20 Borrum, 1506 TH

Thistle,

When last I wrote we were about to embark on our journey to Urapa by means of the T'skrang ship River Squall. I found the journey down the River to be very pleasant - except for the attempts on John's life. Traveling on the river, you can smell the water in the wind all the time. Just above the water, cool wisps of mist spiral up to caress your wings. The creaking of the wooden hull and the lapping of the waves soon form their own melody, and singing a lullaby they lull you to sleep. The stars are bright in the sky here. There are no trees on the river to obscure the view and, when the water is still, you can see the stars reflected there as well.

I was reflecting on the beauty of this river when the first attempt was made on John's life. We had put into a small village the day before to take on cargo. Among said cargo were three casks, which turned out to have T'skrang assassins inside. They snuck out of their casks and launched a surprise ambush against John on the bow of the boat. Fortunately, with our help, he was able to defeat them handily. The captain and first mate apologized for the trouble, but did not take our warning that more trouble might follow seriously. That turned out to be quite unfortunate.

There were several other small attempts made at killing John. Arrows were frequently shot from the river bank, so John took to sitting on the side of the boat away from the land. One enterprising soul, a T'skrang with a tattered frill, used a row boat to get around to the other side of the boat to shoot John, but he was quickly persuaded to give up the effort. In short, though several attempts were made, no real harm was done by the time we reached the Floating City.

I took a small launch to the Floating City from where our boat was anchored. Well, I took the launch most of the way to the floating city. Once we got in through the defensive barriers, I got excited and flew in myself. The city itself is quite amazing, built on reeds it floats in the middle of a huge lake. Even more amazing however, were the windlings who live here - yes, windlings living on a floating city. During the scourge their Kaer had been breached and the survivors made it here to wait out the end of the scourge with the T'skrang. Not only do these windlings actually live in a floating city on a lake, but they SWIM and ENJOY doing so. I know it sounds unbelievable, but I talked to them and watched them in the water so I know it is true.

Anyway, while I was at the Floating City I went shopping, mostly looking for windling goods I had not been able to find else where. While wandering through the city I spotted a T'skrang with a tattered frill, the very T'skrang who had tried to kill John the day before. So I abandoned my shopping to follow him. He snuck through several alleys and met up with a Big Mean-Looking Ugly Troll. He and the Troll started talking. The Troll was mad that the T'skrang had not eliminated John yet. The T'skrang replied that it was not his fault - his type of coin was not easy to spend here (I think the Troll was Theran and trying to buy John's death with Theran coin). The Troll said it was not his problem. The T'skrang said it wouldn't be a problem after tomorrow. The T'skrang said he had hired a boat to ambush us just around a large bend in the river after we were out of sight of the Floating City the next day. He promised to sink the boat and eliminate John that way. The Troll said that if the T'skrang did not succeed he would regret it. The Troll also said he would make arrangements to kill John if the T'skrang failed again. Then they went their separate ways. I tried to follow the Troll, but lost him in the crowd. I reported back to John and the Ship's captain with what I had heard.

The ship's Captain was not pleased to learn that there was someone trying to kill us who was planning to attack the entire ship to get to us. She considered leaving us at the floating city. However, I pointed out to her that there was no way to make sure that the news we were not on the ship would get to the people who planned to attack in time, and if they were going to be attacked anyway, it was much better to have us around to help fight them off. She agreed with my point and we continued the journey.

As we headed down the river we all stood ready for the attack. However, it took them longer to spring the ambush than we expected and we were not all quite as ready as we should have been when the attack finally came. As usual my memories of the battle are a bit confused and vague. Gorian spent most of the battle running around the ship trying to avoid having anyone get in melee rage. I started by attacking some of the boarders, but soon fell back to cover Gorian. John Kavros and Argen did a good job of taking care of the opponents they met. However, the tide of the battle really started to turn when Elias swung aboard the enemy ship and turned their own fire cannons at the deck - three shots through their hull caused them a number of problems. At about that time a T'skrang patrol vessel came up investigating the smoke and noise. They finished off the attacking ship and helped us limp to a dock at the nearest village.

We did some emergency repairs at the village (we spent two days there) and I helped by flying supplies and tools to where they were needed by men and T'skrang on ladders. Then we sailed on to Axalacail where we stopped to make more repairs and seal a few leaks.

Axalacail is a beautiful town. Built by Windlings and T'skrang, the building are all properly positioned in the trees. However, these trees are much bigger than any near our village and the buildings they hold are properly scaled for the T'skrang and humans who live here. They have a large number of strong vines growing from those trees which the natives use to swing form one part of the town to another since they are incapable of flight. When Gorian and Elias tried to take advantage of these vines, they did pretty badly and I flew out to help both of them get back to the pathways these people have built in the trees. Kavros was very graceful and took to the vines well. However, in an attempt not to make the others feel bad about their efforts, he promptly declared it to have been "dumb luck" and said that he would stick to the paths from now on as well.

We did a little shopping in the town then we went to the inn where I sang a little and started listening to the talk of the locals. Most of the talk of the locals was about some ork scorchers that had been plaguing the outlying villages. Apparently two or three days before our arrival a villager had come in from one of those outlying towns and had asked for help in dealing with these scorchers. The town's elders and the town's folk refused. They felt that the attacks were to distant and that they should be concerned with defending their own homes. However, one elf, an archer, talked with the man and agreed to go help. We asked a few more questions about the elf, and quickly realized that Rian Fireleaf himself had just gone to defeat the scorchers. Since we had a few days before the ship would be ready to leave, we decided to follow and see if we could be of help. Privately, I thought that by the time we got there Fireleaf would have already taken care of the problem, but I did hope to talk with him and the witnesses and write the next ballad about Fireleaf's exploits.

The journey to the village was mostly uneventful. We did hear some peculiar chattering off of the path at one point. I investigated and saw some magical squirrels with purple stripes. They were easily frightened however, and ended up trampling the rest of the party while running away from me, since the other members of the party were not able to fly out of the squirrels' way. Fortunately, since the rest of the party is somewhat oversized, they weren't really hurt by having the squirrels run over them.

When we got to the village we were required to prove that we were not horror tainted in the usual manner. After that, they let us in to their surprisingly well fortified little village and told us what had happened. The village just north of this one was utterly destroyed two days past. Yesterday, Rian had gone to that village and then followed the trail of the scorchers from there. The guides in the village agreed to take us to the ruin of the northern village the next day.

When we inspected the ruins we were aghast at the number of bodies that lay strewn in the streets. When we looked at the bodies again, we were even more distressed. The were no children. All of the children were missing. We thanked our guides and started tracking Rian who was tracking the scorchers.

As we tracked Fireleaf, we found enough evidence to piece together what he had done. At another ruined village we found evidence that he had burned the village and the bodies left within the village in a burial/cremation ritual used by many other name givers. He had then killed a number of the scorchers who came to investigate the fire from an ambush site set up at the edge of the village. He then took off with the rest of the scorchers in pursuit. Many times he stopped and picked off one or two of his pursuers with arrow and bow. He was gravely wounded, his espagra cloak was torn, tattered, bloodstained, and discarded. We used it and Gorian's direction arrow to track him after that. Next, we found a place where he had fallen down a rocky hill slide. Eventually, just before nightfall we found a small, well hidden crevice in the ground and when we followed it (John didn't fit) it led to a small cave. I went into the cave, and by looking for magic, not an elf, found the elf who had disguised himself as part of the wall. He was badly injured and we gave him some healing potions. He had lost his bow in the slide down the hillside, so Gorian offered onw of his bows and a number of arrows which Rian accepted. Then Rian told us a bit of his story and asked us for our help.

It seemed that our sense of foreboding at the fact that we had found no children's bodies was well founded. The scorchers had taken the children as slaves. Rian told us that the scorchers were led by a ork warrior and questor named Karan Manslayer and a madman named Ted. He stated that Ted had been responsible for his wife Lucere's death. He had found the ork encampment, but was unsure of how to save the children. He proposed that we attack the camp from two directions. He would attack first and draw as many of the orks as possible away from the camp to attack him. We would then slip into the camp and try to free the children from the abandoned Kaer they were being held in.

The plan worked as planned. Most of the orks, including Ted, took off after Fireleaf when he started raining exploding arrows down on them. We slipped in quickly and had no problem taking out the first guard. I immediately raced ahead of the fight to the main chamber where the children were being held. I found them tied and bound as slaves. There I took a stand to protect them from any of the scorchers who might decide to use them as human shields and ended up killing two scorchers. Talking with them, I found out that Manslayer was seeking vengeance for what the orks had suffered and was going to get that vengeance by enslaving the children of other races to orks. I was outraged and started to try to free the children. However, before I could get many untied, the battle in the hallway began.

Argen was at the head of the hallway, near the entrance where he was guarding the front door to make sure that no one returned at an inconvenient moment. The rest of the party was almost at the end of the hallway and about to enter the chamber where the children were kept. Then a door on the left side of the hallway opened and out stepped out Karan Manslayer and a few loyal associates.

Most of the party was somewhat ineffective. John was ordered to "sit" by the questor, and due to a magically compulsion, he obeyed. Argen and Elias started shooting arrows from opposite ends of the hallway and ended up shooting each other instead of the enemy. Gorian's arrows and Kavros's sword went to work on the henchmen. I attacked Manslayer. Berrybriar's sting alone was not enough to harm him, so he was arrogant enough to ignore my attack. However, since I had placed poison on the blade, I hoped to down him. Eventually, John overcame the spell and came to help me. Then Manslayer used the same spell to take control of Gorian and make him attack us. Elias tried to help by cutting Gorian's bow string, but he missed and cut Gorian's arm. Eventually, I managed to sink Berrybriar deep enough into Manslayer to deliver the poison and kill the questor. This time the questor did not come back to life (unlike the cannibal dwarf). At that point we freed the children and started guiding them to safety.

As we led the children back the way we had come, we were met by Fireleaf. He said that the orks were gaining ground and that we would have to hurry to get the children through the pass before they caught up with us. The pass had a hill standing high to one side of it. There, Fireleaf pointed out, he should be able to hold the remaining orks for long enough to let the children get away. Gorian gave Fireleaf the rest of his arrows since Fireleaf's quiver was nearly depleted. Then we hurried the children along to safety. However, once we got through the pass safely, I left the others to lead the children and turned back to help Fireleaf.

Fireleaf was not exactly pleased to see me, but admitted that he was facing overwhelming odds. He worried about seeing me killed. He had no concern for the end of his own life. I found it very sad, Thistle. I know how much it hurts to lose a beloved spouse, but to see someone give up on life and willing court death because of the loss sits wrong with me. Life is meant to be enjoyed and lived to the fullest every moment. Admittedly, death is not to be feared and one should not avoid doing things to avoid the risk of death, but death itself should not be the quarry. I do not know if he had forgotten this, or simply never knew it. In any case, in his eyes I saw a man who was watching his death approach and was ready to willingly embrace it, not for the cause, but for its own sake.

In any case, I made a few swooping passes and drew away a few groups who were planning to attack from Fireleaf's flank long enough for him to be able to turn and deal with them. I only killed two myself, but I did buy him an extra few minutes. Then, unable to fly much longer I returned to the others to see if they needed help.

The others were on their way back. They had met a patrol from Axalicail which was happy to take charge of the children and get them safely back to the first village which was well fortified. When I joined them, I explained the situation: that Fireleaf was about to be overrun. Gorian and I took off at high speed to see if we could save him. The others followed as fast as they could.

In the end I ended up a little ahead of Gorian, mostly because my small size made it easier to find cover. When I found Fireleaf, he was badly wounded, surrounded by orks, and in Ted's hands, but still defiant. With my eyes I begged Fireleaf to just hold on for a few more moments, but he either didn't see or chose to ignore me. As Ted attacked him one last time, Fireleaf put all he was into one last blow and as he died he slew Ted. I saw him smile then. I was not sure if he was smiling welcome to his own death or was smiling in victory over Ted's. The other orks, seeing their leader dead fled. Gorian and I went to Fireleaf and in one last futile gesture used our last chance potion on him.

The gesture was futile because he had used death magic to power the final blow, but he did come back to us for a moment because of the potion's power. He made Gorian swear a blood oath that Gorian would get the sword Lucere's Heart back to Rian's son in Bartertown. Then he died, smiling the first unburdened smile that I had seen from him.

When the others joined us we built a funeral pyre and burned Rain Fireleaf's body with the shattered bow he had used at the end. We then started back to the gorge Fireleaf had fell in earlier in the hopes of finding Fireleaf's bow. It took a while, but we did find it. Gorian claimed it for his own. I have claimed the small bag of holding he wore and have had the remains of his espagras cloak remade into a windling cloak which I now wear into battle.

We returned to Axalicail where we were met by the first mate from the River Squall. He informed us that the ship had been attacked in the harbor during our absence and burned to cinders. He was quite upset about the whole thing, threw the money we had paid for passage back at us and said several things that were not exactly polite. He left and John decided that he hated the whole T'skrang race. We got rooms in the inn and decided that we would take off on foot for Urapa to deliver the scroll.

That was earlier tonight. I plan on rising early to see about getting the supplies needed for our trip and will hire a messenger while I am out to take this letter to you. I know I have not included as many songs as I did last time, but somehow, the death of Fireleaf has not inspired music within me. Someday I will write his final ballad. However, for now my memory is still to focused on the fact that what he sought, and found, was his own death.

Sunshine and fair winds,

Windy