Aporeu chronicles Issue 59: The lord of night

The lord of night by Noaz

I’m doing better! Thanks to the help of the Doc, and Gerolt willing to train me in better utilizing my armor, I’m managing to kick the ‘habit’. I mean, the ‘habit’ of ‘sleeping too much’, the..ehm..I mean.. I’m fine! Doing good. Anyway..   A shadow roams the woods to the North. A dangerous being, threatening the lives of those who’re unfortunate enough to be walking the forest after the sun has set.   I meet up with Surron, Jade and Quen in the guildhall and Jade tells us of the night that she and Surron ran into the Shadow Monster of the Woods:   “The creature hides itself within an area of magical darkness, which even my eyes weren’t able to pierce. He’s able to summon lashing tentacles from nearby shadows, which hit with an incredible speed, can grab you and then throw you again with enormous force. And it speaks.. Surron cuts in: “Yes, it speaks. It’s cunning and will try to get you to attack your allies. But, the words he spoke that scared me the most, were those where he spoke of Naelle, my.. A sweet girl I took in..   See, after Surron and I defeated the evil necromancer Marwan, Surron moved into Marwan’s old lair in the woods. Not long after doing so, he met a man named Thomas and his young daughter Naelle on one of his adventures, and graciously invited them to live with him, an offer which they accepted with gratitude.   Now, the shadow monster apparently knew of the little girl and proclaimed “She belongs to me!”. Obviously, this scared Surron immensely. In the time they have spent together, Surron has grown very fond of Naelle and almost seems to see her as his own daughter. Therefore he’s asked the guild to help him protect his daughter from this beast and put an end to him.   A noble request, which I gladly will lend my services for. So, tonight we will find the monster and defeat it. Not only will this guarantee Naelle’s safety, but, finally, the woods will be safe to walk again once more.   In an attempt to be as prepared as we can be for when the sun sets, we visit a few people and places which might provide us with help. We speak to Marwan, who tells us about the barrier he put up around his place which kept the beast out; Mathilda, the purveyor of the Witch’s Cauldron who’s great friends with Jade and provides her with an amulet that will protect her against evil intentions; we visit the place where the creature attacked Surron and Jade where, after some investigation, Quen finds evidence that the monster is quick, large and must be corporeal; and finally end our trip at Surron’s abode and prepare ourselves for the battle to come.   It’s here that I meet Thomas and Naelle. Thomas is a middle-aged human man with a salt and pepper colored beard and an overall decent looking man. Naelle though, she’s a vision. Her skin is pale and bright, almost transparent looking, piercing clear teal eyes and platinum white hair. She looks Elven. I give her my Flute of Scribing and she is a natural, magically obviously extremely talented.   I don’t like to admit it, but I’m feeling…scared.. This creature scares me, and I haven’t really felt this scared since becoming an adventurer. Sure, I have been scared and shocked sometimes, but never was I filled with such a feeling of dread…   I’m scared. And, it brings some things into perspective.. I must continue my search soon and find my brother and sister.   Just before the sun sets to the West, we head outside and get ready. I set out a few torches, stand out in the open, with an illusion of Naelle by my side, conjured by Quen. The others hide, ready to surprise the beast when it all kicks off. The sun goes down and the woods become shrouded in darkness. And then... Sounds of a nearing entity… A black shape appears in the dark woods. Smoke, red eyes penetrating the blackness and looking straight at me. I gather all my courage, stand firm and speak to it, asking why it wants the girl so badly and if there’s any possibility to peaceful negotiations. Though he answers, he sees through the illusion and makes clear that this night, blood will be shed. And thus, the battle begins.   Quen immediately cast a spell that lights up the woods in twinkling violet lights, latching on to the trees, though sadly missing the monster itself. The creature opens his enormous maw in an attempt to bite me, but I manage to evade it and immediately I feel fear creeping up on me, but shake it off. It screeches: “PITIFUL LITTLE HUMAN, YOU ARE NOTHING!”, No! No, you are!”. Surron casts an enormous shining light on my axe which scatters the dark and yells: “STRIKE DOWN THAT MONSTER OF SHADOWS!” and I swing the weapon with all my might, hitting the creature twice. But he retaliates with two painful strikes of his own, dealt by tentacles summoned out of the shade, instantly bringing me to the brink of passing out. All of a sudden, a bird appears on my shoulder and pukes on me and I hear Quen whispering voice in my ear: “Come on, get yourself together”. I feel invigorated, but I'm immediately tossed against a tree. Getting back to my feet, I see Jade being grabbed by the tentacles which then hit her, lashing open her abdomen. She, though bleeding profusely, stays conscious, thank the gods, and keeps fighting. Just as I want to storm back at the beast, eight panthers emerge from the darkness of the woods and pounce on the –now heavily hurt- shadow monster, bringing it down and ripping it to shreds. After some time, the panthers back off and we see the figure of the monster evaporate. And the figure of an Elven man remains.   At this time, Naelle comes running up towards us, closely followed by Thomas. She wanted to see if we were okay, and I –trying to prevent her from seeing the bloody Elven man- try to distract her by telling her we’re fine and asking her if she's already able to play a song on the flute I gave her. But then another bright light shines through the woods, approaching us and distracting me.   The light is emanating from an Elven female. She comes up to us and introduces herself as Ithilides, The Lady of the Moon. Then she kneels down to the Elven man and talks to him: “ I’m so sorry Fuindor, it’s my fault. I’m sorry, but I could not accept my destiny… But look at you. How pitiful.. Your hate and jealousy, it destroyed you, you would’ve destroyed dear Naelle..I'm sorry.. Rest now...” And with that, the man takes his last breath, and his body turns to dust, which the winds take away and scatter through the night.   Then the woman turns to us and thanks us, while apologizing for the part she played in all of this. She explains that she and Fuindor were duty bound to marry, but that she wanted to be free to love whomever she wanted. And it was Thomas she loved. This made Fuindor become jealous and enraged which twisted his very nature into the abomination we had to fight. She is Naelle’s mother.   As a thank you, Ithilides offers Surron, Quen, Jade and myself a beautiful, faintly glowing yellow gem and tells us that whenever we are in need, we may call upon her. Sadly, she can't enter Surron's home, because the barrier is stoping her from doing so. She goes up to Naelle, who hugs her, then, after wishing us all well, she, Naelle and Thomas walk away to have some time alone together.   Then, as we all try to process what just happened, I suddenly feel extremely tired.. We may all stay the night at Surrons home and, as I lie in bed I think: “ Love is beautiful…but..”. With that, sleep takes me.

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The lord of night by Surron Galandor

It was finally time. Spirits know I had seen too much of the dark monstrosity over the past months. And after that night of Jade’s visit and narrow escape from its clutches, it was clear either it or I had to die. The monster claimed Naelle for its own, calling her their offspring. Now I didn’t know the whole story yet, but I was sure Thomas is the only real parent she has ever had. Her mother couldn’t take care of her for reasons that now are obvious to me. Thomas had raised and protected her all on his own, until he couldn’t anymore. And when he couldn’t, he did everything in his power to get help, which is how we met, those weeks ago. I’ve grown very fond of Naelle, and Thomas is good company when he’s not grumbling about his injuries. I couldn’t allow the darkness to overtake sweet Naelle and corrupt her as it had been corrupted. I wasn’t going to leave the forest to its whims either, not after seeing what a less threatening well of wallowing turned it into. Thus it was finally time. Time to clear the forest of this monster one way or another.   Shortly after submitting the request in Arnheim, I received a letter from dear Jade. She had done research in the city on the monster and was rather eager to help me deal with the thing. She had escaped it once before, so I was glad to at least have her experience and knowledge along for the adventure.   When the day had come, I traveled to Arnheim to make arrangements for the mission and made sure to be present in the adventurer’s guild on time. Honestly, I was awfully nervous, afraid no one would answer the call. After waiting a while, adventurers had come and gone, but no gold members had yet arrived to join. That is, until Noaz walked in. Once a stupid whelp, now a brave and stupid veteran. Of course Noaz would take up his sword for the people. Quen had also been present in the guild hall, but because I didn’t really know him that well I wasn’t going to assume he would care about this situation. Turns out he cares about something enough to wager his life on a mission like this. Then, Jade entered, ready to go and kill the shadow thing. She seemed rather chipper about it for my taste, but at least the eagerness to get rid of this thing was shared between the both of us.   We headed up to Lornan’s office, thinking he might give us some more information on what this thing even is. Sadly, he didn’t know anything himself other than what adventurers had described in their mission briefs and essays, that first sightings of the beast were about a decade old, around the same age as Naelle, but he did offer us some leads on where we might find some aid.   First, we were off to Marwan. The tormented necromantic druid had been kept underneath the guild for months, locked away in a cage. Noaz and I, seeing how we had had some nasty experiences with Marwan, decided to stay back and let Jade and Quen take the lead on this one. At first, he didn’t seem to be responsive and when he did respond, it was dismissive at best. I couldn’t stand this attitude and walked up towards his cell, trying to convince him that he could still help people. He wouldn’t hear it. Not from me at least. Jade started working him with her words, overwhelming Marwan’s wrecked mind with positivism and glimmers of hope, eventually washing the knowledge we needed from him. He told us the lake around his…

well, my... shack holds magical power, enough to maintain the barrier around the grove, if the ritual was performed regularly. A ritual I had no knowledge of, that I hadn’t performed ever, certainly not in the months since Naelle and Thomas had moved in. This sprouted a feeling of mortal urgency within me, for who knows how long the barrier would hold while it was no longer being reinforced? I knew then we had to get rid of the monster that night, or we would have to evacuate the forest and let the darkness overtake it. Luckily, Marwan also let slip that the monster was a fey, corrupted in some way. Now, fey can be fickle, but I’ve conversed with a fair number of them in my time, and I had a little hope we could get behind the truth of it all and come to a solution without bloodshed. Not much hope, but sometimes a little spark is all that’s needed.   Our next lead was Mathilda, a lady who apparently had also lived inside the forest, untouched and undaunted by the creature of the night. She now runs a shop called the “Witch’s Cauldron” in Arnheim, which Jade led us to. Jade had told us she knows Mathilda from some earlier adventure, but Mathilda didn’t seem all too convinced she remembered Jade. It took some sweet talking from Jade, and some pot stirring from myself (this old crone must have massive arms underneath her garments!), but eventually she was friendly enough to help us out. Friendly enough to accept our money in exchange for an amulet and some experimental potions. This particular amulet had apparently protected her and hers from the monster while she was living inside the forest. Armed with information, magic and concoctions, we went back to the forest.   Kalista led us back towards the place where Jade had had her kerfuffle with the night monster, and the signs of this melee were still visible. Splintered trees, squashed brushes and stamped undergrowth revealed the story of Jade’s escape and my panther spirits’ sacrifice. Quen investigated the place while I was lamenting its memories, and he came to the conclusion that the monster must be corporeal. That is to say, it could be destroyed through hacking it to bits. This may seem obvious now, but the creature itself was invisible, shrouded in umbral darkness that shamed even the darkest of nights. We didn’t fully understand it yet. The Drow also relayed to us that the beast must be huge but somehow very agile at the same time.   As the sun started to set, we made way towards the hut, where I introduced Noaz, and eventually Quen (he had stayed outside to take some precautions), to Thomas and Naelle. While I informed Thomas of what was about to happen the coming night, Noaz handed Naelle a flute. The flute formed words as it was played, a neat trick, I must admit. What was more astonishing however, was the sheer skill Naelle portrayed the moment that flute touched her lips. She played a beautiful little tune, granting the room some joy at the advent of our night to come. Jade handed Naelle the Dryad charm she’d also carried on her the night she visited the cabin. I should ask her how she got it some day, but I trust it was for heroism and nothing less. The little token took me back to an easier time, when I was still learning the life of a druid. Strangers would come to the circle bearing these charms, looking for shelter. Sometimes, I would witness people who had protected the forest, or helped it flourish, be given such a charm to show they were friends of nature. At least she would’ve had a place to go should we have failed in our task.   Then it was dark. There was a stillness in the air. Not a pip or a squeak, the quiet was pressing, like the calm before the storm. Jade, Quen and I hid away out of sight, while Noaz planted two torches right behind the barrier and stood between them, an illusory version of Naelle next to him. Somewhat before, I had shared with the party the story of Thomas and the doe, the lady that took him in her arms and nursed him back to health years back after he had been mauled by a corrupted bear. Of how this lady and Thomas had shared a night in a cave then and how this same lady had later delivered Naelle unto him. I had shared my concerns with them that perhaps the creature we would face that night was a corrupted shade of this doe, of Naelle’s mother. So as the night was filled with a depth less darkness beyond comprehension and two glowing red eyes appeared on the other side of the barrier, Noaz called the thing out about the doe story. He implored the thing to speak to us and come to a resolution that didn’t include either it or us dying. The thing seemed to draw back from Noaz’ words at first, considering what the Sword had said. However, the words only managed to infuriate him even further. He was not the doe, but rather it’s destined partner. A god of night, I believe, is what he called himself. Thomas was, in his mind, a usurper that had to be destroyed. He would get Naelle even if it meant tearing the forest and everything in it apart.   As it hissed towards Noaz upon realizing the image of Naelle next to him was just that, Quen opened up with violet lights, engulfing the creature and the surrounding shrubs with a purplish hue. For the first time, it’s form became clear. A dark, feline figure appeared, twisted and tortured, arching its hairless back from which toothed tentacles grew. Seeing an opening, I withered one of the flowers on my bow and loosed an arrow, hitting the creature. The vines sprouting from the fletching didn’t hold though and it broke loose. It turned its tortured visage right at me, curled its lip up in a mocking snarl and vanished back into the darkness, shrugging off Quen’s magic just as an arrow from Jade’s direction penetrated its flank. It was at this moment that Noaz’ true dauntless nature broke through once again, as he charged into the shadows by himself, screaming at the top of his lungs. Seconds after he had disappeared into the night aura, a sharp shriek filled the darkness of the forest, sending shivers down my spine. I was lucky to have my charms with me, as rubbing them restored my confidence, just in time to see the shadow shift away from Noaz, and towards Jade.   Quen cast his violet lights once again, but only managed to light up the forest around the creature. This did make it a little easier for us to look through the darkness and Noaz attempted to throw a grappling hook towards the creature. After this failed, he charged in closer and tried to grapple the creature again, but this time with his arms. “Pitiful, you are nothing”, the monster said at this attempt, mocking my friend right before it pulled hard on the rope Noaz was still holding. The Sword of the People, with all his might, managed to plant his boots in the dirt and resist, smirking back at the corrupted fey. The thing then snapped at him with its jaws, barely missing Noaz, before pulling back. This opening allowed me to channel the spirits of nature to grant me the power to cast the spell I had specifically prepared for this situation. As I finished the incantation, Noaz’ axe seemed to explode with a burst of holy light. Bright rays of daylight shot from the axe and cast the form of the feline fey in a shameful and wretched appearance. With renewed vigor, Noaz charged in once more and hit the creature twice with force. The impacts of the axe hacked through sinew and bone, tearing off one of the monster’s legs. It yelped and howled in pain, before grabbing Noaz in one of his tentacles, attempting to rip him apart or crush him. Kalista, hesitant to join the fight up till now, shot immediately towards the hapless soldier, gracing him with her healing hurling.   In the chaos, Quen had disappeared up into the trees and Jade once again fired arrows towards the monster, hurting it even more. The Lord of Night turned towards her, tossing Noaz against a tree before darting towards Jade. “I told you not to come back, cat-kin!” It called out to Jade, as he grabbed her and slashed her with his tentacles, covering them both in Jade’s blood as she let out a cry. After witnessing what it had done to a hardened soldier like Noaz, I knew Jade wouldn’t make it out alive if the creature had his way with her. Searching desperately inward for a source of power to overcome this nightmare, I stumbled once more upon the willing spirits of a family of panthers, other cat-kin, to aid us in this dire time. Hearing another scream of pain from Jade, I rushed through the spell required to summon them to the material plane, and eight proud feline friends appeared, surrounding the withered form of the so called Lord of Night. On my mark, they all charged in. The first one was dodged by the monster, but there were too many. Cats were flying through night’s sky, clawing and biting at the creature, dragging it down into the dirt and tearing it to shreds.   What was left was an elvish looking man, his body broken and bloodied, his life on the cusp of leaving him. A few feet away, a badly wounded but living Jade crawled up, supported by two of the panthers, a labored grin on her face. It was at this moment, that I heard the voice of Naelle behind me, as she rushed out of the cabin. Thomas stumbled after her, but she easily could outrun him on his better days. We tried to keep her away from the remains of the elf, as a bright light suddenly appeared from the woods. Turning around, I recognized the description Thomas had given me about the lady he had met years ago, but his words had failed to truly do justice to her beauty. She came towards us and said her name was Ithilides, and she was the aspect of the moon. She turned to the dying elf and spoke his name as Fuindor, and he was the aspect of the night. She told the story of how she was destined to be with Fuindor, but that that wasn’t her desire. It never had been. And his jealousy of her happiness without him was what corrupted him. “It is my fault” she even said. I don’t think she was at fault for following her heart, but I can relate to the feeling. She knelt down beside Fuindor and bode him to return, to rest, and so he did. His body vanished into the night, leaving nothing behind but our wounds and memories.   Ithilides revealed to us that Naelle really is Thomas and her daughter and not Fuindor’s. I was so happy to hear that. Thomas is the only person who has any claim to call himself her parent and it would be heartbreaking if Naelle had turned out not to be his. Not that he would’ve loved her any less, but still, learning she might actually be a monster of the night’s child must’ve been horrible. The lady of the moon thanked us for our help and gave us all a moon gem that pulsates with beautiful lunar light. Being exhausted, we all retreated to my cabin, shared some drinks and some stories, before we all turned in for the night. The next morning, I woke up to the loud snoring of a certain cat-lady who laid sprawled next to Naelle, who in turn had curled up against Jade’s warm fur. Thomas had fallen asleep in his chair and was still sat upon it, albeit on the verge of tilting off it. Noaz seemed buried underneath his armor, and Quen had disappeared. I stepped out of the cabin, inhaling deeply. The chill morning air filled my lungs with determination and my mind with hope. The greenery around the grove felt reborn, young and vital. Perhaps finally this forest could flourish to its fullest potential, and I can’t wait to witness it bloom anew.

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On the next issue:

Deal with a sheep II: revenge of the apprentice