Laurent's Journal: After the Deaths of Pierto and Patrice

Dear Journal,

It has been just over two weeks since I last wrote and I fear that I have little to no good news to report herein. Though we rest fairly comfortably in the castle of Stefan Heilgrund, the Eisenfurst of Heilgrund himself, the wind blowing outside seems to punctuate our moods. Alas, we have lost two of the party to that vile, murdering villain, Fellhand. He taunts our brave heroes and plays and evil game of cat and mouse.

Brave Pierto! We have known you these several months and never has your valor, your honor, or your integrity been questioned. You were a good warrior and a trustworthy friend. You will be missed dearly. It pains me to know that you died at the hands of that evil bastard! Yes, I break one of my rules of conduct and use such words; yes even I record this word in my journal! There is no better word to describe this 'man', this servant of Legion! May Theus send him to the darkest pits of despair for all eternity. However, such words do not help our poor friend Pierto. May Theus have mercy on his soul and give him the rest he deserves. Goodbye my friend.

Patrice: We just met you a few weeks ago. As I said then, I had never met a Fate Witch personally. Your Fate was tied with us and we led you to our doom. While you were taciturn and glowering with the majority of our band, you always had a kind word for a lowly servant such as myself. You were young and didn't deserve what Fate had in store for you. However, I suppose that you of all people know that Fate is not easily dissuaded from its appointed course. You were a beautiful and proud young lady with so much promise. You life, like Pierto's, was really just beginning. To have it cut short by the likes of Fellhand is a terrible, terrible shame. I will look more kindly and with less distrust upon Fate Witches in the future because of you, if I ever have cause to meet one again. And if I have much of a future (but I will get to that in a bit). Rest in peace.

Were I a younger, more capable man like my worthy master and his friends, I would take up sword and cross and track this foul man down to make him pay for his vile deeds. I am told, however, that to do so is tantamount to suicide as no one can kill him. No one but Reynaldo. He has been told that he has within him the power to do so. Theus grant that he is able to do so soon with no further loss of life from our brave and seemingly doom-fated party.

Dearest Posterity, I tell you now that I know for certain that I am dying. The symptoms are too prominent and glaring to be denied any further. I have the same lung ailment that poor young Armanda succumbed to. Of this I am now certain. Up until recently I have been able to stave off most of the symptoms through the use of herbs and medications that I have concocted specifically for this purpose. But as I said, these only treat the symptoms, not the cause of them.

Also, I believe that I am now addicted to many of the medications. I fear that my duty to my master Valliere will soon be impacted detrimentally. It pains me to know that soon I will not be able to continue performing my life's work. I fear that Valliere will be quite lost without his most faithful servant. However, I know that he will overcome, hopefully with the help of my son Jackie. William has kept my secret, but I fear I will soon let it slip. I have begun getting up later than usual and my sluggishness and cough has been noticed. I have reassured my master and the others who have asked by telling them that I have but a spring cold that is a bit more persistent than usual. They believe that I will recover with some more rest, as I have indicated.

William has informed me that we will be heading toward Montaigne soon and that I will be able to go home. Apparently, my master and his worthy friends have business there. He says that it will be possible to take me home to my family so that I may 'recover'. I have not yet told him that I will not recover from this ailment. He would not take it well, I fear and I would not expect him to keep such a burden to himself. Therefore, the true seriousness of this disease will have to be kept from everyone a while longer. It pains me to deceive these fellows. They are each and every one, my friends as well as my betters. I ask Theus for forgiveness for this deceit. Once home, I will assign Jackie the pleasure of serving my good master and his friends. Then I can rest in the bosom of home and hearth. Theus grant that I get home before I am too far-gone!

When I last wrote, we were about to take ship from Insel to Freiburg. This trip, up a major trade river in Eisen to the interior of the country from the northern sea, took just over one and one-half week. It was actually a fairly pleasurable trip in which I had little to do but attend to my master's few needs and rest upon the deck in the sunshine. The weather was nice for Eisen in the spring, with only the occasional rain shower and no storms. Theus smiled on us for these 11 days and the spirits of the young men and women rose. Most of them worked on deck alongside the Avalon sailors. Captain Andrews and his entire crew are pleasant, hardworking folk to a man, it seems. Never have I been on a more capable and efficient ship.

We arrived in Freiburg 5 days ago and disembarked amid the hustle and bustle of a busy trade city. The fact that the lord of the city does not tax goods imported or exported has created quite a healthy trade of goods here at the fork of these two major rivers. Freiburg's location in center of the country has also helped its economy. Of all the cities I have seen in Eisen, this one is definitely the one most alive. I feel however, that it is a city on a knife's edge. The fact that it is a 'free' city with almost no standing army in a country devastated by war, famine, and disease surely makes it a jewel too tempting for those who hunger for more power and whose greed could cause them to prey on a neighbor. Yes, I believe that Freiburg will not be free forever. And with the intensity of the trade that happens here, it appears that many of the merchants and traders who do business here would agree with me.

We had found an inn and ate a hearty lunch and settled in for another rest before leaving for Heilgrund the next day. Though the tip from Insel had been restful, my condition takes much out of me and the additional rest was welcomed. I had settled my master in his room for the evening and lay dozing on the floor in front of his door when a commotion began downstairs. To make a long story short, the

Inquisition had found William, Enrique, and the others in the taproom and accused them and everyone traveling with them as heretics! It seems that an item, the compass given to us by the princess, disturbed the Inquisitors. They demanded it, stating that they would let most of us go if we cooperated. How they found out about the compass, no one knows and they wouldn't say. Of course, William and the others wouldn't give it up so a fight with the Inquisitor's Solden ensued. While I don't agree with fighting against the Church of the Prophets, being a loyal churchman, I am not so ignorant of recent events to blindly trust an Inquisitor. I think that, unfortunately, fighting them off was the best course of action since fleeing also soon prudently followed it before more solden showed up.

Once again we all fled, most of us on horses stolen from the inn's stables. I never thought I would be a horse thief, much less ride a stolen one so often! I have been party to thievery, combat with churchmen, destruction of other's property, and many other crimes in the last few months. I sincerely hope that Theus will forgive me these sins as they were in the service of my master.

We split up and a miserable night was spent, first hiding, and later looking for each other. After a long night of greasing many palms in order to find them (there are many sneaky, spying types in this city and a few marks in the right place can get you almost any information), the group was mostly reunited in an inn called the Black Tarp at the edge of the main part of the city. William, Enrique, Jenner, and Pierto had had quite an adventure and had continued drinking and wenching once they had settle in. Poor Pierto! My master and Reynaldo went back out to find Leah. By mid-morning, everyone but Patrice had been found and we set off for Heilgrund's castle. We had been told that it was they old caste of the Imperator, and that Stefan Heilgrund spent much of his time there instead of in

Gottskirchen, his capital as it offered fewer distractions. Reynaldo said that he had left word with someone in Freiburg to find Patrice and send her there to meet us if possible. Poor Patrice!

We traveled for a whole, long, miserable day by horseback on terrible roads full of potholes and washouts. The signs of the War of the Cross were everywhere. Most of the farmhouses and freeholds we saw were burned out or otherwise abandoned and falling to ruin. The few peasants we saw mostly avoided us except on one occasion when a young man of no more that 16, told us not to sleep in any ruins or abandoned farms. When asked why, he stated that 'things' had been seen lately and that goblins and such had recently been known to inhabit such dwellings. He said that the war had brought out many things that had once been legend and that these things prey on the unwary. Having given us this warning, he quickly went on his way. Though we didn't dismiss his warnings, when night came about we had no choice but to hold up in an abandoned farmhouse. Since it wasn't full night yet, Pierto set off ahead to see if he could find an inhabited freehold or farm that we could stay in. He was to return before full night.

We were all tired so after I fixed a hot meal of fish broth and hearth cakes in the fireplace, we all settled in to sleep. William was on the first watch. As I said, we took the young man's warning seriously. Also, we had all begun to worry about Pierto. I lay down and was soon asleep. What happened next is terrible.

There was knock on the door and William, thinking it Pierto, answered it only to see a strange sight! Someone had left a beautifully wrapped present on the doorstep. There was an envelope on the box address to Reynaldo. With a sinking heart, William awakened Reynaldo and showed him the box. A note inside the envelope stated: "Dearest Reynaldo, A gift for you! The first of two..." It was signed with the stylized "F" of Fellhand. Warily and with increasing dread, Reynaldo opened the box. The severed head of the fate witch was inside!

William told me later that a voice seemed to whisper from inside the box: "It has begunnnn....". May Theus bless us and protect us in the future from such evil! Reynaldo and William woke everyone else and while some of them buried the grisly 'present' box and all, William and Enrique went off to find Pierto, their hearts filled with dread and foreboding.

They found Pierto's headless body tied to the back of a panic-stricken horse that galloped past them, vainly trying to escape the awful burden it carried. As they untied the body from the weary and frightened animal, Pierto's head was cast into their midst from the darkness. William tried in vain to see who had thrown it and would have attacked if he had been successful, I am sure. Enrique says that

he has never seen him so enraged. They brought poor Pierto back and he was buried as well. I read over both of them as best I could from a small Book of the Prophets that I carry with me at all times. The words I read, indeed even the very words of the prophets themselves turned to ashes in my mouth and fell on deaf ears as each of us pondered our dark and depressing thoughts. We placed markers on the graves and, I am sure, each and every one of us vowed vengeance on Fellhand. May we have it soon.

We set off the next morning after a sleepless night, with heavy hearts and grim visages. Shortly after leaving, we were to find Patrice's body nailed to a tree in a grisly parody of an upside down Prophet's Cross. We went back and buried her with her body. More prayers and silent vows were said. I fear that this burden is too much for poor Reynaldo to bear. Fellhand was his enemy first and foremost and he feels the heavy burden of two of his countrymen and friends' deaths on his soul. His eyes gleamed with hatred and he sat on his horse stiffly and silently, riding far back from the others. I fear that William and some of the others blame him as well. While I find this totally unfair, I will say nothing of it. It is for these friends to work out among them. They will. Of this, I am sure.

A few days later, we met a band of mercenary Solden. They flew the banner of a black wolf on a red background. These were the same band that had been led by Helen, the Solden captain that helped us to the mountains and fell defending Reynaldo from a Drachen! It was no coincidence as we were soon to find out. Her little brother Volker had enlisted their aid to find Reynaldo. He blamed him for the death of his sister and had come for revenge. Can't it ever be good news?!

Volker attempted to fight Reynaldo, (who barely defended himself) and indeed, wounded him with a cruel blow from his Panzerhand. When it was explained to him, with the help of Leah who speaks Eisen fluently, that Helen died valiantly and well in combat and that it was not Reynaldo's fault, he stopped fighting.

Hearing this, the sergeant of the company, (now the new commander), rode forward and stated that his duty to Helen's brother was paid. He told Volker that, now that he had dishonored Reynaldo, he felt that Reynaldo was owed an honor debt and that Helen would want her little brother to pay it in full. He then said farewell and rode away with the Solden. Volker got down on one knee and swore to repay the honor-debt of Reynaldo. Reynaldo refused but did say that if Volker felt he had to do this, then he should defend Reynaldo's friends. As for himself he wanted nothing.

The next day we made it to Heilgrund's imposing castle. My master and the others met Coleson there and spoke with him in some length about their travels and the compasses. When he found out that there was another and that they pointed to each other, he became quite excited. He has offered his help on figuring out the compasses as well as the patronage of Stefan Heilgrund himself. It seems that Heilgrund is very interested in artifacts and would most likely be willing to fund an expedition to find the compass's mate. They have only to speak with him about it this afternoon before dinner.

I am weary. I have taken the time and some effort to locate clean clothing that fits for each and every one of our party. It seems there are no less than 20 nobles and dignitaries visiting Heilgrund here in his castle at this very moment! As they have dinner and a dance every night without fail and the group is invited, it would not do for my master or indeed, any of his comrades, to cut a less than striking and imposing figure while attending. By Theus, at least they are all clean!

As I have stated, I am weary. This dance they are attending will give me time to rest and make some more of my medications as I am not required to attend. I should take advantage of this respite while I can. As always, I pray to the prophets that my family is well and that I will see them soon. I also pray for the souls of brave Pierto and Patrice. May Theus grant them an eternity of bliss. Also, may Theus grant us safety and well being and allow us to live our lives with dignity and honor. May He also grant us the ability to thwart the actions of Fellhand, that foul servant of Legion.

I, Laurent, have put this to pen on this day, the *th of ****, 1668