Belamir

Borrowing a dog from one of the villagers, Sack wandered out of the palisade enclosing the settlement and pretended to throw sticks for the animal while walking around the large encampment of tents on the eastern side of the fort. As soon as the soldiers saw him, he was challenged and escorted back inside - obviously some sort of curfew - but he'd managed to get a reasonable look at the defences.

Following on from that, Hildraft went Ethereal and drifted through the castle, exploring. He found two items of interest; in the armoury, a rack of peculiar devices comprising a stout wooden pole tipped with a filigree metal teardrop shape; and a tower room emanating a pale green light. When he investigated the latter, a magical alarm was tripped, and he only escaped detection by the wizard sleeping inside by a hair's breadth.

Discussing this afterwards with Delgarde, they learned that the strange weapons were called Invigilators, and were a major part of Vane the Mace's successful hold on his realm. Delgarde had no clear details on what they did, as no-one hit by one had ever returned to give an account, but they were known to emit an invisible ray which floored most targets easily, not rendering them unconcious, but somehow weak and helpless.

Once Delgarde had bid them goodnight and left, the party discussed things, and decided to press on to Belamir before getting involved in anything this serious.

(Edge of Belamir, The Desolation, 21st^th May, 1601)

Making use of Hildraft's Wind Walk magic, the group rapidly soared across the southern reaches of Tellare, passing one of the border towers built by the Dragon during the Elf Wars and noting it appeared to be garrisoned and in good repair, and began the crossing of the Desolation.

While they'd seen the great wasteland in the centre of Alair before, never had they seen it so laid out below them. The twisted ruins of nature sprawling for league after barren league, the brutal abominations of the Curst wandering across it feeding on each other and any travellers foolish enough to dare the crossing, were appalling beyond words.

After some hours, however, they saw a change. Ahead, a green blur appeared on the horizon, rapidly taking shape as an oasis of fertile grassland in the barren desert. The reclamation the elves had begun was impressive; the landscape beyond was rolling hills, with grassy meads, pools of clean water, and little copses of trees. The travellers approached the border of this magical place, and crossed over - all bar one.

As Surya reached the edge of the new Elvenrealm, his progress was stopped as if he'd hit a wall. A webwork of crackling purple energy sparks radiated out from the point he'd hit, and a deep ache of cold pain smote him along both thighs - where his swords rested.

After some experimentation, it became clear that the swords themselves were the problem. Resigned, Surya did off the weapons, and Hildraft used Stone Shape to emtomb them within a nearby boulder. This done, the Tellaran was able to proceed, though a dull ache of a similar flavour remained, seemingly related to his armour.

As they group prepared to restart their journey, they heard approaching hooves, and saw coming towards them a strong force of Elven cavalry, headed by a knight riding a unicorn. These surrounded the party, enquiring their names and business.

They identified themselves, and the elves' attitude changed immediately. The knight dismounted, introducing himself as Glithramir, and welcomed the Dragonslayers fulsomly to the Land of Belamir. Before they left the scene, Surya requested Glithramir to leave some guards to watch the stone, explaining that he had stored things of value there.

Then the party were escorted into the Elven stronghold of Belamir in the highest honour.

Except for Sack.

When it came to the crunch, the half-orc couldn't face travelling with the elves he hated so much, and remained in Wind Walk, skimming along above the rest.

After a couple of hours' ride, the group and their escorts entered the city of Belamir. It had no walls or great stone fortifications, and yet all could sense the power and vigilance bound up in the very fabric of the place. Elegant buildings were interwoven into the trees of the forest in the elven fashion, and a sense of perceptible peace enwrapped the area; but the magical senses of Hildraft and Sack were tingling, alive to the power of the defences woven into the arboreal dwellings of the Fair Folk. Clearly, the Elves intended never to be taken by surprise again.

Guided to the tower of Elverandil, the party entered, and soon were being welcomed by the Mastersmith himself. They talked long, telling him of all their travels and asking his opinion and counsel on many issues. By the swords worn by Surya he was troubled, and again advised the Tellaran to forsake them unless he were stronger than steel. The armour he recognized instantly as that which he'd forged for Asildur Mithmaras, the last of the great Elven heroes, the warrior for whom the sword Mergil was being forged. "But he could not bear to wait," said the Smith sadly, "our people were being slaughtered, and he went off alone to fight the Dragon. I always felt that he'd conceived some plan of his own to get assistance, some scheme he felt ashamed or afraid of." Surya asked him what enhancments the armour had, and the elf responded that originally it had had virtues of strength and protection (and had been silver!) but that now he sensed it had other traits, some stemming from its' thousand-year ownership by the Death Knight that Asildur had become. "A creature of dark evil and great power leaves a residue," he said. "Beware of advice from unexpected sources."

Later that evening, Elverandil held a banquet to honour his guests, with several of the more open-minded elflords invited. Sack managed to restrain himself for most of the evening, but finally snapped when a bard appeared, and sang a rather ponderous lay about the Dragonslaying, focussing rather more on King Doronond's part than on the mortals'. The song was truncated suddenly by a flying pineapple, and from then on point on the half-orc became rowdier. A furious argument broke out among the three as to who had started the most fights, during which Surya mentioned that Sack had (as he put it) murdered Mazahir.

An elven priest of Mithlendel, sitting some seats down, took exception to this, and pointed out that (in theory) you couldn't murder a vampire, as they were already dead. Sack flung an orange at him, catching him neatly in the groin, and the banquet came to an end.