Kled Again?

"Eventually we arrived in Kled and thing were very bad. A small civil war was going on between the dwarves we knew and a new prophet of Stonebrother. At first I thought that he sounded like someone I wanted to be friends with but the more I heard the more I was unsure. So I decided to help the dwarves out by talking to this Prophet. We were told that the prophet passed through an area where cursed dwarven banshees were imprisoned and so we had to go that way to. Some ghost tried to tell us to go back but with the door shut behind us we had no choice. The banshee city was a huge pit with terraces in the shape of circles. We had to cross these annoying stone head that breathed gusts of wind. After that we had to climb a hill and we got into a big battle with these stone dwarf elemental things. I took quite a beating from them and I would have died if Ix hadn't saved me. It turned out that all we had to do was stand at the bottom of the hill and pepper the things with arrows. After that we were exhausted so we slept on this huge staircase. We were attacked by a horde of zombies but we cut them down easily."

"After that we found a room with a giant statue made of iron. Somehow we were not suprised when the statue animated and attacked us. We tried to run past the creature but the exit was blocked by defiling magic so we could not leave until the iron giant was defeated and the giant could not be defeated. Eventually my smart friends figured out that if we destroy the altars and the pillars we could escape. Soon after that we confronted the other gem man the brother Ga-something. I was expecting to talk to a fellow worshipper of Stonebrother but instead we found the gem man controlling a group of dwarves. The battle was hard on my friends but my dwarf-brothers could not stand before me and I cut them down without mercy. Eventually there was only a dwarf defiler and the gem man left and they fled in fear."

On the Road to Kled

"My friends and I thought it was best to join a caravan for the long journey to Kled. The journey passed uneventfully until the caravan was attacked by a tribe of halflings. We crushed the little maggots of course. Then one night Rhagar and I were on guard duty and we saw a tent."

My father paused then and an expression of exquisite grief crossed his countenance. That look told me what had happened next but I wanted to hear it in his own words so I said, "Is that when you found mother's body?"

After a long pause the ghost of Torvek continued, "No 'Mina not then but it was soon afterward. Rhagar and I reluctantly entered the tent and as it turned out there were no monsters or defilers just a powerful genie that liked to gamble. To make a long story short the stupid genie loved to gamble and he was willing to bet you whatever you wanted. Well at the time it seemed like the answer to my problems. The first thing I won was a magic amulet that would lead me to your mother. Later I realized that I was the stupid one not the genie. I should have asked for an amulet that would lead me to you 'Mina. I also managed to cheat the genie out of a more powerful magic axe not that it really matters. I used the amulet constantly the new couple of weeks as we traveled and eventually it led me to my beloved Frigga or at least her body. Your mother's body was blackened and it looked like defiling magic. My wife was dead and you were nowhere to be found so I was worse off than before. A giant worm put a stop to my self pity and we forced to fight for our lives once again. As deadly as it was a single monster can't stand up to the Unforgiven and we cut it down after a long and exhausting battle."

Raam- again?

My father, Torvek, had been speaking for a very long time and I felt that he was starting to ramble so I refocused him, "Father you mentioned returning to Raam. Could this be the famous legend of your leaping from the stands into an arena and killing a defiling gladiator with one blow?" My father smiled a rare grim smile and continued, "Ah yes well that was a rare one and no mistake. All true. All true. I had promised myself that I would never enter a gladitorial arena ever again, not even as part of an audience. It all started when we found that Nawab Nialha's home had been destroyed and that she was probably dead. Well actually we had to kill two gaj on the way there but that is hardly worth mentioning. Anyway one of Raam's street scum held a conversation with Rhagaar that was filled enough hints and riddles to make my poor head swim. The beggar leg us to some witch that had a collection of what I guessed to be heads in bags. Again there was a lot of talk in riddles and hints and I had a feeling that something was not right. The witch gave Rhogar some sort of a coin and told him to go to some tunnel. Seemed like a right scam to me and I wanted no part of it. When we came to some guards my friends and I parted company. I wandered around for a bit but eventually I heard the announcer in the gladitorial arena say something about a dray and elf. Well I figured that had to be my friends so I began sprinting for the arena. I quickly paid my way in and charged down the center aisle. When I reached the wall I leapt onto it and out onto the arena platform. My friends were fighting a defiler gladiator that was the size of a giant but one that was encased in fire. As I sprinted towards him the defiler shrank to normal size. My friends had already given it a mauling but he was still up and fighting. I charged in and put all my weight into one swing. My magic axe did the rest the defiler plunged into the sand beasts many feet below us and was devoured. We used the arena's magical machinery to flee the arena. As we fled I ordered Ix to give me the gladiator's shard. After we reached the safety of the desert we decided to try for the shard at Kled next because we hoped they would remember us and help us.

The Dark Path

"The next level up was some sort of a magical place of fear. We have been in strange places before so it was not that much of a surprise. But it was dark and confusing. At one point my friends disappeared and I had to wait for them alone. Just before they found me again one horned beast head giant attacked me and another one attacked Jorvak."

"Then both beast heads disappeared and I found Jorvak and the rest of my friends. Eventually we came to a room with four barrels of oil and we were attacked by the two minotaurs again but they were invisible this time. I thought we were going to lose so I called the Unforgiven to form up in the corner of the room. But Jorvak thought of using the oil to mark the beast's location. It worked but before we could cut them down they killed the pirate captain." "After a rest and what seemed like a long time we came to a chamber with three pillars. On top of the pillars there was what we thought was a defiler casting spells at us. As it turned out that it was some sort of tentacle monster.

As it turned out it was like the other battle with the three pillars. When we destroyed the pillars the beast was weakened. I didn't figure that out at first but Rolen and Rhaegar told me that. Jorvek and I switched back and forth between keeping the beast busy and destorying the pillars. The shame of it is was that before the beast was weak enough to kill Jorvek was dead." "Jorvak was too far gone for me to heal him. I think a part of me died with him. He was the best friend I had since I was a kid. The defiler was a creature made up of gems and he fled through some sort of portal. My friends chased him and so did I after a lot of hesitation. But at last we were back in the real world in the Crystal Palace. Rhogar had a long conversation with this other gem man who was sort of like the brother of the other evil gem man. I didn't understand the conversation and just noddded my head a lot. I lost interest when the gem man said he was not a servant of stone brother. The only important thing he said was that we had to get all the shards or things would get very bad. It had something to do with using the shards to pass through the grey. Like I said it didn't make much sense to me but Rhogar seemed to understand and that was good enough for me. The gem man also said he could use the shards to transport us where we needed to go to get the other shards. Then the gem man used the way shard to transport us most of the way back to Raam."

Inside the Crystal Castle

"Finally we arrived at the great crystal castle. It was very beautiful and could only have been made by dwarves. We went inside and soon we were attacked." My father paused here and seemed unable to continue so I prodded him, "Please father tell me what happened. What attacked you?" "It was me 'Mina, me as a banshee. And you and your mother were dead right there. It seemed so real but it must have been a defiler trick because you are still alive. I am the one that is dead. Uh wait I'm not a banshee am I?" It was so typical of my father that I nearly laughed but that would been cruel given the extreme distress apparent on my fathers's face. I responded, "No father you are no banshee. But you are a spirit from the Gray summoned by magic. Please continue your story." "As you say 'Mina sure. Well the banshee-Torvek was powerful and would surely have killed any one of us alone but together we were too much for it and we destroyed it." "We continued a little farther and then we were attacked by evil eleganta spirits of the desert. They were female sand spirits with the power to drown us in sand silt. There were two of them and they came close killing us but with the help of the remaining pirates we were able to surround them and hack them apart." "Next we came to a room with these glowing balls of energy. A strange creature appeared and attacked us with magic powers. The balls of energy moved around and when they were near us we felt weaker. I was very nearly killed but Rhogar managed to killed the beast before I died." "Finally we came into a huge room filled with more water than I had ever seen in one place. There were creatures swimming in the water and we were getting short of food so we decided to catch something to eat. Jorvek splashed in the water and dripped some blood in there also. A big reptile jumped out at Jorvek and he took a bad bite. He had to run to avoid getting eaten. The creature went back down below the water where we couldn't see it and we were afraid it would jump out at us again so we ran away also." "The next room we found was filled with plants. I had never seen so many plants in one place before. And there was food. Plenty of delicious fruit. And plenty of worms and bugs if you got bored of the fruit. It was so beautiful and so perfect. If you and your mother had been with me, I don't think I would ever have left. But nothing in Athas can be so good without some kind of cost. In a short time we were attacked by a pack of cannibal halflings. It was a tough fight but we defeated them. The last few alive called some sort of a green pet giant with a big nose.

"The giant healed fast but I was able to cut it down with the help of my comrades. The next level was very strange. I think maybe it was a window into another world. My friends seemed to think it was a window into the past of Athas but it did not look like that to me. It looked like another world to me."

The Crystal Castle

My father, Tovek Stonethew continued his narrative. "The flying flat beast joined others of its kind and a sort of battle broke out. It was hard to tell if the creature was trying to save us or kill us. Jarvek's servant, Scab, managed to kill one of the enemy flying beasts with a near suicidial leap.

In short order the creature brought us to a bridge that lead to an impressive crystal fortress. A panicked thrikeen with a name I couldn't manage to say properly ran to us for protection. He was followed by a horde of angry blue human like creatures and a battle broke out. They used defiler magic to make me move closer and then they surround me. I was slashed in a dozen places and I thought I was dead. But I called on the power of Stonebrother and my flesh became nearly as hard as rock. The blue men could do little more than scratch me and so the battle went in our favor and we crushed them."

"Our next skirmish with the blue men of Athas should have been an easy victory and so it was. But a costly win to be sure. We saw a group of blue men and I told them that we did not seek battle with them. They did not listen and attacked us anyway. The battle should have been a slaughter but one of the blue men did something with a rune carved in the ground. I lopped his head off thinking to stop whatever magics he was attempting to summon. I failed. In fact his spraying blood may have finished whatever it was he was doing. Suddenly out of nowhere a whirlwind formed and sucked me in. I would very likely have died but for Jorvak. Ignoring the danger Jorvak ran up to the whirlwind and kicked me out of it. Unfortunately he was sucked in as I was escaping. I could not get him out and he disappeared. I joined the battle in a great rage and we crushed the remaining blue men. Even more misfortune, Scab ran to his master and was drawn into the whirlwind as well. I gave Rhogar permission to question the one surviving blue man in hopes that our missing comrades might be alive in some other place. It did not go well, it seems, because Rhogar threw him into the whirlwind for not telling us what happened to our comrades. I was sad over what I thought was the loss of my friends and I felt no pity. I would not have done that myself but I was not going to punish Rhogar for it. As it turned out my friends were still alive and were to rejoin us very soon" "We continued on to toward the crystal castle and eventually we came upon a row of people inside crystal pillars. A pile of crystals came to life and attacked us. The crystal creature was very dangerous. I noticed that the people inside the pillars seemed to be sending energy to the crystal-pile creature. So everyone except Rolen went after the pillars and released the people held prisoner. While we did that Rolen fired arrows at the crystal creature and kept it busy. Mostly there were dead bodies in the crystal but we found Scab and Jorvek and released them as well. It was a happy moment because we had given them up for dead. Once all the people were released the creature was much weaker and we were able to defeat it as a team."

The Sea of Dust

I felt it was time to broach the question that I had been avoiding, "Father there is one charge against you that you have not yet addressed. The templars of the sorcerer kings charged you with insanity. They claimed that you spoke of obeying voices that only you could hear. Is this so?"

My father paused clearly uncomfortable with the question and then responded, "I cannot deny this. I did hear voices. I know that sounds crazy and if someone else told me that I say that they were of of their minds. But what happened, happened. Most of the time it was when I slept but sometimes it happened when I was awake. Often it was just pictures with no voice at all. 'Mina you need to believe me when I say I am not insane, I mean was not insane. The voice was real and I did not obey it without thinking. I did what the voice said because it seemed to give good advice. I always planned to disobey the voice if it told me to do something wrong. And most of all I always hoped that the voice was Stone Brother, though I have to admit the voice did not match up well with the legend my fathers told me."

I found that interesting that there was a kernel of truth to at least one of the charges leveled by the templars. Yet my father's explanation, while strange, made it sound less bizarre. What if some creature was speaking to my father? Who could fault him if this occurred?

I asked my father to continue his narrative and he responded, "My friends and I sold most of our mounts and other items that we did not need in Balic. We also bought a map of the Sea of Dust to help us find our way. The map seller we bargained with told us about a pirate captain that would be able to take us where were going for a reasonable price. The captain wanted us to rescue a captured crewman. We judged it to dangerous to attempt a break out so we just purchased his freedom."

"The ship used these giant stone wheels to travel the shallows. When we got to the deep waters, they dumped the big wheels and one of the crew used the Way to float the ship on top of the silt. After a short time we were attacked by a pirate ship about the same size as our ship. It was a short and fierce battle but I was prepared and so instead of trying to cut the pirates down, I just struck them with the flat of my axe and knocked them into the Silt Sea to drown. The magic in my new axe handle allowed me to throw the enemy pirates around like rag dolls. The few that remained were overwhelmed by my allies and our own crew."

"A couple of days later the ship was attacked by an enormous giant beast with a huge mouth and many arms like ropes.

The creature used its thorny rope-arms to scratch and drag the crew off to die in the silt. It probably would have killed us had we been alone but with a whole crew to eat and our being tied to the deck we managed to stay alive. A half dozen or so of the crew were killed that day. Most of the battle was with distance weapons and all could do is chop at the thing's arms. When things were looking really bad the monster brought his huge head up to the boat. With the help of two swordsman from the crew we managed to kill the huge thing. But the beast had damaged the ship and it started to sink. Just as it looked like we would all die, one of the great flying flat beasts came near and we leaped upon to escape.


It seemed that someone wanted us to live a little longer."

The Journey to Balic Continues

"Did anything else of importance happen on your trip to Balic Father?" I asked.

After a brief pause my father Torvek continued his narrative, "Yes there was one more thing that happened. My friends and I came upon what looked like a caravan that had been destroyed by bandits. We found one female human still living. She acted very afraid and she said that she had been SUBVERTED. Well I was not going to stand for that. Rolen, Rhogar, and I went off in the direction that it seemed the bandits had gone. After a bit we came upon what looked to be two bandits left behind fighting over scraps and the girl. As it turned out it was all just a big ambush. The bandits were hiding underground in pits. The girl was even in on it. Amd they had a defiler. When the fight began it looked like we might be in trouble. Rolen got the worst of it since he was far ahead on point. Rhogar and I ducked around a corner so we avoid the spells of the defiler and the arrows of the bandits. As they came to us we crushed them. Rhogar was nearly killed but when he finally linked up with us it all went our way. The human girl bandit even killed herself to avoid being taken alive. Stupid."

Giants

After mulling over what my father, Torvek, had said, I began to make connections to my childhood memories. Although I was very young, I do recall being in village that was almost certainly Kled. I have a vivid memory of a place that was peopled almost exclusively by dwarves. Even to this day I have never seen so many of my people in one place at one time.

I broke the long silence, "Father you were right we were in Kled. But I remember that we were not there very long, perhaps a week or even less. I would have been very unlikely that you would have arrived while we were still there. Most likely we were long gone at that point. No one could have told you where we were. When I was older my mother told me that she was approached by a dwarven preserver that was a member of the Veiled Alliance. That dwarf told us that the Veiled Alliance was willing to relocate escaped slaves, as long as they agreed to serve the alliance. We were forced to change our names and we were put on a caravan to Draj."

At my words the spirit's face fell. My father had such an expression of frustration and despair that I nearly wept myself. I thought it best to distract him so I asked, "Father please tell me what happened after Kled."

As I had hoped Torvek's spirit rallied and he continued his narrative. "I was at a loss of what to do at first but then I got caught up in the work on the Book of the Kemilok Kings. My life changed when I heard those words. I never knew. We dwarves are the guardians of the world. We are the guardians of the natural world and the soldiers of the weaker peoples. I felt a renewed purpose. It was not just coincidence that the 'green races' kept asking for my help. It is our fate. It is the fate of the dwarven people to safe guard the world from evil. And, though it took me some time to work it out, opposing the defilers would also bring me back my family. I figured that if I could stay alive long enough that word of me might spread throughout Athas and reach wherever you and your mother were hiding."

That was unexpected but it certainly fit the facts as I came to know them growing up. We did in fact have word of the exploits of Torvek the gladiator. I did not have the heart to tell my father that much of what we heard was contradictory and confusing. In fact many tales had been twisted, probably by the templars, to make my father seem to be a bloody handed murderer. His whereabouts were ambiguous because reports would come from distant lands claiming that he was in two different cities at the same time.

My father continued, "From then on I decided that I would help anyone that asked and that I would resist the evil of defiling magic wherever I found it. For sometime I had been having strange dreams and hearing distant voices when I was tired or sleeping. Normally I would put such down to evil magic or even the start of insanity. But after the Book of the Kemilok Kings I decided to follow the voices and do what they asked as long as it seemed good and not evil. The voice was telling us to go to Balic. I had my doubts but we went ahead anyway. On the journey to Balic we heard that there was a kestrekel headed beast head giant causing trouble maybe even doing some 'subvertin'.

We went after the giant and, as deadly as it was, we brought it down by numbers before it could be a threat. A few days later we were ambushed by a brough.

The four armed giant was dangerous because it could throw so many boulders so quickly. But when we closed with it, we tore it to shreds despite its size.

Kled at Last

When he finished the recounting of his adventure in the door in the dune, my father Torvek Ironthew grew quiet, stared off in the distance, and his spirit seemed to radiate melancholy. I prompted him yet again, "Father what happened after your miraculous victory in the battle over the magic seed? You seem to be unhappy about something."

My father looked into my eyes and began to speak, "That is because I must now speak of how I failed my family and my life's focus. We needed a few days to rest and heal after the trials of this great combat for the magic seed. But after that the last few days to Kled were uneventful. Arriving in Kled was one of the best experiences of my life. A city filled with dwarves where dwarves ruled and no one was a slave. It was like breathing again after holding your breath in a dust storm. It was like coming home but to a place you had never been before. I can't really describe it I don't have the words. My most important concern was finding you and your mother. I was told that you and your mother had been in Kled and I was directed to a dwarf woman you kept the records of refugees. Most of the dwarves of Kled were illiterate so the kept records by memory. Unfortunately the record keeper had turned up missing and our dwarven kin were organizing a search party. I offered the assistance of the Unforgiven mercenary company.

The dwarves brought us to a strange magic blue wall that kind of looked like glass but was not solid. When we passed though the magic barrier we seemed to be transported to another world but yet we were in the same place still. There were men there, evil men they seemed wearing iron with iron weapons in their hands. Even more strange there were some sort of dwarf-like creatures fighting them. These dwarf-people wore iron and carried iron but were even stranger than the humans. These dwarf-people were scrawny and had hair on their faces as well as their heads. Forced to choose sides, we joined the hairy dwarves against the humans. As we fought them Jarvik yelled that the dwarves had given him some kind of a magic ball and that he was sure it belonged in the top of the big ball in the center of the room where we fought. The battle was quick and furious. The humans were all defilers on top of being dangerous swordsmen. The leader almost killed Rhogar but I was able to keep him on his feet. Then they nearly killed me. Just as we were starting to win the battle a large human appeared and spoke the word "Borys".


It meant nothing to me at the time and the human spoke a strange tongue that I could not make out. Just as we were preparing to meet this new threat, Jarvik was able to slam the little ball into some opening at the top of the big ball and everything went back to normal. But were still in the same place. It was very strange. My friends said that we went back in time but I never believed it. Nothing mattered to me except that the record dwarf woman were were sent to rescue was dead and I had lost my one chance to find you."

The Door in the Dune

My father paused again in thought, and after waiting I prompted him again, "So you entered some sort of trap door that was in the middle of the barren waste?"

He replied, "Yes this is so."

I continued, "The trap door had a vine growing out of it?"

"Yes 'Mina I swear this is true."

I needed details so I said, "Clearly this was magic of my sort father, preserver magic, or else the primal power of the druids. Please tell me what happened when you entered the trap door."

"At first it seemed deserted but then we were attacked by spirits of the dead and spirits of the desert. The ghosts nearly killed Jorvak and he was forced to flee for his life. Then the ghosts passed through the walls and flanked us. I thought we were in big trouble then but my friend rallied and crushed the flank while I fought of those on the front. We managed to survive without losing a single man even the new comer Ash was still on his feet. We were mauled pretty bad so we thought it best to return to the dunes and bind our wounds. Sometime in the night Ash left the camp without so much as a farewell. The battle must have left him pretty shook up."

My father seemed to be involved in an violent internal struggle. Guessing the problem I said, "Father if there is something you wish to say then please speak. Consider it a command if that helps."

"Thank you Mina. I wanted to speak of a dream I had that night. But you had not asked me to talk about dreams. That very night I had a very strange dream, if it was a dream. I was in the wastelands with Rolen. The sand was covered in a layer of the fine silt from the silt sea and it was hard to move. There was a great gem in the distance and it spoke asking for help. You were there and your mother Frigga also and you were both calling to me. I kept trying to get to you but the soldiers of a sorcerer king tried to stop me. I was badly wounded but I fought on towards you and your mother. I was desperate to get to you and to my shame I turned my back on Rolen and he did most of the fighting. Before I could reach you Stone Brother appeared and I dropped to my knees to pay him homage and I sank into the sand and woke up.
Strangely Rolen seemed to have had a very similar dream except that in his dream Stone Brother attacked and tried to kill him. It seemed that somehow it was more than a dream though at that time we did not know what it could mean."

The dream was interesting, to be sure, but I wanted to redirect my father to actual events not prophetic dreams so I said, "What happened after you woke from the strange dream father?"

My father instantly resumed his narrative, "After Rolen and I awoke from our dreams we decided to go back in the tunnels. A feeling or a voice kept drawing us back. I definitely did not trust such sorcerer but everyone was set on returning. We met a group of thrikeen and allied with them.


Soon the thrikeen lead us to what seemed to be calling to us, it was a great underground tree. I don't think I had ever been that close to an actual tree before and it didn't look much like a cactus. And this tree was special in some way, magic or something. If that wasn't strange enough there was an undead defiler that said he would protect the tree from us. Well I don't take to undead and a fight soon broke out. I made some bad calls for tactics that almost cost us our lives. On top of his undead troops the dead defiler had a number of crawling swarms of dead body parts. It was the mobs of dead pieces that nearly killed us. Eventually it sunk in that my tactical call was getting us killed so I charged the leader and the others joined me. Once the undead defiler was slain the hordes of undead body parts stopped attacking and we won, though just barely. Searching the room we felt that it was the tree nut that was calling us and we gave it to the thrikeen."

"We were badly mauled and we decided that we had better rest up and we thought it would be wise to rest near the magic tree. When we felt better we headed to the surface. Then the crap went flying as they say. We were taken by surprise by an ambush let by one of Hammanu's templars. The templar led a small force of soldiers and half giants. He even had a defiler and a living salt statue with him. The templar wanted the nut. We were surrounded and it looked pretty hopeless. Rolen realized this even quicker than I did and he tried to make a run for it with the seed. The templar was even quicker and he hit Rolen with some sort of spell that knocked him down. But Rolen's Kirre grabbed the seed and ran so we tried to surrender but they wanted us as slaves and I would have died rather than be a slave again. Then everyone ran in a different direction. I dove into the passage leading into the dungeon. Jorvek skirmished with the defiler while Rolen and Rhogar ran off in opposite directions.


I didn't see most of the rest of the battle because I had to retreat down the stairs to avoid the templar's spells. I was alone surrounded by enemies and my only thought was to take down as many as possible before they killed me. Then an evil voice asked me to allow it to steal souls. I had no idea what it was but I refused. Then our enemies fell to the ground in pain. I took advantage of that and butchered the soldiers at my back. When I got back to the surface I found that Jorvek had beaten the defiler to death and had nearly done the same to the templer. I killed a half giant and then Jorvek and I destroyed the golem together. Rhogar and Rolen returned and we found out that they had killed the half dozen half giants that had been chasing Rolen's kirre. Somehow we had survived a battle that should have killed us."

On the road to Urik and Kled

My father's shade clearly wanted to say more but was bound by the magic of the ritual which only forces responses to direct questions. Therefore I spoke again to prompyt him, "If there is something you wish to add, Father, speak to me."

The spirit of my father seemed relieved and spoke quickly, "After leaving Roam I felt I had delayed my return to you and your mother in Urik longer than strickly necessary, though in truth I did not know exactly how much time had passed since I had been enslaved as a gladiator. We joined a caravan headed to Urik for safety. The trip was mostly uneventful. We did however kill a deadly gaj. They have powers of the Way that give it some ability at mind control as it turns out and it was a tough battle. While with the caravan we also met a slave boy named Scab. He was wrapped with bandages and Jorvak was quite taken with him. Jorvak traded the flaming magic sword for the boy and then Scab joined the Unforgiven. As far as I know it was all on the up and up and no "subverting" was going on.

"Soon we arrived in Urik and I searched the city for you and your mother. It was then that I started using the false name of Stone. Eventually I found a dwarf that had word of you and your mother. He said that he heard you had gone to a place called Kled a city ruled by dwarves. So we got on the road again as quick as we could and headed for Kled. On the way we saw this powerful storm that call to us like a sand woman fey. I didn't trust it but we decided to look in to it anyway. When we passed into the storm we were attacked by two more of those beasts that resemble the legends of the tembo. But we killed them easily so they must have been some other sort of beast. At the end of the battle a guy arrived and put a dagger into the last tembo. At first I thought he was a human but later I found out he was actually half elf. His name was Ash and he was a fair had with a dagger. As we were talking to him a vine thing grew out of a trap door. You don't see that much green in the desert and it spooked me. I was sure magic was at work here. But if so it was of the better sort. Despite my complaints my friends insisted on investigating but they said there would be water so I went along with it."