So.

I hate orcs. Have I mentioned that?

Oh. Sorry. I tend to wax prolific on the subject.

So I wanted to go to the monestary-

Oh, I forget the name off the bat. I had heard that there was a monestary on the path we were going that had some people that might be able to help with the curse I had recently acquired.

Anyway, I wanted to go to the monestary. Ravensong wanted to kill the remainder of the tribe of orcs that had slaughtered their family. The others wanted to find Annu, who had disappeared-

No, I didn't know where at the time. She even left my amulet behind. Personally, I figured she left it there as an apology for taking it away from me in the first place.

Ravensong and myself shouted down the others and we made haste to track the remaining orcs.

Several days later, we found them holed up in a abandoned silver mine. Apparently, they had killed whoever was working on the mine previously, as we saw veins of silver clearly visible in the mine several times.

Quite lovely, actually.

As we later found out, the orcs were ruled by some crazed orcish cleric (two ways of saying the same thing if I had ever heard one) and his two sons. One a mighty warrior and the other a mighty sorcerer.

Yes, I said a sorcerer.

I do realize how rare they are. I'm telling you he was a sorcerer. At least, we never found his spell book.

The warrior we defeated first. He was quite difficult. Mostly because he had the majority of the members of his tribe with him. Molistead's use of a spell rendered enough of them harmless that we managed to kill the lot with out too terribly much trouble.

After that, we found the sorcerer. He was hiding in a rather large cavern. After finding me first, he attempted to interrogate me. After some masterful obscufacation on my part-

Stop interrupting. I mean I kept him occupied whilst the others snuck up behind him and slaughtered the lot.

Anyway, then we found the lair of the leader of the tribe. A cleric of no small power. Quite honestly I think he might've killed several of us if it weren't for a small amount of poison administered just in the nick of time by myself.

I say this in all modesty, of course.

Oahron is not as much of a dolt as he first appears to be; I think it is mostly an act. Take the battle with the carrion crawler for instance. That’s a nasty creature if I’ve ever seen one. The town’s cleric ran screaming from the battle, nearly frightened off the whole work crew. After Falahara slaughtered the thing, Oahron convinced everyone that he was mearly playing a joke, it was an illusion. He got knocked around a bit, and then everyone went back to work. If they had fled, his town would have been short on food for the remaining winter months, and I know what that can be like.

Yes. That was about the time Xon got cursed. I feel rather bad, and a little responsible. There were two men with the orc band. We captured one of them. The other melted into dust before our eyes. Xon, Falahara, and Oahron were present at the first man’s “trial”. I was out searching for the trail Jakk and his company must have left. They were not with the orc band we dispatched and I was desperate to catch up with them and destroy the menace who ravaged my village. After locating the trail, I returned to Travensburg to attend a funeral for those brave souls lost to Jakk’s orc band and confirm this groups aid in my quest. That was when I learned that Xon was marked, “blessed” or cursed depending on how you look at it, as a follower of a minor demon-lord. The cleric and sage of the town spent much time in consultation, and it was determined that there were two places we could go for help. The wizard’s college in Cormyr was known to have vast libraries, and there may be someone there who could aid us. Also, the monasteries along the Path of the Dead were maintained by monks knowledgeable in demon-lore. I didn’t listen carefully, I just thanked the gods that a cure lay along the route his party, Jakk, and my future revenge had chosen for me.

And so, our heroes fled the law; not waiting for midwinter festival, not finding any trace of where Annu went (her gear, the amulet, and a note in Elvin where all they could find), and slightly disappointing the town of Travensburg. While they will always be welcome there, and many thanks were showered upon them (even Oahron was praised, home town boy makes good), the group felt that the pressing business of removing Xon?s curse and avenging both Ravensong?s family and the good townspeople of Travensburg were more important than a festival and a ceremony in their honor.

With over a day?s worth of newly fallen snow, the companions (and the DM) were openly amazed at Ravensong?s ability to track the orcs. After more than five days of trudging through the woods in a generally northward direction, the tracks of the orcs become visible to the rest of the party. Stoping near what looked to be a cart track, the party debated heading towards the smoke fires seen to the east, or following the orc band to the west. This was a short debate; and Ravensong quickly led them to a clearing with yet another cave. Debris covered the ground, and after a brief inspection, Xon identified the place as a silver mine (the timbers supporting the entrance looked stable enough, if recently abused by armed conflict).

Entering cautiously, the group approached a crossroads in the cave system where two carts were in evidence. The lower part of a human stuck out from one of the carts, and the whole setup gave Xon a bad feeling. Closer (and rather careful) examination of the scene showed there to be somewhat of a trap. A small, fist sized rock was suspended in such a fashion that any movement of the wagon would cause it to drop? The group is still wondering about that one.

Taking the left hand passage, Ravensong and Xon make out orc voices. Approaching as quietly as possible, the group determines that a handful of orcs are just beyond a stout wooden door and it sounds like they are having quite the feast. With the crashing of a table, the party decides to take them by surprise.

Bursting through the door, the party themselves are surprised by combat ready orcs(who would have suspected such cunningness?), one of which is a hulking beast in a bearskin cloak. Being the archetypical evil lord, Tagnath, the bearskin cloaked orc, orders his minions to destroy the human intruders while retreating through a back exit. Wasting little time and many charges of a wand, the group manages to defeat four of the six minions, causing the other two to flee as well.

Ravensong, having recognized Tagnath as the son of Jakk (the orc leader responsible for the death of her family), charges after him, only to encounter a white powdery haze. She charges through the cloud, with the others slowly following (they didn?t like the sound of her coughing answers and her inability to discern the location of the retreating orcs). Felling one of the remaining minions, she charges in to confront Tagnath, only to be accosted by his pet dire weasel. Striking at her own back as the dire weasel latches on and begins to drink her blood, she hits and nearly dislodges it but begins to feel faint anyway.

Falahara comes to the rescue, swiping the large beast from Ravensong?s back, eliciting a scream of rage from Tagnath (?You killed Fluffy!). But he is dealt with in short order as well, at which point Ravensong and Falahara collapse from their wounds and Xon launches himself onto the body, gorging on the blood of his enemies last heart beats in a fit quite unbecoming his usual nature. Falahara lets out a deranged chortle at Xon?s frenzy, still feeling the blood lust of her rage, but soon feints from her wounds and the efforts of combat. After coming to himself, Xon vomits and quickly flees the chamber, Ravensong following to try and comfort him. Oarhon rouses Falahara and they conduct an impressive search of the room, stepping on rats and removing barrel lids with her spiked vine, lest they be trapped and injure her further.

A little later, the group decides that they are fine enough to keep looking for Jakk, and soon come to a huge, vaulted cave with lichen and flecks of silver lining the walls. The phosphorescent lichen provide an eerie illumination, and the stalactites and stalagmites produce enough troubling shadows that Xon is sent to investigate. He is quickly spotted, and a deal is offered.

In a small alcove overlooking the room, three orcs suggest that these human adventurers should remove Jakk from this plane of existence. In exchange for very little information, the orcs expect to be let to leave without trouble. Of course, Xon decides to stall them so that the rest of the party can get into a more damaging position. With brilliant flare, he pronounces that he alone killed Tagnath and that he is a mage of great power. To allay their fears, he pronounces, ?If you?re not worried, why should I be?? which completely confuses them. Little did he know that Sargath had been scrying on his brother when the party decimated Tagnath and his cronies.

Trying to set up a trap of his own, Sargath sends three of his gaurds down to discover the location of the remaining adventurers, and combat quickly ensues. Ravensong discovers that her bow is a useful weapon and for the first time ever, she is not upon death?s door at the end of the struggle. Falahara makes great use of climbing and tumbling ability, charging up the rope to slash at the sorcerous orc, Sargath, and just stepping off the cliff to avoid retaliatory strikes in a most impressive fashion. Only one orc escaped, and he fled the mines with a red eyed Xon in hot persuit (up until the frenzied rogue encountered the pit trap the party had skirted earlier, that just happened to slip his mind in his mad desire to slay any brazen enough to oppose him).

The party explored the alcove, and determined that it was easily fortifiable. Being in pretty bad shape, and nearly out of spells, the group meticulously searched the bodies of their vanquished foes before holing up and resting for what they considered evening (difficult to tell inside a winding set of caverns with constant illumination provided by the moss growing on the walls, creating a constant illusion of dusk).

Later, fully rested and healed, the party sets out towards where Sargath intimated Jakk could be found. Passing through a room emitting waves of intense heat, the party encounteres the remains of the human mining crews as well as a couple orc corpses. Unfortunately for our intrepid heroes, many of the corpses had been animated, and the bloated, lifeless bodies shambled towards the living with the incessant command of ?KILL? echoing though their bound souls. Being without a cleric (Annu, where did you wander off too???), the zombies prove to be disturbing, but not beyond the capabilities of the group.

After passing through the breeding grounds of Jakk?s foul magick, the group reaches what appears to be the end of the cave system. A small underground spring flows from a giant stalagtite in the center of an expansive room. The water pools at the base, and flows out into an underground river. The walls are covered in orcish writings, and Xon wonders ?Can I see Jakk?, ?Why can?t I see Jakk?!?

Hearing the mumblings of magic, Oahron points to the top of the stalagtite just as Xon reaches the edge and the room goes pitch black. Besides being quick to notice the magick user, Oarhon also has enough wits to remember a potion of jump in his possession. Deciding that he certainly didn?t want to face the orc in the center of the darkness, he chooses to pour the potion down the throat of the elvin barbarian standing next to him. After downing the potion, Falahara charges blindly into the darkness, leaping at the place she believes Jakk to be. Besides landing at the pinnacle of the giant stalagtite, she actually manages to wrestle Jakk off his feet.

Xon, fearing for his life, actually climbs the stalagtite towards the muffled scuffling at the top, and lets loose a poisoned bolt into the tangled mess there (praying that he hits what he can?t see, and that it is Jakk and not Falahara who suffers from the poison).

Grumsh must have been frowning on Jakk, and the entire elven, dwarven, and human pantheons must have had a grudge against him as well, for the bolt hit home, and delivered the paralytic poison. Going rigid in Falahara?s arms, Jakk was subjected to four attempts to cut his throat before he finally slid into death (The DM wonders: can you intentionally fail the fort save to remain living after a successful coup de gras? And how can you remain living after four successful throat slittings anyway, two performed by a skilled rogue?). The party did what they could to insure his remaining in a state of not life and distinctly not undeath, and this is where we leave our group.

The main Elven Pantheon includes Correllon Larethian (cg) who presides over the domains of elves, war, and the arts, and Angharradh (cg) deity of defense, spring, and wisdom.

Rillifane Rallathil (cg) presides over woodlands, nature, and wild elves, friend of druids.

There are the archers: Sheverash (cn), with the Black Bow, concerned with vengeance, retribution, crusades, loss, and drow hatred; and Solonor Thelandira (cg) with archery, hunting and wilderness.

Deep Sashelas (cg) diety of the sea, helped me overcome the boat journey in peace. Weather is the domain of Aerdrie Faenya (cg), and travel the domain of the demigod Fenmarel Mestarine, (cn) friend to feral elves, outcasts, scapegoats.

The god of luck, mischief, and rogues, and change is actually Erevan Ilesere (cn).

Hanali Celanil (cg) has charm, magic, beauty, love, and enchantments in her portfolio, and Labelas Enoreth (cg) history, time, and the moment of choice.

And lastly, there is Sehenine Moonbow (cg) deity of mysticism, dreams, death, journey, transcendence, moon, stars, and the heavens.