Our story begins with the group working for the temple of Corellon Latherian in the city of Malwander. Each member of the group has come to the city for their own reasons, but for now, they are working together to help the temple prepare for the upcoming Brewfest. Under the leadership of Carstos, an elven paladin of the temple, and captain of Malwander’s city guard, the group is helping to erect the grandstands and stages for the various minstrels who will be performing during the festival. Carstos is a stern taskmaster with little humor, who is in turn taking his orders from the high priest of the temple, a human named Marlos, and his half-elven acolyte, Falam.

A few days before the festival is scheduled to begin, Carstos summons the party to see Marlos. Marlos explains to the group that Falam has apparently turned up missing, and he wants the group to investigate. The night before, Marlos had sent Falam to meet with a messenger from Pitchfield at the edge of the city, and he disappeared. Carstos explains that he has already questioned the guards on duty that night and none of them report seeing Falam or the messenger. Marlos tells the group to go talk to the man who the messenger works for and writes his name on a piece of paper. As he does so, the group realizes that he’s writing with his right hand, and they can swear that until now, he’s always appeared to be left-handed.

The party then goes to see Damalic, the man who the messenger was working for. He tells them that his messenger disappeared shortly after leaving Pitchfield and hasn’t been seen since. He says that he informed Marlos of that very fact the night before, so Falam would not make a trip to the edge of town needlessly. When this information is shared with Carstos, he dismisses it with a wave of his hand, “I’ve known Marlos for many years, and there is nothing wrong with him. Obviously Damalic is lying, so find out why and find out what happened to Falam. I suggest you search his chambers for possible clues.”

When the group does search Falam’s chambers they find little to help them determine what may have happened to the acolyte until they are leaving the room. As they walk out, they notice what appears to be claw marks on the door, which Sione identifies are belonging to some form of feline. The troubling thing is the marks are in such a place that they would indicate a man-sized feline, apparently on it’s hind legs, not on all fours as one would expect. They also appear to be fresh, obviously made within the last 24 hours.

Since it was obvious that Carstos was going to be of little help, the group decided to search Marlos’ chambers as well, hoping to find some additional clues as to what was going on. Little did they expect to find a trapdoor hidden beneath a rug in the center of the room. Pulling back the trapdoor, a ladder leading down into a small room with a door at one end was revealed. Deciding to investigate further the group proceeded down the ladder and opened the door. Navigating a series of corridors the group finds a room with a crude altar in it. On the altar was a poor soul who had obviously been here for some time. Tortured and quivering, he’s had his ears cut off, and his eyes sewn shut. Further still several other rooms were revealed, including a storage room, two large rooms filled with rubble and digging equipment, and a study where they found their first clues. on the desk indicated that Marlos may be in New Keep and a shapeshifter named Vazeras was here in his stead. The letters were signed by Kasera, but it’s not clear exactly who, or what, this Kasera is.

As they investigated one of the piles of rubble, the group was shocked to discover the dead body of the man they were tasked with finding, Falam. As their search continued, they were also startled to hear someone approaching from the direction of the trapdoor. They group prepared as best they could for the confrontation, and they were soon faced with Vazeras himself. As he revealed his true form, a large tiger-like humanoid later identified as a Rakshasa, the group sprang into action. Unfortunately, their attacks did nothing to Vazeras, and he began to toy with the group realizing he had little to fear from them. Retreat was the only option, and they were forced deeper into the underground complex, unable to go back the way they came.

They tried to slow their pursuer by barring doors between them, to little avail. Suddenly finding themselves pinned between the Rakshasa and a large set of doors guarded by goblins, the group had to break through to eliminate the guards and move on. On and on they moved through the caverns until finally reaching the mouth of the caves. However, a large camp of goblins and orcs occupied the cave entrance making escape uncertain. Luckily, the camp was down for the night with no visible guards, so the party sneaked out under the cover of darkness. Suddenly a voice startles the group as a small gnome in a cage asks the group to help him escape in exchange for leading them to his nearby village where they can decide where to go next.

The gnome explains that his name is Bilm and he’s a scout for his village. He was sent to investigate increased goblin activity in the area when he was captured and thrown in the cage the group rescued him from. He leads them to his village where they communicate with Malwander via the village’s falconer. They find out that they have been blamed for Falam’s death, and returning to Malwander now would be risky. A scout for the village runs in and reports that the goblins from the cave entrance are headed their way, so the group decides to head to New Keep to try and find out what they can there. As they flee over the Hollow Highlands towards New Keep, they can see the glow from Bilm’s village as it’s burned to the ground in the distance. Luckily, the gnomes had long since evacuated.

Now in New Keep, the group tries to find information that will help them discover what has happened to Marlos. Deciding a tavern was the best place to start they order a round of drinks and begin to discuss what to do next. While they are doing so, they notice a strange man watching them intently. Just then, the barmaid comes to the table with their drinks. Just as they go to take their first sip, the strange man rushes forward and knocks the drinks from their hands. He explains that the drinks have been poisoned and points out the would-be assassin in the doorway to the tavern’s kitchen. The group begins to pursue him, only to be stopped by the man again, “Don’t be foolish, the poisoning was a ruse, he wants you to follow him right into an ambush.” He leads them to a safe house, and tells the group that his name is Dunn and he used to be an acolyte of the temple of Heironeous here in New Keep.

“Until very recently I was the assistant to the high priest, Erol, at the local temple of Heironeous here in New Keep. We were discussing plans for the upcoming Brewfest when my lord appeared to go into some sort of trance. He stayed that way for several moments, and when he came to, he told me to fetch his armor and weapons. I asked him why, and he said that Heironeous had just visited him and told him that agents of evil were on their way to attempt to take over the temple. I ran to do as I was told as he collected the temple’s important documents so we could hide them. Upon my return I saw several cloaked men sneaking into his room. As he turned, they struck him down and began to rummage through the papers. There were too many for me to stop, and I knew if I stayed much longer they would find me too, so I snuck out through a secret passage and came here. The next day, I returned to try and get more information, and there was my lord, alive and well. Something didn’t feel right however, and I followed him into a secret passage I was unaware of. He was speaking to a cloaked figure in a strange tongue I has never heard before. The only thing I could make out was the name of the figure, Kasera. I decided to flee before I was found, and have been hiding here ever since.” Dunn told them readily.

Faced with a situation much like the one they fled from in Malwander, the group decides to try find where Marlos was being held. If they found him, they would more than likely find Erol as well. Deciding that there must be a secret passage like the one they found in Malwander beneath the temple of Heironeous, the group has Dunn lead them in through the secret passage he used to escape. The party manages to get into the temple undetected and finds the secret passage they are looking for. However, this passage doesn’t lead to an underground complex, it continues on and appears to come up into a building a short distance away. As quietly as possible the group investigates the building. They find a addressed to Azeal and signed Kasera on a desk in an office. In the center of the building lies a large torture chamber with a couple of cells on one wall. On a large table lie the remains of Erol, apparently tortured to death, much to Dunn’s dismay. Luckily for the group one of the cells contains Marlos, and he’s alive! After a narrow escape from the guards, the group makes it way back to Dunn’s safe house to try and nurse Marlos back to full health and figure out what to do next.

Marlos doesn’t know who’s behind the abductions and impersonations, but he does know what they’re after, “This whole thing started about 30 years ago. You may find this hard to believe, but back then Erol and I were adventurers much like yourselves. Along with our old friends Alil, an elven swordsman of incredible skill, and Nori, an elven mage of unimaginable wisdom, we traveled the world in search of adventure. To make a long story short, we were traveling through the Glorioles on the way to meet with one of the area’s dwarven kings when we stumbled upon a well-hidden cave.”

“Not thinking much about it, we decided to explore further. As we delved deeper, we began to find strange symbols on the walls and floor. Nori said that they were wards of containment and binding. Coming to an apparent dead end we searched for secret passages and found one against the back wall. The passage lead deeper into the mountain and directly into the remnants of an underground city. I know what you may be thinking, but it was not dwarven in nature. To be honest, it was unlike anything we had ever seen. You see, the city was literally carved out of a large vein of black crystal that seemed to glow with a strange inner light. The workmanship was strange and alien. Nori and Alil suspected Drow, but that suspicion was soon proved wrong. As we continued to explore it began to become clear that there was no life left here. Our footsteps echoed off into the distance, piercing the eerie quiet of the place.”

“We finally stumbled upon what appeared to be a large temple. As we entered we found ourselves in a huge mausoleum. The walls were lined with countless tombs and in the center stood a large sarcophagus. As we moved closer we realized that something seemed to be pulsing from within the sarcophagus. We removed the lid and found a perfectly preserved body inside. At first glance it almost appeared to be an elven man, but he was much taller and stockier than your typical elf. His skin was deathly pale with a reddish tinge to it, almost as if you could see the blood in his veins through his skin. We suddenly realized that an amulet hung around the man’s neck was emitting the pulsing we had detected earlier. Alil reached down and grasped the amulet. The man’s eyes shot open and he began to scream, an ungodly sound it was, almost as if every body within the mausoleum were moaning loudly. He bolted upright and bared his long, sharp teeth at Alil, grasping the hand that held the amulet, sending Alil to his knees in agony. As his blood red eyes turned toward us, Erol let loose a crossbow bolt that embedded itself into the creature’s eye socket. The creature instantly reached up for the bolt, releasing Alil’s hand. Pulling his hand back quickly, Alil pulled the amulet free of the creature, who began to scream as if in pain. It’s body instantly began to whither and pulsing of the amulet slowed as if it were the creature’s heart. As the pulsing slowed further until it finally stopped, the creature’s body slowly deteriorated into a pile of dust. The walls of the temple began to shake and we fled as quickly as possible.”

“We managed to make it out of the cavern and continued on our way to meet the dwarven king, glad to just be alive. After completing our business with the dwarves, we started the journey home. On the way, Alil insisted on keeping the amulet in his possession, not even allowing Nori or myself to inspect it. A few days into the trip, he decided to put the amulet on, despite our obvious objections. At first, nothing seemed to happen, but as the journey pressed on Alil’s personality was changing from friendly and outgoing to cruel and introverted. On the final night of the trek he seemed to snap and attacked us. We defended ourselves as best we could without trying to harm Alil, who was obviously under the influence of the amulet. Finally, Nori resorted to using magic to remove the amulet and we watched in horror as Alil crumbled into dust just as the creature who wore the amulet before had.”

“Once home, Nori immediately threw himself into researching the amulet and the strange city. He was obsessed with it, and we drifted apart. Erol and I continued to stay in contact, each becoming priests of our respective deities. Well, that amulet was the reason Erol and I were kidnapped. They tortured us trying to find the location of the amulet. Luckily, Nori decided that it was too dangerous to leave lying around and hid it. Neither Erol or I know the amulet’s location, but I fear that Erol revealed that it is in Nori’s care in the Grandwood Forest.”

The group decides to head back to Malwander and find that the false Marlos and all his cohorts have mysteriously disappeared. Word arrives from Dunn that the same appears to be true of the group in New Keep as well. As the group makes preparations to head to Nori’s village in the Grandwood, a visitor arrives for Lirrim…

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Chapters - Find out what's happened so far.

Chapter One – Shapeshifters in Our Midst

Chapter Two – A Prophecy Fulfilled?

Chapter Three – The City of Black Crystal

Chapter Four – Poachers? No, Murderers!

Chapter Five – The Vast Swamp

Chapter Six – Delivery for Quarion

Chapter Seven – Evil Afoot in the Menowood

Chapter Eight – An Item in Naerie

Chapter Nine – Back in Malwander…

Chapter Ten – A Journey Into Madness

Chapter Eleven - Serpent Isle

Chapter Twelve – The Return of Maj

Chapter Thirteen – The Hestmark Highlands

Chapter Fourteen – A Spy Among Us?

Chapter Fifteen – The Bonewood

Chapter Sixteen – Return to Rook's Roost