The group count their blessings as they wake after an
uneventful rest.
The group head back through the room with the assassins vine
ledge and into the room with the pool that they washed up in with a plan to
attempt to throw a rope and grappling hook up the shaft in the ceiling.
After many attempts Kyrander eventually manages succeeds at
getting the grappling hook to latch on to something in the shaft, after making
sure that the rope wouldn’t come loose Kyrander slowly started to climb up the
rope finding a trap door at the top of the shaft.
Carefully Kyrander opens the trap door and peeks through the
crack to find himself peering into a corridor of thorns. After the rest of the
group had made their way up the rope and through the trapdoor the notice that
the thorny passageway leads to either a courtyard or into the fellnight queen’s
palace.
They peered into the courtyard from the doorway in the
corridor and could make out the top of what must be a lavish water fountain in
the shape of an elven lady, as the group prepared to step through into the
courtyard Natalia noticed what she thought were living plants, rethinking the
idea the group decided to leave the courtyard alone and further investigate
further into the palace instead.
The door from the corridor leading into the palace opened
into what appeared to be the kennels were there was 8 worg’s currently in the
pens, the group tried to persuade the beasts to aid them in return for being
set free but the diplomacy failed which lead to the group easily dispatching
the creatures.
There was one door leading out of the kennels which lead
into the Barracks where there were a number of sleeping sprigans which was a
surprise considering the noise they had made in the previous room. Miro and
Kyrander snuck into the room and quietly dispatched of the slumbering
creatures.
As they pushed further into the palace they eventually find
themselves in a large circular room with a number of doors exiting the room
around the walls, in the centre of this room stood a grand staircase which lead
up to the next level of the palace, after some deliberation the group reckoned
that it made sense to fully investigate the doors first before heading up the
stairs.
Door after door left the group disheartened as each opened
into a small room no larger than a broom cupboard with nothing of interest or
note, with everywhere (minus the courtyard) explored on this ground level the
group decide to head up the stairs.
The stairs begin to spiral upwards and once our adventurers
reached the next level they had to decide on whether they should investigate
this floor or continue further up the stairs to whatever awaited above, opting
for the safer approach of making sure nothing could follow them upwards they
decide to tackle the 1st floor on the palace.
As they came off the stairs they instantly found themselves
standing in a rather long door-less passageway and off in the distance the
faint sounds of music could be heard, as they made their way along the
passageway they soon discovered that the passage split to the left and the
right. As they stood at the split the music was clearly louder and indicated to
what they thought was most likely a ballroom.
Miro and Kyrander decided to take a passageway each and
carefully snuck down them till they both came across a curtained doorway,
peering through the curtains both adventurers see a large ballroom filled with
dancers and a string orchestra but as they examined the crowd they could not
see anyone that could be identified as the “Queen” and made their way back to
the rest of the group.
Not wasting their time with the frolickers the group
continue up to the 2nd floor, again the floor wasn’t massive, a
couple of doors were dotted along the only passageway here and all but one
proved empty which started to confuse the group.
The final door had an interesting smell emanating from it,
as they opened the door they were looking at the palace kitchen where 2 Satyrs
were busy rustling up a feast which was obvious from the mountain of food on
the table. Just before Miro’s eager twitch turned into him drawing his sword
Vaneer stepped into the room bored of trail rations eagerly said “Any food
going spare?”, the Satyr’s looked at the cleric and then each other before
saying in common “Yeah, help yourselves” as one nodded to the table piled high
with delicious and weird looking foods.
Once Vaneer had confirmed that none of the food on the table
was poisoned the group spent an hour tucking into some delightful food and once
finished gave their compliments to the cooks before heading up to the 3rd
floor of the palace.
About halfway between the 2nd and 3rd
floors gently floating about 2cms off a step was a disk of energy, after much
wonder and discussion the idea came to the group that this disk was most likely
a way of accessing one of the palaces guard towers.
A plan was soon hatched but required that the group to find
the other disk for the other guard tower, Otto suggested that as the staircase
did split just before the 1st floor it was most likely in the same
position but on the right set of stairs. The group than found the 2nd
disk after a relatively short period of time, before splitting into 2 groups
Otto gave the group a casting of his Haste spell and both groups attacked their
respective guard towers.
Group 1 consisted of Kyrander, Otto and Vaneer to take the
east tower
Group 2 consisted of Natalia, Miro and Bob to take the west
tower
At the top of each of the towers were 4 sprigans whom were
not expecting their surprise visitors.
Otto starts the fray buy casting off a scoring ray, hitting
one target.
Miro jumps into the fight and gets a sneak attack in on one
sprigan almost killing it.
Vaneer Throws a flask of Alchemist fire at another sprigan.
Kyrander shoots of 3 flaming arrows, 1 sprigan dies whilst a
further 2 are injured.
Spot bites a sprigan but misses, the sprigan steps back and
laughs at the cheetah before realising that he had mistakenly stepped over the
tower boundary just as he began to fall to the ground.
Sprigan attacks Natalia and manages to poison her,
Sprigan attacks Miro but misses,
One of the sprigans fighting group 2 enlarges itself,
Sprigan attacks Spot and manages to poison the cat,
Another sprigan attacks spot and hits the cat,
Natalia uses flaming sphere to attack a sprigan but misses,
Otto casts scorching ray at one sprigan killing it,
Miro attempts to faint another sprigan but not only fails to
bluff the creature but also fumbles his weapon and drops its.
Vaneer smacks a sprigan in the face with his mace,
Kyrander attacks a crippled sprigan and kills it,
The enlarged sprigan hits Miro,
Another sprigan misses Miro,
Two sprigans misses Natalia,
Natalia's flaming sphere misses another sprigan,
Natalia begins to cast another spell,
Bob attacks a sprigan and hits,
Miro grabs his weapon from the floor but in the rush fails
to score a successful hit against his enlarged opponent,
The enlarged sprigan in return misses Miro,
Natalia successfully summons an eagle to aid her as it kills
a sprigan,
Natalia’s flaming sphere again misses its target,
Natalia then uses a flaming blade spell and injures another
sprigan,
Bob attacks the large sprigan and misses,
Miro finally lands the killing blow on the large sprigan
which thankfully shrinks back to its normal size as it collapses to the ground,
The two remaining sprigans now nervous at their fates fumble
their next attacks,
Natalia’s eagle injures one of the sprigans,
Natalia using both her flaming sphere and flaming blade manages
to dispatch the two remaining sprigans.
The group return to the staircase and re-group on one side
before proceeding to the next floor.
At the top of the stairs the group found a corridor with 3
doors and a set of double doors at the end, the first door lead into a corridor
heading east which hosted a further 3 doors all of which proved a
disappointment.
Back to the main corridor for the 3rd floor the
head to the next door up the corridor which opened onto a balcony where 4
sprigan’s were guarding the area, a very short fight ensued and the guards
were quickly dispatched.
The next door lead the group into the palace armoury where
the group found no items of interest.
This now only left the double doors, the group braced
themselves and pushed open the doors open. Beyond the doors was a large chamber
with a vaulted ceiling, dotted around the ceiling were hanging cages, each
caged contain a singing bird whom were chirping away in song. Near the sides of
the room where a small number of trees dotted along the room but no soil which
was noted as odd,
As the groups eyes looked upwards they could see that the
top of the vaulted ceiling was open and through the gap a perfect nights sky
could be seen with stars twinkling as if it were the middle of night outside
but clearly it wasn’t.
In the centre of the room stood a large polished mirror next
to a ebony throne, sitting on the throne and looking a little displeased at her
uninvited guests was the queen.
A quick verbal exchange took place between the Queen and the
group, the queen informs them that she needs the land of Dragonmere and she
will take it for it has energy that she must have. Though she admitted she
isn’t completely cold, in return for the group letting her have Dragonmere and
obviously Wyvernshore she would aid them in conquering the lands of Brevoy as
compensation.
The group looked confused and unsure about the offer till
Vaneer stepped forward pointing his mace towards the queen “No Deal!
Queenie!!!! Prepare for a royal spanking!” a number of sighs and groans emanated
from behind the cleric as his fellow adventurers took no delight in his
embarrassing retort.
Vaneer casts a shield of faith spell on himself,
Miro shoots at the queen but misses as he tries to hide from
her sight at the same time,
Kyrander shoots 3 arrows with only 1 hitting the queen,
Spot races in and bites the queen,
Natalia begins to cast a spell,
The Fellnight queen casts a fireball almost getting the
entire group minus Miro somehow,
Suddenly 3 dark patches of darkness appear in the ceiling as
3 air elementals appear and attack Miro, Spot and Miro but they miss all 3
targets,
Otto casts haste on the party,
Vaneer fails to cast a Holy smite on the queen and ends up
injuring Spot, Bob and an Air elemental,
Miro tumbles into the combat and misses the Queen,
Kyrander sets off another 3 arrows with one finding its
target again against the queen,
Spot attacks one of the air elementals and hits,
Natalia finishes her spell and summons 3 stirges to assist
in the fight as 2 of them manage to injure the queen straight away,
Natalia then casts a flaming sphere at the queen to only
singe her clothing,
Bob attacks and hits the queen,
The queen casts a spell and spot falls asleep,
Otto shouts to the group that the earlier fireball was only
an illusion,
Otto then cast a magic missile at the queen which had no
impact, he then shouted out that the queen herself was also an illusion and
that she was actually over there, pointing in direction of a tree on the
other side of the room,
Vaneer casts a prayer spell,
Miro tumbles towards the real queen and smashes a flask of
alchemists fire on the suspected tree,
Kyrander shoots at the same tree and hits twice,
Natalia moves her flaming sphere onto the tree,
Natalia also casts faerie fire at the tree which highlighted
the outline of the obviously now invisible queen,
The stirges let go of the illusionary queen and attacked the
real one,
The queen attempts to attack back but misses her targets
just as an area of darkness begins to cover the trees,
Otto casts fireball into the darkness hoping to hit,
Vaneer dispels the area darkness,
Miro attacks but misses,
Kyrander again shoots thrice but only hits twice,
Natalia starts casting another spell again as she rolls her
flaming sphere into hitting the queen,
Stirges attack the queen,
Bob kills one of the air elementals,
The queen casts a stinking cloud spell catching both Vaneer
and Natalia,
Air elemental misses Kyrander,
Otto casts glitter dust at the queen,
Vaneer attempts to crawl out from the stinking cloud and manages
to get to a window for some fresh air,
Air elemental misses Vaneer,
Miro attacks the queen and hits her with one of his three
swipes,
Kyrander shoots and hits the queen,
Natalia attempts to get out of the stinking cloud,
The queen casts fireball and manages to get everyone apart
Otto and Vaneer,
Otto casts magic missile at the queen,
Miro manages to land another blow on the queen,
Kyrander shoots and hits,
The queens evil cold eyes suddenly set upon Miro as she cast
another spell but the cheeky rogue managed to shake off the spells effects,
The stink cloud moves to encompass Miro and Kyrander,
Bob attacks another air elemental,
Vaneer tends to some healing on Kyrander,
Kyrander shoots again and hits,
The queen suddenly stares at Miro again,
Miro turns into a Mole!
Natalia attempts to turn Miro back from a Mole but her
efforts fail as if the universe didn’t want it to happen,
Otto casts magic missile at the queen dealing the final blow
to the royal fey, as she screams in death the queen picks up Miro the Mole and
throws the little critter towards a window only for the mole to smack into the
wall nearby and slowly slide down to the floor.
Before resting Vaneer sets to work healing the party as best
he can as the rest of the group set off exploring the queen’s chamber.
Hidden in the room was another set of stairs heading upwards
which the group soon found and decided to investigate to find the queens bed
chamber filled with even more song birds.
Another floating disk was in the centre of the queen’s bed
chamber but it was rose in colour. As the others debated about what waited in
the other tower where the disk obviously lead both Natalia and Vaneer went to
business of setting all of the birds free.
As the disk finishes raising the group find themselves as
expected in the final tower but what they hadn’t expected was the sight of
hundreds of crystals set into the floor.
Vaneer, Otto and Natalia put their magical knowledge
together and between them come to the assumption that these crystals are what
controls the barrier strength between their two worlds depending on how they
are arranged.
After more thinking the trio believed that they now knew
what layout was required to seal the portals again and as a precaution they
planned on taking a piece back with them to prevent anyone from messing with
the barriers again, the drawback….they’d have to shift bottoms quick before all
the portals closed, the perk! It should pull of the fellnight citizens back
through the portal.
In order to enact the re-strengthening Vaneer needed to
perform a 10 minute ritual along with the sacrifice of some magical items they
happened to have going spare, once the ritual was completed a mist begins to
roll over the fey lands just as the marauding sprigans start to re-appear in the
land. Seeing this the group race back as fast as they could muster reaching the
woodland in portal in time before it closed.
Standing back in the woods of Dragonsmere, the group breathe
a sigh of relief as in the distance a cheer of victory could be heard from the
home forces that had been fighting the invading force. It is then soon agreed
that for at least the next few years a small number of guardsman should be
stationed in the woods to keep an eye open should the portals be opened again.
The group and Miro the mole settle down in the woods to rest
before starting the trip back to Wyvernshore.
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