Human Touch - 23/03/2023 - A Kavel Perspective

Sending Spell From Comrade Sister Velania

I was at the house enjoying the weekly housemate dinner I have with my best friends; Mendal and Archie. All of a sudden I was the recipient of a Sending spell, which Mendal observed pointing at me and nudging Archie, while I looked around the room.

“Sending spell! Look at his face Archie! I’ve used the Sending spell many times with him, when I’m standing right beside him. And just look at the massive simpleton, he still looks around the room as if he’s going to find the source of the spell hiding in the walls!”

Despite my boisterous friends loud voice, I was still able to hear the message inside my head from comrade Velania:

“Kavel. Velania here. An’Ahkrim is in trouble. Heading out first thing tomorrow. Danger in Angelbark. Please, can you come? Meet at Temple of Selune, dawn.”

I gave my reply, “Okay. Yes. I’ll come. See you tomorrow at dawn.”

I went back to eating and asked the boys if they would look after Timor for a day, since I was going to the Angelbark. They agreed, and wished me well… after laughing about how I reacted to the Sending spell.


Meeting Point - The Temple of Selune

Velania, my Aasimar cleric friend, who is a mother to everyone, was there waiting. Sorrel was at the temple, but wasn’t able to join us, she was minding the sisters - her new sisters, that is. We were, however, joined by comrades, Dwirhian; our High-Elf musically-magical monk friend, and Marto; our Halfling magical knight friend. Eventually we were joined by Zola too, our Half-Drow paladin friend, who was always late. Velania mentioned that her Sending spell message to Zola was different to the rest of ours, because she told Zola to meet at a quarter to dawn. Zola was still ten minutes late.

I had seen comrades Velania and Zola very recently with my sister, Sorrel. We had helped Sorrel welcome her sisters - her, as of only very recently, newly discovered sisters. These sisters, like me, are not biological siblings. No Goliath and/or Human pairing somehow gave birth to a full Goliath and full Human, or in the case of the new sisters; full Elves. However, unlike me, these sisters are spiritually bonded to Sorrel in a divine way. Whereas; me and Sorrel are bonded together through a blood ritual like badasses.

Whilst we waited for Zola to arrive, Marto asked if we should bring anything for An’Ahkrim. I asked Velania what she was bringing him. Velania was bringing groceries that An’Ahkrim can’t easily get himself, as he lives in the woods, and also a coat. Marto and Dwirhian exchanged looks, and then Marto went off to the market to buy a two person sized blanket and a hamper. An’Ahkrim lives alone, but a double-sized blanket would be good to keep you warm in a cabin at night because you can double wrap. The hamper must be for me though. Ever since I practically gave Marto a Frostbrand Longsword for free, he said he’d pay for my food whenever we adventured together. It was weird when he came back with a hamper that looked more like the hampers I buy when I go see Nathalie, which is to say a romantic hamper.

Zola arrived riding a flying stag that looked a lot like her large elk, Corr’Vandor, but with pegasus wings. I asked about this. It was apparently very new. Corr’Vandor now has wings - magic.

I asked about teleporting to An’Ahkrim’s cabin in the Angelbark. I prefer not cancelling my Sylvan lessons with Sammi, where I can avoid it, and a journey to the Angelbark and back takes many days, which would interfere with my lessons. Velania said she knew the way to the cabin well, and at a quick pace it would only take us a day, and then she could use her divine teleportation spell, Word of Recall, to teleport us back to the Temple.

We began walking to the Angelbark. Zola stayed mounted on Corr’Vandor and flew around for periods of the journey. Zola now has a flying mount, and is still consistently late. It’s as if she tries to be late.


Journey to the Cabin

It rained a bit - must have been shit for Corr’Vandor flying. Also shit for the little robin sat on Marto’s shoulder that wouldn’t leave. The small bird was getting no protection from the rain where it perched. Not even the magical smouldering from Marto’s armour could be doing much for the bird, since the magical smouldering isn’t producing real warmth.

The sun came out when we reached the Angelbark. It got dark as we walked through the forest. Marto’s magical battleaxe, Guiding Light, provided some light for him, and me; neither of us can see in the dark.

There was talk about how An’Ahkrim had been learning to deal with having a soul now, now that he wasn’t evil, and had Je’Sathriel/ The Jackal, and Velania checking up on him. Talk of the big battle angel reminded me of one of the last times I helped Velania, and she received a new guardian angel straight from Selune herself, called General Andromeda.

“Velania, how are you getting on with your new attractive (she was very attractive) guardian angel?” I asked. Velania said she was very wise, which prompted me to ask if she had been given any advice from her. Velania answered my question, but the answer was too cryptic to me. It was as if Velania was deliberately avoiding telling me specific people to whom the advice she received applied. So, I nodded in response, even though I didn’t understand what she was saying.

We found cloven hooved tracks two miles out from An’Ahkrim’s cabin. These were quadrupedal tracks, not humanoid ones like a Tiefling may produce. The tracks seemed boar-like, and wandering, not purposeful. Zola used her divine sense to check for celestials, fiends or undead nearby, but she sensed nothing, which was good.

When we got a mile away from the cabin, the tracks shot off away from the path we were following to reach the cabin. There was a debate on what path to follow. But, this was precisely why at least one member of an adventuring party brings a Familiar with them. With a Familiar, you can follow multiple paths at the same time, and every party has at least one Familiar, because the magic-users make it so. Gods, I even know adventurers with multiple familiars.

However, I had been with this particular group of party members (most of them) before in Phlegethos where a Familiar would have been useful, only to discover not a single person there had one!

I asked, not with much hope, whether anyone present had a Familiar. To my surprise, I got a response, “Kavel. Her,” Marto said, pointing at the robin on his shoulder. The organic pauldron feature now made more sense.

Gwen, Marto’s robin Familiar, went off to follow the boar-like tracks while we stuck to the original path. As we got closer to the cabin, we realised Gwen’s task was superfluous, as the boar-like tracks kept intersecting with our path to An’Ahkrim’s cabin.

As we got to the small clearing where An’Ahkrim’s cottage was, we could eventually see chimney smoke among the trees, and the boar-like tracks were all over the place. Velania casted the Sending spell to contact An’Ahkrim before we approached the door. Velania’s face went white as she listened to a response, and Marto noted the smell of blood in the air.


The Cabin

Zola flying on Corr’Vandor got to the cabin first. There was blood on the door and door handle. Zola dismounted Corr’Vandor with a leap, and kicked the door in.

We found An’Ahkrim by his bed, on the floor, in the open space cabin. An’Ahkrim was slashed up very badly and was sitting in a puddle of his own blood. Some of his guts were visible. It was surprising that he was still alive. He was wheezing dreadfully, with one hand holding his guts. Velania used her divine healing to see to An’Ahkrim’s wounds. Zola too helped with her divine abilities. I grabbed a vessel from An’Ahkrim’s kitchen, went outside to his rainwater trough and brought in some water, and placed it on the fire. Velania used the water to clean the wounds as much as she could before having to help move An’Ahkrim’s guts back in place, so that the healing magic could run its full effects.

We got An’Ahkrim on his bed. He was startled to see the rest of us. It seems he has seen Velania recently enough, but the last time he saw the rest of us was when we were killing his old allies in Hell.

Velania talked to An’Ahkrim while the rest of us pottered about the cabin. Marto went outside first, to keep a watch for the creatures responsible for the boar-like tracks, who were, as confirmed by An’Ahkrim, the source of his near mortal wounds.

After a while, I felt like Velania and An’Ahkrim’s relationship bore some similarities to mine and Nathalie’s in the way Velania tended to An’Ahkrim. I then thought back to Marto’s two-person sized blanket, which was now covering An’Ahkrim… and I then realised why Marto said I couldn’t have anything from the hamper; it wasn’t intended for me. I got up and said to Dwirhian, I was going to give Velania and An’Ahkrim some space, and go outside. Dwirhian dragged Zola out with us.

Outside I asked Marto where my hamper was. It was his impression that he only agreed to buy a few hampers for me, not a hamper everytime we met. Okay. Fair enough. But still, where was this journey’s hamper? This was the first time I had seen Marto since finding the Frostbrand Longsword in the ruins in the Feywild! Before he could answer, he was having what appeared to be a long overdue chat with Zola. And then after that the boar-like creatures attacked us.


Surprise: Demon Pigs!

I was chatting to Dwirhian at the time, Corr’Vandor was milling around close to us. We were by the cabin door. South of us, by the southern wall of the cabin, I could just about see Marto getting tusked between the plates in his armour. Ouch.

I quickened my breathing, entered into a battlerage, and sprung into the air. Carried by my powerful flight legs, I flew towards the large demon pig attacking Marto. I pounced on the beast, my belly to its back, waist locking it between my arms. I shifted the beast left. It took the bait, and shifted its weight right, allowing me to unlock my left arm without losing the hold, and crack! I delivered a powerful left hook into its ribs. I re-established the waistlock as the demon pig squealed in pain. With my right knee checking it’s right knee, I performed an explosive rotation, arching my back at the same time, and exposing the beast’s underside to the sky. Marto took advantage and brought Guiding Light down three times to perform three axe slashes to the exposed beast’s chest and neck.

From my grounded position, I heard Dwirhian cast a spell and heard the sound of another squealing, large boar creature. “Open season on this one!” Dwirhian shouted, “and by the way there’s this one!”

Zola followed up on Marto’s axe slashes, and thrust one of her twin radiantly empowered swords through the eye of the demon pig, killing it dead. In the process of all the slashing and stabbing, I was drenched in some foul ichor coming out of the demon pig as it seemed to devolve into a black goop. The others were minimally sprayed in ichor. Corr’Vandor had swept Zola up and carried her to the other demon pig that was magically held in place by Dwirhian. Zola delivered powerful slashes to it with her magical blades.

Velania burst out of the cabin, wings shining radiant light, as I wiped off some horrid goop, and gripped Marto by the top of his back plate and asked, “comrade, I can fly you to the other pig, okay?” Marto responded in the affirmative, and into the air we both went, propelled by my powerful legs. I dropped Marto off safely in front of the second, and magically restrained, pig monster.

“Thanks buddy!” Marto said, right before bringing his magical battleaxe down across the pig monster three times in rapid succession, and precision, to the same exact spot. The second pig monster was dead… and I was freshly recovered with more of this horrible ichor. Double ichore’d. Marto knew how to perform the Prestidigitation cantrip, and helped clean us both up. Dwirhian healed Marto’s tusk wound.


Passing Some Time

Velania went back into the cabin with An’Ahkrim after we had killed the last demon pig. The rest of us stayed outside, partially to check for other pigs, even though An’Ahkrim confirmed he was attacked by only two, but also to simply give Velania and An’Ahkrim time alone.

Both me and Marto had given the cabin our carpentry approval. It was not bad. Marto went about chopping down a tree to build a bigger bed for An’Ahkrim’s cabin. While he did that, I smashed a tree down and filled up my one-ton tarp with somewhere between 1,000lbs and 2,000lbs of wood. It was a little excessive, but I needed to carve heavy clubs for the sisters to train with, and I decided to carve a few for An’Ahkrim too. While I left Marto to get on with his bed, it seemed like the guy was talking to himself, but as if someone was standing in front of him. But, clearly to himself, since no one was there. Unless he was talking to Gwen, and I just couldn’t see the little robin from where I was?

Zola went wandering. This seems to be something Zola does. Not sure if it’s a recent thing. It’s definitely a thing that contributes to her being late though.

Dwirhian and I came up with a method to get rid of the pigs. I was all for dragging the bodies away and burying them, but unfortunately since the bodies turned to goop, this was not going to be easy. Dwirhian reminded me that she can do a spell that brings a huge amount of water down on an area. So, I dug trenches next to the goop piles, and then she used her magic to wash the goop into the trenches, and then we covered the trenches up. We made muddy piles, but it got rid of most of the smell and the sight of the remains. We also talked.

Dwirihian was not with us for the whole fiend escapade that ended with us fighting fiends in hell. These fiends were monstrous, cruel creatures, and very seductive. There was some fiend banging across the two adversarial camps. This led to someone dubbing our adversaries, ‘the sexy fiends’. Dwirhian observed that there were a lot of ‘feelings’ amongst this group. She was not wrong. She asked about me. I was good. I, after all, did not eat where I shit. Rahmiël, she was fit though, and I was not with Nathalie at the time. So, to be fair, I do regret not banging a sexy fiend myself. Everyone else was doing it. I didn’t tell Dwirhian this.

I told comrade Dwirhian about my time in her hometown, Galavir over winter, where I competed in the Galavir Hockey Invitational and won. She said she had heard about my celebrity back home. I then asked Dwirhian if this meant she had been back home since the time I went there with her. Dwirhian said she had been, indeed. She in fact had some business with her sister and talked about the soul of her father. I recalled some history about Elves and souls, and in particular how Galavir Elven souls had unfortunately been trapped in the big lake for some time.

What Dwirhian was telling me was very important to her and caused some introspection for her on the matter of souls, and what happens to them after a person dies.

“Do you think about souls, Kavel? About what happens to your soul after you die?” Dwirhian asked.

“No,” I replied, giving her question some consideration. “No. I do not.”

Marto had finished the bed by the time the conversation on souls had ended. He is very quick! I helped get the bed into the cabin.

We were let back into the cabin eventually. I carved some clubs. Marto stayed up waiting for Zola to return. She returned eventually, cleaned of ichor.


The Next Day

Sure would have been nice to have some of the contents of that hamper for breakfast, instead of the rations I ate.

The suggestion to not live so deep into the Angelbark Forest was put to An’Ahkrim, who was doing a bit better in the morning. He agreed he could make a new cabin closer to civilization.

Velania teleported us, including An’Ahkrim (wearing his new coat and liking it) back to the Temple of Selune in Daring Heights.

I heard Mendal’s voice in my head on the walk back to the Dwarven Quarter:

“Kavel! Are you back yet?! Don’t look around for me, moron! Remember; Sending spell! He’s looking Archie, you know he is!”

I had stopped to look around for Mendal and where he must have been standing - fuck.