22nd Letter Home: A New Enemy! And an Ambush. And Another Ambush.

General Summary

Dear Scha’ar,
After waiting for Edgar to return, which he didn’t, I headed back to the party. As much as I wanted to look around, I was now alone. And with no way to communicate with the team. So I retraced my steps.
As I dropped off the edge and swooped down I felt the mist in my face and squinted to keep the water from my eyes. So fast! Spiraling down, skimming the greenery that clung to the cliff face, the mist insulated me from the outside world. No politics, no intrigue, no Sylvans. No Sylvans!
Just me, falling, falling, falling, droplets spraying from my wings as I dropped faster, faster, ever faster.
It reminded me of the Jaander Cliffs. We would go there when I was young, you, me, and...


He took my locket once, did I ever tell you that? He was just playing, of course. He didn't really know.
And now I brought his locket to mother.
I felt the wind...I heard it. My wingtips began to gently whistle. I pulled my wings close, crossed my arms, plummeted.
Faster.
I brought his locket to mother.
I knew I should open my eyes, but I could picture us, diving off the cliff and catching the updraft, returning. Diving on each other, trying to get as close as possible, screaming in joy and terror.
I remember us all together.
The air had warmed. The ground closed in.
I opened my eyes.
Spiraling down to the canopy, I swooped up barely in time, raging along the tops of the trees. And as I came out of the mist I saw two people.
And they saw me.
Why are there people out here? Who are they?
...and they probably thought the same of me.
Unless...
They were clearly scouting. Were they scouting for me? Do they know we’re here? Do they know I’m here?
I turned.
I headed back to the safety of the mist and the cliff. As soon as I entered the mist I dove down through the canopy, found a good hiding spot, and tucked in for the long term.
They called out to me, claiming to want to talk. They knew of course that I remained. They knew I saw them. And they were not afraid of letting me know that they were willing to wait me out.
I stayed put. Quiet.
It seemed so long.
But I knew that the team would notice my absence and send Edgar. Eventually.
And they did.
I heard Baermak’s voice above me, speaking through Edgar, castigating the people for working with the Sylvans.
Sylvans!
More people working for the Sylvans.
Baermak's message was meant for me. He wanted me to know that these are not my friends. They're with the Sylvans. These are not people.
Why would people work for Sylvans? In our own home!
I needed to hide and let them pass.
Except that they are Sylvans.
So I attacked them.
I prepped myself for a quick exit if things went bad, popped up above the canopy, and shot the closest one. He was moving, scanning the canopy below him, and I was moving, flying up out of the foliage. As soon as I cleared the leaves I let loose. So my first arrow was not perfect, but it did hit him: in the shoulder. I wasn’t focused, because instead I was prepped to run. He recoiled and turned to me, which was a mistake, because I didn't even have to adjust to send the next arrow slightly closer to center.
And hit. That stopped him cold. The third arrow hit even better.
But the Sylvan did not fall.
So I fled.
1v2 was not good odds.
I redoubled my speed, dropping back down below the trees and heading away. At a reasonable distance I brought up my rope trick and quickly ducked inside.
Listening closely I heard one of them drop recklessly through the treetops. I could hear him flying around, but he was not getting closer.
He was searching randomly. He had no real idea where I was, but he knew I couldn't be far.
I waited patiently, allowing him to lose his focus. Just about to peek out, I saw a brightly colored parrot appear below me. It looked about, scanning the area…and then looked directly up at me. It could see inside the rope trick! How is that possible? Before I could react it flew away.
A little stunned, my mind racing, I heard the Sylvan fly away. I cautiously peeked out and saw nothing, so I lowered the rope a bit (so I could find it again if necessary) and dropped out.
The Sylvans were flying away, back toward the mist. They were a little too far to shoot accurately, so I started to chase them.
That’s when they saw me, turned, and shot.
The wounded one missed me completely, probably too badly hurt to aim well. The other one, however, hit me squarely in the throat, spinning me around in mid air.
I shot back at him, hitting both times. No longer concerned with a rapid retreat, which would have been hopeless, I focused in on my target, concentrating, and I hit him solidly in the chest.
But I was one easy hit away from dropping from the sky like a clam dropped from Jaander Cliff. So I headed back towards my rope trick.
As I got below the treetops I heard one of them scream in horrified pain and stop flapping. The other shouted and loosed arrows at something…but not at me. I kept moving.
One of them crashed down through the trees, smashing branches and slamming into the ground, hard; I swear I could hear bones breaking. His partner rushed down to the forest floor to try to help, but there was no helping the mangled mess that lay at his feet.
I shot him.
And...as I shot I noticed a small, red, winged creature…riding the Sylvan. Like a mount. The creature had a spiked tail, like a scorpion, and was stabbing the Sylvan. It had probably taken down the other one. It looked dangerous, but the Sylvan was certainly the bigger threat for now.
So I shot the Sylvan again and he dropped.
The red creature looked at me. So I shot it as well.
It popped, vanishing. No body, as if it was a familiar like Edgar.
Then I saw the other familiar, the parrot. It had been watching.
So the parrot was not the familiar of one of the Sylvans I had killed, but it was probably accompanying them. So reinforcements were likely on the way.
I needed to get gone. Immediately.
I headed back to our camp as quickly as possible and explained what had happened.
The team was quite curious about the parrot familiar, but nobody had a good explanation. As the night wore on, the explanations got more and more fantastic, and equally implausible. I probably stayed up far too late.
But I slept very well.
As we headed toward the mist the next day we came upon a reasonably worn path. We decided to keep to the path, as it would speed our travel and was not likely to be trapped yet, though we did keep our eyes out.
Walking along, we came upon the site of a battle. Four of the dead were lizard-like people, probably the same people we had seen on spikes by the delta. Among the mess of the battle I found a trampled Sylvan helmet and several discarded arrows…from people. Sylvans and people.
The lizard people had ambushed the Sylvans several days ago, but the Sylvans had won the day. We knew that because they'd had time to bury at least one Sylvan in a cairn off to the side of the path, with his helmet set on top.
Further down we found a badly decayed Sylvan hanging from a tree. The corpse had traps.
While we were checking it out I spied a monkey staring directly at us. As I noticed it, it quickly went back to its foraging. I told Ingoria, but to her it also looked simply like a monkey.
An hour later Ingoria and I saw the monkey again. The exact same monkey! I was sure of it!
I shot it as she charged forward. I missed my first shot, but my second landed in its chest, though didn’t kill it.
A strong monkey!
It dipped behind the tree, and when Ingoria arrived it was completely gone. No trace. Well, except for the blood.
So it was a real monkey. Not another damned familiar. Perhaps a scout? But for who?
At any rate, nothing we can do. So we kept going.
And we came upon a couple of lizard people spiked on their own spears.
Apparently there was a running war between the Sylvans and these lizard folk.
The next indication of the war was a burning smell as we approached what used to be several structures in the trees. A small village?
No longer.
By the path a Sylvan hung upside-down from a tree, its arms bound behind it, blindfold on its eyes.
As Alyona and I scouted the perimeter, Vessyr crept up to the hanging Sylvan. He reached toward the body and set off a trap, which he avoided (I would have preferred to disable the trap, but Vessyr cannot be argued with), touching the body and healing it.
The Sylvan started writhing violently and trying to shout through the gag.
Vessyr jumped back a bit, startled, and the jungle came to life around us.
Spears flew from the bushes and Alyonna sprinted forward next to her grandfather, who, for some reason, threw his armor to the ground.
Behind me I could hear Ingoria fighting something, Baermak by her side.
Spears flew past from all directions.
A creature charged me. It was barely visible, seeming to change as it moved, nearly perfectly matching the plants through which it moved. It tried to hit me, but was too far off balance to connect solidly.
I instinctively flew away, high enough that it couldn’t reach me, turned, and landed three arrows in it, one after the other. It didn’t fall, but looked very close to doing so.
Vessyr and Alyona had one of the creatures cornered, as Ingoria and Baermak had another, but the creatures were very difficult to hit due to their shifting camouflage.
Arrows flew out of the forest at me as Vessyr shot at the one near him. His gun echoed through the jungle. Unfortunately the arrows found me and I felt the sting of poison flowing through my veins.
Then the one that had charged me leapt into the air, grappling me with its tongue. It's tongue! I fell to the ground, ensnared by the thing, its weight dragging me down. I tried to get free as Baermak cast a healing spell on me, but could not extricate myself.
Edgar joined my fray, helping me get free.
Alyona had dropped one and engaged with another, while in the other direction Ingoria still fought the one near her.
Fortunately I was still down, as Vessyr took the next volley of arrows, and I must admit that I was embarrassingly happy about that. I doubt I could have survived the hits that he took. He apparently came to a similar conclusion about himself, and disappeared.
Literally.
Leaving me for the likely next target.
My embarrassed happiness disappeared with him.
As I unwrapped its slithering tongue, the creature stabbed me several times. Free, but bloody, I quickly clambered to Baermak’s side, hoping he would heal me.
Alyonna sprinted across the undergrowth, clubbing to death the one that had grappled me, and then sprinted back toward the others.
She flitted about the battlefield as if driven by a dark wind!
The one in front of Baermak and Ingoria sprinted away, leaping into the trees and disappearing. As much as I wanted it dead, I was glad to have one less combatant. Ingoria ignored it and bounded back to be near Alyona.
Baermak healed me, so I stayed put, focused hard, and shot their archer, landing both arrows center mass. He stumbled, but didn’t fall.
There were so many!
Ingoria and Alyona pounded away, trading blows with several of the creatures, as Boris crumbled and fell, beaten into a twitching mass of parts.
Baermak ran forward, leaving me alone, and closing with the cluster of combatants. The archer remained apart, flinging arrows at us.
The bushes around him suddenly started moving, distracting him. Edgar? The archer dropped his bow and stabbed at the bushes, seeming to find his target: the bushes stopped moving.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Ingoria fall clumsily to the ground.
From across the battlefield another archer sent two arrows at me, hitting with both. I shot the first archer two more times, essentially pinning him to the tree behind him. He slumped, dropping his bow. I then ran for the cover of a tree, so the second archer couldn’t see me.
I hadn’t even had time to remove all of the arrows from myself.
Baermak healed Ingoria, who shook her head and looked about her.
Another one ran away, leaving only one more remaining. This one was noticeably bigger than the others, and had already been heavily beaten on. Arrows protruding from my shoulder and chest, I put two arrows into his chest and he ran.
Or rather, jumped. Up onto the charred platform nearby and around behind the tree. Alyonna chased him, as did I. She used her shadowy fist strike, pummeling him. She had learned well! They now did good damage, it seemed.
Baermak healed me a little more and I leapt into the air, giving chase to the last one. He was too well camouflaged for me to shoot, but not fast enough to get away from my wrath. Realizing we were all closing in on him, he turned and charged Alyona and Vessyr. He first struck Alyonna, who fell to the ground. He then struck Vessyr, hitting him solidly. But Vessyr had probably healed at some point (he had removed the arrows from his chest), as he did not fall.
Ingoria burst forth from the undergrowth, loosing arrows at the creature, though missing him.
Baermak appeared behind Ingoria, quickly healing Alyona and casting spells on the creature, who seemed to simply shake them off.
As I drew a bead on him the area was suddenly engulfed in a deep fog. I could no longer see him, but I knew where he had been. Vessyr stood directly behind him, with Alyona next to her grandfather. A miss might hit one of them. Probably would hit one of them.
I took the shot.
The first shot, I was fairly confident found its mark. Extremely confident.
The second, not so much.
But I didn’t hit my teammates. Which, I think, mattered more.
On the way out of the fog Vessyr tripped over its body; my first shot had indeed found its mark, and ended the battle.
Wary of returning nearly-invisible lizard people, we cut down the writhing Sylvan and moved away from the ruined village. About 10 or 15 minutes away I cast my rope trick and we all climbed inside to rest a bit.
The Sylvan squirmed the entire time; nothing we said or did kept him from fighting his bonds.
Deciding it was time for the interrogation, we took off his blindfold: his eyes had been viciously ripped from his head.
Ungagging him, he spit a mouthful of blood and babbled incoherently: his tongue had been carved from his mouth.
There would be no interrogation of this stain.
Baermak finished him off and we dropped him from the rope trick.
Slightly rested, but still tired, and slightly disappointed, we hiked into the forest till we found a decent camping spot and set up for the night.
Again, I slept well. But I dreamed...
The next day we resumed our quest and reached the mist.

Report Date

23 Apr 2023