The Gateway Campaign

[kenobi65]

Session #8 - 8/31/01

The party spends the early morning relaxing in Winterhawk’s house, and begins to discuss their next moves.

At around 9 in the morning, the party sees a large contingent of soldiers heading down the street, towards Winterhawk’s house. The soldiers are being led by General Leobrandus Sirondus, who replaced Winterhawk as the head of Dorlomin’s armed forces. General Sirondus knocks on Winterhawk’s front door, and announces that Winterhawk, as well as all eight members of the party, are being requested to appear before the king. Sensing their lack of options, Winterhawk and the party agree to be escorted to the palace by the soldiers.

Once at the palace, Winterhawk and the party are disarmed – each party member’s weapons and / or spell-component pouches are placed in an individual locker, and that party member is then given the locker’s key. General Sirondus indicates that Winterhawk is to see the king first; the party will stay in a waiting room until the king is finished with Winterhawk.

After about 45 minutes, Sirondus returns (without Winterhawk) and escorts the party to an ornately-decorated throne room. Several dozen courtiers and nobles are in the room, as well as dozens of armed guards. At the head of the room, sitting on a throne, is King Kenton IV.

The general introduces each member of the party to the king. Kenton notes that the members of the party have served Dorlomin well over the past weeks, and that their valor and ingenuity is unquestioned. He also notes that the information garnered from the party’s trips to the Draconic States will be valuable in preparing the country’s defenses. However, they used the Gateway in express violation of a royal decree, and for this, there must be some punishment.

Since it appears that the party was discharged from the Dorlomin armed forces several hours before the incident, the party will not face a court-martial. Instead, their punishment is now a civil matter, and is
the responsibility of the civil government. As the head of the civil government, King Kenton sentences them to a year of service to the community. He tells them that they are not to leave the city of Marington until they are contacted by a representative of the city’s government, who will assign them to their tasks.

As King Kenton pronounces this sentence, Ulfgar briefly spots Governor Renard observing the proceedings from the back of the crowd. Once the king finishes, the party is led back out of the throne room, given back their weapons, and escorted from the palace. Very quickly, the members of the party scatter, apparently in hopes of making it difficult for the authorities to track them down. Several party members attempt to find Winterhawk, but she is not at her home, and they cannot find her.

As he wanders through the streets of Marington, Phadian runs into Rinna, who has just returned from her trip. She is very curious to hear what has happened, and she and Phadian spend much of the afternoon rounding up the other party members. The evening is spent discussing the situation, and the party agrees to wait and see what “the government” has in store for them.

7/27

Over the course of the morning, all eight party members are approached by a messenger, bearing a note. The note reads as follows:

“I have requisitioned the services of you and your friends from the government. Your sentence of ‘community service’ will thus be carried out under my supervision.

I would like you to meet me in the Breman Gardens this evening, at an hour after sunset. There, I will give you your first assignment. This letter will gain you admittance to the Gardens.

Regards.”

The notes are “signed” with a wax seal, bearing an unusual symbol. While no one in the party recognizes the seal, Rinna tells them that she believes it may be the seal of the Duke of Valeram. Curious to learn more, the party takes the note to a sage. The sage confirms that the seal is that of the Duke of Valeram, but this causes more confusion – that dukedom is moribund, and no one has held that title for over a hundred years. The sage then confirms that moribund titles of nobility revert back to the crown. Sveral party members speculate that Winterhawk may have been given the title.

After doing some shopping for both magical and mundane items, the party assembles shortly after dark, to go to the Bremen Gardens. These gardens are very beautiful, lying just to the south of the palace. They consist of 8 acres of manicured lawns, flower gardens. Hedges and bushes, as well as larger trees, break up the area, and provide numerous more private spaces. Many trysts and secret meetings are held here, but the Gardens are generally off-limits to all but the nobility (although wealthy merchants have been known to buy access). Rinna accompanies the party, but winds up waiting outside the garden’s gate – there are two well-dressed guards at the gate, and only allow admittance to the party members, each of whom has their own “invitation.”

The party wanders around the garden for several minutes. Just as they are about to cross a small bridge, they encounter two cloaked figures. The figures lead the party to a secluded bower, where they reveal themselves to be King Kenton and Elena Winterhawk. Kenton tells the party that “the Duke of Valeram” is one of many little-known titles held by the monarch, and that he uses the title for those times, like now, when he must act outside of his royal duties.

“The duke” tells the party that, under the current political climate, it will be impossible to stage any official missions to the Draconic States, with or without the Gateway. For this reason, he has created an “unofficial” task force, headed by Winterhawk, to undertake such missions in the name of the crown. He then requests that the party join Winterhawk on this force.

He continues, telling the party that their first mission will be to try to uncover what is going on in the elven land of Caradhir. He wants the party to leave the following morning, and to then head for the southern Caradhir village of Feineth – one of the leaders of this village, an elf named Camdaras, is an old aquaintance of Kenton’s. The king believes that Camdaras may be willing to give some information to the party – he gives the party a letter of introduction to Camdaras, so that the elf will recognize that the party is acting in Kenton’s name. As a secondary part of the mission, Kenton tells the party to investigate anything else that they discover to be out of the ordinary.

Kenton also gives the party a bit of additional information on the situation with the elves. He says that, a year ago, when the conflict with the Dracos began, he had petitioned the elves for their assistance. After a delay of several weeks, he received a terse reply of “no,” with no further explanation.

Phadian suggests to the king that the party might have a ninth member – Rinna. Neither Kenton nor Winterhawk recognize her name, but are willing to meet her and consider her. Phadian and Winterhawk briefly leave the garden, to retrieve Rinna from her post outside the gates, and bring her inside. The king and Winterhawk speak to Rinna briefly, and Kenton extracts Phadian’s promise to vouch for the young woman. Eventually, it is agreed that Rinna may join the party for this mission.

Winterhawk then begins to explain some logistics. She and Kenton have agreed that it would be safest to move the Gateway out of the city of Marington. She wants the party’s assistance in smuggling the Gateway Stones out of the city – she believes that Governor Renard suspects her of having the Stones, and she knows that the exits to the city are being scrutinized.

Once outside of the city, Winterhawk will temporarily set the Gateway up, and send the party to the outskirts of Sanrin, a human town in eastern Straslund (this is the closest point to Feineth that Winterhawk knows well enough to use). The party will be given horses to ride. They will also be given a Gate Key to use, but Winterhawk cautions that the Gateway may not be functional again for several days – it is possible that the party will need to ride all the way back to Marington at the completion of the mission.

7/28

The party convenes at a stable in the city. Winterhawk shows the party their new horses, and indicates that she will be driving a cart, containing a load of timber. The party discusses what to do with the Gateway Stones, and winds up splitting them up among the three party members with the best ability to bluff the guards.

Upon reaching the city gates, Nivek tries too hard to bluff the guards, and ends up drawing the guards’ attention to himself with an outlandish story. As the guards become more suspicious, Zeebee threatens the guards with the wrath of the “duke of Valeram,” and the party is let through.

After several hours of riding into the countryside, Winterhawk leads the party off the road. The party sets up the timbers into a rough arch shape, and attaches the Gateway Stones. Winterhawk opens the Gateway to a spot just south of Sanrin, and wishes the party luck as they cross through.

The party finds itself in rolling pastureland. They see numerous small farms, all sporting herds of dairy cattle. They ride for perhaps an hour, entering the small town of Sanrin. As they set up camp in the town’s inn, and talk to the locals, they learn quite a bit:

- It has been a difficult year in Sanrin. Starting last fall, a tenacious ailment has swept through the town's dairy-cow herds, more quickly than Edren (the town’s one cleric) has been able to keep up with. While the gastro-intestinal disease is not fatal, it greatly reduces the cows' milk production, and seems to linger (if untreated) for weeks.
- In addition, the town's taxes were raised twice in the past year (in order to fund the war effort), despite Lord Jarecht’s pleas to his superiors that the town could not afford the increases. Jarecht was told – “we're at war, sacrifices must be made by all.”
- One of the town's secondary trade goods has been woodwork -- particularly furniture. The best woods are found well within Caradhir, but since the folk of Sanrin have had a good relationship with the elves, the elves have allowed the humans to take a few trees each year from the elven lands, in exchange for dairy products (especially cheeses). With the drop in cheese production, the desperate Sanrinites hoped to be able to make up for some of this with wood products. However, several weeks ago, when a group of Sanrinites went into the woods, they were firmly told by a squad of elf rangers that they would no longer be able to enter Caradhir.
- The final straw occurred ten days ago. A farm family on one of the outlying farms was killed; while there was much blood, there were no signs of the bodies. The townsfolk are divided as to what happened: some say a monster killed them, while others believe they were killed by the suddenly-unfriendly elves.

These events seem to have split the townsfolk into two groups: those who are trying to work their way through the troubles as best as they can, and those who are very angry and blame the world outside of Sanrin for their troubles.

The party finds a farmer willing to guide them to the farm where the apparent murders occurred. There, they discover the scene much as described – many bloodstains, but no bodies. The cattle are gone, but it had been explained that neighboring farmers had taken the cattle, rather than let them starve. The farm’s dog is discovered dead at the bottom of the farmhouse well.

Ulfgar and Whitefire discover several cats in the barn – Ulfgar befriends one of the cats, and Whitefire speaks to it briefly. They learn that the people of the farm were attacked by “really smelly people,” and that the “smelly people” dragged the farmers off into the woods to the west. Ulfgar searches in that direction, and manages to find a single footprint. A few minutes of deliberation leads the party to the conclusion that the farm family was attacked by a group of ghouls.

Returning to the inn, the party talks to the locals, and learns that, many hundreds of years ago, there was a war between the humans and the elves (back when this whole area was wooded). A battle was fought just to the west of town, and a ruined crypt still stands in the woods to the west. The party decides to investigate the crypt, but not until morning.

7/29

The party heads towards the woods, which lie just over a hill from the murder scene (and in the direction of the footprint that Ulfgar found). Upon entering the woods, the party encounters, and quickly destroys, a pack of ghouls.

A few minutes’ walk later, the party discovers a ruined stone building – apparently the crypt. To their surprise, they also discover a dozen or so townspeople from Sanrin at the crypt, most of them armed with simple weapons. The townsfolk, led by Mulf the woodworker, warn the party to leave the area – that they have no desire to let “outsiders” meddle in their affairs. Mulf also indicates that Ulthand (a wealthy merchant) and several other townsfolk are already in the crypt already.

When the party shows no sign of retreat, the townsfolk amazingly begin to move to attack. A quick Sleep spell from Ian, and a couple of well-placed punches from Ulfgar and Zeebee, knock out the townsfolk, but the party is now even more cautious.

Moving into the crypt, and down the stairs, the party encounters a bizarre scene. In the crypt itself there are more than a dozen ghouls. At the far end of the crypt, there is an altar, and Ulthand (now wearing the robes of a priest of Hextor) is standing behind the altar, directing the ghouls’ attacks.

The party wades into battle, and discovers that some of the ghouls are actually tougher ghasts. Phadian and Magnus use a Flaming Sphere and a Web as a surprisingly effective one-two punch against some of the ghasts (and Ulthand). Within a few minutes, the party manages to defeat all of the undead, as well as the evil cleric.

 

[kenobi65]

Session #9 - 9/14/01

The party investigates the home of Ulthand, the cleric of Hextor who was posing as a merchant. They find a small amount of cash, and some sinister scriptures, but nothing else of interest.

7/30

The party leaves Sanrin, heading into the woods of Caradhir (following directions given to them by Sanrinites who have gone into the woods). Within an hour or two of entering the deeper woods, the party finds itself face-to-face with a party of six elven rangers, apparently on patrol. The elven rangers are initially very belligerent, insisting that the party turn back at once.

Eventually, Phadian manages to convince Gwanir, the leader of the rangers, of the importance of the party’s mission. Gwanir sends several of his men back to his village (Feineth, not coincidentally). The party then waits with Gwanir and his two remaining rangers for about an hour, to give the other rangers time to get back to Feineth and prepare the village. During this wait, the party manages to soften the mood of the elves somewhat by offering them food and wine. Gwanir divulges little of what is going on in Caradhir, but does indicate that matters are very serious.

Gwanir then leads the party to Feineth. This elven village of perhaps 300 inhabitants is built almost entirely above ground, in a large series of tree-houses. Activity in the village comes to a halt when the party enters, and the eyes of every villager are on the party.

Gwanir introduces the party to the leaders of the village: Camdaras and Geled, the two elders of the town, and Celegil, a female elf who wears the holy symbol of Corellon. Phadian attempts to exchange blessings with Celegil, but her response is startling: she bitterly replies, “Corellon’s blessings to you, for all the good it does.”

The party presents Camdaras with the note from King Kenton, which the elf considers for several moments. Camdaras then tells the party that they will be his guests at dinner that evening. He provides a suite of guest accomodations for the party – in essence, the party gets its own tree-house, with a open-air common platform and three enclosed sleeping areas. Various party members clean themselves up, in preparation for dinner.

Dinner is held on a large open-air platform in the lower boughs of a huge oak tree, in the center of the village. Several dozen elves join the feast, including Ninglothil (Camdaras’ wife), Faelor (Geled’s wife), and Thuldor (a young male elf, the acolyte of Celegil). While it is a beautiful summer evening, the mood is far more somber than the party would expect to find elves.

As dinner progresses, Whitefire comes to a surpising realization: he has seen no infants in the village – in fact, he sees no children under the age of 1 or so. He does notice several toddler-age children, the parents of whom seem to be extremely protective and guarded.

As dinner ends, Camdaras begins to speak. He says that a great deal has happened here in Caradhir, and even he does not understand it all, nor does he know everything. He begins by describing what happened when the elves of Caradhir received King Kenton’s plea for aid the prior summer.

The only thing that Caradhir has that resembles a central government is the Omentrelvinore, or “the congress of our people.” This “congress” consists of elders from each of the several hundred villages and towns of Caradhir. Normally, the Omentrelvinore meets once a season, to discuss matters of concern to the entire people; however, the congress will also be called if there is an urgent matter.

When the elves received Kenton’s message, they called an emergency meeting of the congress. The matter was debated by the congress for several days, and Camdaras recalls that, after the debate, he was fairly sure that Caradhir would mobilize to help Dorlomin. However, as the debate concluded, a sub-set of the elders, called the Omentrelviar, or “the congress of the ancients,” withdrew to have their own meeting. The Omentrelviar consists of the elders from the oldest of the elven villages, which also means that they represent the oldest and most respected of the clans of Caradhir.

After meeting in secret for several hours, the congress of the ancients announced that they, as a bloc, would vote against aiding Dorlomin in any way. The entire congress then voted, and the vote was a landslide to oppose any aid.

Camdaras then left to go home to Feinor. Upon arriving home, he learned that a woman in his village had given birth (somewhat prematurely) several days earlier. On that same day, another woman in the village miscarried. Further, on that day, Celegil (the priestess of Corellon) discovered that she no longer had access to her more powerful divine spells, and none of her divination magic would work.

Camdaras quickly learned that similar events had happened across Caradhir on that day, the same day that the Omentrelvinore voted against entering the war:

(1) Every pregnant elf woman in Caradhir went into labor. Those whose fetuses were far enough along in development gave birth; those who were not as far along in their terms miscarried.

(2) All higher-level clerics in Caradhir lost access to their higher-level spells, and all spells involving divine contact (such as Augury or Divination) ceased to work.

The elves of Caradhir were very distressed, and approached the Congress of the Ancients for insights, but, even if the elders knew anything, they said nothing.

As the months have gone along, the situation has not changed. No elf woman in Cardhir has conceived since that day, and the clerics have not regained their spells. The elves have used magic to contact their southern brethren, but this has apparently not led to any additional insight, other than the fact that the southern elves have suffered none of these misfortunes. Finally, at the summer meeting of the Congress, the Congress of the Ancients called for the closing of Caradhir’s borders, and the expulsion of all non-elves, in hopes that a period of introspection might lead to a solution.

Camdaras is convinced that the decision to not enter the war has somehow caused the deities of the elves to turn their backs on their people, but he is not sure he understands why. He is also quite convinced that the Congress of the Ancients knows more than they are letting on, but again, he has no idea what that might be.

The party asks Camdaras what they can do to help. Several of them suggest that the party might be able to seek out the southern elves. Camdaras is not convinced that the southern elves would have any solutions to offer, but he does say that, if the party happens to encounter the southern elves, that it might then be worthwhile to ask for assistance.

By now, it is quite late, and the elves retire for the evening. The party heads back to their “suite,” and also turns in, although they do keep a watch.

8/1

Very early in the morning, Phadian (who was on watch) hears some of the elves’ dogs begin to whine. Then, off in the woods, he can see momentary flashes of firelight. He quickly awakens the rest of the party, but they have just moments to prepare before a volley of flaming arrows hits their own treehouse, as well as many other trees and treehouses in the village. Seconds later, a large band of hobgoblins, accompanied by several trolls, assaults the village.

The fight proves to be quite bloody. Although the party’s magic (particularly Whitefire’s amazingly effective Spike Growth spell) makes short work of most of the rank-and-file hobgoblins, the leaders put up a strong fight, and the trolls prove to be even tougher opponents – in fact, Ulfgar is nearly killed while fighting off one of the trolls.

Eventually, the party manages to defeat all of the humanoids who were attacking their tree – they then go off to assist the rest of the village. Phadian and Nivek then spend some time healing injured elves – Celegil’s faith seems to be so shaken that she cannot even use her simplest spells.

After dawn, Camdaras holds a brief ceremony and thanks the party for their assistance in the battle. In recognition of this assistance, he gives each member of the party a "Vest of the Woodlands," a magical vestment that the elves of Feineth create.

The party then asks two boons of Camdaras, both of which he grants. First, they ask for permission to use the Gateway to return to Feineith quickly, if the need arises (such as if they obtain information about what has happened to the elves’ gods). Secondly, they ask the elves to allow the humans of Sanrin into the woods to collect lumber.

 

[kenobi65]

Session #10
10/12/01

The party returns to Sanrin, and informs Lord Jarecht that his people may now carefully resume harvesting lumber from the elven woods.

Ian tries, without success, to use the Gate Key. The party decides to overnight in Sanrin, and try to use the Gate Key again the next morning.

8/2

The Gate Key is still non-functional, so the party decides to start riding back towards Marington. The townsfolk of Sanrin inform the party that the best route to Marington involves taking the road east from Sanrin for several days, to the city of Langekoner – from here, the road turns south towards Marington. The party thus departs to the east, on horseback.

As they ride, the road approaches the edge of the elven woods. During the afternoon, a squad of elven archers suddenly attacks the party. The elves’ initial volley of arrows is surprisingly accurate, and the party quickly scrambles to take the offensive. Most of the party quickly realizes that the elven archers are, in fact, illusionary. However, an extremely impressive-looking elven lord is nearby, and he is most assuredly real.

The party quickly overpowers the elven lord, and he is knocked unconscious. When this happens, his guise changes – he is no longer dressed as a lord, but is instead wearing shabby and tattered clothing. He has a tarnished holy symbol, depicting the moon, around his neck – a symbol very much like that worn by Phadian. Upon closer examination, Phadian recognizes that the elf is Gilraen, a former classmate of his, and a fellow cleric of Navarra.

After Gilraen is restrained, Phadian heals him. When Gilraen regains consciousness, he begins to babble incoherently, and begins to become agitated. When Phadian asks Gilraen about Navarra, the elf mutters, “she’s gone, gone, all gone.” Phadian tells Gilraen that he (Phadian) still has contact with their goddess, but this seems to just make Gilraen even more agitated.

After several minutes, the elf suddenly becomes lucid, and tells Phadian, “the elders look to the past, when they should be worrying about the future.” Gilraen then returns to his incoherent state, and again becomes highly agitated. Several seconds later, Gilraen’s body spasms, and he loses consciousness. Phadian attempts to heal him again, but discovers that the tortured elf’s heart has given out, and he has died.

Phadian holds a brief burial ceremony for Gilraen, then the party continues along the road. They do not find a town before nightfall, so they camp near the road.

8/3

Once again, Ian tries the Gate Key without success. Thus, the party continues their trip east along the road. By late morning, the road has curved away from the woods, and is clearly heading for Langekoner. By early afternoon, several party members notice a column of smoke rising up, from a location ahead of the party. A short time later, the party then sees a group of bedraggled-looking gnomes hustling up the road towards them.

The gnomes quickly explain that their town is under assault from “fire-monsters.” One of the gnomes further explains that Lelmose, a gnomish engineer, had been working on some sort of improved iron forge, when things got out of control. Most of the townsfolk, including this group, have fled the town, looking for someone to help them. The gnomes thus ask the party to see what they can do to drive off the fire-monsters. Whitefire scouts ahead in falcon-form, and sees a number of fiery figures walking around in the fire-stricken village.

As the party moves towards the town, they can indeed see that many of the buildings are involved in fires. They can also see a group of about a dozen small humanoids, who seem to be actually made of fire. These little fire elementals see the party, as well, and immediately charge. The party manages to destroy the small elementals before they are able to do much damage to the party, but it is clear that just being close to these creatures is enough to cause serious burns.

The party cautiously moves into the town. The only significant building that is still standing is a large forge in the center of town. As the party approaches the forge, they are surprised by two salamanders that come storming out of the forge building, and battle is quickly engaged.

While several party members fight these elemental creatures, several other members attempt to move into the side entrance of the forge, in an effort to flank the salamanders. As they peek into the side entrance, they can see three more salamanders, torturing a gnome. They also see a flaming portal floating in the air in the forge. The new salamanders spot the intruders, and it quickly becomes a two-front battle. The party manages to eventually destroy all of the salamanders, but not without suffering numerous burns in the process.

The party then helps the tortured gnome, who is indeed Lelmose. He explains that he had developed a way to fire a forge by opening a tiny gate to the Plane of Elemental Fire, but that salamanders had forced the gate to open wider, and came through (along with a group of magmins, the little elementals that the party had destroyed earlier). Lelmose indicates that he has a wand with a Dispel Magic on it, but that he does not know how to use it. The party finds the wand on Lelmose’s workbench, and uses it to close the portal.

The party reassembles, and Ian once again tries to open the Gateway. This time, he succeeds, and the party travels through the Gateway, into a large interior room that they have not seen before. They are greeted by Elena Winterhawk, who welcomes them to the Wraiths’ new base of operations.

 

[kenobi65]

Session #11 - 11/9/01

The new Wraith HQ has been built about 25 miles northwest of Marington. The “Gateway Room” has been completed (with magical assistance), but the living quarters are still under construction. Winterhawk tells the party that she will have a new mission for them in the near future: to try to disable or destroy one, or both, of the Dracos’ island bases. However, as she is still working on determining the exact location of these bases, she does not expect to be able to send the party back out for at least three weeks.

In the meantime, she assigns the party the task of finding a secure location within the city of Marington, to place a Keystone (for ease of transit between the city and Wraith HQ).

The party leaves their horses at the Wraith HQ, and uses the Gateway to transport to just outside of the city. They then enter the city on foot.

Upon returning to town, Rinna excuses herself from the party for a day or so, in order to catch up on personal business. The rest of the party fans out in the city, and begins to take care of various personal affairs.

8/4

Rinna reappears, telling the party that she has just learned of a family emergency in eastern Saervik that she must attend to. She has already spoken with Winterhawk about it, and received permission to leave the Wraiths in order to attend to it. She believes she will be back within a month, two at the latest.

Over the next few days, the party purchases some additional magical items, and also purchases an old manor house. They place the Keystone in the manor’s secluded garden, and Ian and Phadian begin to set up part of the house as a laboratory, for use in spell research and magic item construction.

8/16

In the morning, the party again receives invitations to meet the Duke of Valeram in the Breman Gardens at sunset. With Whitefire, Ulfgar, Nivek, and Rinna all taking advantage of the “down time” to attend to personal affairs, it is a group of five Wraiths who meet Valeram in the garden. There, the “duke” asks them to undertake a mission for him: there is apparently something strange going on in northern Cascia. His ministers have received several reports, over the past few days, of merchant wagons being attacked by swarthy humanoids (likely orcs). Additionally, a small but important village, Apeccius, has been cut off from any contact for over a month. The village is important because it lies just off a trade route between Cascia (and the rest of Dorlomin, for that matter) and the kingdoms to the west. It is also important because it is the center of the Apeccian wool region – the sheep in this region produce a particularly soft, and thus valued, wool. Because it is so far away from Marington, it has taken many weeks for the news to get here, and Kenton is concerned that matters may have already gotten out of hand.

Winterhawk agrees to send the party through the Gateway to investigate. The nearest place she can put the party down is at the monastery of Chung Chul-Seong, about 15 miles south of Apeccius – both Ian and Ming-Jeh have some familiarity with this monastery.

8/17

After gathering up some supplies, the party heads through the Gateway. They find themselves in the hills of northern Cascia, about 300 yards from the monastery of Chung Chul-Seong. As the party approaches the monastery, a small group of monks leaves the monastery’s front gate, and moves to meet them. When the two groups meet up, about 100 yards from the entrance, the leader introduces himself as Chu-Sung, the head of Chung Chul-Seong. He greets Ming-Jeh, and shows considerable surprise at seeing Ian.

As the other members of the party introduce themselves to Chu-Sung, the party can hear a yell from inside the monastery. A few moments later, they see a small woman, in monk’s robes, racing out of the monastery gates, sprinting towards them. As she approaches the party, she leaps into the air and tackles Ian, knocking him out of his saddle. As the surprised party moves to defend Ian, they now see that the woman is happily kissing the young wizard. Chu-Sung chides Kyung-Ri for her outburst, and the woman (now evident as a half-elf) quickly stands up, looking slightly embarrased. Ian quickly explains that he had formerly trained as a monk at this monastery, and that he and Kyung-Ri are old friends.

Chu-Sung leads the party into the monastery. The party explains that they are here to investigate what has happened at Apeccius. Chu-Sung indicates that the monks have tried to investigate what has happened in Apeccius; unfortunately, they have very few experienced monks in residence at the moment (many of their monks have joined the war effort). They concur that they have seen signs of orcs in the area, and that Apeccius itself has been largely plundered by the orcs (although their last scouting mission indicates that there may be one or two homesteads that have survived). The monks believe the orcs have taken over a long-abandoned retreat temple of Pelor in the hills just north of Apeccius. They also caution the party that they have seen some sort of creature flying in the area several nights ago.

By the time all of this occurs, it is after noon. Chu-Sung tells the party that it is perhaps a six-hour trek up to Apeccius – given this, the party decides to wait until the following morning to depart, since they would rather deal with the orcs in the daylight.

8/18

The party departs the monastery, and travels uneventfully to Apeccius. Upon arriving, they can see that the village probably once had 300 or so residents, but that it has been nearly completely destroyed – most of the buildings have been burned out and / or torn down. Given this, they find it somewhat surprising that one homestead, lying on a hillside on the western edge of the village, seems to be still untouched.

They head for this homestead, and can see that, while there are some signs of battle surrounding the house, it is still standing. When they get to within about 100 feet of the house, a heavily-accented male Cascian voice calls out, “Who are you? What are you doing here?” The voice is quite belligerant, and seems unwilling to accept the idea that the party is there to assist – he continually warns them that he intends to shoot them. Eventually, the party talks him down, and he he comes out of the house. He is Oraldus, a weaver by trade, but also apparently an effective marksman with a shortbow. Oraldus introduces his family: his wife Emmelia, his daughter Giusela, and his son Adernus – all of them are armed with shortbows, and rather aggressive-looking.

Oraldus and his family sit down with the party in front of the house, and they all have some lunch while Oraldus tells his tale. He explains to the party that a raiding party of orcs had first attacked the village about 4 weeks ago. They came back each night, and, in less than a week, had managed to kill or capture the rest of the town’s permanent residents (many of the townsfolk are actually shepherds, and are up in the mountain pastures at this time of year, so they may still be alive and in hiding). Oraldus had long ago taught his family how to hunt with bows, and he believes this skill saved them – after the orcs attempted several raids on his home, only to suffer losses at the hands of his family’s arrows, they essentially gave up. While Oraldus has not seen any orcs in over a week, he does agree with the monks’ belief that they are using the old Pelorian temple to the north – this is the direction that they have been coming from, and returning to. He also agrees that he has seen winged humanoids in the distance on more than one occasion. (While all of this has been going on, Giusela, who is quite attractive and about 18 years old, has been sitting increasingly closer to Magnus).

After a quick conference, the party decides to send Oraldus and his family down to the monastery, to wait out the results of their raid. After the family packs up their few possessions, and heads down the road, the party heads up towards the temple.

The temple is about a 90-minute hike from the village. It is a large, rectangular single-story stone building, although about half of its roof has caved in. The outer wall of the building has numerous alcoves, with statues of Pelor and other gods. The front door is partially off of its hinges, and hangs partially open. Ming-Jeh moves up to scout out the entrance, and is immediately set upon by several gargoyles, which had been posing as statues. The young monk takes a substantial pounding from the stony beasts before he realizes his fists aren’t doing much damage against them – at that point, he instead uses his tumbling skill to stay out of the gargoyles’ way long enough for the other members of the party to take care of them.

After defeating the gargoyles, the party enters the abandoned temple. Most of the orcs are in the catacombs under the temple, and the party winds up engaging in a long running battle against them. Finally, the party manages to kill both the orcish leader and a shaman to Gruumsh. As the party checks their foes for anything of value, they make a most disturbing discovery – the leader is carrying six-sided gold coins, which are the currency of the Draconic States.

8/19

The party heads back to the monastery, to tell Oraldus that it is safe to return home. Giusela seems quite sad that Magnus is leaving – the sorcerer tells her that, if she can find her way to Marington, that she should look him up. After leaving the monastery, Ian uses a Gate Key to open the Gateway, and the party returns to Wraith Base.

Once there, they fill Winterhawk in on what they have learned. She shares their suspicion, based on the Draconic gold coins, that agents of the Dracos have infiltrated Dorlomin, and are paying evil humanoids to cause trouble.

 

[kenobi65]

Session #12 - 12/14/01

8/20 – 8/22

Ulfgar spends several days recruiting a staff for the party’s new manor house, including an attempt to hire Laine, the halfling wizard, away from Halamir (the merchant in magical items). Whitefire reveals that he has spent the past few weeks creating several magical wands.

8/23

The party once again is summoned to meet with the Duke of Valeram at the Breman Gardens. Once there, the duke, along with Elena Winterhawk, inform the party that their new mission will be to destroy “Beta Base,” the nearer of the two Draco island bases. Winterhawk gives the party a short briefing, and indicates that recent scouting missions have revealed that there are probably no more than 50 or so Dracos on the island (a mix of draconians, lizardmen, and kobolds). The Dracos have built a stockade and several buildings on the northern shore, adjacent to a protected cove – in that cove, they have started to build a series of docks. The Dracos have also built a small tower (apparently a watch tower) on the northeast corner of the island. Winterhawk tells the party that she plans to Gate them in on the mountainous eastern edge of the island.

8/24

In the morning, the party uses their Keystone to travel to Wraith Base, where they complete their preparations. Then, they travel via the Gateway to Beta Base. They find themselves on a mountain ledge, overlooking the sea. Quite suddenly, they realize they are not alone – a small group of kobolds is busily constructing a tower on the top of the mountain, about 75 feet above the party’s heads.

The kobolds and the party discover each other’s presence at about the same time, and battle is joined. The party finds the kobolds to be surprisingly tough opponents (two are sorcerers, and the rest are experienced fighters), and the kobolds start the fight with the advantage of holding the higher ground. Eventually, howerver, the party prevails.

After a brief discussion, the party decides to head for the Dracos’ main installation – the stockade at the cove. They find that there is a trail running down the mountain, and through the jungle, that the kobolds must have cut to reach the construction site. The party warily follows this trail, with Whitefire (in falcon form), as well as the owl familiars of Ian and Magnus, flying reconnaissance.

The party reaches the stockade just around nightfall. It is a simple wooden wall surrounding a number of buildings. There is a single, open, gate to the wall, and it is guarded by a single lizardman. The party quickly dispatches the guard, and then sits down to wait for the camp to quiet down.

Ian sneaks into the stockade to do some scouting. He discovers that two buildings are inhabited: one, a long barracks, seems to have a fair number of lizardmen inside (perhaps a dozen), who are occupied with drinking and gambling. The other, smaller building, has a small number of voices inside, discussing military tactics. Just then, the door to the smaller building opens, and a red draconian walks out of it, heading for the gate. Nivek uses a Change Self spell to impersonate the lizardman guard, while Phadian uses an illusion to make the rest of the party blend into the stockade wall. The draconian briefly questions Nivek about whether the kobolds have returned yet (the party assumes that the draconian is referring to the kobold construction crew). Nivek responds that they haven’t, and this seems to satisfy the draconian, who heads back to his building.

8/25

Around midnight, the inhabitants of the smaller building turn out their lights, then one of them bellows to the gambling lizardmen to do the same. After giving the Dracos time to fall asleep, the party steals into the compound. Looking into the smaller building, the party finds three red draconians sound asleep. They decide to try to sneak in and slit the draconian’s throats while they sleep. To do so, Nivek, Ian, and Ming-Jeh all move stealthily into the building, while Phadian attempts to conceal their presence with a masking illusion.

As Nivek moves to slit the first thoat, he accidentally bumps into something hanging from the wall, waking his target draconian. While this draconian senses that there is something afoot, he is not certain of what, until Ulfgar plugs him with a crossbow bolt a moment later. Now fully awake, and no longer believing the masking illusion, this draconian, and one of the two others, move to combat the party (the third does not immediately awaken, and Ian does manage to perform a coup de grace upon it).

When the original draconian bats Ulfgar’s second bolt out of the air, Ming-Jeh realizes that that particular draconian is also a monk. The monk-draconian then breathes a gout of fire into the party, singeing several party members, and also starting the building on fire. Meanwhile, the other draconian, a tough fighter, scores a tremendous hit on Zeebee with his gli-fai.

The lizardmen in the barracks begin to react to the noise, but not before Magnus Fireballs the barracks, thus wiping out the weaker Dracos. The melee in the smaller building lasts for some time, but the party eventually manages to fell all of the draconians. Phadian uses an ability granted to him by Navarra to extinguish the flames which were threatening to consume the building.

In searching the bodies, the party discovers that two of the three draconians were wearing strange devices that actually seemed to burrow into the backs of their necks. Further investigation reveals that these devices can act to improve the wearer’s speed, but also cause the wearer a small drain of his energy. The party also discovers, in searching through the building, a series of scrolls which are apparently a brief Draconian-to-Orcish dictionary.

 

[kenobi65]

Session #13 - 1/4/02

The party completes a search of the Draco stockade, but finds nothing else of particular interest. Whitefire notices that the weather is changing, and predicts that it will start raining by dawn. After expending the remainder of their healing spells, the party holes up in the officers’ building and rests.

After resting and recovering spells, the party decides to go to the watchtower next, then return to the stockade to destroy it. In the meantime, they use Fire Trap spells, and bottles of alchemist’s fire, to booby-trap several of the stockade’s buildings, as well as the main gate.

The party then moves out, in a steady rain, to the east. They discover a trail through the jungle, apparently heading for the tower, and follow it. About an hour after leaving the stockade, the party runs directly into a foraging party of kobolds and lizardmen, apparently heading back to the stockade. Two Entangle spells (from Whitefire and Ulfgar), as well as a Fireball from Phadian and a Lightning Bolt from Magnus, wipe out most of the Dracos. However, one kobold sorcerer manages to evade the party for some time, thanks to a set of Wings of Flying. Eventually, this last Draco meets his doom, thanks to Magnus’s Magic Missile.

The party continues up the trail, as the weather conditions worsen – the rain lets up slightly, but the air becomes cooler, and fog begins to develop. With the help of the party’s owls, they finally discover the tower right on the island’s northern shore. The area around the tower is completely clear of potential cover, a development which causes some consternation. Using an Invisibility spell as well as the new Wings of Flying, Phadian scouts out the tower, and sees a single red draconian guard on the top of the tower.

Whitefire begins to cast a Call Lightning spell. As he does so, Magnus takes the Wings of Flying, and invisibly approaches the tower. A moment after Whitefire calls down a bolt of lightning onto the top of the tower (and the hapless draconian on the roof), Magnus fires another Lightning Bolt at the Draco. Whitefire’s bolt also has the effect of causing part of the wooden tower’s roof to cave in.

To the party’s amazement, the draconian sentry evades both lightning strokes, and launches himself off of the tower in pursuit of Magnus. Meanwhile, the main door to the tower opens, as several more red draconians move to head out of the tower – this opening allows Ian to throw a Fireball through the open door and into the tower, thus further injuring several of the occupants.

When Magnus sees two more red draconians heading out of the now-open roof of the tower (and towards him), the sorcerer wisely becomes invisible once again, and manages to evade his airborne pursuers. The remaining two red draconians finally head out of the tower, and move to attack the party (as do the three flying draconians). The draconians’ fiery breath weapons do considerable damage to the party, and several members, including Phadian and Zeebee, are seriously wounded before the party manages to defeat all five of the Dracos.

In the aftermath of the bloody battle, the party’s healers move to assist the wounded. Ming-Jeh indicates he senses that the battle is not yet over, and heads off to keep an eye on the sea. Just then, a large dark shape appears out of the fog – a black dragon. As it lands in the clearing, the Draco noble sees the dead draconians, becomes enraged, and immediately moves to attack the bedraggled party. As it does so, the party feels a wave of terror eminating from the dragon, causing several of them to become shaken (although not so much that they cannot attack).

The dragon starts by using its breath weapon – a stream of acid that hits both Ulfgar and Whitefire. The party’s arcane spellcasters had used many of their spells against the draconians, but manage to harry the massive dragon with several Flaming Spheres. Ming-Jeh, Zeebee, Ulfgar, and Nivek move to engage the dragon in melee, while Whitefire sprints from party member to party member, bestowing Resist Elements spells.

Ulfgar scores several hits on the dragon, which responds by clawing and biting the dwarven ranger. Gravely wounded, the doughty dwarf is forced to withdraw. Zeebee also hits the dragon several times with her greatsword, while Ming-Jeh, using only his bare hands, manages to seriously wound the giant reptile with repeated punches.

Finally, with the party seriously wondering if they will survive this fight, they manage to land several mighty hits on the dragon. As the black beast begins to fall, a lightning bolt strikes the dragon. The members of the party look to see where the bolt came from – flying in, from the shore, they see a gaudily-dressed female elf.

The elf lands in the clearing, and tells the party (in unusually-accented Elvish) that she had thought they might need some help, but now sees that they had done alright on their own. She introduces herself as Arathrel. She is a wizard, and the first mate of the Telende, an elven ship which is just offshore. She questions Phadian about his status as a cleric, and whether he is from Caradhir. She tells the party that she is from Irmion, and acknowledges that the Irmians are indeed the “Southern elves.” She says that the Irmian elves have begun to notice barges of very unfriendly lizard-folk in recent months, and have been investigating where they are coming from. When the party indicates that they know the story behind the Dracos, Arathrel decides that the party needs to speak to Alcirion, the captain of the Telende.

 

[kenobi65]

Session #14 - 1/18/02

The party agrees to meet with the elves on board the Telende. A small boat is sent ashore to pick them up. Upon boarding the ship, the party can see that all of these southern elves are fair-haired, and tend to wear brightly-colored clothes.

Arathrel leads the party below decks, where they meet with Alcirion, the captain, as well as Imrilleth, the ship’s chaplain and a cleric of Corellon. The party briefly explains the war situation; Alcirion tells them that this would explain the barges of unfriendly reptiles that his people have encountered. The elven captain also shows the Wraiths a map of the region, indicating that Irmion (his homeland) is to the southwest of the Dracos’ base island. Imrilleth briefly speaks with Phadian – Imrilleth says that he and his peers still have contact with their deities, and he asks Phadian about the circumstances surrounding the rift between the northern elves and the deities.

Alcirion wants party to come with him back to Talassar, their home port, to share their information with his people’s leaders. The party is conflicted; they want to learn more about the southern elves, but they also need to complete their mission (destroying the stockade), and reporting back to Winterhawk.

It is decided to have Ian use the Gate Key to head back to Marington, accompanied by Arathrel (the first mate / wizard). Meanwhile, the rest of the Wraiths will set sail on the Telende for the cove and the stockade. Ian hopes to make it back to the cove by the time the party arrives there.

Ian and Arathrel go back to shore (there was some discussion as to whether or not the Gateway would open on the deck of a ship, but Ian is unwilling to experiment at this point, and Arathrel’s Fly spell is still active), and Ian opens the Gateway. Ian quickly locates Winterhawk, and Ian and Arathrel fill the former general in on the mission.

Winterhawk considers the party’s proposal to go to Talassar, and determines that she cannot make the decision on her own. She opens the Gateway (asking Ian to cover his ears so he cannot hear the specific command word she uses), and sends Ian through the Gateway to King Kenton’s chambers. There, Ian finds himself in a darkened room. Following Winterhawk’s orders, he stamps his foot several times on the floor. After the last “stamp,” Ian can hear a distant chime ringing. Several minutes later, a door opens, and King Kenton hurries in. Ian then brings the king to Wraith Base.

Kenton and Winterhawk meet with Arathrel in private for about a half hour, while Ian cools his heels outside. Finally, the three emerge from their conference. Winterhawk Gates the king back to the palace, then tells Ian that the Wraiths’ mission is now to:
- Go to Irmion
- Inform the Irmian elves of the situation with the Dracos
- See what can be learned about the situation with the northern elves and their gods
- Entreat the Irmian elves to assist in the war

Winterhawk also gives Ian several curing potions to bring back to his comrades.

Ian and Arathrel Gate to the cove, appearing just as the Telende is docking. The rest of the Wraiths disembark, and meet Ian and Arathrel on the beach. Just as Ian begins to tell his teammates about his visit with Winterhawk, the party is attacked by a Fireball, followed a moment later by a Lightning Bolt. The Wraiths quickly realize that their attackers are up in the trees outside of the stockade.

The party spreads out, in order to avoid the missile spells. Several more Lightning Bolts and Fireballs assault the party, before the Dracos are flushed from their trees. The Wraiths manage to finish off these last stragglers from the Draco base, but not before their sorcerers do some serious damage to the party.

The elves help the party torch the remaining buildings in the stockade, then sink or scatter the rafts in the cove. By the time this is finished, it is near the end of the day, and Alcirion announces that they will not set sail until the morning.

8/26

The Telende pulls away from Beta Base; Alcirion estimates that it will be a five-day journey to Talassar. Once the ship is underway, it reaches a surprisingly high speed. Several party members notice this, and also notice that there is some manner of strange turbulence in the water behind the ship. Alcirion sees the Wraiths looking over the stern of the ship, and tells them that his people have developed a way to make their ships go faster than the wind alone would provide. Despite prodding from the now-curious Wraiths, the captain refuses to elaborate, so the party spends their day speculating on the exact nature of this phenomenon.

Meanwhile, Zeebee catches the eye of Gwithalos, a particularly muscular, bald-headed elven soldier / sailor, and Ming-Jeh spends much of his day talking with Arathrel.

8/27

The weather is fair, and the Telende is making good time. Several of the Wraiths continue to look at the turbulence behind the ship, and one of them notices a strange reflection in the water behind the ship. A few moments later, a massive shape begins to rise from the sea, in pursuit of the elven ship – a dragon turtle.

The Wraiths, and the crew of the ship, begin to pepper the gigantic creature with spells and missiles, but it continues towards the ship unimpeded. As it nears the stern of the ship, it breathes a cloud of scalding steam across the back of the ship – many of the Wraiths are injured by this cloud, and several of the elven sailors are killed instantly by it.

The dragon turtle moves even closer to the Telende, seemingly unfazed by the ship’s defenses, and bites and claws at several of the Wraiths who were standing on the aft deck. Fortunately, a final, powerful flurry of attacks and spells from the Wraiths manages to kill the enormous predator.

8/29

After several days of fair weather, the sky is now gray, and a storm approaches. Once the crew realizes that it will likely be a powerful storm, they furl the sails and prepare for rough seas. The party also makes preparations, with some deciding to ride the storm out below decks (where it might be safer), while others deciding to stay above decks (where the air may not feel as close).

The ship is buffeted by high winds, and several large waves crash over the railings. Although none of the Wraiths are imperiled, several sailors do get swept overboard, and the party assists in rescuing them.

After several hours of rough seas and queasy stomachs, the storm blows itself out.

9/1

Late in the morning, the Telende’s lookout indicates that he can see land. By early afternoon, the ship is pulling into the large harbor at Talassar. The party can see that this elven city is built on the side of a hill that leads down to the sea. The architecture of Talassar is primarily stone, and features many tall, graceful towers.

 

[kenobi65]

Session #15 -- 2/22/02

9/1

After the Telende makes port, Captain Alcirion asks that the party remain on board while he goes to speak with his superiors.

The Wraiths wait on ship for about 90 minutes, until Alcirion returns. He tells them that several senior members of Talassar's government wish to speak with the party. Alcirion then discharges the rest of his crew, but warns them that they are on call to leave port again at a moment's notice.

Alcirion and Arathrel lead the party through the streets of Talassar. The population of the city is largely elven, but the party occasionally sees humans and dwarves, as well. Most of the buildings in the city are stone or brick, and are frequently several stories tall.

Eventually, the party finds itself at the Civic House, a large building overlooking the harbor. They are brought into a meeting room, and several elven servents take orders for food and drink. After a few minutes, three more elves enter the room, and introduce themselves:

- Geledh, First Speaker of the city of Talassar, and head of the Council of Speakers of Irmion, is a middle-aged male elf, with very pale green eyes and white hair
- Tirion, the lead priestess of Corellon in Talassar, is a middle-aged female elf, with amber eyes and blonde hair
- Athenir, the chief historian of the city, is an older male elf, with grey eyes and silver hair

Tirion begins by asking each member of the Wraiths to introduce themselves. As the party then sits down to a light meal, Geledh confirms what Alcirion had alread stated: that the Irmian navy has had several encounters with rafts of Dracos. Geledh then asks the party to give him details of the history of the conflict.

Through all of this, Athenir has stayed silent, apparently deep in thought. Suddenly, his eyes grow bright, and he begins to look at the members of the party, apparently counting them on his fingers. His eyes widen more, and he runs from the room, saying, "Please do not leave before I return!"

Geledh apologizes for the interruption, but assures the party that the historian must have had some reason for his sudden departure. The party then tells the elves about the war with the Dracos, as well as the situation with the Northern elves and their gods. Tirion tells the party that the Irmian elves were contacted last year, when the "sundering" occurred; although they offered assistance, it seems that the Northern elves did not really wish it. Tirion confirms that the Irmion elves have remained in touch with their deities, but that they have been able to learn little as to what has afflicted their northern cousins.

About an hour after his sudden departure, Athenir returns to the room, accompanied by two younger elves - one carrying a huge tome; the other carrying several scrolls.

Athenir tells the group that he now suspects that recent events have been foretold in prophecy. He opens the tome, saying that it is a copy of The Book of Celeval, a set of obscure prophecies, written 3000 years earlier by an elven mystic. The Book of Celeval has proven to be tremendously challenging for scholars: it has frequently proven to be prophetic, but the writing is so difficult to comprehend that it is only after the fact that the prophecies are recognized. Athenir flips through several pages, then begins to read:

"The proud swan will not bend its neck. It will not look behind, to see where it had lost its way. It will not look to the east, to see the dawn of the day of reckoning. It will not even look down, to guard its own cygnets."

Then, he reads another nearby passage:

"Lo, though it is warm, I sense the approach of winter. I see a bird-of-prey wheeling in the heavens, and from it, weapons (or 'instruments') come down from the sky itself. There is a thorny spear, and a fist that beguiles. There is a mighty sword from the hills, and a venegeful axe from deep in the mountains. There is an open palm that strikes with blinding speed, and ever-shifting image. There is a blade that strikes from the shadow, and the power of the blood of wyrms."

Athenir then turns away from the tome. He tells the party that "the swan" is the name that the elves have for a constellation in the northern sky - because of this, many scholars believe that Celeval used the Swan in reference to the northern elven nation of Caradhir.

Athenir then turns his attention to the second passage. He points out that there are eight "weapons" in the text, and believes that those refer to the Wraiths themselves:

Zeebee: "a mighty sword from the hills"
Ulfgar: "a vengeful axe from deep in the mountains"
Whitefire: "a thorny spear"
Phadian: "An ever-shifting image"
Magnus: "the power of the blood of wyrms"
Nivek: "a blade that strikes from the shadow"
Ian: "a fist that beguiles"
Ming-Jeh: "an open palm that strikes with blinding speed"

He also believes that the references to "winter" and "bird-of-prey" may refer to Winterhawk, and "come down from the sky itself" may refer to the Gateway.

Athenir says that he believes that the war with the Dracos is the result of some ancient history. He then begins to unroll the old scrolls, and paraphrases what they say:

About 4000 years ago, there was a mighty human kingdom in the land that is now Dorlomin. It was called Cardena, and was centered in the rich farmlands and offshore fisheries of what later became Avila.

Cardena was, at first, friendly to the elves (at that time, all of the land from Caradhir to Irmion was elven land, and much of it was wooded (the northern lands were primarily dwarven, but the dwarves were allied with the elves). However, Cardena slowly became corrupt, and the elves suspected that they had taken to worshipping dark gods. A series of minor wars between the elves and Cardena occurred.

While the elves and humans were focusing on each other, tribes of reptilians, led by dragons, began to invade the region, from the southwest. With the humans and elves distracted, the reptilians gained an early advantage. For several decades, the reptilians continued to slowly expand their territory.

Finally, the elves and humans managed to put aside their differences and form an alliance. By co-ordinating their efforts, the two races were able to repulse the reptilians from the region, but at a great cost of lives on both sides.

The elves were willing to stop the war at that point, but the humans insisted on driving forward, intent on moving into the reptilian's original lands and wiping them out. Fearing their own extinction (particularly of their slow-breeding dragon rulers), the reptilians sued for peace. The elves immediately agreed; they had to drag the humans to the treaty table.

The reptilian leaders (and perhaps their gods) decided that they could not trust the humans to keep the peace; that their bloodlust was too strong. The reptilians announced that they would be relocating their entire civilized population to a distant continent. They promised to never again move against the humans or elves of this continent, as long as they were themselves left alone by those same humans and elves.

After the reptilians departed, the humans of Cardena moved into many of their lands. However, this overextension of their attention, coupled with a series of weak leaders, led to the collapsse of Cardena only a few hundred years later.

Athenir says that he believes that that the Avilan ship that wrecked in the Draconic States a few years ago unwittingly broke the terms of the truce. Geledh, Tirion, and Athenir then move to a smaller room for a brief conference. They return, and Geledh tells the party that he is calling for a meeting of the Council of Speakers. He estimates that it will take three or four days for the Council to assemble.

The party is requested to remain in Talassar until the Council can meet, and they are put up in a very nice manor house. However, they are asked to limit their wanderings in the city - Geledh says that he believes that Irmion may well be on the verge of entering the war, but he does not want to raise too many alarms among his populace until it becomes official.

The party does receive permission to use the Gateway to go back and report to Winterhawk. She is pleased to hear that the Irmion elves are considering entering the war, and that she and King Kenton would be willing to address the Council of Speakers when it convenes.

9/2

The party passes the day in their manor house. The elves are willing to bring the party anything they request (within reason), and Phadian dispatches several of them to fetch him equipment for creating a new magical item.

As evening falls, a large group of elves can be seen approaching the manor house - it is the crew of the Telende, bearing food and drink. It turns out that they have been ordered to remain in port until the Council meeting; because this extended shore leave is directly the result of the Wraiths, the crew decided to bring the shore leave party directly to their benefactors.

A pleasant evening is had by all. As midnight approaches, most of the crew have wandered back home, but Arathrel and Gwithalos remain, speaking with Ming-Jeh and Zeebee, respectively. From the balconies of the manor house, several party members notice fires beginning to erupt in the harbor, and dark winged shapes.

Alarms begin to sound throughout the city, as a large group of the winged shapes make a beeline for the manor house. The party can now see that the group is mostly draconians, but it is led by a dragon. They have a few moments to prepare for battle, but no more, before the flying Dracos are upon them.

The fight largely takes place in the manor house's front courtyard. One of the draconians is carrying a glowing blue crystal, and is pointing towards the manor house as the Dracos approach. This draconian is among the first struck down, and when he drops the blue crystal, it shatters.

The lead dragon is a young green dragon; it does substantial damage to the Wraiths before it is slain. Ian, Magnus, and Arathrel are all nearly felled during the fight, but the party emerges triumphantly. As the Wraiths wrap up the combat, the spectral head of a green dragon appears, floating before them. In Draconic, it shouts, "You wretches are now responsible for the deaths of three of the children of Tanalkazir. She will not rest until she sees you all destroyed!"

The party investigates the broken crystal. Although its magic is now departed, it still holds a strong Divination aura, and the party reasons that this was some sort of homing device that the Dracos used to track them down.

The elves of Talassar have managed to defeat the rest of the attackers (all draconians), but not before significant damage was done to the harbor, as well as many buildings.

9/5

The Council of Speakers convenes. Between the Dracos' attack on Talassar, and the words of Winterhawk and Kenton, the elven leaders quickly decide to enter the war.

Winterhawk tells the party that they will now be needed back in Dorlomin. There have been numerous attacks by orcs in western Saervik, and she will be sending the Wraiths to investigate.