The Warlock's Tale

Speak wisely, and speak true. Your life was divided: before you met them on the High Moor, and after. Yes, you had started on the path of the Warlock when you still counted yourself a Red Tusk, but the edge of any shadow is blurry before it takes shape. 

Your first love, your first betrayal, and your first purpose: all within a fortnight of traveling with them. You will not speak of love, for her scars are deep as well. 

At first you resented the Lady for taking you, like a horse traded between new masters, one kick just as sharp as the next. But her blows never came. She could be cruel, yes, but also good. And she taught you. She coached you. She healed you and showed you a purpose: use the shadow to hold back the darkness.

Many say she is a crooked old hag, corrupt from power and immortality – the Hag is too cruel, she is too tainted. But in the woods, some trees are straight, some are bent or turned. You say maybe it did not get enough light, and so it turned this way or that. Tessa, she is like that juniper that grows in the shadow of the mountain – it is twisted, yes, bent from lack sunlight. But it is also beautiful. And it drops the best berries for your gin. 

Stop talking so with poetry. Tell your story, Orog. 

But the poetry is the story…Fine. 

When you were strong enough, you set out to work for her. To help her rest, she must kill the half-elf Vallzan. So you followed his trail. From her Book of Shadows you learned Gaze of Two Minds and One With Shadows, and used them on your quest. 

But Vallzan is old and cunning. You could barely find crumbs of his passing: every time you got close you could feel warmth in the chair, but the sitter was gone. Many years you spent chasing a ghost. Travels to Amn and Tethyr, the Silver Marches and the Spine of the World, the Dalelands and the Sea of Fallen Stars. Once, you found a man who could not hide he knew the reptile-eye half-elf. You questioned him and did everything to keep the man alive, but he killed himself. All you learned was he was part of the “Cult of Doun.” 

And so twenty-five years passed and no Vallzan, just crumbs. 

Then you saw the signs of their return. And the Lady sees what she did not before and hears what was always there. She sent you to seek out Quartermaster Kargi in the Greypeaks, who brought you to the cave and to the second Weir.

The Quartermaster and the Elder know the rest.