The Keep and more

(Crossing, Zoluren: Lirisa 360)

A note sits on the bar, it reads:

“Heyo Baresh:

Sorry I missed you so I thought I’d at least drop off this note to keep you informed of some of the events. I saw that these weren’t posted so I thought I’d share them with everyone.

As for everyone who didn’t really didn’t know much about that riddle that was mentioned over in Baresh’s commentary section, we managed to solve it with the help of the Gnome Gadmadorz, Huntress Darsanya and Paragon Lef. The mission was a success and Prayk (as most probably know by now) was rescued. The riddle itself dealt with getting into Sorrow’s Keep but in order to do so we needed the key. The builder was the Gnome Gadmadorz, an eccentric hermit who was on Ratha. I wasn’t on that expedition however apparently in order to help him they needed to find some items for him. Of course we went for the items, and he said he’d give the key to a pretty lady (there were several on the trip I was told by Paschein).

Several days later a group of adventurers gathered together and formed a raiding party, unfortunately we couldn’t take everyone in (one of the reasons we didn’t let the riddle generally be known, plus we couldn’t let Sorrow find out), so we had to settle for a smaller group with others as back up in case of trouble. I managed to sneak into the group and we set off, first we had to stop by a hole in the reach (reasons unknown, I suspect this is where Gadmadorz hid the key) then we found the ancient oak tree within where he presented the key to Paschein (which turned out to be a gnarled stick). We journeyed to the collapsed cavern mouth, and after a few attempts managed to plant the stick into the mouth. The mouth creaked open and we made our way into the dungeons. There wasn’t much there, an iron maiden and some chains and no where to go. With all of our strength we slowly opened the iron maiden.

To our surprise the iron maiden had been trapped and a bomb (I think) blew up killing a good portion of our party including Darsanya. We found Prayk and managed in time to drag everyone out (I was one of the lucky ones who survived). However, Sorrow detected our little raid (moments after it occured) and lo and behold Elpazi and S’lai started attacking us, we had to fight our way out. Fortunately we had our reserves and so everyone got out but not without casualties. More fighting ensued later on, both at the Reach and in Crossing.

Days later after his main forces arrived, Sorrow began his attempts at the book. Swarms of S’lai and Elpazi rushed upon our forces, they didn’t breach the entrance of the stone clan fortunately, however the casualties and injuries sustained were innumerable. We did have a little assistance from Prayk, Darsanya and Lef.

There were more disturbances tonight, I found Dreamheart and Lissanda chatting in the bar, knowing of the events that occured involving her and Sadiaer, I decided to keep an eye on her. Everything went smoothly for a few moments, however it was at that time that a hunter (I think, or maybe a guardian, I never did get that straight), on the behalf of Sadiaer, decided to show up. Lissanda scared, ran off with Dreamheart and I chasing after her, I went to the north gate to keep an eye out, Dreamheart and Garfaldo caught up with her out of the north gate just by the copse. The hunter(?) started trying to threaten Lissanda to come back to Sadiaer and the Keep, we rallied back trying to prevent her from coming back into the clutches of those evil madmen. We argued back and forth, finally the voice grew tired of it and killed us off one by one until only Lissanda was left. Fortunately for us it was at this point that help arrived, a numerous amount of people decided to show up. Apparently at this point, they convinced Lissandra not to go (who had been debating furiously over whether to go or not).

After my body had been ressurected with the kind help of the clerics and empaths we managed to regroup at Taelberts Inn where Gadmadorz decided to show up. In a quandry over what to do with Lissandra (or rather how to help her) we asked Gadmadorz, who suggested we take her to Hodierna’s Solace. We made our way towards the solace however the hunter caught up with us and managed to kill Lissandra. We drug her body to the Solace and called for clerical assistance (Thanks Coldan!) We managed to keep Lissanda safe for a while, when a silver unicorn showed up (a sign perhaps?). Lissandra tried to run off several times upset that her sister Darsanya didn’t wish to come to her. At one point she ran off to Leth Deriel where we met up once again with the hunter. We ran her out where she split from the main party leaving us having to find her. Eventually we did, and after some consoling, some yelling, more running and a couple drinks we managed to get her into high spirits again. It was mentioned that Sadiaer and Sidhlot want Lissandra for some reason dealing with the power of Dragon Lore, we’re not quite sure but I’ll try and keep you updated. While all this was going on another hunter (or perhaps the same one) was up in crossing dealing with Darsanya and Prayk.

Thanks for your time Baresh, sorry about the length, but I hope it provides you with some sort of idea as to what has been going on lately. Please pass it on.