After journeying to the edge of the forest, the party encounters an encampment of elves. They are nervously surveying the forest and tell a strange tale to the inquiring adventurers. A sorcerer and his undead minions sacked the town and ran off the elves. He slew the unicorn that served as guardian and hacked off the horn, partially freeing the evil spirit imprisoned under the sacred stones. The group takes advantage of the scout offered by the EIC (elf in charge) and they find themselves on the eastern edge of the vast forest after a few days. They make a brief contact with a self-blinded elf who fills them with tales of dread and woe. So much woe. Also, a few clues about where to look and what has happened so far.
They enter along the ridgeline and walk through the night to draw close to the central ‘city’ – inasmuch as that term can be applied to an elven habitation – and discover that they are being trailed by evil entities. Buggerit!
The group presses forward and makes contact with some undead before gaining entrance to the library. There, they scout and investigate. Eventually they are forced to fight their way clear of the library as the undead continue to gather. They foirce their way across the road and into the woods near the elven ‘palace’.
Erecting a ring of fire, the party investigates whether a watery entrance is in the offing, for a stream flows under the nearby palace grounds. When this seems unlikely, they move around the corner and prepare to use ropes of climbing to gain access to the courtyard at the rear of the structure. Meanwhile, the flying mage tows a levitating cleric into the sky to see what may be seen. While they aren’t sure what they see, they hear enough chanting to think that something very bad might be happening. The mage drops an ice storm on the area in question and they fly onward to investigate.
When they see the sorcerer in his globe of invulnerability, the mage lets fly with a feeblemind spell – that renders the mage insensible. This in turn frees the demondevil from his control and it rends the earth in its desire to escape. Upon exiting it shreds the dimwitted mage into small pieces. As it throws back it’s head to scream in triumph, the cleric dismisses it back to its home plane.
Granted, it probably wants to be there anyway, but the less time it spends in this world the better.
When the rest of the party gains access to the courtyard, they find little to do. The group enters the castle and investigates a bit – eventually discovering a chapel staffed by the last remaining priestess. The group removes the unicorn horn from the sorcerer’s staff and presses it to the imbued glass figurine of the unicorn conveniently possessed by the priestess.
The unicorn is resurrected – it is an avatar of Meilikki and cannot be destroyed permanently – and the group sets about vanquishing the few undead that still remain. They leave the forest and speak with the EIC. The elves return to their forest home and the group uses plane shifting to get close to the church in Impiltur.
They end up halfway between Baytown and the Temple – just the right place to retrieve some of the items they have been waiting on for the past three years. Fully kitted and ready to resume adventuring, they turn their eyes westward where terrifying tales of a black monastery appearing amidst the rocks has piqued their interest.
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