Argone said goodbye to NeeAha and hustled to catch up to the party at the Naanok ruins.
The party learned that the Burle Perk, a D’haran ranger in the service of Emperor Nero D’Haran, mapped most of D’hara and helped connect the city states via trade roads. It was he who built Burle Keep a few hundred years ago.
He named the Silverstand Forest after observing the “silvery” color on the tops of the trees at each sunset.
The party heard a complete history of Nero from the Grey Cloaks:
Nero D’Haran was the firstborn son of the Kermitt D’Haran, who traced his lineage to the human Builder named Beren D’Haran.
Dewar told the party that the original builders were Elves and Dwarves—humans were not part of the original builder races and came later. This was news to the party.
The party learned that the “Old Oath” traced its way back to Beren, but they don’t understand all of it.
Believing that he and he alone was destined by the Gods to rule the Isle of D’Hara, Nero led his personal army into City of D’Hara.
At midnight on the last day of 4499 AP, Nero slaughtered King Ettal Yip on his very throne by running him through with the fabled Sun and Stars Blade, a legendary weapon believed to have been forged by Builder Beren D’Haran.
The Age of Domination began upon Nero’s ascension to the Dharan throne.
It was at this time that the Elves were called by the Builders to protect Nero. They entered into the “Old Oath”—they became the “steel” to protect Nero, who was their “magic”.
It was at this point that the Grey Cloaks were founded. There were 200 of them at the beginning.
The Grey Citadel was built by Nero to guard one of the locks to the Underworld.
After being driven out of the Grey Citadel six-months ago, the Grey Cloaks were scattered into the Silverstand Forest and only Lexis, Loyda, and Dewar of the original Grey Cloaks were present at the ruins.
The others elves with them in the ruins were second and third generation Grey Cloaks, but were still loyal to the Old Oath
Lexis Windwall told the party that the Grey Cloaks were stationed at the Grey Citadel to protect something of tremendous value.
They asked if the party was familiar with the Demon Lord Deskari. He was imprisoned in the UnderWorld, and one the “locks” keeping imprisoned was located in the Grey Citadel. D’Hara would be in grave danger if that lock failed.
A warlock, his sorceress, and army of evil drove them from Grey Citadel.
Teak D’Haran, the commander of the Grey Cloaks at the Grey Citadel, went to find help after a Fey messenger and a talking Noble Wild brought news that the Moonwell in the Draspines had been lost.
After asking questions, the party heard the story of Noble Wild and the importance of the Moonwell. Moonwells trace their existence to the creation of Vala and the planting of the One Tree. Moonwells are impossible to find and many people believe them to be fairy tales. They are protected by Arch Druids, Fey and the Noble Wild (after the Purge).
Dewar explained that if a Moonwell had fallen, then the One Tree was in danger. As the One Tree holds back the raging tribes of orcs, hobgoblins, giants and other horribly evil creatures, it would be the end of life on D’Hara.
As a paladin, Teak felt that it was important to attempt to handle both problems; the Moonwell and The Grey Citadel.
Lexis said that if the party cared at all about D’Hara or Vala, they should consider helping the Grey Cloaks to secure the underworld gates, restore the Moonwell, and save the One Tree.
The Grey Cloaks couldn’t do everything, and the more pressing issue was retaking the Grey Citadel and ensuring that the Gate to the Underworld was not broken. If that happened, then not only would D’Hara be wiped out, all of Vala would be over and the players would be rolling new level 1 weaklings.
Feeling despondent about the possible twin disasters, Teak went to the Nero Waterfall to mediate and perhaps seek the guidance of the Builders. That was where the party found his pack.
The party learns that the waterfall was built by Burle Perk, the master ranger who led Nero’s mapping efforts of Dhara.
Dewar said that he had scried on Teak a few hours ago and that Teak was alive in the dense woods north towards the Crystalline Caves. Further attempts to scry on him were unsuccessful. Dewar couldn’t find him and hoped he wasn’t dead.
River played a few pranks with the pool in the middle of the Naanock ruins by casting Thaumaturgy into it, and the elves went crazy worrying that something was coming to attack them.
The party learned later that this had actually happened. The warlock and sorceress that drove them from Grey Citadel had been using elemental magic to send a water elemental through the pool – which was why half the water was missing.
The Grey Cloaks gave the party Elf Tack for their journey, and also provided the following items:
As the party headed towards the woods, they found a dead drow.
The party encountered the balloon spiders and the trapped trees.
After a short fight, they went down a small trail and found a dying deer felled by crude arrows.
As River went to heal the deer, a group of Hobgoblin emerge from the woods and demanded the deer.
At River’s request, Argone killed the deer and its spirit departed in dramatic ghostly way.
The party negotiated to let the hobgoblins have dead deer and 1lb of corn in exchange for not fighting. The party asked who killed the deer and the hobgoblins said that they use javelins not crude arrows. The crude arrows were the handywork of bullywugs who live by the creek.
The party made the deal and got some directions and warnings from the hobgoblins. The hobgoblins took the corn and dragged the dead deer into the woods.
The party continued to explore and found a fawn, perhaps 2 days old, near a creek. They also saw a large number of bullywugs on the top of a 20-foot cliff.
Thinking that the bullywugs had killed the deer because of the crude arrows, the party debated how to deal with the bullywugs and decided to take the fawn back to the meadow with the dead deer.
Their plan was to lure the bullywugs down to the meadow by using thaumaturgy to make the sound of a baby deer, but the plan attracted the mother deer instead of the bullywugs.
At that point the hobgoblins return and want to strike another bargain for the baby deer. At this point the party noticed that some of the hobgoblins had bows and realized that they had probably been lying when they had said that the bullywugs had killed the deer.
Argone used his tattoo to firebolt the hobgoblin warlord before any real negotiations began.
After a combat, the hobgoblin warlord tried to surrender and make another deal – he was going to give the party the dead deer and the 1lb of corn in exchange for his head.
The party refused, and the warlord and one of the captains ran into the deep thicket.
At this point, the mother deer emerged and took the fawn into the woods, but not before giving Kriick and River a “moment”.
At this point a fox arrived in the meadow, he licked the blood spot from the dead deer.
Sun Feng cast Speak with Animals, but the fox said, “You didn’t need to cast a spell to speak to me. Why are you in my forest?”
The party explained that they were trying to get to the Grey Citadel to capture the Silver Conch to help, among other people, the Dragonborn.
They also tell the fox that they were tasked by the Grey Cloaks to find a missing drow.
The fox explained that the woods have drow and were very dangerous.
The party asked where the Crystalline Caves were located and learned that they were north, near the crystals. The party was strongly urged to eat some mushrooms before getting near the crystals because the mushrooms would protect them.
The fox asked who had killed his deer. River took responsibility, and the fox asked who had given them the power to decide if something should live or die.
The fox said, “My creatures did not attack you, the hobgoblins wanted to trade- I had trained them to be civilized as best as they could.”
The party debated with the Fox on the merits of the circle of life.
The fox asked what they were going to do with the body of the dead deer. Some of the party wanted to eat it, some wanted to use it for food and supplies, and others said to give it back to the hobgoblins.
The fox sniffs the deer and there was a transfer of energy.
The fox warns the party about the dangers in the rest of the forest.
