Our return journey through The King's Forest back to Waymoot was a dreary one. The rainy weather matched our moods, and for a change Naivara and Ember were as quiet as I was. Our 4-day journey southeast to Suzail would hopefully involve some sunshine and brighter moods once the path turned towards the big city on Dragonmere. For now the three of us are simply physically and mentally fatigued from weeks of fruitless searching for answers and witnessing the needless suffering of multiple young women, however we press on.
The party arrives in Waymoot and we enter the Moon and Stars Inn around mid-afternoon. I am extremely happy to dry off by the fire and get some meat and ale in me. In spite of my desire to sit silently and eat and drink, Falken approaches us with a hearty smile. "Back already? How did business in Minroe go?" I reply with a frown and a piercing gaze "Business was business, we are no closer to our goal." Realizing that not even the elves are in the mood to chat Falken wishes us well and moves on to his table to continue his meal.
Later that evening a young, though rugged-looking man, enters the tavern in leathers with a sword and metal bracers. Somewhat like myself he bears cuts on him indicative of a man who has seen his share of battle. His eyes and lack of smile convey a gruff demeanor not dissimilar to my own. He approaches us and flatly ask, "Are you adventurers?" Naivara and Ember simultaneously respond in the affirmative and ask him to sit down. I would be perfectly happy to sit in silence and drink with what appears to my eyes to be a kindred spirit but unfortunately it would appear he has business to discuss. He introduces himself as Agril and tells us he needs help. He and his party of adventurers were exploring the King's Forest north of Waymoot looking for the ruins of an old tower, or more specifically what treasures may lay within. Unfortunately for his group they were ambushed by orcs. Since the man is in front of us alone I surmize that all but he were either killed or captured. He confirms my suspicions and asks us if we would be able to help him rescue his party. Before Naivara has a chance to ask him for an equal share of any potential loot I respond "We can help, assuming we get an equal share of the loot--that's an equal split between our parties." Agril readily agrees to our terms and we all retire for the evening with a plan to head out in the morn.
The morning arrives and Ember, Naivara, and myself follow Agril west into the woods. As we get further from Waymoot only Ember and Agril have any clue really where we are or how to get back to Waymoot. Immediately I begin to worry that this is the beginning of an ambush and that Agril is the leader of a band of brigands. I keep my guard up and stay close to the elves. We set camp for the night and Agril tells us we should hit the tower late tomorrow afternoon. The next morning we head deeper into the woods. I can tell by the look in Ember's eyes that at this point even she would not be able to easily get back to Waymoot. Around noon Agril stops us and tells us we are close to the ruined tower. He points out orc tracks, I had already seen these. I have a lifetime of experience fighting the orcs in battle, aside from the common tongue it is the only language I know...it makes me smile for a moment when I think to myself that I could have a conversation with an orc but not my elven companions in their native language. We continue on but try to move a bit quieter. I am now worried about both orcs and a potential betrayal by Agril. This could get interesting.
300 yards away we see the ruins of the tower. There is a campfire at the base of the tower and once we are within range we see six orcs. In an uncharacteristic display of clumsiness Ember steps on a branch and breaks it. The orcs immediately stand up and grab their weapons. Wasting no time Naivara fires an arrow that hits one of the orcs in the arm. Both myself and Agril are unable to hit our targets when we do the same. Three of the orcs advance upon Ember and get within 50 feet of the mage. Once again Naivara continues to show great prowess in combat and hits one of the orcs advancing on Ember in the belly with an arrow, nearly felling the creature. After I miss with my crossbow yet again Ember casts Chromatic Orb and one of the orcs at the campfire is instantly eviscerated. Not to be outdone, Agril fires a his bow. As the arrow gets closer to the orcs it begins to have a strange glow. Upon striking the target it sprouts vines and thorns. Seriously wounding one orc and killing two of the remaining orcs. Clearly he has powers of which we were not aware.
The three remaining orcs are now together and I am able to kill the wounded one with a crushing blow from my long sword. One of the orcs then charges Ember. I leap between them but the orc is still able to slash her and draw blood. At this point the party, Agril, and the two remaining orcs are engaged in furious melee combat with blood spilling everywhere. Ember is able to slice the throat of one of the orcs and I kill the other one. I smile upon ending the life of the final orc, happy to put weeks of rustiness with my sword behind me.
After each of us collect 10 gold pieces from the dead bodies of the orcs we make camp and sleep for the evening. Before we lay our heads down Agril solemnly declares that these were the same orcs who ambushed his group of adventurers. The more time I spend with him the less I suspect him of being a threat. This means that either he truly is a kindred spirit or my age and the stress of the last few weeks are beginning to dull my senses and make me let my guard down when I ought not to. We go to sleep, ready to explore the ruined tower the next morning and hopefully rescue Agril's friends.
The next morning we rise bright and early and enter the tower. The room is about 30 feet in diameter with stairs going up and down the outside wall. I am surprised that the stairs go up counter-clockwise, a design feature that would give a right-handed fighter an advantage if he were trying to go up the stairs. Perhaps this was build by a left-handed fighter. We decide to start by heading down the stairs. We see remainders of beds down there. "Do you notice something off about the stone work on the wall?" Naivara asks? " I notice something strange also, but I can't make it out" I respond. Naivara runs her hand along the wall and a secret door is revealed! We see before us a long, dark passageway. Ember uses her magic to illuminate the passage and we see 120 feet of straight tunnel that moves down at a very gradual slope. After some deliberation we decide to enter the tunnel.
After a few hours spent traveling down the tunnel we come to a massive room. I enter first and see torches on each wall. The eight torches come to life magically to reveal an octagonal room 50 feet long on each side and about 20 feet high. There is an altar in the middle of the room. Immediately our party exchanges excited, nervous looks. Once again we are greeted by a mysterious altar, however this time no cultists are around. Upon the altar lays an old leather bound book. There is also a longsword. We see an eye symbol in the handle of the sword and both Ember and myself are fairly certain it is the same as the one in the sword held by the villainess in the mine of Minroe. Ember picks up the book and casts Detect Magic. She determines that it is a spell book. When she picks up the sword, she immediately winces in pain. Merely handling the sword must be dangerous. One the pain subsides, she is able to sense a great evil, and is sure that this sword has a will of its own. She wraps the sword in a cloak and stores it in her pack.
When we explore the room we notice there is a symbol atop each wall. The symbols do not seem to mean anything to anyone. However, the grey and white one is almost identical to the symbol we saw at the altar in the mine of Minroe. There are also Elvish carvings in the walls that we cannot make out. Under the purple symbol on one of the walls there's an ornate circle about 10 feet wide with markings both inside of and around it. Ember is certain that it is some sort of a teleportation circle. I am not a mage but even this gruff fighter is getting nervous being in this room. It feels like the heart of something quite evil. I feel the same way I did when I was in the rooms with the altars at the Haunted Halls and the mine of Minroe, only the strength of the evil seems greater to me. We decide to leave the room and head back up the tunnel.
When we get back to the chamber I close the door to the tunnel. We go up the stairs to the room into which we entered the tower and start making our way further up the tower. The second floor is totally ransacked, and there is nothing there. Neither bodies, nor anything of value is on this floor. When we get to the third floor we are once again greeted by a messy, ransacked room. "This room was designed for magic use," Ember confidently exclaims. I find a loose floor board and pry it open --we all fall to the floor when fire explodes upward--a trap. At this point we agree it is a good idea to leave the ruined tower.
We walk around the base of the tower and see tracks leading away. At this point we find the bodies of several dead men. My suspicions are immediately confirmed when I see Agril shake his head and frown. "I was too late. Let us burn the bodies and make our way back to town." Upon arriving in Waymoot we immediately head for The Moon and Stars. When I look at Agril, I am somewhat angry with myself for doubting him earlier. The man bears the heart of a warrior, not to mention the scars of one. He could have easily left his party for dead, yet he went back for them. I am certain this was motivated less by the treasure that may have awaited him then by his desire to help his friends. "I am sorry for your loss Agril. I too have experienced much pain. Now that you are alone why not join us until you figure out where the road will take you next?" Agril replies "I will think this over Torvald. For today though my thoughts are with my friends." We all continue to share a few drinks when Agril asks us about the sword and why we seemed to recognized it. Naivara tells him all about the sword and the symbol in the pommel. "That sword should have been left behind. It is evil" I say in a gruff fashion. "There are no evil swords, only evil people," Agril says. We continue to drink and then head for bed. Ember lets us know she will begin studying the spellbook by candle light in her and Naivara's room. I lay my head down in my room and am asleep within minutes.
The three of us head downstairs for the morning to eat breakfast. Before us we see Agril sitting at a table with no food or drink in front of him. "I was waiting for you party before I ate. I try not to be rude when I can." I smile at him and the elves as we all sit down for breakfast. We fill Agril in on all the details of the previous few weeks when he indicates to us that he has no plans for quite some time and desires to stay with us for the foreseeable future. After eating we pack up our belongings and the now party of four depart the Moon and Stars for Suzail.
