# The Gateway Campaign



## kenobi65 (Jan 24, 2002)

Back on the Eric Noah pages, I had started to post the game notes from our 3E campaign, which we started in January of 2001.  I had slacked off on updating the thread, but figured, with Morrus's re-launch of his boards, it was a good opportunity to get all the notes posted (and hopefully I won't slack off this time!)

Our campaign takes place in a homebrewed world, although I do use the stock Greyhawk deities.  We started the PCs at 3rd level, mostly because I didn't want to have to worry about them being too fragile to survive one or two bad die rolls.

(BTW, if you're a fan of _Stargate SG-1_, you'll recognize that the Gateway is based, at least in part, on the mechanics of the Stargate.)

We play about once per month; each session's notes are a separate message on the thread.  Each posting contains both the actual play date (at the very top of the post), and the dates in the campaign calendar that occurred.

If you're interested, I've got quite a bit of info on the campaign on my web page: Gateway Campaign Home Page.


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## kenobi65 (Jan 24, 2002)

*Session #1 - 1/12/01*

(To see a map of the campaign's home country, click here. )

Current Calendar Year: 3174

Our story actually begins five years ago, in the late summer of 3169.  A merchant ship from the province of Avila, the Mallorcan Lady, was lost at sea in a furious hurricane.  The storm pushed the Mallorcan Lady far off course to the east-southeast, and snapped all of her masts.  After drifting at sea for weeks, the ship made landfall on the Eastern Continent.  The sailors were quickly discovered by the Dracos, and even more quickly killed – the Draconic sacred texts clearly state that two-legged mammals are abominations, and must be killed on sight.

The Dracos examined the humans’ ship.  Not only did the navigational information and maps on board give them a clue as to where the humans came from, but Draconic engineers learned much about shipbuilding (an art that never flowered among the Dracos) from the simple merchant craft.

In the summer of 3173, several attacks took place in the Avilan islands.  In each attack, reptilian humanoids swam ashore, brutally massacred the local inhabitants, did some cursory looting, and swam away.  By the time of the third attack, the royal army and navy had been set to patrol the Avilan shores.  In this attack, lizard-men were seen swimming to shore, pulling rafts full of kobolds and winged lizard-men (draconians).  The presence of a Navy ship and a battalion of troops was enough to eventually repel the attack, but not before heavy losses were suffered on both sides.  The army was able to capture a draconian lieutenant, and brought him back to Marington, the capitol city of the Great Kingdom of Dorlomin.  There, General Elena Winterhawk, the commander of Dorlomin's armed forces, used magic to interrogate the prisoner.  She thus learned about the Draconic States, the fate of the Mallorcan Lady, and the Dracos' new jihad against humans.  She also learned that the Dracos were beginning to build larger ships in order to mount a more serious invasion of Dorlomin.

At about this same time, Winterhawk discovered a set of magical artifacts, known as the Gateway Stones, in a forgotten storage area in the royal castle at Marington.  Over the following year, Winterhawk and several trusted agents used the Gateway to spy on the Draconic States, and discovered the site of the Dracos' main shipyard, just east of the Virdean city of Tun-Kashila.

6/9

Winterhawk has recruited an army to attack this shipyard.  The army consists of three forces:
- Her main force, Efreet Team, numbering 800, will attack the shipyard and destroy it.  Most of the members of this force are warriors, but the officers include fighters as well as several wizards and clerics. 
- Two smaller forces will be sent to disable the signal towers that lie on the seashore, miles to each side of the city.  These towers are used by the Dracos to send signal fires quickly from city to city, and would be used to send a distress call.  These smaller forces are made up of "adventurers."  Spectre Team is taking out the West Tower, while Wraith Team is taking out the East Tower.

The PCs comprise Wraith Team.  The team consists of the following individuals:
- Ulfgar, a dwarven "caver", or ranger.  He fights with a pair of axes.
- Zeebee, a female human fighter.  She uses a massive greatsword.
- Nivek, a human rogue, armed with a well-crafted rapier.
- Whitefire, a human druid and follower of Ehlonna.
- Phadian, a half-elven illusionist and adherent of Navarra Na'Vin, an elven goddess of magic
- Magnus, a charismatic human sorcerer.
- Ming-Jeh, an exotic-looking monk from a distant land.  Although short, he wields a very long bow.
- Ian, a human wizard who was once also a monk.

Winterhawk calls a meeting of Wraith and Spectre Teams, as well as the officers of Efreet Team, in a meeting room within the Defense Ministry building in Marington.  There, she briefs all of the teams on what she knows about the Draconic States.

There are four major intelligent races of Dracos:
1) Kobolds are the most numerous, and are the commoners of the States.  They are very similar to the kobolds that exist in Dorlomin, but do not seem to be as sensitive to light as Dorlominian kobolds.
2) There are also a fair number of lizardfolk.  Although Draco lizardfolk are more sophisticated than their Dorlominite cousins, they are still quite brutal.  They serve as the shock troops of the Dracos.
3) A third race, draconians, has no counterpart in Dorlomin.  They appear to be humanoid dragons, complete with wings and breath weapons.  Draconians are the nobility of the Draconic States, and serve as the officers in the armies.
4) Finally, dragons hold the top rung in Draco society.  Fortunately, there are not many dragons, but they are extremely dangerous.

There are four Draconic States, each ruled by a different color of dragon: Virdea (green), Cerulea (blue), Nyxal (black), and Vermiloth (red).  While the four states continually vie with each other for power, their shared religion prevents them from open warfare.  The newfound knowledge of the humans and demi-humans of Dorlomin has forced the four states to co-operate in ways that they never have previously.

Nearly all Dracos wield two unique weapons.  The fai is a double-bladed polearm; kobolds use a shorter version (dar-fai), while lizardfolk and draconians use a longer version (gli-fai).  The standard missile weapon is a crossbow-like weapon that Winterhawk has dubbed the "pipegun" -- instead of an external bow, the pipe-gun has a powerful spring built into its wooden stock.

Winterhawk will use the Gateway to ferry Efreet and Wraith teams to Gateway Base, a hidden supply cache that the army has built in the jungle to the south of Tun-Kashila.  Spectre Team will instead be shuttled to West Base, a smaller cache that places them much closer to their target of the western signal tower.

The plan is that all three teams are to keep a low profile as they move through the jungle, and get within about 5 miles of their target, no later than sunset on the 14th of the month (which will be one night short of a full moon).  Winterhawk has scouted out the areas around the two towers, and has picked out appropriate landmarks for those teams.  At about 10pm on the 14th, Winterhawk will send signals to the Spectre and Wraith Teams to advance, and all three teams are to hustle to their targets (which should take about an hour).

6/10

The Efreet and Wraith Teams are transported via the Gateway to Gateway Base on the evening of the 10th.  Due to the Draconic States being far to the east, this actually puts the teams at the base early in the morning of the 11th.  The Spectre Team transfers at the same time to West Base.

6/11 - 6/12

The party spends the 11th and the 12th slogging through fairly heavy jungle.  Ulfgar marks the trail as they go, so that the party can find its way back after the mission.

Late in the day on the 12th, as the party breaks out of the heavy foliage, they hear and see signs of an encampment some distance ahead.  It turns out to be a kobold hunting party, making camp during a return journey home from a hunting trip.  The kobolds hear the party in the woods, and begin to investigate.  However, the party quickly dispatches most of the small reptilians.  They keep one alive long enough to interrogate, learning that his group was heading back to a village near the eastern signal tower. 

6/13 - 6/14

The party then spends the 13th and the 14th sneaking through less densely forested land.  They do not encounter anything of note, although they pass near the village of the hunting party.  The party is able to get into position for their attack well before the appointed hour.

Upon receiving the signal from General Winterhawk, the party hustles to the tower.  They are surprised to see that there is little in the way of outside guards.  Several of the spellcasters send their owl companions to scout, but they see nothing extraordinary.  Nivek, Ian, Ming-Jeh, and Magnus quietly scale the side of the tower, in hopes of quickly dispatching any crew on the roof who might be able to send a signal on.  Meanwhile, Ulfgar, Zeebee, Whitefire, and Phadian approach the front door of the tower.

The group on the roof makes short work of the small contingent of kobolds on the roof, then begins to deliberate on how to disable the signaling device.  At about this point, a bonechilling keening can be heard in the night air.  The party looks off towards the west, and can see distant flames, from the shipyards.  Outlined in the light of the flames is the shape of a flying dragon.  

The party suspects that the keening is some sort of alarm, as they now hear activity below them.  They open the trap door to the tower below, and see a group of kobolds below them.  Ian quickly throws in a Sleep spell, and the party close the door.  However, two draconians fly up to the roof from the windows.  Joined by a surprisingly tough leader kobold, the Dracos attack the group on the roof.  The combat is lengthy, and Nivek is nearly run through several times, but the rooftop opponents are eventually defeated.

Meanwhile, the group downstairs assaults the front door.  Ulfgar and Zeebee try a straightforward frontal assault, but the doorway is held by two leader kobolds, backed up by two sorcerer kobolds.  The party's fighters are repulsed, and Ulfgar is actually incapacitated.  The party eventually manages to get rid of the leader kobolds, but at about this point, a draconian shows up to add to the melee.  Phadian takes it upon himself to eliminate the sorcerers; several spells and a flask of Alchemist's Fire later, he finally succeeds.

In the end, the party manages to wipe out the kobolds and draconians without suffering any fatalities.  After quickly surveying their handiwork (and looting the draconians and sorcerers for several magical items), the party retreats.  They move several kilometers away from the tower, and into a wooded area, before making camp to rest.

6/15 - 6/17

The party spends the next few days retracing their steps back to Gateway Base.  They arrive at the base late in the day on the 17th, and are surprised to learn that they are the first ones to return.


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## kenobi65 (Jan 24, 2002)

*Session #2 - 2/9/01*

6/17

Other than the party, the only people already at Gateway Base are the skeleton crew of troops that was left there to guard the supply cache and the Keystone.  Jehan, a ranger, leads this skeleton crew.

As the night wears on, however, several members of Efreet Team make it to Gateway Base.  There, they tell a horrific tale.  They had succeeded in their mission to destroy the shipyard, and were beginning to retreat to the safety of the jungle.  As they moved back, they were attacked by a green dragon, accompanied by a large group of draconians.  The dragon breathed its toxic gas on Winterhawk's army, and many of the soldiers died on the spot. 

Weakened, but still defiant, Elena Winterhawk and several of her officers regrouped and made their stand.  The draconians, many of whom were apparently spellcasters, rained lightning and fire down on the humans, and most of the officers fell, too.  Finally, the dragon itself appeared to cast a spell on Winterhawk, and she fell unconscious.  Then, the dragon swooped down and grabbed the general with one of its foreclaws.  The dragon and its draconian guards flew back towards Tun-Kashila, while a large group of kobolds and lizardmen moved out from the city towards the shipyards.  The few survivors fled into the jungle, and have made their way back here while trying to evade the roving search bands that have spread into the jungle.

The party discusses what to do next.  They believe that, in order to re-activate the Gateway, they will need to rescue General Winterhawk and bring her back to the Gateway.  The party discusses with Jehan the idea of moving the Gateway Base (so that the Dracos would have more difficulty in finding it), but the young ranger seems to be incapable of making a decision.  Additionally, the other survivors are fairly panicked by the notion that no one at the Base can re-open the Gateway and get them home.

6/18

Shortly after dawn, a very haggard pair of survivors stumbles into Gateway Base.  Lieutenant Genevieve Firehawk has suffered a severed right arm (cut off just below the elbow by a blow from one of the draconians).  Her wound was healed by Kerrith, a young cleric of St. Cuthbert who then accompanied her back to the base.  However, Kerrith is low level, and was only able to stop the bleeding of the wound -- he could not regenerate the lost limb.

Genevieve elaborates on the story told by the other survivors. After Kerrith had revived Genevieve, the two of them searched the battlefield.  They found where General Winterhawk had made her stand, and there discovered a broken Gateway Key as well as the general's sword, dropped when she fell.  She says that both she and Winterhawk were carrying Keys, devices that would allow them to open the Gateway from any location.   Based on the fact that it looked as though Winterhawk's key was ground under a boot heel, Genevieve guesses that, when the tide of battle had turned against them, Winterhawk broke her own Key just before the dragon knocked her out.  Genevieve attempted to trigger her Key once she and Kerrith got away from the battlefield, but she discovered that it had been broken during the battle.  She shows the pieces to the PCs, but the enchantment is gone, so it impossible to repair.

Genevieve agrees with the party that the only remaining way to re-open the Gateway is to retrieve General Winterhawk.  Genevieve recommends that the party go to Tun-Kashila and see if they can locate the general, rescue her, and bring her back to the Base.  From here, she would be able to use the Keystone to re-open the Gateway.

Genevieve describes the terrain as well as she can to the PCs -- it appears that the party will need to travel through the jungle for three days, then along the river for another two days before reaching Tun-Kashila.  She then gives the party a sword that she had been carrying on her back: the Silver Scalpel, a beautiful, enchanted bastard sword that belongs to General Winterhawk.  She suggests that the party bring it with them to return to the General, but, in the meantime, that someone in the party might as well use the sword.  As she says this, she refers to the general as "my mother," causing a few eyebrows to raise.  Zeebee is elected to use the Scalpel.

The party decides to stay at the Base through this day, and depart the following morning.  They go through the Base's supplies, and stock themselves up for the trip.  Meanwhile, Genevieve has taken charge of the Base, and brought the survivors under control.  She agrees with the party that it would be a good idea to move the base, and will lead the survivors to move it one day's march to the southwest.

 6/19

The party departs Gateway Base, heading towards the northwest.  Late that day, as the party moves along, several party members notice a deep rumbling coming from underground.  Suddenly, two gigantic insects (ankhegs) burst out of the ground and attack the party.  Ming-Jeh, Phadian, and Zeebee team up to kill one of the giant bugs, with Zeebee severing its head with a single blow from the Silver Scalpel (this leads Zeebee to state that this is a fine weapon, indeed).  Then, Magnus, Ian, and Ulfgar finish off the other one, which Whitefire had successfully slowed down by Entangling it.

6/20

The party continues to travel through the jungle.  Around mid-day, the party stumbles upon a Draco search party: a group of a half-dozen lizardfolk, led by a draconian.

Whitefire quickly casts an Entangle spell.  The spell encompasses the entire group of Dracos, although some manage to break free.  The draconian is one of those who breaks free; after doing so, he flies towards the party and uses his chlorine-gas breath weapon.  Ulfgar and Whitefire are in the range of the hideous gas, and, while Ulfgar suffers its full effects, Whitefire manages to dive behind a tree at the last moment.  This particular tree does not seem to be affected by the caustic gas (which surprises Whitefire a great deal, given that all the surrounding vegetation is scorched).

A moment later, the draconian falls to the ground, felled by a combination of magic missiles (from Phadian and Magnus) and a pipe-bow shot from Zeebee.  Ian casts a Sleep spell, which drops some of the lizardmen.  Several lizardmen charge party members, only to miss in their attacks.  Ming-Jeh impresses the group by swatting a pipe-bow bolt out of the air a moment before it would have hit him.  Eventually, all the lizardfolk are slain.  In searching the dead, the party finds a pair of potions and a magical quiver.

Whitefire examines his tree further.  It appears to be a variety of lime tree, and is completely unscathed from the draconian's breath weapon.  The druid quickly harvests several dozen small limes from the tree, and explains to the party that he believes eating the limes may give the party members some degree of temporary resistance to these breath weapons.  Needless to say, the rest of the party eagerly takes the limes.

6/21

Late in the day, the party reaches the river.  Ian looks for any sign of boat traffic on the river, in hopes that the party might be able to sneak into the city using this as a cover.  Unfortunately, he finds none.

Whitefire spots a crocodile in the river, and proceeds to speak to it.  He learns that the croc does not like to go too far down river, as the water gets polluted near the Dracos' villages.  The crocodile further explains that the Dracos like to hunt for crocodiles, so he tries to stay out of their way.

6/22 - 6/23

The party proceeds north, following the east bank of the river.  During their travel on the 22nd, they break out of the heavier jungle, and begin to have to move more carefully.  In the afternoon on the 23rd, Nivek hears something behind the party: they turn and see a search party of kobolds and a draconian bearing down on them.

Sleep spells from Ian and Magnus make short work of many of the kobolds.  The draconian sorcerer uses his gli-fai to shoot a beam of reddish energy at Phadian.  The party focuses its missile attacks on the draconian, who is hanging back and using his own missiles and spells.  During the fight, the draconian is struck by a throwing-stone, which apparently came from behind him.  The party fells the draconian with magic missiles; as they begin to stand down, the draconian stands back up (he was apparently just playing dead).  However, he does not appear to be immune to mundane missiles, and soon perishes in a hail of crossbow fire.  The party discovers that the draconian was wearing a Brooch of Shielding, which explains his immunity to the magic missiles.  They also find several more potions, a magical dar-fai that was wielded by the lead kobold, and the draconian's weapon, a kal-gli-fai.

The party then looks for the source of the thrown stone.  Several small humanoid figures proceed to come out of the brush.  They look like gnomes, but they walk on all fours (on the knuckles of their hands as well as on their feet).  In thickly-accented Gnomish, they introduce themselves to the party, and welcome them as "those that were prophesied of."  They lead the party to a concealed tunnel entrance, then down into a series of tunnels.

The group travels for some time in the tunnels -- as the party members are considerably larger than their gnomish guides, there are many tight spots in the tunnels for the party.  After what seems to be several hours of travel, the group arrives at a large underground settlement of these gnomes, all of whom move about on all fours.  All of the gnomes crowd around the party, and are very joyous at their arrival.

The party is led into a cavern, and given food and drink.  After a few minutes, several elderly gnomes enter the room.  The leader of these elders is a venerable gnomish woman named Senki.  Senki tells the party that the "Burrowers," as they call themselves, have been expecting the party for several days, ever since a female human captive (clearly the general) was brought into Tun-Kashila.  She further explains that the Burrowers do not know how they came to be in this land, but that they do believe that they originated from elsewhere.  Their holy texts make it clear that they are to never rise up on their two feet, for that would bring doom upon them all from the Dracos.  Their holy texts also have told them that, someday, heroes who boldly stand on two legs would come to this land.  The texts command the Burrowers to provide these heroes with any help they need, as the heroes will fight the Dracos and, eventually, emancipate the Burrowers.

Senki says that the Burrowers are the drudges and servants of society in Tun-Kashila.  They have tunnels and crawl-spaces that honeycomb the city, as well as the surrounding countryside.  They use these tunnels to access any place in the city, where they are expected to perform all the Dracos' menial tasks.  It is from these tunnels that they have observed what has happened to General Winterhawk.  The general is still alive, but has endured much.


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## kenobi65 (Jan 24, 2002)

*Session  #3 - 3/16/01*

6/23

The Burrowers believe that they were not originally residents of this land -- their teachings tell them that they were brought here from a land far across the sea (a "land of warm hills, soft winds, and fair skies," according to their teachings).  The reason for their transplantation is lost to them, but their teachings do promise that, one day, beings from their old homeland will come and redeem them.

The teachings are crystal clear on one point: the Burrowers were to never rise up on just their two feet: it is strictly taboo for a Burrower to ever lift both hands from the ground and stand upright.  The Burrowers understand Draco society and religion fairly well, and comprehend that breaking their taboo would result in the death of the offending Burrower, and perhaps the death of all Burrowers.  Senki confides that most Burrowers suspect that walking upright was something that the Burrowers were able to do in their old homeland.  She also suspects that the senior Dracos (the brighter dragons, at least) may recognize that the Burrowers are, in fact, a two-legged race.  However, as the Burrowers serve an important function in the Draconic cities, the Dracos have not tried to destroy the Burrowers.

Burrowers are the drudges of Draconic society.  They clean, they perform menial tasks, they keep the basic functions of the cities working.  In order to do this, they have a series of tunnels and crawl-spaces that honeycomb Tun-Kashila (and every other major Draconic city, for that matter).  The combination of low social status, very short physical stature (crouched over, a Burrower is shorter even than a kobold), and keeping to the tunnels and crawl-spaces until needed leads to Dracos generally ignoring Burrowers, even if they're in the same room.

While the Burrowers' oral traditions tell them that the "Upright Ones" (i.e., the party) are to be the Burrowers' redemption, this is a matter of some debate.  The Burrowers are willing to give the party any aid they can, but they are concerned that, if the Dracos were to learn that the party used their tunnels, that they would be killed in retribution.  Some of the elders suggest that they might be able to convince the Dracos that the party forced their way into the tunnels, but this is not a universally-held belief.

Also, even if the entire population of Tun-Kashila's Burrowers were to be emancipated (via the Gateway), they believe that there are Burrower colonies in other Draconic cities.  Senki, in particular, is concerned that, if their colony were to vanish in the wake of Winterhawk's rescue, these other colonies might be destroyed, again in retribution.  However, these Burrowers do not have solid evidence of the existance of other colonies, just their oral traditions.

Senki summons Cerila, a Burrower scout, to tell the party about the general.  Cerila tells the party that the Burrowers observed Avranath, the green dragon baron of Tun-Kashila, return to his throne room with a fair-haired human woman nine nights ago (late in the night of the 14th / 15th).  The Burrowers have several tunnels that lead into Avranath's throne room, and have quietly observed all that has happened to her.  At that point, the woman was unconscious, but the baron's draconian lackeys quickly revived her.  The dragon was in a fit of rage, and the draconians had to frequently restrain him from simply killing the woman outright.  He interrogated her and threatened her, but she would tell him nothing.  Eventually, Arvanath had his lackeys manacle Winterhawk to the wall of the throne room, where she has remained ever since.

(Cerila also confides that Arvanath is not the brightest of dragons -- the Burrowers have a nickname for him, in Gnomish, which roughly translates to "Stupid-Boy.")

Seven days ago (in the afternoon of the 16th) , Tanalkazir showed up.  She is an older, higher-ranking dragon, the mother of Avranath, and the one-time baroness of Tun-Kashila.  She berated Avranath at length for allowing the "abominations" to destroy the shipyards.  Tanalkazir briefly interrogated Winterhawk herself, even using magic to attempt to coerce the general, but to no avail -- the human woman simply would not respond.  Tanalkazir then berated Avranath even more, accusing him of damaging the woman in his rage.

Tanalkazir then told Avranath that his only hope for redeeming his status would be to successfully learn how Winterhawk's army managed to get to Virdea without being noticed.  However, she warned him, he was not allowed to kill or maim Winterhawk until he could extract this information, and then have it deliberated upon by the Virdean Council.  After delivering these orders, she departed.

Even angrier now, Avranath then lashed out at his draconian lackeys, killing two of them in his fury.  He ordered the rest of them to work day and night to find a way to force Winterhawk to divulge her information.  "Anything is permissible," Arvanath told them, "so long as it does not leave a mark."

The draconian sorcerers and clerics tried their own enchantment magics on the general, but, again, she managed to resist them.  So, they have spent the last few days concocting potions intended to force a victim to tell the truth.  However, the Burrower drudges who were left to brew the potions added a few extra ingredients -- thus, although the potions did make Elena sick to her stomach, they did not have the desired effect.

Senki then summons Hewdos, the chief of the Burrowers' Tunnel Guild.  She asks Hewdos to provide the party with a map showing them the routes they can take to get to where Winterhawk is being held.  

Hewdos and his apprentice, Suram, return after about 2 hours with a map.  Hewdos is apologetic -- he says that they have numerous ways that a Burrower could get to Winterhawk, but many of the tunnels are simply far too small for humans to fit through.  In fact, the primary route that the Burrowers have been using to observe Avranath's chamber is impossible for humans to use.  Instead, he has laid out what he considers to be the only feasible route -- even so, it has several obstacles:

1) Th party will need to climb a 30' cavern wall -- the Burrowers climb it using a light rope, but the existing rope is far too light for humans to use.
2) The party will also need to pass through two open areas.  The Burrowers do this all the time, but the Dracos rarely, if ever, notice the tiny Burrowers.  Because the party would be much more obvious, Hewdos and Suram built a route that minimized these "open transits," but they couldn't eliminate them entirely.  The first one requires the party to cross about 50' of open space in the foyer of the Dracos' main military school.  The second one is a crossing of about 100' of open space in the back of a warehouse.
3) There is a damp cavern that the party will need to go through.  While it is not out in the open, the caven is one of a series that the Dracos use for sewage.  Thus, there is a slow-moving stream of rather nasty water that the party will need to cross.

Finally, Hewdos's route contains a exit that the party could use to get completely out of the city after rescuing the general.  If the party cannot backtrack to that exit, there is another way out: below the throne room is the "nursery," a chamber used by female dragons to lay eggs and rear young dragons.  The nursery is currently unused, as there is no female dragon in residence at Tun-Kashila.  Further, adult male dragons, such as Arvanath, are prohibited from even entering the nursery.  There is an entrance into the nursery from the tunnels, but it is currently barricaded (although the barricades could be removed if necessary).

Senki and the other elders decide to send several of their scouts along with the party.  Bramir and Zek, the two scouts who originally found the party, will travel with them, while Cirila and Tahir will range ahead of the party.

The party debates their strategy, particularly what time of the day they want to reach the throne room.  They eventually agree that they want to get to the throne room late at night, when there will likely be few inhabitants there.  As it is several hours of travel through the tunnels to get to the throne room, this would entail leaving from the Burrowers' cavern at mid-to-late evening.  Since the party's spellcasters have largely depleted their spells, the group agrees to wait until the following evening to depart.

6/24

After resting for the day in the Burrowers' cavern, the party leaves after dinner.  After a half-hour or so in the tunnels, they come to the "climbing wall."  The party sends one of the Burrower scouts up the wall with their rope, and the scout ties the rope to a piton at the top.  Slowly, the party climbs up the rope, although several members have some difficulty.  Whitefire decides that climbing would likely be hazardous to his health, so he climbs into his Bag of Holding and has himself hoisted up.

Another half-hour or so of walking brings the party to the open passage through the foyer of the military school.  Two kobold guards are sitting in chairs in the foyer, passing the time.  After a brief conference, Ian casts Sleep on the two guards, and the party quietly moves past them and back into the tunnels.

Another 45 minutes brings the party to the second open passage, through the storage room.  The advance scouts bring back bad news; there are five draconian soldiers holed up in the storage room, playing cards.  After scoping out the room, the party realizes that, if they move silently enough, they may be able to use the crates and barrels stored in the room as cover for most of their transit.  Although this would still leave the party with some open space to cross, the space is small enough that Phadian can cover it with an illusion, to make the party appear as a large group of Burrowers.

With their Burrower guides, the party makes its way behind the crates.  Phadian casts his spell, and the disguised party begins to head for the safety of the tunnel.  However, just as the front of the party reaches the tunnel entrance, one of the draconian cardplayers sits up, sniffs the air, and says, "Hey, I smell something.  It's the same thing I smelled last week at the shipyards…abominations!"

As the draconians and the party begin to react, one fast-moving draconian heads for Phadian (still disguised by his Silent Image) and breathes on him.  The party acts quickly: Ian successfully Charms one of the draconians, then Magnus uses Color Spray to knock two of them unconscious (unfortunately, one of the two was the charmed one).  Nivek considers Commanding one of the draconians to "sleep," but then realizes that he doesn't know how to say "sleep" in Draconic.  The remaining draconians are quickly slain.  

When the charmed draconian comes to, Ian convinces him that a fight had broken out among the card-players, and that they had all killed each other.  After Ian counsels him to keep his mouth shut, lest he be charged with murder, the charmed draconian flees the room.  With the help of the Burrowers, the party arranges the dead draconians around the table, to look as if they had killed each other.  In searching the room, the party finds quite a bit of monetary treasure on the card table -- they leave a little bit behind to support their ruse, but take most of it with them.

The party moves through the tunnels for another half-hour or so.  The Burrower scouts tell them that they are approaching the "damp cavern," so Cirila and Tahir range ahead to scout it out.  After a half-hour passes, with no sign of Cirila or Tahir, the party cautiously moves forward.  They find that the "damp cavern" is a long, narrow cave; the closer end of the cavern is dry, but the far end contains a fetid pool.  Ulfgar can clearly see the footprints of the missing scouts, heading into the center of the cavern.  

Despite this, Ulfgar decides to slowly move forward along the west wall, using his darkvision to peer ahead.  He moves as far as the pool, but does not see anything unusual.  Eventually, the party decides to use a sunrod for light and move into the room, following the Burrowers' trail.  As they approach the pool, they can see something floating in it.  Upon closer examination, they can see that it is a Burrower body.  Meanwhile, Ulfgar again has moved off by himself to the west, searching that area.

As the main body of the party stares in shock at the floating body, a large sewer-dwelling otyugh shambles out of the stream to the east and attacks.  It strikes Ming-Jeh with one of its tentacles, and begins to constrict the young monk.  As the party begins to pepper the foul beast with missiles and spells, a smaller otyugh pops out of the western stream, right next to the hapless Ulfgar, and begins to pound on him.

The larger otyugh suffers several crossbow wounds, as well as a Dazzle spell, before Zeebee manages to splash into the pool and finish it off with the general's sword.   Meanwhile, Ian helps Ulfgar out with a couple of well-placed crossbow bolts, before the angry ranger hits the smaller otyugh with both axes, killing it.

In the aftermath of the melee, the party discovers that it is indeed Tahir's gnawed-upon body floating in the pond; they can only assume that Cirila had already been eaten by the otyughs.  At the back of the cavern, the party follows the tunnel as it leads up and out of the slimy water.

The party spends another hour or so working its way through the tunnels, until they reach a small chamber.  The Burrower scouts quietly explain that this chamber overlooks Arvanath's throne room.  A cunningly-woven tapestry covers a hole between the spy chamber and the throne room; while individuals in the chamber can see activity in the throne room, those in the throne room see the tapestry as opaque (and thus, cannot see the spy chamber).  The chamber is about 10 feet above the floor of the throne room.  As the party peers out, they can see General Winterhawk, apparently unconscious, manacled to the far wall, near the passage to the nursery.  

More importantly, they see Arvanath sitting in another corner of the room, yelling at two draconians and a kobold.  He complains that they are completely incompetent at potionmaking, and had better figure out some new method for extracting information from the human, and quickly.  He then announces that he is going for a nighttime hunt, to clear his head, and flies out of the cavern through a "chimney" in the ceiling.

This leaves the two draconians, the kobold, and the general in the room.  A moment later, Arvanath's booming voice can be heard from the top of the chimney: "And have someone check the sewers!  They're backing up again, and I can smell them in the throne room!"  For several moments, the three Draco lackeys look stunned.  Then, the draconians begin to berate the kobold, who slowly slinks towards the unconscious Winterhawk.

The party quickly formulates a plan.  Phadian casts a Silent Image in front of the spy chamber, intending to use it to make that space appear to be empty.  Then, several party members quietly drop from the spy chamber into the throne room.  Ian quaffs a potion of Invisibility and begins to move towards the kobold (who is farther away from the spy chamber than the draconians).  Nivek, having used Change Self to appear as a draconian, moves out of the cover of the Silent Image, and successfully Commands the draconian sorcerer to "sleep."  Magnus hits the draconian soldier with a Shocking Grasp, and the melee is on.

Thanks to the element of surprise, the Dracos are never even able to react.  The kobold attempts to hit Ian with a Magic Missile, but the ex-monk successfully punches the kobold, disrupting the spell.  Nivek manages to unlock Winterhawk's manacles; he and Ian then revive the tortured general.

Meanwhile, as Whitefire moves towards the doorway out of the throne room (to a guard room), the door opens, and a surprised draconian guard yells out an alarm.  The guard moves into the room, and is quickly engaged in combat, first by Whitefire, then by several other party members.  The guard is dispatched, and the doors locked.

After several healing potions and spells, and a long pull on a waterskin, Winterhawk thanks the party for their rescue.  She quickly tells them that she knows an incantation that will open the Gateway to their present location, but that the party will need to give her five minutes to cast it.  At about this point, alarm bells begin to sound in the halls outside the throne room.  From up in the spy chamber, Bramir and Zek call down to the party, and tell them to head for the nursery.  The party, along with General Winterhawk, thus race down the ramp into the nursery.


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## Old One (Jan 24, 2002)

*Welcome Back!*

I was wondering if the _Gateway Campaign_ would every show up again...glad to see you back on the boards!

Old One


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## kenobi65 (Jan 24, 2002)

Thanks for the welcome back, Old One.  I hope to get all of the notes posted here by Friday, if not before.


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## kenobi65 (Jan 25, 2002)

*Session #4 - 4/27/01*

The party sets up a defensive position in the nursery.  The ramp down from the throne room curves, so they find a position that lets them see as far up the ramp as they can.  General Winterhawk finds a corner of the nursery that is not visible from the ramp, and begins the five-minute incantation that will open the Gateway.

After less than a minute, the party can begin to hear orders being shouted in Draconian from up the ramp.  A few moments later, they can hear quick, light footsteps on the ramp.  A group of 8 kobold guards heads down the ramp.  They fire their pipe-bows once each, once they can see the party, before continuing down the ramp to engage the party in melee combat.  The party responds by trying to cut down as many of the kobolds as they can with their own missiles.  In the end, the party makes quick work of the kobolds.  They then quickly stack the kobolds' bodies up, to act as an impromptu defense wall.

About a minute later, Nivek and Phadian can hear the sound of wingbeats from the ramp.  Three draconian guards come flying down the ramp and into the room.  While this combat lasts longer, again, the party triumphs, and adds the draconian's bodies to their wall.

After this combat, Phadian decides it would be better if he stands guard directly next to General Winterhawk.  This quickly turns out to have been a good idea, as a pair of draconians very suddenly appear in the middle of the room, about 20' in the air.  The two of them fall to the floor with a thud, as a piece of smoking parchment (clearly, the scroll that they had just used) floats to the ground.

One of these draconians is a sorcerer, armed with a kal-gli-fai.  He attempts to use his weapon to electrocute Whitefire, but the druid had had the foresight to have cast a Resist Elements spell on himself, and he suffers little effect from the electical bolts.  Meanwhile, the cleric draconian tries (and fails) to affect one of the party with a Hold Person spell.  Again, the party manages to defeat the draconians, and drags their bodies off to the pile.

By this point, Winterhawk is over half-way through the incantation.  Her voice is cracking, and she seems to be becoming physically drained by the effort.  Phadian casts several minor beneficial spells on her, in hopes of keeping her going though to the end of the spell.

As Winterhawk nears completion of the spell, the party can hear Arvanath himself bellowing up in the throne room.  A final assault by the Dracos consists of four lizardman guards, who climb up the pile of their dead compatriots to attack the party.  Eventually, this offensive, too, is turned aside.

By now, the party can see a shimmering beginning to appear in the air in front of Winterhawk.  As she completes the incantation, she nearly collapses from the effort; however, the Gateway does indeed spring into existance.  The party quickly hustles through, and Winterhawk then closes the Gateway with a command word.

The party finds itself back in the inner courtyard of the palace at Marington.  It is mid-evening on the 24th.  They see a group of Marington guards ready to shoot them with crossbows -- behind these guards are several robed officials.  Once the guards see that it's members of the army, rather than Dracos, that have come through the Gateway, they stand down.  Then, the robed officials come forward, shouting questions at General Winterhawk.  She brushes her way past them, walking with a purpose, and signals to the party that they should follow her.  At the back of the crowd, Winterhawk spots a young, red-haired half-elven woman.  She flags her down, and gives her several orders.  The general tells the officials that she is going back through the Gateway in one hour to retrieve the rest of her force.  Then, she leaves the courtyard, the party following behind.

They quickly head into the army's administration building, and up several flights of stairs.  They proceed down a hallway, to a doorway flanked by two guards, who look surprised as they salute the general.  Winterhawk tells them that, other than the party, only "Rory" and "Aryl" are to be admitted.  She then goes through the doorway, and indicates that the party should follow her.

The party proceeds into the general's well-appointed office.  Winterhawk quickly strides to the back wall of the office, and presses a panel, revealing a concealed door into her apartments.  She and the party proceed through, and the weary general collapses into an armchair.

She sighs, and then thanks the party for coming back to get her.  "I really didn't think I'd ever make it back here," she admits.  "That redhead, Rory, is my assistant.  She's gone off to get an old friend of mine, a cleric, to heal us up.  In the meantime, we need to make some plans."  The party quickly fills Winterhawk in on the events of the past few weeks, including the fact that Genevieve Firehawk, the general's daughter, is still alive.  

Winterhawk tells the party that it is her intent to go back through the Gateway and rescue the remaining members of Efreet Team, then to use the Gateway to go to the West Base and see if Spectre Team ever made it back.  She tells the party that she will need their help on this mission.  Recognizing that the party's spellcasters are nearly tapped out, she sends one of them into her office to retrieve a small box from her desk.  The box contains four nearly-empty wands, which she hands out to the party's spellcasters to use in the rescue mission.  She then has Zeebee help her into a suit of full plate armor, and Zeebee regretfully gives the general back her bastard sword.

Rory and Aryl arrive.  Rory has brought a tray of food and drink for the general and the party.  Aryl is a very tall man, in his early 50s, wearing a holy symbol of Heironious.  Aryl chides Winterhawk for having had him rousted from his house, but the party can see that there is a friendship between the general and the cleric.  Aryl quickly heals Winterhawk, then several party members who were beat up.  Finally, he gives the party several curing potions and scrolls, just in case they need them.

Having had a bite to eat, and being in as good a shape as possible, Winterhawk leads the party back downstairs to the gateway (remembering, at the last minute, to retrieve the only remaining Gate Key from her desk).  As the party heads back into the courtyard (which is now full of soldiers and government officials), a very important-looking man steps into Winterhawk's path.  He says, "General, I demand that you tell me what is going on here."  Winterhawk replies, "Lord Prime Minister, I have a mission to complete.  I will gladly brief you once I return, but, in the meantime, get out of my way!"  Cowed, the prime minister steps aside, and the party proceeds to the Gateway.

Winterhawk opens the Gateway up to Gateway Base in Virdea.  There, it is still the middle of the night, and the party surprises the ranger Jehan, who is on guard duty.  The base, as it turns out, has been unmolested since Firehawk moved it on the 19th.  The general has a quick reunion with her daughter as the camp is quickly struck.  Winterhawk again opens the Gateway back up to Marington, and the party, along with the base personnel and Efreet Team, go back through.  Before Winterhawk goes through, she pulls the Keystone up from the ground, and brings it back with her.

Back in Marington, clerics begin attending to the bedraggled members of Efreet Team.  After waiting for the Gateway to recharge, Winterhawk again opens it, this time to West Base.  The party goes through, and enters a strange scene.  They are in a smaller version of Gateway Base, but there is no one alive there.  The body of a male human lies near a small campfire, in a pool of fresh blood, with numerous pipe-bow bolts piercing his body.  At the edge of the camp, the party can see two more bodies, but these are wrapped in canvas, and appear to have been dead for some time.  They can see, off to the north, lights flickering amongst the trees, and can hear the sound of combat.

The general and the party quickly hustle to the scene of the fighting.  There, they discover three members (of the original eight) of Spectre Team, engaged in melee with seven draconians and a small green dragon (small being relative, as the dragon is still the size of a large horse).  Two other members of Spectre Team already lie dead on the forest floor.  The party joins the fight, with Ian using his new Lightning Bolt wand, and Phadian using his new Magic Missile wand, to beat on the dragon.  Nivek uses the Hold Person wand to immobilize the draconian sorcerer, and Whitefire tries out his new kal-gli-fai on the dragon.  Ming-Jeh closes on the dragon, and suffers several nasty bites from it in the process.  Zeebee goes to help out the Spectre cleric, who is surrounded by draconians.  After a fierce fight, the draconians, and finally the dragon as well, are dropped, and the party helps Spectre Team carry their dead back through the Gateway.

Winterhawk instructs the party to get a good night's sleep, and meet her in her office at 1pm the following afternoon.

6/25

The party returns to Winterhawk's offices the following afternoon.  General Winterhawk is there, as well as Genevieve.  The general tells the party that her first order of business is to take care of the Burrowers at Tun-Kashila.  She asks Phadian to cast an illusion of the Burrower's great hall, so that she can picture it well enough to open the Gateway to there.

The party accompanies Winterhawk through the Gateway to the Burrowers' caves.  There is a lot of commotion there; while the Burrowers are happy to see the party again, they also tell the party that the Dracos have been asking a lot of questions about the party's use of the Burrowers' tunnels.  Senki, the Burrower elder, tells the party that the Burrowers have been telling the Dracos that the party had forced their way through the tunnels, but she is not convinced that the Dracos believe this story.

There is much disagreement among the Burrowers as to what to do next.  Many of them wish to flee their tunnels, and take Winterhawk up on her offer to take the Burrowers back to Dorlomin.  Others are concerned that this might doom the Burrowers in other Draco cities, since fleeing in this manner would make it clear that the Burrowers had aided the humans.  

Eventually, Winterhawk and Senki go off by themselves and discuss the options.  It is decided that Winterhawk and the party will take the children and the infirm back with them to Marington immediately; Winterhawk will return via the Gateway on the following day to retrieve the remaining Burrowers, who will have spent the day making it appear as though the Burrowers had been massacred.

Thus, the party brings dozens of young and infirm Burrowers back through the Gateway.  Winterhawk tells the party that she has been in touch with several gnomish clans in Dorlomin, who are willing to help find homes for the Burrowers.

After all of this, Winterhawk takes the party back up to her offices.  There, she presents them with two service medals, promotions to the rank of lieutenant in the army reserve, and a monetary token of her gratitude for their service.


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## kenobi65 (Jan 25, 2002)

*Session #5 - 5/25/01*

7/13

Nearly three weeks have passed since the party's return to Dorlomin, when each of the party's members receive a messenger from General Winterhawk.  The messenger gives each of them orders to report to the general's office on the following morning for a new mission.  The party members get in touch with each other, and agree to meet up for dinner that evening to catch up, and discuss what might come next.

Dinner is at an inn, the Gallant Knight, at which several of the party have been staying.  As the meal proceeds, the party notices that many of the inn's patrons seem to be staring at them.  They also notice that the innkeeper seems to be discussing the party with an attractive female adventurer who is sitting at the bar.

Eventually, the innkeeper, a lanky, large-nosed older man named Andric, comes over to the party's table.  He apologizes for staring at them, but tells them that it is an honor for him to have "the heroes of the battle of Tun-Kashila" here at his inn.  He is in the process of telling the party that their dinner is on the house, when he is interrupted by a boisterous, well-dressed man with a Marnais accent.  The Marnais man insists on paying for dinner for the "heroes," then proceeds to sit down at their table and loudly sing their praises to the rest of the inn's patrons.  He indicates that "all of Dorlomin owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to these brave soldiers," and that "all the bards of Marington are already competing with each other to see which one can write an epic that does their deeds justice."

Eventually, the party manages to get this gentleman to introduce himself -- his name is Irlian.  As he continues to embellish the story of the party's exploits (with only mild protestations from the party themselves), the female adventurer from the bar makes her way to the party's table.  She asks to sit down, and introduces herself as Rinna.  She manages to wrest the conversation away from Irlian, and asks the party's members to tell the story in their own words.  She very attentively listens, and asks questions of each of them regarding their roles in the battle.

Irlian eventually decides to take his leave of the party, but not before promising that, if he can ever be of service to the party, that they contact him.  He leaves them with a calling card, which indicates that he is "undersecretary to the Governor of Marnes."

Rinna, however, stays at the party's table.  They learn that she is a traveling adventurer, most skilled with a sword (a longsword hangs from her belt), but tends to operate on her own.  She makes much of her living acting as a guard on merchant caravans -- she has just come into town on such a caravan, which she had defended from a band of several dozen hobgoblin raiders.  The male members of the party, particularly Ming-Jeh, seem quite impressed with the young woman.

Whitefire asks Rinna how she came to not be drafted into the army, when many adventurers (such as the party) seem to have been unable to avoid it.  She explains that, while Marington is her nominal base of operations, that she is only here infrequently, and spends much of her time traveling with caravans.  Thus, she was simply out of town when the draft board convened.

Eventually, the party decides to turn in, as they have an early morning ahead of them.  Rinna bids them all goodnight, and tells them that she will probably be leaving town shortly -- she has some friends in Athlaoigh that she wishes to visit, and is looking for a caravan that she can take in that direction.

7/14

The party meets Winterhawk in her office.  She starts with some bad news: although she and her troops were able to evacuate most of the rest of the Burrowers (on the day after the original rescue), in the intervening day, the Dracos had imprisoned, then executed Senki and several other elders, as an example to the other Burrowers.  The Burrowers had related to Winterhawk that the elders had steadfastly maintained that the party had forced their way through the tunnels, and it seems that the executions were punishment more for stupidity or cowardice than for sedition.

She also tells them, briefly, that the past few weeks have been challenging.  While King Kenton is unwavering in his support of the war, some of the provincial governors are unhappy with the massive cost in lives of the Battle of Tun-Kashila.  For that reason, it may be some time before the army is able to engage in any kind of real offensive action against the Dracos.  So, she has been forced to focus more on intelligence-gathering and guerrilla missions against specific targets.

She has such a mission in mind for the Wraiths.    Some months ago, she discovered a large military base called Agleshka on the Nyxalian coastline, on the northwestern corner of the Draconic continent (i.e., the point closest to Dorlomin).  She believes that this base was used to launch last summer's naval attacks against Dorlomin, in which thousands of lizardmen swam across the ocean, pulling rafts that carried draconian officers.  When she last observed Agleshka, about three months ago, it was very quiet and nearly deserted.  She wants the party to go to the base, and make observations as to what (if any) activity is going on there.

The party discusses their plan, and agrees that it would make the most sense to transport to Nyxal shortly after sunset (the moon will be nearly full this evening).  Given the time difference, this would have the party transporting (via the Gateway) shortly after noon.  General Winterhawk then spends the rest of the morning training Ian, Magnus, Phadian, and Whitefire in how to use the Gateway.   There is already a Keystone hidden about 10 miles from Agleshka, which the party will use to transport to the area -- Winterhawk tells Whitefire and Ulfgar about the landmarks that will guide their trip from the Keystone to Agleshka.  Winterhawk also gives the party a Gate Key, in case they need to get back more quickly.

After a noon meal with the general, and a quick trip to the temple of Pelor to stock up on curing potions, the party transfers to Nyxal.  The Keystone is hidden in a copse of trees in one of Nyxal's boundless swamps.  The party slowly moves through the moonlit swamp, trying to stay on the patches of higher (and drier) ground.

After about three hours of such travel, Ulfgar notices that the hillock that the party is about to climb up is actually moving.  The hillock is actually a creature called a "tendriculos" -- a huge, animated, carnivorous plant.  The tendriculos quickly wraps one of its woody tendrils around Whitefire, and then grabs Ulfgar with its stick-filled mouth, proceeding to chew on the enraged dwarf.  Meanwhile, the rest of the party pepper the behemoth with various missile weapons; with each blow, the creature lets out an unholy howl.  However, the party quickly notices that the wounds they are inflicting on it seem to be slowly closing back up, perhaps indicating that the monster can regenerate.

Nivek attempts to sneak up on the creature's left flank, but it lashes out with a tendril and grabs the rogue tightly.  The tendriculos looks like it is about to chew on Ulfgar some more, when Zeebee rushes forward and slashes at it with her greatsword.  This injury incapacitates the tendriculos, which then releases its hold on Whitefire and Nivek.  Several party members pour flaming oil on the monster, but it seems to regenerate from the burns, as well.  Eventually, Nivek pours acid on the creature, and it finally dies.

As the party's clerics tend to the wounded (particularly Ulfgar, who was quite badly hurt), both Phadian and Ming-Jeh suddenly hear voices (specifically, voices speaking Draconian) heading towards the party.  Not really wishing to immediately engage another opponent, the party hides behind the fallen tendriculos, and Whitefire covers them with an Obscuring Mist.

As the party waits in the mist, Magnus suddenly realizes that he is face-to-face with a red-scaled draconian, who is creeping through the fog.  The battle begins, and several party members are quite suddenly injured by a blast of flame from above -- another red draconian has flown above the party, and has used his breath weapon on the center of the unnatural fog.  The first draconian then uses his own breath weapon, affecting many of the same members of the party.  Ian was unlucky enough to bear the brunt of both blasts, and stumbles away from the melee, barely clinging to consciousness.

The draconian who struck at the party from above then begins to descend towards the area he had just flamed.  However, in the meantime, Nivek had scrambled up to the top of the dead tendriculos, which gives him a sneak attack on the draconian as it drops past him.  The battle against the two draconians goes on for some time, as the reptiles prove to be quite skilled warriors; however, the party does eventually prevail.

Meanwhile, a large contingent of red-skinned kobolds has been assailing the party's rearguard.  Phadian eliminates many of the small Dracos with a Sleep spell, followed by a Flaming Sphere, while Ming-Jeh, Ulfgar, and Zeebee take care of the rest in hand-to-hand combat.

After again patching up their wounded (and using up many of the curing potions), the party takes a few minutes to arrange the scene of the battle, so it might appear that the Dracos died fighting the tendriculos.  The party then proceeds towards Agleshka.

After another hour or so of travel, the party happens upon a roadway, heading in the direction of Agleshka.  The road is covered with gravel, but Ulfgar quickly sees that many wheeled carts or wagons have passed on this road, pulled by both reptiles and hooved mammals.  As travel through the swamp has been fairly slow, the party eventually agrees to cautiously travel on the road, using Magnus' and Ian's owl familiars as aerial sentries.

While the party travels upon the road, they are suddenly attack by a shambling mound that had been hiding in the ditch on the roadside.  Although the combat is over quickly, the creature again manages to beat up several party members before it is destroyed.  When the mound is killed, it falls apart into a heap of vegetation.  The party spots something regular-shaped in amongst the vegetation, and discovers a small, well-carved wooden claw that apparently was being carried in the shambling mound's midsection.  Magnus does a Detect Magic on the wooden claw, but finds no aura upon it.  Whitefire examines the claw, and pronounces that it looks like a wooden replica of a reptilian claw.  The party wonders at this for a time, then puts itself back together and moves on.

7/15

Eventually, the party makes it to the vicinity of Agleshka.  They find a small hill on the south side of the encampment, which provides a good view.  They see many buildings, and many rafts floating in the harbor -- they suspect that Agleshka is now larger than it was when Winterhawk last saw it.  The only building which seems to have any activity in it at all (it is the middle of the night) is the central building, apparently the command post.  In the moonlight, the party sees a draconian walk out onto the command post's porch, followed by another draconian.  The two draconians apparently talk for several minutes, then the first one takes to the air and flies off to the east.  The second draconian watches the first one fly away, then goes back inside.

The party decides that they want to observe what happens at Agleshska during the day.  Under Whitefire's supervision, they use the last few hours of darkness to dig several hiding holes in the hillside, then cover the holes back up with sod.  From this vantage point, they take sleeping shifts while watching the day's events unfold.

Once the sun comes up, Agleshka becomes very active, and the party can make out more of the base's details.  There are several warehouses full of supplies.  There is a lumberyard and lumbermill, where logs are being made into planks.  There is a large area where swarms of kobolds are building rafts.  Finally, there are several barracks, apparently full of lizardmen and kobolds.

Over the course of the morning, several wagon trains come into Agleshka via the gravel road.  One train consists of a half-dozen wagons full of logs (Whitefire guesses that they are from mountain hardwoods, probably ash), led by red-scaled kobolds.  Another train has barrels and crates of supplies, led by black-scaled kobolds.

In late morning, hundreds of lizardmen (mostly black, with some green and red) move into the harbor.  They begin to lash together dozens of the rafts, creating a massive barge.  The rafts were already laden with supplies; on top of these supplies, the lizardmen (and some kobolds) then begin to build an encampment.  At the center of this barge is a tall structure, apparently a command bridge.

By early afternoon, the barge has been completed.  At this point, several draconians (two blacks, a green, and a red) appear on the roof of the onshore command post.  The party can make out that one of the draconians is carrying a silvery object on a chain (it resembles a plumb-bob), and another one is carrying a strange wooden device (resembling an irregularly-strung wooden harp, with various bits of material attached to the strings).  The four draconians fly to the barge's command bridge, and hundreds of lizardmen begin pulling the barge out to sea (there are hundreds more lizardmen riding on the barge).  

As the barge begins to move, the draconian holding the "plumb-bob" holds it out at arm's length.  Suddenly, the "plumb-bob" becomes horizontal, as though it was being pulled to the west-northwest by some unseen force.  The draconian begins shouting orders to the lizardmen, and they begin pulling the barge to the direction indicated by the device.

After perhaps two hours, the barge disappears over the horizon.  At about this point, a black dragon flies towards the base.  The dragon lands at the command building, and several draconians come out.  They converse briefly with the dragon, who then flies off to the southeast.  Meanwhile, the remaining kobolds continue to build rafts, and several new squads of lizardmen arrive via the road and take up residence in the barracks.

After sunset, the party agrees that they need to report back to Winterhawk.  They extricate themselves from their hiding place, work their way down the hill (away from the base), and use the Gate Key to transfer back to Marington.

The party meets with Winterhawk, and briefs her on what they have seen.  In conferring with the general, they find it curious that the barge's path was not heading directly for Dorlomin (it was heading too far west).  This, combined with the amount of lumber and supplies that the barge carried, leads the party and the general to conclude that the Dracos are building a base somewhere between the Draconian States and Dorlomin, perhaps on an island.


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## kenobi65 (Jan 25, 2002)

*Session #6 - 6/29/01*

7/20

The party goes to visit Halamir, a seller of magical items that has been recommended to them by General Winterhawk.  The general gives the party a letter of introduction to give to Halamir; this letter proves to be very useful in getting the party quickly past Laine, the female halfling receptionist at Halamir's shop.  As Laine sends the party in to meet Halamir, she apparently flirts with Ulfgar, causing the dwarven ranger to blush slightly.

Inside the main sales area of Halamir's shop, the party first encounters a laconic dwarf with a nasty-looking axe -- clearly the shop's security guard.  Halamir himself enters shortly thereafter -- he is a middle-aged male half-elf; he is friendly, but very businesslike in demeanor.  The party parts with much of their cash in short order, and fairly depletes Halamir's inventory.  Several party members enquire about having custom items made for themselves, as well, for Halamir has contact with most of the wizards in the city who create magical items, and acts as a go-between for those wishing to have items made..

7/21

In the morning, each member of the party receives a messenger (wearing Marnais livery), inviting them to dinner that evening at the home of Henric Renard, the governor of Marnes.

Upon receipt of this invitation, Ian goes to speak with General Winterhawk about it.  Winterhawk tells him that it would be politically unwise (and rude) for the party to refuse the invitation.  However, she cautions Ian that Renard is a very political creature, and appears to be opposed to the war against the Dracos.  Ian shares this information with the party, and they agree to cautiously accept the invitation.

Dinner is hosted by Renard and his wife, Cesale.  They are joined by Irlian, the under-secretary who had met the party at the Gallant Knight several days earlier.  The meal is an excellent example of Marnais "country" fare -- the main course is roasted grouse, stuffed with wild mushrooms and glazed with a red-wine reduction, accompanied by early vegetables.

At first, Renard wishes the party to tell him about their exploits in the Draconic States.  Eventually, he asks the party for their impressions of the Dracos -- specifically, what their motivations seem to be. 

He then tells them that, while Winterhawk was at one point (as recently as last year) a heroic figure in the kingdom, that her star has fallen.  The losses at Tun-Kashila, despite the nominal success of the mission, have crippled her politically (Renard notes that his own nephew was among the soldiers killed at Tun-Kashila).  Beyond this, the amount of spending that Winterhawk has done, on ships, weapons, and the Gateway itself, has come into question, particularly since the Dracos have not attacked Dorlomin for a year.

Renard indicates that he, and others in the government, are not entirely convinced that the Dracos are still a threat to Dorlomin.  He believes that it is possible that, after being defeated by Winterhawk in Avila the previous year, the Dracos have decided not to continue the war.  This is why he was against the attack on Tun-Kashila -- he did not want to anger a foe that had apparently turned its attention elsewhere.  He is thus pushing for King Kenton to ban any further offensive actions against the Dracos, and instead focus on defense, in case of possible future attacks.

Renard also shares a theory he has with the party.  He notes that the only part of Dorlomin that the Dracos have attacked is Avila.  He tells the party that the Avilans have a notorious history of dabbling in black magic -- about a century ago, the nobles of Avila entered into a pact with a demon in exchange for increasing Avila's power in the region.  When the demon was banished by a group of adventurers, a magical "booby trap" was triggered, causing a massive earthquake that lead to much of Avila's land sinking below the ocean's surface.  Renard believes that many Avilans still deal in black magic, and this may be the reason for the Dracos' attacks.  Several party members attempt to convince Renard that they have seen no evidence of this being any motivation for the Dracos, but the governor does not seem convinced.

Renard wants the party to understand that Winterhawk, their patron, is in danger of losing her power.  Since he sees the party as "up-and-comers," he encourages them to consider allying themselves with some other power center, if they wish to continue to build their own power.  He tells them that they should always consider his door to be open to them, if they are in need of assistance. 

After dinner, the party departs Renard's home and travels back to their respective inns.  As they walk through Marington's darkened streets, several party members come to the realization that they are being followed.  By the time the entire party is alerted to this fact, the party has become surrounded by a band of thugs, who begin to attack.  After the party dispatches about half of the band, the rest flee into the night -- Nivek attempts to chase one of the thieves, but wisely decides against following the rogue into a building.

7/22

Early the next morning, each member of the party receives a second invitation.  This one is delivered by a Dorlominian soldier, and is a scroll that reads as follows:

"Wraiths,

Meet me in my office at noon today.  I have a mission for you.

Winterhawk"

Upon the party's arrival at the general's office, Winterhawk is not there.  However, Genevieve Firehawk is there, and apologizes to the party for her mother's absence.  She tells the party that the general would like to reschedule for that evening, and suggests that the party meet her at sunset (about 8 pm) at an inn in Old Northtown (a section of the city) called "The Mystic Centaur."

Winterhawk arrives at the Mystic Centaur about 20 minutes late.  She is dressed in an old, weather-stained travelling cloak, with the hood pulled over her head, and is accompanied by Genevieve as well as a tall young man (6' 6", close-cropped blonde hair, short blonde beard, ice-blue eyes) in chainmail, with a longsword at his side. Winterhawk walks straight to the innkeeper, speaks to him briefly, then has Genevieve usher the party back to a private room.

Once inside, Winterhawk introduces the party to her second companion -- his name is Aren; he is a fighter and the son of an old friend of Winterhawk's.  The general then apologizes for not being at the earlier meeting.  "I spent most of the afternoon in front of the Council of Governors, answering questions about the war.  It was not a pretty scene.  As unbelievable as this may sound, some of the governors aren't even convinced that we need to worry about the Dracos!  Some of them think that, because the Dracos only attacked Avila last year, that only the Avilans need worry about them.  Others seem to think that, if we leave the Dracos alone, they will leave us alone."  The party indicates that this point of view is very consistent with what they had heard from Renard.

Winterhawk then tells the party that she has a new mission for them.  She is extremely interested in the two items that the party reported seeing the draconians take onto the barge -- the "plumb-bob" and the "harp."  She wants the party to go back to Agleshka, see if they can find any other copies of these items, retrieve one of each, if possible, and return to Marington.

Because of the political climate right now, Winterhawk has been forbidden from mounting any new missions to the Draconic States.  Thus, the party will need to enter the palace grounds through the service entrance (guarded, but not as visible) -- she assures them that the guards who will be on duty at the service entrance tonight, as well as those in the Gateway's courtyard, will be loyal to her.  

Winterhawk gives the party directions to the service entrance, as well as a password ("thulae," which means "wraith" in Elvish).  When given the correct response ("annon," which means "gateway" in Elvish), the party should follow the responding guard through the palace to the Gateway.  In order to do this without notice, the party will need to enter the palace between midnight and 2 a.m.

The party leaves Winterhawk's company at this point, in order to get their gear ready for the mission.  The party reassembles shortly before midnight, and proceeds to the palace's service entrance.  After looking around to make sure they are not being watched, they knock at the door and say "thulae."  A voice on the other side of the door says "annon," and the door opens.

7/23

The guard inside the doorway is a young man, perhaps 19.  As he leads the party through the palace, the more observant members of the party notice that this young guard is walking oddly, almost as if he was not used to how his body is arranged.  They also notice that the guard has a slight limp, very similar to a limp that Winterhawk has.  The guard tells them, "the General wanted to make sure that you were accompanied by someone she could trust.  So, she sent me."  As he says this, his form shimmers slightly, and "he" becomes Winterhawk herself.  She turns to the party, winks, and says, "Unfortunately, right now, I can't be seen doing this, and I certainly can't be seen in the Gateway courtyard.  So, it's back into 'Lieutenant Tillesly' for the duration here."  Her form shimmers again, and she is again the young lieutenant.

"Tillesly" leads the party into the Gateway courtyard.  There are two guards standing watch there; they nod to "Tillesly" and leave the courtyard, closing the doors behind them.  "Tillesly" hands a Gate Key to the party, opens the Gateway to the Keystone south of Agleshka, and the party goes through.

When the party arrives in Nyxal, it is early morning, just after sunrise.  They begin to make for Aglesha, carefully moving through the swamp.  After less than an hour, several party members notice movement in the grass ahead of them.  A number of creatures then burst out of the swamp -- three large lizards, a crocodile, and a rat the size of a large dog -- and attack the party.  The party defends themselves, and quickly takes the upper hand -- they make good use of an Entangle spell to slow the lizards down, and Whitefire Charms the dire rat.  

However, the situation begins to look bleaker when a black draconian also begins to attack.  Nivek manages to Command the draconian to "sleep," which gives the party enough time to immobilize him.  The party quickly realizes that this draconian seems different from the others that they have encountered: his equipment seems much more "rustic," and he is wearing a wooden claw on a thong around his neck (the claw is very similar, if not identical, to the claw that they had found inside the shambling mound some days ago).

Ian questions the draconian.  He learns that the draconian's name is Ipsuye, and that he "serves the Earthmother, through the power of the Talon of the Swamp."  Ipsuye and Whitefire eye each other carefully, and begin to slowly converse in Druidic (although Ipsuye speaks a strange dialect of this secret tongue).

The party learns that Ipsuye is one of an apparently small number of followers of this "Talon of the Swamp."  These followers are worshippers of the earth, which makes them outsiders in Draco society.  They are very concerned about the Dracos' war against the humans, because the Dracos are stripping the land of its natural resources to fuel the war effort.  Because of this, they have begun to wage their own campaign of guerrila warfare against the Dracos' military bases here in Nyxal.

Ipsuye quickly, and correctly, surmises that the party was responsible for the deaths of the shambling mound and the tendriculous.  However, he also realizes that he and the party share the same foe.  He makes an offer to the party -- if they will refrain from interfering with any of the Talon's allies (distinguishable by the wooden talon symbols), then the Talon's allies will make sure to steer clear of the party.  The party agrees to this, and frees Ipsuye, who flies off into the swamp.


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## kenobi65 (Jan 25, 2002)

*Session #7 - 7/27/01*

After some discussion, the party decides to find a deep copse of trees to rest in, in order for the spellcasters to recharge.   It is decided to rest until the middle of the following night – this would allow the party to complete their travel to Agleshka under the cover of darkness.

7/24

The party breaks camp around 2:30 a.m, and completes its trek to Agleshka about 3 hours later, shortly before sunrise.  They quickly re-discover the holes that they had previously cut in a hillside overlooking the Draco camp.  After evicting a small lizard that had set up housekeeping in one of the holes, they settle in to watch over activities in the camp.

The party believes that the "harps" and "plumb-bobs" are likely being stored in the main command post, so they focus on this building.  As they observe the camp through its workday, they see seven draconians (5 black, 1 green, and 1 red) enter and / or exit the command post.  A black dragon arrives in the camp, and the draconians follow it around as it apparently conducts an inspection tour of the facilities.  Before nightfall, the dragon departs the camp, much to the party’s relief.

Over the course of the day, they see the green draconian fly away from the camp, but also see two additional black draconians arrive.  They also see a “wagon train” of Nyxalian (black) kobolds arrive with a load of lumber.

7/25

The party decides to go into the camp, in search of the items, shortly before first light.  They believe that this will minimize the opposition they will face, and also would put them back in Marington in the middle of the night, when the Gateway is under minimal scrutiny.

In preparation for this foray, Whitefire shapechanges into a falcon, Nivek uses a Change Self spell to appear as a draconian, and the rest of the party utilizes Invisibility spells and potions.  In addition, Nivek has a Silence spell, centered on himself, but also covering Zeebee and Ulfgar.  Whitefire begins a Call Lightning spell, just in case he needs to call a bolt down from the heavens.  Finally, Ian casts a Locate Object spell, focusing on the “plumb-bob,” and is led towards the command post.

As the party carefully approaches the command post, Ming-Jeh goes up onto its porch, and peers into one of the windows.  He sees a large conference room, dimly lit with torches.  In the room is a very large dining table, as well as two “planning tables” (large cabinets with maps etched onto the tops).  Ming-Jeh is close enough to the nearer planning table to make out details – it is a map of the Draconic States, with numerous small tokens spread across the map (apparently denoting the location of Draco resources).  Meanwhile, Whitefire keeps watch up on the roof, still in falcon form.

As there is no sign of any life in the room, the party proceeds into the conference room through the unlocked front door.  Ian’s Locate Object indicates that the plumb-bob is in the cabinet underneath the nearer planning table.  A cursory investigation reveals that this cabinet is locked, with an unusual-shaped keyhole (a square hole, about ½ inch across).  Nivek is unable to unlock the cabinet, so Magnus opens it with a Knock spell.  Inside the cabinet, the party finds 2 “plumb-bobs” and 5 “harps,” as well as several platinum bars and two sacks full of gems.

As the party clears out the contents of the cabinet, Ian considers activating the Gateway for an immediate getaway.  But, at that very moment, he receives a cryptic telepathic message from Winterhawk.  The message says that the Gateway is not functional, and that she will need at least an hour to restore it.

The party then decides to take the loot and retreat to their hilltop.  At this point, they are suddenly, and unexpectedly, assaulted by several black draconians, coming from the command post’s sleeping quarters.  Although it is a short fight, several party members (particularly Phadian) are wounded by the draconians.  

As the battered Phadian retreats past the far planning table, he realizes that the map on that table depicts the Draconic States, as well as the Dorlominian coast and two islands, lying between the two continents.  The island nearer the Draconic States has many “tokens” on it, while the island nearer Dorlomin has only a few tokens; there are several more tokens in the sea between the Draconic States and the first island.

The party manages to dispatch the draconians without alerting the rest of the camp.  As they are about to leave the command post, they decide to take several of the draconian bodies back with them, in hopes of being able to use Speak With Dead to interrogate them (and perhaps convince Governor Renard of the situation).  

They retreat to their lookout hill, at which point Whitefire triggers his Call Lightning.  A bolt of electricity arcs from the clouds to the command post, blasting a hole in the roof directly over the conference room, and starting the building on fire.  Believing that this new (and apparently perfectly natural) emergency will keep the Dracos occupied (and cover any evidence of the party’s actions in the command post), the party moves away from Agleshka as they wait for the Gateway to be restored.

After an hour or so, Ian tries the Gate Key, but nothing happens.  He tries again 15 minutes later, again with no effect.  The party continues into the swamp, and Ian waits for another 45 minutes before trying the Gate Key a third time (as each use of the Gate Key proves to be very draining to Ian, he does not want to try too often).  This time, the shimmering form of the Gateway appears, but in a very strange shape – it is about 7 feet high, and about 3 feet wide.  

After a moment’s hesitation, the party hustles through the Gateway, and find themselves in a living room in a private residence.  Winterhawk is there, as are Genevieve, Rory, and Aren.  The Gateway Stones are now affixed to a door frame, separating a living room from a dining room.  Winterhawk apologizes for the delay, and explains that they are in her private home.

Winterhawk continues, explaining that the past few days have been very trying.  The Council of Governors has forced King Kenton to remove Winterhawk as the commander of Dorlomin’s armed forces; in response to this, Winterhawk has resigned her commission.  The new commander will apparently be following Renard’s policy of focusing on Dorlomin’s defenses, rather than actively assaulting the Dracos.

The Council had  also convinced Kenton to deactivate the Gateway.  Renard and his supporters had argued that the Gateway provides the Dracos with too easy a way to attack Dorlomin, as well as being too open to unauthorized usage by Winterhawk; thus, they ordered it to be taken down and put into storage.  However, Winterhawk continues, the king was not truly in agreement with the Council on this matter, and allowed Winterhawk to smuggle the Gateway Stones out of the palace.  She had just accomplished this, and just set the Stones up to retrieve the party, when they returned on their own.  She also points out that Renard is still suspicious of her, as evidenced by the numerous guards keeping watch on her house from various vantage points in the neighborhood.

Just as Winterhawk wraps up her tale, a burst of light erupts from behind Magnus, and four large and agitated crocodiles pop into existence (apparently being the result of an undiscovered trap back in the command post).  A chaotic battle ensues, as the party stumbles over furniture and tries to fight the crocs in the close quarters of Winterhawk’s home.  The crocodiles do some damage, but are eventually killed.

After delivering a plumb-bob and a harp to Winterhawk, the party discusses what to do with the draconian bodies.  Winterhawk sends Rory to fetch Aryl, the cleric of Heironeous.  Rory quickly returns with the older priest and several younger acolytes (all grumbling about being dragged out of bed in the middle of the night).  Once the situation is explained to him, Aryl agrees to bring the draconian bodies before the Council and the king, and use Speak With Dead in their presence.  It is his (and the party’s) hope that doing this will be sufficient to convince Renard and the rest of the council that the Dracos are intent on wiping out all of Dorlomin.

As Aryl and his acolytes depart with the Draco corpses, Winterhawk gives the party one more piece of news.  Several days ago, the king received a message from the elves in Caradhir.  This message stated that the elves were politely, but firmly, asking all non-elves, including the Dorlominian diplomatic envoy, to depart from the trading village in Caradhir (the only place within the elven land where non-elves are routinely allowed).  The elves have also recalled their own diplomats, and have informed the king that Caradhir’s borders would be closed to non-elves “for an indefinite time.”  Finally, the elves have informed Kenton that they will not be asking for permission to pass through Dorlomin on the river this year – this is a request that the elves have made every year for centuries, in order to conduct a diplomatic trip to another elven kingdom to the south.


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## kenobi65 (Jan 25, 2002)

*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.


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## kenobi65 (Jan 25, 2002)

*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.


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## kenobi65 (Jan 25, 2002)

*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.


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## kenobi65 (Jan 25, 2002)

*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.


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## kenobi65 (Jan 25, 2002)

*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.


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## kenobi65 (Jan 25, 2002)

*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_.


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## kenobi65 (Feb 17, 2002)

*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.


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## kenobi65 (Mar 28, 2002)

*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.


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