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Landroval and I sit around in the common room, listening to some rumors. One guy swears he saw Bolt the Legend ride away from town looking dejected. Another says Borovic Dundragon has been mutilated, and dozens of town guards are dead. Another man says he saw a Drow that spoke to a man, near a fnacy hotel. Night falls, and it's getting late. We head out back to the Corillian Sword, just in case they went back there, and on the way we see figures in the air flying toward Councilwoman Dorothea's house. That's our cue! So we head that way. We get into Dorothea's house with the aid of Landroval's "dispatch." We come upon our party, they tell us about the assassin masquerading as Dorothea, we kick open the door. Inside are Skalia Darkblade and Miranda's twin in a slinky robe. Landroval uses fireball to torch the inner room and hurt the false Dorothea. Skalia comes out to fight us. In the second round of combat, Landroval casts a successful hold person on her and that's the end of that. Of course, her Nightmare comes running in and does a little damage to Landroval and Corbin before Beren and Gwaihir kill it, as Dorn is taking off Scalia's head. Meanwhile, Miranda finishes up with the false Dorothea. At this point, Landroval and I notice that there is another person fighting alongside our group--Miranda says he is her squire. It seems a bit strange that he is completely covered up in armor, but that's okay. So the bad guys are dead, the house is burning, and guards are sure to be showing up any moment. We decide that discretion is, at this point, the better part of valor, and decide to head out the hole that Landroval blasted in the wall earlier. On the way to the church of Torm, we manage to piece together some of our stories and catch up. When we arrive, we find Stefan and introduce him to our party. We tell him about what happened, and he officially pardons Miranda. Dorn talks with Vlosh in his prayers. Eventually, we manage to explain everything to the officials. The next morning, Beren, Landroval, and I head for the Thayan section of town to find Patricia, Batrice's descendant. We explain to her our reason for coming, and the questions we have about our ancestry. She says we aren't the only elves to come by asking for her grandfather's notes. Oh really? Landroval and I exchange glances. Would the other elves happen to be a group of three, one with mithril chain, one with studded leather armor, and one without armor? She says, as a matter of fact they were. She takes us to a library to wait while she looks for some of the old books and journals. We wait for about ten minutes before Landroval gets restless, and stands up to look at some of the books on the shelves. One of the shelves has books with dark green binding, looks pretty polished. They almost feel warm. They look like spell books.... "I wouldn't touch them if I were you," a voice suddenly rings out. It's Batrice! He's been sitting at the same table with us since we came in. He tells us that our parents were there almost 200 years ago, asking the same questions about their ancestry, although that was before they were mated. Batrice tells us about Corellan Larethian and his wife and daughter. Corellan's wife began to be corrupted, direct link to mortals. She became a kind of god-queen. This brought about a schism in the elves. Corellan Larethian joined with other gods to cast her and her followers down (they became known as the Drow). The daughter, El'estrai, felt pity for these "dark elves" and believed that they could be reclaimed from Llolth, her mother. So El'estrai and some of her own followers followed Llolth to the Underdark. At this time in history, there were no humans: only us elves and some dragons. One of these dragons, a silver wyrm named Scaramash, fell in love with an elven maid and became an elf to live with her. She was a priestess of El'estrai. When the schism came, Scaramash had to choose between the sun and open air, and the woman that he loved. The dragon reverted to his natural form, had Corellan Larethian cut of his right arm. This was done to invest some of his power with the elves, and to allow them to make armor out of him to help their cause. We, Landroval and I, anre descended from Scaramash and his elven priestess wife. When they went underground, they left their children to stay above with other elves. "However," Batrice points out, "you might want to keep in mind that the pair could have had other children in the Underdark, whose descendents would be Drow." This is a lot to digest. We ask what the other group of elves was asking after when they came to Batrice. They were looking for one of the last sets of the armor made from Scaramash's hide, which is (so says Batrice) part of a treasure trove in a tomb that can only be entered by a special group. The group must contain a member from each of the five races, and that member must be pure of heart (the five races are human, elf, dwarf, Drow, and celestial). Landroval says, "That sounds a lot like Myth Drannor." Batrice smiles, "It does, doesn't it?" The tomb was sealed by the last defenders of the city. The idea was that only in a time of great need could one pure-of-heart of each race come together. By the way, Valanthalas and the others are part of a group called the Sunspeakers. Not the most scrupulous about the methods used to control the Dalelands. Also, Alowan Anubius wants to "become" Llolth, that is, kill her and take her place. Batrice has a book with notes; he will make a copy and send it to Justford for us. Beren asks about the "soul-trapping" jewel and how to reverse it. After this a shopping trip followed, in which our party sells the plate for 3500gp, prices the bastard sword at 36,000gp, sells the +3 falchion of flameburst for 13,000gp, and I get some +3 studded leather armor. |