On to the Eladrin

The island of l’wakanaan was shaped like an upside down L. The dwarfs occupied the flat northern end of the island, the volcano sat on the corner, and the eladrin colony lay at the southern end of the long peninsula. “Could we not borrow a boat to go to the eladrin?” “No, the High Lord had answered, “See, the foulspawn have used that trick before. They sailed around both ends of the island. One group waited for the other to make its attack then went in pretending to be the dwarfs looking for assistance. So now we wait 7 days before contacting them by ship.” A rather ridiculous method, I thought. I mean, the dwarfs could signal each other around the volcano, but not the eladrin? But the dwarfs insisted, and our ship needed fixing, so we set out on the long, rocky, alternately boggy trek overland.

The first day was uneventful. Nothing to see but masses of tropical vegetation, huge bright flowers, and the occasional gorgeous ocean views. Early on the second day, we heard voices arguing in common. “Mine,” shrieked one voice. “No it’s mine,” called a second. Both of you are wrong. It will be mine.” The exchange was followed by shrieking and the sounds of scuffling. Yvala was about to creep forward when Kalena stopped her. “No need to sneak up. I can tell from the scuffling noises, it’ll be harpies. Listen to the way they squawk as they screech.” The rest of us agreed and we all crept close to get a better angle on the group. Karel charged into the middle of the trio, spouting fire in the hope of chasing the harpies off without a fight. The harpies were loath to give up their prize of two boars. They scratched at Karel but only got a few attacks in before the rest of us arrived. The harpies were no match for the six of us and we were soon on our way again.

The rocky path ran down into another swampy lowland. “Stay alert through here,” Karel said as he took the lead. Yvala was the first to spot another group of the lizardmen we had encountered on first exploring I’wakanaan. “These buggers move way too fast through the marshes to attack. We draw them to us,” Markas said before busying himself by casting a protective aura over the party. Karel and Yvala loaded up arrow and bolt and fired once they were satisfied the rest of us were ready. The lizardmen squawked at us and charged through the marsh muck. We were more than ready this time and were able to land some good attacks before they reached our position. This group of lizards had some sort of shaman with them. The shaman conjured up a smelly gas that boiled up from the swamp underfoot. “Hey, that’s my trick,” exclaimed Kalena as she silenced the shaman with a fireball. The rest of the lizardmen fell to blows from Karel and Markas.

The path climbed out of the swamp into a series of black rock bluffs overlooking the ocean. As we came around one particular bluff, we saw a group of humans setting up a fire. Apparently foulspawn weren’t the only things to have been drawn to I’wakanaan, as the humans were wearing the purple robes of the cult of Torog. Unfortunately one of the cultists caught sight of us as we tried to slip back around the corner. “Ready the ballista!” cried Karel. “We have no ballista, you bloody rock-crazed dragonborn!” I replied as I drew up a battle-prayer. “Well now would be a good time to use one,” he replied, ignoring my sarcasm and adding none of his own.

Yvala stopped one cultist with a bolt through the eye but none of us were quick enough to stop a group of 4 from slitting their throats. “I heard snatches of their suicide chant,” said Kalena as she loosened a cloud of dagger. “Then there’ll be a grell there soon enough. Be a dear and conjure up something to greet it with,” I said. “If Karel and Markas occupy it, I’ll cast sleep, but I can only cast after it appears.” “Understood, wizard,” one of the fighters called back and the two cut a swath through the cultists. Yvala and I followed cleaning up the stragglers, while Vixi positioned herself beside Kalena and fired spells at anyone who aimed at the wizard.

When the grell rose, Kalena’s spell hit. It fell asleep after a small thrashing attack, and we took the opportunity to take it out before it woke. The remaining cultists were rather infuriated that we had taken out their summoned beast so quickly and in desperation, threw everything they had at us, stupidly standing their ground. Not that it mattered much. We looked through the cultists’ measly belongings and decided that this was a decent place to camp for the night.

The morning hike greeted us with more lush greenery and black cliffs. As we came to the top of a hill, Karel brought us to a halt, shushing the conversation Kalena and Vixi had been having about the local flora. Yvala snuck a peek over the hill to see 2 eladrin and 5 purple robed cultists. After deciding nothing good could come of such a conversation, Yvala opened fire with her crossbow. The rest of us charged in and repeated the last battle almost exactly, with the exception of restraining the two eladrin rather than killing them. After all, they might have been enchanted by the cultists, but I still was not going to turn my back on them.

The eladrin eventually came around but they weren’t talking to us. We debated about what to do with them. Yvala was perfectly fine with leaving them there. I was a little concerned about leaving them to the elements, but not much. She must be rubbing off on me. The rest of the party didn’t really care either way but was enjoying listening to us argue. Our problem was soon solved by a group of 30 eladrin walking through clearing at the bottom of the hill.

They spotted us, hailed us, and walked to our position. The leader, a tall eladrin with steel grey hair, walked up to Karel and held out his hand. “Thank you, stranger. You’ve captured the traitors we were hunting for. These two have been trying to align themselves with these bastard cultists.”

“You are welcome, friend. It is our pleasure to kill any cultists that strive to take over another’s home,” said Karel. “I can only assume that you are the shipwrecked travelers that we expected to receive in a few days.” He noticed the shocked look on Markas’s face. “Oh, those dwarfs. They think we can’t read their signals. We sent a ship over with repair items and carpenters to repair your ship. Honestly, we were just waiting for you to arrive since we didn’t know exactly what route you had taken.”

“Come on, we’ll give you some decent food before sending you back to the dwarfs and your ship.”
As we were walking, Kalena’s curiousity got the better of her. “There’s one thing I don’t quite get. We fought many of the same creatures on the island where we met Karel. Do you also come from the same homeland?”

“We heard rumors that a gold dragon was taking eggs and fleeing to a new home as we departed the Southern Continent, but we dismissed it as a desperate hope of a fleeing people. Aye, Torog drove us from our home as well as from our homeland. And now they have followed us here. But we’ll fight them for now and one day we’ll be able to return home.”

“And the dwarfs?” I asked. “I think they will be content to stay on I’wakanaan. They have adapted and are content to worship the volcano gods. But we eladrin only wish to go home.”
As we feasted with the eladrin, we tried to convince them to come to Perinor. Despite our best persuasions, they refused, citing the fact that they had already moved their civilization once. We boarded the Southern Stream and continued on to the Danarian coast.