Vel validus cado - Sir Jonas Rokranon

[rokranon]

Early 1347 DR

The insomnia worse on, and problems did not abate. Siomir's sister Sari'mil became a new target by the Bhaalists, suffering mutilation at their hands. Although this in itself was troublesome, the worst was yet to come. Somehow her amputated finger wound up in the possession of a very powerful red dragon skilled at scrying. This red dragon sent an emissary to retrieve some red dragon eggs Rhys had taken from the Cloudpeaks to Doron Amar. This emissary dragon named the larger dragon as Klauth. A number of half dragons attacked a mixed group of people, leading Sari'mil to give herself up in order for the fighting to stop. It was a futile gesture. Jonas, Meri, Siomir, Rith'alaria, Kald, and Randall journeyed via Candlekeep teleportation to a distant volcano in order to rescue Sari'mil. While there they freed a very odd creature trapped in some sort of crystal, what appeared to be a celestial weasel. Having been trapped for many long centuries, Seetzee as he called himself was overjoyed at being free, and in return for his freedom aided the party in collapsing the wards around the smaller red dragon. Although she seemed unwilling to fight, she was nevertheless taken down as an agent of evil, and the eggs subsequently destroyed. Research into this Klauth proved nearly terrifying, as it was discovered 'Old Snarl' could destroy entire armies by himself. A battle would be the least desirable outcome.

Before long Klauth flew to the Sword Coast, creating a slew of rumors. What he wanted remained to be seen. The attacks on Sari'mil did not let up in the mean time. A small positive note was that Auriel was able to help with Jonas' insomnia, with some tonic only a servant of the Lady of Dreams would know.

Luckily Aethor returned to the Sword Coast around this time, although shortly after the Sigers' arrival in Baldur's Gate, Adara went missing. Also troubling was that Devany Dulcet of Istari tower went missing around the same time, and there were rumors of other missing women as well. Jonas was trying to help look into this when the alarms in Istari tower went off one day. . .

[rokranon]

Mid 1347 DR

Adara and Devany turned out to have been in the Underdark. A tunnel had been opened to the surface coming out not far from Baldur's Gate, and both women fell down it. However, Istari tower was in an uproar from a planar portal Charraj had opened. Several members ventured in and told Jonas of their adventure upon their return. They were at least able to rescue Devany. Adara turned up within the tenday. Charraj, however, was discovered to be missing as well.

Klauth was, as expected, the main order of business. Paranoia and fear continued to spread. It did not help that goblins used their special high explosives at the Cloakwood mines. The resulting explosions caused the mines to burn, and the entrance to cave in. Jonas was told about it after the fact, and was displeased that adventurers had lead to the incident by setting off the barrels themselves. Later on though, fire elementals poured forth from rifts in the fallen rock. Wave after wave came, with the fires around the mines still belching out black smoke and causing soot and ash to rain up on the area. The heat was insufferable. A different sort of fire-based creatures arrived, and these proved much more difficult to subdue. As spells flew and weapons swung, little damage was effected, and these fire creatures managed to complete a spell that summoned the single largest fire elemental any of the party had ever seen. This one took quite some time to dispatch due to the swarms of smaller elementals and difficulty to damage the thing itself.

Angered that so many fire elementals had been driven off, a female red dragon landed and proceeded to attack the assembled party. By now the party was simply massive: Jonas, Rith'alaria, Madison, Rhys, Lorin, Lance, Byron, Sari'mil, Wendel, Vallarie. . .and many more who Jonas either did not recognize or else missed in the furor of battle. Despite the large party, they were all simply exhausted and it was a difficult fight. In the end, however, she fell. This was the second of Klauth's possible mates Jonas had had a hand in slaying, and the thought made him uneasy now that he was beginning to understand the weight of the threat of the legendary dragon.

Before long, however, some more red dragon eggs were rumored in Amn. . .

[rokranon]

Mid 1347 DR

Three eggs were recovered, but there was much debate and difference of opinion on what to do with them. On the one hand, the paladins, Rith'alaria, and Siomir wished to destroy the eggs. On the other, Arivain, Sari'mil, Jake, Lorin, Lore, and others wished to keep the eggs intact, possibly to hand over to Klauth. In the end, it was decided to hide the eggs for the time being, but one turned out missing. While the other two were hidden, a few of the group went to find the third and the person who went off with it.

Tensions continued to be high over the next several days, with paranoia running almost rampant. Jonas decided to attempt to contact the allies of metallic dragons, which led to a productive meeting with Brother Flisk, a half dragon of the church of Bahamut. Klath's diplomat, Saer Thane, was met with again, the Dukes consulted, and the diplomat met yet another time. By now the possible conclusions were looking dire indeed, but the matter was taken out of the paladin's hands. Next thing he knew, Sari'mil was informing him that Klauth had the eggs, and her life was forfeit. She left in order to give Jonas and his allies time to mount a defensive, as it was clear the knight was willing to give the ancient wyrm a fight. Sari'mil was returned after only a few days, stating that Klauth's attention had turned elsewhere. Jonas continued to garner support for a fight against Klauth should the dragon return, looking for more easy pickings.

Family matters took a turn for the worse. Harwin, worried about the ancient curse on House Rokranon, disappeared shortly after a conversation with Jonas about Alistaria expecting a son. Doriah was attacked and badly wounded in the caves near Candlekeep, and brought home by Faberge, a man Jonas and Ali do not trust in the slightest. She was sent home as intelligence came in from several sources, ironically both friend and enemy, that Doriah was to continue to be a target. Athkalta once again became Doriah's home.

There were some positive notes though, with his old friend Auriel being named as a Councilor of Doron Amar, and the wedding of Siomir and Joan at Candlekeep.

[rokranon]

Mid 1347 DR

Harwin was still missing, and it was weighing very heavily upon Jonas' mind. The man dwelt on thoughts of the ancient curse upon the family. He continued to worry about Doriah as well, even though she had moved back to Athkatla. There was additionally yet unfinished business in the aftermath of the Klauth ordeal. With much on his mind, Jonas soon found himself in meetings with his fellow paladins and various other allies in planning an assault on the Banite temple in the Wood of Sharp Teeth. Although the general consensus seemed to be for Jonas to lead the attack, Aethor and Auriel wisely evaluated that his current mental state was not prime for such leadership. As a result, the veteran knight volunteered to be in the rear guard to look after the archers and mages.

Overall, the attack seemed to go well for a time. The very mixed group moved quickly to and into the temple, with the heaviest fighting at the main door and inside near the infernal altar. However, in the depths of the temple, it soon became apparent that things were not going to turn out so well. A huge cache of explosive barrels were left waiting for the heroes, and blew up in some of their faces. The resulting flame and smoke was difficult to get through, and despite an attempt to press on looking for the Zhentarim leaders, the war party was forced to withdraw. It was during this time that Jonas inhaled far too much smoke, seriously damaging the man's lungs. He made certain he was one of the last out out of his sense of honor, but it cost him. During the attack, Doron Amar itself was attacked by other forces, and quite a scare occurred when Auriel, who stayed to help lead the defense of the village, seemed to have over-exerted herself. Renec managed to stabilize the elven priestess, and later Meri worked her magic as well.

("The Night of a Hundred Swords")

The very next day, Jonas set out with a hired wizard companion to teleport as quickly as possible to the other cities of the Lords' Alliance. He wished to report on the attack of the temple to them, as well as try to garner support against Klauth should he reappear. He sought out healers in each major city: Waterdeep, Neverwinter, Silverymoon. Despite repeated ministrations, his chest would begin to sear with agony after several hours, and the cough would return. The smoke inhalation and flame damage to his lungs simply would not heal. Jonas returned to Baldur's Gate a determined man, which showed in court, but he could not hide his deteriorating health.

[rokranon]

Mid 1347 DR

Jonas returned from the other cities of the Lords' Alliance determined, but obviously physically ailing. The significant damage to his lungs would not heal even with Meri's power. While this concerned the Tormite paladin, his missing son was more pressing.

A variety of problems crept up in Jonas' absence, but he endeavored to let others handle them as best they were able. He felt weak, and knew from experience it would be some time before he learned to adjust to the damage inflicted upon him. While visiting Doron Amar one evening, his dear friend Auriel had a vision from her goddess that had to do with him:

"She who carries two stars conceived of both light and dark will bear a heavy burden. The scars will never heal for the man who shared in her corruption. His major triumphs must always bring him the greatest pain. Can never heal. The Enemy of the Light does not forgive. This curse cannot lift without the inherited curse of old once again taking root. The core of this friend of elves' future must be agony."

This vision certainly explained why some of his more serious wounds would not heal. In helping defeat Shar's plots so long ago, Jonas had earned her wrath, and had been cursed to suffer from his most intense hurts. His acid burned shoulder resulted from the fight with the necromancer Noric Patteel: the fight that caused Noric to turn Alistaria into a vampire. His nearly useless left eye and ear resulted from the battle with Kelorin, his now dead twin brother, near Daggerford. His impaired left hand resulted from the dagger he stabbed himself with while his mind was addled from the Sharran experience. His troubled dreams resulted from the Bhaalist siege, and everyone who died in it. And now, his burned lungs resulted from the assault against the Banite temple.

On the bright side, this vision told him that the ancient curse upon House Rokranon, the one that prevented more than one son from being born each generation, had lifted. The price was Jonas' own health. He could live with that. Despite a number of his friends leaving the Sword Coast, including Siomir and Arivain, the purple-clad paladin still had Alistaria and Inara, Meri, Valerius and Auriel, Renec, and the paladins of the Radiant Heart. He had his duty, and a fair city to defend. He was at peace.

[rokranon]

Mid to Late 1347 DR

The peace was short-lived. With many of his allies moving on to other lands, the complete collapse of the Weave Masters, and the growing discomfort born of the life of nobility, Jonas turned his attention to the upcoming birth of his second child with Alistaria. Too soon, however, the news of Istari tower becoming home to a Thayan enclave was brought up in palace court. This enraged the paladin as few things can, due to the treatment of both his wife Ali and adopted sister Meri at the hands of Red Wizards of Thay. Jonas implored the Grand Dukes to reconsider, but with only Eltan as an ally in this he grew disappointed. The disappointment was so great that he no longer even felt connected to his home. Within days, Jonas had renounced his claim to land and title and was preparing to embark with his family to Tethyr, a land he heard was both beautiful and rich with knightly tradition. To his delight, Merielle and Tessian agreed the time had come to move on as well and would be joining them. Red Wizards freely allowed in Baldur's Gate was just too much for the entire family.

After charging both his former guard Thedran, as well as the members of the Order of the Radiant Heart with watching over the orphanage, Jonas, Meri, and their families took several of the orphans with them to Tethyr and hopes for a new beginning. For a time, life was good. A son, Eldaenir, was born to Jonas and Alistaria. A daughter, Matilda Ann, was born to Merielle and Tessian. Inara's gifts continued to manifest under her mother and aunt's guidance. Jonas and Ali adopted a couple of the orphans themselves. Again, however, the peace was short-lived.

War came to Tethyr with a vengeance. A civil war swept the land and saw much of the nobility of the nation murdered within days. Jonas once again took up his blade, Torm's Truth, in battle to protect the innocent. Harwin joined him, finally come to terms with living in his father's shadow. Meri and Alistaria brought healing and comfort to the suffering wherever they could. Doriah served as a scout assisting her father and brother. Tessian did...whatever the Hells it is he has ever done. And so these war-weary folks found themselves embroiled in another war a few short years after the Bhaalist War.

Life goes on throughout Faerûn. There is rarely rest for a paladin of Torm, and all those who choose to actively walk in the Light of the good gods.

[rokranon]

Early 1348 DR

After some of the initial turmoil of the Ten Black Days of Eleint had settled down, Meri (who by this time was always called her first name by Jonas) returned for a visit to Baldur's Gate with Tessian and their daughter Matty. Within a couple tenday, Jonas himself appeared on the Coast. His own account, as written in his journal, will be sufficient to describe the trip.

Jonas spent not even a tenday in Baldur's Gate before Valerius teleported him back to Tethyr. Would the paladin ever return to Baldur's Gate? Only time would tell. . .

[rokranon]

Early 1348 DR - Late 1350 DR

The next three years turned into grueling month after month of war. After a few months in the north, the families of Jonas and Meri found refuge in the east in the Alonmarch with Vartan Thrynnar, an Ilmateri. From this base of operations, Jonas assisted the neighboring counties resist bandit and monster attack alike. The only other stable area nearby was Hazamarch led by Paladin Rikos Dughol. Jonas found Dughol's mood swings irritating, and generally butted heads with the man over matters of defense. The nearby Gorge was a consistent source of foes that threatened the livelihood of the common folk, and Jonas worked with both counts to keep some semblance of peace. Occasionally, he would venture farther away, such as to Ithmong a few times. Near the Wealdath he learned that being an Elf-Friend to Doron Amar did not necessarily make him an Elf-Friend to all, and he bears a scar on his brow from that lesson. Numerous small battles and skirmishes have been fought by Jonas and his family over the intervening years, too many to recount here.

The paladin eventually recovered as well as he could from the terrible lung damage he received from the burning of the Banite temple in the Wood of Sharp Teeth on the Sword Coast. However, the damage to his left ear and eye continued to grow worse. Over time his eye has clouded over somewhat. He received another scar on his cheek similar to one on his brow in a large battle in late 1349. His magnificent white warhorse, a gift during the Bhaalist siege, fell too during this doomed cavalry charge.

By 1350 DR, now more confident than ever due to his increasing prowess in combat tactics and strategy, he had become more jaded and cold to most people outside of his immediate circle due to the nature of nearly constant warfare.

The war kept Jonas and Alistaria from having any more children of their own, and the two were content to raise their own two (Inara and Eldaenir) in addition to their adopted sons and daughters. Harwin and Doriah frequently worked for their father on the front line and scouting, respectively. Michael continued to serve Jonas directly, promoting from paige to squire, and was forced to learn how to defend himself all too quickly. Larissa and Elaine tended to stay near their mother and Meri; Larissa learned a great deal from them as her dearest desire was to be a priestess herself, and Elaine helped out as she could while waiting for visits from her uncle Valerius to learn more of the arcane arts.

Jonas rarely saw Valerius and Auriel during these years, as the two took up Planeswalking. However, the families did manage to get together from time to time during periods of relative peace. Jonas also kept in contact with his Order friend Aethor Siger, who had moved back to Cormyr with his wife. Few other relationships were kept constant, possibly because of the nature of war and the fact that Jonas did not want people finding out where his and Meri's families were living. An exception is Thedran, who managed to prove his loyalty time and again and remained in close intimate contact with both Jonas and Meri.

Jonas' and Meri's lives were thrown into a bit of disarray by a letter received from one Brother Ameris Santraeger. News from Baldur's Gate other than through Thedran was unexpected, and Jonas suspected a trap of some sort.

[rokranon]

Late 1350 to Mid 1352

After the letter arrived from Baldur's Gate, Jonas journeyed back to the Sword Coast in an attempt to educate himself before allowing Meri to meet Ameris Santraeger. Jonas soon learned of the exploits of Eldarian Al'maire and Cecilia Lafayette and sought to meet two paladins of such notariety, as well as to discover the fate of the Order of the Radiant Heart after its infiltration by the Dread Lord Eliphas Valkarian. This paladin encounter in the Song of the Morning in Beregost inadvertantly led to seeing Selis Vhaire again, which did not go at all well. Selis had recently returned to the Sword Coast herself. The two old flames seemed incapable of reconciling their friendship, which only made Jonas' gloomy attitude of late all the more prevalent. In truth, seeing her again sparked something he had long attempted to suppress.

Jonas would later accompany Meri to a neutral meeting with Ameris, Louise, Neschara, and Cecilia at an old family estate in Amn. Shortly after, the paladin and living saint returned to Baldur's Gate to visit. They found the region largely changed, as Beregost had been rebuilt and much of Baldur's Gate itself likewise reconstructed from damage suffered during the Amn-Gate crisis. Jonas focused his attention on the Radiant Heart and took on the Sunite Erza as a squire. He tried to impress upon her all that he knew, but in truth Erza needed little of it. Toward the end of her training, he would offer Erza the last name of his biological father, Aldren, to make something of as the weight of the Rokranon name is no gift by any means.

One friendship that Jonas was overjoyed to renew was that of Aeili Azenci, the Mystran priestess who had helped him with Auriel's taint so long ago. A chance meeting with Charraj allowed the paladin to discover Aeili had helped him too. Vanira happened to visit while the paladin was in the region, and he was glad to see her. Jonas also befriended the druidess Berea Merriman as well as Alsarias of Doron Amar. He caught up with Elvina Aira-S'efarro, who had done very well in the intervening years with the Order of the Silver Rose.

However, it was the shattered relationship with Selis that weighed heavily on Jonas' mind and heart. Seeing so many able adventurers having taken up the fight to keep evil in check was good for Jonas, who knew he was not needed in the region and had not been since before the Amn-Gate War. His attempts to help the Radiant Heart in Baldur's Gate seemed less significant on the grand scale of things than the civil war still going on in Tethyr, and seeing Selis was a constant reminder of what they had once had that he had thrown away. The paladin returned to the south to escape facing his feelings, but not for long. Meri was able, as usual, to pry the truth out of him...that he loved Ali but going back to her had had been the easy choice...part of him never departed from Selis when they fell apart.

It was intervention by Harwin, albeit unwillingly, who spurred Jonas to action and admit he had never stopped loving Selis. A part of him knew that his family would be greatly hurt, but he also realized that he would hurt them even more by continuing to live like he had been. Although difficult for his family, Jonas returned to the side of the woman who was able to bring out both the best and worst in him through her vibrancy. In turn, Selis was finally able to tell the secret she had been waiting to share with him of their daughter together from their whirlwhind courtship years prior: Katherine "Kat" Ysara.

Despite heavy penance and reparations in the form of increased tithing, these events of the heart obviously caused a certain amount of disapproval in the public eye. But for the first time in his life, Jonas did not care what others thought of him. He was truly happy, attitude back to his old self, and has remained so ever since. Jonas finally learned to properly divide his time between work and family, and Sembia became a second home to him in the years that followed. He has since consistently journeyed back and forth between the war in Tethyr and the love of his life in Sembia.