Warhammer Quest: The Sylvan Epic
- Thread starter Oversoul
- Start date
Damn time flies...It's been more than 5 years, actually...
To be honest I've kinda lost track of where we are and what we're doing too...lol We're in sort of a dungeon kinda thing I think, and we're pursuing Coril more or less (though indirectly), and we keep hoping we'll run into him or another boss baddie as we go along, and Oversoul is souping up the monsters along the way to try and keep things interesting, or so it seems.Man, I'm gonna need a recap of what's been happening because this is spanning a couple years
My plan is to just keep going and eventually we'll run into Coril, or the place where Carrow must do something with the book to save the tree, and we'll get a chance to save the day (and the elves). So hang in there...
Oversoul
The Tentacled One
Good question. I just checked on the Chaos Warrior's Alcoholism attribute, and it specifies that potions do still work. So Throg would get a roll on the table for the Magic Potion and a second role on the table for his Alcoholism.
It has been a while since I did a recap. I'll write one up soon. In the meantime, how are you divvying up the items?
Oversoul
The Tentacled One
This will take a couple of posts, but I'll have it all up by some time tonight. Behold, a recap to tie together (most) of the various discoveries that the party has made thus far...
Throg, Dorgath, Carrow, and Kelgar had all independently come to owe some debt to a wizard/merchant named Corticruss. The four of them met in the town of Sebmualblal and all agreed to team up on an expedition to retrieve a certain book, the "Levos Focus Compendium." Success in this mission would absolve them of their debt. Corticruss had tracked the book down to a tomb nestled in a remote area of the World's Edge Mountains. Corticruss had already uncovered the workshop of Orm, who was once the apprentice and assistant of an old necromancer known as "Shalaz the Meek." Corticruss predicted that the book would be in a cache of other books inside a fake tomb, which would be at the far end of a mausoleum, past some unrelated tombs.
While traveling to the mausoleum, the party was beseeched for help dealing with a man-eating minotaur that was preying on the poor people of the village of Dawnhills. They took a detour to the minotaur's lair, finding it populated with orcs and goblins. After clearing a few chambers, they happened on a wounded mercenary named Neobi, who was unaware of the minotaur problem. He was the last survivor of his mercenary band, which had been engaged in a campaign against these orcs and goblins. He described how something had distracted the goblins he was fighting, which gave him the chance to hobble away. The party had already cleared a path for him, so he made his way out of the cave and to the village of Dawnhills. The party made quick work of the minotaur and the remaining orcs. They were awarded gold by the people of Dawnhills, and Kelgar was given special priestly training by Aylafi, chief elder of the village.
The party proceeded toward the "Tome in the Tomb." They were attacked by ghosts, and saw that some of the tomb chambers were littered with recent corpses and contained wraiths. Ignoring these true tombs, they pressed on to the false tomb, where they encountered some hostile ogre mercenaries, a strange device mounted to a sarcophagus in the middle of the room, and more ghosts. The ghosts attacked the ogres and the party alike. After clearing the room, the party destroyed the strange device on the sarcophagus. This released a guardian spirit. From the guardian spirit, the party learned that grave-robbing mercenaries hired by necromancers had attempted to plunder the tombs for magical artifacts in the past, but that this time the grave-robbers had brought an alchemical device to neutralize the guardian spirit. The device worked on the guardian spirit, but failed to stop the vengeful wraiths and ghosts, which overwhelmed the mercenaries.
The guardian spirit in the mausoleum alerted the party to a dire threat to civilization and asked them to alert people to this threat. Centuries ago, Shalaz the Meek faked his own death. Through his assistant, a man named Orm, he left behind clues that lured other necromancers to a false tomb that he had prepared as a trap. These necromancers believed that Shalaz took valuable magical secrets to his grave, and they performed a ritual to bind his spirit and extract this rare knowledge from him. Due to Shalaz's trap, the ritual backfired and drained the power of these necromancers. Shalaz took their power for himself, becoming a kind of super-charged arch-necromancer. And then, for unknown reasons, he simply vanished. But there were rumors that he was raising an army of undead to take over the world. Recently, the name "Orm" has resurfaced, as the leader of an organization of necromancers that have ransacked the tombs of ancient wizards in the Worlds Edge Mountains. The guardian spirit believed that Shalaz and/or Orm was preparing for an all-out assault on the Empire.
Some of the items used in Shalaz's magical trap had been destroyed along with the necromancers they ensnared. But the party did find some intact items. Along with several tomes of necromantic magic and Shalaz's notes to Orm, they found three enchanted books: The Levos Focus Compendium (given to Corticruss), The Spagyric Key (given to Corticruss), and The Sylvan Epic (given to Jekaena, eventually). They also found an orb that turned out to be ruined (it was made of a substance called Nightmantle Shell and was probably used as a power source in Shalaz's trap, but no longer retains any magic) and a coinlike stone that turned out to be a Lifestone of Ashraz (given to Dorgath).
On exiting the mausoleum, the party found the surrounding countryside to be infested with undead. After defeating some undead, the party met Neshkahl, who was flanked by some minions. He told the party that he'd kill Kelgar and spare the rest of them if they stayed out of his way. Throg declined the offer, and Neshkahl fled when a group of Bretonnian knights approached. His minions immediately surrendered to the party, hoping to avoid capture by the Bretonnians. The party met the leader of these knights: "Toludec the Valorous, Lord Crusader of Order of the Holy Forge." He informed them that Neshkahl was a bold and cunning vampire, known to cover his body in thick, black cloth and heavy armor, going out in the sunlight (nearly unheard of for a vampire), and assassinating his victims in broad daylight with a powerful magic sword. A traitor to his own kind and marked for destruction by the Vampire Counts, Neshkahl had sometimes hired his services out to the highest bidder, but Toludec believed that Neshkahl was now working with some cult of necromancers who were up to something big. He had been hunting the vampire for a while.
It turned out that one of the knights had been leading an expedition to aid the village of Dawnhills, where they'd received word of the man-eating minotaur. They were delayed due to the undead infestation in the World's Edge Mountains, and called for reinforcements to help clear the area. This knight took custody of Neshkahl's minions (the party weren't really interested in keeping prisoners), and pointed the party to a safe, cleared path back to the town they'd come from. On returning to Sebmualblal, the party didn't find Corticruss, but he left a note for them asking them to meet him at the Dwarven fort near Karak Azgal. He also left a guide in town who was familiar with the area and could lead the party to Karak Azgal quickly and safely.
At Karak Azgal, the party handed Shalaz's notes and books over to Corticruss, who surmised that Shalaz had used the power stolen from other necromancers to transform himself into something more powerful. Corticruss promised to research these documents for clues on any weaknesses Shalaz might have, and to alert the Colleges of Magic and the leadership of the Empire and other nations in the Old World to the threat of Shalaz, Orm, and their necromantic army. He also used the Levos Focus Compendium to augment the vitality of the party members and arranged access for them to the fort and an introduction to Ironbeard Grunnson.
Karak Azgal (originally Karak Izril) was once a wealthy Dwarven hold, but fell into disrepair during wars against the orc and goblins. It was besieged by greenskins. Seizing the opportunity, the skaven clans that had already burrowed beneath the hold attacked from below. Unable to continue defending on two fronts, the dwarves were forced to let the hold fall. Karak Azgal is now thoroughly infested with orcs, goblins, skaven, and other monsters. But over the years, the dwarves have begun to mount efforts to retake their abandoned hold. The fort is the base of operations for these efforts. The dwarves running the fort allow adventurers to delve into Karak Azgal through the main entrance, taxing them for a share of any loot they retrieve. Adventurers who want to try their luck seeking out an intact cache of Dwarven treasure or who just want to kill some monsters have been known to take the dwarves up on this offer. But Ironbeard Grunnson had something different, something unique.
Ironbeard Grunnson was a successful merchant and lord of the Grunnson Clan. But his father, Grimcrag, had been a great warrior. Grimcrag Grunnson was famous for leading multiple expeditions into Karak Azgal, slaying hundreds of monsters and charting the depths of the hold. He discovered ancient passages not of Dwarven origin, and was seeking something in particular. Neither Ironbeard Grunnson nor the party knew it at the time, but Grimcrag was hunting for an artifact called the Star of Dawn. Ages ago, the dwarves had borrowed the Star of Dawn from the high elves. It was secure in Karak Izril, but after the skaven attacked, an unknown sorcerer took advantage of the confusion and stole the artifact. The Star of Dawn was incredibly powerful and was irreplaceable, so its loss was a devastating blow to the already strained relationship between elves and dwarves. The Grunnson Clan had been responsible for guarding the Star, so their most prized possession, their Book of Grudges, was handed over to the high elves as punishment for failing to protect the Star of Dawn. The lord of the clan and several other members were permanently dishonored and became Slayers, and the Grunnson Clan fell on hard times. Meanwhile, the alliance between elves and dwarves dissolved and wars broke out between the two peoples. The Grunnsons were a broken, miserable clan by the time Ungrun Grunnson, known as "The Grimly Glum" took over as lord of the clan. Under his leadership, the clan began to regain a vestige of its former glory. Ungrun's son, Grimcrag, grew to become a great warrior and was granted the legendary Grunnson Axe, the clan's last real treasure. Only the lord and his son knew the long-forgotten story of how the clan had fallen. As Grimcrag's fame grew, so did his resolve to regain the Star of Dawn, which he believed was still somewhere deep below Karak Azgal.
While searching for the Star of Dawn, Grimcrag Grunnson's party were ambushed by hoards of trolls. Grimcrag covered a passage for his companions to retreat. In the distance, they heard the dwarf's Deathsong end, and believed that he perished while fighting monsters. The rest of the party fought their way out, and brought word of Grimcrag's demise to his father, Lord Ungrun. The grieving lord donned his battle armor and ventured into Karak Azgal alone, determined to retrieve his son's body and the Grunnson Axe. Ungrun never returned, and Grimcrag's son, Ironbeard, inherited the title of Lord Grunnson. Ironbeard was already a wealthy and successful trader, not much of a warrior, and did not want to become a Slayer or get himself killed where his father and grandfather had fallen. He knew the location of the hidden entrance his grandfather had taken down into Karak Azgal, but he chose to remain alive, rather than letting the dungeon claim a third lord of his clan. Still, he felt honor-bound to do something. After a few years, he reached out to Corticruss about hiring some competent adventurers to explore this hidden entrance. And that was how Ironbeard Grunnson came to hire the party to investigate the passage that his father had marked with the Grunnson Clan rune about five years prior, with rewards for discovering the fates of his father and grandfather, and a special bonus if they could return the Grunnson Axe.
Below Karak Azgal, the party explored a network of rooms occupied by orcs. The leader of these orcs was a shaman named "Skabnoze." They also met a cursed dragon that guarded a huge pile of gold, but had no interest in stopping them from taking any other items in its chamber, and even offered a hint on how to pass through one of the obstacles in the dungeon. They also found the ghost of Ungrun Grunnson wandering the halls. He was annoyed that his grandson was too cowardly to come down here himself and that he took so long to send a party in his place. Then he led the party to his skeletal remains anyway. They found a note he'd scrawled before he died about the Star of Dawn and how it had ruined his life, but the note didn't make much sense at the time.
Carrow pinned Skabnoze's foot to the floor with an arrow, but the shaman went invisible and escaped while the party eliminated the other orcs. Skabnoze did drop his journal, some of which was legible. Through that, they learned that Skabnoze had some kind of alliance with a Chaos Warrior named Magrak Manbane against another orc named "Skrunch." They had made a deal that once they defeated Skrunch, Skabnoze would get the Star of Dawn and Magrak would get the Grunnson Axe. They also found a crude map, which indicated that Skrunch was occupying a deeper level of this dungeon, with another level between them that Skabnoze called a "boneyard." Sure enough, when the party descended a staircase to a lower level, they were beset by skeletons.
After Throg smashed a trapdoor, the party found a man locked in a tiny cell. He claimed to be a trader who had been captured by orcs. In reality, this was Alberto Laranscheld, a budding necromancer. The party fought through some more undead and some traps, then confronted Skabnoze and Magrak Manbane, as well as a daemonic statue that Throg dealt with somehow. Skabnoze was brought down by ranged attacks, but after the battle it turned out that the shaman had gone invisible and escaped again. The party continued exploring, fought some more undead, and eventually came face-to-face with Alberto Laranscheld again. The wannabe necromancer had some giant rats and bats with him and also summoned undead to attack the party. Carrow murdered him and the party eventually destroyed all the monsters. Alberto's journal detailed how he had studied under a now-dead necromancer and worked to complete his deceased mentor's quest to acquire the Star of Dawn. Alberto met Orm, a powerful necromancer, who assisted him along his journey and promised him great power if he could retrieve the Star of Dawn. Alberto had his own alliance with Magrak Manbane, but the Chaos Warrior had betrayed him and sided with Skabnoze. Like Skabnoze and Magrak, Alberto believed that Skrunch had the Star of Dawn and was intent on defeating the orc and claiming his prize.
Throg, Dorgath, Carrow, and Kelgar had all independently come to owe some debt to a wizard/merchant named Corticruss. The four of them met in the town of Sebmualblal and all agreed to team up on an expedition to retrieve a certain book, the "Levos Focus Compendium." Success in this mission would absolve them of their debt. Corticruss had tracked the book down to a tomb nestled in a remote area of the World's Edge Mountains. Corticruss had already uncovered the workshop of Orm, who was once the apprentice and assistant of an old necromancer known as "Shalaz the Meek." Corticruss predicted that the book would be in a cache of other books inside a fake tomb, which would be at the far end of a mausoleum, past some unrelated tombs.
While traveling to the mausoleum, the party was beseeched for help dealing with a man-eating minotaur that was preying on the poor people of the village of Dawnhills. They took a detour to the minotaur's lair, finding it populated with orcs and goblins. After clearing a few chambers, they happened on a wounded mercenary named Neobi, who was unaware of the minotaur problem. He was the last survivor of his mercenary band, which had been engaged in a campaign against these orcs and goblins. He described how something had distracted the goblins he was fighting, which gave him the chance to hobble away. The party had already cleared a path for him, so he made his way out of the cave and to the village of Dawnhills. The party made quick work of the minotaur and the remaining orcs. They were awarded gold by the people of Dawnhills, and Kelgar was given special priestly training by Aylafi, chief elder of the village.
The party proceeded toward the "Tome in the Tomb." They were attacked by ghosts, and saw that some of the tomb chambers were littered with recent corpses and contained wraiths. Ignoring these true tombs, they pressed on to the false tomb, where they encountered some hostile ogre mercenaries, a strange device mounted to a sarcophagus in the middle of the room, and more ghosts. The ghosts attacked the ogres and the party alike. After clearing the room, the party destroyed the strange device on the sarcophagus. This released a guardian spirit. From the guardian spirit, the party learned that grave-robbing mercenaries hired by necromancers had attempted to plunder the tombs for magical artifacts in the past, but that this time the grave-robbers had brought an alchemical device to neutralize the guardian spirit. The device worked on the guardian spirit, but failed to stop the vengeful wraiths and ghosts, which overwhelmed the mercenaries.
The guardian spirit in the mausoleum alerted the party to a dire threat to civilization and asked them to alert people to this threat. Centuries ago, Shalaz the Meek faked his own death. Through his assistant, a man named Orm, he left behind clues that lured other necromancers to a false tomb that he had prepared as a trap. These necromancers believed that Shalaz took valuable magical secrets to his grave, and they performed a ritual to bind his spirit and extract this rare knowledge from him. Due to Shalaz's trap, the ritual backfired and drained the power of these necromancers. Shalaz took their power for himself, becoming a kind of super-charged arch-necromancer. And then, for unknown reasons, he simply vanished. But there were rumors that he was raising an army of undead to take over the world. Recently, the name "Orm" has resurfaced, as the leader of an organization of necromancers that have ransacked the tombs of ancient wizards in the Worlds Edge Mountains. The guardian spirit believed that Shalaz and/or Orm was preparing for an all-out assault on the Empire.
Some of the items used in Shalaz's magical trap had been destroyed along with the necromancers they ensnared. But the party did find some intact items. Along with several tomes of necromantic magic and Shalaz's notes to Orm, they found three enchanted books: The Levos Focus Compendium (given to Corticruss), The Spagyric Key (given to Corticruss), and The Sylvan Epic (given to Jekaena, eventually). They also found an orb that turned out to be ruined (it was made of a substance called Nightmantle Shell and was probably used as a power source in Shalaz's trap, but no longer retains any magic) and a coinlike stone that turned out to be a Lifestone of Ashraz (given to Dorgath).
On exiting the mausoleum, the party found the surrounding countryside to be infested with undead. After defeating some undead, the party met Neshkahl, who was flanked by some minions. He told the party that he'd kill Kelgar and spare the rest of them if they stayed out of his way. Throg declined the offer, and Neshkahl fled when a group of Bretonnian knights approached. His minions immediately surrendered to the party, hoping to avoid capture by the Bretonnians. The party met the leader of these knights: "Toludec the Valorous, Lord Crusader of Order of the Holy Forge." He informed them that Neshkahl was a bold and cunning vampire, known to cover his body in thick, black cloth and heavy armor, going out in the sunlight (nearly unheard of for a vampire), and assassinating his victims in broad daylight with a powerful magic sword. A traitor to his own kind and marked for destruction by the Vampire Counts, Neshkahl had sometimes hired his services out to the highest bidder, but Toludec believed that Neshkahl was now working with some cult of necromancers who were up to something big. He had been hunting the vampire for a while.
It turned out that one of the knights had been leading an expedition to aid the village of Dawnhills, where they'd received word of the man-eating minotaur. They were delayed due to the undead infestation in the World's Edge Mountains, and called for reinforcements to help clear the area. This knight took custody of Neshkahl's minions (the party weren't really interested in keeping prisoners), and pointed the party to a safe, cleared path back to the town they'd come from. On returning to Sebmualblal, the party didn't find Corticruss, but he left a note for them asking them to meet him at the Dwarven fort near Karak Azgal. He also left a guide in town who was familiar with the area and could lead the party to Karak Azgal quickly and safely.
At Karak Azgal, the party handed Shalaz's notes and books over to Corticruss, who surmised that Shalaz had used the power stolen from other necromancers to transform himself into something more powerful. Corticruss promised to research these documents for clues on any weaknesses Shalaz might have, and to alert the Colleges of Magic and the leadership of the Empire and other nations in the Old World to the threat of Shalaz, Orm, and their necromantic army. He also used the Levos Focus Compendium to augment the vitality of the party members and arranged access for them to the fort and an introduction to Ironbeard Grunnson.
Karak Azgal (originally Karak Izril) was once a wealthy Dwarven hold, but fell into disrepair during wars against the orc and goblins. It was besieged by greenskins. Seizing the opportunity, the skaven clans that had already burrowed beneath the hold attacked from below. Unable to continue defending on two fronts, the dwarves were forced to let the hold fall. Karak Azgal is now thoroughly infested with orcs, goblins, skaven, and other monsters. But over the years, the dwarves have begun to mount efforts to retake their abandoned hold. The fort is the base of operations for these efforts. The dwarves running the fort allow adventurers to delve into Karak Azgal through the main entrance, taxing them for a share of any loot they retrieve. Adventurers who want to try their luck seeking out an intact cache of Dwarven treasure or who just want to kill some monsters have been known to take the dwarves up on this offer. But Ironbeard Grunnson had something different, something unique.
Ironbeard Grunnson was a successful merchant and lord of the Grunnson Clan. But his father, Grimcrag, had been a great warrior. Grimcrag Grunnson was famous for leading multiple expeditions into Karak Azgal, slaying hundreds of monsters and charting the depths of the hold. He discovered ancient passages not of Dwarven origin, and was seeking something in particular. Neither Ironbeard Grunnson nor the party knew it at the time, but Grimcrag was hunting for an artifact called the Star of Dawn. Ages ago, the dwarves had borrowed the Star of Dawn from the high elves. It was secure in Karak Izril, but after the skaven attacked, an unknown sorcerer took advantage of the confusion and stole the artifact. The Star of Dawn was incredibly powerful and was irreplaceable, so its loss was a devastating blow to the already strained relationship between elves and dwarves. The Grunnson Clan had been responsible for guarding the Star, so their most prized possession, their Book of Grudges, was handed over to the high elves as punishment for failing to protect the Star of Dawn. The lord of the clan and several other members were permanently dishonored and became Slayers, and the Grunnson Clan fell on hard times. Meanwhile, the alliance between elves and dwarves dissolved and wars broke out between the two peoples. The Grunnsons were a broken, miserable clan by the time Ungrun Grunnson, known as "The Grimly Glum" took over as lord of the clan. Under his leadership, the clan began to regain a vestige of its former glory. Ungrun's son, Grimcrag, grew to become a great warrior and was granted the legendary Grunnson Axe, the clan's last real treasure. Only the lord and his son knew the long-forgotten story of how the clan had fallen. As Grimcrag's fame grew, so did his resolve to regain the Star of Dawn, which he believed was still somewhere deep below Karak Azgal.
While searching for the Star of Dawn, Grimcrag Grunnson's party were ambushed by hoards of trolls. Grimcrag covered a passage for his companions to retreat. In the distance, they heard the dwarf's Deathsong end, and believed that he perished while fighting monsters. The rest of the party fought their way out, and brought word of Grimcrag's demise to his father, Lord Ungrun. The grieving lord donned his battle armor and ventured into Karak Azgal alone, determined to retrieve his son's body and the Grunnson Axe. Ungrun never returned, and Grimcrag's son, Ironbeard, inherited the title of Lord Grunnson. Ironbeard was already a wealthy and successful trader, not much of a warrior, and did not want to become a Slayer or get himself killed where his father and grandfather had fallen. He knew the location of the hidden entrance his grandfather had taken down into Karak Azgal, but he chose to remain alive, rather than letting the dungeon claim a third lord of his clan. Still, he felt honor-bound to do something. After a few years, he reached out to Corticruss about hiring some competent adventurers to explore this hidden entrance. And that was how Ironbeard Grunnson came to hire the party to investigate the passage that his father had marked with the Grunnson Clan rune about five years prior, with rewards for discovering the fates of his father and grandfather, and a special bonus if they could return the Grunnson Axe.
Below Karak Azgal, the party explored a network of rooms occupied by orcs. The leader of these orcs was a shaman named "Skabnoze." They also met a cursed dragon that guarded a huge pile of gold, but had no interest in stopping them from taking any other items in its chamber, and even offered a hint on how to pass through one of the obstacles in the dungeon. They also found the ghost of Ungrun Grunnson wandering the halls. He was annoyed that his grandson was too cowardly to come down here himself and that he took so long to send a party in his place. Then he led the party to his skeletal remains anyway. They found a note he'd scrawled before he died about the Star of Dawn and how it had ruined his life, but the note didn't make much sense at the time.
Carrow pinned Skabnoze's foot to the floor with an arrow, but the shaman went invisible and escaped while the party eliminated the other orcs. Skabnoze did drop his journal, some of which was legible. Through that, they learned that Skabnoze had some kind of alliance with a Chaos Warrior named Magrak Manbane against another orc named "Skrunch." They had made a deal that once they defeated Skrunch, Skabnoze would get the Star of Dawn and Magrak would get the Grunnson Axe. They also found a crude map, which indicated that Skrunch was occupying a deeper level of this dungeon, with another level between them that Skabnoze called a "boneyard." Sure enough, when the party descended a staircase to a lower level, they were beset by skeletons.
After Throg smashed a trapdoor, the party found a man locked in a tiny cell. He claimed to be a trader who had been captured by orcs. In reality, this was Alberto Laranscheld, a budding necromancer. The party fought through some more undead and some traps, then confronted Skabnoze and Magrak Manbane, as well as a daemonic statue that Throg dealt with somehow. Skabnoze was brought down by ranged attacks, but after the battle it turned out that the shaman had gone invisible and escaped again. The party continued exploring, fought some more undead, and eventually came face-to-face with Alberto Laranscheld again. The wannabe necromancer had some giant rats and bats with him and also summoned undead to attack the party. Carrow murdered him and the party eventually destroyed all the monsters. Alberto's journal detailed how he had studied under a now-dead necromancer and worked to complete his deceased mentor's quest to acquire the Star of Dawn. Alberto met Orm, a powerful necromancer, who assisted him along his journey and promised him great power if he could retrieve the Star of Dawn. Alberto had his own alliance with Magrak Manbane, but the Chaos Warrior had betrayed him and sided with Skabnoze. Like Skabnoze and Magrak, Alberto believed that Skrunch had the Star of Dawn and was intent on defeating the orc and claiming his prize.
Oversoul
The Tentacled One
Traversing a Chaos gate, the party found themselves in a weird, infinitely looping corridor trap, but were able to discover a secret door that led into a large dungeon. They found what first appeared to be a statue, but deduced that it was actually Grimcrag Grunnson and two fleeing goblins, petrified somehow. Unfortunately, his legendary axe was turned to stone along with him. They fought some cave squigs, then found a room with a trio of of prisoners, traders who had been abducted by orcs. Unlike Alberto Laranscheld, these guys were the genuine article. Despite Throg's attempts to use the hapless traders as human shields, the party was able to keep the men alive through several traps and some hobgoblins. The party found Skrunch, a black orc, leading a group of savage orcs. Despite Skrunch's claim that no human could kill him, Throg was able to kill him. The party got drunk and solved some magic puzzles, and found some treasure. It turned out that the orcs had the Star of Dawn, but it burned them to touch it, so they used a spell to encase it in a black, coal-like substance. Also, spell that had turned Grimcrag Grunnson to stone had trapped his soul in the jeweled pommel of an ornate dagger. Oh, and they found notes suggesting that the Chaos Warriors were organizing a network of portals so that someone named "Deathmonger" could lead an invasion of the Empire.
Dorgath struck the petrified form of Grimcrag Grunnson with the ornate dagger, which broke the spell and freed the dwarf lord, who immediately annihilated the two goblins that had been trapped along with him. After conversing with Grimcrag Grunnson, the party caught him up on events that had transpired in his absence, and informed him of the Chaos invasion. They handed the Star of Dawn over to him so that he could restore his clan's honor. Grimcrag Grunnson was familiar with the looping corridor trap and could use his axe to bypass it and take a route he had already charted back to the surface. He offered to escort the party back to the surface, but noted that although he was obligated to return home immediately and see to it that the elves got their Star of Dawn back, the party could choose to pursue the mystery of the Chaos portals in the depths of Karak Azgal and further investigate this "Deathmonger" issue. The party chose to part ways with Grimcrag Grunnson and investigate the portals.
Unbeknownst to Carrow, his grandfather was descended from a long line of sacred keepers of the Heart of Welhallas, an ancient tree connected to the pact the elves had made with the forest of Loren, marking the boundary between the territory belonging to the Wood Elves and the Wildwood of Cythral. He had uncovered The Sylvan Epic, an enchanted book that acted as a nexus of power to mark the bond between the elves of Athel Loren and the forest they call home. Carrow had entrusted the Sylvan Epic book to Corticruss for further study, but the tome had already bound itself to Carrow, as a direct descendent of its original keepers. There was an ongoing plot by the followers of the Witch King of the dark elves to sever the bond between the Loren forest and the elves, and their scryings for the book, which had always failed in the past, now partially succeeded. The dark elves put a bounty on Carrow. Corticruss captured agents who attempted to steal the book from him, and learned that Carrow was in danger. Corticruss began using his connections to recruit his own agents to counter this machinations. Among those agents was a rogue skaven gutter-runner who went by "Skullcrusher." A disgraced wood elf wardancer named Revaethan approached Corticruss to inquire after The Sylvan Epic. Revaethan had been compelled to serve Lord Cael, the official Protector of Welhallas. They attempted to persuade Corticruss to hand over the book, but he insisted that the book was not his to give away and that they allow some time for him to bring the matter to Carrow, who was believed to be somewhere in the depths of Karak Azgal. Corticruss had the superior connections within Middenheim and the wood elves had no real leverage against him, so they reluctantly agreed.
Skullcrusher tracked a group of skaven in the sewers of Middenheim, where they used a particular Chaos gate to journey below Karak Azgal. Using a special potion given to him by Corticruss, Skullcrusher intercepted these skaven as they attempted to assassinate Carrow, then warned the party that more assassins would be coming for Carrow. After some deliberation, Skullcrusher led the party through the same chaos gate, into the sewers of Middenheim, where they found Corticruss surrounded by a gang of thugs who were demanding to know the whereabouts of Carrow and The Sylvan Epic. The thugs were distracted by the party's arrival, and Corticruss abruptly incinerated the thugs with a spell scroll.
In Middenheim, Dorgath met Tyresius, a veteran pit-fighter and grocery worker who was deep in debt and in a bit of trouble with an irate nobleman, so he was keen on joining an adventuring party and getting out of Middenheim for a while. Around the same time, Corticruss met a bored wizard in Middenheim who was looking for adventure and introduced Tomas to the party. The Karak Azgal mission was concluded, the Empire had been warned about Deathmonger and the Chaos Gates, and Grimcrag Grunnson was presumably on his way to deliver the Star of Dawn to Ulthuan. So the party gathered leads on their next move. There was the matter of The Sylvan Epic and whatever the wood elves and their enemies were up to, but adventure could be found in other places as well. The Count of Middenheim was seeking help in dealing with the Chaos Gates that were springing up in the sewers beneath the city. Corticruss had a lead on the mystery of The Spagyric Key. Tyresius overheard that the Order of the Holy Forge had been having trouble with something called "Beacons of Retribution" in the World's Edge Mountains. The Knights Panther were having trouble with Chaos incursions and were looking to hire mercenaries to assist with the problem. But the party ultimately decided to pursue Carrow's issue first.
Revaethan led the party to a wood elf enclave in Middenheim containing a special sanctuary for the (currently deceased) high priestess of Talsyn. It was there that Lord Cael revealed the nature of Welhallas and that it was besieged by some dark forces from the Wildwood. He explained that the Heart of Welhallas was dying, that it had been poisoned by an unknown enemy and that if it were to be fully destroyed, the wood elves would soon fall along with it. On the one hand, Lord Cael's request was simple: bring Carrow and the book to the Heart of Welhallas so that the priestesses of Talsyn could perform a ritual to disentagle Carrow's spirit from the book and allow the priestesses to bind the book to one of their own number, who could then begin the slow process of healing the Heart. On the other hand, Welhallas itself was completely surrounded by the Wildwood and enemies along the way would surely attempt to kill Carrow or steal the book.
While the elves were preparing a traveling party to escort Carrow to the Loren forest, the party set about tying up loose ends and conducting their last business in Middenheim. Dorgath and Ty participated in the local gladiatorial arena, where someone (Darenaeok Sedrazzi, it turned out) set a trap for them, and the fighting pit kept flooding with more monsters than they'd expected. Carrow was watching from the stands, and brought his bow into play when he realized that something was amiss. The management of the establishment were totally bewildered that minotaurs had somehow wound up in the arena! They offered extra gold in compensation. Dorgath received a letter from a stranger purporting to have information on the individual responsible for the trap. Dorgath met with an imperial noble named Otto Rolhannes, who had been hunting a his enemy, Darenaeok Sedrazzi. Through his sleuthing, Otto had learned that his old enemy was part of some organization that wanted to kill Carrow, although Otto didn't really know the details yet.
Otto recruited Dorgath, Carrow, and Tyresius on a hunt for Darenaeok Sedrazzi. Meanwhile, Kelgar was walking the streets of Middenheim preaching to the masses about Sigmar, and Throg was on his own quest to acquire a donkey because he decided that he should have a donkey, but the animal traders in Middenheim only sold mules, due to some conspiracy that Throg was determined to root out. Tyresius didn't entirely trust Otto and had intended to keep the noble in front of him, but Otto was oblivious to this and misunderstood Tyresius to the point where he ran around a building to block the back door so that Darenaeok could not escape. It didn't matter anyway: Darenaeok Sedrazzi not only escaped the party and Otto, but he ran around spawning Chaos gates all over the streets of Middenheim. This caused massive destruction, drawing the attention of the rest of the party, and led to a showdown in which Darenaeok and his dark elf allies faced off against Dorgath, Carrow, Tyresius, Kelgar, Tomas, Skullcrusher, Otto, Corticruss, Revaethan, and Darvalk (a barbarian working with Corticruss for unspecified reasons). Chaos beastmen continuously emerged through Chaos gates, overwhelming the Knights Panther and other defenders of the city. The party noticed the Darenaeok's armor was magic: it sealed his wounds and seemed to give him extreme resiliency. Throg crashed the party, but passed out in an alcoholic haze. His newly acquired donkey cast some spells, though.
Darenaeok Sedrazzi summoned a magical barrier between himself and the party and commenced to summoning daemons, but Otto Rolhannes ran to his side of the barrier at the last second. The two fought with swords, rapier against sabre. Although it was apparent that Otto was quite skilled with a sword, Darenaeok seemed to have superhuman strength and speed, so the young noble was overwhelmed, dazed, and bloody. Darenaeok disarmed Otto and moved in for the kill, but then Otto miraculously managed to flip his sword back into his hand and make one last desperate lunge, piercing Darenaeok right through heart. Instead of going limp, Darenaeok was nonplussed, yanking the sword out of his chest and running Otto through on his own sword.
While the party was swarmed by beastmen, the dark elf sorceress Khaligri poisoned Carrow, then was ambushed by Revaethan before she could work more powerful magic. The party ganged up on her, disabling her magic shield, at which point Tyresius finished her off. With Kelgar's help, Carrow recovered from Khaligri's dart enough to drink the potion that Grimcrag Grunnson gave him, which purged the poison from his system. In an unexpected bout of attunement to The Sylvan Epic, Carrow saw a way to shoot arrows at specific points along Darenaeok's barrier, bringing it down. As the party converged on Darenaeok and he realized that he was running out of daemons, Darenaeok cast a spell that shed his humanity. His flesh melted away and he transformed into a towering undead abomination. Dorgath stood his ground, ready to defend the rest of the party from this massive creature, but Otto loaded his pistol with a special bullet, fired on Darenaeok, and tackled Dorgath as Darenaeok exploded in a pillar of furious light.
Now that Darenaeok Sedrazzi was defeated, Otto explained his family's tragic history and his own familial connection to Darenaeok. He expressed interest in working with the party again, but stated that he still had unfinished business in Middenheim. Throg's quest for a donkey had drawn the ire of some powers in Middenheim and Tyresius' history with a certain lord's wife had done the same, while Carrow already had assassins coming for him because of his connection to The Sylvan Epic, so the party said their goodbyes and Throg, Dorgath, Carrow, Kelgar, Tyresius, and Tomas beat a hasty retreat from Middenheim, joining up with Revaethan and Lord Cael to journey to Athel Loren.
Dorgath struck the petrified form of Grimcrag Grunnson with the ornate dagger, which broke the spell and freed the dwarf lord, who immediately annihilated the two goblins that had been trapped along with him. After conversing with Grimcrag Grunnson, the party caught him up on events that had transpired in his absence, and informed him of the Chaos invasion. They handed the Star of Dawn over to him so that he could restore his clan's honor. Grimcrag Grunnson was familiar with the looping corridor trap and could use his axe to bypass it and take a route he had already charted back to the surface. He offered to escort the party back to the surface, but noted that although he was obligated to return home immediately and see to it that the elves got their Star of Dawn back, the party could choose to pursue the mystery of the Chaos portals in the depths of Karak Azgal and further investigate this "Deathmonger" issue. The party chose to part ways with Grimcrag Grunnson and investigate the portals.
Unbeknownst to Carrow, his grandfather was descended from a long line of sacred keepers of the Heart of Welhallas, an ancient tree connected to the pact the elves had made with the forest of Loren, marking the boundary between the territory belonging to the Wood Elves and the Wildwood of Cythral. He had uncovered The Sylvan Epic, an enchanted book that acted as a nexus of power to mark the bond between the elves of Athel Loren and the forest they call home. Carrow had entrusted the Sylvan Epic book to Corticruss for further study, but the tome had already bound itself to Carrow, as a direct descendent of its original keepers. There was an ongoing plot by the followers of the Witch King of the dark elves to sever the bond between the Loren forest and the elves, and their scryings for the book, which had always failed in the past, now partially succeeded. The dark elves put a bounty on Carrow. Corticruss captured agents who attempted to steal the book from him, and learned that Carrow was in danger. Corticruss began using his connections to recruit his own agents to counter this machinations. Among those agents was a rogue skaven gutter-runner who went by "Skullcrusher." A disgraced wood elf wardancer named Revaethan approached Corticruss to inquire after The Sylvan Epic. Revaethan had been compelled to serve Lord Cael, the official Protector of Welhallas. They attempted to persuade Corticruss to hand over the book, but he insisted that the book was not his to give away and that they allow some time for him to bring the matter to Carrow, who was believed to be somewhere in the depths of Karak Azgal. Corticruss had the superior connections within Middenheim and the wood elves had no real leverage against him, so they reluctantly agreed.
Skullcrusher tracked a group of skaven in the sewers of Middenheim, where they used a particular Chaos gate to journey below Karak Azgal. Using a special potion given to him by Corticruss, Skullcrusher intercepted these skaven as they attempted to assassinate Carrow, then warned the party that more assassins would be coming for Carrow. After some deliberation, Skullcrusher led the party through the same chaos gate, into the sewers of Middenheim, where they found Corticruss surrounded by a gang of thugs who were demanding to know the whereabouts of Carrow and The Sylvan Epic. The thugs were distracted by the party's arrival, and Corticruss abruptly incinerated the thugs with a spell scroll.
In Middenheim, Dorgath met Tyresius, a veteran pit-fighter and grocery worker who was deep in debt and in a bit of trouble with an irate nobleman, so he was keen on joining an adventuring party and getting out of Middenheim for a while. Around the same time, Corticruss met a bored wizard in Middenheim who was looking for adventure and introduced Tomas to the party. The Karak Azgal mission was concluded, the Empire had been warned about Deathmonger and the Chaos Gates, and Grimcrag Grunnson was presumably on his way to deliver the Star of Dawn to Ulthuan. So the party gathered leads on their next move. There was the matter of The Sylvan Epic and whatever the wood elves and their enemies were up to, but adventure could be found in other places as well. The Count of Middenheim was seeking help in dealing with the Chaos Gates that were springing up in the sewers beneath the city. Corticruss had a lead on the mystery of The Spagyric Key. Tyresius overheard that the Order of the Holy Forge had been having trouble with something called "Beacons of Retribution" in the World's Edge Mountains. The Knights Panther were having trouble with Chaos incursions and were looking to hire mercenaries to assist with the problem. But the party ultimately decided to pursue Carrow's issue first.
Revaethan led the party to a wood elf enclave in Middenheim containing a special sanctuary for the (currently deceased) high priestess of Talsyn. It was there that Lord Cael revealed the nature of Welhallas and that it was besieged by some dark forces from the Wildwood. He explained that the Heart of Welhallas was dying, that it had been poisoned by an unknown enemy and that if it were to be fully destroyed, the wood elves would soon fall along with it. On the one hand, Lord Cael's request was simple: bring Carrow and the book to the Heart of Welhallas so that the priestesses of Talsyn could perform a ritual to disentagle Carrow's spirit from the book and allow the priestesses to bind the book to one of their own number, who could then begin the slow process of healing the Heart. On the other hand, Welhallas itself was completely surrounded by the Wildwood and enemies along the way would surely attempt to kill Carrow or steal the book.
While the elves were preparing a traveling party to escort Carrow to the Loren forest, the party set about tying up loose ends and conducting their last business in Middenheim. Dorgath and Ty participated in the local gladiatorial arena, where someone (Darenaeok Sedrazzi, it turned out) set a trap for them, and the fighting pit kept flooding with more monsters than they'd expected. Carrow was watching from the stands, and brought his bow into play when he realized that something was amiss. The management of the establishment were totally bewildered that minotaurs had somehow wound up in the arena! They offered extra gold in compensation. Dorgath received a letter from a stranger purporting to have information on the individual responsible for the trap. Dorgath met with an imperial noble named Otto Rolhannes, who had been hunting a his enemy, Darenaeok Sedrazzi. Through his sleuthing, Otto had learned that his old enemy was part of some organization that wanted to kill Carrow, although Otto didn't really know the details yet.
Otto recruited Dorgath, Carrow, and Tyresius on a hunt for Darenaeok Sedrazzi. Meanwhile, Kelgar was walking the streets of Middenheim preaching to the masses about Sigmar, and Throg was on his own quest to acquire a donkey because he decided that he should have a donkey, but the animal traders in Middenheim only sold mules, due to some conspiracy that Throg was determined to root out. Tyresius didn't entirely trust Otto and had intended to keep the noble in front of him, but Otto was oblivious to this and misunderstood Tyresius to the point where he ran around a building to block the back door so that Darenaeok could not escape. It didn't matter anyway: Darenaeok Sedrazzi not only escaped the party and Otto, but he ran around spawning Chaos gates all over the streets of Middenheim. This caused massive destruction, drawing the attention of the rest of the party, and led to a showdown in which Darenaeok and his dark elf allies faced off against Dorgath, Carrow, Tyresius, Kelgar, Tomas, Skullcrusher, Otto, Corticruss, Revaethan, and Darvalk (a barbarian working with Corticruss for unspecified reasons). Chaos beastmen continuously emerged through Chaos gates, overwhelming the Knights Panther and other defenders of the city. The party noticed the Darenaeok's armor was magic: it sealed his wounds and seemed to give him extreme resiliency. Throg crashed the party, but passed out in an alcoholic haze. His newly acquired donkey cast some spells, though.
Darenaeok Sedrazzi summoned a magical barrier between himself and the party and commenced to summoning daemons, but Otto Rolhannes ran to his side of the barrier at the last second. The two fought with swords, rapier against sabre. Although it was apparent that Otto was quite skilled with a sword, Darenaeok seemed to have superhuman strength and speed, so the young noble was overwhelmed, dazed, and bloody. Darenaeok disarmed Otto and moved in for the kill, but then Otto miraculously managed to flip his sword back into his hand and make one last desperate lunge, piercing Darenaeok right through heart. Instead of going limp, Darenaeok was nonplussed, yanking the sword out of his chest and running Otto through on his own sword.
While the party was swarmed by beastmen, the dark elf sorceress Khaligri poisoned Carrow, then was ambushed by Revaethan before she could work more powerful magic. The party ganged up on her, disabling her magic shield, at which point Tyresius finished her off. With Kelgar's help, Carrow recovered from Khaligri's dart enough to drink the potion that Grimcrag Grunnson gave him, which purged the poison from his system. In an unexpected bout of attunement to The Sylvan Epic, Carrow saw a way to shoot arrows at specific points along Darenaeok's barrier, bringing it down. As the party converged on Darenaeok and he realized that he was running out of daemons, Darenaeok cast a spell that shed his humanity. His flesh melted away and he transformed into a towering undead abomination. Dorgath stood his ground, ready to defend the rest of the party from this massive creature, but Otto loaded his pistol with a special bullet, fired on Darenaeok, and tackled Dorgath as Darenaeok exploded in a pillar of furious light.
Now that Darenaeok Sedrazzi was defeated, Otto explained his family's tragic history and his own familial connection to Darenaeok. He expressed interest in working with the party again, but stated that he still had unfinished business in Middenheim. Throg's quest for a donkey had drawn the ire of some powers in Middenheim and Tyresius' history with a certain lord's wife had done the same, while Carrow already had assassins coming for him because of his connection to The Sylvan Epic, so the party said their goodbyes and Throg, Dorgath, Carrow, Kelgar, Tyresius, and Tomas beat a hasty retreat from Middenheim, joining up with Revaethan and Lord Cael to journey to Athel Loren.
Oversoul
The Tentacled One
Travel with the wood elves was generally uneventful, but once the party arrived in Talsyn, things got more heated, with the party arriving on the heels of a recent uproar over foreign invaders. Revaethan attempted to appeal to the priestesses that Carrow was to be their savior and such, but the priestesses demanded that before any other matters were attended to, the party must deal with the incursion in the undercroft of the temple. Momentarily deterred by an unlocked (but closed) door, the party entered the temple and descended into the undercroft. From the first vestibule, they could see that a strange forcefield was blocking access to the main chamber, where some object was suspended in a column of light. Moving to investigate, the party was ambushed by goblins. Ty took a beating, but Tomas healed him and the pit fighter soon gave as well as he got.
After dispatching a band of goblins and finding the main chamber inaccessible (forcefield), the party began checking side chambers. That was when the noticed something weird was going on, with horrible screams echoing throughout the dungeon and sapping their energy. Most of the party resisted, but others began having trouble focusing. Kelgar intuited that the screams were emanating from a female elf somewhere in the dungeon, but didn't know how or why they were being amplified. The party fought more goblins (and their trained squigs), then found a ewer that Revaethan identified as containing water from the fountain in the main chamber of the undercroft. Some among the party began to suspect that the indiscernible object floating in the middle of that chamber was the same elven woman whose screams echoed throughout the dungeon. The party explored the side chambers further. They ran into another forcefield, and Throg decided to drink some of the water from the ewer. It was holy water and burned the crap out of him, of course. Pouring the water on the forcefield did open up the portion that was blocking a side passage, but the main chamber remained blocked.
Continuing through the undercroft, the party began seeing phantom scenes play out between Jekaena and Coril, but the only person who had ever seen them before was Revaethan, and he didn't know either of them very well and couldn't recall their names. He was certain that they were from Welhallas and that Lord Cael would know their names. He also identified the male elf as a "guardsman" and noted that female elf had recently been horribly injured and had a mangled foot, although she was walking normally in these images. Both elves were still alive as far as Revaethan knew, and he was stumped as to why they'd be here as ghosts. In reality, these were not ghosts, but images conjured from Jekaena's memory as she floated, dehydrated and delirious, in the air above the fountain.
Throg heard goblins arguing and tricked them into thinking the that party had left the room, so the goblins would rush out to flank them. The ploy worked, but the goblins led with some nasty plague-infected goblins augmented by a blessing from Nurgle, the Chaos God of Pestilence. Infected goblins spawned tiny daemons called nurglings when killed. When the goblins and daemons were all slain, Tomas investigated the crystal rod carried by their shaman. He sensed a connection from the rod to the forcefield, and was able to detect that a second rod was also powering the forcefield. The party heard Jekaena's voice again, but instead of screaming, she was frantically pleading someone to run away and warn other that invaders were trying to poison the water supply. Meanwhile, Dorgath found a secret door that led to a chamber once used by Coril. Reading through Coril's journal revealed that his sanity had been precious for the past several years and that he had been seduced by the dark elf sorceress Khaligri, whom the party had killed back in Middenheim. Khaligri recruited Coril to serve a conspiracy orchestrated by the enigmatic Orm, a name that the party had seen before. The party gave Tomas some time with the journal, and he deduced that the author (Coril, but this connection was not yet clear to the party) was only a novice in magic and had attempted some simple experiments, but that elaborate rituals created by Orm had been painstakingly copied in every detail. Tomas saw that Orm must be a very knowledgeable necromancer and that the ultimate purpose of the rituals was to extract heartwood from some special tree or trees, grind the wood into chips, place the chips in a cursed basin, extract the heart of a specific elf, burn the contents of the basin, and breathe in the smoke while invoking the Witch King.
The party cornered the last of the goblins in the side passages and found some notes from the goblins indicating that "sword elves" kept killing the goblins and snotlings as they invaded the undercroft, but that the shamans struck them down with spells. They had intended to bring the crystal rods to the fountain in order to contaminate it with Nurgle's Rot, but a "krazy lady" went berserk and blasted a bunch of goblins with magic, killing all but one shaman. She then hopped away on one foot and sealed herself inside the fountain chamber. The goblin leader had a plan to break through her protective spell, but needed more shamans for it to work. Having cleared everything else except one locked room and the main chamber, the party briefly deliberated on how to get through a locked door, with Dorgath insisting that he was an honest dwarf and not a thief or rogue. Then he picked the lock. The party had a showdown with the boss goblin shaman, "Skodder" and his elite goblin troops. As the last goblin fell, another of Jekaena's phantasmal images appeared in the room, showing an argument between her and Coril on the day she left to join the priesthood. The significance of Coril's erratic behavior wasn't clear to Jekaena, and she seemed too upset to really notice. Searching the room, the party found several items, including Jekaena's enchanted "Cane of Tenacious Movement", the second crystal rod of Nurgle, and some notes between Skodder and a priest of Nurgle named "Utronicus." The party learned that Utronicus had taught Skodder a spell to give his troops Nurgle's "blessing" and offering payment after the fountain was contaminated. Skodder had also received a threatening note from a priest of Tzeentch named "Bysshan." This note indicated that Tzeentch had no concern whatsoever regarding the goblins attempts at invading Loren, but that if they continued trying to spread plagues, they would be incinerated.
As the party finished up in the last chamber, Jekaena was able to send a clear message to "whoever is out there" that "something nasty" was in the chamber with her. Once Throg and Tomas used the crystals to deactivate the goblins' forcefield, the party was able to enter the chamber and discover that "something nasty" turned out to be Beasts of Nurgle. Throg exclaimed that he used to keep one a little one as a pet until it grew up and killed his family. One of the beasts of Nurgle fondled and probed Dorgath. Throg ended up nicknaming one of the monsters "Lumpy." After an intense battle, the party dispatched all of the daemons. Revaethan shouted Jekaena's name, which roused her to consciousness. Seeing that there were other people in the room with her, Jekaena dropped her spell and tumbled into the fountain.
Once Jekaena drank some fountain water and ate some bread, she was feeling energetic enough to launch into a lecture about how The Sylvan Epic works. This was confusing to just about everyone, although some characters grasped more of what she was saying than others did. Shortly after the party emerged from the undercroft, Jekaena in tow, everyone around them was distracted as Ariel, queen of the forest, descended from the sky (she looks kind of like a big, mutant elf with huge butterfly wings). Ariel announced that Orion, king of the forest, had gone to his funeral pyre (he does so every year), so she was left to rule the wood elves alone in this time of crisis. She gave the wood elves a little motivational speech. The priestess who sent the party into the undercroft was surprised to see that Jekaena was alive, as it had been four days since the goblins first invaded the undercroft. Jekaena introduced the party as her new best friends: Carrow, Big Skull Warrior, Dwarf the Dwarven Warrior, Human the Hammerpriest, Thomas the Human Wizard, Human With the Spikes, and Revaethan. Evidently she was still a little delirious. She continued rambling as the healers dragged her away. Then Ariel herself addressed each member of the party individually. So you got to meet the queen of the forest!
The next day, Ariel convened a council regarding Coril's treachery and his apparent plans to steal some kind of valuable artifact (his journal revealed that, but was too scant on details for anyone to pinpoint what he'd go after). Ariel stated that she'd secure a vault that was the most precarious target for such a heist, and Jekaena, now rested and healed, announced that she'd be taking her new friends (she got all of the names right this time except Dorgath's) through the Pine Crags to secure the temple there and continue their journey to the Heart of Welhallas. The priestesses objected, but Jekaena conjured thunderclouds over each of their heads and they shut up. The party rode with some escorts to the Pine Crags, but had to leave their mounts behind to continue.
In the Pine Crags, the party found themselves beset by goblin and snotling scouting parties, as the forest was being invaded and the Pine Crags were the closest part of the forest to the point of invasion. After eliminating a few of these nuisances, the party met Bysshan, priest of Tzeentch, the Chaos God of Change. Bysshan openly admitted that he didn't care whether the wood elves won or lost their war. However, he expressed that he and the party had a mutual enemy: Utronicus, the priest of Nurgle. Utronicus had infiltrated Bysshan's stronghold in the Pine Crags and had placed wards on it to keep its former owner out, using the stronghold as a base of operations for his dealings with the goblins. Bysshan made a deal with the party: use the icons they'd retrieved from the undercroft to open the seals placed on the stronghold, enter the stronghold, kill Utronicus, and bring him Nurgle priest's head as proof. Once that task was done, Bysshan would grant Throg access to all of his shrines in Loren and give the whole party a shortcut to their destination.
On entering the stronghold, the party were unsurprised to find that Utronicus had numerous daemons of Nurgle protecting him. The party fought their way through the daemons (getting violated by some Beasts of Nurgle, but them's the breaks), and Dorgath struck and killed Utronicus with the Skull Wand of Kaloth. Throg received some sort of message from an agent of Nurgle urging him to present the head to Bysshan as promised, but to do something with icons of Nurgle (my PM to Turgy was purged with a forum change and I don't feel like digging for the note that says what Throg was supposed to do, although I think he was supposed to remove Utronicus' eyes and put the icons in the empty eye sockets or something gross like that) in order to afflict Bysshan with a potent form of plague (anyway, Throg sided with Tzeentch instead of Nurgle, so it doesn't matter). Bysshan kept his word and revealed a hidden tunnel that led the party within sight of the temple they were headed to.
The tunnel happened to lead the party to a spot where they got an excellent view of a battle, with the wood elves hopelessly overwhelmed by vast hordes of orcs and goblins. All seemed lost, but a huge army of dwarves and their engines of war came down the hills and flanked the orcs and goblins, destroying them and saving the elves. Jekaena was surprised to see dwarves aiding her people and suspected that Dorgath was somehow personally responsible for this development. Dorgath honestly admitted that he was not.
The party approached the temple, where the guards there were still a bit amazed that they just survived that assault by the orcs and goblins. They informed the party that Coril had used the distraction of the invasion as an opportunity to strike, that he had killed several temple guards and stolen the Bow of Loren, a powerful artifact tied to Loren, and suitable for his plans with Orm's rituals. The party was eager to track down Coril, but Jekaena dourly stated that it wouldn't be necessary: Coril's next destination would be Welhallas, where he'd wait for Jekaena to come and try to heal the tree, then attempt to kill her and cut out her heart.
Dorgath arranged an audience with the leader of the dwarven coalition, Runelord Yaggrin. The runelord had rallied the dwarves to come to the aid of their elven neighbors because he had some kind of prescience, and saw that if the elves fell to the orcs and goblins, some human kingdoms would fall next, and there would be no allies to save the dwarves when the real threat came knocking on their door. At Yaggrin's behest, the party trained and prepared for the journey through the Wildwood. Yaggrin was somehow able to guide the party through the Wildwood to a point near the Heart of Welhallas. He stated that normal denizens of the Wildwood were neutralized for now, but that the Witch King's influence would raise enemies to obstruct the path and attempt to kill Carrow.
The party took a path along some boughs and ascended into a dense canopy near the city of Welhallas. They kept getting attacked by dryads, even though the normal denizens of the Wildwood were supposed to be leaving them alone. There were gigantic spiders too. Oh, and branchwraiths. Something was somehow awakening Wildwood monsters and sending them to attack the party. Turned out to be Nayadra Greenthicket, but the party hadn't met her yet, so they weren't aware of her involvement. After killing a bunch of monsters, the party met Arjen, the teleporting dark elf assassin. He stabbed Carrow, but his timing turned out to be hilarious: the turbulent magic of the Wildwood suddenly caused gold coins to rain from the sky, pelting everyone in the area and doing some damage to them. Arjen snarled that he hated these woods and that if the party would get themselves killed, it would make his job easier, then he teleported away.
The party killed some trolls. It rained gold again. They fought some river trolls, then some more dryads. Finally, they arrived atop the city wall of Welhallas, near a door leading inside a gargantuan tree. A party of elves were positioned near the door, including Nayadra Greenthicket, Coril, Arjen, a warrior named Nazzrakin, and a mage (heard speaking but not visible from your vantage at the time) named Hurzevarkh. After some chatter, Hurzevarkh ordered Arjen and Nayadra to stay behind and kill the party while the rest of them made went inside the tree. Instead of confronting the party herself, Nayadra summoned a Horrible Forest Shambler to devour the party, then ran away. Revaethan looked deeply surprised and hurt to see that Nayadra Greenthicket was a traitor, but didn't have time to explain why to the rest of the party, as a huge plant monster climbed onto the wall in front of them and shambled toward them, intent on eating them. Of course, the party defeated the plant monster and entered the gargantuan tree known as the Heart of Welhallas.
After dispatching a band of goblins and finding the main chamber inaccessible (forcefield), the party began checking side chambers. That was when the noticed something weird was going on, with horrible screams echoing throughout the dungeon and sapping their energy. Most of the party resisted, but others began having trouble focusing. Kelgar intuited that the screams were emanating from a female elf somewhere in the dungeon, but didn't know how or why they were being amplified. The party fought more goblins (and their trained squigs), then found a ewer that Revaethan identified as containing water from the fountain in the main chamber of the undercroft. Some among the party began to suspect that the indiscernible object floating in the middle of that chamber was the same elven woman whose screams echoed throughout the dungeon. The party explored the side chambers further. They ran into another forcefield, and Throg decided to drink some of the water from the ewer. It was holy water and burned the crap out of him, of course. Pouring the water on the forcefield did open up the portion that was blocking a side passage, but the main chamber remained blocked.
Continuing through the undercroft, the party began seeing phantom scenes play out between Jekaena and Coril, but the only person who had ever seen them before was Revaethan, and he didn't know either of them very well and couldn't recall their names. He was certain that they were from Welhallas and that Lord Cael would know their names. He also identified the male elf as a "guardsman" and noted that female elf had recently been horribly injured and had a mangled foot, although she was walking normally in these images. Both elves were still alive as far as Revaethan knew, and he was stumped as to why they'd be here as ghosts. In reality, these were not ghosts, but images conjured from Jekaena's memory as she floated, dehydrated and delirious, in the air above the fountain.
Throg heard goblins arguing and tricked them into thinking the that party had left the room, so the goblins would rush out to flank them. The ploy worked, but the goblins led with some nasty plague-infected goblins augmented by a blessing from Nurgle, the Chaos God of Pestilence. Infected goblins spawned tiny daemons called nurglings when killed. When the goblins and daemons were all slain, Tomas investigated the crystal rod carried by their shaman. He sensed a connection from the rod to the forcefield, and was able to detect that a second rod was also powering the forcefield. The party heard Jekaena's voice again, but instead of screaming, she was frantically pleading someone to run away and warn other that invaders were trying to poison the water supply. Meanwhile, Dorgath found a secret door that led to a chamber once used by Coril. Reading through Coril's journal revealed that his sanity had been precious for the past several years and that he had been seduced by the dark elf sorceress Khaligri, whom the party had killed back in Middenheim. Khaligri recruited Coril to serve a conspiracy orchestrated by the enigmatic Orm, a name that the party had seen before. The party gave Tomas some time with the journal, and he deduced that the author (Coril, but this connection was not yet clear to the party) was only a novice in magic and had attempted some simple experiments, but that elaborate rituals created by Orm had been painstakingly copied in every detail. Tomas saw that Orm must be a very knowledgeable necromancer and that the ultimate purpose of the rituals was to extract heartwood from some special tree or trees, grind the wood into chips, place the chips in a cursed basin, extract the heart of a specific elf, burn the contents of the basin, and breathe in the smoke while invoking the Witch King.
The party cornered the last of the goblins in the side passages and found some notes from the goblins indicating that "sword elves" kept killing the goblins and snotlings as they invaded the undercroft, but that the shamans struck them down with spells. They had intended to bring the crystal rods to the fountain in order to contaminate it with Nurgle's Rot, but a "krazy lady" went berserk and blasted a bunch of goblins with magic, killing all but one shaman. She then hopped away on one foot and sealed herself inside the fountain chamber. The goblin leader had a plan to break through her protective spell, but needed more shamans for it to work. Having cleared everything else except one locked room and the main chamber, the party briefly deliberated on how to get through a locked door, with Dorgath insisting that he was an honest dwarf and not a thief or rogue. Then he picked the lock. The party had a showdown with the boss goblin shaman, "Skodder" and his elite goblin troops. As the last goblin fell, another of Jekaena's phantasmal images appeared in the room, showing an argument between her and Coril on the day she left to join the priesthood. The significance of Coril's erratic behavior wasn't clear to Jekaena, and she seemed too upset to really notice. Searching the room, the party found several items, including Jekaena's enchanted "Cane of Tenacious Movement", the second crystal rod of Nurgle, and some notes between Skodder and a priest of Nurgle named "Utronicus." The party learned that Utronicus had taught Skodder a spell to give his troops Nurgle's "blessing" and offering payment after the fountain was contaminated. Skodder had also received a threatening note from a priest of Tzeentch named "Bysshan." This note indicated that Tzeentch had no concern whatsoever regarding the goblins attempts at invading Loren, but that if they continued trying to spread plagues, they would be incinerated.
As the party finished up in the last chamber, Jekaena was able to send a clear message to "whoever is out there" that "something nasty" was in the chamber with her. Once Throg and Tomas used the crystals to deactivate the goblins' forcefield, the party was able to enter the chamber and discover that "something nasty" turned out to be Beasts of Nurgle. Throg exclaimed that he used to keep one a little one as a pet until it grew up and killed his family. One of the beasts of Nurgle fondled and probed Dorgath. Throg ended up nicknaming one of the monsters "Lumpy." After an intense battle, the party dispatched all of the daemons. Revaethan shouted Jekaena's name, which roused her to consciousness. Seeing that there were other people in the room with her, Jekaena dropped her spell and tumbled into the fountain.
Once Jekaena drank some fountain water and ate some bread, she was feeling energetic enough to launch into a lecture about how The Sylvan Epic works. This was confusing to just about everyone, although some characters grasped more of what she was saying than others did. Shortly after the party emerged from the undercroft, Jekaena in tow, everyone around them was distracted as Ariel, queen of the forest, descended from the sky (she looks kind of like a big, mutant elf with huge butterfly wings). Ariel announced that Orion, king of the forest, had gone to his funeral pyre (he does so every year), so she was left to rule the wood elves alone in this time of crisis. She gave the wood elves a little motivational speech. The priestess who sent the party into the undercroft was surprised to see that Jekaena was alive, as it had been four days since the goblins first invaded the undercroft. Jekaena introduced the party as her new best friends: Carrow, Big Skull Warrior, Dwarf the Dwarven Warrior, Human the Hammerpriest, Thomas the Human Wizard, Human With the Spikes, and Revaethan. Evidently she was still a little delirious. She continued rambling as the healers dragged her away. Then Ariel herself addressed each member of the party individually. So you got to meet the queen of the forest!
The next day, Ariel convened a council regarding Coril's treachery and his apparent plans to steal some kind of valuable artifact (his journal revealed that, but was too scant on details for anyone to pinpoint what he'd go after). Ariel stated that she'd secure a vault that was the most precarious target for such a heist, and Jekaena, now rested and healed, announced that she'd be taking her new friends (she got all of the names right this time except Dorgath's) through the Pine Crags to secure the temple there and continue their journey to the Heart of Welhallas. The priestesses objected, but Jekaena conjured thunderclouds over each of their heads and they shut up. The party rode with some escorts to the Pine Crags, but had to leave their mounts behind to continue.
In the Pine Crags, the party found themselves beset by goblin and snotling scouting parties, as the forest was being invaded and the Pine Crags were the closest part of the forest to the point of invasion. After eliminating a few of these nuisances, the party met Bysshan, priest of Tzeentch, the Chaos God of Change. Bysshan openly admitted that he didn't care whether the wood elves won or lost their war. However, he expressed that he and the party had a mutual enemy: Utronicus, the priest of Nurgle. Utronicus had infiltrated Bysshan's stronghold in the Pine Crags and had placed wards on it to keep its former owner out, using the stronghold as a base of operations for his dealings with the goblins. Bysshan made a deal with the party: use the icons they'd retrieved from the undercroft to open the seals placed on the stronghold, enter the stronghold, kill Utronicus, and bring him Nurgle priest's head as proof. Once that task was done, Bysshan would grant Throg access to all of his shrines in Loren and give the whole party a shortcut to their destination.
On entering the stronghold, the party were unsurprised to find that Utronicus had numerous daemons of Nurgle protecting him. The party fought their way through the daemons (getting violated by some Beasts of Nurgle, but them's the breaks), and Dorgath struck and killed Utronicus with the Skull Wand of Kaloth. Throg received some sort of message from an agent of Nurgle urging him to present the head to Bysshan as promised, but to do something with icons of Nurgle (my PM to Turgy was purged with a forum change and I don't feel like digging for the note that says what Throg was supposed to do, although I think he was supposed to remove Utronicus' eyes and put the icons in the empty eye sockets or something gross like that) in order to afflict Bysshan with a potent form of plague (anyway, Throg sided with Tzeentch instead of Nurgle, so it doesn't matter). Bysshan kept his word and revealed a hidden tunnel that led the party within sight of the temple they were headed to.
The tunnel happened to lead the party to a spot where they got an excellent view of a battle, with the wood elves hopelessly overwhelmed by vast hordes of orcs and goblins. All seemed lost, but a huge army of dwarves and their engines of war came down the hills and flanked the orcs and goblins, destroying them and saving the elves. Jekaena was surprised to see dwarves aiding her people and suspected that Dorgath was somehow personally responsible for this development. Dorgath honestly admitted that he was not.
The party approached the temple, where the guards there were still a bit amazed that they just survived that assault by the orcs and goblins. They informed the party that Coril had used the distraction of the invasion as an opportunity to strike, that he had killed several temple guards and stolen the Bow of Loren, a powerful artifact tied to Loren, and suitable for his plans with Orm's rituals. The party was eager to track down Coril, but Jekaena dourly stated that it wouldn't be necessary: Coril's next destination would be Welhallas, where he'd wait for Jekaena to come and try to heal the tree, then attempt to kill her and cut out her heart.
Dorgath arranged an audience with the leader of the dwarven coalition, Runelord Yaggrin. The runelord had rallied the dwarves to come to the aid of their elven neighbors because he had some kind of prescience, and saw that if the elves fell to the orcs and goblins, some human kingdoms would fall next, and there would be no allies to save the dwarves when the real threat came knocking on their door. At Yaggrin's behest, the party trained and prepared for the journey through the Wildwood. Yaggrin was somehow able to guide the party through the Wildwood to a point near the Heart of Welhallas. He stated that normal denizens of the Wildwood were neutralized for now, but that the Witch King's influence would raise enemies to obstruct the path and attempt to kill Carrow.
The party took a path along some boughs and ascended into a dense canopy near the city of Welhallas. They kept getting attacked by dryads, even though the normal denizens of the Wildwood were supposed to be leaving them alone. There were gigantic spiders too. Oh, and branchwraiths. Something was somehow awakening Wildwood monsters and sending them to attack the party. Turned out to be Nayadra Greenthicket, but the party hadn't met her yet, so they weren't aware of her involvement. After killing a bunch of monsters, the party met Arjen, the teleporting dark elf assassin. He stabbed Carrow, but his timing turned out to be hilarious: the turbulent magic of the Wildwood suddenly caused gold coins to rain from the sky, pelting everyone in the area and doing some damage to them. Arjen snarled that he hated these woods and that if the party would get themselves killed, it would make his job easier, then he teleported away.
The party killed some trolls. It rained gold again. They fought some river trolls, then some more dryads. Finally, they arrived atop the city wall of Welhallas, near a door leading inside a gargantuan tree. A party of elves were positioned near the door, including Nayadra Greenthicket, Coril, Arjen, a warrior named Nazzrakin, and a mage (heard speaking but not visible from your vantage at the time) named Hurzevarkh. After some chatter, Hurzevarkh ordered Arjen and Nayadra to stay behind and kill the party while the rest of them made went inside the tree. Instead of confronting the party herself, Nayadra summoned a Horrible Forest Shambler to devour the party, then ran away. Revaethan looked deeply surprised and hurt to see that Nayadra Greenthicket was a traitor, but didn't have time to explain why to the rest of the party, as a huge plant monster climbed onto the wall in front of them and shambled toward them, intent on eating them. Of course, the party defeated the plant monster and entered the gargantuan tree known as the Heart of Welhallas.
Oversoul
The Tentacled One
The passage into the tree became a spiraling staircase, then things got weird. The wall, wooden at first, shifted into some kind of translucent material. Strange lights were constantly appearing and pulsing through the walls. Time began to warp around the party. A sudden gust of wind through the passage blew the lantern out. Throg found a circle for summoning daemons and acquired a statuette of Khorne. Then Coril's hands reached through a wall and pulled Jekaena to the other side. The party discovered that the walls inside the tree seemed to obey the same rules as the The Sylvan Epic. They responded to wood elves, but more easily to those with a strong natural bond to the Heart of Welhallas. Carrow and Jekaena could pass through the wall with no trouble at all. Coril had slight trouble at most, and Revaethan had difficulty and his progress was slow, with the wall being completely hard and impenetrable to everyone else present. Thinking quickly, Carrow used his Invisibility Ring and attacked Coril. Jekaena cast a spell and lunged back across the wall. Coril briefly considered fighting the invisible Carrow, but gave up and retreated. Carrow moved back to his side of the wall to stay with the party.
These strange tunnels contained some puzzles that seemed to be powered by the magic of Tzeentch. It started out easy, but Throg deliberately failed, which showed the party that failing caused wraiths to appear and target the individual responsible. Continuing, the party reached a huge chamber with massive posts rising above a stream of caustic fluid. A valve was visible on the other side, so the party guessed that someone would have to leap, using the posts, to reach the valve. Revaethan was nominated, but Arjen teleported in with Coril. The latter was shooting arrows at the party with the now-cursed Bow of Loren and the former was teleporting both of them around the posts, making them difficult to reach with melee weapons. The used ranged weapons and coordination to hit Coril harder than he was hitting them, while Carrow and Revaethan made progress toward reaching the valve. Eventually, Arjen decided that Coril had had enough and teleported them both away. The party was able to turn the valve, which caused a second fluid to shoot from the sides of the posts and, within seconds, created a floor for everyone to walk across the chamber. Weird. But not as weird as what came next! The party found themselves, in sequence, pulled into illusory scenes from the past of each person in the chamber.
From the flashback scenes we learned that Dorgath came from a family of master stonecutters in Zhufbar and saw the first time he completed a contract to clear a huge stone obstruction in a mine. We learned that Kelgar used to be a street urchin in Altdorf, but was recruited by a priest of Sigmar after older children compelled him to rob the temple. We learned that Carrow's gambling debts caused a rift that saw him exiled from the wood elf enclave where he grew up. We learned that Throg used to raid farms in the Chaos Wastes (among other things). We learned that Tomas was collaborating with an elven wizard on some sophisticated project connected to his enigmatic father, Ed. We learned that Jekaena was studying to become an archmage, but was guilt-tripped into becoming a priestess instead. We learned that Revaethan was disgraced for failure in battle, but that this was actually orchestrated by a seer from Welhallas and sleeper agent for the Witch King: Nayadra Greenthicket.
As the last illusion faded, the party reached another puzzle door with some of Tzeentch's familiar decor, but part of it was replaced by alien glyphs, totally unknown to everyone in the party. It took them some time, but the party figured out that certain objects from those flashback scenes were connected to each member of the party, and the correct individual had to activate the puzzle with a torch of Tzeentch. There were some more wraith battles and some confusion, but the party won in the end. They passed through the puzzle door and right into Nayadra's trap.
The party was transported through a Chaos gate into the Idyllic Copse, a hidden and normally inaccessible part of the Loren forest, heavily enchanted to contain threats that the elves could not destroy. For some stupid reason, the party split up, with half of them approaching an enigmatic humanoid called "Prince Smonauk" and the other half meeting with high elves from "the Order of Honored Elders." Those who spoke with Prince Smonauk seemed amenable to his deal: he'd provide the party with a portal that would lead them to a position to ambush the one who sent them here, and in exchange if Throg ever returned to the Chaos Lands, he'd warn the people of Prince Smonauk's return (timeframe unspecified). The Order of Honored Elders, on the other hand, said they'd find some way or other to get the party out of the Idyllic Copse, but that the party needed to stay away from Prince Smonauk. So both halves of the party went back to where they'd split up in order to retrieve the other half, only Dorgath chased Carrow who charged at the other group babbling at them, and I still have no idea what was going on with that. The party sided with the Order of Honored Elders, who were able to create a portal leading the party back to a point near Nayadra, but their portal had some trial and error involving a tentacle monster and they accidentally allowed a flying, shadowy weasel-like entity to escape from the Idyllic Copse to some unknown part of the Old World. The third attempt was a success and got the party back on track.
Nayadra Greenthicket summoned a bunch of dryads to ambush the party. She taunted Revaethan, cast some spells, and was about to retreat into another room while the party was occupied with dryads, but Throg levitated to her position and axe-murdered her. The dryads kept fighting, but the party defeated them. The party found Nayadra's shrine to Malekith, the Witch King. Nearby was a stairwell that led deep underground, and the party arrived in a dungeon enveloped by the roots of the tree, getting ever closer to the heartwood where they needed to bring Jekaena, Carrow, and The Sylvan Epic.
These root-encrusted passages were swarming with undead, so there was a lot more fighting. The party employed the classic gaming strategy of having different party members open different doors simultaneously, initiating combat with multiple groups of monsters at the same time, so that was fun. Dorgath found a secret door that led to a chamber with a banshee, so more fighting undead ensued. Then the party found a magic ring and couldn't decide who should wear it, so they staged an axe-throwing competition for it. This left me scrambling to see if "Ballistic Skill Test" was included in the rules for Warhammer Quest or if I'd have to make that up. Kelgar won the contest. The party wiped out some more undead, but passage further into the dungeon was blocked by a magically-locked portcullis, so they had to go back and take a different path. This led to a necromancer, apparently in league with Hurzevarkh. They killed him and then destroyed his undead minions. Now they have a portcullis key and are presumably about to use it. And that's the past 12 years, pretty much.
These strange tunnels contained some puzzles that seemed to be powered by the magic of Tzeentch. It started out easy, but Throg deliberately failed, which showed the party that failing caused wraiths to appear and target the individual responsible. Continuing, the party reached a huge chamber with massive posts rising above a stream of caustic fluid. A valve was visible on the other side, so the party guessed that someone would have to leap, using the posts, to reach the valve. Revaethan was nominated, but Arjen teleported in with Coril. The latter was shooting arrows at the party with the now-cursed Bow of Loren and the former was teleporting both of them around the posts, making them difficult to reach with melee weapons. The used ranged weapons and coordination to hit Coril harder than he was hitting them, while Carrow and Revaethan made progress toward reaching the valve. Eventually, Arjen decided that Coril had had enough and teleported them both away. The party was able to turn the valve, which caused a second fluid to shoot from the sides of the posts and, within seconds, created a floor for everyone to walk across the chamber. Weird. But not as weird as what came next! The party found themselves, in sequence, pulled into illusory scenes from the past of each person in the chamber.
From the flashback scenes we learned that Dorgath came from a family of master stonecutters in Zhufbar and saw the first time he completed a contract to clear a huge stone obstruction in a mine. We learned that Kelgar used to be a street urchin in Altdorf, but was recruited by a priest of Sigmar after older children compelled him to rob the temple. We learned that Carrow's gambling debts caused a rift that saw him exiled from the wood elf enclave where he grew up. We learned that Throg used to raid farms in the Chaos Wastes (among other things). We learned that Tomas was collaborating with an elven wizard on some sophisticated project connected to his enigmatic father, Ed. We learned that Jekaena was studying to become an archmage, but was guilt-tripped into becoming a priestess instead. We learned that Revaethan was disgraced for failure in battle, but that this was actually orchestrated by a seer from Welhallas and sleeper agent for the Witch King: Nayadra Greenthicket.
As the last illusion faded, the party reached another puzzle door with some of Tzeentch's familiar decor, but part of it was replaced by alien glyphs, totally unknown to everyone in the party. It took them some time, but the party figured out that certain objects from those flashback scenes were connected to each member of the party, and the correct individual had to activate the puzzle with a torch of Tzeentch. There were some more wraith battles and some confusion, but the party won in the end. They passed through the puzzle door and right into Nayadra's trap.
The party was transported through a Chaos gate into the Idyllic Copse, a hidden and normally inaccessible part of the Loren forest, heavily enchanted to contain threats that the elves could not destroy. For some stupid reason, the party split up, with half of them approaching an enigmatic humanoid called "Prince Smonauk" and the other half meeting with high elves from "the Order of Honored Elders." Those who spoke with Prince Smonauk seemed amenable to his deal: he'd provide the party with a portal that would lead them to a position to ambush the one who sent them here, and in exchange if Throg ever returned to the Chaos Lands, he'd warn the people of Prince Smonauk's return (timeframe unspecified). The Order of Honored Elders, on the other hand, said they'd find some way or other to get the party out of the Idyllic Copse, but that the party needed to stay away from Prince Smonauk. So both halves of the party went back to where they'd split up in order to retrieve the other half, only Dorgath chased Carrow who charged at the other group babbling at them, and I still have no idea what was going on with that. The party sided with the Order of Honored Elders, who were able to create a portal leading the party back to a point near Nayadra, but their portal had some trial and error involving a tentacle monster and they accidentally allowed a flying, shadowy weasel-like entity to escape from the Idyllic Copse to some unknown part of the Old World. The third attempt was a success and got the party back on track.
Nayadra Greenthicket summoned a bunch of dryads to ambush the party. She taunted Revaethan, cast some spells, and was about to retreat into another room while the party was occupied with dryads, but Throg levitated to her position and axe-murdered her. The dryads kept fighting, but the party defeated them. The party found Nayadra's shrine to Malekith, the Witch King. Nearby was a stairwell that led deep underground, and the party arrived in a dungeon enveloped by the roots of the tree, getting ever closer to the heartwood where they needed to bring Jekaena, Carrow, and The Sylvan Epic.
These root-encrusted passages were swarming with undead, so there was a lot more fighting. The party employed the classic gaming strategy of having different party members open different doors simultaneously, initiating combat with multiple groups of monsters at the same time, so that was fun. Dorgath found a secret door that led to a chamber with a banshee, so more fighting undead ensued. Then the party found a magic ring and couldn't decide who should wear it, so they staged an axe-throwing competition for it. This left me scrambling to see if "Ballistic Skill Test" was included in the rules for Warhammer Quest or if I'd have to make that up. Kelgar won the contest. The party wiped out some more undead, but passage further into the dungeon was blocked by a magically-locked portcullis, so they had to go back and take a different path. This led to a necromancer, apparently in league with Hurzevarkh. They killed him and then destroyed his undead minions. Now they have a portcullis key and are presumably about to use it. And that's the past 12 years, pretty much.
Oversoul
The Tentacled One
I know, right?
You were inside the tree for a while, yes. Now you're underneath it.So, we're actually inside the tree? I missed that part while we were doing it...
Anyway, I did not accurately predict how long it would take me to write up that recap, but it's too late now! I figured, "Oh, I can knock this out in a couple of hours and then we'll have it so if we need a recap later I can just copy this one for the first part." Ha, it took way longer than that. Oops. Anyway, I should really take a look at the map again and get back to this properly. Soon. Seriously. But I got a little sidetracked trying to finish some other stuff...