Characters: Julian, Balin, Samael, Grim, Anthony, Davvin, Lord Thond.
NPCs: Woodbrand's Longsword, Starmetal Golem, Orthaneus: Deathless Wizard, Librarians of Suzail, Alaphondar Emmarsk: High Sage of Cormyr.
L 9 Mirtul 1374 - L 10 Mirtul 1374
3900 XP
After the brief fray between the party, they further discussed possibilities of investigation and decided to call the remaining adventurers from Calantar Keep to help. Lord Thond suggested that they seek out a reclusive wizard whom lived in a tower just north of Waymoot named Endarthar. If he would not have an answer, then they would reluctantly allow Julian to break the mighty sword. Before they left for Waymoot again, Davvin gave Lord Woodbrand's body a last blessing and sealed him in a magical stone sarcophagus. The party returned to Waymoot and presented Woodbrand's coffin to the local Purple Dragon guards. A small ceremony was held and the party explained their findings to the people of Waymoot. After that they headed off into the large and open King's Forest and found Endarthar's tower without incident.
His tower was seated in a small valley and was surrounded by a wild garden that looked neglected for some time. Balin discovered orc tracks and signs of an encampment around the tower, the front door looked to have been smashed down. The party prepared for combat with protective spells and moved in. The first three floors were trapped with minor evocations and looked to have been looted considerably. As the party searched they found 4 dead orcs; two had been killed by the magical traps, the other two however, had been killed by something all together different. Julian and Samael rushed ahead of the party and Anthony followed close behind. On the fifth floor they found a complex magical trap and set to disabling it. Meanwhile, the rest of the party searched through the 4th floor, and were surprised when they found no signs of looting at all. A large room at the south end of the building had a massive metal sculpture of a iron golem at one end and it glowed with a magical aura. Carefully the party approached the suit of armor, but as they drew close Grim noticed that the magical aura was a Nystal's Magic Aura. Suddenly, the party was attacked from behind by a great dust covered metal warrior and began to choke on toxic gas.
Thond, Davvin, and Balin began to attack the golem with their weapons but found penetrating its armor extremely difficult. Grim became the focus of the golem's attacks and soon attempted to flee for his life finding that he had hit a Wall of Force, they were trapped! Grim Recalled back to his magical demiplane away from the battle and the golem and toxic gases were quickly taking a heavy toll on the rest of the party. Davvin called upon the dead god Kelemvor and a great Angel of Death appeared before the golem battling against it. Julian and Samael had just finished disabling the traps when they were set upon by a ghostly figure dressed in the robes of a noble Cormyrian war wizard. The figure demanded they explain what they were doing in his tower and they began to tell of their adventuring charter, Woodbrand's sword, and their search for the great wizard Endarthar. The ghostly figure called Endarthar a cheater, coward and a weak wizard and introduced himself as Orthaneus, the true master of this tower. After more brief conversation Julian, Samael, and Anthony went back to the 4th floor to find Woodbrand's sword and saw instead the desperate combat unfolding inside a Cube of Force. Orthaneus immediately called off his mighty Starmetal Golem, halting the combat.
Then the party was invited to the 5th floor where Orthaneus explained he was killed by Endarthar in a mage duel to assume control over the rival's tower. Since the war had broken out in Cormyr Endarthar had packed up all the tower's valuables and returned to his homeland of Tethyr. Orthaneus advised the party that it would probably be best to Disjoin the sword and then break the hilt. During the conversation Julian became enthralled by the sword once again, grabbed it and Blinked out of the tower. Samael and Grim followed in pursuit slowing him down. Then Orthaneus hesitated no longer and Disjoined the sword while it lay unattended on the ground. The sword's magic was now gone and Anthony slowly set to work dismantling the hilt to gain access to the scroll. While that was proceeding Davvin questioned Orthaneus on the reasons for his not leaving for the afterlife. Orthaneus explained the great necessity of revenge upon Endarthar and Grim sympathized as a fellow wizard. Davvin managed to convince Orthaneus to leave with the promise from Grim that Endarthar would be killed in his name and that Orthaneus' tower would be re-built and maintained in its former beauty by Grim. Anthony had finished removing the scroll and found that it contained a code written in an indecipherable alphabet. The letters resembled elven, draconic, and arcane scripts at times and were clearly in some sort of substituted code. The party consulted with Orthaneus who explained he knew nothing of this language, although his response seemed suspicious. He told the party he may have seen it in the Library of Suzail earlier in his life however, that too seemed rushed.The party could not solve the code and with no other leads decided to go to the Library of Suzail and speak again with the High Sage Alaphondar. After not too much time waiting they received a council with the High Sage and began collecting books concerning the Knights Draconis. The party studied with Alaphondar for several hours through mostly fiction and poetry which only speculated upon the organization. Clearly, this was not the historical evidence they were hoping for. Alaphondar promised that in the morning his librarians would have collected more material which may have a translation of the coded message they discovered. Alaphondar returned up the winding staircase to his personal quarters and Julian again sensed a suspicious element to the High Sage's behavior. The party returned to sleep after a very one day in Lord Thond's manor. After a couple hours, Julian and Samael decided to sneak back out into the library of Suzail and may a personal visit to Alaphondar's tower. The full moon made hiding difficult along the grounds of the Court gardens however Julian and Samael managed to gain access to a high window in the tower and dismantled a magical alarm.
In the tower they found a table which had many of its items pushed to one side. On the opposite side lay a circular cipher, and two copies of the exact coded message they had found in Woodbrand's sword. "Full moon on Hullack touches thee, Proud warrior conquering benches three, Where the smaller steel points a way, Stand where the lonely warrior may." They had little time to search more, however Julian managed to copy down the solved message, a poem, onto parchment and the pair of thieves escaped into the night. They quickly returned to Lord Thond's manor and woke up the remaining party members. tonight was a full moon and it was rapidly approaching dawn, there was little time to spare. After analyzing the poem, Anthony recalled the legend of Warrior-King Dhalmass I whom conquered the western Dalelands in the name of Cormyr. A statue which honors his memory stands on the edge of the Wyvernwater Lake near the Hullack Forest. The party Teleported to the statue and now stood in the misty presence of the Wyvernwater Lake. Close examination of the statue, and Woodbrand's poem allowed the party to activate a portal near where King Dhalmass' squire would stand. Samael acted first, sacrificing blood on the statue before entering. Anthony noticed that fresh blood had already been spilled this night upon the statue, Alaphondar perhaps? Each party member did the same blood sacrifice and appeared in a much different place soon after.
