Campaign Journals 12-01-07

[Greylen]

Dettricks Journal:

The day dawns again and I can feel the headache starting already...

The council is still bugging Urdin and I about the proposed changes, but we both know they will not be approved by the Treant. As well, without a major influx of cash and men, we cannot even consider protecting a settlement so far from our own.

With the dawn comes the endless administrative decisions... thank the gods for Jeeves as I cannot imagine doing this without him. My companions are all immense help as well. They handle many of the projects in our new busy community.

Finally I've get a break mid-morning, but before I can more than think about sitting down, an alarm sounds. Looking out of my window, I see a armored man standing on the hill.

"Great", I moan. "Just what I need".

Running though my study, I almost overrun one of the young guards running the opposite way. At the same time I notice an elf with glasses (Glasses?) sitting in my comfy reading chair.

"Sir, theirs been a murder!" the guard yells and the elf jumped up in surprise pulling something out of his ears and drawing a rapier.

Rolling my eyes, I ready a spell in case he attacks and gesture to the guard to hold on. "Who in the nine hells are you?" I ask, "And what are you doing in MY study."

Hearing he was a only a messenger, I asked him to come with us, to keep an eye on him, and had the guard take us to the crime scene.

Once there, the elf was quite a help, being able to cast some divining spells. Never had a use for them myself... too much studying for something I considered fairly useless magic, but it did come in handy here. From his findings, we found that two young elves had been kidnapped by something fiendish.

Calling for my companions, we convened a war council to discuss the many happenings. Evidently there were three things we needed to decide quickly.

Setting Jeeves in charge of getting our town ready for refuges, we decided to track the kidnappers and try to reach Turlang after rescuing them.

Our journey was uneventful at first. The trail was very easy to follow for Ty, but she was puzzled by the appearence of more tracks occasionally.

By the time we made camp, we had been dogged by something who's howls made our skin crawl. No one seemed to affected by it, however, and we made camp for the evening.

Halfway through the second watch, the howling became more pronounced and woke us all up. Yev moved off slightly to see if he could find anything when he was attacked by something resembling a large winged dog skeleton.

We quickly dispatched them with minimal injuries, but some ran away. Thank the gods their howling had at least stopped.

The next day, about midday, we caught up to the kidnappers, who oddly didn't seem to mind that we'd caught up to them.

Our first indication was Ty almost getting knock on her but by an invisible creature. Then as Ty used her See Invisibility potion, She saw another dog like creature about nine feet long. Quickly attacking we ran the dog off. It was at that point the two kidnappers showed up. Ty fired an arrow at them to make sure they were real, and was surprised that the one she shot instantly turned ethereal, making it impossible to hit. Luckily she could at least see them.

Urdin, it turned out, could also see them with his "Dream Sight"... which I must admit sounded a bit like he'd been taking too many mushrooms, if you catch my meaning, but it was definitely an advantage.

However, having done much study myself, I knew the one sure way of hitting them. Pulling the weave into a pure ball of force in my hand, I threw it at closest creature. It hit, dropping the creature to the ground.

After that the battle was over quickly. The big dog thing reappeared, but everyone quickly dispatched him and the other creature was also dispatched fairly quickly.

After the battle, we found the two elves that had been kidnapped. They told us of more of the creatures like the two we had just dispatched, which we now know were called Fey'ri.

It was decided that Jalore would escort them back to town and then meet back up with the main group, as we followed the tracks of the other group.

Jalore caught up with us long before we caught up with the other Fey'ri.

It started with Ty and Yev up ahead again. We heard a howl and kicked our mounts into a gallop. Rounding the trail bend, I saw Yev battling another Fey'ri over the body of another dog like creature. I couldn't see Ty and for a moment paniced.

Then, as another dog like creature appeared ahead, I saw Ty pop out of the brush, putting two arrows quickly in the breast of the creature, dropping it.

Again, I called on the weave, lobbing orb after orb of pure force at the fey'ri. Everyone was doing their part, trying to hit them and shifting their focus when one of the dog like creatures just about fried Ty with a blast of fire... they must be Hellhounds.

I saw Ty staggered twice by powerful spells from another enemy I could not see, but I could not help having my hands full with the Fey'ri.

I switched to magic missiles to make sure I hit them, and watched the last of the Fey'ri go down under the combined assault of Spiritual weapons and magic missiles.

Ty and Yev looked pretty beatup, but again, we had prevailed without significant loss. Our lady Tymora must be watching over us this day.

Ty and I will have to make sure we give up some offerings to her namesake.

[Greylen]

Tymora's Journal

I was bored... not just a little bored, but downright, full-out, despairingly bored.

Dettrick and I had been cooped up here in town for months now. I could tell Dettrick was really getting annoyed with some of the politics and definitely restless with all the new responsibility.

Our little group had grown, along with our reputation. We now had a small army to protect the town and while I loved the area and was loyal to Dettrick, I longed to get out.

Finally, some action happened in town. It was unfortunate about the man, but things like that happen and I knew that Dettrick wouldn't let the two kids be carried away for whatever neferious thing those two devils had in mind.

I was right. After getting everything organized for his absence, Dettrick and our friends headed out to find the kids and get some other stuff done while we were out. I didn't pay much attention, or care much what it was, I just wanted to get out for a little adventure.

The trail was ridiculously easy to follow. There were a few puzzling things, but mostly, it followed the trail east into the forest.

The Zombie dogs were a bit unnerving, but not much of a challenge at our first camp. The next day, we picked up the pace to catch the creatures who had kidnapped the kids, etc. and Yev and I were doing our normal scouting ahead, when something invisible hit me, almost knocking me on my ass... Not an easy thing to do by any means.

Drinking a potion, I could see it was an invisible creature. 9 feet long, it was a huge infernal dog thing. My words, not that new elf with the "rapier" (aside: I almost died laughing when he pulled that out at the last battle) Don't remember his name... don't care. The dog thing ran away after getting hit a few times by Jalore and Creeg.

When I saw the first of the feral elves coming towards me, something looked fishy, so I just fired one arrow at him. Sure enough he winked out into the ethereal, my arrow passing through him harmlessly.

Luckily Dettrick knew what was up when I called out the problem to the group. He certainly does come in handy.

I didn't know what else to do, until the dang infernal dog thing showed up again... finally something I could hit. A couple of arrows up close and personal took care of him.

Once we killed the offending creatures, I ran up the trail a ways and found the two kids... man they seem so young, though they are probably older than I am, being true elves and all.

Jalore escorted them back to town while I tracked a new group that the kids had told us about. Now the additional tracks made sense.

Yev and I took up our normal position about 100 feet or so ahead of the others again. Yev'ra is a pretty darn good at moving quickly and quietly... almost as good as me (aside: OK, he's better, but I can still outrun him. ) We make a good team. But I just had to shake my head when we ambushed what looked like another dog like creature.

The dog got off a yelp as our bolts and arrows struck it. But Yev STILL tried to go and hide the body. I yelled at him to hide, quietly of course, but he stubbornly moved on.

Before he could move the body, another of the feral elves showed up and speared him with a pretty darn long tail. I could see it hurt him, but I couldn't do anything about it. The dang thing had already phased out.

But when I saw another of the dogs show up, I ran over, surprising it and getting a good heart shot on it. I heard Dettrick riding up like a maniac behind me, but I was focused on my target. At least he could take care of the thing attacking Yev.

The second dog didn't take me by surprise, but it almost surprised me when it opened it's mouth and breathed FIRE at me... man, I hate otherworldly stuff. But throwing myself into a tuck roll, I managed to avoid the flames.

When the ray hit me, it was almost as if someone had sucked all the warmth from my body. Shivering uncontrollably and feeling the pain from the intense cold, I looked over at another odd looking elf who had a most unpleasant smile on his smooth elven features.

"Y-yyou'rree gggoing tto ppppay for tthat..." I stuttered from the cold and moving toward him quickly, I drove two arrows into him, hurting him, but not killing him.

The second ray was a pure shock to my system, and I felt almost dizzy as I shook it off. Again, I hit him with two more arrows... one struck him square in the neck. It still wasn't enough, but with Jalore and Yev also hitting him, it was enough to take him down finally.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the outline of a phased out elf coming toward me. Sighing I turned to move away, when a thought occured to me... Maybe I could force him solid and hit him before he could phase out again.

So instead of running away, I ran directly through the offending elf and as I moved away, he couldn't resist the opportunity to hit me with that tail of his... but he had to become solid to do it.

As soon as I felt the tail hit me, (dang that hurts), I rapidly fired two arrows into the elf attached to it.

It WORKED! The elf fell over twitching with my arrows sticking out of him.

The battle over, I took stock of myself and realized how hurt I was... my fingers still felt frostbitten and there were good cuts and gouges in my armor where I'd been hit.

Luckily their leader had a really nice breastplate made of Mithril, magic too... wearing it, I felt as if I only had my studded leather on.

Looking my most pathetic, I encouraged everyone to give the armor to me. It worked... ahh, the power of a quivering lip.

[Boric Glanduum]

December 2007

I was correct in my assumption--it turned out to be a very long day, indeed.

As I left the tree, still trying to clear my head, fifteen or so of Dettrick's troops were surrounding the man on the hill with their weapons drawn. As I approached the hill, the closer I got to the man, the more I was convinced that there was something familiar about him. Something that I should understand or recognize.

As I crested the hill, I could see that the elf's hair was standing straight up on end. Quite an interesting look for an elf, actually; made him look surprised. That look was further strengthened by the puzzled look on his face. It appears that he is not understanding the soldiers' commands; I heard them clearly ask him to set down his spear and other weapons and follow them back to the tree. They asked in several languages, including Common and Elvish. Still, the elf stood there relaxed but confused.

It's his attitude, I decided, that's keeping the soldiers from taking action. They're clearly not sure whether he is truly dangerous or whether he just does not understand them. He was mumbling something to them, but I was still too far away to understand his words. I could tell, however, that he was speaking in a calm, level tone, but with a questioning lilt to his voice.

As I got close enough to hear him clearly, I had to revise my previous assessment. It's not just his attitude; there's something in the air, a strange feeling, that is throwing the soldiers' judgment off-balance. I had discerned this strange feeling when I first left the tree; it had grown stronger as I approached the elf. When I was within several feet of him I finally figured it out. Of course! Electricity! He's channeling electricity! Once I had opened my mind to the possibility, it was obvious. The feeling in the air, the smell, a whiff of ozone. Something else I should have understood; he was speaking in Druidic. Granted, he had an Elvish accent, but it was Druidic nonetheless.

Clearly, I need to be a bit more careful with the suaeysit. It had muddied my brain worse than I thought.

I hailed the Elf in Druidic, signaling to Dettrick's men to back up a tad, but to remain vigilant. The soldiers let me pass through their ranks and I came face to face with the elf. Clad in light armor apparently made of leaves, he was skinny--even for an Elf. His hair was short on the sides and in the back, which made his electrified hair appear to stand even taller. His eyebrows were high on his forehead, with a long nose and what I can only describe as a rubbery smile. He stood with his heels together and his feet pointing away at a drastic angle. He somehow conveyed relaxation, surprise, readiness, and happiness all at the same time.

Hearing my Druidic words, he turned his gaze on me. As I looked at him, I could not help but smile. He gave me his name, and my smile turned to a chuckle. In Common, his name would translate--roughly--to Crackle.

"I am from the Emerald Enclave. We--my friends and I--are utinu tel'taur <Sons of the Forest> and embassadors from Meiliki. Almost a year ago, my people sent two druids through a portal to assist Turlang in his efforts to protect the High Forest. At first, Kressna and Naeva, my companions, wanted to assess the threats to the forest. After spending several months traveling the region, we came to the conclusion that the biggest threat to the forest was Turlang himself."

I believe my jaw may have dropped to the ground. I know the look on my face must have been priceless. Crackle continued, "I know that it is difficult to believe, but let me explain. Turlang has been expanding the forest--primarily--in a north and northwest direction, toward the Nether Mountains. Normally, we would applaud such actions. However, there is an old keep known to my people as Alschorn." This was an Elvish word that I had never heard, so I could not connect the name to any place I knew. I told him so. “I do not know this place, good elf.â€