Lands of Mystery, Day 8

## Synopsis:

The Party spent a peaceful week in Paor Darkwind's village, getting acquainted with his tribe of Grimtotems. Wor'mash and his team of Farraki-hunters returned to the Party early in the morning, also returning the Party's mounts and equipment.

Agapo was among the Farraki-hunters, and was slightly skeptical of these new Grimtotem-allies, particularly after hearing they were not aligned with the Horde. He was reassured when Rumika explained their chieftain was an old ally, merely seeking independence for himself and his people.

A local Grimtotem Brave reminded the Party of the Tribe's needs. The Chieftain had asked the Party to infiltrate and pillage anywhere his Raiders couldn't by themselves. Salarya had earlier suggested the elven city of Eldre'thalas, now known as Dire Maul, as a prime-location.

The Party set off into the wilderness, to find the ancient elven city. As they passed through some dense overgrowth, they became alerted to strange flying creatures above them. These turned out to be curious Faerie Dragons, whimsically dancing through the air and swooping down to inspect the bizarre Party of travelers.

Salarya became nervous around the Faerie Dragons, advicing the Party to be calm and cautious around them, as Faerie Dragons are nature's protectors against magic. The Faerie Dragons bit and nibbled on the Elves of the Party, before dousing both them and Rumika's demons in anti-magic faerie-dust. Luckily, no conflict happened, as the Party remained calm and let the Faerie Dragons do their work, before they flew off.

Further down the path, the Party came across a bridge stretching across a waterfall. Though the spray of the waters had made the bridge treacherously slippery, Markrgrl used his Tidecaller-magics to remove the waters, and walk on safely... Except Agapo noticed a swarm of Faerie Dragons were lurking under the bridge, preparing to play a game.

The Faerie Dragons began to fly at ridiculous speeds in loops around the bridge, as if making their own carousel, playing a game of bumping into eachother mid-air to knock their targets down into the waters below.

The Party had to carefully navigate the bridge to not get caught in the crossfire of their game. Though Salarya and Rumika both managed to get across safely, Agapo, Mei-Li and Mark were all knocked into the river below, though they were saved from taking too much harm thanks to Mark manipulating the waters.

Rumika washed off her faerie-dust to have her magics returned to her while the fallen Party swam ashore.

Thanks to the river-wash, they had now come upon the foot of the ancient city of Eldre'thalas, the walls of the "Dire Maul" looming ahead. However, a series of camps filled with Ogres were in their way, each of the camps seeming to hold cages full of prisoners.

The Party opted to go a diplomatic route with the Ogres, at least initially as a trial of the Ogres' gullibility. Salarya was sent out as a lone envoy while the rest of the Party skulked nearby under a stealth-field conjured up by Rumika's tome.

The Ogres were highly skeptical of Salarya's approach, but they were dissuaded from attacking her. The Ogres revealed they were working for a Highborne noble named Lady Salamanya, though they only referred to her as "Da Lady". When the Ogres threatened to attack and imprison Salarya as a gift for the Lady, Salarya managed to convince them she had actually come to have an audience with her. The Ogres bought it, and escorted her through the several Ogre-camps in peace.

The rest of the Party, however, had still not been spotted, and had not received any permission by the Ogres. They opted to use their stealth to silently take out the Ogre-camps they came across to follow Salarya, before she was taken too far away by the Ogres. Astrae caught up with the Party at this point, to assist in the plan.

Salarya was brought before Lady Salamanya, a small Highborne in a hooded robe. The Ogres were quite curious to see the interaction between the two elves, managing to attract a crowd of ten Ogres from the other Slave-camps, significantly lessening the resistance the rest of the Party had to face. Though, Salarya herself was quite uncomfortably surrounded.

Lady Salamanya opened negotiations relatively peacefully, until the stealthed Party revealed themselves to an Ogre-camp, managing to sound several alarms. Lady Salamanya remained deadly calm, merely asking Salarya if these intruders were friends of hers.

When Salarya reluctantly confirmed this, Lady Salamanya revealed her true nature; A Naga Siren in disguise. She cast a Charm on Salarya, to convince her to make her Party stop fighting and approach the Lady peacefully.

The trap succeeded, and the Party was brought before Lady Salamanya's pavilion unaware of the treachery. Despite Salarya's claims that they were merely traders seeking supplies and knowledge, Salamanya had the Party tied up and escorted to the dungeons of Dire Maul.

Without their armor, weapons, or any form of equipment, the Party was left in the prison-cells of Eldre'thalas. By communicating with their fellow prisoners and guards, they learned that they had been put in the Fighting Pits as gladiatorial slaves. Rumika discovered that Denise had somehow been captured by the Ogres earlier in the day, the mother and daughter reuniting in the dungeon.

After a failed escape-attempt, leading to a small-scale prison-riot which was shut down heavily by the Ogre-guards, a frail old Highborne man revealed himself to the Party. He explained that brute force alone could not escape the Ogres, and magic was useless within the dungeons, as the Highborne put up wards that eat magic-users up from the inside if they channel their magics.

He did, however, explain that he had a plan to escape, if the Party could manage to get out of the Arena as unhurt as possible, to be prepared to fight their way out...

*To be continued.*

## Party Experience:

* Today: 420xp
* Total: 720xp

## Trivia:

* **Player-Characters this session**: Agapo, Astrae, Denise, Markrgrl, Mei-Li, Rumika, Salarya.
* This session ended early on a cliffhanger due to time-constraints. Part 2 is coming next week.
* Salarya was the only player to get sprayed by a Faerie Dragon without washing off the Faerie-dust. As such, Salarya now has a small collection of anti-magic dust on her body.