Campaign 1 • Chapter 04

"*You speak of demons as though you know what they are capable of. I was there during the first great war, many centuries ago. I saw the ruin they created, the forests turned to flame, the suns dark and lifeless, the skies made of ash. This world stood on a knife’s edge. Countless dead gave their lives so that it might live. I witnessed all of it. And I also saw how their sacrifice was forgotten, squandered, becoming nothing but stories to be told to children. I saw brothers who had stood together turn on their neighbours and rip each other apart. And for what? For power? Wealth? Fame? Do not speak to me of demons, child. I know the truth you are too blind to see. It is not the dreadborn we have to fear. The only demons here are we.*"
 ― The Lady of the Lake

## Lady of the Lake

From An Rath, the party travels back west, attempting to return towards the main roads and travel towards the coastal village where they can investigate the plague. They skirt the outer edges of the Everglades, which make Custos in particular nervous due to his past.

While camping in a clearing, they are suddenly attacked by an ominous entity that warps the very forest around them in an attempt to kill them. Custos recognises the being as a nazluin, a creature of the forest birth of revenge and imbalance. Sensing they are outmatched, the party flees northward, hunted relentlessly through the woodland by the creature. They escape by the skin of their teeth by collapsing an old wooden bridge across a mountain ravine, leaving the creature stranded on the other side.

Unable to continue west due to the ravine, they journey northwest for a few days, until they come to Lake Lynnwel and the town of Lynnhold. They are greeted by Earl Wallace Lynnwel, uncle to Alyssa Lynnwel and General Fera Lynnwel's younger brother. They discuss the nazluin and the earl suggests they don't mention it to any townsfolk, mentioning that they are very superstitious, believing in a number of woodland spirits and in particular The Lady of the Lake that haunts the large lake near the town, supposedly waiting for her long lost lover.

Curious, the party decides to investigate the story, and venture out onto the lake in the depth of night. They are greeted by the spirit of a ghostly maiden, who urges them to return to shore where they are safe. Putting some pieces of the prophecy together, Custos asks if she is guarding an ancient relic, which she confirms. They discover that the spirit of the maiden is tasked with guarding a third Precursor Weapon. The maiden states that the relic is only to be returned at time of great strife and she sees no evidence of that yet, and insists that mortals are too easily corrupted unless they are forced to act justly through necessity.

Fortunately, she is persuaded by the party, particularly by Custos, that the weapon would do no good at the bottom of a lake, and that they were worthy of carrying it to what it was meant for. Graciously stepping aside,The Lady of the Lake presents them with a beautiful warhammer, Val'atrad, which she grants to Custos whom she considers the most worthy of its burden.

The group return to shore and spend the night at Lynnhold. In the morning, they leave the town, following the forest roads due west.