Eberron Adventure Journal: The Demons' Prophecy (5)

Therendor 13-Eyre 6, YK 999
Upon deciding they were safe from immediate reprisals from Solgar, the Wolves went directly to Oura Gellast to tell her what they had learned. When they told her that he was a Rakshasa, she was shocked and worried. She insisted that they had to get out of Thaliost and Thrane immediately. "Solgar is more dangerous than I'd guessed... he'll have trumped up charges within the hour. You need to cross the border into Aundair."

Oura agreed to come with them, but only after she had gotten Rav Corus, the priest who had covered for her. He'd be in danger as well. Brand used his connections to get first class passage booked to Fairhaven on the afternoon lightning rail, but just before the train was to depart, a young boy gave them a note indicating that Oura wasn't coming. She couldn't leave others behind to face the danger for her.

The journey into Aundair was relatively brief, although it was about 20 hours until they reached the city of Fairhaven in the early evening the next day. Onboard the train, the Wolves took time to rest and heal, and Lysander tried to scry Cardinal Ossul Hetrion, but he was unable to find him.

Upon arrival in Fairhaven, they went to the House Cannith enclave to see if Lady Elaydren was available. As luck would have it, she had returned from her honeymoon in Stormhome three days prior, and she met them in a lush reception chamber with cheese, wines and open arms. She also had a message, in a sealed envelope, that was addressed to Maechen Eyre in Draconic tongue.

The message was from his master, who indicated, in the usual obtuse speech of a dragon, that they should go to the Eldeen Reaches and Brand's mother, which would take them on the next leg of their journey, according to the will of the Prophecy. Elaydren offered to hide them for as long as she could, even if it put her own position in jeopardy, but they didn't need to take her up on her offer, as they decided to follow the directives of Maechen's master and head to the Eldeen Reaches. Elaydren offered them magebred horses and provisions, an offer they did accept.

Before they left Fairhaven, however, they had some messages to send and errands to run. Pel sent a vague, coded message to Brand's mother to expect visitors, but to be wary of danger, and he also sent a coded message to Alestair Marktaros in Trolanport to apprise him of their travel plans. Lysander sent a message to Arenydee and his superiors in House Phiarlan to give them an update, and Luggoth sent a message to Savannah that Sharn might not be safe, and that she should be especially careful.

After that, Lysander and Pel went to seek information about a cult of the Traveler in Fairhaven so they could get some scrolls to help if they should encounter a Rakshasa again, all the while subtly spreading the rumors of Solgar Dariznu's true identity. With little time in a bustling metropolis, they had a difficult task, but the two information-gatherers' exceptional skills helped them find a congregation of The Dark Six.

Unfortunately, later that night, Pel found out that the congregation was considerably more dangerous than the average Traveler meeting, and the price requested for scrolls was not in gold, but in favors to dark gods, a currency he wasn't willing to pay. Or at least, not willing to pay again, as an encounter with a priest of The Keeper who recognized his god's mark upon Pel reminded him of the price Lysander had agreed to for his resurrection, several months ago in Stormreach.

Before they left, Lysander scried on Verodin Atrelioth, and found him sitting at an inn in Trolanport that Lysander recognized as the Satyr's Pipe.

The next morning, the Wolves began their long horseback journey from Fairhaven to the Towering Woods of the Eldeen Reaches. They kept a low profile, traveling via less well-used roads and camping rather than stopping at inns, and had a relatively uneventful journey. About ten days into the journey, five days after they had crossed the Aundarian border into the Eldeen Reaches, they received a message from Alestair: "Cardinal kidnapped, most likely Rakshasa. We encountered Zakya, it escaped. Backtracking Cardinal's route from Sharn, hoping for clues. Further communication via Artos d'Sivis in Trolanport."

Three more days later, deep in the Towering Wood, the Wolves encountered one of the dangers of the Eldeen forests, a pair of horrid bears, twisted by the magic of Gatekeeper druids to protect against Xoriat, but now roaming free and remaining true to their bestial natures.

Having caught the attention of the beasts, the Wolves dismounted and began preparing for battle, as Maechen entered a state of Prophetic Favor and Pel cast Bless on the group. Luggoth moved forward and was attacked by one of the bears, which missed, dripping acid from its claws as it swung.

Brand and Luggoth engaged the bears as Maechen used fireballs to soften them up. One of the bears slashed at Brand, leaving an acidic rent in his armor and slashing him open at the chest. He fell to the ground, bleeding and unconscious. Lysander tried to distract the bear from his grievously wounded friend using mirror image as Pel cast Sanctuary and moved in to administer healing magics.

Luggoth shifted, his fearful presence driving one of the bears away temporarily. The other, emboldened by the blood it had drawn from Brand, remained in the fray, but suffered a deep sword wound from Luggoth, as well as a piercing from Lysander's rapier and a burst of magic missiles from Maechen. Though bloodied, the massive beast seemed to hardly feel these wounds, and the Wolves began to worry about the encounter.

Shifting out of his bestial form to heal, Luggoth swung at the bear again, leaving another deep gash in its chest. Lysander stabbed at its haunches as well. Brand, though unconscious, was stabilized by Pel's healing magics, but Pel shifted his focus to healing Luggoth, who was now going toe to toe with the horrid beast, even as the other one stopped its flight now that Luggoth's form was no longer fearful.

As Maechen peppered both bears with magic missiles, Luggoth shifted again, once again terrifying the more distant bear, which reconsidered its return and fled into the forest. The remaining bear swung one more acidic claw into Luggoth before another slash from Luggoth's greatsword and magic missiles from Maechen's wand finally killed it.

The remainder of the trip was uneventful, and on the morning of Eyre 4, the Wolves arrived at the village of Sharri Wayfinder, Brand's mother. They found a small but thriving druidic and ranger community, and met Sharri's husband, a ranger named Beren. They told the Wolves that their arrival was welcome, because the community had need of them.

Rorsa, the awakened dire wolf that the Wolves had rescued from Whitehearth in the Mournland, was there with her pack, although she had clearly been in a fight recently. She explained that a day before, she and her pack had encountered a band of trolls who were hunting in the forest. They had managed to escape, only losing two of their number, but there were forest trolls in the pack, and that meant they could certainly track the wolves back to the druid village. Sharri asked if the Wolves could deal with the troll band before it endangered the village.

By way of help, Sharri provided them each with goodberries and antitoxin for healing and poison resistance, given that the forest trolls were known to use poisoned weapons.

Brand was able to track the troll band, and the Wolves began silently approaching the troll camp. Brand scouted ahead, and saw that there was a massive mountain troll, the size of a giant, three ogres and a forest troll hiding in a tree. They were in two clearings, close to one another but separated by trees and a stream. After making plans and casting a number of spells to prepare themselves, they launched their plan.

Lysander used his mirror image, hat of disguise and a black bear from Brand's pouch to look like a pack of rangers so as to arouse less suspicion as he wandered into the range of the remaining trolls and ogres. He began singing, successfully fascinating every one of the monsters, except for the Mountain Troll.

Fortunately, it was enough of a distraction for Maechen to get off a fireball spell that killed one of the ogres and wounded the Mountain Troll slightly. This was the signal, and the rest of the Wolves charged in, with Luggoth and Pel combining to kill one of the other ogres as Brand, Whitehearth and the bear engaged the last ogre. The forest trolls, one of whom Brand hadn't seen, began throwing javelins, one of which hit Pel, but he didn't succumb to the poison.

Lysander pulled out his bow and began shooting seemingly ineffective arrows at the mountain troll, even as the black bear and Whitehearth continued to engage the remaining ogre. Whitehearth fled after the ogre landed a powerful blow to his skull, but the bear remained and managed to bite and claw the ogre to death.

While Pel began firing his wand of scorching ray at one of the forest trolls, Brand cast blades of fire on his weapons and dimension leaped into the tree to kill the other one, knocking it out of the tree. The angry mountain troll moved toward Maechen, whose know vulnerability spell failed, but Luggoth shifted and raged, moving in to attack the giant beast. He successfully got its attention and earned a solid smashing from his club as a result, which knocked the shifter down and severely bruised him.

Seeing the troll raising its club to finish his friend, Lysander, thinking himself protected by mirror image, rushed in to distract the troll, but discovered rather painfully that it could smell his true location and had no trouble hitting it with his tree trunk sized club. With both Lysander and Luggoth badly wounded at the hands of the mountain troll, Maechen fired off an empowered fireball in the vicinity of its head, hoping to bring it down, but it seemed only more angry at the damage, and angrier still as Luggoth stabbed his sword deep into the beast's ankle. Roaring with pain, he smashed Luggoth again, nearly killing him but missing Brand and the bear as he swung the club in a great arc.

Seeing the danger the mountain troll possessed, Pel distracted himself from combat with the forest troll that had closed with him and popped a flame strike scroll out of his infinite scrollcase instead. The flame strike angered and damaged the troll further, but it was difficult to tell if all the damage was having any effect on the massive foe.

The forest troll, clearly not liking the odds, ran away as the Wolves all began concentrating their attack on the mountain troll. Maechen fired empowered magic missiles and Pel fired his wand of scorching ray, as Brand moved in with his bear to attack the gigantic troll in melee. Luggoth and Lysander managed to crawl behind trees, and Lysander used magic to heal Luggoth, who had recovered somewhat from his wounds by shifting forms again.

As Maechen fired another empowered magic missile, Luggoth stood up and pulled out his longbow, but he didn't need it, as Pel fired one last scorching ray at the mountain troll and it fell, crashing to the ground and causing it to shake for a full 10 seconds.

Brand tracked the forest troll that had fled to their cave lair, and the Wolves killed it with little trouble. There, they found the trolls' stash of treasure and magic items, as well as an interesting package of a ring, a weeks' worth of eternal rations, and a map with notes in a language none of them spoke on the back.

They returned to the village to rest and memorize spells, and to tell Sharri that the trolls had been dealt with. In the morning, a comprehend languages spell revealed that the note was something the forest troll had written down, indicating that a Zakya was coming to the cave soon, and that he had the cardinal with him. It didn't take much deduction to realize that the map was more than likely a map to the Order of the Corrupting Flame's headquarters in the Demon Wastes, and that the Zakya was bound there. It was clear that the troll was an operative of the Lords of Dust, and the ring (protection against the fiery elements of the Wastes) and rations were for the Zakya. This was why the Prophecy had directed the Wolves to the Eldeen Reaches, clearly, and they weren't about to miss the opportunity.

Armed with this knowledge, the Wolves went back to the cave to await the arrival of the Zakya. They weren't sure exactly when he was coming, and so they took turns on watch. Pel spent his time outside as a troll, doing his best to "think troll thoughts" to fool any incoming Rakshasa, and Lysander used his hat of disguise to appear green and warty as well. He sensed someone trying to read his thoughts and resisted, and they saw another troll approaching.

The disguise didn't fool them, and the "troll" quickly revealed itself to be a Zakya.

The Zakya charged in and attacked Lysander, and the rest of the Wolves emerged from the cave. As Pel began casting align weapon on the Wolves' weapons and Maechen cast defensive spells on Luggoth, the Zakya maneuvered to keep his back protected and attacked Brand.

Maechen cast Haste on the group, and they moved in with their good-aligned piercing weapons and made short work of the Zakya, which only managed to score one hit on Lysander and one hit on Brand before he died.

Dumping out the Rakshasa's bag of holding, they discovered some a gem, some gold, a scroll, and a stone model of Cardinal Ossul Hetrion. They quickly realized that the Zakya had transformed the Cardinal to make him easier to transport, and Maechen used one of his scrolls of stone to flesh to restore the Cardinal. He was grateful, and offered to help them destroy the Order of the Corrupting Flame. For Luggoth, the thought of dealing with the men who had killed his family was more motivation than the favor of a high-ranking Cardinal of the Silver Flame and the reward he offered. But he'd take that too.

XP:
Lysander 1920 XP
Luggoth 2113 XP
Pel 2273 XP
Maechen 2273 XP
Brand 2513 XP