So this is what happened, part one:
After killing the goblins, four elves lay dead, including their leader Greenleaf. The two remaining elves wanted to take their dead companions back to their village. The PCs needed some rest and wanted to take their campaign to Dara and see what was happening there.
They faced 4 lolthbound, 2 bugbear warriors, 2 bugbear wardancers, 4 deathjump spiders, a hexer, an underboss, and 8 warriors. The warriors were reduced to minion status due to level difference.
As the PCs neared the village some elven guards spotted them and greeted them. The leader of these elves was a friend of Aiden's, named Talesid. He was happy to see his old friend - less happy to see the 5 dead elves. Talesid escorted the PCs into the village.
There was a little elven boasting and bragging directed at Umar - everyone else has some elven heritage except Umar, who is 100% human. Mostly it was about how short-lived and rash humans are.
The elven village was a large clearing in the middle of the forest where they had built houses into huge, magically grown trees. Like Ewok Village. In the centre of town there stood a pair of trees that had grown into each other; at their base there was an open space, and this space was a portal to the Feywild. Two elves guarded the portal.
One small tree, younger than the rest, held a temple to Corellon. The temple was in bad shape, obviously neglected. Talesid explained to Shamon that the old priest hadn't taken an acolyte when he died and no one worshipped there much any more.
Upon seeing the dead, the elves wept openly, gnashed their teeth, beat their breasts, pulled out their hair, and moured openly. The PCs spotted Dara, the elven Queen, at her balcony watching them. She didn't look too happy.
With all the elves mourning, Shamon climbed to the temple and stood on a balcony overlooking the throng. He played an elven dirge that he knew and mesmerized the crowd. All the elves stopped and listened to him. Even Dara came out of her home to listen.
Shamon rolled Diplomacy; he knew the dirge because he's trained in Religion, and I gave him a +2 bonus because of that.
When the song was over he adressed the elves, saying that they should be given a burial worthy of their deeds - they should be buried at Lanath Keep (Daggersburg Keep, where all the goblins are; it was a tomb for the noble elven dead). It was time for the elves to rouse themselves and strike back at the goblins and retake what was theirs.
Dara was nearby on her balcony and she spoke back, saying that Shamon was a stranger to their village, that they would be honoured in their own way, buried in the ground so that they could rejoin the wood; Shamon should respect their customs, they stay away from Lanath Keep for good reason - 5 good elves died because their broke with tradition.
Shamon had a good comeback line to that... I can't remember what it was. Something about her mother, the banshee? At any rate, Dara spun on her heel, rebuffed, and went back inside. The elven villagers talked about what Shamon had said, and there was some debate in the crowd.
These were a couple rolls in a skill challenge, both successes; I didn't state that we were in a skill challenge, or what the goal was, or anything like that. I think everyone knew. The level, I decided, was 11, since that's Dara's level.
The PCs decided to rest for the night, since they were pretty banged up; Talesid set them up with some food and a vacant house to sleep in. The PCs went to bed.
Shamon woke up in the middle of the night after his eye of alarm was triggered - swarms of spiders crept into their room and attacked them! Oh no! The spiders crept over the PCs but they were able to kill them without burning down the tree.
After the fight Aiden tried to spot some spider tracks but saw nothing.
I wanted to see what would happen if I attacked the PCs at night, while they were sleeping; I've never done that in 4E. I also liked the image of spiders creeping into their room.
Talesid soon arrived and other elves were waking. No one had seen anything suspicious; Talesid said he would guard them for the rest of the night.
When the PCs woke, Talesid and a number of other elves came to see them. These were the elves who were most moved by Shamon's words the other day, the ones who felt like they should do something, but they didn't want to break Dara's laws. They talked with the PCs a bit; I forget what was said, but they didn't have their fears allayed enough to throw in with the PCs.
In other words, a Diplomacy failure.
This was the second of the six days of mourning (the day of rememberance). On the forest floor Dara had set up a crescent table and had the bodies of the dead, cloaked in black shrouds, lying before her. Elves were there saying how they knew the dead and what they remembered of them, adressing Dara, and she would reply with some words of her own.
Decided on the fly that they had six days of mourning and a feast on the seventh day. All this was made up on the fly.
Umar stepped forward to address the crowd. The elves were hesitant, unsure what this young human had to say, but Dara let him speak. He talked about how he fought alongside the elves and how brave and valiant they were. All the elves nodded and were pleased at his words.
Then Dara responded with a little dig... something like, "We thank you for your kind words, you are a true friend of the elves. It's unfortunate that we have only just met you because of this senseless tragedy, where these brave and noble elves died for absolutely nothing at all."
That triggered some back and forth between Umar and Dara, with the other PCs chipping in now and again: Umar called Dara a coward and talked about how their village was in decay and stagnant; Dara responded with "How dare you! At this time!"; it escalated until Umar badmouthed Dara's mother, Thia, saying that she was working with Lolth or something, and Dara reacted by leaping at Umar and attacking him.
Umar westled her to the table, but the other elves leapt to her defense. Dara spoke out, saying, "You attack us during our time of mourning. Leave here, all of you; never return." So they were banished.
The other elves did nothing to stop Dara, pretty disgusted by the PC's behaviour.
Once again, failed Diplomacy check.
Talesid escorted the PCs out of the village. He didn't quite believe the PCs, with their stories of drow and what not at Lanath Keep, so they offered to take him there and show him directly what they had found. (They considered using Last Sight Vision to show him what Theron saw - specifically the ghost of Thia, just before he was killed, but they'd have to get the bodies from town.) They could also take Theron and Greenleaf and inter them at Lanath Keep, like they deserved.
Shamon used a Bard power that gave him a nice bonus to his Diplomacy check and Talesid agreed to bring the bodies to the PCs. The PCs rested outside of town and at night Talesid brought the bodies along with a pair of elves.
That ends the first part of the adventure. The skill challenge is still in the open, so we'll see what happens.