The Return to Roam

There was an extended silence while I took notes. There had been too much detail to rely on my memory alone.

After finishing my notes, I prompted my father's ghost yet again. "Did you then return to Roam and Nawab Nialha, father?"

The spirit appeared to be pleased that I had prompted him and he continued.

"Yes we did return to Roam to bring news of our success to Nawab Nialha. The journey was difficult without mounts and we did not have enough food and water for our elven archers. I passed my first day's rations to the elves thinking that I could be better able to bear the strain than an elf but I got a lot sicker than I thought I would. As it turned out I shouldn't have bothered. We were attacked by a scaled beast that was so vicious and cunning that it put me in mind of the fearsome tembo of legend.



The thing ran circles around us and killed and ate our archers at will. We managed to kill it only because of the special fang arrow I had fixed up for Rolen. Although I beheaded the beast it was only because it was staggering from Rolen's magical fang arrows. Only four archers survived the battle and once we stripped the dead of their food and water we had plenty to spare."

"When we finally reacher Roam I was well into the sun sickness. We told Nawab Nialha of what we found but we did keep details of some of the riches we found to ourselves for fear that elven greed would become elven treachery. In addition to all the mineral wealth, Jorvak had found a magical flaming sword of steel and such a treasure could get one murdered in a safer city. I rested and beat the sun sickness and we began to prepare to leave Roam. Things were not good in the city and Nialha was acting strangely, even for an elf."

I prompted my father for details, "Did anything occur before you left the city father?"

"Yes Jorvak disappeared one night and so Rolen, Rhogar, and I went looking for him. Before we found him, we were attacked by one of the huge white apes.


I had never seen one up close before and it was strange that the thing looked more like a person than a thrikeen does. Apparently it was someone's pet and it attacked Rolen's kirre. The beast was so powerful the kirre was ripped open and dying and I was badly slashed before we figured out what was going on. We quickly recovered and thanks to the magical fang arrows we killed the beast. I would not want to face one of those things alone that is for sure. Afterward we resupplied and left Roam behind us."