WORK IN PROGRESS…

The party flies and climbs into the canopy of the fallen Geldan Abraxos’s former tribe, the Mi’pa’ke. The kingdom is a series of covered floorless domed nests spread out through the canopy. Trisoll almost falls from the treetops but is caught and steadied by Moira. He reveals to her an uneasiness of heights. A Geldan warrior named Ahriman assists Vetnik getting into the royal court by picking him up and carrying him. The party is brought before the court of Mi’pa’ke, headed by an anthromorphic macaw Geldan named Emperor Alkanost. Thom acts as interpreter for the party. Abraxos urges the emperor and the rest of his court of an invasion from the Sun Elves. The court is wary of Abraxos and the party at first, but hears them out. Despite allowing them an audience, Abraxos is still deemed flightless and is cast out. Vetnik tries to reason with the emperor about the impending threat of the Sun Elves, which Alkanost scoffs at — at first. Alkanost’s royal druid, Nithail, casts some unknown spell while Moira steps up to offer her word in support of Vetnik. Jeramicht confirms her to be truthful, but just as that confirmation comes, the conference is cut short by an explosion in a nearby nest and the party rush out of the court to investigate.

Emperor Alkanost’s royal mage Jeramicht and a few honor guards surround and protect him while the rest of his court and the party is ejected from the emperor’s nest. Outside, the threat of Sun Elves is confirmed by Thom who sees a nearby nest ablaze and about a dozen to two dozen Sun Elves traversing the canopy towards them. He also spies a small cell in the midst of in fighting. Lyssa floats down and casts a chaos shield on herself. Grum draws two daggers and attempts to cut a pair of assassins down, but the Sun Elves prove too agile and dodge both attacks. Trisoll steels himself high in the trees and blesses the entire party. Abigail leaps through the trees and cuts into tow Sun Elves with her glass longsword. Inspired, Moira follows Abigail and cuts off the right arm of an assassin and forcing him to fall to his death; she cuts deep into a second assassin almost slaying him. Lyssa thrusts a concussive lance of disruption into a pair of oncoming assassins.

Off in the distance, a thin, pale elvish figure defends himself against a group of Sun Elves. Drawing his longbow, he disarms an assassin with an arrow into the arm and begins to rush towards the party. Grunt whips out Hank and fires off a pair of energy bolts and blasts a pair. Thom follows up with two arrows of his own and forces another elf out of the canopy. The Sun Elves pursue after the mysterious pale elf, firing arrows after him, but the pale elf dodges the arrows. The also set their sights on the largest of the group, Vetnik, but they just barely miss. Grunt proves just as agile as the assassins and dodges the arrows with ease. Thom is the first hit with arrows, but is fortunate as they barely graze him. Out of the darkness, two more arrows fly and make purchase into Lyssa. Her body seizes up and is overtaken by a paralyzing poison. Her mind still cognizant, she manages to keep up concentration and stay afloat while frozen. The Sun Elves do their best but fail to take down any Geldans; the Geldans retaliate furiously, hacking into their numbers with staves edged with kopesh blades.
Grum manages to snag another Sun Elves and slashes it with his bone dagger as the Geldans continue to zip through the canopy, cutting even more of the assassins down. Vetnik leaps in to attack another Sun Elf but misses, but slips and falls out of the canopy. Just as he begins to plummet to the earth, Ahriman swoops down and grabs him, saving him from falling. Abigail misses both of her attacks. Moira is more successful, cutting into two more assassins. The remaining Sun Elves continue forward, cutting into the mysterious pale ally. Another attempts to stab at Grunt but trips on a tree branch and falls stunned to the ground below (much to Grunt’s amusement.) Thom is blasted by two more arrows flying at maximum speed, while Lyssa, still incapacitated, becomes a hovering shooting target. The first arrow zips by, cutting through her shoulder. The second plants itself into her left leg. Unable to cry out in pain, her eyes tear up as they flare with burning arcane energy. Trisoll sees Lyssa floating helplessly and, summoning up all the courage he can, he leaps off a nearby branch and grabs hold of her. Grabbing on tight, he pulls out the arrow and concentrates on a blessing from Trithereon, which successfully courses through her body as the pair begin to descend slowly. The poison is purged from her body and Trisoll begs Lyssa to keep the both of them floating while he concentrates on a healing prayer. Several yards away, the pale elf blasts two more elves out of the treetops with his arrows. Thom aims his bow, firing into another Sun Elf and fells it. Grunt tries to take down two more assassins but misses.

The pale elf runs towards the party, firing another pair of elves but is struck by an arrow. He stumbles but manages to steady himself and continue fighting. He notices beneath him a sect of elvish sorcerers gathering around the base of the royal tree and watches as they set it ablaze with a series of fireballs. The Sun Elf archers continue to fire at the party. They miss Grum and Lyssa, but Trisoll is wounded by an arrow to the leg. He winces but grits his teeth and continues to pray to Trithereon, wrapping his arms tighter around Lyssa in the process. After almost falling, Vetnik steels himself. He picks up his blade and charges at two more assassins, cutting one of them down. Abigail and Moira continue to slice into the remaining assassins, of which three are visible. Grum follows up, shooting down the one Abigail slashed. Thom takes a pair of shots but doesn’t manage to land his arrows. While Lyssa and Trisoll continue to sink and struggle to stabilize themselves, Trisoll selflessly devotes his critical wound prayer to Lyssa. She looks down and sees the four elvish sorcerers surrounding the base of the royal tree. Her eyes aglow, she hisses and casts fireflow over the flames burning at the base of the tree. She manages to engulf two of them – though thanks to a wild surge, she attacks the two sorcerers she didn’t intend to.

The Geldans continue to fly through the canopy, cutting down the remaining archers. Vetnik cuts into his opponent and after felling it, watches as the pale elf comes into view as he almost slays another Sun Elf with his arrows. Lyssa continues to concentration on her fireflow spell and expands the flames. The sorcerers attempt to flee but all are overwhelmed by the waves of flames. After slaying them, Lyssa immediately extinguishes the fires. Lyssa turns her head around and sees the royal mage Jeramicht swooping down towards her. To her surprise, he addresses her in common, thanking her for putting out the flames. She accepts and asks the mage to carry Trisoll to safety. The trio flies back into the royal nest where Jeramicht heals Trisoll the best he can, closing up his wound. Back from the brink of near unconsciousness, Trisoll prays to Trithereon and heals himself a bit more. Grunt takes aim at one of the last Sun Elves but misses. Grum follows up with an arrow and almost fells it, but the assassin begins to sneak away. Moira charges after it but misses. Thom does his best to support his brother and kills the evading assassin. The remaining Sun Elves quickly unsheathe small vials and begin to down the contents. Three of them disappear from sight while another two dive down from the treetops and into the darkness below, floating as if effected by feather fall – but are unfortunately caught and torn to shreds by Geldan soldiers.

Other soliders swarm the pale elf but he immediately throws his hands up. In Geldan, he calls out to them. Vetnik steps in to protect them. They look at him curiously, thinking him a Moon elf, but he confesses to them that he is an albino Sun Elf. He also confesses that he has allied himself against the Sun Elves due to the love he has for a Geldan. Disgusted, the Geldan escorts the pale Sun Elf and the others back to court. Perched on his throne made of collected refuse, Alkanost addresses the Sun Elf in his native Jen’Ma’Karian tongue – much to the surprise of the party. The pale elf informs Alkanost that he is called Morgrave and that since boyhood, has not agreed with the stance taken by his people against the Geldan. As he came into manhood, he fell for a Geldan, a crow woman, and while the affection was not returned, it did little to dissuade him in his support of the Geldan. Alkanost buys the elf’s sincerity and he shows mercy on Morgrave. Thom translates to the others. For his duty to his kingdom, Alkanost awards Morgrave with an honorary title and sanctuary in Mi’pa’ke (much to the chagrin of Ahriman.)

Vetnik interjects and reminds Alkanost of why they have come to Kellagha. Lyssa relays Dablova’s vision to the audience of Geldan about the united armies of Sun and Moon elves under the banner of the Black Rider, which seems to shock the court. Alkanost even acknowledges a knowing of the Black Rider. Nithail confirms the tale told to be true. Alkanost informs the party of the Black Rider’s troops movements towards as he has had spies scoping out Morgoth. Emperor Alkanost excuses himself while Nithail gives the party a map of the northern ice lands. The Geldan flies those in the party back down to the ground (Ahriman makes a special effort to avoid flying Morgrave down and instead carries Abigail down instead.) Without a tribe to return to, Trisoll urges Morgrave to come with them and assist them on their quest to find the leader of the Circle of Bones.

The party decides to continue onwards towards the hoard before heading to Vaernyn. Moira and Thom inform Morgrave of the history of her brother and their reasons for coming to Kellagha. On the ride, Lyssa asks Morgrave more about his history, but is hesitant to reveal anything other than what he’s already admitted in court. In attempting to read his mind, Lyssa surges once more and inadvertently heals the party as a whole. She plays it off as a show of good faith though, and though Morgrave thanks her, he does let the party know that he will share more when he is ready.

On their guard shift, Moira confides in Vetnik that she thinks highly of Morgrave despite Abigail’s vocal distrust and knows him to be good intentioned. Eavesdropping, Morgrave lets them know that he would be more comfortable with a democratic vote keeping him in the party. The warriors agree to the vote, saying they will hold it in the morning (but that he has both their votes.)

While camping, Trisoll and Lyssa bond over the previous battle and how much they miss Greyhawk. At Lyssa’s urging, Trisoll confronts Abigail, waking her from her sleep, and continues to question Abigail as to why she specifically wanted to bed him. Their heated discussion wakes the others and with mounted pressure, Abigail reveals that she chose Trisoll because she knew he had affection towards her and thought him an easy means of bearing a child to be parented between her and her lover, Maja.

On the way to the hoard, the party ends up riding through foggy flatlands. Amidst the fog, they encounter a pair of wights. Trisoll successfully turns them and they retreat into a nearby cavern. Carrying out her holy duty, Moira charges after them and the others follow. They slay the pair, but another wight appears but is dealt with quickly.