The Chronicles of Bael

The Chronicles of Bael Part 17

Wildday, Truth Week, Sea Season, 1600

Eight long days have passed and we have once again returned to the Godstead Inn. I will do my best to scribe the events of the past eight day.

Our enterprise has proven a success though we have suffered greatly in the face of Chaos. Five of Gorath's followers have been slain, but he and all the Storm Bulls are ebullient in the knowledge that they have faced Chaos and sent it back to the hell from whence it came. There is little sorrow for the dead, the followers of the Bull will not mourn those lost fighting Chaos, but will celebrate their memory instead.

Erissa Marn is whole but not hale, for she was compelled to expend much of her Power throughout our journey to heal the maimed. Many of the Bull's followers would not have returned today were it not for Erissa's healing hand. Nevertheless, her body and mind are exhausted, and we shall need to rest at the inn for several days to restore her before returning her to her home. Her share of the treasures we have recovered will no doubt allow her to heal and feed the poor who seek her aid for many months to come.

My share of our companies' treasures is great indeed, both the items I have gained were spurned by the Storm Bulls in favour of gold and silver. The first of my prizes is a small bone, perhaps human, worn down by the passage of years, which has a Spirit Binding matrix scribed upon its surface. The second treasure could not have seemed a greater boon to me than were it given by the God's themselves. Inside a lead case I found an ancient Esrolian manuscript, authored by an ancient master of the great sword. While the language of the scroll is archaic, I have found it easily decipherable and replete with knowledge that will greatly improve my skills with the sword. Never before, through mine or my Master's studies or expeditions, have I discovered a source of knowledge that would so directly empower me, and I feel that it has stirred a need in me to do so again.

As we had planned, on the first day of our journey we travelled to Dwarf Ford but did not cross, turning north along the banks of The River instead. That night we camped near the Fist, a massive lump of white rock that rises over fifty feet above the river. It is said that this rock is magical and purifies The River of the Chaos taint that it gets as it flows through the Ogrewood upstream. While it is true that one can drink of the water below the rock, but not above, my Master has always believed that it is the presence of a powerful Naiad that lives in this section of The River that is the cause of the purification of the water. Wishing to prove my Master's thesis, I had hoped to see the Naiad, but was disappointed.

I counted our blessings by the morning of the second day of our journey until one of the Storm Bulls saw a very large giant on the dry plains to our north. In his "Bestiary of Chaos" my Master muses at great length upon the true nature of Giants. Many scholars and most others presume all giants to be, dull-witted, destructive creatures, warped by Chaos and innately evil. It is my Master's contention that this is too simplistic an explanation to fit all giants, and fails to provide an explanation for the Elder Giants that once resided in the Rockwood mountains. These giants were said to possess not only great intelligence but powerful magic too, and were anything but the servants of Chaos.

The giant we saw was certainly of the dull-witted and destructive variety, and also very large. It towered over the few trees that peppered the plain to our north, uprooting several with its giant left hand as it passed. It wore a patchwork of hides and carried the length of a tree stripped of its branches for a weapon in its right hand. From a simple belt tied around the giant's waist hung two full grown cows. Even though the creature was too far distant for the Storm Bull's to sense its Chaos taint, they began to whip themselves into frenzy. As I bundled Erissa away from our would-be berserker companions, and much to my relief, the giant turned north walking away with a breadth of step that my companions could not match in pursuit. I can only reflect that the two cows on the giant's belt indicated that its stomach was already too full of Bull.