Chapter 29 A Father Found with Lela Suud

[Eleint 2]

            We had just been teleported back into the Zhent Caravan we had been traveling with by Cedar, who was under the effects of the Heavy Magic he had drank earlier.  Cedar also had and unusual look about him like there was still magical energy inside of him bursting to get out.  Suddenly it did.

            In all my night of hearing stories and through the lands I have traveled, I have only heard rumors of this power they call Spellfire.  It was rarely heard of at best but I still knew little of what it was about.  Today, I received a front row seat and full demonstration of just what it can do.

            When we returned, we saw one of the Bedine was dead and the other two were being tortured.  Seeing this and living through what we had just see was enough for all of us.  Cedar had gained some of this Spellfire power from Mystra’s Heavy Magic that he had drank.  As the Zhents did not expect us, we surprised them outright.

            Cedar let loose on Vestile launching a blazing bolt of energy her direction striking dead on.  Xan followed with a flurry of arrows taking down multiple opponents.  Oskar and Shane went in on foot to eliminate our opponents and were very effective.  I barely had time to get out a war cry using my Tongues spell yelling, Black Cloaks be doomed! as I entered the fray.  This was to announce us and let the Bedine prisoners know we were now helping them to their freedom.  Primula brought down a Holy Smite on the Zhentarim and then ran for the captives and began working on freeing them.  The battle was very short lived and they were all dead in seconds.  We had proven, again, to ourselves that we could be incredibly deadly when we were prepared and focused.

            As Primula freed the last Bedine we suddenly became aware that we were surrounded.  Rising from the surrounding dunes was an army of Bedine.  We attempted to talk to them with Cedar even speaking on of the desert languages.  One of the Bedine kept marching all the way to Cedar there was no way for me to interpose.  He had his blade out and now had Cedar in an instant kill position they must have seen his magical display and thought him a Zhentarim mage.

            Just as I was going to attempt to talk the situation down, a voice shouted Hold and Lela Suud fully adorned in Black Armor stepped out.  We were in the presence of the Black Lion.  As he spoke and said we were not Zhentarim the Bedine warrior took the blade from Cedar’s throat.  Then, Lela Suud looked my direction and said, We have a lot to catch up on my Son.  With that he removed his helmet revealing a face I had left in Voonlar several years before.  It was my Father!!!!

            He said that it was the Wandsman and myself who had saved him when we had returned the Good Tren back with Peraus Wands.  The mission my father had been sent to when I was supposed to meet him was with our Tren and he spent much time learning from him with a couple of others.  Tren imparted them with all the accumulated information from all the years of his service but, this time, it was to be used for good instead of evil.

            He mentioned getting to see my mother as he exited the Shoal of Thirst.  He had also said it was this same trip to the Shoal of Thirst that forged his soul with a purpose.  He mentioned the on true teaching of Tren that he now took to heart.  To stand by and allow evil to exist is to be that evil through and through.  He told me how proud he was to see his son destroying Zhentarim while wearing the mark of the Harpers and called me a true Lion of the Desert. 

Every adventurer looks for a purpose to focus them, and every spell caster finds a mentor or god to guide them, every musician searches for that which creatively inspires them, and every son wishes for a legend to follow.  For me, my father was Lela Suud, The Black Lion - Bane of the Zhentarim in the Anauroch, leader of the Bedine uprising against them.  And I am his son, Kerith of the Dalelands, Member of the Wandsman, Follower of Corellon.

I could not sleep that night as I stayed up catching up with my parents.  My mind was racing at Spelljamming speeds trying to process it all.  It was our actions, in the end, that had saved my father from succumbing to the evil of the Zhentarim.  The Zhentarim were an evil group to be dispatched.  He mentioned his soul and purpose being forged in the Shoal of Thirst.  Tren had told him we would be coming years ago because of an action that only a few of us remembered and had changed the course of our futures.

I got up and took a walk around the camp.  I looked in on each of my companions.  Primula who had started her adventure with us under the name Cedric as an outcast of her people and was now a proud follower of Corellon, Shane the small and potent monk true to his beliefs, Xan the most incredible archer I had ever seen, Oskar the paladin of Moradin the soul forger proving the purity of the soul he has forged in himself, and Cedar the wizard from Cormyr who had come looking for adventure and now had found a new Goddess and purpose for his life.  Like my father, I had surrounded myself with people of high morals and good intensions.  They were family each and every one.

One could not ask for a more loyal family than the Wandsman and I intend to do my part in helping them rid the Dale of the evils that exist there.  I will continue to not judge before I know the intensions of a creature but, when it is known they are evil, I will be swift in supporting my comrades in eliminating the evil that exists.

The Songs and Stories of My Life,

Kerith of the Dalelands