Traveling Anrand Glad: A Cultural Experience

Cultural event

The Sapphire Oath experience the highs and the lows of traveling through an elven would with elves:  The only dangers experienced are those they wish to experience... but those they choose aren't the most civil especially considering present company.  By the end of the journey, the Sapphire Oath is less than amenable to their hosts.

The trio of Branchguard that led the companions around Anrand Glad were silent a majority of the days while traveling though more relaxed around the campfire in the evenings. Ravel took the time to get to know them. She wanted to know what got each of them into the Branchguard and why they did things like border patrols and scouting. Tarathiel Miraqen was a hunter whose skills easily crossed over into the craft. When she wasn't needed for hunting, she could continue to serve her communities. Sinaht Loralynn on the other hand was a soldier. Without an active war to be fought, the patrol worker was one of the few jobs that gave him the most chances of employing his skill set. Finally, Othorion Carric was a skald of the people and being on the Branchguard put him at the edge of the action for any stories that would need to be recorded.
  The travel around Anrand Glad would take over a fortnight. The majority of this trip would be encompassed by the long saddle-hours during the day and the longer rest periods at night. This dichotomy would be more punctuated as the elven lineage of over half the party (the three scouts and Ravel) ensured that the rest period was accentuated by the division of those who slept and those who tranced. While the elves were pleasant enough with the the eladrin, half-elf, and forest gnome of the party, they were less so with Marduk. The jokes that started at Gofinath of letting Marduk get shot continued to subtle hound the journey as the elves led a bugbear through their home to Dremlunts. While words were said, not action was taken though. The camp life was calm if prejudicial. Not all was calm outside the camp though.
    Elven Goods About half-way through the journey, the scouts picked up tracks of what they would describe as an infestation. They briefly explained that the elves provided a level of care for the large spiders of the wood and they were constantly fighting against another kind of monsters that infected their beasts. The troop could continue on to drop the Sapphire Oath off and return here but the elves at least asked the party if they minded stopping for the day to clear out the infestation now. The group was more than enthused. More than stopping, they would help clear it out.
  Tracking the two-pronged footprints, the scouts found an underground burrow that the spiders had been caroled into. The cave was filled with webs that the elves had no plans of actually going into. The humanoid-spider mutants were described to the party to delineate the threat. The elves gave instructions to not harm any of the giant spiders. A plan was formed and executed.
  The hunter Tarathiel, alerted the infesting ettercaps of enemies by vibrating some of the support webbing before retreating. As the ettercaps filling the cave rushed out, the first wave was quickly dealt with. A sleep incantation dropped one, Zith's hypnotic pattern ensnared four more, arrows flew in from Tarathiel and then Beatle put another to sleep. Marduk and Ravel worked their way in to begin to awaken from daze-or-doze the ettercaps one at a time to eliminate them. Glaives, shillelaghs, and flaming spheres mixed through the corpses and seared away the webbing.
  The second wave of ettercaps had the complication of having two giant spiders come with but Ravel's flaming sphere did enough in heat and light to dissuade their pursuit allow the party to eliminate the finale ettercaps. Marduk was caught in a web glob at one point while Beatle was being reeled in by a lasso. Beatle magic whipped right back and Tarathiel cut Marduk free to allow for an unrestrained finish.
  After the infestation was cleared, the troupe made dealt with the burrow's contents.. The spiders were sent back deeper into the forest. Zith shook cocoons for coins and trinkets. The scouts identified that the ettercaps can actually gotten one of their own people and a moment was taken to retrieve the remains. Amid the remains was an elven rope that mended itself. In thanks to the companions for taking the time to aid in the infestation problem immediately, the rope was gifted to the party. It became clear that the spider-silk infused rope (along with the silversilk outfits Zith had seen before that the spiders provided a resource that the elves had manages to harness through craft and magic).
  The companions would then continue on their way again. Travel continued for another handful of days before another encounter of interest occurred.
    Elven Joys
During the midday break, Sinaht Loralynn had continued ahead to scout out the next portion of their route. Briskly they returned with exciting news. They had discovered an orcish band in the distance heading northwest. They had a raiding party attempting to go through their woods. Eagerly, the soldier invited the Sapphire Oath to join the elves on an ambush.
  The elves guided the part westward to find an area the orcish raiders would have to pass through to set up their ambush. Zith took a moment to send familiars out to get more in-depth information on the band. The elves had averaged that small bands ran 10-20 orcs with the largest of them getting up to 50. Whether fortunate or unfortunate, this one had a total of 45 soldiers, a war leader, and a shaman. This troop was closer to a war band than a raiding party.
  Taking advantage of the steeper slopes that the orc caravan would have to go through, the companions readied themselves above. Ravel conjured a pack of wolves to aid the fight before turning herself into a brown bear. Ravel took the closest hill to the oncoming orcs knowing that she and her animals would be the front line to break the tide of orcs allowing for her companions to rain death from above. Marduk and Beatle joined the scouts upon a hill behind to from an archer firing line. Zith would be furthest back to launch his fireballs from. The gnome would be able to kill small squadrons of orcs with his magic but at not point could the orc's forces reach him or he would be quickly overrun. The troop dropped into hiding and waited.
  The war party slowly passed Ravel's hill and wandered through the small drop between the rear hills. There were dozens still to come but now was the time to strike. If the orc got any further, they could surround the hills of the artillery. The gnome launched the first fireball to explode among the densest ranks up front. Arrows soared in and wolves charged to take out the remainder of the forward force and Ravel charged down towards the first of the two leaders: the war chief.
  Bear-ravel and the wolves did their job in delaying any immediate charge towards the back ranks. Despite that, the burden was too much to be born for long. Ravel dropped multiple orcs but was quickly surrounded and beaten down. Her concentration on her summoning spell was dropped first and her bear form came quickly after. The time she bought was crucial though. Zith dropped another fireball to thin the ranks around her as Beatle dropped down the rear hill to better place his spells. Multiple wind walls tore through the enemy ranks to weaken them for faster slaying later. Then his voice was needed more than ever.
  As the Shaman arrived on the battlefield with the other half of the force, it called on the power of Gruumsh to force the companions to cower before them. In both instances of such magic, Beatle's counter cheer kept his companions fighting.
  Ravel escaped the tight quarters of the battle field with a fey step before taking on the form of a giant elk. As a bulk of the force charged towards Beatle, The war chief came with. Ravel wanted to ram through the crowd but was once again surrounded by a squad of orcs. Marduk dropped down to the ground casting his bow aside to drew the glaive. He first charged down to Beatles aid before turning his attention to the war chief. Beatle took care of himself with multiple sleep incantations and more walls of wind.
  A skirmishing band of orcs managed to charge up to Zith's position under the effects of a final fireball and drove him back. Scrambling away from some volleys of javelins, the gnome did a short teleportation step down between the hills before clamoring up the archers hill. The orcs pressed hard and the blinking gnome retreated among the elves to let the scout take a front line position to hold the orc tide back. While he took a few heavy blows, he held the line and the trio managed to drop the whole troop as well as picked off threats around the companions below.
  Marduk took advantage of a weakened section of the war chief's armor from a lock strap-shot he had gotten with his bow previously. He chopped first into the torso before pulling the blade free and taking off the head and piking it on the weapon.
  As the companions began to clean up the ranks of orcs, Marduk then took the next mound to fight the Eye of Gruumsh pole-arm to pole-arm as the shaman wielded the god's favored weapon. In spite of the god's blessings, Marduk drove the shaman back across the slowed hill. Beatle dropped a sudden sleet storm across the battlefield to cause the shaman to tumble down the hill. Marduk took the opportunity to fall upon the shaman like a cloud of dust, arms, weapons, and cartoon pain. The bugbear beat the orc down but not dead to allow for elven questioning.
    As the chaos came to a point of calm, the mixed party of the Sapphire Oath and their elven escorts came back together. The orcish shaman was bound and gagged to be dealt with later. They had plenty of time before the unconscious orc would reawaken. After checking in and ensuring that everyone was safe, the companions began root through the carnage.
  The majority of what they found among the war party were the essentials: dried rations, shelter, and martial gear. Wanting to salvage the most value-dense items to sell later, the party bundled up a lot of the weapons to pack onto the horse. From there, their attention turned to the more poignant items among the leaders.
  Marduk gathered up the bloodstained flags that the war chief had worn mounted to his back. The elves identified the Pitonhold symbol on the banners that represented their kingdom down at the Den Bludow. Marduk packed them away in case they would be needed further along on their mission for diplomacy or disguise. Additionally, Marduk found a polished ring on his hand the resisted the grime and tarnish. Zith would later identify this to be a Ring of Protection. Marduk would keep this ring under party decision considering his only defenses were his agility and his bulk.
  Upon the Shaman, Ravel would first find their their holy symbol to Gruumsh One-Eye. After taking the time to divine for magical presences, Zith would take not of another item of interest. Upon the shaman's head was a circlet made of braided rawhide with a carved, runic eye made of stone in the center. The item would be identified to be a Never Sleeping Eye. The circlet of Gruumsh watched over the wearer while they slept, ensure their arousal before danger struck. With no one in particular chomping at the bit to take it, there were discussions for Zith to wear it up until the point they could sell it. In time, Zith would grow more attached to the idea of keeping it.
  After the looting finished, the party decided that they would continue on their trek for the second later portion of the day. Given time, Zith had a trick he could prepare tomorrow to aid the party and elves in their interrogations for the shaman. For now, they would load the bound and gagged orc onto Zith's floating disk and continue on. The journey would be stutter-stop with the gnome having to upkeep the ritual every three-quarters hour but it ensure the rest of their travel continued on as normal. The orc would rouse after three hours but the party would end it's travel not long after to make camp.
  Night watch was particularly alert that night but morning would come without fret. Despite that, not all was grim. The skald of the elven escort, Othorion, actually had interest in working with Beatle on the account of the battle to pass on in the future. Beatle already had a song being penned. The pair then built out the narrative further for both the half elf and elf to take on their separate ways.
    Elven Hospitality
In the morning, the party gathered around the orc shaman for the interrogations. Zith then imprinted a magical suggestion into the orc before removing the gag: “Tell me everything you know about the Galeborn and draw us a map to their locations.”
  The shaman did their best to live up to the task and share the information they knew though it was not much. The Galeborn resided in the Alkaloks Woods to the south. They had taken the dead wood and breathed life back into it. They arrived 50 years ago or so. Tornucan Calmheart is the leader of the Galeborn. They are a mixed blood of orc, goblin, human, and elf. The Galeborn pay for their safe harbor in Dremlunts by providing better harvests for the lands immediately around Pitonhold.
  The Galeborn send messengers to Pitonhold in animals forms to share information before returning the way they came. Word had come from the Galeborn that the “outer peoples” (presumably folk from beyond their peninsula) would be coming to Dremlunts. The people of Pitonhold had been told that borders out of Dremlunts would soon be guarded by more than just elves. The orcs should seek to plunder anything they should need soon before it is cutoff. While the shaman could not point the party to where the Galeborn where, they was one that might be able to. Rhal the Breaker was an orc living not far from the elves forest that serves as eyes and ears for the Galeborn.
  The shaman's binds were removed for them to locate where Rhal the Breaker could be found. Soon after, Marduk would subdue the shaman once more as the enchantment fell from their mind with the task complete. While Marduk took car of this, Zith began to barter with the elves.
  The gnome could enchant the orc to share any information they desired as well. In return, he simply requested that they give him a set of the silversilk clothes when they returned to Gofinath. The scouts admitted that they did not have the authority to promise any goods be turned over regardless of the intelligence gathered. In either case, they preferred the orc dead above all else. If the gnome wanted to provided the opportunity for interrogation, they would use it but could only promise that they would put in a good word for the gnome when they returned. Whether the information was good or not, the orc would not be walking away from this encounter. Additionally, the elves would want to do their integration in private as anything that they wished to ask would be for the benefit of Anrand Glad and things they didn't the anyone else to know they knew.
  Zith agreed to the situation and re approached the shaman to imprint another suggestion into the shaman to answer any and all questions that the elves had for them. The shaman was then led off into the woods for the elves to have their privacy. Despite agreeing to it, Zith and Ravel would choose to eaves drop on the encounter anyways. Zith did so to ensure leverage on getting the silversilk clothes. Ravel followed for curiosity and distress not liking how the elves willfully spoke of the orc's doom. Ravel followed in rodent form while Zith sent in his bat and listened through the familiar's link.
  What the two members of the Sapphire Oath eavesdropped on was not pleasant. The elves did ask the orc about Den Bludow's supplies, population, demographics, and health. While the orc was limited to their knowledge, their did share a variety of political and military information that would be pertinent to an opposing faction. Zith would write down all of this information in Infernal for possible future use. However, these questions were not the bulk of the questions asked but only every third or fourth.
  The bulk of the questions were torment and torture. The elves asked questions about how it wished to die, about those they had killed in the past. The elves questioned while a servant of Gruumsh One-Eye still had both of theirs and if they want the elves to help remedy that situation. Based on the suggestion given, the shaman was forced to sit through and answer all of these hypotheticals, the mind within understanding all of it but unable to get the body to do something else until the questioning was complete. The elves continued to ask questions without bringing harm to the creature and would always veer away from the dangerous paths after a question or two that might push too far.
  Only after they had had their fun and gotten the honest questions sorted did the elves verbally affirm between all of them that they had no further questions for the orc. In doing so, the suggestion enchantment dropped, freeing the orc. Fleeing in terror, the orc ran to quickly be shot down by one of the elven party.
  Ravel and Zith would be notably present when the escort returned without the orc. The elves would spend the final two days getting the Sapphire Oath through the borderlands to the forest edge nearest to wear Rhal the Breaker's home was supposed to be. The final days of the journey were viscerally different than the rest of the journey. While the elven taunts and jabs at Marduk had been experienced, the party had not internalized them. They had assumed that Marduk had not responded to them in the effort of peacekeeping and for the party to gain the benefits of the elven escort through their lands. Now though, that felt like blood money or as if a looming danger had always been present. Ravel was vastly silent while Marduk had a tempered withdrawn attitude.
  When it came time for the parting of the group , the elves back home and the Sapphire Oath into the wastes of Dremlunts, that discomfort could no longer be ignored. The elves had served their purpose. Despite the connections made through the journey, the Oath now viewed the relationship as having been a bridge that was smoking the whole journey as was now whole charred. There were some internal monologues on wanting to turn on the elves and kill them.
  In place of blades, though, Marduk approached the group with an extended hand and a few words. When approaching the elves, though, he had to choose who to attempt this gentle shower to put out the charring. The Soldier.... The Hunter... The Skald. Othorion. Marduk approached the skald Othorion with the open hand in thanks for seeing the Sapphire Oath through their lands and into Dremlunts.
  Othorion looked down at the hand and back at Marduk. In that moment, Beatle wanted to approach the elves himself. To say his thanks through a lying facade before whispering into an ear, “It's a good thing for all parties that nothing happened to Marduk on the journey”. Every fiber in the bard's body told him to fight for his friend and oppose the blatant racism and sadism. The problem was, above danger, above the conflict, above the complications it would cause on their return, the problem was... Othorion grasped Marduk's hand. It took a moment. It was a choice that had to be deliberately made but Othorion accepted and reciprocated the handshake.
  With their rituals of departure made (whether civil or not), the Sapphire Oath and the elven escorts split ways. The elves returned deeper into the great woods of Anrand Glad while the Sapphire Oath looked south. Beyond the slowly desiccating wood's edge, the companions could see the beginnings of a wasteland before them. In a stead progression, trees became scarce, the grass became weeds and eventually died away in most places, and the fertile soils of the elven wood were replaced with hard-packed and dried clay or drifting patches of sand.