Revelations

Since the challenges the adventurers had during the Trial of Champions, they returned to their homes as the season turned from Autumn to the colds of deep winter.

The Trial of Champions was clearly not the end of the story.  Although no powerful creatures were truly summoned or came forward as a result of the rituals held by the Dragonborn, it truly seems as the Dragonborn failed in their attempts.  But news and clues across the land seemed to tug at each of the Runda in different ways.  Over the past few months, their divinations suggested there is much more to the story.  From the months following the Trial of Champions the Runda returned to the Great Swamp to study the black stone obelisks and their writing.  They found each of the sites of the Dragonborn rituals, many of which had signs of battle and decaying corpses of creatures slain in the final battle. However, the Runda could not find any of the stone obelisks. How they vanished and where they went was a mystery on its own. Through hidden clues among the remains of the Dragonborn and through further divinations, the Runda learned some fragments of what the ancient obelisks were. These large stones were warnings of great evils that were once banished many millennia before.

In addition, the Runda had learned that the heroes who attended the Trial of Champions were having afflictions to them that started shortly after their encounter with the Dragonborn. yet, some other individuals who were not involved with any of these events were also experiencing afflictions as well. The Runda determined that these afflictions had nothing to do with the Dragonborn rituals, but exposure to these strange obelisks. These afflictions started out as horrible nightmares where the dreamers witnessed horrible destruction and carnage through the eyes of some other entity. In addition to the nightmares, the afflicted started to develop physical and sometimes mental problems that were progressively becoming worse as the weeks past. The Runda encouraged the afflicted to return to the Forest Inn. Through dream traveling, the Runda were able to encourage the afflicted to return to the Forest Inn.

Once at the Forest Inn, when all the afflicted were present, the Runda shared that it seems that the obelisks imprinted some horrible and evil memories into those near them during the ritual. Others who were not at the Trial of Champions soon learned what the obelisks were and realized that they have lived near other obelisks for many long years of their life as the obelisks may have been at their town center as a marker, in a field where they used to play, or even a stone stair where they sat at a nearby temple. The obelisks were the apparent cause, and they must be destroyed. Unfortunately, the obelisks seemed to have moved to different locations around the world of Elladra. How this happened is not yet known, but it certainly must be a very powerful being. The reasons are unknown. The Runda, based only on the information they were able to divine, sent parties of adventurers through the fairy tree and across the world to find and destroy the obelisks. The belief was that their destruction would eliminate the problem.

The adventurers did find the obelisks and they were all able to destroy these strange and ancient stones. Within each of the obelisks the heroes found peculiar items or symbols. Their mission accomplished, the parties returned back through the fairy tree to the safety of the Forest Inn, looking forward to a sleep without nightmares and a hope that their afflictions would be gone by morning. That evening, the adventurers looked realized that the strange items found within the obelisks were puzzle pieces. Each party solved the puzzles and with that they heard strange whispers and horrible voices that seemed to surround the adventurers, and then the voices quickly faded away. into the distance. The puzzles revealed 3 names. Sharing these with the Runda, the druids became concerned and a bit confused and took the rest of the evening conferring with each other, looking through ancient texts, and divining what they could.

The following morning, the adventurers awoke to find their nightmares and afflictions had not banished as they had hoped. In fact, they actually worsened! More bad news was shared by the druids over breakfast that the solving of the puzzles the night prior had actually awakened some dark entities whose essence was imprisoned in the obelisks. The runes on the obelisks and the divinations were tampered with to mislead the heroes and the Runda. As such, the Runda had asked the adventurers to investigate further into what was happening and understand if there was a relationship between these dark entities and other evil druids that seemed to have been involved. These evil druids are known as the ‘Dark Runda’ and were entrusted with ancient secrets of the order but had been corrupted in their interest in gaining more power. Once again, the adventurers traveled through the fairy tree, with worsening afflictions, to find clues about these evil entities that were now released and the Dark Runda who seemed to be behind this.

The adventurers returned bearing new insights into the evil beings and the involvement of the Dark Runda. The Dark Runda were actually teaching these dark entities on how to retrieve memories they had lost when being entombed. With this information, the good Runda who were aiding the adventurers concluded that these evil entities were known as the Uá; ancient demigods who were imprisoned by the gods, their parents, for their evil actions to the mortal races. The obelisks were prisons of the Uá’s immortal essence and their memories. Another revelation that the Dragonborn cultists tried to awaken powers beyond their knowledge or desires. A greater power was behind all of this that was still unknown.

Knowing that the adventurers would need to confront the Dark Runda and possibly the Uá, they first needed to solve the problem of their worsening and weakening afflictions. The Runda, therefore, used some of their influence with some of the neutral fairy folk to have the adventurers accomplish tasks for them in exchange for lifting these strange afflictions. Once again, the adventurers were sent on missions across Elladra, but this time for the fairy folk.

The heroes returned later to the Forest Inn and the summoning of the fairy folk took place later that evening. With the beating of drums and incantations from all players, the giant fairy folk…fairy tree folk emerged from the darkness and come forward to the participants of the ceremony. The Runda interpreted between the tree folk and the heroes. The Parties each offered the treasures they were sent to fetch, but the tree folk saw these as irrelevant to the lifting of the afflictions and curses. Instead, the tree folk asked each party a question, seemingly irrelevant to their task, but in the fairy-way, something that should have not been unexpected. The fact they asked each party to find something did not mean what they wanted was the actual item they wanted them to find, but some tangential information the parties learned on their way to what they thought was the mission. Each party was given time to confer with fellow adventurers and each party that gave the right answer, their affliction was lifted. One group of adventurers nearly failed in their task by not providing a direct answer, but at the last moment, gave the correct answer to the fairy folk. As a result, the all the afflictions were lifted, and the heroes were no longer disadvantaged for the battle to come with the Dark Runda and Uá.

The following morning, after a peaceful night’s sleep and other afflictions removed from them, the adventurers followed up on their clues to confront the Dark Runda and the Uá. After great dangers and combat, the heroes defeated the Dark Runa, but the Uá, the demigods of old, escaped through a magical rift or gateway of a kind, into what seemed to be the plane of the Feywild. Upon the return of the parties to the Forest Inn, the Runda shared that it is from the Feywild that these demigods were created. A place called Tír na nÓg, and a place long forgotten. It is the place where the demigods can regain their full powers over time and the only place where their god-like essence can permanently be destroyed.

The next task for the adventurers is clear…. “Into the Feywild!’