Travel Log
Date: Unknown
Location: Feltrest
We are trying to leave the island city of Feltrest. We board a boat and travel to the city of Porthos, in the Kingdom of Porthos. Arriving in Porthos, we discover that the rebellion is active against the Kingdom of Tyr. Traveling through the city we are stopped by army officials who, after recognizing the cloaks of Asmar Nimes, tell us to stop by the head office and enlist in the army. After discussing this we decide not to join the war, but to continue to Cyrilia to return to Zeek's family his belongs. As we travel through the city gathering info city we are stopped by guards at the gate. The guards refuse to let us leave, Gwen then talks to the guard captain and tells him that we are under special assignment from the king. The guard captain the then tells us to spend the night at a nearby inn and he will get papers and stuff for our journey. We spend the night and then the following day in the city. At night we leave go to the East Gate, where the guard told us to go, and find the captain waiting there with uniforms for all of us, and a writ saying that we are under special orders and to let us go about them unmolested. After that we exit the city and head to the city of Chiros, and there we part company with Asmar, who tells us that he wants to return to Cal and Elysia, to help rebuild. We head off to the north in the direction of Cyrilia.
Date: 11 days later
Location: North of the city of Chiros.
Three days we travel through pouring rain until we come across a road that travels to the north. This road, however, is crowded with refugees and military men. A group of them spot us and break off to come over to us. We are told that a battle had occured in a town further down this road. Supposedly they were attacked by Suel shock-troops and defeated horrible. They are tactically retreating to a base further into their own lands now, and that we are welcome to join them. After riding with them for a time, they set up camp and we are called to the commanders tent. Gwen enters, then leaves a short while later looking grim. Afterwards we sit down for dinner ad Gwen tells us what she learned. It seems the commander whom we were looking for was killed in the battle and that we need to follow them to the Regional Commanders headquarters. After a discussion we decide that that would be a bad idea. We decide to escape from the camp at night and continue on to Cyrilia.
Upon waking early the next morning, we prepare to secretly leave the camp, only to find that the camp has been ransacked by Suel. Tylock suggests that we leave the humans to their own fate, but Gwen says that we should help, so we help. We notice a group of Suel heading into the commanders tent and prepare to intercept them. As we make our way to the tent we notice that the ground is littered with the bodies of the fallen soldiers who were once part of this unit. The group of Suel enters and struggle ensues, which ends up catching the tent on fire, oopsie. They exit the tent dragging a chest. We begin to fight with them as they leave the tent, and come up against a dude, who seemed to be the leader who wore a funny shaped hat, think like the popes hat kinda sorta, with a really nasty shield type thing that slows our blades down incredibly when they hit it. During the battle Corwin is injured and he falls to the ground. After guys stop battling we stop to examine Corwin. While this happen the guy drops some kind of bottle or vial on the ground. this vial causes the dead soldiers to raise from the dead and begin to fight us. Dar casts some sort of spell around him and the others with him, Gwen, Corwin, Evelynn, and Azur Stars, which causes the wind to begin whipping around us at high speeds, similar to a tornado, and the zombie soldiers fall to the ground and are blown away.
Tylock, being the archer he is had circled around attempting to get a good shot at the Suel. As we, the people in the circle, are surrounded by the wind, Tylock sneaks up on the Suel with the chest and begins making them look pin cushions, i.e. filling them with arrows. He fells one and the others run off into the nearby stand of trees and bushes. Bravely, or stupidly depending on how you look at it, he rushes after them, drawing his sword, which had happen to belong Cyrus. In the woods he kills the other two lackey-type guys, and begins to fight, well actually circle, the leader, the guy with the shield. In a clearing in this grove is the chest. Eventually he manages to get into the chest and he drags out an orb, also known as an Orb of Annihilation, he then brings the orb back to the group, who had gathered around the fire, the tent of the commander being a huge blazing inferno by now. Gwen identifies the orb as an Orb of Annihilation. Tylock and Evelynn then return to the forest, which the Suel leader dude has mysteriously left, and he begins to check the rest of the chest while Gwen and the others prepare to leave. As they, Tylok and Evelynn, begin to return they feel a cold, dark presence come over the area. Then the shadows attacked, hey don't laugh it happened I swear.
Gathered around the burning tent, because it seemed that they didn't like the fire or the light or something, we attempted to fight them. Standard weapons inflicted no damage to these creatures, they just passed through doing nothing. Magical weapons, however, were completely different. They completely decimated the creatures. Burning them to, well, smoke. Magical weapons and armor. After a bit of being hacked at around the fire Gwen ordered us to the horses. Gwen slashed her way there with Dragon Slayer, Evelynn's armor protected her, Tylock using the Sword of Cyrus, Dar and Azur Stars using their magic. Corwin had no magical stuff except that pendent he had recieved in Feltrest, which had a demonic sun. Corwin being Corwin thought, it's a sun, they don't seem to like the fire. So he stuck it out at them, and that's how he got all messed up. At first it started to glow, then it began sucking up the creature. Then after Gwen ordered us to the horses, he began to gather more and more. Eventually he began to stop reacting and began sucking the shadows in through not only the pendant but through his mouth and eyes as well. His clothes started burning, the ground around him began burn. to the rest of us he didn't seem to be being harmed by the fire that had engulfed his body, it was just there. Unfortunately, he happened to be carrying the Orb. Not wanting the Orb to perhaps go off in the fire, Gwen cut the backpack that held it off his back. In an attempt to help him, she went around to his front and tried to cut the pendant off his neck. Unfortunately for her, the pendant sent a stream of electrical fire down her sword, or perhaps a better description would be around her sword because the fire seemed unwilling to touch the magical blade, and struck her in the hand knocking her back and in turn unconscious. She ended up falling back a few yards, dropping her sword and the Orb.
Then Evelynn noticed that the Suel had return. She went around to protect Gwen and began to fight with the leader, the guy from before with the shield thingy, this unfortunately, proved to be a futile effort. Meanwhile Tylock shot another of the Suel, one without a shield, and made a pin cushion out of him too. However, two other Suels snuck up and made off with the orb. Tylock then came up with a good idea, weapons can't get through the shield the Suel had, what about magic. Azur then shot a fireball at the Suel leader. It passed through his shield as though it wasn't there. It hit him straight on the head, burning his ugly, funny shaped hat. With his head still burning he ran off into the nearby woods. Unfortunately, while all this was happening, Corwin was still burning and Gwen was still unconscious. After the man with the hat ran off Tylock ran over to Gwen and began trying to wake while Evelynn attempted to interrogate the fallen Suel. Unfortunately the man was almost dead when she started, so not much information was obtained. After this across the field Smoky walked out from the trees. Shortly behind him was another man in hat. A short conversation ensued and then the two began to fight. After a brief battle the second man, not Smoky, walked away from the trees followed by three other Suel. These Suel approached Evelynn and Tylock.
As the Suel approached Dar and Azur ran up to where this was happening. The leader identified himself as Xang Shi, they then attempted to make a deal with us. Saying that we both were fighting the for the same cause. Then, Corwin regained his consciousness and stopped burning. But after he stopped burning, he reached done for the amulet around his chest and tore it off. Unfortunately, after that he once again caught fire, but this time only for a second or so. As he lay there burned to a crisp, he fell unconscious. Then the group tried to help Corwin, unfortunately, he was too badly wounded. Xang Shi claimed he could bring Corwin back from the dead, if we took him to a place he called The Chamber of Life. Which unfortunately lay far to the north in Volkrad. During this Tylock woke Gwen and she was brought up to speed on what was happening. She turned to Xang and asked if was sure about the Chamber. He said he was. She then drew her gun, turned and fired three shots at his fellow Suel. She hit the first in his chest killing him and then missed the other two. Turning back to Xang she asked again he was sure. Once again he said he was. Gwen then stated that we were to carry the orb. He agreed and gave us the orb. After that they talked about getting there and how we could get Corwin there. Xang said that we didn't need all of him, only a piece, a hand or what not, so Gwen cut off his hand and put it in a pouch.
The fastest way we could get to Volkrad was to fly, seeing as we had two Pegasi and as it turned out Xang had a wyvern of his own. We then found that we could not take all the people with us to Volkrad, we needed to lose one. Obviously the person not coming was going to be a Suel, so Xang had his warriors fight it to the death, then he cut off the dead ones hand and the one from before hand and put them in a pouch of his own. And so it was Xang an a Suel warrior both riding on the wyvern he had, and the rest of us spread out on the Pegasi. It would take three days to get to Volkrad. When we made camp each night we made two separate camps, one for the group and another for the Suel, since no one really trusted them. After three days of traveling we arrived in the snowy mountains of Volkrad.
Date: Three days later
Location: The mountains of Volkrad
We landed at the base of some mountains in which there was a small valley leading into it. Inside this valley was a mound shaped like a dome, this dome was our destination. The dome was about fifty feet high and the only discernable feature was a set of doors that were about thirty feet high and fifteen feet wide. We made camp at the base and left the wyvern there. As we walked up to the dome Tylock noticed some tracks in the snow. He recognized the tracks as frost giant tracks. Xang then said that we were in an area with many frost giants so we should be careful. These tracks lead right up to the dome. When we got there Gwen and Evelynn left to tie the Pegasi up around here. During this Dar walked up to the dome and began to look around it and examine it. After Gwen and Evelynn returned we walked up to the doors which set into the dome. Gwen then asked the Xang what happened next. He pulled out a ring with some keys and walked up to the doors and inserted one of the keys into a keyhole in the door. The key turned with a loud click and the doors began to slide open, moving into the walls on the sides. After they had opened Xang lead us into the dome, which appeared to be empty. As we entered certain party members had some flashbacks, but they won't be mentioned here. As we entered we noticed a circle on the floor carved out of the rock. Inside this circle, or rather a part of the circle, was a large pentagram. Xang warned us not to step into the pentagram. The space inside was empty save the pentagram and a door on the opposite side, as well as a few things of ice coming down the side. The inside of this room had no light other than the open door, so Dar lit a torch and Xang and Tylock both cast light spells. Tylock sent his up to investigate the ceiling and saw some markings on it, and he recognized them immediately. When that happened, he drew an arrow and pointed it directly at Xang and demanded to know why the markings of Xaknathrax, second lieutenant to the Dark Queen, were inscribed on the ceiling of this building. Xang's bodyguard didn't like this and he almost took off after Tylock, but was calmed by Xang. After he explained the markings, which were there because this was a temple of war and Xaknathrax was a God of the Suel, Tylock lowered his bow, reluctantly. Then we walked to the door.
Date: Same day
Location: Temple of War, in the mountains of Volkrad.
As we walked down the steps of the tower tension was running high between the Suel and the non-Suel. Tylock was ready to shot either and both any time. After descending the tower the group finally came out into a large area that was littered with rocks and debris. We came out at the top of a flight of steps leading up to the base of the tower, on the sides of the steps were small pillars that rose high above. This area seemed to be lit by the air around, with the air seeming to glow. At the base of the steps was the body of a Suel general, the guys with the funny hats. He lay in a pool of blood, his own, which was fresh and pouring out a wound on his neck. Also on the floor around the steps were the bodies of about six to eight members of the Black Guard, all dead. Across from the steps was a large mound which was the body of a fallen Titan, once used as weapons of the Gods in the battles against the dragons. All throughout the cavern were buildings, most destroyed by fallen rocks, although a few remained intact. Upon exiting the stairs of the tower Guan Yu went to the body of the Titan, checking to make sure it was dead or something. Azur also went to check the body out, with Tylock accompanying him. Dar, and Evelynn at Gwen's request, went to the left to check out what was over that way. Xang told us that the Chamber was off to the left so we regrouped and moved off towards the left. As we went, we noticed a large pillar which traveled up into the darkness above. This pillar emanated dark magical power. As we walked Xang was looking around for tracks, as were Evelynn and Tylock, and when we approached the pillar Tylock piped up saying that there were tracks leading up to the pillar, stopping there and then continuing on around it.
As we walked around the pillar Dar and Evelynn noticed something off to the right and alerted the which turned, ready for fighting. As it turned out the thing of to the right was simply one person. Clad in winged sandals and carrying a lyre, he seemed to glow in the darkness. He calmly approached the group and stopped about thirty feet away. Looking up he seemed to look all members of the group in the eyes at the same time. Addressing each of them by name and full title; Evelyn of the Order of The Oracle, Gwendlyn Fairblade of Volkrad, Dar of the Northlands, Elthrynn representing the elves, Tylock Treerunner of Clan Treerunner of the Elysian Elves, and the two servants of the Dark Queen. When he called Azur Elthrynn, Gwen and Evelynn both stared at him in surprise. He bid us all welcome to the Temple of War, and told us that he needed to speak to the five of us, Gwen, Evelynn, Dar, Tylock, and Elthrynn (Azur). He then disappeared and reappeared on the opposite side of us farther away from the Suel (the servants of the Dark Queen). The five walked over to him where Elthrynn (Azur) dropped the magical mask he had been holding and appeared once again Elthrynn, who we had thought we left in Feltrest. After this a conversation between the figure, who identified himself as Hermes the Messenger God, and the group formerly known as The Circle of The Forge, now known as Marked For Death.
The conversation between Hermes and us went as follows. He told us that there was a great trap in the building to which we were heading After a while Hermes disappeared again and Gwen and the others had a short conversation. After the conversation, Elthrynn walked over to the Suel and asked them their purpose for bring the group to this place. Xang responded by saying that they were searching for the Chamber of Life. Afterwards Elthrynn returned to Gwen and the others. After hearing this he returned to the others and they continued to talk. Once Elthrynn had left, Xang turned away from the group and cast a magic ear spell and sent it to spy on the others, hoping to hear their conversation. Unfortunately for him, Evelynn spotted the ear and shot it with her bow. Xang then attempted to deflect this discovery by pretending he had nothing to do with it., unsuccessfully. More conversation, also private in this draft, occurred. During this conversation, well actually after Evelynn shot his magic ear, Xang and Guan moved off towards the building which was their destination. As they did this they noticed a head poke out of the building and then quickly pop back in. As soon as his happened Guan took off towards running, heading to the cover of the building which was in between the one where the head was, and where he was. Xang used his Touch spell to tap Elthrynn on the shoulder and then told him that someone was in the building. After this Gwen
From the diaries of Evelynn Aldare