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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kenobi65" data-source="post: 13764" data-attributes="member: 1515">Session #9 - 9/14/01The 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.7/30The 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.8/1Very 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.</blockquote>

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