The Wizard's Apprentice

5th January 2023

## Adventurers Attending

* Dacen
* Andar Liadon
* Creak
* Skamos
* Zagreius

## Mission Notes

Arriving at the guild meeting room our adventurers noticed the unlikely pairing of two new tieflings who had recently joined the guild, before Beefington appeared to give the details for a new mission. Arlem Fidem, master mage, had lost his apprentice and being too busy to go look for her, had requested assistance from the guild. Using the guilds teleportation system, they bampfed to the Wizard's tower in the Hidden Valley to meet with Arlem.

Arlem, highly distracted by his work, gave some short detail about his apprentice Radna, before explaining she had gone out to some cave to find some artifact, but while he hadn't been paying a lot of attention to her story, she should have returned by now, but hadn't. Encouraged to head south east from the tower, our adventurers followed the disappearing path before entering into some woodland to see the mage tower disappearing behind them.

Owing to some good tracking and directional discernment from Creak, she led the party through the woodland to some rocky outcroppings to the south east. Between a mixture of tracking, intelligent investigation and physical searching, our party discovered a stone path in the valley that led into a hill.

Entering into the cave, it became clear that this was some kind of celestial temple owing to the stone masonry and the celestial runes adorning the inside. A temple to Selunè. The temple had however been desecrated with charcoal sigils of a dark corrupted Elven dialect that gave the place an ominous shadowy air. Placed at the rear centre was a stone plinth or altar with a hovering sword above encased in a field of blue shimmering arcane energy, though with a kind of arithmic beat, became shadowy from time to time. Attempts were made to push through the field to little success, before Andar placed his mage hand against the field until it turned shadow and enveloped his mage hand, as snarling shadow beasts broke through from the shadowy recesses of the room.

With 3 shadow mastiffs suddenly in the room, combat broke out, in amongst the dark shadows, with Creak and the mastiffs disappearing from view periodically slipping into the darkness, before the temple would fight back with radiant light to push back the shadows. With our adventurers taking good opportunity in the light to deal damage, the dogs were eventually felled and the room mostly returned to light. It was in this changeover that Dacen sought to grab the sword from within its shadowy case, becoming overwhelmed by shadow and falling unconscious on the floor, trapped in a well of despair.

Stepping forward in the light Andar reached carefully and slowly for the now blue lit blade pulling it forth from its plinth to reveal a moon lit sword. With Creak Pouring her water flask over Dacen to wake him, though with a sense of recessed doom still filling his mind, our adventurers set to searching the room. Zagreius in his studious searching found a sending stone tucked in behind the plinth and upon activating it and sending a message, received a plea of help in return from somewhere in a forest to the east.

Our adventurers set off to track their quarry, finding an abandoned makeshift camp in the woodland before persevering on to the plains and seeking to cut off Radna and her kidnappers from their entry to the next set of woodland. Splitting the party, Skamos and Creak set themselves to cutting off the kidnappers, while the rest of the party hid in wait behind a hedgerow.

As all became alerted to each others presence, combat ensued. With Creak getting off some deadly early shots and the hidden party surprising the kidnappers from behind, the kidnappers began to scramble, shadow jumping between party members and attacking with shadow blades, but in all the confusion Andar ran to Radna and with one swing of his blade cut all her bindings. The kidnappers panicked into trying to regain their victim were split apart and picked off 1by1 with the leader falling first, then another, before skamos fell and then finally the last of the kidnappers falling to Zagreius' timely and serendipitous 'toll of the dead'.

With all party members back to their feet, bodies looted and sending stones exchanged, Radna escorted them back to the hidden tower where they met again with Arlem.

Radna pulling Andar aside in private, pulled back her hood to reveal more clearly her aasimar heritage and explained to Andar that she had overheard the kidnappers talking about her being an aasimar and some woman seeking aasimars, though she couldn't make out the whole conversation and details wrre missing, but thanked him for releasing her and bringing her home.

With all the party ready and rewards exchanged Arlem teleported our adventurers back to the guild, thanking Dacen for smartly bringing with him a tankard from the guild.

Having arrived back safely a number of days later, Dacen stirring in his bed, dreamed again of that well of despair, trapped at the bottom of it with no way out as shadows whirled about above it. A faint laughing cackle in the air. Dacen awoke bolt upright in cold sweats. It would appear Dacen's brush with the shadow may have only just begun.

## Loot

* 1gp (that fell out of Beefington's pocket but he was too lazy to pick it up)
* 1 x Scroll of Sending
* 1 x Moon-touched sword
* 1 x Earring of message
* 1 x Lantern of tracking
* 1 x Rope of mending

## Rumours

* Who kidnapped the wizard's apprentice and why?
* A fragment of shadow buried itself somewhere deep in Dacen's mind, that can't be important can it?