The deadly yellow moss...

Notebook:

I realize I haven't written for a while, but I had lot of travelling to do with my friends, since the threat of attack on our lands from Iron Circle is almost upon us. So much has changed, many days have passed... days that we spent fighting our enemies, elliminating numerous threats and monsters their gods chose to put in our path. Our group managed to survive it all for now, although it wasn't easy. I've been seriously injured myself and the only reason I'm catching up on my diary (finally) is because the local barber or whoever had patched up my recend wounds insisted on me taking it easy for a few weeks until I get stronger and can walk on my own again.

Yes. A lot of write about, indeed. Where should I start?
You probably wonder, my dear diary, what happened after we eliminated the Iron Circle spies and Asmodeus cultists from our village of Anthar. I think everyone started appreciating having real brave women and men in their midst. Especially Dheren, since he was partially responsible for training me and my dear friend Wic. A few days after the close encounter with Asmodeus followers, Ilorath kept getting back to the subject of organizing our group somehow, finding a good name for it, a fierce one (lthough I bet he meant "pompous", have you ever seen a fierce Elf? - No? - I thought so...). He said something about doing more brave things and putting the fear into our enemies' hearts every time they hear the name of our group...
... but we didn't take him seriously, then. It changed later, after our next adventure.

But before I write about it, I have to get back to a certain evening in our humble dwarven abode... First, my mom said something about inviting my brave friends for dinner, since she and my dad wanted to meet them all. I didn't suspect a thing... and when the time of our "quiet family dinner" came, it turned out to be a SURPRISE DWARF FEAST! - Including lots of malt beer and the traditional Apple Glazed Wild Boar Roast... yum! In the beginning of the feast my father got up from his chair and started one of his famous speeches... (yawn) I won't bore you with all the details, the bottom line is that he decided to... (I couldn't believe my ears!)... to give me the family heirloom - the ancient and famous dwarven urgrosh, the "Orcbane"!


I was shocked. Everyone started cheering and clapping their hands and I felt that my eyes were getting a bit misty... it's probably because of the ashes from the fireplace flying around in the air, yes, that must have been it! My father and my mother presented me the weapon and then stood there, looking so proud... to think that they thought me worthy of it... that glorious weapon had been hanged on the walls of our home many, many years ago, after the peace came and my father stopped using it. It is a magnificent and unique weapon that can be used by a worthy dwarf (me! I can't believe!) only in times of the greatest need. My father used it, my grandfather used it and his father before him... no one knows for sure how the weapon came to be, but I heard some legends about it. Who knows, maybe I will learn the truths some day...

After the ceremony, we all started to eat. And drink. And I kept embracing my new, shiny weapon. I looked aroung, trying to record this special moment in my memory, all the friendly, smiling faces, everyone happy, warm, with a full belly - and safe, all the great companions and friends, both old and new. Only the Godess Gozreh knows when we will meet again in such a great and cheerful company. And the beer was good, too!



The next day... well, after I managed to get up and walk straight... my friends heard some rumors from our dear old Jaro the Druid, that there is some strange illness spreading around the plantlife in the area. More and more of the ground and trees kept getting covered (and devoured in the process) by a strange yellow moss that smelled funny. I recalled seeing it in the forest sometime ago, but I thought it was just another kind of harmless moss. Well, it turned out that I was wrong (and that doesn't happen too often, mind you), since the moss kept poisoning and killing not only plants, but also insects small animals. Jaro said that it seemed to be getting very near our village. He also thought that it may be spreading from the Crypt area. Sounds spooky, doesn't it?
The Crypt is our local, um, sort of a monument and the final resting place of some mages that lived in the area many, many years ago. Apparently, they experimented with some foul magic too much and got killed in the process, or something like that. It was a rather boring story and I didn't listen carefully. I had to sharpen and polish my new urgrosh! Priorities, you know!

Anyway... we were sure that we needed to go down to the Crypt. Ilorath decided to go in through the gate first (he's really brave... for an Elf!). Then we walked down the stairs, into the darkness, not knowing what lurks in the deep and mysterious burial chambers. There were many traps we met on the way down, one of them almost squashed our bard (huge stones emerging from the walls!), but me and Willem helped him. The rest was the usual stuff, poisoned darts, masked holes in the floor, you know. Nothing difficult for us, the brave adventurers!

And then, guess what. The crypt was filled with... skeleton fighters. Bad luck, ey? There were even some strange ones among then, like a skeleton-paladin or a skeleton with Erastil symbol around her neck! (and i say "her" because the skeleton had still some strands of long blonde hair sticking to its skull... yuck!)
And then the fighting started. Everyone fought bravely, even when it turned out that there are some wraiths in the Crypt as well! I felt goosebumps all over my body when I saw them. I heard so many nasty stories about the wraiths from the Crypt when I was but a tiny dwarfling... but I thought they were just stories. Only... they weren't. The wraiths were scary, howling pieces of dark mist (don't make me explain it how we could see them in the darkness, only with our torches to keep it brighter, you just felt their menacing presence). It seemed like they were blocking the entrance to one of the burial chambers. Then Wic got a great idea. She used the invisibility charm we found on our previus adventure and tried to sneak past them. And it worked! We kept all the undead monsters busy while she got into the chamber. Unfortunately, the wraiths figured out what was going on and followed her. She did some damage with ther amazing bow, as always, the rest of us got rid of the skeletons and went after her to help. When we fought the wraiths, she could save the day by burning the moss growing all around the mage coffins that turned out to be crushed. I think the evil mages contaminated the area with their foul earthly remains and their dark magic. Willem said that the wraiths that we finally managed to destroy, might have been what was left of the mage spirits... twisted and evil. Yuck. I don't want to think of such abominations.

Victory! We saved the day (and the village) again. To make the moment even happier, we found some treasure in the Crypt that we took with us, of course. The yellow moss kept burning and smoking, its destruction was imminent. When we got out of the Crypt and looked around, we saw that the moss that had previously covered the ground, was being burned and destroyed as well, vanishing with the source of the plague. Jaro and Dheren were very happy that we destroyed it and saved the village again.
In the evening, since we needed some rest, we went to the inn and sat down, sipping the beer slowly, talking baout the events of the day. Eric was composing a new song about our triumph over evil and Ilorath kept talking about how a brave group of adventurers we were. And I just sat, polishing the blade of my urgrosh that served me so well today. Such an amazing weapon, its blade glistening in the firelight... I noticed that Ilorath was looking at it intently and then he shouted: "I know! We will call ourselves: THE BLADES OF ANTHAR!"

Believe me or not, I agree with him. I think it's a very fine name!