Meanwhile, at Latharas Manor...

[Kathryn Karnage]

The events here follow on directly from "Five go to Duhlmora (and beyond)"

Xyrxina waited for Zardan to begin his telling of their exploits then, when everyone was busy listening to him and drinking, slunk out of the common room quietly. Not to her rooms in the inn, it was time to go back to the manor and talk to her parents.

During the trek around the lake, moving almost invisibly in the dark now become almost second nature, she reflected on how things had changed in a few scant months, and how a desire for a bit of adventure and a break from the tedium of home had become something more. The discovery of the wraith of Samarathand then the statues at Duhlmora and the implication that one of her own family had suffered the same fate was stirring previously unknown feelings of duty, betrayal and, dare she say... vengeance? If Latharas of Tauhopa was indeed her relative, then was she also one of the betrayed and roaming the land as an unquiet spirit? If so this was unbearable and she had to be laid to rest, and vengeance enacted upon her betrayer!

She knew, in a very general way, that her ancestors had come from outside the valley, but hadn't really thought about it much. It was the same that she knew she had elder siblings, but she was the only one born in the Valley, so it stands to reason there should be other Latharas out there, but going through the family tree, drilled in to her by her mother, in her mind she couldn't think of anyone who fitted the description, although she guessed it would be about her great-grandmother's time.

On reaching the manor she made straight for the family library, a place she previously spent as little time as possible and hunted down the long scroll with the family tree. Tracing back to her great-grandmothers time, indeed there wasn't anything that stood out, everything was as she remembered. On sitting back she noticed that the light glanced a little differently off one part near her great-grandmother that previously she'd just assumed was a smudge, perhaps her umbral sight helping to reveal things hidden. A little work with making rubbings and careful use of soot reveals a small part of the tree that had been excised around a sibling of her Great-Grandmother and their offsping, one of which was "Eldareth Latharas, Alfkryndor of Greenhaven", making her a cousin of Xyrxina's Great-Grandmother, and Xyrxina's 1st Cousin, thrice removed. As "Tauhopa" in Elven means "Forest Harbour", which would be very close to Greenhaven in the common tongue, she seemed a pretty certain match for "Latharas of Tauhopa". Armed now with some names and a timeframe she starts combing the remaining family history books and comes up with a mention of a family tapestry that commemorates "Regent Moranna sailing from Harmenor" and hunts down the tapestry in the manor. It shows a fleet of elven ships sailing across the ocean. On the left hand side, where the ships originate there is an emblem of a large tree, and on the right, the destination of the ships, is the ships wheel emblem of Sesseran. There are many family crests of the families that accompanied Morana embroidered along the bottom, including the Latharas crest - a Duchess in Moranna's court in Harmenor.

Armed with a lot of food for thought, it was time to talk to the parents, and see what they knew, if anything.

"Mother, Father, I have been out into the world and discovered some... concerning things"

"Oh? What have you found?" questions her mother.

"I've been out to the West, and there are whole cities there, mostly of elves and half-elves, and these seem to be the remnants of a nation called 'Sesseran', Which appears to have been founded by our ancestors when they came across the sea.

"There was 6 cities, all ruled over by King Heskeron, and his queen, Regent Moranna.

"Each of these cities had a Councillor, one of which was named Eldereth Latharas."

Xyrxina's Mother bristles at the name, and Xyrxina continues

"Who I believe to be a cousin of Great-Grandmother"

"Yes, that's right" her mother replies "She was your Great-Grandmother's cousin. That's a name I've not heard in... centuries. She wasn;t very well thought of in the family, she ran with the wrong sort of people.

"Why do you want to know about her all of a sudden?"

"Well, in Duhlmora, there is a statue of her, as the Councillor of Tauhopa, together with the other 5 councillors, so certainly seemed to be held in high regard by those folk, but there is darkness too. The tales that are told about this King Heskeron and his councillors."

"I'm not surprised to hear you say there are dark tales, She was a pirate you know!" interrupted her mother, "She ran with humans"

"A pirate?!" exclaimed Xyrxina, suddenly thinking this is the best thing ever! Her cousin was a pirate!

"Yes, she founded some band down in Tauhopa, Greenhaven, the humans called it as they didn;t know the proper name."

"Well, there is darkness around the tales, it seems this King, Heskeron, became obsessed with eternal life, and his last act was some dark ritual that included betraying and sacrificing all his councillors.

Her mother gasps as the implications sink in

"That is what the statues are in memoriam of - the memory of the Betrayed"

"So what did you find out about Cousin Eldereth? She was murdered?"

"Yes, and it gets worse"

"Worse than being murdered by your own king in a dark ritual?" Her mother asks, sitting down.

"Yes, near a place called Creller, there is a pass through the mountains. This pass is said to be cursed with dark magics. This is where we first heard of these happenings, although we didn't know who they were then. Off this path is a dark tower, that the local legends say is the Tower of Heskeron, where he did his dark magics.

"Sure enough, this place is cursed - the path is warded and anywhere off it is overrun with all manner of unnatural creatures; skeletons, corpses that move and spectral presences. Being of an inquisitive sort"

"You always were inquisitive"

"Well yes, so I couldn't help but go and look for myself, perhaps to lift the curse. So we started toward the tower, which turned out to be quite a bit further than we thought, and the idea of camping amongst the undead did not appeal, so we came to a small, run down village around the gatehouse, where there was many of these unnatural creatures which we defeated, but the last thing we fought was a wraith (so Zardan tells me) who was wearing a breastplate and helmet with elven script. On defeating him we could look closer, and see that the breastplate had an emblem on it and the helmet had a name, and it was the name of one of those six councillors, ' Samarath of Gramel', so I can only take from this that, not only did this Heskeron sacrifice his councillors, but damned them to undeath, and that this, unfortunately, must include Cousin Eldereth.

"Wait, Sammarath of Gramel? I know that name. He was a friend of your Great Uncle's, very long time ago. He came from a mining town in the West. Your great Uncle spoke very fondly of him, he was a mentor of sorts to your Great Uncle. What a terrible end."

"At least we managed to lay him to rest, but the implication is there are 5 more of the unquiet dead, including Eldareth."

"What will you do with this knowledge?"

"I can't leave them out there, betrayed and unquiet. At the very least, I owe it to our family to lay Eldereth to rest, if not all of the councillors, a great injustice has been done to our family, she might not have been the best of us, but she is one of us and should be avenged. I will have to confront the spirit of this Heskeron."

"I don't know what we can do to help" says her mother, clearly pained, "My Father, when he was alive, used to be in contact with a man named Eiravel, who lived in Grammel. He was a friend of the family and knew him well. Perhaps if you were to seek him out, if he lives still, he may be able to help, or have information."

"I will seek him out. I don;t know what I was expecting when I went with some of the others to explore outside the valley, but it certainly wasn't this!"

"Our family has lived here for several generations now, and been our home for so long, that we really only know stories of the other parts of the family. Eiravel of Grammel may be able to help, tell him who you are, he was a good friend of your Grandfather's"

"I will see him, there are definitely evils to be set right here. At first I was very taken aback and quite bullish about 'why hasn't anyone done anything about this'? but it seems that many have tried, and we have been the most successful due to my leadership."

After a meal and an evening catching up, Xyrxina will return to the Lakeside Inn.