Part One: City of Illusions
Elven archers surround the party
Having spent the last month trapped deep underground, slaves of the Drow in their sunless city of Zirnakaynin, the heroes are blinded by the dazzling brightness of the forest glade into which they tumble. As their vision returns, they notice that they are far from alone..... Two dozen elvish archers surround the group, arrows notched and ready to fire at these curious visitors from the Darklands. Heedless of their peril, Danforth begins calling for a healer, while Alesander cradles Lyselle's limp body, careful not to touch the poisoned Drow arrows protruding from her back.
Two elves come forward warily and lift the wounded half-elf onto a stretcher fashioned from one huge leaf. The rest of the sentinels keep their weapons trained on the other strangers. As Lyselle is borne away, the rest of the PCs are herded after her.
The heroes are escorted into the elven city of Iadara, jewel of Kyonin. Hesker, Danforth and Alesander are deposited in a glorified tree-house. Lyselle is taken elsewhere. The halfling demands to know what has happened to their companion - and while the elves are courteous, no answers are forthcoming. The new comers are encouraged to change into elven robes, while Alesander and Danforth are eager to get out of their tattered, blood-stained rags, Hesker would rather wear an old, smelly sack than a "pretty elf dress".
Two elves come forward warily and lift the wounded half-elf onto a stretcher fashioned from one huge leaf. The rest of the sentinels keep their weapons trained on the other strangers. As Lyselle is borne away, the rest of the PCs are herded after her.
The heroes are escorted into the elven city of Iadara, jewel of Kyonin. Hesker, Danforth and Alesander are deposited in a glorified tree-house. Lyselle is taken elsewhere. The halfling demands to know what has happened to their companion - and while the elves are courteous, no answers are forthcoming. The new comers are encouraged to change into elven robes, while Alesander and Danforth are eager to get out of their tattered, blood-stained rags, Hesker would rather wear an old, smelly sack than a "pretty elf dress".
Queen Telandia Edasseril
Later, the party are permitted to visit Lyselle in the great elvish hospital tree. The healers have stabilized her condition but she is still very weak and requires time to rest and recover her strength. While she is recuperating, the rest of the group are escorted into the royal presence of Queen Telandia Edasseril (and her adviser Villastir)! As the heroes tell the elven monarch of the Drow's plan to drop a star on her nation, her pet wizard makes snide remarks and generally tries to undermine their credibility. It is all Hesker can do to restrain herself from striking the obnoxious fellow! The queen does at least hear them out, before dismissing them to their rooms, while she and her seers consider their fantastic story.
That very night, the tree-house where the PCs are staying comes under attack by a group of elven renegades styling themselves as The Winter Council. The masked killers plan to silence the heroes before they can delve any deeper into their organisations involvement in the Drow's scheme.
With no alternative, Hesker suspiciously sips the elves moonwine and quickly developed a taste for it. When the ambush occurs, she is sleeping off her over-indulgence. Danforth is peering out of the window but can see nothing (due to darkness penalties). Alesander is reading by candlelight, he hears something outside and suspects that trouble in incoming (only he passes his Notice roll and gets a card in the surprise round). Suddenly, the door is kicked inward and a group of masked elves bust in, brandishing blades! Alesander throws his book (a heavy/ponderous tome on the movement of constellations) at the one at the front, who is shaken (and Alesander's player gets a benny). Unknown to the party, more marksmen lurk on the adjacent platforms, holding their action until a target presents itself.
As Alesander and Danforth fight for their lives, Hesker continues to snore loudly. As more elves pop up at the windows (like targets on a shooting range), Alesander keeps them suppressed while Danforth fights off those that have already got inside. Hesker wakes up groggily and grabs the elf voyeur peering in through the window, pulling him inside (as grapple). Another of the council's murderous pawns flanks her and the half-orc is wounded. (Her player rolled to soak, got one success only and spent a benny to re-roll - for a CRITICAL FAILURE, which she was stuck with). The elf that she had been throttling staggers away, Alesander hits him with Bolt and propels him through the flimsy wall of the tree-house and over the edge of the lofty/leafy platform.
Having defeated all of the elves inside, Danforth pokes his head out the front door - but withdraws it quickly as several arrows hit the frame, dusting his cheek with jagged splinters. Evidently, they still have to do something about the hidden snipers in the trees.
Hesker gets a Joker and (despite her wounds) swings from their platform to the next on the end of a convenient vine. She gets a Raise - not only does she make it, she collides with the archer there and kicks him over the guard rail to his doom. Venturing outside, Danforth is targeted by the final sniper, revealing his position to Alesander, who hits him with Bolt.
As Alesander heals his comrades, he realizes that if The Winter Council (whoever they are) made an attempt to kill them, they've probably sent someone to silence Lyselle as well. The heroes rush (well, as much as they can rush while carrying around multiple wounds) to the great elven hospital tree!
Meanwhile, Lyselle wakes up to find she has a visitor at her bedside, it is none other than Kaerishiel, her jilted husband (who she has not seen since he banished the party to Zirnakaynin). In one hand he holds a bunch of flowers, in the other a knife. He could scarcely believe his ears when Lord Villastir told him who had popped out of the old elf gate outside Iadara - and scarcely believe his luck when he was given the job of killing the meddlesome adventurers. (It turns out that the Shin'Rakaroth is being manipulated by highly placed agents of The Winter Council). Before Kaerishiel can fulfill his threat, the rest of the heroes burst in - visiting time is over!
That very night, the tree-house where the PCs are staying comes under attack by a group of elven renegades styling themselves as The Winter Council. The masked killers plan to silence the heroes before they can delve any deeper into their organisations involvement in the Drow's scheme.
With no alternative, Hesker suspiciously sips the elves moonwine and quickly developed a taste for it. When the ambush occurs, she is sleeping off her over-indulgence. Danforth is peering out of the window but can see nothing (due to darkness penalties). Alesander is reading by candlelight, he hears something outside and suspects that trouble in incoming (only he passes his Notice roll and gets a card in the surprise round). Suddenly, the door is kicked inward and a group of masked elves bust in, brandishing blades! Alesander throws his book (a heavy/ponderous tome on the movement of constellations) at the one at the front, who is shaken (and Alesander's player gets a benny). Unknown to the party, more marksmen lurk on the adjacent platforms, holding their action until a target presents itself.
As Alesander and Danforth fight for their lives, Hesker continues to snore loudly. As more elves pop up at the windows (like targets on a shooting range), Alesander keeps them suppressed while Danforth fights off those that have already got inside. Hesker wakes up groggily and grabs the elf voyeur peering in through the window, pulling him inside (as grapple). Another of the council's murderous pawns flanks her and the half-orc is wounded. (Her player rolled to soak, got one success only and spent a benny to re-roll - for a CRITICAL FAILURE, which she was stuck with). The elf that she had been throttling staggers away, Alesander hits him with Bolt and propels him through the flimsy wall of the tree-house and over the edge of the lofty/leafy platform.
Having defeated all of the elves inside, Danforth pokes his head out the front door - but withdraws it quickly as several arrows hit the frame, dusting his cheek with jagged splinters. Evidently, they still have to do something about the hidden snipers in the trees.
Hesker gets a Joker and (despite her wounds) swings from their platform to the next on the end of a convenient vine. She gets a Raise - not only does she make it, she collides with the archer there and kicks him over the guard rail to his doom. Venturing outside, Danforth is targeted by the final sniper, revealing his position to Alesander, who hits him with Bolt.
As Alesander heals his comrades, he realizes that if The Winter Council (whoever they are) made an attempt to kill them, they've probably sent someone to silence Lyselle as well. The heroes rush (well, as much as they can rush while carrying around multiple wounds) to the great elven hospital tree!
Meanwhile, Lyselle wakes up to find she has a visitor at her bedside, it is none other than Kaerishiel, her jilted husband (who she has not seen since he banished the party to Zirnakaynin). In one hand he holds a bunch of flowers, in the other a knife. He could scarcely believe his ears when Lord Villastir told him who had popped out of the old elf gate outside Iadara - and scarcely believe his luck when he was given the job of killing the meddlesome adventurers. (It turns out that the Shin'Rakaroth is being manipulated by highly placed agents of The Winter Council). Before Kaerishiel can fulfill his threat, the rest of the heroes burst in - visiting time is over!
The treacherous Lord Villastir
Danforth tries to shoot the dagger out of his hand, misses and shoots the flowers out of his other hand instead. Hesker throws an axe across the ward, pinning the bitter groom to the wall. The party scarcely need to bother interrogating Kaerishiel after his long, villainous monologue. Evidently, there is a secret society calling itself The Winter Council that is working behind the scenes to weaken Queen Telandia's rule. Lord Villastir (the queen's adviser) seems to be a card carrying member of this wicked organisation and they also have agents placed with the Lanternbearers. While the council do not appear to be allied with the dark elves, they are trying to cover up their involvement in the defection of General Allevrah Azrinae, who the heroes know (from information they picked up in Zirnakaynin) has turned into a Drow. Can it be the same General Azrinae who now plots to destroy Kyonin?! How exactly does an elf transform into a dark elf?! The party have plenty of time to ruminate on these mysteries as they are arrested by the queen's men and taken to the dungeons beneath the palace.
The heroes receive a surprising visitor, Queen Telandia herself. She dismisses the guards (who are not happy leaving their ruler alone in the presence of these dangerous outsiders) before revealing that she is already well aware of Lord Villastir's treachery and is only feigning ignorance to draw The Winter Court into the open. Their moonlit strike against the party has encouraged Telandia to dispatch agents to infiltrate the council's fortress of Thorns End (deep in the demon-haunted Tanglebriar) and uncover whatever information they are trying so desperately to hide. Three guess who she has selected to serve in this capacity. She gives the group back all of the equipment that was confiscated at the end of Armageddon Echo, then opens a portal that she assures the party will bring them to a location within three miles of The Winter Council's base of operations.
The heroes receive a surprising visitor, Queen Telandia herself. She dismisses the guards (who are not happy leaving their ruler alone in the presence of these dangerous outsiders) before revealing that she is already well aware of Lord Villastir's treachery and is only feigning ignorance to draw The Winter Court into the open. Their moonlit strike against the party has encouraged Telandia to dispatch agents to infiltrate the council's fortress of Thorns End (deep in the demon-haunted Tanglebriar) and uncover whatever information they are trying so desperately to hide. Three guess who she has selected to serve in this capacity. She gives the group back all of the equipment that was confiscated at the end of Armageddon Echo, then opens a portal that she assures the party will bring them to a location within three miles of The Winter Council's base of operations.
Part Two: Into the Tanglebriar
Queen Telandia opens a portal beneath the heroes feet (before they can change their minds) and they are deposited in an overgrown clearing deep in the uncharted depths of the Tanglebriar. Unlike the lovely forest in which Iadara is comfortably nestled, the Tanglebriar has an oppressive, malevolent atmosphere. Picking themselves up, it dawns on the group that while the queen told them that Thorns End would be within three miles of where her portal dumped them, she neglected to tell them in which direction to travel.
Demon Lord Treerazor
As they trudge through the dense, tangled foliage, the party attract the attention of the forest's demonic denizens. They flee, but soon realize they are being herded further into the deep, dark wood. Before the heroes can break away, they run out of forest and find themselves running across a vast, blasted heath, dotted with the splintered stumps of sundered trees. Here, the dread Lord Treerazor (essentially a demonic T-Rex with an enormous obsidian axe) holds court. He demands to know why the PCs intrude upon his domain, as he can detect the stink of elves upon their flesh and suspects they are allies of The Winter Council, whom he has been trying to drive out of the Tanglebriar for many years. Once the heroes convince him they are not friends of the elves squatting in Thorns End, the lord of the blasted tarn offers the group an ultimatum: be ripped apart by a horde of demon-spawn or continue their journey and sabotage the Maleficus Spike, breaking the wards that prevent Treerazor and his army of horrors from simply storming Thorns End and slaughtering The Winter Council. Although wary of allying themselves with demons, the players do appreciate that it will save them a lot of work if they let Treerazor and his friends wipe out The Winter Council and pick through the bodies for the information that they need, re: the defection of General Azrinae to the Drow.
Part Three: Thorns End
Thorns End is a battleground! While the demons cannot get inside the fortress while the Maleficus Spike is active, they are making damned sure that The Winter Council aren't going anywhere, the elves are besieged.