The Witch of Koraq's Mountain
Scribe - Benjamin Lyngfelt
- Here we are, sirs, the Ziran guide announced. Are you ready to ascend Koraq's Mountain? Or Gruffan Hill, as she's also called around here.
- Gruffan Hill? Why? I don't see any signs of gruffan here.
- Ah, sir, that goes back to the Cult Wars, or so the story goes. See, a band of Sarista gypsies had been chased all the way up here by an orthodoxist army. There are some large caves on the seaside of the mountain, and the gypsies hid there, bringing women, children, household animals, everything.
Well, the orthodoxists realized where they were and were just about to rout them out, when the trick was pulled. See, the echo in those caves is amazing. The Sarista beat their gruffan, and the animals' screams - have you ever heard a gruffan scream? - bounced among the caves, sounding more and more. Must have been murder, being in those caves with all that noise.
The orthodoxists heard the screaming gruffan - who wouldn't? - and figured that there must be an entire army in those caves, if they had so many animals. Not much for fighting unless the number are on their side, the orthodoxists, they just turned back east.
That's how it came to be called Gruffan Hill.
- That's fantastic! Ha-ha, I thought those stinking beasties were good for nothing but gypsy salve.
- Yes, the story is fantastic, intoned the soft voice of a Dhuna traveling with the party. It is also false. Zandir have short memories, but we of the covens remember.
- So what happened then?
- The name Gruffan is but a corruption of Coru Fein, and the misleading connection to those foul-smelling animals was made up later. The story you just heard is no more than a hundred years old. It holds some corrupted fragments of the true story, though - like the caves, and the chasing orthodoxists.
This was before our people got separated into Sarista and Dhuna, but Coru Fein was what you would call a witch. She healed those who were ill, advised those who had troubles, and for this she was branded evil by the orthodoxists.
The first pair of soldiers who came to arrest her she simply sent back, convincing them that she had done no wrong. Then came a larger group, their minds shielded by orthodoxist magic, and thus beyond her reach. She did not wish to kill the soldiers, but she wouldn't let them bring her to orthodoxist torture either. So Coru Fein fought - this time using her talents to harm, however much she hated it.
After that, she had to flee. At first she stayed in the woods nearby, continuing to help those who needed, but the orthodoxists found out. Their scrying magic was strong, and their determination to catch her even stronger, so she had to flee further. Eventually she hid in the caves of Koraq's Mountain.
What happened there, we do not know. Many orthodoxists entered after her, but none returned. Some say they simply got lost in the caves, some say Coru Fein's magic disposed of them. A few were found close to the entrance, dead but with no sign of violence. So the orthodoxists held watch outside, occasionally sending a new patrol to their deaths in the caves, and they did not relent until a paradoxist army drove them away back east. But Coru Fein was never found again. Both paradoxists and her own kin searched the caves, but to no avail. Maybe she did not know that the orthodoxists were gone, maybe she had already died.
Maybe she still hides there. Some claim to have seen Coru Fein on the slopes of the mountain during thunderstorms, beautiful but fierce, throwing fire all around her. Some say she reached the top of the mountain, met Koraq himself and borne him a daughter. Some say she left hordes of treasure behind in the caves, just waiting to be found - but some also say she's still there guarding it, still bringing death to whoever enters the caves with ill intentions.
- Coru Fein Hill, is it then? the guide grunted. Nah, that's too far fetched.
- No, that's great! Far-fetched or not, I gotta see those caves!
- You do not fear to meet Coru Fein? the Dhuna asked.
- By the seven, no! She's long dead now, and I can deal with any Dhuna curse.
- Are you so sure about that?
- Ah, sorry, no offence, but I seriously doubt that the good lady is still walking around after more than 400 years. Maruk's luck, even that daughter of hers would be generations dead - Koraq's blood or not. Will you show us?
- I can lead you to the caves, sir, the guide offered.
- The elders were right, the Dhuna thought to herself as she stayed behind. I am a young fool, who must learn not to let my pride get the better of me. The tale of Coru Fein should never have left the coven.
On her next visit to Zir, she was glad that no one remembered her association with the missing Cymrilian and his party.
Drohem (7/13/2010) - This article was compiled from the archived Shooting Iron Design website.