[Alliance] Chapter Two: Session Seventeen
August 1st / August 2nd
0:00
Vincent goes shopping for potions and ingredients to refine the spider venom Gil gave him into a viable toxin.
Tess heads over to the Company of Dusk to inform they she was going to be leaving. The mistress asks her what had happened in the city, as rumors said some of the satellites at the school had fallen. Tess confirms it’s true. She then tells her that she was going to be leaving, and the mistress admits she had a feeling, as “mysterious human travelers” tend to not remain around for long.
The mistress hands her a small coinpurse with the remainder of her owed pay, and informs her she is always welcome if she’s back in the area.
Vel, meanwhile, approaches Enrian’s family. Their estate is very close to Duskwither itself, and she makes a small trek there. It’s a slightly below average-sized manor. It’s quiet as she approaches. She knocks on a silver knocker on the front door in the shape of a wolf’s head.
She is greeted by a steward, who goes to see if the lord and lady of the house are available to speak. As Vel waits, she sees a woman crying as she is escorted by a servant to another room. The servant returns, and informs her the lord and lady will speak with her for a moment. As they pass through several portraits, Vel notes one that may be an elder brother to Enrian.
She meets with the Lord and Lady Silverfall, and after apologizing for disturbing them, asks if they had considered resurrection magic. They said the cost would ruin them, on top of the fact they would have to find a priest capable of doing such.
Vel states she’s willing to donate 300gp as well as offer a connection with a priest that could help them. They are astounded, and Lady Silverfall tries to deny the offer given how much money it actually is, but Vel simply responds that “Money is a renewable resource. Lives aren’t.”
Lord Silverfall seems to be suspicious of the fact she has such money and connections, but he and his wife accept the donation with thanks, and begin preparations to make a trek to Silvermoon.
As she is shown out by the servant, he comments on the nobility of her actions, and that it was a great kindness they had shown them. As Vel leaves the estate, she sees the woman that she had observed crying early, still tearful, but holding a pendant and thanking something repeatedly for the kindness that had been expressed this day.
0:39
Late Afternoon, August 2nd
The group is getting ready to leave Duskwither. They fabricate a plan as to what’s going to happen next. The group ultimately splits, with the party plus Arator going to the runes to the east, while the rest are going to the runestones to the west.
1:02
The party group opts to go through the mountains, heading south toward the runestones. They opt to travel by night, and lay low by day, as they can’t make a fire without drawing a lot of attention and night is the more dangerous time to sleep without a fire.
They make camp around 7, intending to sleep until around 3am and then continue on. Uther and Gil are on first watch. They get to watch the sunset trickle through the trees.
1:20
Gil talks with Uther.
Gil: “I have some concerns.”
Uther: “Concerns? What about?”
G: “Your recent behavior, actually.”
U: “I’m more than happy to address any you might have.”
G: “I understood you took the paladin oath, right? But I think you sometimes forget you are the heir.”
U: “Ahh… And my apparent lack of interest in self-preservation troubles you.”
G: “Not just that. You also seem to be having some problems when people address you about that issue. You have been coming across as rather dismissive.”
U: “Dismissive?”
G: “I know it will come as no big shock to you, but Vel does talk to me. In particular, she’s worried about you. And frustrated. She brought concerns up to you and you… flirted with her, and as far as she had taken it, you hoisted the responsibilities of your actions on her.”
U: “That was… certainly not my intention.”
G: “I had figured, but that’s why I’m bringing it up to you. It’s… certainly something that needs to be addressed, one way or another. I think we both know that it isn’t good for people to even think a leader is hoisting their responsibilities on other people.”
U: “This, um… apologies, this comes as a, um, bit of a shock.”
G: “I kind of figured. You’re not a bad person, and you’re trying to be a good leader, but you’re also 19 and inexperienced. Mistakes happen.”
U: “Thank you for telling me. I’ll address thing with her personally.”
Gil also tells Uther that he may be better off speaking to Vel as if he was speaking to Ashwynn, as they operate similarly. Uther gets a strange look on his face. As if something broke momentarily. But he relents that’s a good approach.
Uther also admits that Gil has made some frustratingly good points, and it was something he would work on. Gil had given him a lot to think about. He thanks Gil for his counsel.
Nothing else of note happens during the rest of the watches.
1:31
August 3rd
Gil harvests food while they go. While he is scouting, he finds a statue under some foliage. He points it out to Vel, and she notes that it seems well-worn, but she is able to make it out as some sort of troll statue. She is unable to determine any sort purpose for it, however.
Fortunately, their travel is not interrupted by anything. They make camp in a small, sheltered grove with a cave. Vel sets up an alarm spell a small distance away.
The watches are, once again, uneventful.
1:46
Early August 4th
By the end of their travels, they make it to the bank of the river. They try to continue trekking on, and manage to find a shallower section of the river to cross. Vel makes herself and Uther, as the most recognizable members of the group, invisible, and Gil uses Pass without Trace.
As they cross, they actually don’t see any fishermen. Which is… interesting. Gil notices a curious splashing nearby. As he glances down, he sees something swimming. And then he feels a weight on his foot. A small fuzzy, black face with matted wet fur pokes its head out of the water with a fish in its mouth. It’s a baby bear, curiously looking up at him.
They keep going, away from the baby bear. And Gil sees a small group of black bears in the distance, lumbering in the distance. There are two adults, and a few other cubs. One of them is sniffing the air, looking for something.
Vel moves closer, still invisible, as the cub is trying to follow Gil. Upon sensing her, it growls, feeling suddenly uncomfortable.
Gil: “Whatever you’re doing, you’re making it scared. That’s bad.”
Vel: “But it won’t follow you. Now go.”
The baby bear goes back to the shore and is reunited with its family, which watches the group warily. The group continues on, and finds a grove to camp in. They decide to go through the last cluster of hills before the runestone, instead of going around.
During first watch, Gil sees two dragonhawks soaring high overhead with three smaller dragonhawks flying behind them. The group leaves by around 6pm.
2:00
They pass through a moonlit forest as they enter the evening. There seems to be movement out of the corners of their eyes.
Vincent asks, sarcastically, if the forest is “magical” and then comments that he sees movement.
Gil: “...and now it knows we know, though seeing an arrow hasn’t been fired at us, I’m gonna assume it’s not a Farstrider.”
Gil uses primeval awareness, and beyond who he should sense, he senses no humanoids aside from those several miles out. Uther uses Divine Sense, and he sense a presence. There’s an area that has been desecrated in some capacity. Just the tip of it, at the very edge to the northwest.
Gil uses Pass without Trace, and Vel then turns herself and Gil invisible.
As they approach, it seems the plants have started to wither and die in the area. It reminds them of the blighted ground they had seen before, back south of Quel’thalas when Arator was kidnapped.
They continue on. Everything is completely silent. They see a great tree up ahead., and amidst the tree, the first thing they notice is a decayed body slumped against the tree. It’s a corpse of a troll, that seems to have been some sort of holdout from Zalazane’s forces.
They creep closer, and they realize the bodies are not alone. In the great tree, there are corpses of more trolls scattered around.
Vel starts to examine the body, and there are a number of causes of death. It seems the necrolyte they first saw was bludgeoned to death by… something, and the tree itself seemed to start growing into the bodies.
Vel immediately moves back, and they see the tree moving faintly, clasping a hand over her mouth to protect her from a sudden wave of stench. Vincent fires an arrow immediately, and it embeds itself in the flesh of the tree. The bark falls away, revealing a fleshy, decaying troll body.
Gil also fires off a series of arrows, which peppers into the creature. It lurches forward with a surprising amount of swiftness, its roots uprooting, and its lashes out with its vines at Vel. She realizes, as the vines scrape against her, there’s a dark ichor that wipes off on her skin. Vel wipes the ichor off, only to get slammed by the tree itself and knocked prone.
Another vine clunks into Uther, but it is knocked aside ineffectively. Meanwhile, a dead troll sloughs off the tree, and goes for Uther.
Vel scrambles back to Vincent, and then fires off a frost nova with a wave of her hand. Her tattoos flare to life, and cool breath falls off her lips as a runic snowflake draws itself beneath the tree and zombie and a column of cold air juts upward.
Tess jumps on the zombie, eliminating it, and Uther smites against the tree itself, lighting it up with holy light. The tree starts to twitch and wither, slowed by the rime upon it, and Arator follows up, carving straight through the creature with holy flames. The tree crumbles, the corpses becoming disconnected and sloughing off as it ceases its movement.
10:46
Gil examines the situation, and he has a feeling...whatever it was died here, and the ambient necrotic energies from it and the other necrolytes, and inhabited the tree, feasting on other bodies.
How it died, however, it’s not sure, but Vel looks further, aided by Vincent. It seems it was killed by something large, like a great club or other bludgeoning object.
Or branches.
Gil looks around, and he sees a lot of other faint movements. He has a feeling that the necrolyte before them, and them, had stumbled on a grove of what may have been treants.
Vincent tries to harvest the tar-like poison, but is unsuccessful. Meanwhile, Vel gathers some of the soil and bits of bark, and stashes it away to send to the Kirin Tor.
Gil then uses sacred flame on the tree, burning the tree and the zandali corpses as well. He then says they need to leave, as the fire is going to serve as a beacon of some sort.
Gil gets a sense that a lot of the trees in the grove are watching them as they leave, but they seem content, at the very least.
2:55
They push themselves a bit in order to get some distance between them and the giant flaming beacon.
August 5th
Nothing seems to happen on the watches.
Vel is able to explain that the runestones are about 20-ish feet tall and about 10 feet wide with runes carved into them. They are normally set in ritualistic circles that are drawn to direct magic energies, but they are normally set a distance away from the buildings. They are watched over, but guards are not normally present. And at nighttime, they are normally completely unguarded, but she doesn’t know how the runestones themselves work.
They decide to scout out the area first using Tess, who can turn into a bird using her cloak, and Arkha’din.
They spend some time just waiting to get moving. Vincent finishes making a toxin from the spider venom, and Gil scouts around the area. Vel works on her alchemist’s kit.
3:22
They leave around 4pm, and start to make their way toward the site, and they see a large, blue glyph in the distance. They see no one in sight, at least not at this distance.
Tess swirls her cloak around herself, and she polymorphs into a raven in a swirl of dusky mist. Tess squawks up at them, and takes off. Vel sends Arkha’din after her, connecting with Arkha’din and seeing through his eyes.
She detects a myriad amount of magics from all around the stone. There are four prominent schools of magic: enchantment, illusion, abjuration, and evocation.
The only safe point is the immediate “nest” of the stone. Vel muses she may be able to dimension door in, provided there is nothing interfering with the actual casting process.
Meanwhile, overhead, Tess is peering around. She doesn’t see any people, but there’s a light on in a simple, small little house about a half mile away.
Vel turns Gil and herself invisible, and they start to creep toward the house so that Vel can set an alarm spell on the doorway to the nearby house. The window is open, and there are other mana wyrms around. Vel has Arkha’din get closer to the window, and she perceives through his senses.
Female Voice: “I thank you for your hospitality. It’s appreciated. Jobs like this can be a bit lonesome, so it’s always nice to lay your head on a pillow for once isntead of on whatever tree bough you can find.”
Male Voice: “Of course, ranger, I would hate to put you out further than I already do. You Farstriders put your necks out farther than I do.”
Female Voice: “Yes, that’s the case. Even with the rumors we’ve heard, the runestones seem to haven’t been tampered with. Not yet.”
The magister confirms he has double-checked the runestone multiple times, and the conversation continues. Then the male voice leaves to prepare the woman’s chambers, and footsteps approach the window.
Vel, through Arkha’din, gets a glimpse of the ranger as he wriggles by. She has short, choppy black hair. She is wearing simple garb, though she is clearly a ranger-ranked member of the Farstriders.
Her eyes linger on Arkha’din for a moment, and Arkha’din starts poking around like he’s looking for something. She summons some magic, and Arkha’din goes up to investigate. She muses on his scale and frill patterns which are… off for the area.
She shoos the mana wyrm away, and then retreats. After a bit, the lights go off, and the windows close.
Vel waits for a bit, and then casts alarm as a ritual. She does it successfully, and then places invisibility back on herself and Gil and creeps back.
Meanwhile, back at the runestone, Vincent is scouting the perimeter. He observes a lynx pounce on a rabbit, entering the circle, but nothing seemed to trigger.
Vel uses dimension door, and she and Vincent step through to the runestone itself, and Vel uses identify and focuses in on the runestone.
Vel is aware the item was enchanted with magic a long time ago. It clearly connects to the other runestones and into the Ban’dinariel. She knows that, through the identify spell and arcane check, she can try to use it to triangulate coordinates to focal points and almost see the leylines.
However, there are a number of magical safeguards in place. Separate from anything else, it’s two parts. The first part is an alarm spell that triggers if the runestone itself is tampered with without the requisite clearances. In addition, there is a contingency spell in place that triggers with the alarm spell. However, the spell embedded inside is a mixture of necromancy and conjuration.
As Vel goes into start attuning with the runestone, she hears her alarm spell at the house trigger. She mentally commands Arkha’din to flash the signal, and then dives in.
She feels a pulse of energy through the runestone, and almost seems to feel the weight and breadth of Quel’thalas. It’s hard to describe, but she can feel the information on her. She isn’t sure what it means exactly, but if combined with other information, may indicate what they need to know.
Vel opens another dimension door, and teleports back to the other side with Vincent.
They go to flee, and Gilveradin enacts Pass without Trace and they leave as quickly as they can.
However, in the clearing in front of them, Gil sees the ranger, standing, keeping an eye out, but her bow is not drawn. Her ears perk up for a moment as she hears something.
Ravensun: “Who’s there? If someone is here, and it’s who I think it is, there is no danger. Vereesa sent me.”
There’s a pause. She seems sincere.
Ravensun: “That mana wyrm was from an area far southwest. Could be coincidence. Migratory patterns. But if not, and someone is listening. Well…”
She continues listening, and waiting. She sighs, and starts to turn away, but then Gil steps out.
Ravensun: “Heh. There you are. I had a feeling I heard someone. I assume you’re not alone. You’re Gilveradin, correct?”
Gil confirms.
Ravensun: “Are you with the others?”
Gil: “They are probably long gone by now.”
Ravensun smirks. “I’m sure. You have nothing to fear from me. As I said, your aunt sent me.”
Gil: “How did she get word to you?”
Ravensun: “I was at the Farstrider Enclave to the north. We have signs. She heard I was in the area, and sent word. She sent me after you. As it turns out, I was tasked with checking in on the runestones, and here you are.”
Vel, quietly, sends Vereesa and asks if she sent Ravensun.
Vereesa said that she had no idea who a “Ravensun” is.
Vel quietly sends Gil, informing him as much as Ravensun urges Gil that she can help them. Gil, nods, and goes to follow, claiming he doesn’t know where the others are.
However, as she turns away, Gil misty steps behind a tree.
The ranger sighs, muttering about “troublesome children,” but says that she has a boat prepared and it is currently unguarded, if they want an opportunity.
She then goes and leaves, disappearing into the darkness.
