Vala changes back.
The group checks the bodies, and there’s masterwork armor varying from full plate to half plate, and some banded. A couple have weak magical auras. The weapons vary as well – battle axes, swords, most of them are magical; a couple are magical. Ranli claims a slightly magical short sword for Calixto. One of the elves has a bag of gems: various rubies, diamonds and sapphires. They’re small, about 1000 gp each, about 20 of them. There is a large gem, black star sapphire, that looks extremely expensive (10 000 gp).
The are amulets of twisted pieces of metal on some of the undead. The amulets were something else, now they’re twisted because they’ve been crushed. A few don’t have amulets. Aleslosh gathers a couple amulets. Some of the suits of armor aren’t complete – pieces are missing. This is among both the old style armor and the new. The pieces missing are around the neck and shoulders or the other edges – as if decorative embellishments have been ripped out. The elves had symbols of Morion, but none of the undead had any symbols.
Ranli comments, “I think I know what happened to the paladins.”
All the armor on the undead is covered in blood. Old blood – soldiers who had died in bloody battle. Ranli figures out – this whole area was the scene of an epic battle long ago. It has bad vibes and can bring back lost soldiers who fell. The paladins themselves are just newer dead, and the fact that they fought something horribly evil, they still have fight left in them. But, they’ve been turned. According to the rumors, the paladins were drained of blood. . .
Aleslosh pulls the weapons and armor off, and does stone shape to create a mass grave, which he marks, so that the bodies can be reclaimed at a later time, if anyone wishes to give them a proper burial. The weapons don’t look like they’d have been the paladins’ original weapons. Aleslosh plans on seeing if he can find the churches that the paladins were from, so the weapons and armor can be given to their families.
It takes about an hour to get the armor off the bodies and bury them. Zannamar, who actually took damage past all the boosting spells, casts cure moderate on himself.

On the ship, Aleslosh starts trying to fix some of the amulets. Vala suggests he work with the metallurgist to get them softened so it can be unbent. Aleslosh takes her advice. The one he gets unbent is a holy symbol of Istafelyandil. He leaves them with the smithy to let him open them when he has time.
Mind storming – Zannamar can go incorporeal, and the dragon must be destroyed from within. The prophecy from Analia to Telran gives the key. They’ve got to get Zannamar and the king to be face to face. And Zannamar should have Halla’s Tear. Aleslosh hands it over.

As the ship approaches the castle, those with spy glasses can see. . .the moon is out, it’s full. As they approach Arancaras, the light from the moon seems to go out. There is a shape of a dragon passing under the moon, but, as it passes the moon becomes just a sliver. The dragon passed between the view of the ship and the moon. The dragon doesn’t seem to have noticed the ship.
Telran notices that there’s something dangling from one of the claws. It looks to be some sort of humanoid body – a small one. Aleslosh considers casting Prying Eyes, but, with as fast as the dragon is going, by the time he’s done with the spell, the dragon will be out of range.
It looks like it’s landing at the castle – in the garden.
Guards seem to be moving on the ramparts, standing at attention, ready. They clearly see the ship. As the ship gets closer, the large double doors to the castle open. An elf in wizard black robes walks out along with some other people. The one in robes looks like he could be the king. His robes are all black, like the darkness. Vala’s at the forecastle, she’s got someone else at the helm. The robed one has his hands behind his back, and looks impatient, as if he’s waiting for someone to show up. The guards around him are wearing Elaryian armor, but none look like the High Commander. There is movement from the doorway, another elf walks out and approaches the one in robes. He whispers to him and gestures. The robed one takes the hint and wipes something off his face, from above his mouth, then resumes his previous stance. The elf who whispered to the robed one is the one who got away from the battle.
The ship slows and stops at about four hundred feet away from the castle. There is no one out besides those with the robed one.
He glances up at the moon. Telran looks up, it looks the same as it was. The robed one rocks on the balls of his feet, waiting, every once in a while glancing up at the moon.
The castle isn’t exactly in the city, it’s off of the western side of the city. The ship flies down the main street the leads to the castle.
Aleslosh casts Bear’s Endurance and Cat’s Grace Mass.
Vala has those with horses disembark from the back of the ship. Before everyone splits up, Ranli casts Mass Aid and Bull’s Strength Mass.
Ranli, Zannamar and Vala remain on the ship. Vala has a prepared action, ready to counter spell at a moment’s notice.
Zannamar speaks up, “Orthorndil, who claims kingship of Elarys, you have been trafficking with dark power.”
There is no reaction.
“And you have wronged my master, Nurin.”
“Nurin was your master?” His voice rings clear.
“I was his last apprentice. My name is Zannamar.”
“I think we should talk. You are welcome in my castle.” He turns to walk into the castle. The others do not follow.
Ranli starts playing her harp.

Ch’t moves forward
Vala prepares to counter spell
Orthorndil starts to vanish – a spell he already had going. Zannamar and Vala recognize that he’s manipulating time. Vala casts Greater Dispell magic to counter Orthorndil’s spell. She succeeds, he remains.
Aleslosh tries to hit him with disintegrate, but misses.
Telran runs and tumbles past the guards and Orthorndil
Zannamar turns into his light form and moves – he moves twice his normal thanks to Ranli’s playing
Two guards swing at Telran. They hit. The rest move to close in.
The elf who got away from the battle steps toward the group
Ranli continues playing
Calixto casts charge of the triceratops – so he gets horns and armor; Revere’s his animal companion, so he gets it too
Elric charges, hits the guy in front of him, takes him out in one shot (failed massive damage save), cleaves through and hits the king.
Four six legged lion like creatures show up, walking out of the forest that the castle is by. Their bodies seem to be made of writhing vines and thorns. Each pair of gorilla like limbs are shorter than the pairs in front – so, the foremost are longest, the rearmost are shortest. These creatures aren’t intelligent – they’re plants. Calixto recognizes them as battle briars. Three let loose a volley of thorns. The third one is shooting at Ch’t and the ball of light that is Zannamar, the other two shoot back toward the boat and those still there. Calixto gets hit.
Ch’t shoots at the elf who escaped the battle before.
Vala readies for counter spelling
Orthorndil takes a five foot step away from Elric and Telran, then starts casting
Vala uses her spell craft to see what the spell is – it’s some sort of summoning. Vala casts Greater Dispell again
Aleslosh casts chain lightning on Orthorndil
Telran tumbles and smacks the king
Zannamar flies up and tries to fly into Orthorndil; a second later he flies out and starts backing up
Guards hit Elric and Telran
Ranli continues playing
Calixto casts Find the Gap
Elric takes a five foot step to the king – he hits, and, when the king would fall, he morphs instead, into the dragon – hovering about 10 feet over everyone’s head. Elric’s helmet glows. In dragon form, Orthorndil is incorporeal.
The battle briars move up. One targets Telran, one targets Elric. Two target the group by the boat. Aleslosh, Calixto, Elric and Telran all take damage. Some of the guards take damage as well – the battle briars didn’t attack in that direction while Orthorndil was corporeal

Ch’t shoots at the whisperer, she hits - crit
Vala casts wall of force between battle briars and the battle field
The dragon’s wings generate electricity and targets Vala with chain lightning, her ring counter spells it – the spell fizzles
Elric gets an AoO on the dragon, he hits
Aleslosh casts slow
Telran feints and hits one of the guards
Zannamar flies to slam into the dragon and changes to a flaming sphere. He makes a dark knowledge check. He backs away and changes back to his elven form and shouts out what he’s learned.
One of the guards hits Telran
Ranli continues playing
Calixto casts Fell the Greatest Foe
Elric hits five times – three of them crits. He fells one opponent in 3 strikes, cleaves into the next guy, plus hits with the remaining two strikes.
The battle briars try to shoot, but hit the wall of force

Ch’t shoots at the whisperer and hits
Vala casts wall of force between the ship and the battle field up, 15 feet up in the air
The dragon lands between the guards and the ship, and breathes toward Calixto, the breath is cold. Ch’t is in range, but manages to get out of the way. Calixto and Revere get hit
Aleslosh uses an inspiration point to heal Calixto – which also benefits Revere
Telran feints, then hits the guard in front of him – crit. That guard falls
Zannamar casts cure critical on the dragon, and magic missile
The guard misses his attack, as does the whisperer
Ranli activates the friendship ring, and continues playing
Calixto finally charges – shouting, “Lay into him, boys, he’s coming to our world!” Calixto’s sword has incorporeal binding. He hits twice. The dragon does appear hurt.
Elric hits the dragon twice. The dragon doesn’t seem affected – the dragon is corporeal now, but the dragon doesn’t seem bothered.
The battle briars hit the wall of force again.

Telran and Revere get dazed. Everyone hears and feels a cacophony, and feels as if the world shifted out of phase for a second, then back. Vala realizes that this has to do with time. It’s a much bigger effect. Not just limited to this area.
Calixto notices that the helm of brilliance is no longer shining. The dragon seems pretty solid. The moon is full and is blood red. “Ahhhh!” Elric and Vala also noticed. Calixto stares straight at the moon.
Ch’t shoots at the dragon, but misses
Vala prepares to counter spell
The dragon flies up above and hovers there, and points a claw at Ranli, casting a spell.
Calixto and Elric take AoOs. Elric hits, Calixto misses.
The spell is disintegrate, Vala counter spells. The dragon knew the wall of force was there somewhere, and was hoping to hit it with the disintegrate. He lands. Elric gets another AoO.
Aleslosh casts flesh to stone, it doesn’t do anything
Telran is dazed
Zannamar wants to teleport into the castle by the library, but, he’s never seen it. So, he can’t do that. He walks up to the dragon, uses the long sword he got from his father, and tries to stab it in the side, saying, in Draconic, “Be off, return what you have stolen and go back to the darkness from whence you have come.” His sword does nothing.
The remaining guard and the whisperer are dazed.
Ranli’s still playing.
Calixto tries to repeat Zannamar and stabs at the dragon. He hits. The first time.
Elric hit, but doesn’t do much.
The battle briars haven’t figured out about the wall of force.

Ch’t shoots the whisperer
Vala readies a counter spell
The dragon changes back into Orthorndil He still has some draconic traits, however.
Zannamar speaks again in Draconic, “Release King Orthorndil, give back the things that you have stolen!”
“Why don’t we go in and discuss? I am willing to share. You can have a little and I can have a little.”
Zannamar puts his sword up and looks at Orthorndil, “Show me.” He takes the king’s left arm, and hands a ratty tattered old book to Calixto, “Pookie dropped this.”
Orthorndil looks at the book, then back at Zannamar. Orthorndil is wearing gloves. Orthorndil makes it clear that he’d like to speak inside the castle.
Aleslosh casts stone to mud at the feet of Orthorndil and Zannamar – he theorizes Zannamar could pretend to slip, grab Orthorndil’s hand and get the glove off. And thereby the ring. The fire rose ring is likely what has been helping Orthorndil.
While Zannamar and Orthorndil talk, Telran feints, then hits the guard. The guard falls.
Zannamar and Orthorndil move into the archway into the castle
The whisperer twists a ring. But, Telran gets an AoO while he activates his magic item. Though Telran hits, he doesn’t fall, he just disappears.
Ranli flies down off the ship, with Vala directing her so she doesn’t run into the wall of force. She keeps playing.
Everyone moves in with Orthorndil and Zannamar – or starts to. Orthorndil turns right after they get through the arch. There is a big black armored form. Zannamar speaks up, trying to make sure his friends can hear, but so that it seems like he’s greeting the armored man. “Megildore!”
Elric draws his sword and runs full bore into the castle. He sees Orthorndil and Zannamar walk into what seems to be a solid wall. Megildor is still there, just standing there.
When Ranli gets down from the boat, Calixto gives her the book – he’s confused. Zannamar said she dropped it, but he recognizes it as his spell book. Ranli explains that she suspects it’s the tome that was given by the dragons to help against the shadows.
They hear Zannamar’s yell of “Meglidor!”
Calixto rides in on Revere.
Aleslosh accompanies Ranli and Vala. Ch’t gets in as well, and examines the wall where Zannamar and Orthorndil disappeared.
Ranli glances through the book – it’s blank except for one spell – soul bind. It’s got writing along the margin, “Tear here for instant scroll.” And is signed Nurin. Vala steers Ranli while Ranli peruses the book so they can get there.
The wall is just a wall, but there is a door that’s not a door, only visible to those who have true sight.

Ch’t examines the wall and tries to find a catch or some way to open it.
Aleslosh is readying a spell.
Telran can see the door, since he has True Sight. He casts knock with the rod of knock. It doesn’t open.
Megildor straightens up – he had been leaning casually. He moves to Elric and hits him.
Vala casts dispel magic on Megildor. His sword was glowing, now it’s not.
Elric sunders Megildor’s sword. He cleaves on into Megildor. Then hits him some more.
Calixto moves forward and hits Megildor lots. Megildor falls.
There is yelling from the ship. “Hey, there’s people coming!” Vala sprints back to her ship.
Calixto reaches down to scoop Megildor’s corpse up on to Revere.
Ranli plays, to make sure that Megildor isn’t one of the shadows, since sound is supposed to reveal them.
The door opens and Orthorndil walks out with Zannamar’s body. The king no longer has the draconic traits he had during the fight.
“Trade ya,” Calixto says.
“I don’t care one wit for that,” Orthorndil replies, “I got what I need.” He drops Zannamar’s body on the floor.
“Pookie!” Calixto shouts.
There’s a brilliant light. Everyone except for Calixto blinks and notices that the sun is out and it’s light. Calixto is unconscious. Elric catches Revere and eases him down so he doesn’t squish Calixto, because Revere is unconscious too.
Zannamar’s white robes are lying on the ground, but there’s no body. Orthorndil is nowhere to be seen. Ranli plays, and sees a shadowy form on the ground. It looks like it’s in horrible shape. Ranli pulls the black star sapphire gems from her pack and uses the scroll from the spell book to cast soul bind.
There had been a lot of creatures – undead – approaching the ship, but they’re gone now. It’s still cold, but the sun is shining.
Calixto wakes up.
Aleslosh searches the robes. He finds Halla’s Tear. It hasn’t been used, it’s still deep red. He takes it, Telran sees him do so, but doesn’t say anything.
Telran gathers up the robes, and drapes them over his shoulder, then puts Ch’t on his shoulder.

The group goes through the castle and find an opening into the garden. It’s no longer a rose garden, there is just lines of black, where vines were laying and just combusted.
They make their way to the library – but, the library is gone. It has been annihilated as well. As if a fireball has gone off there. Or several fire balls?
They find Dalwicket in the dungeons. He’s upset because he has no chalk. Aleslosh goes in and gives him some chalk.
Some guards do step up to challenge the group, Elric cleaves their weapons.
As the day passes and they clear the castle out, evening sets in, the stars are out – it’s a clear cold night. All seven stars are in Otsea.
Telran asks Vala to summon Rolan/Nolan/Barley/Arandil. Vala gets in touch with him. He is the last son of the king.
By the position of the stars, it is the day after Winter Solstice.

Weeks pass, the kingdom is being set up again.
Calixto lets Arandil know, “We would have given you Dramorian’s body, but, he kinda went with Zannamar.”
“That’s alright. He’s where he needs to be.”
“Yeah.”
“Your friend’s where he needs to be too, isn’t he?”
Calixto nods.
Arandil tells about how, when he met Dramorian, he didn’t believe that he wasn’t in on his father’s plans. But, Dramorian offered to give him a sign. That night, the star of protection fell. “Dramorian wanted to protect us all.” The star of protection is the one that fell when Telran went to Telander.
Calixto asks about the map that the group found early on. It was the place where Arandil’s father found the thing that took him.
Megildor’s items regain their magic – the remaining sword is unholy – Elric and Vala destroy it, the armor is mithral full plate +3 with teleportation three times daily, a cloak of minor displacement.

Ranli asks Calixto when he’s going to ask her to marry him. He says he doesn’t know. Telran smacks him upside the head.
Ranli asks if he wants to marry her, he says “Sure,” but doesn’t sound very sure at all.

The group heads back to Telander. Vala gives them a lift, but then returns to Elarys.
Telran has a little talk with Calixto about him marrying Ranli, and convinces him that, yes, Ranli wants to marry him. Calixto mumbles about having to get a ring now.

What to do with the black sapphire?
Force Cage, permanent; temporal stasis, permanent; non-detection, invisibility. Burry it at the bottom of the Oracle’s Tower to be watched over by the Order of the Fallen Star. The Order wouldn’t even know it’s there, they protect the Tower anyway.

Aleslosh has a question for Telran. “What is our reward for saving the world?” He’d even be willing to give up the Tear. Telran says he’s earned it, but, he admits that he would sell it.
“I’m not exactly sure what you would get, yet, but you’ll get something.” Telran answers.
Calixto thinks it’s funny that Aleslosh wants more. Aleslosh explains how he has always had to scrape and work. Telran comments that he has a job for him. He offers him a job on the spy network.
Calixto wants to head back to Oldetree and fix it up. He asks Ranli if she will marry him when they’re done fixing Oldetree. Ranli, of course, accepts. When they return, Calixto bears with him Zannamar's robes, to put at the memorial they made for him when he had died before.

Nurin was Istafelyandil, but in the last time of testing, he decided that, because Morion had come down and influenced people in the past – indirectly. Ista felt it was right to influence as well. But, he came down as an elven wizard to help. He realized he was stuck in the body until it died. When he taught Orthorndil, he realized there was something tainted about him. He didn’t want him as his heir and kicked him out. When Orthorndil started searching for his answers, with means that weren’t appropriate for a good person. He found an obscure book where in there was information that caused him to realize he could steal the knowledge from Nurin. By doing so, he was slowly killing Nurin. Because he was a god, Nurin was living far longer than what even a regular elf would. So, Nurin looked for a new heir, over the next couple hundred years. When Zannamar came, Nurin knew he was the one.
Orthorndil was doing Morion’s bidding, but didn’t realize it. The philosopher’s stone is what was needed for Morion and Orthorndil to merge. Orthorndil thought the stone would bring back his wife – he was tricked. Morion is not called the god of trickery for nothing.
Nurin was tired, he wanted to step down and needed an heir. Now, Zannamar is Istafelyandil. Orthorndil was collecting things from the book without realizing that Morion was really orchestrating everything.
The hourglass used to be at the temple by Ylee, which is why the time effects were so odd in that area.
The tome was whoever held the knowledge inside themselves – Zannamar was the tome, half filled.