The Rune Rock (Mission)

"The rune expedition finally came! Wednesday mornin’, at the crack of dawn, I led the group (me, Throk, Kay, Khyrim, and Avos) west into the woods searchin’ for the Rune Rock. We found some bear tracks along the way goin’ about the same way we were goin’. When we made it out of the woods, we saw a big open grass field. We could see the mountains in the distance ahead of us, and a lake and wooden structure.

I led us around the lake and we realized the wooden structure was an encampment! There were piles of stuff outside ‘em, Kay said they were probably dead stuff, so I led us a ways around the camp. When we made it to the mountains, we found the Rune Rock! It didn’t seem very magical to me though… The runes looked like Orcish, but I couldn’t read it. Kay asked if we wanted to “face death”? He mentioned someone called ‘Azghulakarthad’ and a tower. I didn’t really get what he was sayin’, so I kept leadin’ us through the mountains!

We didn’t go straight up the mountains, but we went up and around a bit. I navigated us through the mountains and Throk said I was smart. I like Throk! He appreciates my intelligence. We found a forest on the mountain and Avos made a fire through some water. I thought water put out fires, though. Maybe Avos can make some special fire? Either way, he set a bunch of trees on fire, so we ran through the forest as fast as we could.

After we made it out, we found a giant gorge in the ground. We could see a river goin’ through it way down at the bottom. It even had some islands in it. Over to the right we saw a bridge goin’ across the shortest part of the gorge. A big green dragon landed on the bridge when we got here. No one wanted to fight it, so we turned back and found a real small cave to camp in. The night was pretty uneventful, but the rain and wind made the night exhaustin’. A few of us couldn’t get a good sleep that night.

When we got up, we decided to head back. On our way, we found a destroyed camp and Kay found a dead dog buried there. There were claw marks and the ground was decaying, like from poison. Kay knew a bit about green dragons. Apparently they’re poisonous, so we decided to just keep movin’. When we reached the rock with the runes on it, I made sure to copy it down for Rayne, but the paper they’d given me was wet from the rain. Kay gave me one of his dry papers to copy it onto though! We kept travelin’ for a while and eventually came across a tree on a hill.

When we got up there, Throk made his cloak turn red. I really like Throk’s cloak. It suits him well! We kept walkin’ into the forest, and we found a dead body. It was all chopped up in perfect pieces. We saw some steps walkin’ away from the body, with perfect distance between them. The group said they belonged to a metal man that they’ve heard rumors about. We didn’t wanna stay around to find this metal man, so we found a spot to camp for the night. Khyrim was starin’ at Kay, so I stared at him. He got mad at me, so I stared at Kay with him. I still dunno why he was doin’ that. Khyrim’s a funny guy. Well, not really funny in a haha way but more of a funny in a weird way. After we were done starin’ at Kay we all went to bed for the night.

There was a strange flash in the middle of the night that woke me up. When I looked around, Khyrim and Kay were already awake and I saw a man in metal armor standin’ across from us. I looked behind his helm, but he had a metal cloth there, so I couldn’t see his face. He didn’t seem to know a whole lot. But he did know that he is, and that he is not not, but no one else really understood me. He wanted us all to go to sleep, but Khyrim stayed up watchin’ him. When mornin’ came, the person in metal armor left. Avos said he disappeared when they walked behind a tree.

I led us north in the mornin’ but I must’ve gotten turned around ‘cause we ended up back at the big gorge, but the bridge was to the left of us. Kay didn’t really want to go across ‘cause of the dragon, but he wasn’t there now and the rest of us agreed to go for it, so we ran across! But we were stopped near the end of the bridge by the dragon!

I dunno why people say dragons are mean, he seemed like a pretty nice guy for a while. He even complimented me on my name! He said it was pretty. He told us his name was Skorenag, the only son of Garenag. The dragon started talkin’ in some weird language, but Kay seemed to be able to understand him. Skorenag told us all that the bridge was his, and that we weren’t allowed to pass without payin’ his tax. We planned to head back, but Avos started talkin’ back to the dragon. This is when he started gettin’ like the dragons in stories. The dragon told us to each give him somethin’ we value second most in order to leave.

Avos tried backin’ away towards where we came from, and the dragon came back and attacked him, slashin’ him and knockin’ him out. Khyrim healed him with a potion and Skorenag demanded we gave him the items we’d decided on. I… had to give him my scout’s brooch. It wasn’t the most valuable thing I had or anythin’, but… it reminded me of my time with my squad back on the mainland, a time I’ll never get back. Avos really made the dragon mad here. When Skorenag asked for his second most valued thing, Avos said “You’ve already taken my life.” I was blown away, but the dragon just got mad. He picked him up in his mouth. I thought he was goin’ to throw Avos off the bridge. But Avos gave him his necklace and the dragon let him down. He was still mad though, and bit into Avos’s eye, ripped off his ear, and asked the rest of us to decide if he should lose an arm or a leg. We all picked his arm. Throk held Avos down and the dragon ripped Avos’s arm off. Skorenag branded Avos with his tongue before he finally let us all leave.

We all just traveled back as fast as we could. All we wanted was to just go back and rest. We kept walkin’ longer than we had before, and made it back to the Last Chance after noon. I never did get to fight anythin’ on my first mission on these Isles, but I’m kinda glad I didn’t have to fight that dragon..."

― Kaila Arcus' adventure log