Journal of Tristan Winterbloom

Thirtieth of Harvest Season, the 1,240th year of the Second Age.

I have finally been able to sit down once more and write down the events of the past few Seasons. The days have been long, filled with excitement and trepidation alike. These moments where the tumult dies down and I can actually chart out the recent events of the past are fleeting but welcome. So, let's get into it.

Last of my line…the Winterbloom side, that is. The Anorox bloodline is still going strong. After my awakening and dealing with…the situations in Bhant, I departed and went south. Tracking down Bertram to deliver the mark of the family head. Into the Sapphire Coast; a region built upon mercantilism, where coin is king.

Felicity and I, along with Onyx and Midnight – the pair of destriers I took from Fawkes' stables – had several weeks of pleasant travel. We spent our nights in the Fey Realm, and our days traveling along the slightly mountainous hills before reaching lowland plains. Oh! It's worth noting that I went by the alias of Markus Anorox, and used Disguise Form to change my appearance.

It may seem foolish to still use the family name, but the assassins who killed so many so close to me were looking for Tristan Anorox – a half-breed, or full-on, white-haired Elf. Not a swarthy Bhant Human. The guise worked for a while – but I'll get to that in proper order.

We had our first encounter after reaching the Sapphire Coast's borders. A performing troupe, a group of bards, who were heading to find fortune in Bhant. We shared information, I warned them away from Bhant, gave them coin, and was going to part ways. But they were attacked by bats from the Demon Realm in the night. I saved them and gave them succor in the Fey Realm.

Shandra Fallthorn, the only Elf in the bardic ensemble, gained an essence crucible, and after a…tense series of conversations, she finally acceded to my demands. Returning to The Mortal Realm with the group enchanted to prevent discussion of the Fey Realm, what they saw and heard there, and information about me – I departed.

Shandra chose to follow me, and I allowed her to accompany me to the next town before giving her monies and thinking I'd seen the last of her. Oh, it should be noted, Felicity became extremely upset at the idea of a female Elf snaring my gaze. I know I'm inexperienced when it comes to romance and love (that does happen when you're the half-breed and have no prospects at court)…but I think there may be something there with Felicity.

Anyways, back onto the main events of the recent past. After leaving Shandra at a town called the Crossroads and heading off, I encountered a group of bandits. Instead of attacking them, I heard them out and was able to bring them to the Fey Realm as new craftsmen and women. My Realm is expanding in populace, and I feel…right, giving shelter to those who are in an unfortunate situation. I'm definitely living up to mother's teaching, and thus far being kind and charitable has paid off.

Then, back in The Mortal Realm, I was contacted by Obadai Grimtome, the Archon who served the king of Bhant as an advisor. He teleported (across kingdoms!) to my location, and explained that he was the one who summoned the demon dragon to destabilize the kingdom, in an effort to bring about an opportunity. He was a spy, working for an empress from across continents. And his goal was to weaken Bhant enough for her empire to invade and take the croplands.

Obadai was desperate, and I owed him. He went above and beyond to help me in Bhant during the whole assassin situation, and so I gave him refuge and let him travel with me. But, not for free – he had to teach me more about essence-weaving. Fire elementalism, in particular. The ability to hold a flame in your hands and manipulate it is…inspiring and terrifying. I've seen what fire can do to a person in conflict (I'll get into that), and its beauty is only matched by its ferocity.

A few more days and we discovered where those demon bats that had assaulted Shandra's group came from. Something called a Sympathetic Incursion – theory, Obadai assured me, but a theory now proven correct. Once an initial incursion is made (Obadai bringing the demon dragon through a rift in the north), other "shockwaves" or "ripples" can happen, piercing the veil between Realms again.

We were in a medium-sized town when the occurrence happened, and we fought. I stood on the wall, fighting demon wolves and bats alongside the town guards, while Obadai tried to close the rift.

And then…a Demon Lord came through. Not an essence-weaver, thank the gods, but still a potent combatant. I knew we were going to be overrun, and took a gamble – challenging him to single combat. I figured that if Bhant was based around the Demon Realm and its politics from its founding, perhaps their idea of honor would be present as well. Thankfully, the gamble paid off, and we fought.

I thought I had the upper hand, but I was injured and Felicity intervened to heal me with elixirs…she was…she was wounded. I felt so angry, so enraged, that I threw caution aside and slew the Demon Lord before using my lingering essence to activate my cloak's stored Thrice Command spell – sending the demonic creatures back to their Realm. Obadai shut the rift, and then joined me at Felicity – healing her and keeping her from death.

We headed back to the Fey Realm, recovered for a short while, and then returned to the town. I got a few spell primers and spell books for my efforts, along with some herbs that are useful in potion-crafting to plant in the Fey Realm. A fair reward.

Continuing from there, we found something called a Delve, which Obadai explained was the entrance to a Lost Realm. A Realm without a Realm Protector, that had died and was filled with husks of its former inhabitants. A place that could be Grafted onto a living Realm. Outside of the Delve entrance was a camp; Pathfinders had arrived before us, but were nowhere to be seen. Signs of struggle were on the ground, and so we entered the Delve with caution.

Inside, we found a Pathfinder named William; heavily injured. Obadai healed him, and we learned that his fellows were dead deeper inside the Lost Realm. Going down the tower we arrived upon, we reached the corpses of his fellows – killed by an artificial species carried by some mercenary to cover up their tracks.

We went deeper, and found a husk – a massive, hulking creature that looked like what grandfather would call an ogre. It had killed the mercenary responsible for killing the Pathfinders and releasing the creature that helped to cover up the true cause of the deaths. I used Frost Flurry to slay it in a single blow.

Obadai opened up an Incursion to the Fey Realm, and The Matriarch was set to Graft the Lost Realm onto mine – granting the residents new abilities. Obadai, drained from the feat of essence-weaving, and William, stayed in the Fey Realm while I headed back into the Lost Realm, to the Delve entrance.

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On the way up the tower we had descended, I encountered a small group of Beastkin. One of them died on the ascent when a rope snapped, and after getting out safely and collecting Onyx and Midnight, we returned to the Fey Realm where I granted the two remaining survivors the option to stay in the Fey Realm.

The next day I headed out with William and arrived in Jewel's Point – the current capital of the Sapphire Coast. He took me to the Pathfinder Company Lodge near the docks, and I was given a sigil to present to other Pathfinder Company members if I were to need an audience with a local leader. They also promised to look up where Bertram had gone to after his visit, and so I returned to the Fey Realm to prepare for the next day.

A few of the new residents joined me back in Jewel's Point, and we made amazing profits in the markets up near the wealthy citizenry. I was introduced to the Queen of Jewel's Point – not actually a Queen, just the richest woman in the whole of the Sapphire Coast, and therefore the lead of the merchant council that ran the huge port city. During that audience, I revealed my true name and nature; and we cemented a trade alliance.

I learned where Bertram was headed. Yustat, the Citadel of Essence, to help protect their students on field trips into Elemental Realms where dragons roam. With that knowledge, we finished up our day of sales and when we were eating dinner at a fine establishment, Shandra found me. She offered her services for passage to Yustat – word had spread of a wealthy lord intent on purchasing passage – and I let her come along.

That evening, myself and the two Fey Realm residents, along with the Queen and her two bodyguards, went back to the Fey Realm where I gave the Queen a tour, we hashed out details of our trade partnership, and I set up the groundwork for my burgeoning merchant fleet.

The next day we met up with some Pathfinders I had offered passage to, as Maladonia was on the way to Yustat. I also met the captain of my first ship. Yokain. A man of peerless repute recommend by the Queen, who had been a surrogate uncle to her in her youth. The man was every measure of what you'd expect from a trade-savvy pilot.

We headed to Maladonia, and on the way were accosted by pirates. A fight ensued; Obadai and I worked together with essence-weaving to burn one ship down to the waterline, and the other I boarded and forced to surrender. Capturing the crew, I learned that they were from Schlarz, and had their cargo stolen on Maladonia due to a civil war.

Yokain and I agreed on a punishment, and they were pressed into service as a new ship under my trade fleet. Yokain got his promotion to admiral, and I had a trade fleet in the making. We went to Maladonia, not just to deliver the Pathfinders, but because that was the closest port to repair the now-enlisted Captain Bitters' ship.

We reached the port, delivered our passenger cargo, and were accosted by soldiers on one side of the civil war. A fight broke out on the docks, and we won, losing only three of our own. Sadly, William was among the slain. After a venture to the Fey Realm, Obadai and I headed across Maladonia to meet Price Merrill.

The reason? A contract. A stupid contract that Yokain all-but threatened to break my contract over. For mead. Apparently, Maladonia is famous for it, and this mead contract is highly lucrative, sought after by merchant captains all across the breadth of the Mortal Realm. I was told it would open up social doors across the world.

That's how I found myself traveling across a gorgeous, flower-covered landscape buzzing with bees. We encountered Prince Merrill's scouts, and were led to meet the man himself. After introducing myself and Obadai, we went to rest for the night – only to be woken in the early hours of morning to find that the Prince's brother, the other claimant to the throne and cause of the civil war, had managed to slip his army to the walled city.

Prince Merrill cowered in his fortress along with his garrison commander, and being a noble who had slain dragons, I somehow was looked at for guidance in the defense. I was able to draw on my knowledge of how a dragon would deal with someone tracking it to its lair, and we baited the army in while Obadai prepared a spell that would wipe them all out.

I went outside under the effect of a newly learned Invisibility spell, freed captured soldiers, and sabotaged siege weapons. Obadai's spell went off…and I was terrified and awed. The whole sky was on fire, and I could see liquid flame surge up to the edges of the outer walls – utterly incinerating the army and breaking the morale of the stragglers. The feat caused Obadai to collapse, exhausted, and I went to meet with the Prince.

After some tense discussion, I left Obadai there as he could teleport back to the ship if necessary. I headed to the front alongside the Prince and his advisors. We reached his brother's city with the army within a few days. Felicity and I secured the contract. And then…we went in.

The city was heavily guarded, but Felicity opened up all the sally ports and I snuck in. We made it to the center citadel, and found Prince Merrill's brother mid-spell. An essence-weaver was pulling some dread entity from what I can only surmise was the Dead Realm. I interrupted the spell, and the entity came through seemingly uncontrollable. It killed the essence weaver, and then the Prince. We grabbed his head and ran.

The juggernaut chased us, killing everyone he encountered. We were able to hide and gave it the slip as it headed to the front gates. But I couldn't let that thing loose onto a battlefield where it would kill thousands. I chose to confront it, using a stealth attack with Frost Flurry to deal a dire wound. And then, we fought.

It was a tense battle and I was heavily injured. But I beat the creature, and Felicity helped me into a safe refuge of a nearby house while she brought the Prince's head to our allied forces – stopping the battle before it could truly begin in earnest. I recovered for a small time, but the assassins managed to track me down.

I killed my assailant and fled with Felicity. We traveled during the night, staying in the Fey Realm during the day, and reached the port where we met up with Admiral Yokain and left Maladonia behind. Before going on the ship, I was able to contact Logos, the Realm Protector of the Thought Realm. We made a deal to trade him essence in exchange for preventing most divination from affecting me – the reason why the assassins were able to find me, despite my use of my alias name and identity.

We headed across the ocean to Klaktol's southern coast – I intended to have us weave back and forth across the seas to shake off any possible assassin pursuers. When we arrived, Obadai and Shandra spent some time ashore, as did some of the crew on rotating shore leave, whilst I went to the Fey Realm to train and uneasl the Summerbalm Springs. That's where I met Thallia, the Prime Nymph, and her kin.

We re-established the Fey Court – an advisory body made up of representatives of each species, and the permanent residents transplanted from the Mortal Realm. Returning back to that place with some Nymphs, I assigned a few to the trade ships, whilst others went to explore the Mortal Realm as they once did in millennia past.

After a few days of Fey Realm training and returning to check in with the Admiral, I learned of Obadai and Shandra being kidnapped. Heading to the marketplace with a new disguise, I paid for the services of the Butcher's Bounty – extremely skilled monster hunters. Paying them an exorbitant sum, I acquired their prestigious services, and we chased the kidnappers into the desert.

It was a trap, which I was expecting. Obadai and Shandra were used to lure me out – apparently the deal with Logos was holding, but the assassins must have learned that Obadai or Shandra was staying by my side, and used divination on one of them. At least, that is my best guess as to how the situation came to be.

We fought off cats from the Demon Realm and assassins. It was not really much of a challenge – the Butchers were more than capable of handling both assassins and demon cats. I don't think that the group of assassins were planning on my hiring of mercenaries to assist in the effort. Regardless, we defeated them, rescued Obadai and Shandra, and after healing Obadai with an elixir, he teleported the whole group back to the docks.

Fleeing to the ship, we left as soon as we could and made a direct course for Yustat. Everyone else being around me risked their health and safety.

And now, we arrive. I'm about to step off the ship and say my goodbyes. My half-brother is here so I can fulfill my promise. And, my possible solution to grandfather's comatose state may be found here as well.

I have no clue how Bertram will react to news of grandfather's state, or the deaths back home in Bhant…but he is the rightful Anorox heir.

I have my own Realm to rule.

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