Adventure 17: More Anti-Paladins
Randy and Jim begin their training, it's only a week for them each, but still a hard slog. While they're away with their guilds, all is quiet on the vampire front.
Insorce, while visiting his church, was tipped off about an odd house in the Evorlen district of Cellam. This district is a slum that sits outside of the wall, and is densely populated. A beggar who had been staying in the Danethrae refuges in the city informed them of the house; he'd broken into it but had encountered a well-protected cellar door, so he backed off - this wasn't the usual kind of house in that neighbourhood. Out of interest he kept an eye on the building, and noted some knights going in and out. He notified the church, and they asked him a few questions.
From what the church could determine, these knights were very similar to the ones who'd chased the party when they had a wish-magic book a few months before. The house warrants investigation, there could be wish magic books here, but the church are reluctant to call in their own Paladins - a confrontation would almost certainly ensue, as these knights were anti-paladins. If no books were found there, the situation could become embarrassing for the church. The party volunteered to take a look; the church were keen not to be offering a reward, as then the party wouldn't be in their pay for this 'mission'.
Getting Inside
After a little nonchalant wandering around, flying over and generally taking it easy in that district, the party found the house, sized it up and devised a rough plan of attack. They left the area and returned in the evening; paying a visit to the next door's property they found the place inhabited by proletarian poor folk, and offered them 50 gold pieces to use their house for 24 hours. Being as short of cash as they clearly were, the humble peasants accepted, grabbed their other clothes and went off to an inn for the night.
As all the houses of the street appeared identical, the party used this opportunity to familiarise themselves with the layout. The cellar here was very small, little more than a cold pantry with some small amounts of food in it. Whatever next door had done in their cellar, they felt it would be very different to this.
Shortly after midnight, the party made their move. With the aid of the Druid's magic, they bent the wooden supports in the adjoining wall, and tore a hole in the plaster. This was a really easy entrance. Once inside, the headed for the main living room, across from their hole at the bottom of the stairs. In this room they encountered four guards. They put up little resistance, and were cleanly dealt with by Formil backed up by Randy's Magic Missile spell.
Formil pushed his head through the kitchen door, and was narrowly missed by a swinging ladle. The cook fell to the floor, he had no time to rue his mistake.
Next they moved on to the locked metal door. Jim had the first go at it, but couldn't open it; then Randy stepped forward. His new Knock spell was designed for this situation. It opened the door easily.
Formil flew down the steps, swiftly followed by the others led by Randy. The cellar here was much larger than the one next door; there were two chambers too. In the first chamber at the front of the house they found three foes, all in banded mail. Two wielded rapiers, one had a mace.
At the bottom of the stairs, Formil paused for a moment. To his surprise, the enemy began talking; the party were told how unwelcome they were and asked to leave the house. Formil isn't good at talking - he stuttered an inelegant response, and rapidly became bored with the chit-chat. He dived into the fray; as he did so an invisible magic user cast a spell at the dwarf, causing his invisibility spell to end, but it didn't stop the advancing Formil, who now marched straight for the wizard. The fight took just a few moments. Behind Randy, Jim vaulted the banister to the cellar stairs, and joined the fight. The party took a few knocks, but they breezed through it in the end.
A quick search of this cellar showed some interesting changes to the original cellar layout. The room at the front of the house, at the bottom of the stairs had a simple wooden bench running around it; on the bench was one of the wish magic books. This appeared to be the same one the party had dragged from the wilderness many months before.
The back room appeared to be lined with some kind of metal, and there was a strange magical residue in there. Randy went in to take a closer look; while he was examining the walls, rocks started to rain down from the ceiling. As each rock hit the ground it seemed to melt, evaporating into the air. Randy left the room, eventually the rock fall stopped and the gnome gingerly tried to resume his search. Next the room began to fill with water, which emptied just as quickly at it filled. They gave this up, and taking the book (and one or two suits of magical banded mail) they headed back to the surface.
They tried to straighten out the damaged wall as well as they could, and they left an additional 10gp to help cover the costs of repairs. They returned to their own inn for what remained of the night.
Taking the Book
Late the next morning the party took the book to the Church of Danethrae. The senior priests were really pleased to see them, and were surprised that they'd recovered a book. If they'd known about the book, they say, they'd have sent their paladins in. There was no way the Cellam church could keep hold of the book, but they told the party about the Callenhall church of Danethrae, where they had built a special secure building to house these books. The church leaders suggested that the party take the books there; they even offered a Paladin escort if the party desired it. This kind offer was declined and the party returned to their inn where they could discuss their travel plans.
It was eventually decided that they would try to use Insorce's clerical spell Wind Walk to try and cover the journey quickly. The only problem here is that the cleric isn't powerful enough to let them all travel this way at the same time. It was agreed that Fax could use his Druid shape change power to travel the distance as a bird, while this would slow the party up quite a bit, it would still be quicker and easier than walking (at least for the non-druids...)
They settled down for the evening, deciding to leave the following day to give them as much travelling time as they could.
During the night Insorce kept watch over the door to the party's suite. In the early hours of the morning he saw the door to their room silently and slowly begin to swing open. It looked like someone was after the book, so he turned to rouse Formil from his slumber. This is never a quiet task, and by the time Formil was awake enough to look across the room, the door was closed and locked. Formil doubted what the cleric claims he saw.
An hour or so later Insorce noticed that the room had begun to get cloudy. He noticed too late to prevent the Vampire from attacking before he'd awoken the other dwarf again, and ended up in a hand to hand fight with it. Jim, Randy and Fax woke swiftly and joined in the melee. Eventually Formil joined in with the fighting, and brought it to a swift conclusion. The others, particularly Insorce, had been hit several times; this would delay their departure in the morning.
Fixed Up and Travelling
The next morning the party headed back to the church of Danethrae. They'd wanted to set out but they really had to sort out the effects of the vampire. It took several hours for everyone to recover, but they still moved on. They wanted to put as much distance between themselves and any of Cellams vampires as they could. They also needed to hurry before more rogues turned up trying to take away the book they'd worked so hard to get hold of.
They discussed their plan once more, and headed out onto the road. They knew they really should drop in and see Earl Browley at Eversham on the way through, but they really had no new information for him. They went north following the western route; Fax lead the way, as he had to flap. The others took their time following him as they Wind Walked their way.
Callenhall
Arriving at the city of Callenhall a few days later, they dropped close to the road maybe a mile out of town. They wanted to avoid raising any peasant eyebrows, and chose a safe place to land and turn off their magic. Even Fax changed back to his normal human form, and as he rubbed his aching shoulders he lead his friends up towards the road. By late afternoon they were inside the town and made their way up to the church building.
The meeting with the elders of the church went well; the party were honoured for their heroic deed, and the chief Priest for Callenhall was delighted and impressed. He showed the party round the new wing they were having built to house these wish magic books - the chamber was partially underground, and the walls looked like they might be quite thick when they're finished. But they weren't finished. The builders had expected another two weeks or more building before the place would be ready, so the clergy asked the party politely if they'd keep hold of the book until their facility was ready. The party were only too pleased to volunteer their help.
That night, while staying in their inn, the party were once more attacked by rogues. They handled this fight well, but were not looking forward to two weeks of being attacked during the night by idiots who desperately wanted the wish magic books.
A discussion over breakfast drew all to the same conclusion - it would be better to keep moving with the books. Fax wamted to hide out in the wilderness, but the others decided that he would be bound to say something like that - he's a druid. They did have other things they could do; a trip to Eversham was in order at some point, they had reached the point where an update to Earl Browley was probably due. This was a meeting that they didn't really look forward to, as they had no progress to report. But with cash supplies banked with various guilds, sects and churches in the city, they figured it was probably a good place to go, and it kept them moving.
After breakfast they set out. More Wind Walking from the cleric and a druid flying at Eagle's pace had them within fifteen miles of the city by the end of the day. They landed and camped out in the wilderness; they were sure nobody would find them out there. For once they were right, and the next morning they chose to walk the fifteen miles into town. The druid protested, he'd flown sixty miles the day before and was feeling a little tight between the shoulders. They convinced him walking would be better than taxing his poor shoulders again, and by early afternoon they arrived.
Eversham
Their first stop off was at the Earl's city home. They booked an appointment with him, and hung around - they were only waiting for an hour, the Earl must have been pretty keen to see them.
When Browley finally invited them into his study, he gave them a grilling. He was somewhat concerned that there had been no progress, although he was told of the vampire that had been haunting the party. On the one hand he saw this amusing - but of course it meant that vampires were now at large in the community. He urged the party to get this problem sorted out, and quickly.
Next he told them of developments his end. He'd been contacted by drow traders recently who were interested in getting their hands on Charles Derren. They'd volunteered to handle the matter free of charge too - but Browley was wary of their intentions, and it has been a week and he'd given them no reply. The party suggested that they meet with the drow and see if there was anything that The Underdark could contribute to their search.
Browley also told the party of a professional vampire hunter he'd been in correspondence with, Baron Constantin Von Heuran, who has a smallholding just outside of Malberina, in Jorlinum of the former Empire. He'd offered his services following a recommendation from one of the nobles at court in Cellam, as a professional he'd need to be paid, but his work was of the highest quality, he had claimed.
The party knew now they'd have to get some results on this matter or their reputation, and possibly any further progress up the Feudal ladder would be jeopardised. Leaving Browley for the evening they returned to The Man and a Half inn where they usually stayed in Eversham, and then ran into an old friend in the bar.
The recognised the face of the man waving to them; it was the wizard they'd 'rescued' from the clutches of the Gelmhorst Verubin's anti-paladins as he raced across the wilderness in the direction of Caldonacia. Despite killing his colleagues, the party had saved his life - there was no way the Barnin Onaga, whom he worked for, would have been able to hold on to the Wish Magic book he was carrying. The man's name was Wesley Ferran, and needed only slight reminding.
Wesley had heard of some of the recent goings on with the Gelmhorst Verubin, how the party has stolen a Wish Magic book from their secure cellar in Cellam, and how they'd taken it to the church of Danethrae in Callenhall. He didn't know if they'd taken it yet, but he didn't really care; he'd been assigned to new duties, and was hoping to keep away from the actual books from now on. He'd been assigned to some work in Nuneith and had come looking for the party to renew his friendship and to pass on what little information he had. He told them that his group, the Barnin Onaga, had a team out looking for the book, and hence they were looking for the party. If the Onaga had a team out doing this, then it would probably be a safe assumption that the Brudagia had a team looking too. He told them that he'd heard the Gelmhorst Verubin were not just looking for the books, but were actively on the party's warpath.
Of all the things Wesley told them, none were as useful as the next piece of information. He told them that he'd heard of the location of where another Wish Magic book was being kept. He'd not even told his own sect about this one, he feared that he'd be sent after it himself. The book was in the keeping of the Gelmhorst Verubin, in the care of the same anti-paladins that had chased the party and he across the wilderness from Caldonacia to the Elfish land east of Ticetia. The Verubin had set up another secure facility, similar to the one the party had turned over recently, at 15 Brook Antaurus Street in Malberina, Jorlinum, in the Former Empire.
The party spent the rest of the evening enjoying beer with Wesley before he left The Man and a Half to return to his own inn later in the evening. He promised to stay in touch whenever he was in the area. The party retired to bed, but they chose to use double watches. They wanted to be sure they still had the book in the morning; they needed to get it to Callenhall in a week or so, but in the meantime they wanted to see the Earl again - a short meeting with the Drow would be nice; and they planned to go visit Von Heuran on the Earl's behalf.
A Professional Hit
During the night the party elected to have double watches. Insorce the cleric could cover most of the night as he only needed two hours sleep. The others took it in turns to cover the watch alongside the cleric.
Very late in the night, with dawn not far from the east and with Formil and Insorce on watch, there was a movement at the windows of the suite in which the party stayed. Formil saw the window move out the corner of his eye. He leapt to his feet and ran over, just in time to see a small glass vial being thrown into the middle of the room. The vial broke, a cloudy gas escaped, and Formil just couldn't hold his breath quickly enough. He just managed to wake Randy before the sleeping gas took hold. As the gas billowed across the rooms, Randy tried to wake the others while Insorce kept a careful eye on the door and the windows; the gas stung their eyes and they struggled to breath, but somehow they kept going.
A few seconds later the door to their suite gently opened, a dark hooded figure slipped in and move across the room to Insorce. The intruder and the dwarf squared up to each other in the doorway to one of the bedrooms, and fighting commenced. The intruder used some kind of poison on his blade, which sapped Insorce when he was hit. Randy summoned a Fire Beetle which stood behind the Rogue and joined in the fight. After a moment of intense fighting, punctuated by Randy's Magic Missle, the Rogue tried to flee through the window, but didn't get far. The Beetle scythed him down as he ran.
Randy and Insorce still couldn't wake the others from their drug-induced slumber, and had to wait until morning, guarding the others as well as they could. When dawn broke they caught one of the inn's runners and sent him down for the inn owner. They made sure he knew they'd been attacked during the night.
Eventually Brian Rivermeek, the owner of the inn arrived in the party's room. He was concerned about the break-in, but he let the party know that he'd called the guard. He was concerned about any damage to his inn, and was as helpful as he could be without actually admitting any liability.
A sergeant of the Kings Guard arrived at last, and was a familiar face; he'd been involved with the party before when they'd been involved in a robbery from the church of Pendaroch in the city (and later showed that the party had been acting to protect the church). He was concerned that an attack had taken place, and gathered as much detail as he could, but as the intruder had failed in his task, and the matter had been resolved by the party there seemed little point in spending too much time investigating here. He'd seen the glass from the vials, and the party members still drugged into repose, and decided that removing the body was all that was required.
It was nearly lunchtime when the sleep effects began to wear off. For a while the party were quite drowsy, but a good strong breakfast cleared away the last of the fog. They wanted to know who had been involved, so Jim took a walk to his old guild, the South Vale Thief Guild. Initially they weren't interested in speaking to him until he'd brought his guild fees up to date. That cost 120gp. After that they were helpful, but when they mentioned that people were after his party, he was taken into a back room to discuss further.
It took a little bribery as the senior rogue didn't really want to tell anyone the truth, it could have repercussions for him. He'd seen the job against the party come down a few days ago. They'd ignored it, it had no specific time on it, and it related to Jim, who was still considered a member of the guild - so they wouldn't normally act against him anyway. The job had been put out by The Mathada Rebrecht. They were interested in something the party carried, but were very vague about what it was. He couldn't really tell them any more.
A Second Meeting with the Earl
Despite being made to wait, the party went to see the Earl once more. They now had a Plan. They told Earl Browley that they'd be happy to meet with the Drow before he made any decisions; they needed to know if there would be any benefit from working with them on the Vampire issue. He told them that he was expecting a visit in a couple of days and invited them to attend that meeting.
They also told him of the Wish Magic book in Malberina, and how they thought that wish magic was somehow important to the Vampire chase. Browley was concerned that this matter had developed from being one of a single Vampire to one of being a Vampire Cult. The party told him that they would be able to visit Baron Constantin Von Heuran while they were in Jorlinum, and if he was serious about being helped, they could handle this negotiation for him. He promised to write a letter when they were preparing to leave, but he knew that they'd not be going until the book that they currently carried was delivered to Callenhall.
Despite some disturbing developments the Earl seemed to accept most of what the party told him as progress on the matter. He was still concerned, though, that there had been no reports of Derren's whereabouts or any news of Magnus Elberman.
Another Professional Hit
There was some discussion about where the party should stay for safety overnight. It was eventually decided that it didn't matter; those that were hunting the books had plenty of resources, and wherever they hid they'd have the same problems defending their territory. They chose to stay in the suite they had become used to. They nailed the shutters closed on the windows and prepared for another night with a double watch.
They retired downstairs and ordered food; but even this didn't go as planned. Someone tried to poison the party. Jim was violently ill, but the others escaped unscathed; dwarves in particular have a hardy constitution. Insorce cured the poison in Jim's system, and the others investigated the cook and table service. The kitchens of The Man and a Half are kept in good clean condition, but the waiter who'd brought their dinner out was not among the staff who'd been pulled together at the party's request. It seems they'd found out how they'd been poisoned; they ordered fresh food, this time they were careful about who cooked it and who brought it out.
After their short evening in the bar, they retired early. They'd not been asleep long before someone tried to get into their room. Insorce and Fax were on watch and they both hear the scratching at the window. Someone was outside trying to open the shutter. As they'd been nailed shut, they knew this wouldn't be possible without making plenty of noise, but they braced themselves just in case. Formil was woken and the three stood guard. After a moment the scraping stopped, and all went quiet. After a couple of moments, Formil returned to bed.
Three quarters of an hour later, with Insorce and Fax still on watch, they heard someone working at the lock on the door. They hurriedly woke the others, who prepared for a defence. Randy used his Invisibility spell on Formil, who then waited by the door. Jim ducked into the shadows in the area that would be hidden by the door when it opened, and the others lay in wait to the side, just inside the bedroom.
They were just ready as the door slowly opened. The hooded figure the other side of the doorway leaned into the room as he opened the door, and threw an object around the door and toward the bedroom. The object was fizzing. Formil stepped in front of the rogue and hit him with his axe. There was a moments shock, Jim stepped out from behind the door and shot at the rogue too, who stepped neatly to the side. As he did so he was confronted by Randy's Fire Beetle. The Rogue was not alone this time, though. His place was taken by a tough-looking fighter wearing banded mail and carrying a longsword. He swung at Formil and hit, but made little impact. Formil's next attack dealt a massive blow. The fighters, now aware of the defensive position the party had organised, turned to flee. The Rogue also tried to flee, but was hacked down by a combination of the Fire Beetle and Formil's Axe.
Eventually staff of the Inn turned up at the scene (there was clearly fighting involved, so it paid not to arrive too soon, certainly not until the sound of falling blows had finished). The guests were calmed down, the body removed, the Kings Guard placated, and the party were allowed to complete their nights rest. Another attempt for the book had been dealt with severely.
Many Meetings
The following morning the party sat together in the quiet of their room discussing ways that they could defend themselves. The clerical spell Glyph of Warding still seemed to be the best approach. This required careful planning and measurement of the windows and the door in their suite.
They also discussed what to do next. They remembered that they had a meeting with the Earl and the Drow visitors about vampires, this wasn't due until the following day, they were not keen on spending another night with interrupted sleep.
That afternoon they were surprised to receive visitors; businessmen too, by the reports of the reception staff in the inn. They made their way down to lobby, and took the two burly but well-dressed gentlemen into one of the inn's business meeting rooms. This was highly unusual for them. Their guests introduced themselves as Mr Carlyle Bailey and his associate Mr Ellis McCaub. They seemed to work for a busy commercial 'firm'. They were reasonably clear about what they desired, although no direct names were given either for the book the party carried or the organisation they worked for. They offered 10,000 gp for the wish magic book in the party's possession. This sparked off a debate, both with the businessmen and between the party themselves. The money was of little interest to them - but they were unwilling to part with the book, which they'd promised to give to the church of Danethrae.
The discussions continued, the request for the book turned into an offer to loan the book for two months. The price was also raised, to 15,000 then 17,000 gp. The party were adamant that they would not turn it over, but asked for time. Mr Bailey pointed out that not giving in to the offer would see their organisation plough more and more resource into recovering the item from them. They'd handled their visitors so far, but they would continue to become much stronger opponents, and the resolve of the party has already caused the organisation to attempt a different approach to make everyone's lives easier. If they cannot negotiate, then matters would become much worse very quickly. The organisation, Mr Bailey pointed out, had considerable resources at its disposal. They could protect the party, and ensure nothing untoward happened to them or their book.
The party asked for a little time to consider the offer. Mr Bailey seemed to agree that careful consideration of the offer was good; they agreed that two days would be enough, and that they would return to meet with the party after that time. They left, and the party returned to their rooms to discuss what they'd been offered. They were still adamant, no deal was to be done - they'd already agreed with the church of Danethrae, and they were not in the business of breaking their word.
That night their sleep was uninterrupted. The party had taken the trouble of ensuring their room was guarded with glyphs of warding, but these were just not needed.
The next morning they returned to Earl Browley's office where the party were to enter into discussions with the Drow. They were shown in straight away, Browley had been waiting for all parties to arrive before they all sat down.
The drow trader they met was already known; they'd met him when they had tracked dark wooden crates to Shan-Habar. He had little to say that the party had not heard before. He offered his free help in finding and catching Charles Derren; the party were eventually wary. At first they were ready to accept all drow help without limits, but a fit of apoplexy from the Earl curbed this talk.
Browley took Jim and Insorce to one side to discuss the 'finer details' of the proposal, and told them clearly that they were to make no deals with drow until they'd been checked out. Drow were not trustworthy, and were surely here in town for their own gain. Whether there was anything in the deal for the people of Nuneith was irrelevant to them. The Earl was adamant that there should be no deal with these people unless their goals were transparent, and they couldn't be sure that was true. He didn't bring the party to this meeting to agree to work with the drow, he could have done that deal himself weeks before, the party were here to help him understand the motives of the drow. The talks resumed, and a change of tack from Jim saw them agree to keep an open mind, and to consider working with the Drow if their own schedule allowed it. They kept the door to future co-operation open, and the drow trader pointed out that he'd be staying in Eversham for the time being while he investigated this matter himself.
The morning had dragged on, the drow meeting had been enlightening for Browley, and the party had been discouraged from doing business with them. There were many things that had to be achieved, but the door was open if the vampire situation became desperate enough for the party to seek the drow's help. It was afternoon when the meeting broke up. The party decided to head back to their inn for some lunch and more thoughts. On the way across City Square out of the Earl's palace and towards the Calund bridge, the party were accosted. Formil, lagging behind the others became aware of someone walking behind him, trying to catch up. He hurried to the others and let them know. Stopping outside a shop, the man spoke. Formil is not the most eloquent of people, and struggled somewhat with the initial exchange. The man clearly wanted to talk, and wanted to do so with out drawing much attention to himself. Formil had destroyed that hope.
The took the man back to their inn, the Man and a Half had business meeting rooms, and they took him inside of there. It turned out that the man was a representative of an organisation that had been at odds with the party before. He had come from The Valtannarin Ennethdor. The party held themselves in check for a few moments as he explained that they had similar goals to the party. They'd recovered the body of a vampire for a particular reason, and although he didn't explain them, he did point out that they did not intended for the vampire to be woken just yet. The Ennethdor were keen to find the vampire, and they knew the party are too. Although they have different purposes, they felt that there may be some common purposes. They knew the party had been duped, and that the work they'd done before in getting to the vampires body was just a professional matter. He explained that while some individuals in the Ennethdor may have personal issues with the party, the organisation itself had no axe to grind here - and they felt that there may be scope for the party to work with the Ennethdor to put right the problems that were now arising.
The party were somewhat taken aback by all this. They'd not expected the Valtannarin Ennethdor to still be pursuing their plans. As with the drow, the party didn't trust these people. They agreed that there could be scope to work together, but if it were to happen at all it wouldn't be immediate. They mentioned that they were unsure about the trustworthiness of the Ennethdor, and that they'd have to prove their intentions before the party would commit to helping.
Their visitor left, and the party continued their discussion. They didn't want to work with the Drow or the Ennethdor at this time, but they had more important matters to deal with. They had The Mathada Rebrecht arriving for a meeting the following afternoon; they decided that rather than meet them and say 'no' to handing the book over and starting a fight, they'd achieve more if they just weren't around in the city.
Wind Walking
An early start the next morning saw the party find a way to stay out of the way of the Mathada Rebrecht. Fax headed back to Segellian, his homeland, he had matters to attend to of his race. This freed the others up to use Insorce's Wind Walk spell to transport them many miles away. The next several days were spent flying on the wind from wilderness to wilderness, completely out of the sight of (and untraceable by) the Mathada Rebrecht.
During these days they saw little bits of the land that many travellers do not see. They visited The Bemiris Khinat Delve, Teprus Island south of Ticetia and encountered giants and bugbears and other wild creatures.
The biggest surprise came a week into their journey when they headed for the large woodland right in the centre of Arthea. Landing among the trees was easy, but they found themselves surrounded by the wood elves of Denalia. If Fax had been here, he'd have been filled with wonder. To the others, they knew so little of the place they did not know where they were.
The party made contact with the elves and they found them easy to deal with. Indeed they took the opportunity to speak with some fo the senior elves of the land. As first they met with Saishia Summasta, who's wisdom was in demand from many of her people. After the meeting with her, the party waited a few days longer for a meeting with Hashud Elara, who was reputedly the oldest of the elders of the encampment, and pre-dated the disaster.
Both these meetings had provided some insight into the party's quest. The elves knew little of vampires, but they did understand some of the threat the party faced. They suggested that the vampire in question seemed capable of walking in political circles, and that they should try to find out which political circles he is moving on.
The party showed a raft of documents to Elara; they had books and prophecy and snippets of poetry that they had gathered together. He could make little sense of it all - but as elves might do, he told them that any prophecy would deny their free will. Elves do not believe such things. While there are ways to foretell the future, future events are not set in stone the way that the past is; changes to the present can change the future.
Back to Civilisation
Leaving the elves the party headed back towards Ticetia. This was quite a long journey, and would take two long Wind Walk spells to achieve. The mid point of the journey was taken by the lake of Mirazan that leads to the entrance to the dwarfish Bemiris Khinat Delve. The party stayed many miles from the delve entrance; they seemed apprehensive about moving among people again with the time they were to deliver the book being so close.
During the night the camp was approached by a pair of Dire Bears, who seemed to be hunting for food and had sniffed out the party. Formil, who was on watch, lead the assault. He ran at the bears and attacked but was surprised by the ferocity of their response. Hungry bears can be a dangerous opponent indeed. He fell immediately. Tthe others were now mostly awake and joined in the combat. Randy took control of the bears by surrounding them with his Summon Monster magic. Celestial bison appeared, these hemmed in the bears, and kept them occupied while the others attacked with their ordinary weapons. During the fighting, Insorce managed to get close enough to Formil to save him, and eventually the bears fell.
The next morning the camp was moved; the party decided that their campsite was too exposed and they sought somewhere else. By evening Formil was recovered from his wounds and took his turn at the watch. This was just as well as their camp was attacked by Ettins towards morning. This time the fight went better, and the Celestial Bison came to aid once again. Another night was spent resting and recovering from the fight.
The next day it was time to return to civilisation. The friends used Wind Walk once more to speed the journey. They arrived in Callenhall late on that afternoon, landing outside the city and walking the final few hundred yards to prevent the locals being upset by the magic use. A meeting with the church of Danethrae was quickly organised, and after a flying inspection of the secured underground facility the book was handed over. A small cash reward was handed over, but it was barely compensation for the pain and suffering the party had been through protecting the book.