaning. After all that was the way of the Fey.
The Baelnorn listened and walked forth, accompanying the winged figure deeper, in the realm where the things of the forest would go to die and become one again with the world.
Elith listened to the words of the Fey and, slowly, as understanding dawned upon him, he began to feel sad: it was hard to let things go and die.
Within the Fey named Arakhor, there still was a spark of Seryn, the young druid and shapeshifter, innocent and misguided, sacrificed on an altar for being too trustful. The one whom the Sorcerer could not save, neither from the whispers of the Order nor from the lethal blow that forever changed her.
In truth, his failure was not her end, as from Sery's death a new creature was born Arakhor. This one still held part of Seryn within, keeping her memories alive and still feeling her thoughts. Moreover, Arakhor was able, in the end, to see through the lies of the Order and Syfana, showing, even to him, that there was more to the poisoned woods than death and torture.
But now, as the Ashwood burnt and its poison and song changed, so had to Arakhor as well. The Fey had to be reborn: the Fey had chosen the way of life of the Taurenglond and not the one of the Ashwood. The two songs were very different and so were the two Poisons. In her mind, the mixing memories and songs were slowly driving her to insanity, as the two were complete opposites from one another.
But Arakhor knew that to be born again, she had to die first and, with her, all that it once was. That is why She asked the Sorcerer to be with her.
Elith listened the words spoken: the last words of Seryn and those of Arakhor, he then watched the creature quietly being covered by the clouds and sensed the energies and the song of the woods claiming her.
The one he couldn't help and the one that proved him wrong, neither would be forgotten.
Jungle Law Enforcerer Registered Member #1180
Joined: 7:46:29 am GMT 10/05/07
Posts: 1292
From the journal of Elith Sianicen.
I write these words warily, such changes are neither for many to see, nor to survive. The evoker Elarion was purified by the touch of the Moon and the spirits of the ancients, his heart is now pure as it rebuked the false promises and beliefs of the Ashwood.
The evoker's tongue is still sharp and his ego still hard to keep under control. I can only hope that he does not do anything foolish, for his actions will reflect on me and my already precarious standing in Greenvale.
Nevertheless I see in him what I was, the path he walked is very similar to mine.
Could it be that after such long time, there is someone who could follow in my footsteps? He still needs to prepare, and hone is craft. His is certainly powerful, but his understanding of the weave appears to be limited to use her only as a tool, instead of understanding her essence. He needs to improve the understanding of her, if he wants to contain and destroy the powers threatening our brothers of the Feywood and those circling at the doors of the City.
Speaking of, it is time for me set forth now. The fires in the of the Ashwoods must be doused and new life needs to come in the forest.
Jungle Law Enforcerer Registered Member #1180
Joined: 7:46:29 am GMT 10/05/07
Posts: 1292
The eerie silence of Elith's study was interrupted by a low, rythimc scraping: the Baelnorn's finger was rasping on a scroll. It brought tidings from the north. The hit that the sorcerer felt in his chest found its explanation in those news, lazily he shook his head.
To remain behind and protect the south was in hindsight not the right choice, he beieved that the forces amassed to the north would suffice against the Witch and her entourage, which in fact did but at what price?
He growled, so one would call a victory a "Phyrric Victory".
Yet another Baelnorn's decision to pile up with the poor ones, out of miscalculation, fear perhaps? Or even a slow and increasing lack of interest for those problems that one would relate only to the lifespan of the living?
Rulers, heroes, villains. All of them come and go, yet duty and survival remain. Survival, is that what the elves main concern and objective was becoming now?
From apex of culture and art transformed into scared mouses in barrows, shaking and trembling, waiting for the snake to kill them and swallow them whole?
Elith crumpled the parchment in his hand. It came to pass and he was to blame for it, but he was not alone.
The respect, friendship and duty forced him to seek for answers. He looked at his armour and shook his head once again: in these times he missed his old rags.
Jungle Law Enforcerer Registered Member #1180
Joined: 7:46:29 am GMT 10/05/07
Posts: 1292
A side tale: Prejudice and Hammers. Pt. I
Riftstones are the plague of the land, they create small cuts between Thain and places of darkness and evil; places from which demons, shadows and -rarely enough- the all consuming Void pour through. As anyone can guess, riftstones are powerful gems, charged with corrupting and withering energy.
What happens then, when a large batch of such stones end up in the hands of a Bugbear summoner? The answer is very straightforward: they are used to bring forth the biggest and baddest creature that a bestial, but semi schooled, mind can think of: a large mass of rocks filled with pulsating abyssal energy.
* * *
It is also known that the Island of Thain is a place of heroes and villains and, as the midday sun was shining over the fields surrounding Hamley, noises of battle could be heard coming from the otherwise silent countryside: a tiger snarling, cackling fire burning, metal hitting stone and flashes of energies hitting a large, red coloured, glowing creature.
Heroes were battling the shambling mass of rocks conjured by a -now- motionless Bugbear.
The battle was intense, but not too long, because in the midst of the heroes, there was a clever -albeit arrogant- Evoker who saw the weaknesses of the summoning ritual and, exploiting them, he allowed the Beastmaster, the Ranger, the Druid and the Magestress to bring down the towering creature.
However, as the battle ended and the conjured shambling Mass of Rocks was depleted of the abyssal energy, its byproduct and materials remained behind: Riftstones. Effectively leaving the heroes with the question, what to do with the lingering corruption?
* * *
Twelve stones were laying on the ground and had to be destroyed or, at least, brought somewhere where the possibility for them to harm someone could be diminished, if not completely eliminated. Elith, who during the fight remained to the side, letting the heroes claim the glory of victory for their own, collected quickly the stones and the shards for himself. As it was, in the Academy of Greenvale there was in fact someone, whom he trusted to be able to eliminate the threat.
He trusted him alright and he heard much about his skills, however, it was time to see if those stories had some truth in them.
* * *
The Enchantment room in the Academy was hot and the forge fires were burning bright as a sturdy dwarf held a pair of pliers in his left hand, while beating on a sword with his right arm. The clanging noise was almost unbereable, yet the dwarf seemlessy beated forth and forth. Elith waited patiently, few meters away, for the crafter to finish his work.
That was a mistake.
Those who say that a mage chanting a spell is oblivious to the world, obviously have never witnessed a dwarven crafter at work. Eventually, and not a moment earlier before his creation was perfect, the crafter, Agni Cuchuwynson, turned around and acknowledged Elith's presence.
The sorcerer explained to the crafter about the stones, about the creature and about the energies. Cuchuwynson listened and, by the end of Elith's explanation, the two were met by Jacen Morlock and Elarion Hanolen (both of them, I believe, do not require an introduction).
As Elith finished to speak, a plan was offered by the dwarf, crush the Riftstones and let their energies be eliminated with something powerful enough to contrast the tainted stones, specifically, blessed celestial crystals.
Agreeing, Jacen, Elarion and Elith offered to find the crystal and have them blessed, while Agni showed to the gathered, a bit of his own skills. In particular he created an adamantine box that inhibited the influx of the Riftstones to spread.
Reassured, the trio left the smith to his other ongoing projects.
* * *
The trip to the Nachtlicht to recover the celestial crystals offered no surprises to the three arcanists and, the fight against the fauna living in the caves does not seem worth of mentioning. Unless one wants to point out how, sometimes, remaining in the back offers a vantage point against larger creatures.
It was, all in all, a success and now, with the celestial crystals at his disposal, Elith could find the right blessing.
[ The Island of Thain ]
Greenwood Chronicles