Sept 12 2010

It started off as any normal day in the Feywild. The sun brimming down, twinkling in the magnificence of the fey. Most days I spend hours at the Shrine next to the Evermoon mannor playing music on my lute to honor the great Correllon. Today was no exception. After i performed my daily chores at the Evermoon residence, I set off to perform my arcane art of music. Bards are common to fey temples to Correllon, as most eladrin bards are priests of correllon themselves, but half-elves are not. I have never felt outcast living amongst the Eladrin, simply because I’ve lived amongst them my entire life. My parents were well known for their services to Correllon, and their opposition of the Drow, just by virtue of their service, i have been well received by the eladrin and the Evermoons. I know that by playing my music, my parents can hear my tune in their eternal resting place, Correllon bless the beauty of life and death.
Today, however, was no normal day. As I was tending to the shrine of Correllon, I suddenly felt a strong pulling. It felt much like falling, but with a bit more of a thrust. I may have lost conciousness, but for how long, I can not be certain. I suddenly stopped, I opened my eyes and it took me a moment for my eyes to adjust to the suddenly dark and gloomy nature of this new region. I was born in the Fey, and have never seen the mainworld, but this matches all descriptions I’ve learned in schooling. It was dark, and there is no shimmer in the air, the grass wasn’t vibrant, even if it was night. I stood infront of a ransacked temple or monastery of sorts, dead bodies of priests or monks lay scattered amoungst the ground, along with a fresher pile of bodies of some sort of lycanthrope species. Ahead of me was the figure of an Eladrin, “Hello brother! Are you friend or Foe?” I yelled to him. The look on his face was eerie, as if he’s seen a ghost. There was no time for pleasantries, as nearly immediately, a band of shadowed figures. He called to me “I have allies sleeping in the monestary, I am not abandoning you, I will return with help!” So I dawned my longsword and shield, and immediately took the front line. The Evermoons trained me well to be valorous bard, to take the front line and lead by example, with a strong arcane voice. I moved forward and held my shield up, ready for the attack.
After the battle, i met the band of adventurers, A tiefling, a dragonborn, a dwarf, a shifter, a human and an Eladrin. The Human and the Eladrin knew who i was, and claimed that Faedris Evermoon was infact my childhood best friend, and like a brother to me. I have no memories of Faedris, but his parents were my adoptive parents, so I feel an undeniable brotherhood with him. Their quest overall is to alter the sands of time by destroying a powerful magic which manipulates the forces of fate. Perhaps if i help destroy this fate magic, the timeline that is known to my Eladrin Brother and his human ally will somehow revert itself and I can be with my parents once more. I have agreed to travel with this band of adventurers, to aid them in their quest. We decided to travel towards the Dwarven city, in a country that the adventurers call Armanac.

The party questioned the captured Jackalwere. Moorland was filled with anger and ignored the training he received from the monastery and beat the creature until it spoke. It told them that it had been recruited by a Minotaur named Orakon into an organization called the Fate Hunters. They had been instructed to hole up at the monastery and capture anyone coming there. Each of the Jackalweres also had a tin ring with a crude knob on it. Each Fate Hunter wore one of these rings. Moorland prepared to take bloody vengeance on the beast, but Shamash counciled mercy and they let the creature live.

The band settled in to spend the night in the ruined monastery. During Fadris watch time seemed to stop and he was approached by what appeared to be a fox. This ‘fox’ spoke to Fadris and referred to him as Svatantrya. Fadris recognized this creature as his patron and rebuked him for stealing his family, but the fox seemed slightly confused by this and ignored Fadris on this point. The fox wanted details about Fadris’ travels and asked him to give him the books on Fate magic that the party had run across. Fadris was evasive and did not directly refuse, but also did not hand over the books. The fox grew impatient and told Fadris that he had been given incredible power and that Fadris must serve as his hand in the world. He also warned Fadris that the boundaries between the Feywild, Shadowfell, and the Material World were weakening and that his presence would have consequences.

The consequences quickly became apparent. Creatures were pulled from the Feywild and Shadowfell into this world. A half-elven bard and a park of Dark Ones appeared. The Dark Ones attacked while the bard joined with the party to defeat them. After the dust had settled the bard introduced himself as Taldarin. Fadris recognized him as a childhood friend as did Destan who shared Fadris’s memories. Taldarin had no knowledge of Fadris though. Fadris eventually explained his predicament and he told Taldarin that he had known him. The one compared stories of their youth and while there were some differences, the knowledge Fadris had of him convinced Taldarin that he was being honest. Also helping to convince Taldarin was the memory that Fadris had that his parents were alive and well and not dead and gone. The two surmised that if they could undo what had been done to Fadris they could bring Taldarin’s parents back to life. So Taldarin, unable to return to the Feywild anyway, joined the adventuers.

The band of adventurers, with a new member, battled a bizarre pack of otherworldly creatures. After they were victorious they went to the tower that seemed to have been attacked by these creatures. The tower was ransacked with no sign of Jedamar. When Adric went up to the top floor a magic mouth spoke to him:

“Adric, I hope to hell you didn’t come here as a damn fool prisoner or their will be hell to pay. There is a war coming boy. A war where your trusty axes don’t mean squat. But you can do something useful. In the basement say the words, “Adric Greyspar is a damn fool”, and a book and amulet will be revealed. Hide the book and wear the amulet. It will protect you, but it could potentially be used to find you so don’t trust it too much. So hide the book and for the sake of us all take this seriously. If you are going to pick at least one time to listen to your father pick this time. And you know, father’s love and all that garbage. Don’t get yourself killed."

The party went to the basement and obeyed the instructions and found book a book and amulet. The book seemed to be about Jedamar’s study of the Staff of Seven Kings which he had taken from the stronghold of a powerful demon. It seemed that the staff has the properties of fate magic and Jedamar was studying this magic. The amulets purpose was a little unclear. It was a cheap piece of wood but did seem to have some kind of magical property..

Around this time Convey told Destan about some of the things he had read in his fathers journals. It turned out that Duke Laurent de Bellomey had had some dealings with Vincent Ayers and that at one point the Duke had asked Hortense Fellmar to find out the Marquis’ weakness which he reported to be his pride in his young son.

The party then headed back to library and threw this book into the restricted section of the library. They also met with some dwarves who Adric had previously sent for. They set up a small base to keep an eye on the library. Adric himself requested a leave of absence from the military in order to search for his father and it was granted. The dwarves also shared the news the Dorvor had enterred into a military alliance with Armenac.

The band they headed to the monastery thinking they might find more clues. When the reached the library they found that many monks seemed to have survived, but they also noticed that some of these monks seemed to look like the very same dead bodies they were disposing of. Shamash called out to one as if he knew him. When the monk responded like he knew Shamash it was confirmed that they were imposters. Battle was quickly joined with the imposters who turned about to be shapeshifting jackals. The party was able to overcome them and take a prisoner.

The party continued to explore the library. Convey discovered books about Tieflings. They seemed to be detailed family trees with some added marks and notations that COnvey couldn’t figure out. Fadris studied the globe and made a map of the local leylines. From his examination it seemed that the library may have once been on a leyline, but was no longer so. The search also found a handful of books that appeared to have been ripped apart. Checking these pages they seemed to be about magic intended to manipulate fate, to change the Tapestry itself. Destan gathered these up. They also found several items of interest. A magical pen that copied texts and an item that enhanced the Unseen Servant ritual.

After exploring the restricted section of the library the adventurers turned their thoughts to escape. Fadris studied the statues that lined the trapped corridor and found that the magical power of the statues was fluctuating and that the power of the statues had dropped when the dragon died. The group ran through the corridor taking a few hits, but they ran directly into an ambush. The ettercaps that had defeated them before were waiting and battle was joined. Spying a moving cocoon they cut it open and released a shifter who aided them in battle. With his help they barely managed to defeat the ettercaps.

Speaking with this shifter, Moorland Blackwater, they learned that he was from a mountain monastery and was seeking a book, the writings of Monk Ieyasu. They helped him find the book and he accompanied them in further exploring the library.

One place of note they visited was a music room. It was inhabited by the ghosts of the musicians, Backbone Thump. When they tried to leave these spirits attacked them, but the party defeated them.

Eventually, after exploring the library the tried to leave the way Moorland had enterred, via the ‘skylight’. Moorland, a skilled climber, climbed the pillar of glass to the skylight and let down a rope for the others. On his first attempt he was almost thrown down and the group realized that any attempt to remove books from the library caused the books to be violently pulled back in. Using the magic pen they had found earlier they made copies of all the texts they had wished to take and returned what they had planned to take to the restricted section.

Having escaped the library Moorland thanked the party and set off to his monastery while the others headed towards Adric’s father’s tower, hoping that he would be able to answer some questions about the fate magic.

Moorland reached his monastery quickly due to his skill at traversing the mountainous regions, but what he found was horrible. The monastery was destroyed. Everyone there had been killed and the head monk had been hung, just like his father had been hung when he was young. Moorland was lost in the world with everyone he knew dead. He set out to find the people who had helped him since he really had no place else to go. He caught up to them as they reached the tower of Jedamar Greyspar. As he met them suddenly a bizarre group of creatures attacked…

The goblins tribe of the Black Claw had searched long and hard for the hidden library. They had established a base of operations and were beset by fierce Ettercaps and by adventurers. Theirs numbers began to dwindle, but they slowly gained knowledge and learned the exact location of what they sought. Unfortunately it guarded by a hallway lined with magical traps and a gold dragon. So they gathered their forces and waited for the moment to strike.

The adventurers who had plagued them proved to be the key. The dragon seemed moved by the presence of a Dragonborn and brought down the magical defenses to allow him and his companions entry into the room with the book they sought. Facing continued attrition by Ettercaps and other forces within the library the goblins made the decision to take this moment to pit their combined forces against the dragon. They were many and the dragon was young. Marshalling a band of three score goblin, hobgoblin and bugbear warriors they charged down the hall at a moment when the dragon seemed confused.

But this moment of confusion did not last long enough. The dragon quickly reactivated the magical defenses and the statues of archers came to life and annihilated all but the vanguard, a group of ten hobgoblins. With military precision they prevented the dragon from moving by penning him in with infantry while archers began to cut him down. But more complications arose. The adventurers joined the fray. They picked no side. They attacked both the dragon and the goblins weakening each side.

In the end the hobgoblins failed. They were defeated and the last even gave away what their goal was by trying to retrieve the book. The dragon and adventurers survived and turned on each other. The adventurers managed to kill the weakened dragon.

After the battle the party began to explore. They found what the goblins sought. A secret alchemical ritual that could turn a normal female goblin into a ‘Goblin Queen’ that could produce huge litters of goblins. Shamash attempted to burn the book, but the powers of the library turned against him and elementals of air formed around him and attacked. The party was fortunate that the magic of the library had weakened for they were able to beat the elementals, but the book was only suffered minor damage.

The band also spotted some movement beyond the now dangerous hall, but they decided to rest in what seemed to be a secure area.

Our battle to cleanse the Library continues, brother. We encountered another trio of hobgoblins. We were exhausted after several tough fights, but we were able to vanquish these foes. The leader had some form of dastardly armor made from the skin of various creatures (I believe there may have even been Dragonborn pieces sewn in the disgusting material). I cut the leader badly and his armor belched some sort of toxic substance at me. I was repulsed and we fought all the harder.

After killing this crew we were able to enter more of the actual library area itself. It became apparent that the hobgoblins and goblins were researching lore in their own dismal mythos. The focus seemed to be on ‘Goblin Mothers’. Though I was somewhat interested in this information for its religious component—it will not stop me from ridding the world of this vermin.

We then found a room that seemed to contain some sort of massive system for organizing and categorizing the various tomes in the library. Then we passed on to the central library itself. It was a tremendous room with both a vaulted ceiling and deep floor. We suspected some sort of trap due to large spider webs we had seen throughout. I hoped to spring the trap to our advantage, but instead I was quickly overwhelmed by a force of large spiders and ettercaps. My comrades would later tell me that I bore the brunt of the first assault, and was killed instantly.

I awoke to what I first took to be a vision of the afterlife. I beheld a beautiful Gold Dragon. Brother, I cannot accurately describe the elation I felt at seeing one of our lost kindred. However when the Gold Dragon spoke, reality came crashing down. Though I was deeply grateful to the Dragon for reincarnating myself and my compatriots, it was also apparent that the Dragon was wracked with grief over what had happened to the library. He also seemed to be tortured by some sort of change in the very fabric of magic in our world. I could make little of his ravings, though it does seem that Duke Laurent is responsible for the deaths of Dragonborn at this library. He did this in order to obtain some powerful arcane texts.

I hoped to speak more with him and learn what had occurred, but his madness overtook him—-and he turned upon us!

Battle was joined with three hobgoblins they spotted down a narrow corridor. With limited contact the party and the hobgoblins struggled for advantage. The goblins used reach but Shamash took the brunt of the attack reinforced by Adric and Destan. Fadris meanwhile slipped behind them using his ability to teleport and attacked them from the rear. The party was triumphant and quickly explored the small set of chambers before resting.

The area they had fought in appeared to be a small meeting room with a couple of adjacent offices. There were books piled haphazardly around. The books mainly dealt with goblin lore and they seemed focus on the idea of maternal goblin figures and mentions of ‘Great Mother’ in old goblin legends. The party also found some treasure including some healing potions. The toughest hobgoblins armor was also found to be magical although the party seemed wary of it’s strange necromantic properties.

After resting they continued on to find what they determined was the card catalog section. They again found signs that someone had been researching information about goblins. They also found signs that this was used as a barracks, but there were no goblins or hobgoblins present. They followed as passage out and set off an Eye of Alarm, a magical ward set to detect intruders. They steeled themselves for battle, but no one came. So after a time they tentatively explored more. After a turn in the corridor they spotted what appeared to be the core of the library. There was a huge circular room that seemed to span five stories. In the center was some construction of glass and crystal which spread natural light coming from a small tower above to the entire room. But this room was also filled with webs like those they had seen earlier.

Shamash decided to go forward to act as a scout. He quickly set off an ambush as spiders and strange spider like humanoids leap from the wall behind him splitting the party. One spider leapt into the midst of the band while the others converged on Shamash and quickly dropped him. They also sprayed the party with webs. With their lines broken, unable to maneuver effectively and without Shamash, the party was overcome and each was in turn cut down by the spiders creatures. Death took each one of them….

Shamash awoke under the touch of a Gold Dragon. The dragon awoke and told him that the spider creatures, the Ettercaps, had defeated him and his companions and they had been battling the goblins. Shamash asked that his friends be restored and the dragon did so. The party quickly realized that their benefactor seemed out of sorts. He seemed eager to talk, but was often vague on details easily becoming distracted by his own pronouncments. He talked about how he couldn’t leave and how the protection on this place was disappearing and he would soon die. He also led the party down a hall lined with statues of archers after speaking a few mystic words.

In the room at the end of the hall he showed them a large globe that mapped the leylines, the paths of magical energy and explained that they were shifting. Once the library had been over a leyline and it had powered that magical devices in this place, but now the leyline had shifted and things were failing. The dragon also spoke of Duke Laurant who had clearly visited and gained access to something, perhaps some forbidden knowledge. This failing weighed heavily on the dragons mind and thinking of his failure caused him to snap. After leading the players to a forbidden area he turned against them for entering that area. The gold dragon that had saved them from death only moments ago suddenly turned to attack them…
past some magical defenses he dismissed with a few words.

The band again emerged from the goblin barracks, (well equipped with stolen dragonborn beds), and continued on. They heard more goblin voices and some hissing from the next large door and opened it to find several goblins and several drakes chained to the walls. The goblins quickly released the drakes, but despite this, the battle proved easier than those they had fought previously and they handily defeated the goblins. In this room they found a ritual carved into the wall designed to allow a large creature to take on a humanoid shape for a period of time. The party saw little use for this, but decided to copy down the powerful ritual just on case.

They then continued on down towards the dummies were. They dummies seems to be discarded around an decorative archway that led into a large octagonal room that held a large gilded dragon statue surrounded on all sides by a desk. In front of the desk was a hedge of spikes.

Shamash approached a dummy since the party had planned to use them as lookouts in conjunction with the device they had discovered earlier. But as he reached down the dummy came to life and attacked. A bell attached to it alerted some hobgoblins that had been waiting behind they desk. They popped out and began to fire arrows at the party. The party quickly realized that the dummy only attacked when someone came close and while they finished off one Convey used his telekinesis to move the other to block the advance of the hobgoblin commander. The party also realized that the hobgoblins had attached sheets of paper to their arrows and when these pieces of paper passed beyond the archway they were flung back, in to the spikes. Luckily none of these arrows hit and the hobgoblin caster was unable to pull anyone into the waiting dummy. Shamash led a charge around the spikes and displayed how powerful his dragon breath had grown. Adric followed behind protected by Shamash and decapitated the hobgoblin castes while Fadris sniped them after teleporting behind them.

The party was successful and discovered that the staff wielded by the hobgoblin was magical, although they could not determine what it did. They also found a pile of romance novels that had been cut apart. One passage out of the room appeared to be clogged with webs and in front of it was a pool of oil like the one used to try and pen them into the goblin barracks.

After finding a bathroom and a small room containing other dummies they headed down a large corridor and spotted a pair of hobgoblins guarding a door… It seemed more conflict was inevitable.

Dear Beloved Parents Xarnash and Yaltax,
p. As Tarnash has likely shared with you, I am in the midst of purging a Dragonborn Stronghold (known as the Library of Jerudim) of its illicit goblin and hobgoblin invaders. We have been going room to room within the library, and meeting stiff resistance. We faced a room filled with acid-spitting drakes and their goblin tenders. Once again I had the displeasure of being injured by the same type of substance I have so often used attack my foes. We prevailed, and our tactics continue to improve. We begin to coordinate both our offensive and defensive abilities.

Next we entered an area that was heavily guarded by another group of goblin scourges and some automatons that were either controlled or attacked when we entered their vicinity. Again we used excellent tactics. We used their own men for cover from their ranged attacks, killed individuals quickly and resisted their spells. They attempted to use some of the library’s innate magics against us. They attempted to draw us into a barricade of spikes by attaching papers to their arrows that would pull us into their trap—-but we deftly avoided them.

Then I was blessed with a momentous gift. I used my breath on some of the villains, and the effect was twice as large as it has ever been! I engulfed four of them in my holy attack. We killed this crew, and begin to explore the surrounding area. It wasn’t long before we stumbled on what I believe is the room that contains the leader of this evil rabble. I pray that Bahamut grant me vengeance!

Having entered the library the party found a pair of large doors similar to the entrance door. Further down they saw a pair of collapsed humanoid figures that appeared to be wooden dummies with metal plates.

Listening at the doors they heard goblin voices behind one and decided to investigate. They quickly found a goblin barracks and began to wipe out a large pack of goblins. But these goblins had a trick. When some of the goblins were struck down other goblins used magic to cause their bodies to explode with poison. The party was then hard pressed to survive and barely managed come out victorious. Afterwards they investigated the room and Convery and Fadris found a strange device that seemed to let them look and hear through another position. They guessed that this allowed them to see through the eyes of the dummy. They later realized that the device would normally allow them to control the dummy, but that somehow the magic wasn’t working correctly.

Convey and Fadris also turned their attention to the large door and they were able to use a combination of their arcane talents, Fadris’s knowledge of devices, and Convey’s telekinesis to seal the door. This gave them a chance to rest and recover after the ordeal of ascending the peak and fighting their way into the library.

But the next day led them immediately into an ambush. They unsealed the doors to find a band of hobgoblins and bugbears waiting for them with a pool of oil blocking the doors. Seizing the opportunity the party leapt across the oil and quickly killed the hobgoblin caster. Their initial success quickly gave way to a tough battle as they were unable to get a good position and were forced to struggle between the powerful bugbears while being penned in by the now flaming oil. But they were able to be victorious although retreated back to safety after the fight to recover from the battle.