Arvien felt a chill as the party found themselves in the Ruined Abbey just at dusk. A huge spider web stretched across the interior of the abbey. Caught in the center of the web was Renee. "Help me," Renee called, struggling against the thick, sticky web. "Don't fail me again."
A giant spider more than 10 feet around, with thick black legs and a hairy back body, its head, the head and torso of a huge ettercap appeared from the web. Arvien stood stunned as she watched the spider attack Renee, killing her with one pierce of a sharp-clawed leg. The rest of the party attacked, firing arrows, attacking with swords, daggers and spells in a furious manner. The spider, even with its size was no match for the party and fell quickly to their blows. The view shifted as the party found themselves once again in Arvien's room at Renee's boarding house. A wall of fire raged outside the windows. The door and walls were hot to the touch and wisps of smoke crawled in under the door. Sitting on the bed was Renee "Where have you been?" she asked Arvien. "I've been waiting for you. You said you'd be back. You said you liked me. I thought you were going to help me run this boarding house. Instead you left me here to die." As Renee talked, her features slowly began to change. Burns appeared on her face until it became a charred mask of flaking flesh. Scratches appeared on her arms and across the rest of her body, slowing turning her into a bloody mess. Arvien steeled her nerves as she watched the horrible transformation. Flames dripped from the ceiling and formed a huge fire monster. Arvien called forth a dire boar to attack the monstrous flame while the party attacked again with fury. Even as they took some damage the fire monster was dispatched rather quickly and the scene shifted again.
The party found themselves in the Hall of Doors, which extended seemingly forever in each direction. Arvien started down the hall trying to find the door behind which she heard Renee begging for her life. Finding that door she flung it open. The heroes found themselves in a lush field. A gentle breeze blew through the stalks of wheat, making them sway to nature's music. Drovic was relieved almost, but not quite, believing that there was peace at hand. The moment only lasted a few moments. As the heroes moved through the field,they began to notice that no every stalk was a simple stalk of wheat. Vines and roots grew out of the flesh of the people of Introsia, and wound around their bodies eventually spreading into the soil to anchor each villager in place. They found more and more villagers until the crop consisted almost entirely of them. The sound that they mistook for a gentle breeze was now recognized as a soft song being sung by each of the planted villagers. Among the villagers, the group recognized people they knew, even Renee and Irronauchs. Some distance away a voice screamed in terror, then was immediately silenced. This happened a few times as the party headed toward the screams. There they found a huge ettercap wielding a huge scythe which it was using to harvest the planted villagers.
As Seglun, Baru and Varrid approached the monster their fear increased. Seglun was shaken while Baru shook off the fear and stood face to carapace with the monster. He flailed wildly, missing with each stroke. Seglun attacked and struck with his silver blade but soon dropped the weapon and fled in fear from the scene. Grunyar was firing arrows into the hulk even though they seemed to do less damage than normal. Drovic threw acid at the monster, while Arvien fired magic missiles toward it. Ralom blessed the party and moved in to attack trying to provide flanking for Varrid, who struck away. As the party attacked the villagers started to shout encouragement and tell them that what happened was not their fault. Even Renee and Irronauchs joined in. "You did everything you could," Irronauchs said. "You can't be blamed for what occurred." "I know that if you'd been here you'd have saved us," Renee added. "But is was the ettercaps that killed us, not you. Grieve for us but don't blame yourself for situations over which you had no control."
Buoyed by the encouragement of the villagers the party attacked with renewed energy. Even as the party struck the foul creature it healed some of its damage and continued to strike with the huge scythe. The battle was long and exhausting for the heroes, Seglun eventually recovered from her fear and returned to strike fiercely at the great bulk of the ettercap. Even with Baru failing to strike the monster even once it eventually fell to the ground. Ralom moved forward immediately to apply the coup de grace, since it was obvious the ettercap could regenerate. As the group fell to the ground they awoke in the forest of Sithicus with the forgetful elves.
Once the sun had risen, breakfast had been eaten and spells relearned the group headed for Har-Thelen, although Hethanna and Rowhen kept losing their way, Quallan pointed them in the right direction. As the group approached the city of Hroth, they saw smoke and dust in the air. As they grew hear it was clear that the city had been badly damaged. Building and city walls had collapsed, and some building were aflame or in ashes. The streets were crossed with rifts, some of which tore open as the group approached, forcing them to detour around another way. Elves wandered the streets some not seeming to care where or when they were. One resident fled a house just as it burst into flame. She was asked what happened but apparently had no memory of the immediate past. Ralom inquired if there was anyone else in the house, to which she replied in the negative.
Suddenly from the front and rear appeared two large beetles with long horns. In the front Baru moved to attack, Arvien moved to the center of the party to fire spells but was discouraged as the beetle trampled Ralom and ended up right in front of her. Again the party fell into battle with Varrid flanking one beetle, Baru battling another with Arvien's Dire Boar, Grunyar firing missiles and Drovic throwing bounding fire at the huge beetles. Seglun attacked with rage and soon both of the beetles were lying dead in the streets.
While the party was making its way along the open pathways, streets and alleys of Hroth, Drovic suddenly felt a tug and his backpack. Whirling around he grabbed a dark haired young man of dusky complexion who tried to scurry away but was held fast. When queried by Drovic as to his intent he replied "The world is going to end soon enough, when Sithicus at last tears itself apart. Why obey the law, when we're all going to fall into the mists anyhow?" When the rest of the party surrounds the young man who had plain clothes but bright ribbons and ties in his black hair, clearly of Vistani blood, he quickly offered to introduce then to Magda the Wanderer, the leader of his tribe. "Magda thinks she knows a way out of Sithicus. If you spare me, she'll reveal how you can escape too."
Accepting this offer the young Vistani, Victor led the party to the outskirts of Hroth where a Vistani camp of Vardos sat in a glade in the forest. There were piles of elvish merchandise stacked inside the circle in a seemingly random pattern. Several Vistani were sorting through the goods, clearly picking out the best items. Victor led the party to a mid-40ish woman with raven-black hair streaked with white. It appeared that she had once been a beauty but no her green eyes were hooded with secrets and her face bore the creases of worry. Beside her sat a large Bloodhound and a Rook sat on the wheel of a nearby Vardo. Magda wished to know how the party came to Sithicus and how they had retained their memories.
DM's Notes: The party earned 1030 XP for the nights work and now have 24561 XP. They need 10439 additional XP to reach 6th level.
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