As I made the final push to the falls, I saw Deldes and Delirin camped out in the open. They had built a large bonfire and were relaxing by the fire. Once I was within three or four miles of the falls the population of ducks or any other monsters for that matter dropped off precipitously. Not that it really mattered to me at that point. I was exhausted, injured and in a poor position for a fight, but for the last day and a half nothing had really had any interest in me as I passed through.
I started feeling like things were clicking for the stealth skill when the ducks seemed to lose interest in me quickly after an encounter. Soon after the ducks that I passed on my journey stopped even giving chase. As time wore on they stopped reacting to me altogether. I wasn’t sure how the skill would interact with more advanced or powerful opponents, but it made the last leg of the hike to the falls much easier than what had come before. I likely could have made it to the falls even sooner if I wasn’t slowed down by the injuries that I had received before the change in the ducks’ collective behavior. At this point I didn’t have any real control over the skill, beyond keeping it active all of the time.
Ghostlight Falls didn’t disappoint. Hundreds of waterfalls cascaded down from a high plateau into a wall of water and mist. Beyond the falls were the Giantspire Mountains, whose glaciers fed the alpine lake that in turn fed the falls. The water caught the sunlight with prismatic sparkles of redacted light and the occasional full rainbow. However, even in the daylight I could see that the water had an unusual light bluish sheen to it and when the falls wove through darker areas I could see that the water itself glowed slightly with its own light. It was an amazing sight, but there was also a chill to the air and as tired as I was I could feel the bonfire calling my name.
I walked into the camp without a greeting from Deldes or Delirin. This was not the greeting that I has expected after the seventy mile trek. I was exhausted enough to already not be thinking all that clearly and my thoughts were further clouded by seeing the pair that had abandoned me to my fate in the woods days earlier. Things had worked out and I understood that it was part of their nature in some intrinsic way to embrace chaos, but they were also obliged to support me. I was paying for their services and if they didn’t want to provide them, then they needed to tell me so that I could find someone who would. In the end what mattered was that I was there and, though I was beaten and bloody, I didn’t have any serious injuries and I did have the beginnings of a cool new skill.
I walked right up to Delirin before realizing that she may not be able to see me through my new stealth skill. I assumed that this wouldn’t be an issue based on her overall strength and the fact that their stealth skills didn’t usually block the sight of allies working in concert. However, when she didn’t immediately react to my presence, I consciously dropped the skill. If I had been less exhausted and more clear headed I might have thought better of the possibility of appearing just two feet in front of a wild elf while covered in blood and kitted out for a fight.
Delirin and Deldes both started moving the instant that I disengaged the stealth skill. Delirin’s hand flashed to the spear lying next to her. She leapt to her feet while bringing the spear between us in a fluid motion. She looked directly at me as she said, “Who are you and how did you get here?” Deldes had her bow in her hand and had knocked an arrow in the same instant that Delirin had started her attack. I stood there stunned for a moment and that was a moment too long.
I don’t know if there was an answer that would have satisfied Delirin at that moment, but I do know that shocked silence didn’t do the trick. She continued to bring the head of her spear up and I only managed to take one step backward as she did. The spear was unnaturally sharp and it made it through my energy armor deeply enough to leave a shallow line of blood from around my stomach to just below my clavicle. It wasn’t a serious wound, but the poisoned arrow that Deldes put through my calf at the same time was another matter. It certainly felt serious as I started to go rapidly numb.
In the next moment, I felt Deldes straddling my chest and pinning my arms to the ground. She had her knife out and although I wasn’t clear where this was going, I was confident that it wasn’t going somewhere good. If the elves were intentionally trying to hurt me, then I was very likely well and truly dead. I hoped that I had just startled them and that they couldn’t recognize me in the mess that I was in, so I stammered, “It’s me Deldes. Harris. Delirin told me to meet you here just a few days ago.”
Delirin looked down into my eyes and a moment later a look of panic marred her beautiful face. “Stop Deldes. Get off him and get the antidote. That’s Harris.”
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Deldes looked at me and then Delirin before saying, “Harris who?”
“This is who we were waiting out here to meet,” responded Delirin.
As I looked up at Deldes I could see the recognition that she did, in fact, know me dawn on her face. “Oh. Sorry Harris. I didn’t recognize you,” she said as she rolled off of my injured chest. I don’t know what happened after that because whatever Deldes had on that arrow took full effect and I lost consciousness.
***
It was early evening when I regained consciousness. From my position near the bonfire that I had seen on my arrival to the camp, I could see Ghostlight Falls in the background. The water was glowing pale blue with enough intensity to light up the surrounding forest. The odd flashes that I had seen during the day, were in fact strange luminescent jellyfish like creatures floating in the falls. They seemed to completely resist the downward push of the water and the pull of gravity as they drifted around the many interconnected curtains of water. It was a beautiful sight, but I was having trouble enjoying it.
I felt hungover, apparently an aftereffect of whatever poison Deldes used to coat her arrows. I was also still in pain from the many small injuries that I had accumulated on the trip thus far, the two recent additions that I received during my less than hospitable welcome to camp were particularly aggravated. Delirin was sitting next to me and she offered me some watered down wine when I finally made it up into a sitting position. She had a suitably sheepish look on her face when she made the offer and I was happy to find that she knew who I was and wasn’t trying to stab me.
“Harris. I apologize for what I did before. We had originally planned to celebrate your arrival, but we sort of lost track of our plan as we waited for you. You startled me when you appeared so close. For a few moments, I couldn’t place you and I treated you as a stranger. Deldes had a similar experience, though neither of us are clear on why. The good news is that Ghostlight Falls has some mild healing properties that will help you recover both mentally and physically before you undertake your trial. For tonight you should rest. Please let me or Deldes know if there is anything that we can do to make you more comfortable.”
***
Ghostlight Falls occupied a unique place in the lives of the wild elves and some of the other fae in Region Eleven. If you sat in the freezing water of the falls at night you could experience a sort of generic class trial. The rite allowed for the upgrade of any class without the need to complete a specific class trial. It was at its essence a trial of the spirit and, although it wasn’t without its own risks, it was ideal for the situation around “class” based on my incomplete awakening experience with the Unified System. The trial also had deeper significance for the fae.
The rite revolved around experiencing the dreams of ancestors and others who lived long ago. This was a spiritual experience for the elves and a rite of passage for certain clans of the fae. The story goes that the dreams of those that live in the area become frozen as they fly among the icy peaks of the Giantspire Mountains. These frozen dreams are then trapped in the massive glaciers that move down the steep peaks. As the glaciers slowly flow downward they carry the dreams with them and these dreams are eventually released into the alpine lake above Ghostlight Falls as the glaciers melt. The dreams may linger in the depths of the lake forever, but as the water flows over the falls it inevitably carries some of the dreams down with it. The Ghostlight Tender jellyfish help guide the dreams to those meditating in the waters of the falls at night.
The effect of the strange dream phenomenon of Ghostlight Falls was apparently the most intense during the new moon, which was just two days away. There was apparently a chance of lasting mental damage and disorientation from the trial, but that was rare and the trial was generally safe, especially if you had a spotter to pull you out if things went south. However, it still made sense to prepare as much as I could for the class upgrade. Passing this trial would also grant me some official status with the fae, including the right to purchase a mount from one of their vendors. Unfortunately, before I could even think about undertaking the rite in the falls, I needed to square things with Deldes and Lelirin and sort out what was going on with my stealth skill.
I didn’t see either of the elven hunters in our camp when I woke up and I spent a few minutes searching the area to no avail. I decided to hike up the switchback trail to the top of the plateau. I suspected that they might be up there, but even if they weren’t I wanted to explore the area around the lake ahead of the trial. I made sure not to activate my stealth skill as I started up the hill, as I had my suspicions about what caused our little misunderstanding. However, I needed to talk through the situation with Deldes and Delirin before I made any decisions. My guides had been acting weirdly this trip, even for them, but I was not about to try experimenting on my own after yesterday’s near death experience at the hands of my supposed protectors.