Released

November 27, 2007

The group slowly wakes up.  They remember plunging through the portal and then everything went black.  Now, they are cold, lying on the ground under pine trees.  Arindal recognizes the forest as a northern forest, probably close to the Spine of the World mountains.  He lets them know what to expect, in terms of animals and then goes to scout out the area. 

The others are a bit groggy but wake up looking around the area.  As Reece comes out of it, he tries to contact his wife, Tabra.  He gets a hold of her but she is babbling incoherently.  He is quite worried about her.  Deuce pulls out the carved ear and tries talking to Malcolm.  He is babbline incoherently as well.  And it's worse than his usual babbling.  They hear Martin as well and Martin gets freaked by the talking ear, blasting it with lightning, destroying both of them.  About that time, Tabra screams and the magic way they have of talking is destroyed. 

Reece is quite upset about this and saying they have to go home, now.  He asks Jayden if he can take them home.  If not, can he take just him home?  It takes them a few minutes, during which Reece is very ansy, while they figure out what Jayden can do.  Finally, they figure it out and Jayden takes them to the temple of Lathander.  Reece starts heading toward his place, asking the others to check at Malcolm's.  Several of the group go with Reece while the others go to Malcolm's.  Unfortunately, when Reece arrives at his place, Tabra and the others aren't there.  He leaves right away heading toward Malcolm's. 

Meanwhile, the second group arrives to see Malcolm's place on fire.  Deuce and Notch, having protection from fire, dive in and look for them.  They evetually find the lab but it's filled with a purplish smoke that smells sweet.  They go down to the floor and start crawling through the lab trying to find people.  Deuce happens on a body and calls for Notch to help him.  It turns out it's Malcolm.  Notch grabs him and tells Deuce to keep looking while he takes Malcolm out of the house. 

Deuce keeps looking.  As  he crawls between a few of the lab tables, he thought he saw movement on the other side.  He decided it must be his imagination.  When it happens again, and he sees an armored, scaly leg, he gets a bit worried.  He goes a bit further into the smoke when he hears hissing and a voice saying something that sounds like, "found them."  He moves forward some more to get a better look when he is grabbed from behind.  A creature that looks like a cross between a demon and a dragon holds Deuce up to its face.  It hisses at him, then says, "not this one" and casually tosses Deuce over a lab table.  Deuce sees more of these creatures pick up some bodies lying on the ground and disappear with a pop. 

By this time, the fire has spread and Deuce knows he has to get out of there.  The roof partially collapses in the lab, but opposite from where Deuce is.  He starts heading out, trying to quench any fires he can.  Notch has come back in but Deuce waves him back out.  They grab servants and anyone else they can on the way out. 

Deuce sees the others have gathered near Malcolm and Jayden has healed him as he is standing and looks fine.  When Reece looks at Deuce, it's all Deuce can do but shake his head and look at his feet.  He couldn't get to her in time before they were taken. 

Malcolm, though, has good news.  Martin, Malcolm and Tabra figured they might be targets, so they had non detection in their houses but the opposite outside of the city, so it's easier to find them.  They head back to Reece's place, where he gets his mirror out and scries for his wife.  He sees her in a cell but she is unconscious.  He asks Jayden, Malcolm, anyone who can to take him there!  Malcolm says he can create a two way portal but it will take a few hours to set up and get the needed supplies.  Reece is ansy the entire time, pacing back and forth.  Finally, Malcolm casts the spell while the rest of the group is ready.  A shimmering portal appears and Reece jumps in before anyone can say.  He appears in the same cell as his wife, who is still unconscious on a pallet.  He picks her up gently and goes back through the portal.  The others ask what happen and he says he might have heard Martin but Reece is focused on his wife. 

Malcolm, hearing this, turns to the portal and casts a spell.  As it shifts, another cell appears and Martin is inside.  Several others go and get Martin and bring him back.  They think they were being kept in Zhentil Keep somewhere but they weren't sure. 

Finally, the party gets the whole story.  The mirror that was found a while ago was the last clue they had.  The group had been away from three months with no word from them, which comes as quite a surprise to the group since the trek to the graveyard was hours, not months.  So, they started studying the mirror.  They found that it had some being trapped inside but couldn't really talk to them.  They don't know when the insanity took them but eventually the three of them had to release whoever was trapped.  The attempt made their insanity worse, as they flung things around the lab, starting several fires, some magical.  They still aren't sure what the things were, other than dangerous.  They did find out it was a prison and were hoping that perhaps whoever was inside would be an ally but obviously that was not the case. 

Reece spends a few days with his family, making sure Tabra is okay.  The others do some more research.  They don't find much.  They wonder if it was no accident where they landed from the portal.  So, they decide to go back there and check it out.  Tabra supplies them with some scrolls of teleport and they head back to the snowy pine forest. 

When they arrive, there is a polar bear right in front of Deuce!  It is easily higher than him on all four paws.  However, it just looks at the quizically, not doing much.  Soon, his friend, a dwarven druid, arrives.  He doesn't speak common but Jayden is able to use a spell to communicate with him.  The druid, Ard by name, has a clan nearby that he protects.  This part of the forest is also his to protect.  However, several months ago, a very large contingent of dragons, including metallic and chromatic types, arrived to the north of the forest.  Ard was worried that he and his would be attacked.  However, they did some ritual, very powerful, and then left.  Ard agrees to take them to the edge of the forest and show them where it was. 

It takes the group a few hours of traveling after leaving the forest to arrive at the place.  An area perhaps a hundred yards wide and half that long is clear of snow.  Reece, Jayden and Deuce can sense the magic that used to be here dwindling.  Arindal can tell it was an area that was sacred to the elves.  As they are trying to figure it out, Figment arrives. 

Figment tells them that it was him and some friends who came here a while ago.  "I actually expected all of you to show up but you didn't."  He goes on to explain that many millenia ago, the elves created a mythal that created the dragon rage.  It caused a weakness in all dragons, one that split the metallics and chromatics.   Further, they couldn't trust themselves, much less others, and so could never rule again.  "So, it had to be destroyed, of course.  Thankfully, with all I learned at Myth Drannor, with your help, I was able to get rid of this mythal.  Now, we know longer fear the rage!" 

Figment is quite happy but the party doesn't share his enthusiasm.  Figment again talks about how it will be better when dragons rules and Deuce and him get into an argument until Deuce stops it himself, muttering that he hates those arguments. 

Notes

• I was not prepared for them to head back to their houses.  I didn't want to stop it, though, as they are a high level party and therefore teleport is an option.  It did throw me, though, and took me a while to get back on track. 
• I really like Figment as a "bad guy."  Deuce and Figment started to get into an argument, again, but Deuce finally stopped it because when he talks to Figment, it sounds so reasonable!