Session 17

General Summary

4th through 19th of Flocktime, year 595
The party bids farewell to Gill the mule, who looks at them nonplussed as he is left alone in the plains desert while they take off on the back of Valaproax to Seanbhaile, the ancient elven city of Laethlenor -- the elven realm. It is a spectacular ride for all and, fortunately, uneventful.
When they arrive in a hidden clearing of the forest, they are met by Meraithiel, Guardian and king's daughter. She at first refuses entry into the kingdom to Valenthe (who she refers matter-of-factly and without hostility as "betrayer"), but is convinced to let her join. She leads the party through the hidden city, and the music of the elves strikes everyone as beautiful despite the fact only Valenthe can understand the words. But she explains: The songs are a constant (re)telling of history and current events right down to describing their very presence, sung by different singers and woven together in a soundscape tapestry as if it is all one work.
They are introduced to the remarkably elderly elf, Rí Uldreyin Galaelwa, son of Uḿmondan, daughter of Amondan (who for some reason finds the presence of Valenthe and Irina together very amusing). He seems unconcerned with the possible passing of mortals from the land by the Old Ones, and asks to hear something he has not heard before. Walrick proceeds to sing a tale of his own creation about a thief who comes into his star-destined role of king, but must earn the loyalty of his people... and it is just enough to amuse the king into allowing them access to the Caomhnóir (the legend and lore of the war with the Old Ones and creation of the Gloghcrhim).
The Caomhnóir is a tome created literally out of a living tree, its covers, binding, very pages are formed from one as part of an ancient tree. It is written in a unique form of High Elven which combines written song and text together as one, and takes the skilled work of Irina, Wally, and Valenthe to make sense of it. Which they do extremely skillfully! After 8 days, being well taken care of by their hosts, they discover the following from the tome:

• The elves were tasked as the original Guard, to protect the Locks from being opened using the blood of the infernal born -- a "side effect" of the combining of Mephistopheles and the Fey Queens in creating the Locks. But the way the chose to do this, was by using their own blood to convert the tiefling into dark elves, the Drow!
• After centuries, the Drow believed the Elves to become too arrogant, so they stole part of the Caomhnóir and gave it to the newly rising humans in a pact. This was the "Great Betrayal."
• The Locks are opened by performing a ritual using the blood of the infernalborn, severing the tie between the Lock and its Spirit Stone (which contains the essence of the paragon that sacrificed itself to create that Lock).
• Once the Locks are opened, they may be closed again -- but it requires the collecting of all 5 of the Spirit Stones together. At which point, the tiefling that is the foci of the ritual, can either close all the Locks once again, or, take upon themselves the power of the Old Ones, essentially becoming a ruler of the Nether World.
• While a tiefling must be the foci, the ritual itself must be performed using amhrán’Draíochta, or spellsong. Only one who has the power to wield music as magic can perform the spellsong ritual.

The party deliberates the difficult path they must choose: Allow 2 more innocent tiefling to be sacrificed so that all 5 of the Stones can be collected so that ALL the locks may be reclosed, or, try to prevent the opening of the final 2 locks yet allowing the open locks to continue to spill out their horrors.
Malex spends a day in prayer and fasting, focusing on how they may be able to find protection from the creatures, and receives a vision:
...he sees his ward, Toby... he is afraid and scared, beset by scary figures... then, he sees him spinning, in a whirlwind, a water spout perhaps... and he sees a shadowy figure touch Toby on the head, and Malex gets the sense of telepathic connection... suddenly, Toby is filled with a magic that allows him to walk unseen among the horrors... and Toby has in his hand a large stone orb... then Malex awakens.
Still at an impasse, they seek audience again with King Uldreyin. They ask him of any way they know of to find protection from the horrors of the Old Ones. He informs them that only one of their own could answer that. When pressed, he informs them that there is a place, a remnant from the War in which time and space are warped and broken, and within that place lives one from the Nether Realm, left from the War. If anyone would know how to find protection from them, it would be him.
Guessing this place to be The Vortex, the party is given the fastest horses to make the journey to Tilldale in 4 days, where they stop to rest before continuing on to the Vortex.
Once in Tilldale, Walrick's home village, they all discover a strange pall, a darkness and loss of energy among the people there. They stop in Kathra's Tavern (Kathra being an old childhood friend of Wally's), and learn some disturbing news: a human farmer named Gilder has gone missing, old Maria Fastfoot died quickly from some wasting illness, young Sandy Murro was murdered by her boyfriend Silas, who himself died the following day from similar conditions as Maria Fastfoot. Tilldale is a sleepy, peaceful village, so any one of these events would be odd by itself. The fact it has all happened in the last couple of weeks is troubling at the extreme.
Exploring the town, Wally discovers the old Temple to Bas has been gutted and renovated as a temple to all pantheon, a sort of community meeting building. Otherwise, the town is essentially unchanged. ...aside from a visitor has taken residence in the storm caves since a week ago -- a fey named Bréagach. She has been aiding the villagers in healing their various ordinary diseases and illnesses, but has been unable to discover anything about whatever illness, or poisoning, killed Maria and Silas. She expresses a significant curiosity about the party's beliefs, religious and spiritual, and spends much of the evening in conversation with Malex asking all about his beliefs on good versus evil, and his and his party's good deeds.
After baths and a night of good food and sleep, Wally awakens dreadfully exhausted and weak, suffering terrible dreams. Naturally, his companions are concerned, and they take it upon themselves to solve the mystery plaguing the town.
Malex and Toby investigate after Gilder, and find that he was a decent farmer with the co-op farm. Despite having plans to start making wine with his friend (and fellow rare human in the town) Sally, he didn't come back from his time in the field one day. Irina and Wally look into his things which were kept with "magistrate" (town's wealthiest and prominent family) Bercival Evans, only to discover clothing, a half-finished carving of a goat, and a small journal which mentioned future plans and otherwise nothing whatever of note. (Bercival, meanwhile, seems very keen on somehow profiting from having "adventurer detectives" in town.)
They all investigate the area Gilder was last seen, and find only just beyond the hedgerow, a circular space of forest alongside an animal trail that has suspiciously dead and dying vegetation.

Character(s) interacted with

• Valaproax -- ancient gold dragon
• Meraithiel, Guardian -- daughter of...
• Rí Uldreyin Galaelwa -- king of the elven realm Laethlenor
• Kathra -- Wally's old friend and current owner of Tilldale's only tavern
• Silas's father
• Bréagach -- resident fey visitor
• Bercival Evans -- de facto town leader
• Aidon -- farm co-op supervisor
• Sally -- Gilder's (only real) friend
• 2 farming halfling who last saw Gilder

Report Date

07 Jul 2019