Nottanis

Rowen had the idea to take a walk into the Dolemwood to follow some sort of ley line she supposedly can see in the sky. I could use a walk in the woods, so I agreed to come along, and apparently Morin was bored too. We wandered into the woods and spend a lovely night by the Dark Mirror Lake. A swan boat was collecting dreams.

We stopped by the manse of lady Ygraine the next morning, meeting three nobles on the way. They invited us to a party; I was willing but the two ladies declined. I think the nobles creeped them out; I had to grab Rowen’s hand to keep one from slobbering all over it. So we moved on, passing a strange field of very small tunnels. We stuffed a stick in one and lit it on fire to see if they were connected (yes) and then moved on since nothing came out and we had nothing to dig with.

Several more days of travel in the forest brought us to a strange town of Maegre’s Reach, which had no young people at all. Except us, sort of (I’m older than I look). No one would say where the young people were. We found a few at the tavern, but they left when we tried to join them, without answering questions. The only other thing of note in the town was a statue in the central square. Eventually, we bought supplies and moved on.

The next stretch of road was covered in spiderwebs and kept trying to make us fall asleep at bad times. My mother, an elf, told me she had always been immune to such spells and I would be safe from them as well thanks to my elven heritage. Turns out she was wrong; I kept taking little naps. It was very awkward, especially when I was the only one on watch and woke up to a 7-foot spider sinking its fangs into my neck! I yelled and rolled away, just barely in time to avoid the poison. The yelling woke my friends, while I grabbed sword and shield.

The thing bit me again, and this time I wasn’t fast enough. The poison burned in my veins, making my muscles twitch in a macabre dance. Morin and Rowen were stumbling out of their tent in their nightclothes, tripping over each other. I was frantically backing away while trying to hide behind my shield when Rowen babbled something at the creature in the language of Chaos… and it answered.

There was a back and forth. They were negotiating.

Then, with trepidation, Rowen held out her arm, and allowed the spider to bite her. The creature scurried off, leaving us alone. Blood oozed from the two fang marks on Rowen’s arm as my twitching gradually subsided.

I owe Rowen my life.