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Message: <blockquote data-quote="sniffles" data-source="post: 3272339" data-attributes="member: 30035">Letter #5Dearest brother;The only part of the keep we hadn't yet explored was the tower the ogre I killed had emerged from. It turned out to be full of old carpets and a foul odor. On the second floor Shishir found a string of humanoid skulls hanging on a thong. Thor took them outside to bury them and discovered that they contained some gold and silver coins! While Thor was disposing of the skulls, we uncovered a trapdoor under the rugs. We were unable to open it. Frustrated, we decided to investigate the gatehouse above the rusted and useless portcullis, but it proved to contain nothing of interest. After we returned to the tower, Corian tried Eralion's amulet on the trapdoor and succeeded in opening it. Thor stuck his head in to see what lay below.At the bottom of a 40-foot drop, Thor observed a room containing six statues of men in armor, and four tables that appeared to hold some type of alchemical equipment. With this information in mind we descended on ropes into the chamber.At one side of the chamber I saw an ordinary door, but there was also another trapdoor in the center of the floor. Then Thor yelped when a worm crawled out of one of the statues and he realized that it wasn't a statue at all!All six 'statues' were zombies. They began to advance on us. We had great trouble combating them. I couldn't seem to strike a solid blow, and Thor didn't have a weapon that would harm them at all, only being armed with a club. He grew so desperate that he picked up a sword when one of the zombies finally fell.One of the twins was knocked unconscious, but Corian proved to be reasonably useful in combat, which was fortunate as Lauriel hadn't returned to the keep with us. It was a struggle, but at last we destroyed all of the zombies. It began to seem likely that the story Corian had heard about Eralion was true.We checked the rest of the chamber carefully, but the alchemical tools held no interest for any of us. Through the door we found what appeared to be a bedchamber, containing some books of magic that Corian expressed interest in. After these had been gathered up, we opened the second trapdoor.Below us lay another circular room, containing six sarcophagi standing upright. In the center stood a bier holding a desiccated corpse. Shishir detected some magic around the corpse, including something that couldn't be seen by the unaided eye. Nevertheless, he and his brother went down with Thor to examine it further. I remained above holding onto the rope on which they descended.The corpse proved to have a magic staff and ring, but Shishir couldn't determine the source of the other magical emanation. All three of them reported feeling a strange chill. Shishir also complained of a voice whispering in his ear. Then I heard it too and beckoned them to come back up, fearing some danger.Thor began slowly ascending the rope, followed by Ninad, but when Shishir tried to climb he felt strangely weak and couldn't hold on to the rope. Thor climbed back down and wound the rope around both himself and Shishir. I had to draw them up on my own, for Ninad also suddenly felt very weak and Corian was none too strong to begin with.While I was pulling them up they sensed a shadowy shape following them and growing more substantial. As soon as they were back in the room with me, Corian slammed the trapdoor shut. But the shadowy thing passed through the floor like air and assaulted us.We found that our ordinary weapons were useless against the shadow-thing. I tried casting a curative spell at it, thinking it might be harmed by magic, and found that I was right. Thor tried the magic dagger he'd found earlier and it was also effective. Ninad then used his fey token to enchant his staff. When he struck the shadow it vanished, leaving behind a pair of metal bracers.We were all very weak after this except for Corian, who was the only one of us to escape the shadow's draining touch. We rested for a short while and then decided to camp in the forest where we felt safer. If the orcs had returned we would have been too weak to fight them. We camped overnight away from the keep and then made our way back to Fairhill. Once more we were welcomed by the townsfolk, and Shandril extended Freya's care to us. When we told her of Eralion's shade, or whatever the shadow-creature was, she made plans to have the town guard seal the tower entrance.The folk of Fairhill wanted to give us a substantial reward for returning the crucible, but we offered it to the temple instead. We did accept a reward of two suits of clothing each, and a prize hog named Wilbur. After recuperating for a few days in Fairhill we decided to return to Highfolk. Growfest was over, and Thor and I were afraid the hunt for the oktobear would begin soon. Corian announced that he would remain in Fairhill, so we said our thanks and farewells to him and headed for the fey portal.As we neared the magic tree we heard voices. We were greeted by the Lord of the Green and a group of pixies and forest animals. The fey lord summoned up a sumptuous feast and invited us to stay and enjoy. Accepting his invitation gladly, we partook of the bounty of the forest and were entertained by a satyr who played expertly upon a lyre. A female satyr also made an appearance and seemed to hold quite a fascination for the twins, though she never spoke.That night I had an unusual but very pleasant vision during my meditation, which I will keep to myself. When dawn arrived the Lord of the Green had gone, but it seemed that during the night he had restored our fey tokens to full use. We also discovered that some of the animals that had been present the day before had remained and attached themselves to our little group. Thor already had an owl and a raven following him, but now a bluejay joined his odd flock.* I had attracted a dog, which I've named Rahon. The twins had both acquired familiars: Ninad now has a squirrel called Nimkin, while his brother is served by a hawk named Balamani. I understand that ordinarily arcane mages must perform a long ritual to acquire a familiar, but it seems that they fey lord's influence bypassed this requirement.Thor and I still intend to do what we can to stop the hunt, or at least try to mitigate its effect on the Vesve, and it seems likely that the twins will come along with us. I'll write to you again when I have more to tell.Your sister, Lothiriel*We were still using 3.0 rules at this point so Thor had multiple animal companions.</blockquote>

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