In the midst of Kryptgarden forest, the group came across a clearing where an elf sat on an elaborate high backed chair, seemingly waiting for them. Getting up, he took a piece of silk from his pocket and laid it on the ground, and then lowered the chair into the middle, letting it disappear from view in what was clearly some manner of portable hole. he was not a young elf by any means, and his features seemed a bit sharper than was common, enough to be noticeable.
He introduced himself as Tiaumil, and let them know that he had been sent to aid the group in their task. He was a warlock of Jergal, who had seen fit to grant them his benevolence in sending Tiaumil to them. When questioned why they would need his particular help, he told them that if they were planning on going into the shadowfell, and Merdelain, they would undoubtedly need his aid, for he originated from the rural areas around Merdelain, and knew how to navigate the place.
Seemingly pleased, or at least neutral to the newcomer, the group continued into the forest, following Arya's lead as she found signs of undead to the south.
Soon the forest around them altered and changed, the scent of smoke and fleeing animals came upon them, and the roar of fire, and the shouting of a voice. It was there that they found Karanor, one of Ularan Mortus's lieutenants, setting fire to the forest around them with the aid of fire elementals and a platemail wearing guardian.
With Grid moving to keep Karanor's attention with Effie darting in and out of melee, Siax and Tiumil fire from a distance, and Arya summoned a water elemental to help stem the tide of the fire that was swiftly approaching. They did not have long to deal with the threat, before the forest fire would become unmanageable, but they did not need long. Soon their foes lay dead or destroyed, and Siax and Arya proceeded to dig trenches and summon water to contain and suppress the fire, Arya finding a staff as they did so.
It was a staff made, or created for those that followed [Flame Lord Voren], who blessed those that followed in his footsteps with staffs such as the one she now held. There were tales of costs or unforeseen consequences of the staffs, but she was not put off.
Loot:
Staff of Everlasting Embers
The skull of Karanor was retrieved by Tiaumil, and placed within his handkerchief of holding, for the type of flame skulls that Ularan had crafted, the group knew would resurrect itself in time without intervention. The portable hole would leave it in a state of inertia until it could be properly destroyed with holy water, a spell to dispel magic, or one to remove a curse.
Grid was likewise less focused on the fire; far more interested in Siax's cloak, which he asked to borrow. He summoned a large tower from a gadget at belt, and went inside to work on it, soon followed by the rest once their own tasks had been dealt with to their satisfaction. Tiaumil rested, while Effie healed Siax of some of his injuries, but it was Arya, whose skill with sensing nature, that was able to tell there were ruined buildings to the north.
Before the left, Grid handed Siax back his cloak, and Siax found that it now had an added bonus of fire resistance. Grid may not have been the most conversationally adept of people, but he certainly knew his way around magical items.
The group travelled on towards where Arya had sensed the ruins, ones that they hoped might be the location of the green dragon they were looking for. But it was not a dragon that found them first, but a canyon, a bridge, and a broken boat with chests at the bottom.
It did not take long for the group, most of them at the base of the canyon, to find that all was not what it seemed. The skeletons, boat, and chests, all turned into a group of mimics that converged upon them with devastating ferocity.
This was nothing, however, compared to what happened when the battle was starting to turn in their favour. Above them, the bridge that had seemed surprisingly well maintained, started to shift and move, altering, before rearing up like a grotesque centipede. It too was a mimic, one of such vast size compared to its children below. Would they survive such a creature? Only time would tell.
