The Keys of Telku / Witch War pt. 5 / Von the 5th through the 6th, 3593 CE / 11-29-20

The Adventurers have been caught in the middle of a great conflict plaguing Greenwood Forest. The elves and druids of Greenwood are attempting to fight off a terrible blight emanating from Tanlin Marsh, and blight that appears to be part of a campaign of terror perpetrated by a coven of witches. Having stumbled across a plot by one of the witches' lieutenants, an ice-crusted fey knight called Harakund, to butcher the unicorns of Greenwood for their horns, the Adventurers fought a vicious battle to protect the unicorm Myvenwy from an assault by Harakund's hunters. The tree-like druid Moss protected Myvenwy by transforming her into a small statuette before burrowing into the ground with her, while his fellow Adventurers beat back the attackers, pursuing the survivors through the woods in hopes of locating their master. After making sure Myvenwy is safe with her alseid guardians, Moss rushes through the forest to rejoin his fellow Adventurers. He finds them in a frozen clearing in combat with Harakund and his "Cold Hunt,." Atop his rimefrost goat mount, Harakund gores and badly injures the tiefling John, despite Moss's efforts to slow him. But the party gains the upper hand, and as the cold rider's minions fall one by one, so also falls the Adventurer's new ally, the alseid ranger Elfyllia. After John strikes back with a mortal blow to Harakund, the evil fey makes one last attempt to take his enemies with him, dropping a brutal rain of icy hail on them. But though the swashbuckler Adrienne falls unconscious before the vicious attack of a winter wolf and the paladin Henry's horse Gustavus lies on the brink of death, the rest of the Adventuers stand tall and resist the blows of ice falling from the sky even as Harakund's minions perish under the barrage. The quick-footed Blur attempts to pursue the fleeing leader of the buckawn hunters, Trindle Harx, but Harakund's second is instead captured by eladrim of the Wild Hunt, mysterious fey high elves who have arrived to punish the poachers who slew their sacred prey, the alseid. They heal the fallen alseid Elfyllia, slay Harakund's surviving minions, and then leave with the captured Trindle Harx in tow. Harakund's prisoner, a faun named Raewyn who was freed when her korred captor fled the battle, cautiously approaches the party. Moss attempts to aid her, but she appears to have been permanently infused with some of the slain cold rider's frozen aspect. She accompanies the party as they take the head of Harakund's slain unicorn victim back to the alseid camp. There they are greeted by Myvenwy, who thanks them for ending the threat of Harakund's Cold Hunt. The next morning the Adventurers leave Raewyn in the care of Myvenwy and head out in search of the druidic council. Roisyll, an acolyte of the Greenwood Druids, is able to lead the party to the glade of the druids within the day. There the Adventurers meet with the High Druid, but Adrienne and Coron are also reunited with another old companion, the changeling druid Sonya Raskoven. The High Druid reiterates what the Adventurers had previously been told, that a blight is being spread by a coven of witches based in Tanlin Marsh. Through some dark ritual, the witches have created a barrier that repels the elven forces of Greenwood. The druids task the Adventurers with gathering intelligence to help their efforts in stopping the witches, and the High Druid suggests that Sonya accompany them to this end. With this new task, the Adventurers once again hope that they are one more step closer to their goal of returning to their base of operations, the city Liem.