Reflections

Chapter 1 - Group Interrupted

A scene: lightning cracks across the sky as the rain pours down. As the flare of the lightning dies, the world is lost to darkness once more. The stranger stands on the road, a cloak pulled over his head, the rain pouring off of him. He looks around the small sleepy town, from the shallow creek to the dim lights shining out of dozens of small homes. He knows that he's completely lost.

A scene: a dark warrior sits cross legged inside a small cabin. Around him, in the darkness, lie his allies. There has been something in his mind since he returned. A deep thrumming that he has been just barely aware of. Even now, he sits, slightly ill at ease but otherwise ignorant. But then it flares. The thrumming breaks open into a crescendo of chaos and noise. His senses swim and the sense of his flesh being ripped, torn, and altered overcome him. It is gone a few moments later, but as the feeling subsides, he is now aware of the thrumming that has been there all along, and he knows that something is terribly wrong with his world, Toril.

Drawn by Zendrak's feelings that something is wrong with Toril, and also drawn by Elric's idea to discuss with Xej, the locking of a portal to hell, the trio of Zendrak, Elric, and Marrienne journey via Elric's magic to Arabel. In Arabel, they met with the aging king Stamp, and his son Galaghard and also inquired into Xej's whereabouts, finding that he had been gone for a while. While there, they saw the huge mural of the lands of Cormyr had changed. A large portion of the mountains to the west had become a huge desert. Asking people in area and checking on old maps, they found that apparently everyone around thought the desert had always been there, and that every history book said the same.

With a desire to find out more, they traveled to Suzail to check the larger library there. While there, they mentioned this "transforming land" issue to the librarian who told them they should speak to some men who had been doing research here. They went down into the archives and met two men named Lark, and Kral. Apparently they had been paying researchers to find out information about a Chaos war of some sort, and this, and the transforming land was connected.

Lark had the researchers summarize all of the information they had found about this mythical Chaos war. Long ago, before time was time (etc etc), there was nothing but Chaos and Law, and a great war raged between the two. The forces of Law, known as the Wind Lords of Vaati, were losing to the Chaos Queen, and her great general, so they constructed a staff of pure law and used it to strike down the general of the Queen's armies. As they did so, the staff was infused with Chaos from the general, and exploded. At the same time, the general was grieviously wounded and also imprisoned somehow, too weak to escape.

The staff broke apart into seven pieces and were scattered. Ever since then, the Wind Lords have been searching for the staff, to finish the job, and the Queen has been searching for it, becuase it can be used to heal her general. Apparently the staff peices all stay together on a world, but move from world to world occasionaly, for some unknown reason. The Queen of Chaos can sense what world they are on, and sends her armies of wolf-spider Tan'nari via her Chaos Gates. These gates warp the fabric of the worlds she opens them on, and the land devolves into deserts, swamps, water, becoming useless and infertile. Finally, they learned that whoever had any of the staff peices would be influenced by law, and as they owned more and more pieces, they would become more lawful. Happily, one piece only makes someone anal, and obsessed with cleanliness and order.

With this information in hand, the PC's noted that the land had indeed changed, but noone seems to notice when it does. As well, Lark mentioned he had fought the wolf-spider creatures. The Queen of Chaos was definetly looking on Faerun. With Lark's information about wolf-spiders, they guessed they were probably looking around Priapurl because a piece was probably near there. Using divination spells to determine that going to the desert in Cormyr wouldn't really help them, Elric took Lark and Zendrak to Priapurl via teleportation to start looking immediatly. Creating some phantom steeds, they journeyed north to the place where the spider creatures attacked, Lark suddenly remembered about a band of orcs, ogres, and such nearby, that were led by a snake woman, who was obsessed with cleanliness. Taking this queue, the three went to near the lair and decided to wait until the could teleport Kral and Marrienne the next day.

Chapter 2 - Sneaky Snake

A scene: an aging warrior awakes suddenly in his bed. Images of death and carnage haunt his dreams, people he should be protecting are dying because of him. The final elusive shape of a woman's face resolves into the curtains above his bed as he wakes. He is wracked with guilt and sorrow, but his mind has cleared, he knows he's been sick for some time, his old mind failing, but something has changed...something important.

A scene: the stone he lays on is cold. He looks around. He is in a hallway, a soldier approaches. Things are not as they should be. Where is the swamp? He stands and looks at the guard before demanding an answer, "Where am I"? He responds, "Master Wollanin, you're in Castle Arabel."

During the night, Zendrak and Lark are discovered by some orc scouts. They killed two of three easily and took the other prisoner, but they managed to raise the alarm to their other orcs anyway. Zendrak and Lark withdrew a safe distance to camp the rest of the night.

The next morning, back in Suzail, Elric awoke and went to the library in search of Kral and Marriene. The librarian pointed him to a the Wok Inn where they said they'd be staying. Heading there, he asks about them, and eventually uses magic to send Marriene a message stating he'd be waiting in the Wok Inn's tavern. A few minutes later, Kral, Marriene, a shepard dog, and another man in long robes and a large cowl come over and sit down.

"Who's that? What's with the dog?"

"Um, this is Lark's dog, this is Yous, a researching who was asking us some questions about what we've been looking into." replies Kral.

"Oh, well, nice to meet you Yous. Let's go, we need to meet up with the others now." says Elric, getting to the point quickly.

"Alright, let's go. Nice talking with you Yous." says Kral before he, Elric, Marriene, and the dog head out.

The three of them head behind Inn where a stable boy is brushing a horse (what else do they do?). Seeking privacy, and annoyed at the presence of the boy, Elric leads them to a nearby ally. Here, a bum with an intelligent gleam in his eyes watches them. Further annoyed, Elric looks for an alley with nobody in it and finds one a short time later. (a rat watches them from a small pile of garbage). Realizing that Elric can't teleport the dog as well as Marrienne and Kral, Kral reveals that he can teleport himself and the dog, but only by looking through Elric's eyes when he goes. The plan set, Elric is suddenly very interested in Yous.

"Who's Yous? Why was he there, we should bring him, I'm going to go get him." (Elric runs off to the Inn.) Kral stares menecingly at the rat.

Elric gets to the Inn and asks the keeper about Yous. The keeper knows nothing. Right then, Wollanin walks in. "Hey guys!" he says loudly. (silence in the Inn for a few moments as everyone looks at him, a cricket chirps, then everyone returns back to what they were doing.) Elric asks the Inn Keeper a few more questions, and then walks out, nodding his head for Wollanin to follow. They head outside the Inn. "What are you doing here? Do you know Yous?" asks Elric. "You, or Yous, or what?" replies Wollanin. A short exchange later and Elric forgets about Yous and brings Wollanin to the others instead. They all teleport to the forest a few hundreds miles away.

The scene cuts to a forest. A man sleeps on the hard ground, using some leaves as a pillow. A few bugs crawl through his messy hair. He is tired and uncomfortable and constantly just on the edge of sleep. Another man perches on a branch. The final form, a tied up orc, glares angrily at the man in the tree, who returns the menacing glance and pats his crossbow threatingly.

Marriene, Elric, and Wollanin appear, followed by Kral and a dog. They talk for a while, and also Kral speaks Orcish to the orc and finds out more about the caves. They then offer the Orc a job with them, and he says he hates all the other orcs, they make fun of him, and he'd like to join the party. They untie him and give him his axes back, but all watch him warily. The party discusses further about Wollanin and also about a plan of attack on the caves. Marrienne looks pointedly around the party and says that no illusions exists and everyone is good, so Wollanin must be ok. No one saw her cast a spell. The orc, thinking noone is watching turns and runs away. Zendrak takes a few quick paces, his sword shrieking out of his scabbard and slamming into the orcs face as he turns to see his persuer. The orc is dead, a lot.

The party decides to teleport into a small passageway near the snake lady. The teleports go awry, but the party eventually figures it out and meets up with each toher after sneaking around invisibly. Then they attack the queen's troll guardian with an aura of silence. Elric turns him into a hen, cause it rhymes with "then". The party kills the powerful chicken. Then they slam open the door to the Queen's chamber (Snake Lady!).

She spits out some small bead which explodes and blocks the doorway, but Zendrak leaps in before that and Elric and Kral use magic and psionics to appear in the room. The snake lady flees through an escape tunnel in the floor covered by an illusion. The party gives chase, Kral turning into a squirrel to race faster down the thin tunnel. She blocks the other end with another bubble, but Kral turns into himself and uses a staff to bypass the bubble. Zendrak races ahead into the room and directly into the midsts of 5 ogres. The beat on him relentlessly as he enters their threat areas.

Here the battle ends shortly. First, a bright explosion of powerful electricty from Elric rips through three ogres, the snake lady, and Zendrak. The rest of the party then engages the battle. The ogres are put down quickly, after mostly just beating on Zendrak, and the snake lady is prevented from flying up a ladder by Lark who counters her fly spell. Wollanin leaps across the room and runs her through, killing her.

Cutting her open, inside, they find a 14' wand, 10' of it is an ebony carved handle, the other 4 inches is some type of lusterless black metal. They figure this is the staff part. They also find 5 potions and a small bead. Elric takes it all for the time being, and the party decides what to do next.

Chapter 3 - Much A Do About Nothing

The party searched around for a while longer, thinking that perhaps they didn't have the staff, after arguing for some time about how to test if they had the staff. They found an empty tomb and set off a water trap that caught some of the party in a rope trick for 8 hours. They also destroyed two golems and killed several ogres and orcs.

Leaving there, they tried to teleport to Suzail but one of them had a slight issue and then ended up a few miles away from town. At the library they learned more about the Chaos Queen's general, named Miska, who was imprisoned on the plane of Pandemonium. They also learned that by thinking of the wand as a piece of a larger part, they could sense where the next piece was.

They figured that it was south, and then Elric and Zendrak tried to teleport to Candlekeep so they could perhaps roughly triangulate it's position, but the teleporting again went awry and the two appeared in an unknown swamp. Using his final teleport for the day, Elric tried once more, and AGAIN it went awry, putting them into an ocean where they plummeted into the water.

Stranded in an ocean, Elric carried the two of them away with his wings of flight, but eventually had to rest so he made a rope trick and they crawled inside to sleep. The night passed and Elric spent some time studying his spells before they emerged from the rope trick and again tried to teleport. This time they ended up at the base of some mountains near the coast. They journeyed from there, north where the luckily found Candlekeep. Using the staff piece and a map, the roughly triangulated the position to be somewhere down by the lake of steam. They returned via teleport to Suzail to meet with the others. Luckily nothing went awry.

After discussing the situation with the party, and the effects the Chaos queen was having upon teleporting, the party decided to find another way to journey south...

Chapter 4 - The Quest Begins

Outside the snow gently falls upon Suzail as winter begins to close it's grasp around the northern lands. The city is covered in a slushy snowfall and in the docks below men are hard at work, their breath coming as bellows of thick fog. In the castle upon the steep hill overlooking the city, people go about their business and the market within it's walls are as busy as ever. Deep within the bowels of the castle, in library archives below the ground they sit around a large table and discuss.

Elric, Zendrak, Marrienne, Kral and Lark sit discussing their options. In the doorway stands Wolanin, his back to them, staring blankly and deep in thought. Elric argues against Zendrak, Marrienne, and Lark all of whom think that they should not be searching for more pieces of the staff of law. Kral is more quiet and unwilling to enter into the arguement. They review their information about the situation and discuss for some time. They don't reach an agreement about the larger task, but they do all agree that they should at LEAST find the 2nd peice, though for different reasons. That decision made, they decide to ride phantom steeds south, following the pull of the staff piece they have.

Elric creates enough phantom steeds for Zendrak, Marrienne, Kral, Wolanin, and himself. Apparently Lark's dog is a problem and Lark says he'll follow them using the less reliable teleporting magic. The phantom magic mounts made, the party strikes out across the open waters of the Dragon Mere, due south. They agree to wait for Lark in a city far far to to the south in Calimshan, in about 10 days.

Nine days and thousands of miles pass in a blur. The party can pratically feel the air warm as they travel, passing over seas, open land, rivers, and mountains. Sticking to the main roads they blur past thousands of people, wagons, animals, wildlife, and dozens of towns and cities. They stop only for sleep and for food. They pass like the wind and people stare in awe as the four riders gallop past.

Late on the ninth day they arrive at a large city in northern Calimshan. The last stop before reaching their destination to the south east tomorrow. Before entering the city, they check the staff and find it pointing south west. They enter the city, finding a place to stay and get a warm meal. The language and customs are foreign but they pay little attention, focusing on their task. Elric uses magic to spy upon Lark and sends him a message to come to them now. With the message sent, they call it a night.

Lark's magical journey to the party is...interesting, his magic going awry 3 times sending him to all manner of places before finally arriving at the party. The next morning, they eat a very tasty breakfast made from exotic spices and meats before heading south west. They follow the road for part of the day before following the staff south off of it and into a forest that stretches off further than the eye can see. The forest is infested with all manor of goblinkin and giants, but the party has not significant encounters.

The forest eventually leads to a mountain range, and here the staff begins to point downwards. They begin looking for caves to enter. The first caves they find are kobold warrens, which they enter. The kobolds seem less than normal, using magic to attack the party. A strike force of two dozen kobolds attacks the party using magic and poison, but the party has little trouble defeating them and moves on.

With little other incident they reached a area full of fog and cobwebs. They tentativly entered it finding a passage that descended downwards. They got out their climbing equipment and Zendrak went down first. At the bottom he met something unpleasant. The others hear "deeemmmoooon" come thinly up through the thick fog. As Zendrak draws his sword, a demon with blood red skin and flames flickering off of his huge body comes out of the fog to face him...

A demon emerges from the fog

Chapter 5 - Let's Just Sneak Around

The demon, as it turned out, was controlled by a mage named Demios. Apparently the part was in his home. He politely spoke with the party, asking them why they were here, etc, and eventually offering the party assistance. If they were looking for a way deeper underground, he said he knew a way into underdark. Apparently this route was guarded by a green dragon however. The party agreed to check it out, and followed Demios for several hours through a maze of caves. Eventually the party arrived, but was tired so rested. Then, using sphere's of silence, snuck up into the dragon cave to try and get to the doorway to the underdark without fighting the dragon.

Sadly, as the party got too close to the door, the dragon awoke. The party had set off an alarm spell around the area of the door. The dragon, awake and mad, attacked! The party remained scattered, not leaving the dragon a target with his breath weapon. They tried passwalls to bypass the door to discover no passage behind it. It was either false, or a magical portal.

Faced no chance to flee, the party concentrated on the dragon. Magic, fire, flames, summoned creatures, arrows, and magical weapons were used, as the dragon swatted constantly at enemies and slung magic as well. The party however managed to somehow survive, and as the dragon turned to flee, a final bought of arrows, spells, and magical daggers managed to bring the creature down.

The party then enjoyed picking over the dragons' hoard and having a good long rest, involving some magical item identifying, before thinking about continuing on into the underdark.

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