22 Hammer 1372

Dear Master Zorthaster,

We have attempted to right our mistakes near Mintar as best we could and have left the area. We returned to Daggerfalls and are now in the Company of Peraus Wands to assist him as we promised. We are once again bound for ancient Netheril in his service. Before I get too far into that tale, let me continue where I left off in my last letter.

Following the battle in and around the Giant's Throne inn, we cleaned things up as best we could and took the bodies of the slain into a magnificent mansion. I disintegrated the beholder first, so we just had to deal with the other bodies. Early the next day I disintegrated everyone except the innkeeper and his two sons. Primula attempted to raise them from the dead but was unsuccessful. The boys were happy where they were and did not wish to return to the world of pain and horror where they were killed. The priestess was unable to connect with the spirit of the dead innkeeper. All she could get from him was was the sense that he was not happy with where he was, but that he was unable to return. We buried the bodies back in the hills and forced ourselves to accept that we were not able to correct the terrible mistake we made here.

On the morning of the 6th we traveled via windwalk to a temple that Kerith had heard tell of in this vicinity. It was a beautiful structure called the Spirit Soaring. After a bit of preliminary introductions with an odd pair of dwarves, we gained an audience with a Cadderly the head priest. Kerith told Cadderlly the whole tale of the disaster in the inn. The story brought tears to Cadderly's eyes. I was crying again by the the time Kerith finished.

The priest was willing to raise our fallen friend but requested a donation of cash or information. Kerith told another tale that was well received. It was the story of the Trollflame wars in ancient days. He also began to tell the story of our encounter with the shades. Cadderly interrupted him before the bard could really get started, requesting that this tale be told later. We learned then that a Shade, Brennus Tanthul was here at the temple studying. We met the prince of the City of Shade but did not recognize him. We had a few polite words with him but I did not want to spend any more time near the prince than courtesy demanded.

Cadderly then took us to a small chapel where he performed a powerful spell to bring Oskar back to us. The dwarf was silent when he returned, and soon sought a place to meditate on his own.

Later that afternoon we met with Cadderly again so that Kerith could tell his tale. The priest had led us to a very private room where he lit a great number of scented candles. I thought I smelled some warding herb blends but the formulation was unfamiliar. He did tell us that the room was well protected from scrying minds. Kerith told the story of our meeting with the shadovar in the desert and the fight in the lich's lair. From the priest we learned that Shade Enclave had returned over the desert and that envoys had been sent to every major city within thousands of miles. So far, all attempts to learn about the shades had revealed nothing about them or their motives. Cadderly also told us that there was a war between the pharimm and Evereska due to the sharn wall being breached when Shade returned. The city has an army massed near Evereska, but has not yet joined in the battle.

We talked a little about the Shadow Weave. Cadderly knew only a little about it and asked a lot of questions.

On the 7th we made a quick trip to Athcatla to buy equipment for Oskar. Everything he had on him at the time was consumed in the unholy fire of the spell that destroyed his body. We ran into Beldin and the other members of the Sword of the Dales there in Athcatla. He gave us a note and information so we could collect a small item of power from their fortress. The item would help us kill the guardian monster that lives in the lake outside the lost mines of Tehyamar. The group also gave us detailed instructions about how and where to find the the mine entrance.

It took us several days to sell some of our treasures and pick up a few things for the Paladin. When we finally completed our shopping, we returned to the area around Mintar. Kerith had been able to uncover a couple of rumors that appeared to be helpful. The most interesting was that a small town north of Mintar by the name of Kzelter seemed to be home to a resistance movement against the Zhents. The Zhents had taken the city and were busy searching for ancient Tethyian magics. Primula immediately assumed that they were looking for the scroll.

Upon our return to the area we spent some time with clairaudience and clairvoyance spells and learned that Kzelter had been taken by a force lead by Teldon Darkhope and was now ruled by Neth Arrovar, priest of Bane. During our surveillance, we witnessed the hanging of a family in Kzelter because of the poisoning deaths of a Zhent team digging near a farmhouse for ancient magic. Primula prayed for guidance about contacting the resistance, and received some aid.

We found the resistance in the ruins of a temple of Chauntea as they killed a small banite force. The Zhents appeared to have also been searching for the resistance. Our attempt to contact them was going poorly until Xan tossed his Harper Pin to the leader. That turned the tide and the group quickly cleared out the bodies and we dropped down some narrow cracks into a warren of tunnels below the ruined temple. We were soon introduced to Illindyl Fireblade, Master of the Academy of the Drawn Sword in Mintar and Latanna Darkeyes, leader of the Kzelter resistance.

Illindyl and Latanna told us about their struggle against the Zhents and the difficulties they had with organizing their forces across the northern coast of the Lake of Steam. They have had some contacts in Saelmur, but little has come of it. When we told them as much as we could about why we were in the region, Fireblade agreed to show us to a portal under Kzelter that would take us to the academy building in Mintar. He had obviously had experience with the Harpers before because he interpreted our evasive answers to his questions about our mission as typical Harper operating procedure. Once at the portal, the swordsman told us that the portals were part of a network that they were investigating in hopes of using them to coordinate the activities of the resistance. I was shocked and dismayed to learn that their researcher and hte keeper of all the information about the network was the innkeeper of the Giant's Throne. A man named Stedeman

I immediately told Firebleade that Stedeman was dead and told him and Latanna of our role in the event. Illindyl was furious with us and kicked us out of the tunnels, telling us to never return. Hoping to learn something useful, we returned to the Giant's Throne where Primula intended to use her speak with dead spell on Stedeman's body. At the inn we discovered a horrifying scene. In retribution for the missing patrol, the Zhentarim hung 200 people along the road to the inn. It was awful. We also discovered that Stedeman's body had been found and dug up. I used a powerful spell to wish that the Zhents had not found the body. I do not know the outcome, but hopefully they did not find the body and could not learn anything about the portal network. I was sick and heartbroken. There was little more we could do here other than collect a bag of dirt from the graveside in hopes that we could eventually have reason to return through Master Wands' sand gate.

Returning to Spirit Soaring we gave a huge donation to the research monks to have them begin to look into the workings of the portal network at the Lake of Steam. We asked Cadderly to relay the information to Latanna directly if he could. Perhaps the clerics of Denier would be able to find out as much, or more, than Stedeman. With little else to do, we returned to Daggerfalls. Master Wands had contacted me a couple of days earlier requesting that we return home. We had promised to help him a few months ago in exchange for the speedy identification of a batch of magical items.

It was the 22nd before we reached Daggerfalls. Master Wands was waiting for us, sleeping in his clothes, a bag packed and waiting by his bedside. He hustled us in and we went immediately to the excavation site below his shop. There he had a large cart loaded with the jars made of Telstang. He loaded the sand gate with dirt from a small jar waiting on a table next to the gate and pushed the cart through. We followed. On the other side we found ourselves in a cold cave in a snowy mountain range. Deep in the cave there was a huge stone archway covered with runes and a symbol of Mystra in the keystone. This was Mystra's Time Gate. We would take it to the days of ancient Netheril where we would collect a load of heavy magic.

Unfortunately, nothing we wore or carried with us could make the trip. We would arrive naked on the other side. Master Wands assured us that somehow he had arranged for a few supplies on the other end. Oskar was already standing in nothing but his beard in front of the gate when the mage finished reassuring the rest of us. Peraus Wands forced open the gate and we prepared to step through.

Sincerely,

Cedar