After a few days of rest, the party headed back into the portal.
The vision of Dahak reappeared and attacked the party.
Krystoff attempted a prayer to Dahak's father, the Dragon God Apsu to try and appease the presence. This was met with mocking laughter from the vision.
Thankfully Alosrin Wythe and Andromeda were successful at vanquishing the apparition with good old fashioned damaging spells.
As the group exited the portal on the opposite side of the fiery tunnel, they are greeted by about 20 dark skinned elves pointing arrows at them.
Krystoff raises his hands in a sign of non-aggression. The rest of the party follows, but Betty keeps her hands on her crossbow.
Some of the party members identify the elves as Ekujae elves. Which usually follow a Matriarchal society and are very ancient.
The party leader, a slim elf with Black hair shaved at the sides and with hair in long braids, introduces himself as Jahsi of the Leopard Clan . His mother was of the River Clan.
The party introduces themselves, and when Renali is introduced, she shyly excuses herself, saying she will meet up with the group later in Akrivel
Jahsi recognizes her as one of the "Weavers" and welcomes her back home.
The Clan, offers the party to come with them to their town of Akrivel to meet his daughter, the speaker of the
tribe, to further discuss why the party is there and to explain further their conflict with the Cinderclaw Cult.
Jahsi explains that the Leopard Clan is charged with guarding the Huntergate, and the cultists of Dahak have been a
thorn in their side for a very long time, but recently they have been mysteriously emboldened and empowered.
As the group travels, they reach a pillar with imagery of a Dragon smashing elves, an unfinished shrine to Dahak that still has magical remnants on it. Alosrin manages to identify the magic.
Betty identifies that the equipment set up
on the pillar means they got interrupted by the elves before they were able to finish construction. She also finds a bar of gold covered in something odd, and upon closer inspection, realizes it is covered in arsenic. She manages to remove the arsenic off the bar successfully and hands it to Bjørn for safekeeping. It should be worth about 10 gold coins.
The elves mention they don't have an issue with the party taking the gold.
On the way to the city, the party reach a path flanked by trees carved in the shapes of animals, marking their arrival to the city of Akrivel.
Jahsi introduces the group to his daughter Nketiah, who's mother was of
the Stargazer Clan.
She is missing an arm, which is replaced by a magical prosthetic made of bone
and wood. She holds a brass staff topped with the sculpture of a Leopard holding a sword in its mouth. She welcomes the party to Akrivel and says they are their guests.
Jahsi prompts the party to follow him, and he climbs up a tree to the platforms above. Nketiah follows him easily by shifting her prosthetic arm into many tentacle-like arms that elevate her above.
Krystoff tried to climb up after them, but the excess sweat from walking around the jungle in Full Plate Armor has made the palms of his hands slippery, and he falls face first to the amusement of the elves watching from above.
After wiping his hands, he does much better on the second try.
The rest of the party managed to get up with little trouble.
The Ekujae were very welcoming to the party, and said there would be a feast for us that night, in the meantime, they prepared some traditional games and Nketiah introduced some of their customs, one of which was that if we are ever to give a
gift, to never give gold, as gold is considered cursed.
However, Jahsi, has lots of gold items on him. Yet, he is the only one.
As Andy explores the area, she sees a resting Lioness named Harriet, and decides to not approach it as it is resting. She also notes that it's odd for a Lioness to be in the jungle, as they usually inhabits Savannahs.
Nketiah calls over two girls, Mauuko and Senyo, who invite the group to play a
game called Daikada. Which involves participants to wear a pair of copper ankle anklets, and each dancer needs to
try to ring the opponent’s anklets while avoiding them ringing theirs while keeping the rythm of the music.
Bjørn and Andy team up against Mauuko and Senyo and managed to win against them.
After the defeat, Kadija and Kuakae, two adult elves challenged the group, this time against Alosrin and Krystoff.
The adventurers manage to win after Krystoff uses some of his Champion abilities to surprise the Elves and catch them off guard. The whole event has a ambiance of light heartedness and laughter.
After the dance, Nketiah mentions that Akosa, the tribe’s
Huntmaster, will be going on a hunt for the feast, and asks the party to accompany him
if they wish.
When the introduction is done, Akosa has a cold attitude towards the group, Nketiah tells them to be patient with
him, as he has lost much due to outsiders.
The group goes with Akosa through the jungle and help with the tracking, finding a Boar trail.
Akosa asks the group if they wish to follow Boars, mentioning that they can be quite dangerous. When the group agrees to go after them, the Hunters seem to respect that decision.
Bjørn takes the lead and they find a group of Red river boars by a river. Everyone hides, and Bjørn succesfully shoots an arrow in between the eyes of the largest boar in the group. Killing it instantly and causing the rest of them to flee.
As the group returns to town, they are greeted with joy when the villagers see the huge beast that was captured.
As they prepare to cook it for the feast, Nketiah asks the group to follow her. She wishes to introduce them to the two elders and leaders of the town.
Two elf twins, Ose Panin and Ose Atsu introduce themselves as the Clan leaders.
As if verifying the story they just heard of the successful boar hunt, they wish to test Bjørn's skills with a boy, and throw a clay Pidgeon over his head. He quickly drew his bow and knocked it out of the air, effortlessly.
They tell us about ow the Aspis Consortium enslaved many of the Ekujee years ago, and they were forced to fight for their freedom. They mention that Akosa was part of that fight, and explain that this is the reason he is wary around outsiders.
They proceed to tell the group of the situation in the Jungle, the Cinderclaw Cult and how many over the decades have
risen and fallen under Dahak. There is an area in the Jungle the Ekujae are unable to approach, as all who do are mysteriously stricken by blindness.
This is why they are so thankful to meet outsiders with similar goals, as they believe whatever is causing the blindness of their people will not affect the newcomers.
With the group having proven themselves capable so far, the twins ask for their assistance on investigate this matter. Everyone in the group agrees.
Ose Panin and Ose Atsu thank the group, and present them with e ceremonial dagger as a symbol of their support. This is a Magical +1 Shifting Striking Cold Iron Dagger.
As it is a shifting dagger, Bjørn holds on to it as he is likely the one that can get the most use out of it.
It was then time to return to the Banquet.