From the diary of Silvan the Dryad
Session date: 9.4.2004

26.3.

We woke up in the morning and headed down to eat. While we were
 eating, Angela and some male companion of hers arrived. They looked
 like they were elves or half-elves. The male was her grandson in the
 fifth generation. His name was Angelo, and he was named after her.
 They were the only ones of the Angel family who'd survived the
 destruction of Myrnur, even though a post-war generation was already
 growing up.

Once we'd eaten, she led us away from the tavern. We ran into Werner
 on the way. He asked where we were going, and we told him we were
 going to Myrnur to meet somebody. He mentioned that he was heading
 to Myrnur as well, and he'd told Osgud everything that he knew. He
 said that now he'd done his part for the dwarves.

We used an old map, since we were unable to find a newer one. We
 decided to head to Green Copper. We were let out by the city guards
 without any trouble. 

Werner remarked that the Great Wyygian Desert was a mystery, for it
 had stopped expanding in Aleandor's direction. In Dorandor, on the
 other hand, it kept expanding.

We decided to continue to Green Copper, but Angela went straight to
 Myrnur. She gave us instructions where to find her.

Werner told us that Angela was mostly the one responsible for
 Galileus' fame here.

While walking along the road, some figure showed up from the desert
 and stopped us. He asked us if we were from Dorandor.

"Who's asking?" Buran asked.

The figure was working for Hylas Nocturne. He remarked us that we had
 to be the ones he was looking for, even though we didn't have a full
 crew. He asked us how our search was proceeding. We reported that
 we'd just arrived and were heading to Green Copper. Longfoot asked
 if Hylas' men often liked to hide in the desert, and the man
 commented that the nature of his employment with Hylas was none of
 our business. He'd been following us for a while, and would have
 talked with us earlier had the elves not been with us. We could put
 a notice for him on some notice board.

Werner was curious about what was going on, but we didn't tell him
 anything.

We reached Green Copper. The local smith made throwing axes that
 returned to the hand of their thrower. We went to eat.

While we were eating, some guard entered. "More people for the new
 one to check, the one in the table is probably a demon!", somebody
 in one of the tables shouted to the guard. The guard looked
 embarassed and left.

We spoke with the locals and found out that the people in the town
 had been a little jumpy and that particular guard had wanted to
 check the hood of some elves who'd gotten rather annoyed over it.

We overheard somebody mentioning that he'd bought a potion that would
 rid his garden of weeds.

Upon reaching old man's local hut, we noticed that there was a huge
 mess of overturned furniture outside. They looked like the they'd
 been thrown out of a window. We decided to draw our weapons.

The undead stepped into the building, and stumbled over a rope. A
 voice inside called us inside, saying he might have a use for us.
 The undead opened the door, and noticed that the house seemed to be
 full of gadgets.

The man was an inventor, and wanted us to test some of his machine.
 He didn't care about who the real owner of the house was, because
 this place was very useful for his purposes. Werner was very angry.

Werner demanded to know where some closet was, since it contained
 important papers. The inventor replied that he had burned it and the
 papers to warm up the house. When we commented about the rudeness of
 burning the papers in somebody else's house, he said he was a
 powerful mage and that he could throw us out of the house whenever
 he wanted to.

At this point Werner decided to lunge at the man. He cast a spell at
 Werner that placed him under his control, and scolded us for being
 barbaric. We asked if the battle mages knew about him: he said that
 they didn't, and we wouldn't tell them, either. We agreed to put
 away our weapons in exchange for being told what was going on.

He explained to us that he'd began making experiments when he was a
 battle mage. He'd realized that his invention had a great value, and
 was unwilling to share it with Aleandor, which was powerful enough
 already. Other factions might be able to pay more for it. He'd
 invented a magical device using Necromancy and Mind Control. As
 knowledge of souls had began to spread, he'd combined a soul with
 the device. Everything that the owner of the device experienced
 would also be transferred to the device, from which it could be
 transferred back. This considerably improved one's ability to
 memorize and learn things.

He refused to tell us which soul was held in the device. He wanted us
 to test it. We agreed on me being taught Mind Control magic in
 exchange for testing the device. He gave us the device and told us
 to get back by the next morning.

After a long debate, we agreed on taking the device to the Master. We
 reached New Myrnur after a while's travel. The city had been largely
 rebuilt.

We asked for Angela, and she showed up. We told her about the
 inventor and the amulet and the whole thing. Angela said it was
 probably a certain battle mage who was wanted in Aleandor for
 escaping and stealing secrets. Angela said she'd present this issue
 to Galileus, who was in the middle of some sort of conference. We
 were taken to a mirror chamber where we could follow the conference.

Through the mirrors, we could see into the Queen's royal chamber. The
 Queen and Galileus were there, as well as some elves.

Q: "I hope you don't disturb us with your opinion of the godly
 artifacts again."
G: "This is something else entirely. You've probably herard of
 Dorandor already, and demons are probably readying an attack even as
 we talk. We should launch a pre-emptive attack or at least
 strenghten our defenses."
Q: "We already have a buffer zone, Aleandor, why aren't you there
 taking care of this?"

The Queen already seemed pretty annoyed with Galileus. Others were
 asking Galileus what evidence G had that the demons were about to
 attack any moment. They were already preparing, but had no reason to
 suspect that they had to act first. Aleandor had not requested any
 help so far, and their cave networks did not reach the demon area as
 they did in Aleandor. Galileus tried to convince them that what the
 humans knew of these things was much more than the elves suspected,
 and the humans might very well be planning an alliance with the
 demons, just like in the last war.

After a while, Galileus turned up, swearing at the elves who'd take
 no action before the enemy was already at the gates. We followed  him.

Once Galileus stopped walking and reached a room, we gave him a
 report on everything that had happened. Angela reported our run-in
 with the crazy inventor to Galileus. G took the device and did
 something to test it. He said it might even work. Ornon was
 apparently the only one around who had necromantic skills.

Galileus took the Godly Mirror with him and said we'd go meet this
 gentleman. We started discussing the issue and Galileus said it'd be
 a good idea to test the device.

Most of the artifacts were now in Galileus' hands. The Book of
 Necreegh and the Spear of Anxar were still missing. We told him
 about our 'contract' with Hylas Nocturne. Galileus didn't consider
 this a very big issue.

G's spies had found that Wealtheow had visited her home village, but
 they weren't completely sure where she had continued to from there.
 She'd disappeared into the cave networks. G thought that he might
 need to summon all of his followers here to make the quest to the
 volcano, but he wanted the Book of Necreegh with him first.

Our new mission was to first test the device. In the morning, we'd go
 meet the inventor, after which we were to track down Wealtheow.

Werner joined us after our discussion, and asked us what we were
 going to do now. We told him, though not the bit about tracking 
 Wealtheow.

27.3.

The plan was to get the inventor outside, after which he could be
 taken down. The Master, Angelo, and some other assistants followed
 us. The Master was with a horse.

We reached Green Copper and headed towards the inventor's hut. After
 realizing we had no good plan, we went inside. We saw that there
 were four battle mages in addition of him. They were all muttering
 something, but none of them were moving. The inventor had an 'if
 looks could kill' expression.

At this point we decided to run. The inventor tried to stop us with a
 spell, but failed. We ran to Galileus and gave a report. He gave a
 signal to his assistants and ran to the door. The Master went
 inside, and I followed.

The Master began casting a spell, using his hands. After a moment the
 inventor began to scream and fell down. Galileus spoke. "You're in a
 foreign country without permission."

"We're after a criminal. He and all of his possessions belong to us."

"You may plead your case to the Queen," Galileus commented.

"That's not acceptable, but we doubt you can resist the four of us.
 Leave this house for a few seconds, after which we will be gone."

Galileus looked like he was wiping sweat from his forehead, and two
 arrows flew in from the windows. One of the battle mages was hit,
 and Galileus began using the Godly Mirror. The battle mages began to
 cast a spell. One of the arrows hit a barrel, which exploded,
 killing the nearby mages. As the explosion throwed us against the
 walls, we saw one of the metal barriers shattering and spirits being
 thrown out from it. The spirits flew against me.

Buran killed the inventor. Buran's sword now held ten spirits.

The Master got up. Some sort of acid had damaged his face badly.

I found myself in some sort of weird place. There were lots of
 spirits there, bound around me. Three managed to escape me, but one
 was left in me. We tried to get loose from each other, and at one
 place it pulled me back to the world. I felt very weird.

The Master said to bring out the inventor, and somebody mentioned
 that Buran had killed him. The Master took the sword from Buran and
 put it away. He walked to his horse and began to cast some spell.
 When he turned back to us, he seemed to be completely healed.

"This sword'll be returned to you once I've figured out how to
 release the spirit from it," The Master told us. "Give those
 something to do," he told Angela and Angelo.

The MMM took all the battle mage corpses from the house. I saw Hera
 and Werner showing up. Hera! I glomped her.

Werner told us that he'd been given rings to deliver to Osgud as a
 thanks for informing Aleandor of the inventor. He said that Osgud
 had long ago decided to ally himself with Aleandor.

Session close: 19:52 9.4.2004