"Renegades"
1285 AE - 1290 AE
This account of the adventuring group known as the Renegades is a gathering of reports from the members Hyru and Elliana, the two survivors of the group, and reports of the wolf clan reports of Sorn Illisten’s bladesinger clan, as well as eyewitness reports and other evidence.
Renegades was a name given to themselves, the four heroes who traveled Keltesar and even further south into the Iron Isles and beyond into the Princemarches, made up of the three elves: Sorn Illisten, Kara Whiteoak and Landen Ashwood, as well as the human mage Jorn Erikson. They gave themselves this name because they worked an underground slavetrain to free slaves from Keltesar and send them south. The elves came from the forest island of Tirandor, and Jorn was a former slave himself.
Throughout their career, Sorn Illisten slowly took on the role of group leader. He was a bladesinger of some skill at the time, and was fighting the conscripts of current bladesinger teachings, as he was slowly building his own spell and martial art style. Kara was a pacifist healer, she abhorred violence of any sort, and so her personal mission was to ruin the gladiator pits of Keltesar. Jorn was involved simply to help any other slave who was going through what he too had survived. Landen was an elven ranger who originally just went along for the ride, but found himself more involved then he thought could ever happen.
Through records of slaves disappearing, we are able to discern that the renegades were quite successful in their trade. Through the Elven intelligence network, we know that there is still a price on the head of any participants of that organization. They are thought to have smuggled more than three thousand slaves out of Keltesar, though it could be more.
During their time of freeing those unfortunates, Sorn slowly began building his prestige as a bladesinger. His personal style was gathering more and more followers, and more resistance from bladesinger elders as well. He was eventually disbanded from the wolf clan, and so he created his own clan, The Dragons.
Throughout the next year Sorn was becoming more and more obsessed with his growing powers. His magic was becoming more and more strong, and his bladework was superb. The result of this was an ongoing argument with the pacifist, Kara. No one knows what was said in their final confrontation, or what reasons he might have had, but during a particularly heated argument Sorn lost his temper. Just as Landen and Jorn were returning from a scouting mission they walked into camp to see Sorn standing over Kara’s limp body repeatingly stabbing her limp bloody form with his elven blade.
In their reports Landen and Jorn stated that they attacked Sorn, intending to bring him to justice in elven courts, but that he was simply to powerful. He forced the two into retreat and then disappeared. They reported to the elves of Tirandor and then began their own mission of vengeance.
They contacted two slaves they had freed from the Keltesar gladiator pits, Hyru and Elliana. These two were the most talented pit fighters they had saved. The four hunted Sorn for three more years, and finally managed to catch up with him, but they were unprepared for what he had become, a master bladesinger with the blood of dragons. Black dragons. Sorn now looked more like a demon with black horns and wings than like an elf, and his power was supreme. The group fought valiantly, but they never had a chance. All were desperately wounded when they scored their first hit on Sorn. It wasn’t a life threatening wound but it was a substantial wound. It should have raised their spirits that they had managed to wound him, but it didn’t. Sorn laughed at them as they watched the wound close almost as quickly as it was made. It was then the group lost hope. They fled.
Hyru and Ellianna returned to Keltesar where they continued to fight as free warriors in the gladiator pits. Landen and Jorn formed a larger group to return to the hunt of Sorn. They were never heard from again.
Sorn Illisten is still at large, and is currently Elvaris’ most wanted criminal. He is suspected in many other crimes, including conspiracy with the drow to destroy Silvaris. The price on his head is two million gold pieces.