We asked the captain if we could speak with Auron. We were informed that Auron had gone. Left in the night without a struggle or a trace. This perplexed us. We were aware he was a gold dragon masquerading as a human giving help to the Shi’s side of the war, and his motives are his own. It just seemed strange for him to run off.

Myself and the bard decided it would be a good idea to speak with the captain privately about the situation. We went into his tent and spoke with him about our quest, where we had just come from and our adventures thus far. He seemed bemused but decided that the best course of action would be to see his high king. Not the best of ideas. Unhappy with the idea of taking a potential spy to the high king, and now with the fact that the captain wanted us to go with a group of scouts, we saw the folly of our plan. We must get away form these people and regroup, decide what we were to do next. First, through, what had become of our friend.

We asked the captain if we could look into his disappearance and he agreed. We were sent with one of their rangers over to a broken camp where Auron had been but vanished. We then began to apply our well learned skills to try and discern the fate of our draconic friend.

The camp showed no sign of a struggle, which is odd as if a gold dragon was taken somewhere he did not want to go then I’m pretty certain he would put up a fight. The dwarf decided it would be a good idea to climb a tree. I suggested he stick his head in a ditch but this went unnoticed. From his perch atop one of the mighty limbs he spotted another clearing not too far away. One that should not be there.

We left our shi companion to whittle away the time whilst we tracked Auron’s steps carefully. Clearly there were the footsteps of a man leading to this other clearing and it didn’t take long to find the spot where the tracks stopped. The tracks also went from a man’s to a dragons.

In the new clearing it looked like something had landed instead of having taken off, and most importantly it looked like something had scorched the foliage on its way down. Not the heat of a gold though, but the intensity of a red. This made things more difficult. From what we could deduce it looked like the following had happened:

Auron travelled from his camp to this clearing where he met with a Red dragon. There were signs that there might have been a small confrontation between the two at this point, but then both left willingly. Where they went, we had no idea. We needed to find out where the dragons dwelled, and unfortunately only one in our party had this information: Seline.

The next thing I remember was our Avenger grabbing my arm and pulling it as hard as she could. Suddenly, after a burst of pain causing another blackout one arm was free. Cut and bruised, aching like hell, it had returned to me. Now was the turn of Cap’n Fancy Pants himself, Captain Dove. He came over to me, after trying it on with the Avenger again, and pull the other arm free. Finally, after making right meal of it, the other arm popped out as well.

Now free I was determined to have a stern word with the bloodstone that had just pulled me into the ground, when no sooner had I thuoght that than I felt the same set of rocky hands on my feet again. Rest assured I was having none of it and quickly stamped the hands away.

I surveyed the room: the dwarf was gone, the drow was residing on the back of the bard who was on a very rickety table, the elemental was taking swipes at the vampire and our ranger had just been grabbed by the bloodstone…THE BLOODSTONE! I ran over to her and grabbed the arms that were clawing at her legs. This time we’d pull him up and see what he had to say for himself. The avenger then came over to help pull him up, followed by Dove. With the three of us trying to get him out of the ground he emerged without much struggle. We landed on the floor and in a heap and I quickly got up to confront him.

He was hopping from one foot to the other cursing us with every word known to dwarf. I walked up to him, barely able to contain my rage, and spoke calmly. I explained to him that since he should return with a message to his people. Leave us alone. They have done nothing but stand in our way of protecting the phoenix, and have shown hostile intentions towards us. We were going to walk out of this place with our phoenix, and if we get the other phoenix with her as well. They clearly aren’t safe with them as they consider them to be nothing but objects. With this message he left.

It was at this point that the dwarf popped up out of the floor with the other phoenix. She was okay. The bloodstone had gone and we knew we had to move quickly.

The vampire explained that he could get the bonds off of our phoenix, but not of the other drow. To get the bonds off of our phoenix he would have to perform some kind of intimate ceremony with her. Not having the time for this she asked if it could be sped up.
We also asked why he couldn’t remove the other drow’s bonds, and that was owing to his master, the Witch King, wanting to have her as his bride. This stunned us.
Our drow was keen to get the bonds off and the vampire was keen to oblige. We had to leave the room whilst the process took place and when we returned he was gone and the drow was on her own with the bonds in her hands. She handed them to the dwarf to study and we decided to move on from here as quickly as possible.

Once we were out in the light again the other drow asked us when we were going to return her to her people. We learned her name was Seline, and that she was a priestess, one of the highest ranks in her society. The dwarf worked hard and finally managed to work out how to get the bonds off. Once they were off we stated that we were going to see the Shi, then we would return her to her people, but she seemd keen on going to see the Witch King. She also seemed keen on marrying him.

Her society was much like the drow society of today. Females have higher status than males and the society is led by the priestesses. They perform dark rituals which summon demons, a practice still performed. We were satisfied that they weren’t in contact with the horrors.

When we mentioned the Shi, Seline change her mind and wanted to come with us. Highly suspicious as moments ago she wanted to marry the Witch King.

He was quite tall, almost elven, but one thing we immediately noticed…he was a vampire. He introduced himself as the right hand of the Witch King, a fact which immediately put us on our guard. The newcomer offered to negotiate with us for the release of the drow. The bloodstone, however, was hopping mad and telling us to kill our stealthy new friend. This was something I could not do. So far, the bloodstone had proven themselves openly hostile toward us and what we were doing. This gentleman had done nothing to harm us and had politely asked to negotiate.

We started to ask the vampire of the Witch King, having only met some of his allies, the Racken, who were wholely undersireable creatures. However, he assured us that the Witch King was trying to win the war so that the other races would leave his people alone. Another fact that didn’t sit well with me. Suddenly our view, our prejudices, had travelled back with us. We were viewing this war through the eyes of the modern age, dwarves and elves the good; the undead and the ogres bad. What if this was not the case. Could there be any good in the war, any bad, by today’s standards?

The bloodstone, by this point, had exhausted the last of his patience. He dropped through the floor and out of sight almost immediately. His earth elemental was still with us, and trundled over to the vampire ready to attack. Suddenly the other drow (not our companion) vanished out of sight. Pulled through the floor by the bloodstone using his geomancy. We were in trouble now. We were one phoenix down with the bloodstone sure to try and kidnap our friend as well. We could see a few plans of attack: fight or flight (or stick around and wait for the bloodstone to return).

Hesitant to not attack someone who had not attacked us first, we made to try and stop the earth elemental from attacking him. Our drow climbed on my back so that wandering hands could not reach out through the floor for her. She managed to take control of the earth elemental for a brief time, belaying the attack on the vampire. Then it happened, a hand reached out and grabbed my leg. Swiftly as a hawk the drow lept from my back to the bard’s and I reached down to pull the groping extremities up through the floor as what goes one way can surely go the other. I grabbed the hand and pulled with all my might, unfortunarely I lost my footing and the bloodstone was mightier that I.

I fell to the floor, my arms sinking into the rock. Then the unthinkable happened. The bloodstone let go.

We charged in, taking down the first few racken with ease, trying to get to a smaller sub-cave where the drow was being held. I ran past the first rank of rat-creatures, only to be confronted by the biggest brute I’d ever seen. This one wasn’t as big as the others, but had no controllers. It seemed to show some kind of feral intelligence.

I barely had time to take all this in before the brute lashed out and grabbed me. Knowing what would happen in one of these racken “embraces” I knew I had to escape. I struggled and twisted but couldn’t break free. Then came the crushing. All went black and I couldn’t breathe. The life seemed to be getting crushed out of my body. The racken discarded by body and turned its attention to my companions. I, however, wasn’t dead yet and managed to restore myself with some healing. By this time the racken brute was nearly dead.

We charged through into the chamber where the drow was being kept, dispatched the remaining guards and freed her from the clutches of the evil racken.

The bloodstone king thanked us as said: “we’ll be taking her back now…” and this is something we took issue with.

The assassins were dispatched quickly and soon the priestess followed, but before the killing blow was struck she took her own life. Little did we realise that this was part of a spell. She rose again as a ghast of some kind. The dead assassins were now spirits, their ethreal forms floating through the ceiling. We concentrated on the re-animated priestess. All the time she kept laughing. At first we didn’t follow her meaning, but soon she couldn’t contain her secret and blurted out: “Your focus is in the wrong place…”

With this we realised that the tear was upstair still…where the spirits had gone. We rushed back up the stairs leaving the dwarf to keep the priestess entertained. When we arrived up there we found the four spirits had possessed the bodied of some of the inn’s other patrons. They were trying to get to the tear. Now we were in a difficult situation as these were innocents. I ran up to one of the merchants and tried to knock him out, unfortunately the spirit continued to control the body after the lights had been extinguished.

We took turns leading the party through the maze of tunnels left by the rat-ogres, some of us had more success than others. I hate to say this but the Bard proved the greatest of leaders and helpers through this ordeal, and though it pains me, I was glad to have him there. The dawrf on the other hand seemed detatched. I believe the thought of seeing his ancestors and what they had accomplished turned his head as to what he, an alcoholic warrior, could achieve. Maybe the phoenix isn’t the only one who’s powers are yet to be unlocked?

Alas, I am diverging from the point. It was the dwarf who eventually led us down a dark tunnel and into a dead end. We turned to go back the way we came, knowing that by now we had lost the trail, only to find a wall blocking out way. From this hard, stone wall emerged…the chief of the bloodstone.

Not content with our responses to his guards he had come after us to bring our friend, the drow mage, back with him. I was not happy with this idea. She is a valuable companion and possibly a friend (although one can never truly know the motives of a drow). The king had argued that if the witch king had a phoenix, we needed to use one of our own first as a first-strike weapon. This was nonsense and couldn’t be allowed to happen. The shi must use the weapon at the alloted time to let history take its course. It’s not right, it’s not fair, but that’s just the way it has to be. I’m saying this as there are greater horrors out there, lurking, waiting to enter this universe given the chance. If history doesn’t go the way it’s supposed to and a paradox is created, they might be here sooner than expected.

The king took some persueding to let us go after the kidnapped drow. Eventually we reasoned with him that we did not want the witch king getting hold of a phoenix and that they could come with us to find the drow. This seemed to appease him, but he stated that if we didn’t come back with their “dark unicorn” (drow) we would have to relinquish ours. That would be difficult, as she’s an accomplished mage and I don’t believe she would be too interested in that. Because it got us what we wanted we accepted and moved on. With the help of the bloodstone we moved on, this time: through the rock!

Not knowing where to turn next we decided that we would go to see Renown again. Although cryptic, he provided us with more answers than we knew at the time. The journey, however, was fraught with danger. The tear seemed to eminate an evil aura that called out to ne’erdowells across the land. Most notable among these groups were the clerics of Cyric.

I won’t bore you with the history of Bane and Cyric, that is for the historians across the rest of the realms, suffice to say that Cyric took over Bane’s job after he died in the Time of Troubles. Nasty business. The clerics of Cyric, however, weren’t too pleased with the fact that we’d uncovered this potential threat to their god and no sooner had we set out on the path the Renown’s house when we were accosted by some mercenaries and a cleric of the evil god. It was clear that they were of evil intent, and their honeyed words of them destroying the tear didn’t seem verifyable to my thought process.

The ruffians were finished off with mighty blows from myself and my dwarven companion and we set about our path again, hoping we would find Renown unaccosted. The cottage was just as we remembered it from before. Renown permitted entrance and we set about our tale, weaving a mighty narrative that might one day be used to inspire the heroic deeds of others.

Renown was guarded with his answers, but let us know of a place were we may find the knowledge we seek. In Waterdeep is the Temple of Oghma, the deity of knowledge, and his prists might hold the information we were looking for regarding the destruction of the tear. We would be hounded constantly from here to Waterdeep by clerics of Bane and Cyric.

Prepared for the rough journey ahead of us, we set out from Renown’s cottage on the path that would take us to Daggerford, then by boat to Waterdeep. Sea was the best course as it would take us a week or so by land but by see only a few days. The journey to Daggerford was marked with a few minor skirmishes with followers of Cyric, each time they were dispatched with ease.
Finally after a few days hard travel we arrived at Daggerford. When we arrived at the Inn night had fallen and the dock was empty so we had to stay for the night. We decided to head up to our bunks and settle down for the evening, with each member of the party taking a watch (except the dwarf who can’t be trusted with such matters).
It was during our ranger Arelyn’s watch that we heard a commotion from the floor below us. We woke up and donned our equipment silently. Moving to the top of the stairs we peered down into the still-lit taproom below.
“Come out with the tear,” a female voice called out to us, “come out and the lovely lady that runs this place will live.”
I couldn’t in good conscience have another being be harmed because of my burden, so I ventured down the stairs with some of my companions in tow. What greeted me was not a pleasant sight…

This is my road in Nottingham at the moment…SNOW!!

I ran after it with the rogue to try and eliminate its handlers in the hope that it would lose all direction. Fighting all the way we managed to get toe to toe with the two rat-beast handers that appeared to be controlling the brute. A couple of powerful attacks from me and some fancy foot-work from the rogue finished the beasts off. Proudly we looked on as the brute stopped, the drow nestled between his arms. Hacking and slashing we appeared to be doing little to take the giant racken down. Then the thing exploded in a fury and almost crushed the drow to death. Small whispers of “help me…” were escaping from her lips but she was too weak to move. Then, as if completely unaffected by its rage it continued to trundle down the holes they had created not so long ago.

We were about to persue the rat-ogre but we realised that we had our own troubled in that our drow had been captured. No sooner had this happened, she was dropped by the beast and swiftly she created a portal to spirit her away to safety, which just so happened to be by the rogue and myself.

The one brute and the remaining rat men that were left were taken care of, and we tried to persue the captured drow, but a horde of small racken and a bend in the tunnel stopped the volley of spells and arrows sent by the mage and the bard. The persuit had to stop…for now.

A decission was quickly made to follow the racken and rescue the drow, and after sending the bloodstone that appeared back to their master to ask if we were allowed to leave, we left without awaiting their return knowing the answer would be no.