Characters: Julian, Grim, Anthony, Randal.
NPCs: Balin, Awakened Ironvine, Lord Thond, Berronar of the 9th circle (Druid of the King’s Forest), Ozurr the Tree Ghost, Hagunemnon, The Elk Father.
E 14 Mirtul 1374 - L 15 Mirtul 1374
8400 XP
After a night of long political discussion in the chambers of Suzail’s royal court the party lumbered back to Lord Thond’s eccentric mansion for rest. Thond’s dust-ridden manor was perfectly quiet and dark, ideal for a long awaited sleep. Ten hours later in the late afternoon the party decided it was time to continue their investigation of the Myth of the Elk Father which had been interrupted by the previous night’s politics. With some unusual tips from Balin and the awakened Ironvine they had encountered previously on Aleron I’s tomb, the party made their way to the King’s Forest. Anthony Manton cast a Windwalk upon the party and within an hour of pleasant travel over the blue Cormyrian skies they had arrived at a conspicuous grove of trees.In the center was an earth mound topped with broken stones halfway sunken into its face. The party searched the area finding many unusual magical runes and auras, but all of them in Grim’s opinion were incomplete at best. Julian discovered a small path which was well hidden in a somewhat disorienting landscape. Familiar with the tricks of druids from their experience in the Forest of Tethyr, Julian was able to follow the path. It led the party to a humble cottage with dry mortared river stones and a neatly thatched roof.
The party decided to wait until its master made an appearance and not shortly after a scruffy human dressed in peasant’s clothing shuffled through the undergrowth. Berronar greeted them with some hesitation due to the intimidating nature of some of their equipment and told them he was the master of the grove. The party told Berronar that their quest to find the Elk Father of the Cormyrian forest had led them to his grove. Berronar was quite surprised knowing that the Elk Father had been gone for some 800 years at least, a member of an ancient circle of druids long since dissolved. Berronar invited the party to some pungent tea and then led them back to the grove where they searched together. With Berronar’s assistance the party made the discovery that these were not individual stones but the remnants of one great former stone of significant magical power. They unearthed the stones and assembled them into a small platform; Grim repaired the damaged structure with a creative bit of spellcasting. It was only then the stone’s true magical power was restored. As the moon took its presence over the skies Anthony and Grim realized at that this was a teleportation stone. Wishing Berronar goodbye the party they activated the stone and vanished, appearing in an entirely different place.The adventurers found themselves completely submerged in murky brown water, and entangled in reeds and water grasses. They still stood on a stone platform but were now in a pond of sorts, what moonlight there was had been filtered out by massive water lilies and a thick forest canopy above. They rose efficiently to the surface by simply reactivating the ongoing Windwalk. They were in another grove, however this time they were surrounded by water-logged trees, and the croaking of frogs all around, some as large as cats. Grim cast a Discern Location spell and an arcane voice whispered back to him that he was still on Ferun, in the Hermit’s Woods of Cormyr. Anthony knew this immediately as a swampy patch of land just east of Marsember. As they looked around further, Julian noticed there was a great terrace of pools draining water from a stream just above a hillside into this depression, most were broken in places and leaking water. Randal discovered the remains of a skeleton in the last pool which had run dry (or at least the muddy sort of dry that one can only find in a swamp). With Randal at the bottom and Julian at the top of the terraced pools they determined that long ago this figure was thrown from the top smashing the lowest pool’s outer wall.
A grave sense of the evil committed in this grove now lingered in the heads of the party. They decided together that what ever the magic was that brought them here may have been the path which the Elk Father had last taken. Or maybe they had been brought here for a reason? In addition, it was clear to them now that the grove’s former magic had been lost and that in order to continue on their path they would have to restore it. The party began lifting stones back into place when Julian had a remarkable idea, his Lyre of Building! And so with nothing more than an hour of music from the Lyre, Julian had reconstructed the grove to an old splendor. The trickles of water running in all directions resonated in the grove, and of course the frogs could no longer resist holding in their croaks. Anthony and Randal meanwhile had been busy burying the skeleton on a suitably dry plot of land overlooking the grove. Grim focused his attention back on the central pool. Within an hour or so of study he realized this magical pool was far more powerful than he had imagined. It would Teleport whoever looked deeply upon its murky surface to anywhere he or she wished to go, a dangerous proposition for some.
The party focused together on their quest and their desire to find the Elk Father as they stared deeply into the water. The next moment the party was staring at a great Grey Tree which stood alone in a massive grove of barren soil. The tree’s wood was petrified grey and looked hard as stone, as if sunk in sea water for hundreds of years. The hundreds of notches and hollows dotting its body were lit up with the yellow eyes of ghostly owls. In the center of its thick trunk was the face of an old man. The trees and its ghostly owls noticed the party’s presence almost immediately; owls hooted and flew out of their hollows swooping past the party into the forest. A powerful voice called out to the party demanding to know how they had reached his home. The party was surprised for they were expecting to see the treant’s face animate as it spoke, but instead they saw a spiritly visage within the petrified wood moving, the Tree Ghost. The party explained that they were not here to fight, or harm its resting place and that they desired only to find and speak with the Elk Father. The Tree Ghost refused to acquiesce to their requests for knowledge concerning the Elk Father for some time, but eventually their diplomacy succeeded.The Tree Ghost told them that a long time ago he knew the Elk Father, whom often roamed the King’s Forest killing aberrations of nature and magic. Some 800 years ago however, the Elk Father disappeared, the Tree Ghost told the party he could take them to the last known site of the Elk Father. Their hearts leaped, until they heard the Tree Ghost’s grave tale of the hideous beast which followed the Elk Father there. The party insisted they go despite the Tree Ghost’s warnings and so they stepped into a massive hollow at his base.
When the party appeared Grim cast a Discern Location and discovered they had been Teleported by the Tree Ghost to the Hullack Forest in eastern Cormyr. It appeared almost identical to the King’s Forest with some exceptions that an avid tracker would notice. After all, the two woods were once one when the elves called them part of Cormanthor. They walked just a short distance through ancient trees finding odd wooded plants shaped in the forms of aberrations, orcs, and adventurers. Grim recognized them almost immediately as the work of a unique petrifaction spell. In the center of a clearing was a large pool of water which glistened in the moonlight. Circling the pool were 12 standing stones forming monoliths and great triathlon gates. The stones and trees were all adorned with hibernating and damaged magical runes which looked to have been clawed away by the monsters that now stood petrified in bark all around them.
Julian and Grim searched for more signs of magic still active and found only one. The pool’s surface seemed to be blocked by an epic barrier of some kind. Clearly whatever was under the water was either meant not to go in or out. Julian and Grim combined their efforts but only Grim through a great arcane toil was able to break the barrier. The party leapt into the pool expecting the worst, all their magical items now glowed with their full power. Rather than swimming down, they found themselves swimming up, and burst out of the water into an underground grotto where the monoliths above stretched down forming great stone pillars which supported the ceiling. It was then the party faced a terrible sight no man had seen for nearly 500 years, the Hagunemnon.
The creature’s form was in constant flux, as its flesh boiled over ever-changing its appearance. The Hagunemnon battered the party with stone giant fists, ripped at them with dragon’s claws, looking upon them with hundreds of green eyes. Julian struck it hard with his trusted death mace but it was nearly destroyed as that instant the beast’s hide became engorged with acid. Randal and Anthony battled back with all their might and suddenly the chaotic beast unleashed a burst of energy suppressing all but the most powerful magic in the grotto. Grim stood back now in terror as Julian, Anthony and Randal were being overcome by its power but Anthony was slain. In horror, the party continued to fight and managed to suppress it into a bubbling mass as it attempted to regenerate. Randal slowly pushed it into the pool while Julian kept it at bay with Firestorm. They were all moved back under the moonlight by the magical pool and in the open sky Grim conjured a great storm which brought a hail of mundane lightning down upon the beast, killing it instantly.
After the battle Grim Teleported Anthony to the familiar Fortress of the Faithful where services were immediately mustered for his spirit to be summoned once more by the Triad’s followers. Meanwhile, Julian and Randal returned to the grotto, and discovered it to be a tomb. Lining the walls were the graves of many great druids, all bearing the same title Elk Father. Perhaps there was not just one but many? All the graves were locked by the same epic abjuration; however Grim managed to cancel it as he had done the previous (though with no greater ease). Behind the sarcophagus was the still and sleeping body of a lycanthrope, half man, and half elk. It took some effort arising him, but after they had the Elk Father erupted in surprise, fear, and celebration as his memories gradually returned.
He told the party that he had found the Hagunemnon in Cormyr’s woods long ago and that when he engaged it he realized it was far too much for him. Rather than be killed, he led it back to the grove of the Elk Circle, where he trapped himself and the beast forever. With his last bit of magical energy the Elk Father sealed himself and his previous Circle Masters from the beast knowing that it might be his last action. After many thanks from the Elk Father, the party finally got around to asking him about the poem they had found in Wellstar’s tower. Why was the Elk Father mentioned? What did it mean to become an Elk Foe? The Elk Father looked over the poem in detail with the party but after much discussion he was just as clueless as the party. While at first glance the poem and the legends it evoked seemed as if they would allow the party to find who was behind all of this mystery. But now the party realized there was more to the poem than the myths and legends they had learned from the monks of Candlekeep.
