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[ Back to essays and letters | Back to Insula Maledictus ] Forest of FearBy Nathair ex
Bonisagus "As one of covenant elders it seems to rightful duty to make some corrections to story telled by Nathair ex Bonisagus"-Nelly In this tale, I shall tell you how me and my companions traveled to a village haunted by nightly stalkers, near a cursed forest, and what terrible things we discovered. "Well I have seen some more terrifying things... But you are new here so I don't blame you"-Nelly It is not long since I settled here in my new home, Insula Maledictus. My life so far had consisted of research and studying, so I was glad when I got this to my doubting sodales here. Soon they would nchance to prove my usefulness o more consider me a young errand-boy, but the master of magic that I am. Maybe with this, I could even get a vote in the council of Insula Maledictus! "Sorry inform but you will not get a vote this easily. You are and you will be a errand-boy as long as i can help it...Proving means a lot more than doing just one of these casual journeys."-Nelly In the end of summer 1196 I was taking care of some trivial matters in Port Erin, and allowed myself and our loyal grogs a moment of peace in "The Broken Gnome". I rather enjoy the atmosphere in that local tavern, partly because all the respect we get by the local people. There we were approached by two men, who introduced themselves as Angus and Oscar. They showed us the proper respect we deserve, and I granted them an audience. They were traders from village of Breasal, in the northern part of Man. The elder of their village had told them to deliver a request of help to us, Wizards of Calf. "Actually they called us the witches of Calf. I REALLY don't like to be called as a witch, witches are ugly and... If it had been me i had tought twice before I had invited them to our island, but what can you expect from a errand-boy."-Nelly The problem seemed to be a stalker in the night, whom the villagers assumed to originate from a nearby cursed forest. Here it must be pointed out that my sodales here seem to have some sort of silent acceptance of the peasants of Man, so that might be the reason for them to ask help from us, not covenant of Stratus Intimus which lies closer to their village. I promised my help for the reasons I mentioned in the beginning of this tale, but as I did not have a vote at the council, I would have to talk to other magi as well. "You DID offer your help, that's about only thing you did right, only mistake was that you didn't consult us first. If you dear Nathair or whatever you are called want to have even one vote in our covenant you should turn to your elders or covenant leaders to ask what to do and when, and not to do empty promises you can not hold on by yourself"-Nelly After discussing the matter, most magi seemed uninterested in such a trivial mission, so I asked some people of our loyal covenfolk to join me. Nelly was the only other magus who had the spare time to join me. I was glad that an more experienced maga would be there to give me support. She took with her Nora, her loyal servant. "Not that I really had spare time but, it was my turn to look after the Nathair, he allways think too much of himself( oh I am the greatest and so on) By the way Nora is probably more loyal than you,.-Nelly I'm not sure if I was so happy about the rest of the group; Hector was an searched-after outlaw; Duncan was a grumpy, bloodlusty knight; Belisarios and his friend were mercenaries from Byzantium, but did not seem civilized at all. Along came also Seumas, a simple- and singleminded grog, as well as the always-helpful Emmett, whom I at first hoped would just shut up. As my own shield grog I assigned the brutal fellow called Madog. So with this rowdy group I traveled to the village of Breasal. At least I was surrounded with able warriors. "If Nathair wasn't too happy about of the rest of the group, I was, at least we had some serious muscle with us. Sometimes muscle is more useful than Magica( You didn't hear this from me...But I really like to have some muscle around me...)." -Nelly At arrival to the village, we noticed the buildings to be in quite a good repair, and the people seemed to be smiling and happy. Emmett went to the tavern beforehand, and arranged us places to spend our night. As the innkeeper, Clancy, heard that we are the "Witches of Calf", he sent his son, Malvin to tell the elder of the village about our arrival. That stupid oaf, Emmett, got it all wrong and thought that we get to sleep in the elder's quarters! He sometimes is just too enthusiastic. Soon, after dinner of course, we were invited to the elder's home. The old man, Coyle, lived with his daughter Assa, and seemed like the years had taken their toll on him. There we talked about the nightly stalker and the cursed forest nearby. "Actually I really like Emmett he is so considering and somehow helpful all the time, probably he has somekind brain damege or he is just plain dum. He is just like opposite to Nathair which seems to have something against me.. I wonder what..."-Nelly "Meeting with the elder wasn't too useful... I really wish that Nathair would be quiet for a while."-Nelly The nightly stalker had been seen by few, but it's footprints were found easily in the morning. The nightly visitor was said to be so quick that no one had caught it. No real harm was yet done by it, but of course the peasants get scared of the smallest of things. Coyle believed that the stalker originated from the nearby cursed forest, where the locals do not dare to go. He told us that the forest was quite normal, until it gradually but quickly changed to a terrible, dark, haunted forest. This happened about half a decade ago. I was assuming that he exaggerated, but how wrong was I! Not much useful information could we get out of the old man, so we decided to go to sleep. Coyle promised us a free stay in the tavern. We decided to observe the village through the hours of the night, in case the stalker would be seen. Some of our group, namely the drunkards from Byzantine, decided to stay up for "social duty", meaning that they emptied as many ale barrels as possible. I almost felt sorry for the innkeeper, Clancy. But this was not his darkest hour, it was yet to come. "Again Nathair seems to think too much about himself... All bow great Nathair...Like I could not have been survived without him."-Nelly In the morning I went to speak to the local priest, Father Severus. With me I took Hector, who was raised in a monastery. I thought that he could be of some help when dealig with clergy, even though his behaviour is not exactly pious. Nora also came along. But my precautions were unnecessary, for the priest turned out to be an educated man with pleasant nature. In fact, I suspect that he had been dealing with our kind before. He told me that he had seen the stalker in the night, and mistaken it for a child because it was so small. The footprints the stalker left behind were , however, of adult size. Meanwhile, some of my loyal companions had been examining the village and its surroundings, while others had been idle and lazy, taking advantage of the innkeepers hospitality. They got to know that the haunted forest lay to the northeast, couple of miles away. Also they overheard that the younger son of Clancy and the daughter of the local smith, Goban, were missing since yesterday evening. I did not pay much heed to that, because I wanted to go and inspect the cursed forest. How I regret that now! "Actually this is probably the only thing I agree with Nathair."-Nelly The trip to the forest was nothing as I expected. We took the innkeeper's son, Malvin, to guide us to the cursed forest. On the way there, quite near to the village, some of the more sharp-eared of us heard some noise nearby. Hector and Duncan started sneaking to the dircetion of the sound, and they surprised the local hunter, Ardal, hunting game. But at that point, we hadn't met him yet. So, the hot-headed Hector thought he was hostile and made the poor hunter drop his bow and pressed his face into mud. It all went quite quickly, with the hunter's dogs barking and Hector shouting in fury. So I had to calm the situation down. Sometimes I do not understand the wild tempers of my mundane companions. Perhaps it is the magical gift we magi possess that makes us think more clearly? A mundane is a mundane, even if you fry him in butter. "You calmed the situation? Well may I ask who the hell did stop Hector from shooting the poor hunter? Have I seen you doing any magic of yours? Maybe some tricks, but magic NO.And what is that with the rocs"-Nelly Finally we got to the point where Malvin said that he will guide us no further. Emmett stayed with him to keep him company, though the real reason was obvious: Fear. We started walking deeper in to the forest, and step by step it became clear to me why the locals avoided the place; with every yard deeper in to the wood it was darker, the air fouler, trees more twisted. The trees seemed to move and reach out to touch us. Nelly lit phantasmal fires to mark the path we had walked, so we would not get lost. The thing that made me really lose my nerve was the birds. Birds, now there is a thing that I really hate. But these were not ordinary disgusting type, but these were large as dogs, pitch black and made really eerie sounds. They flew by couple of times, trying to snatch my eyeballs of my sockets, open my stomach and eat my guts, and drink my blood. I dived into the ground and finally, I do not know why, they left me in peace. The others did not seemed as disturbed about the birds, so I agreed to continue. Why are the birds always after me? I really need to invent a good perdo animal spell for those buggers. "Well you are just little whining girl, birds help please me ,I am Nathair... Ok they were quite large crows, they were just second largest birds i have seen..."-Nelly We came to a clearing, or at least an area with less trees. We found a path and were about follow it, as we heard some noise from ahead. The noise was rapidly closing, a drumming sound which shook the earth. Some of us took cover, some backed up. But none of us was ready for this: a dark wild boar, size of a pony, mouth foaming charging towards us. It's eyes were flaming as it charged towards Belisarios and Hector. Duncan tried to hit it, his bloodthirsty sword hitting nothing but air. Belisarios managed to duck the boar and wound it a little. My crystal darts were totally useless against the beast's tough hide, as were Hector's arrows. Madog charged at the beast, and managed to hit it with his hammer. The beast charged next at Seumas, who happened to be on his way, hitting him in the ribs. Luckily he was not badly hurt. The beast continued running, away from us in to the deep, dark forest. "Ok this time Nathair is right, there must be some limit how big animals would get. Boar sized of a pony... hell... Ponys are nice but boars... urrgh"-Nelly After this short encounter, we decided to go back because we did not actually know what we were looking for. Just roaming randomly in that evil wood would be suicidal. So we headed back, and when we arrived to the village, something turned out to be terribly wrong; the son of Clancy the innkeeper and daughter of Goban the smith, Hagan and Keelin, had been found dead nearby. In that hectic moment I did not have the time to notice that Duncan had disappeared. We went to the site of death, where we found two children stabbed to death. Clancy was struck by grief. Nelly found out with magical means that the corpses had been dead since yesterday evening. The stabbing had been done with the children's own knives. It seemed unlikely that they would have stabbed each other, as we were told that these youngsters had been lovers. The grieving villagers took the bodies away to the village. "I would have liked to investigate some more, but NO. Dead body ->bad, village ->good. I don't never understand mundanes. Burying what is that good for?"-Nelly Nelly started preparing for the ritual "Eyes of the Past", as I quickly went to the village to find out when the children were last seen. With that information, Nelly started the ritual from yesterday's dusk. The ritual took a lot of time, and the concentration of Nelly was almost broken by that benevolent idiot, Emmett. He came running from the village, to report us that the corpse of the girl was in fact not the daughter of Goban, even though quite similar looking. In addition, by sundown the corpse had crumbled to dust. In her ritual, nelly had seen the boy and the girl meeting on this spot, holding hands. Suddenly the girl had taken her knife and started stabbing the boy. The boy had tried to crawl away, but the girl had changed to a evil-looking man and stabbed the bou to death. After that, the man had returned by his own tracks and made the scene look like a fight between the boy and the girl. Finally, wings grew out of the man's back and he flew away. There was some true evil here, I could tell. " Well I could have tell that too..."-Nelly Duncan had been missing for some time, and when he returned, he had been even grumpier than normally and bleeding from a deep wound. When asked what had happened, he replied "nothing". Later I heard about his curse; every time he draws his sword, it has to be fed with blood. As he did not manage to hit the boar, he had to wound himself. Poor bastard. He was so drunk that he had trashed almost the whole tavern, so Clancy, who had just lost his son, threw him out and forbade him from ever setting foot there again. The night went by peacefully, and the nightly visitor was not seen. In the morning was the time for the wake of dead boy Hagan. The villagers were obviously struck with grief and fear, but I did not have time for such useless emotions. Because the girl's corpse had obviously been fake, there was a chance that Keelin would still be alive. I sent Emmett to ask for a personal object of hers, and myself took a seven league stride to our covenant to get the book for "The Inexorable Search" and a map of the island. I cast the spell and found out two important facts: the girl was alive and probably in the cursed forest. Meanwhile, all were not idle like my shield grog Madog. Hector had found another personal item from Hagan's room, a scarf of Keelin. Nelly used it to cast "Summoning the Distant Image" and found out that Keelin was imprisoned in a stone prison with iron bars. If we could save the daughter, we could propably get a hunch what was going on in the village. "Murder there murder here, murder everywhere. Actually I had seen that the girl is in dark forest before the casting the "Summoning the Distant Image". Well Bad bad forest here we come to burn you down!... Why we shouldn't burn it down?"-Nelly |
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