Lanal 12-18, 652 DR: Four ride to Oð to ask for assistance on behalf of Lord Yurander. A stay at Kryr Shùrulm. Kaithah meets the Lord’s Musicians and practices Ōbèryl’s music. Kaithah plays for the High Lord and visitors. A message is left in Cænden. Mishara and a soldier are attacked by Ichalus’s demons near the Southswall. At Dreg’s Brewery, Mishara meets Hat and returns to Oð.

Continued from The Siege of Kry Ōddon.

Bærídor, 12 Lanal 652

Returning to Kry Ōddon, Mishara examined the arrows he was able to retrieve and found many to be scorched. Inside, the gate closed and Ðr. Enthor came forward explaining that the Danok minions had retreated, and it would be a good time to send for help. Ðr. Enthor suggested that the group ride to Kryr Shùrulm and ask the High Lord for assistance in this matter. Alcèrra and the weakened Kaithah were collected and brought horses and a scout. Under the cover of night, the four rode from Kry Ōddon, turning north along the trail through the Elmark woods.

Riding swiftly through the burnt brigand forest the group kept their voices low as they passed campfires, camps, and cabins in the night. Out of the woods, they continued through some small farms and found a dirt road winding along the Sulsàdter toward theTown of Genter. The scout explained, riding behind Kaithah’s horse to urge it forward, that Genter was an Evil place and that the group would do well not to return the gaze of those that were there. The group rode swiftly passed masses of people, gathered at this pre-dawn hour for secret meetings along the roadside. More than once the riders saw the flash of daggers in the moonlight. Reaching the Highgate, Mishara explained the group’s mission to the listening soldiers. Soon the gate whined open and an entourage of mounted soldiers rode out to escort the group through the City. Kaithah, still weak from the previous day’s adventures in Ōddon, was taken onto a soldier’s horse. The group galloped through the city streets, the building faces, alleyways, and squares rushing and blending into a endless tapestry around them. At the Barrens bridge, the bridge-guards stood aside as the armed escort charged across. The winding streets of the Naryard passed beneath them effortlessly, as did the shorter more maintained avenues of the Kyard. Finally, they approached the far City Wall and were admitted passed a raised portcullis where they dismounted and were guided deep into Kryr Shùrulm. After being led through a confusing maze of courtyards and corridors, they were admitted to the Lord’s Hall where the High Lord awaited, donned in maille. Following brief introductions and an explanation of their purpose, High Lord Rott called upon two ðardram and instructed them to take their armies south to deal with the marauding Minions of Danok. Content that the matter was settled, the High Lord invited the messengers to stay at the Keep.

Virídor, 13 Lanal 652

On the next day, at the midday meal, the group ate and spoke with the High Lord. During this meal Kaithah was invited to play that evening for the High Lord and other “invited” guests. She accepted and spent the day practicing. Mishara spent the day wandering through the courtyards and along the walls of the Keep, watching the soldiers at their drills, looking out across the rocky Kre Dùlnar and the cliff-top buildings of the City. Staring at the hills that extended north from the Keep, he remembered where he had first helped the soldiers here fend off the Urdar. During the day’s wanderings he learned that his friend Bear Nogrodd had accompanied a unit that had traveled north into the forest, but was not told their purpose. That afternoon Kaithah was invited to play and practice with the Lord’s Musicians, an older group of players who had never been invited to play in the main Keep. Their leader, an older gentleman named Ajandu Wurthum, was very pleased and excited about the prospect of playing, explaining that the High Lord never entertained guests. Also during that day, Kaithah practiced playing the illuminated Eylfāe scrolls. During her practice, she managed to master the first two, “Spring” and “Summer”. With Alcèrra watching and listening, they noticed magical effects of her playing; musical accompaniment, and soft golden motes of light appearing in the room around them. She tried to play further but was unable with any command. That night the group was invited again to dinner with six noble persons and two priests from the Temple. The food was good and the music thereafter was very pleasing. The nobles thoroughly enjoyed the performance, prompting Lady Allisis Gadth to invite Kaithah to play at some function in the near future. Following the dinner, Alcèrra was given a message from the Temple that had been left by Mourners, inviting her to a meeting at the Tower on the month’s last day. As the guests filed from the room, the group was left speaking with Lady Allisis, Lord Keslem Carrost, the High Priests of the Kyard and Naryard, Lord Oltem, and Lord Sarrad. It was discovered in conversation that the High Lord never invited guests to the Keep.

Palídor, 14 Lanal 652

The following day, the group rode from Kryr Shùrulm into the City and waited among the masses on their way through the Northgate. Finding their way through the northern districts, they came to the familiar streets of Wesridge and placed their horses in the care of a stable boy at the House of Dreaming, an inn dedicated to Sūdul, the Sleeping Goddess. From the inn, the group walked to the outskirts of Cænden where they left a message for Jak in the hopes that one day he may escape from the Black Tome and return home. The night spent at Alo’s inn was peaceful and filled with vivid dreams.

Alídor, 15 Lanal 652

In the morning they learned of flocks of winged creatures that had flapped by in the night, and stole a neighbor’s cat. They rode back to Kryr Shùrulm.

Kændor, 16 Lanal 652

The next morning Alcèrra requested an audience with one of the Lord’s Advisers to learn of Ændroth’s whereabouts, while Mishara rode south to return to Ōddon with a soldier and messenger. Riding through the City proved no hassle, but south of the wall, they encountered winged creatures flapping and circling above. Mishara and the soldier spurred their horses toward some cover in the Southswall while the messenger raced southward. The creatures landed and pursued through the ramshackle tents and houses, all wound together in a dilapidated labyrinth of intertwined shacks and alleys. Pushing his way through crowds of dark figures, the winged creatures hopped and laughed behind him, claiming their desire to “Kill the Eylfāe that killed our master.” People fled into the recesses of the shanties, as the Neðérim clawed and ripped their way forward, stopping occasionally to terrorize a peasant or commit some other wanton destruction. Such is the way of Neðérim. Mishara raced through the tents and fallen buildings, emerging on a dirt street, and raced back toward the City. At the City wall he came to area where buildings seemed to climb the lower half of the wall, but saw figures and fires deep inside those structures that must exist beneath or beyond the wall’s bottom. He raced westward around the bowing Temple Wall until he came to the river, and then turned southwest toward Dreg’s Brewery, leaving the Southswall behind him. At that town, he found himself a room with no windows and settled in for the night.

Malídor, 17 Lanal 652

The next day Mishara learned that the winged creatures had come to Dreg’s Brewery, but that a local hero named Hat had slain three of them, and that one was being hung in the beer hall next door. That evening Mishara wandered to the nearby hall, Farthshadth’s Stout Festhall and Inn, and drank with the large crowds gathered there. An hour or more into the night the guest of honor, Hat, noticed the Eylfāe and invited him to the head table where together they drank and talked late into the night. Mishara learned that Hat had more in common with he than the eerie Ōéle of the area, and was thankful for a soulful face in the crowd.

Amdor, 18 Lanal 652

The next morning Mishara rode back to Kryr Shùrulm, foregoing for now his quest to Kry Ōddon.

Continued in Three Wizards.

Characters

• Alcèrra Nàdrelan
• Kaithah Argentale
• Mishara Mythdaras
• Ajandu Wurthum
• Lady Allisis Gadth
• Ændroth of Oð
• Bear Nogrodd
• High Lord Edgur Rott the Third of Oð
• Ðr. Enthor
• Felze
• Hat
• Keslem Carrost
• Lord Oltem
• Lord Orun Yurander
• Lord Sarrad

Played: 10 Jan 1998