- DM – Dagobah
- PCs – Kaine, Aurum, Peppington, Dust, Akita, and the many adventurers who worked to get this info.
So after pouring a few days into this info and having experienced it myself, I thought I’d give a shot at compiling the info we have into one spot where the truth can be discovered. So to really get into how everything has played out, a bit of background information is needed…
To the Northwest of town, at the northern end of the Tempest Plains, lies a tower surrounded by magical effects and a variety of illusions to ward off intruders. Here lies a woman known as Xanaphia, who lay sleeping. Protected by her ward Ydrae, a spirit of winter. Contrary to popular belief. The tower at some time before we discovered it was attacked by a vile, powerful wizard that goes by the name of Erhart and his consort of dragons that he has made a pact with. These white dragons are known to come from a place called the “Mountain of the Great Wyrm”, or something to that effect. This wizard has dealings not only with dragons, but Sori Elves as well of differing skillsets. But what is most troubling is his connection to a name. The Moonlit King.
Who is the Moonlit King? I am not knowledgeable myself of the dealings of the Fey, but we managed to gain some insight into the tragic story that has been set in motion.
“The ancient scripts tell the tale of a beautiful spirit that spread great joy and mirth as the leaves began to turn. This spirit was often seen moving throughout the lands during the time of the harvest moon. It was considered auspicious to catch sight of her. She was sister to royalty, a spirit of great importance. This spirit caught the attention of a powerful being that upheld the laws of nature. This being of nature, The Moonlit King, began to court the autumn spirit and their romance was one of passion. Aeons would pass where the romance grew stronger and stronger, calling for a meeting of The Courts. A decision was made, and the courts erected a white tower. The autumn spirit was placed within and would be guarded by a winter spirit. The Moonlit King’s rage over the loss of his beloved sent him to madness, delving into demonology to find his lost beloved…”
Tale of Xanaphia
This is all we could find on our most recent adventure to the tower. It is filled with many elves, believed to be of the Sori variety, who work under the pair of the Moonlit King and Erdhart. On the top floor is where Xanaphia lies, asleep and warded from harm by a powerful magical wall. With all of that out of the way, let’s talk about how we of Candlekeep fit into all of this.
Erdhart was making demands and dealings of one of our allies, the Bloodeye Clan. Before we became companions with them, they were under the thumb of the evil wizard, who demanded that they supply him with the mucus from the mines. As we were new, they told us the mucus was to make potion and for Xanaphia. This wasn’t the case however, and every bit of mucus we mined went straight to this bastard…the meeting at the mines? None of that was dealings with Xanaphia, but with Erhardt instead.
Our last encounter at the tower ended up with one of Erhardt’s dragons being slain by our adventurers, as Erdhart and the Moonlit King seemed to have fled to a place known as Trader’s Bay to escape from the Rot, leaving his grunts to discover how to get to Xanaphia. Ydrae revealed himself to be Xanaphia’s guardian. We would begin to mount our attack on the tower on our next visit.
And so comes to our adventuring crew. On our way up, we were attacked by some creatures on the outside of the Neathy Woods, clearing one of the creatures before the other one ran away as the Bloodeye Clan came to our assistance. We made their way to their camp and it seemed that they were fortifying the place against….something. We met with their shaman Deslik and their Wargmaster Phill in a meeting, where they revealed the truth behind their dealings with Erdhart. They seem to have had a change of heart and want to truly establish a friendship between their clan and our town, but we shall see what the future holds. It seems that they are having issues with another clan called the Yellow Bayou clan to the northwest, known to be slavers who have seemingly gone quiet. Below seems to be their symbol. The symbol we also believed to be Xanaphia’s symbol has also been revealed to be Erdhart’s own. Be wary upon finding that symbol. That would be a problem for another day it seems.
The next morning we set out for the tower, which seemed to dull our senses as we got closer and closer. But we persevered and moved forward. As we spent a night close to the tower, we were discovered by some interesting characters, a pixie of the….Summer court I believe? And a pixie of the Winter court. They told us of a service entrance in a cave, but as we were discussing things, the Moonlit King was mentioned and they scattered….it seems that we have a dangerous being we’re dealing with.
The next morning we began our attack, using an entrance that Peppington had discovered on their last expedition here. As we scaled the roof and Peppington got to the third floor, it seems that Ydrae was chained up in cold steel, a weakness for particular fey. After clearing the floor, we went up a floor to see how Xanaphia was doing, only to discover elves tinkering with chemical substances and gargoyles. After dispatching them we’ve discovered the magical wall protecting the sleeping spirit. Dust inserted some kind object into the wall and blanked out on us. But when she came to, she came back with three letters in different languages and a riddle. The letters:
D R M
And the riddle:
“Born of sorrow, Grows with Age, You need a lot to be a sage. “
What the future holds, no one knows, but hopefully this will be a way to get the full story. On the bottom floors of the tower there are still some of Erdhart’s forces, at least 6 gargoyles and of Erdhart’s stronger forces down below. Proceed with caution, adventurers.
Underneath is a variety of different red strings connecting the report to a variety of other reports.