The Erevan's riddle

[Aduial]

It was a strange quiet night in the forest, the moonlight was the symbol of the pale hope that was still alive in the land, the autumn wind was pushing gently the brown leaves and moving them like dancers just over the little lake, a half eaten rotted corpse was still floating in it and his incredible stench made me to vomit , so I was able to see my dinner for the second time…

I was almost ready to return to Degannwy when i saw the signal.. and after a few seconds later the “Chariot rider” was at my left grinning from side to side of his mouth.
He was as usual full of odd trinkets tied on his belt a strange smell of oil and moss was coming from his dark leather armour and his left hand was not too far from his dagger … as usual.
“So… what do you have for me?” I told him without many ceremonies…the “Chariot rider” stifled a laugh and he made clear with a gesture of his hand that his greedy attitude did not changed during the years he lived in Barovia.
Recently i found a strange blade in the desert that  i was sure that it could suit his tastes even if the weak enchantment was not so appealing, but the “Chariot rider” ’s eyes sparkled at the sight of the golden hilt and at the number and shape of the embedded rubies and emeralds on it.
Quickly the short blade with a silent movement of his hands, disappeared under  his cloak as it was eaten by something.

“I have what you are looking for……” he said with a strange smile almost printed on his face…
He gave me a parchment, i took a brief glance  it was freshly written and it probably had the informations  i was looking for…
I looked at him with a mixture of surprise and confusion in my eyes, he simply nodded but for what i could understand from his half  muttered words he was really concerned for his life.. however after explaining me some details  he made a brief nod and disappeared in the darkness of the  forest.

I went to the opposite direction and made my way to the gates Degannwy.
The “Chariot rider” was not exactly what one can consider a true spy or something like a master of subterfuge, however i decided to keep him as my informer because he surely lacked not the skill or the talent to become one, probably his greedy attitude was his greatest enemy, however I feared that asking him something above his possibilities would result in a failure as it happened in the past…but for an unknown  reason it did not happened this time..
Of course i had no proofs that what was written in the parchment  was completely true however it was surely at least one step forward  my position.
I decided however to don t use those informations for now, the recently lack of allies and the growing strength of the “Grey lady” could be a deadly combination for me, so i decided  to delay my next move….

[Aduial]

I was still in Degannwy  when a light rain began to cover the village , far away the clouds over the mountains seemed to get ready for a storm , we decided to take a quick breakfast before going out in the forest; a sort of strange mist seemed to be present in the low part of it however as the sun began to rise, the mist started to dissipate itself revealing the corpse of what at first sight seemed  an elf. His skin was very pale and dry, and not far from him his elven blade was on the ground broken in two pieces, probably the poor cousin did not even had the time to use it against the creatures of the night that assaulted him.

I  wrapped his body as best as I could in my cloak, and began to drag it to the church….; it was still  morning when i decided to bury him….
The “Chariot rider” found some fresh blood not far from the road, his bright eyes began to control the graveyard when almost unnaturally it ended to rain and the sun coming out from two large clouds  finally started to take a peek to the land.
 Actually i believe i lost the count of how many times i did this, how many times i had to bury a cousin after failing in bringing him back to life? For another time it was too late…. too late to help  his spirit, his  holy symbol of Fenmarel around his neck was a clear sign he was a follower of the Seldarine and i prayed  asking them to help his spirit to find his way for the Arvandor.
 
While I was digging using my shield as a shovel i  found myself in thinking that i used it more time to bury a cousin than to defend one ,when i finished it was midday, the “Chariot rider” helped me to cover his body, after that i decided to say a last long prayer for the poor elf hoping the little ritual could avoid the possibility that some sort of necromancy could bring his body back as an undead, but no matters  how many prayers you can say you are never sure of what Old Night can’ t do.

I thanked the “Chariot rider” for his help before he dashed to the new bounty board already feeling the rumour of the easy fangs the barovians would pay him for killing a few desperate bandits.
A little carriage coming from Vallaki passed on the road just to return a few minutes later with two frozen “corpses”, a warning the Burgomaster decided to give to the recent rebel activity in order to show them how much far his cruelty can go.
Rumours said the two gundarakites  were left the whole night naked during one of the coldest  of the barovian winter, it was impossible to describe their corpses,  even because to say the truth there were no corpses but only some parts of them since their presence lured some wolves or probably even worse predators.…the two old barovians leading the carriage leaved the remains in the sewers, after a while some merchants started to set up their shops in the outskirts  and i decided to go to the lodge.

There with a bit of surprise I found the “Shy Tiger” his faint smile always present with a mix of humility and sadness on it, we talked a lot of the past, it seemed speaking of it made his smile a bit less sad, he was really worried for the one he considers as a brother however my worst concern was for the other members of the kinship.
We spoke a lot about the “Grey lady” and i decided to share with him something of what i recently discovered to see if he could know or find some missing pieces of the puzzle, sadly i was not much lucky, we talked a few more hours then when the sun began to set i went back to the village… it was there at dawn, that i found her again…she was sitting  near our fire as it used to be, stunning as a sunbeam… she had always been for me the “Lady of the Moon”.

[Aduial]

The “Lady of the Moon” was now sitting by the fire near me ,  as soon as I saw her, her warm smile started to heal my deeper wounds, she was wearing a white exotic dress  brought with such a proud that only a member of the high court of Evereska could have.
She began to speak to me almost whispering, her voice was soft and it was like her voice was singing a lullaby to my spirit.
She already knew i was looking for her aid, for her sharpness of mind, she gave me the answers before i could ask the questions, it was incredible but just some few hours lived with her made me feel  a sense of regeneration shivering all down my body.
But even the sweetest dream has his dark side in Barovia, the signs of her curse were still evident on her body  ,an insult made with such arrogance to her that a Tel-quessir can’ t  easily forget, however she was bringing it with strength, making her face to look like an undefeatable statue.
She told me what i was not able to understand,  and suddenly i realized how much i was blind in the last year, we did not finished to talk of what i had in mind because the curse was starting to weaken her more and more each day, i made sure her tent was all right and i left her with a soft kiss to her long reverie.
I walked near the bridge waiting for the dawn at each step it was like waking up from a dream, probably the darkest of all but still..., it was surely a wonderful dream; i had not to wait long before the sun decided to rise, then i went out in the forest and took the direction of Tser Pool.

I pulled out my bow ready to defend myself, even in daylight the roads can be dangerous in this land, but i was lucky enough to don t find much trouble on the road and when i arrived at the hills there were bodies of ogres everywhere, entrails splattered all around the trees, a real bloodbath, whoever dealt with the ogres surely cleaned all the way for me.
I arrived at the  camp of Tser Pool, however the familiars rumours of the vistani were mixed to something else, in fact not far from the camp there were a few dwarves roasting a boar , they looked like fighters and from their talk it was clear that they were the slaughterers of the ogres, they spoke of their battle without fear, spitting on the ground at each time  they mentioned the ogres in their story.
"Well… what do you expect from a race that eats orcs for breakfast?" However Borlan one time explained to me that the true story is that they hunt orcs in the first morning and this make them hungry for breakfast. The two activities used to be so mixed together in some clans that this  created the legend in the region of the sword coast that dwarves eat orcs for breakfast… however judging from the smell of the mess they were cooking perhaps the legend was right.

I left with the first caravan available for the mist camp, as always the place was not so crowded, but as she told me the “Hermit” was there, it is incredible how much time  seemed to have changed him so little even considering the fact he is for a part a Tel’quessir; he made a wide grin as soon as  he saw me, and i frowned some at the idea of hearing his nonsense again for hours, but i had no choice.
I avoided speaking with him about the “Grey Lady” i did not wanted to scare him to death, since he already had enough old scars in his mind… a polite gift that a short “romantic vacation ” to Blaustein granted to him.

I knew he had that material i was looking for, quite a rare one in Barovia to tell the truth..; i wanted to do another try to help the “Lady of the Moon” not that i did not tried enough in the past but even if i knew the possibilities of success  were low, i  still had to try again because this was what my spirit asked me, and that was all that really mattered for me.
He kept me some hours speaking of his odd lore of the land, most of them some nonsense, as that old elven legend , honestly i realized a little part of me always believed in that legend, probably that part of me always used such illusion to make me feel a bit better in my dark moments.
At a certain point of the night he claimed his old bones needed some rest, i  remembered him his debt, he muttered a few words in common about grumpy elves and gave me what i was looking for, then he walked away with his walking stick inside his tent, while watching him wandering off i had to admit it was the smartest disguise i had ever seen….

[Aduial]

In the next weeks “The Grey Lady” seemed to have disappeared, but I had not to wait long in order to track down her minions; in the past she had already tried to recruit an army from the Drain, but the experiment was not successful.
Now the hand of the one she calls “her son” was clearly behind “the  cult” and I never believed in coincidences.

“Someone” suggested to act with patience against this cult,  when instead we could have won with a single blow.
However the same night I decided to met with the “Chariot Rider” paying him very a generous sum of fangs for his next work in the Drain, only to discover a few days later that it was decided to change completely strategy.
I almost lost my life  in the sewers in order to rescue the “Chariot Rider” from certain death in the Drain, the old man , and all thanks to the “new tactic”, was now aware of the possibility of having spies among his ranks, and the whole Drain had now a target for his rage.

However with the help of “The Illusionist” and other people we managed to strike back to “the cult” defeating the dangerous undead witch called Yves, while she was trying to end a fool ritual of necromancy.
I believed we were a step before “the cult” but the kidnapping of the old man changed everything,
In fact he was soon rescued, but that is what happen if you decide to handle the security of such a dangerous person to a guard with a rusted sword and a bunch of criminals.

The kidnapping of Lucadia  was one of the consequences, we went to Baratak by solving the riddles of his ghost, but in the end it was a failure amd we could not bring his spirit back to Habakkuk.
Exahusted I decided to retire in Degannwy for some reverie, in order to prepare the next dance.

[Aduial]

After the death of the "Lady of the Moon" my life was not the same.

"Vengeance...?" There is something inside me that whispers to me this idea, but is that really what the Seldarine would ask me?
No, I can't be so selfish, the Seldarine are the only answer, "bless your story" for how much it is hard, I must do it.

The "Chariot rider" visited me for the condolences and to bring me more information, I felt so empty in the coming days, I tried to recover the pieces of myself but I was not focused , not enough and I lost the track of "The Grey Lady". Luckily "The Loremaster" was able to trap one of her spawns, we did our job, but one of us betrayed us, so in the end was only an half victory.

In the coming days the events moved so fast that it was difficult to keep track of them, however it seemed clear that perhaps for the first time the influence of the Count was melting like snow at the sun, but soon we found ourself fighting a common enemy, his enemy, it was an harsh night and the explosion left a lot of bodies behind we ran to our home and finally we rested.

That his how the "cult" ended.

[Aduial]

The preparation of the “Loremaster's” wedding was one of the events that occupied me most in the following days, I would never have imagined such a request, but I gladly accepted

Clearly if I had offered to do such a thing back home, they would have cutted off my head and presented it on a silver dish to the high lord of Evereska. But the place we are in requires us to move inside different paradigms and in this situation I could never have refused such a request to a cousin, the Seldarine would not have been happy at all if I did not accepted.

The ceremony was held at the lodge and was very successful so much so that even “Shy Tiger” asked me in an interested way some details, I guess she is doing a serious thought about the "Nymph" and I am happy for his decision.

Like many marriages that are celebrated in Barovia, unfortunately, it did not last long and not because of a disagreement between the parties, but because of the disappearance of the groom, even if his fate was clear to everyone that he did not just disappeared, but that someone killed him.
Obviously, the suspicions fell on his comrades, but no evidence of his disappearance was ever found. On the other hand, he had a habit of poking his nose into controversial issues, his solitary nature and not being exactly a talented warrior probably were fatal to him.

Following the wishes of the “Loremaster”, we searched far and wide for him, we even went so far as to look for information where it was better not to ask,
In the end we were afraid to know where his body was but it is a place where I personally would not feel like entering and letting others take risks. Sadly the life of the “Loremaster's” spouse was not considered to be precious enough to accept such a risk and we had no choice  but leave him to his fate.

From that point on, however, the "Loremaster" was never the same and here began the road that led her slowly to her fall.