Sunlight is scarce, here. It comes down and sideways in brave rare shafts, piercing a thick canopy made by these giant oaks. Sometimes I stop for a while in one of these beams, warming my skin and letting it sink in. Sometimes I use my mana to summon my fire elemental, for his light and companionship. It eases my travel, and makes me feel less alone.
I passed through a small grouping of three houses, all abandoned. It was still quiet, too quiet, and the sense that something sinister had occurred permeated the place. Food remained uneaten upon the tables of two homes, but I refrained from partaking in those forgotten meals. It is actually surprising that some people would live within the forest, and it is rare, as it is the first place I have come upon in two days of entering Virens Forest. Night grows now, and it gets darker, so I'm summoning a fire elemental to keep watch overnight. I'll write again if anything happens.
I thought I heard something big, earlier, but my elemental didn't seem bothered by it. Nothing came close to the fiery humanoid's light, although it is now dark and the insects sing in the trees a great distance away, sometimes. When I summoned him, I felt my power touch the fiery plane. It comforted me in the darkness of this forest, and that feeling remains a little, with it here beside me. I'm going back to sleep now.
Another three days have passed as I make my way inwards towards the heart of the forest, down this strange path that seems so well trod, but I've yet to encounter anyone else within the forest. Another house, well kept, was abandoned by a tree. I had a quick look inside and left. Whoever the owner was, they left recently, and abruptly. Well, I hope they chose to leave, anyways. Nothing else has happened.
It's been a week. I've been through the heart of the forest, and today I came across another gathering of houses. This time it was not abandoned, though no one lived there. As I walked between the small wooden houses, the inhabitants walked out to greet me from around the corner of their home. Their soulless, sunken gaze is not something I'll easily forget. The corpses lunged at me, and my fire elemental killed several, and I myself the rest with a barrage of fireballs. One surprised me from behind, but it did not touch me. Something is happening here in the forest. Why are the dead walking?
I passed another village a day ago. It appeared to be an elven village, constructed up in the treetops. Nobody greeted me or called out as I stopped beneath it, and I did not opt to make the climb upwards. I just kept going. It's been three days, and I've been traveling down this strange, same path. Somethings wrong.
Nothing's wrong.
Have I begun to lose my grip? It's so dark here. It's good to summon companions to stay with me, they can watch me while I sleep. It's getting hard to sleep. I keep my wand in one hand most of the time. This had better be the right way.
It was my father all along. All of it, since the start in the forest. He's quite the necromancer now. It's been two days since it happened, and I managed to survive, but did not achieve my revenge. Nor did I acquire my memories of my family. I finally had some food, two lean rabbits I hunted in the forest, and stopped to reconsider my position. I'm far too weak to face him now, and I probably always will be. I need to find new allies, and allow them to be my strength.
In the forest's shadowed heart, I came upon a hill. As I walked around the large hill, I found a cavernous opening almost hidden from the outside by massive, gnarled tree roots. It lead into a cave, and within shone a dim red light. Further within, I discovered the light's source was a pulsing crimson crystal. Beside it stood none other than my father, shrouded in his dark robes. Walking corpses, his servants, stood motionless nearby. When he noticed me, I felt it. The dead's soulless eyes fixated upon me and they stepped forwards.
My father, a mage of cruel and terrible power, held a staff in one hand and touched the huge crystal, half the height of a man, with the other. The red crystal glowed brightly, as did his hand, and a ritual circle filled with arcane symbols of necromantic power lit up around him with that same hue.
I held my own staff in hand and summoned my fiery elemental between myself and the corpses approaching. The man I once known as my father, whose name I shall never speak nor write again, died before my eyes. Well, he joined the unliving. The skin peeled back from his flesh, and as it decayed and striped away the power came across him. I saw that there was a pile of corpses not far away, in the back of the cave. The victims, those who had made this forest their home, slain by my father for his ritual. The same was true of his servants, but I fired bolts of flame at them just the same, burning them. It didn't matter, though, and the ritual was done. Red, powerful eyes glowed in the skull of my father's body, and he grinned at me with that horrible face. The man who raised me, the man who broke me, stood before me now as a dreaded Lich.
He raised his black staff up, it glowed a terrible, dark energy. The cavern went black for a moment and that was the last I saw of my father. I felt his presence leave immediately, it was as if night had suddenly become day again.
My journey continues.
