Episode 6: Riddles of the Soul

[EvilGenius]

After making is safely back to Farweald, the party split up and went to their separate lodgings.

Quarion, Jareth, Balisar and Onarra headed to the Lodge. Peften Mathers asked the group if Erk had caught up to them. When Quarion said that he wasn't sure what he was talking about, Pef explained that Erk had come to him frantically asking where the rest of the party had gone, then taken off after them into the woods.

Concerned, the party searched Erk's room. His adventuring gear was gone and his bed was undone. Quarion's sharp elven eyes noticed something odd shaped in Erk's pillow, though, and found the Deck of Illusions hidden in Erk's pillowcase.

Meanwhile, Brigga and Bannock headed to Tinker's Rest. However, they quickly discovered that Bannock's wolf, Cur, was not allowed inside.

Mordai headed to the Invisibles, where Akriah asked if he had found any more signs of the missing Tiefling, Kalius. She had asked him previously to look out for Kalius or his distinctive items: black studded leather armor, a wavy bladed dagger with a ruby in the pommel, and a black & silver flecked ring. Mordai told Akriah that the party had recovered those three items from a tiefling they had fought at the Standing Stones and turned the items over to Akriah.

The party convened the next day, unsure about where to go next, or where their missing members are. The party asked Mordai to request a meeting with the tieflings, since they seemed to be the people in town who know what’s going on. The party was able to meet with Akriah, who didn’t have any more insight to their questions but suggested a dangerous possibility. There was something deeper in the forest that the tieflings referred to as The Oracle. They weren’t sure if it is a creature or an object or something else entirely, but there is a place in the forest with a strange altar. People can go there and bargain for knowledge, but some people haven’t come back from The Oracle ….

The party thought that was a good bet, and, using vague directions from the tieflings, Brigga, Quarion, Bannock and Mordai set off to find this Oracle, while Jareth, Balisar and Onnara stayed behind in Farweald to see if either Erk or Naziah returned.

After about three days journey, the party was in the general vicinity of the Oracle, and Bannock was able to use his mystical connection to the forest to lead them to the strange altar in a clearing.

The party approached a somewhat unstable looking pile of rocks under an arch of whitened bone. When they got close everyone heard an alien sounding voice in their heads. The voice called them all by name and asked what they sought. Several party members felt an eager prying into their minds but were able to instinctively resist.

The strange voice teased the party that it could help them find answers, for a price. Mordai asked if the voice could tell them about this “Master” whose minions they’ve been encountering. The voice replied that it knew allll about the Master, but the party had nothing valuable enough to trade for THAT information. The voice went on to say that there are other secrets to know, other things to learn. Then the voice asked if one of the party would consent to baring their soul to the voice, to see what may be learned.

Brigga bravely offered to allow the disembodied voice examine her ‘soul’. After a few minutes of uncomfortableness, the Oracle was done. The voice sounded surprised and told the party that is was wrong, they DID have something valuable enough to trade for information on the Master!! All that would be required was the life of one party member, who would willingly give themselves to the Oracle.

The party was revolted at the idea and strongly suspected they were being played. Brigga demanded proof that the “Oracle” knew anything at all. The voice laughed in their heads and said “you are the twice-born, though not of woman are you beget. There are more of you, yet not as many as there once were ….”

While the party looked at each other uncomfortably, the voice continued, ‘there are other, lesser secrets that I may reveal. For a price.’ The voice sounded positively greedy as it continued, ‘how about that lovely little axe, Brigga? Surely you could part with it, in order to learn something valuable?”

But Brigga had had enough. She strode to the edge of the forest and caught a glimpse of a large eye before it quickly ducked behind a tree. “Stay back!!” demanded the voice. “Stay back or I will make you regret it!!”

Brigga laughed and continued into the wood, hefting her Mace of Smiting. She had not taken more than 3 steps when a mournful hunting horn sounded from up ahead. Before the notes had faded, mists sprung up from the ground in several places nearby and roaring barbarians charged out of the mists, ferociously tearing into the party!

It took several rounds but the party was able to dispatch the summoned spirits. After the barbarians faded back into mist, the party searched the surrounding area for the Oracle, but found nothing. Even Bannock’s mystical connection to the forest did not reveal any trace of the strange voice.

The party returned to the altar and started to dismantle it, determined that no one else fall prey to the capricious creature. However, the party failed to notice a sparkling red stone and the heavy stone precariously suspended above it. As they moved a key support piece, the heavy stone smashed down on the sparkling red stone, cracking it and releasing a fire elemental!

Fortunately for the party, Mordai and Quarion were successful in their attempts to Banish the rampaging elemental back from whence it came, saving their companions from a gruesome fate.

The party is currently resting in the clearing next to the dismantled altar after their two combats.

[EvilGenius]

After their long rest was completed in the Oracle's clearing, they began to plot out their next course of action, however, they were rudely interrupted by a strange high pitched wailing sound. The party looked all around and Quarion spotted an ominous roiling black cloud with streaks of blue lightning quickly descending on them! The cloud touched down in the middle of the party and a wave of terror washed over everyone, sending them fleeing into the woods, all in different directions.

Quarion resisted the terror for a moment, getting a good long look at the cloud, and quickly cast a spell to allow him to sense the presence of evil. He did not sense anything but another wave of abject terror washed over him and he too fled into the woods, coincidentally in the same direction as Brigga.