Chapter 7: The Beast of Edmond's Field

The story of Garnett of Edmond's Field begins thousands of years ago, with the imprisonment of a demon known as Seregil. I am not aware of the circumstances of its imprisonment, or who performed the act, but the creature was cursed to remain within a subterranean jail until the end of time. It is the way of curses, or so Elminster tells me —and really, who would know better than he?—that there is always a manner in which they can be circumvented. In the case of Seregil, he could gain his freedom if he wedded the child of the raven. However, since his prison was in the middle of a remote, blasted moor and buried beneath thousands of tons of stone, it was hoped by its captors that those circumstances would never arise. Of course, they were wrong.

Time passed, as time always does, until about thirty years ago, when the man currently known as Garnett came to the ruins of Dragonspear Castle. This castle, long renowned as a haven of evil had been constructed above the site of Seregil's imprisonment. Elminster believes that the evil of the creature called other evil to it, and thus sealed the location's fate. For whatever reason the place existed, it was the site of a battle between opposing armies. In one of these armies was a young noble from the city of Baldur's Gate by the name of Corvus Touroumi. Corvus, to the non educated who may be reading this, in the old language of Thorass, means 'raven'.

Young Touroumi and several soldiers under his care had the misfortune to be on the losing side of the battle and were forced to flee. In fear for their lives, they retreated to caves that they found beneath the castle and through unlikely circumstances found themselves within the prison of the demon Seregil. They were not the first to have found the creatures' lair, and the bones of their predecessors littered the ground that surrounded them. As you might imagine, the long captive demon urgently wished to be free and it posed the same question to the latest intruders into its lair that it had to the owners of the dead remains they now trod upon: 'do any of you know of the child of the raven?'.

When Seregil discovered that there was no child of the raven, but that the raven himself stood before him, Seregil was overjoyed and in return for his life, the demon made young Corvus swear in blood that his firstborn child would be promised to Seregil in wedlock. Once that oath was complete, young Corvus was released, but bound by his word.

The young noble escaped the ruins of the castle and the enemies that hunted him and returned to his homeland. Now overcome by horror at the pact he had made, he swore an oath of celibacy and vowed never to wed. For quite a while he remained true to his vow, but that was until he met Atala Spulzeer, a noble woman from neighbouring Amn. Despite being in his mid thirties and considered too old to wed (she was not even twenty), the two fell instantly in love. He attempted to remain true to his vow, but found that his heart could not be denied and finally, they wed.

Still, he vowed to never have offspring. He would never allow Seregil to be freed. He sought out apothecaries and found ways to blunt his seed, but he did not account for his new wife's desire for children. She discovered his secret and replaced his potions for placebos, and within six months was with child. Corvus was horrified, yet he loved his wife and once she was borne, his new daughter, Amanda, as well.

However, after his child was born, nothing happened. No demon came to steal his child, no storms or ill tidings occurred; perhaps he had somehow escaped his curse. Perhaps something occurred to negate his oath.

It was not to be. Do you recall the soldiers that had been present with Corvus when he discovered Seregil? They did not die; or at least not all of them. One of them, a cruel man named Korothan, swore obedience to the contained demon in return for his life and was granted it. He became an agent for the foul demon and kept watch on Corvus for it.

Korothan came to Corvus and encouraged him to remember his oath, but the protective father had the man removed from his sight and ordered him slain. Korothan, given dark blessings by the demon, proved rather hard to kill and now enraged, sent a reminder to Corvus by foully murdering Atala, his wife.

Horrified and numb with grief, Corvus took up his daughter and stole away. Giving up his name and his wealth, he fled the land of his birth and ended up very far away indeed: the village of Edmond's Field in Cormyr. The bereaved widower found work as a scribe, and through his intelligence and noble bearing found himself in the role of Reeve to the villagers.

So time passed. Amanda grew into a beautiful and intelligent young woman and Corvus, now known by the name Garnett, believed that perhaps he had finally escaped his oath. Of course, once more, he was wrong. At some point in his time in Edmond's Field, Garnett came by the acquaintance of the Mercy Knight, Quinlan Truesilver, and confessed his deadly secret —something he had not even told his daughter. Quinlan assured the man that if in fact Seregil ever tried to rise, or if Garnett's secret was discovered, than he would do all he could to help. (If you think that the contents of the letter received by Anarion was saying exactly that, you would be correct.)

Now seventeen and almost in her majority, young Amanda was of an age to wed and Seregil wanted its bride. I do not know if Korothan always knew of Garnett's location, or had just discovered it before the events of this narrative, but either way the cruel man, now a master of dark magics taught to him by his demonic master, made his way to Edmond's Field and confronted the now aging father.

Garnett, as you might think, did not take the meeting well. Vowing to finish the job he should have completed sixteen years previous, the Reeve drove his dagger into his former sergeant's chest and hid the body deep in the forest. That was when his trouble's really began.

Two weeks later the first body was found. The victim was an innocent peasant whose only crime was to be a resident near Edmond's Field, and when Garnett investigated the site of the murder he discovered the dagger that he had used to slay Korothan. The next body was found a day later, killed savagely, and its killer remained at large.

It was then that Garnett sent off his letter to Quinlan. It is said that every object, no matter how hard, has a place where it can be broken if the blow is struck properly, and this was true as well for Garnett. He knew who the killer was and he knew how to stop the spree of murders, but he also could not give up his daughter. As days dragged into weeks and the number of bodies mounted, he fell into despair. Quinlan had never answered and now, no matter what he did he was doomed. Did he give his daughter to savagery and death, or watch the people he had called friend for sixteen years die senselessly? Unable to arrive at an answer, he instead fell to drink.

Garnett has always been seen as the voice of authority and reason within the village and in this time of crisis, with him uncharacteristically silent, they instead fell to despair and savagery. Word of their plight did reach their Lord, Baron Bominar Cormaeril, and he did see fit to send a knight to address the situation. However, Sir Whelan of Haverford —who was quite renowned as a hunter in northern Cormyr—was unable to locate whatever beast was performing the killings, to say nothing of slaying it.

Anarion and I knew none of this upon arrival, of course. We arrived at the edge of Rhygard's Wood (in which Edmond's field lay) to what seemed to be banditry. A gang of thugs led by a huge brute named Foley were forcibly evicting a family from the forest. The family were of Zhentish origin and had managed to escape that land some five years ago. However, as I said, the people of Edmond's Field had fallen into superstition and savagery. Unable to find a culprit and desperate to stop the killings that were afflicting them, they sought out anyone upon whom they could to place the blame, and the poor family before us —not only foreigners, but from a land that openly worshipped the Dark One—had been selected for that very purpose.

Anarion was incensed, as you might believe, but Foley and his gang were acting under the authority of Baron Cormaeril in the form of Sir Whelan who had deputized them. Anarion could not countermand them, so instead he gave the family five gold pieces; enough for them to start their lives over, and demanded to be shown to Sir Whelan.

The village was a sorry sight. All the doors and windows had been hastily barricaded, and signs protecting them from evil were on every door. The people looked tired and beaten. Anarion tried to see Garnett, but was met instead at the door by Amanda, who refused him entrance. She claimed her father was too ill to receive visitors, but that she could relay a message to him. (In this way had she been relaying word to him and speaking on his behalf these last two weeks).

Next Anarion went to the inn, both to acquire lodgings and to meet Sir Whelan, who had claimed the domicile as his base of operations. Again, the meeting did not go well. The renowned hunter has rented the building in its entirety for his lodgings and though room was available, the man refused to release it to us.

Whelan had tried every known method of tracking the beast, and thus far all had proved fruitless. He had laid out poison and baited traps but so far the creature had proved too canny. Finally, they had decided that since the creature only fed on man that only a man could draw it in. The villagers were loath to choose one of their own for such a fate (evidently, even the recently evicted Zhents were considered above this) but fortune, and I am unsure whether it was good luck or ill, had provided them with a suitable sacrifice. A single dwarven traveller, making his way south to Suzail, happened to be in town and was attacked and bound while sleeping.

To say that Anarion was furious upon learning of this is not doing sufficient justice to his anger. I do not possess sufficient language skills to describe his fury fully. He acquired directions to the dwarf's location and leapt aboard Asfaloth. He only grudgingly allowed me time to mount behind him and then we were off.

We found ourselves in a fallow, muddy field in the middle of which lay a tree stump and bound to that stump a mostly bare dwarf, or at least as bare as those folk can get being covered as they are in so much hair. Anarion freed him with his mysterious sword (the chains parted as if they were cloth) and received threats and vitriol for his efforts.

The longer I associate with Anarion the less I believe in coincidence. Anarion tells me when I voice such doubts that the Valar work in mysterious ways, and that what I see as coincidence can, in many occasions, be viewed as providence. The reason I bring up this observation seemingly out of nowhere is that of all the dwarves to rescue in all of Cormyr the one that we happened upon was named Thror Battlehammer and was an old friend of Quinlan and Anarion. Suffice it to say that once he ascertained Anarion's identity the threats and bluster stopped. (The surliness, however, remained and still does to this day)

We were immediately beset upon by agents of Sir Whelan who had been observing their trap and hoping for sight of the beast that afflicted them. They were insistent that Thror be returned to his place on the stump. Suffice it to say that Thror disagreed and dared them to try now that he was awake, even if not armed or armoured. The townsfolk may have taken Thror up on his offer if not for the glowering visage and bared sword of Anarion who informed them that the price for such an action would be their lives.

One of the men present was a grizzled old archer named Justin, who was the personal tracker and forester for Sir Whelan and it was he who called of the men under his authority. He and Anarion shared a look, and I think respect, for they nodded to each other before the two parties retreated in separate directions.

Thror, so I discovered, was a mastersmith (a title that all dwarves aspire to but not all acquire) and that his personal arms and armour (his greatest sources of pride) had been taken by the townsmen upon his capture. Anarion had noted that Foley and his gang, upon our meeting them, had been armed with weapons of dwarf make and now the reason for that was clear. Thror was all for going off and reclaiming them by bloody force, but Anarion claimed that Thror owed him a debt for freeing him, and that the payment for that was to leave the town in peace. Anarion would see to the return of Thror's gear.

The dwarf was, as you might guess, not pleased with the arrangement but was bound by dwarven honour and ultimately agreed to it.

We returned to a town now fully dark and paranoid. With night now fully upon us and this being the night of the new moon, it was truly black and desolate. Lights were on in every house, with every door or window shuttered fast. Anarion left Thror and I to each others company (he had little to say that was not a dwarvish curse and no words to spare for me) and left to speak once more to first Whelan and Amanda.

The knight was displeased by Anarion's actions and made to arrest him, but Anarion played his trump card: a letter, penned by King Azoun himself, giving Anarion authority to act as he wished within Cormyr's borders. Whelan then attempted to plead ignorance; he merely asked his agents to tether such a creature to attract the Beast. He did not know they had imprisoned a intelligent being for that task. Whelan promised to punish the men for what they had done but Anarion, I know, did not believe him. When pressed about Thror's weapons and armour, Whelan mumbled something about them being returned in the morning.

Next Anarion saw to our lodgings. Garnett was still 'ill' and thus unable to extend lodgings to us, but Amanda was willing to recommend a farmer that would be willing to donate a stable for our use. It was warm and dry and I for one did not complain, having slept in far worse. I had shared better company, however, than a bitter, taciturn dwarf. Anarion did not sleep and instead went out on Asfaloth into the black night, hunting.