spent some time poring through the books I brought with me, looking for every scrap of information I could find about yeti. I really wish Etayne was still with us. What took me close to an hour she probably could have done from memory, and maybe she could have given us something we hadn\u2019t already learned from personal experience.<\/span><\/p>\n They are well adapted to the cold, obviously, as well as the dark. As we\u2019ve learned, their bodies actually <\/span>radiate<\/span><\/i> a bitter cold, and if you are unlucky enough to meet their gaze you are hit with a paralyzing fear. On top of that is their incredible strength, rivaling that of even dire apes, and a ferocity to match. They don\u2019t really have any weaknesses, either, except perhaps to fire. They are, in a word, dangerous\u2014<\/span>extremely<\/span><\/i> dangerous\u2014and there are dozens of them here.<\/span><\/p>\n They\u2019re also intelligent, or rather, intelligent enough. One of the books I have suggests they speak Aklo, a language of the darklands. In theory we would try and talk to them, but of course none of us understands it.<\/span><\/p>\n I have an idea about that.<\/span><\/p>\n I<\/span><\/p>\n n my dream, I was standing on a hill at the feet of the Wall of Heaven, staring out at the expanse of Tian Xia below. The Path of Aganhei faded into the rocky plains in the distance, and a chill wind whipped around me. The caravan was behind me, silently waiting, the animals still in the cold air. They were waiting for me to find the way.<\/span><\/p>\n We had to stay on the Path. I knew that. Stray too far from it, and the horse riders would no longer be bound by the traditions that protected us.<\/span><\/p>\n But we couldn\u2019t follow what we couldn\u2019t see. I approached the two figures up ahead. I hadn\u2019t noticed the tents of the small village just beyond them, or the horses grazing nearby. They were Tian-La, following the wild herds as they moved with the winds and the seasons.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The woman looked up at me. I skipped the introductions and pleasantries, and got to the matter at hand. In Tien, I asked, \u201cHow do we follow the Path from here?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n She looked up at me, smiling, and answered, \u201c<\/span>Chi bol gadaadyn kh\u00fcn sh\u00fc\u00fc dee.<\/span><\/i>\u201d I didn\u2019t know what it meant, and didn\u2019t have the right spell prepared.<\/span><\/p>\n I tried again. \u201cI\u2019m sorry, I don\u2019t understand. How do we follow the Path from here?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Still smiling, she said, \u201c<\/span>Tanyg tusalj chadakh kh\u00fcn bii. Namaig daga,<\/span><\/i>\u201d and then gestured with her arms as she turned around and began walking away. I still didn\u2019t understand, but she obviously wanted me to follow her. She occasionally turned her head back to check on me, to make sure I was keeping up. \u201c<\/span>Ireerei! Namaig daga!<\/span><\/i>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n An enormous field of flowers spread out around us. There was no sign of the village or the caravan, just flowers as far as I could see in all directions. We were walking in between low hedges of flowers and thorns, and up ahead was a tall woman tending to her prizes. I was alone now, and she looked up and beckoned me towards her.<\/span><\/p>\n She had long, black hair, curly like the others I had met, but different somehow. It was much longer than I realized: it hung down around her ankles, and I thought I could see hints of red, green, and gold there out of the corner of my eye. When I looked directly it, though, there was just black.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>Bi tand beleg \u00f6gd\u00f6g,<\/span><\/i>\u201d she said. I still didn\u2019t understand. She held out a flower, and I knew she wanted me to take it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>Ene beleg tany ayalald tuslakh bolno.<\/span><\/i>\u201d <\/span>This gift will aid you on your journey.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n It was a delicate, red rose, the most beautiful rose I had ever seen.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>Bayarlalaa,<\/span><\/i>\u201d I replied. <\/span>Thank you.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n It needed a vase so I reached for one of the tall, empty glasses on the table in front of me. The glass was made from a lead crystal, extravagant for drinking but perfect for this. The table stretched nearly the width of the hall. It was a lavishly decorated palace, and also immaculately clean. The white table cloth that covered it looked as though it had been made just for this occasion, but I knew that it had been used many times, and fastidiously cleaned to return it to this state. There was not a speck of dirt anywhere. Not on the table, not on the people seated with us, or even on those we had met since entering the city.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>Tavtai morilno uu!<\/span><\/i>\u201d boomed a voice from one end of the hall. <\/span>Welcome, travelers!<\/span><\/i> I didn\u2019t recognize the speaker, but everyone stopped talking and turned to face me. I couldn\u2019t see my friends anywhere, just hundreds of apprehensive strangers.<\/span><\/p>\n I rose from my seat, and replied, \u201c<\/span>Urikhad bayarlalaa. Bid tantai uulzakhdaa bayartai baina.<\/span><\/i>\u201c<\/span> Thank you for inviting us. We are pleased to meet you.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Their expressions turned to smiles as the dream faded.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Our travels will take us through Ordu-Aganhei in Hongal.<\/span><\/p>\n When I woke up this morning, I could speak Hon-La.<\/span><\/p>\n I<\/span>t was a long night. We faced threats from both ahead and behind, and the shadows and mummies had taken their toll on us. Qatana used the last of her spells to block the rear, while I conjured a stone building to partially block the passage a ways ahead of us. It\u2019s normally used for shelter in the wilderness, but we needed a wall that we wouldn\u2019t have to break through later and this fit the bill, especially since it lasts for several hours. Of course the yeti can just climb over it, but it was still useful as a bottleneck.<\/span><\/p>\n From what we can tell, a few of the yeti did, indeed, spend part of the night on top of the structure but stopped short of approaching us. They simply sat on the roof line, watching us as we watched them. Eventually, they got bored and left. Amateurs. Keeping a night-long watch is kind of a whole <\/span>thing<\/span><\/i> for us.<\/span><\/p>\n P<\/span><\/p>\n eople are upset with me. I get it. I changed tactics in the middle of that fight, and didn\u2019t really have time to explain what I was doing while I was casting spells. We can\u2019t function effectively as a team if we aren\u2019t communicating with one another. The problems didn\u2019t end there, either: afterwards, when I explained what I had done and why, it seemed as though they still weren\u2019t hearing me. I was not trying to press an attack, nor did I think it wise to do so, but somehow that is the message that was received.<\/span><\/p>\n I don\u2019t know how to fix this. I am not a tactician, and I don\u2019t really understand the finer points of combat save for what I have learned from watching Sparna and Olmas. It\u2019s difficult for me to explain my thinking in the heat of battle, especially when I\u2019m reacting to a situation that no one else can see, and I don\u2019t know when I am causing alarm or confusion.<\/span><\/p>\n All I was trying to do was stop those two yeti from getting away. If they could make it back to the rest of their tribe, they could rally a counterattack with more force than we were prepared to handle. I tried, but they were too fast and the caverns were too difficult to navigate. And then I found myself in the middle of a conjured storm of ice and sleet. I recognized the spell immediately\u2014I actually know it, myself\u2014and it was hardly dangerous, but it meant that a spell caster of some sort was coming. It meant the counterattack may be coming.<\/span><\/p>\n I did the only thing I could think of: I summoned a small cadre of fire elementals and sent them running amok through the caverns. My idea was to get the rest of the yeti tribe panicking so that the warriors and the spell caster would be forced to deal with it. I wanted their attention on the chaos, not on us. Qatana was up near me at this point and had a spell running so she could understand their language, and from what she told me this hasty, desperate plan was working. There were definitely panicked screams of \u201c<\/span>Fire!<\/span><\/i>\u201d and \u201c<\/span>Get water!<\/span><\/i>\u201d along with the unmistakable sounds of battle.<\/span><\/p>\n The others, though, seemed to think this was a waste of time and resources. I didn\u2019t, and still don\u2019t, understand. There was also this tense moment where they wanted to go on an offensive to take advantage of the chaos. Again, I didn\u2019t understand. There were still far, far more of them than there were of us, and we could very easily be surrounded in caves which the yeti knew and we didn\u2019t. But, eventually, Qatana and I were able to convince everyone to withdraw while we could, and use the time to prepare for retaliation.<\/span><\/p>\n I am not sure how I could have done things differently, how I could have prevented this confusion. But I need to figure it out; our lives are at stake.<\/span><\/p>\nCalistril 1 (Uqtaal Necropolis, Early Morning)<\/h3>\n
Calistril 1 (Uqtaal Necropolis, Mid-Morning)<\/h3>\n
Calistril 1 (Uqtaal Necropolis, Late Morning)<\/h3>\n
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