23 Mirtul, 1372

Dear master Zorthaster,

We have uncovered a terrible plot for revenge laid by followers of Kiransalee. It simmered in our midst for months and nearly took the life of Primula and all her kin. I hope that we have now succeeded in ending it before another Great Revenance can occur.

As you know from previous letters, three drow priestesses were captured by Solom Ned'razak and turned over to us. They claimed to be priestesses of Eilistraee, but we discovered that two, Alauniira and Myassa were both servants of Kiransalee. They have placed a Heart Sliver in Pellanistra and have been compelling her to help infiltrate the inner circles of the church of the Lady of the Dance. From what little we know right now, it appears that the death and destruction caused by these two plotters has been horrifying. Their plans were even more terrible. They had laid a plot to kill enough drow (And other elves perhaps? It is not yet clear to me.) to cause a Great Revenance which would have taken the lives of Primula and all her kin, turning them into vengeful undead to perpetrate further suffering and death. We nearly caused the final events to happen before we even knew of the plot.

Let me back up and explain a bit more. We recently returned from Saerloon (more about that later) and agreed to turn our attention to the restoration of the temple of Corellon and Eilistraee. We first contacted Gorgoland to find out what he knew about the status of the site. He reported that there was, until he cleared them out, a band of orcs living in the place. After he rid the temple of them, he found the three drow nearby and directed them to the place. We informed him of our intent to travel to the temple and consecrate it. When we were ready to destroy the artifact, we should alert him and he would come to help.

To get to the site, we used Peraus Wands's multi-gate. We had collected dirt from the temple area when we first visited the site, back when we were traveling through time. I was a bit nervous about using the ancient soil and became even more concerned when we returned to Master Wands's workshop to find cables and wire and all sorts of odd contraptions connected to the gate. Master Wands assured us, though he seemed less than sure himself, that the gate would work fine for now, but his plans involved things that would make the gate unusable in a couple of rides. With some trepidation, we went through the gate anyway.

Rather than finding ourselves in the Temple's warm valley, we exited the gate in front of the beaver lodge where we first discovered Dravis's body and Primula's amulet. Snow covered the ground and the air was cold. With all the terrible weather we've been having, at first we thought we were just off course a bit and had arrived at a higher elevation than expected. Really we were in a bit of denial about what had just happened. It soon became clear that we had somehow traveled back in time to just before our first visit to the place of Dravis's death.

Movement in the forest caused us to want to hide ourselves and after we did, we watched as that unfortunate goblin Glabyug, whom we released over a year ago, went racing past, fleeing our younger selves and muttering about drow in the forest. We burrowed deeper into our hiding place and watched as a party of drow came out of the gloomy evening woods and headed for the door to the dwarven safehold. To our amazement, we recognized the drow prisoner as Pellanistra and two of her captors amongst the other seven drow as Mayassa and Alauniira. I looked at Xan who examined all the drow with the eyes of the spider. His scowl deepened. As it turns out, two of our three "friends" were evil to their core then and remain so now.

In the distance we could hear the howl of hunting krenshar. Despite the fact that Master Wands has told me little of the workings of temporal magic and travels through time, I knew that it was dangerous for us to be here. Just glancing at Primula's amulet, the one tied to her family sword told us that we were dabbling in things that we did not understand. It had turned translucent after we arrived here. It still pointed toward the Spiderhaunt, but it had been affected somehow in our time travel in a way that our other magic items had not. It was time to try to leave before we really messed something up.

Stepping back through the still-active multi-gate portal should have returned us to the workshop of Peraus Wands. It did not. Instead we found ourselves in the valley of the temple, our original destination. What strange twist of the weave resulted in our brief side trip through time? I surely do not know. Peraus Wands may, but I suspect that even if he did, it would take me many rides of subtle questioning to dig the information out. Would that I had the luxury of that kind of time for research. Maybe some day I will.

At any rate, when we finally made it to the temple we found Mayassa on guard at the entrance. Xan, with a prearranged signal, told us that the drow was indeed evil. Primula tried in vain to disarm the drow through subterfuge. Her attempt at a peaceful resolution failed and the priestess of Kiransalee attempted to stab Primula through the heart. Oskar and the Breath of Moradin, poised for action, pounced on the dark elf and injured her badly. As she tried to step away from the ferocious pair defending Primula, the drow gave me a clear target and I hit her with a disintegrate. Her gear clattered to the floor as the bright green energy danced across her black skin and turned her entire body into fine dust. As one, we all lunged for our injured friend, reaching for healing potions as we did so. She waved us off however, assuring us that she would survive the sword thrust and could heal the injury through Corellon's Power.

As soon as she did, we prepared ourselves to confront the other evil priestess. Our ranger crept forward to scout the situation and overheard Alauniira taunting the Eilistraeean. Pellanistra could do nothing to stop the murders of the other followers of the Lady of the Dance, nor could she do anything to stop the Great Revenance that was about to take place according to the evil drow. The blood of only two more drow, spilled in the temple, would bring about the dark event and forever ruin the temple as a holy place. Obviously Alauniira did not know about the death of her partner guarding the entrance and we feared that Mayassa's death had just brought us that much close to the Revenance. We therefore quickly hatched a plan to protect Pellanistra and take the other drow alive.

We rushed in and while Oskar and Shane engaged Alauniira, I erected a bubble of force around Pellanistra. I also attempted to capture the evil Kiransaleean in a hand of force, but the priestess's spell resistance proved to be too great for me to overcome. Oskar smashed the side of his Urgosh into the drow's shoulder and head and knocked her spinning to the ground unconscious. It appears for now that we have narrowly averted the Revenance. Now we must keep everyone alive long enough to consecrate the temple and forever end the threat of the evil spell. With luck, we will accomplish that after Primula completes her prayers tomorrow.

Now, you are probably wondering about our expedition to rescue Nadul DaRoni from the clutches of the evil lighthouse keeper and his dangerous daughter. I have to say that I am more than a little embarrassed by the whole fiasco. It turns out that DaRoni was enjoying a nice dinner with Zembrath Klun and discussing some designs for a horn that might be installed at the light station. We learned this a bit too late, only after we explored the island, killed a ghost hiding in a well, discovered a menhir that marks the burial site of the heart of Borem, God of Anger, and got arrested for trespassing.

The whole arrest thing was bad, but it was not as embarrassing as spending the night in a Saerloon jail cell. It really started to go badly when we decided to just go up to the lightkeeper's house and knock on his door. As we approached, Klun came out to investigate. We told him that we had urgent business to discuss with DaRoni but he would have none of it. He did return to his dining room and spoke with DaRoni before coming out again. He continued to go on about our trespassing on government property until a contingent of the city watch teleported in, complete with wizards and fighter types to arrest us. There was a tense moment when Xan appeared to be unwilling to go to the lock up peacefully, but in the end, we laid down our weapons and ended up spending an unpleasant night locked in very uncomfortable jail cells.

We have been on a war footing ever since we returned form the underdark, and before that had been adventuring and risking our lives every moment for so long that it is a bit surprising that we did not go off and kill a bunch of city guards. Our reflexes and instincts have been trained over the past year and a half to react with violence to almost any danger with little advance warning. The long night in my cell gave me time to think about your disparaging comments used to describe adventurers in Suzail. I think I understand now what you and other shopkeepers mean when you talk about how dangerous, volatile and disrespectful they can be. On the other hand, those very traits are what kept us alive to rescue the Dalelands from Irea T'sarran and her undead and I'm not sure that now is the time to deliberately blunt those instincts. The war with the Shades has begun and finely honed reflexes that bring death and defeat to the enemies of Cormyr before they have the chance to destroy us will, I am sure, be sorely needed before this is over.

All my late night philosophizing gave me little comfort as I lay in the jail cell. Morning eventually came to my rescue however, and we were ushered eventually into the presence of the magistrate Shammar Con. She was a handsome woman, but had a very no-nonsense air about her. While waiting for our hearing with her, we had an opportunity to talk about our approach to the charges of trespassing. We concluded that being honest, straightforward and direct was the best approach. It took more than a little work to figure out how to present ourselves that way, but eventually we boiled down our story to just the basic points. We were here on urgent, time-sensitive business. Our aim was to hire DaRoni for a project. We were unaware that we were breaking any laws by our visit to the lighthouse island to speak with the inventor. We apologize for our ignorance and we will not do it again.

We ended up pleading guilty to trespassing and paying a 3000 gl fine for our misdeed. I think Con was pleased, despite her gruff exterior, that our story checked out and that we did not try to play any games with her. Her parting comment to us was "Just because you can do something doesn't mean that you should." I know she is correct, and I sympathize with her for ending up in a position where she had to deal with us in the manner she did. I don't envy her position with the potential for dealing with adventurers who might not have the presence of mind to lay down their weapons when confronted as we were.

It was afternoon by the time we returned to DaRoni's shop. We found him experimenting with some device that delivered a blast of sound and broke out the windows in his shop and the neighboring houses. He eagerly read the contract we delivered from Master Wands and agreed to return to Daggerfalls with us. We boarded up his windows and waited while he paid his neighbors for their damaged windows. While he was busy with that I made a brief sending to Peraus Wands to ensure that it was safe for us to return directly to his place. It was, so as soon as the inventor returned, we picked up his traveling gear and teleported back to Master Wands workshop.

It was only then that we learned that DaRoni had forgotten to lock up his shop before leaving. He seemed a bit put out and surprised that we teleported away so quickly. I'm not sure what he was thinking when we all got in position to teleport and linked hands, but he wanted to return to lock his shop before we did anything else. So, we did. It took my last teleport without error of the day and required Primula to get us all home, but we eventually got it done. I find that everyone around us seems to be more than happy to send us off on adventures and toward certain death with the sketchiest information, but that when we skip a few steps in explaining our plans, everyone seems terribly inconvenienced. I know what you would say, "that's is the arrogant adventurer in you talking now my boy. Don't go putting on airs, and remember what I've told you for you've just heard it again from Shammar Con, 'just because you can do something doesn't mean you should!'" It is just that half the time people are expecting us to save them or their city or their culture from certain destruction and the other half they complin that we tracked mud in on the rug. The constrast is sometimes a little too much. I begin to see why wizards like Mazarale build a tower in the middle of nowhere and refuse to socialize at all.

It was evening before we were able to get out of Wands's workshop. As soon as the two men got to talking about building things they were off on a tear and were talking so fast about their project that they completely forgot about us. We left them to their work. On our way out however, I spied plans that Master Wands had recently drawn up for a beautiful, lithe construct. I recognized her immediately. In the blank space left for her name I wrote "Sahana" with neat, flowing letters. This whole time travel business is terribly confusing, but it has its moments.

We bought ourselves a fine dinner after that but none of us were ready to retire for the evening. Our night in jail and morning of enforced relaxation had left us all restless and edgy. Dealing with DaRoni's quirks and Master Wands's cryptic behavior hadn't helped. Over dinner we decided that we would head to the Temple of Corellon before the day was over and prepare to consecrate it in the morning. But, I've already told you that tale earlier in this letter so I will sign off for now. Give my love to Mom, Dad and the girls should you see them. Tell them I . . . never mind. You should know however, that I made a sending to Larissa yesterday and got no reply.

Sincerely,

Cedar