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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cloudgatherer" data-source="post: 17171" data-attributes="member: 66">Betrayal at TemoranaIn the Northern Alliance camp, our heroes discussed their present situation.  Olon had sent them into a warzone, but the North had already committed to retreating to River's End via Gryphon's Nest.  The party, it would seem, is running out of options and the outlook for Aera looking dimmer by the day.As the party chatted amongst themselves, an irrated Lord Treespire entered the tent followed by Lugtee Hardroc.  "You!" he pointed accusingly at Gwen, "Return my amulet to me.""How do you know I have it?" she retorted."You were the only one who could have known I had it.  I felt the presence of your piece, just as you felt mine!"In her defense, the party laid out their situation.  They needed the Medallion of the Gods to free Cloudgatherer and to return home.  Treespire found this tale amusing, as he broke out into laughter at the thought.  The party was quite serious, which gave Treespire a reason to pause and evaluate the story.  He wasn't given long to ponder over it."Didn't you want them for something?" Lugtee asked Treespire, a hint of annoyance in Lugtee's voice.Of course he did.  With reluctance, Treespire proposed a dangerous plan:  he wanted to sneak back into Ralanov and retreive a cache of items he still has hidden in his castle, Temorana.  He would be willing to "forget" about the medallion business in return for their services.Star's ears instantly perked up.  The party readily accepted the task, and Star in particular took the lead role.  Treespire provided him with a rough layout, a guesstimate as to the defenses, and their target location:  which he asserted he had to access, otherwise someone else's life may be forfiet.Night came quickly as the party prepared for their escapade.  Sneaking into the city was rather easy.  Multiple gaps in the walls, the cover of night, and Star's expertise easily solved the problem.  Making sure to conceal their sources of light, the party and Lord Treespire approached Temorana's outside gates.Several hundred feet away, two lone guards stood watch.  Lor, in bat form, surveyed the castle itself.  There were an additional sixteen archers on the roof.  The roof was only four floors up, with each floor being twenty feet to climb.  Their destination was the third floor."Take them out quietly," Treespire stated.  With stealth, Star and Yeric crept along the arches along the walkway to the main entrance, as well as their targets.  In two breaths the problem was taken care of and two guardsmen would never rise again.Using the cover of the arches, the rest of the party proceeded to open the large wooden doors of the castle just enough to fit inside.  In a small, twenty by twenty foot room, a large iron door blocked their path and small circular slots, designed for hurling alchemists fire, flanked the party on each side.  Pulling a scroll from his pouch, Treespire started a spell and an opening appeared to the left of the large iron door.  Treespire had cast a passwall to get through the stone instead of the iron.The room beyond served as the Lord's audience chamber.  Doors on the right and left and the throne in front of the party.  As Treespire closed the passwall spell that had brought them into the room, Star could hear several footsteps approaching the left door.  The party hid along the leftmost wall, except for Lor, who hid by the throne in a polymorphed mouse form.Five loud guards opened the door and stepped in.  Closing the door, the talked for a few breaths about the taking of the city and how the army from Aenith would ensure their hold upon Ralanov.  The party was still hiding along the left wall, just barely out of sight, however if they crossed the room to the other door, they would easily be seen.Sure enough, they did.  Instantly Canthor cast silence, muting any sound.  In the span of two breaths, five guards lay dead or dying in a silent throne room.Proceeding with care, the party proceeded out the right door.  This brought them to a large corridor, with several doors, but led them to the stairs proceeding upwards.  In mouse form still, Lor checked around.  To the far left of the stairs, three more guards sat at a large dinner table eating.  At one of the table, Lor pushed off a metal plate and ran through another door.  One of the guards cursed the rodent, asked the gods for a cat, and left the dinner area.  Two guards left.After some debate, the party decided on stealth, and Treespire concurred.  Most of the party easily crept by without making so much as a sound.  However, Canthor made enough noise for the feasting guards to take notice.  They shrugged it off, must be someone on patrol, or a guardsman going upstairs to train.The party passed by the second floor, listening only long enough to hear the crack of wood on wood:  training.  Treespire described a training area on the second floor, along with wooden weapons.  There were a few still awake and making use of its facilities.Proceeding up the stairway, the party arrived at the third floor.  In total, an invisible mouse who was Lor, scouted the floor and noted the six longspearmen on watch.  The party quickly formulated a plan, turn Lor, Star, and Treespire invisible, proceed to the room and retreive the items.With ease once again, the trio made their way across the floor.  The invisible Lord of Ralanov tried the door, it wouldn't budge."This door shouldn't be locked," Treespire whispered to Star.  Quietly, the rogue proceeded to pick the lock, however he found the door already unlocked.  Something else must be holding it shut.  "Go back, let me handle this," asked Treespire.  Star acknowledge, but instead crept around another corner, and proceed to wait.Several breaths went by.  The door didn't move and no sound came from Treespires direction.  Anxiously the rest of the party waited in the stairway, which suddenly lit up with an explosion of fire!The spidery words of magic turned Treespire visible as he hurled the small red bead at the stairway.  The party had disguised themselves as Polarian patrolmen, but now they were *scorched* patrolmen.The stunned guards of the third floor looked in both directions, trying to understand what is happening.  Treespire pointed at the stair way, "You have intruders," he informed them curtly, and in a softer tone directed at the stairs, "I'm sorry."The fight began in ernest. The guards quickly raised their voices in alarm as Treespire teleported himself away.  Lor and Star, keeping invisible, attempted to make heads or tails of the door Treespire had brought them too, while the rest of the party fought for their life.  Canthor manned the stairway, and the rest of the party engaged the longspearmen.  The battle was close, Yeric, Tarmus's brother, fell once, but his brother quickly used his bardic healing magic to stand him back on his feet.  Remus single-handedly fought three of the foes himself, killing two and nearly slain by the third, but was saved as Yeric rushed over and slew the guard.  During the battle, Canthor unleashed a deadly flamestrike down the stairwell, buying the party precious time.  In a flash of insight, Tarmus pulled out a scroll and created a thick wall of stone to block the passageway.  It wouldn't hold for long, but it would have to do.Beaten, stabbed, burned, and in a general state of pain the party proceeded to heal itself through spells as they discussed their options.  In short order, they decided upon escape via the roof.  Getting out his tower shield, Remus lead the party up the stairs.The longbowmen had their arrows ready, patiently waiting for a foe to show itself.  It was unusual for someone to lug a towershield up four flights of stairs, and so the archers opened fire.  Over a dozen arrows plunged into Remus' shield.  The party hesitated slightly, Gwen fired an arrow back at the longbowmen, while they unleashed another barrage at Remus, this time aiming for his shield specifically, dealing damage to the formidable barrier.Around this time, Tarmus hit upon an intelligent plan.  He quickly cast an illusion of burning Polarians, running out of the stairway screaming "Fire, the castle is on fire!"  Needless to say, this served as an excellent distration, as the party poised themselves to make their way down the castle using Remus' immovable rods and rope.  In the meantime, Lor had poised himself to use a feather fall spell to bring everyone down quickly and safely.  Unfortunately, the party had two plans:  an invisible Lor asking the party to jump on his mark, and Remus and Star setting up the rope to climb down.  Tarmus, Yeric, and Gale choose the rope.  Star climbed down himself.  Lor teleported away, and Gwen decided to jump over the edge (perhaps she was thinking Lor would use his magic).Lor arrived back in the Northern Alliance camp.  He quickly sought out Lugtee.  Lugtee had sensed Treespire wasn't returning to the castle for some item, but something else.  Using a detect thoughts spell, Lugtee had used it on Treespire, mostly because he didn't entirely trust him.  He sensed Treespire was sincere upon returning, and hypothesized he got a "better offer."Meanwhile, the rest of the party quickly left Ralanov, and decided to make their own camp, away from each side of the conflict.  The next day, Lor rejoined the party, using his polymorph spell to cover the distance.Once together again, the party discussed the recent events.  Remus and Star were concered over Lor's actions, or lack of action. He did not fling a single spell for the party, and instead teleported himself away at the end.  Remus questioned Lor about trust and liability, while Star felt a trip to the Temple of Natural Balance was in order.  In any event, they had several days to discuss it, as they decided to walk back to Aenith.During the trip, Tarmus had the hardest time remembering some of his lymerics.  Each day he remebered another line, and after several days he recalled the lymeric in its entirety.  Using the Dark Wizard's wall of stone spell on the scroll had caused some damage to Tarmus, but he quickly recovered as his mind once again sharpened and his mind was no longer dulled.Arriving in Aenith, the party proceeded to the Temple of the Spirit and met with Olon Matran.  He was sorry to hear of the betrayal, and wondered what the party expected of him.  He informed them the transportation which had brought them to Ralanov could not be used to take the party directly to a person, but to a specific place (ie the main entryway to Temorana).  As a favor, Star asked Olon to scry upon Treespire.  Reluctantly, Olon did as he was asked.Treespire lay awake in bed with a young woman by his side.  The chambers were elegant, but the party had not seen the room before.  Sitting up in bed, Treespire became aware of the intrusion, and dispelled the magic.  The room had been viewed for all of two minutes.Star wanted Treespire caught.  He asked Lor to teleport the two of them to the room, where they would subdue him and extrat the answers they need.  After some discussion, the plan was agreed upon, and the party cast *several* spells upon the pair.Appearing in the room, Star and Lor found themselves next to the bed.  The young woman was in the process of getting dressed, and the voices of Treespire and the Dark Wizard could be heard outside the room.  Not moving, the pair listened for several minutes as Treespire complained about his privacy being violated and wanted to know what would be done about it.  In an annoyed tone, the Dark Wizard acknowledge his requests as the young woman joined the talking pair.  The discussion went on about the placement of the Polarian army in the city, and plans for the Polarians to "secure" the city.  After a minute or two, the couple proceed to walk away from the room, and footsteps approached the room.  Lor didn't wait any longer, and in another breath, the two elves were back in Aenith.Relaying the informaiton to the rest of the party, they pondered their next move.  Several days passed as Lor spent a good deal of time identifying the magic items they had accumulated from their adventures.  Canthor agreed to make Star a magic sap, capable of better rending a foe unconscious.  Remus took to repairing his tower shield, Gwen to riding her horse she had not seen in a week and a half.  Tarmus and Yeric continued to recruit people for the Woodblood family farm, and Gale continued to practice with his double bladed sword.Time passed lazily as the party pondered their circumstances.  What would they do next? Who can they turn to?  Would they be stuck in this crazy world forever?  The season began to change, the leaves of fall bringing it's color to the trees signalling the approach of winter....DM's Notes:  The adventure took longer than I had expected.  I had other stuff planned, but I can use that later!  I gave the party a very open ended option at the end of this game, what to do next?  They considered going to Huranti, Mydranna, and Glarcaster, but for now they seem content to remain in Aenith.  Some time will likely pass as the party figures out what to do while digesting the recent events in the city of Bryle.Since there were a lot of suggestions thrown around, the party's plan is to remain in Aenith, right?  If I'm mistaken, let me know as time will pass and things will change....</blockquote>

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