Fuck the Fey.

Rules, stipulations, 'blood will be met with blood'? Their backwards mentality and absolutism has ruined the Glassfang Syndicate's reputation with the town of Parnast, despite my best efforts and intentions to keep things non lethal. A courtesy that they did not extend back to us, nor the common folk of Parnast.

I will explain.

Naten Natenson (or, who he introduced himself as upon meeting him. Real name is Surx, a changeling novice to the Syndicate), Ivor, and I all arrived to Parnast after receiving a letter to rub some more elbows in Parnast from the Zhentarim. I was immediately profiled by a human guard, who I eased tensions with by explaining our purpose in the town. Philip Philipson, that is the guards name, told us that Raggnar, the town's leader, was a controversial figure. He previously aligned with the Cult of the Dragon, under the pretense of 'keeping the city safe,' though, Philip was quick to point out it lined his pockets despite the hardships the town still faced. Raggnar also is in charge of the guards??? A fact that slipped my mind until writing this, and one I shall touch back on later.

We went to the Golden... something, a tavern, where we met Raggnar and his daughter, Elsbeth. He, a portly man, greeted us warmly, and gave us ale and food before we were to discuss business. I gave some flattery, which he was happy to repeat very loudly to all in attendance, but we got down to brass tacks. Food was minimal, and they needed 'big game' if they were to have a proper feast that Raggnar was planning on throwing. That is where we would come in, and he told us of some being spotted in the Weathercoat Wood. This is a dangerous forest, but nothing we couldn't handle.

At this time, Gundalin Cartwright and his son Wallace, entered, and Gundalin accused Raggnar of bringing in more outsiders for his nefarious plots, and immediately the two started bickering. Wallace and Elsbeth kissed, a cute display of affection, as I asked if their fathers were always like this. They both said, "Yes", in unison, which told us all we needed to know. Wallace insisted he come with us on our hunt, saying he longed for adventure. Though we were hesitant, and upon seeing his makeshift armor, we acquiesced. Mostly because he could provide a horse and cart: two things we would need if we were to hunt three large elk and bring them back to town. I am not strong enough to carry one elk, and my two compatriots are.... just as fragile.

We set off the next day, and arrived to the Wood where there was a thick mist of Blue Smoke.... Hard to breathe, but manageable, we tracked down an Elk. Plotting how to take care of it, Naten knocked an arrow and I prepared a starry wisp. A voice told us to leave, and that we 'couldn't do that', to which we all launched our strikes against the elk. The beast fell, which was the start of something far fouler than game. Sprites attacked, as did a tree itself. Wallace was crushed, in the blink of an eye. The sprites targeted the horse, too, but I insisted that we do not kill any of them. My previous experience with sprites tells me how territorial they are, but they do not deserve to die for such a thing. Ivor did not listen to this. His fire magic is great, his foolishness is far greater.

Barely surviving, we drug the cart and elk back to Parnast, and were met with sorrow. The feast turned into a wake. I spent all night comforting Elsbeth, but the damage was already done. A boy was dead that did not deserve to die. I hoped this was the end of it. But hopes are not truths, and they do not always become them.

At the wake, a sprite came with three giant wasps, attacking all. I barely clung to life, their stingers were laced in a vicious venom, but some civilians were not as lucky. Nature ran its course, we were helpless to stop it. We did try to take care of them as quickly as possible, I managed to down two and knock out the sprite, but the common folk and Raggnar blamed us for this. Us?? Where were his guard during this time? How were we responsible?

I grabbed a mason jar and tucked the little vermin in it, taking her broach for good measure. When she woke, the sprite, she told of the Prince of the Pixies, and how he was angry at us for hunting in his wood. Despite everything, despite the lives that were lost, we were blamed. Blamed??? After all we did? The sprite tried to make a deal with her backwards fae speak; I did not allow it. If peace was to be reached, we were not the facilitators. Raggnar was forced to make that deal. However, this, atop of the common folk who passed, lead to us being practically banned from Parnast. Our... reputation was soiled.

We did all we could, and get all the blame for it. Innocents die; is this our responsibility? Even as death comes knocking at our door, we are to put aside our lives for them? They, that could not see that we were guiltless in this? I cannot see it.

I will drink my sorrows now. Perhaps I will make amends one day. Perhaps it isn't worth it.

*Na'ima*

This is way overdue, but oh well.

So, this was my first mission with the Syndicate good times, even if it was sooo long ago (like, one month). We were tasked with going to Parnast, being good sports, and helping with whatever they needed something involving the Zhentarim. So off we went: me, Na’ima, and Ivor.

Right at the village entrance, we got profiled because Na’ima is an orc, but we managed to resolve things without much trouble. The guard who stopped us pointed us toward the tavern, so that’s where we went.

There, we met a questionable individual named Raggnar. He wanted us to hunt some big game for a festival happening that day. Oh, I forgot to mention the conditions in that tavern were terrible. They gave us a squirrel to eat. Yeah.

Anyway, back to the important part: his reputation was pretty bad because he had helped the Cult of the Dragon, and now he was desperately trying to rebuild it. After he gave us the quest, a very angry guy showed up and started arguing with Raggnar. While they were going at it, we noticed that Raggnar’s daughter and the other guy’s son had a thing for each other. Could’ve been a beautiful love story… but, well, he died the next day. Don’t worry about that for now.

The son came up to us and begged to join the hunt. So we said yes :)

The next day, we woke up early to go hunting with the son. Don’t ask me his name. He died so fast it wasn’t worth remembering. Sad, I guess.

We spent some time wandering through the woods, which Raggnar conveniently forgot to mention were fey territory. There was this blue mist that made it hard to breathe. Eventually, we found an elk, and just as we were ready to take the shot, a sprite suddenly spoke. It startled me, and I fired killing the elk instantly.

Then things went downhill. A bunch of sprites and a tree decided to kill us, and just to prove a point, they turned the poor lover boy into a pancake. Not with magic just a giant tree stomping him flat. Na’ima didn’t want to kill any of them, so we held back… except for one that Ivor accidentally(?) cooked alive.

We won the fight and quickly left, carrying pancake boy and the elk. When we got back to the village… yeah, not great. The boy’s father started crying very sad stuff. Instead of a festival, they held a funeral.

During this funeral, the sprites attacked again this time with giant wasps. And for some reason, the villagers decided it was a great idea to start killing themselves climbing onto tables and shoving an old guy into an open flame. Absolute chaos.

We won the fight and captured one of the sprites. We tried talking to her, but after a bunch of nonsense, Raggnar decided we had to do community service.

And that was it.

Hope that village exploded. With much love,
Surx XoXo