The morning was almost peaceful at the grove, although Velon looked like he did not get any sleep with the cursed dagger secured under his armor. We needed to get that thing returned back to Keatinstown as fast as possible, but for some reason Phelenia thought the best idea was to head back to Alda Zocha. I think she thought we could secure the dagger in a different way there so the rest of the trip would be easier, but it would add days to our travel. She ended up being outvoted and we were able to leave without being accosted by the were-creatures of the grove. I had expected them to intervene in some way to prevent us from taking the dagger they obviously revered. Instead, when I looked back as we departed I saw Lomian watching me and smiling.

I guided us as we traveled through the woods unmolested. Velon looked terrible, but did not complain. Still he slowed us down a lot and we decided we would have to rotate who carried the dagger. Zephyr kept asking for it back, telling us how the dagger was going to make him stronger and faster. I have tried telling him the various stories I heard in my youth about the costs of power. Velon chimed in that he did not think that the dagger was either good or evil, which surprised me considering the effect it was having on him. Olrok is guarding the dagger tonight. Tomorrow it goes to me and then we switch back to Velon. Phelenia has some sort of aversion to being next to potentially evil artifacts, so she asked to be skipped from the rotation. I asked Zephyr to willingly be tied up for the night so he could not get into mischief, but he refused and we have to continue the close watch over the thing.

Olrok said he had a quiet night with the dagger and slept fine, aside from the discomfort of keeping it below his armor. I don’t know how he managed it because I can hear the thing in my mind, whispering. It keeps telling me that I can be more than what I am now. That embracing the dagger would be embracing the wilds and being born anew. It is promising me the eyes of an eagle, the strength of a bear, or the cunning of a wolf. It is asking me why I have spent my life away from cities and civilization if I do not want to become one with nature. I have been telling myself that it is somehow reading my mind and divining what it needs to say to make me accept some sort of bargain. I have been telling myself that it is some sort of demon wanting to be let out of its cage. Then I think back to the grove and the beauty of this forest. I can hear wolves howling nearby. Singing. Calling in some way. I just need to make it until morning.

Today has been miserable. I dug up the willpower to give the dagger back to Velon in the morning, but he could tell that I have been affected by it. I admitted that I could hear it talking to me, but that I did not say anything back and tried to ignore it. Now the half-giant has it and I think I hate him for it. I feel so empty. Last night I could feel the beauty of the forest more tangibly than ever before and now without it the world is bland. I feel like some sort of predatory cat trying to experience the world and being given the ability to smell only to have it taken away.

I did get a brief reprieve from my melancholy when we came across a man being attacked by several boars, once of which was massive. We heard the screams from a distance away and found a rich looking man with a handful of guards trying to fight off the animals. They were on the other side of a slow moving river, so Phelenia and I were able to shoot at the animals from a safe position. The guards wounded some of the boars, but they all died before Velon and Zephyr were able to reach them. Olrok was the last to cross the river, having thrown a few spears before running in. However, some vicious swarming fish moved in and chewed up the half-orc as he crossed. By the time he reached the other end of the river he had lost a lot of blood. The noble played dead at Phelenia’s suggestion and the large boar ran off after taking a few hits. The smaller ones were taken out relatively easily after that. Zephyr and Olrok ran off after the large boar to finish it off despite the objections from Velon and I. Zephyr managed to kill it and I felt sad at the death of such a majestic creature.

The man that we saved was Edwin Dooblee, a minor noble from New Vale City. Since his guards were dead, he asked for our assistance in getting to Sandybrook. The place was on our way so we obliged and he is now travelling with us. While Phelenia talked with the man and Olrock made food from the dead boars, Velon, Zephyr, and I tracked Edwin’s supplies that were lost when the boars first attacked. The group had tried running before making a last stand. We found some dead members of his group a quarter mile away. In their supplies was a lockbox, which Zephyr immediately broke into. It had some gold, platinum and a cypher in it. We returned with most of the gold, silver, and platinum but didn’t mention finding the cypher when we reported back to Edwin. He seemed sad at the loss and asked us to please look some more. We went back to “look” and eventually decided to give it to him. He actually paid us the gold we found and said we could take whatever valuables from his slain comrades. I am still pleasantly surprised that Edwin is an honest guy. Most nobles seem to be a lot more duplicitous. Edwin also said that his brother is taking a group into the underdark soon and that he is looking for some assistance. If we helped get Edwin all the way back home, then he would pay us for the trouble and introduce us to his brother. We told him we had a bounty we were finishing up, but that we might be able to meet him in Sandybrook before he leaves on the boat to New Vale.

Writing this during my turn at watch has been hard. My mind keeps wandering to the dagger. To what it would take to steal the thing from Velon in the night. The wolves form last night seemed to have followed us and the have kept up their song. Are they singing to me? I just need to focus and keep it together for one more day and we will be out of these woods.

Simeon is no more. He and his friends took a break to eat at the troll bridge that marked the end of the woods. While eating and talking, Velon took Olrok and Simeon aside and said that he figured out that the being in the dagger is some sort of celestial. A very powerful celestial. Velon was unsure of its offer, but Simeon was relieved and pleaded to be given the dagger. His unfounded fears cast aside, Simeon finally gripped the dagger and time froze. Simeon beheld the presence of Zhatkeenmora, goddess of nature’s wrath. Zhatkeenmora is beautiful; twenty feet tall and made of an assembly of the best parts of animal predators, simultaneously fierce, strong, and lithe. She requested of Simeon that he become what he was always meant to be: her agent in the world. She would mold him into what he truly was, and he would serve her by bringing her wrath to those that would defile nature. He made the choice he was born to make…and I was born.

At my birth, my mother gave me my first task to pursue. She announced to me and Simeon’s startled friends that there is a mine along the shores of the lake surrounding New Vale City that is taking more than its share. Taiyana, the goddess of the hearth and nature’s bounty, is hurting from their overreach. I am to make them stop. I am the merciful option before Zhatkeenmora decides to bring a calamity upon the region. Simeon’s friends My friends(?) also heard the task and are willing to help. I guess they are my friends. The people I think are my friends decided to help and I said I would help them with their missions. Velon wants revenge for his church, Olrok wants to get revenge on his clan mates that left him for dead, Zephyr wants to track down something, and Phelenia has said been tightlipped about her goals. Doing those should help me get stronger and grow into my new form so that I will be ready for any future tasks that Zhatkeenmora asks of me.

My new form is wonderous. Simeon’s frail human body was reshaped into what Phelenia has described as something resembling a tall muscular tabaxi. None of the others have met one of the tabaxi from the Onyu-Ro region, so I will take her word for it. In truth, when Zhatkeenmora brought out my inner beast I was expressed in the form of a jaguar. I feel faster and stronger and there is this connection between me and nature. I can also sense so much untapped potential. I tried racing Zephyr minutes after my birth, but he still beat me. I will have to try again when I am no longer a newborn.

Being born with someone else’s skills and knowledge is very strange. I even began this entry out of habit more than anything else. I guess that is an aspect of him that might have slipped through the process of being reborn. More likely Zhatkeenmora wants me to record the deeds I do in her name so that her name becomes more known and her wrath appropriately feared.