Chapter 20 - Aldur and Neela Make Very Different Impressions
Days 41-43
The remainder of the night passed without a further appearance from the old lady. At morning light, after dutifully attending to his prayers, Aldur bestowed the blessings of Isten upon his companions, healing their injuries. Aldur appeared to be suffering from an infection that emanated from the rat bites he received the night before, and Leandrie called upon his god to delay the progress of the disease.
Back on the trail, Aldur could still find no trace of the wagon tracks, but the party decided to follow the trail northwards anyways. After an our's travel, the trail ended at a farmyard, where an old wagon rested in front of the house. This clearly wasn't the wagon the party had hoped to find, but they decided to look around, finding signs of occupation but no occupant. Trykaar wandered around to the back of the small cottage, where he found a garden. Identifying some turnips growing amongst the other vegetables, he picked them and filled two bags provided by Leandrie. Leaving a gold piece to pay for the turnips, he and the rest of the party returned to the highway with haste and resumed their quest for the elven wagon.
Once back on the road, Aldur resumed his tracking, but had no luck in finding any signs of the wagon. Within two hours, the party reached a junction where a well-traveled road led to the north. The old highway continued, showing evidence of lighter traffic. The party continued westward, but after another hour without a trace of the wagon's passage, decided to return to the junction and proceed northward to the location marked as Viz on the map they had captured from the Genasi.
As the party walked northward along the new road, they could again see many signs of habitation. On either side of the road could be seen peasants working in fields, and smoke drifted from cottage chimneys. Stopping to talk with one of the peasants, Aldur received a warm welcome as a "child of Miriel". When he was questioned, the peasant remembered seeing a wagon full of human women and children, escorted by about a half-dozen elves and a small number of human males. It had passed by several days before, and the humans appeared to be in good spirits.
The party stopped for the night along the side of the road, watching a squad of Genasi infantry march past while they prepared a trap for the old woman. The two bags containing the mundane turnips were placed at the edge of the camp, and the party resolved to keep a close watch for any attempt to steal them. Shortly past midnight, while Jrak patroled the perimeter, Trykaar was alerted when the ground began to writhe under magical influence. In short order, a swarm of centipedes had appeared to attack the party members who had been sleeping by the fire and who were now forced to retreat through the needle-sharp vegetation. Another are of entangling growth blocked Aldur, Jrak, and Trykaar from easily rendering assistance, and to make things worse a cloud of fog rose from the ground to enshroud the campsite and turnips. The centipedes and enchanted vegetation were easy enough for the party to avoid, but not in time to prevent the old lady from sneaking in to the camp and stealing the sack of turnips that had served as bait. It was a close affair though, with Jrak almost catching her as she exited the fog bank, and a concerted party effort nearly prevented her escape across the neighbouring fields.
In the morning, Leandrie provided healing and once again suspended Aldur's infection. The party resumed their travels and by that afternoon had arrived in Viz. The town was splitting at the seams with humans and a good number of elves. Throughout the town, new buildings were under construction, and it was sprawling out in three directions. To the north, the trees of the Dryad Woods towered over the edge of town, and the shadowed undergrowth appeared unnaturally forboding.
Entering the town, the party pushed through the crowds of Genasi in search of an inn. They found two, one marked by the sign of a happy elf and another by a sign bearing the likeness of a busty blonde serving wench. At Aldur's insistance, the party decided to search out a room at the Happy Elf. The innkeeper was delighted to have an elf stay at his inn, making frequent mention of the assistance that the elves have been providing with "the Return". He made room for Aldur by evicting a current customer from his room, but the only room that he would make for the rest of the party was in the stables. An inquiry at the Buxom Blonde found that inn also had no vacancies.
Having found themselves a place to rest for the night, the party split up to take care of various errands. Leandrie went with Aldur to visit what appeared to be a large temple facing the square in the middle of the town. On arrival they found that the building was in fact a place of learning where elves and men were instructing groups of students on a broad variety of subjects both mundane and arcane. Inquiries as to the availability of healing services were successful in revealing that a healer kept a shop further north on the main street, easily identified by the dry herbs that were hung in the window to dry. Finding the healer's shop with ease, the elf was gladly received and his infection tended to by the proprietress.
Returning to the Happy Elf, Aldur and Leandrie rejoined Jrak and Trykaar. Taking advantage of the chance to rest their road-weary legs, the party paid close attention to the conversations of the other patrons who crowded the common room. Aldur was able to learn more of the Return that had been spoken of earlier. The inhabitants of the town were surprised that he did not know of it, but were happy to tell him of the assistance that his fellow elves had given them, sheltering them in a distant land beyond a mysterious portal for several generations, safe from the aggression of the Telkarion Empire. Now that they had returned, the elves were assisting the Genasi in rebuilding. Seeking out information about the wagon of children, Trykaar was able to find some locals who had seen such a wagon leaving the town via the northern road four days earlier.
Neela set out in search of the unique weapons peculiar to those who have trained as monks. Inquiries at various shops met with little success, but she was referred to an elven monk who was assisting the Genasi with the building of new homes at the edge of town. When she tracked down the elf at the construction site, he suggested that she might find what she needed if she aided the Genasi in building their homes. Certain that this was the path to obtaining the weapons she sought, Neela gladly went to work, toiling for the remainder of the day in assisting the peasants with the hard labour of building their homes. At the end of the day, expecting that she would be rewarded with access to the weapons she sought, Neela was surprised when the elf instead offered words of advice, telling her that focusing on harnessing her own power and knowledge would provide any tools she would need on the road ahead. Angered by this perceived slight, Neela demanded that the elf provide her with weapons in exchange for her hard labour. Her orcen blood boiled as her angry words drew no results and in a rage, she lashed out at the elf. What followed was a whirlwind of blows in the street as the elf and half-orc sought advantage with their own unique fighting styles. As they did so, a group of Genasi peasants quickly formed and, taking advantage of Neela's focus on the fight, swarmed over her and held her immobile. Violent justice would likely have ensued if not for the intervention of Neela's intended foe. The elf urged the Genasi to let her go on the promise that she would perpetrate no further violence. Still, a crowd of peasants followed her back to the inn.
In the morning, the party awoke to find a crowd of agitated peasants surrounding the inn. The innkeeper informed Aldur that word of Neela's assault on the elf had spread through the town and that he feared violence might ensue if nothing were done to assuage them. Capitalizing on the warm welcome that he had received, Aldur approached the townspeople and calmed them with words of assurance that the half-orc would be leaving town immediately and would cause no further disturbance. He also made an offering of a gold piece as compensation for the disturbance of the previous day. The party then made haste for the road north out of town.
The party followed the road as it climbed a hill into the dark, forboding forest. Cresting the hill, the road continued for a short distance before ending abruptly at a lone tree and heavy undergrowth. Approaching, they could see that the road resumed only 30 feet further along. As they approached the lone tree, it stirred as if on an invisible breeze, then began to change, trunk warping and branches lowering as it took on a large humanoid shape. In a voice like the creeking of an old wooden gate, it challenged their passage. It demanded to see the sign, and meeting confusion on the part of the party, asked if they wore the ring. Receiving no satisfactory reply, it refused to let them pass.
Seeing their passage blocked, the party turned and made their way back to the town, which they gave a wide berth in light of the morning's chilly reception. As they skirted around the outlaying dwellings, the keen-sighted Aldur spotted a familiar figure walking the steets of the town. It was the old lady who had been pursuing them in search of the return of her turnips. Seeing that she had not spotted the party, Aldur crept stealthily into town, following her as she spoke to several of the local residents. She made her way to the central square, still stopping to speak with the occasional passer-by, until one must have given her the information she sought. She immediately made her way down purposefully down a street off the opposite side of the square. Aldur followed, but his stealthiness finally failed him when the old woman glanced back and saw him following her. She immediately raised a cry, pointing at Aldur and shouting accusations to those nearby. Fearing an unpleasant confrontation, Aldur took to his heels and fled through town to rejoin his companions.
Taking the south road from Viz, the party retraced their journey of previous two days, returning to the Old Highway and turning east. As the end of their day's travels approached, they spotted a majestic procession approaching along the highway. A large party of finely-dressed and equipped elves rode into sight, mounted on majestic wild stags. It was a festive procession, the elves being obviously in good spirits. As they approached closely, Aldur was surprised to recognize several familiar faces. At the head of the procession was Falassion Taramandil, one of the eldest of his family, and several others he recognized as distant relatives. It was a group of Taramandil, out riding the wild hunt. Hailing them, Aldur was warmly received, and the party was invited to make camp and feast with the elves.
As they relaxed around the campfire in the evening, Aldur spoke squietly with the leader of the hunt. The party asked the elves to look at the turnips. Several were able to identify them as enchanted, but none could offer further incite until one of the older elves, on looking, recoiled in revulsion. He recognized them as the heads of gnomish children, and demanded that the foul things be removed immediately from the camp.
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