20th Letter Home: Home

General Summary

Dear Scha'ar,
I am here, home.
Alive.
I am so sorry I was unable to see you, but I'm sure mother will explain. I am home, and I brought friends, and we have a special mission. Mother says you will understand.
By now she has told you of Aarik. Even writing this...I am with friends. And writing his name...if my friends saw me right now...
I must pause, lower my head, close my eyes. My friends might think me in prayer. Perhaps I am.
Aarik.
The Sylvans did this.
And they are here, in our home. Mother says they have convinced the queen to let them into The Forbidden. And I know why they are here!
Perhaps mother can share some of the letters I sent. There are ruins of an ancient Sylvan civilization...in our home...in The Forbidden! We have found similar ruins elsewhere, and have blunted Sylvan attempts to explore them. They have their sights set on our home so that they can exploit technologies they find in the ruins. One technology in particular!
My friends and I plan to stop them. One of my friends is a 'Baxi. I know! I kept my distance from her at first, but now know her to be a strong ally. She is ruthless and brutal in her attacks, often eating parts of her kills. I'm not sure why, but it is likely as an offering to her 'Baxi gods. They are a strange people.
As you well know.
Another friend is a Hobgoblin. He has a penchant for telling others what to do, but he also inspires us and keeps us going, often healing us when we're felled in battle. Very often. So I accept his directions as he is also occasionally correct. And he tells most excellent stories.
Our group also includes a really old Drow. I cannot possibly stress how old this man is. Everything is an effort for him, even farting. He is old enough to have fought with our father's father's father, and been an old man then. Yet somehow he lives. It is as if even death desires him not.
He is angry with me.
He is the grandfather of the other Drow. She dislikes him greatly, speaking ill of him at every opportunity. I worry that she might, if we didn't need his skills, "accidentally" kill him in battle. And she could if she wanted! She has great skill with a staff, and mystical smokey fists that leap from her arms to pummel opponents. And she is wise, oh so wise. I should probably listen to her counsel more often.
These are my friends.
We have become enemies of the Sylvans, and do not plan to change that dynamic.
Te'eki was so happy to see me! I think she thought I was dead. I guess most people do. She immediately fed me. Such a mom! Always! I missed her. And everybody. They all wanted to hear my tales, but I was only interested in finding mother. Who, they told me, was at the palace. So I waited as Te'eki fed me and fed me and fed me while I told them some of my adventures.
Until mother came home.
Seeing mother was wonderful. You cannot know how I've missed you, her, home. I told her...I told her many things. I can fill you in when I see you. The important point is that she told me about our visitors.
Flying in, I spied an entire ship of Sylvans. Polluting our waters by their proximity. I must admit that their ship is quite gorgeous, gold plating along the forecastle, bowsprit, quarterdeck. Fine wood throughout. Inlays. Even at a distance it impressed me. I'm sure you've seen it at anchor near the mouth of the bay. I am happy that at least it is kept away from Feather's Rest.
She filled me in on the Sylvans and their drive for access to The Forbidden.
Which we will not allow.
Cannot.
She also told me that she sent Aarik to find me.
Even as I write this to you I am crying. But they will not see me cry. The Sylvans. They will not even see my arrows.
The Sylvans claim that after investigation, they determined that the people were not in fact attacking the fishing boats. Which is true. That is true. It was, they claim, the revolutionaries. But I know these revolutionaries! They helped us, and are allies. They have no truck with the people. They rebel against the Sylvans. The Sylvans!
The Sylvans claim, to the queen, that the rebellion has been dealt with (people we fought for!). And the queen now feels indebted to them.
This is all a game to them. They play with our lives as if we were simply...
...but to them we are. We are simply slaves. We are resources to be expended. Discarded.
She also tells me that Laari was sent as an attache.
Laari is dead.
Laari of the Cloud Eyrie was their servant. They ordered him around as if he was lesser. Even writing this, a part of me...I feel...
But he is dead, and he is with The Mother now.
When I left mother I noticed I was being watched. The hobgoblin has a familiar, who he sent to accompany me. We can communicate through it. So I sent it to check for people watching me, and sure enough they were watching the comings and goings from our home. I decided it was best to drop down and actually go shopping, instead of just pretending. I didn't want them to know where my friends were. Or even that my friends are here with me. I picked up some fresh Kek for Te'eki and went back home, making sure they saw me return.
I might as well make Te'eki happy, right?
Mother was not surprised in the least to know she was being monitored. I suggested sneaking back out, but she felt that getting caught sneaking would be worse than being seen leaving. So I headed in the opposite direction of my friends till I was out of sight, then doubled back and headed to the coast.
Seeing my friends again was quite interestingly warm and happy. We have been together every hour of every day for months now. I had missed them a bit, and worried for them. They, Alyona in particular, do not like open skies, nature. Plants.
They are from a very different world Scha'ar.
As I filled them in on what mother had shared, Vessyr and I noticed that we were standing in a large footprint.
Standing inside of the footprint!
A fresh one.
Huge.
We didn’t see the maker of the print. Whatever it was. But whatever it was, we had no intention of meeting it.
So we headed deeper into The Forbidden. While I was at home the rest of the team had been spotted by some people. Kids, but people nonetheless. They convinced the people to leave them be, but surely that news will travel. Kids will talk.
I am grateful that they didn't harm the children.
But now we seriously need to be hidden from view. So we went deeper in and hid ourselves. I've never been in The Forbidden. Not after father.
I tried not to let my companions see my fear.
We waited. Mother needed to formulate an excuse to disappear, so we planned to meet her at the edge of The Forbidden on the second day at noon. We passed the time with games (Alyona is determined to teach me gambling games, and they inevitably involve me losing repeatedly) and listening to Baermak tell stories. Some of his stories seem so incredible, but then I think of the things I've already been through. Imagine the stories I'll have when I'm old!
Mother arrived as expected, but she had a companion.
Ku’ui of the Cloud Eyrie.
Cloud Eyrie.
Had she told him of Laari?
Ku'ui seemed…very interested. Mother says we can trust him, but I’m not sure I do. I really want to, because she says I should...but I do not. I get the feeling that Baermak feels the same way.
We spent the night together, sharing more stories. Baermak told our guests of our exploits, always slightly exaggerating my contributions. Now I hope she doesn't pay attention to my letters!.He is so good at this! He tailors each tale to the listener. The same tales, retold, are different. I chatted with mother about our actual origin, but she seems not to believe. I am so certain, I find it hard to imagine anybody not believing. It’s just what happened. You must read the letters I sent home.
I told them of the transporters we've found in these ruins. There are transporters in the ruins of every major city, and having access to them gives you great mobility. I think the Sylvans want not only the artifacts, but access to that transporter. Imagine them having free, immediate, unlimited, uncontrolled, unmonitored transport. Behind our lines.
They cannot have this!
Mother warned us of the danger in The Forbidden, but we have no choice. The danger of allowing the Sylvans such access far outweighs any danger to ourselves. My companions agree, and we are willing to fight these invaders.
The Sylvans have convinced the people to allow them into The Forbidden. They are likely on their way. We must beat them. Recover any relics. Secure the transporter.
And also kill all of the Sylvans.
Mother left us, and we headed off on our quest. We kept to the coastline, skirting the jungle. Travel was easier, and if the Sylvan ship approached we would easily see it. Vessyr seemed to be sleeping more lately. Perhaps his advanced age was catching up to him? It seemed he couldn’t handle so much rigorous hiking.
Why don't these people have wings? Walking is so incredibly slow.
Ug.
After traveling for two days we heard a person in distress. We stopped and sent the familiar Edgar to check. The Drow felt we should ignore it and keep moving, but I convinced them that we should at least try. Perhaps we could put the person to sleep so they wouldn’t know we had rescued them? But then would we simply leave them there? Remaining close to peril?
Perhaps Ingoria could sneak in and free them? They were ensnared in some vines, which were slowly suffocating them.
But Alyona suggested that we might want to question the person. Why were they here?
I suggested that I simply fly above the person, pretend to hear the distress, and fly down to the rescue. The team can stay back, out of sight. And I, having rescued them from certain death, can gently interrogate the poor victim. The person wouldn't question my presence there, as they certainly would if they saw my friends.
So I did.
As I dove down to help, the foul creature smiled, cackled, and shot me with a lightning bolt. Furious, I shot back, landing three arrows in quick succession.
It was not a person. Not remotely. Green ichor flowed from the wounds. A strange-looking humanoid then appeared, as if it had been invisible. It tried to cast a spell on me; I felt a sudden torpor. But it passed.
The team leaped into action, rushing forward. Ingoria (the 'Baxi) was the fastest, landing one of her arrows in the same one I’d wounded.
Then another appeared. I felt another wave of torpor wash over me, but I shook it off.
The one in front of me turned and ran, and i shot it as it moved. But as I loosed a second arrow it disappeared, and my arrow thumped into the empty ground.
I landed as quickly as I could, lest I get put to sleep or held or frozen or paralyzed or something and fall out of the sky.
Which was an excellent decision: one of them turned me into a rabbit.
The team closed in on the strange beings, Alyona pummeling the one closest to me. I couldn’t see the other two any more, but I watched as Alyona closed in on her prey and just slammed her extended shadowy fists into it, over and over again.
One of the other ones rushed up next to me, shooting a lightning bolt at us. Fortunately, as a diminutive rabbit, it flew right over my head, sizzling Alyona and Ingoria. And that put the creature right in the midst of our team, who all started hacking at the beast.
Still a rabbit, all I could do was watch.
The creatures tried casting spells as we hacked away at them. I sat and watched as Alyona repeatedly punched and kicked and punched and spun and kicked until the creature, stunned into immobility, closed its eyes and fell.
She ran to the other one, who saw her coming and disappeared.
I was no longer a rabbit.
But we could not find the creature. It was gone. Just utterly gone.
We left.
No reason to stay.
I wondered how many people have fallen for that trap. To hear somebody in distress and wing in to help...it's just what people do.
Clearly it worked well enough to keep these creatures fed.
The next afternoon we heard a crashing thrashing sound. Edgar went to investigate and saw a gigantic birdlike creature, probably the one who left the giant footprint on the beach. It was thrashing about…with a huge gorilla in its mouth. The gorilla had a rope tied to its leg.
Somebody had left this gorilla as bait for the giant. Somebody powerful enough to use a huge gorilla as bait.
This was not a somebody we wanted to encounter, so we hastily moved on.
The next day we found a jaguar tied to a tree, bled out, its life flowing down the trunk.
Somebody very powerful was baiting that giant bird. It looked like they were drawing the creature to us.
We decided to simply move on. Hopefully this was a coincidence.
When we reached the delta we headed upstream to find a safe crossing spot. I flew a rope across and tied it off for the team. Ingoria and Alyona zipped across as if on dry land. Vessyr tried to follow suit, but forgot that he was old. He forgets much. His memory is not so good anymore, but with his age so advanced it’s hard to imagine him not realizing how old he is.
Prancing across the rope as if he was his granddaughter, he caught his foot on a small branch protruding from the water and tumbled backwards, flailing and reaching for Baermak, succeeding only in pushing Baermak into the water and immediately following him.
The two rolled through the water, grasping at rocks, sticks, each other. They finally found an eddy in the current and got their footing. We all laughed as they rose from the water, dripping and bruised.
We got back to work.
I started scouting from the air, looking for signs of the ruins, but found nothing on the first day.
So we camped for the night, exhausted.
We need to find the ruins that I know are here, and we need to find them before the Sylvans do. But mostly...
Mostly I think of Aarik.
I want vengeance.
I promise you Scha'ar, Aarik will not go unanswered. I will kill the man who killed our brother, I will kill his family, I will kill his friends, I will kill his guard, I will kill his servants, I will kill the man who sharpened his sword, I will kill the people who cleaned his clothes, I will kill the ones who smiled at him as they passed him on the street.
"Skreek" on the tongue of a Sylvan will mean "death".

Report Date

29 Nov 2022