Session 1

General Summary

Lady Shilana took Flek aside and explained to him a problem with elves were having with one of their outlying villages. Apparently no word had been heard from the village for three weeks so the Queen had sent a patrol to investigate. The soldiers had returned with tales that the village was completely deserted but was haunted. The elves were unsure of how to proceed. Shilana knew that the party had to wait a few days in Eldaran as the druid Marik was crafting them a wand of curing so she asked if they would mind going and seeing what they could find out at the village. The party of course agreed. Shilana led them to the village site, on the way encountering a small group of trolls that proved no more than a minor inconvenience for our intrepid heroes. The elven paladin then left the group saying she had to return to the court.   The group strolled into the village, noting that it was exactly as the elven soldiers had reported. There were no signs of a struggle or of violence but neither was there any signs of life. Suddenly out of nowhere a spider the size of a horse materialized and bit Traubon. As fast as it had appeared it disappeared once again. The party huddled together for protection and moved through the village, searching the houses. They were repeatedly attacked by this phasing spider until Tor identified that there were in fact multiple spiders as they didn't all look identical.   The party made their way up to the main building in the centre of the village when a ghostly figure materialized in front of them. It claimed to be Navae, an elf from the village and told them the village was under a curse by a powerful wizard and only the gem that was held somewhere in the building in the centre of the village could save the elves. Before he faded away Lady Fortuna was able to determine that he was evil so they took all that he said with a liberal pinch of salt. They carefully made their way up into the house and searched it. In the house they found a wizard's laboratory and a cabinet in there which was magically trapped. The trap went off but didn't harm anyone. They were just about to recover the gem from the laboratory when the elven ghost Navae materialized and possessed the body of Tor! Fortunately the quick thinking Lady Fortuna called on the power of Pelor and sent the ghost fleeing. Tor was shaken but otherwise okay. The group recovered the gem and some other items and spent a restless night in the tree house, being haunted by the ghost. Among the other items collected was the journal of the owner of the house - a wizard called Revan. He was the master to Navae. The journal told of Revan's concern over Navae's interest in a stone called the Galadiir.   In the morning they collected their gear and set out back to the elves at court. Returning safely they took the knowledge they had acquired to Shilana and Caladon the court mage. Between them these two worthies told the party that the gem was indeed the mighty Galadiir, which was an ancient artefact wrestled from the drow in generations past. This stone could grant three wishes to its owner and one of those wishes had been used up in defeating the drow who created it. It should therefore have two left, if lore and legend was to be believed but it only had one. The elves proposed that perhaps the fact that the second wish was missing was to do with the mystery of the villagers going missing. They agreed to let the party take the Galadiir back to the village in an effort to solve the mystery once and for all. Caladon also gave the party two scrolls that would allow their readers to see invisible creatures which would include the phase spiders.   The party returned and used the scroll to see things that were invisible and were amazed to find an entire village of elves, who were all trapped on the Ethereal plane. Suddenly the mystery of their disappearance was solved! Traubon spoke to the village leader, a hunter called Tarien. He explained what had happened - he had killed Navae as he was in the act of stealing the Galadiir, but Navae had cursed the village using the Galadiir's power, as he died. Navae had returned as a ghost but the whole village found themselves transported to the Ethereal plane without any ability to interact with the normal plane of existence. As they were talking a cry went up from the Ethereal villagers: Navae and his 4 phase spiders were approaching!   Kai quickly grabbed the Galadiir and uttered words of power to activate it. He wished that all creatures within a mile of the tree at the centre of the village Aniel would be permanently on the prime material plane. This clever wording had the effect of returning all the villagers to their home plane, plus forcing the phase spiders to become material. Without their ability to phase in and out, they were no match for our heroes and even the ghost of Navae was quickly dispatched.   A great feast was held in honour of the heroes and the now non magical but still valuable Galadiir was given to them as a reward.   The party returned to court the next day and held a big meeting with the Queen and her advisors. They explained all that was going on in the outside world, about the likely return of the Demon Prince and about the fact that they were striving to find the Key of Seven Stars which would open the Book of Vitiris and help them banish The Demon Prince for another thousand years. They heard the latest news from the kingdom, from Marik. Apparently Eastward was under siege and one of the only reasons it still stood was the fighting prowess of Prince Jake, who it was rumoured turned into a giant bear and waded among the enemy slaughtering them. They heard that Sir Alfred had been slain fighting orcs in the north and that the northern knights were now run by Sir Caelon. Still no help was forth coming from Littlebrook and no one knew why the king still dallied. The elves gave the group a little help and the next day Shilana escorted them through the forest to the edge of Eldaran. She said her goodbyes and disappeared.   A couple of days later the group arrived at Eastward. They found the town under siege exactly as Marik had told. At this stage our heroes decided to try something a little different. They collected their magical item stash and concocted a cunning plan. Traubon was to drink a potion of invisibility and then use his wand of polymorphing to change himself into a bird. He would fly into the camp invisible, land near Lord Taranaka's tent, become a mouse, sneak in, still invisible, change back to himself and assassinate the Lord as he slept. He would then attempt to change into a mouse or bird and make his escape! This cunning plan seemed to be working quite well. Traubon managed to get himself inside the tent of Lord Taranaka and right up to the head of his bed where the Lord slept. The tent was full of guards and there was a heavily muscled man in loose fitting robes at the head of the bed, obviously a personal bodyguard. Traubon took out his magical mace, took careful aim and viciously caved the side of Lord Taranaka's head in! Within seconds the tent had exploded into a frenzy! Guards swarmed over Traubon - amazing him with the speed of their reaction. The monk standing next to Traubon unleashed a flurry of blows on him that sent him reeling. Realizing he was overwhelmed, Traubon dropped his mace and surrendered. The monk punched him once in the face and he knew only blackness.   Traubon awoke a short time later to find himself stripped and bound. The monk was standing over him and proceeded to interrogate him to find out why he was here and who had sent him. It turned out that the monk's life would be forfeit for having let Lord Taranaka be killed - even though the Lord himself had apparently been raised from the dead by the clerics of the Easterners' war like god. Lord Taranaka had given the monk till sunrise to torture Traubon before both of them were put to death. Unknown to the monk Traubon's friends had agreed to use their magical bracelet and get Traubon out an hour before dawn. That time was enough for the monk to cut out both the dwarf's eyes, to remove all his fingers and toes and his ears and nose. His companions were very startled when they recovered Traubon. He was near death and in a really sorry way. Lady Fortuna healed him as best she could but it would take serious healing power to fix the dwarf. The sort of healing power that only Cardinal O'Connor might wield. So it was that party set out on a detour to Littlebrook...
Report Date
10 Apr 2024
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