27 Mirtul, 1372

Dear Zorthaster,

We have prevented the second greater revanance set, to sweep the dales with more death and violence, but only barely. The worshipers of Kiransalee are terrible and subtle in their webs of revenge.

As I wrote in my last letter, we succeeded in defeating Alinaura's immediate schemes in the Temple of Corellon but she had woven other layers of danger for us to discover and overcome. As soon as Alinaura fell, Oskar and I got her out of the temple and into a magnificent mansion. We didn't want to take any chances that she might find a way to kill herself in the temple, thereby triggering the greater revanance. Primula immediately began to consecrate the temple anew as Kerith worked on releasing Pellinistra from the stasis and the heart sliver spells. Meanwhile, Shane searched the temple carefully and found another dangerous trap. Alinura had set a secondary trigger condition on the greater revanance, keyed to a trap near the alter. Destroying the artifact on the newly consecrated alter would have also set off the terrible spell.

Our versatile monk, with his training in locks and traps was able to successfully disable the evil art. Gorgoland, arrived in a swirl of mist that arose out of the sword Hordemaster. With that it was relatively short work to destroy the awful drow gauntlet in a long fiery of fiery dragon's breath as it sat on the alter. The temple was finally freed from the oppressive claws of the evil drow and had taken on the ethereal, heartbreaking beauty characteristic of the great elven artists. No longer dark and gloomy, now it glowed as if illuminated with strong moonlight. The light showed beautiful white marble with delicate black and silver veins. Here and there, throughout the structure, black marble with silver veins was also set. The dark stone seemed to accentuate the beautiful white floors and a ceiling decorated with the elven constellations. Everywhere I looked there were symbols and designs representing the god Corellon Larathian and goddess Eillistrea, emphasizing the unity of the elven people. Primula should be pleased and proud of her accomplishments here.

We rested for only a brief moment; we still had an evil drow prisoner with whom we had to deal. In the end, we decided to leave Hordemaster with Pellinistra and leave her in charge of guarding the temple and beginning to bring it back to life. We also decided Alinaura's fate. We would bring her to Excelsior and imprison her there. Killing her, despite how much satisfaction it would bring, would not be nearly so effective in thwarting the schemes of her goddess. Even though we wished to stay longer in the soothing temple, we soon set off for the planes.

Upon our arrival in Excelsior, the authorities there were happy to help us find accommodations for Alinaura I think they were a bit surprised when they heard our request, but they were very quick to offer their assistance. A task I thought might take all day to accomplish was completed in less than a full glass.

From Excelsior we made our way back to Sigil where we intended to pick up another mimir or two, hoping to find out more about the tantalizing "Blinding Tower" mentioned by Mr. Tuskgrin. After the incredibly helpful nature of the residents of Excelsior, the labyrinthine ways of getting anything done in Sigil were especially grating on my nerves. We spent most of the day meeting one person who said we need to find another to tell us to go somewhere else. We encountered Harry Hatches, a maker of sign posts who directed us to Ebb Creaknees who introduced us Wraith at the Smoldering Corpse Inn. Wraith was interesting. I think he started out human, or at least corporeal, but now was mostly incorporeal or ethereal. He told us that he had seen the Blinding Tower. He has traveled extensively across the planes and had seen many, many things. He also claimed that he could see the threads connecting us to the multiverse and was therefore willing to help us out.

Unfortunately, he no longer had the memories of his visit to the Blinding Tower. They were too painful and terrible so he had them removed and stored in the Sensorium of the Sensates. We would have to go convince Falls From Grace to let us access them if we thought we could handle it.

The succubus was skeptical of our need to view memories locked securely away for good reasons. However, Kerith told her the long version of the story of the return of Shade and the kidnappings and destruction they were bringing to our home, she agreed to let us use the memories.

The sensorium was a very heavily guarded facility and the room with Wraith's memories stored in a dark crystal seemed more guarded than most. Falls From Grace warned us that there were dangers in seeing too much of the dark memories contained within, but I volunteered to try. I had to try for Larissa's sake. Tuskgrin argued me out of it. He convinced the rest of the group that he alone was capable of handling the effects of the stored information. I don't know if they didn't trust me or if they just didn't think I was strong enough but they decided that Tuskgrin should be the one to try first. As I feared, though, his treatment of the memory storage crystal was rather rough. Like the other mimir, this crystal was drained completely and was left cracked and empty.

Falls From Grace was shocked. The stone was now clear rather than black. Tuskgrin was also not doing so well. He had fallen to the floor within moments of touching the memory stone. His normally white bone color had changed to a glassy, polished black. Even his teeth and eyes were like obsidian. Kerith immediately cast a legend lore on the apparently lifeless skull and the bard began to scream. The effects lasted only a half a breath before Kerith was able to master himself. As he did, Tuskgrin came back to consciousness. He was shaken and a bit disoriented. He seemed to think we had left him on the plane of shadows for hundreds of years. His disorientation did not last long though and when he had sufficiently recovered, he wanted to return to talk with Wraith and get some explanations for his new knowledge.

As we left, Falls From Grace pulled us aside and told us that what had happened in the room with the memory stone was something she had never seen before. She made us promise to tell her as soon as possible if Mr. Tuskgrin became a "force for evil." We agreed but she backed it up with a geas. I was a bit disgruntled by that bit of major mistrust. I thought that she was on our side in this business, but apparently she is hedging her bets.

Back in a private room at the Smoldering Corpse, protected from eavesdroppers, we met again with Wraith. Tuskgrin had lots of questions, trying to understand the context for the information now in his head. The only thing that I got out of the conversation since I was prevented for accessing the memories directly, was that if you thought of the planes as analogous to a room where all is in darkness until a candle is lit and then you observed the shadows in the room, the Blinding Tower was akin to the candle. It is like the source of light that creates the shadow plane. If we blocked the light from the tower, the shades might not be able to use some of their strongest powers.

We talked for a while about how this works and how we might accomplish such a feat in a way that would be helpful to the enemies of Shade Enclave, but came to no real conclusions. I did come to realize that Shadow Magic may be something very different than what I had been thinking. My earlier theory about it being a shadow of the true weave and therefore an aspect of it may not be correct. Because shadow magic apparently works in "Magic Dead" regions, where to the best of my understanding, the weave is absent entirely, there can be nothing to cast a shadow. So, we might not be able to block the shades and Sharrans from access to the shadow weave, but we still might be able to weaken them significantly. If we can do this at a critical time, our allies might be able to take advantage of it to strike at the princes of Shade.

Of course, we couldn't go off and deal with that now. Instead we are tromping around Spiderhaunt looking for an elven moonblade. As much as I like Primula, and as much as I'd like to see a moonblade, I'm upset by any delay in pressing the attack against the Shades. I feel like I'm deserting Larissa.

This forest is horrible. We ran into some type of banshee or keening spirit that killed half our group with it's terrible wail. Ciercie died in my arms from sheer terror. The whole experience weakened me terribly. We succeeded in destroying the spirit, but at terrible cost. I was able to get a magnificent mansion woven up near the site of the battle and we retreated into its familiar comfort and safety. Primula immediately set to work raising our dead, but she had not prepared for the scale of disaster caused by the evil spirit.

It took a couple of days of rest and recovery before we had all felt the healing power of Corellon. When we were finally ready to resume our journey, Kerith spent a bit of time at the place where the fight occurred. He recalled a story about Alarissa Easterling going to meet her drow lover. She was ambushed and slain by the Westerling elves in this vicinity 200 or 250 years ago. We found a stash of old coins and gems hidden away here but couldn't tell if they were from the era of the murder or were a more recent addition; perhaps from someone killed by the spirit. We moved on, now heading deeper into the woods.

Xan was scouting ahead when he ran afoul of something nasty. A bit of art woven between him and Kerith warned that there were steel hunters approaching the ranger and that there was a wizard ahead. We rushed to his aid as quickly as we could do in the thick tangle of trees and undergrowth. I never got a look at the wizard, but he saw us well enough to rain fire on us from high in the sky. Xan was badly mauled by the steel constructs guarding the wizard. I did what I could to help him but he fell in a fury of metal claws and teeth. I moved ahead, hoping to engage the wizard, but the coward disappeared. In a rage I blasted the stupid little tent he had erected, trying to draw him out. It was unsuccessful. To make matters worse, the foolish man had stored all his research notes and papers in the tent and hadn't protected them from fire. He had set up his little camp next to a stair leading down into an ancient forest ruin. His scrolls and papers were nothing but singed remains now.

It is so frustrating to feel like I have the ability to weave incredibly powerful arts but not be able to even find a stupid little research wizard hiding in the forest! I briefly considered weaving a horrid wilting to try to flush him out, but didn't really know where to target the spell. Besides, for all I know he could have teleported home in terror. On the other hand, he might have teleported home for more of those nasty steel beasts that shredded poor Xan. When I looked closer at the broken bodies of the beasts (Primula was busy trying to raise the ranger) I think I recognized the things as steel predators native to the plane of Archeron.

I think that the priestess is just about finished with patching up Xan so I'm going to sign off on this letter. We may head down into the ruins to try to learn more about why the mage was exploring it or we may try to stay on target and track down the sword. I'm torn either way. I would like to get this sword-finding mission done so we can get back to fighting shades, but I'm curious about why that wizard was camped out with his metal beasts here in the middle of the darkest forest in the region. Either way, I've got to go.

Sincerely,

Cedar