Chapter 4. The Child of the First Moon

The Questers took turns on watch in Tertravalle Forest. Lohar was joined on his watch by Aemaeon. There was a terse and sober conversation about destiny, fatherhood and choice. Aemaeon was then trained in sword-craft by Lohar. Yaeldrin looked on and smiled, keeping his eyes on the forest. 

The Questers awoke. They debated the next step on their journey to find the Chosen Child. Yaeldrin had pus leaking from his eye, the spider bite has permanently damaged him. 

They decided to journey towards the next sphere of light as guided by the Cave of Light, beneath the mountains in the north west, to the village of Silverstream. 

Pereya asked Rakab if she was a burden to the party, even if she wants to stay with her son. Rakab answered that it would be best if they find somewhere for her stay, but that she is welcome on the expedition and they will protect her as best they can. 

Before they exited the forest, they find the Goblin Market once more and converse with Rokbin the Goblin merchant. He bargains a Scroll of Exorcism for a spider egg and a golden ring. Pereya quandaries about staying with Rokbin, but is persuaded against it.  

Yaeldrin almost led them out of the forest, and noticed that they were being tracked by a pack of jackals. They set an ambush involving Pascal’s ability to become Aemaeon. 

The jackals are being led by the Yeth Hound, the Chale, one of seven servants of the Mind Master. After a short battle, the Questers defeated the jackals and manage to tie up the Yeth Hound with Väreth’s silver Rope of Binding. It is in this battle that Aemaeon kills his first creature, accidentally sticking a jackal with his magic sword. 

They interrogated the floating hound, and it revealed much. They were sent by the Mind Master who is a wizard of the Dark Dwarf King and is able to track them through his orbed skull by following the sword elvish sword Fimlär that Aemaeon carries. 

Lohar ends the hound, but is paralysed by a psychic attack by the Mind Master and his deathly orb. They healed up and left the forest at last. 

They chanced upon a trade. Tall, gaunt, grey creatures that they know as the Men of Carmalek, the Westerners, Carmalekians, who many say have giant’s blood in them, are buying weapons from the Mountain Dwarves of Glemberhaume. Lohar took the lead and conversed with a lackey. They discovered that this is a new arrangement. 

Soon-after the trade is ended and they spoke to the leader, Lord Kreln of Clan Kreln. He asked them to keep the trade quiet, as it was deliberately put on the border of Tertravalle to stay quiet. Pascal managed to barter a deal with Lord Kreln for a dwarfish axe to buy their silence, but the dwarf lord seems to know that this is fruitless, and the dwarves left, mentioning if they wish to buy weapons, they should head to Shadowhern, a Hernish mining village beneath Glemberhaume. 

The Questers went with this news to the nearest Hernish village on the border of the Duchy of Hern with the Kingdom of Carmalek. They headed for the tavern. 

At the tavern they drank with a group of some fifty Hernish warriors who are a border unit, poised to defend against the Kingdom of Carmalek. 

Meridius and Rakab led the discussions with the Sergeant and the soldiers. They discover that there is an uneasy peace with Carmalek, that has lasted for ten years, ever since Carmalek took Tuskhall. The self-proclaimed God-King of Carmalek, Myrius the Warlock, sits in the Tower of Crystal and Iron, the Carmalekians believe him to be The One, and they worship the Lost God, and he is their prophet. The Hernish are held together by the Duke Varn Uthras of Tannarek, a ruthless warlord, known as the Scarred Shield, who has a tyrannical grip…but his grip is weakening, as he wants to keep the peace, whilst all of his Barons are itching for war against Carmalek. Only he holds the peace together, says the Sergeant.

The Questers went the next morning to Silverstream, a day long ride, only to find that the village has been ransacked, raided, and many have been kidnapped, all those boys under a certain age, and all of the women. 

They questioned some villagers and learned that the village was attacked by Ashen Orcs of the North, half-orcs that were bred in the Genus Wars. This is seen as a great betrayal! Half-Orcs are our allies, the villagers cried. 

The Questers set off in pursuit, as it happened only a few hours ago, perhaps if they had been quicker in the forest, or pressed on through the night at the Hernish village, they might have reached it, Rakab lamented. Yaeldrin counted thirty orcs, some wolves and larger creatures footsteps in the dirt. 

The party split, Rakab, Aemaeon and Pereya sought to enlist the aid of the Sergeant and the Hernish border troops. Yaeldrin led Meridius, Lohar and Pascal on the trail of the half-orc killers. 

They tracked them to the border bridge, where the half-orcs waited, with dozens of children and dozens of women in tow. They waited for hours in the rain, until finally, out of the copses came the tall, gaunt, grey men of Carmalek.

They were paying the half-orcs with their electrum coin stamped with the Crowned God-King Myrius. The Carmalekians were led by a grey robed man calling himself Hierarch Jyrmal, a Priest of the Lost Gods. The Half-Orc Chief Golgar, wielding a fearsome black spear, tried to press information out of the mysterious Hierarch. Why do the Carmalekians want the children but not the women? What is their plan? The Hierarch gave nothing away and told the half-orcs that they can keep the Hernish women as war-prize. 

The Questers are faced with a decision, as the Ashen Orcs marched north with their women who were faced with certain doom. Or follow the Hierarch and the children west and south. 

They decided, after much deliberation, to head west and south in pursuit of the Chosen Child. 

They realised that the Hierarch was doing a spell upon the children, passing his grey hand over each of them as they passed. He then rode on horseback towards Tuskhall, clearly his seat of power. The children went north to a mill with eleven Carmalekians. 

Yaeldrin, Meridius, Lohar and Pascal wait until the cover of darkness, observing the Wheel-of-Pain-like-Mill, with the children pushing the mill and the disobedient ones being whipped. 

This angered one of the children, who suddenly transformed into a great black bear. He began to tear down the mill and kill his captors. The Questers attacked. 

An epic battle. Meridius faced off against a lone guard, rescuing the chained children. Pascal and Yaeldrin fought with the guards who were assaulting the were-bear. Lohar snuck into the lord’s chambers where a grey-robed underling of the Hierarch sat with a guard. 

All were victorious, the children were rescued and all the Carmalekians were killed, save one, who they trapped. Lohar took an idol of the Lost God from the dead priest. 

The Werebear became a teenage boy once more, and Meridius went to him, and the boy clung to him, weeping in his ragged and torn clothes, rain pouring down upon them. 

Rakab arrived at the Hernish village, at night, and persuaded the Hernish soldiers to join him against the Ashen Orcs, they aren’t aware of the Carmalekians yet. 

Meridius and Pascal went to the bridge to head off Rakab and the Hernish reinforcements they are hoping to intercept. 

Lohar and Yaeldrin went weapons in hand to keep the Ashen Orc trail fresh…

So ends the fourth chapter of The First Book of Azarak…