Chess 5th, 1372 DR
The party reaches the violent, stormy region known as the Desert's Edge, and Neddivel takes the horses and leaves to meet up with the Purple Dragon patrol that they met days earlier, and from there travel back to Tilverton.
As the group passes into the stormy region, Mourn's hawk returns to him, agrivated and afraid desperately about the creature he saw in the air. As a precaution, Meriden casts several protectives spells on his companions, as well as increasing Wulgar's strength.
The creature lands in front of them, and they see that it is a blue dragon, only a bit larger than a human. It introduces itself as Vesistyrvran, and demands a tribute to his master, the Blue Suzerain Malagrys. He also demands to know what outsiders are doing in Anauroch.
Meriden tries to convince Vesistyrvran that they should ally, as the Shadovar could be a threat to the Blue Suzerain as well, but the blue laughs at Meriden, proclaiming that Malygrys is allied to the Shadovar. He begins to fly away, and as a parting gift fires his breath weapon at Meriden and Morn, badly injuring Meriden, and seriously injuring Mourn and knocking him out cold.
Emen realizes that the dragon cannot be allowed to escape to warn the Shadovar, and so dives at the creature and drags it down, grappling with it and keeping its head pointed up and its wings pinned.
Meriden revives Mourn and heals himself, and Mourn fires an acid arrow at the creature from his wand, striking its wing. The dragon batters Emen with its tail, trying to break her hold and beginning to wound her. Wulgar swings his axes, but it first gets deflected by the dragon's wing. Grim sneaks in closer to the beast while Emen continues to wrestle with it.
Wulgar manages several powerful swings, seriously wounding the beast and hewing through its tough scales, and Grim manages to slide his dagger deep into the wounds and find a vital spot, killing the dragon before can further batter Emen, who is now badly brused and battered from the tail.
The party proceeds to cut several body parts from the creature for potential use later.
Chess 6th, 1372 DR
A sandstorm blows up and the party takes shelter in a nearby ruin. The ruin is relatively small, at least the accessable regions of it, but Wulgar manages to find a magical trap from ages gone by, and when he accidentally triggers the trap, he is turned into an insubstantial shadow.
Meriden recieves a vision from Helm showing him the importance of his mission, and assuring him that someone will rescue the dwarf and restore him, and that the dwarf will be safe in his current form from almost any harm. Meriden must press on.
The party reluctantly leaves. Wulgar nods his ascent to his friend, gesturing to him to be brave as they press on.
Chess 7th, 1372 DR
The party comes across a corpse in the desert, apparently a tomb robber of some kind. When they get close, the corpse jumps up and attacks the monk, slashing her with its claw, and grabbing her, drawing the water from her blood through the open wound.
Emen breaks the undead thing's grip, and Meriden manages to turn the creature. Having determined that it is carrying magical items, the party stalks the creatures, and Meriden breaks his turning to slash the creature in half. They manage to find a wand that identifies magic items, and a headband and gloves that might increase a persons ability to find traps, disable them, and open locks. They also find several damaged scrolls that would miscast if used.
Chess 8th, 1372 DR
The group arrives at the Kho-Sivhat Oasis, controlled by the Shikalla tribe of Bedine, a particularly honorable tribe that had even worked with Purple Dragon patrols on the Desert's Edge hunting down evil humanoids. The party approaches the way their research has indicated, and they allow a representitive of the tribe to relay their wish to enter the oasis to Sheik Ari Bin Arikat, leader of the Shikalla.
Arikat allows them to enter, and find him already speaking with representitives of another tribe. When he is done with the other Bedine, he turns to the outsiders, and Grim, utilizing his knowlage of the Bedine, presents the alliance between the Shadovar and the Zhentarim, and Meriden presents them with gifts of food and water from the church of Helm.
Arikat is favorable toward them, and his other guest, Alir Kir'Akin of the Cult of the Sacred Skull, speaks with them. He tells them that their holy skull, an artifact through witch their deceased ancestors speak with them, has told them of a way to break the alliance between the Shadovar and the Zhentarim. Kir'Akin also tells them that they have allied themselves with the Harpers through the Harper Witch Ruha, who has recently began to organize Bedine tribes against the Shadovar.
A group of Shikalla warriors working with Sacred Skull Cultists and the Harpers would sneak an item into a Zhent camp for the Shadovar to discover, then allow them to begin fighting over what the Shadovar would perceive as a theft of their property. They want the party to raid a nearby ruin and obtain an artifact that is neccissary for this plot.
The party agrees, and gets directions to the ruin, a place considered holy to a band of renegade Bedine outcasts, sorcerers and murders who worship the god Na'sir, god of the dead, whom they regard as equivilant with Cyric.
Chess 9th-10th, 1372 DR
Travelling at night and resting by day, utilizing some gear from the church and some from the Shikalla, the group moves closer to the ruins. They end up encountering an enormous vulture, a creature considered sacred to Na'sir. As the creature flies closer, the group notices that it has a symbol of Cyric on its neck, and its stench makes Meriden sick, though Emen is fine.
Emen does serious damage to the creature, though it manages to fly straight up then dive onto the sickened Meriden before it dies.
Chess 11th, 1372 DR
The party scouts out the guards on the ruins below them in the dunes. After counting out how many guards there are and trying to pick out the spellcasters, Mourn shifts to wolf form, Grim makes himself invisible with a potion and sneaks in behind the guard that appears to be an arcane spellcaster, and Meriden charges forward to make a distraction.
Meriden appears to be feebleminded from the sun to the guards, who laugh at his antics. When they let their guard down, Grim slits the throught of the sorcerer, instantly killing him. Emen and Mourn charge forward to join the fight, and when he gets closer, Mourn shifts back to elf form, naked and carrying the wand that he charged forward with in his mouth.
Emen dispatches the divine spell caster, and Mourn fires several magic missles into the guards, and Meriden and Grim dispatch their guards on their side of the ruin entrace as well. Emen is faced with three guards. She grapples the one in the middle, and when the other two go to either side of her, she drops the grappled guard and strikes and kills the ones on either side of her. One guard, trying to jump down on her from above, trips and lands face first in the sand.
Before she can return to fighting the one she dropped, Meriden hurls his bastard sword across the entrace at him, burying it in his forehead.
Mourn gets dressed, and the party searches the bodies, finding a key. Before opening the doors to the temple crypt ruins, Grim checks for and disarms a trap on the door.
Entering the room, they meet another group of guards. The guards go down quickly, although the arcane spellcaster nearly roasts Grim with a fire spell before being killed.
The next chamber is huge, and has two large crystal skulls on either side, 10 feet tall, and adorned with Loross symbols and symbols of the god Jergal. On the double doors at the far end, the party notices a shifting, glowing symbol.
Grim does not know how to disarm the shifting glyph, but does dicern the symbols for lightning and shadow. Emen starts hurling bodies at the glyphs, hoping to set them off. The lightning glyph does go off, striking the corpse and the monk as well, though the divine spellcasters quickly heal her. Finally, they simply open the doors, triggering the shadow glyph, but avoiding its effects.
The next room is a huge crypt, with several stone cairns and an altar at the far end. There is also a skelatal creature wearing chain mail and holding a large black iron mace. The creature moves with some intelligence, and Meriden immediately casts silence on the creature.
The skelatal creature, wearing robes of Jergal and a holy symbol of Cyric, swings its mace at Emen, wounding her, but surprised at the lack of damage done to her. Her fists manage to damage the skelatal form of the creature slightly. Mourn fires an acid arrow at the creature that strikes it solidly. Grim's dagger has no effect on the creature, and Meriden's sword has very little effect.
The creature strikes Meriden and his mace pumps unholy energy into the cleric, injuring him even more than the blow did. Grim drops his daggers, grabs his staff with both hands, and swings with all of his might at the mace to knock it out of the creature's hands. Mourn casts a spell on himself to improve is accuracy in combat.
Grim manages to disarm the creature, and he grabs the mace. The mace courses with evil energies that damage the druid, and he throws the maces as far away from the creature as he can. Mourn uses his new accuracy to throw a flask of alchemist's fire at the undead, catching it on fire.
The unarmed creature reaches out and touches the monk, injuring her greatly and nearly paralysing her. Meriden uses his newfound abilities as an Initiate of Helm to summon the Mace of Odo, and strikes the creature, wounding it greveiously. Mourn throws another flask of alchemist's fire, missing the creature, but setting his altar on fire, and catching the creature with a burning ember from the altar. It is still on fire and taking damage from his acid arrow.
Nearly dead, but not wanting to see her friends suffer, Emen charges forward and bear hugs the undead priest, crushing some of its ribs before the creature manages to break the hold on him. Meriden douses the creature with holy water, and Grim heals the almost dead monks wounds.
Charging in with more holy water, Meriden attacks from one side, and the newly healed, but still wounded, Emen charges from the other side. They manage to destroy the creature, and Grim pumps a healing spell into the remains to make sure it is destroyed. Meriden douses it with holy water and blesses it.
In the remains, they find a small pulsing black sphere, the size of a marble, and put it in a bottle to bring with them. The temple begins to sink and take on sand, and the group runs out of the chamber, toward the entrance. The lythari briefly notices that there is a secret door in one of the crystal skulls, but they do not have time to investigate.
Shortly after the party leaves the entrance, the temple crypt to Jergal, newly reconcrated to Cyric, sinks forever beneath the sands of Anauroch.
Chess 12th, 1372 DR
After travelling for a day, the party spots several flying figures in the air. Afraid of trouble, Meriden beings casting defensive spells and enhancements, and they take cover. Eventually the figures are close enough for Grim to spot as metallic dragons.
Harper rangers, a male named Urlvrick and a female named Reinigear, riding brass dragons have arrived to collect the artifact and to proceed with the plan that they have worked out with the Bedine. Urlvrick and his dragon, Nearvaniskilligrandar, will meet with the Bedine and proceed to the Zhent outpost. Reinigear and her dragon, Vhulstigannigorigan, will fly the group back to Tilverton if they wish to go.
The party mounts up on Vhulstigannigorigan, who is very curious about them and talks incessantly. Grim is especially thrilled to have a conversation with the dragon about anything that pops into the talkative dragon's mind.
Chess 13th-16th, 1372 DR
Vhulstigannigorigan flies the party back over the Stonelands, near the Thunder Peaks, and down into Tilver's Gap outside of Tilverton. Dispite the wishes of Meriden, who wants to land directly at the temple of Helm, Reinigear thinks it wise not to surprise the Purple Dragon garrison with any dragon landing in the middle of town in the wee hours of the morning, thus they land just outside the gates at sun up on the 17th.
Chess 17th, 1372 DR
Morn Ninefingers, the lythari, leaves in the middle of the night to hunt during the full moon, thus the party is reduced to Meriden, Grim, and Emen. The three enter the gates to Tilverton, and are escorted to the Altar of Shields. Meriden makes his report about the events in Anauroch. The superiors at the temple tell Meriden that they will summon him later, and they give a new assignment to Emen, who will be escorting a cleric from the temple to the temple in Elturel.
While staying at Grimwald's Revenge, Meriden runs into some dwarves of Glen, as well as a barbarian mercenary, a Tunlander, named Stilgar. Stilgar and Meriden proceed to begin a drinking contest, and Stilgar manages to succeed where Wulgar and Emen both failed, drinking the cleric under the table.
While Meriden is relaxing at the inn, Grim has returned to Gahlaerd Mossmere in order to see if he is willing to cast a teleport for them, to teleport them back to Mistedale. Gahlaerd agrees and takes the money that Grim gives him, and Grim tells him they will be back once they arrange everything.
Realizing that they could use some muscule with Emen reassigned, Meriden decides to ask Stilgar if he is available to join the party. Grim, upon seeing the state that Meriden is in, tells him that the Altar has sent for him, and the cleric panics. Grim is quite amused at his joke. The dwarves give Meriden something that works on his intoxication, and he sobers up quite considerably.
Eventually Meriden is summoned to the Altar of Shields, and his mission was deemed a success, and he is offered his next title to add to his rank. They set the night of the ceremony as the next night, the night of the Spring Equinox.
Chess 18th , 1372 DR
Most of the day is spent with Meriden getting ready for the ceremony at the Altar of Shields, and Grim contacts the keepers of the grove of Silvanus to participate in their Spring Equinox ceremony. Stilgar spends another day at Grimwald's Revenge.
Both preists complete their ceremonies, and in the morning Meriden is awarded the title of Trusty. He is now Trusty Watcher Meriden Greystag of the Order of He Who Watches Over Travellers.
Chess 19th, 1372 DR
Gahlaerd Mossmere casts a teleport for the party, and they arrive home in Mistledale, just a few miles outside of Ashabenford. They stop by the house that Meriden rents in order to stow their gear, and then head out to Heresk Malorn's house.
Meriden speaks with his prospective future father in law, explaining about what is going on and what their adventuring party has been doing, and about events that occurred when last he was in Mistledale. Meriden also introduces Grim as Tobias, giving his alias, just in case. He also finds out that the drow wizard that they captured has managed to escape captivity.
Meriden arranges a meeting with Naurvintha the next day, and the three travel to the White Hart inn to relax before retiring to Meriden's house for the evening.
Chess 20th, 1372 DR
Meriden sets off for his picnic with Naurvintha. Haresk sends a paladin squire of Neylessa Shendean, leader of the Mistledale Lancers, escort the two on their picnic as a shaperoen. Meriden and Naurvintha formalize plans for a wedding at some point in the future.
Stilgar and Grim spend the day at the Velvet Veil, and are amazed at the catfolk, and especially the female centaur dancers that work for the establishment.
Now that Grim has picked up enough Sylvan to decipher some of the book he was given, Meriden, Grim, and Stilgar agree to try to use a fey crossroads the next day in order to travel back to Eveningstar and check in on Grim's druidic master.
Chess 21st-23rd, 1372 DR
About three hours away from Ashabenford is a point of entry to a fey crossroads. The three adventurers set out and travel to this particular area, and upon arriving at the appointed region and summoning the Fey Guardian, the guardian demands to hear a gnomish joke.
The three head back into Ashabenford, hoping that the alchemist Almaes will be able to give them a good joke to tell to the Fey Guardian. While speaking to Almaes, the ghost of Gerlricks Cybondan appears and asks why his deed has not be delivered to his nephew and neice in Damara.
Meriden tells Gerlricks that they will be willing to go to Damara as soon as they check on Grim's master. Grim asks if Gerlricks would come with them to tell the Fey Guardian an joke to open the crossroads.
The guardian is happy to hear the gnomish joke, and lets the party pass into the crossroads, but the group is quickly met on the path within the crossroads by a nymph that asks a task of them.
The nymph tells them that an evil half devil dwarf creatures and a twisted ally of his managed to secure an artifact and began to warp the pathways within the fey crossroads. She tells them that the crossroads are not functioning properly, and wants them to travel to the fortress of these beings and retrieve the artifact, a crystal rose, and return it to her.
While Grim is skeptical, the three realize that the crossroads really aren't working properply and they have to do something. The three agree, and they travel down the path indicated by the Nymph toward the fortress.
The Nymph has warned the three not to take their eyes off each other or any items they carry, and not to leave the path that she has set them down. After travelling for a while, they run into three ugly, gnome like creatures carrying swords. The three order the party to halt, and they tell them to surrender.
After refusing to surrender, the three gnome like monsters grow to over eight feet tall and charge to the attack. Grim casts a spell to create a thorny patch of entangling plants to slow and damage the suddenly enlarged fey creatures.
Meriden and Stilgar engage the first creature out of the brambles, badly wounded as it was. The gnomish creature that managed to avoid the patch reaches out and grabs Grim, throwing him into his own patch. The first creatures is finished off, and the second one is also quickly dispatched. Grim manages to escape his own brambles, and the three finish the last gnomish creature, identified by Grim as spriggans.
The three (as well as their horses and the gnomish ghost) travel on and find the fortress the Nymph indicated. The building is woven from twisted plants entwined into a structure. When Grim searches the front door, he finds a scything trap that he manages to set off before entering the place.
Afraid to leave their horses behind, the three bring their horses into the large front room. When fully in the room, the party starts to feel slashing from something moveing too quick to see. Once the three are certain they are being attacked, each one carefully listens for any clues to give them a place to swing. Eventually the slashing knives of the creatures knock Grim, then Stilgar, unconcious with the sleep poison on them. Eventually Meriden manages to cut down all of the invisible creatures plaguing them. Meriden recognizes them as quicklings from his earlier dealings with them.
Entering the next room, it is filled with mud, thigh high on the human adventurers. Near the stairs at the back of the room hovers goblin like creatuers with black moth wings. One of them stats working a magical pump handle that actually sucks the water out of the mud, causing the ground to solidify around the group as they enter.
The creatures fire magic missles at the trapped adventures from the stairs, and the adventurers dig themselves out from the floor. Just as they do so, the goblin-fey near the pump handle works it again, turning the room to mud. The barbarian works his way to this creature before it could work the handle again, and puts it beyond mortal reach.
Meriden and Grim manage to finish off the other goblin-fey, and the group pulls themselves up to the stairs and work the pump handle to solidify the ground. They walk the horses into the room and set the gnome ghost to watch them, they investigate two other doors.
In one room they find the corpse of a satyr in a cage, and a warning note about the trapped electical cages, as well as some magical trinkets. In the next room, they find a trapped Nymph in a cold iron cage, trapped in a manner similar to the first one. She knows only a little about her captors. By talking to her, Meriden realizes that one of the creatures that stole the artifact was the Durzagon that months ago kidnapped the child from Shadowdale.
Travelling up the stairs, a spiked length of vine shoots out at leg level, striking Grim and nearly hitting Stilgar and Meriden. Grim stops and disarms the the vine trap again, and the three keep travelling upwards. Grim, Stilgar, and Meriden see a room marked in Sylvan “throne room,” and Grim starts to check the door. Stilgar tells Grim that he will open this one, and proceeds to walk forward and kick the door in. A scythe trap slashs his leg.
Meriden pulls Stilgar back away from the door and heals him. The three walk into the room to see three large spriggans and a strange toad like creature with huge sharp teeth. It screeches, but its sonic attack seems to do little to Stilgar and Meriden. The two engage the Spriggans while the toad creatue tries to enact some kind of spell. Eventually the spriggans go down, and the toad creature attacks the barbarian.
The toad creature hits the ground, apparently dead. Meriden stabs it again, and it begins to move to attack again, but Stilgar and Grim are both ready to attack, and they hack it to pieces and set it on fire.
The three enter a room that is apparently a harem, filled with red skinned female satyrs. The creatues seem grateful, until the party goes to leave the room, at which point the four creatures attack the men from behind. After finishing off the creatures, the group walks over to the last remaining room. Within it, they find a container that is trapped and warded. Grim disarms the trap, but not the ward, and is blasted by lightning.
Within is the crystal rose, and the three return downstairs to find the horses and the gnomish ghost all intact. They return to the path within the fey crossroads, then meet up with the Nymph they first talked with, now accompanied by the Nymph that they freed from the fortress. Reluctantly Grim hands over the rose, and they travel, finally, to the other side of the fey crossroads.
Chess 24th , 1372 DR
Arriving in the King's Forest, the group travels for a few hours to find the druid's cottage that Grim trained at. The group decides to rest for a while after their ordeal in the crossroads. Grim hears someone out in the wilds, and draws his silver dagger. When the werewolves attack Grim calls out “werewolves.” Meriden comes running with his silver sword, and the two engage the werewolves. The barbarian sleeps for a bit yet. After a bit more combat, the barbarian staggers out, sees the werewolves, and grabs his own silver dagger.
Grim is bitten and uses a potion of levitation to take to the air. He then pulls out his bow and pelts the werewolves from the air with silver arrows. The three manage to finish off the party of wandering werewolves, and then finish their rest for the evening.
Chess 25th , 1372 DR
The group manages to make it to the druid's cottage, and Grim, travelling slightly ahead, hears voices within the hut. He knocks on the door, and a crossbow bolt shoots out and strikes him in the shoulder. A voice calls out telling him to surrender in the name of the King.
Two purple dragon knights and a beautiful woman with ash blonde hair walk out of the cottage. Tessaril Winter, Lord of Eveningstar, addresses them, telling them that she has been keeping an eye on the druid's cottage and that they had just driven off some werewolves in the area.
One of the knights sneers at the Tunlander and the druid, but the Lady Tessaril corrects him. Grim speaks with Tessaril, and she produces a tressym kit in response to his question about his master. Grim finds out that his master, when being tortured by the werewolves, prayed to Meilikki to keep him around to pass on information to his protege, and she reincarnated him as a tressym.
Taldon Forestward, the druid turned tressym, tells Grim that the book is important to Meilikki, and imparts what he knows about it privately while Meriden and Stilgar head into Eveningstar to the Golden Unicorn and then to the Low Lantern to relax. Grim utilized the herbs and other items in the druid's hut to make sure that the bite he sustained from the werewolves does not cause him to contract lycanthropy.
The gnome overhears much of the conversation with the tressym druid master and his student, and Grim makes the gnome swear to not pass on what he has heard, and is now even more commited to putting the gnome to rest so that he is no longer present to pass on Meilikki's secrets.
Chess 26th, 1372 DR
Stilgar, Meriden, and Grim, along with Gerlricks' ghost travel along to the clearning that contains the next fey crossroads guardian. Just outside of the clearing, they hear fighting, and determine that two forest trolls are fighting for dominance. The trolls smell intruders, and start looking for the party.
Stilgar, Meriden, and Grim move in to attack the trolls. Stilgar gets out his alchemist's fire, ready to go against their foes. In the course of the battle, one of the forest trolls pulls Meriden off of his horse and begins to squeeze the life out of him. After working on the first forest troll to free Meriden, the second forest troll gets ahold of Stilgar, snags him with both claws, and rends the flesh of the barbarian, seriously wounding the barbarian.
The other two come to Stilgar's aid, and the newly supported barbarian swing a powerful swing with his axe and separates the troll from his head. The bodies are burned, and Meriden treats Stilgar's wounds.
In the clearing, the group gets ahold of Rhannidayn, a Fey Crossroads Guardian that is fond of druids, and asks Grim for proof of his druidic training. Once they have a conversation in Druidic, the guardian opens the crossroads for the party.
Gerlricks and Grim confer once they step out of the crossroads, and they end up deciding that they are about two or three days north of Ashabenford in the forest. They set out to their next destination, and manage to find the location of another fey guardain, Loastoar, who is enamored by tales of Myth Drannor. After Meriden tells Loastoar about the time travelling adventure that he had, the guardian opens the crossroads for them.
Arriving in a forest that none of them recognize, after travelling for an hour or so, Grim feels the presense of druid wards that would indicate a sacred grove. The group is soon surrounded by members of the druid's grove, followers of Silvanus.
The group asks for information on where Tellerth is, and the druids offer to send Lhoeriath, a member of the grove and an attractive half elven female. Lhoeriath appears to be enamored of Stilgar, and flirts with him on the way to Tellerth.
In Tellerth, Gerlricks leads the group to a jeweler's shop run by his neice and nephew, and they enter and introduce themselves to the family members. In the middle of the explanation Gerlricks chimes in, scaring the gnomishness out of his relations. Killidaegra, a gnomish illusionist, and Swanart, a gnomish bard, agree to travel with the group back to Mistledale, and Killidaegra identifies several magical items that the group have found for them.
The group retires for the night at the Polten Inn, and Swanart regails them with a song about how Garl Glittergold stole Laogozed's tail. He points out that he has several of the songs, several completely in gnomish that retain the original intent of the composer. Stilgar takes Lhoeriath up on her offer to “spend some time together” and they slip of to the grove, where she points out that she wishes to have a child that is skilled in nature and powerful of form so as to guard the grove. Stilgar considers this and then says, “why not.”
Chess 27th, 1372 DR
The group sets out for the next fey crossroads, travelling through the druid's grove, where Loeriath offers to let the party utilize the cleasing pool in the druid's gove. They do so and then set out in the late morning hours for the next crossroads guardian. Byaathegaarth is the next guardian, who is fond of stories about dragons, and so Swanart regails him with stories about Gareth Dragonsbane's dealings with the Platinum Dragon of Mount Celestia, and the destruction of the avatar of Tiamat. Byaathegaarth lets them pass into the crossroads.
Upon arriveing back in the Cormanthor forest north of Mistledale, Swanart, Killidaegra, and Gerlricks set off on their own, thanking the group for their efforts on the behalf of their family.
Chess 28th-30th, 1372 DR
After camping in the forest and getting ready to travel south back to Ashabenford, the group hears strange wind sounds, and eventually finds, in a clearing, a creature shaped like a funnel, with a tail stinger, spines in rows down its body, and a mouth at the wide end of the funnel with sharp teeth and four arms surrounding the maw. They hear voices in their heads telling them to surrender and they will be used properly as minions.
The barbarian immediately charges in a rage toward the unnatural creature, and is savaged by its four arms and its mouth. Meriden draws out a lion from his bag of tricks and sets it upon the strange funnel creature. Grim ignites a blade of flame with a druidic spell and angles in for an attack. The barbarian continues to hack violently at the creature as it slashes him with its claws. It also manages to enact a spell that causes a dagger to hover near Meriden.
Grim attacks the creature with his flame blade, and it fails to harm it, and its magic is drank into the creature itself. Meriden summons up a spiritual sword to attack the creature, and the dagger hovering near him attacks him. The sword strikes the creature and is promptly absorbed by the creature.
The creatures stinger tears into the lion, and its claws keep tearing at the barbarian. The creature also fires a bolt of darkness at Meriden and strikes him hard with a beam of dark energy.
The barbarian Stilgar finally manages to get to the side of the creature after Grim stabs it in a vulnerable spot. Stilgar screams in rage and cuts the beast in half with his great axe, spraying himself with the creatures ichor, and collapsing in exhausing afterwards.
By the 30th of Chess, the group manages to get home to Ashabenford. After stowing their gear at the rental house, they travel to the Mistledale Lancers barracks, donating some of the magical armor that they had come by again. The lance captain informs them that Neylessa will be happy for the donation, and tells the party about another adventuring party that is travelling through Mistledale, and may want to start a temple near the Beast Country themselves. He tells them that they have done some jobs for Haresk, and Meriden marches straight toward Haresk's mansion.
Grim heads for Noristuor's tower, and sells some of the body parts of the creature, and gets information on it, learning a little about the Phaerimm.
Meriden arrives at Haresk's and meets with the other party of adventurers. Sir Varim Lhandrium, paladin of Sune, is the leader of the party, and his troop includes Brother Dorv of Sune, a cleric, Kelda, a half elven sorceress, and Candlegrip, a halfling swashbuckler. They introduce themselves and then dismiss themselves from the adventurers they just met. Haresk assures Meriden that Ashabenford is big enough for both groups.
The party goes back to Meriden's house to get some rest.
Tarsahk 1st-Kythorn 19th, 1372 DR
Both Grim and Meriden realize that they need to spend some time in meditation to expand their spiritual powers, and Meriden spends some time in private mediation, while Grim travels north to the Abbey of Silvanus. As spring caravans start to travel, Meriden also starts to bless all of the travellers that move through town, healing the wounded guards and merchants that have fallen afoul of bandits of all stripes. Meriden and Grim also travel to Glen and find that Wulgar has been be returned to normal and is still working for his betrothed's father.
So far, the weather has been horrible for farmers, with terrible droughts hitting most of the Heartlands, if the caravan guard's gossip is to be believed. The clerics and druids at the abbey of Chauntea north of Ashabenford have been artificially working to keep at least enough rain to keep the crops locally healthy. They have also sent many of their stores down through the Moonsea ride into Cormyr to aid that nation.
Stilgar travels with one of the caravans going into Cormyr as a guard so that he could visit his family in the Tun plains. Stilgar is gone until Kythorn 12th, and he brings with him specific news that has only been hinted at by several travellers in the area. Tilverton is gone. All that is left is a crater filled with the ruins of some buildings that appear to have tumbled downward, almost like the aftermath of an implosion.
In the mean time, after having been badly wounded in the Beast Country, Varim's Band returns to Ashabenford, and decides to hunt drow bandits nearby. They do this until they are badly ambushed, and locals start to say that they should worship Tymora instead of Sune due to their ability to survive. Finally, they manage to defeat a green dragon and a band of trolls, and they begin to be taken much more seriously as heroes in the region. They are not mentioning in their stories that the green dragon was quite young.
Kythorn 20th, 1372 DR
Stilgar, Grim, and Meriden get together to discuss the events that have happened over the last few months. The also plan out what they plan on doing next. Grim wants to try out a fey gateway that leads closer to Silverymoon, and Grim and Meriden also agree that they should take a side trip to visit the child that they rescued at the beginning of the year, the baby with Jackert Fleet in Stumphill. Meriden also decides that he might wish to visit his family, and they may make a side trip to see Stilgar's people on the edge of the Marsh of Tun.
Meriden talks to Naurvintha about going with, but she is already tied up with helping arrange matters for Shieldmeet and any local nobles and rulers that might be passing through the region soon. She also chides Meriden on his lack of patience with Varim's Band, telling him that Varim is a good man at heart. Meriden asks if he has hit on Naurvintha, and she says no . . . but Candlegrip the halfling swashbuckler has.
Kythorn 21st-26th, 1372 DR
Meriden, Grim, and Stilgar head out to Stumphill, and Grim fills Meriden and Stilgar in with what, in general, is going on about the book of fey crossroads and the responsibilities and quest associated with it. Upon arriving, Grim checks up on his freed child as well, still the tallest person in Stumphill.
Jackert Fleet feeds the group well, and they spend some time with her and the child, then sleep outside of the home (as its a bit more comfortable) on the hills. While sleeping, Meriden feels a presense nearby, and he wakes to find a man in dark robes considering the Fleet household.
Meriden speaks with the man, asking him what he is doing, and Grim wakes up during this time as well. They find that the man has an issue with Fzoul Chembryl, and apparently has some contacts within the Zhentarim, and he does not fully trust the wards put in place by the Harpers.
Stilgar wakes up, asks a very cogent question, and stuns everyone. Then the mysterious man explains the child's history, that she was born to a mother that Fzoul had taken as a mistress while overtaken by Xvim. The child is at least partly possessed by the power of Xvim, and Bane wants Fzoul to sacrifice all seven of his children that he had in this manner to Bane. He has already sacrificed six of them. The mysterious man then hands them a dagger and a scroll with the name of the family of the child's mother and their location in Hillsfar. He mentions that the woman's husband was not pleased with her “service” to Fzoul.
The dagger, according to the man, will send anyone killed with it to Kelemvor's throne of judgement. If they use this on the child, its soul, as well as the fragment of Xvim's power, will not go directly to Bane. He also offers to have an elven aquaintance of his cast the ward strengthening spells he spoke of, but the group declines his help. The mysterious man calls his blood horse and flies off.
Inside the house, the group asks Jackert if she can get ahold of Storm, and she uses an enchanted Harper pin to do so. Storm tells the group that she is very busy right now, but that she will send a group of agents that she trusts implicitly that are very good at gaurding important figures. They arrange a password, and she tells them that they should be at Stumphill by the next day.
The group keeps watch, and the next day three adventurers, a female and two males, arrive, and cite their names as Sharantyr, Belkram, and Itharr. They give the password, and take possession of the child. Meriden, Grim, and Stilgar take their leave of Jakert, and head back to Ashabenford to finalize their plans.
Kythorn 27th-Flamerule 2nd 1372 DR
Upon returning home, the group provisions themselves and starts out to find the nearest fey crossroads. On their way out of time, Ulaeda, a serving girl at the White Hart Inn, runs out to them and tells them that Holfast wants to talk with them.
When arriving at the White Hart, Holfast tells them that he still has some contacts from his adventuring days, and that he has a safehouse that he been maintaining for the Harpers. He has been holding Naarsmul Tenthagin in the safehouse, waiting for an agent, but the Harpers have been distracted and not able to pick him up. He is only a bookeeper from a Zhentarim merchant, but he could still prove very useful with what he knows. He asks if the group will take him north to a farm in Shadowdale that he knows of, inhabited by a retired Harper ranger.
The three agree, and Stilgar and Meriden head north to where a tunnel from the safehouse comes out, while Grim travels in the tunnel with Naarsmul. A few miles outside of Ashabenford, the whole group meets up, and starts to travel the Mistle trail north to Shadowdale.
Early in their travels, the group finds a narrow spot on the River Ashaba, greatly lessened due to the lack of rain, to cross over to the side opposite of the Mistle trail. The group starts to travel north in the forest parallel with the river.
The first night, the group runs into a group of rangers from the Mistledale Militia that are hunting in the forest trying to find a vampire and its minions that have been plaguing the area. The group offers to share their camp (after innitial exchanges to make sure no one was a vampire), but the group says that they have lost contact with another band, and they are trying to stay active at night and camp during daylight hours, so as to not be caught unaware. Meriden and Grim alter what powers they pray for from their deities.
Eventually, the party runs into a group of loggers sending deadfalls up toward Shadowdale on the river. This gives the party an idea, as they will travel on the river and keep anything that cannot cross running water at bay. For most of the trip on the river, they see only loggers and hunters on the banks.
The party gets off their barge only about a day away from their goal, and they get off on the banks and head toward the farmhouse in Shadowdale.
Flamerule 3rd-6th , 1372 DR
As they begin to travel the forest edge, the group is caught by a trap and hit by sleep poisoned arrows. Grim, Naarsmul, and Stilgar drop dead asleep, and Meriden is left alone in the group. He is then confronted by a man he remembers, a man with tatooes of death and grey and black robes. He remembers him as the Monk of the Long Death that he faced back in Scardale.
He informs Meriden that he as been working for the Zhentarim now, and that he has done several jobs in exchange for Zhentarim wizards aiding him in creating his “gauntlet.” He tells Meriden that he will allow Meriden and his friends to leave if he agrees to run this gauntlet and they survive.
Meriden agrees, not sure of the power of the Monk or if he is accompanied by others. When he agrees, several groundlings burrow up from the ground and begin to carry off his sleeping friends, and the monk leads them to his “gauntlet.”
The monk throws all the gear in the first room of the underground gauntlet, then has the groundlings put the party members on the edge of the guantlet, and motions for Meriden to join them.
Upon waking up, Grim casts a flameblade so that they can see in the darkness, and they notice a ceramic pot in the corner with a wick. Grim throws a dagger and spills the fluid out of the pot, and they move on to the first door.
Several doors and traps later, Grim has been poisoned and badly battered, and Meriden has been engaged in healing him often. The group manages to fight a group of basilisks and avoids a black pudding, sets off more traps, and gets attacked by a swarm of hellwasps, and encounter that nearly kills all three of the adventurers, though they manage to keep Naarsmul away from the creatures. Stilgar uses up many of his flasks of alchemist's fire on them, but it is a long and arduous process that uses much more of Meriden's and Grim's healing abilities.
Entering a large room, the group sees a large, metal plated bull-like creature, but amazingly, Stilgar charges it and hits it so hard that the massive creature is actually staggered and falls to its knees, and Meriden follows up with a sword thrust that kills it with only the second stroke.
After resting the group heads out down another corridor, and runs into a plant creature. It proves resistant to fire due to its gooey consistancy, and its tendrils wrap around Stilgar. Still, the group manages to hack the plant creature down, and Grim finds a lightning glyph on the door leading out, which Meriden promptly dispells.
After leaving and healing, Stilgar wants to finish off any creatures still inside, and Meriden agrees that leaving dangerous beasts that might be in there around would be a mistake. When they search for the rooms they missed, they find a dire bear trapped within a room too small for it to leave. Grim tells them that he needs a nights rest, then the next day uses the power of Meilikki to warp the rough stone around the door frames and soften it, allowing the dire bear, who is disposed to liking the druid, to push its way out of the door frames, and the bear is free.
By the afternoon of the 6th of Flamerule, the group is within walking distance of the farmhouse, and the group stops before they enter the retired Harpers estate, resting and finishing their healing and preparations.
Flamerule 7th, 1372 DR
At the at the retired Harper ranger's house, the party is invited in for lunch by his female dwarven housekeeper. Reslin, the ranger, talks to them about their reason for brining Naarsmul to him, and pays them a sum of platinum for their time and effort. The heroes also tell the ranger about the monk of the Long Death and the roaming vampires in the woods to the south.
The groups goes into Shadowdale village. Upon asking some questions and getting the lay of the village, and consulting Meriden, who had been there before, Stilgar goes north to the shrine of Tempus to make his devotions to the God of War. Grim heads to the temple of Lathander to pick up some holy water, as well as to aquire some blessed items, if they have any extra. Meriden then stops by the Tower of Ashaba to deal in weapons and armor with the dwarven smith Gunthor, Mourngrym's personal smith. Meriden then stopped by the temple of Lathander to speak with Morninglord Rewel Thunderstorm to see what the cleric might know about vampires. Rewel dispatched a great deal of information about what to do to hunt vampires.
The group travels to the Old Skull in, and Jhaele Silvermane asks Meriden about his last stay at the inn and the elven “werewolf” that made the stir in the common room. Meriden appologizes for Mourn's lack of wisdom, and the group rent several rooms, Grim specifically interested in the Ferns room.
That night, Meriden, Grim, and Stilgar spend some time with some adventurers staying in the area. Meriden has a chat with Holy Justice Vhale of Tyr, the leader of the Company of the Shining Lance, and adventuring company out of Melvaunt that is exploring Myth Drannor. Meriden and Stilgar also play cards with Silmund of Tymora, a cleric with the Wanderstriders, who dispite his goddess seems to have horrid luck at cards.
Flamerule 8th, 1372 DR
The morning starts out with Silmund of Tymora flipping a gold coin that lands on its side. The group starts out for the forest to continue the hunt for vampires and to make sure the militia members that were looking for them are alright.
The groups stops at the Millpond to see if the workers at Mirrorman's Mill have heard any rumors, but they had not. The group travels until nightfall, and then make sure they post their watches vigilant agaist vampire attacks.
Vampires do not attack, but in the middle of the night, during Meriden's watch, the forsaken bodies of several of the Mistledale Militia members that did not succumb to the lure of imortality shamble into the camp. The zombies move in to attack Meriden, and he calls out for his allies, then procedes to incinerate a large number of the walking dead upon presenting the holy symbol of Helm to them.
Grim and Stilgar awaken and make quick work of the remaining zombies. The group then makes sure to bless, concecrate, and dispose of the bodies that attacked them.
Flamerule 9th-10th, 1372 DR
Pressing on into the early morning hours, Grim casts a druid's charm that gives him the power of scent, and tracks the smell of decay from the corpses. Grim notices that the forest is unnaturally quiet and free from animals.
Eventually, Grim leads them to a hilly outcropping shielded from the sun where three of the vampire spawn are resting during the day. The group manages to come upon them undetected, and Meriden unleashes a shining ray of divine power to burn them as Grim and Stilgar stake their hearts, cut off their heads, and douse them with holy water.
The group travels on along the Mistle Trail trying to find more clues as to the vampire infestation in the area.
Flamerule 11th, 1372 DR
The day is disturbingly calm, and the party travels on, setting up camp in the evening. Just after they set up camp, they notice a figure darting along the trees, and they are ready to defend themselves.
Out of the trees come a beautiful female with jet black skin and white hair, with glowing red eyes. She identifies herself as Gwaussi, a scout from the dark elven city of Maerimydra, whose party ran afoul of Jaelre drow, Mistledale Militia, and finally, a vampire. She wants the group to kill her master so that she will be freed. She promises them that she will return to Maerimydra as soon as she is free.
The group is wary, but they decide that they want to have an advantage over the vampire master, so they follow her through the night to an abandoned logging camp that contains her master. She warns them about traps and minions within the camp, then leaves before the sun comes up.
Flamerule 12th, 1372 DR
The heroes move in to the logging camp, and scout out the outhouse and well outside of the camp before checking the front door for the traps that Gwaussi warned them of. Grim finds the trap on the front door, and they enter the common area. Meriden destroys a host of zombies in this area, and Grim and Stilgar finish off the ones that did not fall to Helm's power.
In the next area, the sleeping quarters, Meriden finds several possessions in trunks of men who have families back in Mistledale, and Grim checks the trap in the next area, nicking himself with a wyvern's poison arrow when he does so, and falling desperately wounded. Two swarms of creatures, what appear to be undead moquitoes, attack Meriden and Stilgar, weakening them and sapping the vitality from them. Utilizing large amounts of holy water, alchemis's fire, and torches, they finally manage to disperse the swarms, badly wounded and battered.
Meriden heals Grim and Stilgar, and they discus wheather they can actually press on while they still have daylight. They eventually agree that it would be worse to face the vampires wounded at night than wounded during the day, and they press on down into the storage cellar.
After scouting the first area of the cellars, the three adventurers find large suspicious crates, and the three decide to slowly, quietly open three of them and then try to coordinate their attacks. Each one strikes at the same time, dispatching the three vampire spawn at the same time.
Grim manages to find another trap, a glyph on the door leading to the next room, and Meriden dispells the glyph before they enter. They find an actual coffin in the next room, and find a glyph on the coffin. As the adventurers open up the coffin, the vampire lord sits up with a partially driven stake in its heart.
Turning to a mist, Meriden strikes the mist with a powerful healing spell, injuring the vampire greatly. Upon its return to the coffin, the stake is driven all the way in, and the master vampire is done for.
That night, Meriden and Grim are exhausted, and leave Stilgar to watch the camp. Gwaussi appears in the camp, and inthralls Stilgar. While Stilgar is enthralled, Gwaussi has Stilgar ingest a small amount of her blood, then tells him to be ready for her to return to this area, and to forget her visit to him this night.
Flamerule 13th-15th, 1372 DR
The three adventureers begin to travel home. The first day, they encounter two ettins that block the Mistle Trail, but they dispatch them, takings some injuries, but managing to prevail. The next night they stay over at the Abbey of Silvanus, with Grim noticing that the place is not in as good a shape as he would like it to be, having respect for an allied god's holy place.
Another day down the road, where the Mistle Trail changes to the Holy Road (a formal road, not a trail), they stay the night at the Abbey of the Golden Sheaf, getting a tour of the place from the local clerics.
Finally, the party returns home to Ashabenford. They travel to Noristuor's Tower to have their items identified, and eventually Targen Holdfast catches up with them. Since the northern logging lodges are part of his responsibility as a Councilor of Mistledale, he presents the group with a reward for saving his area of this menace and thanks them.
The group makes sure the bows and personal items that they recovered from the Mistledale Militia and the loggers make it back to their respective families within Mistledale.
Flamerule 16th-21st, 1372 DR
Early on in the morning, Neylessa Shendean comes knocking on the door of Meriden's rented house, bearing a message from Haresk Malorn, requesting their pressence within the hour at his mannor. Meriden rouses the other two adventurers, and the three set off for Haresk's home.
When arriving at the house, they are shown into the meeting chamber, and Haresk invites the adventurers to travel with his entourage to attend the Sheildmeet Dalelands council in Essembra, in Battledale, but they must be ready to leave immediately. He then tells them that Varim's band might be willing to travel with them instead, and all three quickly take up the offer.
The adventurers are introduced to their travelling companions for this particular trip. In addition to Haresk's family, Neylessa Shendean and Sir Renward of the Golden Sheaf, another paladin of Chauntea are travelling with the group, as well as the rangers Skennis and Witter, and the Militia scouts Searlith (Meriden's old aquaintance) and Sandril o' the Helm, a half elven scout from Pelden's Helm.
Meriden notices that Stilgar has taken to counting troups and supplies, yet doesn't remember doing it when confronted with the information. Meriden finds out that Stilgar is enchanted with a domination spell, and upon dispelling the effect, the adventurers speak about when this could have happened, and eventually they come up with the drow vampire Gwaussi.
On the trip Haresk and Meriden talk about Haresk's recent trip to Cormyr where the Phaerimm managed to take over several of the Dale leaders in an effort to bargain with Alusair, and expresses his desire to find some kind of magical device to make him immune to such metal tampering. He also shares with Meriden his plans for a concerted agreement for mutual protection between the Dales in regard to their militas. Stilgar spends some time trying to get to know the half elf scout, and Grim speaks with Saerlith, learning about what happened with his sister and Meriden, from Saerlith's point of view, and the catfolk's concern over his sister's involement with Varim. Upon insulting Saerlith by comparing him to a cat, Grim tries to make amends by shifting into an ape to amuse the catfolk.
The adventurers have learned that the Abbey of the Sword will have a tournament leading up to Shieldmeet, and Meriden and Stilgar are both interested with this development. While taking a meal break, Meriden borrows a lance from Neylessa, and Stilgar borrows a shield and a lance from Sir Renward, and the two practice jousting, and Meriden practices landing on the ground, flat on his back.
The group passes Ulwen Sharin's lands, the Sharin Freeholds, and then end up in the dwarven settlement of Glen, where they stay for the night. Chorn Stoneturner greets the adventurers and buys them a round of drinks, and eventually shows Stilgar the entrance to the Low Road, since Meriden seems to trust him. Chorn also unsuccessfully tries to get Grim to sample some dwarven fare, though he excuses himself early.
When the group sets up camp near the Standing Stone, the adventurers take not of the historic monument, though Stilgar is less interested than the others. The writing makes his head hurt. The adventurers then realize that they look like tourists compared to the dale natives that they travel with.
Two days travel to the south of the Standing Stone, and the group ends up at Lord Ilmeth's manner, and are shown to their rooms along with the other Dalelands leaders that have arrived.
They also visit the fields outside of the Abbey of the Sword and see the various warriors and knights from the different regions, including the Thayan knights and their Red Wizard mastes from the enclave in Scardale, the Impilturans, Damarans, and other Dalelanders. Grim insults the Sembian knight Hithdannar Wearandiloth, and Meriden runs into Sir Evast Huntsilver, whose apprentice, Orlass Greystag, is Meriden's brother.
Flamerule 22nd-29th, 1372 DR
After enrolling in the lists, the adventurers manage to hear about the exodus of the Jaelre drow from the portal network underneath the Abbey of the Sword, and the unfortunate fate of the founder of the Abbey, Priest General Eldan Ambrose.
Meriden enrolls in the wrestling competition and the jousting lists, Grim enrolls in the archery contest, and Stilgar enrolls in all three competitions. Meriden defeats Sir Kandan of the Essembra, and Stilgar defeats Sir Renward. Grim looses his archery round against Lhoraev Wolfstar (a wood elf adventurer recently returned the the region), after defeating Randler Khane, an archer from Mistledale's Militia. Stilgar advances in the archery competion, but is eventually knocked out by the archer Nellis Rosterford of Sembia. Meriden is knocked out by Sir Eremban of Damara, and Stilgar defeats Rodan Tulfan, a cleric of Tempus from the Abbey. In the end, Stilgar is defeated by Sir Brelast of Impiltur, a cavalier and experienced jouster.
Meriden loses his first round in the wrestling competition to the monk, Brother Invar of Ilmater, and Stilgar defeats Gryphlin Hammertong of Glen, and Bran of Chandler's Cross, setting himself up for the campionship bout against Brother Invar.
Grim and later Meriden start to take bets on Stilgar, several of the bets being with the Tempos clerics from the Abbey. While betting, Grim notices a southern man, tall and thin, with an unhealthy pallor, taking notes on people in the crowd. While the events are going on, Grim follows the man to the Bold Banners, a famous festhall frequented by many of means that travel through the dales.
Grim outlays a great deal of gold to enter the house and to secure an escort that is well veresed in conversation and information, and he meets with a Tashlutan woman of very cultured mean, who explains to Grim that the southern man that he has been trailing is a Hlondeth native named Kysanish Rhearhrd. She also tells him that he has recently arrived in Battledale and works at the Adderposts, a local pawnshop that doubles as a place to fence goods, and that Kysanish may be a sorcerer employed in appraisal work.
Stilgar faces the monk Invar of Ilmater, and the two have an epic struggle. Stilgar, unarmed and desperate, draws upon his natural fury to keep on his feet. Brother Invar manages to trip him and lands several telling blows on Stilgar, and the two are greatly battered when Stilgar manages to take a wild, powerful swing and knocks Invar unconcious. He manages to stay on his feet long enough for the administrators to name him the winner, then collapses.
Meriden finds out that Lord Ilmeth is a follower of Helm, and performs morning ceremonies for him and his soldiers. Meriden breifly mentions funding for his new temple, and also champions Heresk Malorn's plan for a mutual defence agreement for the Dalelands, and Ilmeth listens to him and takes it seriously. While Meriden and Stilgar dine with the warriors most nights, Grim stays with the Dale representatives at the castle, and gains access to Lord Ilmeth's map room in order to do some research. Meriden eventually takes his brother with him to the dinner at the castle in an effort to speak with him, though he gets only minimal results.
Flamerule 30th-Eleasis 3st, 1372 DR
Stilgar goes to the Abbey to claim his prize, an enchanted adamantine breastplate, and attends the ceremony to get his reward, along with the winners of the other competitions, Sir Brelast of Impiltur (jousting), and Seanthis Flamearrow, an elf in Alok Silverspear's company (archery). Stilgar spends some quality time with Lady Captain Ginra Inthal, administrator of the archery contest and follower of Tempus. The two enjoy one anothers company for a while after the presentation of the awards.
Grim tracks down Kysanish Rhearhrd at the Adderposts and asks him why he is taking notes on various people and factions. Kysanish quotes a large price for Grim in order to give up some knowlage. He lets Grim know that he is an information broker as well as an appraiser, and has learned some important matters. For the right price, he is willing to let Grim know that shapechagers have infiltraded the Red Sword of Archendale's bodyguard.
Grim returns to Ilmeth's mannor and tells Meriden and Haresk about the situation. He has also found out that the shapechanges are likely to replace family members, including Naurvintha. Meriden and Ilmeth go to inform Mourngrym and the Shadowdale contingent, Grim sends a runner to the Abbey of the Sword of scrolls of True Seeing, then takes Haresk with him to warn Randal Morn. He also sends a runner for Stilgar.
Upon describing the shapechangers to lord Mourngrym, Meriden learns that the shapechangers are Malaugrym, shapechangers that are from the Plane of Shadows and are particularly vulnerable to silver. Ilmeth gathers everyone in the meeting hall for an impromtu “celebration” and distributes silver jewelry to everyone, and Randal Morn's bards play their songs, increasing his agents chances to weed out spies.
Stilgar, Meriden, and Grim manage to corner the Red Sword, who no longer has his bodyguards with him. He does not know where they are at the moment, but when he tells the adventurers this, a teleportation circle trap goes off, whisking all of them off to a region in the Plane of Shadows.
The Malaugrym strike a bargain with the adventures, taking them far away from anywhere either of them have allies, and will battle them for the safety of the Red Sword of Archendale, who is currently in their clutches. The adventures agree, and all of them are teleported to the Great Dale.
After wrapping a tentacle around Grim and electrocuting him, the first Malaugrym gets beset by Stilgar and Grim. The other Malaugrym shifts to gain wings and reigns down magic missles on Stilgar, until Meriden casts a ward on Stilgar making him immune to magic missles as well as charm spells, which Meriden has just dispelled from Stilgar's mind. Stilgar begins to pelt the Maulgrym with silver arrow, even as it resists Grim's flaming sphere spell. Eventually both Maulgrym are brought low and killed, and the adventurers and the Red Sword wander the Great Dale until they encounter a band of plant creatures.
The creatures, the volodni, are impressed enough with Grim to let them live, and they even take the group to their leader, a druid, who casts a spell to take them back to the Standing Stone.
The council is held over the extra days and the adventurers are rewarded for their efforts in securing the peace of the council upon their return.
Eleasis 4th-9th, 1372 DR
Travelling home, Meriden learns that Haresk has gotten promises from Shadowdale, Daggerdale, Scardale, Deepingdale, Harrowdale, and Battledale, and a slight consideration from Archendale over his mutual protection pact. The elven families that are starting to return have also agreed to think about entering into this pact as well.
Meriden talks to Haresk about magic items that he has heard of that might shield his mind, and they discuss that Meriden and his friends may manage to find such items in their travel, and that they will let Haresk know if they do.
Eleasis 10th-Eleint 7th, 1372 DR
The groups stays close to home during this time, spending time practicing their skills and dealing with the locals.
Howdy,
I just wanted to mention that I really enjoyed your posts. I've just spent a very pleasant hour or so reading through them all. Thanks for posting and I hope you post more.
Thanks for the comment . . . the group gets together again on tuesday, so more should be forthcoming. Thanks for your interest.
Eleint 8th-11th, 1372 DR
Grim has a few more items to learn and to clear up with the druids and clerics of Silvanus at the Oakgrove Abbey, and is still at that temple complex, but Stilgar and Meriden are currently at Meriden's rented house at the edge of Ashabenford.
A rider from the Mistledale Lancers arrives at the doorstep with a message from the officer on the scene that they presense is requested in Stumphill as soon as possible, though there are no details, and the messenger does not know where they were summoned to the halfling village.
Meriden and Stilgar saddle up their horses and head out to the halfling village as soon as they can, sending word to Grim as to where they have gone and asking him to join them if he receives the message soon. Given that the Oakgrove Abbey is several days to the north, they will likely arrive in Stumphill before he receives the message.
Eleint 12th-13th, 1372 DR
Upon arriving in Stumphill, Meriden and Stilgar find that Mourn Ninefingers and Adept Lady Knight Emen of the Order of Everwatch Knights are also in the village, having come to visit their friend, the Matron Fleet. The reunion is troubling, however, since upon arriving they group of friends has found that the whole village has been slaughtered. Among the dead are a handful of drow of House Jaelre.
All of the friends are skeptical that this is a simple raid, most of them concerned that the Banites in the Zhentarim might have found out where the child marked by the sign of Xvim had been hidden. After examining the wounds of the drow dead, Meriden doubts that the wounds on the drow were caused by halfling weapons. Searlith, the scout patrol master to first find the scene, points out that the slaughter happened before the militia arrived, though he has recently found a Jaelre outpost about four days or so to the north of Stumphill.
Emen and Meriden help to properly bury most of the dead, but prepare one of the drow corpses and Matron Fleet's body for a special ceremony to be performed the next day by Meriden.
The following day, Meriden calls upon Helm to allow him to speak with the dead drow and Matron Fleet. From the drow he learns that he was indeed a member of a Jaelre patrol, but that he was killed by surface elves near the region of the forest termed the Beast Country. From Matron Fleet they learn that the force that attacked the halfling village was over thirty strong and did indeed appear to be drow, though to her knowlage the halflings felled none of the raiders.
Stilgar asks if Meriden can secure Matron Fleet's pancake recipe, but they all think better of such a request asked of the dead.
Mourn sends out his hawk to follow the trail that the raiders seemed to take out of the village, and nearly a day's walk into the woods the hawk manages to find a camp of surface elves. The group decides to travel north toward both the surface elves and the Jaelre compound that Searlith found, hoping to find more answers.
Eleint 14th-16th, 1372 DR
While brainstorming what surface elves might have to do with placing dead drow bodies in a slaughtered halfling village, Mourn remembers what his father told him about a group of elves known as the Eldreth Veluuthra, elven supremecists that hate all other races, including drow, but also including halflings, humans, dwarves, and anything sentient and non-elven. Still, the party knows nothing for sure, and decides to spy on the elves.
While Meriden, Emen, and Stilgar start to march toward the camp, Searlith and Mourn (in wolf form), travel ahead to keep an eye on the elves. While Mourn unsuccessfully tries to steal something from camp to aid Meriden in scrying, Mourn and Searlith do hear that the group is waiting for another day before they will be decided to break camp or not.
The entire group manages to come to the elven camp, and the wild elf members of the camp walk up behind them as they get close. The wild elves bring the party to the moon elf leader of the group, Rhiiatharn Hytheiri, who receives them cautiously. Meriden asks them about their recent activities and if they have been near Stumphill. While Rhiiatharn seems to be telling the truth about running afoul of a Jaelre patrol and finding a Jaelre compound nearby, when he denies being near Stumphill he flinches, and Emen notices this reaction.
Mourn sneaks away from the group, changes to wolf form, and uses his sense of smell to estimate that there were at one time more than thirty distict elves in this clearing, and none of them drow.
Rhiiatharn flatly refuses to even be questioned by any human authorities, and asserts that according to the Dalelands Pact the forests are still the domain of the Elven Court and that he is not bound by any human authority. After this outburst, however, he tells Meriden than he has found plans from the Jaelre that indicate that they have something major planned. He also explains that he and his followers are representatives of families recently returned from Evermeet, and that they are shocked by the drow activity in the former elven lands.
Meriden takes the paper, and Mourn, reading some of the drow dialect, tells Meriden than it does appear that the drow are trying to distract the Dalesmen while they are planning something more substantial.
Meriden keeps the paper, and the group parts ways, Meriden pointing out that if the elves find out anything, a report in Ashabenford would be greatly appreciated, in order to help coordinate efforts between the Dalesmen and the elves. Rhiiatharn says that he may indeed find time to visit Ashabenford after he clears up some loose ends.
The next day, using the paper as a focus, Meriden scries the elves and their camp, and has Mourn help him translate the elvish. Rhiiatharn is using sending spells to order the other members of his group to move toward both Myth Drannor on one side, and Pelden's Helm on the other, and reiterates that there is indeed something they wish to find out about the drow and their plan for the region, and that they might dupe the humans into acting by prodding them into action against the Jaelre.
The group confers on what to do. Searlith wishes to return to his patrol in Stumphill and move toward Pelden's Helm, and Meriden wants to warn Haresk in Ashabenford about what is going on, so Mourn volunteers his hawk to send a message to Grim at the Oakgrove Abbey to let him know what is going on and to warn Haresk of the situation.
Meriden, Emen, Stilgar, and Morn will continue on to the Jaelre compound to see if they can find any evidence about the plans of the drow, and what the elves might be up to.
That evening, while Emen is on watch, a band of Jaelre affiliated monks set upon the camp. Emen holds her own during the innitial attack, and yells for her companions to wake up before the assasins can strike.
Emen challenges the leader of the group, and catches him in a massive bear hug. Stilgar wakes up and charges the monks, and Meriden conjures his armor and enters the fight. Mourn shifts to wolf form to fight the monks.
After Emen snaps the back of the monk leader and Stilgar savages another of the monks with his greataxe, the remaining monks take off for the trees. Meriden casts a spell on Stilgar allowing him to walk on air, and he chases down one of the monk students and subdues him.
Upon interrogating him, the party finds out that the Jaelre have been attacked in their compound by surface elves, and that the compound has been largely abandoned. The monks were to sweep the area, slowing down any further raiding bands long enough to allow the Jaelre in the compound to evacuate via portal back into the Underdark.
Eleint 17th-19th, 1372 DR
Grim recieves the message from the group, and wildshapes into a bird, flying to Ashabenford to speak with Haresk. Haresk asks Grim and Noristuor to aid him in notifying as many of the Lancers and the Militia as they can find on patrol, or get sendings to, in order to send half their numbers to Pelden's Helm, and the other half to sweep along the northern edge of the Dale, making sure other smaller villages are safe.
He also sends a messenger to Glen to ask the dwarves to be especially wary and to send word to the Sharin Freeholds about potential attacks. Finally, he asks the Tyrrans and the Chaunteans (via Sister Alena and her position on the council) to start scrying the areas familiar to them to watch for trouble.
Meriden, Emen, Stilgar, and Morn arrive at the compound of the Jaelre. Emen and Mourn scout the area, and find watchtowers in the trees, as well as the wooden barricades forming walls between the trees, but no one on watch. Meriden casts a spell on himself and his horse allowing them to walk on air, and circles around the compound around the treetops. He can see into the compound, and sees the small buildings that the Jaelre built around the tree bases, but sees no activities, and no guards. He throws down the rope ladders to the watch towers and lands his horse, then the party climbs up and into the compound.
The party investigates several buildings, and finds a few bodies (drow), apparently slain by sharp longswords. They also find two buildings not directly attatched to the trees, but free standing, that have tunnels leading down further into the ground. After exploring the second of these, the group leaves the building and runs into a towering, intimidating, vaguely frog like creature with vicious claws and teeth. Meriden recognizes it as a Hezrou, a type of demon.
As the party prepares for battle, the Hezrou causes a sickening slimy mist to envelop them, injuring it as they breathe it in. It then slams its fist down on the ground, causes wild explosions of various colors to erupt from the ground. The multi colored explosions seem not to affect Mourn and Stilgar, but Emen and Meriden are injured by them, and Emen is slowed by them. While the adventurers attack the creature, their attacks fail to injure him at this point, and it pronounces a horrid phrase spoken in vile Abyssal. Every member of the group that hears the words are severely weakened upon hearing the phrase.
Mourn attempts to target a fireball to go off behind the Hezrou, though its natural ability to shrug off magical attacks comes into play, and it ignores the flames. Meriden similarly calls down a pillar of flame with the power of Helm, but the Hezrou shrugs it off. Another fireball and a magic missle from Mourn seem not to affect the monster, and Emen, with her slowed reflexes, does little to harm the beast. Stilgar, still weakened but now in a savage rage, manages to strike the Hezrou savagely with his greataxe, tearing at its flesh. Emen's reflexes return to normal, and she flies into a flury, striking the demon several times, doing at least a bit more harm to it than before. Meriden calls upon Helm to increase his strength and size, and swells with Helm's might, and strikes the Hezrou with his increased physical power. The demon catches Stilgar in a bear hug and squeezes him, limiting his ability to attack, but the other adventures press in on the demon, and eventually Stilgar breaks the creature's hold on him. The demon unleashes the explosions of chaos again, wounding Meriden and Emen, and after taking more damage from the adventurers, the Hezrou teleports away.
The party posts watch and rests in one of the smaller barracks built around the base of the trees, but neither the Hezrou returns, nor do any drow arrive.
The party squeezed down the tunnels into the lower levels of the Jaelre compound, finding the tunnels widening eventually, though Emen is still quite cramped. They come to a door that is trapped with spinning blades, and Stilgar, who is in the lead when the door is compromised, is cut by the spinning blades and poisoned. The poison sapps his strength, but Meriden calls upon Helm to remove the poison from Stilgar's body.
The group finds sleeping pallets, a wizard's quarters that has been thouroughly cleared out, a common dining area, a privy filled with multi colored glowing fungus that emit a pleasant scent, a solid wall that appears to have a section of new earth in front of it, and foot prints leading into it, and a pool with reptilian prints leading into it.
After finding the hacked and torn bodies of several surface elves (the members of the party they group interacted with days earlier), they stumble upon a drow wizard near the pool of water. He tells them that he was in charge of moving the remaining horde from the settlement, but the portal could not remain open long enough for him to complete his task, so he stayed behind and slew the elves that came to investigate the area.
He tells the group where the portal is, and that they need only dig out the new earth in front of the wall to reach the portal to follow the Jaelre into the Underdark. The wizard tells them that there are also two entrances into the local Underdark in the compound, one at the east end of the cavern, and one at the west end. As the party continues to debate the wisdom of following the Jaelre into the Underdark, the drow wizard takes a few steps toward the pool, and transforms into a large, thin, purple scaled dragon.
The dragon blasts the group with a cloud of acidic vapors, injuring all of the group, but nearly knocking Mourn unconcious from the pain and wounds that he sustained. The dragon also manages to cast a spell entangling Meriden and Emen in a web, rooting them to their spot.
The dragon concentrates on slashing and biting the barbarian Stilgar, and tears into the warrior. Stilgar manages to slip under the dragon's guard and plants his axe devestatingly into the dragon's side, opening up a vein and causing massive blood loss to the large creature. Mourn drags himself out of harms way slowly, and before blacking out, shifts into a wolf, thus restoring some of his health. He pelts the dragon with magic missles, which fail to penetrate the creatuers ability to unravel magical spells. Meriden casts a spell to free him from the effects of the web's entagling grasp, and frees Emen, then casts a spell that will allow him to slay the living with a touch of his hand. The dragon tears into Emen, badly wounding her, and also slashes at the barbarian attacking his flank. The adventurerers spread out to avoid the dragon's breath, so the dragon concentrates it on Stilgar alone. The barbarian takes a staggering amount of damage from the acidic vapor, and falls back horribly wounded, but at this time, Meriden steps in and touches the dragon. The dragon's ability to unravel spells fails it, and it cannot resist the power of Helm as the divine force of the Vigilant One forces the life out of the dragon's body.
Meriden drags the other adventurers to the wizard's chambers, healing all of his wounded companions and tending them as they rest for the evening in the nice bed chamber. They carry sleeping pallets to the room, since the large Emen takes up the entire opulent bed in the wizard's chamber.
The next morning, Meriden casts a spell on Emen allowing her to breathe under water, and she finds a door in the pool. It is locked, but she manages to force it open, and finds a chamber on the other side, up above the water line, filled with treasure. She slowly carries all of the treasure back out to the edge of the pool, and the other adventurers start to catalog what they have found.
One gemstone, slightly damaged, Mourn recognizes from his father's descriptions, as a kiira stone. He impulsively places it on his forehead, and receives a vision about the varous artifacts that the elves secured after the fall of Myth Drannor. The information is incomplete, since the kiira stone is damaged, but there is still a record of a set of twin longswords, created by a renegade drow wizard from the Lands under Shadow, that were specifically created to destroy his foe, a baelnorn. The swords were unholy elven undead bane weapons, and the elves could not destroy them, so they hid them in the vaults of a fallen school of magic on the outskirts of Myth Drannor. The kiira stone also has information on the Baelnorn that the drow wizard created the swords to slay, a baelnorn of the Haevault family of Sun Elves, that guards a family crypt in the Vale of Lost Voices.
Eleint 20th-26th, 1372 DR
After cataloging the treasure that they have recovered, the adventurers rest again in the wizard's chamber in the Jaelre undergroud complex, and upon returning to the surface, they find that a patrol of Mistledale Militia led by Saerlith have caught up with them. The militia aids them in gathering everything that they can, and they travel back south, down to the Moonsea Ride, then back into Ashabenford.
At Ashabenford, Haresk gives them claim over the dragon's horde (though Stilgar and Mourn didn't think they needed such a proclamation), and informs them that after Noristuor and Grim rallied the Militia and the Lancers, the groups found a group of what appeared to be dark elven raiders, but upon realizing that they were outnumbered and expected, the elves retreated back into the region of the woods known as the Beast Country.
Eleint 27th, 1372 DR
Before the sun comes up, the adventurers are awakened by a beautiful elven female that has appeared in their hallway in Meriden's rented house. She tells them that she is here to propose a business transaction, and that her associate wants to know if they would be interested.
After some verbal sparring, the newly awakened members of the group tell her to bring her employer to them directly. She does this, and a handsome man with black hair and wearing rich robes appears. It is the same man that they spoke with months ago outside of Stumphill.
Eventually, he admits that his name is Semmemon, and tells them that he wants to find some adventurers to raid his former tower in Darkhold for him, and that he would be willing to pay them well. When they hedge against only gaining treasure for such risks, Semmemon mentions that he has a book of incantations that includes a ritual that can remove fiendish taint from mortals, thus making the young girl they rescued months ago useless to Fzoul Chembryl.
Semmemon explains that of all of the children that Fzoul fathered while possesed by Xvim, he was given one to raise as his heir. Bane has told Fzoul that he can keep his heir alive to raise as he will, but only if he manages to sacrifice all of the others, of which, only the child that the adventurers saved still survives. Semmmemon wants them to make his offer to the Harpers or perhaps the Moonstars, as he is willing to give up some of his important journals of Zhentarim operations to the power groups to secure his safety from these groups.
The adventurers agree to think about this, and add that they will discuss this with any Harper contacts that they might be able to find. Semmemon tells them that he will be in touch.
Mourn wanders off without saying much to the rest of the group, and Emen searches out the people that she travelled with from Elturel. The other members of the party are summoned to Haresk's house by Neylessa Shendean.
Upon arriving at the house, they find that there is a full council session going on, and that Alok Silverspeak, Luvon Greencloak, Brongulf Ironfurrow, Chorn Stoneturner, High Priest Nerval Watchwill, and the members of the Mistledale Lancers and Militia, as well as a light skinned, silver haired elf that none of the companions recognize. All are collected to discuss the situation with Stumphill and the potential drow problems in the forest. Meriden begins to address the assembly, and Haresk eyes him carefully, warning him off of discussing the Eldreth Veluuthra.
The temple to Tyr, the dwarves of Glen, and Alok's archers are going to coordinate themselves with the Lancers and the Militia in order to help patrol the region and to share any information they may end up finding on the drow. When the visitors and delegates leave the meeting, just the councilors and the elves discuss the Eldreth Veluuthra problem. They are also introduced to Mourn's father, Kaelaern, the pale silver haired elf that they saw upon entering.
At this point, Elminster arrives at the proceedings, and probes the adventurers about the events leading up to his exile from Toril, as well as what has happened in his absense, and discusses the magic item that Haresk is looking for, as well as their trip to Silverymoon. Elminster gives them a name to look up if they end up travelling to the Lady's College. They also discuss Semmemon's arrival, and they concerns about working for him, and if the Harpers or the Moonstars would be interested in the information they gain from Semmemon. Elminster tells them that he will get back to them after he contacts his friends in the Harpers and the Moonstars.
Meriden also discusses his temple plans with Haresk. Haresk wants some assurances for the ability of the ranchers near his temple being able to take shelter there, but is fairly aloof and non-commital toward aiding with the construction of the temple. Haresk asks Meriden about progress on finding the magic item he is looking for, and Meriden tells Haresk that he will be researching this item when the adventurers travel to Silverymoon.
Eleint 28th-Highharvestide , 1372 DR
With Mourn still wandering, presumably with his father, and Emen travelling back to Elturel, Stilgar, Meriden, and Grim set out to find the Fey Crossroads that Grim has located in Rollivard's Book of Fey Crossroads, that will lead them to the Moonwood just north of Silverymoon. Before they set out on their trip, the adventurers cash in some of their gold for trade bars and platinum so that they might be able to take some of their riches with them to Silverymoon. They store the rest safely back at the White Hart Inn, under Holfast's watchful eye, and set out on their trip.
Travelling to the south, close to the Dark Road, Grim is especially careful not to get lost and wander into the Vale of Lost Voices. By the afternoon of the 28th, they are travelling through the wilderness when a massive disturbance catches their attention. A horrid creature, spherical, with a central eye and six eye stalks, floats toward them. Its hide is carved with symbols in Infernal and with holy symbols of Bane. Meriden recognizes the beast as a Gauth, a beholder-kin, and thus a creature he is sworn to destroy.
Meriden strikes the creature with the power of Helm, calling down a pillar of flame. The creature is staggered, but not killed. Stilgar charges the creature, but suddenly feels greatly weakened upon getting close to the abberation. He still manages to strike the creature, but without the power that he can normally bring to bear. The creature strikes mariden with a ray from its eyes, causing wounds to open up on his body, and fires several rays at Grim as well. Stilgar looks into the creatures central eye, and is paralysed. Grim shifts form into a bear, and Meriden falls prey to the creature's paralysing gaze. Dispite the fact that his friends are now incapacitated, Grim manages to seriously maul the beholder-kin, tearing off its eyestalks and striking a killing blow to the unholy beast.
By Eleint 30th, they reach the spot where the fey crossroads should open, and Grim calls out to Zhanghritehl, a hulking specimen of fey guardian, who demands to know what they have done in the cause of good. After recounting some of their adventures and the enemies that they have made, Zhanghritehl allows them to pass through.
The adventurers set up camp upon arriveing in the Moonwood, within a day of making the Hunter's Gate of Silverymoon.
Marpenoth 1st-3rd, 1372 DR
Grim takes some time to ask around to get the layout of the city. Stilgar feels much more at ease in Silverymoon than in other cities he has been in, thanks to the open designs and many parks and trees. Once Grim has the lay of the place, Meriden heads for the House Invincible. At the temple to Helm, Meriden introduces himself and is offered a cell within the place to stay while in Silverymoon.
Grim and Stilgar take rooms at the Golden Oak Inn, and Grim sets out to Mielikki's Glade to see if he can find out about the spellcasters he needs to seek out to learn some of the special skills that his master once told him about. Grim talks to Ladyservant Tathshandra Tyrar, who tells him that she knows of the place that he speaks of, but that he must spend the night sleeping under a sacred tree before he can be allowed to go.
Wandering through the markets and shops, Stilgar eventually ends up at the Shining Scroll, talking to the proprietress Xara Tantlor about used magic items. Stilgar, who is quite smitten with Xara's looks, asks about items that he would be interested in, and Xara brings out some items that she has mentioned that adventurers have brought back to her. Stilgar buys a greataxe that is charged with electrical energy. When asked about more equipment, Xara mentions that she has some adventuring parties that should be coming back soon with more items. When Grim comes into the shop, her psuedodragon familiar Villynik deals with him at first, and then Grim sells sells some items, including dragon parts, which upsets Villynik.
Grim asks around the area, trying to find anyone that might sell magic items that might be of aid to someone of roguish pursuits. Eventually a gnome comes calling on him, and offers him some magic items which Grim is not particularly interested in. He tells Grim that he will search around some more to see if he can find something more suitable.
Meriden has a private audience with Vigilant Master Baerim Coraddor, who has been marked with the sign of Helm. Meriden presents Coraddor with his plans for his temple and how it would benefit the community, but Meriden is intimidated with Coraddor's questions about details, and presents his case badly. While Coraddor does not dislike the young cleric of Helm, he has doubts about his ability to administer the project.
Grim spends the night under the tree in the grove, and has visions of Meilikki and Malar, and of their servants, such as the People of the Black Blood. In the morning, Tathshandra tells Grim that Meilikki has favored him, and she can open the gate to the place where he should go for training. Grim steps through, and ends up much further north in the Moonwood. Grim finds himself at the Tower of Lurue, a tower built by a worshipper of the Unicorn goddess, and inhabited by worshippers of Lurue, Mystra, and Meilikki. The place has both druids and wizards trained in steathly skills and the use of daggers in various ways to augment their natural abilities.
Grim is given an audience with Sanaraen Ladystrider, the mistress of the tower, and she tells him that he will have to make a donation to the tower, as well as complete a mission for them, since he will not be staying on at the tower as one of its defenders. She tells Grim about the running fight that those of the tower have had with the people of the Black Blood in the Moonwood, and gives him the location of a Black Blood renegade that has taken up in a small cave after his pack was destroyed. Grim agrees to search out this renegade.
Grim also discusses his book and his visions with a follower of Meilikki at the tower, and the fellow druid tells Grim that he knows of no formal agreement between Meilikki and Deneir outside of the Harpers, and that he should go to the Vault of Sages in Silverymoon to see if they could help him decipher the code in the book. Grim wants to store the book during his trip, and Borlask Fanders, the leader of the arcane spellcasters of the tower, casts a spell that opens up an extradimensional space that will only open for Grim.
Grim returns to Silverymoon to tell his allies about his mission, and Stilgar and Meriden agree to travel with him to do this.
Marpenoth 4th-9th, 1372 DR
Stilgar, Meriden, and Grim set off into the Moonwood to hunt down the renegade member of the Black Blood that the Tower of Lurue has set Grim to finding. Upon travelling for several days in the Moonwood, they come upon the site described. From the ridge, they see a man, apparently a Northman barbarian of some sort, with a camp and a small shrine with fetishes set up. He smells them from a distance, and calls them out.
The three adventurers carfully decend the ridge and engage the barbarian. He tells them that they will not hurt the Child of Malar and that they are not worthy to be in his presense. He vows that the child of his god will be protected with his last breath. All three adventurers expect the barbarian to shift into an animal form, but instead, his teeth and nails grow, but nothing else happens.
The barbarian flies into a rage, and grabs Stilgar, savaging him with his claws and teeth while crushing the life out of him. Meriden and Grim carefully position themselves around the Malarite barbarian, and after taking a savage rending, Stilgar manages to break free of the barabarians grasp. Meriden heals the badly wounded Stilgar, and the barabarian manages to make a few savage unarmed attacks agains the adventurers, but eventually, they bring him low.
Entering the small cave behind the camp of the barbarian, Grim leads, searching for traps. While he finds a greataxe that is set to fly out from the wall, he manages to fall into a spiked pit trap upon walking into the cave. Stilgar helps Grim out of the pit while Meriden, seeing what appears to be a werewolf further back in the cave, calls upon Helm to strike the creature with a pillar of flame.
Meriden heals Grim while Stilgar charges the werewolf. Stilgar manages to harm the creature, though it ignores some of the injury done to it from the axe. Stilgar is wounded by the creature, and the wounds feel horribly unatural to the barbarian. Meriden and Grim enter the fray as well, and Grim and Stilgar both incur more wounds, and those wounds also feel quite unnatural to them.
Eventually the group prevails over the werewolf, and they find a suit of leather armor that seems to shift with a shapeshifting wearer. Grim immediately claims this wonderous magic, and upon sifting through the body and the cave, dispose of the bodies and take the fetishes and symbols of Malar and the Black Blood as proof of their success.
Meriden cannot heal all of Grim and Stilgar's wounds, and upon pondering the reason, realizes that the beast was especially unholy, able to cause wounds that could not be healed outside of a consecrated area. The rest of the travel back to Silverymoon is uneventful, and Meriden manages to heal them once he returns to the House Invincible.
Grim, knowing that Meriden's audience with Coraddor did not go well, donates his old magical leather armor to the church, and also gives a donation to the temple as well. Coraddor tells Meriden that he is impressed with the quality of Meriden's associates, and that he will have another audience with Meriden about the temple.
Marpenoth 10th-Uktar 8th, 1372 DR
Grim travels to the Tower of Lurue to complete his training. Meriden has his meetings with Coraddor about the design and plans for the temple. Coraddor is told that he could have the clerics that have just completed their training in the temple as his staff. After discussing the situation further, Meriden is directed to The Senior Vigilant Engineer Ulrunder Garnim, to make sure anything that must be in a temple of Helm is included. Ulrunder says that he is too busy, but gives Meriden Raesef Illusvar, a half-elf engineer working under him, to aid him in his plans.
Stilgar tours several bars in the city as well as staying the night in a few of the parks. He spends time at the Dancing Goat, The Bright Blade Brandished, and Helmer's Wall. He runs into the gnome that was searching for magic items for Grim, and tells Stilgar that he can be found at Helmer's Wall if Grim wants to talk about merchendise.
At the Lady's College, Meriden talks to Embreadal Thuuresk, the woman he was referred to by Elminster. Embreadal decides to see if one of the Greenstone Amulets kept at the college might be able to be let go, and says that she will speak with High Mage Hornblade himself and have his representatives talk to Haresk's to see if an arrangement can be reached. She also gives Meriden a note to give to Elminster when next he sees him.
Meriden is granted a new rank, becoming Alert Watcher Meriden Greystag. Coraddor says that he will need this increased rank to be in charge of the project of building the temple, and that he may be granted the rank of Watchknight if he finds a suitable artifact or relic to place in the temple when it is built.
When Grim returns, Meriden and Stilgar go with him to Helmer's Wall to talk to the gnome, and the gnome, worried about a cleric of Helm being affiliated with the Knights in Silver, is on edge. He sells Grim a possum pouch, a magic pouch that seals to one's flesh, becoming almost seamlessly part of the wearer.
Grim goes to the Vault of Sages to have the code in his book translated. After the Deneirath inspect the book and collect their donation to the temple, Grim learns that the code says that a key lies near the fey crossroads that open into Chult, and that the Hidden Heart is located in the High Forest, unlocked by the key from Chult, and that it must not be devoured by the followers of Malar. The heart is special to Meilikki, and that unlocking its secret would make her happy, but if that is not possible, destroying it before the Malarites get it would be for the best.
Grim, Stilgar, and Meriden discuss the overland travel to the Marsh of Tun, since Grim is reluctant to take a large group of clerics through the fey crossroads. After finding a great deal of trouble along the trails leading back to the Marsh of Tun, they decide to go to the Lady's College and see if they can travel there magically.
Uktar 9th-14th, 1372 DR
The spellcasters at the Lady's College take the image of Stilgar's home from his mind and use it to teleport them to his home, the caves hidden in the Marsh of Tun. Stilgar and his companions appear in the caverns that his mother lives in. The caves, furnished with furs and fairly modern furniture and cooking accessories, is inhabited by Stilgar's mother and his two younger sisters.
Stilgar also meets his uncle, Gherusk, who chides Stilgar for using too much arcane magic. Stilgar and Gherusk discuss what his adventureing party has been doing, and what their past is, and Gherusk confides in him that he has travelled widely, and ended up meeting with a group in Anauroch, the Cultists of the Shattered Peak, that he has joined. He tells Stilgar and his companions to be watchful of the mechanations of the Shadovar. He give Stilgar a coin that allows him to speak, read, and understand Loross and High Netherese. Stilgar's mother Arnra asks Stilgar why he hasn't abducted a wife yet.
Stilgar vouches for his Cormyrean companions to the rest of the Mir, and a feast begins. Stilgar's tribe is well care for in part because of his gold returning home for his mother and sisters. The clerics from Silverymoon ask about the culture of the Tunlar of Meriden during the feast, not being used to such surroundings.
The next day, all take a vow not to reveal the location of the cave complex to anyone else, and the band begins to travel toward the mountains outside of Cormyr. The first day out, into the swamp, a huge ooze drake attacks from a sink hole in the marsh. Stilgar gets savaged by its jaws immediately, and Meriden orders the clerics under his care to fall back while they deal with the beast. Acid flows off the creatures skin and burns all of them in the fight, but eventually, after a summoned celestial owl and a few successful attacks by the adventurers, the ooze drake falls.
In the sink hole beneath the creatures body, the remains of a follower of Bane and a follower of Helm are found, along with a magical helm and sword. Meriden instructs the clerics to make a sledge to carry the body of the Helmite so that they can take it back to the new temple.
The next night, Meriden prays to Helm to allow him to speak with the dead. The Helmite tells him that he was Helm Graywood in life, and that he was dedicated to wiping out the remaining Banites after the death of their god, and that he fell shortly after the Time of Troubles. He asks only that Meriden continue his battle against Banites.
The group enters the Storm Horns, and takes cover to avoid running into a Roc that flies overhead. The continue on the pass through the mountains, and get near the ravine that leads back down to Skull Crag. While some of the clerics and the engineer wonder about the village, Meriden remembers that at one time the village had a shrine to Myrkul, and that he would rather avoid the place, and travel on to High Horn.
In the evening, Meriden meets with a stone giant that wants to be assured of the intentions of the travellers. While Meriden doesn't make the best impression immediately, Grim manages to talk to the stone giant about his artwork and pointing out that they are not affiliated with the people in Skull Crag. The stone giant is pleased, and moves on.
Meriden casts a spell to keep Graywood's body preserved, and the group meets up with a patrol from High Horn. The whole group is set up in the caravan hostelry and tells tales to the Purple Dragon knights garrisoned at the fortress. One of the War Wizards stationed at High Horn offers to teleport the group to Arabel, since he is going there, and the group agrees, so Meriden can visit his family.
Uktar 15th-25th, 1372 DR
The group is teleported to just outside of Myrmeen Lhal's palace in Arabel. Meriden finds that the shrine to Helm has been rebuilt, and may even be expanded into a full temple, and that his former superior survived the destruction of Tilverton and is back at the shrine. He gives the new clerics instructions on the Order of He Who Watches Over Travellers.
The group leaves the city walls and travels to Meriden's family farm. Meriden's father is happy to see him, as is his mother, and he has to spend time telling stories to his younger siblings, as well as keeping Stilgar from tell stories that might be a bit too much for them to handle. Meriden tells his father that he has seen his brother with Sir Hunsilver, and fills his father in to what the band has been doing.
The group travels on toward Mistledale. After several days of travel, they find the Lancer's watchtower that marks the outer boundary of Mistledale's territory. Within a day, they stop at Pelden's Helm, and Meriden pays the innkeeper at the Man with Fire in his Hands to put up his clerics, and he instructs his clerics to aid the Lancer patrols in the area until he has further orders for them.
Upon returning to Ashabenford, Meriden pays for a room for Raesef Illusvar at the White Hart Inn, so that the half-elf will be staying close enough to help plan out the temple. Then the party returns to Meriden's rented house to rest after a long trip.
Addendum: Uktar 11th, 1372 DR
At night, while Stilgar is on duty, a grey skinned man with dark hair and black clothing approches the camp, and introduces himself as Ambassador Borsaelis. Stilgar calls out to Meriden and Grim, and Meriden approaches the Shadovar agent first. While Borsaelis discusses the fact that the Shadovar have figured out that it was Meriden and his friends that caused the problems between the city of Shade and Zhentil Keep, he also says that the Shadovar would be interested in obtaining any magic from the elven chronomancer that Meriden had run into, and that if they could provide the magic to the Shadovar, then all could be forgiven. While this coversation goes on, Grim walks up to the ambassador, and stabs him with the dagger that Semmemon gave them months ago. The ambassador's body implodes, and shadow bolts shoot out across the camp, nearly killing the young clerics under Meriden's charge. The ambassador's soul immediately journeys to the Fugue Plane.
Addendum: Uktar 13th , 1372 DR
A hippogriff rider flies overhead, wearing black and yellow robes. He dips down low out of the sky, and points a wand at the party. A fireball shoots down at them, and explodes, once again, nearly killing the young clerics. Meriden revives one of the clerics, and instructs him to revive another, and have that one do likewise, until all are healed. He then calls down a pillar of flame in the path of the wizard, burning him and knocking him off of the hippogriff. When the group finds his body, it and all of the items he carried are too damaged to be of much use.