The rest of Drazdan’s watch was taken up by telling Xandarr what had happened during the first watch, which was then followed up by questions relating to his sleeping habits. These questions were answered by a tale from Xandarr’s time in the Twilight Woods. These woods were not on Kerevor, they were on an island a few days travel from the continent.

The island was quite large and housed a sizable population. The forest was, however, quite exclusive considering all the magical charms protecting it from outsiders. Only select individuals were allowed in, and more often than not they had to be escorted in by a group of druids belonging to the woods. Xandarr’s situation was somewhat special in that as he was native to the Forest.

Indeed, Xandarr was born in those woods, his parents were both elders on the council of Druids, and he had seemingly inherited all of their skills in druid craft and magic. However, he wasn’t blessed with their control over said skills. This resulted in him being in a precarious position where he was not only the direct descendant of 2 of the 7 elders, but was also gifted with the power and potential to surpass all of them. The expectations on his shoulders were enormous, but his lack of control over his powers was a massive disappointment to the Council as a whole. He couldn’t be expelled as he was a direct descendant and a powerful druid, but he was shunned and judged as incompetent by his peers.

His lack of control over his magic had led to many dangerous incidents. Per example, when he was younger, he had on more than one occasion set fire to the forest in his sleep by accidentally casting either fire magic or commanding the spirits to create fires. He, thankfully, gained more control over his magical powers as he grew older and more adept in the arts, but he is still prone to shapeshifting in his sleep and, albeit very rarely, he can still cast spells.

After the story, the party was now a bit more reassured of their safety, and so they decided to go back to sleep and flipping the bird at taking watch. The logic behind this decision is that no sane man or animal would attack 3 men covered in the guts of 4 velociraptors while they slept a couple feet from said velociraptor bodies.

The Intimidation roll was quite persuasive, you see.

And so the party slept peacefully throughout the night and awoke the next morning.

When the party members each slowly awoke, they were swiftly met with the smell of the blood and guts from last night. They all managed to keep themselves from throwing up, but some were closer to the edge than others. Realizing that they don't want to eat near slowly rotting bodies that reeked of their last supper, the party packed up and kept moving down the road until they got far enough away to eat in peace.

The breakfast was a simple thing, and they ate quickly as they chatted about their spending plans once they got back into town. Xandarr would go looking for artifacts and magical trinkets, while Marcus planned on eating and drinking his fill. As for Drazdan, he wanted to look for research books and better equipment. Their breakfast concluded, they packed up their things and set off on the road again.

It was an uneventful few hours of walk, but they eventually got to a clearing where they could see the mountain in the distance. The summit of the mountain was hidden behind the clouds, but it was obviously covered in snow, judging from the touches of white beneath. Thankfully, they didn’t need to climb it to get to their destination, there was a simple path around the mountain which would lead them to the place where the carriage was abandoned.

A simple mission through and through, what was the challenge in this, they wondered. Well, they were about to find out…

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

As the trio kept following the road, the clearing receded, and they were in the cover of the tall trees once again. The foliage was so thick that they couldn’t see the sky anymore, and it had become quite dark, a torch wasn’t necessary just yet but only just yet.

A few minutes passed, or was it hours? They couldn’t tell anymore, the lack of light and view of the sky had started affecting their senses. They were now walking with a single torch out at the front of the group

In this darkness, they stumbled upon a hooded man. They couldn’t see any indication of what species they were, but the man was just standing there, and he was just watching them. As the group got closer, Marcus had a funny feeling in his chest and decided to preemptively cast Detect Evil, confirming that he had multiple presences all around them. Once Marcus realized that there was an ambush awaiting them, he stopped in his track and his teammates followed suite.

As all three men stood there in the middle of the road, the old man spoke up.

“If one of you gives up their soul, the others will be allowed to pass.” he announced calmly, his accent however was strange, hinting that common clearly wasn’t a language he used often.

The trio looked at each other, Drazdan dropped his torch and pulled out his sabers, Marcus pulled out his greatsword from his back. Xandarr just looked at the old man calmly and spoke.

“And what if we say no?” he simply asked.

“Then you shall all perish.” the old man said before removing his cloak and blinding the group.

A fallen celestial was revealed to the group, his once bright light was murky and dim. As they realized what they were dealing with, 7 more fallen celestials appeared from the woods. They looked terrible, some of them had entirely lost their light and were little more than drooling creatures hungry for the souls of the living.

“Fallen angels? Never thought I’d run into your kind…” Drazdan said, as his gaze shook, he felt little hope in overcoming this challenge.

“HERETICS!! THE LOT OF YOU!!” the ever so enthusiastic paladin yelled, the rage seething within was just flowing out of him.

“Call us what you want, ignorant fool. For we know greater power than the fake light of the gods.” the man calmly spoke in response.

Before the fight could begin, Xandarr asked them a question.

“Are you sure about this?” he asked a simple question once again.

“What do you mean druid?” the man looked perplexed by the question.

“Exactly what I just said. Are you sure about taking our souls? I mean, we have a young and strapping lad over there.” he said as he pointed to the paladin. “But he is just oozing the divine light of his god and his soul would prove to be nothing more than poison to you all.” he said calmly.

Some of the celestials looked confused and started hesitating, unsure as to what to do.

“Then we have that elderly rabbit.” he said as he pointed to the Harengon. “That man is within his last decade of life if he’s lucky and the scars on his body show off a damaged product unfit for consumption.” he proceeded to explain calmly.

Some of the celestials now started leaving to look for better prey.

“Then what about you, Druid?” the man asked.

“Me? My man… My very soul is entwined with nature, I shape-shift in my sleep and the power of nature while not as connected to the light, it is still within its compass which means that, eating my soul, would probably hurt most of you as well. Admit it, we are not prey that is worth your time.” he finished, convinced of his ruse.

The fallen celestial took a few moments to ponder on the words of the druid. Before long, he had made his decision and spoke up.

“Your words may be true, druid. But we are quite famished, you see. So we shall do this the easy way.” he said slowly.

“Anybody that DOESN’T want a meal that would be either unfulfilling or damaging to them, leave NOW.” he announced, emphasizing the keywords.

As all the celestial mulled it over, more and more started leaving, eventually only 4 remained, and the man looked at the group with a shit eating grin. As he looked at his 3 remaining men, he shifted his gaze back to the group and spoke up once again.

“It seems your luck has run out, druid. It was however a good attempt and I applaud your commendable attempt at saving your skins.” he said with a mock slow clap.

His face then contorted as he gave an order, “Kill them.”