21 Dierdos 1120

Ghosts of Aniel

The morning of 9 Dierdos found the party assembled on the Bad Wolf discussing their latest ideas on the tsochari menace. Quinn relayed information she'd gotten from city guards about Captain Bulrick of the Daybreak, who had been found dead recently under circumstances that seemed to her suspicious. W'Illot agreed to go with her to examine Bulrick's office and gently question his widow.

Before any of that could happen, however, the party found themselves once again facing an unexpected morning caller. This time it was a contingent of the Marhaven city watch led by a man in wizard's robes, a captain, and a familiar face: Suleen Nar-Alzun, the merchant whose goods the party had found in Keldo Tidewater's shop (Help Wanted). The apparent wizard held a forked rod that quivered in his hand; Tolisa recognized this as the focus of a locate object spell.

The watch captain addressed the group and requested, on behalf of the City of Marhaven, permission to search the Bad Wolf for a signet ring stolen from Suleen Nar-Alzun three days before and which, according to the wizard's locate object spell, was somewhere on the ship.

The party quickly agreed to the search, having no reason to do otherwise. The captain and his men came aboard and conducted a systematic search of the main deck, sterncastle, and lower deck without any results of note. Then, in the bilges, they turned up a folded piece of canvas containing several pieces of jewelry and small personal items, including Suleen's signet ring.

Suleen grabbed his ring from the captain's hand and demanded that the party be arrested and the ship confiscated without delay. The rest of the heroes were summoned to the bilge area and given an opportunity to respond to Suleen's accusations and demands. In the process, Merkator noticed a weird, alien-looking figure appearing behind the watch captain and then vanishing again. He pointed to the spot but the creature was gone. From his description, however, the original party members recognized what he had seen: Jibbets, the ethereal filcher from Castanamir's island.

The guard captain had never heard of an ethereal filcher, but he clearly had more respect for the heroes than for the ranting Suleen. He took the merchant aside and persuaded him to take his ring and let the captain handle the party. Then, at the captain's suggestion, he and the heroes went to the Adventurers' Guild to consult the senior researcher Grimaldi.

Grimaldi confirmed for the captain what the party knew about ethereal filchers: that they are non-evil aberrations who use their plane-shifting ability to commit sneak thefts and stash their stolen goods in a nest on the Material Plane. He also verified for the captain that this particular party had encountered one recently, and that it is not unusual for filchers to 'adopt' an adventuring party and follow them around ethereally without the party's knowledge.

Convinced of the party's innocence, the captain agreed to make the charges go away. The party gave him the stolen goods to return to their owners and pledged to deal with the Jibbets problem one way or another.

Grimaldi offered a suggestion to the party. Marhaven's master shipwright, Gaylord Windpiper, was in need of a small group to undertake a mission to the elven village of Aniel. The elves, he knew, were experienced at dealing with oddities like Jibbets and may be able to get the creature to leave the party, and by extension Marhaven, alone. Grimaldi wrote a letter of introduction and suggested that the party visit Gaylord that day.

Marhaven's master shipwright proved to be an elderly but still very spry wavecrest gnome. They found him pacing the floor of his workshop, monitoring the work in progress and stopping here and there to instruct his craftsmen. Upon seeing Grimaldi's letter of introduction he invited the party to his office for tea and conversation.

Gaylord had a simple but important mission. In the village of Aniel, in the Aelhandran Forest, was a mage named Revan. Gaylord needed Revan's help, he explained, in the construction of the new deck sections for the city expansion. The party's task would be to travel to Aniel, deliver a message to Revan requesting his magical assistance, and to return his answer -- or Revan himself, if the mage chose to come with them. For this service Gaylord would pay the party's expenses, which would include a captain and a pilot so the party (which had nobody skilled in navigation) could use the Bad Wolf to make the journey. In the process, it was hoped, they would be able to deal with their Jibbets problem.

The party signed a captain and pilot and set sail the next day for Aniel. The open sea stage of the journey went by quickly and quietly; the pinnace's speed let them cover the first 200 miles in just two days. The pace slowed dramatically when the pinnace reached the mouth of the Miromere River, which forms the border between Aelhandra and the theocracy of Belain. The Bad Wolf could negotiate the river, but would have to switch to oar power instead of sails.

With W'Illot, Uiq, Pendrul and Quinn on the oars, the ship cruised upriver at a steady but unimpressive pace. Aside from a sighting of blackscale lizardfolk on the hunt they made no contacts. Two days of rowing brought the ship to the point where a path led into the woods. This, according to their maps, was the way to Aniel. Quinn and Tolisa took a short swim to prepare themselves for a lengthy land trek and the party set off into the woods. The hired pilot and captain remained with the ship. Baelavin took up guard duty in the waters around.

About six miles in, the group encountered a trapper dragging his empty traps across their path. The trapper was friendly enough but clearly apprehensive. He told the party that if they were heading to Aniel they might want to reconsider because "creepy things" were happening there. The animals were vacating the area and nobody had heard from anyone in the village in weeks.

A few miles later a narrow creek crossed the path. As the party approached they saw a humanoid figure crouched down, apparently drinking from the creek. They hailed the creature and it stood to face them. It had rubbery green skin and a long, hooked nose and it snarled unfriendly-sounding words at them in a language that none of the party knew. W'Illot understood the tone, if not the actual words, and responded in kind. The creature became enraged; it picked up a nearby spear and hurled it at W'Illot but missed wide right.

A closer look at the creature allowed the group to recognize it as a forest troll; a smaller, less strong, but far more intelligent variant of the troll race. The group ran forward to engage the monster, knowing that the key to defeating it would be to inflict as much damage as possible as quickly as possible to overcome its fast healing ability. Pendrul, W'Illot and Tolisa all scored hits with their first attacks, though Tolisa's hit was actually an errant crossbow shot that truck Pendrul instead of the enemy. Then the troll's two companions made their presence felt by hurling javelins from cover in the trees. W'Illot was struck and Quinn just managed to avoid the same fate.

Most of the party continued to focus on the first troll. Quinn managed to spot the third in the treetops and gave it a taste of her new saltray spell in retaliation for a javelin hit but W'Illot's assailant remained hidden. Merkator managed a deific vengeance with some effect, but the next several attacks failed to do damage and the troll clambered up a tree to regenerate in safety as one of its unharmed fellows dropped down to continue the fight. Uiq was having none of that; he ran after the retreating troll and used his mental power to run straight up the tree trunk to a point just out of the monster's reach. On his next action he landed a critical hit on the creature and knocked it out of the tree, causing fatal damage from the fall.

Quinn tried to reduce the effectiveness of the hurled javelins by casting cloudburst. It also dampened the party's ranged attacks, and their ability to spot the hidden enemies, but they continued to concentrate melee attacks on the available monster on the path. The troll fought back with poisonous claws and bites. The poison, more than the slashing and the biting, began to take a toll on several of the group, so Merkator set to work backing up the fighting team with healing spells.

W'Illot used his stealth abilities to sneak around to a flanking position and land several telling blows against the troll. Again the troll dealt as much damage as it could and then fled up a tree to heal while another came down to fight. The party changed targets and continued to focus, surrounding the troll with as many as four opponents at a time. Even Merkator waded into melee with his scythe.

Seeing that their strategy was failing, the second troll lept out of its tree and barreled into Uiq, knocking the warrior back and onto the ground. He recovered quickly, though, and rejoined the melee to keep the pressure on.

Finally, after a long and sometimes ugly battle, the trolls fell. By the time Quinn had finished the last monster with her trident, everyone in the party except Uiq had been weakened by the troll's poison. They broke out their stock of lesser restoration potions to restore their depleted constitutions and used up their healing potions, along with the lion's share of available healing spells. With their resources severely depleted, the party had no real choice but to camp for the night. Fortunately Merkator located a source of compensation for the tough fight: a cloth sack hidden in a nearby tree held the trolls' material treasures. There was a reasonable stash of coin and gems, a couple of potions, and an arcane spell scroll of see invisibility and magic weapon. The find was poor compared to the resources the group had used, but at least they had something to show for their efforts.

***

In the morning the party broke camp to complete their hike to Aniel. As they closed the last miles the utter stillness of the woods became increasingly disturbing. When the party reached the clearing that made up the town center of Aniel they were not surprised to find it completely deserted.

Using a map provided by Gaylord Windpiper, the party quickly got their bearings and began to explore the apparently deserted village. At Quinn's suggestion they started with the temple of Corellon Larethian.

The temple was unlocked and deserted but had not been looted. There were holy items still on the altar and fine tapestries hanging from the walls. As the party looked around a silver holy symbol of Corellon flew off the altar and hurtled toward Pendrul, who ducked to avoid it.

A quick check of the homes near the temple showed no signs of an organized evacuation. In one home they found spoiled food sitting on the table, as if the diners had simply gotten up and left some weeks ago in the middle of a meal. Closets were full of clothes and pantries full of foodstuffs. Nowhere did they find any sign of where the citizens of Aniel had gone or why.

Since their reason for coming to Aniel involved the wizard Revan, the party elected to go to the wizard's home. They found it 25 feet up in a huge oak tree with a wooden staircase spiraling up the trunk to meet it. The climbed the stairs and entered the wizard's home to find it as deserted as the rest of the village.

At that point a ghostly image appeared before them. It was an elven woman in simple clothes with a youthful face. "You must help us," she said to the group. "We are all trapped many miles beneath the earth by an evil wizard. Only the galadiir can save us. It is somewhere in this house. Find it, please, and set us free."

The apparition faded away before the party could question her. The girl's story made as much sense as anything else in Aniel so far, so they set about looking for anything that might be a powerful magic item.

In the wizard's laboratory and study they found a sturdy cabinet that was secured with an arcane lock. W'Illot was unable to open the magical lock with his tools and skills, so Uiq took over and pried the cabinet's sides apart with his bastard sword.

Inside the group found several scrolls and a heavy iron-bound chest with an extraordinary quality lock. W'Illot picked the lock and opened the chest to reveal another, smaller wooden box inside secured with an equally formidable locking device. He checked the box for traps and in the process set off the fire trap that had been placed on the box. W'Illot suffered a few light burns but the box was undamaged. He went to work on the lock and within a few minutes coaxed it to open for him.

Inside was a gleaming black gem the size of a halfling's fist. Each of its facets held a different carved rune; other than those, the smoothness of the surface was flawless.

W'Illot held the open box in his hands while everyone stared at the gem. Merkator used a detect magic and announced that it radiated extremely powerful magic of no particular school -- or perhaps no known school. Clearly this was the item they were looking for. But what to do with it?

They returned to the entrance hall and called out for the elvish lady. Instead of the apparition, however, they found themselves under attack from two phase spiders, which materialized by surprise and bit at Tolisa and Uiq and then vanished again before the group could retaliate. Tolisa took out the group's amulet of the planes and had everyone join hands so they could become ethereal and fight the spiders on their home turf. At the last moment, though, W'Illot broke the circle; as a result only Tolisa vanished into the ether.

While his teammates looked about in surprise W'Illot took matters into his own hands by bolting down the stairs. Quinn and Pendrul chased after him calling for him to halt. When it became clear that W'Illot would do no such thing Pendrul made use of her speed to slide down the bannister and pass him. She reached the end of the stairs in time to stand in W'Illot's way.

Back in the house, Tolisa saw the world turn gray and then discovered she was far less alone than expected. Besides the phase spiders, who were dangerously close, Tolisa found dozens of elves gathered around her. One, a fighter in elven chainmail, was hacking away at one of the phase spiders. Tolisa quickly held up the amulet and offered transport back to the material plane to anyone willing to help her. The fighter took her hand and motioned for the rest to stay back. Tolisa spoke the command word and returned to the material plane.

Tarien wasted no time with lengthy explanations. "Your friend is possessed by a ghost," he announced. "Stop him!" Uiq ran to a window and jumped down to the ground, using his psionic power to land without damage. Meanwhile Tarien joined in the chase down the stairs. When he and Uiq reached the end of the staircase Quinn had W'Illot in a grapple while Pendrul held her rapier at his chest. Both Quinn and Pendrul had fresh wounds from W'Illot's dagger.

W'Illot broke Quinn's grasp and tried to push past Pendrul only to be grabbed anew by Uiq. Before W'Illot could break Uiq's hold the spellthief was further restrained with a rope around his legs and Tarien's manacles on his wrists. Tolisa came forward and removed the galadiir from W'Illot's pack. There was enough time for Tarien to begin to explain that W'Illot had been possessed by the ghost of Navae, an apprentice to Revan who sought the galadiir, before the ghost emerged from W'Illot's body and lunged at Tarien. He took a hit from the ghost's corrupting touch and drew his sword for the inevitable battle.

Sure enough, phase spiders materialized again and attacked the party. Tolisa used the amulet again and they all turned ethereal. Merkator focused on Navae, the elven ghost, with a deific vengeance spell that did grievous damage. Tarien unlocked the manacles and helped W'Illot to free himself for the fight and then turned his attentions to a phase spider. Being ethereal allowed both Pendrul and W'Illot to land blows against Navae, who would have been invulnerable to their attacks had they remained on the material plane. She responded with a magic missile spell against W'Illot but was then slain by another deific vengeance from Merkator. Her body faded away into the ether.

With their mistress gone it took very little further effort for the party to dispatch the phase spiders. Pendrul suffered a poisoned bite but was healed by Merkator. Tolisa killed one with a lightning blade and Quinn destroyed the last with her trident.

Finally with time to breathe, the party found themselves surrounded by over a hundred elven villagers. Tarien explained what had happened:

Some weeks before, he had noticed a change in the behavior of Navae, Revan's apprentice. He became convinced she was up to something evil and kept an eye on her. Sure enough, about a month before the party's arrival, Tarien had spotted Navae sneaking into Revan's home after dark. He followed and woke the wizard, and they both discovered Navae trying to steal the galadiir. Phase spiders attacked Tarien and Revan to cover the girl's retreat but Tarien slew her. Navae clutched the galadiir to her chest as she died and pronounced a curse on the village. "I may be dragged into death," she swore, "but where I go, you shall all follow."

Revan also died that night, a victim of the phase spiders' poison. Attempts to revive him failed, so the wizard was buried and the galadiir secured again in his home. Three days later, the entire population of Aniel suddenly saw their world turn gray and indistinct, and they were unable to contact any of the physical structures of items in the village. They had been shifted to the ethereal plane and had no way to return. Any time material beings came near the village Navae frightened them away with her telekinesis power. She also took to harassing the villagers, who lacked her undead powers. Tarien had killed her several times in the ethereal state, but of course she simply reformed a few days later.

Tolisa cast an identify spell on the galadiir and learned that it had the power to grant three wishes, and that two of them had already been used. The party discussed their options and decided that the stone's last wish was their best option to restore the people of Aniel to the material plane. They gathered everyone into the village center and wished them all back to the material world, along with themselves. The galadiir flashed brightly and everyone felt the warmth of the sun as the colors returned to their view. The wish had worked.

Nobody in Aniel had any significant knowledge of the galadiir. The elders knew that it was a powerful magic item and that according to Revan it had been used thousands of years ago to imprison an evil god bent on destroying the world. The god's enemies had entrusted the gem to Revan's family in case its power was needed again, and it had been so kept for many generations of elves. Whatever the original purpose, however, the stone's power had been used up by Navae's dying curse and the party's wish. It was now a nonmagic, though still enigmatic, gemstone.

In gratitude for their sacrifice and heroism, the elders of Aniel gave the party the scrolls from Revan's cabinet and the galadiir itself. One of those scrolls proved to be not a scroll of spells but an ancient document penned in a language none of the party or the elders could recognize. There was a sketch of the galadiir at the top followed by several paragraphs of flowing script. Tolisa handled the aged parchment carefully. The party hoped that the illumians in Marhaven might be able to translate it for them.

With the people of Aniel saved, there was only the party's original mission to complete. Revan could not be summoned, of course, from the dead. They would have to communicate this to Gaylord.

That left the matter of Jibbets. The elders told the party what they knew of ethereal filchers, including that they are intelligent enough to communicate but merely lack the anatomy for speech. W'Illot was for sending the creature far away, but Uiq and Pendrul saw a potentially useful ally in the odd creature. They impressed on Jibbets that he must not bring stolen goods to their ship, and that he should refrain from stealing in the city. They pledged to provide him with 'shineys' now and again if he would agree to these terms. The filcher seemed happy to agree and accompanied the party back to the Bad Wolf.

They had made themselves a new friend.

<MR>
7/18/06

Adapted from Steve Kenson's The Ghosts of Aniel, (c) Copyright 2001 Wizards of the Coast, Inc.