Vanarel Triranadal
Growing up in one of the ruling houses Vanarel's role was clearly established since her birth. She would become a priestess of Lolth and being the second daughter of the house, she would probably one day slay her sister or climb the churches high ranks by murdering other priestess or just orchestrating their downfall. While doing so she would have to fend off intrigues against herself, make pacts with demons, maybe even mate with one to gain the blessing of mothering a draegloth. Her life was going to be full of murder, schemes and destruction. At least according to the plans of her mother and expectations of the society surrounding her.
I. Siglagthil:
Vanarel started on this path layed out for her and made good progress. She even might have started enjoying the torture she put her victims through as well as machinations she started putting in place to rise in power. But these things changed over time as she started to look beyond the simple lessons of Arch-Tinilith, the academy of priestesses in Siglathil. She saw the holes in the religious texts and historic teachings. Secretely studying every piece of information she could find, she discovered the truth about Lolth - the goddess betrayed the elven pantheon and not the other way around. Once Vanarel understood this reality her prayers no longer went to Lolth, but to Hyrandir. She knew her heretic beliefs couldn't stay hidden forever and so she started to look for a way out. When she heard the rumors about house Dulaenthan's plans to invade the surface she decided to use her position as priestesses to coerce the house mage Rael to teleport her to one of the outposts for an inspection. Her plan succeeded, but someone back home hired an assassin to track her down and bring her back for punishment. While she faced Kryn and his men in the unknown wilds of the surface a group of strangers came to her rescue. A fierce, but short battle ensued as the group charged Kryn and his men. Surprisingly the surface dewellers even managed to kill one of her hunters as they chased Kryn and the others into a retreat. II. Surface: The group turned out to be mostly human, with Bloddwyn Bluanaich, Bran Sparkhammer and Dorn Brashard, but it also had an half-elven women called Alvery Vestergaard. To Vanarel's surprise all spoke elvish and were even willing to help her reach the next town in exchange for information. As it turned out the group was investigating the disappearnce of some local hunters and were following for the past two days one of Kryn's scouts which lead them to her. Vanarel suspected that the disappearance of the locals might be relared to house Dulaenthan's operation ad she agreed to bring them to the outpost the mage teleported her to. Having a hard time being dealing with the fireball in the sky she had not yet got used to, they still travelled by day to make it harder for Kryn to find her again. Once they reached the cave that lead to the underground outpost the humans planned a daring assault. As they waited to the right time to make their move the group questioned her about her origin. To her surprise the surface dewellers knew nothing about the drow or Lolth and the half-elf didn't even know the meaning of the tattoos she was marked with. Alvery was covered with symbols of Litheth, Lolth's twin sister and arch enemy. For how such knowledge could be lost and why the girl had this markings was beyond her comprehession. Yet Vanarel understood that she would need these people to survive on the surface for the near future. Kryn and his men wouldn't let a heretic escape and she lacked supplies as well as knowledge about anything surrounding her. Therefore she decided to gain the trust of the group, while Bran was distracting the bugbear guards, she would go inside the cave and place a spell of silence to cut off the outpost further inside the natural cave from the entrance where kobolds were working the cave to expand the structure. Using her status as priestess of presumable Lolth she knew neither bugbears nor kobolds would dare to question anything she did. She even ordered the kobolds to turn off the fires inside the cave as she noticed that Dorn had an uncanny ability to hide in darkness tricking even the drow accute sight. Bloddwyn, Dorn and Alvery sneaked into the cave as planned, while Bran had the bugbears chase him off into the wilds. With Vanarel's help the surprised kobolds where no match and the group move on into the old abbandoned dwarfen outpost the drow had claimed for their needs. Together they fought against several Dulaenthan house guards until spoked by the noise of battle the mage Rael Dulaenthan started summoning Barlguras to kill the intruders. To Vanarel's surprise again the humans prevailed and as the slayed three of those summoned fiends and several guards, they even forced Rael to teleport to safety. While exploring the outpost looking for clues what was actually happening the group was once more engaged by scouts of Kryn as Bran returned. Exhausted and spooked by the chance of being cornered into the ruined outpost the party just gathered what information they could and fled the cave in direction of a town they knew. A journal they recovered from the room of the outpost's officer revealed the plans for a large scale attack against the town they were going to. Dulaenthan soldiers and duergar mercenaries were being gathered in several locations to raid the town. Something drow have never done before. She also learned that those humans had little to no knowledge about demons and especially Bloddwyn kept questioning her for details. Vanarel found herself in a situation where she knew that those humans and the town would need help to face house Dulaenthan's attack, for all their bravery they didn't know their foe and lacked the magic to face it. As they arrived in Rivgraad she was introduced to Ragnar Vaerger, the local warlord as well as several more companions of those four that had rescued her. To her surprise even the warlord spoke perfect elvish although the whole town made a utterly unsofisticated impression on her. She shared the knowledge about the drow tactics and what to expect of the mercernaries they would employ. She also adviced to gather a response team to face of demons as they would be hard to kill without magical means. Contrary to what she might expected the humans showed no fear and quickly organised their defense. She herself joined Bloddwyn, Alvery and Bran as they would be the ones to face demons and other crises throughout the battle. Ragnar had prepared a battleplan according to her information to lure out the armies leader and kill her relying on the information from Vanarel that infighting for power would at that point most likely block any further coordinatio among the drow and mercenary forces. The battle for Rivgraad didn't have them waiting for long as the next night the drow army appeared. Together with her party she joined the fight for the northern gate where Rael Dulaenthan blew up the wall for his drow to set up spheres of darkness as duergar soldiers charged into the city. As Vanarel and her companions stopped the first wave and Bloddwyn killed a Vrock fiend, the Draegloth son of the house Dulaenthan charged into the city with several drow warriors. Yet the assault was stopped and the first of the Dulaenthan war leaders was killed while Rael escaped behind his armies lines. The night far from being over had the group also encounter a mysterious cloaked man arguing with a Yochlol at the docks. While trying to spy the exchange drow guards ambushed Vanarel and the group. In a diffcult fight it was again the humans that prevailed against the fiend and drow, but the cloak man disappeared. Tired, battled and brusied they also joined the decising battle at the town's main square where lord Ragnar had left an opening for the drow to exploit. Confident in her victory the priestess lead the final attack in person. Several elite warriors and another Yochlol followed her into battle - and into a trap. Ragnar and his retinue hold off the attack long enough for the party to arrive and fall into the drow's flank. As the humans charged the elves the Yochlol recognised Vanarel and targeted her to punish the heretic. Already the first attack had Vanarel nearily dead, but Bloddwyn jumped in between to protect her. With the help of his friends he managed to kill the fiend as Alvery and Dorn killed the priestess leading the attack. As expected the drow withdrew to reorganise with two of the house's blessed children being dead, but the human warriors of Rivgraad gave them no time to rest and turned the retreat into a rout. While the town hunted the drow and their mercenaries for the next couple of days, Vanarel and her companions took the time to heal their wounds and recover. Like all of them she was even celebrated by Ragnar as hero of the battle and gaining the title as friend of the Vaeger clan toegther with a scarf that would symbolise this making sure that she was treated with respect by other clans in the region. As primitive as the clan people appeared on first sight she had to admit that their abilities as warriors impressed her. Also this small campaign side by side with the humans was her first chance to openly celebrate Hyrandir and cast his blessings. Yet with the battle over Vanarel lacked direction. Her escape from Siglathil was successful, but she had no place to stay. Bloddwyn was the first to approach her. In her eyes he was still a child, not even 20 years old, he 'offered' her to follow him as he was going to an library to learn about demons. She could also teach him what she knew and fight at his side against them. His eyes sparkling with purpose and rightousness. Hers on the other hand dull with disinteress. She didn't leave Siglagthil to fight in someone else's war and a cause she had no relation to. Helping Rivgraad was her payment for the chance to rid herself of her persuers, nothing more. Disappointed the youngling left, but not before asking her everything she could share about the demons of Haradim and Ka'ash'Du'Maal'Barid and the drow. Once Bloddwyn left though she overheard a discussion between Dorn and Alvery who were talking about her quest to find an old elven site where she expect an elven sword of her ancestors to be found. Anyhow intrigued about Alvery's tattoos and lack of understanding about Litheth she offered to join their search in hope of finding more truthful information about what happened to the elves who stayed on the surface while Lolth lead her people underneath. III. Journey to the Past The three of them left with an escort towards some mountains in the north east where Dorn said a 'Howling Temple' could be found. The temple was related the white dragon that fought the Elven Empire of old. The journey was uneventful for as long as the clan warriors were at their side, but once their paths parted Alvery's magical owl detected a small group following them as they were climbing the mountain. During the second night they realised they would not be able to escape their persuers so they prepared an ambush. With Alvery placing a ferie fire ontop of the first enemy that appeared she triggered a uncontrolled magical surge that affected all four of them. Dorn was immediately hit by the enemy that appeared first - It was Kryn shooting an crossbow bolt badly wounding the human warrior. As further down the slope they could spot two bugbears and one more drow scout Dorn jumped of the cliff into the darkess to by them time. Alvery on the other hand charged Kryn and wounded him, with a prayer to Hyrandir on her lips Vanarel released a shot from her hand crossbow and watched as her bolt went straight through Kryn's heart as if nothing could stop it. While affected by Alvery's magical surge his armor didn't protect him at all and with Hryandir's blessing and a desparation to match Vanarel landed the deadly hit against her hunter. Without Kryn leading them and the momentum switching to the advantage of those being persued the bugbears and remaining drow were no match and died quickly. Searching through Kryns remains Alvery found his short sword - a weapon dreaded by many drow spellcasters for Kryn was famous to have used it to kill many of them with it. Thankful to be finally rid of this hound Vanarel felt now safe on the surface in regards to her past. Their journey though wasn't finished and they moved on towards the temple. On the way there they encountered a strange group of four humans walking around some frozen blocks. While Alvery approached them, Vanarel and Dorn hid in some bushes observing the situation. Luckily enough Alvery and the leader of the group where talking in common, so she could understand them while she had a hard time watching the exchange blended by the sun. As the man suddely spoke some words that had no meaning for her, she just noticed Dorn jumping up throwing his ax at the leader and then charging into the fray - that soon ended with a tremendous explosion of fire and thunder unleashed by the uncontrolled magic of Alvery. How Dorn, who was caught up in the epicenter of that inferno, survived remained a msytery to Vanarel as she treated his wounds. Dorn's attack was triggered as he recognised the order given by the leader to the rest of his men being spoken in draconic. They were about to attack Alvery as he saw through her ruse when she claimed to worship the same being as them. Dorn started to suspect that the site was were clans fought the white dragon thousands of years ago and to him these strange cultists seemed to worship the dragon Zeryakobaal. Armed with this knowledge Alvery attempted to convince another group of cultists once they reached the ruins of the Howling Temple that they were interested in the white dragon and they would like to know more of this powerful creature's fate. This time around the half-elf managed to persuade the cult's leader to let them inside the temple and even to share what knowledge he had about the dragon's role in the final days of the war against the Elven Empire. As Vanarel hid underneath her hood she walked side by side with Dorn through the old temple witnessing the huge carvings depicting the dragon's successes while the cult leader endulged Alvery's questions. Finally they were even allowed into the heart of the temple - the dragon's chamber with the bones of the huge beast. Based on the information they got, dreams about the sword Alvery had previously and Dorn's estimation they figured out the last battle against Zeryakobaal where Alvery's ancestor died would have been the ruins of Elandirll. As they left the temple the group wondered why the ruin contrary to all other former elven cities was never colonised by the victorious humans. Dorn suggested to make a detour to another clan he knew as he wanted to recruit two friends to join the trip to Elandirill, in case they would need help. Alvery agreed to it and the three of them travelled the freezing Griffin Mountains to Bhaersgraad. Thankfully the group was willing to travel by night as the combination of sun and white snow was utterly blending for Vanarel. Even the nights were brighter than anything she ever experienced in Soglagthil when there was an uncovered moon. Yet travelling by night also meant that she didn't see much of the people and culture of the world until the reached the town of Bhaersgraad. If Rivgraad appeared unsofisticated Bhaersgraad disappointed her even more. Less of a town and more of a loose collection of houses around a small square, without proper streets or anything reminding her of culture. Arriving by day made it hard for her to be able to see properly, but she noticed that besides humans there were even larger and much stronger built people in the city, who had skin white as snow and the males lacked hair. Dorn explained those were goliaths who were part of the Thayne clan and could be found in the southern mountains. Vanarel and her companios witnessed an arguement between two goliaths on the main square. One, yelling and gesturing wildly, was young, the other one, much older and by his retinue clearly a leader, was calm. Dorn explained the discussion being about some slavers and the clan not being willing to burn their city to the ground. Vanarel was surprised to see how strong the local people actually opposed slavery, something that was utterly normal in her home. She also couldn't believe that someone would dare to openly disagree with their leader and even yell at them in front of the whole clan. None of this would end with the young goliath leaving the main square as it happened here if those were drow. Dorn introduced Vanarel and Alvery to Loghain, the old (half-)goliath who endured the young's lack of respect. The older huge warrior was the leader of the clan and it was becoming more and more obvious to the drow how her people were completely underestimating the humans. For their lack of culture and arcane knowledge they seemed to be very tough warriors and far more dangerous in battle than she first thought. Dorn's two friends, Nynthia and Hjaal would also soon prove to her that her corrected estimations were closer to reality than what house Dulaenthan expected. With Nynthia and Hjaal the group resumed the travel north towards Elandirill. The two locals made the journey through the mountains easy and once they left it they soon found out the reason for Elandirill and its surroundings being abbandoned. As soon as they reached the hills and plains south of the elven city they found destroyed villages, crawling with undead. With Hyrandir's protection and the fighting capabilities of her companions they managed to reach the city ruins without too much trouble. Their fighting didn't end there as they moved into the keep facing undead soldiers from the war between the Elven Empire and the Hegemony of fire which came back to life and attacked them as they got close. Alvery seemed to know where she was going, but before entering the final courtyard her ancestor fought in, she moved them towards a larger building of the keep. Once they entered it they found it to be a temple dedicated to Litheth with large murals depicting scenes of the elven migration to the continent, how they founded their new empire and started a war with the one from the old world. It even showed how the elven mages created the Maelstrom to make the sea route unpassable as well as their hunt for dragons. On one of the final murals elves were shown as they moved into the old abbandoned dwarfen cities in the east of the continent, from where they would enter the Underark and found the drow culture. But while Vanarel and the others just saw the paintings, Alvery saw spiders crawling into the ears of the leaders shown in the murals. She also heard a voice commenting each of the images. Together with Vanarel who knew Lolth's version of the story the two realised that most likely Litheth herself was showing Alvery the truth of what really happened. How Lolth influenced the migration from the old world to the new continent and how she instigated the civil war. Alvery even witnessed the true purpose of the Maelstrome as its shadow appeared to her like a huge spider and she saw fiendish apparitions leave the storm entering the material world. The elves in the dwarfen cities were described as Lolth's true colonies - those she separated from the others to become hers alone rejecting all other elven gods whose followers were defeated by the primitive humans. For Vanarel this was a revelation that confirmed many things she noticed to not make too much sense in Lolth's official version that was taught by her priestesses. It also explained why Lolth's followers had such a close connection to the fiends of Haradim and Ka'ash, while the elves on the surface never had any reported connections to any demonic power. This temple was a chance for elves to learn and understand their history and Vanarel wanted it preserved, but first the undead would need to be removed. Following Alvery again she joined her and the others fighting side by side the an ghostly form of Alvery's ancestor Sorra Ahdin. Defeating the wraiths of human soldiers it became evident that here the war between elves and humans never ended. As Sorra's ghost was readying herself for the next repetition of the final battle, Alvery took her by the hand and lead her to the temple to show her the real reason for the war between humans and elves and that their goddess Litheth had taken a new mantle as 'the Lady' leading the humans to fight the demons she and her followers had let loose by being tricket by her twin sister Lolth. As Sorra found her peace handing over the sought sword to Alvery the party buried the remains within the temple under the guidance of Vanarel. Alvery decided to return home and tell her family of what she discovered here, worried what this knowledge about the elves' role in summoning the demons was could mean for the future of elves and humans. Nynthia and Hjaal who proved themselves valuable fighters travelled back south, as Dorn followed Alvery and Vanarel east towards the Realm of the Middle. The journey into the Realm showed a completely different side of humanity to Vanarel. The elkani people that made up most of the Realm reacted completely different than the morskani from the clans. While still visiting only small towns in Xander's Maarket and Rafal's Rast it became apparent that the culture there was far more inclined towards elven standards and also far more interested in them. She was thankful for Dorn's intimidating and rough demenour while travelling through those as she noticed that people were looking for excuses to talk to her and Alvery fascinated by their elven appearance. The clan warrior on the other hand scared most people off preventing an incident where Vanarel was about to punish a man for touching her. She was thankful once they left Rafal's Rast by boat to just have its owner and them three on the boat, far away from curious bystanders. When they reached Eversted, she was both appalled by the human lack of style as well as in awe for the clearly recogniseable remains of the elven ruins the city was build upon. The city was also a completely different experience to anything human she had experienced so far. For all their crude and tastless art it was still much more cultivated than the backwater towns she had visited so far. Reaching the city by water and in daylight made it hard for her to fully appreciate it, but nevertheless her interest was piqued.
Vanarel started on this path layed out for her and made good progress. She even might have started enjoying the torture she put her victims through as well as machinations she started putting in place to rise in power. But these things changed over time as she started to look beyond the simple lessons of Arch-Tinilith, the academy of priestesses in Siglathil. She saw the holes in the religious texts and historic teachings. Secretely studying every piece of information she could find, she discovered the truth about Lolth - the goddess betrayed the elven pantheon and not the other way around. Once Vanarel understood this reality her prayers no longer went to Lolth, but to Hyrandir. She knew her heretic beliefs couldn't stay hidden forever and so she started to look for a way out. When she heard the rumors about house Dulaenthan's plans to invade the surface she decided to use her position as priestesses to coerce the house mage Rael to teleport her to one of the outposts for an inspection. Her plan succeeded, but someone back home hired an assassin to track her down and bring her back for punishment. While she faced Kryn and his men in the unknown wilds of the surface a group of strangers came to her rescue. A fierce, but short battle ensued as the group charged Kryn and his men. Surprisingly the surface dewellers even managed to kill one of her hunters as they chased Kryn and the others into a retreat. II. Surface: The group turned out to be mostly human, with Bloddwyn Bluanaich, Bran Sparkhammer and Dorn Brashard, but it also had an half-elven women called Alvery Vestergaard. To Vanarel's surprise all spoke elvish and were even willing to help her reach the next town in exchange for information. As it turned out the group was investigating the disappearnce of some local hunters and were following for the past two days one of Kryn's scouts which lead them to her. Vanarel suspected that the disappearance of the locals might be relared to house Dulaenthan's operation ad she agreed to bring them to the outpost the mage teleported her to. Having a hard time being dealing with the fireball in the sky she had not yet got used to, they still travelled by day to make it harder for Kryn to find her again. Once they reached the cave that lead to the underground outpost the humans planned a daring assault. As they waited to the right time to make their move the group questioned her about her origin. To her surprise the surface dewellers knew nothing about the drow or Lolth and the half-elf didn't even know the meaning of the tattoos she was marked with. Alvery was covered with symbols of Litheth, Lolth's twin sister and arch enemy. For how such knowledge could be lost and why the girl had this markings was beyond her comprehession. Yet Vanarel understood that she would need these people to survive on the surface for the near future. Kryn and his men wouldn't let a heretic escape and she lacked supplies as well as knowledge about anything surrounding her. Therefore she decided to gain the trust of the group, while Bran was distracting the bugbear guards, she would go inside the cave and place a spell of silence to cut off the outpost further inside the natural cave from the entrance where kobolds were working the cave to expand the structure. Using her status as priestess of presumable Lolth she knew neither bugbears nor kobolds would dare to question anything she did. She even ordered the kobolds to turn off the fires inside the cave as she noticed that Dorn had an uncanny ability to hide in darkness tricking even the drow accute sight. Bloddwyn, Dorn and Alvery sneaked into the cave as planned, while Bran had the bugbears chase him off into the wilds. With Vanarel's help the surprised kobolds where no match and the group move on into the old abbandoned dwarfen outpost the drow had claimed for their needs. Together they fought against several Dulaenthan house guards until spoked by the noise of battle the mage Rael Dulaenthan started summoning Barlguras to kill the intruders. To Vanarel's surprise again the humans prevailed and as the slayed three of those summoned fiends and several guards, they even forced Rael to teleport to safety. While exploring the outpost looking for clues what was actually happening the group was once more engaged by scouts of Kryn as Bran returned. Exhausted and spooked by the chance of being cornered into the ruined outpost the party just gathered what information they could and fled the cave in direction of a town they knew. A journal they recovered from the room of the outpost's officer revealed the plans for a large scale attack against the town they were going to. Dulaenthan soldiers and duergar mercenaries were being gathered in several locations to raid the town. Something drow have never done before. She also learned that those humans had little to no knowledge about demons and especially Bloddwyn kept questioning her for details. Vanarel found herself in a situation where she knew that those humans and the town would need help to face house Dulaenthan's attack, for all their bravery they didn't know their foe and lacked the magic to face it. As they arrived in Rivgraad she was introduced to Ragnar Vaerger, the local warlord as well as several more companions of those four that had rescued her. To her surprise even the warlord spoke perfect elvish although the whole town made a utterly unsofisticated impression on her. She shared the knowledge about the drow tactics and what to expect of the mercernaries they would employ. She also adviced to gather a response team to face of demons as they would be hard to kill without magical means. Contrary to what she might expected the humans showed no fear and quickly organised their defense. She herself joined Bloddwyn, Alvery and Bran as they would be the ones to face demons and other crises throughout the battle. Ragnar had prepared a battleplan according to her information to lure out the armies leader and kill her relying on the information from Vanarel that infighting for power would at that point most likely block any further coordinatio among the drow and mercenary forces. The battle for Rivgraad didn't have them waiting for long as the next night the drow army appeared. Together with her party she joined the fight for the northern gate where Rael Dulaenthan blew up the wall for his drow to set up spheres of darkness as duergar soldiers charged into the city. As Vanarel and her companions stopped the first wave and Bloddwyn killed a Vrock fiend, the Draegloth son of the house Dulaenthan charged into the city with several drow warriors. Yet the assault was stopped and the first of the Dulaenthan war leaders was killed while Rael escaped behind his armies lines. The night far from being over had the group also encounter a mysterious cloaked man arguing with a Yochlol at the docks. While trying to spy the exchange drow guards ambushed Vanarel and the group. In a diffcult fight it was again the humans that prevailed against the fiend and drow, but the cloak man disappeared. Tired, battled and brusied they also joined the decising battle at the town's main square where lord Ragnar had left an opening for the drow to exploit. Confident in her victory the priestess lead the final attack in person. Several elite warriors and another Yochlol followed her into battle - and into a trap. Ragnar and his retinue hold off the attack long enough for the party to arrive and fall into the drow's flank. As the humans charged the elves the Yochlol recognised Vanarel and targeted her to punish the heretic. Already the first attack had Vanarel nearily dead, but Bloddwyn jumped in between to protect her. With the help of his friends he managed to kill the fiend as Alvery and Dorn killed the priestess leading the attack. As expected the drow withdrew to reorganise with two of the house's blessed children being dead, but the human warriors of Rivgraad gave them no time to rest and turned the retreat into a rout. While the town hunted the drow and their mercenaries for the next couple of days, Vanarel and her companions took the time to heal their wounds and recover. Like all of them she was even celebrated by Ragnar as hero of the battle and gaining the title as friend of the Vaeger clan toegther with a scarf that would symbolise this making sure that she was treated with respect by other clans in the region. As primitive as the clan people appeared on first sight she had to admit that their abilities as warriors impressed her. Also this small campaign side by side with the humans was her first chance to openly celebrate Hyrandir and cast his blessings. Yet with the battle over Vanarel lacked direction. Her escape from Siglathil was successful, but she had no place to stay. Bloddwyn was the first to approach her. In her eyes he was still a child, not even 20 years old, he 'offered' her to follow him as he was going to an library to learn about demons. She could also teach him what she knew and fight at his side against them. His eyes sparkling with purpose and rightousness. Hers on the other hand dull with disinteress. She didn't leave Siglagthil to fight in someone else's war and a cause she had no relation to. Helping Rivgraad was her payment for the chance to rid herself of her persuers, nothing more. Disappointed the youngling left, but not before asking her everything she could share about the demons of Haradim and Ka'ash'Du'Maal'Barid and the drow. Once Bloddwyn left though she overheard a discussion between Dorn and Alvery who were talking about her quest to find an old elven site where she expect an elven sword of her ancestors to be found. Anyhow intrigued about Alvery's tattoos and lack of understanding about Litheth she offered to join their search in hope of finding more truthful information about what happened to the elves who stayed on the surface while Lolth lead her people underneath. III. Journey to the Past The three of them left with an escort towards some mountains in the north east where Dorn said a 'Howling Temple' could be found. The temple was related the white dragon that fought the Elven Empire of old. The journey was uneventful for as long as the clan warriors were at their side, but once their paths parted Alvery's magical owl detected a small group following them as they were climbing the mountain. During the second night they realised they would not be able to escape their persuers so they prepared an ambush. With Alvery placing a ferie fire ontop of the first enemy that appeared she triggered a uncontrolled magical surge that affected all four of them. Dorn was immediately hit by the enemy that appeared first - It was Kryn shooting an crossbow bolt badly wounding the human warrior. As further down the slope they could spot two bugbears and one more drow scout Dorn jumped of the cliff into the darkess to by them time. Alvery on the other hand charged Kryn and wounded him, with a prayer to Hyrandir on her lips Vanarel released a shot from her hand crossbow and watched as her bolt went straight through Kryn's heart as if nothing could stop it. While affected by Alvery's magical surge his armor didn't protect him at all and with Hryandir's blessing and a desparation to match Vanarel landed the deadly hit against her hunter. Without Kryn leading them and the momentum switching to the advantage of those being persued the bugbears and remaining drow were no match and died quickly. Searching through Kryns remains Alvery found his short sword - a weapon dreaded by many drow spellcasters for Kryn was famous to have used it to kill many of them with it. Thankful to be finally rid of this hound Vanarel felt now safe on the surface in regards to her past. Their journey though wasn't finished and they moved on towards the temple. On the way there they encountered a strange group of four humans walking around some frozen blocks. While Alvery approached them, Vanarel and Dorn hid in some bushes observing the situation. Luckily enough Alvery and the leader of the group where talking in common, so she could understand them while she had a hard time watching the exchange blended by the sun. As the man suddely spoke some words that had no meaning for her, she just noticed Dorn jumping up throwing his ax at the leader and then charging into the fray - that soon ended with a tremendous explosion of fire and thunder unleashed by the uncontrolled magic of Alvery. How Dorn, who was caught up in the epicenter of that inferno, survived remained a msytery to Vanarel as she treated his wounds. Dorn's attack was triggered as he recognised the order given by the leader to the rest of his men being spoken in draconic. They were about to attack Alvery as he saw through her ruse when she claimed to worship the same being as them. Dorn started to suspect that the site was were clans fought the white dragon thousands of years ago and to him these strange cultists seemed to worship the dragon Zeryakobaal. Armed with this knowledge Alvery attempted to convince another group of cultists once they reached the ruins of the Howling Temple that they were interested in the white dragon and they would like to know more of this powerful creature's fate. This time around the half-elf managed to persuade the cult's leader to let them inside the temple and even to share what knowledge he had about the dragon's role in the final days of the war against the Elven Empire. As Vanarel hid underneath her hood she walked side by side with Dorn through the old temple witnessing the huge carvings depicting the dragon's successes while the cult leader endulged Alvery's questions. Finally they were even allowed into the heart of the temple - the dragon's chamber with the bones of the huge beast. Based on the information they got, dreams about the sword Alvery had previously and Dorn's estimation they figured out the last battle against Zeryakobaal where Alvery's ancestor died would have been the ruins of Elandirll. As they left the temple the group wondered why the ruin contrary to all other former elven cities was never colonised by the victorious humans. Dorn suggested to make a detour to another clan he knew as he wanted to recruit two friends to join the trip to Elandirill, in case they would need help. Alvery agreed to it and the three of them travelled the freezing Griffin Mountains to Bhaersgraad. Thankfully the group was willing to travel by night as the combination of sun and white snow was utterly blending for Vanarel. Even the nights were brighter than anything she ever experienced in Soglagthil when there was an uncovered moon. Yet travelling by night also meant that she didn't see much of the people and culture of the world until the reached the town of Bhaersgraad. If Rivgraad appeared unsofisticated Bhaersgraad disappointed her even more. Less of a town and more of a loose collection of houses around a small square, without proper streets or anything reminding her of culture. Arriving by day made it hard for her to be able to see properly, but she noticed that besides humans there were even larger and much stronger built people in the city, who had skin white as snow and the males lacked hair. Dorn explained those were goliaths who were part of the Thayne clan and could be found in the southern mountains. Vanarel and her companios witnessed an arguement between two goliaths on the main square. One, yelling and gesturing wildly, was young, the other one, much older and by his retinue clearly a leader, was calm. Dorn explained the discussion being about some slavers and the clan not being willing to burn their city to the ground. Vanarel was surprised to see how strong the local people actually opposed slavery, something that was utterly normal in her home. She also couldn't believe that someone would dare to openly disagree with their leader and even yell at them in front of the whole clan. None of this would end with the young goliath leaving the main square as it happened here if those were drow. Dorn introduced Vanarel and Alvery to Loghain, the old (half-)goliath who endured the young's lack of respect. The older huge warrior was the leader of the clan and it was becoming more and more obvious to the drow how her people were completely underestimating the humans. For their lack of culture and arcane knowledge they seemed to be very tough warriors and far more dangerous in battle than she first thought. Dorn's two friends, Nynthia and Hjaal would also soon prove to her that her corrected estimations were closer to reality than what house Dulaenthan expected. With Nynthia and Hjaal the group resumed the travel north towards Elandirill. The two locals made the journey through the mountains easy and once they left it they soon found out the reason for Elandirill and its surroundings being abbandoned. As soon as they reached the hills and plains south of the elven city they found destroyed villages, crawling with undead. With Hyrandir's protection and the fighting capabilities of her companions they managed to reach the city ruins without too much trouble. Their fighting didn't end there as they moved into the keep facing undead soldiers from the war between the Elven Empire and the Hegemony of fire which came back to life and attacked them as they got close. Alvery seemed to know where she was going, but before entering the final courtyard her ancestor fought in, she moved them towards a larger building of the keep. Once they entered it they found it to be a temple dedicated to Litheth with large murals depicting scenes of the elven migration to the continent, how they founded their new empire and started a war with the one from the old world. It even showed how the elven mages created the Maelstrom to make the sea route unpassable as well as their hunt for dragons. On one of the final murals elves were shown as they moved into the old abbandoned dwarfen cities in the east of the continent, from where they would enter the Underark and found the drow culture. But while Vanarel and the others just saw the paintings, Alvery saw spiders crawling into the ears of the leaders shown in the murals. She also heard a voice commenting each of the images. Together with Vanarel who knew Lolth's version of the story the two realised that most likely Litheth herself was showing Alvery the truth of what really happened. How Lolth influenced the migration from the old world to the new continent and how she instigated the civil war. Alvery even witnessed the true purpose of the Maelstrome as its shadow appeared to her like a huge spider and she saw fiendish apparitions leave the storm entering the material world. The elves in the dwarfen cities were described as Lolth's true colonies - those she separated from the others to become hers alone rejecting all other elven gods whose followers were defeated by the primitive humans. For Vanarel this was a revelation that confirmed many things she noticed to not make too much sense in Lolth's official version that was taught by her priestesses. It also explained why Lolth's followers had such a close connection to the fiends of Haradim and Ka'ash, while the elves on the surface never had any reported connections to any demonic power. This temple was a chance for elves to learn and understand their history and Vanarel wanted it preserved, but first the undead would need to be removed. Following Alvery again she joined her and the others fighting side by side the an ghostly form of Alvery's ancestor Sorra Ahdin. Defeating the wraiths of human soldiers it became evident that here the war between elves and humans never ended. As Sorra's ghost was readying herself for the next repetition of the final battle, Alvery took her by the hand and lead her to the temple to show her the real reason for the war between humans and elves and that their goddess Litheth had taken a new mantle as 'the Lady' leading the humans to fight the demons she and her followers had let loose by being tricket by her twin sister Lolth. As Sorra found her peace handing over the sought sword to Alvery the party buried the remains within the temple under the guidance of Vanarel. Alvery decided to return home and tell her family of what she discovered here, worried what this knowledge about the elves' role in summoning the demons was could mean for the future of elves and humans. Nynthia and Hjaal who proved themselves valuable fighters travelled back south, as Dorn followed Alvery and Vanarel east towards the Realm of the Middle. The journey into the Realm showed a completely different side of humanity to Vanarel. The elkani people that made up most of the Realm reacted completely different than the morskani from the clans. While still visiting only small towns in Xander's Maarket and Rafal's Rast it became apparent that the culture there was far more inclined towards elven standards and also far more interested in them. She was thankful for Dorn's intimidating and rough demenour while travelling through those as she noticed that people were looking for excuses to talk to her and Alvery fascinated by their elven appearance. The clan warrior on the other hand scared most people off preventing an incident where Vanarel was about to punish a man for touching her. She was thankful once they left Rafal's Rast by boat to just have its owner and them three on the boat, far away from curious bystanders. When they reached Eversted, she was both appalled by the human lack of style as well as in awe for the clearly recogniseable remains of the elven ruins the city was build upon. The city was also a completely different experience to anything human she had experienced so far. For all their crude and tastless art it was still much more cultivated than the backwater towns she had visited so far. Reaching the city by water and in daylight made it hard for her to fully appreciate it, but nevertheless her interest was piqued.
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