#Lore24 – Entry #259 – Fantasy Month III #16 – The Dark Elves Strike
As Told by Erilantielle “Eri” Kitami, Champion of Erisaya
“Everyone has their secrets; that should be no big surprise to you. I don’t know much about Kazumi, and I don’t go digging into people’s past. They tell me what they will, and that’s fine for now. Until I’ve got some kind of evidence of a betrayal, so what? Teelsa’s a bard, illusions are a thing they do. Ask about something else if you have to know, or let me out of here. I’m getting real tired of this waiting.
That’s not changed; if I had any clue why a bunch of mercs were hunting me down, I’d gladly tell you. I’ve asked Erisaya many times for guidance, but she kept urging me to Arcavarlon and staying light on the details. I guess she wants me to discover my past for myself. That’s fine too. Everything happens as it does, even though I’m usually fighting against it somehow…
Yeah, we made it clear of Greenspire without trouble, even enjoyed almost a week of travel without sighting any followers. Those dark elf hunters, though, they’re something else. Hatae said it was something to do with training they’d kept from their days living in the really deep caverns, how going unnoticed was an absolute requirement or something; she’d know more. They had picked one hell of a night for their ambush, I’ll give them that. A new moon and a storm coming in. Even Kazumi didn’t pick up on their presence till the last moment when she shouted out a warning to us while we were taking our turns sleeping.
Bastards had planned it well, though. First thing they did was toss some kind of concoction of theirs into the campfire that covered the area in a smoke filled with some kind of poison that slowed us down, making us very sleepy, and choked Teelsa out from casting her spells, to say nothing of clouding our vision. Had Kazumi not been on the outskirts of the camp, I’d say they would’ve had us; she whipped up a good strong whirlwind to blow the poison cloud away and at least gave us a fighting chance; had they simply wanted us dead, it would’ve been a lot easier for them, but since they were trying to capture us alive, we had enough of a chance that things evened out once the air had cleared, even if we were moving slow. The Sisters were watching out for us that night, I’d say.
Yeah, we drove them back, killed a few of them, and we weren’t too badly injured, and we knew they wouldn’t make the mistake of attacking with Kazumi on watch again; I’d say she put a big target on herself that night. Still not rightly sure how they tracked us, though; I’m figuring the twin twats that are hunting me were the ones using the scrying magic Lady Jade told us about, and the dark elves were doing something different. Pick Hatae’s brain on that one; she knows her people far better than I do.”