Age of Ice and Blood: A Pathfinder System Heroic Fantasy Quest

Seventh Day of Ashinu-hamba (Ashinu Descendant) 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)

"It was not you alone the daemon fooled, all of us were almost too late..." Something that had filled your nights more than you care to say aloud. Yet you continue with the thought that had best dealt with your own guilt. "In that 'almost' can much meaning and much grace be found. The creature did not kill anyone in the end. Think only of what harm it could have done if it had remained in Apuku, unknown and free to weave its plots."

"Ah..." he shakes his head. "You are a better man than I, my friend. I worry first for my ship and those who sail upon them before a port I have just found, perhaps in that I am a fool. Strangers we may be to this world, but it is the one in which we must live for better or for worse, one we share with things like Ulk. Perhaps Zaia is the most practical of us all for all that he seems enamored of the abstract and ethereal. At least he will have some hope at knowing where the next blow might fall."

Not quite where you had thought this would lead, but you will take it if it proves a distraction from black thoughts. Carefully you pose your next question, for that had been much on your mind but which you are now more than ever resolved not to make into an accusation in your friend's mind. "Was it chance that sent Ulk do us, or some deeper purpose to his malice?"

"As to that..." he rubs his chin, the thin beard he had been growing over the last month rustling in the silence. "I cannot say for certain. I had made it know that I planned to set out to the White Lands into the teeth of Ashinu's season and many called me mad. I looked for the bold and the desperate, for those are oft the same for men who ply the seas. I cannot call it chance alone, for it would be like finding a single seed of poison in a sack of wheat, but perhaps he simply saw his chance at pirating ships at sea far from any port. That occurred to me as he became more troubling the more we sailed north. I wonder why he gave himself away like that."

"Building support among malcontents is my best guess. How did the men take the news that Ulk was a traitor?" Well enough for Antonio to feel comfortable riding all the way here at least.

"Shock among those who knew him, maybe a score in all. I'd watch them carefully just to be sure, but I think they are as much dupes as the rest of us, talking about how he wasn't the man they knew."

"In what way?" Esha asked, neither of you had heard her approach, yet only Antonio starts. You had grown used to hearing her voice unbidden.

"By turns, vague and lost in thought, and more angry, more ardent than they were used to. Prowling is how one fellow put it, like he was looking for something, or waiting for something." The captain sits and stares at the sky for a long moment. "I think he either wanted something to do with us or with this place."

"Seeing as there were already some of his foul kin abroad and weaving their plots here?" you half ask. "A pity we could not question him..."

"Not alive," Esha cuts in slyly. "I recovered the skull you used to help sway the high chief. As long as we find a priest of Ikomi willing to entreat his patron for such communion we might yet find out some of what was going through Ulk's mind, or perhaps minds."

Alas that is as far as the inquiry can go this night. Bidding farewell to the others you head off to sleep next to Silver, the next day promises a hard ride to the coast. "Did you name it then?" your friend asks. There is no need to specify what it is. The spirit's gift had been much on your mind and you have tried and dismissed many names, from the fantastical to the descriptive, but in the end had returned to one time and again.

"Durendal," it sounds strange to say it aloud, almost like you are again a boy brandishing a wooden sword, delighted to find that you share the name of a legendary knight. "I almost decided against naming it that so as not to sound like I wished to conjure up some puffery or presumption, but it's not like there are many in this world who know whence the name comes from. "

Silver takes in your awkwardness with a slow blink that says more than words could what he thinks of worrying over names, then he adds. "I shan't ask to be called Veillantif for all I am more than worthy of the name in my humble opinion."

The sight of him trying and failing to puff up his chest is far too much for you to hold back a laugh.

As you lay Durendal still in its sheath next to the bed of herbs and lay down you hear or think you hear at the edge of sleeping. "The sword is more than worthy of the name and so are you."

---

Triumphs
+Persuaded the elders of Willowbrook to allow the young otters to travel with you and kept them safe though their first battle
+Held firm on the matter of sharing the windfall of the dragon's corpse
+Met in peace with the Danuk and with the Brothers in the service of Inoko
++Healed the maddened Earthshaker
+Discovered signs of daemonic meddling
+Defeated Ulk with no deaths among the Danuk
+Pressed Imik into revealing itself
++Helped save the Spirit from its curse
++Made peace between the two tribes that both would count fair

What did your experiences offer you?

[] More skill in peace and war alike (Gain 3,000 XP)

[] Having borne witness to the machinations of daemons and aided in saving the light of the fire spirit from corruption Inge is rewarded with the favor of her goddess (Roland Gains 1,500 XP; Inge levels up)
-[] Write in level up plan

[] You have faced fiends with words and with blades and each time you have not only endured but triumphed (Roland gains 2,000 XP and the Feat Iron Will)

[] Both you and Inge came out stronger from the trial (Inge levels up; Roland Gains Iron will as a bonus feat and 500 XP)

OOC: Zaia's retraining will come after his interlude which will be the first chapter of the next arc, he does need some time to actually study the stele. Also I know Iron Will is not the most exciting feat, but it does fit and is a pre-requisite for a lot of things. I cannot say more without spoilers.