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Hilda's home Barony was a swampy, rustic area, and not too rich by the looks of it. My inner Stag was very excited about this place but my human half found it all kind of distasteful. During dinner the evening we arrived, we explained to Hilda's father Philip why we were here and he got a message summoning him to Alestia post-haste. He left Hilda in charge of the Barony with the Chamberlain, Poul, as her 2nd, and us in charge of keeping Hilda safe. I guess Hilda running things here wasn't an uncommon occurrence.

So with that, he left.

Let me take a minute here to comment about the Chamberlain of Runearch, Poul. The man is good looking to be sure, but he's not really my thing. I tend to like blonds like Wil, not swarthy dark-and-handsome types. And he's also a bit old for me. Well… maybe “too mature” is a better way to phrase it; more of a man and less of a kid or teenager… he feels a generation apart from me and the thought of it just strikes me as weird.

Anyway, Poul talked to me after dinner, trying to start a conversation I guess, but I kind of blew him off to go find Grey without realizing what Poul had been up to. So later, when I was on my way back from Grey's room all disappointed and ran into Poul in the hallway, I didn't really think anything of going for a walk with him to blow off a little of my “steam” so to speak. I attribute my subsequent actions to being all charged up with no real outlet for it.

At some point during our walk it finally became obvious to me that Poul had been fishing. It took me about 5 seconds to make a decision and I figured what the hell. Bright idea there, Cassie. The man is simply way too good for his own good. Because of this, our free time for my entire stay in Runearch was filled with such debauchery. Maybe I should start keeping my cycle stopped at the point where I'm least horny so I will not get myself into nearly as much trouble.

Anyway, Hilda sat court the next day while we pondered what we would do, and we discovered through Hilda's day-to-day runnings of her Barony that Runearch's elemental water mines were being attacked, as well as a few outlying villages. We pondered going to help the closest villages since our attackers wouldn't come for a week. But, Boyce did a few divinations based on what the attackers would do given our actions. If we stayed, they would attack in a week, if we left, they would essentially attack the night of the day in which we left.

So, we decided to fake leaving. But not until Grey had time to build a panic room into Hilda's bedroom. And also, Trent performed the test needed to determine if Hilda was of Devilish blood, which… she was. Perfect match for Boyce, there. Poor girl.

Oh yeah, and some carnival showed up the day after we arrived. How suspiciously timed. And they had some dark elf performers. Even more suspicious. Hilda, at our request, pleaded sick, and I stayed in the castle with her during the carnival, Grey went on patrol in the keep, and Boyce and Trent slacked off.

Nothing came of it really, other than some information was gleaned about the goings-on in Upper Thalia. This amounted to: (1) Upper Thalia was falling apart, their Lord Marshall, Wost Denstil, had died. So they were devolving into chaos to see who would come up as the new “ruler”. And (2) Shesslia was falling prey to panic because a tumultuous Upper Thalia typically meant they would get attacked/invaded. Alestia had been mustering their army recently as well, probably in response to this. Interesting.

Anyway, once the panic room was completed the day after the carnival, we left the following morning with some fanfare, saying that we were going to aid one of the nearby villages that was attacked, and… headed about four hours out and stopped so Boyce could open a gate back to the keep in which Hilda lived. And so we did. And then I magicked up a disguise for myself, standing in for Hilda once again, while she and the boys hid in her panic room. And then… we waited.

I got tired, having had to perform a long ritual in order to keep my disguise on for a long time. Willow, Trent's tree, kept poking me back awake as I lay there in Hilda's bed pretending to be Hilda, but I was just so tired I couldn't keep my eyes open. The unfortunate side effect of this was that I was a bit unprepared for when the dark elves did finally attack.

They came in and some chick blew a dart at me. Luckily, it missed. I activated my sword and rolled out of the bed toward them. Three were in the room as I engaged the dart-blower. Willow manifested and the others started flooding into Hilda's bedroom from the panic room. I waved my sword mostly ineffectually at the chick with the blow gun, and she blew another couple, one finally hitting me. I felt woozy from its effects, so I purged the “poison” from my system on the fly. I decide though, that since outright attacking blow-gun chick wasn't working, decided I'd fake going unconscious since that's most assuredly what the effects of the “poison” was supposed to have been.

Well, it worked and after I faked “fainting” and falling to the ground, she turned to engage Boyce. And as such, she was totally unprepared for my attack. I skewered her through the middle from behind, and Grey finished her off. I guess Boyce and the others managed to take care of the other three while I was flailing around like an idiot.

Following the battle, we interrogated them in a holding cell and got a bunch of information from them, as they didn't seem too inclined to protect their employer. The person who had hired them, noticed them at the Happy Jolly Dancer Tavern in Endelbar, and offered them money to take this job. His name was Braith, and he was an older guy who looked like Sam Elliott. He paid them half up front, and was expecting them to bring Hilda to him the following week, where he would pay them the rest of the fee. We decided we would attempt to stand in for this exchange in order to find out from this Braith guy more of what was going on here. The chick who was speaking with us had been the spokesperson negotiating with Braith, she told us her name was Nuladit. I studied her to remember her form so I could pretend to be her later.

After talking to the dark elves, we decided that Hilda should release the dark elves in two weeks time after our negotiations with Braith should be complete so that they could not interfere.

I didn't get that much sleep that night, after dragging Poul into my room and “abusing” his talents all night long. What the hell is wrong with me? Anyway, I was tired as hell when we set out the next day, but I managed. We traveled through a desert-like wasteland to the Congress of Trade States, the state of Endelbar. We got attacked by a Wyvern on the way, and apparently it had some form of body control powers because while I was attempting to save the horse it was attacking, my attempts to get my body to do anything at all were met with a lack of response, and so I could do nothing but sit there and watch as the Wyvern crashed into me full force, lodging me between the itself and the horse, and then dropping the horse and I, killing the horse, hurting me, and knocking me out for the rest of the fight – basically everything I attempting NOT to do.

But anyway, we survived, minus one horse. I am not sure why I have been almost so completely and utterly useless the past couple of days; Trent's tree has been more effectual in all of this Hilda-rescuing stuff than I've been. Maybe I should reconsider my career path.

Anyway… too late now. At least, I was glad to be back in a city with the press of people all around me, much to the Stag's dismay.