2.4 Let Me Help

General Summary

Day 10 - 15

We travel for 6 days until the stream joins a deep, fast river. It’s 100 metres across and moving fast. Rosalia tells us it’s another 2-3 days downriver to Ipth, and that there’s a place to cross downstream. Bran feels heavy and ominous but whatever it is feels far away. Hopefully we can keep ahead of it.   We only travel for 2-3 hours before running into a waterfall that tumbles 40 - 50 feet down a steep cliff. There are several slick boulders crossing the river and as we discuss how to cross, we are set upon by an enormous 30 foot-tall humanoid clad in animal skins and carrying a staff. It has a third eye on its forehead and crashes through the trees without regard for the damage it does. Cowering behind a boulder to hide from it, Bran tells us that it is an atir, known for being powerful sorcerers and devouring children. While I’m sympathetic about the rumours, any feelings of sympathy evaporate as it hunts as out in the boulders.   “I can smell you, elf. Hiding won’t help. I want your head!” it roars as I shadow step further and further away from my party, hoping to distract it. It ignores the illusions I summon, its third eye glowing.   For the first time, I attempt to Compel something and it fails...and it forces me to drop my own sword instead.   Foolish! Why did I bother talking to something so clearly hostile? As I berate myself, it kicks Bran over the cliff and turns towards me again. As I aim my bow, I hear Lyssa’s voice in my mind, “Let me help”. As I loose the arrow, a lightning bolt springs forth instead and I know this is Lyssa’s magic. The atir falls and takes Rosalia with it over the cliff.   I rush to collect Hella and follow them down but we are forced to cross the river instead. There’s no safe way for us to descend, as injured as I am, and I can hear at least 3 other atir approaching. As we disappear into the forest on the other side of the river, I see 2 more atir following after us wielding enormous swords.   We run for 15 minutes and hide for another 30 before creeping back to the river, where the atir’s body has washed ashore. We find Bran’s axe, but no sign of our friends.   We push through our exhaustion and head downstream, slowly, for another few hours. Eventually we are forced to make camp and Hella simply collapses from fatigue.  

Day 16

Before Hella wakes I go stand at the bank of the river. I reach out in my mind towards the dim sense I have of Lyssa’s existence. I thank her for her help...and for simply being alive, for I know she must still be alive if I haven’t found her grave. I get a vision, but not a flashback.   Lyssa kneels in front of me in darkness. She’s wearing light armour that is decorated in a style very similar to the robes I’ve seen in visions of myself as a Dread Lady. The markings indicate a lower status than mine but it’s clear that she’s dressed formally as she would be before going to war.   “My lady, you’re so far. The bond is so weak. I miss you. Find me,”   The vision fades and I hear…“Valley of Storms”   I don’t know how I know but for me to feel her presence this way means that she must be alive. Between her words to me in this vision, my gentle teasing of Thalien on his birthday, and my question to Dal about his restaurant, I know that these friends must have not quite been my equals. They looked to me for leadership and now the only one alive is looking to me to find her. At least I have a name for where she might be, and she looks unharmed.   As I ponder this, my attention is drawn by a thin strand of magic flowing down the river. It feels like Bran! When Hella wakes and joins me, her eyes glow and flicker and she tells me that Bran is fate-spinning not for himself, but for Rosalia.   And so we follow the strand, of course. In our haste we narrowly miss a thrown spear and are faced with 6 goblinoid creatures wielding spears and daggers.   The rage of trying to reason with the last thing that attacked us boils up and I shove Hella behind me as I weave sound around the awful little creatures and wear away at them. She still gets hit twice and screams, doing the same sort of damage that I’ve been doing. But then she collapses, and I recognize it as the reaction of someone who has reached for magic that is beyond them.   Grimly, I finish off the remaining goblinoids before attending to her. She’s still alive, and if the initial impact of her magic didn’t kill her, it’s not going to be lethal now. But I don’t know how long Bran’s thread of fate-spinning will last, and if we lose it I don’t know if we’ll find him or Rosalia again.   I call upon the most powerful spell I can remember and bond us together using our blood. This will let us communicate telepathically, at least, and she can take my strength and stamina so that we can keep going.