3,383 Megasphagion 6
K,
My companion, Anektdotos, was freed after having been briefly locked up for stealing the Brethren’s wagon. It was a merciful sentence considering what we had done. I am ashamed of the part I played in it. It was my plan that went wrong, and we didn’t mean to kill them even though they probably deserved it. Knowing very well what it’s like to be wrongly imprisoned—as you are well aware—I wanted to intervene but what could I do? As merciful as the polemarch might be, my pleas could just have easily made things worse. And then I wouldn’t be able to hunt down the Brethren or whoever’s responsible for abducting these magic users.
We set off again to find out who is stealing these magical users. This time, Anektdotos, Maia, Autolycus, Athyn, and I headed toward the eastern side of the Eldenwood, where we heard the trades were made. Autolycus was going to disguise himself as a bait.
When we reached the pass between the Forest of Fate and Eldenwood, we encountered a giant lion with sparkles on its flank. We gave it a wide berth and continued east, following the border of the Eldenwood through the hills.
We were still on the northern edges of the Eldenwood when we made camp for the night.
We were awakened by the lion's terrible roar, which I must admit filled me with dread! Maia later said it was a fleece mane lion. But we rallied and it fled after I struck it with a mighty blow.
It was quite a while before we were able to settle down and it was afternoon when we finally broke camp.
We marched on and it was evening when we reached the end of the hills and the Eldenwood border began to turn south.
At the eastern most corner of the Eldenwood, we found blazes and tracks nearby. We followed the tracks into the woods and soon found four armed mercenaries camping in a clearing. Autolycus approached them and learned that the Brethren only want children. Then one of them, Xander, tried to grapple Autolycus and take him prisoner.
We rushed in and soon defeated the bandits, but not before Maia suffered a near-mortal wound. While she was tended to, and held Neptolynus, their leader, down with my boat. It took all my will not to crush him. In the end, Maia showed less restraint.
Before he died, Neptolynus explained that he came from humble beginnings and was a slave before being freed by the Polemarch and fighting for him in the Shorestalker Wars. He said they had captured a magic user and traded her to an unnamed man near where we stood. I asked him her name and I trembled inside, waiting for his response, afraid that the name might be yours.
But he said the woman he sold was named Eudora. He also revealed that his contact was a scrawny man from Krimnos named Dartenos, who instructed them to follow the blazes on the first nights after the new moon.
After searching and hiding the bodies of the bandits, we used their camp and waited for nightfall, hoping that the unnamed man would appear.
Sure enough, a met stepped out of the woods into our clearing with a nightmare of a steed. Maia, Athyn, and Autolycus tried to negotiate with him, but he did not respond. He just held out a palm holding a gold coin.
No one intervened when the man began to leave, so I thrust my spear into him and both he and his steed disappeared into thin air.
We found tracks and followed them to nearby cave. Just inside we found a corpse lying under an enchanted crystal. Autolycus was able to disable the crystal’s magics, removing it from its casing.
We continued down a corridor to a small room with a skull and shadow swords barring our way. Due to Maia’s condition, we all agreed to cut our losses and return to Neolantika.
We made camp in the bandit’s clearing and were attacked in the night by a giant dog-like creature. It was ravaging Anektdotos before I struck it and it withdrew into the darkness.
But the creature was stalking us and we fled. We were separated in our haste and when I arrived safely in Neolantika, my companions had not yet returned…
Matthias
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