I don’t particularly know what to make of our recent journey. A decision was made to recover the information gleaned from the Frumentarii that was previously thought lost or unknown. Sorina offered up her vessel to take us to Snakefang Straight, the location of the shipwreck that held this information.
Being mostly useless on the open water (and to my dismay, completely unused to sea travel), I stayed below decks, doing my best to keep from showing any signs of sea sickness. I was more fortunate than some of the others, because when the storm whipped up, I was one of the few of us landlubbers who were not overtly sick. The storm did give us one advantage though; it caused our little stowaway to reveal herself as well, as I heard her retching underneath the covers that she had concealed herself with. It was fortunate that the Thane knew her, as I was more than willing to throw her overboard.
While the child was largely inconsequential, an annoyance more than anything, the item that she had smuggled aboard with her was completely the opposite. She had stolen a great sword from her family, and when I took it from her, it attacked me.
Come to find out, this sword was one that was wielded by the Demon of the Free Valleys. Considering the effect it had on me when I merely touched it, I don’t have much reason to doubt that the sword is genuine, as stories had been told of how the demon had cut down countless Ashen Kingdom troops when they attempted to liberate the valleys from his iron grip.
After the magician inspected the sword, he gave it over to the Thane, who, to what should be no one’s surprise, immediately declared himself the new Hero of the Free Valleys and called the sword his own.
I hope you can see why I may find this somewhat troubling.
We ended up in the straight, which looked like a shipyard for the damned. With David’s help, we were able to find a path up into the cliffs, where we met an ancient priest of the goddess Asasara, the same goddess of the temple we discovered during the Adder Crag fiasco. I’m not a fan of coincidence.
After conversing with the priest, I found that he and his now absent apprentice believed that they had recovered items from the shipwreck we were looking for, as well as the lone survivor of the wreck, who had died not long after. The priest told us that if we were to perform a devotion, that he would allow us to take the items that he had salvaged. I agreed, and he prepared a tea and lead us to a chamber.
I can’t particularly say what happened at that point. It didn’t make much sense, and I only have vague recollections of what went on. We were drugged (which was of no surprise, mind you), and we seemed to have some kind of joint hallucination, and we woke up and we got what we needed. And then others asked for more, because apparently we need all the help we can get. I don’t particularly disagree with that, but even so, panhandling is such a disgraceful practice.
The documentation we received was both enlightening and disturbing. It will take me some time to digest the information that I found, but suffice it to say that even if I was not sworn by blood to reveal the secrets of my people, I would still keep this information from my new companions. I can only hope that the documentation was just information, and not something that has already begun to be implemented. Because if it has, I shudder to think of what could be wrought of it if it comes to pass.
