Journal of Aegharan, Illusionist of Fourth Circle
The Skyraiders Grom Skycleaver and Thane Cawdor, Romari Savre the Wizard, and I set out to take a look at two Runic Circles, the Ork Illusionist-Circle and for Romari to try again for the Human-Wizard Circle.
We travelled south-west and got there after some days, without much problems. Our combined studies have yielded some pretty good results, along with our combined prowess in Navigation, we found the Orc-Circle rather quickly.
Our scribe started off translating the recipes for us, until I asked him to start with the outer rings. This ring's riddle read:
We live in harmony of all the races, all together as one. Follow one’s gahad. After passing the test of the races, proceed to the heart and unlock the key to our home.
I had heard about the Gahad being something with Orks and emotions, and Grom as an Orc filled the gaps for us a little, but articulating it didn't quite come naturally to him. It is quite an interesting topic though. I also found out rather easily that it is indeed an illusionary spell.
We then tried to figure out the different symbols we found on the stones. Our scribe told us that each symbol stands for a different emotion, being:
Northern Pillar: Happiness and Love
Eastern Pillar: Anger and Content
Southern Pillar: Fear and Passion
Western Pillar: Brotherhood and Sadness
Grom was really sure, that "Follow one's Gahad" means to stand close to the Passion-Symbol. After the scribe was done translating the recipes into Throalic, we asked him to stand aside a little and I attuned to the spell, which was much harder than attuning to the spell within the Windling-Circle. I then wove the Threads and cast successfully. A burst of sparkles exploded and we got the Orc-Mark. The lower left quarter of the mark on my Biceps is now filled, which means 6 to go.
As expected we immediately got attacked by Hawkish Creatures that Grom later identified as Crakbills. Although we expected them, they got a really good start on us, throwing Romari, Thane and Grom to the ground with their poisoned breath. Romari and Grom were quickly able to stand up, taking part in the fight and we managed to chase them off. 2 of them burned heavily and screached loudly, but we didn't find a corpse, so it must have managed to either shake it off or see through the illusion. A few minutes after the fight Thane was also able to stand up.
We then travelled north towards the human wizardry-circle. I navigated us safely through the mountains and we managed to reach the wizardry-circle in 8 days.
The scribe translated the riddle-ring:
We live in harmony of all the races, all together as one. Praise the morning sun. After passing the test of the races, proceed to the heart and unlock the key to our home.
After a short debate over where the sun rises and if there is a double-meaning, so that we would have to stand in the west to see the sun rise over the circle. The debate even went to making camp and see where the sun first hits the circle, but thank the Passions that Grom knew that in different times of the year the sun rises in slightly different spots. We then settled for the easier and more straightfoward approach and just huddled together between the eastern Pillars. Romari managed to attune to the spell really well and successfully cast it upon us, marking us in the upper slightly left eighth. With his cast going off we heard some loud howling in the distance, upon which I immediately began to weave threads. I barely managed to cast a Monstrous Mantle on us to aide with our defense when three wolves approached us. These wolves matched the appearance of what Romari told us about his last visit to this place.
Grom and Thane got hit really hard. Although the wolf managed to make Thane limp really hard he seemed to only have taken a strong hit on his thigh, as he was not affected too long by this first strong attack. Thane got hit badly but managed to somehow dance around the wolves' bites, struck one wolve and jumped up ontop of the pillars, while Romari set 2 wolves ablaze. It appears that my display of firey magic has impressed, as he chose to use Flame Flash, the non-illusionary version of my Phantom Flame. We finished off the wolve that decided not to flee.
As we were finishing off the wolve, a storm came up and it began to rain. As these wolves allegedly were Storm Wolves, the rain made us a little uneasy, so we got our scribe and moved back towards Throal.
While travelling through the mountains Grom maneuvered us around an ambush of some desperate creatures and we made it back to town safely.
Attached to this Journal are the following recipes:
- Poached Honey-Coated Rabbit
- Poached Apricot & Basil Beef
- Smoked Mustard & Thyme Crab
- Deep-Fried Nuts & Crab
- Poached Cranberry Potatoes
- Roasted Orange & Olive Potato Wedges
- Blueberry and Raspberry Custard
- Lemon and Passion Fruit Bonbons
- Chocolate Pud
- Guava Soufflé