Party members:  Maggot, Giles, Tersius, Wraith, Reuel, Caleb, Luca, Rukh, Rasc and Spingle

Lucy joined us part way through the mission

Mission Brief: 

Initial reports following the defeat of Agoth indicate that Orin Rakatha is returning to its usual "peaceful" status. However the Kern Valley has work yet to do.

Several groups have been sent in all directions to see the lay of the land and one such group have seen a gathering of Morgothian forces & unusual activity (large groups, increased Hordeling activity as well as increased Shadowsfall activity) near to the Ikarthian Triangle. A group is therefore being sought to investigate the area to find out what’s happening and answer the following questions: 

• What is the nature of the force from the Shrouded Eye? (reports indicate ex-Kalid working for/with the Morgothians - the exact nature of this relationship is unknown)
• With the fall of the Oasis of Souls and recent developments in Annach Moranonil how stands the Ikarthian Treaty?
• Why have the Knights of Our Dark Lady become more active recently?

This mission is jointly sponsored by the Stewards of the 3 Towers

We have also been tasked with escorting Laran Bior, a Wolfhold Ambassador, to the Wraith’s Head waystation to deliver a box to Barad Tirgul representatives.

First Day

We travelled to the Ikarthian Triangle. As we travelled cold winds blew and we were occasionally assailed by spirits of cold and evil. As night came and we near our destination the mists began to rise. We made for the only shelter nearby, the abandoned Tower of the Four Winds. We entered an outbuilding and the door slammed shut behind us and we appeared in a field noticing that several of our group are missing. We perceived the approach of some people in the gloom who asked if we had “the vessel” and they attacked us. We retrieved some scrolls from the body of their leader. Laran detects the presence of a waystation nearby so we head towards it encountering numerous hordelings babbling about the mists and a mist weaver. We arrived at the building to find it inhabited by Saldorians. As we only had one human in the aprty at this point it quickly degenerated into a fight with it becoming apparent that many of the Saldorians are ex-Kalid. The Saldorians called upon “The Flame” when employing their abilities. Once inside a terrified towerless ran in and hid declaring that the Cadre are after him. We ask him questions and he talks about “the Village” and Claymore Ironfist. We prepare for combat and are assaulted by undead. The “villager” attacks us with evil power. A Hospitaller hiding nearby also proves to be an enemy. It seems they are likely to have been Cadre undead disguised as humans.

A Shadowsfall called Jerren appeared and acted strangely being confused that we were talking to him and inferring that we were memories. Once we establish we are actually there he says that there are people from The Village in the area who would like to come and take shelter with us. The Village towerless arrive and it seems they have had a similar experience to us in that they were travelling in the area and ended up here. Laran raises the wards on the waystation.

Second Day

The Village towerless have been looking around and they tell us that the landscape has changed and that they know where they are know. We are attacked by a number of groups of green elementals that it turns out were sent by a human Taranor. We leave to find the way to the Wraith’s Head waystation fighting many groups of elementals. We eventually meet another Shodowsfall called Urrus who informs us that we are actually still inside the Tower of the Four Winds, a supposedly empty tower. Realising this we return to where we had come from. On the way back we formulate a new Valley combat tactic which shall henceforth be called “The Spingle” which involves ignoring a group of hordelings to such an extent that they get bored and leave. Upon returning to the area we came from we are attacked by undead and find a building controlled by a Necromancer who seems to think the Dymwan still have five towers. He seems out of touch with current events. He hides behind several wards summoning waves of wraiths and other undead. It seems he has our missing party members held captive in a diseased state. We defeat him and recover our lost compatriots, the reintroduction of some white path healing, in the form of Luca, to the group being most welcome. Things are getting very strange now; those we defeat are disappearing leaving no bodies. A Shadowsfall Judge turns up with his group plus a valley member called Cartin who knows Giles. I didn’t hear the conversation but it seems that he will tell us how to get out of here if we retrieve some ritual components for him, namely three chalices. There are also a dozen “vessels” involved, Cartin being one of them. The favour of the Mystics will be bestowed on those who perform the ritual so there will be competition to find these components. A bit of  a scuffle happens when the Shadowsfall Judge starts executing the towerless in the building with us but it doesn’t escalate. During dinner Laran the ambassador abandoned us leaving the box on the table which Wraith retrieved. The Judge leaves and Jerren (the first Shadowsfall we met) tells us that we shouldn’t give the components to the Judge and that he’ll help us if we don’t. He wears a white robe so is presumably from a different faction to the Judge.

We learn that there are Morgothians nearby so we go out to investigate and are attacked by them. After recovering from the tough fight we continue on to talk to their leader who demands the box from us. We refuse and are attacked again resulting in a desperate skirmish fight with a number of our group falling. The enemy are still vanishing upon death.

Cartin keeps going on about inviting people to come to this place but he doesn’t remember why, or much else in fact. Some of the people from the valley he invited do turn up as well as a few others who seem trapped in the tower like us. Among them are:

• Maynor  A Pordarridrim plant collector who got lost. He is looking for others of his group including someone called Trel’on.
• Tinnel  Claims to be from a tower called Orith Nonel which nobody has heard of.
• Maylorie Ex Saldorian woman being hunted because she was in the Free Thinkers society. She came here because Sir Kal said she’d be safe here than in Sector 7.
  

There was also a member of the Wizard’s Concillium who came here on purpose and is running experiments as well as a human member of LoX who tried to recruit people to be turned into drones.

Third Day

Jerren turns up and tells us that to find the chalices we have to go to the oldest parts of the tower. To do this we have to concentrate on “the first”. He can’t tell us who this is but he says that they will be under the delusion that we are not who we seem to be and that we should play along with this or it will take longer to find the chalices. Cartin can also detect the presence of the chalices so will be able to guide us when we are closer.

A pathfinder called Lucy arrives saying she was in a group from her guild sent to clear the way to the Wraith’s Head for Lord Vetzlar but they got drawn into the tower as well. She agrees to accompany us on our mission.

We are attacked by a group of barbarians and undead using cold magic and evil power. They call themselves The North Wind. We defeat them but the building is filled with a piercing cold and we go out to find another group of barbarians who are accompanied by a lesser Wendigo. After defeating these we find that a chalice appears. We return to the building to find a large meeting going on between several different groups but none of them are able to see or interact with us in the manner of a vision. It seems there are three groups talking about a fourth; The Coramel (the Dark Wind), the Levanta (the Blood Wind) and the Sirocco (the Fire Wind) are talking about the Boreas (the Ice? Wind). The Sirocco are unhappy that the Boreas have merely been exiled as the Coramel and the Levanta decreed and storm out. The others then leave. These groups seem to make up “the first” we are looking for: the Four Winds from the name of the tower as opposed to the Windborn of Sandaster as we had first supposed it might be.

A short time later the Sirocco appear and attack us, presuming we are the Boreas. We recover another chalice upon defeating their leader. We leave to find the last chalice. We fight groups of the blood wind (monks who can do blood drain through their weapons and who seem to like being pushed into small huddles against hedges and murdered) and the dark wind who seem to be able to shadow shift and use power drain through their weapons. Amongst another group of blood wind is the Blood Oracle and he recognises us as not being memories. He tasks us with defeating his men to see if we are worthy of his assistance. We cut them down but he resurrects them to be slain once more. Having completed his test he tells us that the winds should oppose each other in pairs but that the Boreas has returned to Orrin Rakatha unopposed. He says his physical form is sleeping at one of the shrines of the four winds and requests that we seek him out and awaken him. He tells us that the Sirocco disagreed with the Blood Wind’s ruling of exile upon the Boreas so they bound the Fire Wind into the Ark of Fire and carried at the head of a jihad in pursuit of the Boreas but were never seen again.

Upon our return to the building (for the umpteenth time having gone around in circles inside the infernal tower and getting nowhere fast) the Boreas turn up and say they are concerned that we might release the Blood Wind Oracle to free another wind onto Orrin Rakatha. We promise them that we will not release him, the thinking being that one unopposed wind causing problems on OR is enough.

The valley group plus other trapped weirdoes turn up for dinner again. After dinner we are attacked by a group of Kalid who manage to beguiles Spingle. This was particularly unlucky as he was the only person who knew exactly where we had hidden the chalices and he was the strongest in the party so we didn’t get a chance to stop him getting to them. The Kalid retrieved the chalices from their hiding place and then left. We vigorously pursued and slew most of them but the one carrying the chalices got away.

Lord Vetzlar turned up with a group of Ashnasi bodyguards. He has seemingly been trapped in the tower as we have. We hand the box over to him. Some way through the conversation, one of his Ashnasi released a spiritual attack on Vetzlar and he fell, dying. The Ashnasi in question then fell to its knees and was promptly murdered by the others. We tended Lord Vetzlar who seemed confused about his surroundings initially. He then left, taking the body of the dead Ashnasi. At this point everything that’s going on is about as clear as mud.

A bit later a group of Dymwan with attendant undead attack us, looking for the chalices. After a tense period while many of the group are paralysed and others are pretending to be paralysed we rally and defeat them including the spirit of bleeding embodied in the Dymwan which was killed with the last dregs of our resources.

As we are sitting around in a very battered state the Shadowsfall Judge turns up asking for the chalices. After stalling him for a bit I break Giles out of his meditation and a very tense confrontation ensues. The Judge attempted to threaten us into giving him the chalices but Giles was having none of it and with a fine display of tenacity he talked the judge to a stand still. The Judge then left, less than pleased. And there was much rejoicing. Some time later a small group of Reader turned up trying to gamble for the chalices for 200 Gests which was met with the derision it deserved so they left as well.

Fourth Day

We are attacked by a group of Hordelings but through a cunning ruse involving bacon we slaughter them one by one.  Urrus and Jerren turn up to talk. They tell us that one of the Reader who appeared last night had once been the Azad An tower gatekeeper and he shut the tower door as the mists were outside. Apparently the mists rose around the tower because there is a Mist Weaver inside the tower. This is normally part of the process of clearing a tower out if it falls. So we fight our way through some hordelings to find the Mist Weaver. After a particularly erudite conversation along the lines of: “You’re in a tower. No I’m not. Yes you are. No I’m not” between the Mist Weaver (actually three creatures?) and Lord Giles we end up giving it a kicking. As I was invoking at the time, I’m not sure of the exact details but it must have seemed like a good idea at the time.

Anyway, the upshot was that we got out the tower at last, thank the Maw. We decided that there was no longer any point going to the Wraith’s Head so we returned to the towers still not quite sure what on earth has been going on.