Re: In Shadowed Woods
Elorfindar
After a hectic and rushed moon and a half, you had been looking forward to some peace and quiet, some unhurried research. Led by Taeghen, you, Bran, Yurkal, and Ameena made the ride from Hill's Edge to Waterdeep in thirty one grueling days. It was exhausting riding, and the long days in the uninhabited land west of the High Moor were nerve-wracking, but you made it without encountering anything more than a few wandering monsters well within your ability to fight.
Once in the City of Splendors, you quickly found the temple of Oghma. After a year of traveling it was good to be back in a library and among priests of a god of knowledge. You could have done without the time pressure, though. The vision Bran had received from Clangeddin for the next step in the construction of the great suit of armor he intended was vague, and not particularly helpful.
You wondered more than once why a god as forthright as Clangeddin was playing such semantic games. When you finally deciphered the riddles and realized that Bran needed to retrieve a particular ruined breastplate from within Undermountain, things made more sense.
Having come this far, all of you agree to help Bran on this latest expedition. It was the most horrible four days of your life. Successful, certainly; you all emerged alive and with the breastplate from the skeleton you found in a sublevel that branched off of the second main level. But you never want to set foot in Undermountain again. Certainly not without a thief!
The group disbanded shortly thereafter. Bran received another vision, this one directing him to a clan of Hidden who would not accept non-dwarves. Taeghen joined up with a caravan heading north, and Yurkal and Ameena disappeared. You settled down to enjoy the fruits of your expedition and a long stint of happy reading in the Font of Knowledge.
Alas, Labelas appears to have other plans for you. Barely a tenday after Bran's departure, you're walking through a back alley in the early morning toward the Font when the wall to your left shudders and flashes with half a dozen colors of light one after the other. Your vision goes black, and there is a stomach-churning sensation of flipping and falling.
When your vision returns, you find yourself staring up at the underside of a bush. The dirt is cool on your back, and all of your joints ache. Pulling yourself out, you discover that you aren't in Waterdeep anymore. You're in a ruined city, its elegant stonework broken and heavily overgrown with trees.
You're still trying to pull your thoughts together when you hear someone call your name.