24th of Frostbringer

One short journal entry for the 23rd, one long entry for the 24th. A lot happened today. I met Talariic, or at least the person who I think is Talariic. Arlian disappeared and I was able to change the appearance of the sword. Fort Thornewall was taken over by mind flayers and I now find myself teaming up with Reina in order to liberate the place. What a turn of events right? Well, here's the long version:
 
I found myself lying in the center of a golden runic circle. The room around me was empty at first and I immediately started to panic. Who is associated with gold and prevalent in my adventures? The unspeakable one, that's who. Thankfully that bastard didn't invade my dreams. On the floor in front of me I found a greatsword in a scabbard. Truly a ridiculous sight. I can only imagine the hassle that would be trying to unsheathe a weapon of that size from your back. But similar to my previous dreams of weaponry, I heard a voice surround me. Just a simple "Hmm." The source of the voice couldn't be seen as I looked around the room. I couldn't identify the runes on the circle and I didn't recognize the sheathe so I just decided to unsheathe the sword. Looking back at me was the face of a man. Red hair with specks of white here and there. I tried to put two and two together at the time, but I felt terrible, exhausted. As our eyes met I once again heard the "Hmm." It was clear this came from the man and this seemed all too familiar to my first dream of Arlian. Imagine dreaming of a sword that just seems unimpressed with whatever you do. Same thing here, except the man actually seemed alright after I greeted him. A bit grouchy because apparently I was interrupting his retirement. I brought up Arlian and the man said he had trained him. After a bit more conversation the scene became much clearer, but at the same time just as confusing. I imagine this was Talariic, the original wielder of the blade. He did call it the Talariic blade and said that he had written the Talariic codex. But he didn't seem to know anything about what had happened since training Arlian. Last he knew, Arlian was on his way to go fight a war. Also, he clearly wasn't happy that he was supposed to train me. After I explained that Arlian was the last of his kind and that he had lost the war, he went quiet before quickly agreeing to train me. A total 180 mood shift huh. Oh, I should also mention that at some point during this conversation he literally pulled himself out of the sword so thankfully, I was talking to an actual person rather than a face on a blade. He handed me the sword, saying the first step of my training was to make the blade my own. He then did something, I'm not sure what but he vanished. Then a large golden hand came out from the runic circle and pulled me into my second dream of the night.
 
I found myself in another room with the same golden runic circle beneath me. Down the hall I could hear my friends calling out. I guess we all ended up at the same place at the exact same time. Well, all of us other than Jenel. There were 4 rooms, each with a different color runic circle. The others were blue, green, and yellow. The center of whatever building we found ourselves in had a large fountain with a mural on the wall. The mural depicted figures of the same color as the runic circles fighting each other. Sometimes they teamed up, but they were always fighting each other. Every minute, the mural shifted as the figures seemed to walk to their next location until the murals finally led to the fountain. Each figure convened at the fountain and the images within it didn't change. Freaky, huh? Touching the mural didn't do anything and I didn't recognize anything. It also didn't help that I was exhausted still. After a bit of poking around, Arvenna drank a handful of the fountain water and vanished. Seeing as there were no windows or doors in this place, I did the same and woke up.
 
Just as the four of us all appeared in that building at the same time, we all seemed to wake up at the same time. Thankfully, I didn't feel like crap anymore. Jenel was freaking out as she tried to wake Hem up. As we all woke, it turns out we experienced the same dream of that fountain area, as if we were all there together and it wasn't a dream. Well, it was a dream because our bodies stayed here at the camp, but it wasn't. It's all confusing, but it reminds me of the manse. Hem and Skolvar took some water from the fountain after I had vanished and it came with them. It seemed to cure us when we drank it so perhaps it will come in handy. Jenel didn't see it the same way we did though. To us, it was clear. Extremely clear. Jenel saw cloudy liquid. To us, it tasted amazing, pure, fresh. Jenel thought it was stagnant. It was early, but we started breaking down camp. The others told me why I had felt so exhausted. Arlian had taken over when I felt his anger was over me yesterday. He said something about mind flayers as he ran my body towards the fort. When my body couldn't take it, he kept pushing until Skolvar was able to calm him down. Thankfully the water cured me, but there were a lot of questions I had after hearing this.
 
So, for starters, it should be mentioned that when I woke up the sword was not as it had appeared yesterday. I know the sword can change its appearance, but now it just looked like a basic greatsword. Somewhat like a standard issue guard's sword if they had requested a greatsword. I also couldn't sense Arlian's presence in my mind. Trying to speak to the sword yielded nothing, but Talariic's words echoed in my mind. "Make this sword your own." So, remembering those words as well as the story from dad's journal, I tried meditating on the sword and imagined a new appearance. When I opened my eyes, the sword was exactly as I had envisioned it. Long, very long. The wicked appearance that Arlian preferred was replaced with a shining blueish hue as the sword looked much more... tame compared to Arlian's. It was still made of silver, but the appearance looked totally different. I was glad. Step 1 had been completed shortly after I woke up. Good progress I'd say!
 
Arvenna noticed the change in appearance and came over to talk. I can only imagine what the others think, seeing some new development with either myself or the sword basically every day. And everyone was concerned, especially after seeing what Arlian did yesterday. But we talked about Arlian and I told his story. I had been meaning to. I don't want the others to worry. Although, I know that's unavoidable, especially at this point. But I figured the more I could alleviate their concerns the better. And like me, she felt for him. Both of us agreed that we feel sorry for him and everything that has happened to him. Yeah, fuck the way he goes about things. But it's important to note that he does good as well. She briefly talked about how she had a dream of Eilistraee before we found ourselves at the fountain building, the place which we decided to call the manse for now. While I was glad to hear that the presence of the other gods was still here, she said that Eilistraee told her communication would be difficult going forward. They knew the portal was closed and it was making things more difficult. Nevertheless, it was good to hear that the portal being closed didn't cut off communication entirely. Before meeting back up with the others for breakfast, she told me to be wary of Jenel trying to seduce me. Some plot she came up with in order to separate me from Arlian apparently. While we were off "having fun," she tasked the others with keeping Arlian away from me. I'm not sure why she would come up with a plan that would involve the death of her friends, but it was clear that I was going to have to work hard in order to make the group be alright with my working with Arlian. It's not that I need his power, his knowledge, or his protection. I'll get all of that on my own as I grow stronger. What I want from Arlian is two things. First of all, it's actually somewhat comforting having him around because he is the one and only living link that I have to my previous life. Second, I want information about how dad opened the portal. One day, it's my hope that I can return the others to the lives that they left behind. In return, all I'd ask is that they bring you this book, mom and dad. If you're reading this, looks like I succeeded huh.
 
Anyways, we all came together for breakfast. I opened the floor for people to ask questions about Arlian, but surprisingly there weren't too many questions. Only two actually. One from Skolvar, and more of a plea from Hem as he asked me to let them know if I ever need help. Oh Hem, always looking out for others when you could use that help all the same. Jenel on the other hand seemed very upset about the Arlian talk. She was clearly still pissed about everything. Arvenna and I tried to calm her a bit, but even I could tell it didn't really help much. I just hope that I can eventually make her see my side of things, without her feeling like she has to seduce me of course. But, do I really want her to see that side of it? I feel like if she saw the self-sacrificing goal that I have she would disprove even more. So, I guess the goal is to get her to trust me enough to walk by my side on this journey. The fact that she cares about me to the point of putting up a fit with the rest of us is great, one of the things I love about her actually. This protective persona that will stop at nothing to make sure that her new family is safe, even if it means disagreeing with them. So yeah, I guess the goal is to first of all convince her to not take action. While Arlian may not be here right now, I wouldn't want her to be hurt because she's trying to help me. Next, I'd hope that she keeps that same protective view of this relationship Arlian and I have. Wary, watching to make sure I don't lose myself. I know I'll need it. I hate that I've already accepted that if we ever open the portal back up I need to stay here, so I hope she is able to help me if I ever start to sacrifice more of myself. What an interesting dynamic. But most importantly, I don't want any of this to push her away. I don't want this to seem like a responsibility, some role she has to play. If she does it, then she better be deciding it's what she wants to do rather than what she may have to do. Looks like Jenel and I have a lot to talk about. Perhaps next time we split up watch shifts I'll offer to take watch with her so we can talk.
 
Anyways, we made it to the fort early in the morning. Arlian made some good headway on our trek. We may have left early, but if there really were mind flayers at the fort we needed to get there ASAP. I just wish Arlian were here so I could tell him he didn't have to take over. I would have consented to killing some mind flayers, fuck those monsters. When we finally made it to the fort, it was dead quiet. I did some scouting and saw that something was floating behind the fence. What floats? Mind flayers. Fuck. We quickly made plans to tunnel underneath the fence with Skolvar's magic and the immediate sight was terrifying. Floating around the fort were groups of undead beholders. Thankfully, their anti-magic and death ray eyes seemed to be inactive, but beholders are terrifying nonetheless. I've never seen a khel-doran so I couldn't tell if these were beholders or those, but either way I was determined- still am determined to slaughter them. We noticed a small tiefling child run to the nearby well, draw some water, and return to a building without the beholders attacking him. They took notice, but floated away without doing anything. We snuck over to the home and entered. The boy was startled of course, but thankfully I calmed him down.
 
Marten was the kid's name. Talking to kids is funny. It's like, if you just play up the importance of everything they say then they love you. So that's what I did. Oh, and you have to treat them like a friend. Not like you're an adult talking down to them. We offered him some food and fixed his clock while he told us his story. He was born at the fort. He has been here as long as he could remember, but when the "squid people" came they froze all of the soldiers. Only his mother, Mina, was able to move. She made a deal with them: She would cooperate as long as they didn't harm him. So Marten stayed in that building, his home, and waited for his mom to come home. During our conversation Mina did come home. And of course, Mina was Reina. Yep, that bitch Reina. Again. But this time it was clear that we had the power. She actually seemed to care for this kid. Not like we would ever hurt him, but I wouldn't blame someone like her for thinking that. We made a temporary truce. She gave us a bit more detail about what had happened and we went to a different building in order to discuss our plan. Marten we left at the "doghouse" along the way. Reina had taken some cubs from Brynhildr's brood and was training them. Marten loves the hellhounds I guess.
 
We found ourselves in Reina's office. We all know she is strong, but she didn't feel like she could take care of all the mind flayers that showed up. So we came to an agreement. She would get us into the building and past the initial guards. We would be led to the boss of this group. She would leave and we would liberate the building. Then, after doing our job, she would leave the Miller residence entirely and give Dana over to us. A pretty good deal if you ask me, but the risk is insane. So, the leader of the mind flayers is on the second floor of the building. It's surrounded by a guard decal of 4-5 other mind flayers at all times. There are hostages in the basement as well as the 4th floor of the building, another 1-2 mind flayers on each floor, and 4-5 star spawn grues with each mind flayer. It gets worse too. There are mind witnesses used to broadcast telepathic messages throughout the fort, mind flayer worms in the basement that are used to turn their recruits, and we'd only have about 2 hours after our operation begins to cure the hostages on the 4th floor, otherwise they'll turn into a new batch of mind flayers. To top it all off, the hostages are all probably enthralled. Sounds like a shit show right? But hey, leave it to the Fenleths to come up with a master plan, right dad?
 
Alright, so Reina has to charm all of us to get us inside the building. That way, if the mind flayers read our thoughts they just see that we're under her thrall and she ordered us not to attack. Once she gets us to the leader and leaves, she'll drop the charm. As soon as she does that, Jenel is going to cast silence on the group of mind flayers. If they try to counterspell, Arvenna can counterspell them. With the zone of silence setup, we'll first throw a fireball bead to kill the star spawn grue and then rush the mind flayers and take all of them out on floor 2. After that, we work our way down, clearing floor 1 and then the basement. Once the hostages in the basement are freed, they'll need to stay in the basement for their own safety, but we'll be taking the mind flayer worms as a bargaining chip. Moving to the upper floors, we'll use the worms to trade for the hostages on floor 4. Once they're secured and no longer enthralled, we'll turn on the mind flayers and kill them, working our way upwards. Of course, all of the worms will need to be destroyed as well. But we'll work our way upwards and clear up to the roof. Once we've done that, we can return to the second floor and use the ballistae to take out the undead beholders if possible, otherwise we'll take them out in normal combat.
 
Pretty good plan I'd say. Or at least, a good plan using what little information we have currently. As long as we're fighting the mind flayers in small groups we should be fine I think. Arvenna will need to be on point with her counterspells, making sure to let Jenel cast silence and stopping any large spells like fireball. Other than that initial silence, Jenel will need to save all of her spells for healing. We'll definitely need it. I see two big risks with this plan. First, it involves trusting Reina. Funny. Trusting Reina. As if. But, while I don't trust her, I for whatever reason trust that she wants to keep that kid safe. I doubt she'll do something to risk Marten's safety. The second risk is assuming that the mind flayers will willingly trade the worms for the hostages. I imagine they will, it is their lineage after all. I'll try to intimidate them into doing it, perhaps name dropping Praetorian. It is a title after all, my new title I think. Hopefully they recognize the title and are scared into following our plan. What would you do differently dad? You were the plan-guy for your group.
 
So now I write this just before the big fight. We'll be resting in Reina's office, trusting that she won't do anything to us while we sleep. If she tries anything I'm hoping that Jenel or Hem will pick up on it since they trance. We'll see if they can find a comfortable spot near the door so that they have the best chance of hearing her if she comes in. Well actually, now that I think about it one of them could probably stay awake. It would be boring being up all alone, but most of us will need about 8 hours of rest. Since they only need to trance for 4 hours, they should be able to just take watch shifts. Hopefully this fight goes all according to plan. I'm not sure what we'll do if they start threatening the hostages as we make our way down the building, but I'm sure I can think of something in the moment. It will be good to get Dana back, but also a pain since that means someone needs to stay behind and feed her. As far as I'm aware there's no other people at the residence feeding her. I know either Hem or Jenel would volunteer, but we'll have to think of something. Then I also need to talk to Jenel. And I need to find my way back to where I found Talariic. And I need to see if this Iri that Skolvar met is the one that I know. Lots to do, all of it important.
 
But now I guess I really have something to think about. Two things actually. Seeing that my pursuit of power has taken an interesting turn, how do I want to continue my growth while keeping my friends happy? Do I pursue power that will help them even if they don't approve? Or do I pursue power in a way that they are content with at the potential expense of my growth being slower? It's something important to think about, which also leads into the second thing. If I want to briefly open the portal so they can one day return to their lives, what do I want to make of my life? I'll go crazy if I just become the knight that will keep the darkness at bay forever while sacrificing his own happiness. I need something to look forward to, some hope beyond helping them. But what does that look like? What does that look like in a world that looks to currently be controlled by the very darkness I'm fighting? I'm not sure, but now I know how real the struggle you went through is dad. The struggle of wielding this blade and the responsibilities that come with it.
 
For now, one thing is clear as ever in my eyes: These god damn mind flayers need to die.