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The Party Splits

Since half the party was captured by orcs and taken to Gods knows where in the west, and the remaining half of the party is behind the falls awaiting ambush--it is time to divide our group.

The club will be meeting four days a week from this point on.

Wednesdays and Fridays will be sessions for the captured group:

• Dracon
• Matthew
• Darkiss
• Korlogh
• Hwarang
• Sedecei
• Ebrithil
• Anorran

Tuesdays and Thursdays will be sessions for the remaining group:

• Qwasar
• Violet
• Dean
• Suhew
• Silver
• Barkel
• Narumata
• Draconas
• Seechay

Gaming this way, with much smaller groups, will be better for everyone. Sessions will go faster and we will get more accomplished. You as players also will not be as bored waiting for your turn to come around again. However, both groups will need to fight as a team and smarter than they have before. Less adventurers means more danger. Take heed brave explorers and you may live to see the end of your quest.

Captured!!

Heading towards the Caingorn Peaks our heroes come to a small but fast slowing stream. An ancient bridge once passed here, but has long ago washed away. Filling their waterskins, several of our the band notice kobolds moving upstream near a waterfall. Narumata leads the band uphill towards the kobold encampment, but they are discovered in their attempts to ambush the small lizardmen. A battle ensues in which our heroes quickly manage victory. Behind the waterfall stairs are visible, and the heroes in front of the battle regroup to head in. A band of the adventurer's stay outside to stand guard. As the last of the exploratory band disappears behind the falls an ambush befalls the remaining band outside. They are immobilized as if by magic and large, heavily muscled, pig headed, snaggletoothed creatures rush out to bind them fast. Their tongues are bound and they are unable to raise the alarm. Violet, Dean, Suhew, Korlogh, Silver, Seechay, Sedecei, Ebrithil & Anorran are all quickly carried downhill into awaiting caged wagons and driven to the west.

Unbeknownst to our heroes who have entered into the falls, a much more dire fate awaits them hiding in the cavern's shadows. Qwasar, Dracon, Matthew, Darkiss, Hwarang, Barkel, Narumata and Draconas head inward, weapons drawn guard at the ready. The Caverns are well lit by torches placed at various locations on the walls. Puddles of water shimmer on the caverns floor. The roar of the falls drown out all but the loudest shout. And are those shadows moving?

Violet Remembers

"It was seven years ago. The destruction here at Winterhaven has dug up a piece of my past that I had longed to forget."

*** 7 years ago ***

"I was a part of a team of Dragonborn rangers. I was the youngest in the team. The others ranged in age from fourteen to over twenty years. We were sent to investigate sightings of a group of Dragonborn rogues that had betrayed our people. They were the first and last to betray our band. We stopped them, but at a cost. The others in the team were killed and only I remained standing. The Rogues got away. When I went back to the village it was destroyed. The smell of death filled the air. I vowed that I would avenge my comrades and the village."

And now for a flashback!

Our party's beginnings and their initial journey to Winterhaven have as yet gone unexplained. I take the opportunity to now elucidate their individual motives, and their quest's genesis. But first our Dramatis Personae:

• Violet the Dragonborn Ranger
• Dean the Human Fighter
• Quasar the Dragonborn Fighter
• Dracon the Dragonborn Paladin of Kord
• Suhew the Dragonborn Fighter
• Matthew Tawer the Elven Warlock
• Darkiss Gent the Eladrin Warlock
• Hwarang the Elven Ranger
• Korlogh the Elven Fighter
• Silver the Human Ranger
• Sedecei The Eladrin Cleric of The Raven Queen
• Barkel the Tiefling Paladin of Avandra
• Ebrithil the Elven Warlock
• SeeChay the Elven Warlock
• Narumata the Tiefling Rogue
• Draconas the Dragonborn Rogue
• Anorran the Eladrin Rogue

Three separate tales have found their way into our adventurer's awareness:
Matthew and Darkiss both shared the same mentor in their apprenticeship to mastering the powers of the Warlock: Douven Stahl. Douven was an elderly fey pact Warlock when they first met him. Age and closeness to the fey had left him a whisper of a mortal when they completed their apprenticeships. He had introduced him to magic and the power of the fey. He was more than a second father to them both and they would gladly lay their lives down in his defense. And he was missing. Douven was also known for his sage-like studies in ancient history, and Matthew and Darkiss both are aware of his most recent researches. In the mountains on the Shadowfell lay the grave of an ancient Elder dragon close to the powers of fey. History rumored that this elder dracon was indeed a fey warlock of great power. To find his grave, and to see if his essence had passed into the fey would be a source of great magical power Douven could not resist. His studies had obsessed him as of late and then he had simply gone missing. Matthew and Darkiss are both searching for him. They ran upon Silver & Cody in their searches and accepted their aid.
Sedecei, Narumata & Dracon were all aware of the sage Parle Cranewing who had called them to a glass of thistledown tea and a very interesting story. The story he told started at the town of Winterhaven and quickly moved to the ancient keep that once stood above it in the mountains to the north. This keep was said to be cursed by many. For Parle it held the secrets to an ancient empire that may have once ruled in this region. If these sturdy young adventurer's were up to the challenge, Parle was willing to pay them handsomely just for the opportunity to investigate any artifacts they located--especially any written materials. The three quickly accepted and called for assistance from the local fighter's guild. Thus were Seechay, Suhew and Korlogh added to their number. Ebrithil the Warlock a compatriot of Sedecei joined their group and they set off for the northlands.
Barkel had been summoned by the High Priestess Marla of the Great Church. The Great Church acknowledges all the Gods and pays due homage to each except for those of evil. Marla herself had been dedicated to Pelor when she was but a wee lass, and had known Barkel since his induction into Paladinhood. She ahd been impressed by his valor and his sense of purpose. So when she had heard of ominous signs in the north she thought of him first. The Church was loathe to admit to her fears--that cultists had arisen again in the land. She was aware of a twisted priest by the name of Kalarel that was fascinated by ancient lost gods, particularly those with an evil bent. Rumor has it that Kalarel left the Great Church and began gathering around him followers of a like mind. This group of cultists moved several times from city to city as Kalarel proselyted and they were steadily banished for their questionable rites. Eventually they disappeared. Through careful and prolonged investigation Marla had discovered that witnesses had spied the cultists travelling north on the road to Winterhaven over a year ago. From the rites they were witnessed practising in various cities Marla fears that they are unholy ceremonies designed to awaken an ancient evil. Marla enlisted Barkel in an exploration of what the cultists were doing and their elimination if need be. Barkel called upon several of his associates, Violet, Qwasar, Anorran and Hwarang to assist him in his quest.
These questors met upon the road to Winterhaven and their troupe then first ran into the kobolds on the road.

Winterhaven

Our adventurer's head to Winterhaven, only to find the town in burning ruins. A sole survivor--The maddened wizard Valthrun. The character's find the bodies of few deformed dragonspawn obviously killed by the defending townspeoples. They each wear dark purple tunics with grinning white skulls on the front. Attempts to interpret the skulls symbols are fruitless.

Two characters who handled the tunics succumbed to temporary madness themselves. Both were eventually healed by the party's Paladins. And then the group spied the mysterious raven with the shining purple eyes watching them from the walls of the keep. Heading to the one building left unscathed, Valthrun's tower, they cornered the wizard, held him down and healed him of his insanity. Valthrun relates the tale of being gripped in his madness by visions of being chased by a giant, grinning, white skull with glowing purple eyes. In his madness he ran and ran across a blackened and blasted landscape as the skull bore incessantly down upon him. The character's who fallen to the same madness remembered the nightmare exactly as Valthrun explained it.

After a brief discussion the characters learn from Valthrun of Shadowfell Keep. This ruined keep lies to the north. Valthrun wonders if the kobolds have set up their encampment there. Legends have spoke of the keep as at worst as a place of cursed evil and at best as the abode of vicious Goblin raiders.

Valthrun cast a divining spell for the adventurer's near future as they headed towards the keep. What he saw deeply disturbed him. Kobolds arrayed as an army in those same tabards of purple, row upon row of grinning white skulls bearing down to the south and the cities of good. He also saw behind this vast and foul army a huge grinning white skull in the sky--some god, some very evil god, unknown by his symbol or his power. But without question one of the most maligned and twisted evil.

But questions remain. Why the retreat if an army is invading? Why did the invaders not take the keep, but only leave it wasted. Why was Valthrun's tower untouched? This small fact was left unquestioned by our intrepid band. And what of the strange Raven?

Perhaps these answers and more lay waiting in the mountains or the keep ahead. Only time will tell.