Lyrlia Zerfis meets Liw Snadtar

" It is a blessing we ran into each other. With the Flaming Fist scouring the lands for undead and lizardfolks, recruiting a good mercenary in Baldur's Gate is not as easy as you'd think.", started Lyrlia Zerfis, sitting in front of a middle aged half-elf.

"I told you, I am not a mercenary...", objected Liw Snadtar, but seeing what Liw laid on the table next to the bottle of wine, he paused a second then added, "... but there is always room for discussion.".

Lyrlia smiled as she removed the cloth from around a very special pair of bracers, showing gold, gems and magical runes.

"Of course, I remember, you made it quite clear. And I do not require a simple mercenary, which is why I am interested in you. You see, I come from far, and in this region, I know no one. Yet, I have come to search for someone and have to cover a great deal of lands to find him. I do not wish to hire you to kill or abduct. Simply to find. But it will be dangerous, especially now...", she let her voice trail...

"... now that the lands between here and Waterdeep are slowly being infected with undeath.", the half-elf said, picking up where the eladrin had left, repeating words she had told him earlier. He had recently arrived from Amn and completed what he had come to do in Baldur's Gate. He had found the Miracle city under a curfew and unusually strict guard, which was unheard of in the last decades.

"And this, I assume, is my payment?" he added, referring to the bracers with his eyes.

"You are almost right. This is you first payment", she correted. "It has potent magic I am sure you will have good use for, Warlock", as Liw was about to interrupt, she rose a hand. "No need to ask how I can tell, I just know. Take it for now. When we next meet, I'll have more for you. As for the question you're about to ask, let me answer... His name is Fylikiel Zerfis and he is my brother".

Liw was silent a second, wondering for a moment if the eladrin was actually reading his mind, or just deducing that this was the only logical question he could have asked. And if his eldritch ties were really so apparent. Lyrlia went on.

"He travels with adventurers from Waterdeep. Recently returned from a trip to the Moonshae Isles, they took upon themselves to investigate necrotic attacks along the sword coast. They were also appointed by a high ranking Flaming Fist officer for the same purpose. I have looked accross the region for this Galarnok Partack, and could not find him. Nor could I find Stuh Ryback, a well respected paladin from Waterdeep, who is also investigating these undead attacks".

She paused a second to let the warlock take it all in. He seemed suspicious for a second...

"You mean to tell me I am to track an adventurer along the sword coast, as he tracks zombies, just to tell him his sister is looking for him? I don't buy it".

Lyrlia feigned surprise, that much was obvious to Liw. She expected him to inquire more, of course.

"You are right, there is more to it. ", she went on, "Truth is, my brother disappeared decades ago from my family's quarters. We had thought him dead after triggering wild and powerfull magical traps from ancient sealed tomes. And now, he is back and alive".

Liw nodded. That made more sense. Also, he suspected this lost brother possessed something that was precious, that very same thing that had been trapped. But that much, he did not share with Lyrlia. In Amn, you learn to not voice such hypothesis without proofs. Better that she didn't know what he suspected.

"And how will I be able to tell that he's really your brother?", he asked simply.

"He bears a spellscar in the shape of a snake."

The Twins of the Feywild

Fylikiel invoked magic lights, revealing the cover of the old tome. The Book of Uld, the cover said in an ancient language, obfuscated by old magic. The turned the cover and passed the first pages where the author, Yogg'Sar, presented himself. He leaged through a few pages, then his eyes come to rest on a page with notes and sketches added in the margins; someone had deciphered these writings and added notes and comments to the text...

The Twins

The Sundering had left the world broken and the remnants of civilizations were struggling to find their place in a world without the enlightened ones. Few such races had taken refuge, or were dragged, into other worlds (planes) . From one such realm, a realm of dreams and illusions (feywild), came the moon folks (eladrins!) . Their world had strong ties with this one, through forests and mires, and their knowledge of magic was great.

In my time, two of their kingdoms stood as grand over the others. They were led by twin brothers of the same name. The Quel'Danas realms were properous kingdoms of high magical deeds, mirrors of each others. One such realm was in the neverending sunrise (eastern) forests (the dales? Myth Drannor?), the other was along the great sunset sea ( west, the sea of swords). The twins traveled and experimented through this world and others, until the day they released beast of untold power from a locked distant and twisted world (the farrealm? the elemental chaos?). The beast devastated the lands and the twins fought it. It was slain, but one brother died. And that was the beginning... So great was the brothers tie that the dead Quel'Danas refused to pass away and he rose back from the ashes of the cataclyms that had killed him. Death had claimed his mind though and with his resurrection, Quel'Danas of the Sunset sea discovered mastery over death and the undead, binding his essence with a world of tears and shadows (could be the shadowfell) .

The two kingdoms soon became opposites and the tie of brotherhood became one of rivality. The coastal cities were abandonned, the moon folks died by hundreds before finding other homes or worlds. And the twin battled for years. The coast was dark with night and crawling with the dead, spreading like an infection accross the world.

This part of Uld almost turned black, if not for the final sacrifice of the living twin...

Fylikiel closed the book. He was puzzled. The writtings in this book were somewhat familiar, yet he did not know who could have deciphered the tome before him. Maybe his father, or an ancestor. How did that book come into his family?

On the trail of the Heroes...

The kruthik came out of the ground and attacked the group of villagers from the back. Luckily, the heroes were all there and Aishar was ready for it. What he was not ready for was the Direguard Deathbringer, a vile undead creature whose sole purpose is to kill. The undead seemed to be giving orders to the insects who attacked ferociously. The battle seemed hopeless when 2 more kruthicks appeared close to the villagers, charging them, trying to bring the bodies back. Acane and Fylikiel combined their efforts to protect the villagers, then turned their focus on the remaining threat: The Direguard. Joe Brandis seemed to shake out of his letargy when he saw his brother fighting valiantly, and he was able to handle 2 of the kruthiks on his own! Victorious, and with very little casualities, they decided to rest.

During that night, Fylikiel and Acane went scouting the coast and located an entrance on the side of a cliff, which could have been used by the Kruthiks.

The following day, they made it to the lighthouse, where they were welcomed by the priestesses and the few remaining guards. Turns out lizardfolks had been attacking them. They were glad to see the fishermen alive, and started working with them to feed everybody. Auburn charged his brother with the task of leading those men, a task Joe accepted as a challenge. Maybe was he still good for something after all.

After a night of rest, on the darkest Midsummer day the Realms have seen in years, our Heroes set forth to the cave entrance they had spotted next to the ambush. Crawling in the narrow tunnel, they descended into a larger passage, deep in the cliff, covered with slimy fungi and puddles of water darkened by the chalky black rocks of the cliff.

Thus starts their hunt for the Kruthik hive. What are they to encounter in the depth of the sword coast, they do not know, for none of them has ever explored the depths of their world...

The Book of Uld

For another night of Watch, Fylikiel looks around him carefully, making sure his companions are asleep and that everything is quiet... then he recites a simple enchantment producing a dim light, illuminating the cover of a leather bound tome. A tome he had in his possession for a very long time.

One of two tomes he has never been able to read. Ever.

The frustration bordering on madness forces him to open it, scrutinize it, analyze it every time he could. The only thing fascinating him more than dark secrets and ancient lores was Magic itself.

But now with the use of newly acquired dweomers, he hoped he could decipher the unintelligible texts of the grimoire. As he finished reciting the last words of his ritual, he set back his eyes on the cover, and for the first time, the glyphs formed words that his mind could interpret...

The Book of Uld, by Yogg'Sar

This grimoire has seen many millennia, yet remains almost unaltered by the ravages of time. The time of writing is thus very hard to determine, but whoever has set eyes on its ancient pages and were able to understand the cryptic words understood that the events detailed in these pages date from an age past, not too far from the Sundering. This book is written almost like a journal, detailing events witnessed or known by Yogg'Sar. Wars, creations, cataclyms and betrayals, little escaped the eye of Yogg'Sar of Uld.

On the trail of the Heroes...

Calixa dead, Hollow Hill keep is now deserted. Our heroes decided to spend the night and tend their wounds in the tower overlooking the keep. They discussed with the elves, asking that they watch over the keep and send words of any activity to Bunyan's Camp, which was the heroes' destination on the next day. The night before they left, Aishar received a very curious visit; the shardar-kai man who had survived their encounter a few days before. The dark man inquired about Aishar's fighting style, a very rare and specific style he had only witnessed in the Shadowfel and in one other location on Faerun, and practiced by specific individuals: The Shades of the Netheril empire. Aishar did not seem impressed by the questions and happily revealed everything he knew. The stranger then left with a promise to meet again.

The next day, their travel to the camp was unenventful, but once at Trollaxe's Lumbercamp, they were greeted by Daggerford patrolmen. Then after detailing the events at the keep to an angry Trollaxe, they were approached by a intriguing man who presented himself Baron Ollen of Daggerford. Apparently a very influencial merchand from the swordcoast who took a very personnal interest in these zombie infestations. He explained the situation: Undead creatures have started roaming about the region between Daggerford and the coast, and they are posing a threat to the locals and travelers. The heroes detailed their travels and reasons they were after these undeads. They told him about the Eladrin they were looking for, the meeting with Stuh Ryback and the implication of the Flaming Fist of Baldur's Gate. The Baron seemed taken aback from all these details, his mind working furiously to get a grasp on the situation...

Finally, the very same day, the heroes left for the fishing camp along the coast. Waiting there, looking over the isolated village, Auburn met someone he thought lost forever: his brother. Having lost everything, his father, his ship, his brother, his arm and his pride, Auburn's older brother had also seemingly lost his sanity. Drunk and dying of the same fever that had taken over Fylikiel, he was almost hopeless, but Auburn did not give up on him. They decided to save these poor fishermen. They brought up the bridge and convinced the people to follow them to Selune's Lighthouse, not far to the north.

So thus, along the swordcoast, our heroes are travelling with the remnant of a dying village, accross lands that are now crawling with the undeath... And as they passed a ravine they heard them... The kruthicks.

Worries in Daggerford

"Adventurers you say?",  questioned Captain Awkins.

"Yes Captain, they left the city 5 days ago, Captain", replied the Sergeant. Formalities were not usually necessary between these two, but the Captain was obviously nervous, so the wise Gate Sergeant judge prudent to stick to protocol.

"Why is that we barely even heard of stray zombies except in kid stories, but when Adventurers come asking for some, then they start roaming about like a bad disease!", added an obviously frustrated Captain.

The last three days have been puzzling for the guards of Daggerford. They had sent scouts on a routine mission after the alarming rumors reported by a few adventurers, and the scout had all come back with good news, except for one who never came back. These adventurers went looking for him, and turned out the poor sod had been killed by goblins. But the same day they got that news from Trollaxe's lumber camp, the first wounded arrived at the gates. Travelling merchants had been ambushed by zombies. AMBUSHED, as if they had been waiting like bandits. Then the same evening, scared farmers came asking protection and refuge in Daggerford from zombies they have seen shambling around in their corn fields.

Then this morning, a patrol of guard came bloodied, with one of them dying, after a patrol along the river in search of these zombies, which they found. Then from the bloody WALLS of the city, the Watch spotted 2 skeletal figures in broad daylight, tripping their way toward the city. 

"Double the guards at dusk, and close the gates at night. Curfew an hour past sunset. Send scouts about to warn the locals. And send fast horses to our various camps along the coast", ordered the Captain to various officers surrounding him. "And find these adventurers. I want to know what this is about". 

He fell silent a second, watching the horizon toward the coast. Miles and miles away a storm was darkening the sky. As he was thinking, all voices fell silent around him. He thought they were waiting for his next order, then the sky darkened slowly. He looked at the officers surrounding him and they were all gawking, staring at the sky like a bloody castle had come floating around.

The Captain turned around and looked up....

To see a bloody Castle, floating in the sky, close to the city.

"By the nine fucking hells, what is that thing?".

On the trails of the Heroes

As they charged down on the bugbears, Fylikiel cleverly used a most recent magical discovery: Web. They did quick work of them, and their team work proved that these creatures, although very strong and brutal, were no match for them. This display of talent did not just satisfy them, but also intrigued a most unexpected spectator: Calixa.

Presenting herself as the leader of this keep, she offered to negociate in her quarters. Already suspicious, the players did not let themselves be fooled by her sweet words and promises of personnal gains. Her demon minions did not help either. Auburn always the adventurer at heart provoked the combat with a stunning insult that had Calixa lose her composure... and illusions. All skin and body was ripped and disappeared as the Flameskull revealed its true identity. The undead wasted no time and started with a powerful fireball that hurt especially burnt Auburn. The conflagration gone, the demons servent, 2 Gnaw Demons and a imp, jumped on the arrogant pirate and very nearly killed him.

But they proved the strongest nonetheless. Acane's fast hand and reflexes saved Auburn's life and put him back on his feat. He was back jsut in time to face a bad suprise that came at them from behind a curtained section of Calixa's quarters: A hulking zombie creation. The fleshy monster proved hard to subdue. They ended Calixa's existent with focused spells and arrows, then slowly chopped the zombie down. And just when they thought it defeated, the beast rose again in a last surge of necrotic energy. Then it was over... but not really, as they heard mining sounds coming from the catacombs under the keep.

On their last stretch, bloody and tired, they faced the last of the evil creatures of the keep: Bugbear miners with a nasty surprise: An ogre. But Aishar wisely notice these opponents lacked ranged weapon, so he simply let them try to repel them, and stood strong in the doorway, slowly wounding them all as they switched place, until they were able to move in and finish them off one by one.

That is how our Heroes cleansed Hollow Hill Keep of goblins and their masters on the 27th of Flamerule. Hours of fight, blood and pain, but they had won. How big a victory it was, they do no know yet...

The road ahead is yet unclear, but right now, what is on their mind is rest. Rest and some quiet, at least for now.