Post
by Sharkforce » Mon Jun 28, 2021 6:21 am
From the Journal of Zivilyn, Windling Magician: Country Roads, Take Me Home
It seems Azurea has decided she would like to introduce herself to her birth parents. I understand that essentially every step down this path has been an absurd hardship beyond what might be expected, and so for this part I couldn't let her go alone. I hear that on the last one she faced some horror that was feasting on the souls of the band of heroes that had escorted her as an infant to her home, I swear trouble follows this girl wherever she goes.
Joining us would be Haze and Howler (who go pretty much everywhere with me), LaShana (unsurprisingly, they are best friends after all), Lazulin, who I understand is the son of the chief of the Iceclaw Moot (I'm sure that conversation went over well), and Norg (well versed in some forms of diplomacy, I suppose). She sure has an interesting idea of how to make a first impression.
Lazulin led the way, and it fairly quickly became obvious that he has no idea that Azurea is the daughter of the chief of the Iceclaw Moot. Did I say that must have gone over well? Apparently what I meant is that it *will* go over well. I mean, I feel it is not my place to bring this sort of thing up, but why would you wait until you're in a place where you *know* you have an enemy before you start sharing your secrets with your family? Anyways, the trip there was fairly uneventful, but when we arrived it was odd. The guards were reported to be quite lax in their duty, and when I saw them I could quickly see that their life force was weakening. Their armour looked like a hand-me-down from an older cousin it was hanging so loose on their frames, and they struggled to stand for long.
They welcomed Lazulin, of course, as the returning son of the chief. Azurea stayed mostly quiet, so apparently sometimes she does have a filter. Well, sort of anyways; she still offered them skin cream. Frankly I'm half surprised they didn't just eat it right in front of her to make a point. In due course we made it to the chief's house, where Lazulin surprised his mother with his presence (apparently not sharing important information runs in the family, like "Hey, I'm your sister that everyone thought was dead" or "Hey, I'm coming home after being away for 3 years").
Fleka (Azurea and Lazulin's mother) had no clue what Azurea was talking about when she tried to subtly explain that no, she couldn't be Lazulin's girlfriend because she was his sister, which it turns out is because Gurdr (her father) had just never bothered to mention to anyone that he had tried to save Azurea after those many years. As mentioned: this family has real communication problems. Speaking of Gurdr, he was in the back room and was slowly dying of starvation as he could not keep any food in him for long enough to digest it. Azurea treated his condition, which it seemed came from worms in his stomach, and he woke up and recognized her.
There was a brief celebration, but also a discussion of the moot's problems. It seems that all the food in the entire region was infested with some unnatural worms. They would infect creatures, but not kill them, and then when they were hunted they would suddenly fill almost to bursting with the parasites. There were no obvious signs in the astral; people were getting sick, as might be expected when so many are malnourished, but no visible corruption or magical effects to dispel. Just worms. I could think of two types of horrors that were known for worms (wormskull and miseryworm) and I wasn't looking forward to facing either of them.
My mind went to the Troll we had seen in vision who had failed in his duty to protect his family and the food storage by spending his nights in another woman's bed. We also learned that the local Elementalist had died in an avalanche not long before the troubles began. Shortly afterward, Azurea and Lazulin's brother Yngvar showed up.
He was a little less accepting of Azurea (who could have imagined that just not keeping this sort of thing to yourself might make people skeptical?) and seemed to think she was a scam artist. Oh, and also apparently Azurea is actually Named Odette. And Lazulin didn't even know that he had ever *had* a sister at all. Say it with me people: C-O-M-M-U-N-I-C-A-T-E. It isn't *that* hard. Ugh. Whatever.
So Yngvar was happy to see Lazulin (apparently the parents had said they wanted to preserve at least one uncursed child and didn't want to send for Lazulin's help. Yngvar was justifiably upset about being told he was cursed). There was also some drama about the prophecy about Azurea, though thankfully that was short-lived. Prophecy really is not a common gift, and prophecy that conveniently happens to allow the prophet to get what they want is doubly suspect. He had some concerns about some hunters who had gone out looking for food and hadn't returned.
We spent the rest of the day learning about the pestilence; it was not possible to make good food using Plant Feast without first purifying the ground, using Thrive to grow new plants, and then using those plants for a Plant Feast. We at least were able to get a scant few Trolls on their feet to deal with the simple problems that had been building up in the face of starvation; nobody had energy to perform basic maintenance tasks or tend to other necessary duties.
The next day we decided to investigate the Elementalist's death, figuring that was a clue we actually knew where to find. It took a while to get there, and it seems his corpse was still buried in the snow. The Elemental Spirits were unresponsive when I called, but Azurea was able to speak with the land more directly. We were able to determine that his death had not been accidental, but little more about what had caused it. Our next task was to search for the missing hunters. LaShana picked up their trail fairly easily and we followed them for some time until Azurea heard the crunching of bones and then footsteps in the snow approaching us. Lots of footsteps, some large. We readied ourselves for battle and in short order were facing off against Gnashers. Crackjaws and Gravetails. I can't say I was looking forward to fighting them again, and the last time had the advantage that it was in a vision where I was hopeful that death wouldn't kill me.
They were quite awful to fight, just as I remembered them. They were fast and deadly, and liked to pin you in place and then try to eat you. We took quite a beating, but thankfully I had my healing magic to help us recover. We were still quite sore though; I had taken a rather painful spike right through my leg, and I was grateful to be able to rest it by flying and riding on Howler. One of the things had seemed as if it had been called away, and after doing what we could for what was left of the hunters we followed it to a small keep a little over a day away.
The keep was infested with Ehrlgren and some huge fetid mass of rotting flesh (on further reflection, I believe it may have been some variety of grotesque). Passions, it's like someone found my least favourite enemies I've ever fought and put all of them right into Azurea's path. The ehrlgren did what ehrlgren do (nearly knocking LaShana out, and actually knocking Azurea out), the grotesque was disgustingly distracting, and then a wormskull popped out. Now, I've never fought a wormskull before. I would like to never fight one again, though if past experience has taught me anything it's that I rarely get *those* wishes fulfilled.
So it pretty much instantly turned Lazulin's bones to pudding, and things were looking pretty grim. Thankfully, with a little boost from me Norg was able to nearly smash right through the vile thing in a single punch (as he does). Regrettably, it was able to retreat and will likely cause problems in the future. Oh, the worms were removed (especially after we destroyed all manner of contraptions in the keep, finished off the ehrlgren, and hunted down the last of the gnashers), but it was most insistent that everyone there should starve in despair. I can only assume it will be back, just as terrible if not worse. I am not looking forward to that at all.
I stayed for a while after to help with what I could in the moot. They were in desperate need of healers, and it was going to take them some time to get their food situation sorted, and I was well-suited to help with both of those needs. It will be a hard road for them (not only did their Elementalist die, but it seems his apprentice was with him). The supposed prophetess harumphed her way out of time, and I say good riddance to bad rubbish. Still, I expect she'll be causing trouble for the moot as well, although I suspect the moot will have an easier time dealing with her than with another horror incursion. Hopefully next time the Iceclaw Moot has this kind of problem they don't just sit on the information and wither away to nothing next time.
....
OK, actually, thinking about this family, that sounds like a foolish thing to hope for. Ugh. Well, maybe I can hire a messenger to check in every now and then. At least Yngvar doesn't seem to be violently opposed to communication, maybe he could use a pen pal.