Quote from Chris Henson on April 1, 2025, 2:26 am

Roughly two weeks after joining M’rsabo’s caravan in Dair, the party made its way to a Sabelite Monastery in the eastern perimeter of the Elflaw. There, they met up with four other caravan leaders to discuss forming a Merchant League. Ords Offenvale, one of the caravan leaders and defacto spokesman of the aspiring League assembled everyone together to show them a map depicting a “safe route” through the Elflaw and into the northeastern territory of Bramm, following a series of monasteries that had apparently agreed to safe passage for caravans that visited them — for a fee of course. Of note was that the monasteries were a collection of Ya’avin orders — Sabelites, Haru’te, Al’drazzin, and Thorneaters — monastic orders that are not known for their internal cooperation.

The party took some time to mingle and size up the members of the other caravans and the Ya’avin monks of the monastery, and M’rsabo agreed to take on a Maugtheni passenger as part of the caravan — a high-strung individual who introduced himself as Renfold Oculance Havering — with the goal of finding a wizard he knows further south.

However, not long after Ords delivered his speech and showed his map, M’rsabo told the party that she could hear the song of the crickets, and that it was not in alignment with the song of the wind. She directed everyone to immediately go to the caravans, and that she would meet you there shortly.

Once there, the party quickly discovered that there were two Elflawvin making their way through the carts. During the ensuing combat, the party noted that the Elflawvin looked very beat up, even before the fight, and both had blood dripping down from their eyes. As M’rsabo rejoined the group, the party was able to slay one of the Elflawvin, and subdue the other, slapping him in manacles.

As you were loading him into the cart to take back for questioning, the sound of crickets stopped completely, and the roof of the Sabelite monastery began to be wreathed by the green flames of Elffire. A large contingent of Elflawvin swept into the monastery grounds from across the river (which happened to be glowing a bright blue with the onset of evening). The force immediately beset the gathered merchants, most of whom were lightly armed or somewhat inebriated, or both. While the slaughter ensued, on the far bank of the river, the Elflawvin commander stood watching, his antlered helmet silhouetted against the moon. At his side, an Elfawvin girl sang a haunting song, its keening words crisp in the minds of everyone, even as far as the wagons.

M’rsabo exclaimed, “Oh god, they found us,” then directed everyone to get onto the wagons immediately and go. Unfortunately, the wagons were spotted by a pair of Elflawvin on their Rakeel (battle raptors), and as the wagons tried to break away, the raptors and their riders were able to slay both Zungar and Kharos, stopping one cart in its tracks. Even M’rsabo was taken down by arrows as she jumped from the remaining wagon and ran back to try to recover their bodies.

In a moment of brillance or desparation, Murtagh turned the remaining cart around and drove it headfirst over one of the raptors and rider. Renfold was able to recover M’rsabo’s body, and she was quickly healed. The group decided to leave the Elflawvin captive (and other corpse) that they had recovered earlier, tossing them out of the back of the wagon. The remaining mounted Elfawvin seemed focused on them, tossing them away from the battle of the cart. Horns blared somewhere back by the monastery — perhaps from the Sabelites? Then the rider turned to return, though hjs facial muscles seemed different than before. By that time, more Elfawin had approached, taking shots with their bows as often as possible. M’rsabo entangled them with a quick spell. The mounted Elflawvin pulled a green arrow from his quiver and fired it at one of the ensnared Elflawvin, who burst into green flames.

In the short respite that this was happening, the party decided to grab the unconscious (and still manacled) body of the Elflawvin once again. This caused the raptor rider to turn back and attack again, impaling Renfold to the side of the cart with one of its claws. However, the victory was short lived, as the Elflawvin was shortly dispatched. M’rsabo made her way to the other wagon, casting Revivify on Zungar and Kharos, brining them back from the brink of death.

Having barely escaped death, the carts rumbled out of the encampment, eastward out of the edge of the Elflaw.

Map of the Sabelite Monastery: https://freeimage.host/i/3uG6iG4

 

Did I miss anything? Feel free to add.