28 Erathisway 4520 - Glade's Folly and a Charmed Encounter

Arkomir Phinan writes...

Waking early, we take the horses for a quick walk around before heading out. Holly Branchwind gives us a big hug goodbye, saying to stay safe. From there we head down to the docks to board the The Lady of Freedom. Esward Moulton's retinue arrives along with him, as well as Brom and Serafina. We stow the horses safely and board the boat as well for the short trip to Glade's Folly . The trip is fairly uneventful and before too long we arrive at Glade's Folly, just past the Bowshot Bridge. We take the horses out for a ride around the town. We investigate the town, and ask about Lukas. The last time he was seen here, was with us about a month ago. We then go looking for evidence of Glade . We head to the Bowshot Bridge first.

As we cross the bridge, we look out for the crystal that projects the image into the tower. We cant quite make out the building, but think we know roughly where it should be. At the apex of the bridge, we can see the hill that we think is the space where Glade is buried so we head there. The hill itself is fairly steep, so we leave the horses at the bottom to graze, and head up. At the top of the hill, it rounds off to be a flat top. In the centre is a stone plinth and by the looks the stone has been quarried and manually shaped. There is some undergrowth over the plinth but it was certainly cleaned in the last month. Dharra cleans it up again and we gain read the inscription. It has a sigil of a G - and the words Glade - Husband, Mentor, Scholar, Hero, Friend. From this hill, it is a nice view back across the town and across the region as a whole. We send a message to Isadora telling her where we are.

Moving back through the town, there is a bit of a hubbub about the visiting Lord Advocate . The town itself doesn't show any other signs of The Cleansing Wave . There are some small shrines to most of the gods but they are tucked away. We ask around about Bruno and the Vanguard . The folks have heard about them, and they think they may have come through here. They may have camped in the forests nearby, and this story might be part Vanguard, part Cleansing Wave. Whilst we are here we make a point to introduce ourselves to the Mayor of Glade's Folly. We find him in the Flashing Salmon having just met with Moulten. His is an older human male named Aldror Hammet. Esabel Chantry appears to be speaking with religious dignitaries of the area. She is in conversation with a dwarf (with Moradin vestments) and an Elven lady (with Melora vestments). As we wander in, Dharra notices Aelithera Moonflower , Jax Willow and Kael from The Stepping Stones Company . Aelithara notices us and we wander over to say hello. After a brief chat, I buy a round of drinks for everyone and Dharra talks about playing with them. Aelithara wants to see the ring we took fro the fiend in Ethiss. We manage to delay that and move on to talk of other things. Jax heads over to talk with Essa as well. Dharra tries to talk to the Mayor whilst we are here. She talks to him about the Cleansing Wave and Glade in particular.

We decide to head back to the Bowshot Bridge to have a look at this a bit more closely. Whilst Dharra gets set up to identify the bridge more closely, I investigate the structure. I notice that the bridge used to have a decorative facade at some point but that has been gone for a long time. The bridge itself is quite obviously an elven design. Dharra casts her spells and projects the image so I can see as well. We see two female elves, very pale, dressed in long white tunics with over robes. They are holding hands and with the other hand making a sweeping gesture and as they do, something comes up through the earth, lengthen and expand - like they are pulling the stone from beneath the ground to span the river. There is a paved regular road coming from next to them that heads east from here that no longer exists. The angle and shape of their ears is different to other elves I know or have seen. They each have a roll of thick hide that they are carrying, like a scroll case, or map case. We get the impression that there are more elves in the vicinity and this is also occurred a long time ago.

After this we head back to the tavern so that Dharra can play with The Stepping Stones. Dharra sits in with them and they fall into sync pretty quickly. They augment her songs and arrangements seamlessly, adding just the right amount of flourish. She plays songs about Moulten and how he handled the siege. The crowd loves it and as a result of the good impression he has made today, he gets applause as well. Moulten acknowledges the crowd and he stands and also points to us and our part in breaking the siege. The bards take a break for a bit, before The Stepping Stones retake the stage to round out the evening. They are fantastic at what they do, and the crowd has a great time. As the night winds down, Dharra heads off to bed. Aelithera stops by my table and says - 'Why dont you stay with me tonight?' and she suddenly seems irresistible to me.

The tavern is starting to wind down for the evening. Jax is sitting at the end of the bar trying to impress a barmaid. Moulten and his retinue are heading up to their rooms as well. Gazing around the room, i notice Essa is excusing herself and heading upstairs. Aelithera turns to me and asks if I can help her with her things up to her room. I say that I can and we head upstairs also. At her door we have a brief chat before she unlocks her door and we go inside. Her room is quite small but has a spiral staircase that leads up to its own second room, like a mini tower.

In the meantime, Dharra goes investigating for my whereabouts, without much success. Aelithera has charmed me and charged me with getting her the ring. I decide that this is a great idea and head back to our room to speak to Dharra. She is not here, but the bag of holding is, so I get the ring. Dharra comes back into the tavern, still not finding me anywhere. I make my way back to Alethira's door as Dharra comes back upstairs. Inside her room, we go upstairs and I hand over the ring to her. She thanks me and gives me a kiss on the cheek. She turns away from me saying she will just put it away.

Dharra continues looking for me, with help from Eleanor. They knock on Essa's door asking if she has seen me. Aelithera turns back to me and, essentially, propositions me. Dharra continues to investigate my whereabouts, after Essa says that I was getting on well with Alethira. She sends me a message, which I reply to telling her where I am and that I have given her the fiends ring. Alethira turns to me and says we have to delay this for another time as she reaches for the ring. The space between her hand and the ring started to warp. She says to go back to my friends, she doesn't want me to get hurt. Dharra rushes past me as I open the door. She heads upstairs, but Alethira is no longer there. She comes back to me and asks what the hell I was thinking. She slaps me, and then heads upstairs to look through Aelithera's stuff. Essa comes into the first room to try and help whilst Dharra investigates. Dharra continues to look around upstairs for any signs of Alethira. Essa grabs me and drags me upstairs, saying that there is nothing invisible in th room. Dharra says that they should maybe try downstairs to ask Jax about things. As we get to the stairs, Jax is coming up. We question Jax about Alethira and why she might want the artefact. Jax seems to not know anything about that. We escort Jax back to his room to see if there is anything going on in here. He looks around for Kael, but he is not here either. Dharra sends a message to Kael asking where he is and he replies saying he had to leave in a hurry. We ask Jax for information about Alethira and Kael.

Alethira Moonflower is elven (or mostly) and joined the group a couple of years ago. Kael joined the group only recently. Essa casts Zone of Truth on Jax and Dharra then questions him further about the ring. Essa then kisses my cheek, and then slaps me. I am now no longer charmed and am quite disappointed in myself. Thinking back on the moment when Alethira turned back to the ring: The space around it was already moving before she reached for it and there was a spot of blood on the ring.

Jax doesn't know any reason why Aelithira and Kael would have left together. They did seem to him like they were closer to each other than to him. Pretty much the day after events in Ethiss, Aelithera and Kael decided to get on the road. Aelithera and Kael seemed, to him anyway, as thick as thieves. Aelithera was the one making most of the decisions about where they went and when they went. They passed through Belhaim about a week ago (whilst we were on Verdant Isle). I then remember that I mentioned Kezahr to Aelithera. Dharra sends a message to Kezahr by way of warning. She says to be careful and keep and eye out for trouble. We all head back to our rooms, but Essa will let the Moulten retinue know of tonight's events. Dharra casts Tiny Hut in our room, and we bed down for a long rest.