The Fallen Chronicle - Part 2

Velwyth. October 1095TA - Hugo Needs Help.

Three years later Jason, Patrick, Owen and Durban received a letter from Hugo.

In October 1095TA , the boys, now young men, gathered in Malham. Hugo explained the strange disappearance of his family and druid companion. The friends agreed to help and set off into the moors. They reached the Allynwood and headed to Hugo's last campsite. Overnight Owen was entranced by strange will o' the wisps and drawn deep into the forest. The others are able to stop Owen before he had gone far but decided to follow the wisps. They set off in the direction the wisps were leading Owen and arrived at an ancient stone circle. They were attacked by goblins, also drawn to the circle, orcs but kill them. In the circle they found that people had been entering the circle but not leaving it. That night the circle became charged with a strange magical energy and the party were teleported to another plane of existance.



Unknown. November 1095TA - The Demiplane.

They found themselves on a small rocky island in a featureless sea. They could see several other island in the distance, each one had a tower risong from the rock and were linked to each other by a series of bridges. The party entered the first tower and fought a number of undead. They are helped by orcs who are also stranded in the demiplane. The orc leader, a half-orc called Thrakka, made a bargain with the party. He told them that he saw some humans being dragged away by undead into one of the other towers. There, some creature is controlling the undead and has the the key to the last tower that controls access to and from the demiplane. The orcs were not strong enough to fight the undead so they want to join forces with the party. Agreeing, the party set off with 4 orcs in tow to explore the other towers.

They entered the darkened, undead infested tower. Inside they defeated a burning, floating skull and its minions but not before the orcs were slain and party were badly wounded. They set off farther into the tower that was once some sort of funeral home. They battled more undead as they headed deeper in. They eventually came across a strange zombie that had a 'brain-in-a-jar' embedded in its chest. The brain was some sort of sentient being and began to telepathically talk to the party in elven, offering to help them escape. Unfortunately before he could finish, Jason (who does not speak elven) launched an attack at the brain. They killed the brain and recovered a strange platinum rod from the ruins of the brain's case, but no key. They decided to rest and heal up before heading back to the half-orc.


Unknown. November 1095TA - Double-Crossed.

While they are resting, they were approached by another group of orcs who demanded that they hand over the key. Negotiations soon collapsed and they came to blows before the orcs retreated back to the other towers. The party healed themselves and headed out, but came across more orcs at the intersection of the main towers. Battle ensued but one escapes back to the orc's tower. The party barricaded themselves in the intersection and layed up. While they were resting, Thrakka appeared with one of the missing trappers. He told Owen, who was on guard, that if they did not hand over the key he would begin chopping fingers off the prisoners.

The party headed to the control tower and tried to open the door. They tried several methods with no success until they discovered that the platinum rod they found with the brain opened the door when touched to it. Inside they found a scale model of the stone circle, but with one of the menhirs missing. There were several menhirs scattered around the room. After experimenting they were able to get the small stone circle activated again, but didn't know which was the correct block to use. They decided to return to the half-orc to discuss their progress. They left the tower and found Thrakka waiting for them with some of his men. On the ramp below, they could see more of Thrakka's orcs with the prisoners. Again negotiations failed and a pitched battle ensued. The party managed to kill Thrakka and his men and overpower the orcs before they could kill all of the prisoners.

After making sure the prisoners were safe, the party headed into the orc's tower to kill any more resistance. After ferreting out a couple of nests of orcs, they found another elven prisoner, named Duladora, who had been locked in a half-flooded workshop. She told them that she was from the Werewood (which they don't recognise) and had been here for many days. The party conducted a thorough search of the towers for info on the crystal circle and discovered some 'memory crystals' that they were able to decipher. After some experimentation and work by Durban and Duladora, they were able to narrow down the selection of crystal 'bricks' to just 2. Neither would lead them home but may get them to Duladora's home. They activated the crystal circle in the tower while one of them watched the main circle. The circle came to life as expected, but they saw two figures run from the first tower and disappear through the circle.


The Werewood . 12th November 1095TA - Escape to the Werewood.

The party decided to activate the circle and head through, leaving Durban behind to reactivate the circle in a days time to bring them back. Durban activated the circle and they headed through, appearing in a different circle in a snow-covered evergreen forest. They waited a day, but the circle did not activate. Most of the party headed off to Duladora's home leaving Hugo and Jason behind to wait for Durban. A day or so later the circle activated again, depositing Durban in the forest. He explained he activated the circle but no one came through. He waited another day and then came through himself. They realised that the gate is only working one way and that time passed differently in the demiplane. They caught up with the others and continued to the elven village of Sildeyur , where they reunited Duladora with her grieving father. The party are welcomed to Sildeyur with open arms and decide to spend the winter there rather than risk a hard crossing back across the Wyrmsdown.


On to Part 3 of the Chronicle.

Home | Links | Search | Site Map | Contact Us | ©2007 Stephen Hardy