Tattoos and Dark Elves

• After the battle that took place, the full group gathers in the temple’s inner chamber.
  • Gruden’s brothers are crestfallen with this turn of events, but they no longer deny the obvious.
  • They thank the party for their help as they make sure that everyone is alright.
• Tharden heads out of the room for a moment and returns with his satchel of tools.
  • He asks that everyone stay inside the room, since it is necessary to cleanse the darkness present there.
  • He opens the satchel and from the set of tools within, he takes out a piece of chalk.
• The dwarf starts to methodically draw a circle of dwarven runes on the floor, around the corpse of the creature that attacked the party.
  • Brannus and Sigmar recognize them as religious markings honoring Moradin.
  • Tharden does this slowly.
• As the dwarf writes, a hum starts to echo all around the chamber.
  • The noise begins softly, and with a high pitch.
  • It eventually shifts to a deep rumble – that everyone can feel to their core – as the runic circle nears completion.
• The circle complete, Tharden stands back.
  • The chalk shines with divine energy, and a column of light forms above it.
  • The divine energy begins to shift and move, swirling into a powerful vortex.
  • The hum in the room is now deafening.
  • The vortex begins to drawn the darkness to it, and the walls themselves appear to stretch forth to the center of the ring as the taint upon them is purged.
• Dwolf feels a sharp pain in his thigh and reflexively reaches a hand to his pocket.
  • He removes the symbol of Abbathor that he had kept from one of the corpses.
  • It is now searing red, shining like fire, and it burns his hand.
  • He drops it, and the symbol completely melts even before hitting the floor, as it gets sucked into the vortex.
• With a large explosive noise, the vortex of energy shines brightly one last time and disappears.
• The room returns to normal, but it seems less oppressive somehow.
  • The walls themselves aren’t even black anymore, having returned to a more natural earthly color.
• Having concluded his ritual, Tharden stores his tools in his satchel and leaves the room without a word.
• Nundro leaves as well, but not before giving his Sending Stone to Brannus, fulfilling the promise of a reward to the group.
• Eventually everyone moves back to the main chamber.
• The dwarven brothers begin to pack all their gear, but before they finish the party proposes that they rest until morning and leave at the break of dawn.
  • With no real preference on the matter, the brothers agree.

• Settling down to sleep, the group first defines a watch schedule.
• During Sigmar’s watch something odd happens.
  • Dwolf and Kiara rise, in a trance-like state and walk to each other, clasping each of their right arms at the elbow.
  • After a few seconds they seem to wake in a fit of pain and they complain loudly that their right arm hurts, as if it has been burned.
  • Looking at each of their arms, the adventurers see a oddly shaped mark appear looking like a tattoo, or branding of some kind.
  • They do not know how it got there, but instinctually know what it means: it is the mark of The Dark Young of Shib-Niggurath.
  • Who those are, however, they do not know.
• From Kiara’s perspective it had been a normal resting period.
  • As an elf, she does not sleep but instead meditates for a few hours.
  • Her moments of meditation bring her closer to her other-worldly patron in an experience that is mostly devoid of senses. Darkness and emptiness envelop her mind.
  • The exception is when her patron decides to impart power or knowledge to her.
  • In such cases, it’s like being pulled out of the water just moments before being out of breath.
  • She usually finds herself alone in such occasions, but this night someone else is present in the realm beyond.
• Dwolf sleeps, and dreams, much like any human or dwarf.
  • This night, however, his sleep is restless.
  • He feels his mind pulled out from his body.
  • He knows his connection to nature has been severed.
  • He finds himself enveloped in pure darkness and emptiness, but someone is there.
• Kiara and Dwolf, in a dream-like state, seem themselves together in a dark plane.
  • They are motionless, unable to move or even speak.
  • Suddenly, and against their will, their right arms rise and point at each other.
  • A guttural sound grows all around them.
  • Tentacles of pure darkness envelop their extended arm, and they feel dragged.
  • They begin to glide against each other, but the distance doesn’t seem to close.
  • They pick up speed as the noise grows louder.
  • Eventually they know themselves to be extremely close as a voice speaks directly in their minds:

Soon…

• The pair wakes up, right arms clasped, in the final scene Sigmar witnessed.
  • They don’t know how or why, but they now feel… linked.
• The commotion wakes up everyone, and the party wonders what just happened.
  • Rattled, Kiara confronts Tharden wondering if his ritual was the cause of all this.
  • The elder dwarf is confused by the elf’s accusations and doesn’t know what to say.
  • This is a complete mystery to him, and everyone.
• The group ponders these events for a while longer, but are at a complete loss.
• As tempers cool, everyone settles to rest and the remainder of the night passes without incident.

• Rested, but still unsettled, the party rises in the morning and heads out of the temple.
• They don’t get far when they see a figure near the outer stone gate of the ruined settlement.
  • It moves as they notice it, and disappears behind the wall.
• A few seconds later, a war band emerges beyond the walls.
  • A large number of bugbears and goblins pour in and block the exit.
• The war band eventually parts their ranks to allow a dark figure to pass.
  • A night elf moves from behind to the head of the band.

“Finally”, he crows. “I was tired of waiting for you to leave that place." “I regret to inform that neither of you are needed anymore, so it is time to dispose of you all."

• The night elf motions to a bugbear near him, “Kill them, but keep the dwarf alive just in case”.
  • Mildly confused, the bugbear retorts “Which one?"
• It is at this point that the party realizes that the dwarf brothers are not with them, and nowhere to be seen.
• Suddenly, as if on cue, a sound is heard from behind the party – towards the temple – and everyone witnesses as a previously buried rope emerges from the ground towards the remaining stone door, like roots from a tree being pulled out of the earth.
  • Triggering a mechanism, the door’s hinges pop out and the massive block of chiseled stone crashes down over the flat-footed war band.
• The majority of the band is crushed under the gigantic trap, but remaining bugbears and the night elf attack the party.
• When the fight breaks, Sigmar heads to the front of the fray and is swarmed by two bugbears.
  • He is brought to his knees from vicious attacks, and in a last ditch effort he casts a spell of command on the bugbears instructing them to flee.
  • Both humanoids are affected and they begin to dash away from the heroes.
  • One is killed as he flees.
  • The other manages to break free from the spell but, seeing the tides of battle turning, decides to flee anyway.
• Meanwhile, the rest of the group focuses on attacking the bugbears and the night elf at range.
  • Droop is helpful, but fails critically once and ends up hitting Dwolf’s rear with an arrow!
  • The night elf tries to counter the group’s efforts with magic, but is unable to be effective.
• Suddenly, however, Dwolf feels a compulsion.
  • Raising his right arm, the one with his this new – strange – mark, he points it at the night elf.
  • A blast of dark eldritch energy fires from his hand – not unlike the type that Kiara is able to invoke – and hits the elf squarely in the chest, killing him outright.
• After this, the fight is quickly resolved and the party is safe.
• The dwarven brothers emerge from a nearby ruined building smiling, quite pleased with themselves for the shrewdness of their trap.
  • The party thanks them for it.
  • Tharden gives Sigmar a taste of some dwarven brandy, which helps a bit with his wounds.
• Investigating the corpse of the night elf they,
  • Establish that he was indeed a drow – a follower of the dark goddess Lolth.
  • Find that he had written orders to find and kill all members of the party, but to leave the dwarf (presumably Grunden) alive if possible.
• With no immediate threats, and weary of the place, they finally leave.

• They walk for about an hour and eventually find themselves near Umbrage Hill again.
• The group spots the windmill of the apothecary they helped, by defeating a manticore.
  • The body of the beast is still there, sprawled upon the hill.
• This time they decide to stop and buy some potions of healing.
  • They are greeted by the old lady, which they find engrossed in her work.
  • She welcomes them, and invites them in.
  • The conversation is brief and quickly turns to business.
• Kiara haggles down the price of a set of healing potions and, thanking the old lady, the group heads out to Deepdale.