Date: Bone Moon, 2nd -4th

Diplomatic mission to assist the Labyrinth of Xenos, who were being attacked by Laire Tinwé.

The Party:

• Anatharian
• Draal
• Arius
• Elan
• Erf
• Giles
• Gravesong
• Greycloud
• Myrtle
• Nero
• Sky
• Solitaire
• Tornado

Following Giles's agreement to send a group to assist the Labyrinth of Xenos, who were being attacked by Laire Tinwé, we received directions from the Seekers, and travelled from the KVA, south east across the Summer Meadows, avoiding the World Window, across the Bremen Plains and around the Gilden Hills. We approached the Labyrinth from Gilden Far.

This route has been chosen to avoid the area north of the Ikarthian Triangle, as there have been some problems of late with the Dai-Fai-Dyne, and it was considered best to keep ourselves away from any other issues on this mission.

We approached the Labyrinth after nightfall and came into contact with a group of Khalid. After initial contact we were led up a hill to a prominent vantage point where we met the main body of Khalid, including the Steel wind and Earthwarp. To my great surprise and joy the Khalid were being led by the Hierophant Rolu. It was an unexpected joy because I had met Rolu or Rol …. the reincarnated valley Druid from Murandir, many years before.

Many of the party were uneasy about trusting the Khalid .I recognised the point that Rolu was now aligned with the Khalid and his objectives would reflect that but ,myself I was more than happy to trust the words of a very old friend.

Rolu was interested in an area within the Ikarthian Triangle. He was unable to find the elves of Laire Tinwé within this area, and wanted us to find them for him. It appeared that even a powerful a hierophant as he, he could not seem to penetrate the protections that the elves of Laire Tinwé used. He said he was disorientated at every point, frequently losing his mental focus.

Rolu said that he had information that Laire Tinwé would want and could we pass this offer on. We agreed to help him in this matter.

We continued from the NE of the Ikarthian Triangle and were attacked by Knights of the dark Lady and Yuan-Ti. From further missions we now understand how mobile and aggressive the Knights of Our Dark Lady are in the Ikarthian Triangle. But we were more than a little concerned they were working with Yuan-Ti. Battle was met and almost immediately our front line decimated the Knights and snakes, so we let it concern us no more.

We again pushed through the area following the direction of Rolu. After some great time and more than a few wrong turns we were met by Raane Arlath from Laire Tinwé, who took us to meet the rest of the elves.

After polite greetings, we asked them why they were attacking the Labyrinth; they told us that they were not attacking the Labyrinth of Xenos, only following the one Artificer who was making Control Torcs. (The very same torcs that were driving the slave trade.) The Valley already knew how strongly Laire Tinwé felt on this issue and we had already supported them before in the endeavours to stamp out the slave trade.

The elves seemed interested as to what information Rolu had to offer them so we left the Elves and contacted Rolu. He was pleased we had managed to contact the elves and said that he knew where the artificer was, and that he'd hand over the information in exchange for access to the the ex-Shadowkeep Tower itself. The elves agreed, and we were to act as middle men between them and the Khalid.

The next morning we set off to rendezvous with Rolu, encountering towerless and hordelings along the way. Before we found Rolu we were approached by representatives of the Labyrinth of Xenos. They were concerned as to our presence and wanted to know more of Laire Tinwé intentions. We told them the elves weren't out to get them and they were focused completely on ceasing the production of the magical torcs. The labyrinth seemed pleased to finally know the reason for clashes and were more than happy to allow us to continue on our diplomatic and now direct action to help the situation.

We finally met up with Rolu, who gave us directions to the whereabouts of the artificer. The journey would involve attempting to cross into the protected area of Laire Tinwé and we were joined by a wood sprite from Rolu to guide us. We were unsure of Rolu's ultimate aim, whether it was to learn the secrets that the elves protected their land or whether he needed to get to somewhere specific in that area. Some of our companions thought he wanted to visit the Shadow Lodge which was part of the Laire Tinwé domain.

As we made our way to the Laire Tinwé Tower we met strange hordelings that seemed to be affected by some sort of outside power. For ourselves we experienced difficulty in concentrating and tiredness. After some time a representative of Laire Tinwé greeted us and informed us that we had passed through the first veil of protection and that we would now need his guidance to pass further.

We journeyed onwards, next meeting some very odd constructs. It appears that every construct was severely malfunctioning. It seemed maybe we were getting nearer to apprehending the Artificer. Also within the party arguments between each other started for no apparent reason as a sense unease pervaded our group.

We pushed on yet further and were attacked by some undead from The Forest of Unshed Tears (identified by Tornado). We were forced back and severely tested as waves of undead attacked us. Sky was entombed and other s were paralyzed. Finally we rallied with blade and magic's.

We rested for some time then moved on through another veil of protection. This was considerably more powerful than the last and we were all filled with dread, some talked of turning back. A powerful cosmic invocation was affecting us, we were all cursed.

There was continued talk of turning back but then we were greeted by a terribly fearful sight………….black trolls and wraiths.

The feeling of dread was keen and we tried to quickly prepare as the trolls and wraiths came forward. Arius stood foreword standing nobly in front of the trolls but was struck by a blow of such shuddering power I had never seen the like before. We retreated back some many paces as our minds frantically accessed the situation. Then thankfully our entire group set about the task at hand and with steely determination, we unleashed our full strength upon the enemy.

On our left flank Elan and Anatharian powerfully attacked one of the awesome black trolls, Elan bonebreaking the creature's leg. Even disabled the two elves were hard pressed to cope with it. In the centre Lord Giles, Sky and Gravesong cut through the Wraiths creating a focus for our attack. Greycloud the barbarian attacked the black troll on our right, behind Greycloud in the eye of the storm Myrtle cast magic upon magic to hinder the troll's movement. I stood alongside Erf and Draal as they cut into the wraiths, however I was not as protected against these creatures I soon felt the icy talons cut into my flesh. I backed away quickly and looked around, the battle could go either way the disabled troll was still causing havoc, some wraiths were gone but the other black troll's heavy blows were cutting through armour and protections, Nero was running around like a mad man curing as fast as he possibly could. Then Tornado unleashed a lightning bolt at the still mobile black troll, it crackled into its body, then another and another as Giles and Sky called forth their elemental magic's. A ball of darkness then thudded into the troll courtesy of Drall followed by two bolts of fire from Myrtle and myself. Greycloud pummelled the troll as more arcs of lightning, fire and darkness smashed into the creature knocking it from its feet into the ground ......dead.

I looked around; it had taken the biggest use of arcane power I had ever seen unleashed since the battle against the Dark One's army. Just to kill one black troll! The other was only just being put to death and it had been bonebreaked.

Glad to be alive we pressed on, approached a dwelling and decided to rest.

Our rest was short lived as undead spirits swept in to the building. Arius was struck down as he meditated by one of the spirits, luckily Erf jumped on his body, tended him bringing him back from the brink of death. Some of the party disappeared, we feared they had been taken by the undead spirits, we ventured into the deepening darkness to locate them.

We found them and also some green elves that were from Sel-Nenda Ailo of Laire Tinwé, who said they were trapped in this area. They told us that the area was similar to that around the Laire Tinwé tower, and what you should do to pass into the next veil. They also said they knew where the Artificer was and they were stopping the Kalid from finding him.

As we talked to the green elves we were attacked by an assassin, some gave chase. The assassin struck a blow to Lord Giles of the like I have never seen, it was so fast, accurate and deadly ,even my friend Giles was surprised by the ferocity. Unluckily for the assassin we surrounded him and he was soon dispatched. He did have on his body however some magical bracers. Tornado identified them and it would seem that they enhanced the power of a blow significantly. Giles tried them on and almost at the same time a very Dark creature turned up. Giles attacked the creature with his now enhanced damage, but the creature magically removed the bracers from Lord Giles. Suddenly we were dark engulfed.

It seemed no time passed and we were surrounded by spiders whilst apparently silenced. It is hard to describe what happened next except to say I think this battle was fought in our minds. Spells were castable just by thinking however the exertion caused much more damage than normal to the physical body. It was a difficult situation for mainly an elvish party and we dropped like flies caught in this spiders trap. Thank Iluvator that Greycloud's battle rage enabled him to defeat the creatures.

When we returned to the building, we were greeted by some Na-Silvani, Clan Jade, who were also stuck here, but they couldn't see the green elves, and the green elves couldn't see them. This vexing question was the only thing that troubled our welcomed nights rest.

The next morning we set out to confront the Artificer. It was to be an inevitable outcome. He was cornered and we were determined to stop him and retrieve the Torcs.

After what seemed like a frenetic but brief clash the artificer was dead.

When we defeated the artificer he had a torc'd slave with him. It was an elf known to me, Firestorm from Murandir who for nearly twenty years we had thought lost. He had been enslaved for most of this time with no free will or real consciousness. It pleased me that we stopped the production of these evil devices and we returned to the Valley knowing we had completed our diplomatic mission and more.

Report by Solitaire