The Fey Lands of Illithiria
Party:♦ Alvana (deva avenger)
♦ Barrus (bugbear rogue)
♦ Elessar (goliath barbarian)
♦ Rhakka (theifling warlock)
♦ Dunov (dwarf ranger)
Having saved the refugees and evacuated them safely out of Pridemaine, the party now was charged with safely traveling with them to some dolmens where a passage way may be set up to lead them all into Illithiria. Lancelot assured us that the journey should not be too perilous, but that he was also protected by the charms of his lady. The party of adventurers may indeed have taken to the journey without much difficulty but having the 50 refugees with them made things considerably trickier. Alvana tried to aid the group with a heartening prayer, or by scouting ahead to ensure a safe passage, and her efforts, coupled with those of the other adventurers led the group safely on the first day. At night however the characters felt watched by something not of this world. They shrugged it off, set up camp and allowed the humans to go to sleep, setting up a watch between themselves. That night they were attacked by 3 insubstantial hounds of ill omen which marked them and cursed them with their howl. The refugees panicked about the combat, and a few fled right past the hounds, who tore through them. Luckily, for the rest, Elessar was able to intimidate them, thereby saving their lives, as we battled the hounds and dispatched them.
On the journey the next day, Alvana found in an old and battered house a beautiful Githyanki Silver Fullblade. When she took hold of the weapon she instantly recognized it as her sword, the Banisher, and the place as an old sanctuary of some past reincarnation of hers.
The sky was a beautiful purplish color as we finally reached the dolmens with the refugees, and Aalana told us that she must perform a ritual at each of the 5 dolmens so that everyone may travel safely to the fey lands. The ritual had to be uninterrupted, so our ranged combatants, Rhakka and Dunov, placed themselves on two of the dolmens, and the others readied their weapons from the ground. We were met by an envoy sent by The Shadow, led by one Azara Iceborn, an unseelie fey who might have been affiliated with the Prince of Winter. She was a fierce ranged combatant herself, but our tactical positioning helped considerably, and we prevailed without considerable losses, even though in the heat of battle, one of the dolmens was destroyed.
Rhakka, the only one of us skilled in the arcane arts, had to withstand incredible pain, as he channeled the arcane energy needed to complete the passageway to Illithiria through his own body, completing thus the network of Dolmens. He survived, but almost just barely, as arcane voltage shot through him, and he resisted as the refugees passed into the passageway 5 by 5, and finally all of us, including him crossed over to the Lady of the Lake's domain. Rhakka collapsed from sheer exhaustion on arrival.
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The Lady of the Lake did not show herself until Queen Aalana did not speak a greeting in elven. She then appeared, white haired with very dark, dark eyes, with aquatic plants from the lake's depths clothing her, stepping on water so softly that it provoked no ripples. She wielded a beautiful scimitar.
The Lady thanked the adventurers and Aalana, and welcomed them. She was particularly moved by Rhakka's efforts, and she helped awaken him.
The Lady then proceeded to speak to each of the characters, who in this moment of respite longed to hear about their past, of what had happened to their homes and loved ones in 120 years. For Alvana, the Lady of the Lake recognized a past life of hers when she wielded a staff with a swan on top of it, and had brought news of dire consequence from the land of the dragons.
She explained that The Shadow had renounced his or perhaps her name. By killing the Hands of Fate he had achieved dragon apotheosis. After the Shadow's campaign against the humans, 10 years had passed, in which he was still. As for the battles on other continents, the tieflings are now scattered houses, trying to reform the empire, the Dragonborn Shogunate was bickering, and the barbarian horde from Karaz-Kor is always warring between themselves. Illithiria itself wasn't doing gloriously better, as the High King was sick with an unknown ailment.
The Lady of the Lake told us to travel to the capital – Griffin's Nest – to seek an audience with the High King, and gave us an ever-blooming rose as a fey token. The refugees remained with the Lady of the Lake, who would ensure that they were taken care of.
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Griffin's Nest was presented a big clear deep lake, and above the lake, on an earth mote, stood the great city. There was no apparent way of entering the city, but when we presented the fey token, a beautiful rose bridge formed towards it. Its gates were made of marble, lined with silver and mithril.
We were greeted by a contingent of elves and were taken to the palace, where we were greeted by the King's majordomo, a very difficult, haughty and condescending woman, who explained that we may see the king after we have been “educated”. What followed was a difficult lesson on order and rulership in Illithiria, difficult not due to its content, but because the majordomo was doing her best to treat us as though with our simple minds and weak intelligence we would not be able to follow her explanations about the fey history. All of the boys did their best to hasten the lessons and disrespect the woman, but Alvana saw her as a fount of vital information and paid as much attention as possible to her explanations, apologizing for her companions, even though inside she found the exchange excruciating as well. She simply had the wisdom to not act ridiculously upon that, and when the King's majordomo had to leave momentarily, she gave her party a summary of the explanations they had essentially blocked out of their minds.
Essentially the fey kingdom was organized in 3 factions:
♦ the Gloaming Guard, which were the elven protectors of the kingdom,
♦ the Spider League, made up of mainly drow, but also some gnomes, which dealt in information brokerage, and was a network of loosely affiliated agents scattered throughout Illithiria
♦ the most esteemed of these organizations - GEARS – The Griffin Elementary of Arcane Research and Study
All three of which together with the High King and the Senate made up the Court of Stars. The Senate was made up of each noble across Illithiria, and they were the ones who appointed the legate, a general in times of war.
Finally, the Office was the term used for the conglomerate of leaders from the aforementioned organizations.
We were told the king would receive us after the evening meal, and we were given fine elven clothing worth around 500 gold pieces to wear on the occasion. The receiving chamber of the High King was a large round room, lined as a library, with fey lights offering bright illumination.
The King and his Office were sitting comfortably, drinking tea and smoking pipe, in a casual and relaxed atmosphere which was a welcomed change from the majordomo's rigid stance. The King greeted us and then introduced us one by one to his staff:
♦ Miss Eveline Pynar, archmage and head mistress of the GEARS, a pretty gnome lady.
♦ Daevis Calrethral, chief of information from the Spider League, who was a serious drow male, who had a cane near him and a belt sporting a skull with spiders on it.
♦ An elven lady, named Jocelyn Varlanna, who was presented as the leader of the Gloaming Guard.
♦ And the legate, a young eladrin woman named Lilianne Caelys, who wore short black hair, a bit unusual for an eladrin, and wore a fullplate and a holy symbol with a sun and a book upon it. She was most likely a paladin.
The king proceeded to explain that there are two things that the elven kingdom could use the adventurers’ help with, namely with the barbarian invasion from Karaz Kor, which required a small taskforce to infiltrate and sabotage the army, or with the tomb of Ervaril, the sage, which held weapons, arcane secrets, and treasure. After some debating, the party decided that the army was the greater threat, and decided to be part of the task force to disable it.
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